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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28845	A pastoral letter from the Lord Bishop of Meaux to the new Catholicks of his diocess exhorting them to keep their Easter, and giving them necessary advertisements against the false pastoral letters of their ministers : with reflections upon the pretended persecution / translated out of French, and publish'd with allowance.; Lettre pastorale. English	Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 1627-1704.	1686 (1686)	Wing B3787; ESTC R12514	28,012	60

in the Year 1546. It is he who hath erected a Prophane and Sacrilegious Chair against the Successor of St. Faron and St. Sainctin Those who founded the other Churches have nothing more to brag of all are Lay-Men created Pastors by the Laity contrary to all the Examples of Antiquity against the Universal practice of the Christian Church where they have never seen a Pastor who was not ordain'd by other Pastors and contrary to the Authority of the Scriptures where the Holy Ghost neither prescribes nor shews us any but this means to perpetuate the Ecclesiastical Ministry Behold my Brethren the Original of the Ministry under which you were But if a Luther a Bucer a Zuinglius a Peter Martyr if other Priests and Religious Lawfully Ordain'd in the Catholick Church made themselves Ministers of the Erring Multitude without mentioning other Reasons which condemn their Rashness to exercise this New Ministry they were oblidg'd to Apostatize from the Faith of those who Consecrated them They made them Priests in saying to them that they gave them Power to transform by their Holy Benediction the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of JESUS CHRIST and to offer them in Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead They were Consecrated in this Faith but were forc'd to renounce it before they could be qualify'd to exercise their New Ministry so they carry in their Fore-Head the Mark of Innovation and the separating Herds so little acknowledged their Ordination and Mission which they receiv'd in the Church that this weak Bishop of Troy I do not Name him so of my self 't is the Ecclesiastical History of Beza which gives us this Idea after having embraced the Pretended Reformation obtained not without trouble and much entreaty that they would permit him to be a Minister so unprofitable did they believe all that which he had before receiv'd So all these Founders of the Pretended Churches are People without Authority and without Mission It is from thence that they who composed these Pastoral Letters are descended and for all that forsooth they set up for Cyprians and Athanasius's But their Error is manifest and altho' they endeavour to counterfeit the Language of the Holy Bishops yet since they have neither Succession nor Authority nor Doctrine you cannot look upon them but as false Apostles and deceitful Workers transform'd as St. Paul says into Apostles of JESUS CHRIST Thus you see nothing in the Writings which they address to you but a Bitter Zeal passionate Sentiments and a manifest abuse of the Word of God The Author of the Letter to the Protestants fallen through fear of Torments treats those who have rendered themselves as he calls it before the Combate that is to say without being Tormented as a People for whom there is no Mercy and applying to them a Passage of St. Paul from whence there is nothing left them but Despair he vouchsafes not so much as to exhort them to Repentance Another gives his Letter this Title To our Brethren who groan under the Captivity of Babylon And renews by this only Title all the as vain as injurious Applications of the Apocalypse which they are ever making to render the Church odious to you All the rest is of a piece and the whole answers the furious Title He speaks to you of nothing but the horrour you ought to have of Popery To the end you may be preserv'd as he speaks in this just horrour of Popery such as it deserves Forget not pursues he continually to fix your Eyes upon all its Deformities have a care of looking upon it through those Qualifications which the Doctors of Lies cast before our Eyes of late You understand well this Language you know it to be the same Spirit which told your Ministers That the Exposition of the Catholick Doctrine which I publish'd altho' it was taken Word for Word out of the Council of Trent and that for this Reason so many Bishops so many Cardinals so many Doctors all the Clergy of France the Pope himself and finally the whole Church had approved it was not our true Doctrine but a deceitful Softning and Dissembling it where the whole Church and the Pope himself were entred into a Conspiracy with me to circumvent you What Prodigy cannot Men believe when they believe such things as these But those who would seduce you have no other means but this to preserve the Horrour which they breath'd into you against us since the begining of the Pretended Reformation If they had not disguis'd our Sentiments to you they had wanted means to improve into Schism the Aversion to the Church which they would creat in you A Hatred so violent cannot be entertain'd but by continuing the same Calumnies and when they exhort you to reject the Qualifications of Popery by considering without ceasing all its Deformities if you understand their Language 't is as much as to say That you must judge of our Sentiments not by the Public Profession which we make but that which our declar'd Enemies impute to us and that you ought not to know our Religion but in their Calumnies Without this perceive you not that they would not dare to say as do's this furious Author That our Religion was the Religion of the Devil a Religion of Brutes fill'd up with Idolatary and Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies Open your Eyes My dear brethren acknowledge the Malice and bitter Zeal of those who from the begining would make you Martyrs of the Schism I do not pretend here to enter into Controversies But with what Conscience can they Write to you That you are made to say the Litanies in a Barbarous Language to the Honour of the Creatures and to the Dishonour of the Creator Read these Litanies since you have them in your Hands not only in the Latine Tongue which these furious Men mean by Barbarous but also in the French Is it to say the Litanies to the Dishonour of the Creator to say at first Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Christ hear us Christ graciously hear us God the Father Eternal God the Son Redeemer of the World God the Holy Ghost have mercy upon us Holy Trinity One God have mercy upon us Having laid this Foundation of our Hope is it to speak to the Honour of the Creature and to the Dishonour of the Creator to say Holy Mary pray for us Holy Mother of God pray for us Ye Holy Angels pray for us St. Peter pray for us And the rest Do's not this manner of naming the Saints in the Litanies visibly place them rather in the number of those that Pray than of those that are Pray'd to as all our Doctors have taught But how profitable soever their Prayers appear to us our Devotions stop not there We return presently after to JESUS CHRIST whom we conjure by all his Mysteries and by all the Names which he has taken to assure us of his Goodness to deliver us

We can say without fear of being reprehended that they Cannot shew any change in the Catholick Church unless in those matters of Ceremony and Discipline which from the first Ages have been alwayes held for indifferent As for those insensible changes which they accuse us to have introduc'd in Doctrine in that they call them insensible it is enough to convince you that there are none marked out and that they cannot shew an innovation by any one positive matter of Fact But what they cannot shew us we are ready to shew to all those who have forsaken us There has not been any Interruption of the Antient Doctrine in any patt of the Christian World but is known the date of the Innovation and Seperation no Person is ignorant of If there had been such changes among us the Authors would have been named the Spirit of Truth which is in the Church would have noted them and their Names would have been infamous as that of Arius Nestorius Pelagius Dioscorus and Berengarius So that all they have told you of these insensible changes in Doctrine of which they have not produc'd one example in the Christian Church is no other but an empty Accusation without any matter of Fact-to support it and seeing you understand the Doctrine which I declare to you and that which the other Catholick Bishops also declare to you you ought by no means to doubt but that you hear in our Discourse those who first preach'd the Gospel and in them the Apostles and in the Apostles him who said Go Teach and Baptize and behold I am with you even to the end of the World So when your Ministers told you You needed not trouble your selves about the Succession of Chairs and Pastors provided you kept the Right Doctrine and true Understanding of the Scripture they separated that which JESUS CHRIST hath been pleas'd to render inseparable And it is in vain they boasted of understanding the Scriptures when in the mean while they rejected the Means by which it hath pleas'd God to transmit it It was his Will that it should come to us from Pastor to Pastor and from Hand to Hand without the least suspicion or appearance of Innovation By this means we come to know what hath always been Believ'd and by consequence what ought always to be Believ'd It is as I may say in this always that the force of Truth and the Promise is evidenc'd and the whole is lost if an Interruption be found but in one only Point Those things which thou hast heard from me says St. Paul before many witnesses commit thou to faithful men who shall be fit to teach others also To seperate the wholesome Doctrine from this Chain of Succession is to separate the River from the Channel And to vaunt themselves of the Understanding of the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the Stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserv'd the Waters after the Pipes are broken Do not therefore hearken My Well-beloved to the Word of Falshood and suffer not your selves to be seduc'd by these Pretended Pastoral Letters which they address to you from so many Parts and in such different Forms That which hath for its Title A Pastoral Letter to the Protestants of France who are fallen through Torments is not the better for being full of Words which that great Bishop and Martyr St. Cyprian address'd to the Faithful of Carthage to exhort them to Penitence and Martyrdom Those who dare imitate the True Pastors and who use the Language of St. Cyprian ought to consider whether they can from so good a Title attribute to themselves the Pastoral Authority But let them consult this Holy Martyr he will teach them That the Church is One That Episcopacy is One That to possess it lawfully it is necessary to ascend by One continual Succession even to the Source of Unity that is to say even to the Apostles and even to him to whom only JESUS CHRIST hath said that he might found his Church upon Unity Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I Build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. and also after his Resurrection Feed my Sheep The same St. Cyprian will teach them That from this Source of the Apostles rising from perfect Unity all the Pastors have issued That from hence Episcopacy is One not only in all Places but also in all Times That the Church like a Sun spreads her Rayes through the Universe but that it is the same Light which extends it self on all Sides That she spreads her Branches and causes her Streams to run through the Earth but that there is but one Source one Chief one Common Beginning one self-same Stock and finally one self-same Mother rich in the Fruits she brings forth from her Fruitful Womb. And least We should imagine some Cases might happen in which it might be Lawful to separate from the Unity of the Church or reform her Doctrine he adds these excellent Words which I beseech you my Brethren to consider The Spouse of JESUS CHRIST can never be an Adultress she cannot be corrupted and her Chastity is inviolable He that separates himself from the Church to joyn himself with an Adulteress thus he treats the Sects that are separated from the Unity of the Church hath no part in the Promises of JESUS CHRIST he is a Stranger he is Profane he is an Enemy He cannot have God for his Father since he has not the Church for his Mother 'T is in vain that he pretends to break the Holy Unity which is founded on the Unity of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And can they believe pursues he that the Vnity which is Built on so firm a Foundation can ever be dissolv'd He that keeps not this Vnity of the Church keeps not the Law of God he hath not the Faith of the Father and the Son he hath not Life and Salvation Do not you perceive My Bretheren how opposite the Method which they use in your pretended Churches is to that of St. Cyprian Your Ministers tell you without ceasing That to believe the Church without examining is without examining to believe Men subjects to Errour and that to know the True Church which one may beleive one must by a discussion of particular Questions know before hand the True Faith taught by the Scriptures But you see that St. Cyprian takes quite another Method To confound by an easie and compendious Argument as he propos'd to himself all Heresies and Schisms he alledges the Authority of the Church He knew nothing more manifest and so far was he from suffering them to inquire after the Church by examining into her Doctrines that he would have them know her first and hold it for certain that they cannot enjoy either the Law of God or Salvation or Life