the first Christian Emperor assembled a Council in the City of Nice to determine the Controversie which Arrius had unhappily raised about the Divinity of the Son of God. The Council after it had determined those matters which respected Faith were willing also to regulate matters of Discipline and made twenty Canons concerning it in which they caused those Practices which were then in use to pass into Laws supposing it may be that they were much more ancient than indeed they were For example it found that the Churches had yet preserved this mark of mutual Dependence that is to say not to make void the judicial Sentences of one the other and not to suffer that a person excommunicated in one Church should have recourse to another to be re-established in its Communion It made a Law thereof in the fifth Canon As to those that are separated from the Communion be it that they are Layicks be it that they are of the body of the Clergy let the Bishops of every Province observe this agreeably to the Canon that says Let those that are rejected by one not be received by others But finding also that it was a custom that in difficult matters respecting Faith or Discipline when it happened that any Persons were excommunicated or deposed the neighbouring Churches were wont to assemble to judge thereof of that also it made a Law in the same Canon and ordained that for the examination of Causes determined by particular Churches a Synod should assemble twice a year in every Province to the end that the Bishop of the Province being assembled might examine these sort of Questions As the Chymera of the Sovereign Authority of General Councils was not yet born so the Fathers of the Council of Nice contented themselves to ordain That Provincial Councils should be held but gave no advice for the appointing General Councils from ten Years to ten as lately the Council of Constance did The Bishops assembled at Nice also found that by custom the Churches that had their Seats in Metropolitick Cities and entertained some superintendency over the Churches of the lesser Cities of the Province they confirmed this usage and made a Law thereof in the sixth Canon Let the ancient Customs say they be observed that is that the Bishop of Alexandria have power over the Churches of Egypt of Lybia and Pentapolis because t is so also that the Bishop of Rome has been accustomed to have In like manner at Antioch and in the other Provinces let the Priviledges of other Provinces be preserved There is nothing that has less foundation than the pretence of most part of the Doctors of the Roman Church who imagin that here is the establishment of those Seats which were afterwards called Patriarchal Neither the Name nor Power of Patriarchs were known at that time And the Council of Nice had no other design but to confirm by a Law that which it found established by custom that is to say that the greater Churches should have some superintendency over the lesser There were then three great Governments in the Roman Empire Rome for Italy Alexandria for the South and Antioch for the East The Churches which were in these three principal Cities of the Empire had arrogated some preheminence over the neighbouring Churches The Council confirms to them this preheminence But we may not imagin as the Roman Doctors would perswade us that the Council did then divide the whole Church into three Patriarchates Rome Alexandria and Antioch as if all the other Churches had been subjected to these three These three Churches are named but for example because they were the principal Besides it is added Likewise let the Priviledges be preserved to other Churches that is to say let the Churches which by custom have obtained a superintendency over their Neighbours as lesser Churches preserve that Preheminence So the Church of Asia which is not named in this Canon is one of those which had Preheminence over her Neighbours to whom this Priviledge was preserved for some time At that time therefore by custom and by the Law of the Council of Nice Alexandria had inspection over the Churches of Egypt Lybia and Pentapolis the Bishop of Rome had inspection over the suburbicarian Churches that is to say the Cities which were either of the Government of the Vicarship of the City of Rome and no more Now the Vicarship of Rome was so far from extending it self to the whole Empire that it extended to but about half Italy on the side of Naples the other part of Italy which is on the side of Milan was of another Vicarship that is to say of another Government whereof the City of Milan was Capital and the Bishop of Rome had nothing to do there The Bishop of Antioch had inspection over the Churches of Syria and no more The other Churches in the Roman Empire were independent of these three Seats and had their Metropolitan Churches under which they ranged themselves for the assembling of their Synods so that in the Canon of Nice nothing is found of the Institution of Patriarchs but only a Confirmation of the Priviledges that the Churches of the Metropolitan Cities had obtained by consent from the lesser Churches round about them It is nevertheless true that soon after the Metropolitan Bishops of these three Cities Rome Antioch and Alexandria began to play the Masters and to claim Right over the neighbouring Churches much beyond the ancient use and intentions of the Council of Nice They took advantage from this that these three Cities were the three great Cities of the Empire and because they alone were named in the Canon of the Council they made use thereof say I to extend their Jurisdiction as we see But it must be observed that this Council of Nice having found that by custom the Metropolitan Bishops had inspection over other less considerable Cities by contributing their assistance and their Care to establish Bishops there did confirm also this Priviledge by the same sixth Canon This must remain certain says the Council that he who hath been made Bishop without the Advice of the Metropolitan the Great Synod declares that he ought to be no Bishop but if Two or Three through Obstinacy and a Spirit of contradiction oppose themselves to an Establishment made by a reasonable common consent and according to the Ecclesiastical Canons let the plurality of Voices prevail against them This second part of the Canon makes it appear sufficiently plain that in the first part thereof nothing is handled concerning the Establishment of the pretended Rights of Patriarchs but only of the Priviledges of the Metropolitan Cities without which the Council will not suffer that any Ordination of Bishops be made in the Cities of the Province The Bishops of these three Cities Rome Alexandria and Antioch making use of the Canon of the Council began to raise themselves above all others In the same time Byzantium which had not been hitherto any other than a very
Church or to speak better that the Church shall never fall into any Error Not at all For if one say to a Prince I will take care that your Enemies shall never prevail upon you that will not necessarily signifie that the Enemy shall never have any Victory upon him or gain any considerable advantage against him Altho this Prince should lose some Villages yea and some Provinces yet if the gross and capital parts of his Empire always subsist notwithstanding he would have the accomplishment of the promise made unto him Provided therefore that the Church subsist in all Ages altho corrupt provided that the Fundamentals of Christianity remain throughout in their integrity the promise the gates of hell shall not prevail against it hath its accomplishment But your Converters will tell you these words signifie not so for they signifie that the Church can never fall into any Error Answer them That is the thing that is in question between you and me But who shall judge for us concerning the sense of these words It must not be you for you are a party and who can better judge than Scripture and Experience Now 't is clear by the Scripture that the sense of these words the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is not that the Church shall never suffer any considerable Errors in its Faith. All the Holy Scripture affirms the contrary It complains sometimes that the ancient Church was become idolatrous and had served other gods It foretels in express words that the Christian Church should corrupt it self That grievous wolves should enter into the fold not sparing the flock That there would be perilous times in which there would be an Apostacy from the Faith and seducing Spirits would teach Doctrines of Devils That Antichrist the son of perdition should sit in the Temple and in the Church of God. That the Church should be hid and as in a desart for the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty prophetick days that is one thousand two hundred and sixty years That when the Son of Man shall come he shall not find faith nor love among Men. That false Prophets and false Christs shall arise and deceive many To conclude for one Text by which it may be proved that the Church cannot err we can produce an hundred that do affirm that false Teachers should introduce Errors there-into Let us leave the Scriptures and pass to Experience and see whether the Church hath not actually erred It is proved clearly that she hath erred because she hath established a Worship directly opposite to that pure and simple Worship the Model whereof is found in the New Testament viz. of Images of Saints and Saintesses of a second sort of Mediators of Masses Sacrifices and a hundred other things that have not the least shadow of appointment there Let us return to our Text The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church It is disputed whether this Text doth signifie that the Church can never Err in any wise or whether it signifies that the foundations and fundamental verities of the Church can never be overturned In truth the last sense is that of Jesus Christ And all that can be granted to the Papists is that they are capable of the other But is it not very clear that we ought to chuse the latter seeing the Holy Scripture and experience determines us thereunto by a manner wholly invincible It is true and we see it that by a singular Providence God hath not permitted the Foundations of Christianity to be subverted in any of the Christian Communions all receive the Creeds of the Apostles Nice Constantinople yea even that attributed to St. Athanasius Behold therefore what our Lord would mean thereby But besides this we see that there is no Communion that hath continued pure all have embraced Errors and some of them such as are filthy shameful and mortal Therefore it is not that which our Lord Jesus Christ would say it is not a promise of absolute infallibility that is made to the Christian Church Without doubt he foretold what is come to pass and not that which never happened Behold my Brethren two general methods by which you may be able to rescue your selves from the Sophisms and fallacious Arguments which they call ways of Prescription till we can clear up those difficulties that you your selves cannot resolve about that submission that people ought to have for their Guides to the end that they may walk safely The second medium or argument wherewith all these Gentlemen serve themselves and whereof Monsieur de Meaux serves himself here to prove that they have a succession of Doctrine as well as a succession of Seats is the impossibility of insensible changes If the Invocation of Saints say they the worship of Images Masses without Communicants the taking away of the Cup had been newly introduced the Innovator would have been known and his name would have been branded with infamy as that of Arrius and Nestorius I do not think that ever any thing hath been done more opposite to reason and fidelity than the disputes these Gentlemen have thought fit to raise against insensible changes and alterations I say first it is opposite to fidelity For it is not possible that these Gentlemen can believe what they say when they tell us that we cannot determine the Authors nor the times of the principal Changes whereof we complain seeing on the contrary we observe to them the times the principal Authors and the noise that these Innovations made in the World. Does not every one know that the introduction of Images into the Church the taking away of the Cup and the establishment of the Papal Authority did make a terrible noise suffer great contraditions cause great troubles and even the shedding of much blood in the Church It is therefore notoriously to dispute against honesty and fidelity to deny that we are able to give any account of the most eminent and principal Innovations But is it not to dispute against reason and sound judgment to say as Monsieur de Meaux doth that if there had been any Innovators in the Church the spirit of Truth would have marked them and their names would have been infamous as those of Arrius Nestorius c. How could the names of these Innovators be infamous seeing their Innovations were received and entertained The Authors of Heresies and Superstitions which are rejected are indeed noted with infamy but those that are received are Canonized and adored Therefore those of the fourth Age which introduced the Invocation of Saints had no note of infamy put upon them because the beginnings of that unhappy Superstition were greedily imbraced The reason why those things in those Ages were not treated as Innovations and the Authors of them as Innovators was because they adopted and received them Had they assigned any note of infamy upon them they had condemned the worship which they admitted they had accused it of
off Heads to hang and burn therefore it ought not to be imputed to her A Sovereign Magistrate contents himself to be Judg and to condemn to Death but he doth not execute he leaves that to the Hangman by consequence if he condemn the Innocent and cause them to die it ought to be imputed to the Hangman and not to him The Church doth a very fine honour to Magistrates she makes them her Hangmen she herself doth not kill but she constrains Princes to kill and burn She constrains I say by Excommunications Censures Exhortations Seductions Sollicitations and the end thereof is she would be able to say The Church dips not her hand in Blood the Church by it self never makes use of force Did the Devil ever cheat after a more impudent and frontless manner I will not say after a more fine and subtil manner for it is to lye without any hope to deceive the Snare is so broad and so ridiculous It were better without Craft to take the way that the Bishop of Meaux takes at last and to maintain that Christian Princes as such have right to punish pretended Hereticks with Death Understand you says he That Princes who are Sons of the Church never ought to make use of the Sword to abuse the Enemies thereof Do you dare to say contrary to the opinion of your Doctors which have maintaind by so many Writings that the Republick of Geneva had power and right to condemn Servetus to the Fire for having denied the Divinity of the Son of God It must be avowed that these Gentlemen are admirable in their confidence Do you dare to say Yes we dare to say it since we say it with most part of the Ancients and with the wisest and most understanding of the Moderns We dare say that the Doctrine which the B. of Meaux maintains here is bloody and cruel and that the Church ought to leave it in share to him who was a Liar and Murderer from the beginning Servetus was burnt at Geneva therefore it is lawful to burn Hugonots and the Calvinists God forgive these unhappy men which have the Cruelty to compare us with Servetus This man was not only an Enemy of the Divinity of Jesus Christ but he was an Enemy of all Divinity he was impious he was a Blasphemer And although he made profession of believing one God the irreverent manner wherewith he speaks of Holy Mysteries makes it plain enough that he had renounced all Religion as well as all Shame It ought to be permitted us to quit our hands of such men They object unto us the Sentiment of our Doctors I answer Our Doctors never did believe that we ought to persecute and burn men that confess God and Jesus Christ according to the three Creeds They never put Papists to Death for the sake of their Religion But although some of our first Writers should have gone too far in speaking concerning the punishment of Hereticks it ought to be known that our Authors are not our Teachers we have but one only Teacher and that is Jesus Christ speaking by his Prophets and Apostles We swear to no mans words but to those of God. And without serving my self of the Examples and Authority of your Doctors tell me in what place of Scripture Hereticks and Schismaticks are excepted from the number of those Malefactors against whom S. Paul hath said that God hath armed Kings and Princes It appertains not to us to shew you that Hereticks are not of the number of those against which God hath put a Sword in the hands of Princes 'T is for you Gentlemen Persecutors to prove to us that they are comprehended there For we have sense reason piety and humanity on our side and besides we have the consent of sound Antiquity for more than four hundred years How could the Church be able to put the Sword in the hand of Magistrates for the punishment of her Enemies in a time when the most scrupulous Christians found it difficult to consent to the Death of those Criminals that disturbed the publick peace and that of particular persons and did maintain that Christians without exception never ought to dip their hands in Blood. In what Dictionary hath Monsieur de Meaux found that evil thinkers and evil doers are the same thing Princes have right to punish evil doers with Death therefore they have also right to punish evil thinkers with Death They have right to punish those whose Crimes are apparent to the publick ruine therefore they have right to burn men whose Crime is in the Conscience the Empire whereof appertains only to God. If the Church have right to call in the Secular Power for the punishment of Hereticks why did S. Paul say simply A man that is an Heretick reject after the first and second admonition Why did he not say Deliver him to the secular Power that he may be burnt Did he not know that in a few Ages Princes would become Christians and have the Sword in their hands Did he only give Precepts for the present time and state Hath this Cruelty of Massacring honest well-meaning but mistaken Persons any affinity with the Precepts of Jesus Christ which commands us to serve our selves with Sweetness Humanity Prayers Exhortations and reasons for the reduction of them It is then permitted to Massacre the Jews for there are none greater Enemies to the Church than they are Is that the Spirit of the Gospel which promises a return and conversion to that Nation How shall they return if they be destroyed Will men never be ashamed of this Antichristian Barbarity Will they never know that it is the Beast in the Revelations who makes himself drunk with the Blood of Saints devours their Flesh makes War upon them and overcomes them and is therefore called Beast Lion Bear and Leopard For he must have renounced reason and humanity and be transformed into a Savage Beast that behaves himself towards Christians as the Church of Rome behaves it self towards us Monsieur de Meaux affirms that what they do against us at this day is nothing but a lawful exercise of the Power that Princes enjoy by Authority from God for the punishment of Offenders And I will prove to him in three words that it is false 1. Princes in the use of the Sword against Malefactors design their ruin that publick Societies be no more troubled with them 'T was the end that was heretofore proposed in Persecutions for Religion 'T was the end that Charles the Ninth pretended to have in the Massacre of S. Bartholomew 'T is the end of the Inquisitors who burn all those that are suspected of Heresie It hath been the end of all Persecutors in past Ages But this is not their end at this day they intend not the Destruction of the pretended Hereticks but their Conversion Therefore although it should be true that Hereticks are not eccepted out of the number of those Malefactors against whom God hath armed Princes this will
Elevate nor Adore we should have nothing to do but to produce a hundred places where it is clear that they gave the Communion under both Kinds without ever speaking of Elevation or Adoration This Communicating of Infants which is not disputed and by consequence we have no need to prove it is a thing worthy of observation for it is an addition of the third Age which makes it appear 1. That the Church is not Infallible by the confession of our Adversaries For the Church of the third Age and those that followed it hath erred according to them in judging that the Eucharist was necessary to little Children as well as Baptism therefore she is not Infallible in the interpretation of the Holy Scripture for the hath misinterpreted those Words If any one eat not my flesh and drink not my blood he cannot have everlasting life Since she hath believed that Children could not be Saved without Communicating 2. That Custom makes it appear that the Church is capable of introducing considerable Innovations and those Universal and of long duration Your Converters grant that it was no Apostolick Tradition that at the beginning it was not so nevertheless it was an important Innovation as it is clear for according to us It is no less than to prophane a Sacrament which requires self examination by giving it to persons that cannot prepare themselves and according to the Roman Doctors it is to expose the true Body of Jesus Christ to horrible indignities by putting it in the mouth of an Infant of some few days or months old And that which cannot fail to happen is that the Body of Jesus Christ was oftentimes spit out upon the floor For Children do not fail to reject whatsoever does not please their Palat. Moreover this important Innovation was so Universal that the whole Church embraced and entertained it and of so long duration that we find examples thereof many Ages after the fourth 3. Learn from this Custom that in those Ages they were not obliged to Adore the Sacrament before they cat it for Children could not perform any act of Adoration Therefore press your Converters vigorously with this Example and ask them if the Church cannot Innovate in other Articles of importance since it hath plainly Innovated in this and if we may not Correct Ancient and Universal Customs since the Church of Rome hath rescinded practices where were introduced but one Age after the Apostles Behold thus much for Worship and Practice As to Opinion do not suffer your selves to be persuaded that any change in Doctrine touching the Sacrament of the Eucharist did happen during the third Age. The proofs that your Converters bring thereof unto you are very pittiful For they are passages where the Fathers of that Age called the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist The Body the Flesh and the Blood of the Lord. Behold verifying proofs What is to be said concerning them since it is the language of Jesus Christ himself and of his Apostles The question is not what they said but that we are to know is in what sence and after what manner the Fathers of the third Age understood that the Bread of the Eucharist was the Flesh of Jesus Christ Now I do maintain that your Converters must be either Fools or Knaves beyond all imagination that dare to say that according to the Fathers of the third Age that the Bread of the Eucharist was the Body of Jesus Christ by way of Reality and Transubstantiation for the Fathers of that Age spoke as plainly and clearly concerning it as we do Hear then Tertullian who lived in the beginning of that Age among other Hereticks with a sort of impious Villains who said that our Lord Jesus Christ had no true Body Thus he reasons against them Our Lord having taken Bread and distributed to his Disciples made it his Body saying this is my Body that is to say the figure of my Body Now this had not been a Figure if he had not had a true Body That is to say if the Figure had no relation to the true Body For an empty thing as is a Phantasm is not capable of having a Figure Another Author of the same Age whose Work is ascribed to Origen Disputing against the same Hereticks called Marcionites says If as these pretend our Lord were destitute of Flesh and Blood of what Body of what Flesh of what Blood has he given us the Signs and the Images viz. The Bread and the Cup by which he has commanded his Disciples to preserve and renew his memory These Men had lost their Reason to speak in this manner if they believed the Real Presence above all in disputing against those which denyed that Jesus Christ had a true Body They say Jesus Christ was no Phantasm he had a true Body for he gave us in the Eucharist the figure and Image thereof Now Phantasms have no Images they themselves being Images and no more These Men say I had lost their wits for they should have said Jesus Christ was no Phantasm he had a true Body for he gives this true Body to us to eat every day Since at this day he has a Body and we eat thereof with great reason it may be affirmed he had one when he was upon Earth The first Reason taken from the Image and Figure is of some weight I do acknowledge But this taken from the Reality in the Eucharist had been a hundred time better and according to the Opinion of the Church of Rome is an argument altogether invincible So that we must suppose these Authors did betray and abandoned the Cause of the Church by making use of feeble Arguments against the Marcionites when she had furnished them with one that was utterly impregnable For after all it is not wholly true that Phantasms can have no Figures or Images It is a reflection that you ought to make to discover the vanity of the Sophistry wherewith your Converters serve themselves to answer to those passages and an hundred others without Hyperbole where the Fathers of the seven first Ages called the Eucharist the Figure the Type the Image the Symbols the Signs the Antitypes of the Body and Blood of the Lord it is say they because there are two things in the Eucharist There is Figure and Reality Figure because of the Accidents of Bread and Wine which are the Figures of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ Truth and Reality because of the Real Presence of the Flesh inwardly contained under the Species Now the Fathers sometimes respected the Sacrament on its external part that is to say by the Species in this respect they have called it Figure It it be so at least the Ancients ought not to consider the Sacraments on the side of the Figure when it was necessary for the Cause which they defended to consider it on the side of the Reality as it was in the disputes against the Marcionites Hear yet the same Tertullian to the end
and confusion and well perceiving that if they suffered me to return to my self they would gain nothing therefore they repeated their Assaults with the greater force and reduced me to the most pittiable condition in the world I do not hide my anguish from any one and I speak with greater courage than ever by the grace of my God I am prepared to suffer all the evil which can betide me in the world The good God will be my defence and my support I entreat you to pray to God for me and don 't think that I am fastned to this World I am more estranged from the love of it than ever It seems to me that my House is a Tomb I will never more see any person every thing that I see reproaches me my own Soul smites me so sharply that 't is deplorable Suffer with me in my grief I pray you I am worthy of pity and oh that the great God would pardon and deliver us quickly from the Torments which we feel From 15 Jan. 1687. THis Letter which hath made known what Conscience can do in the matter of Subscriptions obliges me to bring to your minds a matter of fact which happened lately In the month past forty persons embarked themselves on the Borders of Normandy in a Veslel of seven Tuns that is to speak properly in a Challop and this without any Provisions for the support of Life They abandoned themselves to death and it may be said to a death apparently inevitable For in such a Vessel if the Wind and Sea had been contrary to them they might have continued there long enough to have died of Famine But as it pleased God they were not above four days e're they gained the Coast of England and they passed them without eating Behold what the force of Conscience can do and 't is a good proof that those who are newly reunited to the Roman Church are in great distress and perplexity Amongst these persons there was Monsieur the Count of Marancay aged about seventy years of the Province of Normandy and Madam his Wife Sister to Monsieur the Marquess of Rochegifar This new Story brings to my mind another of an elder date which makes it farther appear what horrible Violence these forced Subscriptions do to the Consciences of men 'T is the examples of a Woman named Jane Baille Wife of a Chirurgeon named Isaiah Viridit of a little Village in the County of Charollois named Parayle Moyneau This poor woman being pressed to the uttermost by her Persecutions took Pen from the hands of a Jesuit named Father Langeroon but at the same instant she fell down as one dead without any other sign of life than a convulsive motion in her right arm The Jesuit returned again another time accompanied with the Major the Delegate of the Intendant and many other Papists This poor woman for fear of losing her Children took the Pen a second time in her hand to make her Subscription but in the very moment that she made the letter J which is the first letter of her name she fell into the same condition and continued in it more than six hours Every body was affected with it the Major protested that he would have given a great deal of Money not to have been there on that occasion and it was more than five days e're he did recover from the disorder that this Accident did occasion to him The Delegate himself was also moved at it and promised to endeavour to get her a Pasport There was no body but the Jesuit which was not moved at it who said Let her burst she is but an Hypocrite The Delegate instead of a Pasport for this poor woman received Order to carry her to a Convent to execute his Order he caused her to be seized on by four Serjeants in whose arms she fell into the same state in which she was in the two preceding times But nevertheless they laid her on a Horse like a Pack without motion and without life and carried her to the Convent of the Religious of St. Mary On occasion of these Events thus happening which discover the cruel Oppressions and Troubles of Mind in which those are which have signed their Abjurations I cannot forbear to speak to those that have been so unhappy and have yet no sense of it nor sorrow for it And here I will speak not only to those who are yet in that unhappy state but also to those who have found opportunity of getting out of the Kingdom and are risen from their falls We have seen some that have been touched and affected with it but in truth the insensibility of the most part makes me fear And I tremble for some persons whose Piety was very eminent who nevertheless count as nothing the fault which they have committed in withdrawing themselves through cowardize from the honour whereto God called them by suffering for his Name I will make but one Reflection thereupon to make you perceive how much their heart deceives them Let us suppose that all the Reformed of France had imitated them and that all preserving the Truth in their hearts had abandoned themselves to this unhappy complaisance for their Persecutors and signed their Abjuration I say if all had done so there had not been at this day in France one Confessor one Martyr one man that had spoken for God and maintained his Truth in Prisons and in the midst of Torments Now this would have been the most dreadful of all God's Judgments the greatest mark of Reprobation for the Church and the most frightful Curse of Heaven For this would have been a Castigation of God singular in its kind for since there was a Church and Persecutors there was never any such thing seen there have been always Martyrs always Confessors always Believers that have persevered in Prisons and in the midst of Punishments 'T is the Honour of the Church 't is her Triumph 't is the Glory of God and the Crown of Men Yea in humane Affairs in Interests purely secular in causes where men suffer only for Truth and humane Right there are no Examples where all forsook it and no body remained stedfast thereto So that if the Reformed Church of France had remained without Confessors and Martyrs she would have been charged with an eternal Reproach which the Bloud of all mankind would never have washt off Now 't is not owing to these weak persons who have subscribed to save their Lives and secure their Ease and Repose that the Church of France is not branded with this horrible Reproach For if all had imitated them that had been exactly our case I easily forgive this weakness to those whose Zeal and Piety was not eminent but I do acknowledge that without difficulty I cannot forgive those who after they had obtained the Reputation of very Pious and Devout persons have denied and refused to Jesus Christ the Sacrifice of their Sufferings Good God what discouragement is this to those who
double Adultery against Christ Jesus These are pitiful Declamations according to my apprehension To judge of the nature of these Actions we must know what were the Principles of those who did them Why should they observe Celibacy since they lookt upon it as a Yoak of which they desired to deliver the Clergy because it had produced a world of Impurities and Abominations so that a Deluge was not capable of purging them They have broken their Vows They were unlawful Vows made under a tyrannical Empire conceived in a false Religion unacceptable to God because they served as a Vail to an infinite number of Corruptions and at the same time to a debaucht and hypocritical life They forsook Babylon and it behoved them to forsake all the Badges thereof This kind of life which under an appearance of Piety hides such great Disorders is the true Character of the Beast These Monks are those Hypocrites whose Consciences are seared as with a hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God hath permitted which teach a Doctrine of Devils and serve as a Support to the Throne of the Beast So that these Reformers being delivered from the tyrannical Yoak of this unhappy Empire ought to return to the enjoyment of all their Rights and of all their Liberty and being put in the possession of it they may and ought to use it There needs but one thing to confound all these Calumniators who are willing to stain and blacken the Lives of the Authors of our Reformation What have these Reformers gained what have they gotten to do the work of Impostors Have they gained Riches Honours or great Dignities Have they left great Houses have they left Heirs and Children that were great Lords Never did persons despise their own Interests more than they did they never got wherewithal to be buried decently and scarcely got wherewith to live Their Zeal Firmness Constancy and Perseverance joyned with a contempt of their own Interest make up a Character very opposite to that of dishonest men If they had been debauched effeminate Lovers of Pleasure why did they go out of the Body of the Roman Clergy who enjoyed all the pleasures of the flesh even those which were most infamous with so much convenience and advantage These Gentlemen say that the principal reason which gave such success to the New Gospel was the licentiousness of the Church-men and the Monks of that Age. This is it which that same Lady does confess who makes the ill Conversation of the Authors of our Separation one cause of her return to the Church of Rome But this Confession and this Truth which is publickly known doth it not utterly ruine the Accusation which the Papists make against our Reformers Is there any probability that the great number of people which forsook the Roman Church being scandalized by the wicked Lives of its Guides should list themselves under the Ensigns of other wicked persons which were no better than those they had forsaken If they were not vicious and debaucht at least say they they were fierce proud Lovers of themselves passionate ambitious vain and violent These are stroaks striken in the Air and Accusations which make it evident they have nothing to say Concerning Ambition there doth not appear any footstep thereof in their Conversation And that which they call Pride and Fierceness is according to us Zeal and Vigour in the maintenance of Truth as we shall make it appear in examining the third Accusation The third Accusation is that it 's evident the Authors of our Separation were inspired with a dark Malignity against the Roman Church they vomited out against her say they flouds of Injuries and every-where is to be seen a Character of black Gholer which discharges it self both upon their Persons and Religion They support and strengthen this Accusation by the Confession of some Protestants who were of another frame and temper of mind and did not approve those methods of proceedure that were so full of flame and fire I answer That Grace which changes mens Manners does not change their Temper and Constitution but governs and serves it self thereof Although it should be true that there appeared a great deal of fire in the Authors of our Reformation that would be no sufficient cause to condemn them it being the temper of all Great men And this temper is of so great necessity for the execution of great things that without it 't is very difficult to carry on and prosecute great Designs and Enterprizes This is a thing unto which those men have too little regard which at this day do so highly commend and advance the Elogies of sweetness and moderation in Controversies and who perswade us to imitate other Great men who are of a quite contrary Character and temper of Mind If these honest men of this last Order that is to say these soft and moderate men had been born in the past Age and had been engaged in that great Work they had neither maintained nor carried it so far as did those men the heat of whose Temper they would fain make a Crime If Luther had not had a heart fearless and of inconceivable courage he had never been able to bear up against the Torrent of Contradictions and Oppositions that he met withal and repelled Father Paul the famous Venetian Divine who became famous on occasion of the Affair of the Interdict of that Republick knew assuredly the Corruption of the Roman Church at least as well as Luther He made no secret of it no eminent Protestant passed by Venice to whom he did not discover himself concerning it They often represented to him that he was obliged in Conscience to break with a Church the Impurity and Idolatry whereof he so well understood He had a thousand Reasons to offer on his own behalf sometimes that he separated the good from the bad sometimes that he was of use to a thousand persons that lay hid and had good sentiments at last when he was pressed hard he would say that God had not given to him the Heart and Spirit of Luther It is certain that if Father Paul had been of the Temper and Spirit of Luther Venice had been at this day what Geneva is And it is also certain that if Luther Zuinglius and Calvin had been of the Temper and Spirit of Father Paul all Europe had been yet what Venice is at this day It behoves us therefore to admire the great and profound Wisdom of God who chose for so great a Work men whose Temper was fit to maintain improve and exercise Zeal effectually To this Consideration add another the Authors of our Reformation have indeed spoken ill of the Church of Rome of its Priests of its High-Priest of its Monks and its Guides And why might they not speak ill of them I do maintain that they said nothing but what was true they could scarcely speak too much ill of Popery They said that the Church
find a hundred passages which Posterity may abuse after the same manner that they abuse those of St. Chrysostome to establish the Perpetuity of the Faith of the Eucharist in the sence of the Roman Church I will stop here and take it for granted that the Faith was not changed in this Article neither in the fourth nor fifth Ages nor in the three that followed them There happened neither any change in the Administration of the Sacrament under both Kinds And we boldly defie all your Converters to give us any proof or any example of any Communion celebrated in those Ages under the Species of Bread alone Monsieur de Meaux who writ last on this subject hath found no other example but that of St. Ambrose concerning whom the Author of his Life says That he died as soon as he had swallowed the Body of Jesus Christ A fine proof that they did not also give him the Blood As if it were not known that the whole Sacrament were not often expressed by the Flesh or the Body of Jesus Christ And as if there were any Figure more common than that of signifying the whole by a part I will not stay on this Article to prove that no Change happened therein in the fourth and fifth Ages for 't is a thing notorious and not disputed by our Adversaries themselves All that they say is That it was also permitted to communicate der one Kind although the Custom then was to communicate under both But that they can-never prove Monsieur de Meaux could not have made a Book which would have done him less Honour than that which he hath made on this subject It will never be believed that a man speaks sincerely when he charges himself with Falseness in a thing so publickly known as this is 'T is that for the space of four hundred or five hundred Years the Custom of Communicating under one Kind was wholly unknown An Article of Controversie An Answer to the fallacious Arguments drawn from the Visibility of the Church I Thought that I had finished telling you what was necessary you should know to dis-intangle your selves from the Sophisms which are drawn from the Unity of the Church and from that Schism which breaks this Unity We have employed Eleven Articles on that Subject in the Eleven Letters which are from the 9th to the 21th We shall at this time open a second Fountain of the Illusions of your Converters on the Subject of the Church 't is that of her Visibility 'T is a long time since that one of our most illustrious Confessors desired of me some Elucidations thereon not so much for himself as for many plain persons which they had ruffled and perplext But it was not possible for us to come at it sooner for if we had sooner left off our Discourse about its Unity and Schism we should have omitted something essential Behold after what manner they form the Sophism drawn from the visibility of the Church 'T is necessary they tell you that the Church be always visible for she is a City set upon a Hill and cannot be hid How could it be that the Pagans in all Ages should be able to come over to the Church if she had been hidden The Gate of Conversion had been shut upon them Your hidden Believers are Chimera's Besides 't is necessary that the Ministry of the Church be always visible For you will never perswade us that the Ministry hath intirely failed so that it was needful as your Confession of Faith says that God should extraordinarily raise up Men to re-establish it Besides 't is of the essence of the Church to be visible your Church cannot be the true Church for it was not visible 200 years ago it was not visible say I since it was not at all Concerning this in the first place Don't you engage yourselves to maintain that the true Church is Invisible as if this point were necessary to defend your Cause and our Church that was hidden before the Reformation Your Converters quote many places of Scripture as Monsieur de Meaux has done in his Instructions to Mademoiselle de Duras to prove to you that the Church is a visible Society Tell them that is to no purpose for we are at an Agreement therein with them They may quote unto you many of our Doctors who have maintained that the true Church was Invisible But know my Brethren that this is nothing but a Dispute about Words and that we are at an accord with them in the sence of the thing Our Divines mean that the true Members of the Church are Invisible and not that the Society in which the true Members of the Church are is Invisible This is true the true Members of the Church are Invisible for there are none but true Believers that are true Members of the Church If you hear my voice then are you my Disciples indeed Now true predestinated Believers are visible as Men but they are not visible as Believers for no body sees true Faith 't is in the heart and the actions which appear without may be equivocal But the Society where these true Members are is visible for 't is a Society of Men that serve God according to his Word and Laws this is visible Understand this by the example of a Man he hath a body and a soul but the body in which this soul is is visible True Believers are the soul of the Church that is invisible the body of the Church is the external Society and that is visible Therefore as you may say of a Man that he is visible and invisible invisible with respect to his soul visible with respect to his body so it may be said concerning the Church that she is visible and invisible invisible with respect to her soul which is true Faith and true Believers visible with respect to the Society in which this soul i.e. these true Believers are enclosed This is so clear and evident that your Converters cannot dis-allow it Behold already one point of Sophistry made void The Church is visible be it so as a Man is visible After this if they inquire of you Is this visible Church the Body of Jesus Christ Distinguish and tell them She is the Body of Jesus Christ forasmuch as she contains in herself truly righteous persons and true Believers but not because she encloses wicked hypocritical and vitious persons For 't is impossible that these persons should be the Body of Jesus Christ otherwise Jesus Christ would have rotten and stinking Members otherwise Dogs Swine c. would be in the Communion of Jesus Christ Now this is absurd for if any one have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and there can be no communion between light and darkness Christ and Belial So that a Christian which hath nothing but a simple Profession and neither Vertue nor Charity a Lover of the Word in the Christian Society is no true Member of Jesus Christ or his