Sollicitations of those who have the conduct of his Conscience See a new Systeme on the Apocalypse p. 224 225. They are the Priests and Clergy which have raised this Holy War against the Reformed 't is they that have blown the fire and sounded the Alarm to this Persecution and 't were a wonder that there should be a Persecution and superstitious Priests and Clergy have no hand therein One of the sharpest Persecutions that was ever raised against the Primitive Christians was promoted and encouraged by the Pagan Priests as Sozomen I think relates The best things corrupted are the worst profane Priests and Clergy-men without Conscience perpetrate and encourage the greatest Villanies in the World. 9. Though this Persecution be mostly if not wholly owing to the Clergy of France yet I do not think them all equally guilty therein Mr. Arnold in his Preface to the Defence of the Perpetuity of the Faith of the Church against Mr. Claude speaks more humanely concerning those of the Reformed Religion in France Vid. Preface in the beginning and professes a great unwillingness to disturb their outward Tranquillity and Peace or to diminish any thing of their temporal Enjoyments and Advantages He desires which all his heart he says that they might be won over to the Church by all sorts of Charity Softness and Goodness but abhors all violent means and endeavours for their Conversion And I am willing to hope that there may be others of the same spirit and temper of this learned Man. 10. But Mens Sentiments alter and what is sound Doctrine at one time is hardly so at another The same learned Man since the Persecution grew high in France hath written sundry piqued Books with bitterness and gall enough against the Reformed and thereby hath sufficiently countenanced and encouraged their Enemies against them The Bishop of Meaux late of Condum is a gentile Man a florid Orator and usually smooth in his Discourses and Conversation Vid. Serm. but has been a great Zealot though more secretly than others in promoting the ruine of what he calls Heresie and no man needs farther proof thereof than to read that fulsome Sermon of his preach'd at the Funeral of the late Queen of France insomuch that I am sometimes under a temptation to say of them all in the words of the Prophet The best of them is as a briar Mich. 7.4 the most upright is sharper than a thorn-hedge 11. I speak not these things with desire to exasperate the Government against the Roman Catholicks in England Let us but be secured that we may enjoy our own Religion in Peace and I am content that they have the private Liberty of their own If they will hear what the Learned Men of our Church have to say for the Doctrine of the Reformation and against the Doctrines which are properly and peculiarly Popish and can be argued out of the one into a belief of the other I should very much rejoyce therein 12. Those Doctrines which are peculiar to the Church of Rome are evidently Novel and by degrees introduced upon primitive and simple Christianity This hath been irrefragably proved by the Divines of our own Church against the late Pamphlets and Pretences of the Romanists See the Council of Trent examined by Catholic Tradition by D. Stilling fleet as well as by the Famous and Learned Monsieur Jurieu in his Pastoral Letters Christianity is invariable what it was in the days of the Apostles and Primitive Churches it is at this day all Additions that have been made thereunto are either needless or false and such are all the Novelties of the ROMAN Church 13. But if those of the Church of Rome cannot be argued out of their Religion and become Proselytes to the Protestant Doctrine and Discipline they must remain where they are The Churches of the Reformation have not learned from their great Master to Dragoon Men into their Communion and it seems to them to be utterly contrary to the Gentleness Softness and Kindness of Christianity It accords well enough with Mahometanism and the Alcoran to proselyte Men by drawn Swords and Pistols for there is but little Argument See Memoirs of P. Mornay vol. 1. pag. 25 26. Reason or Demonstration can be produced to persuade a Faith therein and where Men cannot be converted by Arguments they must make use of Clubs if they will gain any Proselytes Christianity is furnished with so many of the one that it has no need of the other 14. Whatever Provocations those of the Church of Rome may have given to the Church of England to treat them with Severity and Rigor I would by no means that they should use them They are Men and partake with us in the same common Nature and I would not have them treated like Beasts If care be taken that they do us no hurt I should never desire that any Violence be offered unto them let them sit under their Vines and their Fig-trees and let no man make them afraâ—d 15. I should be sorry that the Church of England should repay the measure to the Roman Catholicks that the Reformed have suffered in France The great Author of our Religion has learn'd us other Doctrine and I hope we shall never depart from the Faith and Practice thereof He hath taught us to do good for evil to pray for them that curse us Matth. 5.44 and bless them that persecute and despitefully use us We are willing to live peaceably with all men as much as in us lies Roman 12.18 19 20. we will not avenge our selves we will leave that to God to whom Vengeance belongs If they hunger we will feed them if they thirst we will give them drink and by doing thus heap coals of fire upon their heads 16. I am as jealous and suspicious of the Gentlemen of the Roman Persuasion as any Man and hope that all care will be taken that it shall not be in their power to do us hurt and when that is secure I wish they may be treated with all the kindness that Christianity requires of us I am sure the Christian Religion is most full of Love Sweetness and Obligations and there is nothing in the World that commends it more to the Acceptation of Men and none do it more Honor and more advance its Reputation than those that delight in Kindness and scatter their Obligations upon all sorts of Men herein they do like the Majesty of Heaven Matth. 5.45 who causes his Sun to rise upon the good and the bad and his rain to descend upon the just and unjust 'T is a thing of no great difficulty to treat those with Kindness that oblige us but to shew Love to our Enemies and an Affection for those that hate and destroy us is a more difficult Lesson and worthy of the Christian Religion which teaches Men those heights of Perfection which cannot be learn'd any where else 17. The Author of these following Letters
separate a stream from the Channel says he 'T is true the Channel remains in the Church of Rome we agree with them in that from the first Bishop of Rome to the last we see no considerable interruption either History is not to be credited or Bishops have succeeded one to another Behold the Channel mark'd and noted But by misfortune they have separated the River from the Channel and in this Succession of Bishops there has succeeded a dirty and impoisoned River to pure water and to a clean and clear River Monsieur de Meaux is very happy therefore in his comparison in this small Paragraph but he is not so altogethet in that which follows And to vaunt says he themselves of the understanding of the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserved the Waters after the Pipes are broken Surely if the Waters were no where but in the Channel Monsieur de Meaux and his Brethren had some reason on their side but 't is happy for us and mischievous to them that the Water is in the Fountain before it can be in the Channel The Channels may be broken the Bishops Successors of Seats may become Antichristian The Fountain of the Gospel-Doctrine continues always pure in the Holy Scripture It had been very fine if they had reason'd so at the time when Jesus Christ came into the World. The Pharisees and Doctors of the Law were in Moses's Chair and as such Jesus Christ commanded to hear them but according to the new Philosophy of our Doctors our Lord should have done otherwise for instead of thundering against the vain Ceremonies and false Glosses of these Doctors which corrupted the Law he ought to have followed them and caused his Disciples to do so to For to boast of understanding the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserved the Waters after the Pipes are broken The Pipes that is the Doctors were broken but did not the purity of the Law remain in the Books of Moses as in his Fountain Let that be remembred therefore and never be forgotten The Gospel-Church in this regard is in no better condition than the ancient Synagogue This had its Pharisees and false Priests in the Chair of Moses that hath its false Bishops in the Chair of the Apostles and Founders of Christianity Let it be remembred also that when the Pipes are broken and the Rivers corrupt we have the Fountain Jesus Christ had recourse thither he said From the beginning it was not so Frankly therefore 't is to delude and ridiculously to delude when they speak of a Succession of Chairs at least unless it be proved that Truth hath remained in them and that Infallibility hath always been placed there and that in matters of Doctrine there have been made no Innovation And thither Monsieur de Meaux comes at last The Doctrine and understanding of Scriptures says he is come even to him without any change or alteration And it has been the pleasure of God that it should come to us from Pastor to Pastor and from hand to hand without any appearance of Innovation This is easily said but I do not understand how persons that write in an Age so knowing and illuminated as ours is should have the impudence to advance such a thing that since S. Paul to the Bishop of Meaux the Doctrine is come down without any Innovation My Brethren 't is an important point 't is an Article about which they do miserably blind you 't is a voice that founds perpetually in your ears and does almost make you deaf Antiquity Tradition constant Succession and Perpetuity of Faith and how do they prove it to you They tell you the Church is infallible therefore it can't err nor turn aside from sound Doctrine Secondly Monsieur de Meaux tells you If there had been such changes among us the Authors thereof would have been named the Spirit of Truth which is in the Church would have noted them and their Names would have been infamous as that of the Arrians and Nestorians c. So that all which has been told us concerning insensible changes in Doctrine whereof they do not produce any example in the Christian Church is nothing but a vain accusation Thirdly To conclude they take up certain Shreds of the Fathers which they set to be seen with Glosses and in a false light and afterwards tell you boldly behold the Conformity of the Fathers with us behold the Succession of the same Opinions in the same Seats There has happened no change or alteration This say I deserves that we stay on it a little for 't is the fountain of Illusions by which they have seduced and made some new Converts Concerning the first of these three Proofs which is drawn from the Infallibility of the Church we hope at some time to shew you the absurdity of that pretension We will prove that all that which M. Nicholas and M. Pelisson have advanced to prove the necessity of this infallible Authority without which according to them truth cannot be found is a Contexture of Fallacies which lead Men directly to impiety But in expectation thereof my dear Brethren we intreat you to give attention to what we are about to say concerning this sovereign and infallible Authority of the Church of Rome I will give you two general methods by which without any great difficulty you may be able to quit your selves of the Fallacies of your Converters First tell me is there any reason can hold good against experience The Church of Rome can't err I 'll prove it say they by just proofs and demonstrations because the Church can't be left without a Guide because private and particular persons can't understand the Scriptures because there is a necessity that an Interpreter which ought to guide others cannot himself be deceived Behold that which is the most stately and magnificent reasoning in the world But by blowing upon these pompous Reasons of Right I will make them vanish by one sole Proof and Demonstration of Fact. 'T is that the Roman Church hath erred an hundred times by introducing Images into Churches and establishing the Invocation of Saints in taking the Cup from the Laity and in causing a Sacrament to be adored c. Call to mind my Brethren the Man to whom the Philosopher proved by subtleties which he could not answer that there was no such thing as motion After having long labored under the weight of his Fallacies he rose up briskly and walkd about the Room You find your selves often perplexed with the Sophisms invented to support the ways of Prescription and to prove the blind submission which ought to be had for the Church of Rome I do not doubt but you are oftentimes in some perplexity in this respect But go briskly out of that perplexity and always come to this The Church of Rome
Novelty and by consequence the Authors thereof of boldness and temerity seeing it is an opinion that hath always prevailed that it is a Criminal enterprise to Innovate in Religion And so the Superstitions of the fifth Age were well content to suffer posterity to believe that the Invocation of Saints and the Adoration of Relicks were more ancient than the preceding Age. To conclude about insensible changes whereof the possibility is denied I beseech you my Brethren observe the spirit and temper of your Converters and tell me what name ought to be given to them We prove to them the changes that are happened in the Church by proofs more clear and evident than the light of the Sun. For example we shew them that in such an Age there was no Invocation of Saints or Angels We shew it them I say not only by negative proofs as we use to speak that is to say by the silence of the Writers of such an Age but by positive proofs and because the opinions of the Writers and the practice of the Church then were wholly opposite thereunto Afterwards we shew them the first beginnings the original and the progress of Error Superstition and Idolatry In one Age we see plainly that such worship was not practised in the Age following it is as plain that it was practised I do maintain that a Man must have renounced all shame to say as these Gentlemen that from such an Age to the following there was no change and the foundation of this impudence is because no single person is found whose name is known that did arise and laboured to introduce such or such an Error or Superstition which met with great opposition but at length surmounted them all They that please to make use of their understandings and consult with History may find that this affirmation hath no truth nor place but in changes that happen at a push and all together the Novelty whereof doth affright and stir up opposition but in Customs and Opinions that prevail gradually and by little and little it is not so The Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images were not established by one single person nor at one single heat A whole people by a false Devotion permitted themselves insensibly to fall into certain practices that seemed very Innocent and it may be they were not very Criminal They which came after thrust forward this Superstition and in fine it came to Idolatry I will say yet once more I know not how a Mans mind and spirit must be made to say that such manner of changes are impossible These Gentlemen cannot deny that the Worship of the Church of Rome at this day is very much different from that of the Apostolick Church Take it for granted my Brethren that there is no Roman Catholick Doctor who will not acknowledge that the Liturgy of the Mass at this day is more compounded and less simple than it was in the days of St. Paul. Were these additions made in a sensible manner Were not these changes introduced by little and little The more sincere of these Gentlemen as Monsieur Baluzius and the Author of the Dialogues against the Iconoclasts of the Sr Maimbourg do acknowledge that in the first three Ages of the Church there were no Images and we do affirm that in the fifth and sixth Age there were many We cannot name the first Author of this attempt and of the introduction of Images into Churches Will Monsieur Baluzius therefore affirm that from the time of the Apostles there were Images in Churches But What It is to small purpose to speak these Gentlemen persevere to maintain that no change hath been made in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church and that none can be made and we do maintain it can be made because it hath been made We have precisely the same thing to say which we said concerning the infallibility of the Church the Papists say it hath not erred for it is infallible and we say it is not infallible for it hath erred Also they say there has been no change made in the Doctrine of the Church for it was impossible any should be made there and we say it is very possible changes should happen there for so it is come to pass Who is it that reasons best That depends only on the question in matter of Fact. We must see whether changes have actually happened in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church Now it is my design to make it apparent that changes have arrived there this is necessary for the dissipation of an unhappy illusion wherewith they serve themselves to blind you It is Antiquity Tradition Conformity with the Religion of St. Augustin St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose I shall therefore undertake to give you a short History of the changes which have happened in the Church at least for the first five Ages thereof It is the surest method to shew you how false the impossibility of insensible changes is and this will be the surest remedy to lessen the charm of false Antiquity by which they endeavour to deceive you This shall be the matter of our following Letters where we will set before your Eyes the State of Christianity and the changes which are arrived there during the space of five hundred years ☜ To finish this Letter my dear Brethren I will set before your Eyes an example which ought to shame the most of you If you confess God it is in secret if you sigh it is in your own Bosom the most part of you dare not give any publick mark though never so little bright and shining of the Sentiments that are in the bottom of your Soul. Learn the Conduct of our poor Brethren the Inhabitants of Cevennes The Edict of Nantes was made void the year past on the month of October the Pastors were chased away and all exercise of Religion forbidden upon great penalties expressed by the Declaration But these Inhabitants of the Mountains began their private Assemblies from the month of November following And God raised up from among them persons that without Study and without Learning put themselves at the head of these Assemblies for their Edification I will not tell your their names lest I should put them in hazard and danger There was a private person of the place called V. to whose word God gave so much efficacy that after some Assemblies where there were but a few persons one night he had the pleasure of comforting many hundreds And these Assemblies continuing almost every day one day a little before night there were found more than eight hundred persons upon the Mountain of Brion near to Caderles They had there the consolation of hearing two excellent Prayers and one Sermon after all those that had the courage to resist temptation did partake in the Sacrament of the Supper of our Lord. Many of those which had fallen with a great many fears desired the Communion among others a Woman of Quality was
is true that in his Book of Prescriptions from the 15th Chapter to the 22th he proves that we may not dispute against Hereticks by the Scripture but by the Tradition of the Churches And he returns to it again in the 37th and 38th Chapters thereof But if the new Converts which have written to us and do send us to that Book had read it with some wisdom and attention of mind they would have seen that it neither doth nor can concern us 1. The Hereticks concerning whom the question is there were no Christians they were Magicians Disciples of Simon Magus who retained the Name of Christian and no mâ—â—â— Besides Tertullian says plainly * Chap. 37. That we must 〈◊〉 them at a distance from the Scriptures because being no Christians they did not belong to them 2. These Hereticks did not acknowledg the Authority of the Scriptures they rejected them or received only some pieces of them cut off from the rest and which were wholly corrupt and falsified And when the Catholicks quoted to them the Holy Scripture they derided it as a fabulous Writing How then could any man dispute with them from a Book whose Authority they did not acknowledge there was a necessity of having recourse to another sort of proofs 2. That which was good in the time of Tertullian is not good at this time of day I do maintain that it was then very easie and very convenient to dispute against Hereticks by Tradition It was then not above an hundred years since the last of the Apostles died There was nothing more easie than to learn what had been their Doctrine by their Successors It is about a hundred and fifty years since the Reformed Church of Geneva had its existence If the Doctrin of Calvin were now under dispute nothing were more easie than to prove without Book that his Doctrine passed without alteration even to those that now teach in that Church and School But is it the same thing when there are 1200 1500 and 2000 years past By what way can we search so far and ascend so high through an infinite number of Men of whom not one hath retained the Doctrine that he did receive in the same estate in which it was delivered to him Behold a very fine Comparison 3. Add to this that Tertullian sends us to the Testimony of those Churches which were founded by the Apostles because those Churches had the Authentick Letters as he calls them that is to say the Original Writings of the Apostles so that to send the Hereticks to the Churches and to their Testimony by reason of those Authentick Letters was to sâ—â—d them to the Scripture it self 4. Besides let thes◠〈◊〉 â—nd She Converts which have been seduced by the reading of this Book read it from the 22 to the 32 Chap. and they will see that the Doctrine which Tertullian would have us search in Tradition is the same which was contained in the Writings of the Apostles and not an unwritten Word and certain Doctrines which the Apostles did commit to the Ears and the Memories of their Successors The Hereticks would not acknowledge the Authority of the sacred Volumes Go to says Tertullian to them lay by the Holy Bocks and let us lay hold of Tradition let us see what the Bishops have taught since the Apostles and I will prove that 't is precisely the same Doctrine with that which is written in our Books which you reject Read you that have suffered your selves to be abused read I say the 22 Chap. and those that follow to the 27 and you will see that the Hereticks spake exactly the same Language which your Converters do that we must not apply to nor support our selves by the Writings of the Apostles * Tertull. de Prescrip c. 25. That the Apostles indeed might know all and agree in the things which they did preach but they did not reveal all things to all that they said certain things publickly and to all but that there were other things which they said in secret and to a few and that is it which St. Paul means when he saith to Timothy O Timothy keep that good thing which was committed to thee Behold exactly the Doctrine of your Converters and that of the ancient Hereticks 'T is that which Tertullian opposes proving that the Apostles delivered nothing by Tradition but that which is written 5. Poor silly Fools which have suffered your selves to be seduced by I know not what shadows and appearances and who put your selves to judge of Antiquity without knowing any thing thereof If you knew against what Hereticks Tertullian disputed you would see that the Contrversie was not about things that were not in the Holy Scriptures These Hereticks denied that Jesus Christ was God and that he was a true Man They said that he had no true Flesh and that his Passion was nothing but a Tragedy and an appearance of a great many Phantoms they denied the Resurrection of the Flesh Was there any need to recur to Tradition to prove such things as these Doth not the Scripture contain those Truths that are opposite to these wicked Imaginations as clearly as Tradition And do you not see that Tertullian forsakes the Scriptures on this Subject only because the Enemies against which he disputed had forsaken them and had no reverence for their Authority 6. To conclude If there be any hard terms in this Book attribute them in the first place to the heat of Dispute which always carries Men too far secondly to the Genius and African manner of Tertullian's Expressions and learn that according to the same Author * Lib. Prescrip c. 15. One cannot prove any thing which respects the Faith but by those Letters and Writings which are the Rule thereof Learn by this excellent Passage of Tatian who was then the Judge of Controversies and the Source and Fountain of Instruction 't is to that he refers the manner of his becoming a Christian †Tatian Orat. in Graec. As I sought every where with care I happened on some Books of the Barbarians so the Pagans call the Books of Christians and Jews and I sound them as to time much more ancient than the Philosophy of the Greeks and much more venerable if we consider the Errors which are in the Grecian Books I gave credit to these Books because their style was simple and yet magnificent because there was nothing affected in them because the Discourses were not obscure and many things to come were predicted in them I was affected with them because of the greatness of the Promises and because they learn'd me that there was but one Moâ—â—rch in the Vniverse This Ancient knew not as yet the Divinity of Monsieur de Meaux that the first Article of Faith is I believe the Church and that we ought not to believe that the Scripture is Divine but because the Church says so And as to Tradition you which suffer your selves to be dazled by the
entertained However it be these Gentlemen persuade their Disciples that it is not the Spirit of the Roman Church that doth cause this Persecution Nothing must be imputed to any Religion but what it appoints to be believed The Church never serves it self of force for it hath no other Arms but such as are Spiritual There is among the Doctors of the Roman Church on the one hand an impudence and hardness of Face which is inconceivable and on the other hand there is in their Disciples an abyss of credulity that is incomprehensible Can hardiness and shamelesness be greater than to say that Persecution is not of the spirit of the Roman Church One of our * See the Letter of Doctor Sonstelle Brethre hath written concerning it a little while since with so much brevity that every one may read it and with so much strength as to convince them of the falshood thereof We prove that the Persecution is of the spirit of the Church of Rome by its Principles its Doctrine and its Practice I do not know whether there can be any other source or fountain of proofs when we treat of matters of Fact. The Principles of the Roman Church are that all those that are separate from their Church are damned eternally It s Doctrine is that the Secular Power with Fire and Sword may be employed for the extirpation of those that she calls Hereticks The Council of Constance which France esteems as the most Authentick that hath been these thousand years hath so determined and so it practised For it caused John Lous and Jerome Osprague to be burned The Albigenses Waldenses Bohemians and many others were not Massacred but by order of Councils and Popes who published Crusadoes against them and gave Indulgences and promised Pardon of sin to those that should destroy them The Tribunal of the Inquisition which burns all those that are either suspected or Convicted of Heresie is a Tribunal of the Church established and maintained thereby and it is looked on by the Popes as the great Rampart and Defence thereof Never were there any Massacres committed which were not either Commanded or Approved by Popes They are matters of Fact notoriously known and no body dares to dissent unto them Rome hath sung Te Deum that is We praise thee O God c. and given thanks to him for the Persecution of France Nothing is more proper to make known what is the Spirit of the Roman Church than the Conduct of the Court of Rome We have said that the Pope publickly commends what hath been done in France and hath caused Te Deum to be sung for it In the mean time it is certain that all Men of good sense in the Court of Rome do both detest and scoff at the Conduct of France Whence comes it then that this Court seems to approve in publick that which it condemns in private It is not to flatter the King for they have no respect or regard for him in that Country and every one knows the indignation that they have against him But it is because that Rome dares not declare against the Principles of their Religion If the Pope should condemn ways of violence against pretended Hereticks he would mutiny his whole Church against himself and make himself worthy of deposition He would condemn his Councils he would reproach the memory of his Predecessors he would overturn his own Principles from top to bottom So that the publick approbation which he gives to Persecution is the Sacrifice which he makes of his Conscience to his duty in quality of a Pope But like a Man of good sense he reserves the right of condemning in private all that which he publickly approves The Letter of the Queen of Sueden which hath been made publick in the News of the Republick of Learning hath conjectured discreetly concerning it For it is not to be believed that Queen Christina would dare so openly to declare her self against the Sentiments of the Court of Rome if that Court had approved of this manner of Conversions Behold a second Letter of the same Queen which tells us something more exact concerning the Sentiments which prevail in the Country where she is A Letter of Queen Christina to M 'T IS with astonishment that I have seen my Letter made publick in your Parts I do not understand how it is come to pass and I do assure you that it is not I my self that have published it Nor do I believe that he to whom it was written would so far disoblige his Master as to be willing to do me that pleasure However it be I do not repent that I wrote it for I do not fear any man. I pray God with all my heart that this false Joy and Triumph of the Church do not one day cost her true tears and sorrows In the mean time it must be known for the honour of Rome that all those that are men of merit and understanding here and animated with true Zeal do no more lick up the Spittle of the French Court in this case than I do They behold as I also do with pity all those things which pass in the World where there is given so much reason both of grief and laughter to those that are the Spectators thereof Our only consolation is that God will not abandon his Church but give a glorious issue to all its Calamities which are far greater than are imagined but it behoves us to adore God and the incomprehensible dispositions of his holy providence in every thing that betides us I heartily wish you prosperity From Rome May 18. 1686. Christina Alexandra It behoves us to speak as the case is the Court of Rome disapproves the conduct of the King because it is his Enemy The Persecution is of no value because 't is he that doth it However it be we are in no condition in France to make use of the moderate Sentiments of Italy For the Galican Church hath renounced this moderation She pays Men of Learning to prove that ways of Violence are permitted At this day all the Realm is full of Writers which labour to justifie compel them to come in They quote S. Augustin they report his opinions concerning the Persecution that was raised against the Donatists 'T is notorious that the Clergy of France have been the Authors of the Persecution They cannot deny that they have drawn up all the Edicts and that they have sollicited the execution of them so that we cannot comprehend how the Converters can endure that their Disciples should say That we ought not to impute any thing to a Religion but that which it appoints to be believed and practised and that the Roman Church doth not appoint any Violence to be practised against Hereticks But the Bishop of Meaux finds a very pleasant means to justifie her the Church never serves it self with force by it self says he that is to say it calls to her succour the secular Power to cut
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
Religious Worship and this is that which the Ancient Christians call here to communicate with the body of the Martyr that is to say assemble where he was buryed Pray to God and Celebrate the Mysteries of the Christian Religion in the same place and even over the Tomb of the Martyr In this there is nothing Criminal all is done with a good meaning Nevertheless we shall see how insensibly all did degenerate into Superstition It does not appear that either they Prayed to Polycarpus or that they Prayed for him on the day Consecrated to his memory but we shall see in the third Age they Prayed for the Martyrs and in the fourth Age they Prayed to them Give attention to this passage I earnestly intreat you As to what appertains to Images I think I shall do a thing of great advantage if I prove that the Christian Church had none in their Temples in the second Age for it will appear by the Ages following that they had all sorts of Images even out of Temples in the greatest abhorrence Fasts Lent Abstinence from certain Meats and other Mortifications of like kind which makes so great a part of the Roman Religion which dazle the Eyes of some of our New Converts were intirely unknown in the second Age. We there see and observe Prayers and Fasts very often but there is nothing Read which may make us suspect that they were affixed to certain days of the week or certain months of the year all the days of Prayer except the Lords day were almost always days of Fasting But it was by accident because the Fasting of the New Testament was often joyned with Prayer that the Ancient Christians made it a duty to Fast on days of Prayer But it was a thing unheard of precisely to make Devotion to consist of Fasting without any respect to Prayer and those that do affirm it was the use of the Primitive Church must prove it Now we are certain that they cannot find any proof thereof in the Writings of the second Age. And as to what remains as we shall make it appear by the clearest evidence that the Popish Fasts were unknown in the third Age it will appear by consequence that they were of no use in the second only it appears that they prepared for the Communion of Easter by a Fast of two days St. Ireneus writ to Victor Bishop of Rome on occasion of the Controversie touching the day on which they ought to Celebrate Easter * Euseb Hist Eccles lib. 5. cap. 24. is not only disputed concerning Easter-day but also concerning the form of the Fasts antecedent thereto for some think they ought not to Fast but one day others two others more and others measure their Fast-day by the space of twenty four hours night and day and this diversity in the observation of the Fast had not its being in our Age but hath begun from the time of our Fathers who by negligence simplicity and ignorance have suffered this custom to slip in Nevertheless they lived in peace with each other and we retain it to this day Observe well it is not Lent but the beginning and original thereof These forty hours of Fast are greatned and grown up to forty days So it is that the most innocent practices have been the original of Superstition so dangerous is it to make Innovations although they seem without hazardous consequence let them shew you other solemn Fasts besides this in the second Age. It remains that we speak a word concerning the Pope and the prodigious Authority he arrogates to himself It is a Capital affair in Popery he is the Principle of Unity he is the Centre unto which your Converters tell you you ought to be united if you will be saved God knows what they think of it but we defie them to shew you that the Church of Rome had then any Superiority over other Churches We may assure you without rashness that the most part of the Churches which were in the extreme Parts of Asia scarce knew whether there were any such thing as a Church of Rome they neither knew the name of its Bishop nor the form of its Government nor Customs and therefore were far enough from being subject to its Orders and Decrees We may also assure you there were also Christians in Persia and in the farthest parts of the East which knew not whether there were a Roman Church in the World. Send your Converters to the famous de Launy Doctor of the Sorbonne who makes appear with sufficient clearness and evidence the independence of other Churches and the few bonds and ties that they had with Rome by proving that the adherence they had to the Roman Seat was not accounted necessary in any Age of the ancient Church They produce to you in the second Age Victor who cut off from his Communion the Churches of Asia on occasion of the Controversie about Easter-Day But you ought to understand that this was an attempt without example and which had no effect but was despised of all the World. And besides this was no right that was particular to the Bishop of Rome for other Churches pretended to have that right of cutting off other Churches from their Communion as well as that of Rome Moreover the nearer the Churches of the World were to Rome the more respect and consideration they had for the Church which was there The Churches which were without the Bounds of the Roman Empire scarce knew that there was a Church at Rome The Provinces at a distance from Italy such were Asia and Africa beheld her so far off that they scarce knew either her Customs or her Doctrine nor did they think themselves under any obligation to be instructed in them or to follow them And therefore they continued a long time to celebrate Easter with the Jews and to rebaptize Hereticks without any regard to the Decisions of Victor and Stephen Bishops of Rome The Churches of France which beheld her near at hand had her in greater value and estimation because they were smitten and amazed not at the Majesty of the Church but at the Majesty of the Empire which had its Seat at Rome This is it which made Ireneus Bishop of Lions to say That it was necessary that the whole Church should travel to the Church of Rome because of its more powerful principality That is to say because it was the Seat of the Empire that all Nations come thither and that Christians were found there of all the Provinces of the Empire from whose Mouths might be learn'd what was that Faith which was scattered all over the Earth Behold what was the Christianity of the second Age. And behold the Additions that we find there which afterward was the Seed of Superstition and Idolatry First of all they mingled Water with the Wine in the Eucharist which was not used in the time of the Apostles 2. They carried the Sacrament to the absent which was not usual
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
the Severity of Discipline which the Church granted at the request of the Martyrs At this day they call Indulgence the relaxation of the Justice of God which he grants as they suppose in considerations of the Merits and Sufferings of the Martyrs who suffered more than was necessary for themselves To conclude they have changed the Consideration and Respect which they had for the Intercessions of Confessors and Martyrs into Merits and Works of Supererogation The Church did retard the rigor of her Law against Sinners because of the esteem which she had for those that suffered for the Name of Jesus Christ At this day they grant Indulgences by the application of the Merit of those which have suffered too much either by involuntary Persecutions or by chosen and voluntary Mortifications But hear how the same S. Cyprian speaks very aptly concerning one of these Confessors named Lucian who carried himself too haughtily and desired too earnestly that they should have respect to his Letters of Intercession * Epist 34. The Lord Jesus Christ hath said that we must Baptize Nations in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and that all Sins past are forgiven in Baptism But this man that is to say the Confessor Lucian knowing neither the Law nor the Commandments commands that we give Peace and pardon Sins in the Name of S. Paul not considering that they are not the Martyrs who make the Gospel but that it is the Gospel which makes the Martyrs Therefore at that time they did not alledge the Threats of S. Paul S. Peter the Martyrs and Confessors as the reasons for which they granted Indulgences that is to say the relaxation of the Discipline of the Church In the same Age that is to say the third they will produce unto you the word Confession and the terms of being on their knees at the feet of their Priests And they will not fail to find for you there the Auricular Confession practised at this day but there is nothing more false For those which dazle your Eyes thereby do very well know that the Greek word which signifies Confession was not at that time any secret Confession But the whole Act or Actions of publick Penance were so called And if at that Age Penitents were seen at the feet of Papists this was not done in secret and in a place appointed for the receiving Confessions where they acknowledged all their Sins in the Ear of the Priest But in Churches and in publick that they might be admitted by Prayer and imposition of hands either to Penance or to the Peace of the Church It was so certainly a publick Action that the Pagans took occasion from thence to accuse the Christians of adoring the shameful parts of their Priests This Confession was made in publick with Sack-cloth Ashes and Tears begging the Prayers and Assistance of all Christians This may be seen fully explicated in the Ninth and Tenth Chapters of Tertullian's Book of Repentance A Point of Controversie Concerning the Vnity of the Church that it is not in the Church of Rome and that we are not departed from it WHen a City is besieged and assaulted of all sides those that have a desire to defend it would be every where at the same time but they cannot which is their trouble My Brethren we have the trouble at this day you are besieged you are attack'd at an hundred places they batter you by a thousand wicked Reasons we would be every where and defend you on all sides but whilst we endeavour to defend you on one side they deceive and ruine you on another The rash and bold adventure of the Bishop of Meaux who hath told you in his Pastoral Letter That from the Apostles days to his no alteration has happened in the Doctrine of the Church hath engaged us that we may confound him to make you perceive the essential Changes which have been introduced both in its Doctrine and Worship at least in the first five Ages to the end that from thence you may judg of all the rest But whilst we pursue this design which cannot presently be executed I understand that they seduce you by the Sophisms of the Church of its Unity Visibility and the horror of Schism And that which grieves us most is that by the Letters which come or are communicated to us we see that the most part of you who are willing at any rate whatsoever to be at ease and rest where they are do also endeavour to possess themselves of and obstinately to maintain these wicked Reasons and it may be that one of you will know himself in the following words All the World reasons concerning Religion agreeably to their own Light and Passions But the Questions which do most trouble and confound it are these 1. The positive separation which our Fathers made 'T is said that we ought to suffer without separating from the Communion of the Church that the Abuses introduced by Governors may not be imputed to Believers But the Scriptures that make mention of the Heresies that must arrive in the Church do not command Separation for the sake of them On the contrary they exhort us mutually to bear with one another they say that Wood Hay and Stubble may be built on that foundation which is Christ Jesus and that he alone will separate one from the other that the good Grain and the Chaff shall be separated at the last day but we must let them grow together till then Behold exactly the Religion 1. Of our revolted Ministers There has been sent unto us an Account of a Conference which Cheyron an Apostate Minister of the City of Nismes had with the famous Confessor called Mr. Matthew an Advocate of Duras who is in the Town of Constance at Aggues-Mortes that which this Wretch says is the same with what hath been written and you have read 2. 'T is also the Religion of all those which have any understanding or illuminations they cannot but see that the Church of Rome is extremely corrupt But the question is say they whether we ought to separate from it because of its Corruptions yea they say we ought to bear them and add further after all there is but one true Church and although it be corrupt it is nevertheless the Church and we must endure its Diseases and Imperfections The Poyson of this illusion is so eating and dangerous that we have reason to fear that it continues long upon your Minds it will penetrate into them and totally corrupt them and so whilst we are pursuing other Subjects your hearts will be poysoned by this mischievous Sophism in that manner and to that degree that you will never recover This is it which obliges us to return to the Bishop of Meaux's Letter sooner than we intended Nevertheless without forsaking the subject matter we are upon for we will endeavour to intermix things in such a manner that in every one of our following
greater Absurdity than to answer by that which has been under dispute It is not true that Rome is the Chair of S. Peter we shall it may be have occasion to prove it to you in some other place But although it should be true where is it said that the Priviledg of Unity ought to be affixed to the Chair of S. Peter The Pope of Constantinople says I am in the Chair of S. Andrew who was an Apostle The Pope of Antioch says 'T is I who am in the true Chair of St. Peter for according to Tradition St. Peter was seven years Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome so that it is the first Chair sounded by the chief of the Apostles The Pope of Alexandria saith I am in the Chair of St. Mark who was an Evangelist and had the Spirit of Infallibility as well as St. Peter Behold three Popes against one three Churches against one three Apostles or Evangelists against one wherefore then Gentlemen Converters would you that I should esteem you as only in the rightful possession of Unity to the prejudice of Persons which pretend to have as good a Title to it as your selves Press these false Babylonish Teachers on this point and you will see such confusion and such a multitude of Words in their Discourse which will discover to you the falseness of their pretensions After this we will consider the Proposition in it self The Vnion that is necessary to Salvation is included in the Church of Rome alone out of it there is neither Salvation Faith Grace Remission of Sins nor the True Church so that every man which is separate from it by Schism alone without Heresie dies eternally I do maintain That this Proposition is the most foolish but withal the most cruel and barbarous that ever was asserted and I do beseech you my Brethren to be attentive to the proofs that I shall make thereof First According to the Scripture Fathers and Evidence of Reason the Unity of the Church ought to contain Universality in it self that is to say That Church which is One ought to be universal and extended through all the World it ought to comprehend all Christians I will not prove this for it 's clear and also confessed 't is a truth so known among the Ancients that they look on certain Schismaticks of the fourth and fifth Age called Donatists as Fools These People in the beginning of the fourth Age separated themselves from the rest of the Church of Carthage and all Africa this Separation was caused by the Election of a Bishop of Carthage This hath always been one of the most fruitful Sources of Division These Donatists said precisely that which the Church of Rome says at this day * Aug. de Agone Christi Cap. 28. All the Church is fall'n into Apostasie and is only preserved in the Communion of Donatus upon which St. Augustine thus cries out Oh proud and wicked Tongue Certain other Schismaticks called Luciferians fell into the same dotage That the Church was perished and continued not but in Sardinia and some Mountains near Rome where they had Followers and Disciples St. Jerome treats them on that Subject as men that had lost their Understanding †Jerome Dialog adv Lucifer If it be so says he Jesus Christ died only for the Peasants of Sardinia Where then is the accomplishment of that word of the Father Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance Behold exactly the folly of the Papists the Church is perish'd throughout the World except at Rome and in the West but we with the Scriptures and the Fathers say Let the North give up and let not the South keep back All the parts of the World shall bring forth Children to God and the Church ought to be extended to all places where the Gospel is Now the Church of Rome is not at Constantinople nor in Muscovy Asia Egypt Africa or Ethiopia where nevertheless there are multitudes of Christians it is not in England Holland Sweden Denmark nor in a great part of Germany The Church of Rome reacheth not to all the Countries and Kingdoms for 't is ridiculous to say that 't is dispersed throughout the World because there are some Jesuits at London in the Low Countries Sweden Constantinople and in the East and some Latines hid here and there where they have small Congregations but little known and as it were under ground I might as well say that Calvinism is extended through all Italy because there are some of the Reformed scatter'd here and there in it Secondly According to the Hypothesis of the Church of Rome every one that errs though never so little that is to say who goes off from that which the Romanists determine is out of the Unity of the Church and without hopes of Salvation Behold how ill this agrees with that notable Passage whereof those of ours that are weak and fearful make great use 't is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. iii. 11. where the Apostle says For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this Foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble every mans work shall be made manifest c. and the fire shall try every mans work c. And if any mans work be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved Without taking notice of what may be difficult in this Passage 't is clear That those which build are Teachers that the Gold Silver and precious Stones are sound Doctrines that the Wood Hay and Stubble are such as are unsound and false 't is also clear that they which teach these false Doctrines may be saved and with greater reason they which are seduced by them It follows not from thence as our perverted People pretend that a person may be saved in the practice of that Worship which ruines the Foundation as they do in the Church of Rome but it follows at least that a person may be saved that teaches Doctrines opposite to Truth provided that they subvert not the Foundation and by consequence the Church of Rome is ridiculous as well as cruel to damn all those which are out of her Communion for Errors that are light and trifling for having pronounced Anathema against those which deny for example that Infants dying without Baptism are damned Mr. Nicholas makes no difficulty to condemn all those which do not believe the sovereign and absolute necessity of Baptism Thirdly We have a third proof of the falseness of this Pretence that the Roman Church is in possession of that Unity out of which there is no Salvation in this That God preserves the Ministry of his Word in many Places and in many Churches which do not submit to the Latin Church The Word of God never returns without effect The Wisdom of God will not permit that he should preserve the Ministry in places where there are none but
Non-elect and Reprobates so that it is absurd that God should cause his Gospel to be preached to a herd of Reprobates among which there is not one person on whom the Word can produce its effect It will be therefore in vain that God should preserve Christians in all the East and South for these Christians being out of the saving Unity will be damned just in the same manner as if they were Pagans Fourthly The Schism of the Ten Tribes gives us a convincing Proof that in Schismatical Churches every single Person is not in a state of Damnation Jeroboam separated ten Tribes from the other two he would not suffer them to go up to Jerusalem but engaged them in a formal Schism nevertheless God there preserved both Prophets as Elijah and Elisha and a multitude of Persons which he affirmed to be his own because they had not bowed the knee to Baal There is therefore no particular Church that has reason to boast it self of having Unity alone to the prejudice of all other Churches Fifthly The truth is that on one side the Jews converted to Christianity in the time of the Apostles and on the other side the Pagan Converts lived in a true Schism for these Jewish Christians would have no Communion with the converted Pagans nevertheless they did not mutually damn each other therefore we ought not to damn those which live in Schism whatever it be The converted Jews had considerable Errors they observed the Law and would retain Circumcision with all their might Things incompatible with Christianity as S. Paul declares so positively as to say If any one be circumcised Christ should profit him nothing nevertheless God suffers and saves them with considerable Errors It is not therefore true that the Church is shut up in one sole Communion and that every Error damns when we separate from a Society that is justly called the Church but it 's true that remaining in a Society bearing that Name we may nevertheless be damned when there are mortal Errors there as there are in the Church of Rome Sixthly Ask your Converters who would oblige you to return to the Church of Rome on pain of Damnation under pretence that Unity is in that Church alone ask them I say whether they would pronounce that all the Greek Christians of whom there are millions are damned for this only reason because they will not adhere to the Roman Church who alone has Unity in her possession If they have the front to say yea ask them if they acknowledge the Greeks for Christians They will also also answer you yea pursue and press them by asking how God can abandon to eternal Damnation an infinite number of Christians who according to the Church of Rome hold no Capital Errors and are only mistaken in things of small consequence If the Papists boast of the consent of all Christians of other Communions and particularly of the Geeks in the Invocation of Saints in the Adoration of Images in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the real Presence and Adoration they do therefore hold all that the Church of Rome esteems necessary to Salvation why therefore will they damn them for little things and for this alone that they will not live in this pretended Unity To compleat the confusion of your Converters by themselves on the subject of this Unity out of which we are departed Ask them if this Unity be not a certain circle in which the true Church is enclosed They will answer you yea proceed to ask them Whether this certain Circle of Unity has not its Centre that is to say a certain eminent Church to which all the rest ought to have their Relation to the end that they may be within the ciâ—cle of Unity they will also answer you yea and they will add that the Pope or Bishop of Rome is this centre of Unity Monsieur de Meaux finds a way to secure himself from the Thunders of Rome by frequent repeating this and indeed this Supposition according to their Hypothesis is of absolute necessity for if this Circle of Unity have no Centre of Adherence it vanishes immediately a man will always be able to say with good reason To what Church would you that I should adhere is it to that of Paris or that of Toledo These are particular Churches which may err if therefore the Pope be ruined if the necessity of Adherence to the Pope be removed the circle of Unity perishes with him which they call the centre of Unity Now observe that at this day the Divines of the French Church your Converters ruine the Pope from head to foot they take away the centre of Unity and by destroying the centre they destroy the circle 'T is to this that so many modern Writings of Maimbourgh Gerbas Noel Alexander made after the Kings Declarations and the Definitions of the Bishops on this Subject or in prospect of them do tend But the Gallican Church never spake so openly as she hath done but a little while fince by the Pen of a Doctor of the Sorbonne called Elias Pin touching the ancient Discipline of the Church Those among you my Brethâ—en which do not understand the Latin Tongue may consuâ—t those that do and they will inform you that in this Book may be read 1. That the Bishop of Rome had originally no power over other Churches 2. That in the first Institution of Patriarchs he had no power but over the Suburbicane Provinces that is to say those near to Rome 3. That the Popes by little and little ruined the Rights of the Metropolitan Bishops and by Usurpation ascribed them to themselves 4. That the Pope has no right to review and finally judge the Causes determined by the Bishops 5. That the Priviledges which the See of Rome at this day enjoys are not by divine Right but either by Usurpation or the Concession of Councils 6. That to be a good Catholick and a good Christian it is in no wise necessary in many Occurrences to adhere to the See of Rome 7. That the Primacy of the Church which the Pope possesses appertains not to him but by a tolerated Usurpation or as a Priviledge granted by Councils This gives him no character of Infallibility nor the right of judging finally and above Councils Behold exactly the Divinity of the Gallican Church at this day for this man in the view of the Court had not written thus without its Order Behold also the centre of Unity intirely subverted and so subverted as it was by Calvin and Luther This being so why do these Gentlemen everlastingly beat upon your ears about their Unity and the centre of Unity There is no more Unity in the Church of Rome since there is no centre of it there for since adherence to the Pope is no farther necessary to be a true Christian you are not departed from Unity and Christianity by departing from the Communion of the Pope observe therefore thereon that Monsieur de Meaux and your
Words of Tertullian ill understood learn from the Example of St. Cyprian who lived in the same Age That Tradition was at that time a proof whereof Men made use according to the diversity of their Apprehensions and their Interests Tertullian seems to make great account of it and St. Cyprian laughs at it when on the subject of Hereticks which he would re-baptize contrary to the Practice of the Church they objected to him Tradition Custom ancient Usage and antique Practice he rejected these Proofs with Contempt and Scorn Stephen had written to him Let nothing be innovated in Tradition Where is this Tradition answers he ‖ Epist 74. is it in the Gospels in the Acts or in the Epistles An ancient Custom without truth is nothing but an old Error And in another Epistle he saith * Epist 63. Since we must hear none but Jesus Christ we need not examine what those that went before us have done but that which Jesus Christ hath done before all for we must not follow the Custom of Men but the Truth of God. To conclude they endeavour to put Scruples in your minds on the Question of the pretended Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Roman Church by certain Passages of Tertullian and St. Cyprian either corrupted or ill expounded But that is a business the discussion whereof is too long to be handled at this time yea 't is above the capacity of most of you only know that 't is so far from truth that they did acknowledge the Sovereign Authority of the Pope in that Age that Tertullian makes no scruple to scoff at the Pretensions of the Bishop of Rome and to call him in Raillery the Bishop of Bishops because of some kind of Primacy which he began to pretend to For even in that time the Mystery of Iniquity began to work St. Cyprian despises the Excommunications of Stephen Bishop of Rome and opposes himself to the attempt of those who would appeal to Rome about matters determined in the Provinces of Africa This is that St. Cyprian to whom some Persons attribute the Acknowledgment of the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome who said on the Question of the Baptism of Hereticks and of the Admission of Bishops which had lapsed and fallen †Epist 72. In which case we will do violence to no man nor will we give Law to others observing that every Bishop may use the Power given him according to his Will in the Government of the Church being under no Obligation to give an account thereof to any one but the Lord. 'T was to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Judge you whether he acknowledged him for his Superior Hear how the same Cyprian speaks in the face of a Council assembled at Carthage in the Year 258. Let none of us call himself Bishop of Bishops or endeavour to force his Collegues to a necessity of Obedience by a tyrannical fear and terror seeeng every Bishop is Master of himself and cannot be judged by another Bishop nor can he judge other Bishops 'T was also with respect to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Has any one the front to say That speaking thus he acknowledged him for his Superior Observe that it was no small Affair that was now under debate 't was about the Baptism of Hereticks a Question which had made a great noise and which Stephen would have decided with too much Authority The Bishop of Meaux after a hundred others of his Communion to prove the Primacy of the Pope by S. Cyprian quotes a Passage from his fifty second Epistle which proves that these Gentlemen do not fear to make themselves ridiculous provided they may seem to say somewhat 'T is a Passage where he pretends S. Cyprian says That the Roman Emperor did suffer in Rome a Priest which was his Rival with more impatience than he suffer'd a Caefar in his Armies which disputed the Empire with him That is to say that the Roman Emperors did impatiently suffer that the Bishop of Rome should be called High Priest to the prejudice of that Dignity which the Emperors assumed unto themselves So that according to this reckoning they were jealous of the Bishops of Rome and look'd upon them as their Rivals in the High Priesthood In truth this is more ridiculous than if one should say The King of England who calls himself Head of the English Church were jealous of the Curate of the Parish of St. Martin in London The Christians certainly were not above one in a hundred in Rome and the Bishops of Rome at that time made less Figure in the World than an Incumbent of five hundred Crowns per annum makes at this day for besides that they were Poor they were also humble What Agreement could the Emperor in quality of a Pagan High-Priest have with this pretended High-Priest of the Christians To be his Rival he must aspire to the same thing I should rather have chosen to have said That the Mufâ—i looks on the Patriarch of Constantinople as his Rival The meanest Scholar knows that the Word Aemulus which signifies Rival signifies also Enemy and 't is clear that S. Cyprian means that that cruel Persecutor the Emperor Decius beheld with more Indignation a Priest that opposed his Religion than he would have look'd upon an Enemy that had disputed the Empire with him To conclude although St. Cyprian should have intended to compare the Bishop of Rome with the Pagan High-Priest it would not follow that the Bishop of Rome was Head of all the Christians in the World for the Roman Priest was not Head but of the Religion of the City of Rome and not of the whole Empire 'T is true that St. Cyprian corrupted the Idea of the Church and opened a door to the most cruel Doctrine that ever was advanced he made a false Idea of the Unity of the Church which he encloses in one only external Communion And because the Unity of one visible Head was not yet invented he imagined I know not what Unity of Episcopacy which all the Bishops did individually possess whereof nevertheless they all administred but a part This inconsistent Imagination gave place afterwards for the Substitution of one single Head to the end that a visible Head might be given to the Unity of the visible Communion which might be the centre thereof This suffices to give you an Idea of the Christianity of the Third Age and by this History you may observe what was altered in Doctrine or Worship 1. They introduced the use of the Sign of the Cross at least in private for we find it not as yet in the publick Acts of Religion We have said nothing to you concerning it as yet because it is a little thing about which we should never make Complaints against any one provided they be not superstitious in the use of it 2. The Liturgy of the Sacrament of the Eucharist was augmented and increased exceedingly by many Prayers
so that it became very long whereas it was plain and short in the first and second Age. 3. There they added particularly Oblations and Prayers for the Dead 4. To Baptism they added Unction whereof hath been made a Sacrament by it self they added there also Milk and Honey which they gave to the newly baptized and some other unprofitable Ceremonies 5. They appointed two days of Fasting and Regular Prayers every week in some Places Wednesdays and Fridays and in other Places Thursdays and Saturdays and 't is from thence the two Fish-days came viz. Friday and Saturday according to the use of the Roman Church 6. They increased their rigor of Discipline on the one hand ordaining long Penances to Sinners and 't is from thence that the Doctrine of Humane Satisfactions had its birth 7. On the other hand they loosened the rigor of this Discipline with respect to some single persons by reason of the value they had for the Letters of Intercession written by the Martyrs and 't is from thence that Indulgences have their original and the application of the merit of Saints to those who have not enough of their own 8. They began to put a value upon Tradition and from thence came insensibly a contempt of the Holy Scripture 9. They introduced a false Idea of the Church and its Unity by which they put out of the Communion of Jesus Christ not only Hereticks erring in the Foundation but all Societies bespotted with Error though never so little this is that which has produced so many bloody Divisions so many Anathema's unjust Excommunications Hatreds and Quarrels Add all these Alterations to those which we have already observed in the second Age and you will see that the exterior face of Worship was already wholly changed although the interior had not yet received any considerable Alteration but this change in the exterior part did afterwards wholly ruine the interior in such a manner that we cannot deny but from the Third Age Christianity hath received a considerable Alteration When they had dressed up the Eucharist after the manner of a Sacrifice it was not difficult to fall into a persuasion that it was one indeed When they had introduced the words Merit and Satisfaction they soon after changed the first sense and meaning of them When they had established Prayers for the Dead it was a good step leading to the Opinion of Purgatory When they had clothed the Sacrament with so many pompous Ceremonies that did insensibly dispose mens minds to search more than Bread in the matter of it An Article of Controversie Reflections on a Writing newly sent to the Churches of France A continuation of the matter concerning the Vnity of the Church HAving finished our Article of Antiquity it were convenient to engage in that of Controversie and we should have done it without any delay if we had not met in our way a Writing Intituled Charitable Advice to comfort the Conscience of those that are obliged to conform themselves to the Worship of the Roman Church taken from the Letter of a private Person to his Friends This dangerous Letter hath a design exactly opposite to ours we would awaken you this would lay you to sleep and persuade you that the Superstitions they oblige you to practise cannot hurt you yea that they may serve you provided that you make them means of uniting your selves to God. That which makes the Poison of this Writing the more dangerous is That there is mingled in it a character and appearance of Humility Piety and Devotion We are informed That Persons who to make themselves acceptable at Court do design to bring you to a Submission to your Persecutors have sent you many Copies thereof so that we have all sorts of reason to fortifie you against the peril unto which this pernicious Writing may thrust Persons who have already too much inclination to flatter and lay themselves to rest It shall not be by refuting the Reasons of this Author that we will defend you against him it shall be by making him known unto you That will suffice to learn you what credit you ought to give to the Principles of such a Doctor you must know therefore that he is none of your ancient Pastors that hath thus written to you 'T is true that the Author of this Letter had sometimes this Character but he renounced it many years since to put himself in the Arms of a certain Hypocondriack Woman called Anthoniette de Bourignon This Woman conceiving there was not already Sects enough amongst Christians had it in her Head to make another And moreover Persons of her Sex having not been accustomed to be Foundrâ—sses of Religions she thought that hers would make her considerable in the World by the singularity of its Original With great appearance of Devotion which is seen in all hypocondriack and doting persons she puts her self upon Preaching to the World by eighteen or twenty Volumes of Writings which she either caused to be printed during her Life or left to be printed after her Death In these Works besides Christian Verities and particularly what appertains to Morality which she hath adorned happily enough in some Particulars she puts off a thousand paradoxical Visions and a thousand empty Dreams against the Truths which are received by Divines Mr. P. Author of the Writing of which we are now discoursing more through weakness of Mind than corruption of Heart put himself into this Sect and is become the Head thereof Thirteen Volumes of his may be seen which without doubt do explicate and much promote the mysteries of his Mistress It will suffice to learn you what is the character of these Gentlemen by giving you some draughts of their Religion drawn from that very Writing which hath been sent unto you First of all Their Opinion is to have nothing to be fond of no body to entertain among them Papists Lutherans Remonstrants the Reformed Socinians Mennonites Anabaptists All are there welcome without being obliged either to change their Opinions or Practices if they think fit to retain them But also their Religion is to practise nothing externally They go neither to Sermons nor to Mass they perform no exercise of Religion neither publick nor private They have no Assemblies as other Sects among Christians If the humor takes them they will go this day to Mass and to morrow to the Church of the Reformed but that doth not happen it may be once in a year nor peradventure once in all their Life for they do profess a very mean opinion and a great indifference for the exercises of Piety looking on them as things without which are of no use any further than the intention and manner of using them to rectifie the Mind and Conscience makes them profitable yea they do more hurt than good because they draw the Soul out of it self I believe that they have in this a great correspondence with the Followers of Dr. Molini whom they call Quietists and
and I will leave them in their Retirement very peaceably provided they put themselves into a state of Inaction as well in respect to us as to God but if they continue to trouble us the Dispute may have an Issue which will not turn to their honor This Digression which hath been longer than I could have wished will be the cause that we cannot proceed far in the Article of Controversie We are on the true Idea of Unity The last part of our preceding Letter was employed in refuting the false Idea of Unity We have made it appear that 't is a foolish and cruel Opinion to shut up Salvation in any single Communion and that of all the Sects of Christianity that of Rome has the least right to pretend to it The Bishop of Meaux brags much of four or five Passages of St. Cyprian to prove this cruel Paradox This ancient Doctor goes so far as to say * Lib. de Vnitate That there can be no Martyr but in the Church that when a man is separated from its Vnity 't is in vain that he sheds his blood for the Confession of Christ Jesus This Maxim in a large signification may be endured for indeed there may be Hereticks who confessing the Name of Jesus Christ but on the other side ruining the Foundations of the Christian Religion may dye for the Religion of Jesus Christ to no advantage but the Application which S. Cyprian makes thereof is one of those faults over which wise men ought to draw a Curtain He proceeds so far as to apply it to the Novatians Now it must be known these Novatians were good Christians a thousand times better than are the Papists seeing they did not ruine any of the Foundations but retained and believed all the Christian Verities only they were something severe in Discipline and would not receive those that fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church Was not this a great crime Was not this a fine occasion to say as Cyprian did That a Novation was no Christian Was not this a very fine Foundation for that terrible and cruel Sentence That a Novation dying a Martyr for Jesus Christ was nevertheless damned Of what make and constitution are the Doctors of the Roman Church that make use of these Excesses which ought to be hid out of Honor to those great men which fell into them These are Scars remaining in their Flesh to the end that we should not exalt them too much by reason of their great Virtues Behold my Brethren the eye wherewith Mr. de Meaux looks on you he for your sakes makes use of the eyes which St. Cyprian had for the Novatians concerning whom he said A Novatian is out of the Church he is no Christian So says Mr. de Meaux concerning you The Calvinists are out of the Church and are no Christians And why then Gentlemen do you address to us Pastoral Letters Why do you call us your wandring Brethren Will you dare to say that we are no Christians Let these Writers of Pastoral Letters says Mr. de Meaux who shrowd themselves with some shreds of S. Cyprian take all his Doctrine entire Go to Mr. you may say unto him If you find the Doctrine of S. Cyprian so good why don't you take it whole and entire Why don't you say that all the Greeks and all the Christians of the East are not Christians Dare you say that all the Greeks which have been martyred by the Turks and Saracens since the Tenth Age are damned and that they did not suffer Martyrdom although they suffered for Jesus Christ For my part I am persuaded that if you press your Converters on this Subject with their Passages of St. Cyprian they will blush on both Cheeks Remember therefore with respect to St. Cyprian that the love which he had for the Peace of the Church and the horror that he had for Schism ran him into that excess to believe or say That out of that I know not what exterior Unity of the Church a man could not be saved 'T was in this Age that men began to corrupt the Idea of the Church as I have already observed To what will all this come and what profit will you draw thence my Brethren 'T is that thereby you will prove to your Converters the falseness of this Doctrine That the Unity of the Church is included in the Roman Church that out of this Church or in any other private Communion there is no Salvation and thereby you will convince them that they are not infallible for if this Article be false That the Roman Church alone possesses that Vnity she hath erred and that in an important and capital Affair You will also thereby convince them That the Roman Religion is the most cruel and the most damnable of all the Sects of Christianity forasmuch as it condemns the most men For by defming that she alone possesses saving Vnity and by condemning all those that are not in this Vnity she damns three fourth parts of the Christian World. And to conclude you will establish your selves in a holy confidence that by being or having been out of the Roman Communion you have not bâ—en out of the Vnity and you have not shut the door of Salvation upon your selves since Salvation is not included precisely in the Roman Communion and that saving Vnity is not shut up within the circle of any certain Communion On the Subject of this Vnity you will desire me without doubt that I will furnish you wherewithal to answer the Question which your Converters will put to you In what then does the Vnity of the Church consist if it does not consist in adherence to such and such Pastors Answer them my Brethren That this Vnity consists 1. In the Vnity of Spirit forasmuch as God and the Spirit are the Soul of all Christian Communions which do retain the fundamental Truths 2. In the Vnity of Doctrine which is one through all the World where Jesus Christ is purely taught 3. In the Vnity of Sacraments which are the same every where where they have been preserved and not corrupted Let Churches be separated and set at a distance one from another as far as the Antipodes are from us let them have no knowledge one of another They will not cease to be one by this triple Vnity of Spirit Doctrine and Sacraments If there were a pure Church in the farthest part of Ethiopia or in the utmost part of China we should be one Church with them though we had never heard any thing said one of another It is not therefore the Unity of Ceremonies of Worship Discipline and Pastors which makes the Essential Vnity that 's an accidental Unity which a man may break without going out of the true Unity So the Novatians which were separated from the Church for a little unhappy point of Discipline were in the wrong no doubt and greatly in the wrong and Novatian above all who was the
this reason that in the true Church there be so many Scandals so much Negligence so much Indevotion so many Debaucheries so much Luxury so little Reformation of Life and so little Zeal for the conversion of those which go astray and wander 'T is for the same reason that he permitted the Reformers to have their faults that they did not agree together and that they intermingled humane Passions in their conduct and on the other side for the same reason God permits that in Churches the most corrupt both in Doctrine and Worship there be Souls that seem to seek seriously their Salvation who have at least the appearance of Christian Virtues and it may be good Intentions If the true Doctrine were always accompanied by a holy life and an edifying conduct in those that follow it and that on the other hand Error and Superstition were never found without disorder and an ill life the choice would be too easie Where would be the difficulty Where would be the snares Where would be the danger of wavering Therefore God who will lead his Elect to his end by obscure ways that they may have recourse to him for his light by rough Paths that they may support themselves on him suffers this mixture and confusion of good and evil of evil Doctrine and good Manners of good Doctrine and evil Manners 'T is his pleasure by this profound conduct to oblige us to regulate our Faith not by Prejudices but by his holy Rules and Word 4. In the fourth place once more though I condemn no Person in particular nevertheless I conjure you my Brethren and Sisters to stand at a defiance with Hypocrifie 't is a grand Comedy and an inexhaustible Fountain of Illusions 't is the Character of Persons that live in Convents and a Character that has prevailed for a great number of Ages I could produce to you Witnesses concerning it against which nothing can be said Arnald d' Villeneve Nicholas de Clemangis Arch-deacon of Bayeux and an infinite number of other Popish Authors have made descriptions of the humble and devout Appearances of Monks and Nuns which hid and disguised an Abyss of Pride and Impurity Do you think my dear Sisters which are in Convents that you see the inward part of the Houses where you are and of the Souls with whom you converse Do you not think in the first place that the Persons with which you are placed have order to shew themselves to you on the fairest side and that they do not take care of letting you see their Faults their Jealousies their Quarrels their Hatreds their Lusts their Mirths if they have any Besides this Do not you apprehend that they have chosen the Houses which they know to be best governed to lodge you in and that you ought not to judge of all Convents by those in which you are If you read the Relations of those which have travelled in Italy and Spain they will inform you That in those Countries those Houses that are called Religious are infamous Places where the most criminal Debaucheries are exercised with Impunity Those of France are less irregular but so it is that we do not at all know the inside of them but when the curtain is drawn never so little we see that 't is there almost as 't is elsewhere The Business of the Nuns of St. Claire and of Provence against the Cordeliers of the same place which was pleaded a little more than twenty years ago informs us thereof and makes it apparent That at that time all the Convents of Nuns under the Government of the Cordeliers in what place of France soever they were were places of Prostitution This is of no ancient date Behold the original of Monks which have caused so many Evils An Article of Controversie concerning the Vnity of the Ministry WE having refuted in our two preceding Letters the Fallacy which your Converters take from the Unity of the Church Before we leave the matter of Unity we must say something of the Unity of the Ministry for that also is another source of the Illusions of your Converters The Ministry of the Church is one and only one say they it hath proceeded from Jesus Christ and his Apostles they have delivered to their Successors that which they received from the Lord these delivered it to others at length this only Ministry is come to us and he that hath not Communion with us hath no Communion with Jesus Christ of whom we are the only legitimate Successors and Ambassadors Is it possible that men should be capable of suffering themselves to be cheated by so great a Chimera Certainly if we did not see this we could not believe it That men of good sense should be capable of believing that God hath tied Salvation to a Succession of men which hang upon each other and are fastened tail to tail like Sampson's Foxes in such a manner that out of this file of men there is no Salvation whatever a man does or says These men make us a cruel God who damns Christians only because hazard birth and a thousand other accidents hindered them from being born and living under this thread or chain of certain Doctors which call themselves the Successive Bishops from Jesus Christ even to us That is to say that in the Bishoprick of Meaux for example there hath been no Salvation but for those who have been precisely under the Pastoral Staff from Mr. St. Faron unto Mr. Bossuet who shall be also one day Mr. St. Bossuet if the Gods which rule at Rome favour him In the extent of the whole World he who hath not lived under the long Succession of those Bishops which have sat at Rome from St. Peter to Innocent the XI is damned as certainly as the Devil be it that he that been chaste as Joseph patient as Job zealous as St. Peter orthodox as St. Paul pure as the Virgin for there is but one Ministry and out of this Ministry all are in a state of Perdition The Greeks have a Ministry they have Bishops and those true Bishops According to Mr. de Meaux they hold all the Doctrine of the Church they believe Transubstantiation it self for we have good testimonies that they have been well paid for it in these last days but that signifies nothing they are all damned because they are separated from him who is the centre of the Unity of the Ministry they are not under that one Ministry which alone is saving I do maintain that the time will come when we shall no more believe that which we see at this day It will be said you would fain make us believe it you would persuade us that the men of past Ages have lost their sense yea I do maintain they must have lost it to suffer themselves to be deluded with such Imaginations It must be that the Medicine be given thee by such a hand if thou wilt be healed else it will poison thee Ah! my Brethren open your eyes
that though even the Church should fall into Idolatry we cannot be saved if we separate from it And I say although even the Church of Rome should have Reason at the bottom and were not Idolatrous and that we were out in our Separation we should not hazard our Salvation by continuing as we are Men are every where well where they have Christianity and the marrow and substance of it and 't is a folly to imagine that the Salvation of men depends upon the humor of their Guides It may be therefore that Luther and Calvin were mistaken i. e. That the corruption of the Church of Rome was not great enough to oblige the Faithful to go out of her let us suppose they had done better to leave things as they were I do nevertheless maintain that at this day you do not in any wise hazard your Salvation by continuing where they have placed you because however it be you have Christianity in its integrity you have it wholly pure and uncorrupt In every Society where that is found a man may be saved after whatsoever manner it be formed The Idea which men have formed of Schism for many Ages past is the most false that can be imagined but besides the falshood of it 't is the most dangerous and cruel Chimera that could be found Every Society would be Catholick Church to the exclusion of all others The Church of Rome pretends thus far for her self The Greek Church makes no less pretence thereto He that goes out of this Church breaks the Unity and he that breaks it is no longer in the Church Now he who is no longer in the Church is no longer in a state and way of Salvation whatever he say and whatever he do Behold what they say behold the Chimera We must therefore rectifie this Idea of Schism according to the Unity which we have given you The Unity of the Universal Church does not subsist within the bounds of one certain Communion nor in adherence to certain Pastors to the exclusion of all others but in the Unity of Spirit Doctrine Sacraments and Evangelical Ministry in general i. e. of Pastors declaring the Truth of the Gospel What must be done then to make a Schism with respect to the Church Universal He must renounce the Christian Doctrine the Sacraments of the Church and the Gospel Ministry that is to say He must be an Apostate or an Heretick But every Society that goes out of another and greater Society of which it was a part makes no Schism with respect to the Church Universal whilst it retains the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel it goes not out of the Church because it carries the Church with it and it carries the Church with it because it carries Christianity with it It carries say I the Church with it in such a manner nevertheless that it leaves it in the Society which it leaves for leaving true Christianity there it leaves the true Church there also And the advantage of being the Church and of having Christianity is a Privilege which may be possessed intire and without prejudice to other Christian Societies We must therefore know that there is an Vniversal and Particular Schism Particular Schism is a Separation from a particular Church a Universal Schism is a Separation from the Universal Church Universal Schism consists in the Renunciation of the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry For example If the one half of Christians should separate from the other and set up a new Gospel according to which Moses should be set side by side with Jesus Christ the legal Ceremonies re-established the Evangelical Ministry should be changed into the Ministry of Priests after the Order of Aaron the Sacraments of the Church should be joyned to the Sacraments of the Old Testament it were certain that this would be a true Schism for these Men would renounce the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel The Mahometans without renouncing Jesus Christ and calling him false Prophet have set up a Prophet superior to him and receive the Impostures of Mahomet admit Circumcision and reject Baptism have made a Religion truly and essentially different from that of Christ's 'T is therefore a true universal Schism The Socinians who have renounced almost all the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion who despise and neglect the Sacraments by going out of the Church are become Schismaticks and true Schismaticks with respect to the Church Universal for they have not carried the Church with them because they have not carried Christianity with them According to this Idea Universal Schism or Schism with respect to the Universal Church doth not essentially differ from Heresie and Apostacy Particular Schism is when a Man separates from a particular Church be it for some Point of Doctrine be it for some quarrel about Discipline be it for some personal Differences of the Guides among themselves Of this sort of Schisms there is an infinite number of Examples In the Second Age there was a Schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of Asia about a controversie of Ceremonies about the day on which Easter ought to be observed The Churches of Asia maintained that the Christian Passover ought to be observed on the same day that the Jews observed theirs and they said they held it as a Tradition from St. John. The Church of Rome on the contrary said that Christians ought to observe Easter on the Lord's-day following the Jewish Passover And for the sake of this goodly Controversie Victor Bishop of Rome was so rash as to separate the Churches of Asia from his Communion This Schism continued not only until the Council of Nice but a very long time after for mention is made of the Quartodecimani in the General Council of Ephesus against Nestorius in the year 431. So they called those who celebrated Easter with the Jews on the 14th day of the Month of March. In the Third Age Novatian formed a considerable Schism about a Point of Discipline viz. Whether we ought to receive those who fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church This Schism continued a long time We find this Schism continuing amidst all the great troubles that were betwixt the Arrians and the Orthodox the union of Opinions that was between the Novatians and the Catholicks with respect to the Doctrine of Arrius did not put a period unto it In the same Age the Donatists made another Schism in Africa about the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Two Parties being formed about it a Division was made it spread through all Africa and continued many Ages There happened another in the beginning of the Fifth Age by one named Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople who taught there were two Persons as well as two Natures in Christ Another was made a little while after by Eutyches Abbot of a Monastery in Constantinople who desiring to oppose Nestorius who distinguished two Persons
in Christ Jesus confounded the two Natures that he might not separate them and these two Schisms have continued for 1200 years and do continue to this day In the Tenth Age happened the great Schism of the Greek Church from the Latin. The Church of Rome it self has had an infinite number of Schisms in her own Bowels occasioned by her Anti-Popes And the greatest which may serve for a Rule for all was the great Schism of Popes and Anti-Popes whereof the one sat at Rome and the other at Avignon This Schism divided the West into two different Parties under two distinct Heads To conclude in these last times a great Schism is happened in the Latin Church which is divided into three great Bodies the Papists the Lutherans and the Reformed I pass by an infinite number of little Schisms which have been in the East between Church and Church and oftentimes among the Members of the same Church Two Bishops were seen for a long time at Antioch the Party of one of them was called Milesians the other Party Eustathians this was in the Fourth and Fifth Ages These are say I particular Schisms And it may be said that not one of these Schismatical Parties did separate from the Universal Church because not one of them abandoned Christianity they returned and carried it with them Now the Illusion in this matter comes from hence that we confound these two sorts of Schisms those that are Universal with those which are particular and we ascribe to particular Schisms that which belongs only to Schism universal viz. Exclusion from Salvation For 't is true that he who makes a Schism from the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry is utterly out of the Church and without any right to eternal Life But 't is false that particular Schism either from the Church of Rome or from the Greek Church or Schism of the Church of Rome in it self doth exclude from Salvation This folly proceeds from another and that is that every particular Church looks on herself as the Catholick and Universal Church and her particular Doctrines as the Universal and Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity In such manner that those who separate themselves from her and renounce her Doctrines she looks on them as being separate from the Universal Church and as having renounced the Universal Doctrine of Christianity But no Church hath carried this folly to that degree of extravagance as the Church of Rome hath done for she calls herself the Catholick and Universal Church to the exclusion of all others And she would fain that the Doctrines which are peculiar to her as the Supremacy of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgatory c. should be accounted the Universal Truths of Christanity Thence it comes to pass that she considers as Schismaticks and damned all those which separate from her and renounce the most inconsiderable Doctrines which she hath consecrated by her Anathema's To make this foolish Pretension vanish and disappear no more is to be done but to make more evident the true Idea of Schism which the Disputes of these last Ages and the Prejudices of the Ancients have strangely perplexed and confounded To this end it will be useful to consider divers of those Schisms of which we have spoken and see what we ought to judge concerning the Salvation of those who lived in them First there have been Schisms which have been made without any Controversies about Doctrine or Discipline only upon personal Quarrels between Bishop and Bishop such was that furious Schism of the Donatists in Africa which was made only upon the occasion of the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Afterwards the Donatists espoused the Opinion of S. Cyprian about the Nullity of the Baptism of Hereticks and it may be some other Opinions of little importance that they might the more easily maintain and continue their Schism with the Catholicks But the true foundation of the Schism was nothing but a particular Quarrel The Donatists held all the Opinions of the Catholick Church they had the same Sacraments the same Discipline and the same Ministry This being so he must be very cruel that will damn an infinite number of private Persons who followed their Guides as the Inhabitants of Jerusalem followed Absalom in the simplicity of their Hearts I say nothing concerning the Authors of the Schism nor of those who did maintain it as they violated the Laws of Charity and troubled the Peace of the Church we leave them to the Judgment of God We say nothing neither of the Circumcellians a sort of People which arose among the Donatists and offered an Hundred Violences to the Orthodox I speak of those plain People who in the simplicity of their Heart do without Dissimulation believe in Jesus Christ according to the Creed explicated according to the sense of the Church Universal who believe all the Christian Doctrine from the first Article to the last and besides labour with great diligence in the practice of Holiness and Devotion to condemn these Men say I only because they do not communicate with the Pastors of the Catholick Church is a foolish and a barbarous Doctrine of which I do not think there is a Man in the World throughly perswaded although there be a Thousand and a Thousand pretend so to be There are other Schisms which were made about Controversies in Doctrine such is the Schism of the Nestorians and that of the Eutychians who continue at this day and comprehend an infinite number of Christians in the East I believe that Nestorius designed to reduce the Opinion of Paulus Samosatenus to another form which Opinion is that of our Socinians who make Jesus Christ a mere Man. But we must judg otherwise of their Successors At this day the Nestorians and the Eutychians embrace the Apostles Creed and that of Constantinople as do the Greeks and the Latins they believe in Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God God himself dead and raised again for the Salvation of Men and the Disputes which they have with the rest of the Church are at present nothing but Questions about Words and differing manners of expression To damn these Millions of People because of the rashness of a single Man who had the boldness a Hundred and twenty years ago to teach contrary to the manner after which we ought to conceive of the Incarnation of the Word is a Cruelty founded in a most prodigious Error and Mistake 'T is evident that we ought to range them with the rest of the Eastern Church which is not much more pure than that of the West and to leave their Salvation to the judgment of God who alone knows how far his Patience will proceed These two Schisms were without doubt criminal in their Original But time hath changed the state of things and at this day those Christians which are called Jacobites and follow the Schism of Eutyches supposing they embrace all Christian Truths necessary to Salvation are as
well where they are as if they rejoyned themselves to the other Christians of the East provided they be endowed with a Spirit of Charity If they be so rash as to condemn the rest therein they sin but the Greeks which condemn them are not less guilty than they although they descend directly from the Catholick and Orthodox flock and the others be only a separate branch And this helps to shew you that although a Schism were criminal in its Original and headily and rashly made nevertheless it is not always necessary under pain of eternal Damnation to return from whence we came From whence I confirm the Thesis which I laid down at the beginning of this Question that the Idea which they make to you about the horror of Schism is a Dream and that tho it should be true that our separation from the Church of Rome in the beginning of the past Age were rash the People which followed it in the simplicity of their Hearts would not hazard their Salvation thereby they that made it were to account for it and at the most those which do maintain it So my Brethren you would be in safety and only we in danger But I very well perceive that this is not enough to calm the Perturbations which your Converters and your own Thoughts may give you about it For you will say supposing that our separation from the Church of Rome in the last Age were unjust and rash 't is true that we who did not make the Schism shall not suffer thereby Our Fathers when they went out of the Church of Rome carried the Church and Christianity with them and this Christianity may nourish and save us maugre the Separation Nevertheless on this supposition we do no ill yea we shall do well to re-unite our selves to the Church of Rome We shall heal a Wound which being open renders the Church deformed Peace is to be preferred before Division This is without doubt the descendants which acknowledg that their Ancestors did wrongfully separate from a certain stock do well to re-unite themselves thereto for edification although it were not absolutely necessary to their Salvation Therefore that we may come nearer to the case in which you are at present with the Church of Rome we must suppose a Separation which was made for reasons of some worth and value i. e. because of Corruption in Doctrine and Worship This is the case in which you are and on this supposition we will shew you in what follows that you cannot return to the Church of Rome March 1. 1687 The FOUTEENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The Original of the Hierarchy and the Antichristian Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the matter of Schism Although the Corruption of the Church of Rome were not extreme it would not be lawful for us to return thither Some Objections of the new Converts concerning it Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ SInce we have been upon the History of the fourth and fifth Ages we have found there two great Novelties which have had very unhappy effects in the following Ages They are the Monastick Life and the Councils that are called Oecumenick Behold a third of them 't is the Original of the Hierarchy which hath given birth to the Antichristian Tyranny This Word signifies sacred Rule or Government and thereby is understood that Subordination of Pastors which hath been seen in the Church for a 1000 or 1200 years In this Subordination are seen the lowest Orders in the lowest Seats above these lowest Orders are seen Priests subdivided into Curates Deans rural Deans c. Above the Priests are the Grand Vicars above the Grand Vicars are the Bishops above the Bishops are the Arch-Bishops or Metropolitans above the Arch-Bishops are the Primates above the Primates are the Exarchs above the Exarchs are the Patriarchs and above all these is seen a Head which was framed insensibly and by little and little and placed there this is it which is called the Pope All this is a new Invention with respect to the Apostles and this Hierarchy was unknown before the Fourth Age. We have the Happiness at this day to have the French Church that is to say your Converters for testimonies of this Truth They do maintain That the Apostles established no precise form of Government that they contented themselves to preach the Gospel to send persons to do so and to place in every Church a Bishop to govern it They say that it is not certain that S. John the eldest of the Apostles i. e. he which lived longest did give to the Churches of Asia amongst whom he died any form of Government that it was in the Fourth Age that the Hierarchical form of Government was given to the Church that therein they followed no divine Right or Institution of the Apostles who determined nothing concerning it but the Polick Order and Form of Government found in the Roman Empire As this Empire was divided into Provinces Metropolitical Cities and Prefectures i. e. Governments so they also divided the Churches into Metropolitan Provincial and National And indeed from the time of the Apostles there was no Principality nor so much as any Primacy in the Church The Apostles by an Authority which they received immediately from Jesus Christ governed the Church without Subordination and without Division The Spirit which guided them being one and poured out on them all they were always at agreement it what concerned the Edification of the Churches but they did not leave any Successor that had the same Authority with themselves It is not true that St. Peter was their Prince it does not appear that he had any Primacy of Order above the rest 't is true he is often named first but that doth not prove that he was the first or the President of the Apostolical College We see that the other Apostles treated with him after such a manner as makes it apparent that they did not acknowledge in him any kind of Preheminence which should advance him above them We see that they sent him to Samaria it would have appertained to him to send and not be sent if he had been the Prince of the Apostles We see that after he had preached the Gospel to Cornelius and some other Pagans they made great complaints thereon We see that S. Paul rebuked him to the face and even in publick because in the presence of the Jews he warped and used some dissimulation with respect to the use of indifferent things forbidden by the Law of Moses Men do not use to deal so with their Prince The Successors of the Apostles left in all Churches Presbyters or Bishops to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments but in the beginning the Presbyter and the Bishop were not distinguished Those which S. Paul calls Bishop in one place he calls also Elders or Presbyters in the
Foundation upon which we at this day exhort you to make to your selves no longer a frightful Phantome of the Authority of the Pope Surely the Gallican Church in all this takes great steps in your favour and you are obliged unto them for it But yet there remains one without which all the rest are absolutely nothing and that is to break with the Pope We are preparing a Work in which we pretend to make it plain to these Gentlemen that they cannot dispense with themselves from finishing that which they have begun and that in the Estate in which their Divinity concerning it is at this day they ought to consider the Pope as the greatest and the most hateful Usurper A Point of Controversie A Continuation of the matter of Schism Although the Corruption of the Roman Church were not extreme yet it would not be lawful for us to return thither Objections of the new Converts about it MY Brethren in the preceding Letter we have made it appear that although we had been in the wrong in our Separation and that the Church of Rome had not been corrupt you would not wholly hazard your Salvation by continuing out of it I am at present to make it appear that the Church of Rome being corrupt with far greater reason you need fear nothing by not returning thither again But for the greater illustration of this matter let us suppose two sorts of corruption the one in some sort tolerable and the other wholly intolerable Let us argue upon the first and suppose that Persons separate themselves from a Church which hath Errors in Doctrine which nevertheless retains the Fundamentals in their Integrity which hath Superstitions and those very great in its Worship but which is no formally Idolatrous Those which separate from such a Church had done better if they had made no Separation They ought to have attempted all sorts of methods to have reformed their Church Those Remedies not succeeding but exasperating the evil they ought to exercise Patience and to expect a more favourable time for Reformation But supposing that whilst these men employ methods of Softness matters insensibly grow warm and fierce by the Contentions of Men a thing which happens almost always and necessarily supposing say I that the fierceness and heat of the one and the other Party thrust on things to an entire Rupture and Schism do you believe that the Party which separates it self from the main Body and embraces a Religion more pure than that which it left is obliged to return to the corrupt Party from which it is separated Not at all It may and ought to say If things had proceeded otherways 't is true we could have born for a while those Corruptions which are in some sort tolerable but things by the Providence of God happening thus we will stay where we are and keep our selves in that Purity which we have chosen and not return to the corruption which we have forsaken I do maintain that this separated Church had reason and were not obliged to return It were not obliged to return for Salvation for having carried Christianity with it yea having purged it it would be sure that a man might be saved in its Communion It will not be obliged for Edification for 't is not for Edification that being in a pure Church we should joyn our selves to another Church which we believe impure and is really so I go farther and maintain That such a separate Church were obliged not to return to its corrupt stock For when God hath separated us from corruption although this corruption be not extreme we are obliged to keep far from it 'T is true that Preservation of Peace is worth much but 't is a good thing which must not be purchased at the price of Truth Schism which is making and in action makes a great noise and gives great scandal for which reason I have said that when the corruption of a Church is in some sort tolerable it were better to suffer it than to make a violent Separation but the continuation of a Separation is not of the same scandal Custom reconciles us to every thing and the scandal of such a continuation is not so great that we should sacrifice important Truths for the sake thereof Let us at present apply these Reflections to the Subject that we are debating and do the Church of Rome that favour to suppose for one moment as true that which is very false viz. that her corruption is in some sort tolerable that she hath Errors but doth not ruine Fundamentals that she is Superstitious but not Idolatrous Let us suppose also that for this reason our Fathers did not do ill in continuing for some time in the Roman Church and exercising Patience therein But let us consider at the same time that things did not take this course there that the Providence of God did otherwise dispose thereof Our Fathers did their duty in demanding a Reformation they were obliged thereunto altho the corruption were in that degree where we suppose it i. e. tolerable But whilst the one demanded Reformation with Zeal and the other refused it with Passion a Separation is made There came Anathema's from Rome and Thunders from the Temporal Powers with Fires and Gibbets c. which took from us the liberty of remaining there It signifies nothing who had right or wrong in the manner of Separation however it were behold it done Now I maintain my Brethren the thing being done neither Edification Conscience Honour nor your Salvation can suffer you to re-enter into the Roman Church although you should suppose that her corruption is not extreme but in some sort tolerable First of all your Edification will not permit it You suppose that the Worship of Images the Invocation of Saints the Adoration of the Eucharist c. are at least great Superstitions how doth the Edification of the Church permit you to partake in all these things The Edification of the Church obliges you to do all that you can to purge it from these Superstitions and your returning to a Union with the Roman Church is a proper means to confirm all Men in them Conscience will not permit it neither for being convinced that they are Superstitions although you believe them in some sort tolerable you ought to have no more part in them 'T is a kind of Sin against the Holy Ghost to sin against Conscience and the Illuminations which God gives to you and that which would be a small fault in a state of Ignorance and Error becomes a great crime when 't is committed against knowledge so although the Invocation of Saints were but a little fault in an ignorant and a prejudiced Papist it is certain that in you 't is a heinous crime because you know the evil thereof Don't say that you do not invocate Saints for you do invocate them in the publick Service wherein you do partake and that is enough I add that neither will Honour
Hundred and sixty Years Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Ireneus Cyprian Eusebius Athanasius Hillary and so many others should not speak one word of this religious Worship of Creatures if it had been then in use Besides this negative Proof we make use of all those positive Proofs which we have proved from the Second and Third Age by which it appears that the Primitive Christians invoked none but God and that they did not invoke even Angels 'T is that which Origen hath plainly told us and 't is that which Ireneus had said before him * Iren. lib. 2. cap. 58. That the Church doth nothing by the Invocation of Angles nor by any other wicked Curiosity but by Addressing purely plainly and openly her Prayers to the Lord the maker of all things Among these positive Proofs we have seen some of them which formally tell us that the Church neither worships invokes nor adores Martyrs such is the Epistle of the Christians of Smyrna about the Martyrdom of Polycarpus Is it not therefore an amazing boldness in your Converters to mantain to you that there was no change in the Doctrine and Practice of the Church thereon in the Fourth Age 'T is clear that Men did not invoke Saints in the Third Age it is clear that they began to do it about the end of the Fourth it is therefore clear that a Change did happen But they will say where is the Author of this Change Where is the Innovator This Question is absurd 'T was not one single Person that introduced this alteration in Worship 't was the superstitious People the great respect which the People saw Men had for the Tombs of Martyrs carried some Dotards to advance that the Souls of Martyrs were about their Tombs And 't is apparently according to the conjecture of Albespinus that which the Thirty fourth Canon of the Council of Eliberis hath respect unto * Albasp Annot in Concil Eliberitan That we ought not to light up Torches in the day time in the Coemetaries lest we disturb the Spirits of the Saints They imagined that these Spirits fluttering about their Tombs might suffer inconvenience by the Smoak of Torches and Candles Is not this a pleasant Imagination S. Jerome writing against Vigilantius doth also say That the Souls of Martyrs love their Ashes hover about then and are always present with them We know that the Vulgar are naturally inclined to Superstition and 't is easie to conceive how the People instructed in such an Opinion should conceive an extraordinary respect for those places where were the Bodies and Souls of Martyrs And conceiving that these Souls which conversed about their Tombs had also the liberty of flying back to Heaven when they thought good it was very easie for ignorant People to fall into a perswasion that it was very good to recommend themselves to their care and intercession There was therefore no need of an Innovator or a new Preacher nothing more was needful but to let the People do as they pleased Mark this well all Heresies have been introduced by Doctors for there is need of Wit and Knowledg to innovate in Opinions but all Superstitions have been introduced by the People For nothing more is needful to become superstitious than Sottishness Simplicity and Ignorance therefore the Authors of Innovation in Doctrine may be observed for they are ordinarily single Persons but we cannot observe the first Innovators in matter of Superstition because they are the People But it will be said why did not the Doctors oppose themselves to the Superstition of the People First it is not true that the Doctors did not oppose themselves to Superstitions at their birth S. Austin and S. Jerome himself blamed the Superstitions which began to take place in their Age and which afterwards overcame all Contradiction But nevertheless 't is true that they did not oppose them as they ought to have done yea that they suffered themselves to be carried away with them as others did because that these Superstitions were established by little and little and that the beginnings which the Doctors did easily suffer because 't was but a small matter gave place to the toleration of that which was introduced afterwards which nevertheless was altogether intolerable To conclude 't is of little importance to us how and why the Doctors suffered themselves to be carried into Errors and popular Superstitions The matter of Fact is certain and ought to be indisputable by the proof that we have made thereof and by that which we shall make thereof in what follows Our Second Proof of the novelty of this Worship in the Fifth Age is that then Men did not invoke all the Saints as 't is done at this day yea they did not invoke those Saints which are most eminent such were the Apostles excepting S. Peter and S. Paul whose Relicks were believed to be at Rome others had no Churches Temples Memorials nor Persons devoted to them S. Basil the most ancient of all those which speak of the Invocation of Saints celebrates the Memory only of the Forty Martyrs that of Julitta and the Martyr Mamas In this Homily upon Julitta the Martyr there is nothing that teaches us they did invoke her In the Homily upon the Forty Martyrs he says indeed that Persons fled to them for refuge and that the pious Wife prayed there for her Children that she there desired the return of her absent Husband and his Health when he was sick First it appears that this was the Devotion of Women who are inclined to Superstition Secondly 't is not very clear that these Prayers were addressed to Martyrs for in the beginning these Prayers are addressed to the God of Martyrs with respect to the Merits and Sufferings of Martyrs to whom God would do Honour by Miracles 'T is true that in the Homily on the Martyr Mamas the Invocation of the Saint appears more express But observe that this Julitta this Mamas and these Forty Martyrs were obscure Saints and of little Reputation in comparison of the Apostles concerning the Invocation of whom S. Basil speaks not one word This is a strange thing and that whereof they know not how to give us a reason Make the same observation upon the Passages of S. Austin which they quote unto you for the Invocation of Saints He there speaks of the Invocation of S. Protais and of S. Garvais Good God! what Saints are these in comparison of S. Matthew and S. John. 'T is true that this Father speaks of the Invocation of S. Stephen the first Martyr But however eminent this great Saint was he was but a Deacon and we ought not to make him equal with the Apostles Nevertheless there appears no Invocation of the Apostles in the Writings of S. Austin I call not this a simple Proof 't is a Demonstration of the Novelty of this superstitious Worship If the Worship and Invocation of Saints were ancient if they were from the time of the Apostles why
Corruption because it is a state of Violence and against Nature Now how can we recover the Church from this Corruption but by separating our selves from it You will say we ought to continue in it and remonstrate against its Corruption But you know well that this is impossible you know that they burnt our Fathers because they made remonstrance against it By continuing and remonstrating against Idolatry and Superstition should we not be immediately seized by the Inquisition or by the Bishops and secular Judges where there are no Inquisitors Should we not be put in Prison hanged and burnt Therefore it is necessary that we go out or remain there in silence Now behold what kind of loosness is this to know that we are in a very corrupt Communion and which is it may be Antichristianity and to keep and continue there without saying any thing If this state of Corruption be violent to the Church if it be contrary to the nature of it certainly the intention of God cannot be to leave her always in it for the intention of God is that when things are at a distance from their own natural state they should return unto it as soon as may be Now with what means can God serve himself for the Reformation of the Church Certainly he ought to serve himself of Men for it is not his ordinary method of proceeding to send Angels to preach upon earth Now how can these Men reform the Church if they do not represent unto her her Corruption and if they do not break with her in case she do not reform If separation be not granted Reformation will never happen For a Church perswaded that she is pure and even Infallible takes no care to renounce those Doctrines and Worships for which she produces to you a possession of many Ages and a Title of Infallibility Tell me a little I intreat you my Brethren what will you do to reform the Roman Church by continuing in it If you speak freely saying that her Worship Innovations and Adorations of Creatures are true Idolatries they will send you the Dragoons and peradventure hang you If you hold your peace will your secret Sighs and Groanings reform the Church Will God send from Heaven a secret and immediate Inspiration for Reformation though no body speak one word of it And this in the favour of whom Either the ancient Catholicks who are plunged in Superstition or in favour of many ancient illuminated Papists and those that are re-united to them who both one and the other are loose Dissemblers which retain the Truth of God in unrighteousness You ought to understand at present my Brethren that we shall never attain the end of reforming the Roman Church unless we have right to go out of it because she will never stir for Complaints and Counsels experience has made it plain enough And therefore the temper of your Soul ought to be such as this rather than move our selves and trouble our repose 't is better that we suffer the Church to perish and be overwhelmed with Corruption This say I is the most wicked sentiment which can enter into the Mind of an honest Man and much more of a Christian But let us continue the examination of your Illusions Abuses introduced by Governours may not be imputed to private Christians you tell us This is it which we will refute in that which follows at present we go on All the holy Scripture which makes mention of Heresies doth not command Separation How dare you say this Do you not read that Passage so express Go out of Babylon my People for fear lest by partaking in its Sins you partake in its Plagues This Babylon is a false Church which says of her Church I am a Queen and shall see no sorrow I am the Church which cannot fail It imports not at present where this Church is but do you not see that God commands those that are there to go out of it Wherefore doth S. Paul say to his Disciples A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject How can a Person shun any one and stand at a distance with him without Separation from him Doth not S. Paul say to the Corinthians Put from among you that wicked person will you restrain these wicked Persons to the vicious and except the Hereticks See how the same Apostle describes those Hereticks that denied the Resurrection he says * 2 Tim. 2. That as to the faith they made shipwreck thereof that their words eat like a gangreen that they have proceeded even to impiety and that they are vessels of dishonour These are therefore wicked Wretches and by consequence ought to be cast out Do you not remember the same Apostle saith to the Galathians That if any none preach to you any other Doctrine besides that which you have received let him be to you Anathema Do you believe that it is allowed you to adhere to those which you ought to have in execration and to whom you ought to say Anathema The Scripture on the contrary exhorts us to a mutual support of each other And where is it that you find this It exhorts you to support the weak but about what About the distinction of Meats about the use of some Ceremonies of little importance Behold the things about which St. Paul commands that we bear with each other * Rom. 14. Now as to him which is weak in the Faith receive him to you but not to doubtful disputations one believes that he may eat all things another that is weak eateth herbs But where do you find that we must tolerate Heresies which ruine the Worship of the true God and oppress and sink Christianity under a heap of Superstitions But I will confound you with your own Weapons If it be the Spirit of Christianity and of the true Church to tolerate Abuses and Corruptions you are not in the true Church for that Church will allow no Toleration she burns and condemns to Death If we are obliged to suffer her in her Corruptions at least she is obliged to bear with us in our Complaints and Admonitions If we ought to hear with her when she speaks false with much more reason she ought to bear with us when we tell her the Truth She hath no Charity she is cruel erroneous and raging in her Error See if you can have Communion with such men The Scripture says that we may build upon the foundation which is Christ Wood Hay and Stubble Do you understand that this Wood Hay and Stubble which we may safely build are Idolatries Superstitious Doctrines Depravations in Morality monstrous and enormous Opinions such as are found in the Roman Church Is that it which you think But to persuade our selves into the belief of so great a Paradox we must have either Authorities of Reasons For Reasons have you any which can persuade you that the Invocation of Saints by which are given to the Blessed Virgin all
St. Chrysostom and St. Austin Sermons or Works that are none of theirs and a man needs but indifferent Learning and little Sincerity to be convinced thereof But Father Crasset who has neither the one nor the other neither Skill nor Science takes and gives all for good In the Fifth Age he quotes Cyril of Alexandria who is surely one of the first which gave occasion to the Religious Worship of the Virgin. For by opposing Nestorius who would not suffer Mary to be called the Mother of God he passed unto the other extreme and advanced as far and as high as he could the praises of the Virgin Mary Nevertheless this might be reduced to Apostrophes Figures of Oratory and great Elogies but there is nothing of Invocation therein No Author of the Fifth Age speaks more expresly nor vehemently of the Invocation of Martyrs and of the Worship which is given to the Reliques than Theodoret. Nevertheless in the passage which Father Crasset quotes from him in his Commentary on the words of Solomon's Song My beloved is one there is nothing that favours the Worship of the Virgin in the least He applies these words My Dove my only one to the Virgin and that were the place to speak of the honour which ought to be given to her if ever there were any But all that he says concerning her is that she is the Mother of God a pure Virgin that all Nations call her blessed that she is the Dove and the only one which brought Christ Jesus into the World that in Charity she surpasses the Cherubims and Seraphims That were the place to have said that we ought to commend ourselves to her Charity and invoke her as our Mediatrix To conclude let these Gentlemen find us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages Chappels and Oratories consecrated to the Virgin as they find them consecrated to the Martyrs unless it be about the end of the Fifth age Now this being supposed I dare say that a man must have renounced all honour all modesty all sincerity and all judgment not to confess that here is an indubitable evidence that Invocation of Saints was a Novelty in the Fourth and Fifth Ages For these men had been fools not to have invoked the Virgin in those times when they invoked St. Protais and St. Gervais if they established Invocation upon the merit the dignity and the reputation that these Saints might have with God. I would fain know if those two Giants which suffered Martyrdom under Decius were in condition to intercede with God with so much efficacy as this Virgin-Mother to the Saviour of the World This false Worship had its birth from that foolish love which men had for Reliques And as they had no Reliques of the blessed Virgin so they consecrated no Churches or Chappels to her and in consequence thereof they did not call upon her We shall bring you yet in what follows new Proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts LEt us take up again at present what follows of the Illusions which the New Converts make for themselves who endeavour to lay their Consciences asleep They conclude two things 1. That all the fundamental Truths of Christianity being Confessed by the Church of Rome they are obliged to remain with her so you go on These fundamental Truths which Popery hath preserved are the Articles of the Three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Niece or Constantinople and that which is call'd by the name of St. Athanasius 'T is true that the Church of Rome hath retained these but to conceive how you cheat yourselves I intreat you to suppose Christians which receive these three Creeds and who nevertheless Adore the Sun the Moon the Earth and almost all the Idols of Paganism you will say that these things are inconsistent But you deceive yourselves for there is nothing more possible than that that a man should believe God is the Creatour of Heaven and Earth that Jesus Christ is his eternal Son and the Creatour of the World that he was Born that he Died that he was Crucified that he will come to Raise and Judge the Living and the Dead and nevertheless that he should believe that we may Adore the Earth the Trees the Sun and Moon because God does animate and fill them The Greed says not that we must Worship none but God yea it says not that we must Worship him So that a Religion may receive the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Universal Church and adore every thing but God Why may not men be capable of Adoring the Stars because God fills them since they Adore Bread under a supposition that Jesus Christ is there after a manner invisible precisely as God is in the Stars and Elements It is therefore a particular Providence that Christians who Adore the Eucharist are not fallen so far as to Adore the Sun Moon and Stars for I do maintain that the Papists may be carried to Adore a Stone as naturally as they are carried to Adore the Bread in the Eucharist on supposition that Jesus Christ is included under it Suppose you that they were come so far would you yet say Since all the fundamental Truths are Confessed by this Communion which Adore the Sun and Moon yea Stones we are obliged to continue with it Learn you therefore that we may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and build thereon Dung Poison and all sorts of Impurities The spirit of Man is capable of reconciling those things that are molt irreconcileable Behold another thing whereof you ought to be advertised that you ought to distinguish fundamental Truths from fundamental Errours You imagine that to retain all the fundamental Truths and to have no fundamental Errours is the same thing and because we do confess the Roman Church retains all the fundamental Truths you think that we confess to you that she has no fundamental Errours In this you are much mistaken a person may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and add thereunto fundamental Errours I gave you an Example in men who might believe the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Church and which might add under a hundred false pretences of Devotion Pagan Idolatries I do maintain that a man may adopt into the Religion of Christians almost all the Abominations of the Bonzes of Japan and the Brachmns of India without any formal Renunciation of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith. I demand if whilst men retain the fundamental Truths they do not add fundamental Errours by espousing these Pagan Worship 'T is exactly that which the Church of Rome has done upon the Foundations of Christianity she hath built a thousand Superstitions which are purely Pagan Popery is Paganism renewed and built upon Christianity 't is an Idol Temple raised upon the Temple of Jesus Christ. A fundamental Errour is therefore an Errour or Practice which
abstain from them give no consent to them not assist at them but condemn and call them by their own names If you can continue in the Roman Church doing thus I consent unto it say without Scruple and Hesitation That the corporal and real Presence is a Dream Transubstantiation a Monster Purgatory a Fable Humane Merits and Satisfactions Doctrines of Pride the Mass a Prophanation of Misteries the Worship of Bread the Service of Saints and the Adoration of Images Idolatries be never present at the Mass never Adore the Bread never be found at those Vespers and Martins where they call upon Creatures retract the Subscriptions you have given to Lies and after that stay if you can in the Communion of Rome But you call it no participation in the Errours of the Roman Communion to subscribe them as you have done without believing them to assist or be present at Mass accounting it a vain pomp of Ceremonies to prostrate yourselves before the Eucharist believing nevertheless that 't is but Bread to communicate under One Kind retaining an Opinion in your Heart that they do you wrong to take away the Cup to assist at Vespers and Mattins at Processions where they bear Images and Relicques in pomp and where they give Religious Worship to Creatures in the mean while believing these are Superstitions whereof it were well to discharge Religion Behold say I that which you call not to partake in the Errours of a Communion where we are and this is that which I call and all those that are wise with me to partake in them after the leudest manner in the World and that which is most criminal and capable of ruining you Be assured that these poor Biggots which are perpetually kissing their Images and who know no other God but their Patron Saint are in a better estate than you for they partake honestly in Errours and Superstitions but you partake in them against your Conscience TO satisfie the Promise that we have made to acquaint you with some Circumstances of the present Persecution we will tell you what we certainly know concerning it At this day the great Theatre on which the Persecutors execute their greatest Rage is Languedoc where nothing is heard spoken of but Punishments Imprisonments Bodies drawn to the Dung-hill Persons condemned to the Gallies others appointed for America and embarqued to be sent thither The particulars there will be very curious and make a considerable part of the History of this Persecution The fear which the Prelates assembled in the Country of Nismes and the Dragoons a People at this day of the same Order have put the minds of men into has forced the most part of the Inhabitants of Nismes and Cevennes to consent to all that they have demanded of them but by such a Consent as gives horrour and amazement to those that have done it and to all that hear thereof For these speak and unhappy People have proceeded so far as to make Subscriptions in which they beseech the King to Chastise them with the severest Rods if they fail to perform all the Duty of good Catholicks We may judge how sincere they were therein by all that hath been seen since that time They did not cease to assemble on the Feastivals of Christmas last in great numbers in the Neighbourhood of Nismes and their hearts not being able to Ratifie the Promises which their mouths and hands had made they have acquitted themselves of those Duties of good Catholicks less than ever so that the Rage of ' their Persecutors is grown to its height The Intendant Mr. de Baville caused five or six of those which were imprisoned for being found at their last Assembly to be hanged and sent to the Gallies He caused these six to draw Lots that he might hang but two of them The happy and glorious Lot fell upon Mr. Barbutt Merchant who dressed the. Stuffs of the Country and upon one named Miblasse a Youth of the same Profession neither the one nor the other would redeem their Life by promising to practice the Popish Ceremonies and Worship Mr. Barbutt exercised to the utmost all the Patience and all the Art of the Jesuits which accompanied him to his Death He spake the most Edifying things in the World and did not testifie less of Constancy and Greatness of Mind than the Illustrious Mr. de Rey had lately done who died at Beaucaire When they saw they could gain nothing upon these two Martyrs they caused a Drum to be beaten at the foot of the Gibbet that no body might hear the edifying Discourses which proceeded out of their mouths Since this time they have made two Martyrs at Ledignan in the same Province of Languedoc One of them is named Meyrien and the other Satindse this lag never changed his Religion nor made any Subscription After he had been a long time Prisoner in the Tower of Constance he escaped thence but being retaken with his Companion whom they surprised at an Assembly they were both Martyred about the beginning of the Month of March this present Year To overcome the Constancy of those who have resisted Prisons Gallies Dungeons Hunger Thirst Vermin and Rottonness they have thought of a new kind of Persecution in the Council of Persecutors and 't is to send our Faithful Brethren to Canada They conduct them in Troops to Marseille and to Casteldy where they must be embarqued In one Month's time they have drawn from the Prisons of Mempellier of Aygues-Mortes of Nismes and of all the parts of Ceuennes a number of Prisoners so great that we know not how to count them for fear of speaking it too little or of not being believed for reporting it too much This is certain that the Letters which have been written more than six Weeks or two Months since do say that there are already 400 Prisoners at the least which have been embarqued at Marseille or are ready for it to be led into Slavery in those new Countries It is expedient that you see here some extracts of Letters that came from that Country One Letter from Arles says That a great number of Men hath been seen to pass with their legs tyed under the bellies of Horses followed by twelve long Carts covered over and filled with Men and Women tied by the wastes to the Carts These are persons of Upper Languedoc which were carried to Marseille to be sent into America Among these persons there were some very famous Amongst others an Advocate of Nismes who is famous by a Confession of eighteen Months which he passed in a dark Dungeon nasty and infectious tired with the Verbal Persecutions of the Bishop of Mire-poix but was never prevailed upon to make any Subscription A more glorious Testimany cannot be given to the Courage Piety Constancy and Zeal of a Confessour than is with one consent given to this man Behold him at present going to carry the Torch of his Faith into another World and I hope that it will kindle
some times keeping Whores sometimes a Sodomite some times a Sorcerer sometimes a Murderer and a Paracide sometimes an Adulterer and Corrupter of Wives and Women sometimes like a Bloud-sucker devouring Provinces swallowing up Kingdoms exhausting their Substance and drawing Tributes from all the Earth He hath been seen Cheating Deceiving making false Oaths violating Treaties stirring up Seditions moving to Wars He has been seen to make an horrible Traffick of Sins selling Pardon for Sodomies for having lain with Sister and Mother and even with a Beast for having killed his Father his Benefactor and even his King He himself hath been seen killing poysoning robbing exercising rage ambition and dreadful robberies I do profess that he must be fallen to a reprobate sense to call such a man the Vicar of Jesus Christ and to imagine that such a See is the seat of the Church After you have lookt upon the Head if you consider the Members of Popery you will see great Lords Lovers of the World who call themselves the Princes of the Church who being oftentimes nothing but the dregs of the People dispute place with Soveraigns They keep Houses and the Train of Princes they have magnificent Equipage stately Lodgings sumptuous Furniture and delicate Tables They are the Councils and the Senate of the Pope they are the Cardinals which call themselves the Pillars of the whole World upon which the Church stands These are the Ministers of Jesus Christ who said to his Disciples That he who will be greatest among you let him be your servant Verily verily I say unto you That if you humble not yourselves as a little child you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven Below these Prince-ministers of the Antichristian Empire we see Bishops another sort of secular Princes Governours of Diocesses i. e. the Provinces of the Pope who call themselves Bishops Archbishops c. by the Grace and Favour of the Holy See after the same manner that the Govournours of the Provinces of a Kingdom take the Title of their Dignity by the Favour of their King These men possess a great Revenue which was appointed by the Donors to nourish the Poor but serves nevertheless to maintain the best Table in the Province a great number of debaucht and unruly Servants Cooks that are most expert in the Art of making curious Meats and Sawces Coaches with six Horses paeks of Hounds and oftentimes a race of prostituted Whores These men cause themselves to be called my Lord in the World and treat their Inferiours like Pages and Foot-boys These have not the least grain of that which is called the Spirit of the Gospel but are animated by the Spirit of the World that of Disorder Debauchery Ambition and Avarice They watch not over their Flocks but after some Benefice greater than their own after which they gape always like Wolves after their Prey Below these Superiours are seen an inferiour Clergy composed either of Cannons appointed to sing Vespers and Mattins in Cathedral Churches whose repose ease good chear long sleep drunkenness sloth fat and plumpness have always served and do serve still for matter of Satyrs and Jests or they are Curates who are not only for the most part the dregs of the Clergy but dregs of the People excepting those of great Cities who put themselves to the labour of instructing themselves at the least in the way to live like the World the rest are ignorant brutish drunken Whore-masters given to the basest most shameful Vices And besides this the Clergy is made up of an infinite number of little Priests which are above all in Italy and Spain as they were heretofore every-where Ministers of the filthiest pleasures and of the most criminal attempts Are these the Guides of Jerusalem or the Builders of Babel My Brethren look not upon the Clergy of Paris who are better governed consider that during the space of seven or eight hundred years the Popish Clergy were of this make in all the Roman Church look upon Spain and Italy where it is publickly known that the Clergy are yet thus formed and fashioned Consult those which have seen Rome a little near at hand Learn from them that Religion there is an Interlude and that all the Ecclesiasticks are Comedians which do not believe in God. An honest man came a little while since from Italy and told us from his own observation That when they are at their Devotions they commit Indecencies and make such noise there that honest men in France would not do at play Judge whether it be likely that God hath permitted so horrible a Corruption of Manners in a Church pure and infallible From the Clergy i. e. from the Priests pass to the Monks which are the holy part of Popery where are found the Reverent Fathers the seraphical and angelical Doctors Draw the Curtain from their Hypocrisie and you will see an Abyss of Impurities men who under pretence of long Prayers devour Widdows Houses Wolves gaping after a prey which compass about the Beds of the sick and dying to obtain great gifts and presents men who think Gain to be Godliness who dress Religion like a Play that they may draw Spectators who in their Houses perform Paganish Devotions and such as are ridiculous and worthy of the Theatre to draw the crowd of people and to obtain Offerings who by this means obtain those Alms which belong to the Poor who by these Alms maintain themselves in a criminal sloth and idleness without being of any use to Church or State who behind their own Walls and Curtains abandon themselves to the utmost Extreamities of Wickedness who eat and drink and sleep like Hogs who go not without the Walls of their Cloisters but to run after strange Flesh who corrupt Wives and Daughters and to that end serve themselves 〈◊〉 all the most hideous and diabolical â—â—rts The pretence of Religion Sacraments arâ— the most holâ— things are employed therein You will see Houses of sacred Virgins so they call them which are the Lodgings of Impurity the Houses of â—rostitutes the places of those that are Debauched Behold those who are the principal and the most illustrious Members of Popery during the space of seven or eight hundred years by the confession of all the World and what they are yet to this day in an infinite number of places unto which the Reformation has not come 'T is by this that you ought to look upon the Members of Popery and not by some Reformed Societies which are in France whereof they let you see nothing but the out-side Judge whether the true Church and the true Religion could permit and suffer such horrible Disorders Are these the Pastors of Jesus Christ or the false Pastors of him who in the last times was to teach a Doctrine of Devils by men whose Consciences were seared with a hot Iron forbidding to Marry and abstaining from Meats which God hath created to be received by Believers IN our seventeenth Letter you may
Church be he Priest Bishop or Guide thereof Make Reflections in this place on the monstrous Doctrines of your Converters of whom the most part will tell you that to be a true Member of the Church it suffices to make profession of the Faith and to adhere to lawful Pastors So that Priests that are Sorcerers and Sodomites which you have oftentimes seen burnt at Paris were the true Members of Jesus Christ This is capable of making a man tremble with horrour They will say to you thereon if they were not true Members of the Church and of the Body of Jesus Christ they could not be the Guides thereof Such a one is an evil Man he is nevertheless a true Bishop he must therefore be a true Member of Jesus Christ and of his Body Answer to this that which one of the Writers of Port Royal says somewhere That oftentimes those which Build Jerusalem and Guide it are the Citizens of Babylon Tell them that to be a lawful Pastor and Guide of the Church to be able to administer the Word and Sacraments with Authority it s enough to be a Member of the external and visible Society it is not necessary to be a Member of the true Church to be in the hand of God an Instrument of his Work. A King may administer Justice and administer it very well by a wicked man who hath inwardly all sorts of inclinations to Injustice It will be said a man cannot be the Head and Guide of a Body without being a Member thereof for the Head is one of its principal Members It must be answered That false Pastors are true Members of the visible Society of the Church and that they are also true Heads of that Society whereof they are true Members but they are neither Heads nor Members of the principal and invisible part of the Church who are true Believers and truly righteous persons They are not therefore true Heads but of that part whereof they are true Members and that sufficeth them for the external Administration of the Word and Sacraments for the truely Righteous receive the Word and Sacraments in quality of the Members of the external Society They will press you further and tell you You do confess the Church is visible because she hath a Body which is an external Society But is it always visible Although you should answer That it is not necessary that the Church be always visible they would not be able to convince you of the contrary by reason For a man who is visible by his body may be sometimes hidden and by that means be invisible May not the external Society of the Church which is visible have been at sometimes and in some seasons hidden through the Persecution of Pagans or Hereticks But confess to them that the Church hath been always visible and will be to the end of the World. 'T is true that the Persecutions under the Pagan-Emperours were very great but they never proceeded so far as utterly to destroy all Assemblies of the Church to that degree that there were no visible Society of Christians the Christians were well known under the Persecutions seeing they knew where to find them to make Martyrs of them the Church was visible in the midst of the flames She remained visible in the Heretical Assemblies of the Arrians for those that held the Truth in those Assemblies themselves were more numerous than those that erred concerning it If there were any place where the Church were become invisible it was in the Papism for never was there a Church so corrupt and drowned in Superstitions as that Nevertheless the Church continued there visible because that Christianity and the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion did abide there I do not say that they did remain there in their Integrity but the contrary nevertheless it sufficeth that they did continue there 't is necessary therefore that you know that where-ever Christianity fore that you know that where-ever Christianity remains sensible and visible the Church remains visible for it is Christianity that makes the Church If a Sect become so corrupt that Christianity is no longer visible in it such are the Mahumetans and the Socinians who have rejected the Foundations the Church is no longer visible among them unless it be as a dead man remains visible but it is also visible that he is dead without life and without soul so in the Sects which have rejected the Foundations the Church remains visible but it 's also visible that such Churches are without life without soul without salvation In the Sects which preserve Christianity although they have added very many things thereunto and even such things as overturns the Foundations thereof the Church doth not fail to remain visible because Christianity both is there and is seen there If therefore they do inquire of you Where was your Church before Luther and Calvin Answer them She was in the Christian Societies that were in Aethiopia in those which were in Aegypt and in Africa in those which are and were in Asia in the Greek Church that was at Constantinople and Antioch in Muscovy and the Churches of Russia and she was even in the Church of Rome itself If they ask of you Was the Church visible in these Societies or were the Members thereof hidden Answer them That the Church was visible in these Societies forasmuch as Christianity and the Creed of the Apostles in the true sence thereof explained in the first six General Councils were visibly preserved there Add you that the true Members of Jesus Christ and of the Church were hidden and not visible because those that sincerely and truly adhered to this true Christianity contained in the Creeds of the Christian Church were not known by name but that these Believers were hidden was not at all peculiar to these corrupt Churches because of their Corruption for the case is the same in the purest Churches the true Members of Jesus Christ and of his body are hidden because we do not certainly know those which adhere to the Christian Faith in sincerity and with the heart Behold a pure and native Explication of the true Visibility of the Church and of the Perpetuity of that Visibility The Bishop of Meaux and your other Converters will seem to you very well pleased in this that you confess the Church is visible and always visible Behold they will say one point gained For if the Church be always visible 't is of necessity that there be a Succession in the Ministry a train of legitimate Pastours There will always be Teachers with whom Jesus Christ will teach and the true Teaching will never cease in the Church These are Monsieur de Meaux that great Converter's own words That is to say from the perpetual Visibility of the Church he draws these three conclusions 1. That pure and true Teaching hath never ceased in the Church 2. That there will always be a series and train of legitimate Pastours 3. That Jesus Christ
will always teach with these Pastours i.e. they must be Infallible I intreat you my Brethren to attend to what I shall say concerning these three Consequences 1. These Gentlemen suppose that the Church cannot be perpetual and perpetually visible without being pure and without continuing pure and exempt from corruption in the Faith. The Church is always visible therefore pure preaching must always remain there Can a man argue more pitifully 't is just as if I should say Whilst Man hath a Soul in his Body he must be always sound and hail as if Health were inseparable from Life Where have they found that Purity with respect to Faith is in separable from Visibility And because the Church is always visible doth it follow that she is always sound if the nature of the Church consisted in an indivisible point and in that certain state of purity of Faith in which there was no kind of Errors t is true the Church would perish cease to be and by consequence to be visible as soon as the Christian Doctrine should come to be mingled with any Doctrine that is strange and forreign thereto And indeed 't is the supposition of your Converters But 't is the most foolish Dream that ever entered into the mind of Man the most contrary to the Word of God and Experience that ever was asserted The most contrary to the Scripture for the Scripture says That there shall be in the Church thorns and thistles mingled with the good grain Wolves will creep in and destroy the flock That there must be heresies That men will build upon the foundation wood bay stubble And that even the Son of perdition will sit in the Church and Temple of God. The most contrary to Experience for for the space of 1300 or 1400 years which way soever we cast our Eyes we behold Christianity every-where spoiled by false and strange Doctrines Lay down this therefore as a thing indisputable that the Church must be always visible that she must always subsist but not that she must always subsist pure and underfiled The Church began to be corrupt considerably in the fourth Age and in two Ages the Corruption became such that Antichristianity which is the highest degree of the corruption of Christianity proceeded and came out from thence But in the midst of this great Corruption Christianity nevertheless preserved it self it remained very visible and by consequence the Church also continued visible for yet once more the Church remains every-where where Christianity remains and the Church remains visible every-where where Christianity remains yisible Remember-therefore that Popery is a very high and extream Corruption of Christianity but 't is not the Annihilation of it for we must well distinguish betwixt Annihilation and extream Corruption of it If the Church of Rome had rejected the Foundations as the Turks and the Socinians have done she would have been no more visible than as a dead Body is visible But because she hath only added an infinite number of false Doctrines superstitious and idolatrous whilst she hath retained Fundamentals she hath only corrupted Christianity But Christianity in the midst of these Corruptions hath not failed to remain visible to those which search after it with diligence and attention Imagine you an Egg not broken which swims in dirty and stinking water 't is the perfect Emblem of the Roman Religion The Egg whole and not broken is the Christian Creed preserved in its integrity in the sense of the Church The filthy and stinking Water where this Egg swims is the heap of Superstitions Errors and Idolatries of Popery The Egg remains visible in the midst of this filthy Water and even the opposition of the blackness of the Mire to the whiteness of the Egg make it in some sort more visible The Body of Christianity is also visible in the heap of Popish Errors and to him that will give attention thereunto it may be said that the true Christianity which doth continue in the Roman Religion serves to discover and make the ugliness of Popery more horrible The Mud and the stinking Water which encompasseth this Egg is visible as well as the Egg. 'T is the light of the day which manifests the one and the other The Corruption introduced by Popery in the Roman Religion is visible as well as Christianity 'T is the light of the day i.e. the light of the Word of God which manifests both for the Word of God manifests Christianity in the Romish Religion by the fair conformity of the three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Nice and of Athanasius with the Revelation This same word manifests Antichristianity the Mud and the Dirt of Popery by the frightful dissimilitude and unlikeness which is between Popery and Revelation It seems to me that he must be very blockish not to perceive all this and not to see that the Church may always endure and always be even visible although it be not necessary that she always continue in perfect Purity But nevertheless there is in the first consequence of your Converters some truth which serves for a foundation to that gross Illusion which they would put upon you They say The Church is always visible therefore pure Preaching must always continue there If the meaning be 't is of necessity that something of pure Preaching do always remain there yea and that the essential parts of true Preaching remain there 't is true for if the Fundamentals and essential parts of Christianity were not there there were no Church there Moreover 't is true that in Popery in the Religion of the Greeks in the Oriental Communions the Cophtis the Nestorians and the Armenians pure Preaching doth continue as to the Fundamentals of the Creed which make the Essence of Christianity But it doth not follow at all that Preaching must necessarily remain there wholly pure and incorrupt Not being able to proceed at this time to the examination of the two last consequences which your Converters draw from the perpetual visibility of the Church I will conclude by answering a Question which they put unto you and which it may be you put unto your selves Can a man be saved in Communions which you compare to a great Bason full of Dirt and stinking Water in which swims a good Egg clean and in its integrity This respects those who desire to save themselves in the Roman Church because she retains the Egg the Creed of Christians in its perfection You may well think that we should have a great many things to say to them if we would say all and were willing to repeat what we have said concerning it in our Seventeenth Letter But in this place I shall only answer to them That it does not follow that a man may be saved in a Communion which retains the Egg of Christianity whilst he swims in the Dung which compasses the Egg and nourishes himself with it a man plunged in a hideous Mire which receives the stinking dirt by his
being made by men Behold an admirable Divine which believes that a man can make a God and do a Miracle if I may so say that exhausts all the Divine Power To conclude to these three or four words of St. Austin That none eats the flesh of Jesus Christ before he hath adored it we ought to oppose what he says in the third Book concerning the Christian Doctrine †De Doctr. Christ lib. 3. cap. 9. That every one knows the Sacrament of Baptism and the celebration of the Body and Bloud of our Lord that 't is well known whereunto they have respect and that they are reverenced not by a servitude i.e. after a carnal manner but by a spiritual liberty Here St. Austin desires that we give to Baptism the same honour as to the Sacrament of the Eucharist We must confess if St. Austin did adore the Sacrament we ought to make no scruple therein we owe him this complaisance for that he hath spoken as absolutely concerning it as our selves For during the space of two hundred years past there hath not been either Zuinglian or Calvinist which hath spoken more boldly or more clearly against the Real Presence and Transubstantiation If this suffice not to know what kind of Worship was given to the Eucharist we must learn it from the History of matters of fact We learn from Mr. de Valois in his Notes upon Eusebius ‖ Euseb lib. 7. cap. 9. Hist Eccles That the Believers which were to communicate approached the Altar and there received the Body of Jesus Christ from the hand of the Priest standing upright and not on their knees as at this day The Author has passed for a good Roman Catholick he is learned and he is a Modern Writer so that he wants nothing to give him an authority in the hearts of the New Converts who refer themselves much more concerning Religion to what their new Authors speak of it then to what is said thereof by those that are more ancient And indeed how could they communicate otherwise than standing since they prayed standing on the Lords day and the fifty days which are from Easter to Whitsontide in memory of the Resurrection When they were ready to consecrate they put out the Catechumens i.e. well nigh half the Christians is it probable that they would deprive them of the comfort of adoring their Saviour if it had been then the custom of adoring him in the Sacrament In those Ages they did communicate Infants and how could they exact Adoration before the Manducation since Infants are not capable of performing an Act of Adoration I may also reckon amongst those Articles concerning which there was no change in the fourth and fifth Ages that of Purgatory For the opinion of a separate place where Souls were to be kept till the day of Judgment without seeing the face of God but without suffering any thing there was the Opinion of the greatest men of those Ages of St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom St. Hillary St. Jerome and under names so great it may not be doubted but it was the prevailing Opinion 'T was the third place of the Christians that then were but as yet there were but few footsteps of a fourth place seen 'T is true that in these Ages a man may shew you some passages of Gregory Nyssen and even some of St. Jerome which speak of a Purgation of Sins which ought to be made after death by the means of a Penal Fire But this is not the Purgatory of Popery 't is that of Origen according to whom we have seen that all intelligent Creatures without excepting Devils and wicked men who die impenitently ought to be recovered and re-established Originism did not die with Origen and many famous Fathers of the fourth Age were infatuated with it Those which know the History of the Quarrels between St. Chrysostom and Epiphanius are not ignorant thereof I think indeed that few men did then dare to maintain the Opinion of Origen crude as he left it touching the future salvation of the Devils and the damned But many endeavoured to soften and smooth it and said at least Christians who died in the profession of the Faith but without Holiness and Repentance would one day be recovered 'T is without doubt that this Opinion mitigated and softned was one step which made the Church fall into the Error of Purgatory For after they had restrained those that were to be purged by a Penal Fire to such as died without Holiness and Repentance by little and little they restrained them to such who dying without Repentance had not satisfied the Canonical Penances of the Church St. Austin was not of the opinion of those who believed that ill Christians dying without repentance were to be purged by fire nevertheless he thought it probable * Enchir. cap. 67 that those who had too much affection for temporal good things during the space of this Life after death would be afflicted with grief for the loss of them and that this would serve them for a Castigation Nevertheless he proposes this but as a doubtful conjecture It is not incredible says he †Enchir. cap. 69. but that something of like nature happens after death and it may be disputed whether it be so that some Believers shall be saved sooner or later by a purging fire according as they have more or less loved these perishing good things By this Purgative Fire or Purgatory he understands nothing but the grief of being deprived of these perishing things And this is that which he means in the same Book ‖ Enchir. cap. 109. That during the whole space of time between a mans death and the last Resurrection Souls are in hidden Receptacles according as they are worthy of repose or misery with respect to what they have been during this life A man cannot deny but this is Purgatory in its birth but it was not as yet believed and received of all the Church nor hath it been received nor perfected any where but in the Latin Church Behold that which I have to tell you concerning the changes happening in Doctrines and Worship I will not pass on to the following Ages because 't is not my design to give you a compleat History of all the changes which have happened in the Church for 1700 years I only desire to confound the boldness of Monsieur de Meaux and such-like which dare to affirm that Christianity in their hands is in the same estate in which it was when it passed from the Apostles to their immediate Successors and that time hath changed nothing that is essential in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church that insensible changes whereof some men speak to you are but Dreams Behold say I enough to ruine these rash affirmations of your Converters for from this short History which I have given you of the Doctrine and Worship of the Church for the space of 500 years it appears 1. That during these five Ages
there has happened very considerable and essential alterations since that in this time men have overwhelmed Religion by an infinite multitude of vain Ceremonies which have degenerated into Superstitions that they have introduced the criminal Worship of Creatures that they have established the distinctions of Powers and Tribunals which at last have destroyed the true Authority of the Holy Scripture 2. It appears by that which we have shewn to you that far greater changes have yet happened since the fifth Age than had happened before for seeing that in these Ages men knew neither Transubstantiation nor the Real Presence nor the Adoration of the Sacrament nor the Worship of Images nor Purgatory nor the Sacrifice of the Mass nor the Communion under One Kind nor the Soveraign Authority of the Pope all these points being at this day fundamental Articles of Popery 't is unavoidable that since that time there have happened great changes and alterations And to prove the truth thereof against the illusion of the impossibility of insensible changes you have nothing to do my Brethren but to serve your selves of the Proofs which we have put into your hands and say In the fifth Age the Real Presence was not believed 't is believed at this day they did not adore the Sacrament they adore it now they did not worship Images they do worship them at present therefore a change is happened To convince your Converters of the possibility of changes in things that are essential serve your selves only of the Example of Masses without Communicants They will not dare to deny that this is not a thing wholly unknown to all Antiquity And I dare tell you that if they had seen a Priest communicate alone in the Mysteries they would have believed the Spirit of Reprobation were fallen upon the whole Assembly * Canon 10. of Apost decret de Gratian de consecrat Dist 2. Canon per acta distinct 1. Canon Episcopus It was not so much as permitted to assist when they did not communicate and the Regulations thereof are yet found in their Canon-Law nevertheless 't is an important affair if there be any such in Popery For 't is a frightful difference that a Feast instituted to be eaten in common by all the Believers should be changed into a Spectacle where all the Devotion of the People consists in seeing without eating and without understanding Besides thereon depends the question concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass for if it be a true Sacrifice they have some reason to say that 't is not always necessary that the Faithful eat thereof But that the Ancients did never permit any to assist at the Mysteries without participation in them is an evident proof that they did not then look on them as a Sacrifice the efficacy whereof depends upon the Oblation but as a Sacrament the whole efficacy whereof depends upon the reception An Article of Controversie An Examination of the two last false Consequences which the Papists draw from the perpetual Visibility of the Church IN our preceding Letter we have explained how the Church is Visible and always Visible and we have refuted one of the Consequences which the Converters draw from thence behold another of them unto which it behoves us to answer The Church say they is always Visible therefore 't is necessary that she should always have had a Succession of lawful Pastours This is designed to make you confess 1. That the Pastours of the Church of Rome are lawful Pastours and always have been so 2. And by consequence that we are separated from lawful Pastours and a lawful Ministery To this answer That from this that the Church is always Visible it doth indeed follow that there hath always been true Preaching in some points i. e. in fundamental Articles in like manner that it doth follow that there hath been always true Pastors in some things and in some respect but it doth not follow that the Ministery which is legitimate in some things is so in every thing for you must know that the Ministery depends only upon the Doctrine If the Christian Doctrine be wholly corrupt and annihilated in a Society the Ministery is null'd nor is there any thing lawful there If the Doctrine be pure and Christian in all its parts the Ministery is intirely legitimate in all respects To conclude if the Doctrine be partly Christian and partly Antichristian the Ministery is partly lawful and partly unlawful This is the condition of the Ministery of the Church of Rome in that Church there is Christianity and Antichristianity Christianity in the Creeds and Antichristianity in the superstitions and Idolatrous Additions The Pastors of that Church receive Commission to preach both Christianity and Antichristianity the Ministery is legitimate in that they receive Commission to preach Christianity their Ministery and their Mission is wholly illegitimate in that they receive Commission to preach Antichristianity 'T is null for we can do nothing against the Truth If you well understand this you will easily answer the question proposed unto you Why do you Separate from a true and lawful Ministery Answer we do not separate from the Ministery of the Roman Church in that which it teaches of Truth in the preaching of the three Creeds nor in that which it hath of Lawful In this respect we are united for we are in the same Doctrine and by consequence in the same Ministery We are not separate from the Ministery of the Church of Rome but with respect to the Commission she gives her Pastors to make the Body of Jesus Christ and teach Idolatry now this part of her Ministery is null vain criminal and illegitimate The third false consequence which your Converters draw from the perpetual Visibility of the Church is That Jesus Christ will always teach with these visible Pastors If Monsieur de Meaux and those like him understand thereby that Jesus Christ ought to guide them by a Spirit of Infallibility the supposition is false and there is no necessity of adding any thing to make the Falseness thereof appear For I have proved that perpetual Visibility doth not signifie that the Church by remaining always visible must necessarily be always pure and infallible This is true in its Pastors as well as in its other Members for the Pastors have no priviledge of being infallible any more than the other parts of the Church If you desire that I should add something thereon it shall be only this 'T is that the Church is as a Man who after he hath been young and sound becomes old and diseased This Man is visible with his gray Hairs and his rotten Teeth and Wrinkles just as he was when he had his complexion fresh his colour lively the air of his countenance brisk vigorous In like manner the Church hath been young sound and pure in the Ages next to the Apostles by little and little she is grown old and at last is become deformed through corruption but
up and formed neither have nor can have this priviledge of being always necessarily visible For Experience makes us see that God permits that they perish wholly For Example the great Churches of Africa of Carthage and Numidia c. where were the Cyprians the Augustines the Saintes Fulgentii that is to say the prime Lights of the Church These Churches say I are not at all therefore they are not visible and perpetual Visibility was not affixed unto them At present consider you that the defect of Visibility may be found in a particular Church for one of these two reasons either because she is no longer or because she is not yet the Churches of Africa are invisible because they are no more and the Protestant Churches were invisible two hundred years ago because they were not yet Understand I intreat you the folly of the Objection which they make unto you by this The true Church is always visible the Church of St. Austine and St. Cyprian is no longer visible therefore the Church of St. Cyprian and St. Augustine was not the true Church Can any thing be more foolish and ridiculous than this You very well understand what you ought to answer when the Church of St. Austine was in the World it was visible and it was then the true Church but after it was extinct and abolished by the Invasions of the Saracens and the Moors how can you wish or desire it should be visible So when they tell you The true Church is always visible now the Church of Luther and Calvin was not visible two hundred years ago therefore it is not the true Church You can answer that a man can say nothing more absurd and that a Church is far enough from being visible when as yet it is not Ah on that occasion they will say to you the novelty of your Church is a proof of the falseness thereof For a new Church cannot be a true Church Another Absurdity The Church of China erected by the Roman Missions is about a hundred years since I reason against that as they reason against us A new Church which was not visible a hundred years since cannot be a true Church for the Church is ancient and always visible now the Church of China is new and was not existent a hundred years ago therefore it is not a true Church I desire that they would tell me the difference unless it be that the Church of China newly came out of the bosom of Paganism and that ours is newly come out of the bosom of Antichristianism He must be a little cracked in the crown not to perceive by this example that the new erection of a particular Church ought to be no prejudice unto it Nothing can prejudice it but new Doctrine If a new Society which teaches a new Doctrine doth arise then in a new Church and in that case is worth nothing But they will say Behold exactly your own state and case you are a new Church that teach new things That 's the question that 's it which we deny and which must be examined to know whether we teach new things We must therefore come to the Foundation to see if we teach the ancient Religion of Christ and his Apostles and not ridiculously amuse our selves in wrangling about circumstances concerning a new Church of new Establishment of perpetual Visibility c. for if we teach the true and ancient Religion of Jesus Christ all that they say of these things are Illusions And if on the contrary our Doctrine be not that of Jesus Christ and his Apostles though we were as old as the World and had been always as visible as the Sun we should be nevertheless a false Church This is that therefore which I will stand to that we are not to search the character of perpetual Visibility in any particular Church forasmuch as it agrees only to Christianity in general and the Church Universal Before our Reformation the Church was not visible in our Society which did not yet exist but it was visible in the Greek Church in the Armâ—nian Cophti Abyssin and Aethiopian Churches because all these preserved Christianity intire in the three Creeds When we came into the World the Church became visible in our Society as it was before in others with this difference that the Church and Christianity were visible before our Reformation as the Egg whereof we have spoken was visible in the midst of that dirty unclean and filthy water in which it swam and that in our Church Christianity and the Church are there visible as the Sun dis-engaged from dark clouds and fogs My Brethren if you take pains to read and meditate deeply and more than once upon what I have said unto you I tell you frankly I shall no more fear on your behalf the Sophism concerning perpetual Visibility WHatsoever desire we have to give you the News of our Martyrs for this time they must give place to certain Prodigies more significant than any ever happened before The first shall be that which is come from St. Malo attested by a Letter from the Vicar-General of that Bishoprick The Copy of a Letter from Monsieur Simon Doctor of the Sorborn Arch-deacon of Rinan Channon Penitentiary and Vicar-General of the Bishoprick of St. Malo the sixth of July 1687. I Wrote to you the last Post my dear Monsieur but how can I forbear to tell you of a late Accident which you will hear of by the publique Relations Behold a small Extract of it which I draw in haste Upon Thursday last being the third of this Month the Thunder after a very small noise in the borders of this City fell upon our Church by the Steeple killed a young Man which toll'd the Bell in the Belfery fell into the Seat of the Quire or Singing-men broke all the lower part of the Crucifix in divers pieces and left the Image hanging by its hands it fell among the Musicians which sung and answered at a Mass in Musick that Monsieur de Sales celebrated at the Altar of St. Julien it smote down the said Sieur de Sales with the Deacons and Sub-deacons who were some time without knowledge overturned the consecrated Calice which stood upon the Altar on the Ground and on the Garments of the Priests The same thing happened at the Altar of St. Peter at the entrance of the Quire A Priest being at the Post-communion saw in an instant in a Chalice which fell not one part of the Blood of our Lord consumed the rest sprinkled upon the Ornaments of the Priests and upon the Linnen of the Altar Monsieur Lagons being at the Credo of the Mass at the Altar of St. Malo was thrown upon his back and there the Sacrifice ceased The Thunder broke many parts of the Vestrie burnt the Altar-cloaths and left a mark upon the Pattin as if it had been shot with a Pistol it left many other marks upon the edge of the Chalice In the Quire one named
to have been done by the Reliques of St. Stephen in Africa those of St. Martyn in France and those of the Anacorites in Egypt and Syria Not to enter into a long dispute on the subject of this pretended mark of the Church of Rome I answer three or four things briefly to which I pray give attention 1. That this pretended fountain of light fit and proper to make the Church of Rome visible is not for the simple and unlearned For to see the bottom and solidity thereof they must examine the History of the pretended Miracles which were done in the fourth and fifth Ages They must see what we have said in opposition to it they must examine circumstances and see if there be not reason to believe that all these stories of Miracles are either frauds or fictions They must also examine by History whether these pretended Prodigies of Sanctity be not either Fables or the disorders of sick and melancholick minds They must therefore be able to understand Latin and Greek and to read great and large Volumes To offer this as a light sutable to the capacity of the weak and unlearned is to scoff and deride them 2. I say that the Miracles of the Apostles which are certain and the Prodigies of the Sanctity of the three first Ages does not appertain by right of succession to the Church of the fourth and fifth Age but as far as she inherits the Doctrine of the Apostles These Miracles were good to prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion to Pagans But they are worth nothing to prove Novelties as are the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Reliques which are purely Pagan Practices With far greater reason the Church of Rome hath no right by succession to the Miracles of the Apostles to prove her Worship her Idolatries and Superstitions We have as much right as she to these Miracles They are truly and properly our Miracles They are good for us all in common against the ungodly and against Infidels to prove that there is one God in three Persons that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the true Redeemer of the World. But they are nothing to prove our Additions our Corruptions and our Alterations if it be so that either the one or the other of the Christian Sects whether Popery or Calvinism have introduced them into the Church This is clear the Miracles of the Apostles appertain not to us but as far as we have and do inherit their Doctrine 3. As to the Miracles of the fourth and fifth Age which were done in the times when they prayed to Saints and worshipped Reliques we say that they were false Miracles It is to be observed that from the death of the Apostles until the end of the fourth Age nothing was spoken of Miracles in the Church or so little and in so doubtful a manner that it doth not deserve to be reckoned for any thing but when the Devil desired to set up the Worship of Creatures he poured out a Spirit of Lying and a Spirit of Credulity which began to entertain discourses of Miracles 'T is a thing of importance press your Converters thereon Why did these Miracles cease for the space of well nigh two hundred Years or at least why were they so rare And why did they begin again exactly at the time when the Worship of Reliques grew famous Do we not see clearly that 't is a Wile of the Devil Hath God any interest to serve by Bones and Ashes was it necessary that he should begin again to do Miracles at that time And if it were of use to perswade the truth of the Religion which the Martyrs declared to the Pagans why did not God work Miracles by the Bones of the Martyrs for the first three Ages This had been much more profitable than when Paganism was rampant and the Church persecuted and oppressed Wherefore did not the Bones of Polycarpus of whom the believers of Smyrna speak with so much love work miracles Why did not so many Martyrs whose Reliques they had and whose Anniversaries they observed in the time of St. Cyprian work signs and wonders your Converters will never be able to answer this be you therefore perswaded that these pretended Miracles done by the Reliques of St. Stephen St. Gervais St. Protais St. Martyn c. were Illusions of the Devil whom God permitted to work false Miracles or the Cheats of Villains and lewd Superstitionists or to conclude Stories of the Vulgar and Fables which honest men received as Truths upon hear-say And as to the Miracles which are ascribed to the Anacorites of Aegypt and Syria I know not how Mr. Nicholas is not ashamed to draw from them a Light to make his Church visible They are Fables for the most part so gross that the Falseness of them stares in the face of the most Ignorant The Lives of St. Paul the Hermite of Hilarion and others written by St. Jerome that of St. Antony composed as they say by Athanasius are written with so little modesty and judgment that a man ought to be ashamed of them The judicious Readers that would preserve respect for the Authors of those Lives say that the Fathers composed them not as Histories but as pious Romances to divert Christians from reading the Pagan Fables We see in the Lives of those solitary persons of the Desart such as found Centaurs in the Woods Satyrs Men half Horses and half Goats who spake to them and prayed them to intreat the common Saviour to have pitty on them and to give them part in the common Salvation with them We see Hermites-which were in perpetual contests with the Devil always tempted and often beaten by him We see them which herded among the Beasts We there read in one word almost all the Impertinencies of our new Legends This makes it evident that the Fabulous Spirit entred into Christian Religion as soon as the Spirit of Superstition and Idolatry 4ly I say that although it should be true that these Miracles wrought in the Age of the establishment of the Worship of Saints and Reliques should be true Miracles it would not be a Light for the Roman Church any more than for the Greek who also worship Saints and Reliques 'T is therefore needful that we have Miracles from the Church of Rome since she was separate from the Greek Church and that it appear this Gift of Miracles is departed from all other Churches to affix itself to the Church of Rome Now the Greek Schismaticks have their Saints their Legends and their Miracles as well as the Latine Church Besides we do maintain that all the Miracles of the Church of Rome those of St. Bernard as well as others are Legendaries Tales or Illusions of the Evil Spirit 5ly To conclude I do maintain that every person who hath no other support of his Faith but Miracles is a false Believer I have said it elsewhere Miracles are not designed principally to prove Truth they are appointed above
all to awaken mens minds to oblige them to give attention to Truth Mr. Nicholas to the Miracles and Prodigies of Sanctity of the Ancients which make the Church of Rome according to him visible joyns also the Sanctity of the present Church of Rome her Reformed Orders her great Men the Nuns de Trap c. and concludes That although a man should have regard to nothing but the Sanctity of the Manners of the Church of Rome she is even thereby distinguished from all other Societies and that she hath in persons of eminent Piety sensible Characters of the Spirit of God which will animate and inspire her to the end of the World. Mr. Nicholas speaking of all preceding Ages did always joyn Miracles with Sanctity At present he lays by Miracles and why is this He well knows his Church pretends as yet to have the Gift of Miracles And there is not a place eminent for Devotion as are the famous Ladies of Arsillieres of Montferrat of Loretto where they do not pretend to see Miracles The Father de Aviano ran all the World over to make it evident that the Gift of Miracles did not dye with the Apostles He dares not produce to us that as a Light he perceives very well that all these Miracles are suspected Plainly he himself hath not much Faith for them And so by this silence Mr. Nicholas doth tacitly consent that at this day the Roman Church doth no Miracles If it be so I would very willingly know why the Roman Church worke no more Miracles at this day when she had never more need thereof to convert so many ill converted Hereticks and which cry out so loudly of the Violence which they have suffered by the sending of the Dragoons The Miracles whereof they tell us as done at present may very well be Juggles or Fables according to what Mr. Nicholas lets us think by saying nothing of them for what reason may not all those of the Ages past for seven or eight hundred years particularly be very well also accounted Impostures These Miracles of the Church of Rome and of Popery do very well deserve that we should make larger Reflections on them and an occasion thereof will be presented to us elsewhere But in the mean while I pray give attention to this It is if they reckon the Miracles which are found in the Legends from the fifth Age wrought expresly to support the Invocation of Saints Adoration of Reliques Worship of Images and of Purgatory it will be found that God hath wrought without Hyperbole a thousand times more Miracles for the establishment of these false Doctrines these wicked Worships than he hath wrought to confirm the Christian Religion We have told you long since that a Monk for his part raised two and fifty dead persons and others in proportion Now judge if it were probable that these new Doctrines supposing they were true should be so important that to confirm them God should work a thousand and a thousand times more wonders than he hath wrought to establish the Faith of the greatest Mysteries of the Christian Religion As to the Article of the Holiness of the Church of Rome at this day whereof Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Arnold make an evidence for her I can destroy it by making appear the enormous Corruptions which are yet seen in her most considerable parts of Spain and Italy I can prove the disorders of her Clergy and of her Monks I can prove that these prodigious Austerities which they produce to us as the effects of the Spirit of God are but the effects of the Spirit of Hypocrisie or Fanaticism But to the end that I may not trouble those that pride themselves of the Virtue and Piety in the Roman Church I will say that if there be Piety in some of the Members of that Church they owe it not to Popery and Antichristianism but to the remainders of Christianity which continue in that Communion I come to the third Light by which Mr. Nicholas would make the Church visible It is the Holy Scripture To conclude behold him come to the only place from whence the true Light can be drawn It is false saith he that this Author hath believed that the point concerning the Church cannot be proved by the Scriptures and that the proofs are not accommodated to the capacity of the Vulgar We have shewn Mr. Nicholas how much there is of Absurdity in what he says here that a man may prove the point concerning the Church by the Scripture after a manner that is fitted to the capacity of the Vulgar and yet we know not how to prove the other Articles of Faith which are controverted after the same manner It hath been made evident that the Controversie concerning the Church is the most difficult of all It hath been represented to him that to deside this Controversie by the Scripture according to the method which he hath imployed against us it is necessary that an ignorant man should be able to compare the Translations with the Originals and by consequence that he should understand Greek and Hebrew that he may be able to read the Commentaries of the Ancients and the Moderns and by consequence that he should be able to understand Latine All this is as necessary to determine one single Controversie as to determine a hundred We have proved unto him that it is false to say that a man may very well prove by Scripture the Soveraign Authority of the Church but that he cannot prove thereby the Trinity or Incarnation and on that subject he is reduced to an eternal silence For which reason we shall not press him farther on an Article which he grants us by his silence But it is necessary to acquaint you that his Affirmation is intirely false and rash viz. That the Holy Scripture furnishes sufficient Light to the Vulgar to make them see that the Roman Church is the true Church Either these Gentlemen mean that by the Scripture they can easily prove that there ought to be always a visible and infallible Church upon Earth or they mean that the Holy Scripture shews with its finger the Church of Rome and makes it known for the true Church to the Exclusion of all other Sects of Christians or to conclude they mean the Holy Scripture forms a Light to make the Roman Church visible because it contains includes and teaches all the Doctrines and Worship which this Church doth authorize and command As to the first sence although it should be true Popery would gain nothing thereby although they should prove even by the Scripture that there ought always to be a visible and infallible Church upon Earth this would not prove that this must be the Church of Rome For the Greek Church pretends to be that Church which is built upon the rock and against which the gates of hell cannot prevail to the exclusion of the Latine Church and 't is that in which we ought to observe the perpetual Illusion
of the Roman Doctors They oppress you with Sophisms to convince you that there ought to be a Judge an infallible Interpreter of Scripture a Church that cannot err Answer them in one word Although all this which you say should be true it would be no advantage to you we must seek this Church and this infallible Interpreter elsewhere for 't is certain you have erred I come to the second sence viz. That the Scripture makes a Light which renders the Church visible because it shews with the Finger the Roman Church as the true Church to the exclusion of all others Now this is a Falshood sensible to all the World the Holy Scripture speaks not one word of the Church of Rome or of her Infallibility 'T is true there is an Epistle addressed to the Church of Rome but St. Paul so little thought of her as infallible that he speaks to her as a Church that would fall or at least as one that might be cut off from the true Olive and from the root of Jesus Christ There remains only the third sence in which your Converters can say that the Scripture forms a Light which makes the Church of Rome visible 'T is that the Doctrine of the Scripture is found perfectly conformable to that of the Church of Rome That is it which they must say if they will say any thing that is solid for the truth is that there is not any mark of the Church but this viz. Her conformity to the Holy Scripture Let alone therefore all this pretended heap of Marks of the Church which are either false or equivocal and keep you close to this alone Tell your Converters if you will make your Church visible to me let me see it conformable to the Scripture and 't is there you will reduce them to Extremities 'T is here that we have an evident proof that Popery is an Antichristian Religion Behold a proof to which all the subtilty of Hell can never oppose any thing we say then every Society and every Religion which hath nothing conformable with the Law of Jesus Christ is not the true Religion now Popery hath nothing conformable to the Law of Jesus Christ therefore it hath nothing of Christianity I intreat you to give attention to this If a Sect of the Turks calling themselves Mahometans had nothing among them like to the Alcoran which is the Law of Mahomet would you not tell them that they lie If the Jews calling themselves Jews should re-establish a Worship which hath nothing like the Worship prescribed by Moses would any one endure that they should say they were of the Religion of Moses Every Religion hath its Books and every Sect to shew that 't is of such a Religion ought to prove its conformity with those Books Common sence say thus If therefore Popery have nothing at all like the Writings of Christians 't is clear that 't is not Christianity Now this is it which we take for granted and which we are ready to prove before all sorts of Judges even Jews and Pagans viz. That Popery hath no conformity with the Scripture which is the common Law of Christians To be convinced of this my Brethren first separate Christianity from Popery in the Roman Church and don 't suffer yourselves to be blinded by what your Converters say unto you Are not we Christians Do we not believe one God in three Persons one Jesus crucified for the sins of men one Resurrection one Paradise and one Hell Does not the Scripture teach all this Is not our Religion therefore conformable to Revelation Answer them thereon Yea you are Christians in all that you believe with us but you are Antichristians in that wherein you believe without us These points whereof you speak are in the Scripture 't is true but 't is my Religion rather than yours 't is Christianity whereof 't is true I acknowledge you have preserved the Fundamentals But this makes nothing for your Religion which is Popery it makes nothing for Purgatory Invocation of Saints Adoration of Images and Reliques the Sacrifice of the Mass the Adoration of the Sacrament the Latine Tongue in the Worship of God a Communion without the Cup a Head of the Church besides Jesus Christ Behold Popery and 't is that which we maintain hath no conformity with the Scripture Indeed when your Converters will prove their Doctrines by the Scripture it seems they have renounced common Sence as well as Faith and Honesty To understand this there is no need to examine any Books of Controversie as they would fain perswade you there needs no more but eyes to open and read them For Example When they endeavour to prove the Pope is the Soveraign Head of the Church the Center of Unity the Mouth that utters Oracles and him to whom we must adhere if we will be saved and they produce to us for the whole proof these words Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not feed my sheep When say I they produce this and produce nothing else to prove the most important point of Popery which is the Authority of the Pope I do maintain that he must be stricken with a Spirit of Blockishness to regard it as proof He must I dare say be abandoned to a Spirit of Reprobation to suppose that the Scripture that tells us of Pastors and Teachers as Guides of the Church should not speak one word of this great Office of Pope and Soveraign Pastor When for the Sacrifice of the Mass propitiatory for the living and the dead they produce to us as proof from the holy Scriptures these Texts Melchizedeck offered bread and wine they shall offer to my Name a pure sacrifice from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Soveraign wisdom hath prepared her victuals and mingled her wine We have an Altar of which they have no right to partake which serve the Tabernacle Do this in remembrance of me When say I they produce these passages for the intire proof of the Sacrifice of the Mass are you not tempted to believe they do not speak in good earnest for nothing seems more opposite to sound sense To prove that we must invocate Saints they refer us to those words of Jacob The Angel which delivered me from all evil keep the lads and those of Eliphaz to Job And to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thy self that is to say of the Saints which are upon Earth and those of Daniel Have mercy upon Israel for the sake of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. To prove that we must prostrate our selves before Images and worship Reliques they produce those words of God to Moses Pluck off thy shoes for the place where thou standest is holy ground and those of David Worship before his footstool and those of St. Paul to Timothy From thy childhood thou hast learnt the holy Scriptures Here is nothing to be laught at