to its ancient Simplicity And it is certain that these are Additions of the third Age. We must therefore know that the Christians of the second and third Age being disgusted at the Simplicity of the Apostolick Worship did blow up the Sacraments with Ceremonies that were added with intention to signifie the Grace that God did communicate and give there They caused the new baptised to eat Wine and Milk because they were the nourishments of Infants and they would signifie that Believers newly baptised ought to be as Children new born For which reason Tertullian makes the word infantare to design the Action by which they made the new baptised to taste Wine and Milk. They anointed them with Oil to signifie that spiritual Unction of Grace which Believers did receive they laid hands on them to signifie the Descent of the Holy Ghost The following Ages added Wax Candles and Torches to signifie spiritual Illuminations white Garments to represent the Innocence of the newly baptised and with the same intention many other Ceremonies But I know not how by an imagination which may be called rough and impolished in a little time after the Institution of these Ceremonies which were not instituted by the Church but to signifie Men came to believe they had the virtue to confer Grace And of the divers Graces which are confirmed to the Believers in Baptism they attribute one to the washing with Water another to Unction and another to Imposition of Hands They imagined that the Water in Baptism did precisely give the Remission of Sins that the Oil did bestow the spiritual Unction and that the Imposition of Hands gave the Holy Ghost This Divinity is found in Tertullian in the Book which he has left us concerning Baptism Where he proves the Imposition of Hands after Baptism causes the coming of the Holy Ghost and he does it thus 1. Because the Priests and Magicians of Paganism did cause malignant Spirits to come upon their impure Waters by a Ceremony much like unto it 2. Because by the Imposition of Hands Jacob drew down a Blessing upon the Children of Joseph 3. By the Figure of the Ark and Dove who brought an Olive Branch from the the midst of the Waters of the Deluge wherein this Dove was a Figure of the Holy Ghost which falls upon him that comes out of the Baptismal Waters S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who lived a little while after taught the same thing viz. that Baptism gives forgiveness of sins and that the Holy Spirit is communicated by the Imposition of Hands But let it not offend these great Men This Discourse signified nothing in their Age and a person may see that it is a Language which is descended from the Age of the Apostles and from those times in which extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit were communicated by the Imposition of Hands For will they say that Remission of Sins was given by the washing of Water and the Holy Spirit by the Imposition of Hands is it to be thought according to their opinion that sanctifying Grace and the Spirit of Regeneration are not at all given in Baptism No on the contrary S. Cyprian lays it down in express words That the Spirit is received by Baptism And in another place he does affirm that sanctifying Grace whole and entire is given in Baptism and that Men augment or diminish it afterwards by the good or evil use that they make of it there is therefore no need of a new Ceremony for the donation of the Holy Spirit He himself teaches us whence the Church took that custom of imposing Hands after Baptism 'T is from the Action of the Apostles Peter and John who laid Hands on the People of Samaria to the end that they might receive the Holy Ghost Which thing is done among us says he Those that are baptised present themselves to the Governors of the Church and receive the Holy Spirit by our Prayer and the Imposition of Hands and are compleated by the Seal of the Lord. The original of this Ceremony which S. Cyprian acknowledges ought to have made him confess the inutility thereof in his Age since they had no longer the power of communicating the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost This Imposition of Hands was an imitation of the Apostles ill understood and Unction was also a pure Addition in this Age the effect whereof they were very much perplexed to express They said indeed this Unction was designed to give Grace but what Grace since Baptism communicates it whole and entire It is necessary says S. Cyprian that he who is baptised should also be anointed to the end that having received the Chrism that is to say the Unction he might be the anointed of God and have in himself the Grace of Jesus Christ Now the Eucharist and the Oil which they make use of to anoint the baptised are sanctified upon the Altar It is clear by these words that Unction is nothing else but a Ceremony of Baptism and that the Donation of the Grace of Jesus Christ is not attributed to it but because 't is annexed to Baptism For to give the Grace of Jesus Christ is the proper effect of Baptism according to all the Ancients It seems by this Passage that the Oil wherewith they anointed the baptised was consecrated Oil for S. Cyprian says It was consecrated on the Altar But this is not all for the sanctification of the Oil upon the Altar signifies no more than what we have observed concerning the second Age. 'T was that Believers brought Bread Wine and Oil and placed them upon the Holy Table They consecrated these Oblations by Prayer and they served themselves of them for the Usages of the Church among others they served themselves of Oil for Lights when they assembled by night and for the Unction of the baptised As to what remains you may observe that in the third Age nothing was seen but one Unction in Baptism whereas we shall find two afterwards Behold the Alterations which have happened to the Sacrament of Baptism in this Age. Let us consider the Eucharist We have observed that in the second Age they had added the mixture of Water with Wine the Custom of sending it to the absent by the Deacons and above all they had there annexed the Oblation of those Gifts that Believers made on the Altar as a part of the Ceremony This had already given it the appearance of a Sacrifice and indeed gave the name to the whole Action We shall not need to doubt but this imagination increased with time Christians having a very great desire to give to their Worship some appearance of a Sacrifice to take away the scandal which the Pagans conceived against them For they perpetually said to Christians You have no Temples Statues Altars nor Sacrifices and by consequence you are impious There was nothing in the Worship of the Christian Religion which might be dressed up in the likeness of a Sacrifice but the Eucharist They
persevere in the Confession of the Truth the most part of whom never appeared so zealous as some of those who are fallen and flatter themselves because God has given them the opportunity of going out of the Kingdom and recovering themselves in a Country of Liberty and Freedom I do not call this Perseverance I commend the prudence of those which secure themselves but to account it their honour and reputation I cannot They sacrifice their Country their Wives their Children their Goods and their Ease I confess it and 't is true that is much But what will not a man give for his life Every one will give skin for skin and all that he has for his life but put forth thine hand and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face He who hath not suffered thus far hath not as yet given sufficient proof of his love for the Truth What shame and abatement of glory do these weak ones bring to our glorious Confessors who reckon their lapse and fall for a thing of naught According to them our Martyrs are fools and obstinate persons who suffer for a trifle for a signature and subscription which is required of them which when they have given they may save themselves by going out of the Kingdom Alas if this fault be so small a thing why do the holy Champions of God suffer so many Evils to avoid it Is it the Spirit of God which inspires them with this Courage If it be God that is the cause of this Holy Perseverance to what Spirit may we attribute this cowardize of refusing to Jesus Christ our Bodies to glorifie his Name and do honour to his Truth All that these poor Wretches say to us is this If you had been in our place it may be you would have done no better than we have done This may be true but is it a lawful Excuse Is the Crime the less because we are all capable of committing it I complain therefore but do not rigorously condemn those who have been so weak as to yield by Persecution provided they sigh and lament in the secret of their own Souls acknowledging and confessing their fault and their sin But I confess I am not able to bear those who after they have received much have returned so little and who being persons of great understanding have had so little stability and courage and cannot yet confess the fault they have committed is verâ— great and hainous The first of May 1687. The Eighteenth PASTORAL LETTER A. M. D. J. Vpon occasion of an Act falsely ascribed to the Synod of Montpazier in Perigort by which they would prove that in the year 1659. the Reformed of Lower Guyenne did Treat with the English about their entring into France and delivering several Places in the Kingdom into their hands Monsieur YOU have thought that the Accusation which Soulier the Priest hath renewed against the Protestants of France does deserve that we interrupt the course of our Pastoral Letters to give the Publick a small Apology concerning it And indeed seeing we do employ our selves in refuting errors in matters of Right for the justification of our holy Religion we maâ— and ought to confute errours in matters of Fact for the justification of persons who make profession of this Religion So that I yield to your Reasons and at this time shall make an Apology for our selves against this barbarous and inhumane Accusation And first I advertise the Publick that they give attention to the business about which we are now to treat for they will see one of the most famous Impostures that the eyes of him who seeth all things ever did behold they will see what is the Spirit of the Religion which for so long time we have opposed they will know what our Persecutors are capable of I Know not what cheating Priests and Apostate Ministers did forge some years since an Act in the Name of the Synod of Lower Guyenne which was held at Montpazier in the year 1659. on the first of July and some days following that they might perswade that the Reformed of that Province did at that time treat with the English about giving them entrance into the Kingdom and delivering into their Hands all those places of which they could make themselves Masters This piece of Forgery appeared at that time when they laboured with an incredible Heat to thrust the Reformed of France with all the speed they could to their utmost Ruine 'T was all this time that all the World to please the Court thought it a Duty to endeavour by all sorts of Accusations to render them Odious All places were full of Books and Libels against Calvinism endeavouring to shew the Impurities of its Birth the Horrors of its Life the Furies of its Conduct the Civil Wars that it did occasion the Spirit of Rebellion wherewithal it is animated the Dangers in which it engaged the Crown the Precipices to the very borders whereof it carried the Realm its divers attempts against the Persons of our Kings and the State. All then was well received which promoted the principal end of the Clergy and Court of France And 't was to animate the King to a speedy execution of his Design that this piece was forged This Conspiracy of the Synod of Monpazier which was sufficiently new was the most proper means in the World to swell and inlarge the Libels which were made against the Reformed Nevertheless no Writer would own or assert this Villainous Piece because 't was visible to be bad Mettal Mr. Maimbourg was not a person scrupulous in the value and worth of his Testimonies when he endeavoured to support what he had advanced and this pretended Conspiracy of Montpazier was a Testimony sufficiently good it seems to me to prove the Thesis which he had endeavoured to defend in his History of Calvinism 't is that the Spirit of Violence Fury and Rebellion is the Soul of our Religion Nevertheless neither he nor Mr. Arnald in his Apology for the Catholicks nor Mr. Feure who came sine did ever dare to hazard their Reputation on a Calumny so evident and an Accusation so ill proved and established I intreat you judge whether it be true as they pretend that the Court had the Act and the Proof of this Conspiracy in their hands that the resolution of Montpazier in its Original had been put into the hands of the King by Mr. Joly Bishop of Agen and by the Cardinal Bouillon and that the Court had judged the piece true Consider say I whether Mr. Maimbourgh who writ by the Order of the Court and on purpose to make Calvinism Odious would have had no knowledge or cognizance of it And in case he had known or understood it is it not plain and clear that he would have made use of it if he had thought it good and valuable But at last a Person is found fit to serve as a Godfather to this Reprobate and Bastard-Child
pains God will prepare for you in the Heavens a Glory distinct from others for you must believe the Crown of Martyrs is more rich and illustrious than that of ordinary Believers Say them All things well considered this light and transient Affliction is not worthy to be compared to the Glory which is to come and which shall be revealed in me Would to God I could depaint before you the Glory of Heaven the Joy of Souls which see God and possess him the Satisfaction of the Blessed which are plunged in an Ocean of Delights the Transports of Saints which embrace their Divine Saviour which are in the glorious Society of the Patriarchs which sing the Praises of God with Angels and are full of Joy which exceeds all understanding In the name of God dear Brother lift up your eyes that way and let that grand object support you Take heed of the perilous Temptations to which the World and your own Heart may expose you 1. Your Heart may peradventure say the Difference which is between the Roman Religion and mine is so little that 't is not worth the while to suffer Martyrdom for it Say thereon Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Rome is that spiritual Babylon concerning which God has said Go out of her my people The Church of Rome is the Court trod under foot by the Gentiles for the space of twelve hundred and sixty days The Papists are the Gentiles which tread under foot the Church of God and oppress it their Images are the Idols of the ancient Pagans and their Saints are in the place of the false Gods of Antiquity The Sacrament which they appoint to be adored is an Idol which cannot be adored without stirring up the holy Jealousie of the true Jesus Christ Remember my dear Brother that our Truths are not less important than they were an hundred and fifty years ago when our Fathers went joyfully to death in defence of them They deserved that they should die for them then they deserve that we should suffer for them at this day Take head of another very grievous Temptation Your Heart will say What must I condemn to Hell all those persons that have fallen through weakness which go to Mass by constraint Without doubt God will shew them mercy and save them He will do the same by me I will follow their example I shall have the same lot with them To that remember the Precept of Jesus Christ Judge not that ye be not judged Leave the Brethren that are fallen to the Judgment of God. We do hope that God will shew them mercy that is to say that he will give them Repentance of their great fault but in the name of God be not tempted to imitate them Is it not certain that the state in which they are is at least doubtful And is not yours certain Will it not be then a madness to quit a state and way which certainly leads you to the Greatest Glory of Paradise to put your self in a way which may lead you to ruine and damnation this is the best that you can think of it Moreover my dear Brother you ought to remember that where much hath been given much will be required the Favours which God hath bestowed upon you hitherto are so great that you can never make sufficient acknowledgments for them He hath given you a courage and resolution that hath few Examples Oh! how precious is the Talent that you have received But also how faulty will your laziness be if you go dig and hide it When a person falls at the beginning of his Race it will be said he was not fit for so long a Course and Men will excuse him But if he run vigorously within two steps of the end and having his hand already upon the Crown lets it go and loses it all Men will blame him and treat him as wretched and sloathful Run you therefore the race that is set before you with patience and perseverance seeing you are encompassed with so great a Cloud of Witnesses Look to that Cloud of holy Martyrs of Jesus Christ which have gone before you which have been Burnt Tortured torn with Pincers sometimes whole years together which have seen their Bowels fall out in the Fire before they gave up the Ghost The Chain which you wear about your neck is fifty pounds but it is more supportable than flames of Fire Say therefore We have not yet resisted unto blood fighting against sin How glorious is the Chain that you bear about your neck It is more precious than if it were of Gold and Diamonds Being coloured with your sweat and sometimes with your blood it may one day prove if it pleases God the most precious of your moveables and you will say behold there the Carcanet and Collar that my Divine Spouse hath given me Behold the Nuptial Jewel wherewith he hath honoured me He hath done me the honor to make me conformable to him in his Sufferings that I may be conformable to him in his Glory In the name of God my dear Brother do not suffer your self to be softned by the memory of your Wife and Children God who is rich in Mercy the Father of the Fatherless and Husband of the Widow will take care of her and them and not leave them without all Consolation He that loves Father or Mother Wife or Children more than me is not worthy of me We ought not to love any thing but God and for the love of God this good God will be to us in the stead of all things and will comfort us effectually The moment of time in which you leave the Prison to go to the Galleys to which you are designed will be a terrible moment to you but in the name of God fortifie your self against the horrors of it and say I follow Jesus Christ my Saviour he went forth of the Judgment-Hall bearing his Cross and I go out of my Prison bearing my Chains I shall arrive at my Calvary but I shall also arrive at the Mount of Olives at the Mountain of Peace and at last I shall ascend up into Heaven to my God and dear Redeemer In your Journey you will bear your Chain by the Roads but it will sparkle with glory and whereas the shame and infamy wherewithal Galley-Slaves are laden is usually the heaviest part of their burthen on the contrary you will be laden with glory and your Enemies themselves will admire you I praise God for the moderation with which you speak of your Persecutors therein I observe a proof that you are a true Martyr of Jesus Christ Continue to bless and pray to God for them When Men suffer for an ill Cause it is always with impatience and fury against those that are the cause thereof But the true Religion inspires this spirit of sweetness and kindness So that without going further than your own Heart you may there find evidences of the truth of the Religion that
following in the Year 1683 by me Francis Senilh heretofore Minister of Lavardac in Guyenne and chosen to Collect the Acts of the said Synod who have the said Papers in my possession Given at Amsterdam the five and twentieth of April 1687. F. Senilh Secretary of the said Synod The Priest Soulier hath made his Reflections upon this Motion and Act of the Synod of Thonniens after his manner we will examine them by and by The Court of France being under no disposition to hear the Justifications which they could produce on this subject they were obliged to justifie themselves to the Publick And because France was no place nor had been for a long time in which it was permitted to defend the cause of God and the Innocent they were forced to Print what they had to say thereon in a strange Country The Author of a Book intitled The Spirit of Monsieur Arnold inserts in his Work the Arguments by which this pretended Act might be proved false and he finds no less than Nine which he calls invincible and which indeed are so and will always be so in the opinion of every equal and disinterested Judge At the said time he there makes a little History of the divers Gradations by which the Priest Soulier hath passed to become an Author since he was either a Taylor or a Shooe-maker at Paris to shew what credit ought to be given to the Reports of such a man who owes his Advancement to his Missionary Spirit i. e. to a Spirit of Violence Passion and Falshood against the Reformed For behold exactly the Spirit of Mercers Shooe-makers and Cutlers who have left their Trades and Shops to ascend the Bench and to run about France with the Memoirs of Veron The Priest Soulier who had been very well recompensed for his History of the Edicts of Pacisication by a Pension which the Clergy had assigned unto him being allured by the Bait judged it convenient to make a great Book exactly on the same subject upon which he had made a little one 'T is no longer the History of the Edicts of Pacification 't is at this day The History of Calvinism containing its Birth its Progress its Decay and End in France But don 't mistake yourselves 't is the same thing the first was in little this is in great 't is nevertheless the same Countenance the same Picture as well as the same Author and the whole Dedicated to the King that is to say Monsieur Soulier is willing to raise himself Successour to Monsieur Maimburgh He had put his Calumnies against the Reformation of France into an Abridgment in his first Work this got him only a moderate Pension his knowledge and his parts are very mean and limited to turn to some other subject and make a new Book against the Calvinists to gain a new Pension this was not very easie therefore he judged it more convenient to make again the same Book under a new form much larger than the former hoping that this would procure for him a much more ample Reward Nor was he mistaken for as a Recompence of this last Work they have procured for him an Abbacy in Xaintonge so that from hence forth 't will be no longer Soulier the Prist 't is Monsieur the Abbot and I hope for his next work it will be My Lord the Bishop And then we shall see the Proverb exactly turned it will not be from a Bishop to a Miller but from a Miller to a Bishop In the Preface of this new Book which we expect and which must promote Monsieur Soulier to a Bishoprick he will say no more as he hath in the Preface of this I content myself to answer these passionate Writers that my Conscience doth not reproach me about any of these matters of Fact and that I have so little laboured for temporal Considerations that I assure myself the Minister Jurien how able soeven he seems in his Searches and Inquiries will not find my name in the distribution of Rewards nor of that of Benefices The Ministers without being very able in Searches and Inquiries will then easily find the name of Monsieur Soulier among the Distributions of Rewards and Benefices and they hope that this lucky Historian will suddenly have a new degree of Honour when he shall have put the History of Calvinism under a third form In expectation of this new Dignity and without regarding what he has at present we shall not take notice of this honest man under any other appellation but that of Soulier the Priest as hath been customary unto him So then Monsieur Soulier the Priest hath thought good to give Calvinism a hundred Blows after its Death and to covet it with Infamy by a great Book of seven hundred Pages in Quarto He must be an Enemy to his own Repose and search out business out of briskness of Humour that will trouble himself to Answer the Accusations and Falsities wherewith this great Volumne is filled for excepting a few matters of Fact there is nothing in it but what Monsieur Arnold and Monsieur Maimburgh and others have said to which it is believed that the Calvinist of Holland as Monsieur Soulier calls them have answered very well and very much at large But we cannot nor ought not to neglect this business of the Conspiracy of Montpazier because 't is a new thing and because Soulier in pursuit of a Commission granted him by the King hath made a furious expence of Wit to defend the Truth of what he had affirmed As he hath repeated in his History of Calvinism all which was in his History of Edicts but dressed up after a more magnificent and ample manner he hath likewise repeated the Conspiracy of Montpazier with all the circumstances and reasons which may support the truth of it We have seen the first Act without Form and without Subscriptions we must see it such as it is at present in this new History corrected and augmented by the Author corrected in the name Daret which is changed into Durel augmented by four Subscriptions which are here below But after all maimed of three Marginal Annotatiods which do a great deal of Honour to the Piece and him that produced it Behold it therefore according to its new Edition The Pastors and Elders of the Churches of Lower Guyenne Assembled in a Synod at Montpazier the first of July 1659 and some days following The Conspiracy of the Synod of Montpazier ON the Report made by Monsieur Ricottier of the care that the took with Monsieur Vignier now absent at the desire of some of the Society to obtain that some of our Brethren of England should concern themselves in the Preservation of our Liberties which they endeavour every day to destroy wherein they think he hath laboured happily by the interposition and assistance of Monsieur Durel And having learnt from the Mouth of the said Durel and seen by Letters which were written to him and whereof he had