Church be he Priest Bishop or Guide thereof Make Reflections in this place on the monstrous Doctrines of your Converters of whom the most part will tell you that to be a true Member of the Church it suffices to make profession of the Faith and to adhere to lawful Pastors So that Priests that are Sorcerers and Sodomites which you have oftentimes seen burnt at Paris were the true Members of Jesus Christ This is capable of making a man tremble with horrour They will say to you thereon if they were not true Members of the Church and of the Body of Jesus Christ they could not be the Guides thereof Such a one is an evil Man he is nevertheless a true Bishop he must therefore be a true Member of Jesus Christ and of his Body Answer to this that which one of the Writers of Port Royal says somewhere That oftentimes those which Build Jerusalem and Guide it are the Citizens of Babylon Tell them that to be a lawful Pastor and Guide of the Church to be able to administer the Word and Sacraments with Authority it s enough to be a Member of the external and visible Society it is not necessary to be a Member of the true Church to be in the hand of God an Instrument of his Work. A King may administer Justice and administer it very well by a wicked man who hath inwardly all sorts of inclinations to Injustice It will be said a man cannot be the Head and Guide of a Body without being a Member thereof for the Head is one of its principal Members It must be answered That false Pastors are true Members of the visible Society of the Church and that they are also true Heads of that Society whereof they are true Members but they are neither Heads nor Members of the principal and invisible part of the Church who are true Believers and truly righteous persons They are not therefore true Heads but of that part whereof they are true Members and that sufficeth them for the external Administration of the Word and Sacraments for the truely Righteous receive the Word and Sacraments in quality of the Members of the external Society They will press you further and tell you You do confess the Church is visible because she hath a Body which is an external Society But is it always visible Although you should answer That it is not necessary that the Church be always visible they would not be able to convince you of the contrary by reason For a man who is visible by his body may be sometimes hidden and by that means be invisible May not the external Society of the Church which is visible have been at sometimes and in some seasons hidden through the Persecution of Pagans or Hereticks But confess to them that the Church hath been always visible and will be to the end of the World. 'T is true that the Persecutions under the Pagan-Emperours were very great but they never proceeded so far as utterly to destroy all Assemblies of the Church to that degree that there were no visible Society of Christians the Christians were well known under the Persecutions seeing they knew where to find them to make Martyrs of them the Church was visible in the midst of the flames She remained visible in the Heretical Assemblies of the Arrians for those that held the Truth in those Assemblies themselves were more numerous than those that erred concerning it If there were any place where the Church were become invisible it was in the Papism for never was there a Church so corrupt and drowned in Superstitions as that Nevertheless the Church continued there visible because that Christianity and the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion did abide there I do not say that they did remain there in their Integrity but the contrary nevertheless it sufficeth that they did continue there 't is necessary therefore that you know that where-ever Christianity fore that you know that where-ever Christianity remains sensible and visible the Church remains visible for it is Christianity that makes the Church If a Sect become so corrupt that Christianity is no longer visible in it such are the Mahumetans and the Socinians who have rejected the Foundations the Church is no longer visible among them unless it be as a dead man remains visible but it is also visible that he is dead without life and without soul so in the Sects which have rejected the Foundations the Church remains visible but it 's also visible that such Churches are without life without soul without salvation In the Sects which preserve Christianity although they have added very many things thereunto and even such things as overturns the Foundations thereof the Church doth not fail to remain visible because Christianity both is there and is seen there If therefore they do inquire of you Where was your Church before Luther and Calvin Answer them She was in the Christian Societies that were in Aethiopia in those which were in Aegypt and in Africa in those which are and were in Asia in the Greek Church that was at Constantinople and Antioch in Muscovy and the Churches of Russia and she was even in the Church of Rome itself If they ask of you Was the Church visible in these Societies or were the Members thereof hidden Answer them That the Church was visible in these Societies forasmuch as Christianity and the Creed of the Apostles in the true sence thereof explained in the first six General Councils were visibly preserved there Add you that the true Members of Jesus Christ and of the Church were hidden and not visible because those that sincerely and truly adhered to this true Christianity contained in the Creeds of the Christian Church were not known by name but that these Believers were hidden was not at all peculiar to these corrupt Churches because of their Corruption for the case is the same in the purest Churches the true Members of Jesus Christ and of his body are hidden because we do not certainly know those which adhere to the Christian Faith in sincerity and with the heart Behold a pure and native Explication of the true Visibility of the Church and of the Perpetuity of that Visibility The Bishop of Meaux and your other Converters will seem to you very well pleased in this that you confess the Church is visible and always visible Behold they will say one point gained For if the Church be always visible 't is of necessity that there be a Succession in the Ministry a train of legitimate Pastours There will always be Teachers with whom Jesus Christ will teach and the true Teaching will never cease in the Church These are Monsieur de Meaux that great Converter's own words That is to say from the perpetual Visibility of the Church he draws these three conclusions 1. That pure and true Teaching hath never ceased in the Church 2. That there will always be a series and train of legitimate Pastours 3. That Jesus Christ
life which the Lord hath promised to those that love him I rejoyce in this that our Saviour declares them happy that suffer for Righteousness sake M. I make all my Glory and all my happiness to consist in this that my Saviour has not thought me unworthy to suffer shame for his Name I support my self on the Rock of Ages I put my whole trust in him I expect no succour or assistance but from him alone Upon a Foundation so solid I promise my self that nothing shall be able to shake me at present he makes me feel the effects of a singular goodness in the midst of wicked Passengers which it pleases him that I suffer he makes me to tast the sweetness of true and solid good he fills my soul with that joy unspeakable and glorious which surpasses all understanding he fills me with that hope by which he hath sustained all the happy Confessors of his Truth and by which I hope he will sustain me as well as they My principal study is to disingage my self from Earth to conceive a disgust for the World and an ardent desire for Heaven This Monsieur is my ordinary imployment as far as the infamous place where I am imprisoned will permit it I call it infamous because one never hears an honest word there all rings and sounds again with filthiness and execrable Blasphemies There is such a noise for the most part night and day that I have scarcely found heretofore one happy moment to lift up my Heart to God. I have been so oppressed with sleep that I have oftentimes fell under it before I finished my Prayers when I awake at three or four in the morning I indeavour to sleep no more to the end that whilst we are a little at rost I may with some attention perform my Devotions to God. I have had more liberty for ten or twelve days for when the weather is fair they let the Prisoners go forth and keep them in a Court all the day unless it be six which they keep inclosed I imploy one part of this time in Reading Meditation and Prayer and I take the liberty to sing some Psalms as I have done in all the places of my Captivity and no body hath complained thereof Behold in two words an abridgment of our misery We lie three and fifty of us in a place which is not above five fathom in length and one and a half in breadth There lies on my right side a Countryman sick with his Head at my feet and his Feet at my Head and so it is with others There is not it may be one among us which do not envy the condition of many Dogs and Horses This makes us all wish that the Prisoners may soon depart but that is a secret that must not be told us but as far as we can judge they will depart the next week There were 95 of us yesterday condemned but there dyed two on that day and one on this and we have yet 15 or 16 sick and there be few escape I have had five fits of a Tertian Ague but God bethanked I am very well recovered and prepared to take my Journey to Marseilles We shall take in Burgundy some of our Brethren which are in Prison for the same reason with my self who am the first that have had the honor to be Condemned by the Parliament of Paris There remains no more Monsieur but that I intreat you to continue to me the assistance of your Holy Prayers I desire the same favour of Mademoiselle your Wife whom with your leave I do here assure of my respect Obtain for me if you please the same advantage from those Frenchmen of your acquaintance which God doth admit to your Holy Assemblies Monsieur M arrived yesterday but I have not yet had the honor to see him Not having the liberty to write to my Sister nor my Nephew her Son I must be content here to give them my Salutations I do not write this but in great uncertainty whether it can go hence If your great imployment will permit you to give some Consolation to my Wife and Children as you have made me hope and she expects with a great deal of joy I intreat you do it You may well imagin that our separation will be a thing terrible to us all and above all to her Before I received your Letter I did nor forget in my Prayers those things which you recommended to me I pray God encompass you about with his protection and preserve you many years to labour profitably in his Vineyard Nâ—â—â—mber 1. 1686. The SIXTH PASTORAL LETTER WHAT WAS The Form of Christianity in the second Age. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Soviour Jesus Christ WHereas many things worthy of your Curiosity and proper to nourish your Piety have been communicated to us by many of our Brethren we have been tempted for a few months to communicate them to you at this time But in conclusion we have chosen to satisfie the impatience of those which are willing to see what we have to teach them concerning the Christianity of the second Age. We remit therefore to the following Letters that which we do not do in this and we do promise those that have sent us any Memorials touching our Martyrs and Confessors to enter them afterward in this Work according as we shall find place and occasion therein The second Age of the Church WE must consider first of all the manner wherein they did Celebrate the Sacraments and thereby we shall learn what Opinion they had of them They were Celebrated as yet with great Simplicity in the second Age. Behold that which Justin Martyr says concerning the manner of Administring Baptism We will here Expound after what manner we Dedicate our selves to Jesus Christ fearing lest if we pass over any thing concerning it we should be suspected of malignity and dissimulation All those therefore which are persuaded of the truth of our Doctrine and promise to live according to our Rules and Laws are commanded to Pray to Fast and beg the forgiveness of their sins and we Pray and Fast with them After that we lead them to a place where there is Water and we Regenerate them after the same manner which we our selves were Regenerated for we Wash or Baptise them in the Name of the Author of all things of the Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit Hitherunto we see nothing changed from the Apostolick Form. There is neither sign of the Cross nor Exorcism nor Salt nor Spittle nor nothing of that which is at this day practised in Baptism Behold after what manner the Mystery of the Eucharist was Celebrated in the same Age according to the Testimony of the same Author and in the same place After says he we have Baptised after the same manner him that doth believe we conduct him to the place where are those Believers
it was known by themselves that he never ceased to praise God and to bless him that he died in and for the Defence of his Truth and Gospel his Soul was always raised towards Heaven his Discourses were full of Piety Disingagement from the World and of ardent Desires for the Kingdom of Heaven I have told you already that I do not believe that we ought to refuse the Glory of Martyrdom to those who through weakness made their Subscriptions Nevertheless without partaking in any Idolatrous Worship did afterwards recover and die between the fear of being sent to the Gallies if they returned to health and the horror of being dragged all naked upon a Hurdle after their Death This Fear and the Horror are true Punishments so that I reckon those Women which surmount the horror of nakedness to which their dead Bodies were to be exposed after death as dying in the midst of Torments for the Faith. Nothing makes a more violent impression on the Spirit of a modest Woman And all the World knows the History of the Christian Damosels which were cured of a certain melancholick Distemper which put them upon hanging themselves Nothing could give check to this rage In conclusion they thought it adviseable to draw some of them stark naked through the Streets in the view of the People The fear of being thus prostituted to the Eyes of Men staid others and hindered them from being their own Executioners Of this sort of Martyrs we have an infinite number For of all the new Converts which are dead in great numbers within a year past particularly in Poytou where by a just Judgment of God Death hath made such Spoils that great Parishes are intirely depopulated of all these new Converts I say there are not it may be one of an hundred which have given way to their Threatnings and permitted themselves to communicate after the Roman Manner Thus 't is also in Languedoc there have been Women which they have affrighted with this punishment But they answered courageously that what they threatened as an evil they desired as an advantage and that they would offer this shame which they prepared for them to their Saviour as an Expiation of their Crime This great Resignator has not at all mollified the rage of their Persecutors At Montpellier hath been seen the Body of a venerable Woman named Mademoiselle Cauquet Wife of M. Samuel Cauquet a Physician exposed all naked through the Streets besmearing the Pavement with her Blood and Entrails poured out thereon And when she was left at the Dunghil there came two Dragoons which caused their Horses to pass and repass over this poor body an hundred times But that which is most edifying is to know that during her Sickness the Answers that this holy Woman made to her Judges and which are mentioned in her process bear the marks of a profound humility and of an extraordinary goodness It may be they may be found one day in the Registers if the malice of the Devil does not cause those precious Monuments to be suppressed as they have almost intirely blotted out the Procedures against the ancient Waldenses to the end that the proofs of their Innocency might be all made void We have seen the Carcase of one named Peter Crousel the Son of a Merchant of Clermont of Lodeve dying a Confessor in the City of Montpellier dragged at a Horses Tail and a Prisoner taken from the same Prison where the Martyr died leading the Horse and a Hangman striking the Body of the living person more frequently than the Horse which dragged the dead The number of this kind of Martyrs being so great we cannot make a Catalogue of them without the assistance of those which are scattered in divers places in France and have been eye-witnesses thereof I will only report here two which are more particularly come to my knowledge and which have something peculiar in them because of the Quality of the Persons The first is M. Robert d' Ully Vicount d' Nouion of the Church of Couci in Picardy an old Gentleman of about eighty years of age who had been Master of Camp to a Regiment of Infantry and Governor of a place called La Motte au Bois all covered with Wounds and Scars that he had received in the Service of the King during forty years space and having yet a Bullet in his Knee which could not be taken thence This old Man was so weak as to make his Subscription as many others did but he had also the courage to retract it not only by word of mouth but also by a Writing signed with his own hand They caused a Hangman with a Hurdle to come before his door and told him he must be dragged M. de Novion told them that they should not tarry for him for he was ready to go to the place of Execution He arose from his Bed altho he had not been able to walk for many years the Provost being astonished at this constancy paid the Hangman and others for their Journey and sent them back This Gentleman a few days after was dragged from his House and put into a Convent of the Order of the Premonstrants where the Monks discharged themselves so well of the Commission that they killed him by harassing him without ceasing They made him lose his Voice many days before he lost his Life by speaking eagerly to him and he repelling them with vehemence He died continually thrusting them from him with his hand and lifting up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven when he was no longer able to lift his Voice thither As soon as he was dead the Monks caused his Body to be cast into a Dog's Kennel and gave notice thereof to the chief Magistrate of Couci he came and caused his Body without so much as a Shirt to be laid upon a Cart to carry it to that City A frightful Spectacle was there seen the Head of this poor Man hung out of the Cart all bloody All the Wounds that he had formerly received reopened all at once and became so many mouths which vomited Blood and demanded Vengeance that after so long Services they were so rewarded When the Body was arrived at Couci they cast it in this condition into the Sink of the Prison they caused his Bowels to be torn out by a Chirurgeon they threw them to Dogs upon the Walls of the City This Body lying in the dirt continued some weeks expecting that his Process would be made At the end of fifteen days Sentence was pronounced and executed the Carcase was drawn through all the Streets of the City and in conclusion thrown into the Ditch whither the Rabble went and pelted it with Stones till they left not one whole Bone and for fear lest any one should take him by night and bury him they set a Sentinel upon the Wall of the City for many nights together near the place where they had cast him And they added a Prohibition upon pain of death