those that were baptised both before their Baptism and it may be after But it is ridiculous to make a Sacrament of this Imposition of Hands Concerning which my Brethren you ought to know 1. That Imposition of Hands is a Ceremony descended from the Jews our Lord approved and practised it for which reason he laid hands on all the Children they brought to him when he blessed them 2. You ought to be advertised that Imposition of Hands was an Appendage of Prayer and that they served themselves of that Ceremony as often as they would implore the extraordinary assistance of God upon any one When any one was sick they prayed and laid their hands on them When any one was reconciled to the Church they begged of God pardon of sins for him laying their hands on him When any one was admitted to a publick Office they prayed to obtain that assistance that was necessary for him and laid on him their hands When they sent any one upon a difficult Commission they laid hands on him and prayed as may be seen in Acts 13. The fathers after they had fasted and prayed laid hands on Paul and Barnabas to the end they might go preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles They were already Presbyters and had received Mission from God and the Church When they married they received also Prayer and the Benediction of the Church with Imposition of Hands annex'd unto it 'T is a prodigious Blindness to make of these differing Impositions of Hands so many Sacraments I should as soon chuse or rather sooner chuse to make of these differing Prayers which were made on sundry occasions so many Sacraments For 't is certain that Prayer over the baptised the penitent the sick those that took Office those that were sent on Commission those that were married was the chief of the Action and Imposition of Hands was but a decent Gesture and a Rite which signified that they desired the Grace of God and his assistance on the person that was concerned therein 'T is a pityful thing that Men lay hold alway on the Skin and meddle not with the Marrow and if the principal Action be accompanied with some little Ceremony which is but accessory the love of that which is external and easie to practise presently changes the principal into accessory and the accessory into principal Bowing the Knee and Imposition of Hands are two Rites of the same kind and of the same necessity To bend the Knee and lift up the Hands have been two signs which almost always accompanied Prayer the first signifies the Humiliation of the Spirit the second the Elevation of the Heart and when this Elevation of the Hands is made on the Head of any one 't is to signifie that the Heart lifts up it self according to the desire and intention of him over whom they lift up their hands Behold the whole Mystery of this Ceremony whereof they have made four or five Sacraments And 't is the first original of the Sacrament of Confirmation of Penance of Marriage of Orders and of Extreme Unction If the Humor of Popery and Superstition had turn'd on the other hand we had had it may be fourteen Sacraments instead of seven For of the Genuflection which is made in praying for the whole and sound of that which is made in praying for the sick for hardened Sinners and for those that are penitent c. Of these Genuflections say I they might have made as many Sacraments with as much reason as they have made five Sacraments of the five Orders of Prayers to which Imposition of Hands has been annexed Let this serve my Brethren to make you understand that nothing is more absurd that to make a Sacrament of Confirmation because in the first and second Age they laid hands on those which had been baptised The Apostles practised it also because they had power to obtain the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost for those which had received Baptism The Bishops affirming themselves Succession of the Apostles appropriated to themselves afterward a Ceremony which became vain and empty because they had not the power to cause the Holy Ghost to descend upon those on whom they laid hands Jesus Christ laid hands not only on Children brought to him but also on the sick as it appears in the Gospel of S. Mark * Mark 6.5.8.13 and that of S. Luke †Luke 4.40 When he healed the Woman that had been bowed together during the space of eighteen years he also ‖ Luke 13.13 laid his Hands upon her When * Act. 9.17 Ananias would give sight to Saul he laid his hands on him When S. Paul would heal the Father of Publius Prince of Malta of his Fever and Bloody Flux he laid his hands on him To conclude a Man must have a Spirit prejudiced beyond all that can be imagined not to see that Imposition of Hands is a simple Ceremony annexed to Prayer Concerning Extreme Unction i. e. the Ceremony of anointing the dying to obtain for them Vigor and Strength necessary to overcome death 't is that whereof there is not found the least footstep in all the Authors of this second Age. We do not doubt at all but that they did serve themselves of that Unction of which the Evangelist and Apostle speak an Unction wherewith they served themselves for the miraculous Cure of Diseases As in the second and third Ages there continued in the Church some Remainders of the Gift of Healing they might also serve themselves with the Ceremony of Unction But boldly defie your Converters to shew you any Example of a Man dying that was anointed with Oil in the second Age with this intent to make the passage of death more easie to him Press them with the same confidence about their other false Sacraments Orders Penance and Marriage and oblige them to shew you by antiquity in the second Age that the Doctors of the Church did regard them as Sacraments Purgatory in Popery is a Foundation upon which they build an infinite number of idolatrous and superstitious Worships for which reason 't is of importance to see what Men believed of it in the second Age of the Church The State of Souls after death hath always been an Abyss in which Men have seen nothing without Revelation And for that reason the Pagans fell in this regard into prodigious Errors and the Jews before our Saviour floated about in great Uncertainties The Primitive Christians fell close to that which our Lord said to the good Thief This day shalt thou be with me in paradise To that which S. Paul had taught 1 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. That if our earthly house of this tabernacle c. And that when we depart from hence we shall be with Christ Jesus To that which the Holy Spirit hath said in the Revelations that those which die in the Lord are happy and their works follow them About the middle of the second Age a Christian apparently come over
same place or in another 'T is a matter of Fact which our Adversaries cannot deny In the 20th of the Acts the Apostle speaking to the Presbyters or Elders of the Church of Ephesus calls them Bishops and in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus where he speaks sometimes of a Bishop he speaks more frequently of Elders and by Elders he understands the very same which he had called Bishops In the Cities where the Churches were great there were many Presbyters one of them did preside over the rest not by turn but by a privilege which did always appertain to him St. Paul speaks of this President The Elder which rules well is worthy of double honor This presiding Presbyter in the beginning of the second Age arrogates to himself the name of Bishop which before was common to his Collegues so that there was no other but the President of the Presbytery who call'd himself Bishop He attributed to himself also the right of imposing hands as well on those which were received as Pastors as on the Penitents and those which were received to the Communion of the Mysteries In all this there was as yet no Hierarchy no Dependence no Appeals no Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Every Bishop with his College of Presbyters was Sovereign in his District and in his Church and this Church was not dependent of any other You may remember how S. Cyprian in our Eleventh Pastoral Letter hath told us in express words * Epist 74. Every Bishop may use his Authority in the Government of his Church according to his own Will being under no obligation to give an account thereof to any but the Lord. And elsewhere †Concil Carth. Anno 258. That every Bishop is Master of himself and cannot be judged by another Bishop as he also cannot judge other Bishops All honest men are agreed at this day therein The Divines themselves of the Gallican Church maintain it and at this time they lend us their Studies and Illuminations to refute the Flatterers of the Papal Tyranny who would find in the three first Ages of the Church Proofs of the Primacy i. e. of the Principality of the Bishop of Rome over all the Churches of the World. The Defenders of this Antichristian Power quote to us the Action of Victor Bishop of Rome who about the end of the Second Age excommunicated the Churches of Asia because they would not keep Easter precisely the same day that he did and from thence they conclude That the Pope was even then the Prince of all Churches But to this your own Converters do answer for us that in this Victor exercised no Right but what was common to all Bishops and that the Bishops of Asia might exercise it on Victor as he had exercised it on them that this Excommunication of Victor was a separation from his Communion that the Bishops did communicate one with another by Letters which they called Letters of Communion formed Letters c. When they were angry or discontented one with another they did no longer write these Letters of Communion to those of whom they believed the Church had reason to complain and they received no more from them that this is it which Victor then did and that all Bishops have Right by custom to do the same thing The Flatterers of Popes quote to us also the Words of Irenaeus who speaking of the Church of Rome says * Lib. 3. cap. 3. That it was necessary all other Churches should have recourse to this Church because it was the principal and the most potent But the French Roman Catholick Doctors answer for us that the sense is That the Roman Church because the City of Rome was the Capital City of the Empire and because of its grandeur might be a sufficient Witness of Apostolical Tradition because Christians came thither upon business from all Parts of the World and that coming thither they might there be Witnesses of the Faith of all Churches scattered throughout all the Empire and that so the Roman Church made up and formed of all Nations might be a Witness of the Faith of all the Churches in the World. They object to us also That it appears by the Works of St. Cyprian that Bishops condemned and deposed in Africa had recourse to the Bishop of Rome for their re-establishment But the French Doctors answer with us That by the same Letters of St. Cyprian it appears also that these Attempts were disallowed and condemned and that they gave the Bishop of Rome to understand that he had nothing to do to receive the Complaints of any of the Ecclesiasticks of the African Church So that these Gentlemen acknowledge with us that in the three first Ages of Christianity there was no Principality no subordinate Jurisdiction nor no dependence of one Church upon another not excepting the Church of Rome it self But we do also maintain unto them That from the Third Age the Churches that had their Seats in those Cities which are called Metropoles i. e. Heads of the Provinces did obtain a certain Superiority upon the lesser Churches that were in the little Villages of the Neighbourhood because of the need they had of them The Metropolitan Cities were the dwelling places of the Governors of the Provinces the Courts of Justice were there 't was thither they carried their Tributes so that all the Provinces had business there besides the Bishops of these Cities were ordinarily more able than those of little Cities for it has always been the ordinary custom to choose the ablest men for the conduct of the most important Churches and such as were most exposed to the Temptations of human Authority Besides this there were in these Cities many Presbyters which assisted the Bishop and who with him made a Senate able and knowing in matters of Faith and Discipline For these Reasons the Churches of the Country and such as were Provincial addressed themselves to the Churches of the Metropolitan Cities in all their doubts and in all their necessities sometimes to obtain Pastors sometimes to know how they should suppress Hereticks and those which were scandalous and sometimes in other cases and on other occasions This was the reason that the Churches of the Metropolitan Cities obtained by consent a kind of Superintendence over others They confirmed by imposition of hands Pastors in vacant Churches after the People of those Churches had made an Election of them This is the estate in which the Government was found in the beginning of the Fourth Age. Before that time the Names of Arch-Bishops Primates Exarchs Patriarchs and every other Name of Power and Dignity were wholly unknown in the Church But the Emperors becoming Christians Pride introduced it self into the Ecclesiastical Government and in the space of an 150 years or thereabout that Hierarchy was seen to be born and to establish it self which certainly made way for the birth of the Antichristian Empire of Rome and behold how it came to pass Constantine the Great
Religious Worship and this is that which the Ancient Christians call here to communicate with the body of the Martyr that is to say assemble where he was buryed Pray to God and Celebrate the Mysteries of the Christian Religion in the same place and even over the Tomb of the Martyr In this there is nothing Criminal all is done with a good meaning Nevertheless we shall see how insensibly all did degenerate into Superstition It does not appear that either they Prayed to Polycarpus or that they Prayed for him on the day Consecrated to his memory but we shall see in the third Age they Prayed for the Martyrs and in the fourth Age they Prayed to them Give attention to this passage I earnestly intreat you As to what appertains to Images I think I shall do a thing of great advantage if I prove that the Christian Church had none in their Temples in the second Age for it will appear by the Ages following that they had all sorts of Images even out of Temples in the greatest abhorrence Fasts Lent Abstinence from certain Meats and other Mortifications of like kind which makes so great a part of the Roman Religion which dazle the Eyes of some of our New Converts were intirely unknown in the second Age. We there see and observe Prayers and Fasts very often but there is nothing Read which may make us suspect that they were affixed to certain days of the week or certain months of the year all the days of Prayer except the Lords day were almost always days of Fasting But it was by accident because the Fasting of the New Testament was often joyned with Prayer that the Ancient Christians made it a duty to Fast on days of Prayer But it was a thing unheard of precisely to make Devotion to consist of Fasting without any respect to Prayer and those that do affirm it was the use of the Primitive Church must prove it Now we are certain that they cannot find any proof thereof in the Writings of the second Age. And as to what remains as we shall make it appear by the clearest evidence that the Popish Fasts were unknown in the third Age it will appear by consequence that they were of no use in the second only it appears that they prepared for the Communion of Easter by a Fast of two days St. Ireneus writ to Victor Bishop of Rome on occasion of the Controversie touching the day on which they ought to Celebrate Easter * Euseb Hist Eccles lib. 5. cap. 24. is not only disputed concerning Easter-day but also concerning the form of the Fasts antecedent thereto for some think they ought not to Fast but one day others two others more and others measure their Fast-day by the space of twenty four hours night and day and this diversity in the observation of the Fast had not its being in our Age but hath begun from the time of our Fathers who by negligence simplicity and ignorance have suffered this custom to slip in Nevertheless they lived in peace with each other and we retain it to this day Observe well it is not Lent but the beginning and original thereof These forty hours of Fast are greatned and grown up to forty days So it is that the most innocent practices have been the original of Superstition so dangerous is it to make Innovations although they seem without hazardous consequence let them shew you other solemn Fasts besides this in the second Age. It remains that we speak a word concerning the Pope and the prodigious Authority he arrogates to himself It is a Capital affair in Popery he is the Principle of Unity he is the Centre unto which your Converters tell you you ought to be united if you will be saved God knows what they think of it but we defie them to shew you that the Church of Rome had then any Superiority over other Churches We may assure you without rashness that the most part of the Churches which were in the extreme Parts of Asia scarce knew whether there were any such thing as a Church of Rome they neither knew the name of its Bishop nor the form of its Government nor Customs and therefore were far enough from being subject to its Orders and Decrees We may also assure you there were also Christians in Persia and in the farthest parts of the East which knew not whether there were a Roman Church in the World. Send your Converters to the famous de Launy Doctor of the Sorbonne who makes appear with sufficient clearness and evidence the independence of other Churches and the few bonds and ties that they had with Rome by proving that the adherence they had to the Roman Seat was not accounted necessary in any Age of the ancient Church They produce to you in the second Age Victor who cut off from his Communion the Churches of Asia on occasion of the Controversie about Easter-Day But you ought to understand that this was an attempt without example and which had no effect but was despised of all the World. And besides this was no right that was particular to the Bishop of Rome for other Churches pretended to have that right of cutting off other Churches from their Communion as well as that of Rome Moreover the nearer the Churches of the World were to Rome the more respect and consideration they had for the Church which was there The Churches which were without the Bounds of the Roman Empire scarce knew that there was a Church at Rome The Provinces at a distance from Italy such were Asia and Africa beheld her so far off that they scarce knew either her Customs or her Doctrine nor did they think themselves under any obligation to be instructed in them or to follow them And therefore they continued a long time to celebrate Easter with the Jews and to rebaptize Hereticks without any regard to the Decisions of Victor and Stephen Bishops of Rome The Churches of France which beheld her near at hand had her in greater value and estimation because they were smitten and amazed not at the Majesty of the Church but at the Majesty of the Empire which had its Seat at Rome This is it which made Ireneus Bishop of Lions to say That it was necessary that the whole Church should travel to the Church of Rome because of its more powerful principality That is to say because it was the Seat of the Empire that all Nations come thither and that Christians were found there of all the Provinces of the Empire from whose Mouths might be learn'd what was that Faith which was scattered all over the Earth Behold what was the Christianity of the second Age. And behold the Additions that we find there which afterward was the Seed of Superstition and Idolatry First of all they mingled Water with the Wine in the Eucharist which was not used in the time of the Apostles 2. They carried the Sacrament to the absent which was not usual
opinion concerning the Sense of Scripture will not acknowledge a living speaking Authority to which they must submit the Christian Church is assuredly the weakest of all Societies that are in the World the most exposed to remediless Divisions the most abandoned to Innovators and factious persons This is that to which your Ministers with all their subtleties have never been able to find an Answer and they content themselves with bringing Examples where they pretend that Councils have not always determined well All these Examples are false or ill alledged In one quarter of an hours time you which are a Man of Sense will be convinced thereof and you do receive things with too much credulity without ever putting your self on the labor to examine them But without putting you upon these Disquisitions consider only whether it be likely that God who hath permitted so many depths in the Scripture and from thence have arisen so many Schisms amongst those that profess to receive it hath not left some means to his Church to quiet and pacifie them in such manner that there is no remedy for Divisions but to let every one believe according to his fancy and thence insensibly to carry Men to an indifferency in Religion which is the greatest of all Evils Think Master think of it hear your own reason and not the subtleties of your Ministers who at what rate soever will defend their Prejudices and not pass for Teachers of Lies Think of these things excuse those Expressions which may seem a little dark and disordered it is much better that you attend to the simplicity of a Brother that endeavours to gain a Brother than a polite and studied Discourse Come and assure your self that I will do all for you whom I esteem and who are dear to me and that I am cordially Yours c. Thus Signed J. Benigne E. de Meaux Forasmuch as we have imposed a necessity upon our selves not to go beyond a Sheet we pass by our Reflections on this Letter till another Letter which we shall give you in a few days for this serves only as a Preface In the mean time we recommend you to the Grace and Mercy of God. Amen Sept. 1 1687. The SECOND PASTORAL LETTER IN WHICH What Monsieur de Meaux says concerning the right of Persecutors for submission to Councils is confuted A considerable error of the same Gentleman about a matter of Fact in Antiquity Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ THE necessity of concluding hindered us in our former Letter from adding our reflections upon that which the Bishop of Meaux wrote to one of his Diocess that was escaped by flight At present we entreat both you my Brethren and all reasonable Men in the World to compare these two Letters together the Pastoral Letter that is publick and this which is private and particular Will any one find the Bishop of Meaux here Are they two persons or is it but one Himself in publick and the same person in private According to Monsieur de Meaux's Writing and Printing for the new Converts of his Diocess neither he nor the other Bishops have ever heard any speech of Dragoons and Torments According to himself writing in his Closet to a particular person the Case is not the same It is true there is a Persecution for the sake of Religion but it is just it is allowed it is authorised by our example by that of the Ancients and by Divine and Human Laws Good God! How do these Men govern themselves And what do they think Could the Bishop of Meaux ever hope that his Printed Letter should never fall into the hands of him to whom this written Letter was addressed I would fain know what will be answered thereunto If Monsieur de Meaux hath right and reason on his side in his Letter to Monsieur Dev. why doth he say that himself and other Bishops have not heard any speech of Persecution It is a pleasure and an advantage to us to see these Gentlemen deny this Persecution and thereby against publick knowledge and notoriety charge themselves with falshood It is an homage that they pay to Truth It is a confession intelligible enough that violence and the means that they employ are contrary to the spirit of Humanity and that of the Gospel But what a shame is it for them to contradict themselves to confess in private what they deny in publick and acknowledge themselves false Witnesses by their own peoples declarations However it be behold us carried from matter of Fact to that of Right It is no longer debated whether there be a Persecution but whether they have right to Persecute for the sake of Religion It is a question on which so much hath been lately written that nothing new can be said concerning it Nevertheless having Printed the Letter of the Bishop of Meaux and because there is somthing that is dazling and apt to deceive in his manner of writing we think our selves obliged to Print also a refutation thereof we will therefore repeat his words and examine them one after another I have seen in the Letter that you wrote to Mademoiselle de V. that the true Church doth not Persecute what understand you by that Monsieur Do you understand that the Church by it self never makes use of force That is true since the Church hath no other Arms but those that are Spiritual What means this little Paragraph of Gibberish which is formed and contrived on purpose to impose upon the simple They are willing that it should mean that it is not the Church of Rome that raises the present Persecution nor is it according to the Principles thereof For it is that which they persuade the new Converts It is by this means that they take away the scandal that the new Papists take at the Conduct of their Church It is the King say they that doth it it is not the Church for it serves it self only of Spiritual Weapons if what is done be disapproved it ought not to be imputed they say to their Religion which neither appoints nor advises it That which was written to us not long since by one of their most illustrious and best satisfied Converts comes to this I do not answer says she to all that which you have said concerning the ways that are made use of to gain Converts I believe that nothing is to be imputed to any Religion but what it appoints to be believed and practised This answer is very Gentile and worthy of a Lady that thinks herself obliged to answer to nothing But it ought to be rememembred that there is a Tribunal where answers must be made one day without any regard to the difference of Sexes where no evasions will be permitted us and that we shall be punished there for having been unwilling to attend to those things which might have made us understand the nature of that Religion that we had newly
to its ancient Simplicity And it is certain that these are Additions of the third Age. We must therefore know that the Christians of the second and third Age being disgusted at the Simplicity of the Apostolick Worship did blow up the Sacraments with Ceremonies that were added with intention to signifie the Grace that God did communicate and give there They caused the new baptised to eat Wine and Milk because they were the nourishments of Infants and they would signifie that Believers newly baptised ought to be as Children new born For which reason Tertullian makes the word infantare to design the Action by which they made the new baptised to taste Wine and Milk. They anointed them with Oil to signifie that spiritual Unction of Grace which Believers did receive they laid hands on them to signifie the Descent of the Holy Ghost The following Ages added Wax Candles and Torches to signifie spiritual Illuminations white Garments to represent the Innocence of the newly baptised and with the same intention many other Ceremonies But I know not how by an imagination which may be called rough and impolished in a little time after the Institution of these Ceremonies which were not instituted by the Church but to signifie Men came to believe they had the virtue to confer Grace And of the divers Graces which are confirmed to the Believers in Baptism they attribute one to the washing with Water another to Unction and another to Imposition of Hands They imagined that the Water in Baptism did precisely give the Remission of Sins that the Oil did bestow the spiritual Unction and that the Imposition of Hands gave the Holy Ghost This Divinity is found in Tertullian in the Book which he has left us concerning Baptism Where he proves the Imposition of Hands after Baptism causes the coming of the Holy Ghost and he does it thus 1. Because the Priests and Magicians of Paganism did cause malignant Spirits to come upon their impure Waters by a Ceremony much like unto it 2. Because by the Imposition of Hands Jacob drew down a Blessing upon the Children of Joseph 3. By the Figure of the Ark and Dove who brought an Olive Branch from the the midst of the Waters of the Deluge wherein this Dove was a Figure of the Holy Ghost which falls upon him that comes out of the Baptismal Waters S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who lived a little while after taught the same thing viz. that Baptism gives forgiveness of sins and that the Holy Spirit is communicated by the Imposition of Hands But let it not offend these great Men This Discourse signified nothing in their Age and a person may see that it is a Language which is descended from the Age of the Apostles and from those times in which extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit were communicated by the Imposition of Hands For will they say that Remission of Sins was given by the washing of Water and the Holy Spirit by the Imposition of Hands is it to be thought according to their opinion that sanctifying Grace and the Spirit of Regeneration are not at all given in Baptism No on the contrary S. Cyprian lays it down in express words That the Spirit is received by Baptism And in another place he does affirm that sanctifying Grace whole and entire is given in Baptism and that Men augment or diminish it afterwards by the good or evil use that they make of it there is therefore no need of a new Ceremony for the donation of the Holy Spirit He himself teaches us whence the Church took that custom of imposing Hands after Baptism 'T is from the Action of the Apostles Peter and John who laid Hands on the People of Samaria to the end that they might receive the Holy Ghost Which thing is done among us says he Those that are baptised present themselves to the Governors of the Church and receive the Holy Spirit by our Prayer and the Imposition of Hands and are compleated by the Seal of the Lord. The original of this Ceremony which S. Cyprian acknowledges ought to have made him confess the inutility thereof in his Age since they had no longer the power of communicating the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost This Imposition of Hands was an imitation of the Apostles ill understood and Unction was also a pure Addition in this Age the effect whereof they were very much perplexed to express They said indeed this Unction was designed to give Grace but what Grace since Baptism communicates it whole and entire It is necessary says S. Cyprian that he who is baptised should also be anointed to the end that having received the Chrism that is to say the Unction he might be the anointed of God and have in himself the Grace of Jesus Christ Now the Eucharist and the Oil which they make use of to anoint the baptised are sanctified upon the Altar It is clear by these words that Unction is nothing else but a Ceremony of Baptism and that the Donation of the Grace of Jesus Christ is not attributed to it but because 't is annexed to Baptism For to give the Grace of Jesus Christ is the proper effect of Baptism according to all the Ancients It seems by this Passage that the Oil wherewith they anointed the baptised was consecrated Oil for S. Cyprian says It was consecrated on the Altar But this is not all for the sanctification of the Oil upon the Altar signifies no more than what we have observed concerning the second Age. 'T was that Believers brought Bread Wine and Oil and placed them upon the Holy Table They consecrated these Oblations by Prayer and they served themselves of them for the Usages of the Church among others they served themselves of Oil for Lights when they assembled by night and for the Unction of the baptised As to what remains you may observe that in the third Age nothing was seen but one Unction in Baptism whereas we shall find two afterwards Behold the Alterations which have happened to the Sacrament of Baptism in this Age. Let us consider the Eucharist We have observed that in the second Age they had added the mixture of Water with Wine the Custom of sending it to the absent by the Deacons and above all they had there annexed the Oblation of those Gifts that Believers made on the Altar as a part of the Ceremony This had already given it the appearance of a Sacrifice and indeed gave the name to the whole Action We shall not need to doubt but this imagination increased with time Christians having a very great desire to give to their Worship some appearance of a Sacrifice to take away the scandal which the Pagans conceived against them For they perpetually said to Christians You have no Temples Statues Altars nor Sacrifices and by consequence you are impious There was nothing in the Worship of the Christian Religion which might be dressed up in the likeness of a Sacrifice but the Eucharist They
Crown on his Head where is the Text of Scripture that forbids it Tertullian answers that though it was not written nevertheless the Soldier had done well because when we dispute concerning Customs Tradition without Scripture is sufficient to Establish them and he proves it by the Trine Immersion in Baptism which was more commended as also by the Milk and Hony that they gave to the new Baptised Among the observances which had not been commanded and in which they did a little deviate from the first institution he puts the Custom of receiving the Eucharist in the Morning in Assemblies before day as St. Cyprian calls them And he pretends that the Custom of taking the Eucharist at Meal-time is that alone which Jesus Christ hath commanded that is to say hath Authorized by his Example from whence it is clear he makes two sorts of Celebration of this Mystery the one Solemn which was done in their night Assemblies the other private that every Family did in their own House Now it is to be observed That in these Domestick Eucharists it was the Master of the House or of the Feast that did Celebrate that did Consecrate and Distribute This is clear by a passage of Tertullian where endeavouring to prove second Marriages unlawful to all sorts of persons and not only to Priests and Ministers of the Altar he says that all Believers are Priests that all Celebrate that all Baptise and by consequence they are obliged by the Law which forbids second Marriages to Priests and Presbyters We deceive our selves very much says he if we imagin that what is forbidden to Priests is permitted to Laicks for are they not all Priests It is written he hath made us Kings and Priests to God his Father It is the Authority of the Church which hath put a difference between the Clergy and â—he People and which hath established this sacred honor for the body of the Clergy this is so true that when there â—s no Clergy-man in a place thou dost Celebrate thou dost Baptise and thou art to thy self a Priest now where there are three there is a Church though they be Laicks for every one lives by his own Faith and God has no regard at all to persons Here are divers things which are contrary to false Principles that have been established some time since First of all In this time it was not believed that the distinction of Laity and Clergy and with much more reason that of Priest and Bishop was by Divine right It was the Church and positive Law made this difference 2. Every one for himself and for those that were his might exercise the Ministry 3. And above all All might Baptise and Consecrate and Administer the Sacrament of the Eucharist Offers tingis you Laicks Administer the Eucharist and you do also Baptise that is to say in private Houses For as to publick Assemblies which met before day Tertullian tells us that they did not Communicate in them but from the hand of the Presidents that is to say from the hand of Bishops or Priests which were present In which he insinuates clearly enough that out of these publick Assemblies they Communicated by the hand of Laicks And I my self do not doubt but that this Custom continued in some places even till St. Austins time who assures us that in his time they Communicated after Supper the Thursday before Easter although on all other days of the year they thought it necessary to Communicate in the morning and before they had eaten And it was the Head of the Family that Administred the Sacrament on that day in memory of the first Communion where Jesus Christ as Father of the Family distributed the Holy Bread to his Disciples The same thing was done also in the Churches near to Alexandria and in Thebais according to the Testimony of Socrates We conclude at present from hence two things 1. That in the third Age they did not look upon the Eucharist as a true Sacrifice for would they have permitted every private person to Communicate among themselves whilst they were eating at the Table amongst their Domesticks Sacrifices are not offered but in Temples and upon Altars 2. That according to the Christians of the third Age Oblations Liturgies and other Ceremonies were not considered but as parts of Decency and by no means as things that were of the Essence and of necessity in the Sacrament of the Eucharist for in these Domestick Communions all this was omitted they practised nothing but Consecration Fraction and Manducation of the Bread it was nevertheless a true Eucharist 3. We conclude a third thing by the way it is that there is no need of Mission nor Vocation for the Administration of Holy things and by consequence those people who trouble us so violently about the Vocation of the Reformers and our own have no foundation for it in any Law Divine or Apostolick We will here conclude what we are willing to say at this time concerning the Christianity of the third Age we will add divers things for your Edification and Instruction ☞ First of all it has been judged convenient to let you understand what is the fidelity and honesty of M. de Meaux and your Converters on the Subject of the means wherewith they serve themselves to Convert you It has been thought fit I say to inform you that we have received Letters from the Diocess of Meaux which do fully confute what the Bishop of the Diocess has dared to publish in his Pastoral Letter viz. That the Reformed of that Country had not heard of any torments There is a Letter dated Decemb. 15. 1685. that says We are in confusion Pray to God for us the Dragoons are at Meaux after they had caused all the Country of Claye to change their Religion nothing stands before them behold the pitiable state whereunto our sins have brought us In another Letter of January 3. it is thus In the confusion wherein we are what shall I say to you I am not able to speak to you but with tears of blood the Dragoons have made all to change by force in the Provinces of Meaux and Soissons Another Letter of Jan. 6. from the Diocess of Meaux makes mention of the violences that were offered to a venerable old Man de la Ferte au Col of the Age of seventy eight years called M. de Monceaux Dr. in Physick The Archers came to carry him away in the midst of Winter and without giving him one days respite they carried him away by force When he was in the middle of the Woods he fell into so great weakness and faintness that he resolved to cast himself down in the mire and dye there but they would not do him the favour to let him dye in peace They tempted him by all sorts of methods and in conclusion being able to again nothing upon him they chose to imprison him with very many others I do profess that reading the Pastoral Letter of
obscure Church subject to the Metropolitan of Heraclea a City of Thrace sees her self honored by the presence of the Emperors Constantine carried thither the Sâ—at of the Empire and called it Constantinople after his own Name and obtained for it the Name of New Rome Then the Bishop of Constantinople began also to make use of an Advantage by the Dignity of the City where he was So that instead of three Tyrants in the Church which aspired to make themselves Masters of the Flocks there are found four the Bishop of Rome he of Alexandria he of Antioch and he of Constantinople But as Rome always preserved a Character of Greatness and Preheminence over other Cities because it was the stock and root of the Empire they allowed a Primacy of Order to the Bishop of that city without contradiction And this by so much the more easily as the Spirit which built the Mystery of Iniquity had universally established the Opinion that S. Peter accounted the chief of the Apostles had placed his Episcopal Seat at Rome where he established Successors in such a manner that all Bishops in the World did silently consent to grant this Primacy of Order and of Presidence to the Church of Rome for these two Reasons the first that the City of Rome was the Capital of the Universe the second that the chief of the Apostles had had his Seat there so the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged for the first in order in their Assemblies but without any kind of Power or Jurisdiction over others In the mean time the rest of the Hierarchy was formed after the Model of the Government of the Empire The Rome Empire in the East was divided into Five principal Governments 1. That of the East whereof the Metropolis was Antioch and which extending it self over Syria is called East by distinction from the other Oriental Provinces 2. That of Egypt whose Head was Alexandria 3. That of Pontus whereof the Capital was Caesarea 4. That of Asia whereof the Capital was Ephesus 5. That of Thrace whereof the Metropolis was Constantinople So that these five Cities Antioch Alexandria Caesarea Ephesus and Constantinople were the places where the five great Governors of the Oriental part of the Roman Empire had their abode The Bishops of the same Cities advanced themselves also above the other Bishops of the Provinces and formed five Exarchates i. e. five sorts of Patriarchates independent the one from the other in every one of these Exarchates or Patriarchates there were many Bishops and even many Metropolitans in the sense that the Word is taken at this day The Exarchs of Antioch of Alexandria of Ephesus of Caesarea and of Constantineple every one in his Exarchate was above the Bishops in Government whether they were Metropolitans or simple Bishops so it was in the West also There was in Italy two principal Governments under the Name of Vicarships the Government of Rome and that of Milan for which reason the Bishops of these two Cities imitating the Civil Government advanced themselves also in the Ecclesiastick above the other Bishops of Italy The Bishop of Rome had therefore at that time a Primacy of Order and Presidence as we have observed because of the Preheminence of the City and the false Opinion that had obtained that S. Peter had been Bishop there But he exercised no Act of Jurisdiction or Superiority over others It was not permitted him to receive Appeals nor to make void the Decisions of other Bishops They were not the Bishops of Rome that called General Councils they were the Emperors it was not they that determined Controversies of Faith they were the Councils they could not send out their Interdicts nor Excommunications against other Churches or constrain them to Obedience by any Censure If the Bishops of Rome did separate other Churches from their Communion other Churches also kept themselves separate from their Communion adherence to the Bishop of Rome was of no necessity to obtain the esteem of an Orthodox and Catholick Church and there were Churches in those Ages which continued many Years in separation and without any Communion with the Church of Rome without ever being esteemed either Hereticks or Schismaticks Nevertheless it was in the Fourth Age that the Bishop of Rome did sow the Seeds of his Tyranny and took upon himself to judg those which other Bishops had already censured And this happened chiefly on the occasion of the Troubles which the Heresie of Arrius raised in the Church The Arrians became Masters in the East and drave the Orthodox Bishops from their Seats as Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Paul Bishop of Constantinople c. These Bishops unjustly deposed and driven away retired themselves into the West where Arrianism had made far less Ravages The Bishops of Milan Rome and the principal Seats of Italy continued Orthodox S. Athanasius and others came into Italy and to Rome to implore the Succour of the Bishop thereof and other Bishops of the West to the end that by their Credit and Authority as well with other Bishops as principally with the Emperors they might be re-established in their Seats The Bishop of Rome receives them treats them as Bishops and declares that he had no regard for the unjust and violent Decisions of the Arrians yea he did all that was in his power to re-place them in their Seats At this time i. e. in the heat of these Controversies stirred up by the Arrians the Bishops of the West which were Orthodox held a Council at Sardis in the Year 347. there to judge the Cause of Athanasius and Paul Bishop of Constantinople In this Council the Bishops of the West observing that the Violences which the Orthodox Bishops of the East had suffered from the hands of Heretick Bishops were without remedy whilst these Heretical Bishops should be absolute Masters they thought fit to make three Canons or Ecclesiastical Rules according to which when a Bishop found himself oppressed by unjust Judgment he might have recourse to Rome that the Bishop of Rome should have power to appoint a review of the Process and for that reason send Deputies on his part which should cause a Synod of the Province to assemble and re-judg the matter a second time that in expectation of this second Judgment the Affairs should remain in suspence and the place of the deposed Bishop should not be filled Behold exactly the fatal Point of the first conception of this tyrannical Power which hath since swallowed up the Church The truth is that the Council of Sardis was made up of Western Bishops which had no power to make Laws for the Eastern Church It is also true that the Churches of the East have always scoffed at the Canons of Sardis and never would receive them It is also true that in the West it self these Canons were not received but very lately and a long time after But 't is also true that since that time the Bishops of Rome have never ceased to make
fill them on the other A Letter written abâ—â—â— three Months since says That they had conducted from thâ— Country of Castres to Montpellier more than five hundred Prisoners who without doubt must travel into the New Found World as well as others How sad soever the lot of these poor People that are carried into another World may seem I reckon it more easie than the state of those who are in the Prisons of the Province of Languedoc where they treat them as cruelly as they can do the worst of Criminals and Parricides yea they insult over them in a more insolent manner It hath been written within a few Months That one of the Prisoners of Aigrie-mortes having had license to go out of his Dungeon to take the Air for a few moments and having delayed to return to it a little longer than a Souldier which stood Centinel thought he ought to have done immediately he discharged his Musquet at him and killed him upon the place 'T is an action like that which I think I may have reported else-where concerning one named Moliere a gallant man and a very good Christian Prisoner in the same Tower of Constance who was taken thence to assist at the drawing of one of his Brethren to the Dung-hill his heart failing him he fell down and a Souldier that was near him knockt him on the head without giving him leisure to return or recover from his langour and weakness We have also Letters that of many Prisoners transported from Nismes to Aigue-mortes three finding themselves very ill desired that they might be visited by Physitians to the end it might be certainly known that they were not in a condition to undertake the Journey They laught at them and on the evening when they arrived there they cast them into a hideous Prison where not being able to obtain so much as a little Water to moderate the Fire which devoured them they fell into Delivation and died the day after And this is exactly that which they desire for they don't tire them by these Transportations and hideous Prisons to any other end but that they may make them die without noise but after a manner more sad and lamentable than a death upon a Gibbet or the Wheel would be If they excuse some Women from the Voiage to Canada 't is to put them into the hands of Rapine the most wicked of all the Hang-men Converter to the Bishop of Valence The Punishment to which he exposes those Women is to whip them night and day till the blood come none hath escaped his hands except one that died in the Dungeon To the end that the new Converts whose Conscience is a kind of Hell may receive no Consolation by any Communication which their Brethren they have established a new kind of Inquisition upon Letters They have not only granted Commission to Persons at all Post-houses to open Letters but on the sixteenth of February they made a general Inquisition in all the Houses of the new Catholicks to find not only persons that might be hid there but also the Letters which discovered the Commerce which they held with those which were gone out of the Kingdom By this Search the City was in the state of a place where they were about to make a Massacre and indeed all the Inhabitants were under the fears thereof and every one believed himself at the point of Death for all the quarters of the City and all the corners of the Streets were filled with Souldiers and Guards and men were forbidden upon great Penalties to go out of their Houses Thus the Persecutors tempt the Weak by fear and the horrours of Death which they set before their eyes this Tragedy ended in the Imprisonment of a great number of persons To conclude as the Rage of Persecutors never went farther so the Fear and Terrour that hath seized the minds of Men was never greater All the Attempts of our Enemies would be vain if we had the Spirit of Martyrdom and Feared God more than Men. This is that my Brethren which you must endeavour to obtain and to that end set always before your eyes the great difference that God proposes and promises to those which shall suffer Martyrdom we know not how sufficiently to express them Consider the glorious Rewards that God promises in the two first Chapters of the Revelations the Crowns the Thrones the hidden Manna the new Name the Rule over Nations the Iron Scepter to Subdue them and the White Garments 'T is true that all true Believers will have part in these advantages but 't is true nevertheless that 't is of Martyrs only that God speaks there and 't is certain that they shall possess these advantages in a degree of pre-eminence above others The Peace of GOD be with you all The 15th of April 1687 The Seventeenth PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity Three new Proofs of the Invocation of Saints in the Fifth Age. An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions which the New Converts put upon themselves on the Subject of Schism Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ THere is not a Point of Practice in the Roman Church concerning the Antiquity whereof your Converters make so much boast as that of the Invocation of Saints which they find in the Fifth Age. For which reasons you ought not to think it strange that we heap Proof upon Proof to make it evident to you that this unhappy Superstition did not descend from the Apostles nor their Successors but that it had its birth about the end of the Fourth Age. Behold yet a new Mark of the Novelty of this Worship 'T is that at the beginning men prayed only to the Martyrs and not to the other Saints What is the meaning of this At this day there is no necessity of being a Martyr to obtain a Canonization There are a hundred and a hundred persons in the Popish Calendar which were no Martyrs We must not do that injury to the Church to believe that she hath had no persons of eminent Sanctity except such as have suffered Martyrdom The Principles upon which the Invocation of Saints is established are That the Faithful see God that in him they can know all our needs and wants and understand and hear our Prayers and that being near to God they can intercede for us Now these Principles ought to establish an Invocation of other Saints as well as of the Martyrs There were without doubt in the four first Ages of the Church many holy persons which were not martyred but they never prayed to any of them and we desire your Converters to shew us any instance thereof 'T is necessary that you know that they did not Invocate even all the Martyrs they prayed only to those whose Reliques they had in possession Examine well all the passages which you quote from St. Basil St. Gregory St. Austin St. Jerrome
profess it But there is in this place one circumstance so evident to convince these Villains of their Knavery that a man cannot escape the sight thereof The Minister Vignier died in the year 1666 as Soulier himself says Why did he when he was about to die give this Act of Montpazier as a thing in trust To what could this Act serve It was seven years since that this pretended Conspiracy with the English was made the Affairs of England had intirely changed their face the King was restored and at War with the Hollanders every one knows he was so far from entring Leagues in favour of the Protestants that on the contrary he rather engaged against them There was not a man living in the World upon whom they could cast their eyes to accomplish the Conspiracy but Cromewell or the Parliamentarians this Piece therefore was absolutely on one hand of no use and on the other hand 't was capable of destroying an infinite number of single persons and the whole intire Body of the Reformed in France Monsieur Vignier therefore when he was dying lost his Understanding and Charity itself to be willing to preserve a Paper which was good for nothing but to destroy his Brethren a Piece which ought to have been burnt and which he should have burnt when he was dying The father we look into this thing the more we find that these Villains were smitten with a Spirit of Blindness in all the circumstances of their Fiction As to the Bishop of Agen he was a Court Bishop which had always a thousand good reasons to continue at Paris about the Affairs of his Diocess I have had a long time in my hands a Letter of Monsieur the Procurator-General who appointed him in the name of the King in a manner very rough and harsh speedily to put an end to his Non residence and to return to his Diocess whither he went very seldom These sort of men are always at watch that they may have something to produce which may make them stay at the Court where they are willing to be that they may be always ready to hunt after a Benefice greater than their own As to Monsieur de Quesne Vicar-General to the Bishop of Condom we know him not he may say true and yet all that we have said receive no blemish nor disadvantage thereby he might really receive the Piece from Mounier a revolted Minister Mounier might be the man that forget it And that which I find most probable is that Soulier and Mounier are the two Authors of it Soulier was at the Synod of Montpazier he rejoyces to produce an Affair which passed there in a Synod where he was Mounier principal Author of the Falshood might furnish the Names he inserted that of Durel as a person proper to Negotiate with the English Soulier who knew not Monsieur Durel reading over the Act forged between them read Daret And 't is probable that 't was he who made him Assistant-Moderator at the foot of the Act for Mounier would never have committed so gross a fault Soulier had a Conference with Monsieur Asimont the Missionaries above all those of the parts and strength of Soulier who knew neither Divinity nor Language receive nothing but confusion from those Conferences and they always carry a mortal hatred against the Ministers that do confound them with design to revenge themselves at any rate Monsieur Asimont had been really Secretary to draw up the Acts of the Synod of Montpazier for which reason this Synod was to be chosen rather than another that the Minister Asimont might be chastised for the trouble which he had put this Missonary to in the Conference This Act was put into the hands of the King the King delivered it to Monsieur Chasteau-neuf Neither the one nor the other made any account of it because Monsieur Chasteau-neuf who had the true Acts of Montpazier saw no conformity betwixt them neither in the Commissary nor in the Assistant besides that the Piece bore many other Characters of Falshood Nevertheless it is kept in the Office as they keep a thousand and a thousand false Pieces in such places For example the Chests of the Evidences of Abbies are inexhaustible Fountains of forged Pieces Monsieur de Launoy hath given us notice thereof some-where on the subject of the Abby of Saint Dennis by reason of the Pieces which Doublet hath produced in his History of Saint Dennis And saving the respect which is due to the King and his Library 't is full of false Manuscripts For example the Jesuite Mesnier the Priest Soulier and Doctor le Feure do say that they have drawn from that Library the Secret Articles of the Edict of 1577 in one of which 't is said The King permits to the Prince of Condy the Exercise of Religion in his House upon the Loire yea although he himself were absent Nevertheless 't is certain that there never was in the House of Monsieur the Prince any Land which bore the name de la Ferte upon Loire and that there is not any City or Village of this name upon the Loire from its Fountain till it enters the Sea. Let this be observed by the by That we may know what account we ought to make of the Manuscripts of the King's Library which Soulier quotes so often Men throw into these Repositories all Pieces that go up and down whether they be true or false the true fifty Years hence will be so confounded with the false that nothing will be certainly known Fifty Years hence the Act of Montpazier well kept in the Office of Monsieur Chasteau-neuf will be as good as if it were true Behold how things go If the Son of the Minister Mounier at present Canon of Tarbies be troubled that we make such a Knave of his Father he ought not to accuse us who do not make men but take them as they are As to the Letter which he hath written for the Justification of his Father 't is evident that 't is worse than nothing in the present Affair his Testimony is of no weight and henceforth 't will be his interest to retract it unless he will have his Father pass for the most profligate of all Men. For if it be true as he would have it be believed that his Father put this Piece into the hands of Monsieur de Quesne 't is unavoidable that he was the Forger of it it being certain as we have proved it that the Piece is false and that he could not receive it from Monsieur Vignier So that 't is no officious Lye in favour of his Father 't is an Act the most wounding to his Reputation that could be produced against him We will stop here because we have impos'd a necessity upon ourselves to speak nothing but of the Act of the Synod of Montpazier for which reason we will not refute all the Calumnies of Soulier nor repel all the Injuries which he speaks in every Page against
of the Hospital where they said Mass every day they would have obliged our Martyr to have assisted at the Mass by this entry but they could never effect it All these evil treatments not being able to vanquish this illustrious Confessor Rapine comes to his last Remedies he caused Monsieur Menurett to descend into the Court where there was a Mulberry-tree and fastned his arms on high thereto his feet scarce touching the ground he rent off his Cloaths to his very Shirt and caused him to receive an infinite number of blows with a Bull 's pisle this treatment was continued for the space of fifteen days with so much violence that our Martyr voided blood by his Urine and by all the parts of his body In the midst of these horrible Torments without ceasing he beg'd mercy and grace from God for himself and for his Persecutors and implored the compassion of his Hangmen in so moving a manner that two Capuchines who heard his cries exhorted Rapine to cease his cruel punishment he did so and was content to employ our Martyr to carry stones for a building which they were making at the Hospital The first day of April last the Bishop of Valence went to visit him in this stinking Sink but gained no more upon him at this time than at others In conclusion Rapine inraged with his long opposition entred like a Devil into the Prison of this holy man accompanied with two Lacques or Serjeants and gave him so many blows with a Bull 's pisle and for so long a time that the cries of the Martyr did even rend the Air all round about This Monster about two hours after after he had been wearied with the pains that he had taken to martarize this Saint return'd with his Searjeants to repeat the punishment but he found our Martyr expired in the midst of these cruel torments He was put into the hands of Rapine in the month of June 1686 and died in the beginning of April 1687. I cannot tell whether after this they will have the impudence to maintain that all these Cruelties which have been exercised have not been authorized by the Ministers of his Majesty and the Judges nor by the commandment of the Dragoons but that they are the Violences of the Souldiery which have been condemned and punished when they have been known Rapine is neither Souldier nor Dragoon he has no Commission to exercise these Cruelties but such as he receives every day He is Guardian of the Hospital of Valence The Parliament of Greenoble have sent him twenty five or twenty six persons at a time as I said but just now to be converted by these cruel Methods The Bishop and the Jesuites put into his hands all those upon whom they cannot prevail But to the end that they may not say any more that Authority does not interpose in these Cruelties they ought to be informed of a memorable story happening at Uzes and which I think has been attested by twenty Letters of different persons all which agree in the thing There is at Uzes a House of Propagation governed by four Creatures called the Daughters of the Propagation in this House are many Gentlewomen of the Reformed Religion imprisoned who have resisted preceeding Violences and Temptations One of these four Daughters of the Propagation went to complain to the Intendant of the rough answers which these poor persecuted Gentlewomen gave and of the small disposition they had to be converted The Intendant Monsieur d' Bauille whose name for his conduct in Languedock deserves to live to all future Ages this Intendant I say immediately appointed Scourging against ten of the most intractable In the execution of this command four Souldiers were set at the Gate with Musquets charged and lighted Matches ready to give fire Two Priests went in with the Major of Viuon and the Judge Larnac Sub-delegate to the Intendant in their presence these Creatures of the Propagation stript these Gentlewomen from the Girdle upward and doing the Office of Hangman scourged them after the most cruel manner with straps made of Coards at the end of which hung Bullets of Lead afterwards they were thrown into a dark Prison During the time of this punishment they uttered cries which were heard into the street but they encouraged each other to suffer these Tryals for the Name of Jesus Christ. I will at this time tell you no more sad News but on the contrary I will comfort you by giving you to understand that in this general Misfortune wherein the Reformed Church of France sees so many persons in some sort fall under the Temptation we have the joy to know that scarce one falls in love with this wicked Religion We have taken care to enquire concerning it of those which came from all parts and we have caused enquiries to be made upon the places as much as is possible for us but we can assure you my Brethren as a thing certain that the hatred of the Roman Religion increases every day insomuch that the Persecutors are farther every day from accomplishing their designs than ever We may say without fear of lying or hyperbole of expression that this Persecution has not gained to the Church of Rome two hundred hearty Converts and although I know a vast number of persons have been prevailed withal to make their Subscriptions yet the number of those which have with a satisfied Judgment embraced their Religion is so small that it does not deserve to be computed But on the contrary by a surprizing marvel of Divine Providence this Persecution has opened the eyes of a great number of ancient Catholicks as they are called That which we tell you is no Conjecture or Fiction 't is that which we know upon good Testimony So that it is certain that the Church of GOD has gained more Souls than it has lost These Seeds will bring forth in their time Every day we see persons arrive here who Abjure the Roman Religion and amongst them there are such as are eminent by their Merit by their Birth by their Parts and by their Learning When we know that they will not take it ill if we name them we will do it for 't is necessary that all the World know it that the depths of Divine Providence and His Judgments may be admired thereby June 15. 1687. The Twenty first PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity The Fathers of the Fourth and Fifth Ages said that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the Figure and Image of the Body of Jesus Christ. An Article of Controversie An Answer to the Prejudices that have been drawn against our Separation from the Authors of it Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE have already seen one essential thing in which the Fourth and Fifth Ages had introduced no alteration 't is the Opinion concerning the Nature of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist We shall now see that the Faith
of Rome was mystick Babylon that she was a famous Harlot that she was a debaucht Adulteress that her Pastors were Dogs and Swine This was true There was nothing in the World so corrupt as the Roman Clergy Rome is Babylon and all her Members are the Inhabitants of Babel Was this a time to speak things by halves What reason had they to flatter Rome Ought they not to paint her in all her Colours that they might make her odious If it had been possible to exceed in the description of her that had been more pardonable than the tenderness of those who abate her ugliness by their smooth and soft Pencils It was then expedient to awaken men who were in so deep a sleep and in order thereunto 't was necessary to speak loud And after all these Gentlemen have but little reason to reproach us with the Violences and Injuries of Luther and Calvin against the Church of Rome that is little in comparison with the Rage which that Church has exercis'd against us The Calvinists call the Papists Idolaters and Swine and the Papists returning a thousand Injuries more severe add thereunto Cruelties unknown to Pagans and the most barbarous Nations They burnt them by a slow fire they hanged and quartered them they caused them to die in Prisons by unheard-of punishments they hunted after them as after Lions and Bears Although there should have been something humane in the heat of our first Reformers had it been very surprizing that men whom they burnt which they rent and tore in pieces should grow into some little choler against their Persecutors Let the present Conduct of those who at this day would form a prejudice in the minds of the New Converts on the occasion of the transport and heat of our Reformers be lookt into and examined These Gentlemen have addressed Pastoral Letters unto us with a Quill dipt in Gall and afterwards have sheathed their Swords in our breasts and bowels They condemn to death those who exercise any other Religion but that of Rome They drag the Bodies of those to the Dung-hill who die refusing to embrace their Doctrine They send those to the Gallies who will not submit unto it They cause those who will not subscribe to their Superstitions to be burnt torn in pieces eaten up and devoured by their Dragoons Those who resist them by the Weapons of the Word of God they sent for Slaves into the other World. And after this they tell you your pretended Reformers were violent and passionate persons they could not be the Messengers of God for God is Love and Kindness Tell them on this subject you cannot be the Ministers of God for you do the Work of the Devil and the Father of Lies who was a Lyer and a Murderer from the beginning But behold a new Accusation founded on this that the Authors of our Separation poured out their Gall not only against the Roman Church but also against their own Brethren The Popish Authors of all Orders take a great deal of pleasure in heaping together all the injuries which the Lutherans and Calvinists have said against each other and they have found therein the marks of Reprobation On this subject we have answered That we condemn these transport that we acknowledge them opposite to a Spirit of Charity We say that the Authors of our Separation did not utterly strip themselves of all that was Humane that they did retain some tinctures of Popery from whence they came which were blemishes and spots in their conduct and conversation Impatience fury and transport against those who oppose themselves to their sentiments and contradict them is the Spirit of Popery and particularly that of the Monks This is certain for which reason the Romish Church treats all her Enemies as Devils damned reprobate excommunicated Hereticks Let a man read the History of Popery and he will see these furies reigning every-where let him observe what bloody and cruel Tragedies the Monks stirred up a little before the Reformation on subject of the form of their Hoods and of the Question concerning the property of those Commodities and Goods which the Friers Minors spent The thing proceeded even to fire for the Popes caused some of these poor Monks to be burnt who obstinately maintained that what the Minors spent was not their own What is the injustice of the Inquisition against those who are guilty of the least contradictions to the sentiments of Rome Let a man read the Furies of the Popes when they had Opposites and Antipopes Let him read the frightful Bulls of Excommunications against Kings Princes States and persons who had the boldness to oppose themselves against the torrent of Corruption and the attempts of Tyranny 'T is from thence that the impatience and passion into which the Reformers fell against one another in the maintaining their sentiments did derive 'T is from the same tincture of Popery that some of them took those harsh methods of procedure which they believed they might take against Hereticks So that if these transports and this impatience of suffering with respect to their Brethren hath been in our Reformers a mark of Reprobation 't is unavoidable that the Roman Church is reprobate and the Synagogue of Satan for 't is she that inspired this Spirit into those which came out of her bosom We say also that in all Ages men have been made much after the same fashion they have grown into heat and transport one against another upon very light occasions even to the making of scandalous Schisms The Bishops assembled in the Council of Nice to condemn the Doctrine of Arrius tore one another and gave Libels to Constantine to ruine each others reputation Constantine to reconcile them thought it convenient to throw their Papers into the fire without reading them We learn from the Writings of Athanasius that the Orthodox who agreed in the sence of the Doctrines against Arrius disagreed among themselves about the words Substance Persons and Hypostasis some being willing it should be said there were three Hypostases in the Deity others saying That it was an Heresie because it was to make three Gods. The Luciferians who with all the Church were enemies to the Arrians suffered themselves to run into the highest passions against those who were willing to receive the Arrian Bishops and permit them in their Sees after their repentance The Controversies of St. Cyril of Alexandria and St. Chrysostome who called each other Traytors and Judases have been already quoted to these Gentlemen Examples of this sort taken from the most happy Ages and such as were nearest to the fountain of Charity have been quoted to them as the transport of Stephen Bishop of Rome who treated St. Cyprian as a false Christ a false Apostle and a deceitful Worker St. Cyprian and Firmilian the Adversaries of St. Stephen on the oother hand said concerning him That he was wicked obstinate presumptuous proud inhumane bold insolent schismatical foolish inept blind and smitten