well as in the Pres des Clerks by the Ladies Princes yea and by Henry the Second himself This one Ordinance only contributed mightily to the downfal of Popery and the propagation of the Gospel It took so much with the genius of the Nation That all ranks and degrees of Men practised it in the Temples and in their Families No Gentleman professing the Reformed Religion would sit down at his Table without praising God by singing Yea it was a special part of their Morning and Evening Worship in their several Houses to sing God's Praises The Popish Clergy raged and to prevent the growth and spreading of the Gospel by it that mischievous Cardinal of Lorrain another Elymas the Sorcerer got the Odes of Horace and the filthy obscene Poems of Tibullus and Catullus to be turn'd into French and sung in the Court Ribaldry was his Piety and the means used by him to expel and banish the singing of divine Psalms out of the prophane Court of France The Holy Word of God is duly truly and powerfully Preached in Churches and Fields in Ships and Houses in Vaults and Cellars in all places where the Gospel-Ministers can have admission and conveniency and with singular success Multitudes are Convinced and Converted established and edified Christ rideth out upon the white Horse of the Ministry with the Sword and Bow of the Gospel Preached Conquering and to Conquer His Enemies fall under him and submit themselves unto him O! the unparallell'd success of the plain and zealous Sermons of the first Reformers Multitudes flock in like Doves into the Windows of God's Ark. As innumerable drops of dew fall from the Womb of the Morning so hath the Lord Christ the dew of his Youth The Popish Churches are drained the Protestant Temples are filled The Priests complain that their Altars are neglected their Masses are now indeed solitary Dagon cannot stand before God's Ark. Children and Persons of riper years are Catechised in the Rudiments and Principles of Christian Religion and can give a comfortable account of their Faith a reason of that hope that is in them By this Ordinance do their pious Pastors prepare them for Communion with the Lord at his holy Table Here they communicate in both kinds according to the Primitive Institution of this Sacrament by Jesus Christ himself Sect. 7. Though the Churches of God walked in the Comforts of the Holy-Ghost and were multiplied throughout the whole Kingdom yet were they exercised with Fiery Tryals and underwent most cruel and inhumane Sufferings Satan stormed that his Kingdom was assaulted weakned and subverted this boileth up his Revenge and causeth him to throw out Floods of Wrath against the Church travelling under the pangs of Reformation Hence the Saints of God are imprisoned arraigned for their Lives and condemned by merciless unrighteous Judges for their Profession of the Truth unto the Flames Others are murdered in cold Blood and massacred without any legal forms of Justice in the least And yet in the sight of those cruel Deaths and most barbarous Executions the first National Synod is called and celebrated in the Metropolis of the Kingdom at the very Doors of the Court God inspiring with Zeal and Courage the Pastors of several Churches to meet and consult together about the arduous and most important Businesses of the Reformed Religion Sect. 8. Two things among others were dispatch'd in this Council 1. They publish the Confession of their Faith and tell the King and Kingdom what they believe and practise This was put into the Hands of their Young King lately come to the Crown upon the Death of his Father who though he had sworn to see that famous Martyr of Christ Annas du Bourg Counsellour in the Parliament of Paris burnt yet was at a Tilt by Count de Montgomery a Protestant wounded with a Launce in the Eye and died before he could perform his Oath How Francis the Second entertained this Confession when it was tender'd him is not my Business to relate I shall only give my Reader the Confession itself and I do the rather lay it before him because it is a brief System of the Protestant Religion constantly read at the opening of all their Synods and because of the frequent References unto it in and by all those National Synods which I now publish Sect. 9. The Confession of Faith held and professed by the Reformed Churches of France received and enacted by their first National Synod Celebrated in the City of Paris and Year of our Lord 1559. ARTICLE I. WE believe and confess That there is but one God only whose Being only is simple spiritual eternal invisible immutable infinite incomprehensible ineffable who can do all things who is all-wise all-good most just and most merciful ARTICLE II. This one God hath revealed himself to be such a one unto Men first in the Creation preservation and governing of his works secondly far more plainly in his word which from the beginning he revealed to the Fathers by certain Visions and Oracles and then caused it to be put in writing in those Books which we call the Holy Scripture ARTICLE III. All this holy Scipture is contained in the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament the Catalogue whereof followeth The five Books of Moses namely Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy Item Joshua Judges Ruth the first and second Book of Samuel the first and second Book of Kings the first and second Book of Chronicles otherwise called the Paralipomena one Book of Esdras Nehemiah Hester Job the Psalms Solomon's Proverbs or Sentences Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs Esaiah Jeremiah with the Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonas Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zachariah Malachi Item the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew according to St. Mark according to St. Luke and according to St. John as also the second Book of St. Luke otherwise called The Acts of the Apostles Item the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans one to the Corinthians two to the Galatians one to the Ephesians one to the Philippians one to the Colossians one to the Thessalonians two to Timothy two to Titus one to Philemon one Item the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of St. James the first and second Epistle of St. Peter the first second and third Epistle of St. John the Epistle of St. Jude and the Apocalypse or Revelations of St. John ARTICLE IV. We acknowledge these Books to be Canonical that is we account them as the most certain Rule of our Faith and that not so much because of the common consent of the Church but because of the Testimony and Perswasion of the Holy Ghost by which we are taught to distinguish betwixt them and other Ecclesiastical Books upon which although they may be useful yet we cannot ground any Article of Faith ARTICLE V. We believe That the Doctrine contained in these Books is proceeded from God from whom only and not from men it deriveth
shall have power of Voting to avoid Confusion nor shall any Deputy depart the Synod without leave first had from the Moderator ART II. To the Fifth Article which ran thus A Minister accompanied with one Elder or Deacon at least from every Church shall meet together at least once a Year in every Province there shall be this added And they shall choose the most commodious Time and Place that may be for their Meeting ART III. The Sixth Article was thus altered and amended No Minister shall be now elected by one only Minister or his Consistory but with two or three Ministers together with the Consistory of the vacant Church or if it may be the Provincial Synod or by the Colloquy which shall be called to sit as much as may be in those places where Consistories be already instituted and unto this the Minister who is to be ordained shall make his Addresses and from the Colloquy he shall be presented unto the People to be accepted by them but in case any one oppose his Admission the Consistory shall judge hereof and if neither part consenteth senteth the whole shall be referred to the Provincial Synod which shall take cognisance as well of the Minister's Justification as of his Reception provided the Consistory and the greater part of the People do approve and consent unto it ART IV. There shall be this added to the Close of the Twelfth Article Vnless in in which those places where the Colloquy is made up of six Ministers at least case the Colloquy may take cognisance of this Intruding Minister ART V. Forasmuch as it is in no wise expedient that our People should bear Popish Preachers or any others who are not lawfully called to preach the Gospel in those Churches which have a settled and standing Ministry therefore all true Pastors are to hinder as much as in them lieth the wandring of their People after them ART VI. And whereas the Sixteenth Article begins thus Such as teach unsound Doctrine and being admonished will not forbear there shall be this Addition to it And those who shall disobey the godly Counsels of God's holy Word given them by the Consistory ART VII The Twenty Second and Twenty Third Articles of the said National Synod of Paris speaking of Elders and Deacons and of their Office were thus explained The Elders Office as now used by us is not perpetual And the Deacons Office is to Collect and Distribute the Poors Monies unto them and to the Prisoners and to the Sick and to Visit them in their Afflictions and to go from House to House and to Catechize the Members of those Families and in case any one of these Deacons be fit and qualified and promise to devote himself for life to the Service of God in the Ministry of the Gospel then he may be chosen by the Pastor and Consistory to Catechize publickly according to the Form received in our Churches and this by way of Tryal of their Gifts only without giving them any power of Administring the Holy Sacraments ART VIII Upon the Twenty Fourth Article it was said That it did not belong to the Office of Elders and Deacons to Catechize in publick and that their Office was not perpetual yet notwithstanding neither the one nor other may depart from it without leave first had and obtained from the Church ART IX Whereas the Thirty Third Article begins thus Marriages shall le propounded after those words Notary Publick shall be added Or sufficient Attestation where there is no Publick Notary CHAP. IV. New Articles added unto the Church-Discipline framed in the First Synod of PARIS May 1559. ART X. IT is now unanimously concluded That in the Close of every National Synod one certain particular Church shall be invested with full Power to call within the Year a General Council of all the Provinces in which there shall meet one Minister and one Elder or Deacon at least for every Province and other Ministers have liberty to come if they please and obtain leave from their Churches for so doing And this General Council shall determine of all Church-Matters nor shall there be any Appeal admitted from it excepting in such Points as itself shall judge needful to be turned over to the next General Council of all the Churches of this Kingdom and of other Persons who may think fit to come unto it And it is left wholly to the Prudence of the General Council in being to ascertain the time when the next General Council shall be Assembled which shall be according as the necessity of our Churches Affairs may require it ART XI And all Consistories shall be admonished by their Ministers that they do strictly forbid all Dancing Mummeries and Tricks of Jugglers ART XII And whoso is once denounced an Heretick or Schismatick shall also be declared such unto the other Churches that they may be aware of him ART XIII Item The Doctor in a Church may not Baptize nor Administer the Lord's Supper unless he be ordained a Minister as well as Doctor at the same time ART XIV In every Church the Candidates for the Ministery shall Preach upon Tryal and their Text shall be some certain Portion of God's holy Word and this as time and place may conveniently bear ART XV. Item Whatever shall be decreed by the Provincial Synods concerning the Suspension of Vagrant Ministers who intrude themselves into Churches it shall be as valid and effectual as if it had been ordained by the National Synod ART XVI All the Churches shall be admonished to Maintain and Relieve their Ministers in their Necessities And in case they should refuse a Competency unto their Pastors for their Subsistance and having been warned of this their Duty it may be lawful for those Pastors to remove from them and to engage themselves unto the Service of some other Church CHAP. V. General MATTERS ARTICLE I. IT is thought needful that in every Church there be a Consistory consisting of Ministers Deacons and Elders exercising their Offices who when Affairs so require may call in whom they think good to consult withal ART II. The Consistories of the respective Churches shall be advised that for time to come they do better discharge their Duty towards their Ministers by succouring them in their Necessities and raising Maintenance for them and their Families because Forreign Countries have been exceedingly scandalized at the Neglect and Ingratitude of divers Churches even in this particular ART III. No Matters shall be propounded unto the National Synods but such onely as could not be resolved in the Provincial nor shall any Cases be brought unto them but what are of general concernment to all the Churches ART IV. When as Contention or Debate may arise about Articles of Faith In Articles of Faith Doctrin or Heresie the Votes of Ministers Deacons and Elders equal But in Matters of Government the Votes of all shall be vallid notwithstanding the inequality of Numbers Doctrine or
desire that he may be admitted into the Church of God by that Initial Sacrament he shall not be baptized till he have made a publick Confession of his Faith and evidence that he hath a competent measure of Understanding and Knowledge in the Articles of our Christian Religion CHAP. VII Of MARRIAGES ARTICLE XX. MInisters neither may nor shall marry such as are professed Papists till they have first renounced their Popish Religion Superstition the Mass and do make profession of our Faith although the Husband himself should be a Believer ARTICLE XXI The Churches shall be informed not to celebrate any Marriages of Strangers out of the places of their abode without sufficient Attestation from that Church unto which they do belong ARTICLE XXII The Banes shall be published on two Lord's Days in those places where there be Weekly Sermons and if in other places then at such times as there is Exhortation made and common Prayers yea also they shall there be published thrice within the Fortnight It may be lawful but not necessary to publish the Banes of Marriage in the Popish Temples ARTICLE XXIII 'T is the Judgment of this Synod That a Man having left his Wife because of Leprosie and married another his first being yet alive that this his Marriage is null before God and that therefore he may not be admitted to the Lord's Table till he have first separated from this second Wife and repaired the Scandal he hath given the Church by publick Penance CHAP. VIII About Interests of Money ARTICLE XXIV ALL Persons shall carefully observe the King's Edicts and the Rules of Charity about Interest of Money CHAP. IX About Vagrants Hereticks and Schismaticks ARTICLE XXV VAgrants Hereticks and Schismaticks shall be notified unto all Churches that they may be aware of them CHAP. X. Of the LORD's SVPPER THe Churches shall be informed that it belongs only unto Ministers to give the Cup in the Lord's Supper if possible they can do it and that all evil Consequences may be avoided CHAP. XI General MATTERS I. MInisters shall exhort their Churches to demean themselves with all Reverence during the Administration of Baptism II. Women only shall not be admitted to present Children unto Baptism III. This Synod explaining the Article of the foregoing Synod concerning Baptism saith That no Baptism shall be administred unless in publick Church-Meetings The Cup at the Lord's Supper must be given by the Ministers IV. The Churches shall be informed That it belongs only unto Ministers to give the Cup at the Lord's Table and to obviate all evil Consequences it be possible none else shall deliver it V. All Vagrants Hereticks and Schismaticks shall be denounced such by Name unto the Churches that they may beware of them VI. Consistories shall be directed to call none before them unless there be good and sufficient ground for it VII Professors that are Ministers may be Members of Consistories and Synods To remove and change Ministers the Power is vested in the Synods VIII Ministers tho' already fixed in one Church may yet be lent unto another for its Edification for some time And when as our Candidates shall be called into the Ministry they shall have a certain Flock assigned to them among whom they shall have their constant abode The Power of removing Ministers for certain considerations remaining in the Synods with the consent of their Churches according to the Discipline Excommunication 〈◊〉 Synod 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Appeal Whole Consistories â—â—y not be Arbitrators All Sentences of Excommunication ratified by Provincial Synods shall for the future be confirmed and no Appeal from them X. The Bodies of Consistories shall never be chosen Arbiters but only some particular Members from among them instead of the whole XI None other Articles of the Church-Discipline shall be divulged but such as have been resolved on unanimously by all the Deputies in the National Synod CHAP. XII A Case of CONSCIENCE XII MAy a Man marry his Cousin-German or she that is one degree removed This Synod is of Opinion That care be taken of giving Scandal in such a case and the Offence being removed we know nothing to the contrary but that such Persons may marry for they do not sin against any Prohibition of God XIII At the openings of all Synods Provincial or National all the Articles of the Discipline shall be read And for time to come Provincial Synods shall sâ—â—d unto the General Assemblies the Articles decreed by them as well such aâ— concern the Government of their own Province The Book of Discipline to be read at the beginning of all Synods as those others which concern the generality of the Churches XIV Consistories have full liberty to receive Father and Son or two Brothers at the same time into Office among them unless there be some just cause which may hinder it whereof the Provincial Synod shall take Cognisance CHAP. XIII A BOOK Censured XV. HAving seen and read a certain Book intituled A Declaration of the Mystery and Secret of God demonstrated by two Pictures as also another Book in Manuscript intituled The Mirrour of Antichrist This Assembly declares the said Books to be full of Blasphemies Heresies and of vain and scandalous Discourses and therefore adviseth the Faithful to beware of them and their Author is declared unworthy of the Ministry and of any other Office in the Church and the Books shall be put into the hands of the Ministers of the Classis of Nismes who shall tender them unto their suspected Author and if he avow them for his own then to depose him from all Office if he bear any in the Church and to proceed farther against him as they shall judge meet CHAP. XIV Particular MATTERS James Pinus deposed from the Ministry for being a Vagrant c. JAmes Pinus is declared unworthy of the Ministry and the Sentence of the Synod of Niort condemning him for divers Crimes from which he hath never purged himself is confirmed in particular 1. That he intruded himself into the Ministry without a Call 2. For that since he hath continued in it notwithstanding the Remonstrances made him and his Promises to desist which he made unto the National Synod of Poictiers Moreover he shall be bound to reconcile himself unto the Churches of Geneva and Lausanna And for what concerns our Brother De Ressé he shall be exhorted by Letters to continue in his Ministry and to renounce Pleading at the Bar and other Businesses which take him off from his Calling and in case of his Rebellion he shall be forthwith deposed and cut off from Communion with the Church And the Church of Talmont is admonished to live in Concord with the other Churches CHAP. XV. UPon those Remonstrances presented by the States of Languedoc unto this Synod there was this Advice given As to the first and second Articles concerning Ministers Letters shall be written unto the Provincial Synod of Languedoc exhorting the Ministers of that Province to
Chap. V. Of Vagrants Debauched Persons and Councils Chap. VI. Of Imposition of Hands Sureties in Baptism c. Chap. VII Vniformity in Common Prayers No Marriages without Certificates Loane of Ministers Synods and Colloquies Chap. VIII An Abjuration made by a Socinian Chap. IX Secret Promises of Marriage and several Cases of Conscience about Absolution Churches Ingratitude Age of Communicants of Marrying the Sister of a deceased Spouse Accounts of the Poors Money Divorces Chap. X. Method in Calling of National Synods Chap. XI General Advertisements unto the Churches about Printers Elders Books Schollars Lord's Supper Ministers in Noble Mens Houses Censures on Lords Censure upon a certain Book The Second Synod of PARIS 1565. Synod V. SYNOD V. Articles Decreed in the National Synod held the second time at Paris the twenty fifth of December 1565 and in the fifth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Ninth CHAP. I. NIcholas de Galars Minister of the Church of Orleance being chosen President and Lewis Capel Minister of Meaux and Peter Le Clere Elder of the Church of Paris Scribes after the Invocation of the Name of GOD. CHAP. II. An Explication of the Canons of the CHVRCH-Discipline and an Addition of several others General MATTERS I. FOrasmuch as the Church of God ought to be governed by a good and holy Discipline and that no other may be introduced but what is grounded upon the Word of God the Ministers and Elders deputed from the Provinces of this Kingdom to confer about Ecclesiastical Affairs and met together in the Name of the Lord after diligent Perusal of the Book and other Writings of M. J. Morelly concerning the Polity and Discipline of the Church and sufficient Conferences had with him from the Holy Scriptures about it do by this present Act condem his said Books and Writings as containing evil and dangerous Opinions subverting that Discipline which is conformable unto the Word of God and at this day received in the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom and whereas delivering up the Government of the Church unto the People he would bring in a new tumultuary Conduct and full of Confusions upon it from whence would follow many great and dangerous Inconveniencies which have been remonstrated unto him and he once and again admonished to abandon these Matters which yet he will not do but persists in his Assertions saying That he is perswaded those his Opinions are built upon God's Holy Word We having divers times exhorted him to approve and consent unto that Order which is received and conserved in these our Churches as appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles and proved to him from their Sacred Writings because we hope that the Lord will be gracious to him and also because he does not differ from the Church in any of the fundamental principal Articles of our Faith the Brethren of this Assembly supporting him with Christian Charity are of Opinion that he be received to the Peace and Communion of the Church provided that as he hath formerly promised by Writing and now again protested to ratifie and sign with his own Hand this his Promise so that for time to come he do carry himself peaceably and subject himself to the Order and Discipline established in the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom without ever any manner of ways publishing those his said Opinions neither by Word of Mouth nor Writing contrary to the said Discipline or to a Treatise in confirmation of it which may shortly be printed provided also that according to his former Promises and at the request of the Lords of the City and Church of Geneva to whom he hath not yet given sufficient Satisfaction though he is bound in Duty to reconcile himself unto them which is evident from his own Letters that he do once more by new Letters of his own Writing confess and acknowledge to have offended them and do beg their Pardon because that being an Inhabitant of their said City he did contrary to the Orders of the Seignory print and publish his said Book without having first demanded and obtained their License and being called both by them and the Consistory of that Church to give an account of that his Contempt he did not appear at the day assigned him These conditions being performed by him and the Consistory of that Church whereunto he shall joyn himself must take knowledge whether he hath fulfilled them or no and they accordingly may receive him as a Member of the Church and admit him into Communion with them or else proceed against him by Ecclesiastical Censures CHAP. III. The manner of Proceeding in Ecclesiastical Censures II. FOrasmuch as Sins committed in the Church ought to be corrected by the Word of God and according to the Rule of Charity and all Sins are not alike grievous and scandalous some being more enormous others of a lesser nature some secret and others publick we must therefore according to their quality and aggravations accommodate the Censure and Reprehension so then secret Sins whereof the Sinner by means of Brotherly Admonitions shall be brought unto Repentance and hath reformed them shall not be brought into the Consistory but those only which these first means cannot reform nor amend or Sins publickly known the cognisance of which belongs unto the said Consistory who must proceed to the Reformation of them by proper and convenient Censures considering these sins with all their circumstances that so according as the case requireth they may apply either a severe and rigorous Reprehension or a more moderate one in the Spirit of Meekness as may be most expedient to bring the Sinner to Repentance who to this end shall by the Authority of the Consistory be for some time deprived of the Lord's Supper if it be needful that so he may be humbled Excommunication must not be used but in extream necessity or finally excommunicated and totally cut off from the Body of the Church according to that Order hereafter declared if so be he shew himself rebellious to the Holy Admonitions and Censures inflicted on him and continue obstinate and impenitent But inasmuch as this is the last and most rigorous of all Remedies it shall never be used but in case of extremity when all fair and gentle Means have proved ineffectual And whereas even unto this day in divers places this distinction between this last Excommunication and temporary Suspension or simple Privation of the Lord's Supper hath not been observed as it ought that both the one and the other may be duely used the Ministers and Elders interpreting these words of Excommunication and Suspension from the Lord's Table The words Excommunication and Suspension explained No Minister of his private Authority can deprive a Man of the Lord s Supper do give it as their Opinion That no Person should be deprived or suspended the Lord's Table by the single Authority of the Pastors or of any other but only by the Consistory which shall prudently consider
Monsieur de Beza acquainted the Assembly of those Heresies disperst abroad in Poland and Transylvania by divers Persons against the Unity Divinity and humane Nature of our Lord Jesus Christ receiving the Errors of ancient Hereticks particularly of Samosatenus Arrius Photinus Nestorius Eutyches and many others yea and of Mahomet himself also Whereupon the Synod unanimously voted their Detestation of all those abominable Errors and Heresies and adviseth all Pastors Elders and Deacons and generally all the Faithful vigourosly to oppose their Admission into the Churches of France IV. Information was also given concerning the Errors of Cozain by the Minister of Normandy and Monsieur de Chandieu and Monsieur de L'estang were ordered to examine the Table of the said Cozain and to bring in a Report of it and finally it was condemned rejected and detested And the English Bishops shall be desired to suppress the Books of the said Hereticks which began to be in vogue among them V. The Nine and twenty Articles of the Confession of our Faith and the others concerning Church-discipline being read and propounded by the Minister of Bourdeaux notice was given concerning a certain Physitian who maintained the Supremacy of the Magistrate as Head of the Church and had published certain Writings under his own Hand and Name containing the Reasons of his Opinion Whereupon the whole Assembly ratified the said Articles of it's Confession and rejected the Error of the said Physitian and of all others who would abolish Church-discipline confounding it with the Civil Government of the Magistrate It condemns also those Errors proceeding from the afore-mentioned Tenent VI. Moreover the Synod ordered Monsieur de Beza to answer them who impugned the aforesaid Articles of our Faith and the Discipline of our Church and in special the above-mentioned Physitian and our Brother the Minister of Bourdeaux shall deliver unto Monsieur de Beza the Points Collected by him that must be answer'd and the whole shall be communicated to the Brethren of Geneva Union must be placed instead of Unity in the Art concerning these two words in the 26. Art see Synod of Nismes g. m. Art 20. And the 3d. Synod of Rochel Art 8. concerning divers Obsenric in the Confession of Faith VII Instead of Vnity there shall be replaced the Word Vnion in the six and thirtieth Article of our Confession of Faith And whereas the Deputies of the Isle of France and Brie do conceive it needful that the said Article be explain'd in that Clause of it which treats of the Participation of Christ's Substance in the Sacrament of his Supper After a long Conference it was at last resolved That the Synod approving the said Article rejecteth their Opinion who will not receive the Word Substance By which word the Synod doth not understand any Confusion Commixture or Conjunction after a carnal Manner nor in any wise Natural but a most true and intimate Conjunction after a spiritual Manner by which Jesus Christ is so far made ours and we his that there is no Conjunction of Bodies either Natural or Artificial which can be so close and intimate nor is this our fence and meaning as if by the Conjunction of Christ's Person and Substance with ours there did result a kind of third Person and Substance No but this only That by his Vertue all that is in him needful for our Salvation is hereby most freely and intimately given and communicated to us Nor do we consent with them who say that we communicate in his Merits Gifts and Spirit without his being at all made ours But with the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians admiring this Supernatural and to our reason incomprehensible Mystery we do believe that we are made Partakers of his Body delivered to the death for us and of his Blood shed for us so that we are Bone of his bones and Flesh of his flesh and that we receive him together with all his Gifts by faith wrought in us through the incomprehensible Vertue and Efficacy of his Holy Spirit and thus do we in this Sence understand these Words of our Lord speaking Who so eateth the Flesh and drinketh the Blood of the Son of Man hath everlasting Life Item I am the Vine you art the Branches and we must abide in him that we may bring forth much Fruit and that we are Members of his Body and of his Flesh and of his Bones And as we derive our death from the first Adam because we participate of his Substance so must we as truly partake of the second Adam Christ Jesus that we may derive life from him And therefore all Pastors and the Faithful in general are required not to yield unto the contrary Opinions because what is now asseretd by us hath firm footing in the express Word of God Three Original Copies of the Confess 〈◊〉 of Faith the 〈◊〉 at Rochel 〈◊〉 2d 〈…〉 and the 〈…〉 VIII Finally when as the Confession of Faith was read and ended the whole Synod decreed that without any Additions there should be three Copies fairly written in Parchmin whereof one should be kept in this City of Rochel another in Bearn and the third at Geneva and all three should be subscribed by the Ministers and Elders Deputies of the Provinces of this Kingdom in the Name of all the Churches Moreover her Majesty the Queen of Navarre and my Lords the Princes of Navarre and Conde and the other Lords here present in this Synod are also requested to subscribe it with their own hands CHAP. III. Observations upon the Church-discipline Tuesday the Third of the same Month. I. THE Discipline being read it was judged needful that under the Head of Ministers there should be made this following Addition viz. The most diligently that may be II. Under the fourth Head to these words It shall be granted because of our present Circumstances shall be added the Ninth Article of the Synod of Vertueil III. Under the Eight shall be added Although the Vsage of Imposition of Hands be good and holy yet it shall not be reputed necessary as if it were of the Substance of Ordination The Form of Ordination IV. The Form of Ordination was drawn up by Monsieur de Chandieu in these following Words The Minister who presenteth to the People the Person to be Ordained shall briefly treat of the Institution and Excellency of the Ministery alledging for this purpose these or the like Texts of Holy Scripture viz. 4. Eph. 11. Luke 10.16 John 20.22 2 Cor. 5.19 120. 1 Cor. 4.1 Exhorting every one to take special heed that both Minister and People discharge their proper Duties The Minister shall acquit himself with the greater care and diligence in his Calling because he knows of what high price and excellent account it is with God And the People shall with all Reverence receive the Message of God brought unto them by this his Embassador The Form of Prayer at Ordination was first framed in the Synod
Inscription Avis pour la paix de L'Eglise Royaume de France This Synod having read and examined those aforesaid Writings and received the Judgment of the Colloquy of Nismes and of the Deputies from the other Colloquies in that Province as also the Censures of the above-mentioned Churches doth condemn them as containing divers Erroneous Propositions to wit That the true Doctrine was kept entire and sound among all that are called Christians That those of the Church of Rome having the self-same Articles of Faith with us the same Commandments of God Forms of Prayer Baptism and the same Means and Ordinances to attain everlasting Salvation as we have are consequently the true Church and that the Difference betwixt us is only verbal not real That they would have the Ancient Councils and Writings of the Fathers to be Judges of the Points in Controversie between us and that because they quote the Canons of Gratian under the Name of the Catholick Church therefore we are made the Authors of that Schism and of those Civil Wars which have happen'd in this Kingdom and several other such-like Matters And all the Churches are enjoyned to beware of them And whereas there is a Manuscript handed up and down with this specious Title Elenchus Novae Doctrinae the Colloquies of Montpellier and Nismes are charged to peruse it and in case they find nothing in it contrary to the Doctrine receiv'd and taught in our Churches they may giving it a Preface give it also a License to be Printed V. This Case of Conscience was propounded Whether a Soveraign Prince for certain Causes moving him thereunto may not grant a Pardon unto a Person guilty of those Crimes which had deserved Death or change his Punishment into a less or delay Execution of the Sentence past upon him This Assembly having carefully examined the Circumstances of this Case doth judge That by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we be not bound unto the Political Laws of Moses but that all Punishments are now arbitrary and that from Scripture-Instances the Soveraign Magistrate may very well do it when the Publick Interest is concerned VI. Another Case also was moved Whether a Parent or Special Friend whatever his Condition or Quality be tho' it were that of a Minister of the Gospel might lawfully petition the Soveraign for his Relation or Friend's Pardon The Synod answereth That this Case is decided by the former for if it be lawful for the Soveraign to give it is lawful also for a private Person to take out a Pardon provided it be not by any indirect or sinful means VII Whoever hath maimed another unjustly so that he is thereby disabled from gaining his Livelihood or that of his poor Family if so be the Maimer be a Man of Estate he shall be urged by Church-Censures to allot him a Pension for his Subsistence altho' he be not condemned to it by the Civil Magistrate because he cannot better express the sincerity of his Repentance than by this Act of Charity VIII Promises of Marriage made by Persons of competent Age to be married and those Promises past with consent of Parents Tutors and Guardians and by words de praesenti are indissolvable IX It is not contrary to Christian decency for espoused Persons to lodge under the same Roof before Marriage X. That Obligation laid on Sureties in Baptism doth not only import their Education of the Children in Godliness but this also that in case of need they provide for their maintenance XI Churches having at their own Charges bred up Schollars to the Ministry and do now enjoy their Labours in the Word and Sacraments if they carry themselves unworthily towards them as in not giving them equal Stipends with their Colleagues shall be censured and in case they do not reform the Colloquy or Provincial Synod may grant a License unto those Ministers to forsake them and also to provide them of some other Church according to the Discipline XII The Deputies of the National Synods shall within one Month alter their Return advertise the Colloquies of their Provinces to take Copies of the Acts of these National Synods and this at the sole Expence of the said Colloquies XIII When a Province desireth some considerable alteration to be made in the Articles of our Discipline it shall give Notice thereof unto that which is charged to convene the next National Synod that by it the other Provinces being informed their Deputies may come prepared for the Debate However we do not hereby mean that the National Synods should be over-ruled by the Provincial XIV Master Chamier and Brunier having brought Letters from the Assembly of the Churches at Chastel-heraut together with the Edict granted us by His Majesty and understanding by them that had it not been for that good Union and Correspondence which is among us we had never got the Liberty of our Consciences in the Publick Profession of the Gospel and Service for our God nor Justice to be administred to us nor other needful Securities for our Lives This Synod considering former defects in this matter doth now protest and resolve That for the future that Union subscribed and sworn at Mants shall be better and more strictly kept and observed than ever that so the Articles of this Edict may be performed to us and all other things needful for our preservation in our Obedience to his Majesty and his Edicts and we will also take care that the Provinces do the same and that if any Person should in the least transgress them or prove disobedient to our Remonstrances herein they shall be prosecuted by all the Censures of the Church XV. The Provinces also shall be exhorted to receive and observe the Orders sent them from the Assembly at Chastelheraut and to defray the Charges of the Deputies they being necessitated to reside there to see to the Execution of the Edict unless His Majesty shall of His Royal Bounty provide for them XVI This Synod proceeding to distribute the 43333 Crowns and of the one third of them Granted by His Majesty towards the Relief of our Churdies hath and doth ordain that 3333 Crowns and one third shall be employed in the erecting of two Universities In the Copy from which this was translated the mark over the Sums was one of which shall be at Saumur and the other at Moutauban †††W and towards the Maintenance of each of them it doth assign 1111 Crowns 6 Sous and 8 Deniers and to the erecting of two Academies in Theology Which I have rendered Crowns because a Livre consisting but of twenty Sous and the French reckoning be Crowns as â—â—ll as Livres I have rendred Crowns ratâ—er than Livres the one at Montpellier the other at Nismes for Montpellier 500 Crowns and the rest for Nismes And the remaining 40000 Crowns shall be distributed among the Churches as well those which are already as those which may be hereafter constituted And a
extraordinary not from the Church of Rome 4. The question being moved whether in Treating of the Call of our first Pastors and Reformers it were expedient that we should lay the stress of their Authority for Preaching and Reforming upon that Call and Ordination they had in the Church of Rome or no. This Synod doth judge that we ought according to the one and thirtieth Article to found it principally upon their extraordinary Vocation whereby they were by an inward powerful impulse from God raised up and commanded to exercise their Ministry rather than to charge it upon the sorry Relicks of a corrupted Call and Ordination in the Romish Church 5. That Article treating of Antichrist shall be the one and thirtieth in order in our Confession of Faith and shall be thus worded Whereas the Bishop of Rome hath erected for himself a temporal Monarchy in the Christian World and Usurping a Soveraign Authority and Lordship over all Churches and Pastors doth exalt himself to that degree of Insolency as to be called God and will be adored arrogating unto himself All Power in Heaven and in Earth and to dispose of all Ecclesiastical matters to define Articles of Faith to authorise and expound at his pleasure the sacred Scriptures and to buy and sell the Souls of men to dispense with Vows Oaths and Covenants and to institute new Ordinances of Religious Worship And in the Civil State he tramples under foot all Lawful Authority of Magistrates setting up and pulling down Kings disposing of Kings and of their Kingdoms at his pleasure We therefore believe and maintain that he is truly and properly The Antichrist the Son of Perdition predicted by the Holy Prophets that great Whore cloathed with Scarlet sitting upon seven Mountains in that great City which had dominion over the Kings of the Earth and we hope and wait that the Lord according to his promise and as he hath already begun will confound him by the Spirit of his Mouth and destroy him finally by the brightness of his coming 6. The word Superintendant in the two and thirtieth Article is not to be understood of any superiority of one Pastor above another but only in general of such as have office and charge in the Church 7. The words substance and nourish shall remain unchanged in the six and thirtieth Article according as it hath been decreed by the Synods of Rochel in the year 1571. and of Nismes in the year 1572. 8. The Confession of Faith being read was sworn and subscribed by all the Deputies in the names of their respective Provinces and they did farther most solemnly ingage by their promise never to depart from it and protested that this was that very doctrine which was taught in all their Churches 9. The Provinces are exhorted for the future at the opening of their Synods to read this Confession of Faith and our Book of Discipline And Monsieur Chamier is appointed to draw up an Apology for this our Confession and to bring it with him unto the next National Assembly CHAP. III. Observations upon reading of the Discipline No private Ordination 1. THE Province of the Isle of France shall be exhorted to be more careful in and about the Election and Ordination of their Pastors and that Imposition of hands be given them not privately in a clandestine manner by a Consistory or Colloquy but solemnly and publickly in the face of the whole Church and that the fourth Article in the first Chapter of our Discipline be more religiously observed by them and all the Provinces Uniformity in Ordination 2. According to the Tenor of the seventh Article in the same chapter it is Decreed that all the Churches shall observe one and the same form in Ordination of Pastors by which the Person to be Ordained shall during that action be humbly on his knees and this ordination shall be administred on the Lord's day or on some certain day of the week in which there is held a solemn Assembly And these evil customs practised in some Churches of suffering the Person ordained to get into the Pulpit and of permitting another besides the Preacher to give Imposition of hands are justly condemned by this Synod 3. The eighth Article shall be most carefully observed and to this purpose there shall be deposited a Copy of our Confession and Discipline in every Provincial Synod Colloquy and Consistory See the 5th Observation upon the Discipline in the Synod of Rochell 4. All Provincial Synods Colloquies and Consistories are injoyned as they would avoid the greatest Censures to have a strict Eye over such who act contrary to the eleventh Article of the first Chapter of our Discipline and to suspend them from the Ministry and they also shall be liable to the same censures who leaving the true and genuine fence of Scripture expounded by it self do rather pitch upon the glosses of Fathers and Schoolmen and launch out into Allegories Larding their Sermons with Philosophical Discourses quoting the Fathers and bringing their Books with them into the Pulpit and they also who in time of Lent or on such noted seasons do chuse the self same Texts with the Popish Preachers 5. The twelfth Article of the same Chapter The form of Catechising according as now used in most of our Churches shall not be changed And whereas some choose a particular Text and accommodate it to that particular section of the Catechism they would treat of we desire they would not alter our establisht Order but conform themselves as the rest do unto it 6. Upon the same twelfth Article Ministers and Consistories are left to their own discretions whether in those general Catechisings which are usually had both publickly and privately before the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper they will further examine every individual person or not and therein to consult what will most contribute to the Spiritual benefit of their Catechumens 7. The third Article of the second Chapter shall be couched in these words Provincial Synods in which are our Universities shall choose their own Doctors Pastors and Professors of Divinity whose ability shall be proved by publick Lectures on some special Text out of the Original Hebrew and Greek Bible given to them for that purpose and by disputations in one or two days following as may be most adviseable And being approved in case they were never in the Ministry the right hand of fellowship shall be given them they having first of all promised to discharge their Office with faithfulness and diligence and to handle the sacred Scriptures with all sincerity according to the analogy of Faith and the confession of our Churches which shall be subscribed by them 8. On the fourth Article of the second chapter The fifth penny in all collections for the poor shall be laid up for the maintenance of Proposans And this shall be an Universal order throughout the Provinces 9. On the first Article of the third chapter That custom observed in some
Antichrist in their private and publick discourses This Synod protesting that this was the common Faith and Confession of all our Churches and of this present Synod That the Pope is the Great Antichrist and one of the principal causes of our separation and departure from the Church of Rome and that this Confession was contained in and extracted out of the holy Scriptures that it had been sealed with the blood of a world of Martyrs Therefore all the Faithful be they Pastors or private Christians are exhorted constantly to persist in the profession of it and openly and boldly to confess it yea and this very Article shall be inserted into the body of the Confession of our Faith and the General Deputies of our Churches at Court are required to petition his Majesty that none of his Officers in any Soveraign or other Inferiour Courts of Judicature may be suffered to infringe our Liberty of Conscience granted us by his Edicts of making a free Confession of our Faith and that none of them may trouble or vex us as divers of them have done for this very matter And who so are now prosecuted and molested on this account or may be hereafter they shall be supported and defended by the whole Body of the Churches in the best manner that can be according to that firm Bond of Union which is established among us And Letters shall be written to our Lords the Judges in the Mixt Courts to exhort them vigorously to maintain this Article of our common Confession Concerning those words Pretended Reformed 6. A general Case was proposed Whether the Faithful might lawfully use in publick Acts and Instruments before Magistrates these words Of the pretended Reformed Religion especially if those Magistrates be of a contrary Religion to us This Assembly thinks fit that an humble Address be presented to his Majesty intreating him that we may not be forced to speak or act any thing contrary to our Consciences and in the mean while all the Faithful are exhorted to abstain from that word of Pretended it being repugnant to our Faith and to that sincere and free and open confession we are bound to make of it Whether a private Christian may appropriate unto himself a place of Burial and erect Monument upon Pillars 7. This Case was propounded by our Brethren of Xaintonge Whether a private person might appropriate unto himself a place of Burial and erect upon Pillars or any other way a Monument unto himself and whether the Lords of the Mannor or other Gentlemen may set up their Escutcheons in our Temples As to what concerns our Churches This Assembly ordaineth That in matters of Sepulchres the ancient plainness and simplicity shall be retained nor shall any private person appropriate any spot of ground unto himself in particular because we express hereby our Communion as with the Saints in their Death so in our hope and expectation of a blessed Resurrection And the same plainness and modesty shall be observed in our Temples leaving however unto Colloquies and Consistories to act on special occasions as they shall judge meet The Form of Certificates that shall be given unto Officers of the Mixt Courts and to Govenours of places 8. The Attestations granted unto Officers in the mixed Courts where they be one half Protestants and the other Papists shall run in the same form with those given unto Governors as it was expressed and inserted into the acts of the Synod of Montpellier in these terms We Ministers and Elders assembled in the Colloquy of N. in the Province of N. do testifie that whereas Monsieur N. hath applied himself unto us for our Attestation of his being a Protestant professing the Reformed Religion he being chosen by his Majesty for the Government of N. vacant by the death of Mr. N. lately deceased we do attest and certifie unto the Kings most excellent Majesty that the said Monsieur N. doth make open and actual profession of the Reformed Religion and that he communicateth with us in the Holy Sacraments and is a person of a Godly life and well reported of performing all the duties belonging to his said profession and therefore we do give him this our Testimonial for his use and service as in reason and Conscience we stand obliged 9. Messieurs Berron and Videl demanding that out of the Common stock of Moneys granted us by his Majesty there might be drawn the summ of Six thousand Crowns for the founding an University at Die and whereas the Deputies of the Town of Die protested that they sought not a penny of the said Moneys for themselves only that other Churches having Academies they had none and that the necessities of their Churches did require one This Assembly having considered the whole judgeth that there cannot be granted unto the said Town of Die any farther summ than was at first demanded by their Deputies 10. Our Brethren of the Church of Die requesting that Monsieur Chamier might be constituted by this Synod the Professor of Divinity in their intended Academy This Assembly doth confirm that Article of the Synod of Gergeau whereby it was ordained that Monsieur Chamier ought not without the express consent of the Churches of his Province be removed from his Church of Montlimart 11. Our Brethren of Dolphiny desired that some means might be contrived for a Conference and Union with the Lutheran Churches in Germany Means of Union with the Lutherans See the Synod of Vitré part M. Act. 27. and the 3d. Synod of Rochel Act. 4. after the choice of the Moderator that so the Schism between us them might be removed This Assembly desirous to see the fruits of such a noble project ordereth Letters to be dispatcht to the Orthodox Universities of Germany England Scotland Geneva Basil and Leyden and to Messieurs des Gourdon and de Fontaines in London intreating them to travel with us in the effecting of this Holy Union and that Princes may be ingaged to put forth their authority herein that so we may all be more firmly united among our selves in the Confession of one and the same Doctrine 12. This Case was propounded A Proposant never called nor ordained unto the Ministry takes upon him to baptise a Child Is this baptism valid This Synod judgeth that the scandal given unto the people be carefully taken away And forasmuch as that baptism is of no force the Child shall be brought into the Church of God by true Baptism according to the decision of the Synod of Poictiers 13. This Case was moved Whether an Oath might be lawfully taken before the Magistrate by laying the hands on and kissing of the Bible This Assembly judging that Ceremony to be of dangerous consequence declareth that it ought not to be used but that whoso are called out to swear shall content themselves with the bare lifting up of their hands 14. The Province of the higher Languedoc moved whether disputations in Theology might be introduced among our Ministers in
respective Consistories 10. These words shall close up the fourty eighth Article and all sentences of suspension for what cause soever shall stand good notwithstanding any Appeal until the final Judgment 11. On the first Article of the third Chapter That Custom introduc'd into some certain Churches that Elders going out of Office do nominate their Successors is reprehended and it is decreed according to the Discipline that they shall be chosen by the common Suffragies of the Consistories 12. On the fourth Article of the fourth Chapter Notice is given unto Provincial Synods diligently to enquire who those Pastors and Elders be that give Testimonials contrary to the form prescribed by our Discipline that so they may be censured And for time coming all Pastors giving Attestations unto Trades-men or others who desire them upon none other account than to be acknowledged as Church-members shall specifie that they promised never to abuse them as Instruments for begging or wandring from one Church unto another and in case they should so do that then they be reputed null and void and be torn in pieces 13. Churches whose Members are Prisoners in Paris or elsewhere upon the account of Religion Prisoners for Religion to be relieved are exhorted to minister unto their Necessities by be relieved their Charities and Alms-deeds 14. This Sentence shall conclude the fourth Article of the fifth Chapter however without being able to treat of Church-matters but in those places where the Consistory doth ordinarily meet 15. On the ninth Article whole Consistories shall not be excepted against nor one of the Pastors and Elders in case a Consistory judge the causes of that Exception invalid notwithstanding the Appeal Persons married by a Priest must confess their sin publickly 16. On the twentieth Article such as have been married by a Popish Priest shall not be dispensed from making publick Acknowledgment of their sin by the Consistory whatever their quality or condition may be 17. To the seventh Article of the eighth Chapter after these words shall be chosen these must be added with a low voice 18. Reading over the division of the Provinces it was thought good that the greater and which are furnished with a larger number of Pastors should consult whether it were not commodious for them to be divided into two and they are requested to come prepared with these Resolutions upon it unto the next National Synod 19. On the third Article of the ninth Chapter The Provinces are left at liberty to send their present Deputies unto the following National Synod provided they judge it expedient 20. The clause which was razed out of the seventh Article of the ninth Chapter by the Synod of Gap to wit The Provinces having been first informed by that which was charged to convocate the next Synod shall be again inserted but with this restriction in the end if it may possibly be done 21. On the third Article of the tenth Chapter License is given unto particular Churches to celebrate a Fast they first consulting with their Neighbour-Churches and on great and urgent causes for which they shall be accountable unto the Colloquies and Provincial Synods 22. To the eleventh Article of the thirteenth Chapter after these words with the Niece shall be added and the Grand Niece 23. To the fifteenth Article of the same Chapter after these words sufficient attestation there shall be added of Promises 24. To the sixteenth Article of the fourteenth Chapter there shall be this addition made to close up that Article And in case the matter be urgent then unto the Universities or Neighbour Ministers The Church Discipline having been read and approved by all the Deputies they swore unto its observation and promised to see that it be carefully observed in their respective Churches and to sollicite their Provinces for its performance CHAP. IV. Observations on the National Synod of Gap 1. THAT Exhortation given by the Synod of Gap for reading the Confession of Faith and Book of Discipline in the Provincial Synods is only to be understood thus if it may conveniently be done 2. This Assembly judgeth that it 's no proper time at present to make an Apology for the Confession of our Churches 3. In that Article of the same Synod treating of the 31th Article of the Confession of Faith where it speaks of the Call of the first Pastors in our Reformed Churches these words And to teach which are found in some certain Copies shall be razed and instead of simply shall be inserted principally and that last clause And not unto the small remainders of their corrupted Call shall be thus read Rather than unto the small remains of their ordinary Call 4. Our Brethren of Normandy shall out of hand conform to the other Churches in their reception of Elders and Deacons 5. The Churches of the Baylywick of Gex shall be incorporated with the Provincial Synod of Burgundy See observ 8. of the Synod of Gap upon that of Gergeau Scholars not ordained may not administer the Sacraments 6. In the Letter which shall be written to our Brethren of the Church of Geneva they shall again be intreated not to send our Proposans to preach in their Villages and to administer the Sacraments before they have been lawfully Ordained They shall also be further intreated to take special care of our Students in Divinity and when as they demand a Testimonial to give them none but upon good and sufficient knowledge of their Lives and as their diligence hath deserved and most especially in case of Monks who have quitted their Monasteries to whom this Assembly hath limited the term of two years before their reception into the Sacred Ministry and our said brethren of Geneva shall be advised to detain those who are too forward And farther 't is thought good to pray them that they would endeavour with their Magistrates and People to conform themselves unto the other Churches of Christ in the use of Leavened Bread at the Lords Supper according to the example and received practice of their Neighbour Churches of Berne 7. The word Damnation as 't is qualified and explained in the tenth Sunday of our Catechism shall remain unchanged 8. The Church of Sedan shall be joined according to the Article of Gap unto the Synod of the Isle of France and to the Colloquy of Champagne and shall be present by its Deputies at the said Colloquies and Synods On which condition they shall receive the four portions which had been assigned them by the Synod of Gergeau 9. The Ministry of Monsieur Baily who was granted by the Synod of Gap unto the Church of Lions having been exceeding fruitful unto this very day and mightily edifying unto that Church This Assembly ratifieth that Grant and bestoweth him upon them for their ordinary Pastor so that the Province of Lower Languedoc for the future shall not have any the least pretensions or right unto him 10. This Synod judgeth the Universities of Montauban Nismes Montpellier and
might be Censured 3. The Lord of Barjac was Censured for not adhearing to the Resolutions taken in the Assembly of Saumur by plurality of suffrages Anno 1611. And for joyning himself unto their private Cabal who would have made the Lesser number carry it from the greater contrary to the Natural Order of all Synods But the said Lord of Barjac giving publick Testimony of his sorrow for this Miscarriage and protesting seriously for the future never in any wise to depart from the Universally received order of being Concluded by the Majority of Votes his Censure was taken off and his offence remitted to him To prevent all divisions in the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom this National Synod framed an Act or Oath of Union to be taken by all the Deputies CHAP. III. The Oath of Vnion sworn by all the Deputies of the Reformed Churches of France assembled in the National Synod at Privas in Vivaretz and subscribed by them all the day month and year above-mitten WE whose Names are here under written Deputies for the Reformed Churches of France Assembled in a National Synod at the Town of Privas in the Province of Vivaretz knowing by past-experience that nothing is more needful to preserve the Weal Peace and good Estate of the said Churches than an holy Union and unviolable Concord both in Doctrine Discipline and their Dependencies and that the said Churches cannot long subsist without a good intimate and mutual Conjunction one with the other and better kept than formerly Being for this cause desirous to remove all seeds of disunion and occasions of divisions which may hereafter trouble the said Churches and to prevent all Impostures Calumnies private Factions Plots and Practices by which divers persons ill-affected to our Religion do endeavour to dissipate and ruine them Which quickens us more than ever to find out by joynt accord and Common Consent the proper and most effectual means of our just lawful and necessary conservation in the aforesaid Union under that obedience due unto his Majesty our Soveraign Lord and the Queen his Mother We have in the Name of all our Churches and for their good and for the service of their Majesties Sworn and Protested and we do Swear and Protest Promising also our utmost Endeavour that these very self-same protestations shall be ratified in and by all our Provinces to remain inseparably united and conjoyned in that confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom read in this Synod approved and ratified by every one of us Swearing not only in our own Name but also in the respective Names of all the Churches of our Provinces which have Deputed us unto this Synod that we will live and die in it As also we Protest in our own and their Names to keep inviolably that Ecclesiastical Discipline Established in the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom and to see its Canons observed for the better Government of these our Churches and the reformation of life and manners Acknowledging that it is Most agreeable to Gods holy Word whose Authority is Supream And we Protest and Swear to yield all obedience and fidelity to their said Majesties desiring nothing else but that under the Protection of their Edicts we may serve our God with Liberty of Conscience CHAP. IV. Observation on Reading the Confession of Faith 1. WHereas there is mention made in the 14th Article of the Heresies of Servetus some of the Deputies desired that the specifying of them might be removed because those his Heresies are now as it were dead and buried and the Deputies of the Provinces in pursuance of that Decree past in the last National Synod of St. Maixant having brought with them the Judgment of their respective Provinces upon this Subject it was thought meet that nothing should be innovated in that Article but that it should be entirely left as we found it 2. That Union in Doctrine may be preserved among us and no Errors may be suffered to creep into our Churches All Pastors in actual service and all Proposans who are to be received into the Ministry shall sign this following Article I Whose Name is here under-written do receive and approve the Contents of the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in this Kingdom and do promise to persevere in it until death and to believe and teach agreeably thereunto And whereas some persons contend about the sense of the eighteenth Article treating of our Justification I declare and protest before God that I understand it in the same sense in which it is received in our Churches approved by our National Synods agreeably to the Word of God which is That our Lord Jesus Christ was obedient to the Moral and Ceremonial Law not only for our good but also in our stead and that his whole Obedience yielded by him thereunto is imputed to us and that our Justification consists not only in the forgiveness of sins but also in the Imputation of his Active Righteousness and subjecting my self unto the Word of God I believe that the Son of Man came to serve and that he was not a Servant because he came into the World I do also promise that I will never depart from the Doctirne received in our Churches and that I will yield all Obedience to the Canons of our National Synods in this matter And this Article shall be religiously observed in and by all the Provinces 3. Our Printers be forbidden henceforward to print the Confession of Faith with this Title The Confession of Faith revised and amended by the National Synod 4 The Confession of Faith being read and heard was approved by all the Deputies who protested that by the Grace of God they would live and die in it As was manifest by their Act in swearing the said Union CHAP. V. Observations upon Reading of our Church-Discipline Article 1. IN reading and revising the Discipline of our Churches this National Synod voted That whereas in the close of the second Canon of the first Chapter the time and manner of admitting Novices lately converted from Popery to the Reformed Religion are particularly specified Now instead of these words Unless in a Provincial Synod these ensuing shall be inserted Unless by the Advice of Provincial and National Synods and the said Canon shall be finished with this Sentence Nor shall they be Ordained by Imposition of Hands no more than if they were unknown persons without the Advice of Provincial and National Synods Article 2. On the third Canon of the first Chapter after these words which do almost conclude it And after long experience had of his Repentance and Godly Conversation There shall be nothing added but the last clause shall be blotted out viz. He being found meet and sit and sufficiently qualified to teach the Church may be chosen and called unto the Sacred Ministry Article 3. The Deputies of Burgundy demanding that they might not be bound by that Canon of the Synod of St. Maixant that seven Pastors should be
Magistrate will in some Cases oblige us to hold them separated whom God had once joyned together in this holy ordinance 'T is true that Betrothed Persons in Scripture are called Husband and Wife not that they be so already in very truth and deed but only because the Scripture oftentimes styleth things shortly to be done as if they had been already done And though a Betrothed Wife committing Whoredom be by the Law of Moses as severely punished as a Married Woman that commits adultery yet it doth not thence follow that she is an Adultoress For in the same Chapter a Daughter playing the Whore in her Fathers House is also punished with death Therefore for these and other causes and for that the Laws of the Kingdom do decree that Promises of Marriage shall be made in express words de futuro This Assembly ordaineth that from henceforward All the Members of our Churches shall Universally and Uniformly conform to the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom not only as to the bare words but also as to their sence and meaning and that the words de futuro shall not be reckoned by the parties as obliging and dissolvable as words de praesenti So then for time coming the fifth Article in the Chapter of Marriges shall be Couched in these words Henceforward in Promises of Marriage the words de futuro shall be used as also in all Espousals nor shall those words be taken as indissolvable as the words de praesenti because words de praesenti do not Promise but effect and perform Marriage yet those words and Promises de futuro shall never be dissolved without very great and lawful causes And therefore that Custom of divers Churches celebrating the Espousals by the Ministry and Benediction of the Pastor and gift of bodies with words de praesenti is expresly condemned For this Synod reckoneth that by this Ceremony the parties be truly and actually joyned together in Marriage and that consequently all Banes are preposterous and useless because done after Marriage and the Blessing of the Church thereby render'd altogether needless Yet we don't count it ill for Ministers to assist at Espousals nor that they should by prayer implore the Divine Blessing on the intended Marriage nor that they should exhort the Betrothed Persons to mutual Love Unity Faithfulness and the fear of God only that they ought to forbear those other formallities which sometime render a bond indissolvible which we be afterwards necessitated to break and untye because of those oppositions which are made at the publishing of the Banes and for divers other Causes that may then happen And the Churches of Rouen and Dieppe who solemnize Espousals in the Temple after the same manner as publick Marriages are exhorted to abandon this usage and to conform unto the received Custom in the Churches and Provinces of this Kingdom Article 15. Whereas formerly the 16th Article of the eighth Chapter of our Discipline contained the distribution of the Provinces it shall be henceforward the 15th and the Provincial Synods shall be thus distributed 1. The Isle of France 2. Normandy 3. Brittany 4. Berry 5. Anjou 6. Poictou 7. Xaintonge 8. Lower Guyenne 9. Higher Languedoc 10. Bearn 11. Lower Languedoc 12. Provence 13. Dolphiny 14. Sevennes 15. Vivaretz 16. Burgundy Article 16. The Church-Discipline being read was unanimously approved by all the Deputies then present who promised to observe it and see it observed in their respective Provinces And this Assembly gave an express charge to Monsieur Valleton Pastor of the Church of Privas to get the Confession of Faith and the Book of Discipline transcribed that so the Copies of them might be signed and subscribed by all the Deputies of this Assembly and the subscribed Copy shall be deposited in the hands of the Deputies of that Province which is appointed to summon the next National Synod CHAP. VI. Observations made on Reading the Acts of the next National Synod of St. Maixant 1. IN pursuance of the Decree made by the National Synod of St. Maixant in their Observations on the 11th Canon of the first Chapter of our Church-Discipline all the Provinces are strictly enjoyned on pain of Censure to have a very careful Eye over their Ministers that they preach not up any new Doctrines and that they affect not in the Pulpit nor in Writing nor in any other Discourses any phrases or modes of speech which be strange and forreign to the Sacred Scriptures and that they intersperse not Latine Greek nor Hebrew sentences in their Sermons nor surcharge them with many prophane Histories And those Deputies who shall be sent by the Provinces unto the next National Synod are charged to bring their Memoirs with them whether this Decree had been observed or not 2. Monsieur Chamier having presented his Controversial Writings unto this Synod according as he was enjoyned by the last National Synod he received the thanks of the whole Assembly for the great progress he had made in them and he was earnestly intreated and encouraged to finish his designed Labours and that he would be pleased to print the three first Tomes at once and to assist him in the great and necessary Charges he must needs be at the sum of two thousand Livers is ordered to be paid him now in hand 3. Monsieur Perrin also presenting his History of the Albingenses and Waldenses it was put into the hands of Messieurs Roussett Cuville de Preaux Petit and Joly Ministers of the Gospel who were ordered to bring in their Opinion of it and in consideration of his Charges this Synod orders him the sum of three hundred Livers 4. The Provinces which have not observed that Decree of the above-mentioned Synod which forbad all additions to be made at the close of Propositions and Colloquies are exhorted conscientiously to obey it 5. In the observations made by the same Synod upon the Acts of the former National Synod held at Rochell in which there was great discourse and debate about Monks who quitting their Cloysters did joyn themselves to the Communion of the Reformed Churches but Information being now given of divers Scandals arriving from the publick declaration made by these Monks in our Churches This Assembly judged that it was in no wise expedient for the said Monks to make any declarations publickly until such time as we have good experience of their abilities sincerity and discretion However their simple and unfeigned Abjurations shall be admitted either publickly or in the Consistories 6. That Article of the same National Synod about those Remonstrances which should have been made in the Chamber of Nerac shall be razed 7. Nothing shall be altered in that Article of the aforesaid Synod which had approved the administration of Baptism before Sermons and at the ordinary publick Prayers excepting in that clause which specifies the lawfulness of this Action in case there be apparent danger of death and that the Consistory do attest it or at least some of the Elders because this
in unto him And therefore altho the said Commissioners Bigot and de la Combe have received the thanks of this Synod yet they were ordered to put into the hands of our General Deputies all papers in their Custody relating to this affair And that for the future the matter having been once laid open before the Provinces it shall be recommended to a General Assembly to embrace the prosecution of it and to follow their Majesties with our most humble requests that we may be paid the said sums according to the Intention of their warrants granted us at first and other orders in pursuance of their first truly and faithfully without any deductions for Non-Valoirs 16 The Inhabitants also of the Bareny de Combata in Sevennes who in seven Towns for the greatest part of them being Protestants are yet deprived of their Temples and all exercise of the Reformed Religion and constrained to travel many a long Journey and expose themselves to a world of inconveniences that they may worship God according to his holy word and all because they have a Popish Landlord who yet would not oppose the re-establishment of their Churches provided it were ordained by the supream Authority And let it be particularly observed that in one of the Towns of that Barony called Vie there was a Church and Pastor in the year 1561. 17. The other Provinces are exhorted to joyn with that of Dolphiny to obtain a sufficient time for the poor Communalties and Villages in the Bailywick of Gresivaudan to recover their just rights from their wicked Popish debtors and that all proceedings at law against them may cease and be vacated because the Commissioners appointed to judge between them were not the one half Protestants as they should have been and because that the Respit of three months allotted them to bring in their Appeal before the Chamber of the Edict at Grenoble was too short and could do them no service The Writ of Appeal not having past the Seal till the time was lapst and the three months already expired During which time the Syndick of the Communalties got a Writ of Foreclusion against the said Creditors 18. The affair of the Church of Monosque and Tourves who having got an Order of Council that of Monosques to build a Temple for the worship of God neat unto their place of abode and that of Tourves within their own bounds as being priviledged because a Bailywick yet could never obtain unto this day that those orders should be put in execution 19. Lastly there is recommended to them the affairs of the Churches of Antibe Forqualqâ—ier and Derbordes which although they had proved incontestably that the worship of God according to our Reformed Religion was publickly in use and exerecise among them in the year 1577. Yet notwithstanding Judgment is still suspended to their very great prejudice CHAP. XVIII Expedients for reuniting the Christian Churches which have shook off the Papa Yoak and for composing the differences which are already risen or may hereafter rise up amongst them offered and propounded to them 1. WE must lay down this as a foundation-principle that to endeavour an Union and Agreement between the Churches is a most useful pious and necessary work and very feasible As to its possibility we say that such an Union cannot be effected without the concurrence aid assistance and conduct of those Soveraign Princes who have withdrawn themselves from the obedience of the Pope among whom his Majesty of Great Britain as being the Chiefest and most Potent Monarch of a most clear anti piercing Judgment and most affectionately inclined hereunto can most effectually promote and advance it 2. This being presupposed we conceive that some certain place should be chosen of safe and convenient access whereunto two Divines shall be sent by his Majesty and two from the Churches of France and two from the Low Countries two from the Cantons of Switzerland and one or two from each of the German Princes embracing and professing our Faith 3. Zealand in our opinion would be the most commodious place for such a Treaty which is as it were the fore-door of England and easily to be aborded by the Messengers of the respective Princes and Churches 4. And when they meet at this place let there be no disputes about Religion for when once the Spirits are inflamed there will be no yielding on any side and all parties will return homeward with the imaginary Triumphs of their own Victories Wherefore it were better to lay before them on the Table the several Confessions of the Reformed Churches of England Scotland France the Netherlands Switzerland and the Palatinate c. And that out of all these Confessions there might be framed one in common to them all in which divers Points may be omitted the knowledge whereof is not needful to our everlasting happiness Among which the controversie moved by Piscator and several subtil opinions lately broached by Van-Armin about free Will the Saints Perseverance and Predestination may be reckoned It being a most certain Truth that all the Errors in Religion have sprung hence that men would either know too much or have too much that is to say either out of curiosity or from their avarice and ambition 'T is this last Sin that hath corrupted and ruined the Church of Rome But yet Satan doth use his utmost endeavours by the first to corrupt ours However could we but gain that authority and power over our selves so as to ignore divers matters and to rest contented with points only necessary to Salvation we should have gone a great and good part of the way and made a considerable progress in our WORK of UNION 5. This Confession being once prepared it must be subscribed not only by the Deputies then and there present but also by the several Princes and by our National Synod And let this Canon be enacted that if any controversie should hereafter be moved either in England France or Germany in the Low Countreys or Switzerland nothing shall be concluded or decided much less innovated in or about it without the general consent and concurrence of all the Provinces that have signed this Agreement 6. 'T is probable that thus far we shall meet with little or no opposition The Parties treating being the Reformed Churches agreeing in the fundamental Articles of Faith only dissenting from one another in the quillets of Ceremonies and Church-Government 7. Concerning which Ceremonies and Church-Discipline a mutual Declaration should be made and added unto the said Confession by which the said Deputies in the names of their Principa's do declare that the Churches shall not judge nor condemn one another for this difference it not hindering our mutual Agreement in the same true Faith and Doctrine and that for all this we may cordially embrace each other as true Believers and Joynt-Members of one and the same Body 8. It were fitting that after this Conference had as a pledge of their mutual Concord the Lords Supper
born again not of corruptible Seed but of that which is incorruptible CANON IX Who teach That our Lord Jesus Christ did no where pray for the infallible perseverance of Believers in the Faith for they contradict our Lord himself Luke 22.32 I have prayed Simon Peter that thy Faith may not fail And the very Letter of St. John's Gospel chap. 17.11 where Christ saith that he did not pray for his Apostles only but also for all them who should believe by their Word Holy Father keep them in thy Name and ver 15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the World but that thou shouldest keep them from evil CANON X. We Pastors and Elders whose Names are hereunder-written Deputies for the Reformed Churches of France unto the National Synod of Charenton St. Maurice near Paris in the Moneth of September 1623. do declare with all possible sincerity the Articles and Canons above-mentioned to be grounded on the Word of God and agreeable to the Confession of Faith owned and received in the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom from which in the presence of God we do protest that through his Grace we will never depart In confirmation whereof we have hereunto affixt our Names at Charenton aforesaid this 30th day of September 1623. Signed by the Pastors and Elders of the said Synod Durand Moderator De Baille Assessor Faucheur and Scribes De Launay Scribes Berbie Pastor of the Church of Quaissac J. Clerc de Chambrun Chamier Pastor of Montlimart J. le Pelletier Pastor in the Church of Vandome Savoys Pastor in the Church of Castres Sir John Embelier Jurieu Pastor of Chastillon on the Loir Villon Faures J. M. de Langle Pastor of Rouen P. Paulet Pastor of Vezenobre Avignon Pastor of Rennes P. Beraud Pastor and Professor in the Church of Montauban Lottiby Pastor at Poitiers William Rivett Pastor of Taillebourg in Xaintonge CHAP. XXVII Remarks upon some of the Deputies Commissionated unto this Synod 1 MOnsieur Durant the Moderator was first Minister to the Landgrave of Hesse and after to that Excellent Princess Katharine Dutchess of Barr only Sister of Henry the Fourth and at last Pastor of the Church of Paris He was a very Holy Man of God a most Eloquent and Zealous Preacher he was like Lightning and Thunder in the Pulpit There be Three Excellent Sermons of his in print upon the Nineteenth Verse of the Fifth Chapter and First Epistle to the Thessalonians He grew sickly after his return from this Synod and dyed in the Year 1626. 2. Peter de Launay who was the Lay-Scribe in this Synod was a very Learned Gentleman and of great Reputation in the Churches of France He hath written Commentaries upon all the Epistles of Paul in French which are printed in Two Volumes in Quarto He Commented also but under another Name upon the Prophesie of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John 3. Adrian Chamier was the Worthy Son of the Great Chamier the Third Minister successively from his Grandfather a Pious Minister in Dolphiny I knew five of his Grandsons all Learned and Godly Ministers and Exiles for Christ The Ministry hath been in this Family for Six Generations Monsieur Leger that was a Pastor in the Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont writes that the Ministry had been in his Family for above Four Hundred years and that his Grandfather preached when he was above an Hundred Years Old See Legers Histoire General des Vaudols Livre 2. pag. 360. Adrian Chamier was for his great Prudence and Ability to manage Synodical businesses chosen Deputy to several of their National Synods He succeeded his Father in the Pastoral Office in the Church of Montlimart Of whom God lending me Life I shall say more in my Icones 4. Jurieu he was the Father of Monsieur Jurieu the Learned Pastor and Professor of Divinity in the French Church and Illustrious School of Rotterdam 5. Beraud he succeeded his Father in both Functions as Pastor of the Church and Professor of Divinity in the University of Montauban 6. Monsieur William Rivet he was Brother to Andrew Rivet Professor of Divinity at Leyden distinguisht from him by the Title of Lord of Champvernon He would never remove from his Church of Taillebourg He was very dear unto the House of Tremouille Deputy to several National Synods a Man of singular prudence and dexterity in the management and dispatch of the Synodical Affairs insomuch that when he died there was a great lamentation for him because of that great loss the whole Province sustained in his Death But God made it up in Two years time by raising up Twenty Ministers capable of doing all Services in their Provincial Synod as I have been credibly informed by some Ancient and Eminent Pastors of Poictou He was a Man of great Learning He hath writt de Justificatione and another Book de Invocatione Adoratione Sanctorum defunctorum I have seen another piece of his in French of the Authority of the Scriptures in Quarto and there is a Fourth in Octavo Des droicts de Dieu Sir Augustus Galland was the first Commissioner for the King in any of their National Synods He represented the King in this I suppose he was born in Bearn or Navar. He was a great Lawyer and Antiquary his Works are printed in one Folio viz. Memoirs pour L' Histoire de Navarre de Flandre par Guillemot Paris 1648. 8. Monsieur de Baux Lord of L' Angle Pastor of the Church of Caen The Reverend Dr. L' Angle Prebend of Westminster is his Son 9. Monsieur Mestrezat Of him see the Second Synod of Charenton in which he presided THE Acts Canons Decisions and Decrees OF THE XXIV NATIONAL SYNOD OF The Reformed Churches OF FRANCE AND BEARNE Assembled in The City of Castres in the Country of Albigeois In the Year of Our Lord 1626. The CONTENTS of the Synod of CASTRES 1 Chap. THE Lord Galland produced his Commission from the King to sit and represent His Majesty in this Synod The Commission it self Deputies to the Synod Election of the Synodical Officers Chap. II. The Kings writ for calling of the Synod and ordering of Matters in it Chap. III. The Commissioners Speech to the Synod Chap. IV. The Synods Answer to it Chap. V. The Kings Writ for Election of a new General Deputy upon the Death of the former Chap. VI. The Debate about that Writt Chap. VII The Synods Letter to the King about this Election Chap. VIII Their Deputies return with His Majesties Answer verbal and written The Kings Letter Monsieur Herbaut Miwister of State his Letter to the Synod Chap. IX The Lord Commissioners more ample Declaration of His Majesties Will and several points demanded by their Deputies Chap. X. The Kings Warrant and Order unto the Synod for the Nomination of their General Deputies without any Previous Political Assembly Chap. XI A Conference between the Synod and the Lord Commissioner Chap. XII A Remonstrance of the Lord of Angoulins on
him to Article 2. Forasmuch as Monsieur Eymard abusing the Leave granted him by his Church of Veyne in Dolphiny hath for several Months withdrawn himself into the Province of Lower Guyenne and is there since imployed in the Holy Ministry This Assembly censuring the Church of Berbignieres for calling him unto their Service and condemning the said Province for their too great Facility in admitting and supporting him doth injoin the said Eymard to appear before the Synod of Dolphiny which if the good Providence of God do permit will be assembled the next Year and he shall give an Account unto them of all his Actions and Deportments and in case he refuse Obedience and Submission unto their Judgment he shall be then as he is now at this Instant denounced suspended from the sacred Ministry Article 3. Mr. Harvey Deputy from the Church of Bourdeaux presented himself to this Assembly with Letters and Memoirs from the said Church petitioning that Monsieur Vignier might be conferred upon them for their Pastor There was read also an Act of Opposition made against this Call by several Heads of Families of the said Church and divers Letters also of the said Mr. Vignier and Letters from the Church of Nerac There were heard also the Lords of Aulous and of Massilieres petitioning on behalf of the Church of Nerac that the said Mr. Vignier might be bestowed on them for their Minister and the Lord Berdolin also spake in behalf of the Province Whereupon the Assembly bestowed Monsieur Vignier upon the Church of Nerac to be their peculiar Pastor and ordered the Church of Nerac to reimburse that of Bourdeaux of those just and reasonable Expences they had been at in their Endeavours for the getting of the said Mr. Vignier and the Church of Bourdeaux hath leave given it to provide for it self either within or without the Province according to the Forms prescribed by the Discipline and in case the said Church should meet with any Pastor at Liberty and one who may contribute beneficially to their Edification the said Church is now impowered to treat with him Article 4. The Church of Valance shall carry its Declaration unto the Synod of Lower Languedoc which shall judg whether the said Church ought to be rejoined to that of Soyon and the Province of Vivaretz Article 5. For the future the Church of Sr. Estienne in Forest shall be reputed a Member of the Synod of Vivaretz Article 6. Mr. Constantin Pastor of the Church of Rochefoucauld presented himself unto this Assembly with Letters from his Mother petitioning that he might be discharged the Service of the said Church and drawn out of the Province of Xaintonge and a Letter also was read from the Consistory of the Church of Nismes unto the said Province to the same purpose and the Act of Dismission granted the said Constantin by the Church of Rochefoucauld After hearing of the Deputies of Xaintonge and a mature Debate of all Arguments pro and con this Assembly did consent that the said Mr. Constantin should be set at Liberty but did exhort him to make Conscience of keeping to his Calling and readily to embrace all Opportunities of serving the Church of God Article 7. The Deputies of the Province of Bearn having moved that their Right unto divers Scholars whom they at their own Charges had educated for the Ministry and were now imployed in the Pastoral Office in Churches of this Kingdom might be conserved This Assembly did assure them that the Interest of the said Province should be equally regarded with that of the other Provinces and that the Churches of this Kingdom should be always ready upon all Occasions to communicate unto them the sensible Effects of their Charity and Affection to their Preservation ☞ The Commissioners nominated by the Synod to examine that Book made by Monsieur d'Aubus intitled Bellarmin Reformed having made their Report of it the Assembly considering that it would do good Service and contribute greatly to the Edification of the Readers approved the printing of its first Part and exhorteth the said Monsieur d'Aubus to imploy those excellent Gifts which God hath so abundantly poured out upon him to the Advancement of his Kingdom and promised that if God did enable the Churches with a Supply of Monies they would be at the Charges of the first Impression But this Act as Monsieur Bollenat one of the Deputies unto this Synod relateth in his Copy of its Acts was afterwards razed out and that also by Order of the very Synod Article 8. Because of the great Importance of the Church of Nismes and its present urgent Necessities and for that the Provincial Deputies of Lower Languedoc have yielded their Consent unto their Petition This Assembly permits the Lord Cheyron Elder of the said Church to discover to it any Pastor by whose Ministry the said Church may be edified that so it it be possible they may be provided of a third Pastor during the Session of this Synod and in case he cannot find one Leave is given unto the said Church to get it self a Pastor any where either within or without the Province Article 9. Because of the Inability of the Colloquy of Rovergue and of the small Numbers of its Pastors the Colloquy of Albigeois is ordered to take care that the Church of St. Affrique be supplied till the Meeting of the next Provincial Synod of Higher Languedoc Article 10. Leave is given by this Assembly to Mr. Bastide a Minister freed from his Service in the Church of St. Affrique and Province of Higher Languedoc to address himself unto any other Church or Province in this Kingdom in which he may exercise his Ministry and make his Abode as may be best for his Advantage Article 11. The Synod being informed of the Innocency of Monsieur de Monbreueil and touched with a deep Sense of his many and great Sufferings doth order the Lords General Deputies to take a most especial Care of his Concern and to sollicit the expediting and ratifying of those Attestations given him by the Churches of Paris Nantes and Rennes who have had a perfect Knowledg of his Life and Deportments that so he may be fully justified and discharged Article 12. The Sieur Cottiere having presented a Summary of Books composed by him and of one especially treating of the ancient Faith of the Churches in the three first Centuries This Assembly being fully informed of those many excellent Gifts with which God had indowed him and applauding his Zeal and great Affection for the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom doth exhort him to continue the devoting of himself and Labours to the Defence of God's Truth and to carry his Writing unto the Synod of Anjou which is expresly ordered to peruse them and having approved of them to take care about their Impression and the Churches shall defray the Charges thereof Article 13. Mr. Perrier formerly Receiever of the Monies given by his Majesty's Liberality unto the Churches in the Province of
Majesty and to our Lords his Ministers but that they repose themselves firmly on his Royal Word trusting always in his Majesty's Goodness that he will hinder and prevent the Designs and Attempts of ill-minded Men who would contrary to the Tenour of his Edicts persecute his poor Subjects because they be of the Reformed Religion 19. And to the intent that our Churches may never be impeached of contributing unto any Alterations and Changes whereby the Publick Peace should be broken This Assembly recommends unto all Pastors an exacter Observation of our Ecclesiastical Discipline and of the Stile of God's holy Word and of our Confession of Faith than heretofore and doth according to our Canons in all these Articles expresly interdict and forbid them the utterance of any bitter Words or Expressions whenever they declare their Faith and Hope against any Person or Opinion whatsoever And it doth also most humbly supplicate his Majesty to interpose his Royal Authority that those of the Romish Religion who do licentiously depart from their Duty may be reduced to the Obedience of his Edicts and that his poor Subjects of the Reformed Religion may not for the future as they have been upon all Occasions hitherto be loaden with the most outragious and atrocious Abuses and Reproaches And we do farther recommend unto all our Churches and their respective Members the observation of our Discipline and particularly that no one do publish any Book till it have been first perused and examined and approved by them who are commissionated thereunto and that none take upon them to violate the Judicial Sentences of the Civil Magistrate concerning Divorces And the Province of Sevennes hath and doth protest that it had never any such Design or Purpose for so doing 20. And whereas there is a Crime imputed unto our Churches about the Residence of their Pastors and the Exercise of their Ministry as if some of them had acted contrary to the tenth Article of January 1561 which yet is very false for not one of them hath ever attempted to preach forcibly in any Place Yea and secondly that Edict of January was only provisional made for that time and hath been since abrogated by the subsequent Edicts particularly by the one and fortieth Article of that Edict made in the Year 1570 and by that of Nants made in the Year 1598 and which by his then Majesty was declared to be a clear plain general and absolute Law by which it was his Will and Pleasure that all his Subjects should be governed And thirdly The Pastors do not exercise the Duties of their Calling in any other Places besides those which are allowed them by the 78th 79th 80th and 81st Articles of the Edict last mentioned And fourthly Our Lords of the Council and the Parliaments and the several Commissioners for the Execution of that Edict have from the beginning made out Orders where and in what Places the publick Exercise of our Religion should be established and performed and did always consider that the most part of those Places were but so many Quarters and Members of one and the same Church served by one and the same Pastor And fifthly That the Pastors never preach out of those Quarters unless in the case of Absence or Sickness or of some other lawful hindrance of their Brethren And lastly By the sixth Article of the Edict of Nants explained by the first of the secret and particular Articles it is granted that our Ministers may reside in any Places of the Kingdom indifferently Wherefore we most humbly petition that his Majesty would maintain them in that Liberty granted them by his Edicts and revoke all Orders and Decrees of his Privy-Council which are derogatory to them 21. Moreover forasmuch as our Pastors do not receive their Maintenance in a way of begging nor from the Poors Box nor from Legacies bequeathed to pious Uses and destinated for the Relief of the Poor but only from a voluntary Contribution of their Flocks or by an Assessment made upon them according to the forty fourth Article of Particular Matters conformably to those Agreements past between them and their Pastors at their first coming And that according to the Discipline the fifth Penny of all Alms is particularly assigned to the maintenance of our Professors Regents Scholars and other such like Persons whole Poverty renders them meet and proper Objects of those Charities without ever diverting the Monies of this natu them but according to the Order of Provincial or National Synods His Majesty is most humbly beseeched to keep up in our Churches the Observation of this ancient Order established by the Discipline and authorized by his Edicts and whereof there was never any Complaint yet formed and that he would be pleased to interdict his Officers the disannulling or changing of Agreements past and made between the Pastors and their Churches about their Salaries when they first took upon them the Cure and Charge of their Souls 22. And sith what hath been done in the case of Mr. Petit relateth to the Execution of this Order and to the Canons of former National Synods his Majesty is most humbly requested to approve thereof 23. Finally forasmuch as the Declaration made by the Synod of Nismes is neither as to its Substance nor Terms in which it is framed and expressed any other Matter than the first Article of the eleventh Chapter of our Discipline bottom'd upon our Confession of Faith Catechism and other Expositions of the Belief of our Churches and for that the Arguments produced on behalf of the Opus operatum and the Decision made by the Church of Rome which is directly opposite unto our Faith aforesaid do formally condemn it his Majesty having by his Edicts allowed of it is most humbly intreated to grant that his Subjects of the Reformed Religion may still enjoy and be always secured in the full enjoyment of the Liberty of their Consciences according to his Sacred and Royal Promises that so they may all unanimously with one and the same Heart and the self-same Vows and Prayers unanimously imploy themselves in the Service of God and of his Majesty CHAP. V. Deputies sent with a Letter unto the King 24. THere were chosen by Plurality of Voices in the Assembly the Sieurs Ferrand Gigord and Cerizy to carry unto his Majesty the most humble Thanks and Petitions of the Churches who were furnished with their Instructions and Letters unto his Majesty and to our Lords the Ministers of State 25. A Copy of the first Letter written by the Synod unto the King SIRE THE Great God whose lively Image you are accepting indifferently and irrespectively the Prayers and Homages of all his Creatures we believed that your Majesty would not he displeased with our Boldness in laying ours at your Feet your Majesty having granted us the Priviledge of assembling our selves in this Place And 't is to acquit our selves of this necessary Duty Sire that we have sent the Sieurs Ferrand Gigord
about an Hundred Years agoe before any Edict was granted in favour of our Religion and was presented by them unto Francis the Second who then Reigned to give his Majesty a reason of their Hope and account of those Corruptions which they firmly believed to be in that Faith professed and Retained by the Church of Rome and that therefore it needed Reformation Insomuch as none of out French Protestants did at first nor can they now without being guilty of gross Prevarication change that form of Expression which hath from its very beginning been inserted into our Confession whereby to declare sincerely and in truth their common Belief authorised in the Year 1561 by the Edict of January and since by that of Nantes granted us by Henry the Great and Confirmed by the Late King and his Majesty now reigning Thirdly The whole Roman Catholick Creed was never nor can ever be truly qualified an Abuse and Deceit of Satan seeing that both the Church of Rome and the Protestants have no difference about the Doctrin of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus which are the principal points of Christianity yet together with these Fundamental Verities and own'd by all Christians in France Germany and elsewhere there have been divers other Articles of Faith brought into the Romish Creed to which we cannot yield any Assent or Consent such are those of the Intercession of Saints of Purgatory of the Pope and sundry others which though they have been in Vogue in that Church for many Ages have notwithstanding been constantly opposed and contradicted by all Protestants both in France and other Countries So that should we abandon the Profession of our Faith permitted us by the Edict and that Confession we have made and declared of it with all Imaginable Sincerity and Truth in the Presence of God who searcheth our Hearts and cannot endure Hypocrisie nor an Evil Conscience we should render our Selves Guilty of a most inexcusable Imposture we should dissemble and Counterfeit in Religion and utterly ruin all our Hopes of Heaven and Everlasting Life by means of a Sacrilegious Profession not in the least believed by us Wherefore it is the hope of our pour Churches that his Majesty imitating the Examples of his Predecessors who granted to their Faithful Subjects the Liberty of their Consciences will the rather favour us with his Royal Support and Protection for that open Profession we do make of our Faith than if we had dissembled it or kept it secretly and close in our own Bosoms or uttered it in Ambiguous and Equivocating Expressions which would have turn'd our Religion into a Cheat and through a Fallacious Compliance full of Fraud and Imposture would have perfidiously Betray'd the Holy Faith of our Fellow protestants and be the Bane of our own Consciences Fourthly As to the Printer of Geneva he does not depend on the National Synods of this Kingdom nor hath he any Orders from us nor received any Command from his Superiors to use those Terms which he did and we wish he had forborn them though yet he Speaks and Prints nothing but what is the common Sense and Opinion of all Protestants in Europe who have all unanimously from the very first with One Consent impugned that Council of Trent as to the form of its Convocation the Proceedings Decrees and Anathema's thereof which also sundry Roman Catholick Princes have done who by their Ambassadors made and entred their Solemn Protests against it and its Decrees So did the Emperor Charles the Fifth from whom our King is Descended by his Mother's Side by the Lord of Mendoza So did Henry the Second by the then Lord Abbot of Bellozonne who was afterward Bishop of Auxerre And so did Charles the Ninth by Monsieur Ferrier who describing this Famous Assembly resembled it to a Scorpion pricking the French Church and used an Expression every way at Emphatical as that of the Geneva Printer whose Liberty is yet so displeasing unto their Majesty Fifthly Nor have our Churches been ever so unmindful of their Duty and Subjection as audaciously to assume unto themselves a power of being Judges in their own Cause and doing themselves right But the naked truth of the matter is this that being favoured with his Majesties Declaration which ratified the Edict of Nantes and those secret Articles and Concessions included in it which had been granted by our former Kings several particular Churches being restored unto their Ancient Right fully and compleatly they believed that it was no Crime on their part to make use of them according to the Intention of his Majesty Sixthly And it was upon this Innocent Supposition and which had not in it any the least tendency unto Disobedience against the Publick Government that the Exercise of our Religion accustomarily performed at Ribaute for Seventy Years together without any Interruption being violently hindred by the Lady of that Place and Monsieur Arnaud Pastor of Anduze who was invited by the People offering himself to Minister to them for their Edification according to the ancient Practice was driven away by meer Force by a Company of Soldiers commanded thither by the said Lady and he thereupon was imprisoned by Order from the Lord Lieutenant of Languedoc and notwithstanding his Appeal unto the Court of the Edict yet he was actually Condemned for which Grievance he is now prostrate at his Majesties Feet humbly imploring his Majesties Clemency and Justice according to the Edict Seventhly The Provincial Deputies of Lower Languedoc for the acquitting and discharge of their Churches which hath sent them do maintain that those Three Cities of Nismes Vsez and Montpellier having deputed the Sieurs Peyrol Vestrie and Fournier to tender in their Names with all possible speed their First and Bounden Duties unto his Majesty and their most Humble and Unfeigned Thanks for the grant of his Declaration They did also Petition for his Majesties Protection and Justice and with the lowliest Submission and Respect they demanded also a Reparation of the Infractions of the Edict according to the constant practice of our Churches so that they cannot be perswaded that those said Cities are fallen from the Duty which becomes good Subjects and whereunto they are obliged by their Consciences Nor are they at all to be blamed for Addressing themselves unto his Majesty against the Prohibition of the Lord Intendant though he used his Majesties Name directly contrary to his Majesties Intention notified to us and to the World by his publick Declaration Eighthly Nor is the City of Vsez guilty of violating the Edict no not in that particular Capitulation with his Majesty nor doth it need a new Grant for an ancient Usage which was never taken from them by any Previous Inhibition That Bell of which there is so much Noise and so loud Complaints made unto his Majesty was ever placed in the Steeple of the Temple from its first Foundation and continued there till a little before the Capitulation when the
natural Obligations of Loyal Subjects of truly Godly Christians we may have these also superadded of Servants loaden and enriched with your Royal Favours and Benefits and who desire only to enjoy our Lives that we may spend them in most ardent Prayers for the preservation of the Sacred Person of our King the dear Son of your Majesty a King obtain'd of God by the common united Supplications of all France that the Divine Blessing may be upon his blooming Youth that his Scepter may be established which is now supported by your Majesty's Hands to the perpetual Glory of your Majesty We being for ever From Charenton January 26th 1645. Madam Of Your Sacred Majesty The most Humble the most Faithful and most Obedient Subjects and Servants the Pastors and Elders assembled in the National Synod at Charenton and in the Name of them all Garrissoles Moderator Basnage Assessor Scribes Blondel Le Coq CHAP. VI. 18. THE Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom was read and Signed by all the Deputies and they did all of them unanimously for themselves and for their Provinces make this Solemn Protestation that they would immovably persist to their last Gasp in the Profession of it 19. Observations upon Reading of the Church-Discipline ARTICLE 1. THE strict Observation of the Thirteenth Canon in the First Chapter of our Discipline concerning the Residence of Pastors in their Churches is recommended unto all the Provinces who shall mutually inspect one the other and shall be responsible respectively for their Obedience unto this Order in the next National Synod Article 2. For the better Understanding of the Ninth Canon in the Second Chapter of our Discipline and the Second Observation of the Synod of Alez on the immediate foregoing Synod of Vitre That when a Church is served by several Pastors and an Appeal shall be made from One of them this Business shall be decided by his Colleagues in conjunction with the Consistory and in such Churches where there is but one Pastor only a Neighbour Minister shall be intreated to come unto that Consistory to consult about the Appeal from him and to give Judgment in that case and till it be Pronounced the Appellant shall abstain from Communion at the Lord's Table Article 3. The Tenth Canon of the 13th Chapter of our Discipline shall be understood in this Sense That no Man may Marry the Mother of his Deceased Spouse unless the Civil Magistrate shall Authorize it by his own Ordinance which shall be expected both by the Pastor and the Parties contracting Marriage Article 4. The Twelfth Canon shall be couched in these Words That however Civility and Decency may oppose a Mans Marriage with the Widow of his Wives Brother yet in case the Civil Magistrate will authorize the Contract our Churches shall make no difficulty at all to Bless it Article 5. In ratifying the Canons of the National Synods of Gergeau Gap and the Third held at Rochel concerning Proposans who presume to get into the pulpits and from thence to hold forth their Propositions which can be none other than an Authoritative Preaching unto the People especially if it be on the usual Days and Hours of their Publick Meetings this Assemby at the Request of the Province of Xaintonge doth forbid all Pastors and Consistories to suffer this Practice to creep into any of their Churches nor shall they of their own Heads introduce it Article 6. By reason of that defect which occurs in some Letters of Commission from the Provinces unto their Deputies it is now Decreed That the Proper Names and Surnames of their respective Deputies shall be inserted in them Article 7. The Province of Provence is admonished to cause the Letters of Commission given unto their Deputies to be signed in their Provincial Synod by the Moderator and Scribe that it may be known who they be that are chosen by them and they shall also insert into them the Clause of Submission unto the authority of the National Synods even as it is expressed in that particular Canon of our Discipline relating to it Article 8. The Province of Britain demanding by their Deputies whether Pastors may be permitted to Bless the Marriages of Couzen Cermans before they have obtained his Majesties Dispensation This Synod doth most strictly forbid any one of our Ministers to attempt such a matter because the very contrary is expresly injoyned us in those particular Articles which explain the Edict of Nantes See Art 41. Article 9. Whereas the same Province demanded that this Assembly would frame a particular form for Baptizing of Adult Persons which are Converted from Paganism Mahometism and Judaism unto the Christian Religion It was thereupon Ordered that this ensuing Form should be particularly used on those Occasions when as God shall be graciously pleased to make any Additions unto his Church of such Converts CHAP. IX The Form and Manner of Baptizing Pagans Jews Mahometans and Anabaptists Converted to the Christian Faith Composed by the National Synod of the Reformed Churches of France Assembled at Charenton in the Year 1645. 10. THE Catechumen having been sufficiently instructed in the Christian Religion and able to give an Account of his Faith and Hope in God and the Lord Jesus to the good Contentment and Satisfaction of the Church and they being very well satisfied of the Purity and Integrity of his Life and Conversation by Credible Witnesses he shall by those self-same Witnesses be presented publickly to the whole Assembly of the Faithful to be Baptized and the Minister before all the Congregation shall thus bespeak him Quest 1. Do you not acknowledge your self by Nature to be a Child of Wrath worthy of Death and Everlasting Malediction Answ Yes Quest 2. Are you not Sorry and Displeased for all the Sins of which you are Guilty ever since you were Born and do you not promise that you will forsake them for ever more Answ Yes Quest 3. Do you not from your very Heart renounce all intermedling with the Temptations and Seducements of the Devil and of his Angels all the Pomps and Vanities of this present World and all the Affections and Concupiscences of the Flesh Answ Yes If he be a Pagan the Minister shall thus bespeak him Quest 4. Do not you believe that there is but one God only the Creator of Heaven and Earth who by the Word of his Power sustaineth all things and in whom we Live Move and have our Being Answ Yes After this they shall proceed unto the next Question which shall be common to them all And here the Reader must be admonished that all those Questions which are in the Small Roman Character are to be propounded to all the Chatechumens indifferently but those in the Italian Character do either belong distinctly and severally to the Jews or Pagans to the Mahometans or Anabaptists according as their respective Titles do demonstrate And then they return unto their General Questions in the Lesser Character which are to be
not be put to the Costs and Charges of Postage of Letters and Packets which by Reason of this his Employment he must of necessity be at in receiving from and sending to the Churches and with this condition that the said Sieur Loride shall be bound to give an Account once a Year unto all the Provinces by Letters directed to one of their chiefest Churches of all things concerning them and their Affairs And in case the Provincial Synods should not approve of the payment of the said Sum of Three Thousand Livres a Year the said Sieur Loride decalred that he would be contented with a Moiety of his Salaries and Fees for all Suits and Processes in our businesses before the Council A Tax of Three Thousand Livres assessed upon all the Provinces hereunder named to be paid into the Sieur Loride de les Galinieres for managing the Affairs of our Churches intrusted with him  l. s. d. The Province of Normandy is taxed the Sum of 400 00 00 The Province of Higher Languedoc and Guyenne 300 00 00 The Province of Burgundy 060 00 00 The Province of Lower Languedoc the Sum of 300 00 00 The Province of Berry 100 00 00 The Province of Sevennes 150 00 00 The Province of Provence the Sum of 050 00 00 The Province of Poictou 160 00 00 The Province of Brittaine 060 00 00 The Province of Anjou 100 00 00 The Province of the Isle of France 450 00 00 The Province of Xaintonge 230 00 00 The Province of Dolphiny 200 00 00 The Province of Lower Guienne 300 00 00 The Province of Bearn the Sum of 060 00 00 The Province of Vivaretz 080 00 00  3000 00 00 All which Sums amount in the Total to Three Thousand Livres which shall be payed by each of these Provinces according to this rate in case the Provincial Synods shall agree unto it CHAP. XI Particular Matters 1. THE Deputies of the Province of Berry complained against Monsieur du Prat Pastor of the Church of D'Angeau that whereas he hath been setled in their Province for above Six Years yet in all this times he would never own the Authority of their Synod nor submit himself unto it This Assembly decreed that he should appear in person at the next Synod of that Province and give a Reason of this his Carriage and undergo its Judgment and in case he pretend any Grievance he shall appeal unto the Synod of Anjou who shall by Authority from this Assembly take Cognizance and give Judgment in it but till the meeting of that Synod of Anjou he shall stand bound by the Judgment of that of Berry 2. The Provincial Deputies of Normandy moving that this Assembly would in their Wisdoms take some care to remedy those Disorders which are fallen out in the Church of Alanson through the long continuance of Elders in their Office And a Memoir being read containing the Requests of some certain Members of the said Church that there might be a certain time limited when Elders should quit their Office that so they may not perpetuate themselves in it This Assembly remanded back their Petition unto the Synod of Normandy according to the Canon of the National Synod of Tonneins which assigned the cognizance of such matters as these unto Provincial Synods and that Provincial Synod shall take care in it according to their Prudence having first made an exact inquiry into the true state of the said Church 3. Monsieur Gualtier Pastor in the Province of Xaintonge presented himself to this Assembly declaring that he had finished his work upon the Discipline of our Church Monsieur Larroq did after effect and Print it as he had written the last National Synod held at Charenton and that he had another design in Hand which was a Treatise of the Harmony of the Articles of our Confession of Faith Liturgy and Church Discipline with that of the ancient Church and in special with the Decisions of the Councils of the Gallicane Church The Assembly applauded his Zeal and ordered him to apply himself unto his Province of Xaintonge to which he shall produce his work and they shall dispose of it according to the Canons of our Discipline And in the mean while he and his Labours were recommended unto God praying that the Father of Lights would enrich him with all needful gifts to the accomplishing of his great design and to shour down his Heavenly Benediction upon his Person and Undertaking 4. The Sieurs Priouleau Pastor of the Church of Rochel Berual Elder le Toncille and de la Chapeliere Heads of Families in the said City appeared as Deputies from that Church with a Petition unto this Assembly requesting that Monsieur Gilbert Pastor of the Church of Mesle might be conferr'd upon them as their Minister and they back'd their Petition with very many and weighty Arguments The Deputies of the Church of Mesle were heard who did as importunately Petition that their Minister the aforesaid Monsieur Gilbert might be continued with them And the Provincial Deputies of Poicton persisting in that Resolve made in their last Synod of their Province that they did not judge it any way fit to grant them their Request Now although this Assembly doth highly value that Church of Rochel and it's Petitions yet nevertheless it doth not count it reasonable to deprive the Church of Mesle of a Pastor who is so very useful and needful to them 5. This Assembly did for divers causes thereunto moving them without intending it a Precedent for the future receive the Informations given by one part of the Elders and Heads of Families in the Church of Calais although they ought according to the Canons of our Discipline to have been carried unto the Synod of the Isle of France and took cognizance of those Troubles wherewith that Church hath been agitated about the settling of a Second Pastor in it The Sieurs Tricotel and Peter du Croix a Deacon in the Quarter of Guisnes and James Barrizeau of the Lower Town of Calais Deputies from another part of that Church had audience given them and there were read Letters and Memoirs from Monsieur de Montigny Pastor who was sent unto the said Church by the Synod held at Ay this present Year The whole Affair having been heard and debated a Decree past that the Sieur de Montigny shall if it so please him exercise his Ministry in the said Church till the meeting of the next Synod of that Province which will be within Six Months at the farthest And before that time the Church of Calais shall choose a Pastor by plurality of Votes in a lawful Assembly called and directed by their Consistory according to the order of our Discipline either fixing their choice upon the Sieur de Montigny who received a most Honourable Testimony in this Assembly or upon any other whom they shall judge most proper for their Edifying And by th' Authority of this Assembly one of the Pastors of Dieppe and
title to the Mercy of God the Father to which as to our only Sanctuary we are bound to have Recourse ARTICLE XIV We believe That Jesus Christ being the Wisdom and eternal Son of the Father took upon him our Nature so that he is one Person God and Man Man that he might be able to suffer both in Soul and Body made like unto us in all things Sin only excepted so that as to his Humane Nature he was in truth the very Seed of Abraham and of David conceived in due time in the Womb of the most Blessed Virgin by the secret and incomprehensible Power of the Holy God And therefore we detest as contrary to that Truth all those Heresies with which the Churches were troubled in times past and particularly we detest those diabolical Imaginations of Servetus who ascribed to our Lord Jesus Christ an imaginary Deity whom he asserted to be the Idea and Pattern of all things and the counterfeit or figurative Son of God In short he framed him a Body compacted of three Elements uncreated and so did mingle and overthrow his Nature ARTICLE XV. We believe That in one and the same Person to wit the Lord Jesus Christ his two Natures are truly and inseparably conjoined and united yet nevertheless in such a manner that each Nature doth retain its distinct Properties So that even as in this Divine Conjunction the Divine Nature retaining its Properties doth still abide uncreated infinite and filling all places so also the Humane Nature remaineth finite having its form measure and property And altho' the Lord Jesus Christ when he rose from the dead did give Immortality unto his Body yet he never deprived it of the Verity of its Nature Therefore we do so consider Christ in his Deity that we do not spoil him of his Humanity ARTICLE XVI We do believe That God by sending his Son into the World did declare his infinite Love and inestimable Goodness to us delivering him over unto death and raising him again from the dead that he might fulfil all Righteousness and purchase Everlasting Life for us ARTICLE XVII We believe That by that only Sacrifice which Jesus Christ offered upon the Cross we are reconciled unto God that so we may be held and accounted Righteous in his sight because we can never please him nor be partakers of his Adoption but so far only as he forgiveth us our sins and burieth them in his grave Therefore we affirm That Jesus Christ is our intire and perfect Washing and that by his Death we obtain full satisfaction whereby we are delivered from all those sins of which we are guilty and from which we could never be absolved by any other means or remedy ARTICLE XVIII We believe That our whole Righteousness is founded in the Remission of our Sins which is as David calleth it our only Happiness Wherefore we do utterly reject all other means by which men do think they may be justified before God and casting away all conceits of our own Vertues and Merits we do altogether rest upon the sole Obedience of Jesus Christ which is imputed to us as well for the covering of our Offences as that we may find Grace and Favour with God And indeed we believe that should we in the least forsake this Foundation we could not find elsewhere any repose but must needs be agitated with Inquietudes in our Consciences because we are never at peace with God till we be perswaded upon good grounds that we are beloved in Jesus Christ For that in our selves we have deserved to be hated by him ARTICLE XIX We believe That by this means we have liberty and priviledge of calling upon God with full confidence that he will shew himself a Father to us for we have no access unto the Father but in and through Christ the Mediator And that we may be heard in his Name it is meet that we should hold and derive our Life from him as from our Head ARTICLE XX. We believe That we are made partakers of this Righteousness by Faith only as it is written He suffered to purchase Salvation for us That whosoever believeth in him should not perish And this is therefore done because the Promises of Life offered to us in him are then applied to our use and made effectual to us when we do accept of them and in no wise doubt but that we shall enjoy those things which the Lord by his own mouth hath assured us of So that the Righteousness which we obtain by Faith dependeth upon the free gracious Promises of God by which God doth declare and testifie unto us that we are beloved of him ARTICLE XXI We do believe That by the secret Grace of the Holy Ghost the light of Faith is â—inded up in us so that it is a gracious and special Gift which God bestoweth upon whom he pleaseth and the Faithful have nothing whereof they may boast because they are doubly obliged unto God for having preferred them before others and for that he never gave Faith unto the Elect once only to bring them into the good way but also to cause them to continue in it unto the end For as God doth begin Faith so doth he also finish and perfect it ARTICLE XXII We believe That by this Faith we are regenerated unto newness of Life we being naturally imbondaged under Sin And we do by Faith receive that Grace to live holily and in the fear of God in our receiving of the Promise which is given us through the Gospel to wit that God will give us his Holy Spirit So that Faith is so far from freezing our Affections to Godliness and Holy Living that contrariwise it doth engender and excite it in us necessarily producing all manner of good Works Finally Altho' God to accomplish our salvation doth regenerate and reform us that we may do those things which are well-pleasing yet notwithstanding we do confess that the good Works which we do by his Spirit are never accounted to us for Righteousness nor can we merit by them that God should take us for his Children because we should be always tossed with doubts and disquiets if our Consciences did not repose themselves upon that satisfaction by which Jesus Christ hath purchased us for himself ARTICLE XXIII We believe That all the Types of the Law ended when as Christ came in the flesh But altho' the Ceremonies are no longer in use yet nevertheless the Substance and Truth of them abideth always in his Person who fulfilled them Moreover we must be holpen by the Law and the Prophets for the right ordering of our Lives and that the Promises of the Gospel may be confirmed to us ARTICLE XXIV We believe That forasmuch as Jesus Christ is conferr'd upon us to be our alone Advocate and that he commandeth us even in our private Prayers to present our selves before the Father in his Name and that it is in no wise lawful for us to call upon God in any other
do very well approve and acknowledge the necessity thereof and of its Appendages ARTICLE XXXIV We believe that the Sacraments are adjoined unto the word for its more ample confirmation to wit that they may be pledges and tokens of the grace of God and that by these means our Faith which is very weak and ignorant may be supported and comforted For we confess that these outward signs be such that God by the power of his holy Spirit doth work by them that nothing may be there represented to us in vain Yet nevertheless we hold that all their substance and vertue is in Jesus Christ from whom if they be separated they be nothing else but shadows and smoak ARTICLE XXXV We acknowledge That there be two Sacraments only which are common to the whole Church whereof Baptism is the first which is administred to us to testifie our Adoption because we are by it ingraffed into the Body of Christ that we may be washed and cleansed by his Blood and afterwards renewed in Holiness of Life by his Spirit We hold also That altho' we be baptized but once yet the Benefits which are signified to us therein do extend themselves during the whole course of our life even unto death that so we may have a lasting Signature with us that Jesus Christ will always be our Righteousness and Sanctification And altho' Baptism be a Sacrament of Faith and Repentance yet forasmuch as God doth together with the Parents account their Children and Posterity to be Church-Members we affirm That Infants born of believing Parents are by the Authority of Christ to be baptized ARTICLE XXXVI We affirm That the Holy Supper of our Lord to wit the other Sacrament is a witness to us of our Union with the Lord Jesus Christ because that he is not only once dead and raised up again from the dead for us but also he doth indeed seed us and nourish us with his Flesh and Blood that we being made one with him may have our life in common with him And although he be now in Heaven and shall remain there till he come to judge the World yet we believe that by the secret and incomprehensible vertue of his Spirit he doth nourish and quicken us with the substance of his Body and Blood But we say that this is done in a spiritual manner nor do we hereby substitute in the place of the effect and truth an idle fancy and conceit of our own but rather because this Mystery of our Union with Christ is so high a thing that it surmounteth all our Senses yea and the whole order of Nature and in short because it is coelestial therefore it cannot be apprehended but by Faith ARTICLE XXXVII We believe as was said before That both in Baptism and the Lord's Supper God doth indeed truly and effectually give whatsoever he doth there sacramentally exhibit and therefore we conjoyn with the Signs the true possession and injoyment of what is offer'd to us in them Therefore we affirm That they which do bring pure Faith as a clean Vessel unto the Holy Supper of the Lord they do indeed receive that which the Signs do there witness that is That the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ are no less the Meat and Drink of the Soul than Bread and Wine are the Meat of the Body ARTICLE XXXVIII We say therefore That let the Element of Water be never so despicable yet notwithstanding it doth truly witness unto us the inward washing of our Souls with the Blood of Jesus Christ by the vertue and efficacy of his Spirit and that the Bread and Wine being given us in the Lord's Supper do serve in very deed unto our spiritual nourishment because they do as it were point out unto us with the finger that the Flesh of Jesus Christ is our Meat and his Blood our Drink And we reject those Fanaticks who will not receive such Signs and Marks although Jesus Christ doth speak plainly This is my Body and this Cup is my Blood ARTICLE XXXIX We believe That God will have the World to be ruled by Laws and Civil Government that there may be some sort of Bridles by which the unruly Lusts of the World may be restrained and that therefore he appointed Kingdoms Commonwealths and other kinds of Principalities whether hereditary or otherwise And not that alone but also whatsoever pertaineth to the Ministration of Justice whereof he avoucheth himself the Author therefore hath he even delivered the Sword into the Magistrates hand that so Sins committed against both the Tables of God's Law not only against the Second but the First also may be suppressed And therefore because God is the Author of this Order we must not only suffer Magistrates whom he hath set over us but we must also give them all Honour and Reverence as unto his Officers and Lieutenants which have received their Commission from him to exercise so lawful and Sacred a Function ARTICLE XL. Therefore we affirm that Obedience must be yielded unto their Laws and Statutes that Tribute must be paid them Taxes and all other Duties and that we must bear the Yoke of Subjection with a free and willing mind although the Magistrates be Infidels so that the soveraign Government of God be preserved entire Wherefore we detest all those who do reject the Higher Powers and would bring in a Community and Confusion of Goods and subvert the Course of Justice Sect. 10. This was the Confession which was owned in their First National Synod hold at Paris in the Year 1559. and presented unto Francis the Second King of France first at Amboise in behalf of all the Professors of the Reformed Religion in that Kingdom afterwards to Charles the Ninth at the Conference of Poissy It was a second time presented to the said King and at length published by the Pastors of the French Churches with a Preface to all other Evangelical Pastors in the Year 1566. It was also most solemnly signed and ratified in the National Synod held the first time at Rochell 1571. the Year before the Bartholomean Massacre by Jane Queen of Navarre Henry Prince of Berne Henry de Bourbon Prince of Condé Lowis Count of Nassaw and Sir Gaspard de Colligni Lord High Admiral of France Monsieur Chamier writ that Apologetical Preface which begins with these words Combien que nos sachions c. for that other which is prefixt to it in the Bible-Confession and begins with these words au Roy Sire was done by the Reverend Mr. Calvin who first drew up the Confession it self One thing I must advise the Reader of that there is a very great difference in the Number and Matter of these Articles which came not only in at first by the Printers but by the various Copies which were transcribed with Emendations Additions and Alterations from the respective National Synods The best Copy that I have met with is that in the Harmony of Confessions translated into English and Printed by
to assemble the National Synod in a great number of Ministers and Elders It is thought good for the present and till such difficulties can be removed that the Brethren assembled in every Provincial Synod shall chuse out only two Ministers and Elders who are Persons of great experience in Church-affairs to be sent in the name of the whole Province and these Deputies shall come with ample and sufficient powers and furnished with good memorials subscribed by the Moderator and Scribes of the Provincial Synod and lest any of the Deputies should fail three or four Pastors more and as many Elders shall be nominated by the Provincial Synods that so if the first named Persons should be by any accident hindered from taking their journey yet others may be at hand to supply their places in the National Synod N.B. That in all Letters of Commission signed by the Provinces to their Deputies unto the National Synods there was this Clause of submission to be inserted viz. We promise before God to submit our selves unto all that shall be concluded and resolved on in your holy Assembly and to obey and perform it to the best of our power being well perswaded that God presideth in the midst of you and guideth you by his holy Spirit into all truth and equity by the Rule of his Word for the weal and benefit of his Church and the glory of his great Name Which also we beg of him most ardently in our daily Prayers See the Acts of the National Synod of Vitré 1617. in that Canon next after the Catalogue of the Deputies CAN. IV. Provincial Synods shall not limit any certain time for the return of the Ministers and Elders whom they had deputed unto the National Synod but they shall suffer them to tarry at the said Synod so long as there shall be need of their presence and attendance in it and these Deputies shall have all their expences born and defrayed out of the common stock of the whole Province CAN. V. The Articles of our Confession of Faith and the Canons of our Church-Discipline shall be all read at the opening of every National Synod CAN. VI. And that the National Synod may not be busied about Questions already determined in the Acts of former National Synods The Provincial Deputies shall be advised to peruse the Acts of former National Synods before they prepare their Memoirs and they shall see that nothing be transmitted but what is of common and general concern to all the Churches and which meriteth the decision of a National Synod CAN. VII All Ecclesiastical matters may be finally decided and resolved by the National Synod the Provinces having been in the first place informed of them if possible by that Province which had the charge of assembling the National Synod CAN. VIII The Decisions shall be only made by the Provincial Deputies but and if there be in the National Synod other Ministers besides the Deputies they may propound their judgments as to what may be done but they shall neither have consultive nor decisive Votes N.B. This Canon is in three Editions in that of 1653. in that of 1666. and in that 1676. but in those of Paris and Quevilly 1663. it is omitted CAN. IX Those that appeal from Provincial Synods unto the National shall be bound to be present in Person at it or else they shall send unto it most ample Memoirs with a lawful excuse for their absence And on default hereof the Sentence of the Provincial Synod shall be ratified The same course shall be taken with Appeals from Consistories unto Colloquies and from Colloquies unto the Provincial Synods CAN. X. The Provincial Deputies shall not depart from the National Synod without carrying home with them the Synodical Decrees subscribed by the President and Scribe and a month after their return they shall give notice thereof unto the Colloquies of their Province that so they may send for the Acts of the said Synod and this at the sole charge of the said Colloquies CAN. XI And that Synodical Acts may be preserved and that they may be of use and service in after times for the determining of Controversies which may be propounded for resolution unto our National Synods The said Acts both for the time past and to come and all others which concern those Synods as also the Canons of Church-Discipline and the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in this Kingdom shall be left in custody with the Provincial Deputies who are appointed to call the next National Synod and that Province shall be obliged to bring them unto the Synod CAN. XII Before the breaking up of National Synods there shall be an amicable and fraternal Censure of all the Deputies Ministers and Elders about those matters only which had been managed during its Sessions and whatever did in general respect their Provinces And the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be Celebrated and partaken by them in testimony of their Cordial Union Provided always that this holy Sacrament shall be Communicated in with that very Church in which they held their Synodical Assembly and for this purpose the said Church shall be admonished to prepare themselves for it CHAP. X. Chap. X. Of Religious Exercises Of Religious Exercises performed in the Assemblies of the Faithful CANON I. THat great irreverence which is found in divers Persons who at publick and private Prayers do neither uncover their Heads nor bow their Knees shall be reformed which is a matter repugnant unto Piety and giveth suspicion of Pride and doth scandalize them that fear God Wherefore all Pastors shall be advised as also Elders and Heads of Families carefully to oversee that in time of Prayer all Persons without exception or acceptation do evidence by those exteriour signs the inward humility of their hearts and of that homage yielded by them unto God unless any one be hindred from so doing by sickness or otherwise the judgment of which shall be remitted to the testimony of their own particular Consciences CAN. II. Singing of God's praises being a divine Ordinance and to be performed in the Congregations of the Faithful and for that by the use of Psalms their hearts be comforted and strengthned Every one shall be advertised to bring with them their Psalm-Books unto those Assemblies and such as through contempt of this holy Ordinance do forbear the having of them shall be censured as also those who in time of singing both before and after Sermon are not uncovered as also when the Holy Sacraments are Celebrated CAN. III. In times of sore Persection and of War Pestilence or Famine or any other grievous affliction Item when as Ministers of the Gospel are to be Ordained and when as question is moved about calling a National Synod one day or more may be set a part for publick and extraordinary Prayers and Fasting yet without any scruple or superstition and all this shall be done upon mature consideration of the grounds and causes
in it then this Council commands that Province in which the said David shall be and reside to Formalize itself against him and upon this account the Church of Paris shall be obliged to furnish the said Province with Proofs which it hath now or may have had heretofore lying by against the said David that so he may be proceeded against in such a manner as shall be thought most advisable for the Repose of the Church III. Touching the matter propounded by the Minister of Paris the Council is of Opinion That the Marriage pretended to be broken by reason of Spiritual Kinred doth remain firm and in its full power and therefore the second Marriage which hath since intervened is null and these second married Persons are excommunicated because of their Adulteries until such time as they have done publick Penance and shall have duely evidenced their Repentance IV. Whereas our Brother the Minister of Varennes in Picardy doth usually administer the Lord's Supper every Month the Council doth advise That our Brother of Mont-mejor do admonish him in the Council's Name to follow the general Practice of our Churches that so there may be no Diversity among us and our Uniformity may be preserved V. The Churches are advertised to take notice of a Fellow called Frederick Thierry formerly an Augustin Fryar as also of another called Marmande as being Vagrants VI. 'T is the Judgment of this Council That a Minister being imployed in the Church may not ordinarily exercise any other Calling nor receive Wages for it Our Brother of Britain moved this Question VII As to that Book entituled A Treatise of Christian Discipline and Polity composed and published by John Morelly the Council judges That as to the Points concerning the Discipline of the Church by which he pretends to condemn and subvert the Order received in our Churches sounded upon the Word of God that the said Book contains wicked Doctrine and tends to the Confusion and Dissipation of the Church and therefore the said Council cautions the Faithful to take heed of the aforesaid Doctrine VIII A Remonstrance being made by the Church of Poictiers about an Appeal brought by the People of the City of Loudun from a Decree of the Provincial Synod of Poictou held at Niort concerning the Fact of Maturin Sibileau the said Appeal having been signified to the Church of Poictiers on behalf of the said People of Loudun the Decrees both of the Provincial Synod held at Partinay and of the Synod of Niort were read and considered Whereupon this present Council hath and doth send back the Knowledge of the said Cause unto the next Provincial Synod of Touraine which by the Authority of this Council shall pass a Definitive Judgment upon these Persons although they were absent provided their Absence be not out of Contumacy and they had been duely informed of the meeting of that Synod And in the mean while it is ordained That both the said Sibileau and the said People of Loudun shall yeild Obedience to the Synod of Niort And to this purpose the Church of Poictiers is required to signifie this present Sentence and the Church of Tours is to Assemble the said Provincial Synod IX A Petition being presented by Madam Margaret de la Voirie concerning a Marriage pretended to have been contracted between her and the Noble William de Schilhant The Council has approved and doth approve of that Sentence given by the Provincial Synod of Touraine held at Mans the last October by which the said Marriage was declared Incestuous because the said De Schilhant had formerly espoused the Sister of the said Petitioner whereunto it does injoyn the said Lady quietly to submit and to observe it with Repose and Tranquility of Conscience moreover the Council exhorts her to return unto her own Church there to make such Acknowledgment of her Fault as the Consistory shall think meet X. Having heard the Remonstrance made by our Brother the Deputy of Poictou concerning Peter Boulay who had intruded himself into the Ministry of the Church of Niort The Council ratifies and approves the Determination of the Provincial Synod held at Niort by which the said Boulay was declared uncapable and insufficient to be chosen into the Ministry of the Gospel until such time as he had given proofs of his Sufficiency before the Provincial Synod of Poictou Moreover this present Council hath ordained That this very Advice shall be signified both unto the said Boulay and to all those who do abett him by our Brethren La Forest and De Thire who making report unto the next approaching Synod of Poictou of the Obedience or Rebellion of the said Boulay and his Abettors a final Period shall be put unto this Affair according to the Rules of our Church-Discipline And the Council leaves it to the Wisdom of the next â—ynod whether it be expedient for the common Edification of the Church that our brother De la Fayole be not also removed from Niort XII There shall be no Alteration made in that Article of our Discipline touching the Choice of Ministers and the Council hath ordained That * * * In the Book of Niort he is called M John Viâ—ier Mr. John Rebitt do sign the Confession of Faith and Articles of Discipline and moreover doth expresly forbid him so Teach in his Lectures Doctrine contrary unto them that so there may be no Disunion in the Church and if he should refuse Submission to this Advise of the Council he shall be sent back to the Consistory of that City to be dealt withal according to the Canons of our Church-Discipline XII As to that Question moved by our Brother of Orleance the Council hath and doth leave it to the liberty of the respective Consistories to judge of those who may be sit to assist at the Examination of Candidates for the Ministry as may be most expedient for their Edification yet so as they shall not suffer any besides the Members of the said Consistory to examine them XIII The Council judgeth it inconvenient to publish from the Pulpit the Articles of our Discipline yet they may be given unto such as desire them by the Consistories XIV Whereas the Letters sent unto this present General Council of the Reformed Churches of France assembled at Orleance by * * * The Book of Niort calls him Jodâ—â— Maurice Joequin are fraught with heavy Complaints against David Vivian Minister of Bourges and divers others of the Consistory of the said Church and because both Parties are absent the said Council remands them unto the next approaching Provincial Synod Berry that there the said Vivian and the other Members of the Consistory may be dealt withal as is just and sitting In the mean while considering the outragious and prophane Words mentioned in the said Letters and the Contumacy of the said Joequin disdaining to come unto this present Council after he had been lawfully summoned and the Threatnings contained in his Answer divers of our
Armagnac 18. Roberty heretofore a Cordelier Fryar living in the same House with the Bishop of St. Prins 19. Hermes de la Faye he was a Jacobin Fryar 20. James Courtain de Calaux a Fellow boasting himself to be a Prophet and to be endowed with a Prophetical Spirit 21. Francis Porcelin an Italian 22. Hierom Bolsec a most Infamous Lyar and Apostate 23. Matthew D' Ancbe 24. Hierom Rolse All these Decrees were done and made in the National Synod of Lions held in August 1563 And thus Signed in the Original VIRETT Moderator The End of the Synod of LIONS CHAP. XXI Three ANSWERS of the Pastors and Professors of Geneva and of some of the Ministers who were deputed unto the National Synod of Lions 1563 and impowered by it to make these following Returns unto the Questions propounded to them The first Question was about Marriage viz. Whether Promise of Marriage might be dissolved by the mutual Consent of the engaged Parties The Brethren of Geneva's ANSWER Article I. WE cannot judge otherwise but that the Reverence which all ought to have for Marriage should keep the Parties who have pledged their Troth to each other from breaking it For sith it is as Solomon stileth it The Covenant of GOD it is not of the same nature with other Bargains and Agreements which depend upon the wills of Men and we cannot but believe that this was the Mind and Intendment of our Lord when lie spake these words Whom God hath joyned together let not man put asunder tho' as yet there had been no carnal knowledge of each other Therefore the Promise is Sacred and must be held Irrevocable For God having punished the Fornication of a Man with a betrothed Maid as if it were the very Crime of Adultery he doth thereby sufficiently demonstrate that the Maid was obliged as if she were married for Adultery presupposeth Marriage Article II. And whereas some Inconveniencies are alledged we answer That they will as well hold against them that are in Age as against Minors for it oftentimes falls out that they do as badly agree as Cats and Dogs and yet they cannot be suffered to quit one another because neither of them are now at liberty for so doing Article III. The Opinions of Lawyers in this case is of no force because they do allow of Divorces between Husbands and Wives Which yet is directly contrary to the Ordinance of God Article IV. And that Gloss put upon those words To be joyned together i. e. to have accomplished Marriage ought not to be admitted And the Judgment of St. Paul is urged to no purpose 1 Cor. 6. 16. for when the Apostle saith that the Fornicator is one Body with the Harlot he useth only a Comparison from which there cannot be deduced any true Definition For it is otherwise certain that this Sentence cannot be properly avouched of Fornication because God hath honoured Marriage only with this Priviledge to make two Bodies lawfully conjoyned to be but one But as we said St. Paul that he might aggravate the sin of Fornication alledgeth this Passage of Moses's to conclude That a man is separated from Jesus Christ whenas he defiles and polutes his body in coition with an harlot Article V. And although the betrothed Maid be under the power of her Parents till such time as her Husband is intrusted with her yet this must admit of an Exception viz. That it do not derogate from the Rights of the espoused Husband and that the Father be not compelled against his will to resign up his Daughter to him and so to bring no prejudice unto Marriage Article VI. Moses doth not distinguish at all between the Crimes of a married and espoused Wife when they commit Whoredom Deut. 22.22 24. but accounts them both Adulteresses Article VII Nor do the Laws determine against these Promises of Marriage mutually past between the Parties as if they were not indissolvable For altho' a Father may oppose the Marriage and endeavour the Dissolution of the Promises yet the Parties themselves are not suffered to do it Article VIII Moreover there is a very great difference between the Consent of the Parties and the cognisance of their Cause For we do not deny but that a Man having been deceived may declare the Trick put upon him that he may be relieved But we say plainly that the Parties being reciprocally obliged are not acquitted nor freed one from the other nor will they be allowed to discharge and acquit each other And 't is in this Point and none other that we count Espousals to be the same with Marriage Article IX It is not said That because the holy Apostle doth not particularly declare that a Man may not give a Bill of Divorce unto his betrothed Wife that therefore he may dismiss and leave her to her former liberty But rather we may say that the Law for both the betrothed and married is one and the same because there is the same reason for it Article X. Besides there is one thing more to be observed that he doth not of set purpose handle this matter but he toucheth at it by the by and upon occasion The sin which he then mentioned calling alowd upon him for Reproof yea and 't is certain that he suffered Polygamy both in publick and private Persons because at that time it could not be remedied For this may be gathered from those words of his A Bishop ought not to be the Husband of two Wives both living at the same time Article XI Although the Church requires a publick Declaration on the Wedding-day it cannot be thence inferred that the Parties may retract their Promises but this is rather done to prevent those Inconveniencies of clandestine Marriages only and so the Parties do but ratifie their Promise before the People that they may be Witnesses unto it Article XII That Passage in the 22d of Deut. is very clear and express to prove that she who had pledged her Faith unto a Man is his Wife so that 't is not in her power nor can she at her pleasure leave her Husband We know also that Tamer having been reserved as a Wife for the youngest Son of Judah and playing the Harlot was condemned to the Fire for Adultery And a Widdow in Israel could not marry out of her Husband's Family if she had no Issue by him she being the reputed Wife of his surviving Brother And when as Joseph neither durst nor would Defame the Blessed Virgin doth therefore declare That if she had prostituted her Body it was a Crime of Adultery Wherefore let the Parties look before they leap and be curiously inquisitive about each other before they do mutually oblige themselves for they must know that this is a Contract without Repentance Unless they be after informed of an Error Cheat or some such-like Mistake in the Person Nor will this Consideration be at their pleasure when the Judge shall come to give Sentence upon the cause ANSWER II. ABout
saying of St. Augustin That Medicines which are more hurtful than profitable should be wholly forborn And sith in particular Facts many Circumstances occur concerning which a Special Law cannot be enacted we ought therefore to be the more discreet wary and considerate And the whole is left to the Wisdom of the Consistory VI. There shall be added to the Twenty Eighth Article concerning Ministers these words Nevertheless it were expedient that Ministers took Wages because of its consequence and that others may not be prejudiced VII The Sixteenth Article concerning Ministers shall begin thus The Minister who shall have intruded himself c. VIII After these words in the Thirty fourth Article concerning Ministers That have preached Heretical Doctrine there shall be added And does obstinately maintain it IX In the first Article of Provincial Synods instead of those words At least there she ll be put in As much as possible X. In the first Article of National Synods after those words Within a Year shall be added If it be possible XI Before the Title of Provincial Synods shall be put Titles with Articles of * * * Classes Colloquies And the first Article shall be this The Neighbour-Churches shall assemble themselves in Colloquies four times a Year if possibly they can and each Minister shall come accompanied with one Elder not only for this end that Ministers in their respective turns may handle a common place in Divinity from the Scriptures but that by mutual common Counsel they may compose those emergent Difficulties which trouble their Churches For it is thus ordained by the Discipline and generally to provide whatever they conceive expedient and necessary for the Conservation of the Churches XII The second Article concerning Elders shall be thus enlarged to wit after these words The Elders Office is to convene the People unto Publick Assemblies there shall be this addition And in general to watch but most especially over the Church And after these words To make Reports of Scandals there shall be added And in conjunction with the Ministers to judge and decide And after those words And other such-like Matters shall be added Which concern the Order Preservation and Government of the Church XIII At the end of the Title of National Synods this following Article shall be added That the Acts and Articles of Synods may be preserved and that they may be of use in time to come for the deciding Controversies resolving Cases that may be propounded in the Synods the said Articles of things past or to come and others concerning Synods as also the Articles of our Discipline together with the Confession of Faith of our Reformed Churches shall be all deposited with the Deputies of that Province which is impowered to call the next National Synod and is charged to bring them forth at their first meeting XIV At the end of the Twenty second Article of Marriages there shall be this added And the betrothed Woman shall have the same liberty with the betrothed Man in case the said Man shall have fornicated after the aforesaid Promises XV. The Article concerning Professors of Divinity shall be thus enlarged Doctor and Professors of Divinity shall be chosen by a Synod or †††Collâ—ay Classis after good proof and sufficient tryal had of their Life and Doctrine And they shall be acquainted that they be wholly dedicated for their Lives unto the Service of God and his Church and to be imployed according to the appointment of the Classis or Synods to whose Authority they shall yield Obedience Moreover they shall subscribe the Confession of our Faith and Church-Discipline And whenever any difficulty in Doctrinal Points does occur they shall be called forth if they be upon the place to assist at its decision The Regents also shall make the same Subscription XVI Towards the close of the Fifth Article concerning Elders there shall be this addition And Professors of Divinity lawfully and duly called unto their Offices XVII The Fourth Article concerning Consistories shall be couched in these words Deacons may and ought to be Memâ—â—â—s of Consistories The Ministers of God's Word together with the Eldership do constitute the Churches Consistory in which the Ministers ought to preside and Deacons may and should be present in the Consistory that so by their Advice the Church may be served as hitherto in these difficult times we have happily employed them in the Government of the Churches and called them forth into the Eldership And for time to come all Deacons thus chosen or continued shall joyntly together with the Pastors and Elders have the Rule and Conduct of the Churches CHAP. IV. This Article is the â—ast in the Chapter of Consistories XVIII THis following Article shall be plac'd next in order to the 10th of Consistories If one or more of the People stir up strife and thereby break the Churches Vnion in any Point of Doctrine Discipline or the Form of Catechising Administration of Sacraments How such are to be dealt with who raise Contentions in the Church about our Doctrine Discipline or Worship Catechising and Marriage or of Publick Prayers and Celebration of Marriage and that private Admonitions prove ineffectual to suppress them then the Consistory of that Church shall presently endeavour to compose and appease the whole without any noise and with all sweetness by the Word of God And in case the Dissenters should not acquiesce in their determination that Consistory shall intreat the Colloquy to meet at such time and place as may be most convenient having first of all oblig'd the Dissenters in express terms and those on Record not in any manner of way to spread abroad their Opinions until the meeting of the said Colloquy on pain of being dealt with as Schismaticks excepting always freedom of Conference with Pastors and Elders in case they have not been sufficiently instructed But and if the said Dissenters refuse to give those fore-mentioned Promises then shall they be censured as Rebellious Persons according to the Discipline And the Colloquy being met shall proceed as was above directed And in case the said Dissenters after a patient Hearing and Refutation rest fully satisfied the whole business shall be Registred But if not and extraordinary necessity so require the Provincial Synod shall be intreated to meet at such a time and place as the said Colloquy shall judge most convenient the former Promises having been once again repeated by the Dissenters And the Synod being assembled they shall with very great and mature deliberation advise and consider of the Matter Places Times and Persons whether it be expedient that another Conference be held with these Dissenters and publickly with open doors before the People and whether liberty of speaking may be granted unto any of the Assistants which if it be yet the determination of the Point in Controversie shall not be left unto them but to the Provincial Deputies according to the known Rules of our Discipline And
that they may be combin'd into one and by this means gain a Minister for the Church of Rouen or if this don't like them they may contrive some better expedient And this course also shall be taken by the Province of Xaintonge for the supply of the Church of Xaintes XXV This Assembly prays and intreats the Province of Brittany to lend Monsieur De la Melluniere unto the Church of Vitré and at the same time to make provision for the Church of Cuisit where he is at present XXVI The Lord Du Plessis presented himself in the Name of the King of Navarre unto this Assembly proposing from His Majesty That there might be sent unto him being now on the other fide of the Loire certain Deputies Persons of Quality and Understanding who might be near His Majesty to acquaint him with the true State of our Churches and that he also might reciprocally communicate unto the Churches all Matters of Importance tending to their welfare and preservation This Assembly is of Opinion That all the Churches be exhorted effectually to comply with His Majesty's Demands and in order thereunto to name one or two Deputies to be dispatcht unto him in the Name of the Churches and this to be done out of hand and the Province of the Isle of France is to see it done without delay Means for uniting the German and French Churches Synod of Gap Gen. Mat. art 11. Synod of Rochel art 4. after the choice of Moderator and Assessor XXVII A motion being made for an Union and Agreement betwixt the Churches of Germany and ours this Assembly adviseth That Monsieur De Chandieu be solicited to undertake a Journey for the effecting of it and in case the said Monsieur De Chandieu have just Excuses for not accepting the Employ Monsieur De Seire shall be intreated to supply his place XXVIII Monsieur Salnar is intreated to write in the Name and by the Authority of this Synod unto the Princes and Divines of Germany and he shall confer with the Lord Du Plessis about the subject matter of his Letters and the said Letters shall be sent to Monsier De Chandieu to be represented by him XXIX Monsieur De Chassincour is intreated by this Assembly to continue his Office at Court and the Churches are exhorted to perform their Duties to him whereof the Brethren of the Isle of France are order'd to give him notice XXX The Deputy of Lower Languedoc demanding that our Brother Vilette Minister in the Church of La Sala may be removed thence and translated unto Montpellier because of that great Service he may do there and that his Church may be some otherways provided This Assembly leaveth the decision of this matter unto his Provincial Synod which after due consideration had of all Circumstances shall determine of it XXXI Monsieur Laurence Bouchart formerly Minister of Privas in Lower Languedoc deposed for his scandalous Crimes having appealed unto this Assembly it examined the Causes of his Deposition and all the Proceedings in and about it and now judgeth that he cannot be restored unto the Minstry whatever Testimonials of Repentance may be produced by him XXII To the Case propounded by the Deputies of Berry Whether his Marriage should be tolerated who had espous'd his Wife's Niece and that had some Years after his said Marriage joyned himself unto our Religion and communicated with us at the Lord's Table and hath had several Children by this Wife This Assembly answereth That by the 14th Verse of the 18th Chapter of Leviticus such a Marriage is incestuous and that therefore in no wise can it be tolerated and that they provoke not the Wrath of God more heavily against them they ought to separate one from the other And whereas these Persons committed this sin in the time of their Ignorance we advise that they privately confess it unto the Consistory where they shall be admonished counselled and comforted from the Word of God XXXIII Complaint being made by divers Persons of the Censure passed on Brocard's Exposition of the Book of Genesis in the last Synod of Rochel where he was condemned for Impiety and Prosanation of God's Holy Word and blaming it as too strict and rigorous tho' some would acquit him of Impiety because he agrees with us thoroughly in all the Articles of Faith This Assembly doth confirm the afore-mentioned Censure judging that that Doctrine is not only impious which is contrary to the Articles of Faith but that also which perverts the true sence and meaning as his doth of the Holy Scriptures because they be the true Foundation of the Christian Doctrine Yet that satisfaction may be given them who are displeased at the Censure past on this Book of Brocard's there shall be extracted out of it a Catalogue of his grossest Errors and communicated abroad for their perusal and information XXXIV Monsieur De Bellefleur appealing from the Sentence given against him in the Synod of Higher Languedoc by which his Treatise against the Discipline of our Churches was condemned this Assembly having read his Treatise and the Answers made unto it doth confirm the said Saentence past against the said Bellefleur To whom notwithstanding a Letter shall be dispatcht in the Name of this Assembly and the Answer of our Brother Monsieur Berault shall be communicated to him in which if he do not acquiesce the next Colloquy or Synod shall denounce him Schismatick XXXV The Deputy of Higher Languedoc related the Affair of Arias and Bourgade complaining that they were too severely censured by their Pastors Berault and Gironnin whereupon the Synod came unto this Resolution That the Piovince shall be informed that they have full Power and 't is their Duty to judge definitively of it and that the Censures given by the Consistory of Montauban and the Provincial Synod against them shall be in force and if the said Plaintisss be not quiet nor demean themselves peaceably and modestly according to their Duty The Colloquy of Lower Quercy calling in two other Ministers from the Neighbour-Colloquy shall in the Name and Authority of this Synod judge definitively of this Fact XXXVI The Province of * * * Higher Lower Languedoc is appointed by this Assembly to convoke and assign the Time of Meeting for the next National Synod which is once for all ordained two Years hence in the Month of May. May 16. 1583. Thus Signed by Peter Merlin Moderator And René Pineau Scribe The End of the Synod of VITRE THE ACTS DECISIONS and DECREES OF THE XIII National Synod OF THE Reformed Churches of Christ IN The KINGDOM of FRANCE HELD At Montauban in the Year of our Lord 1594. THE CONTENTS of this SYNOD CHap. I. Deputies unto the Synod Synodical Officers chosen The Lord's Supper to he received by all the Deputies in the conclusion of the Synod Chap. II. 7. Observations upon the Confession of Faith and its Approbation Chap. III. 21. Observations upon the Discipline being so many Additions and
themselves 5. To the 28th Article as it is in some other so in all Copies for the future the word Vertue shall be added to that of Efficacy for the better explaining of the sence and in imitation of the Apostle who joyneth both those words together in the close of the first Chapter to the Ephesians 6. The Printers shall be informed for the future never to forget or omit those words in the 38th Article they being the express words of Institution by our Lord himself Take and eat and drink ye all of it 7. That their Insolency may be restrained who reject this word Substance both in our Confession of Faith and Form of Celebrating the Lord's Supper the Churches shall be informed that this present Synod doth ratifie the Resolutions formerly decreed on this Point in the Synods of Rochel and Nismes The aforesaid Confession of Faith having been read in its several Articles orderly and distinctly was confirmed and approved by all the Deputies of France in the Name and behalf of all the Churches CHAP. III. Observartions made in reading of our Church-Discipline 1. THis following addition shall conclude the 2d Article of the Chapter of Ministers And Imposition of Hands shall not be given them no more than unto Persons of whom we have not the least knowledge unless it were in a Provincial Synod 2. The 18th Article shall be closed up with this addition As against them also whoso much employ themselves in the teaching of Youth that they are thereby hindred from performing the principal Duties of their Office 3. After the 21st Article there shall be this ensuing addition made Consistories erected in the Palaces of Princes and other great Lords shall be distinct from the Consistories of the Churches of those places where for a time they make their abode unless it be in a matter of common concern unto both the Consistories or in case of some very great and notorious scandal given unto the whole Church by a Domestick relating to the said Prince or Lord or in any other Affair in which the two Consistories shall see meet that there should be a mutual concurrence and conjunction 4. After those words with special Prayers in the first Article of the third Chapter there shall be this added And their Names shall be by an audible clear Voice mentioned in the Consistory And after these words If there be no opposition you must add They shall be publickly received on the third Sunday standing before the Pulpit with solemn Prayers 5. There shall be added to the end of the first Article of the fifth Chapter these words As also in all other Church-Meetings 6. This following addition shall be made to the end of the 16th Article And in case of an Appeal the said Appeal shall be notified without naming of the Person or declaring the Censure inflicted by the Consistory 7. Instead of those words publickly known in the 21st Article shall be inserted Notoriously 8. Towards the close of the 27th Article these words shall be added However 't is left unto the prudence of the Consistories to use otherwise if they shall judge it more expedient for the Churches edification 9. This shall be added to the 28th Article If any Persons professing the Reformed Religion shall Appeal their Pastors Elders or the whole Body of the Consistory before the Civil Magistrates to force them to give in evidence against those Delinquents who have confessed their sins to them they shall be proceeded against by all Church-Censures yea even to excommunication itself 10. There shall be this ensuing clause added to the end of the 4th Article of the 6th Chapter And if any particular Church or Churches refuse Payment of their Contributions to the defraying of those Expences which are unavoidably contracted by Journies and Attendance in Synodical and other Ecclesiastical Assemblies kept and held up for the common good and service of all the Churches they shall be deprived of the Ministry of the Gospel and be reputed and accounted Deserters of that holy Vnion which ought to be maintain'd among us for our general preservation Only Notice shall be given them hereof some competent space of time before that they may not complain of being not warned nor duly admonished of their Duty and that they are surprized And all Ministers in such Churches are interdicted the Exercise of their Ministry upon pain of being denounced Schismaticks 11. After the word Memoire in the second Article of the ninth Chapter you must add these signed by one Pastor and one Elder 12. Alter these words And the removing of Ministers from one place unto another in the 10th Article of the 8th Chap. these shall be added And from one Church unto another 13. After these words in the 3d Article of the 9th Chapter With a sufficient Testimonial these shall be added Signed by the Moderator and Scribe of the Provincial Synod 14. After these words Both Ministers and Elders in the third Line of the 11th and last Article of the same Chapter you must add these Of Matters onely which have happened during that Action 15. After those last words in the 2d Article of the 10th Chapter Who shall cease to have shall be censured add these following As those also who do not uncover their Heads during the time of singing from the beginning of that Ordinance to the end 16. After these words Instructed in the true Religion the 4th Article of the 11th Chapter shall be thus concluded The Children also of Gypsies the French call them Bohemians and Saracens may be baptized in our Reformed Churches upon the Terms before-mentioned and provided there be no ground to believe they have been already baptized and after that the Sureties have been previously and seriously admonished to bethink themselves how they may discharge that Obligation and Promise which they make unto the Church 17. This ensuing Article shall be the 8th in the 11th Chapter of our Discipline No Member of another Church shall be admitted a Surety for any Child at Baptism unless he bring with him an Attestation from his own Church 18. After those words in the 15th Article Being signed by the Child's Godfather and by the Minister who baptized him these shall be added And whenever Children shall be presented unto Baptism the Parents or Sureties shall bring with them a Paper in which are writ down the Names of those Children and of their Fathers and Mothers and of their Godfathers and Godmothers and of the day of their Birth 19. The 20th Article of the 13th Chapter of Marriages shall be thus concluded And the Marriage shall be publickly solemnized and blessed in the Congregation of the Faithful by the Ministry of the Pastors and not of any Elder or Deacon 20. The 31st Article of the 14th Chapter shall be placed in order before the 21st and thus couched All Swearers who in passion or hastiness do take the Name of God in vain and others who affront the Divine Majesty shall
Censure shall be given among themselves by the Pastors and Elders in the * * * Breaking shutting up of every Colloquy XXV These following words shall be added to the second Article of the Eighth Chapter Churches having several Ministers shall send them by turns XXVI These words shall be inserted into the fourth Article Shall be deprived of the Ministry XXVII To the sixth there shall be this inserted The Days Hours and Places as also he shall gather the Votes of every Member And to the close of that Article these words shall be added And after this self-same manner the Moderators of Colloquies shall be governed XXVIII This shall be inserted into the seventh They shall have like Votes as the Pastors XXIX The eighth Article shall be struck out and transferr'd unto the following Chapter where also the word Provincial shall be razed and That of Confession of Faith inserted XXX This shall be put into the tenth Article The change of Pastors from one Province unto another and of one Church unto another and of the Churches of one Colloquy unto another XXXI In reading the Division of the Provinces and after hearing Monsieur Gantois Minister in the Church of Sedan who was seconded in his Discourse by his Elder it was decreed That the Churches of the Principality of Sedan and Rancourt for time coming shall be united to the Synod of the Isle of France Picardy and Champagne and be reputed Members of the Colloquy of Champagne XXXII The Province of Orleans and Berry demanding That Bourbonnois might be incorporated with their Province and the Deputies of Burgundy and Lyonnois opposing this their motion it was decreed That the said contending Provinces should bring with them the Memoirs and Opinion of those of Bourbonnois unto the next National Synod that there it may be regulated XXXIII This addition shall close up the third Article of the Ninth Chapter And that there may be no default three or four Pastors and as many Elders shall be nominated that in case the first named Pastors should be hindred from their Journey there may be others to supply their places XXXIV This Article shall follow next in order unto the fourth The first Act in the first Sessions of our National Synods shall be the reading our Confession of Faith and the Book of Discipline XXXV Towards the close of the fourth Article of the tenth Chapter in stead of Abolished there shall be read Removed XXXVI These words shall be added to the ninth Article of the eleventh Chapter Provided that the Sureties undertake for its maintenance and also that there be no presumption XXXVII The third Article of the 12th Chapter shall be couch'd in these words Priests Monks and other Ecclesiasticks of the Romish Religion shall not be admitted to the Lord's Supper till they have first in the face of the whole Church acknowledged and repented of their former Life and Profession XXXVIII The fourth Article shall be thus worded Incumbents bearing the Stile and Title of their Benefices and others intermedling with Idolatry directly or indirectly whether they receive the Profits thereof with their own or by the hands of others shall in to wise be admittted to communicate with us at the Lord's Table And the rest shall be razed out XXXIX The fifth Article of the thirteenth Chapter shall be put into these words It 's left to the discretion of the Churches either to use the words de praesenti or de futuro in Marriage-Promises However such Promises be they de praesenti or de suturo are in themselves indissolvable unless in case of some lawful Impediment And the Article next in order unto this shall be that which begins thus As concerning Consanguinities XL. The eighth Article shall be conceived in these words Spiritual Kindreds as they be termed are not comprised under the Titles of Consanguinity and Assinity in the King's Edict nor upon these Accounts may the Parties be hindred from contracting Marriage XLI This clause shall be inserted into the twelfth Article Promises of Marriage shall neither be receiv'd nor published in the Church c. Item He shall renounce all Idolatry Superstition and particularly the Mass XLII This shall be the first Article of the fourteenth Chapter in these words No one shall be received into the Communion of our Churches till he have first renounced all the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome and particularly the Mass XLIII These words shall be razed out of the close of the fifth Article Vnless in case of abolishing the Preaching of God's Word and setting up of Mass XLIV To the fourteenth Article this shall be subjoyned And such as send their Children to the Schools of Priests Monks Jesuits or Nuns shall be prosecuteâ—â—ith all Censures of the Church XLV These words shall be struck out of the 26th Article Poinecons de Houpe and Fardingals as hath been decreed in former Synods XLVI These words shall be razed out of the 28th Article Or the setting up of Maypoles XLVII Because of the great Inconveniences of Lotteries set up in divers places of this Kingdom the 30th Article shall be finished with this clause Lotteries also ought in no wise to be approved whether they be appointed by the Magistrate or not and Godly Magistrates are intreated by their Authority to suppress them After these words Notorious Avarice these following shall be inserted into the same Article Obsceneness or loss of time XLVIII Such as challenge or put others upon challenging to fight a Duel and they also who accept the challenge c. These words shall be put into the 33d Article XLIX 'T is left to the liberty and prudence of Consistories after what manner to proceed against the ungrateful Members of their Churches whether by those compulsory ways allowed us by his Majesty or by particular Obligations or by Church-Censures even by suspension from the Lord's Table after grave and solemn Admonitions and Summons have been given these Delinquents by their Consistories or any other course they shall judge advisable L. The Pastors and Elders deputed from their Provinces unto this Assembly have sworn and protested in the Name of their Provinces to cause the Discipline ordained by this Synod to be used and observed to the utmost of their power CHAP. IV. Of APPEALS I. AN Appeal being brought by the Town and Consistory of St. John d' Angely from the Synod of Xaintonge who had appointed Monsieur D'amours he in no wise belonging unto the said Church of St. John to serve the Church of Chastleheraut until the meeting of the National this Assembly declareth That the Appeal was ill laid and the Ordinance of that Synod good and valid And whereas the said D'amours complaineth of the Terms couched in that Ordinance and of the Letters written in the Name of the said Synod this Assembly judgeth That the said Monsieur D' Amours was the true and lawful Pastor of the said Church of St. John for the time in which he
Ministry in Normandy he is of but mean Stature hath a weeping Tone brown Hair 2. As also one called Mussidan alias John Bourdirier who had been deposed in Vivaretz 3. Also one named Des Hameux who had been declared Vagrant by the Provincial Synod of Anjou The Province of Dolphiny is appointed to call the next National Synod three Years hence saving that in case of necessity and that Province do judge it so by reason of extraordinary Occurrences they may convene it sooner Revising that Article concerning the maintenance of Monsieur Berger before-mentioned it was decreed That in lieu of a General Contribution towards it by all the Provinces that of Orleans shall give him in a double Portion from the Moneys granted us by His Majesty to what is assigned unto each single Pastor which Quota of his shall be allowed them in their Accounts to be presented by them at the next National Synod Those of Vivaretz complaining of Taxes imposed on by the Provinces of Higher and Lower Languedoc towards the defraying of Charges spent about Businesses whereunto they had never been invited The Assembly ordains that for what is past it shall be valid but for the future that the Moneys of His Majesty's Grant which were purely Church-Moneys shall not be diverted from their primary design which was the maintenance of our Ministers and in particular that the Provinces shall not usurp upon one another's Right Monsieur Palott before-named having sent unto this Assembly a little before its dissolution the Sum of Three thousand Crowns in ready Money it was divided among the Provinces and Universities defalking one Sol in the Livre upon the whole remaining Debt for the Years 1598 1599 and 1600 according to the Accompts sent by the said Monsieur Palott for every Province and this without prejudice to the Accompt of the said Palott or approbation of it Dated at Gergeau the 25th of May 1601. Signed thus George Pacard Moderator chosen by the Synod De Beaulieu Assessor Scribes Daniel Chamier Josias Mercier The End of the Synod of GERGEAU THE Acts Decisions and Decrees OF THE XVII National Synod OF The Reformed Churches OF FRANCE Held in The Town of Gap and Province of Dolphiny In the Year of our Lord 1603. The CONTENTS of the Synod of GAP Chap. I. DEputies from the Provinces The Lords General Deputies des Fontaines Agent for Monsieur Palot Receiver of the Churches moneys Synodical Officers chosen The Provinces censured for not sending their full number of Deputies Brittany censured for a particular fact Chap. II. Observations upon the Confession of Faith the Original always to be brought unto the National Synod the 18 and 20 and 22d Articles explained our Righteousness by the imputation of Christs Active and Passive Obedience 2. The Call of our first Reformers was extraordinary and not from the Church of Rome 4. The Pope is the Antichrist 5. Of the word Super-intendant 6. The Confession Sworn and Subscribed 8. Monsieur Chamier to write an Apology for it as Bishop Jewel did for the Church of England Chap. III. Observations upon the Discipline no private Ordination 1. Uniformity in Ordination 2. Irregular Preaching 4. Canons for Professors of Divinity 7. Orders for maintaining young Students in Divinity 8. Elders shall have no Impositions of Hands 9. A Canon about Penitential Confession 12 A Case propounded by the Deputies of Burgundy 13. The Churches of several Provinces Incorporated with those of France 15 16 17. An Inquiry for the Original Acts of these National Synods 19. Publick Common Prayers laid down and why 21. Whether Ministers may attend on Funerals 22. The Discipline ratified by the Oath of all the Deputies Chap. 4 Observations on the Synod of Jergeau Instructions to a censured Minister how to justify himself 2. Letters to the Professors of Geneva about our Proposans 8. A Canon for the Deacons of Bearne in Switzerland 9. the Church of Paris censured 10. The Petition of a Minister deposed for his insufficiency and desiring to be restored is rejected 15. Thanks given to the Lord of Pleâ—â—â—s for his Book of the Eucharist 17. The Petition of a deposed Minister for restoration unto his Work and Office rejected 18. Chap. V. Appeals Two Ministers at Variance reconciled 9. Chap. VI. General matters A petition of the exiled Protestants of the Martquisate of Salluces to the Synod 1. Pastors must not be Non-Residents 2. A Canon about Pastors not Deputed to the National Synods yet sitting in them 3. An answer to the complaint of the Pastors of Geneva 4. That the Pope is Antichrist shall be inserted into the Articles of the Confession of Faith 5. A great case whether the Faithful may say they be of the pretended Reformed Religion 6. Another case of Conscience about a place of Burial 7. Form of Certificates 8. Moneys to begin the University of Die 9 10. A motion and means for reuniting the Lutherans with our Churches 11. A Case whether a Child Baptised by a Proposan should be Rebaptized 12. A Case about Oaths 13. About Theological disputations 14. About a Lord of misrule 15. A Committee to draw up a body â—f Laws for our Schools and Universities 18. Moneys paid unto the General Deputies 21. The King of Spains Bible to be set up in our Universities 300 Crowns given to the Academy of Sedan Chap. VII Particular matters A suspected Gentleman cleared 5. The History of a Possession 9. Letters from the Faithful in the Valley of Barcellona answered 17. Settling of Religion at Issoire 18. Letters sent to the Faithful fallen in Salluces 19. The Synod of Burgundy censured 22. The Poverty of the Church of Aubenas 28. A Book Intituled Hypotoposes Theologicae to be revised 30. the Vniversity of Sedan incouraged 40. Election of General Deputies 44. Chap. VIII A Dividend of 45000 Crowns between the Churches and Universities Chap. IX An Accompt of Moneys allowed the Sieurs Palot du Candal Chap. X. A Dividend of 135000 Crowns among the Churches and Universities Chap. XI A Catalogue of all the Reformed Churches of France Chap. XII Remarks upon three of the Deputies to this Synod 1603. The 17th Synod The Synod of GAP SYNOD XVII 1603. In the Name of God Amen Acts of the National Synod held by the Reformed Churches of France at Gap the first day of October and continued to the four and twentieth of the same Month in the Year of our Lord One thousand six hundred and three CHAP. I. Monsieur Chamier was chosen President Monsieur Ferrier Assessor Scribes Monsieur Vignier and Monsieur Roy THERE appeared in it as Deputies for their respective Provinces the Pastors and Elders whose names are here under written For the Isle of France Picardy and Champagne For the Isle of France Picardy and Champagne Monsieur Peter du Moulin Minister in the Church of Paris and Gedeon Petau Lord of the Mollette Elder of the Church of Houdan For Brittany Monsieur Francis L'Oyseau Minister of the Church of Nantes
Brittany Orleans and Berry For Orleans and Berry Monsieur Nicholas Vignier Minister of the Church of Blois and Samuel de Chambaran Minister of the Church of Baugency Lorges and Marchenoir Tourain Anjou Maine For Touraine Anjou and the Maine Monsieur John Eleury Minister of the Church of Bougay and Peter de la Primaudaye Lord de la Bareé Elder of the Church of Chasteau du Loir For the upper and nether Poictou Monsieur John Bonnavet Minister of the Church of Lusson Poictou and John Chauffepied Minister of the Church of Niort and René de Lumont Lord of Fiefbrun Elder in the Church of Sansay Xaintonge Aunix c. For Xaintonge Aunix c. Monsieur Samuel L'Hommeau Minister in the Church of Rochell and Arthur de Partenay Lord of Genouillé and Querray Elder in the Church of Tonné Boutonné and Daniel Roy Elder in the Church of Xaintes Gascony Perigord and Limousin For Gascony Perigord and Limousin Monsieur Antony Renaud Minister of Bourdeaux Peter Esperian Minister of the Church at St. Foy James du Brueil Lord de la Garde Elder of Tonneins and Peter du Bazats Elder in the Church of Bourdeaux For Vivaretz and Vellay For the upper and nether Vivaretz and Vellay Monsieur Peter Labat Minister in the Church of Vabon la Gorce and Salvais John de la Faye Minister of the Church D'Aubenac and James Oliver Elder in the Church of Villeneufve de Berg. For the Lower Languedoc Monsieur Jeremiah Ferrier Minister and Professor of Divinity in the Church of Nismes Isaiah Bailly Minister in the Church of St. Martin d' Anduze and John de Barjac Lord of Gasque Elder in the Church of St. Martin Lower Languedoc and John d' Aguerre Elder in the Church of Sauve Higher Languedoc and higher Guyenne For the Higher Languedoc and Guyenne Monsieur Bernard Sónis Minister and Professor of Divinity in the Church of Montaubon John Josion Minister in the Church of Castres and the Lord Du Bovry Governor of the Isle of Jourdan and Elder of the Church there and Daniel de Belujon Elder of the Church in Villemure Burgundy Lyonnois c. For Burgundy Lyonnois c. Monsieur Peter Collinet Minister of the Church of Parrey Samuel de Trucis Elder of the Church of Bourg in Bresse and Job James Bonnet Elder in the Church of Chaalons upon Saone For Provence Provence Monsieur Anthony the Croase Minister of the Church in Cabiers and Peter de Villineufve Lord d' Espineuse Elder of the Church Dolphiny and the Principality of Orange For Dolphiny and the Principality of Orange Monsieur Claude Perron Minister in the Church of Pragelet Daniel Chamier Minister of the Church of â—ontlimart and Jacob Archmart Elder of the same and Jacob Videl Elder in the Church of Brianson For Normandy there was no Deputy but Monsieur du Moulin was entrusted with their Memoirs by the Brethren of that Province The Lords of St. Germain and des Bordes General Deputies for our Churches at Court and Mr. Joseph des Fountaines commissionated by Monsieur Palott to give in his Accounts of the King's Moneys granted our Churches were personally present in this Synod The Lords of St. Germain and des Bordes appeared in their Quality of General Deputies according to the Office conferred upon them by the General Assembly of St. Foy and Mr. Joseph des Fontaines was deputed by the same Assembly of St. Foy and to audit the Accounts of Monsieur Palott Prayers being ended Monsieur Chamier was chosen Moderator and Monsieur Ferrier Assessor and the Sieurs Vignier and Roy Scribes The Provinces which have not sent their full number of Pastors and Elders ordained by our Discipline are excused for this time but for the future they shall all oâ— them conform unto the Canon of the Synod of Montpellier otherwise they shall forfeit their right of Sitting and Voting in our National Synods The Powers given before Publick Notaries unto the Deputies of Brittany and attested by secular persons is tolerated for the present but that Province is required to abstain from them for time to come and are ordered to get their Letters of Commission signed by the Moderator and Scribes of their Provincial Synod Monsieur * * * In another Copy he is written Givoult Gueran Minister of the Church of Dindeveuf Deputed by the Province oâ— Normandy excused his absence from this Synod which was accepted but that Province shall be censured by Letters from us for their neglect in not sending other Deputies CHAP. II. Observations upon the Confession of Faith 1. THE Province charged to call our National Synod is charged also to bring with it the Original Confession of Faith which shall to this purpose be subscribed by this Assembly and sent unto that Province 2. The Synod reading over the Confession of Faith and explaining the 18th 20th and 22d Articles of the said Confession concerning our Justification before God expresseth its detestation of those Errors which are now-a-days broached to the contrary and in particular their Errors who deny the Imputation of Christ's Active and Passive Obedience by which he hath most perfectly fulfilled the whole Law unto us for Righteousness Our Righteousness by the Imputation of Christs active and passive Obedience And therefore Provincial Synods Colloquies and Consistories shall have a careful Eye on those persons who be tainted with that Error be they Ministers or private Christians and by the Authority of this Assembly shall silence them and in case of a wilful stubborn persistency in their Errors to depose them if they have a Pastoral Charge in the Church from the Ministry And Letters shall be writ unto Master Piscator to intreat him not to trouble the Churches with his new-fangled Opinions as also from this Assembly to the Universities of England Scotland Leyden Geneva Heydelberg Basil and * * * In another Copy Ziguen Herborne in which Piscator is Professor requesting them to joyn with us also in this Censure And in case the said Piscator shall pertinaciously adhere unto his Opinions Master Sohnius and Ferrier are to prepare an Answer to his Books and that it be ready against the Meeting of the next National Synod And this Article shall be read and in all points most exactly observed by the Provincial Synods 3. The Provinces are exhorted seriously to debate in their Synods how to word the five and twentieth Article of our Confession and to bring with them their maturest thoughts about it unto the next National Synod because in expressing our Faith about the Catholick Church mentioned in the Creed we have nothing in our Confession concerning the Church Militant and Visible As also they are intreated to consider whether it would not be fit to subjoyn ths word Pure unto those of the True Church which is in the nine and twentieth Article The Call of our first Pastors and Reformers was
Church of Puylaurens and Monsieur Voysin the Minister from a Decree of the Synod of higher Languedoc ordaining the said Voysin to return unto the Colloquy of higher Quercy and to serve the Churches of St. Clere Blenac and Calvinett This Assembly rejecteth and maketh void this Appeal and confirms the Decree of the Synod of Higher Languedoc but on this condition that those Churches last-mentioned do fully satisfie within three months the Church of Puylaurens all those expences they have laid out upon the said Voysin 11. The Colloquy of Albigeois appealed from the Synod of Higher Languedoc because they had now adjudged the Church of Mazamet and St. Amand which formerly belonged to the Colloquy of Albigeois unto the Colloquy of Lauragais This Assembly leaveth the Churches to their full Liberty and to chuse that Colloquy which lieth most commodiously for them And in consequence hereof the Church of Mazamet joined it self unto the Colloquy of Lauragais according to their desire and choice And in the next National or Provincial Synod the Church of St. Amand shall declare into which Colloquy of these two it will be Incorporated 12. Monsieur de Clermont and the Church of Pringey appealed from the Synod of Anjou and Touraine which had adjudged Monsieur le Bloy to the Church of Anger 's notwithstanding the right Monsieur de Clermont pretended to have in the said le Bloy who had been Educated for the Ministry at his sole charges This Assembly because of the importunity of the Church of Anger 's hath confirmed the Call given by them unto the said le Bloy but on this condition that the Church of Pringey shall be provided of Monsieur Douchet who is now in England immediately upon his return or of some other able Pastor by the Church of Anger 's 13. The Church of Montlimard appealed from the Synod of Dolphiny about the Erecting of a Colledge in the Town of Die This Assembly ordereth the Provincial Synod of Dolphiny to put a final period unto this Controversie 14. The Churches in the Principality of Orange brought their Appeal against the Province of Dolphiny for three portions of the King's money to be attributed unto the Churches of the said Principality as it had been decreed in the Synod of Gergeau This Assembly doth Ordain that according to the Dividend made at Gergeau the Churches in the Principality of Orange shall receive three portions of the moneys assigned unto the Province of Dolphiny and that without allowance of any charges unless what had been expended in the recovery of them And this Order shall be of force unto this day but for the future they shall be provided for by that new distribution which shall be made in this Assembly 15. The Elders of the Churches of Lue Tarbies and Brignoles appealed from the Colloquy and Synod of Provence which had ordained that the moneys laid out upon Monsieur Baptist Beliste should be redemanded from those said Churches it having been disbursed wholly and solely for his particular Maintenance This Assembly judgeth that it 's most agreeable to found reason that the charges of Journeys should be born by the whole Province and come out of the publick purse but as for such Expences as were done for expediting and forwarding of particular business relating unto those particular Churches they ought in Conscience and Justice to be defrayed by those Churches 15. The Appeal brought by Joseph Pallott from the Decree of the Provincial Synod of Higher Languedoc is dismissed over to the decision of that Province which is hereby fully impowered to determine finally of it CHAP. VI. Of General Matters 1. THE Petition tendered by our Brethren of the Marquisate of Saluces Exiled for the Gospel's sake from their Houses and Inheritance was read and 't was judged reasonable Concerning the Faithful of the Marquisate of Saluces refuge it the Province of Dolphiny that the Churches of the said Marquisate should be preserved and confirmed in their Union and Communion of Faith and Discipline which they have ever had with the Churches of this Kingdom And therefore the King's Majesty shall be most humbly intreated to recommend them to the Duke of Savoy that the Liberty granted them by his Edicts may be continued and confirmed to them And Letters also to this purpose shall be written from this Assembly unto the Duke of Savoy and to the Duke de les Diguieres and the Churches of the Valleys shall be exhorted to joyn themselves into a stricter Bond of Union as they have done in times of former troubles one with the other Pastors must not be Non-residents 2. All Pastors shall be obliged to a personal Residence in their Churches and who so live at a distance from them shall within three months time at the farthest after notice given them to this purpose retire unto them on pain of being suspended from their Ministry And the Deputies shall immediately upon their return acquaint their respective Provinces with this Decree that so the Provincial Synods may put to their helping hand for its better observation 3. For as much as divers Ministers not deputed unto this National Synod do carry themselves with very little reverence or respect unto it 1603. The 17th Synod that such inconveniencies for the future may be avoided it is ordained That if any Pastors not delegated by their Provinces unto these National Assemblies do notwithstanding appear in them they shall have no place of sitting nor be admitted into them unless it be when matters of a most general and publick concern as to Doctrine and Discipline are treated and debated and then also for no longer time than those Assemblies shall judge meet and fit Concerning Hautyus Printing of the Bible at Rochel 4. The Pastors and Professors in the Church of Geneva complained of our Bibles printed at Rochell This Assembly having revised the Decree of the Synod of Saumur by which the priviledge of Printing those Bibles was granted unto Monsieur Hautin deceased And for as much as the said Impression is very much advanced and that from all parts our Ears are filled with great complaints of the scarcity and dearness of those Bibles printed at Geneva and of the bad Paper and worse Letter used by them in their last Edition in Quarto It was advised to dispatch Letters to our Brethren of Geneva desiring them not to take it amiss that we continued the Printing of our Bibles at Rochell according to the unanimous desire of all the Churches in this Kingdom and in the mean while our Printers at Rochell shall be exhorted to hasten their said Impression and to vend it at as low a price as possibly they can and Monsieur l'Hommeau is requested to add a good Index to it That Article concerning Antichrist shall be inserted into the Body of our Confession 5. Divers Pastors and Members of several Churches remonstrated in this Assembly how they had been troubled and prosecuted for calling the Pope
to appear at Court and that he was at the Expence of printing the Confession of our Faith This Assembly gives him the Sum of seventy Crowns to reimburse his Charges and thanketh him for his care and faithfulness in the delivery of those Letters and for having communicated with Monsieur Piscator and brought back with him his answers But order is given unto the Synod of Lower Guyenne to examine him upon some certain points mentioned in the aforesaid answers as for styling himself the Messenger or Ambassador of the Churches and for submitting the Confession of Faith of the Churches of this Kingdom to the Censures of Forreign Universities and in case these can be proved upon him he shall be censured And forasmuch as the Letters of Monsieur Piscator have been communicated to others before they were tendered to this Assembly the said Synod shall make a strict inquiry into this matter and know whether Monsieur Regnault were guilty of it or no. CHAP. II. Observations on reading the Confession of Faith 1. ON the tenth Article in which it 's said that the whole off-spring of Adam are infected with Original Sin The Pastors of Lauzanna by their Letters request that our Lord Jesus Christ may be excepted But it was not found needful to accord it to them because that it 's expresly mentioned in another Article of the same Confession and for that in this place it is to be understood of other persons as also for that the Scripture expresseth this in plain terms 2. Whereas the Synod of Gap had charged the Provinces to consider in what terms the twenty fifth Article of the Confession of Faith should be couched and to come prepared for it unto the present Synod and to judge whether any mention should be made of the Catholick Church spoken of in the Apostles Creed as also whether it would not be expedient to add the word pure to that of true Church in the twenty ninth Article and that all in general should come ready to debate that Question of the Church The Provinces having been heard speak by their Deputies it was finally resolved by common unanimous consent that nothing should be added to or taken from these Articles and there should be no more discourse had about that point of the Church 3. It was Decreed that nothing should be added unto the eighth Article of our confession which treats of Justification because it 's couched in the very express words of Scripture and in its own common phrase Those Explications and Amplifications desired by some may be received either from Doctors in our Universities or Pastors of our Churches 4. Whereas Doctor John Piscator Professor in the University of Herborn by his Letters of answer to those sent him from the Synod of Gap doth give us an account of his Doctrine in the point of Justification Concerning Man's Justification in the Opinion of Piscator as that it 's only wrought out by Christ's Death and Passion and not by his Life and Active Obedience This Synod in no wise approving the dividing causes so nearly conjoined in this great effect of Divine Grace and judging those arguments produced by him for the defence of his cause weak and invalid doth order that all the Pastors in the respective Churches of this Kingdom do wholly conform themselves in their Teaching to that form of sound words which hath been hitherto taught among us and is contained in the Holy Scriptures to wit That the whole Obedience of Christ both in his Life and Death is imputed to us for the full remission of our Sins and acceptance unto Eternal Life and in short that this being but one and the self-same Obedience is our entire and perfect Justification And the Synod farther ordains that answer shall be made unto the Letters of the said Doctor Piscator propounding to him this Holy Doctrine together with its principal foundations yet without any vain jangling and with that devotion as becomes the singular modesty expressed by him in his Letters to us wherein there is not the least bitterness or provoking expression leaving it unto God who can when he pleaseth reveal unto him the defects which are in the Doctrine of the said Piscator as also to assure him that he hath exceedingly satisfied this Assembly in his Explications on that Topick of Repentance The suppression of the Book of Felix Huguet on the point of Justification for being written without the Warrant tho' in the name of all our Churches against Piscator 5. Letters were sent by Mr. Felix Huguet Minister of the Gospel together with two Copies of a Book writ by him in Latine concerning Justification which said book he had for some time past caused to be Printed at Geneva without the knowledge of the Pastors of that City or the Approbation of the Pastors of the Province of Dolphiny where he resides Upon report made of it by several Brethren Pastors of Churches ordered to peruse the said Book both as to its style and matter The Synod judgeth the said Huguet to have incurred a most grievous censure first for writing in the name of the Synod in a matter of General concern without any warrant from it for so doing and secondly for giving a publick answer to a Book which was never published and lastly for having Printed his Book contrary to the Canons of our Church-discipline And therefore it ordaineth that the said Book be suppressed and that thanks be returned to the Magistrates of Geneva for their preventing of its publick sale and to intreat them that for the future they would totally suppress it And farther the Synod hath thought good that in the Letter which shall be written unto Dr. Piscator he shall be acquainted that Huguets Book was writ without the order knowledge and consent of our Churches and only attempted by him upon a private caprice of his own without any publick Warrant or Authority for so doing Monsieur Sohnis answers orthodoxly and in the name and by order of the Churches unto Piscator 6. Whereas Monsieur Sohnis Pastor and Professor of the Church and University of Montauban hath at the desire and in the name of this Assembly written Letters and an Answer unto those of Piscator which upon perusal are found very orthodox It 's ordered that thanks be returned unto the said Sohnius for his labour and diligence but yet for peace and concord 's sake it 's thought good to detain them by us for a while and Monsieur Sohnis is intreated to suspend the publication of his Treatise about Justification for some short time till we see what fruits the sweet and gentle procedures may produce and the next National Synod shall then license it 7. Monsieur Regnault Pastor of the Church of Bourdeaux having sent us the Copy of Letters written to him by the most Illustrious Lord John Earl of Nassau in which he expresseth his desire of maintaining the Peace and Union of the Church and
particularly promiseth to hinder the out-breaking of Piscator's Notions provided he be not provoked elsewhere by any others This Assembly ordaineth John Earl of Nassau his Letters unto Monsieur Regnault that Lettes shall in its name be written unto the said most Noble Lord thanking him for his pious affection and humbly intreating that Prince to continue his endeavours for effecting of that much-desired Union and to take care that none of his Subjects do break out into bitter expressions and to assure him on the behalf of our Churches in this Kingdom that no person shall be suffered to exasperate Dr. Piscator by any publick Writings as also that if any one hath heretofore done it he had no Commission for so doing from us and it was disowned by this Synod and that we shall take special care to prevent it for the future See the first Synod of Rochel G. Mat. 6. and of Montauban observat upon the Confes Art 4. Th' Article concerning Antichrist to be printed and inserted into our Confession 8. Our Printers shall be once again charged according to the Decrees of the Synods of Montauban and Saumur to put the word Union instead of Unity in the twenty sixth Article of our Confession And all Pastors in whose Churches there be Printing Houses are required to oversee the next impressions that so it be done accordingly 9. That Article concerning Antichrist inserted by the Synod of Gap into the body of our Confession and making the thirty first having been in its order read weighed and examined was approved and allowed by general consent both as to its form and substance for very true and agreeing with Scripture-Prophesie and which in these our days we see most clearly to be fulfilled Whereupon it was resolved that it should continue in its place and that for time coming it should be imprinted in all Copies which should come from the Press 10. That word Superintendent in the thirty third Article shall abide according as it was expounded by the Synod of Gap 11. Whereas the Pastors and Classis of Lausanna Morges c. do demonstrate in their Letters that it would be fit to add unto the close of the thirty third Article after the word Appertaining this restriction as far forth as they be grounded on the Word of God This Assembly hath found it needless and superfluous because that the foregoing words For in Excommunication we ought to follow what our Lord hath declared to us do sufficiently express unto us the aforesaid Restriction 12. Whereas some have remonstrated that it were meet to express in the thirty sixth Article more clearly that Union which the faithful have one with another and which is signified to us in the Lord's Supper But this point having been debated it was judged needless for that the Conjunction of the head with the Members there mentioned did necessarily infer the mutual Union and Communion of the Members one with another 13. The Consistories of Churches in which our Printers live are charged for time to come to have a special care that our Printers do not forget those words of our Lords Institution Take Eat c. And Drink ye all c. according as was Decreed in the Synod of Saumur 14. The Province of Higher Languedoc scrupling the word Lieutenant in the thirty ninth Article This Assembly saw no reason for it but that it might continue in it as importing nothing contrary to what is signified by that word when attributed unto Magistrates by the Holy Scriptures and equivalent to those words which the Word of God doth bestow upon them 15. The Confession of Faith having been read over word by word and in every Member Article and Clause of it it was unanimously approved and sworn to by all the Deputies present in the Synod who promised and protested to live and die in this Faith and particularly in what had been determined according to the Scriptures That we be justified before God by the imputation of that obedience of our Lord Jesus which he yielded unto God his Father in his Life and Death Which said Protestation the Deputies of the Provinces will by the Authority of this Synod cause also to be taken by all the Pastors of their respective Provinces which had sent them CHAP. III. Observations on the reading our Church-Discipline 1. ON the Second Article of the first Chapter after these words of their Doctrine shall be added approved at least by the space of two years since their Conversion and confirmed by good Testimonials from those places in which they live 2. On the fourth Article of the same Chapter that alternative of two or three shall be removed and there shall be mentioned three only 3. No Church shall for the future undertake whatever sollicitations may be made it to examine or ordain those Pastors which are to serve out of this Kingdom but herein they shall conform unto the Discipline and the Decrees of former National Synods 4. After these words in the fourth Article which shall be advised there shall be added without being able during that all whole time to administer the Sacraments that so c. See Synod of Gap 4 Art uppon the Discipline 5. That Article of the Synod of Gap concerning the eleventh Canon of this first Chapter shall be most strictly observed and that it may be better kept for the future in all Consistorial Classical and Synodical Censures diligent inquiry shall be made into the Conversation and Manner of Preaching used by every Pastor and an Oath shall be imposed on the Examinant to speak the Truth to the best of his knowledge and that they may the better answer to every point they shall read unto them the said Article of the Discipline 6. On reading the ninteenth Article the Synod ordered Letters should be written unto the Lords of this Kingdom professing the Reformed Religion that they be intreated when ever they are called from their Houses unto Court or when ever they travel that they would not fail to take their Pastors with them 7. The Synod expounding the twenty eighth Article by these words their Churches being heard doth understand the Consistories and Chief of the people and by these words for certain considerations doth understand whatever may fall out in general and not particularly the proceeds of Censures A Colloquy may lend a Minister for three and the Provinc Synod 6 months out of the Province See the first Synod of Vitré g. Mat. 24. 8. On the thirty third Article where speech is had about the consent of Pastors and Churches in case of Loan of Ministers without the Province It is now decreed that notwithstanding any Appeal to the contrary a Colloquy may lend a Pastor for three Months and the provincial Synod for six 9. The means prescribed by the Synods of Gap and Gergeau to prevent their ingratitude who refuse maintenance unto their Pastors are left to be used according to the discretion and charity of the
Assembly commissionated Monsieur Vignier Minister of the Gospel and Monsieur des Fontaines Texier and le Fevrier Elders to examine and close up those Accounts which being done and report made by them it appeared that Monsieur Phillip Pinaut Receiver of the said Moneys stood indebted to them in the sum of 4292 Livers 15 Sous and 8 Deniers upon the whole which said Audit and final Reckoning is approved and ratified by this Synod and it 's further ordered that the said sum of 4292 Livers 15 Sous and 8 Deniers shall remain in the hands of the said Pinault to be employed in the Maintenance of the said University and about nothing else as we shall hereafter take care for And in so doing the said Receiver and Province shall be acquitted and discharged of the said Moneys And the Originals of the Accounts aforesaid shall be kept in the Consistory of Rochell and the Duplicates and Copies evidencing the whole shall be lodg'd in the hands of the said Pinault with the consent of the Deputies of that Province 29. The Province of Xaintonge moving whether it were not needful to make a compleat Answer to the Works of Bellarmine This Synod charged the Deputies of Dolphiny to intreat Monsieur Chamier to prosecute his worthy Labours begun by him upon this Subject 30. Every Province shall chuse one particular Church in it where the Original Acts of their Synods shall be conserved that in case of necessity they may have recourse unto them 31. The Professors of Divinity in the Universities of this Kingdom shall be advised so to contrive their Lectures and Common-places that they may be compleatly finished in three years time 32. The Province of Orleans and Berry demanding that the time for Proposans tendering themselves unto Synods and Colloquies with their Propositions might be fixed equally This Assembly judged that it were best and most convenient to leave it as before unto the liberty and prudence of those Meetings 33. Moreover at the request of the same Province it was ordained That Churches which had Ability should be desired to Erect Libraries for the service of their Ministers 34. Monsieur Perrin is intreated to finish his begun History of the True Estate of the Albingenses and Waldenses and to help him in it all persons having Memoirs by them either of the Doctrine Discipline or Persecutions of those poor Saints of Christ are charged to transmit them to him with all possible care and diligence 35. Into whose hands there may fall a little Treatise about the dispossession of the Devil out of a Demoniack in Soreze they are required to suppress it 36. No Scholars for the future shall be received by the Provinces as Pensioners and who be now maintained at the trivial Schools by the Moneys of his Majesties bounty till such times as they shall have finished their Studies of Humanity and have begun their course of Philosophy and shall give in good Security for repaying the sums received by them and expended on them in case that through their default they do not serve the Church in the Ministry of the Gospel 37. This Case was propounded by the Deputies of Higher Languedoc and Guyenne How they should deal with them who being accused of Crimes were absolved by the Magistrates and yet afterward new evidence appeared against them and the scandal continued The Synod leaves it wholly to the prudence of Consistories who shall comport themselves herein according to circumstances and take special care that the Lives and Reputation of the Brethren be not exposed to needless dangers 38. The Deputies of Normandy requiring that the proper Hebrew names of the Old Testament according as they be printed in this last Edition of our Bibles might be refined and pronounced as in the former Antient Impressions This Synod judgeth it more convenient that they remain as they are and that nothing be changed by our Printers in any of their After-Impressions 39. Monsieur Beraud propounded this Case Whether an Elder of the Church accused of some enormous Crime and justified by an Inferiour Judge and yet drawn by his adverse Party to a Superiour Tribunal may whilst this Appeal stands in force against him exercise his Office in the Church The Synod judgeth that he ought to refrain until such time as he be finally acquitted and discharged by due course of Law See the Synod of Gergeau p. m. 39. 40. The Provinces are exhorted to assist the poor Churches especially in their distribution of his Majesties Bounty conferred upon us 41. The General Deputies are charged not only to manage the general Affairs of all our Churches but the particular ones of every single Church especially when as a difficulty is started about the Erection and Conservation of it according to the Edict And this Order shall bind the Provinces to seek out diligently a Legal Title for the Erection of our Churches and to associate themselves with the Deputies in all Prosecutions at Law necessarily required that so their Erection may be obtained and confirmed A conditional Supersede as to the Article of Antichrist 42. Whereas since the last Resolution taken by us concerning that Article Antichrist and its insertion into the body of our Confession of Faith and in consequence thereof its being printed his Majesty hath notified unto us by our Deputies as also by Monsieur de Montmartyn that the publishing of this Article would exceedingly displease him This Assembly ordaineth That the Printing thereof shall be superseded unless any Member of our Church be molested for it or be brought before the Magistrate for his confession of it or any Minister for Preaching Teaching or Writing about it and his Majesty shall be humbly intreated to interpose his Authority that no one be disquieted for the Impression which is already past or for being possessed of any Copies received from the Press 43. The Deputies of Higher Languedoc crav'd the Advice of this Synod what should be done in that case of Moneys received by their Deputies sent unto the Assembly of Chastelleraut in the year 1605. and which had been given them to defray the Charges of their Journey and Abode there by the Churches and by his Majesties Liberality This Synod ordaineth That the Receivers and Detainers of the said Moneys not having given in their Accounts for them unto their respective Provinces nor having received from them good and vallid Acquittances and Discharges shall be bound to do it and in case of defailure they shall be prosecuted with all Church-censures and other due courses of Law if that the Provinces and Churches do so require it 44. In reading the Synod of Gap about Censures inflicted on the Violators of Marriage-promises without just cause several difficulties were related to have arisen in divers places upon this Subject Wherefore this Synod decreeth That neither private persons nor Consistories have any Authority to dissolve such promises but shall remand them back unto the Cognizance Order and Legal Judgment of the
persevere in our Faith and Discipline and to adventure their Estates their Lives and Fortunes for the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ expressing also their great desire that all the Members of our Churches might be preserved in a sweet and perfect Concord After thanks given them in the person of their Messengers Letters were ordained to be written unto each of them applauding their Zeal and Religious Affection and exhorting them to perseverance in this their godly Resolution and farther to assure them that this Assembly will do its utmost endeavour that their pious desires of uniting all the Members of the Church may be accomplished 4. This Assembly being informed that Mr. David Hume formerly Pastor in the Church of Duras in the Lower Guyenne was lately returned from his native Country of Scotland and as he passed through England his Majesty of Great Britain had charged him with a Letter to be delivered to us concerning differences sprung up in our Churches on several points of Doctrine The Assembly ordained that before it was read unto us a Copy thereof should be transcribed and sent unto the Lord de Rouvray our Deputy General at Court that so in case we should be suspected there he might immediately discover that it was nothing of State-Affairs but only a Point of Doctrine which concerned all the Reformed Churches gathered in divers Kingdoms and Republicks To Communicate in which Matters we had all freedom ever promised us and as for those of another nature we would never intermeddle with them unless we had an express and new permission from the King 5. Monsieur Hume being called in did by word of mouth relate what was given him in charge by his Majesty of great Britain who advised this Assembly as from him to procure and maintain a firm Union in points of Doctrine among the Pastors Professors and others the Members of our Churches without quarrelling with the Divines of Germany or any persons teaching otherwise who handled the point of Justification in a different manner from us and particularly that we would silence that controversy risen up between the Sieurs du Moulin and Tilenus and yet to prize and value those Gifts which the great God hath so plenteously bestowed upon them for his Churches Edifying Assuring us farther of his Majesties good will affection and purpose to defend the Churches of God and particularly ours Which also was the substance of his Letter See afterwards the 18th observ on the Synod of Privas This Assembly returned their most humble thanks unto the King of Great Britain speaking by the said Mr. Hume the bearer of his Letters and put off their consideration and resolutions about this affair unto its proper place viz. then to be debated when as the Acts of the Synod of Privas shall be reviewed 6. The Deputies of the Council for the Province of Lower Guyenne craving leave to be heard in this Assembly about matters of great importance which they were ordered to declare unto us being introduced they began to vindicate and justify the means used by them in their prosecution of the violations of the Edict by which their Churches had exceedingly suffered whereof they gave many and particular instances in divers Articles and concluded with an earnest suit unto this Assembly that we would by all lawful means prevent divisions among our selves and so obviate the Plots and practices of the enemies of our Religion in the present State of affairs which are now upon the wheel Whereupon the Assembly did assure them of that favourable construction it put upon their good intentions and on their proceedings as reported by them and of the ways and means they had used and it farther promised that every one of the Deputies of this Synod should remonstrate the same unto their respective Provinces that so none ill opinion might be taken up or entertained to their prejudice And as for those remedies craved by them for hereafter against our common publick evils and their particular sufferings the Assembly knoweth none more proper and fit than what is offered us viz. the next General Assembly granted us by their Majesties who therefore shall be most humbly thanked for it and yet most earnestly and humbly intreated to change the place of their meeting and to defer the time thereof unto the twentieth day of August next that so the Provincial Assemblies may sit the longer and have the more time and leisure to intend and perfect our desired Union And this Assembly seeth it self obliged to procure it because of what has been already Proposed and advanced which also it will do by all lawful and possible means And as for the Modifications and restrictions of the Writ it Judgeth that they ought to be sent over to the mixt Provincial and General Politick Assemblies which the Deputies unto this Synod shall every one of them at their return represent unto their respective Provinces and Monsieur de Rouvray our General Deputy shall be written unto out of hand to present our most humble thanks as also our before-mentioned Requests unto their Majesties that so this Assembly may receive an answer before its dissolution CHAP. IV. Observations made on Reading the Confession of Faith Article 1. THERE being found some difference about the 6th Article of the Confession in the Latin and French Copies the first restraining that approbation which had been determined in the Mystery of the Trinity unto the four first ancient Councils but the others extending it indefinitely unto the ancient Councils This Assembly decreed that nothing should be altered in the French Edition of it Art 2. On the 8th Article Because that in divers Copies there was a Typographical Error which altered the very sence of the Article Exprimant que Dieu fait Convertir au lieu de dire qui'l Scait Convertir this Assembly exhorts the Pastors of those Churches which have Printers to admonish them that they get some Judicious Person to oversee and correct the press that we may not be troubled any more with complaints of this nature and that once for all our Confession be Printed with the greatest exactness according to the Copies revised in the last National Synods and the like notice shall be given to the Pastors and Professors in the Church of Geneva Art 3. On the 9th Article instead of these words qui'l y ait there must be read qui'l ait Art 4. Montaubaâ— obs 6. Saumur obs 1.3 Rochel obs 13. On the 39th Article towards the close of it the words of Institution shall be added according to the Decree of former National Synods in the express terms of St. Matthews Gospel Take eat c. Art 5. The Confession of Faith of the Churches in this Kingdom having been read word by word was approved in all its Articles by the Deputies not only for themselves personally but generally for all the Provinces represented by them and by whom they were commissionated and all of them swore for themselves and for
under the name of Captain Gautier Art 16. Privas App. 18. In executing that Decree of the National Synod of Privas about the Expences which the Province of Orleans had disbursed in the University upon Mr. Salomon and which the Province of Lower Guyenne now enjoying his Ministry stands obliged to return back again unto them The Deputies of Berry acknowledged that they drew out of the hands of the Lord du Candal the sum of five hundred Livers upon an Acquittance of the said Province of Guyenne which yet the said Deputies redemanded as having before paid it in unto the said Salomon for his encouragement This Synod ordaineth that the Moneys detained by the said Province of Orleans shall remain in their custody saving always to the said Province of Guyenne a power of redemanding from the said Salomon what they had disbursed for him Art 17. Privas App. 23. The Decree of the same Synod concerning the Charges of those Commissioners sent unto Orleans which were to be equally defrayed by all the Churches of that Province shall stand valid Art 18. Privas App. 34. Le Sieur de la Vienerie Pastor of the Church of Tonne-Boutonne in Xaintonge presented his Petition that the Canon of the Synod of Privas concerning his Book might be moderated and those words in it by which his said Writings were declared to be very suspicious and erroneous in the points of Justification Predestination Invocation of Saints departed c. might be obliterated Moreover he professed that he was not convinced in his Conscience to be guilty of those matters whereof he is accused and desireth they may be proved he having written nothing but what he believeth to be the truth This Assembly voted that the aforesaid Canon should remain still in force and that Monsieur Banage and Bouchereau should peruse his Book and give him instruction and make report thereof unto this Synod which they did accordingly whereupon this Assembly did once more enjoyn him to suppress that his Manuscript which tho' revised by himself cannot be approved of neither in his words nor in his manner of handling it And exhorts him in his way of teaching to follow the form of sound words contained in the holy Scriptures however we judge charitably of him and of his Opinions and Intentions believing that he is orthodox and sound in the Faith principally as to the Fundamentals of Religion Art 19. Privas obs 2. upon the Coufession Revising that observation made upon the 18th Article of our Confession of Faith especially about the Oath enjoyned to be taken by all Pastors actually employed and Proposans who are designed for the Ministry concerning Justification divers Provinces remonstrated that it needed some explanation See Art 5. after the Roll in this Synod The Assembly after mature deliberation and long debate had of the matter ordained that it shall be couched in these terms Forasmuch as divers persons demand an explanation of the 18th Article of the Confession of our Reformed Churches in this Kingdom wherein the Doctrine of Justification is freely asserted this Synod declareth that in this point the Form of Doctrine which ought to be received and taught in the Churches of this Kingdom according to the Scriptures is That Man not having in himself either before or after his Effectual Calling any Righteousness of his own by which he may subsist before the Judgment-seat of God he cannot be justified but by Jesus Christ our Saviour who being incarnate was obedient unto his Father from the first moment of his birth unto the last of his ignominious death upon the Cross having most perfectly both in his life and death fulfilled the whole Law given unto men and that particular Commandment imposed on him by his Father of suffering and giving his Soul a ransom for many By which most perfect Obedience we are justified because it is counted ours by the Grace of God and apprehended by that Faith which he gives unto us From which we are assured that through the merit of this whole Obedience we have and shall obtain the forgiveness of all our sins and be made worthy of everlasting life And all Pastors Professors in Divinity and all other the Members of our Churches are enjoyned to hold fast this Doctrine and in no wise to depart from it and they be forbidden either by word of mouth or writing to teach or preach publickly or privately any thing that may be directly or indirectly repugnant to it Moreover this Synod ordaineth that whosoever are chosen into the holy Ministry shall promise it before God and all Consistories Colloquies and Provincial Synods shall exert their whole Authority to see this Canon punctually observed inspecting their Ministers and all other persons that none act contrary hereunto and to prosecute such as do with all the Censures of the Church Art 20. Privas p. m. 12. see about this Saumur p. m. 32. Montp p. m. 4. Gergeau p. m. 2. Gap obs 12. on the foregoing Synod In obedience to that Decree of the National Synod of Privas the Province of Normandy hath paid in to Monsieur Vatable the hundred Livers by the hands of the Deputies of Poictou and took up from them their Acquittance CHAP. XVII Appeals 1. MOnsieur John Constans Pastor of the Church at Mazgravier appealed from the Decree of the last Synod of Higher Languedoc held at Mauvesin for refusing him leave to withdraw from that Town tho' requested by him because of his Wifes sickness which could not brook the Air of Maz and because of those many unkindnesses he hath for divers years received from them and the Sieur Darder for from the Decree of the same Synod which permitted the said Monsieur Constans to live at Montauban until the next Provincial Synod Both of them being heard and the Deputies of that Province declaring the reasons which swayed them to pass that Decree This Assembly doth discharge the said Monsieur Constans from all Pastoral relation unto the said Church of Mazgravier on condition that the next Colloquy do provide a Pastor for the said Church who shall reside with them and the said Constans of another Church And Ordaineth that till this can be performed he shall continue to serve the said Church as before but without being obliged unto residence and the said Church is injoyned to make full payment to him of all his Arrears of Salary or they shall not be provided of another Pastor 2. 3. Rochel g m. 2. and observat 11. The Appeal of some Elders in that Church of Mazgravier from the same Synod was rejected because it was of the Nature of those things which might be finally determined within the Province and the parties were told that they deserved a very sharp reproof for presenting unto this Synod Acts attested by a Publick Notary as also for that contrary to the Canons of our National Synods Elders going out of office had named their successors whereas they ought to be chosen by
your businesses are in extream danger at it were at the last gasp when you need the greatest Circumspection a most immovable fidelity and unchangeable integrity and without any affectation or introduction of ambition or hidden disguised interests No man going to War intangles himself with the World that so he may the better please his Captain that hath listed him That commination is very dreadful the Priest shall be as the people and that lamentation exceeding doleful All this evil and mischief is from the Prophets and the Stones of the Sanctuary are lying at the four Corners of the Streets Let us most Dear and Honoured Brethren give up and resign our selves to the conduct of true Wisdom speaking to us from the Word of God which is to forsake our own This also most Honoured Brethren should be endeavoured that all persons whatsoever in the Ministry when called forth unto those secondary employments of the Church do retain in their deportments and conversations the marks and characters of their first and most Sacred Vocation Let their Devotion Piety Gravity Self-denial and Sequestration from Worldly pleasures used with too great a liberty by many Christian States-men serve to maintain the sweet odour and reputation of our Church Government and to keep up inviolably the authority of their most Holy Ministry and to bind the Souls and Consciences of men by religious humility to an everlasting dependance on the Majesty of their great Lord whose holiness and Soveraign Wisdom shineth forth most resplendently in the Order of his service as the Queen of Sheba saw and admired it in the Court of Salomon Impiety and Impudence are too much in vogue every where But let the Sanctuary the Church of God be at least the Receptacle and Habitation of true and unfeigned Piety where it may act and breath freely at in the open Air with an uplifted countenance in a couragious demonstration of the Spirit and evidence of Truth convincing and condemning the unfruitful works of darkness and awakening with its bright shining Flambeau the drowzy Consciences of a perverse generation it may incourage the faithful unto perseverance and preserve the Remnant of Jacob in this day of dispersions and desolations The last Enemy of the Church and he hath been essentially one and the same in all ages and places and therefore she is now exposed unto all the mischiefs he can do her it the World The World succeeding the the stood of Heresies and Persecutions disguiseth himself into a Friend and Ally and the poor Church being respited and reprieved from her former contention and destructions by a short peace he makes short work with her and brings upon her the consumption determined which ravageth her poor and small remainder These last times have yielded us sufficient evidences and tokens of his rage and desolations Faith is decayed zeal grown cold the Gospel and the cross are become ridiculous and contemptible the language of Canaan is quite forgotten and a multitude of Souls in Israel debauched by following the Counsel of Balaam Now a strong and vigorous resolution is most needful His cheats and impostures can never be prevented but by a rejection of them when they crave at first their admission We are bound also in Conscience to request and sollicit you tho we be very well satisfied that it is already upon your Hearts to take care that those different sentiments which for these last years have troubled your Church in the Doctrine of Justification may be supprest Those opinions have been fomented and imbitered by prejudices grudges and secret hatable they have been spread abroad and propagated into a multitude of unprofitable and dangerous questions by frequent disputes and wranglings As for our part although we hold absolutely the same Faith with your Churches and do apply whole Christ unto our selves for Redemption from Death and Wrath and to obtain everlasting life and that we judge it to be communicable by imputation of all his obedience done and suffered by him in his human Nature which we were bound to have yielded according to the law of God in our persons yet we could never approve of such great strife and altercation between Brethren who were otherwise minded much less can we approve of their bitter separation and mutual condemnation So that we had rather that little spark had been suffered of its own accord to have dwindled away into nothing than by blowing it into a flame by so many oppositions to kindle a greater fire in the hearts of Gods People which hath tormented then with a world of ungodly jealousies suspicions and prejudices and those too in an age tossed and beaten with the tempestuous winds of contention and victory We have divers time suggested this advice and importunately insisted on it that there might be a Temperament and Expedient found out for a Concordat which without condemning or prejudicing either party might be sufficient to guide and direct Conscience and totally to exclude all errors subversive of Faith and destructive of Salvation in this fundamental point And we have received abundant consolation for that the self-same Counsels have been prescribed by a great and most potent Monarch and by very many learned men and most celebrated Universities And we were exceedingly satisfied that you did not reject but were well-pleased with our proceedings and intentions as we do according to the Universal Laws of Christian Charity freely forgive their unkindnesses to us who have been displeased with us for them And you most Honoured Sirs sith you have not only knowledge and wisdom but power also to judge and determine in these matters we beseech you to exert that power so forcibly and effectually that you may pluck up by the roots all unprofitable and curious questions and see to it that your Pastors and Professors do with all sincerity pursue those things which make for the Edification of your Churches in Faith and Godliness and that they utterly abandon all those opposition of Science falsly so called On which point we presume to deliver our mind with our usual freedom and we desire you would revise that form couched and conceived in the Synod of Privas and once more deliberate about it not that we except against the substance of it in the least but because its manner seems to threaten you with worse breaches and far greater partialities We are not the first who have observed the Remedy of forms to be very dangerous especially when a controversy is not formed into a party unless it be in Articles purely necessary and determined by the Word of God it self and when it 's otherwise impossible all means failing us to detect the fallacies of our real Adversaries and such strait bands instead of conjoyning and setling have for the most part dislocated the members and wounded them more sorely We desire also that when new authentick forms shall come to be framed the Churches might be first of all consulted that so our ears may not be
and Ollier Pastors of the Church of Alez craved admission into this Assembly and leave to assist at the Reading of our Confession of Faith and Church-Discipline which was granted not only for themselves but for two Elders also who should be chosen out of the Body of their Consistory And whereas divers other Pastors who were not commissionated by the Provinces did take upon them to come unto this National Synod and to sit and tarry in it as Spectators during the whole time of its Sessions the former Cannons made by the National Synods of Rochell and Vitre were now revived and ordered to be put in execution against them CHAP. IV. Observations upon the Confession of Faith 1. THE Word Vnity which is found in divers printed Copies of the Six and Twentieth Article must be changed into that of Vnion according to the former Advice given in the National Synods of Montauban Saumur and Rochell 2. The Confession of Faith having been read word by word and examined in every particular Point and Article thereof was most unanimously approved and sworne to by all the Deputies then present who did not only promise and protest to live and die in this Faith but also to procure its observation in their respective Provinces and to cause it to be sworne by their Principals by whom they were Commissionated CHAP. V. Observations on the Church-Discipline St. Maixant Observat 2. 1 ALL * * * Two other Copies read our Provinces our Churches are Exhorted to govern themselves in the Election Examination and Ordination of their Pastors according to that Order prescribed in the Fourth Cannon of the First Chapter And whereas the Provinces of both the Languedocs and Sevennes have usually begun with an examin they shall henceforward conform themselves punctually to that Article 2. The Province of Anjou mooved whether a Solemn Fast ought not to be observed at the Ordination of Ministers A Decree past that nothing should be innovated in this matter but the former Customs should be retained only if there was a particular necessity for it the Third Canon in the Tenth Chapter of our Discipline shall be most exactly followed 1 Paris Act. 34. Orleans Act. 5. 3. Upon the Ninth Canon of the First Chapter the said Province of Anjou demanded what is the Duty of that Church or Province which hath a Proposan every way fit for Employment in the Holy Ministry and hath not a vacant Congregation for him and he is earnestly importuned by some other Church or Province to be lent unto them This Assembly ordaineth that the Canon shall be most exactly observed That no Proposan shall be lent or sent without assigning him to some particular Church to which he shall stand related as their Pastor And it his own Church or Province cannot imploy the said Proposan they may out of their Charity grant him unto that Church or Province which desires him of them where he shall be fixed as their own peculiar Minister 4. The Provinces are Exhorted to make inquiry in their Synods whether the Eleventh Canon be observed or transgressed Ste Foy Act. 7. that so the Transgressors of it may be censured according to the former Decrees of our National Synods 5. Catechising being a most necessary and prositable Ordinance Ste Foy Act. 7. all the Provinces are injoyned to see the Twelfth Canon more carefully observed in their Churches than it hath been formerly and the Provinces shall give in an account hereof unto the next National Synod 6. This ensuing Cannon made by the Synod of Privas shall be read in all Consistories that so the scandals given by Pastors Transgressors of it may be prevented for the future and all Consistories shall give in an account thereof unto Colloquies and Colloquies unto Provincial Synods and Provincial Synods unto the National 7. Reading the * * * In the Discipline Printed at Queville 1663. It is the 19. Act. in 3. other Copies that I have 't is the 20. Act. Eighteenth Canon in the First Chapter of our Discipline which enjoyned Ministers †††See in the the Acts of the Synod of Privas Observat 2. upon the Disciplie to exhort their People unto all Modesty in their Fashions and Habits and they themselves to go before them in a good Example they their Wives Children and Families refraining all bravery in Apparel Many Complaints were brought in against divers Ministers whose Wives and Children transgressed this Holy Canon and were exceeding vain in their Habits fashioning themselves according to the World and were very much estranged from that Modesty commanded and expected from them and all theirs This Assembly desirous to remedy such a growing and notorious scandal doth give express charge unto all Moderators of Colloquies and Provincial Synods to correct and reform these Excesses by Censures and severe Reprehensions and by the Authority of this Assembly to suspend the Refractory from the Sacred Ministry until such time as they have removed all matters of offence And that this Canon may be the better observed License is given unto all private Persons according to our Discipline to inform the Consistories of the aforesaid Excesses and to demand their Reformation Which being denied they may address themselves unto the Colloquies for Censures against these Offenders In the Discipline printed at Queville 16. It is the 20. In the latter Editions it is the 21. Act. and all those who shall abett or countenance them in such their scandalous miscarriages 8. In those Copies of the Nineteenth Canon where towards the end of it are these words To make but one and the self-same Church and Consistory those words one and the self-same Consistory shall be blotted out 9. Upon the Fiftieth Canon there was this Observation Forasmuch as through the corruption of the Age in which we live it may so fall out That a Minister deposed in one Colloquie or Province may intrude himself into another and take upon him to preach the Word before the Meeting of the National Synod by which all the Churches in this Kingdom may be advised of the said deposed Person This Assembly doth Exhort all Pastors and Consistories not easily to admit any Stranger from another Province into the Pulpits unless they be very well acquainted with him And as for Apostates the Pastors of the adjoyning Churches in which they revolted live shall give speedy and publick notice of these Apostates that so none of our Churches or Ministers may be surprized by them 10. On the Second Canon of the Third Chapter Ste Foy Act 9. the Provinces of the higher and lower Languedoc were particularly enjoyned to observe the said Canon more carefully for the future 11. The Second Canon of the Second Chapter shall be thus worded Regents and School-Masters shall subscribe our Confession of Faith and Church-Discipline and no Towns nor Churches shall admit of any one without the consent of the Consistory of that place 12. On the Fifth Canon
take our advice first in it CHAP. X. FORM of EXCOMMUNICATION 2. Paâ—is 2. 2. Vitre 2. Observaâ— upon the Discipline 21 THE Province of Poictou requested that there might be another Form of Excommunication framed of a larger Nature than that in our Discipline because the horrible Corruptions of the Age we live in do indispensably need it and call upon us loudly to put it in Execution Whereupon this Form following was drawn up See the Excommunicat 〈◊〉 Jâ—â—emy Ferâ—â—er in the â—nd of the Synod of Tâ—â—neiâ—s My Brethren This is the Fourth time that we declare unto you that N. N. hath been suspended the Lords Table for that hainous Crime of N. committed by him to the great scandal of the Church of God and yet he continues impenitent and rejecteth all Counsels and Admonitions that have been given him which suspension and its causes we have fully notified unto you that you might joyn your Prayers with ours unto the great God to soften his stony heart and to move him unto Repentance and to bring him out of the high and broad way of destruction But notwithstanding our Indulgence to him and long suffering and forbearance of him although we have prayed intreated threatned and adjured him to break off his sinful courses and to return unto the Lord and tryed all means to bring him unto Repentance he yet persisteth in his Ungodliness and Impenitency and is more obstinate and hardned in his Rebellions against God and tramples under foot his Holy Word and scorneth that Discipline which God hath set up in his Church boasting himself of his Sin and causeth unto the Church for a very long time a world of grief and trouble and the Holy and Effectual Name of Jehovah our God to be blasphemed Wherefore we Ministers of the Word and Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath armed with Spiritual Weapons Mighty through God to destroy the strong holds of Sin which oppose and exhalt themselves against him and to whom the Eternal Son of God hath given an ample Power of binding and loosing in Earth declaring that what we shall do here below he will ratifie and make it good in Heaven we being willing to purge and cleanse the House of God and to free the Church from all Reproach and Scandal and to glorifie the Name of God by pronouncing an Anathema upon the Wicked and Godless Sinner We do in the Name and by the Authority of our Lord Jesus and by and with the Advice of the Pastors and Elders assembled in the Colloquy at N. and of the Consistory of the Church of N We have and do cut off the said N. from the Communion of the Church we do Excommunicate him and cast him out of the Society of Gods Saints that he may be reputed by you as a Publican and Pagan and that among the faithful he may be an Anathema and Execration Let his Company be lookt upon as contagious and plaguy and his Example possess your Souls with terror and horror and make you tremble under the Mighty Hand of God and know that 't is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God And this our Sentence of Excommunication the Son of God himself will ratifie and may he succeed and prosper it in such an effectual manner that this proud Sinner being ashamed and confounded before God may give Glory to him by his Conversion and that being deliver'd from the power of the Devil who hath hitherto kept him in Chains and Bondage he may be sorry for his Sin with a Godly sorrow and turn from it with a repentance unto life never to be repented of Let us my well-beloved Brethren call upon our God that he would be pleased to yearn with the bowels of his compassion upon this vile and miserable Creature and that this horrible Sentence which to our very great regret and grief we pronounce against him by and with the Authority of the Son of God may serve to abase and humble him and to reduce him into the way of Life and Salvation who hath wandred and strayd as a lost Sheep in the crooked paths of destruction Amen! Amen! Cursed is he who doth the Work of the Lord negligently Amen! If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen! 22. The Province of Xaintonge craved advice what course we might take with them who take out from the Courts of Parliament Prohibitions against the Orders and Censures of the Church as if they were intolerable abuses This Assembly injoyneth all Synods Colloquies and Consistories to procede against such Persons as Rebels against the Discipline of our Church and to inflict upon them the last and heaviest censure of Excommunication provided they have first endeavoured by the ways of Love and Kindness and Grave Religious Counsels to reduce such Persons unto their Duty and to subject them unto our Church Orders CHAP. XI The Canons of the Synod of Dort incorporated with those of the Reformed Churches of France 23 A Motion was made in this National Synod that some course should be taken in time to prevent the spreading of the Arminian Errors that have of late so much troubled the Churches of the Netherlands that they create no trouble to the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom This Assembly embraced the motion very readily and approved of it as very laudable just and needful for the peace of the Church of God and for the Conservation of the purity of our Doctrine and for the farther strengthning of our Union with the Foreign Reformed Churches and therefore counting the Maladies of the Low-Country Churches a very fair Advertisement and warning unto us and that we may imitate so excellent an Example and prevent the danger threatned us by making use of these self-same means they did for the Expulsion of those Errors out of their Bowels wherefore forasmuch as the National Synod of Dort called by the Authority wise Counsel and vigilant forecast of their High and Mighty Lordships the States General of the Confederate Netherlands and of all the United Provinces under their Jurisdiction and Government and in which assisted personally divers great and very Learned Divines from many other Reformed Churches of our Lord Jesus hath been in the Netherlands and still is a most effectual remedy for the Reformation of the Church and the grubbing of Heresies in the Article of Predestination and its depencies This Assembly after invocation of the Name of God decreed that the Articles of the said National Council held at Dort should be read in full Synod which being read accordingly and every Article ponder'd most attentively they were all received and approved by a common unanimous consent as agreeing with the Word of God and the Confession of Faith in these our Churches that they were framed with singular prudence and purity that they were very meet and proper to detect the Arminian Errors and to confound them for which reason all the
draw up the Form of the said Petition and Address and the Deputies of the Provinces who have any Memoirs on this Subject are commanded to communicate them However this Synod being willing and desirous to give clear full and unquestionable Evidence or their Duty Obedience and Loyalty unto His Majesty they admitted the said Lord Augustus Galland among them that he might be an Eye and Ear-Witness of the Integrity and Uprightness of their Proceedings and Deportments assuring themselves that His Majesty having perused their most humble Petition and Address and seeing and acknowledging the Sincerity and Loyalty of these Assemblies he would be graciously pleased out of His Royal Goodness to reinstate us into our former Liberties and Priviledges Every one of the Deputies in this Assembly according to the Decrees of former Synods did Swear and make Oath that he had not brigued his Deputation to it neither directly nor indirectly neither for himself nor for any other And this Oath shall for the future he taken by all the Members of our National Synods CHAP. IV. Approbation of the Confession of Faith THE Confession of our Faith being read word by word and most carefully attended to and consider'd in all its Points and Articles was unanimously approved by all the Deputies present in the Synod who did all promise and swear that by the Grace of God they would live and die in this Faith and that they vvould cause the said Oath to be taken in every one of their Provinces and that to the utmost of their povver they vvould procure and endeavour its Observation The Confession of Faith being finished This Assembly that they might testifie as they vvere bound their most sincere Respects and Duty unto His Majesty did Depute the Sieur de Chambrun and Mestrezat Pastors and de Jurlatt and Rabbotteau together vvith the Lords our General Deputies unto His Majesty to tender their most humble and thankful Acknowledgments Submissions and Duties unto His Majesty and in the Name of all the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom to make protestation of their most unviolable Fidelity and perpetual Obedience and unvvearied faithful Service unto His Majesty CHAP. V. Observation on reading of the Discipline 1 WHEN as the Fourth Canon of the Fourth Chapter was read several of the Provinces requested that some certain and proper means might be found out vvhereby to prevent those Frauds vvhich are usually committed in Attestations The Synod judging it needless to make any Additions unto the said Canon doth enjoyn all Consistories and Pastors carefully to examine both those Attestations and the Persons that bring them that they may receive from their ovvn Mouths a Testimony and Confession of their Religion and an Evidence of their Knovvledge and Understanding in it 2. On the Sixteenth Canon of the Fifth Chapter the Deputies of Poictou demanded Whether such as having been Married after the Popish manner or having so Married their Children and being aftervvards convinced of their Sin and testifying their Repentance for it might be discharged from their Publick Suspension This Synod judging that this Censure is become almost indispensably necessary to retain them vvithin the bounds of Duty vvho are othervvise but too prone to lavish out into such like or vvorse Offences doth ordain that the Canon be most strictly and exactly observed And the rather because that vvithout such a suspension the Scandal given unto the Church of God cannot be sufficiently repaired 3. On the Twelfth Canon of the Ninth Chapter instead of those words After which shall be celebrated the Lords Supper these only shall be inserted and the Lords Supper shall be celebrated That so the time of its administration may be left wholly to the power of Synods 4. In reading the Eleventh Canon of the Thirteenth Chapter of the Discipline the Province of Xaintonge moved whether a Man who had married his Wifes Neece might be admitted to Publick Penance and to the Peace and Fellowship of the Church The Synod judging such a Conjunction incestuous declares That as long as they continue to cohabit together as Man and Wife the Man shall not be received neither to the one nor other 5. On the Sixteenth Canon of the Thirteenth Chapter the Province of the Isle of France requested that hereafter in all Certificates to be given by our Consistories that the Banes of Marriage had been published in their Churches it might be expresly inserted that the said Banes were published in those Churches where the Parties contracted are either well-known or else held their personal residence for the greatest part of their time The Synod enjoyneth all Pastors to express in such Certificates that the Parties contracted do usually reside in those Churches where their Banes aforesaid were published 6. On the Fourteenth Canon of the Fourteenth Chapter the Province of Dolphiny requesting that after these words In the Colledges of Priests Monks Jesuits and Nuns there might be added and other Popish School-Masters The Synod ordains that nothing shall be added unto the said Canon yet notwithstanding doth it forbid all Parents to take any Person into their Houses of a contrary Religion to instruct their Children Moreover it leaveth it to the prudence of Consistories Colloquies and Provincial Synods to make such Canons as they judge will best suit with the Condition of the Churches under their Conduct and Direction 7. The Canons of our Discipline having been read and seriously considered All the Pastors and Elders Deputed unto this Assembly did for themselves and for their respective Provinces with their hands lifted up to Heaven swear that they would keep and observe it and see to the best of their power that it should be kept and observed by all their Principals who had sent them 8. Letters from the Pastors and Professors in the Church and University of Geneva were read in Answer unto those of the last National Synod by which they assure us of their Unanimous consent and agreement with us not only in the Essentials of Religion but also in outward Circumstantials and Ceremonies and as an Evidence hereof they have imbraced that advice given them by the aforesaid Synod ever at the Lords Supper after the words of Institution and Distribution of the Sacred Elements to add a word of Exhortation and that whereas heretofore they had only used unleavened Bread in conformity to their Neighbour-Churches in the Canton of Bearne now out of Love and Conformity to us and ours they did and would for the future use Common Bread at this Holy Sacrament And whereas their Elders had formerly assisted their Pastors in the Delivery and Distribution of the Calice they had resolved that it should be done by the Pastors only Adding over and above very many other kind expressions of their endearing Love and fraternal Union with the Churches of this Kingdom Upon which this Assembly resolved that an Answer should be returned them fully testifying our mutual Affection and high and reciprocal Esteem and Honour for them CHAP. VI.
Scribes In pursuance of the Canon made in the Synod or Privas The Provinces are injoyned to see that the Deputies of every Church do make Oath that they shall not give their Votes nor Suffrages unto such as brigue their Elections and Deputations unto our National Synods CHAP. XIII The Confession of Faith approved THE Confession of Faith being read word by word and every Article distinctly in its due Order it was approved and ratified by the Unanimous consent of all the Deputies both Pastors and Elders who protested as well for themselves as for their Provinces that they would live and die in the profession of this Faith teach it in their Churches and see it inviolably to be observed CHAP. XIV Observations on reading the Church-Discipline 1 AFter those words in the Fifth Canon of the First Chapter Without power of administring the Holy Sacraments these shall be added nor of solemnizing Marriages 2 In reading the Nine and Twentieth Canon of the same Chapter the Council declareth that by the discord mentioned in that Canon we are to understand not only what is moved by the Pastor but by the Church or Members among themselves also 3. On the first Canon of the third Chapter it was declared that whosoever accepted the Office of an Elder cannot be constrained to execute it if before his Reception thereinto the consent he had once given be again revoked by him 4. When the sixth Canon of the eighth Chapter was read at the request of the Provincial Deputies of Berry it was voted That Provincial Synods should be obliged before they brake up to proceed unto Censures even as in the like case a Decree had been framed for Colloquies 5. All our Churches are exhorted faithfully and exactly to observe the ninth Canon of the twelfth Chapter concerning the Administration of the Cup in the Lords Supper and to be accountable for their Obedience to it unto the next National Synod 6. The eighth Canon of the Ninth Chapter shall be razed but of our Discipline as being superfluous and unpracticable in our Churches 7. The same judgment having past on the fourth Canon of the tenth Chapter it was amended and changed into these words Churches which have been accustomed to make Publick Prayers on some certain days of the Week may continue that order which for many years they have so happily observed and other Churches may imitate their good example when as the Lord shall bless them with Ability and Opportunity and it may contribute unto their Edification 8. And Pastors also in the faithful discharge of their duties shall indeavour by their Remonstrances and Exhortations to prevent those great dishonours done unto Almighty God by that general contempt of his Holy Word preached very many neglecting Sermons and Publick Publick Ordinances of Religious Worship yea and Family-Prayers of which Omissions a multitude of Heads of Families Housholders and their Domesticks are exceeding guilty 9. The eighteenth Canon of the thirteenth Chapter shall be couched in this form Such as dwell in those places where the Publick Exercise of our Religion is not est ablished may cause their banes of Matrimony to be published in the Popish Churches it being a matter purely political 10. The Churches are injoyned by this Synod to give in an account unto their Colloquies and Provincial Synods of all Infractions of the sixteenth Canon in the fourteenth Chapter of our Discipline and Colloquies and Synods are to censure such Offenders whether they have violated it by printing of Practical or Controversal Treatises 11. When the twenty fourth twenty fifth and twenty sixth Canons of the fourteenth Chapter were read it was voted That this ensuing Canon should be made and read in all the Churches as soon as the Deputies were returned unto their respective Provinces CHAP. XV. An Act against Debauchery FOrasmuch as the Wrath of God is visibly revealed from Heaven against the Ungodlyness of Men and is notoriously poured out upon those who being once enlightned from above and called to the knowledge of the Heavenly Truth have afterward kept it under Hatches through their Unrighteousness that so they might more freely wallow in the Abominations of this World and turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness The National Synod of the reformed Churches of this Kingdom Assembled by His Majesties Licence in the Town of Gastres unable to behold without weeping Eyes and a wounded bleeding heart after such dreadful Judgments and Desolations as have befallen us the reigning Dissolutions and Debauches of those Persons who style and own themselves Members of Gods Church though in very truth and deed they be horrible Profaners of his Holy Name and dishonourable Professors of our most Holy Religion by their Impious and Licentious Lives and do as much as in them lieth deny the power of Godliness by their open and shameless ingratitude to his Divine Goodness Now for the avoiding of Gods burning Wrath and Indignation and more and more to stir up the Bowels of his Fatherly Compassions which he was pleased to remember for us even in the midst of Judgment yea and then also when as he smote his sinful Heritage with his forest and severest strokes and that upon our Conversion and Reformation his special Love and favour may be had and obtained and that this peace which against all hopes he hath given a stiff-necked and rebellious People who have bitterly provoked him to Jealousie and as it is too too evident have nothing profited by his Rod of Discipline and Correction may be preserved and continued This National Synod decreeth That all the Churches of this Kingdom shall be sollicited by the most powerful Motives and Arguments to humble themselves deeply in a most serious Repentance before his Divine Majesty and utterly to abandon all Vanities Luxury 's Fantasticalness and sumptuous Superfluities in Apparel those unseemly Ornaments and delights of lascivious Curles Paintings Naked Breasts Dances Balls Masquerades Wassaile-Feasts Carnevalls and all other unfruitful works of Darkness that so the Faithful Reforming their Lives and producing Fruits worthy of Repentance may demonstrate themselves by their good Works to be the conscientious Guardians of that pretious Jewel or saving Truths which is deposited with them And all Consistories are injoyned to exert that Authority given them of God diligently to suppress their Insolencies who glorying in their shame and ignominy may attempt in aftertimes to continue in any of their disorderly and sinful practises and should set themselves to resist those Remonstrances which the Great and Holy God hath or may issue forth against them by his Sacred Word And that this most needful Canon may be executed with the greater Faithfulness Care and Facility This Synod doth ordain that it shall be read publickly in all our Churches and an Account of its Observation shall be given in unto Colloquies and Synods on pain of being responsible in their own Persons particularly for all its Transgressions and Violations The whole Church Discipline having been read
of Death that the Efficacy thereof should particularly belong unto all the Elect and to them only to give them justifying Faith and by it to bring them infallibly unto Salvation and thus effectually to redeem all those and none other who were from all Eternity from among all People Nations and Tongues chosen unto Salvation Whereupon although the Assembly were well satisfied yet nevertheless they decreed that for the future that Phráse of Jesus Chist's dying equally for all should be forborn because that term equally was formerly and might be so again an Occasion of stumbling unto many Article 19. And as for the Conditional Decree of which mention is made in the aforesaid Treatise of Predestination the said Sieurs Testard and Amyraud declared that they do not nor ever did understand any other thing than God's Will revealed in his Word to give Grace and Life unto Believers and that they called this in none other Sense a Conditional Will than that of an Anthropopeia because God promiseth not the Effects thereof but upon condition of Faith and Repentance And they added farther That although the Propositions resulting from the Manifestation of this will be conditional and conceived under an if or it may be as if thou believest thou shalt be saved if Man repent of his Sins they shall be forgiven him yet nevertheless this doth not suppose in God an Ignorance of the Event not an Impotency as to the Execution nor any Inconstancy as to his Will which is always firmly accomplished and ever unchangeable in it self according to the Nature of God in which there is no Variableness nor Shadow of turning Article 20. And the said Sieur Amyraud did particularly protest as he had formerly published unto the World that he never gave the Name of Universal or Conditional Predestination unto this Will of God than by way of Concession and accommodating it unto the Language of the Adversary Yet forasmuch as many are offended at this Expression of his he offered freely to raze it out of those places where-ever it did occur promising also to abstain in from it for the future and both he and the Sieur Testard acknowledged that to speak truly and accurately according to the Usage of sacred Scripture there is none other Decree of Predestination of Men unto eternal Life and Salvation than the unchangeable Purpose of God by which according to the most free and good Pleasure of his Will he hath out of mere Grate chosen in Jesus Christ unto Salvation before the Foundation of the World a certain number of Men in themselves neither better nor more worthy than others and that he hath decreed to give them unto Jesus Christ to be saved and that he would call and draw them effectually to Communion with him by his Word and Spirit And they did in consequence of this Holy Doctrine reject their Error who held that Faith and the Obedience of Faith Holiness Godliness and Perseverance are not the Fruits and Effects of this unchangeable Decree unto Glory but Conditions or Causes without which Election could not be passed which Conditions or Causes are antecedently requisite and foreseen as if they were already accomplished in those who were fit to be elected contrary to what is taught us by the sacred Scripture Acts 13. 48. and elsewhere Article 21. And whereas they have made distinct Decrees in this Counsel of God the first of which is to save all Men though Jesus Christ if they shall believe in him the second to give Faith unto some particular Persons they declared that they did this upon none other account than of accommodating it unto that Manner and Order which the Spirit of Man observeth in his Reasonings for the Succour of his own Infirmity they otherwise believing that though they considered this Decree as diverse yet it was formed in God in one and the self-same Moment without any Succession of Thought or Order of Priority and Posteriority The Will of this most supreme and incomprehensible Lord being but one only eternal Act in him so that could we but conceive of things as they be in him from all Eternity we should comprehend these Decrees of God by one only Act of our Understanding as in Truth they be but one only Act of his eternal and unchangeable Will Article 22. The Synod having heard these Declarations from the Sieurs Testard and Amyraud it injoined them and all others to refrain from those terms of conditional frustratory or revocable Decree and that they should rather choose the Word Will whereby to express that Sentiment of theirs and by which they would signify the revealed Will of God commonly called by Divines Voluntas Signe Article 23. And whereas in sundry Places marked in the Writings of the before-mentioned Monsieur Testard and Amyraud they have ascribed unto God as it were a Notion of Velleity and strong Affections and vehement Desires of Things which he hath not hot never will effectuate they having declared that by those figurative Ways of speaking and anthropopathical they designed to speak properly none other thing than this that if Men were obedient to the Commandments and Invitations of God their Faith and Obedience would be most acceptable unto him according as was before expressed by them The Assembly hearing this their Explication did injoin them to use such Expressions as these with that Sobriety and Prudence that they might not give the least Occasion of Offence unto any Person nor cause them to conceive of God in any way unsuitable to his glorious Nature Article 24. Monsieur Testard and Amyraud declared farther that although the Doctrines obvious to us in the Works of Creation and Providence do teach and preach Repentance and invite us to seek the Lord who would be found of us yet nevertheless by reason of the horrible Blindness of our Nature and its universal Corruption no Man was ever this way converted yea and it is utterly impossible that any one should be converted but by the hearing of the Word of God which is the Seed of our Regeneration and the Instrument of the Holy Ghost whole Efficacy and Virtue only is able to illuminate our Understandings and to change the Hearts and Affections of the Children of Men. Article 25. And forasmuch as the Word of God hath always revealed the Knowledg of the Lord our Redeemer the said Sieurs did farther protest that no one Man was ever nor can be saved without some certain Measure of this Knowledg less indeed under the old Testament but greater under the New the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God being most plainly and distinctly manifested in the Gospel and they hold it as an undoubted Truth that now under the New Covenant the distinct Knowledg of Christ is absolutely necessary for all Persons who are come unto Years of Discretion in order to their obtaining of eternal Salvation And they do from their very Heart anathematize all those who believe or teach that Man may be saved
any other way than by the Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ or in any other Religion besides the Christian Article 26. And whereas divers Persons were much offended at the Professor Amyraud for calling that Knowledg of God which Men might gain from the Consideration of his Works and Providence unless their Corruption were extream by the Name of Faith The said Professor declared that he did it because he reckoned that that Perswasion which some have that there is a God and that he is a Rewarder may bear that Name he owning however that St. Paul did simply and plainly stile it the Knowledg of God 1 Cor. 1.21 The Assembly injoined him not to give the Name of Faith to any other Knowledg of God but unto that which is ingendred in us by the Holy Ghost and by the Preaching of his Word according as the Scripture useth it whether thereby to point out unto us the Faith of God's ancient Saints or this which is now under the New Testament and necessarily accompanied with a distinct Knowledg of Christ Article 27. And as for Man's natural Impotency either to believe or to desire and do the things that belong unto Salvation both the said Sieurs Amyraud and Testard protested that Man had none other Power than that of the Holy Spirit of God which is only able to heal him by an interiour illuminating of his Understanding and bending of his Will by that gracious invincible and uneffable Operation which he only exerts upon the Hearts of those Vessels of Grace which are elect of God Article 28. They did farther declare that this Impotency was in us from our Birth for which Cause it may be called natural and they have called it physical or natural nor ever did refuse so doing unless when they would signify that it is voluntary and conjoined with Malice and Obstinacy whenas Man despiseth and rejecteth the Invitations of God which he would receive and imbrace provided his Heart were well and fittingly disposed within it self Article 29. And Monsieur Testard added particularly that this doth not in the least derogate from what he had asserted concerning two Callings the one real and the other verbal given by God unto Men whereby they may be saved if they will sith that he intended thereby to signify nothing else but that their Impotency to convert themselves was not of the same kind with that of a Man who having lost his Eyes or Legs was willing with all his Heart to see and walk but that this Impotency sprung from the Malice of the Heart it self The Assembly having heard him thus express himself injoined him to abstain from these terms and not to use them unless with very much Prudence and Discretion and to join with them such needful Glosses and Explications as thereby it may appear that Man is so depraved by Nature that he cannot of himself will any Good without the special Grace of God which may produce in us by his Holy Spirit both to will and to do according to his good Pleasure Article 30. And those afore-mentioned Minister and Professor Testard and Amyraud having acquiesced in all as above declared and having sworn and subscribed to it the Assembly gave them the right Hand of Fellowship by the Hand of their Moderator and they were honourably dismissed to the Exercise of their respective Charges The Continuation of other General and Ecclesiastical Matters Article 31. FOrasmuch as the far greater Part of the Provinces have not took any Order about the Expences of their Deputies sent unto this Synod the Assembly desirous to provide for their Indemnity without Prejudice to that Vantage-Assessment they might lay claim unto or which had been granted to them did pass this Decree That their respective Provinces should pay them after the Rate of an hundred Sous being eight Shillings and four Pence Sterling Money a day and they shall be accountable to them for those Portions accruing from the Sum granted by his Majesty towards the defraying of our Synodical Expences Article 32. Henceforward whenas a Professor's Place in Theology in any one of our Universities comes by his Death to be vacant that it may not be any long time void and that the University-Councils may have fit Persons ready at hand whom they may chuse and call in to supply the Office of the Deceased this Synod desirous to repair so great a Loss exhorteth the Lords of Chamvernon de L'angle Texier du Soul Daillé Bochart of Caen to separate themselves unto the Profession of Theology that they may take it upon them whenever the Necessities of our Universities shall require it Article 33. Forasmuch as particular Actions cannot be truly and impartially judged but from a due Consideration had of all their Circumstances this Assembly not being able to enact a Canon concerning Persons accused of Bankerouting doth leave the whole Affair to the Prudence of Consistories how and in what manner to proceed against them as they shall see to be most expedient Article 34. The Province of Lower Guyenne having requested it the Assembly declareth that the appointing of publick Fasts and of all other Deliberations relating to the Discipline of our Churches and the upholding of their Order ought to be determined in Ecclesiastical Meetings by the Plurality of Pastors and Elders Suffrages without any preferring of one above another Article 35. Over and above those Attestations which Scholars are wont to bring with them from the Professors and Regents of those Universities under whose Direction they have followed their Studies the Synod doth ordain that they shall also take out Attestations from the Pastors and Consistory of their Lives and Conversations Article 36. Forasmuch as the Church judgeth not them that are without and doth not exercise any Jurisdiction on those who have quitted her Communion This Assembly judgeth it not meet that those Persons should be publickly from the Pulpit censured who that they might marry with Parties of a contrary Religion have abandoned the true Religion which they formerly professed Article 37. Without prejudicing the Rights of the Province of Provence and Burgundy this Assembly grants the Power of calling the next National Synod unto that of Anjou CHAP. XVI Particular Matters 1. THE Sieur de la Fite Solon Pastor of the Church of Bayon having presented the first part of a Book of Metaphysicks composed by him and dedicated unto this Assembly after they were examined about it who had been commissionated thereunto by the Synod of Lower Guyenne this Assembly ordered that it should be again perused by some of its Members who having made their Report the said Sieur de la Fite was praised and incouraged to employ those Gifts wherewith God had indowed him for the Illustration of the Truth and the Sum of three hundred Livers was voted to be given him which the Lord du Candall should pay him upon his Debet and the Monies so paid should be charged to the Accompt of the Churches 2. Monsieur
fears that it will ever take with or go down in your Churches or Spirits and makes us believe that all these little Projects will be resolved into their first Principles of wind and smoak to the sole prejudice of the Vanity of the Undertakers Accept most Reverend and Honoured Brethren in good part these thoughts so freely Communicated to you from your Loyal Sister which owes you her All and can pay you but Little excepting the deep sorrows of her heart for the general Calamities of the Church and her continual Sighs and Cries unto Almighty God for the Peace thereof and that he would be pleased to return with his Majesty and Glory unto the many thousands of Israel and re-edifie his ruinated Zion and above all to continue his Grace Protection and Benediction upon you All with whom she is most intimately united and perfectly conjoin'd in the firmest and most antient bonds of an Holy Love which together with her most earnest Cares and devoutest Prayers she doth continually offer up unto the Divine Majesty for the Health and long Life of your Sovereign Lord the King for the prosperous success of his Affairs for the re-establishing of Peace and Tranquillity in his Kingdom in which both ye and we are so very much concerned and by means whereof we cannot but hope that our poor afflicted Brethren in Foreign Provinces may also through the Grace of God meet with Peace and Settlement May the good hand of the Almighty make your Assembly a blessed Instrument of your Peace Union and Perseverance in the Truth and fullfil all our Desires and Prayers for the Consolation of all his Churches and that you may be the first who shall enjoy the Fruit of your Labours by the Witness of God's Holy Spirit in your Hearts and the happy effects of your Holy and Prudent Debates and Counsels We conclude all with the tender of our most Humble Faithful and Cordial Services and Affections and of our most intire Union with you in Spirit which we most humbly beg of the Lord to Sanctifie and Consummate in its full and total Perfection in the Kingdom of his Glory Your most Humble and most Affectionate Brethren and Servants in the Lord the Pastors and Professors in the Church and University of Geneva and for them all From Geneva April 26. 1637. Diodati Tronchin Chabray Prevost and Pauleint CHAP. XXIX The Testimonials of divers Doctors and Universities unto the Treatise of Monsieur Rivett against the Books of the Sieurs Amyraud and Testard To the most Honoured and our most Excellent Colleague Andrew Rivett Professor of Divinity WE did read with singular delight your Remarks on the Writings of Monsieur Amyraud Pastor and Professor at Saumur which we had seen sometimes before and we have found them exactly agreeing both with the Holy Scripture in all Articles of Faith and in those wherein our National Synod of Dort had declared its Judgment and therefore we approve of your Writing as being very Learned and Moderate and count it Worthy of Praise from all Orthodox Divines and we doubt not in the least but that this your Labour will be most acceptable unto the now approaching National Synod of France and will be useful and serviceable for the suppressing and putting a period by due and proper ways unto these late Controversies which some certain Pastors affected and addicted unto Novelties have to their shame raised in the French Churches to the great Offence of very many Godly Persons From Leyden March 14. 1637. Your Reverences most Affectionate Colleagues Johannes Polyander Antonius Wallaeus Antonius Thysius and Jacobus Triglandius Extracts out of a Letter sent by Mr. John Bogerman to Mr. Andrew Rivett from Franequer Feb. 7. 1637. HAving thus concerted that Affair among our selves we now Write you our present Judgment which in this Paper is Transmitted to you begging of God with all our heart That he would bless your Holy Labours and behold in the Son of his Love your distressed Churches of France which have been hitherto as a Pure and Chaste Virgin and have kept inviolably their Oath of Fidelity unto the Truth but now-a-days begin to be troubled with impure Errors and of a very dangerous Heterodoxy My Colleagues could not read that French Book of the Professor Amyraud because they don't understand the French Tongue therefore did I most Faithfully make those Extracts which you see out of his Writings Our ears could not suffer with any Patience those Novelties of a double Predestination unto Salvation and of a certain general knowledge by the light of Nature of the Mercy of God to all Men and of another particular knowledge of the same Mercy unto particular persons of a double Decree of God without any knowledge of Christ The good Lord be merciful unto these Brethren and according to his infinite goodness grant that they may have but one and the same Mind and the same Language with all the Churches of Christ and may he ever watch over you to keep and preserve you for many long years yet to come to the Glory of his Great Name and the Edification of his Church To that most Excellent Person our most Dear Brother in Jesus Christ Master Rivett Greeting SIR HAving received your Writing together with the Books of this 21. of January we perused them very diligently and were grieved in our hearts that the Seeds of new troubles were sowen in your Churches of France Thus Satan who is always the same and like himself endeavours by vile Errours to obscure the Lustre of the Truth and continually discovers himself a most mortal Enemy of the Grace of God And Oh that our most Gracious God whose great Benignity towards us deserveth our everlasting Praises would deign to preserve your poor Churches of France from all their Enemies and from those woful troubles attending on them These Attacks of the Adversary are ill-boding signs of some sad Events which may betide them unless they be resisted with singular Prudence and an immovable Resolution in their first beginnings and that they be stifled in the Birth For what is it that Men are hammering out of this multitude of Errors but a certain new Arminianism Pelagianism and Socinianism That odd and ridiculous Opinion of Vorstius concerning the changeable Decrees is once again digged out of its Grave and brought upon the publick Theatre yea and that spurious Doctrine of the Jesuits condemned by the School-men themselves appears bare-faced before the World Alas How many points incompatible one with another are there to be found in Monsieur Testard his Book For his latter Theses subvert the former and so far are these Pamphlets from conciliating Peace that to the contrary we believe the Adversaries are more exasperated by them animated and strengthened to Combat with us and that Saying of Monsieur Beza may be justly applied to this Script He would have forged a Peace but he hath forged out Dissention Sir You are very well acquainted with the Man and therefore
any Excommunication against Ministers and others who shall change their Religion for that of the Roman Catholicks nor to treat them reproachfully either by Word of Mouth or Writing or any other manner of way whatsoever Nor shall you admit for the future any Foreigner into the Ministery among you And therefore you be commanded to insert into the Attestations of Proposans who are to be Ordained and of Ministers who are to be received into any Church the Names of the Place of their Birth And farther Provincial Synods are inhibited to Call or Proclaim any General Fasts And that the Publick Peace and Tranquillity may be Secured his Majesty injoyneth Ministers according to the Command of God to Preach unto his Subjects that Obedience which they owe unto him and that it is not lawful for them to take up Arms against their Sovereign upon any Cause or Account whatsoever Moreover they be forbidden to make use of in their Sermons or Writings the Words Scourgings Martyrdoms and Persecution of their Religion or as if their Churches were the only True Church of God and are thus Misused Moreover whenever they speak of the Pope they shall not call him Antichrist nor treat him disrespectfully nor shall they Tax the Roma Catholick Apostolick Church with Idolatry nor the Sacraments and Ceremonies thereof as Human Inventions and Idolatries upon pain of Interdiction to themselves and others for so doing Furthermore they be forbidden to make any Private Collections from House to House nor to take a Farthing out of the Poor's Box or from Legacies bequeathed to them or the Fifth Peny of those Moneys nor to Cite any One before the Justice for Non-payment of their Sallaries and Wages nor for their Charge in Riding unto Colloquies and Synods nor for Repairing and upholding of their Temples In these Matters 't is his Majesties Will and Pleasure that Forty Fourth Article in the Edict of Nantes be punctually Observed and Performed And whereas their Majesties be informed that you send your Children to Study and to be Educated in Learning at Geneva in Switzerland Holland and England which are Nations and Republicks averse to Monarchy and who may imbue them with Corrupt Principles about Secular and Political Affairs the Consequence whereof is very great and the Effects flowing from them very dangerous That these may be in time prevented their Majesties desire of you that this Article may be Inserted into your Discipline concerning Proposans and that it be most strictly for the future observed in all your Provinces That no Proposans nor Divines shall be Ordained Ministers nor admitted Pastors into any of the Churches if they have Studied in any of those Countries or in any of their Universities And they have commanded me to assure you that your Conformity to their Intentions in such an Important Affair will be a thing most acceptable unto them and very advantagious to all the Professors of your Religion I am also charged to let you understand that their Majesties are much displeased that contrary to that Amnesty so much recommended by the Edicts in the Calendars of Psalms imprinted at Geneva 1635 these very Words are Inserted That on the Fifteenth Day of March 1545 was Assembled that detestable Council of Trent And there be also in them other such like Offensive Matters and that in the Twenty Fourth Article of your Confession of Faith the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion is styled An Abuse and Deceit of Satan and that Purgatory is a meer Cheat and the Shop out of which are sprung Monastick Vows Pilgrimages and other such Corruptions And in the Twenty Eighth Article you use these Words We Condemn those Assemblies in the Papacy where all these Superstitions and Idolatries are in Vogue Their Majesties cannot suffer that such Words should be Sworn in a National Synod they accounting them scandalous and injurious to their Religion and to that Church whereof his Majesty hath the Honour to be the Eldest Son and injurious to the Pope whom his Majesty believeth to be the Head of the Church calling him Holy Father and with whom he is in a strict Alliance and Amity Their Majesties Desire that in a matter so near their Heart as this is you would yield them that Respect and Observance which shall be Injoyned you and is now more particularly from their Majesties propounded to you Let me add One thing more which their Majesties commanded me to acquaint you with that they very just cause to Complain of you that since his Majesty began his Reign those of your Religion have took upon them to set up Preaching and the Exercise of your Worship in Languedoc and elsewhere in an Open Violent Manner contrary to the Publick Peace and the general Laws of the Kingdom which do equally forbid the Subjects both of the one and the other Religion to be their own Judges and to carve out Right unto themselves although they had been Wrong'd and Justice was on their Side And for that they durst make Acts and Pass them Resolutely after they had once Debated them in their Colloquies and Provinces and Confirmed them at a Meeting in the Consistory of Anduza and had returned Thanks to them who Executed that Riot and began to Revolt that so it might be done with more and greater Authority And those of Vsez also have placed Bells in their Temple without any leave first had or Obtained and contrary to the Articles upon which they Capitulated and Surrendred Their Majesties also are yet farther displeased that those who Profess your Religion in Languedoc have enterprized the Reviving of Deputations unto the Court of Monpellier Nismes and Vsez which had been Supprest ever sine the Year 1622 even when the Capitulation of the City of Monpellier was made and that the Sieur Peyrol Vestrie and Fournier did get themselves to be Deputed when there was no Synod and are become Partisans contrary to his Majesties Prohibitions And that Preaching and the Exercises of your Religion are set up in divers Parts by a meer Private Authority and beyond those Bounds appointed by his Majesties Commissioners to execute the Edict of Nantes yea and contrary to the Words of that self same Edict they continue Preaching in those Places where the Church-men are Lords of the Soil and of this his Majesty hath been fully informed And besides all this certain Ministers have taken unto themselves that Unbounded Liberty as to vent in their Pulpits Seditious Discourses and have cut off from Communion with them those Parents who send their Children to the Colledges of Regents who are of the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion And they have given me in Charge to tell you that these be Notorious Infractions of the Edicts contrary to your Duty to the Prejudice of the King and of the Publick Tranquillity the which his Majesty hath been so careful to conserve on his Part that he neither can nor ought as the Common Father of his People to suffer such Actings when as
of smaller or greater Numbers as the matter shall require 3. That particular Churches their respective Elders and Members ought to have a reverential regard to their Judgment so given and not dissent therefrom without apparent Grounds from the Word of God 7. Of our Demeaner towards the Civil Magistrate 1. We do reckon our selves obliged continually to pray for God's Protection Guidance and Blessing upon the Rulers set over us 2. That we ought to yield unto them not only Subjection in the Lord but support according to our Station and Abilities 3. That if at any time it shall be their pleasure to call together any Number of us or require any account of our Affairs and the state of our Congregations we shall most readily express all dutiful regard to them herein 8. Of a Confession of Faith As to what appertains to soundness of Judgment in matters of Faith we esteem it sufficient That a Church acknowledg The Scriptures to be the Word of God the perfect and only Rule of Faith and Practice and own either the Doctrinal Part of those commonly called the Articles of the Church of England Or The Confession or Catechisms Shorter or Larger compiled by the Assembly at Westminster or the Confession agreed on at the Savoy to be agreeable to the said Rule 9. Of our Duty and Deportment towards them that are not in Communion with us 1. We judge it our Duty to bear a Christian Respect to all Christians according to their several Ranks and Stations that are not of our Perswasion or Communion 2. As for such as may be ignorant of the Principles of the Christian Religion or of Vicious Conversation we shall in our respective places as they give us opportunity endeavour to explain to them the Doctrin of Life and Salvation and to our utmost perswade them to be reconciled to God 3. That such who appear to have the Essential Requistes to Church-Communion we shall willingly receive them in the Lord not troubling them with Disputes about Lesser Matters As we assent to the forementioned Heads of Agreement so we unanimously resolve as the Lord shall enable us to practise according to them CHAP. XIV 10. Article of General Matters THere was a Report made in the Synod of a certain Writing both Printed and Manuscript holding forth this Doctrin Mr. De la Place that the whole Nature of Original Sin consisted only in that Corruption which is Hereditary to all Adam's Posterity and residing originally in all Men and denieth the Imputation of his first Sin This Synod condemneth the said Doctrin as far as it restraineth the Nature of Original Sin to the sole Hereditary Corruption of Adam's Posterity to the excluding of the Imputation of that first Sin by which he fell and interdicteth on pain of all Church-Censures all Pastors Professors and others who shall treat of this Question to depart from the common received Opinion of the Protestant Churches who over and besides that Corruption have all acknowledged the Imputation of Adam's first Sin unto his Posterity And all Synods and Colloquies who shall hereafter proceed to the reception of Scholars into the Holy Ministry are obliged to see them sign and subscribe this present Act. 11. Forasmuch as that Religious Adoration given by the Church of Rome to their pretended Consecrated Host hath in its Publick Service and when-ever it is carried in Procession unto the Sick for its sole Foundation this false Supposition That it is by the Priests Consecration properly made the self same Body which was taken out of the Womb of the Blessed Virgin by the Eternal Son of God and united unto his Divine Person unto which belongeth both before and since his Incarnation the Empire of Glory and Religious Worship most strictly and properly so called and not unto his Humanity separated from it That the Church of Rome neither rendreth to nor requireth for its Consecrated Host any other Adoration than that of Latria and the Professors of our Religion are in this Point of another Faith believing this Host after Consecration to be that very self-same insensible and inanimate matter which it was before and cannot if they will follow the Dictates of their own Consciences and the prime Fundamental Verities of Christianity ascribe Divine Adoration unto a thing which by Nature is not God nor transfer the Glory of the Eternal God from him unto the basest of Creatures This Synod therefore doth adjure all of them by that Profession they make of serving the Lord in Purity and Sincerity and by that irreparable Prejudice they do the truth by their rash and inconsiderate oppugning of it and to their own Consciences which are shamefully betrayed by them and to their Countrymen of the Romish Communion whom they confirm in their Superstitions and to the weaker Christians among our selves whom by such a vile Example utterly unbecoming that worthy Name that is called upbri them they learn to prevaricate in Religion that they would once again return unto themselves and mourn bitterly in the Presence of the Great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ for that by this Sin of theirs they have profaned his Glory And the Synod ordaineth that when as the Host shall be carried in Procession or to the Sick by those of the Romish Church every one do withdraw himself from the sight of it that so no Scandal may be given unto their Neighbours And whereas some who do not step out of the way do feed themselves with this frivolous Imagination that they may tarry and see it tho they do not as those of the Romish Church let out their Thoughts to a Religious Adoration of the Host yet if their bodily Presence be voluntary at it it is a kind of Approbation of it And whereas some out of a sordid servile Spirit do comply with the received Custom in taking off their Hats when as the Host passeth by which say they is not for its sake or any Reverence to it but only out of Respect and Honour to the Curate or Vicar who carrieth it or of the Persons which accompany it this is sinful because they do not conform themselves to their Intention whom they pretend to gratifie and they yield only a Civil Salutation where the Romish Church ordaineth Religious Worship to be payed and performed bestowing it on another Object besides that proposed by her which Acts of theirs are directly contrary to the received Maxims of Civility among all Men in that they honour tho not as the Church of Rome professeth to do the Lord of Glory but in his Presence and to his Contempt a Priest who saith he is called to serve him and this in that very proper Act of Worship yielded by him as he pretendeth unto his God Besides this is contrary to all Christian Sincerity which requireth our Actious to be true Copies and Transcripts of our Hearts and not fallacions Feignings of that which is not only not in our Intentions but is formally contrary
said Mr. Aymin for drawing the said Professors contrary to the Canous of our Discipline before the Secular Jurisdiction yea and contrary to the Decree of the National Synod aforesaid And in case he shall hereafter offer to transgress that Decree the Provincial Synod of Sevennes is authorized to take Cognizance thereof and to censure him according to his Deserts either by Suspension or Deposal from his Office as it may so fall out And they shall further Question him for what Causes he hath desisted from the Functions of his Ministry and all this shall be done by the Authority of this Assembly nor shall there be any Appeal of his admitted from that Provincial Synod 5. The Fifth Article of Observations upon reading of the Discipline in the Synod of Charenton 1644. which forbad all Proposans going into the Pulpit at those Hours destinated unto Sermons shall be most religiously observed and such as violate them shall be censured by Colloquies and Synods 6. On reading the Thirteenth Article of Appeals in the last National Synod the Provincial Deputies of Sevennes made their Report and the Letter from the Consistory of St. Estienne was produced This Assembly blamed the said Province and Consistory for not having sooner put in execution the Order of the said National Synod for separating the Sieur Michel from his Wife And whereas the said Sieur Michel and his Wife that they may avoid the Censures of the Church do offer voluntarily and of their own accord to separate one from the other and so to remove the ground of the Scandal given by them and taken at them This Assembly ordaineth that after they shall have evidenced their sincere Repentance and Submission to the Rules of our Discipline by a real Separation from each other for the space of Six Months then and not till then are they to be received to the Peace and Fellowship of the Church 7. The Deputies of the Province of Burgundy were heard speak about that Decree of the last National Synod which ordaineth the said Province to examin the Accounts of the Sieur John Gras concerning the Monies received by him for the Churches of Montauban Rochel and Castres The said Deputies declaring that those Accounts were audited and closed in the Synod held at Bussi in the Year 1651. and put into the Hands of the Sieurs Cale and Spons Elders of the Church of Lion and Deputies for the said Church Upon which Relation the Deputies were very well satisfied 8. The Colloquies of Roven and Cauz made a Proposal for separating the Higher and Lower Normandy and to make out of them two Provincial Synods After that Monsieur Bochart was heard speaking for the Colloquies of the Lower Normandy This Assembly judged that the Decree past in the last National Synod should hold good without any change at all and that the said Proposal should be let die away in silence 9. The re-iterated Petition of the Province of Sevennes about the Church of Doubre and D'Auchy shall be tendered to the next Synod of the higher Languedoc which is intreated to consider well of the matter 10. The Assembly revising the eighth Article of General Matters in the last National Synod which enjoyned the Consistories of those Churches that have Printers to take special heed that there be not any Change made in the Translation of our Bible nor in our Liturgy nor Psalms without express Order from that Consistory which is empowred for so doing by the Provincial Synod It doth also recommend the strict Observation hereof and declareth those Persons worthy to be censured who do neglect it and willeth that an account of this be rendred both to the â—rovincial Synods and Colloquies And farthermore all Persons whatso ver be forbidden to print or bind up with our Liturgy and Ordinary Catechism any other Catechisms and Prayers whatsoever 11. On reading that Article of the last National Synod concerning Original Sin divers Provinces demanding with great Importunity that this Assembly would be pleased to moderate it this Decree was made That for the future all Pastors and Proposans who should offer themselves unto the Holy Ministry shall be only obliged to subscribe unto the Tenth and Eleventh Article of the Confession of Faith held by all the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom and in the mean while all Persons are forbidden to preach or print any thing against the Imputation mentioned by the said Synod in that Article before named nor shall any thing more or less be changed in it 12. In reading that Article of the same National Synod concerning the Redemption of Captives This Assembly took notice that the Alms collected from the Faithful on this occasion had been employed most beneficially in this pious Work as was made appear by those Accounts brought in and examined and whereas there is a great Necessity for the continuance of this noble Charity this Assembly recommends the continuance of its Practice unto the Provinces according to the intent and purport of the said Article 13. The Deputies of Lower Guyenne gave in an account of what their Synod had done about the absence of two Elders whom they had deputed unto the last National Synod of Charenton and their proceedure in censuring of Monsieur Sauvage for his absence was well approved CHAP. IX Of Appeals 1. MOnsieur Ferrand Pastor of the Church of Burdeaux appealed for that the Synod of Lower Guyenne held at Bergerac had made a change in their first Deputation to the National Synod having put in another Deputy in his stead whenas sixteen Members of the said Synod were absent and out of the way to the wounding of his Reputation Whereupon the Deputies of that Province declared that this Change was made in pursuance of a Rule made in the Synod held at Casteljalonx without any the least suspicion had of the Integrity of the said Monsieur Ferrand whose Fidelity and Sincerity was very well known in all the Province and elsewhere This Assembly judged that the Rule establish'd in the said Province is highly laudable and its observation very profitable Yet nevertheless it were to be desired that the new Election had not commenc'd in the absence of so great a number of their Members and the said Monsieur Ferrand is intreated to rest satisfied with the Testimony given him by the Deputies of his Province in this Assembly that he hath always demeaned himself as a good and Faithful Servant of God 2. The Churches of Beaune Thoire and St. John appealed from the Judgment of the Synod of Burgundy which refused to discharge them of those Sums to which they were taxed as the other Churches of the Province for the Colledges and Universities After perusal of the Contents of their Memoirs and hearing the Deputies of the Provinces the Assembly judged those Churches aforesaid most blame worthy for refusing to pay the Sums demanded of them and injoyneth them to submit unto that Order 3. The Sieur Gaultier Pastor in the Province of Xaintonge brought his
Brethren having been heard on this Affair reporting his continual Rebellions against the Consistory of the said Church for near six Months together The Council doth injoyn the Consistory to call the said Joequin before them and to give him a very severe Reproof for the sorementioned Crimes and in case of his Contempt and continued Rebellion to depose him from his Office of Deacon without delay as also to cut him off from the Communion of the Church and to denounce him publickly Excommunicate until such time as he shall have given publick satisfactory Evidences of his Repentance The End of the Synod of Orleance Thus Subscribed in the Original Chandieu Lord of La Roche President of the Council Le Masson Lord of La Fountaine Scribe of the Council THE ACTS DECISIONS and DECREES OF THE IV. National Synod OF THE Reformed Churches of Christ IN The KINGDOM of FRANCE HELD At LIONS in the Year of our LORD 1563. THE CONTENTS of this SYNOD CHap. I. Moderator chosen Chap. II. Of Synods in Five Canons Chap. III. Of Consistories in Five Canons Chap. IV. Of Censures Two Canons Chap. V. Of Ministers Three Canons Chap. VI. Of Baptism Three Canons Chap. VII Of Marriage Four Canons Chap. VIII Of Interest for Money Chap. IX Of Hereticks and Schismaticks and Vagrants Chap. X. Of the Lord's Supper Chap. XI General Matters Chap. XII A Case of Conscience about the Marriage of Cousin-Germans Chap. XIII A Book Censured See also Cap. 9. Chap. XIV Particular Matters A Delinquent Minister Censured Chap. XV. Advice to the States of Languedoc Chap. XVI Very many curious Cases of Conscience resolved Chap. XVII Memorials for the Service of the Churches Chap. XVIII Distinction of the Provinces Nine at first Chap. XIX Books Censured Chap. XX. Vagrants and Deposed Ministers Registred Chap. XXI Cases of Conscience 1. About Marriage 2. Consistories 3. Baptism 4. And the Lord Supper Resolved by Mr. Calvin and sent unto the National Synod of Lyons at their desire THE Synod of Lions 1563. Synod IV. SYNOD IV. Articles concluded on in the National Synod held at Lions the tenth of August 1563 in the third Year of the Reign of King Charles the Ninth CHAP. I. Mr. Virett was a most Eloquent Preacher and Calvin's Colleague at Geneva See the Catalogue of his Works in Du Verdier's Bibliotheque M R. Peter Virett Minister in the Church of Lions was chosen Modederator and Scribe CHAP. II. Observations Additions and Annotations upon the Church-Discipline Of SYNODS ARTICLE I. AT the Opening of all National and Provincial Synods the Canons of our Church-Discipline shall be read and for the future Provincial Synods shall send unto the National those Articles and Canons composed by them for the Government of their respective Provinces and all the Churches in their District ARTICLE II. The Canons of the three former National Synods held at Paris Poictiers and Orleance shall be reduced into a Body and this Order shall constantly be observed at the end of every National Synod ARTICLE III. Every Sentence of Excommunication confirmed by the Provincial Synod shall be for the future stable and valid IV. None other Articles of Discipline shall be divulged but those which were composed by common Consent of all the Deputies ARTICLE V. The Deputies of the Provinces shall not depart from the National Synod without carrying home with them the Resolutions and Decrees of the Synod signed and attested by the Moderator and Scribe CHAP. III. Of CONSISTORIES ARTICLE VI. ALtho' it may be convenient in weighty and important Business of the Church to call into gether with the Consistory some of the most discreet and judicious Members of the Church though they be not in actual Office in the Consistory yet nevertheless there ought not to be any other ordinary Assembly or Form of Council for Church-Matters excepting the Body of the Consistory which hath been chosen and settled by the Church to these very ends and purposes who be Persons in publick Offices which the others are not ARTICLE VII A Civil Magistrate may be a Member of the Consistory provided it do not hinder him in the Exercise of his publick Office nor be prejudicial to the Church VIII Professors of Divinity may be admitted Members of Consistories and deputed unto Synods ARTICLE IX Consistories are left at liberty to receive as Members into them both Father and Son and two Brothers at the same time unless there be something which may hinder it of which the Provincial Synod shall take Cognisance ARTICLE X. Although the Body of the Consistory may advise and admonish disagreeing Persons to terminate their Controversies and Suits at Law yet that very Consistory shall never consent to be the Judge or Arbitrator of those Controversies betwixt Persons at Variance about worldly Goods and Estates but in case any Members of the Church not of the Consistory shall be employed as Arbitrators in those Differences then the Members of the Consistory may assist them with their particular Advice but always in their private Capacities CHAP. IV. Concerning CENSVRES ARTICLE XI IF any Officer of our Reformed Churches shall have committed Idolatry in times of Persecution they shall be deposed from their Office and before they be admitted to communicate at the Lord's Table they shall do publick Penance And as for private Persons who have offended in the same manner they also shall undergo such a Penance as the Consistory shall judge meet The whole to be managed with Christian Moderation according to the Discipline ARTICLE XII Ministers who scandalize the World by marrying basely and unworthily the Brethren in this Synod are all of one Mind and Advice That Consistories shall proceed against these Delinquents in such a manner as may prevent all Scandals for the future CHAP. V. Of MINISTERS ARTICLE XIV MInisters though settled in one Church may be lent unto other Churches for some time for their Instruction and Comfort And whenas our Proposans are called unto the Ministry they shall be settled in some one particular Church there constantly to remain yet Synods shall have Power to remove Ministers from one Place to another for some certain Reasons and Considerations provided their Churches do consent unto it according to the Discipline ARTICLE XV. Here must be inserted the Fifth Canon of the National Synod of Orleance viz. Ministers shall not quit their Churches nor joyn themselves unto any other without the Authority of the Provincial Synod or consent of the Neighbour-Ministers or that Church unto which they were sent XVI Whenas a Minister is to be chosen not only the Consistories of that Church but the Neighbour-Ministers also shall with the Colloquy pursue that Election CHAP. VI. Of BAPTISM ARTICLE XVII MInisters shall admonish their Flocks to compose themselves withall possible Reverence at the Administration of both the Sacraments ARTICLE XVIII Women alone shall not be admitted to present Children unto Baptism ARTICLE XIX If a Person come to Years of Discretion was never baptized and shall