the beginning of this Letter i.e. that you ought not to procure to your selves consolation by hearing the Word of God in Popish Churches where you will find it seasoned and tempered in a way mortal to your Souls It is necessary that you search it after the manner that our Brethren of which I have been speaking have done I know well that your Flesh hath many things to say to me concerning it Some will say they are a great People in that Country and we are here but a handful of Men. The more easily mâ—y you communicate together the fewer you are in number the less are your motions perceived Others will say these People are favoured by the situation of their Country we are in Cities where they watch us night and day Hath the situation of their Country hindered them from the danger of being discovered hanged and sent to the Gallies Have they been discouraged by having been discovered once yea twenty times I do declare to you on the behalf of God if you don't renounce this Spirit of Fear and put on the Spirit of Martyrs God will forsake vou you will not find a Man that will be able to comfort you yea you will not receive Letters to support you You are afraid of the shadow of danger God will be very much beholden to you you will love him and you will enquire after him when there shall be no danger therein But 't is at present that you ought to make it appear whether you yet love God in exposing your selves to all dangers and often as you search consolation for your Souls and edification for your Faith. I pray God to have pity on your state and that he will give you such sentiments as you ought to have The Grace of our Lord be given to you again Amen Octob. 15. 1686. The FIFTH PASTORAL LETTER THE Christian Purity of the Apostolick Church opposed to that of Popery Letters of some Confessors My well beloved Brethren in our Lord Jesus Christ Grace and Peace be given to you from our God. IN our third Letter we promised to give you a brief History of the changes that have happened in Christianity in the first five hundred years of the Church that from thence you may understand the-unfaithfulness of Monsieur de Meaux and your Converters which tell you with so much impudence that Christianity is come down from the Apostles to them without alteration We have been obliged to delay the performance of that promise that we might make some reflections upon an information that hath been given us concerning the Conduct of the new Converts This was the subject matter of our fourth Letter We will return again at this time to the matter which we have discontinued and give a short pourtraiture and description of the Christianity of the first Age that you may see the changes that have happened in the Ages following The first Age of the Church WE cannot know the opinions and practices of an Age with any certainty but by the Authors of that Age. We have no Authors of the first Age of the Church but the Apostles and Evangelists And though others should be found that may be referred to that first Age we shall leave them to the second to which also they do belong because it is certain that those i. e. the Apostles and Evangelists do suffice to teach us what was the Religion of the Apostolick Church It is above all things just that we see what was the Religion of that first Age and by consequence we must consult the Writers of it This is the more certain because they were Divinely inspired and are the only infallible Doctors that we have In so much that if the Romish Religion be founded in these infallible Writers we are content that you abandon and give up your selves to your Converters But on the contrary if nothing thereof be found there it is just that you believe that all that we reject hath been added to the Christian Religion It is a prodigy that surpasses all belief that Popery should be the Christian Religion and that the Founders thereof should not speak one word concerning it It is true the Evangelists and Apostles learn us to believe one God in three Persons and one Son of God made Man who dyed for the sins of Mankind Rose again Ascended into Heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to send one part of them into everlasting Torments and to give the other Rewards infinite for extent and duration But this is not Popery this is Christianity Popery is a Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of our Lord every day offered to God for the sins of the living and the dead It is a new Jesus made of Bread descending at all hours between the Hands of the Priest which they adore as the great God. It is the Worship and Invocation of a second sort of Mediator and Intercessor to whom they build Temples erect Images and Altars to whose honor they Sacrifice Jesus Christ by whose name they swear to whom they make Vows and in one word to whom they give all those divine Honors that are given to God himself It is an intermediate state betwixt Heaven and Hell called Purgatory in which for a time Souls endure the pains of fire and the torments of the damned Purgatory which is the foundation of a thousand other Worships Penances Prayers for the dead Masses indulgences Stations Jubilees Mortifications and human satisfactions To conclude for I will nor say all Popery is an institution of a new Head and Spouse for the Church into whole hands the Lord Jesus hath committed all his Authority and Rights to pluck up and to plant to build and to destroy to bind and to loose to make and unmake Kings and to keep the Keys of Heaven and Hell. Behold what Popery is and once more I will say it is a prodigy that God should give us Scripture to instruct us in his Religion and that he should not say one word of the greatest and most considerable parts of it there In the Name of God my Brethren be not taken in this unhappy snare into which I perceive that some of you are fallen The Scripture could not say all say they it hath left Commission to the Church to say the rest Now is it possible that persons can permit themselves to be taken by so gross an illusion If the thing under debate were small peradventure it might be conceded but it is about Adoration of the Sacrament that is to say a piece of Bread and giving religious Worship to Creatures and Images The thing debated is about Celebration of a Sacrifice the most important thing in the World in Religion yea about the Sacrificing of Christ himself the greatest Sacrifice that can be imagined And can it be believed that God will send us to Tradition concerning it It is to have renounced all honesty to advance such a proposition and to be
corrupt and defiled in its most noble Parts Do you believe that those Illustrious Confessours which fill the Prisons and the Gallies and whom you yourselves admire do you believe I say according to them there is a necessity of joyning yourselves to Popery They have found ways of dispensing with this necessity But your necessity of joyning yourselves unto it comes from the love and adherence that you have for your Estates your Ease and your Lives An unhappy Necessity which has not its original in Charity but in Covetuousness in the Name of God take heed of it But you say we cannot find any publick Worship more pure and more holy I answer It is not always necessary to adhere to publick Worship whatever it be The Martyrs and Confessours of Jesus Christ served him after a more grateful manner although their Worship were not only private but hidden but covered in the darkness of a deep Prison although you cannot assemble your selves to pray unto God with your Brethren you have your Closets of which you may make Churches and your Hearts of which you may make Sanctuaries and Altars This necessity of Adherence to publick Worship is another Illusion made by your love of the World 'T is better saith one that hath written to us to adhere to a corrupt Worship than to live without Religion What lewd Morality it this Those seven thousand men which were so hidden that Elijah knew nothing of them had they therefore no Religion because they did not adhere to the publick Worship of Baal which was intermixed with that of the true God To refuse to participate in an Idolatrous Worship is to be truely Religious to adhere to a Worship which is known to be full of Superstition and Impurities is to have no Religion at all In conclusion you come to the example of our Fathers The example of our Fathers say you before the Reformation proves clearly that we may secure our Salvation in the Roman Communion though we adhere even to the publick Worship Whatever men say 't is inconceivable that men born and bred up in a Religion and which never heard any thing said of any other Doctrine and who lived and died without protesting against the Doctrines of their Church should never partake in the Worship thereof Would to God you would stay yourselves on the examples of your Fathers and Grand-fathers without ascending so high as your Ancestours When you have done all that you can you will not save them all you will find among them by ascending a great number which worshipped Devils and the Idols of the Pagans you must necessarily leave them to the sad Judgments of God. This example of your Fathers which were saved in the Church of Rome is a subject which comes to us often and from all parts 't is the universal Illusion 't is the Pillow on which you all lay yourselves to sleep Many of your Ancient Pastors have endeavoured to dispute this unhappy Illusion this would be a large Chapter if we should say all that may be said concerning it but I do not think it necessary therefore I will say but two or three important things about it First The first is That we do willingly confess That before the Reformation there were persons saved in the Roman Communion About two hundred Years agone there were no Communions in the World which were not corrupt at least no considerable Communions or Societies It must needs be that God had his Elect there for he never leaves the World without them Do not fear least we should send you to find these Elect among the Waldenses Abbigenses Wicklefists and Hussites these were Fore-runners and like Mornings which went before the Sun of Reformation but these Societies did not continue nor did they make a Figure great enough in the World to include all the Elect there Secondly But on the subject of those men which were saved in corrupt Communions before our Reformation know first That we must not almost at all seek them among the Adult Of a thousand Children that are born there is not the tenth part of them that attain to the Age of Reason now all Children born in the Popish Communion are saved dying before the Age of Reason because they have part in the advantage of the general Covenant of Christianity which is preserved in Popery and they have no part in the Corruptions which have been added thereto for persons have no part in the Errours which corrupt the Covenant but when they know receive or tollerate them Behold therefore nine hundred of a thousand which were saved in the most corrupt times Now when God has nine hundred Elect among a thousand men we cannot say he has left the World without Elect persons and that Christianity remained uprofitable there were therefore always a great number of Elect persons in the Roman Communion Thirdly But after all it must be known That among the Adult the number of those of whose Salvation we might well presume in the times preceeding our Reformation is so small that we may well be amazed to think of it for Histories do represent the Corruption not only of Worship but also of Manners so horrible and universal that a man knows not where to fix his eyes to find a person that might be saved The Clergy were overflown with Debauchery the Monks were Assemblies of profligate Persons and Hypocrites the Houses of Nuns were filthy Bawdy-houses The People suffered themselves to be born away by the torrent and examples of their Guides the devout People scarcely knew the difference between the Creator and the Creature and their Piety spent itself in Superstitions which are even a horrour to the wiser Doctors of the Roman Church at this day Fourthly Nevertheless let us suppose that among all these there were some Elect and some saved I do maintain that it was absolutely by Miracle I say by Miracle in the litteral sence of the word and without figure As a man which lives in a hideous Mire sunk over head and ears lives there by a Miracle For the Roman Communion is damnable that is a certain point Men are saved there 't is because the Promise of God cannot be in vain and he cannot be without Children but the time of Miracles doth not continue always and we do not find ourselves obliged to explicate unto you the manner of Miracles for we do not know by that alone that these are Miracles And 't is to you my Brethren a prodigious rashness to re-plung yourselves in a Communion where your Fathers did not live but by Miracle in hopes that naturally you shall live there 'T is just as if the Jews at this day should run head-long into the Red-sea in hopes to pass well through it because their Ancestours did heretofore go through it without danger God hath ways of withdrawing those that are his from a Spirit of Lyes and Superstition whilst they live or at least at their death which we do
Viguier of Durfort in Cevennes who was hanged in the borders or entrance into that Country some months since in a place called La Salle only because he had served God in a publick Assembly as also one named Gysot who was burnt alive at Nâ—rac This poor man was so weak as to sign an Abjuration of his Religion through fear and the persecution of the Dragoons or it may be through the weakness and infirmity of his Age for he was more than seventy and drew nigh to eighty years of age Being fallen sick God restored to him his Zeal and Courage that he might obtain the Crown of Martyrdom He refused to communicate after the manner of the Church of Rome and declared That he retracted that unhappy Signature that they had extorted and forced from him The Priest that he might execute the Law that ordains that at any rate whatsoever they must give the Holy Sacrament to the Sick forced him to receive the Host or consecrated Bread and put it into his mouth the old man according to his duty spit it out and therefore was condemned to be burnt alive in the fire He went to this horrible Punishment with the joy of the holy Martyrs He was bound to the Post without any appearance of commotion He sung the Praises of God in the midst of the Flames to his last breath This Constancy made so great an Impression upon the Spirits of all the Inhabitants of Nerac and gave so great an Astonishment to the Executioners that they have not proceeded to execute a like Sentence pronounced against one named Fabiores of the same City and of the same Country condemned also to be burnt alive for having as the former spit out the Host which by force was put into his mouth We have not yet heard that the Sentence hath been executed when 't is done we shall give you notice of it We have a Martyr of a more sublime and raised Order 't is Monsieur Rey of Mismes Student in Theology who after he had preached eight or nine months in Cevennes was taken arrested condemned to Death and executed at Beaucaire on the 7th of August The Circumstances of his Martyrdom his Courage his Answers his Piety are too eminent and peculiar to be wrap'd up and buried in a short Narration We do promise it you at large when we shall have collected from faithful Records all the parts of the holy History of this glorious Martyr Behold already my dear Brethren many things that you have to oppose to those Words of the Bishop of Meaux I do not wonder that you are returned in Troops and with so much facility to the Church But this is not all Set him matter of fact against this pretended Facility and assure him that for more than four months time there have been Assemblies almost every day in Cevennes and in the adjacent parts for the offering up Prayers and Supplications to God sometimes in Woods and at other times in Caves and Rocks and Dens of the Earth The Dragoons which almost always surprize them put them to the Sword according to their Instructions they Kill and Hang and drag them into Prisons but all signifies nothing they assemble nevertheless In the month of June last near the end thereof the Dragoons having surprised an Assembly near Nismes they killed many of them on the place and four they hung upon the trees The Hangmen withdrew supposing that they would have no great inclination to return again to that place But two hours after there was another Assembly in the same place on the dead bodies and in the view of the Carkasses that hung on the trees of the mountains There is not a week passes without like Assemblies and like Massacres They reckon more than sixty persons at an Assembly that was made between Uzes and Bagnol in the beginning of July some add That women were ravished and others ripped up But we reserve the particulars of these things till afterwards and you may reckon that we tell you nothing but what is true and câ—rtain for which reason we chuse rather to defer the edification that you might receive from the firmness and constancy of our Martyrs â—nd Confessors than to tell you any thing as certain that may prove false But this is enough at present to give the B. of Meaux and others of his spirit to understand that they have no great cause to triumph in our weakness and the facility they find in overcoming us It may be they have boasted too soon they are not yet where they thought they were We do already see the vanity of those Bravado's That in four months time there would not be any thing heard of a Hugonot in France These fine projects are shipwrecked and the difficulty is yet to come As for you my Brethren that which we shall say and the Objects that we shall set before your eyes ought to shame you If you have been so weak as to fall you ought to take courage and rise again and to redouble your strength if you have not had enough to support you hitherunto But let us continue to hear the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Meaux Not one of you hath suffered violence either in his Person or Goods Let them not bring you these deceitful Letters which are addressed from Strangers transformed into Pastors under the Title of Pastoral Letters to the Protestants of France who are fallen by the force of Torments These Letters concern you not any otherwise than as they are made by persons that could never prove their Mission So far have you been from suffering torments that you have not so much as heard them mentioned I hear other Bishops say the same But for you my Brethren I say nothing to you but what you may speak as well as I. You are returned peaceably to us you know it Behold one of those objects whereunto we have not been accustomed Maimbourg Varillas Brueys and multitudes of others have had the front to say that Conversions are made without violence On that subject they have been baffled in a manner sufficient to have covered impudence it self with confusion But 't is to wash the Blackmoor's skin These Gentlemen have Foreheads of Brass and can blush at nothing By this little judge of the fidelity of your Converters You that have seen your Goods wasted your Persons contained your Neighbours dragged to Prisons Women shaven and put into Convents Christians let down into Holes where putrified Flesh and Carrion had been thrown Others put into Prisons where the Water runs under their feet being supported by narrow planks upon which they are mounted night and day lest they fall as from a Precipice and perish Others have been burnt and roasted and others made fools by watching them without cessation or intermission All France hath seen it all Europe is witness of it and they dare affirm the contrary to what your eyes have seen Do you think that these Gentlemen dare not
be only a power granted to punish them not to endeavour their Conversion by Torments 'T is an abominable means of Conversion which only makes Hypocrites 'T is sufficiently known that reason cannot be gained thereby The purging of Societies is the end of the Sword but Persecution at the rate that it is at this day managed will corrupt and ruine Societies by filling them with secret Hereticks who will disperse their Venom in a manner by so much the more dangerous by how much it is more private and secret What is there therefore of likeness between their treatment of us Is the lawful use of the Sword against Malefactors Do not lightly pass over what I have now said but give attention thereunto If that which Monsieur de Meaux hath said to prove that Heretiques are not excepted out of the number of those Malefactors that Princes are appointed to punish seem a little to startle you tell him that is not the question it is not debated whether obstinate Hereticks may not be punished with Death his Catholick Authors do affirm it But we would learn whether they ought to extort Subscriptions Confessions Communions profane and sacrilegious because joyned with Hypocrisie and Incredulity by Force Plunder Violence and all kind of Torments Now that is it which all the World with one accord condemn and is abominable according to the Principles of the rigid Inquisition as well as our own 'T is that which the Clergy of France have lately invented and practised and 't is that which will render their present conduct the horror of all future Ages 2. The use of the Sword that God hath put into the hands of Princes hath Justice and Righteousness for the reason and foundation of it for it is for the exercise of it and secondly Fidelity and Faithfulness for it is to preserve and maintain it But that which is perpetrated upon us at this day is an uninterrupted course of Iniquities Acts of injustice violence fraud falshood breach of Promises contradiction of Edicts violation of Oaths and of all things that can be imagined most horrid and affrightning Doth not this well resemble the Sword of good Princes armed against Sins and Crimes 3. To conclude the use of the Sword for the preserving and avenging the rights of God preserves also the rights of Men. It hath for its end the honour of God and the salvation of Souls For Justice is exercised for the salvation of the Souls of the wicked by the punishment of their Bodies But in the present Persecution they neither respect or regard the rights of God or the salvation of the Soul but only the Honour of the King. They labour plainly not for the salvation but damnation of Souls and they take all imaginable care to make it sure There is no man that is not ignorant of what is done to whom what I have said will seem an extravagance and excess of discourse But behold the proof thereof The Dragoons come into a Town or Village and without any antecedent instruction demand in the Name of the King from all the Inhabitants thereof Subscription and Abjuration on penalty of wasting their Goods beating imprisoning and torturing their Bodies with all other evils except Death All the People faint and fall they own the Romish Religion without believing it they sign the Condemnation of their own they anathematize and damn Luther Calvin and all the Reformers He goes to Confession he goes to Mass he communicates he adores the Bread he assists at the invocation of Saints and outwardly consents to that Worship that they give to Images He believes none of all this but abhors it at his Heart In the mean time they are content they have all that they desire and they demand no more Now what have they made They have made Hypocrites that say one thing and think another prophane persons that hate what they adore Idolaters that worship what they account Creatures and the workmanship of mens hands Behold what they have done and what they have desired to do For to say that by the Dragoons they desired the Calvinists to renounce their Heresie is the most foolish of all extravagances 't is well enough known that they are no proper Arguments to perswade Therefore they intended and desired to make Hypocrites profane sacrilegious persons abuses of Sacraments and Idolaters Now if these men be not in the high way to Damnation I know not who are So therefore plainly the end of these Persecutions 't is to damn men But behold farther I do maintain that they take all kinds of security to be certain of the damnation of the new Converts when they die This appears by the Declaration of the nineteenth of April 1686 by which it is appointed That if any of our Subjects of either Sex which have abjured the pretended Reformed Religion happening to be sick do refuse to receive the Sacrament of the Church from the Curates Vicars and other Priests I do declare that they will persist and die in the pretended Reformed Religion In case the said sick persons do recover their health Process being made against them by our Judges they shall be condemned if they be Men to make honorable satisfaction and to the Gallies for ever with confiscation of their Goods and if they be Women or Daughters to make honorable satisfaction and be imprisoned with confiscation of their Goods This is the Declaration that the Priests make to a person that thinks himself on his Death-bed when he refuses to communicate There is no Man so sick but he may recover He that at first according to his own conscience refuses to communicate after the manner of the Romish Church at length begins to think that if he recovers he must away to the Gallies these thoughts affright him and as the Disease of the Body increases the weakness of his mind he falls under the fear of that hideous punishment that must last as long as life He communicates again he abjures the Truths which are in his heart he adores that which he believes to be but Bread he is profane in hating an holy thing he is sacrilegious in usurping the Sacraments he is an Idolater in worshiping a Creature The Priest which hath seen him in these Conflicts in these long Oppositions in his Refusals to communicate in Acts of Incredulity and Aversion for these Miseries constrains him by fear and the Declaration of the King. Thereby he gains an assurance of the damnation of this wretch and makes him dye in the most fearful dispositions in which a person can die These are no far fetched consequences to discern them their needs neither Natural nor Artificial Logick This is to cause him to renounce God before Death hath stabbed him at the Heart All the World were struck with horror by the Declaration of the twelfth of July last which condemned all those that should make any use of the Reformed Religion to death They cryed out that at this stroke the
answered to all these people with firmness and an admirable presence of mind which touched them with admiration and compassion a sentiment which is not ordinary with persons of this Character when they are Persecuting true Christians They saw well that seeing the Monks were touched with his Discourses they might produce the same effect upon others for which reason they forbad all persons to see him A few days after they took him from the Prison of Alez to remove him to that of Nismes Those that had been hindred from seeing him when he was in Prison were willing to recompence the loss which they had sustained an incredible multitude of people of all Ages and Sexes pouring out tears followed him on the Road accompanying him with their Prayers and good wishes he returned them blessings and added vehement Exhortations to rise speedily from their fall and to glorifie God as he did by their Sufferings Whilst he was in Prison at Alez there were no ways imaginable which were not employed to oblige him to change his Religion The Ecclesiasticks served themselves of ways of Seduction the Judges with that of Authority They promised him not only impunity for what was past but all kinds of Favours and Advantages He equally resisted all and with the same courage surmounted these different temptations Whilst they carried him From the Prison of Alez to that of Nismes approaching the place of his Nativity and that where his Father and Kindred dwelt he felt some movings of his Bowels which made him fear lest that should be the place where he was to endure the strongest temptations through the softness and tenderness of nature He earnestly desired of the Judges that they would not let him see neither his Father nor his Relations Therefore he did not see them but was content to let them know that they might be assured of his stability of his constancy and perfect resignation to the will of God. They kept him but a few days in the Prison of Nismes the Monks and Ecclesiasticks of that City engaged him in new Combats but 't was with as little success as those that went before They had no intention to put him to death at Nismes because that City was full of Men of the Reformed Religion They feared either some emotion or at least that the beholding the Martyrdom of this young Man and his Constancy should waken the Conscience of a great many People who preserving the truth in their Heart hid it under the veil of Dissimulation They carried him therefore from Nismes to Beaucaire a Village where all the People are of the Roman Religion 'T was there his Process was to be made and he to receive the Crown of Martyâ—dom 'T was there also he was to sustain the most terrible Assaults The Intendent was present who began by Engines of Sweetness and Promises adding thereunto all that which is most terrible in death But to his Promises he answered I love not the world nor the things of the world I esteem all those advantages whereof you speak as dung I tread them under my feet Unto the threatnings of punishment he said My life is not at all dear to me if so be I may finish my course with joy and gain Jesus Christ whatsoever death is prepared for me it will be always glorious if I suffer it for God and for the same cause for the which my Saviour died An incredible company of other people came to see him in the Prison all to the same end and nothing was forgotten of all that which might soften the mind and weaken the firmness of his courage All these means being unsuccessful in conclusion the Intendent proceeded to his condemnation He appeared at the Bar when he was there the Intendent said to him Mr. Rey there is yet time for your preservation Yea my Lord answered he and for that reason I will employ the time that remains in endeavouring my salvation He replyed to him But you must change and you shall have life Yea saith he I must change but 't is to go from this miserable world and go to the Kingdom of Heaven where a happy life attends me which I shall speedily enjoy don 't promise me the present life I am intirely disengaged from it death is much more eligible If I had been afraid of death you had not seen me here God hath caused me to understand his truth and does me the honor to die for it Speak no more to me of the good things of the world they have no savour or taste with me for all the Treasures of the Earth I will not renounce that which I expect in Heaven When the Judges saw him thus firm and stedfast they gave over vexing him about his Religion and proceeded to make his Process He answered to all their Questions with a respect sweetness and moderation which melted all the Auditors When they were ready to pronounce his Sentence they solicited him anew to have pity on himself and not by an unhappy obstinacy sacrifice a Life which was given him to preserve I am no more says he in condition to advise about what I am to do I have made my choice here is no farther place for bargains I am ready to die if God hath so appointed it All the promises which can be made will never be able to shake me nor hinder me from rendering what I owe to my God. Therefore they read his Sentence by which he was condemned to be hanged and put to the Rack before he was led to the Gibbet He heard his Sentence read without any commotion and when it was ended he said They treat me more gently than they treated my Saviour in condemning me to so easie a death I had prepared my self to be broken on the wheel or be burnt And lifting up his eyes to Heaven he added I give thee thanks Lord of Heaven and Earth for all the Blessings that thou hast bestowed upon me I give thee thanks that thou hast found me worthy to suffer for thy Gospel and die for thee I give thee thanks also for that thou hast called me to suffer so easie a death after I had prepared my Heart to suffer the most cruel death for thee In execution of the Sentence he was put upon the Rack he suffered it without any complaint or one word of murmuring answering no other thing but that he had said all and had nothing more to answer And when he was taken from the Rack turning to the Judges he told them I have not suffered the pain which you would have made me suffer I believe that you have suffered more than I I have had no sense of pain I do profess before you 'T is an extraordinary effect of Grace for altho we should not give credit to those relations which tell us that the Rack was so violent that it was believed that he could not have made use of his Legs to go to execution it is nevertheless certain that
pains God will prepare for you in the Heavens a Glory distinct from others for you must believe the Crown of Martyrs is more rich and illustrious than that of ordinary Believers Say them All things well considered this light and transient Affliction is not worthy to be compared to the Glory which is to come and which shall be revealed in me Would to God I could depaint before you the Glory of Heaven the Joy of Souls which see God and possess him the Satisfaction of the Blessed which are plunged in an Ocean of Delights the Transports of Saints which embrace their Divine Saviour which are in the glorious Society of the Patriarchs which sing the Praises of God with Angels and are full of Joy which exceeds all understanding In the name of God dear Brother lift up your eyes that way and let that grand object support you Take heed of the perilous Temptations to which the World and your own Heart may expose you 1. Your Heart may peradventure say the Difference which is between the Roman Religion and mine is so little that 't is not worth the while to suffer Martyrdom for it Say thereon Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Rome is that spiritual Babylon concerning which God has said Go out of her my people The Church of Rome is the Court trod under foot by the Gentiles for the space of twelve hundred and sixty days The Papists are the Gentiles which tread under foot the Church of God and oppress it their Images are the Idols of the ancient Pagans and their Saints are in the place of the false Gods of Antiquity The Sacrament which they appoint to be adored is an Idol which cannot be adored without stirring up the holy Jealousie of the true Jesus Christ Remember my dear Brother that our Truths are not less important than they were an hundred and fifty years ago when our Fathers went joyfully to death in defence of them They deserved that they should die for them then they deserve that we should suffer for them at this day Take head of another very grievous Temptation Your Heart will say What must I condemn to Hell all those persons that have fallen through weakness which go to Mass by constraint Without doubt God will shew them mercy and save them He will do the same by me I will follow their example I shall have the same lot with them To that remember the Precept of Jesus Christ Judge not that ye be not judged Leave the Brethren that are fallen to the Judgment of God. We do hope that God will shew them mercy that is to say that he will give them Repentance of their great fault but in the name of God be not tempted to imitate them Is it not certain that the state in which they are is at least doubtful And is not yours certain Will it not be then a madness to quit a state and way which certainly leads you to the Greatest Glory of Paradise to put your self in a way which may lead you to ruine and damnation this is the best that you can think of it Moreover my dear Brother you ought to remember that where much hath been given much will be required the Favours which God hath bestowed upon you hitherto are so great that you can never make sufficient acknowledgments for them He hath given you a courage and resolution that hath few Examples Oh! how precious is the Talent that you have received But also how faulty will your laziness be if you go dig and hide it When a person falls at the beginning of his Race it will be said he was not fit for so long a Course and Men will excuse him But if he run vigorously within two steps of the end and having his hand already upon the Crown lets it go and loses it all Men will blame him and treat him as wretched and sloathful Run you therefore the race that is set before you with patience and perseverance seeing you are encompassed with so great a Cloud of Witnesses Look to that Cloud of holy Martyrs of Jesus Christ which have gone before you which have been Burnt Tortured torn with Pincers sometimes whole years together which have seen their Bowels fall out in the Fire before they gave up the Ghost The Chain which you wear about your neck is fifty pounds but it is more supportable than flames of Fire Say therefore We have not yet resisted unto blood fighting against sin How glorious is the Chain that you bear about your neck It is more precious than if it were of Gold and Diamonds Being coloured with your sweat and sometimes with your blood it may one day prove if it pleases God the most precious of your moveables and you will say behold there the Carcanet and Collar that my Divine Spouse hath given me Behold the Nuptial Jewel wherewith he hath honoured me He hath done me the honor to make me conformable to him in his Sufferings that I may be conformable to him in his Glory In the name of God my dear Brother do not suffer your self to be softned by the memory of your Wife and Children God who is rich in Mercy the Father of the Fatherless and Husband of the Widow will take care of her and them and not leave them without all Consolation He that loves Father or Mother Wife or Children more than me is not worthy of me We ought not to love any thing but God and for the love of God this good God will be to us in the stead of all things and will comfort us effectually The moment of time in which you leave the Prison to go to the Galleys to which you are designed will be a terrible moment to you but in the name of God fortifie your self against the horrors of it and say I follow Jesus Christ my Saviour he went forth of the Judgment-Hall bearing his Cross and I go out of my Prison bearing my Chains I shall arrive at my Calvary but I shall also arrive at the Mount of Olives at the Mountain of Peace and at last I shall ascend up into Heaven to my God and dear Redeemer In your Journey you will bear your Chain by the Roads but it will sparkle with glory and whereas the shame and infamy wherewithal Galley-Slaves are laden is usually the heaviest part of their burthen on the contrary you will be laden with glory and your Enemies themselves will admire you I praise God for the moderation with which you speak of your Persecutors therein I observe a proof that you are a true Martyr of Jesus Christ Continue to bless and pray to God for them When Men suffer for an ill Cause it is always with impatience and fury against those that are the cause thereof But the true Religion inspires this spirit of sweetness and kindness So that without going further than your own Heart you may there find evidences of the truth of the Religion that
Orders I come to the third kind such to whom they have presented death as present and certain and who have courageously offered themselves thereunto For 't is a divertisement that the Persecutors often give themselves and a kind of temptation which they have often exercised to declare to our Confessors that the Sentence of Death is pronounced against them and that they must die if they did not change their Religion immediately And we have not heard that any one has faln under this kind of tryal M. de Voutron a Gentleman in the Neighborhood of Rochel hath given us within a few days a great example of this kind of Constancy He indured for the space of a year the most cruel Imprisonment that could be imagined he suffered hunger and thirst he lay upon the ground with Irons on his feet in a Dungeon dark and deep without light without fire in the winter and without other nourishment than a little Bread and Water whereof oftentimes they did not give him the half of what was necessary for his nourishment At last in the end of the year the Governor of S. Martin de Re where he was Prisoner came to see him and told him that it was with extreme grief that he was constrained to tell him very unhappy news 'T was that the King had appointed that all those that were Rebels on the Subject of Religion should be put to death the Gentlemen were to be beheaded and the others hanged that he would very willingly have been excused from this Commission but could not avoid it that nevertheless he felt some joy in this that at this time he might be the Instrument whereof God might serve himself to rescue him from Heresie and the Precipice from which he was about to fall that he had but one step to make to deliver himself from it to gain Paradise to establish his Fortune and that of all his Family Our Confessor believed the thing in good earnest and it is not difficult to believe that they would prosecute their cruelty to the uttermost when they had continued it to an imprisonment so long and so barbarous But he was not moved thereby the least in the world unless by emotions of Joy. He answered Monsieur this news is so far from afflicting me that it rejoyces and comforts me since it will end all the troubles of my Imprisonment and I shall enjoy the sight of my God. I have made my choice and when it shall please you to cause me to mount the Scaffold I am ready The favour that I beg of you is that if you cause any one to die before me you will permit me to accompany him to his Execution Instead of executing the Threatning within two days after they drew him out of the Dungeon and gave him the Castle at large for his prison with liberty to see his Kindred and Friends We shall see how long this will last It is written also from Picardy that two Damosels of inferior Rank of Laon Seamstresses by their Profession saw the little that they had wasted without being moved or shaken after which they imprisoned them in places where they passed the whole Winter without fire or covering but one single Coat During the space of eight months they made use of all that which the craft and rage of Persecutors in these last days could invent to vanquish and overcome them They resisted all In conclusion they pronounced their Sentence which condemned them to death they carried on the Play to the last for they led them to the place of Execution and caused them to see a Pile of Wood inkindled to burn them Nothing struck them they persevered they undressed and prepared themselves to be bound to the Post The chief Magistrate laughed at what astonished all the world and said These are fools enough to suffer themselves to be burnt They released them and drove them out of the City they forbad all the world to entertain or feed them For my part I do not see why this may not be called Martyrdom seeing God regards the intentions and dispositions of the Soul much more than external actions we can't doubt that he doth not reckon those for Martyrs which have offered him their life and put it into his hands with so much resignation altho death did not follow as they expected and believed If we will have Martyrs according to the most perfect Rules and Laws the Constancy of our Brethren in Cevennes will not fail to furnish us with a very great number if we may believe some Letters that come from Nismes The Governor and Intendant have within a few days caused 75 Men and one Woman to be hanged at S. Hyppolite This Butchery appears to me so terrible that I am resolved not to give a full belief to it till further confirmation We may see in one of our precedent Letters the perseverance of these honest Men to assemble for Prayers to God notwithstanding the Punishments and Dragoons The severe Declaration of July 12. which condemns to death all those which exercise the Reformed Religion has not at all abated this heat and zeal For know that they assemble every day and that they cause them every day to suffer Martyrdom The publick News Printed at Amsterdam are sufficiently true and exact on this point because they are published from Memorials that come from persons that are upon the place These Memorials have told us that 40 persons were killed upon the place at an Assembly that they have seised on a very great number of other persons and that they have discovered and surprised these Assemblies That a young Gentleman of the House of M. Julian named M. de Frumey-rolle had his Head cut off and that he received death with a piety and constancy in nothing inferior to that of the greatest Martyrs His Brother the eldest of the House was sent to the Prison of Ayques Mortes They have hanged of Men and Women a number that can't be determined because the reports concerning it are something various But 't is certain that Executions are done every day and that they die with all the Characters of the Martyrs of God and of his Truth A favour for which we are to give eternal Praises to our dear Saviour The Martyrs of the Valleys of Piedmont alone would deserve a large Chapter But we must delay it till we can receive exact Memorials concerning them That which we know of them is that some of the Ministers made Prisoners by the Duke of Savoy were hanged Among others M. Leydet whose constancy did astonish and make the whole Court of the Duke to tremble the poor Prisoners suffered unheard of Cruelties in their Imprisonment The Duke's People have published abroad that they were very well treated and that they gave to them the same quantity of Provisions which they gave to their Soldiers that they oftentimes gave them fresh Straw that they suffered the sick to take the air and also that they gave
the Severity of Discipline which the Church granted at the request of the Martyrs At this day they call Indulgence the relaxation of the Justice of God which he grants as they suppose in considerations of the Merits and Sufferings of the Martyrs who suffered more than was necessary for themselves To conclude they have changed the Consideration and Respect which they had for the Intercessions of Confessors and Martyrs into Merits and Works of Supererogation The Church did retard the rigor of her Law against Sinners because of the esteem which she had for those that suffered for the Name of Jesus Christ At this day they grant Indulgences by the application of the Merit of those which have suffered too much either by involuntary Persecutions or by chosen and voluntary Mortifications But hear how the same S. Cyprian speaks very aptly concerning one of these Confessors named Lucian who carried himself too haughtily and desired too earnestly that they should have respect to his Letters of Intercession * Epist 34. The Lord Jesus Christ hath said that we must Baptize Nations in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and that all Sins past are forgiven in Baptism But this man that is to say the Confessor Lucian knowing neither the Law nor the Commandments commands that we give Peace and pardon Sins in the Name of S. Paul not considering that they are not the Martyrs who make the Gospel but that it is the Gospel which makes the Martyrs Therefore at that time they did not alledge the Threats of S. Paul S. Peter the Martyrs and Confessors as the reasons for which they granted Indulgences that is to say the relaxation of the Discipline of the Church In the same Age that is to say the third they will produce unto you the word Confession and the terms of being on their knees at the feet of their Priests And they will not fail to find for you there the Auricular Confession practised at this day but there is nothing more false For those which dazle your Eyes thereby do very well know that the Greek word which signifies Confession was not at that time any secret Confession But the whole Act or Actions of publick Penance were so called And if at that Age Penitents were seen at the feet of Papists this was not done in secret and in a place appointed for the receiving Confessions where they acknowledged all their Sins in the Ear of the Priest But in Churches and in publick that they might be admitted by Prayer and imposition of hands either to Penance or to the Peace of the Church It was so certainly a publick Action that the Pagans took occasion from thence to accuse the Christians of adoring the shameful parts of their Priests This Confession was made in publick with Sack-cloth Ashes and Tears begging the Prayers and Assistance of all Christians This may be seen fully explicated in the Ninth and Tenth Chapters of Tertullian's Book of Repentance A Point of Controversie Concerning the Vnity of the Church that it is not in the Church of Rome and that we are not departed from it WHen a City is besieged and assaulted of all sides those that have a desire to defend it would be every where at the same time but they cannot which is their trouble My Brethren we have the trouble at this day you are besieged you are attack'd at an hundred places they batter you by a thousand wicked Reasons we would be every where and defend you on all sides but whilst we endeavour to defend you on one side they deceive and ruine you on another The rash and bold adventure of the Bishop of Meaux who hath told you in his Pastoral Letter That from the Apostles days to his no alteration has happened in the Doctrine of the Church hath engaged us that we may confound him to make you perceive the essential Changes which have been introduced both in its Doctrine and Worship at least in the first five Ages to the end that from thence you may judg of all the rest But whilst we pursue this design which cannot presently be executed I understand that they seduce you by the Sophisms of the Church of its Unity Visibility and the horror of Schism And that which grieves us most is that by the Letters which come or are communicated to us we see that the most part of you who are willing at any rate whatsoever to be at ease and rest where they are do also endeavour to possess themselves of and obstinately to maintain these wicked Reasons and it may be that one of you will know himself in the following words All the World reasons concerning Religion agreeably to their own Light and Passions But the Questions which do most trouble and confound it are these 1. The positive separation which our Fathers made 'T is said that we ought to suffer without separating from the Communion of the Church that the Abuses introduced by Governors may not be imputed to Believers But the Scriptures that make mention of the Heresies that must arrive in the Church do not command Separation for the sake of them On the contrary they exhort us mutually to bear with one another they say that Wood Hay and Stubble may be built on that foundation which is Christ Jesus and that he alone will separate one from the other that the good Grain and the Chaff shall be separated at the last day but we must let them grow together till then Behold exactly the Religion 1. Of our revolted Ministers There has been sent unto us an Account of a Conference which Cheyron an Apostate Minister of the City of Nismes had with the famous Confessor called Mr. Matthew an Advocate of Duras who is in the Town of Constance at Aggues-Mortes that which this Wretch says is the same with what hath been written and you have read 2. 'T is also the Religion of all those which have any understanding or illuminations they cannot but see that the Church of Rome is extremely corrupt But the question is say they whether we ought to separate from it because of its Corruptions yea they say we ought to bear them and add further after all there is but one true Church and although it be corrupt it is nevertheless the Church and we must endure its Diseases and Imperfections The Poyson of this illusion is so eating and dangerous that we have reason to fear that it continues long upon your Minds it will penetrate into them and totally corrupt them and so whilst we are pursuing other Subjects your hearts will be poysoned by this mischievous Sophism in that manner and to that degree that you will never recover This is it which obliges us to return to the Bishop of Meaux's Letter sooner than we intended Nevertheless without forsaking the subject matter we are upon for we will endeavour to intermix things in such a manner that in every one of our following
Words of Tertullian ill understood learn from the Example of St. Cyprian who lived in the same Age That Tradition was at that time a proof whereof Men made use according to the diversity of their Apprehensions and their Interests Tertullian seems to make great account of it and St. Cyprian laughs at it when on the subject of Hereticks which he would re-baptize contrary to the Practice of the Church they objected to him Tradition Custom ancient Usage and antique Practice he rejected these Proofs with Contempt and Scorn Stephen had written to him Let nothing be innovated in Tradition Where is this Tradition answers he ‖ Epist 74. is it in the Gospels in the Acts or in the Epistles An ancient Custom without truth is nothing but an old Error And in another Epistle he saith * Epist 63. Since we must hear none but Jesus Christ we need not examine what those that went before us have done but that which Jesus Christ hath done before all for we must not follow the Custom of Men but the Truth of God. To conclude they endeavour to put Scruples in your minds on the Question of the pretended Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Roman Church by certain Passages of Tertullian and St. Cyprian either corrupted or ill expounded But that is a business the discussion whereof is too long to be handled at this time yea 't is above the capacity of most of you only know that 't is so far from truth that they did acknowledge the Sovereign Authority of the Pope in that Age that Tertullian makes no scruple to scoff at the Pretensions of the Bishop of Rome and to call him in Raillery the Bishop of Bishops because of some kind of Primacy which he began to pretend to For even in that time the Mystery of Iniquity began to work St. Cyprian despises the Excommunications of Stephen Bishop of Rome and opposes himself to the attempt of those who would appeal to Rome about matters determined in the Provinces of Africa This is that St. Cyprian to whom some Persons attribute the Acknowledgment of the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome who said on the Question of the Baptism of Hereticks and of the Admission of Bishops which had lapsed and fallen †Epist 72. In which case we will do violence to no man nor will we give Law to others observing that every Bishop may use the Power given him according to his Will in the Government of the Church being under no Obligation to give an account thereof to any one but the Lord. 'T was to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Judge you whether he acknowledged him for his Superior Hear how the same Cyprian speaks in the face of a Council assembled at Carthage in the Year 258. Let none of us call himself Bishop of Bishops or endeavour to force his Collegues to a necessity of Obedience by a tyrannical fear and terror seeeng every Bishop is Master of himself and cannot be judged by another Bishop nor can he judge other Bishops 'T was also with respect to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Has any one the front to say That speaking thus he acknowledged him for his Superior Observe that it was no small Affair that was now under debate 't was about the Baptism of Hereticks a Question which had made a great noise and which Stephen would have decided with too much Authority The Bishop of Meaux after a hundred others of his Communion to prove the Primacy of the Pope by S. Cyprian quotes a Passage from his fifty second Epistle which proves that these Gentlemen do not fear to make themselves ridiculous provided they may seem to say somewhat 'T is a Passage where he pretends S. Cyprian says That the Roman Emperor did suffer in Rome a Priest which was his Rival with more impatience than he suffer'd a Caefar in his Armies which disputed the Empire with him That is to say that the Roman Emperors did impatiently suffer that the Bishop of Rome should be called High Priest to the prejudice of that Dignity which the Emperors assumed unto themselves So that according to this reckoning they were jealous of the Bishops of Rome and look'd upon them as their Rivals in the High Priesthood In truth this is more ridiculous than if one should say The King of England who calls himself Head of the English Church were jealous of the Curate of the Parish of St. Martin in London The Christians certainly were not above one in a hundred in Rome and the Bishops of Rome at that time made less Figure in the World than an Incumbent of five hundred Crowns per annum makes at this day for besides that they were Poor they were also humble What Agreement could the Emperor in quality of a Pagan High-Priest have with this pretended High-Priest of the Christians To be his Rival he must aspire to the same thing I should rather have chosen to have said That the Mufâ—i looks on the Patriarch of Constantinople as his Rival The meanest Scholar knows that the Word Aemulus which signifies Rival signifies also Enemy and 't is clear that S. Cyprian means that that cruel Persecutor the Emperor Decius beheld with more Indignation a Priest that opposed his Religion than he would have look'd upon an Enemy that had disputed the Empire with him To conclude although St. Cyprian should have intended to compare the Bishop of Rome with the Pagan High-Priest it would not follow that the Bishop of Rome was Head of all the Christians in the World for the Roman Priest was not Head but of the Religion of the City of Rome and not of the whole Empire 'T is true that St. Cyprian corrupted the Idea of the Church and opened a door to the most cruel Doctrine that ever was advanced he made a false Idea of the Unity of the Church which he encloses in one only external Communion And because the Unity of one visible Head was not yet invented he imagined I know not what Unity of Episcopacy which all the Bishops did individually possess whereof nevertheless they all administred but a part This inconsistent Imagination gave place afterwards for the Substitution of one single Head to the end that a visible Head might be given to the Unity of the visible Communion which might be the centre thereof This suffices to give you an Idea of the Christianity of the Third Age and by this History you may observe what was altered in Doctrine or Worship 1. They introduced the use of the Sign of the Cross at least in private for we find it not as yet in the publick Acts of Religion We have said nothing to you concerning it as yet because it is a little thing about which we should never make Complaints against any one provided they be not superstitious in the use of it 2. The Liturgy of the Sacrament of the Eucharist was augmented and increased exceedingly by many Prayers
of the Fourth and Fifth Ages The Original of Oecumenical Councils Seven Reasons against their Infallibility drawn from their Original An Article of Controversie The true Idea of Schism All those which are called Schismaticks are not out of the Church Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our god and Saviour Jesus Christ IN our preceding Letter we began the History of the Novelties which appeared in Christianity during the Fourth and Fifth Ages and the first which we found there was the Original of the Monastick Life The Second thing considerable to the Original whereof we ought to give attention in the Fourth and Fifth Ages are the Councils called General or Oecumenical Not as to the Original of a thing evil in it self but as to a thing of which ill use hath been made and of which they make a snare at this day for ignorant and feeble Minds The pretended Infallibility of the Church is the great Illusion by which they endeavour to deceive the new Converts They know not where to fix this Infallibility sometimes they fix it in the Pope and sometimes in a Council But the French Church by the Authority of the King hath declared her self boldly a little while since for the Infallibility of Councils against the Infallibility of the Pope for which reason 't is expedient that you here learn in a few words the History of the Birth of General Councils that you may understand the absurdity of the Principle upon which your Converters build You must therefore know my Brethren that the French Church not knowing assuredly where to place the Infallibility of the Church distinguisheth Councils into Diocesan Provincial National Oecumenick or General Diocesan Councils are those which the Bishop assembles where he reads his Ordinances to his Curates Provincial Councils are Assemblies of the Suffragan Bishops of one and the same Metropolitan National Councils are those where the Bishops of one or more Nations are Assembled They have not been so bold as to ascribe Infallibility to any one of these Assemblies but there are Councils of an higher Order which it pleases these Gentlemen to call Oecumenical or General Councils to which they ascribe Infallibility they are say they those in which the whole Vniversal Church is assembled When we ask them where is the Institution of these Assemblies in the Holy Scripture they cannot find the least foot-steps thereof I say the least 't is true they there find Assemblies of Believers of Pastors and Elders who considered Matters that were disputed We see one among others in the 15th Chapter of the Acts Some of the Apostles Elders and Brethren which were at Jerusalem assembled to advise about means to determin the Controversie which the Pharisees had raised in the Church concerning the necessity of observing the Law of Moses But it would be ridiculous to call a very small Assembly and very private a General Council where there appeared but three Apostles of thirteen and only the Clergy which happened to be then at Jerusalem When we continue to ask these Gentlemen where we must then take the Original of Oecumenical Councils they answer us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages of the Church and indeed they have reason for it The First of those Councils which bears this Name is that of Nice assembled by the Authority of Constantine in the year 325 to determine the Controversie of the Divinity of the Son against Arrius The Second was assembled by Theodosius the Elder in the year 381 to determine against Macedonius who denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit The Third was called together at Ephesus under the Empire of Theodosius the Younger in the year 431 against Nestorius who affirmed two Persons in Jesus Christ The Fourth was assembled in the year 451 by the Authority of the Emperour Martian against the Heresie of Eutyches who confounded the two Natures Behold four in 125 years or little more before this Men knew not what a General Council meant Now I intreat you my Brethren give attention to six or seven short Reflections which I shall make thereon that you may understand the great absurdity of affixing Infallibility to these kind of Assemblies this is at this time of the greatest importance to you You must throw to the ground this Phantome of Infallibility which serves as a support to all the Errors of Popery Now this Phantome knows not where to fix its foot and when you shall have forced it out of this last Entrenchment where your Converters have placed it you will see it vanish and disappear 1. Make reflection upon the silence of the Holy Scripture concerning it and see if there be any probability that the design of God was to establish a seat of Infallibility in certain Assemblies and that he should never speak a word thereof It must be granted that there is nothing in the World more important in Religion than this It is not enough that the Scripture hath established the Infallibility of the Church in general as they pretend for it would be in vain for God to say the Church is Infallible if we know not what this Church is where the seat of this Infallibility is placed and by what Mouth she ought to give her Oracles 'T is true they send you to Tradition for all that whereof the Scripture says nothing But this cannot be a Point for which we are to be sent to Tradition for this is the Foundation of Tradition it self Tradition is the consent of the Ancients and this consent is found in Councils All the Authority of Tradition is nothing at least before the Infallibility of Councils is established The Infallibility of Tradition is not in the testimony of single Persons of S. Austin S. Chrysostom c. for these single Persons were not infallible and as yet it has not been thought advisable to make them so 'T is therefore the Infallibility of Councils which alone can make Tradition certain Now Tradition is the second Rule of Faith equal in Authority to the Holy Scripture 't is therefore necessary at least that the Scripture hath given credential Letters to these Oecumenical Councils that their Authority and that of Tradition may be confessed and acknowledged This is not say I an Affair for which we are to be sent to Tradition as well because it is the most important Point of Christianity on which the Faith of the rest depends as because this were to send to Tradition to prove the Authority of Tradition it self which is absurd it is not absurd in the Scripture to have recourse to the Scripture it self to prove the Authority of the Scripture because it is the highest Principle and because there is nothing beyond it it must be that it prove it self But the Scripture is above Councils and Tradition and by consequence it is necessary that the Scriptures establish the Authority both of Tradition and Councils 2. I intreat you to observe that the Church continued three Hundred
the Title Attributes Privileges Powers and Homages which appertain to the Deity That the Worship of Images by which we prostrate our selves before Wood and Stone against an express Prohibition of the Law by which we adore that which is but Bread That the setting up a new real and true Sacrifice unknown to Jesus Christ and the Apostles That the taking the half of one Sacrament and the addition of five whole ones That to cover a superstitious Worship and bury it in a barbarous Language do you believe say I that all this is called Wood Hay and Stubble Doth not sound Sense tell you that Wood Hay and Stubble are light are trifling things but that they are not filthy and wicked and by consequence that it doth not represent any thing but light and trifling Doctrines but such as have nothing in them that is filthy or evil such as are besides the Word of God but not against it There is no Man which does not perceive this and he must be blinded by Interest not to see a thing so obvious and visible You have not therefore any reason to put the pernicious Doctrines of Popery amongst Wood and Hay and Stubble nor have you any Authority for it I do not know any Text of Scripture which may make you suspect that God is not jealous of seeing you give that Worship to Creatures which is due only to the Creator He hates Idolatry and defines it by giving his Honor to another As I live saith the Lord I will not give my glory to another Now are not Temples Sacrifices Prayers Vows Oaths and Altars the Honors due to God and by consequence they not of the number of those things of which he says I will not give my Glory to another Nevertheless in Popery they are given to the Saints and above all to the Blessed Virgin. You may fairly pluck out your eyes you cannot hinder your selves from seeing it and in what follows we shall have an opportunity to prove it Jesus Christ alone you add will make Separation of this Wood and this Gold the good and the fair Grain shall be separated at the last day but we must let them grew together till then I fear my Brethren that if you go on to blind your selves God will abandon you to your darkness You are strange Commentators on the Gospel Text you ought first to read the Interpretation which the Lord gives of the Parable before you give your own Behold it proceeding out of the Mouth of Jesus Christ He which sowed the good seed is the Son of Man the field is the World the good seed are the children of the Kingdom the Tares are the children of the wicked one The field is the World then 't is not the Church 't is therefore in the World that we ought to tolerate Hereticks and Idolaters and not in the Church But besides know two things 1. That Parables are good Proofs when we don't abuse them but 't is very easie to abuse them when Piety and Religion doth not guide us I compare you to your Converters who at this day press those Words of the Parable of the Marriage Supper so hard Constrain them to come in Behold their Text Let them grow together till the Harvest and then I will separate them behold yours The one and the other is unhappily wrested and turned to another sense because Men will not enter into the Spirit of the Parable which is the only thing essential and to which we must give attention to make a good use of Similitudes It is therefore necessary in the second place that you learn the design and inward meaning of those Words Let them grow together till the Harvest c. 'T is to shew the Patience of God towards the Wicked and not the Patience that we ought to have towards them God represents himself as a Master which hath Right to destroy the World and ruine both good and bad because that the Wicked are infinitely the greater number in the World than the Good. But he will not do it He stays to display his greatest Judgments upon the World till the last day when he will make a Separation of the Good from the Bad therefore he has no design to teach us that we must peaceably suffer Heresies and Idolatries to grow together with the Truth and I can prove it by a hundred Reasons but I will content my self to shew you that these Words Let them grow together c. cannot signifie Let Heresies grow together suffer them and live peaceably in a corrupt Church since the intention of God on the contrary is that with all our Strength we pluck up the Tares out of the Field of the Lord That he hath appointed us to say Anathema to him who shall preach any other thing to us than what hath been preached in the Gospel that we should avoid an Heretick that we should cast the Wicked out from among us that we should go out from Babylon and that we should not drink of the Cup of her Enchantments If the end of the Parable Let them grow together till the Harvest were that which you give to it we should have no right to drive from our Society neither the Vicious nor the Troublers of the Church nor any sort of Criminals A Magistrate might not hang a Murderer nor burn a Sodomite It might be always said unto him Let them grow together till the Harvest I may add to this that by the Tares which grew up with the good Grain we must understand Hypocrites and false Christians Now 't is true that we must have this kind of men and give them up to the judgment of God for he only perfectly knows them and hath the only right to punish them We will answer to the rest of your difficulties in the following Letter The Uniformity of the Persecution is the cause that we have less of History to furnish you withal 'T is always and every where the same Persons are imprisoned others are sent to the Gallies Women are shut up in Cloysters Bodies are drawn on Hurdles and thrown to the Dunghil so that it will be always the same thing there will be nothing but differing Names which may increase the horror which you have for the Persecution as you see the rage of your Persecutors increase for example in that kind of Executions which are made upon the Bodies of those which will not communicate in their last Sickness Was there not something singular in the Cruelty which was exercised on the Body of a Woman about 60 years of Age who died at Soubize the 16th of November in the Year past This Woman was called La Jarnat Widow of one named Rame fell sick about the end of the Month during her Sickness the Curate and the Officers of Justice employed Exhortations Threatnings Kindness and Terrors to obtain of her to communicate against her Conscience i. e. that she would damn her self with all possible care This poor
read the Continuation of the Cruelties which are exercised in Languedock you have there seen that they fill Vessels with Confessors to send them to America The last News from that Country doth inform us That two of these Vessels are gone for Martinique and among other eminent persons there is Monsieur the Barron of Verliac with Madam his Wife but with this augmentation of Cruelty that they have put then in divers Vessels to the end that whether they liâ—â— or die in the Voyage they may be no Consolation to each other Monsieur Matthew an Advocate of Durass of whom we have spoken heretofore one of our most illustrious Confessours is also of that number How sad soever the lot of these exiled Confessours which are carried into another World I do not think that they have so much reason to complain as those that abide in the Kingdom For the most cruel Hang-men remain there to put the Constancy of those which persevere in their Religion to the utmost tryal Above all Rapine continuing in France the New World cannot boast to have a more cruel Tormentor This Monster nevertheless would be very proper to revive the Cruelties which the Spaniards exercised heretofore upon the poor Indians We have promised you a History of the horrible Actions of this Villane and we will not fail to give it you when it shall be sent unto us We thought even at this time to have given you the memorable History of the Martyrdom of which he caused Monsieur Menuret to suffer the most illustrious Martyr it may be that the Church hath ever seen and also the History of some other Women martyred by the same Rapine the most cruel Rrascal in the World But this Letter which comes to be communicated to us must go before it it comes very opportunely to acquaint you with the News of the Confessors which are sent to America and whereof we speak but now From Cadez April 17th 1687 MOnsieur I don't doubt but you are informed of what passes in France with respect to our Families which groan under the Yoak of cruel Persecution but it may be you are not yet informed of a new kind of Persecution which they have lately invented After they had tired out the Constancy of an infinite number of unhappy persons for seeing that they had made no farther progress in the Work of Conversion they send them to the Islands of America in the King's ships to be sold to them who give most for them These things are an abhorrence of Nature that those who are called Christians should sell other Christians for Money 't is a thing that was never heard of till this miserable Age in which we live The Tears which I have and do pour out every moment permits me not to tell you all that I have seen being accompanied by Monsieur your Son and an Officer which escaped and is now in our Vessel a tempestuous Wind hath caused us to put in and refresh our selves in the Haven of Almaria which is in the Kingdom of Granada and hath kept us there five Weeks and every day we see Vessels arrive there from some Nation or other which this tempestuous season doth oblige to seek some place of safety On the sixth of April a Vessel bearing the Admiral 's Flag of France arrived there As soon as the stormy season was over Monsieur the Count of Stirum sent one of his Lieutenants to the said French Vessel to inform himself whence it came and whither it went we learnt that it came from Marseilles and that it went to carry them for Slaves to America This obliged me to desire a Challoupe that I might satisfie myself in the doubt wherein I was suspecting there might be in it men of our Religion and indeed it proved two true After we had been on Board the French Vessel they brought us a Collation and soon after we saw some Gentlewomen appear upon whose Countenances Death was drawn who came upon the Deck to take the Air We asked them upon what account they went to America they answered us with an Heroick Constancy Because they would not Worship the Beast nor Prostrate ourselves before Images Behold say they our Crime We enquired of them if there were any from Cevennes they answered there was two from thence the one of fifteen the other of sixteen years of Age who were below and they were of a Village called St. Ambrose This increased my Curiosity to see them the one was sick unto Death the other was with her to assist her in what she could At my desire the Captain granted that she who was not sick should come up as soon as she appeared on the Deck I well perceived that her countenance was not unknown to me Monsieur your Son askt her Made-moiselle from whence are you She said I am from St. Ambrose What is your Name I am named Peirique I needed no more to assure me that they were my Cosin Germaines I had resolved to permit her to speak a while but the tears which began to run from my eyes would not suffer it I drew near to her and said Madam do you not know me At that very moment casting her eye upon me falling on my neck she said Is it possible my dear Cosin that I should see you once again in my Misfortunes She added a hundred other things so affecting that there was not a person in the Ship which did not pour out a river of tears at least of those who had the guard and keeping of them I desired leave of the Captain to see her Sister which was not able to come upon the Deck which he freely graâ—â—ed me I was no sooner below but I saw fourscore Women or Maids lying upon Matts overwhelmed with Miseries my mouth was stopped and I had not one word to say They told me the most moving things in the World and instead of giving them Consolation they comforted me and I not being able to speak they told me with one common voice We put our hands upon our mouths and say that all things come from Him who is King of Kings and in Him we put our trust On the other fide we saw a hundred poor miserable persons oppressed with old Age whom the torments of Tyrants had reduced to their last gasp We saw there of all sorts of all ages and of all qualities for they spare none They told me when they left Marseilles they were two hundred and fifty persons Men Women Girls and Boys and that in fifteen days eighteen of them died There is but one Gentlewoman that is of Poictou all the rest are of Nismes or Mompellier and the Countries in the Neighbourhood thereof A Country-man who lived about a League and half from St. Ambrose who had suffered all that he could suffer upon whom these Barbarians could gain nothing was put on board among others and is since dead in the Harbour of Granada his Son who was in the same Ship
many passages to prove Transubstantiation says that (d) Mistagog 4. under the Figure of Bread is given to us the Body and under the Figure of Wine is given to us the Blood. And St. Gregory Nazianzen saith (e) Orat. 42. that we are made partakers of the Passover but always figuratively altho' our Passover be much more clear than that of the ancients for the legal Passover I dare say was a dark Figure of another Figure i.e. of the Eucharist St. Jerome saith (f) In Jerem. cap. 3. lib. 2. advers Jovin that the Figure of the Blood of Jesus Christ is made with Wine and elsewhere that Jesus Christ hath offered not Water but Wine for the Figure of his Blood. Theodoret saith (g) Dialog 3. 1. that the Eucharist is the Figure of the Passion and that the Sacred Nourishment is the Figure of his Body and his Blood. In these Passages the Ancients make use of the word Type which exactly signifies Figure They have also expressed the Nature of the Sacrament by the word Antitype which signifies an opposite Figure or a Figure that has respect unto the thing signified as one Pillar answers to another which is placed just over against it So the Author of the Constitutions attributed to the Apostles saith (a) Lib. 5. cap. 13. that our Lord gave to his Disciples the Mysteries which are the Figures answering to his precious Body and Blood and that we celebrate the Figures answering to the Body and Blood of our Lord. In the Liturgy ascribed to St. Basil 't is said (b) Lib. 6 29. we beseech thee by offering the Figures of the Body and Blood of thy Christ St. Cyril of Jerusalem saith (c) Mystag 5. that we taste the Figures answering to the Body and Blood of our Lord. Theodoret saith (d) Dialog 2. that the Divine Mysteries are the Figures answering to the true Body Can any thing be more express than all this unless it be what we see with our eyes In proper terms they tell us that the Sacrament in nothing but an Image Eusebius Bishops of Cesarea saith (e) Demonst lib. 8. That Jesus Christ commanded his Disciples to make the Image of his own Body Procopius upon Genesis saith (f) Cap. 49. that Jesus Christ gave to his Disciples the Image of his Body And Pope Gelasius or some Author of the same Age saith (g) Gelas de duabus nat certainly the Image or the Similitude of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is celebrated in the Mystery This therefore shews us plain enough what we ought to believe concerning Jesus Christ our Lord even that which we profess that which we celebrate and that which we receive in his Image I do not think that Zuinglius and Calvin have spoken more plainly and significantly To conclude they call the Bread and the Wine Symbols a word which every one knows signifies as much as the word Figure Eusebius saith * Demonst lib. 1. cap. 10. We have learnt to make a Memorial of this Sacrifice upon the Table with the Symbols of his Body and Bloud And St. Chrysostom ‖ Hom. 83. in Matth. If Jesus Christ be not dead of what are the consecrated things the Symbols And Theodoret * 1 Cor. c. 11. When we shall have the presence of our Lord we shall have no more need of the Symbols of his Body Nothing is so common in the Fathers as these Expressions To partake in the Symbols of our Lord to take the Symbols to burn the Symbols c. These same Fathers do give us the same Reasons of the Names Body and Bloud which are give to the Bread and Wine that we our selves give of them 'T is because they are the effectual Representations of the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ If the Sacraments saith St. Austin †Epist 23. ad Bonifac. had no resemblance of those things whereof they are Sacraments they would be no Sacraments and 't is because of this Resemblance that they take the name of the things themselves as in the Sacrament of the Body of Jesus Christ the Sacrament of his Body and of his Bloud are in some sort his Body and Bloud It seems to me that a person must be prodigiously blind to believe that he which speaks thus does not think as we do The same St. Austin saith elsewhere * Serm. ad Infantes apud Bertram How is the Bread his Body and that which is in the Cup his Bloud My Brethren these things are called Sacraments because 't is one thing that is there seen and another thing which is understood that which is seen is a corporeal Species and that which is understood is a spiritual Benefit and Advantage To what end does he take this compass of discourse and why does he not answer without scruple 'T is because the Body of Christ Jesus is really there after the words of Consecration An Article of Controversie An Answer to the Prejudices which some persons have raised against our Separation from the Actions the Conduct and the Personal Qualities of the Authors thereof WE have finished our Answer to the Sophisms which they propose unto you on the subject of our Separation by making it evident to you that it does not hazard your salvation that it was necessary and that it was just But before we pass to other Questions which respect the Church we must say something concerning those who made this Separation for 't is the most fruitful Source and Fountain of Illusions and a Subject of perpetual Harangues and Declamations And this we owe especially to a Woman of Quality among those which are called new Converts who places the little Edification that our Reformers have given to the World or rather the Scandal which they have given to it by their Conduct and Divisions as one of the Reasons which hath most affected her and prevailed on her to embrace the Roman Religion 'T is a subject on which an infinite number of Books have been made to which I might send you were it not that Books are taken from you for the most part besides my designe being to spare you the labour of reading great Books I am to abridge and reduce what our Authors have said thereon to the compass and extent of a Letter Behold then the Accusations which they form against the Authors of the Separation which I have justified in my preceding Letters 1. That these pretended Reformers did no Miracles to support their extraordinary Mission and their new Gospel 2. That they led a scandalous life and such as had no conformity with the Spirit of a Reformed Gospel which they boasted to bring into the World. 3. That there appears in their Expressions a dark Malignity and an implacable Hatred against the Roman Church and that their Books are full of cruel Injuries both against the Roman Religion and against its Doctors a thing absolutely contrary to the Spirit of Charity 4.
double Adultery against Christ Jesus These are pitiful Declamations according to my apprehension To judge of the nature of these Actions we must know what were the Principles of those who did them Why should they observe Celibacy since they lookt upon it as a Yoak of which they desired to deliver the Clergy because it had produced a world of Impurities and Abominations so that a Deluge was not capable of purging them They have broken their Vows They were unlawful Vows made under a tyrannical Empire conceived in a false Religion unacceptable to God because they served as a Vail to an infinite number of Corruptions and at the same time to a debaucht and hypocritical life They forsook Babylon and it behoved them to forsake all the Badges thereof This kind of life which under an appearance of Piety hides such great Disorders is the true Character of the Beast These Monks are those Hypocrites whose Consciences are seared as with a hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God hath permitted which teach a Doctrine of Devils and serve as a Support to the Throne of the Beast So that these Reformers being delivered from the tyrannical Yoak of this unhappy Empire ought to return to the enjoyment of all their Rights and of all their Liberty and being put in the possession of it they may and ought to use it There needs but one thing to confound all these Calumniators who are willing to stain and blacken the Lives of the Authors of our Reformation What have these Reformers gained what have they gotten to do the work of Impostors Have they gained Riches Honours or great Dignities Have they left great Houses have they left Heirs and Children that were great Lords Never did persons despise their own Interests more than they did they never got wherewithal to be buried decently and scarcely got wherewith to live Their Zeal Firmness Constancy and Perseverance joyned with a contempt of their own Interest make up a Character very opposite to that of dishonest men If they had been debauched effeminate Lovers of Pleasure why did they go out of the Body of the Roman Clergy who enjoyed all the pleasures of the flesh even those which were most infamous with so much convenience and advantage These Gentlemen say that the principal reason which gave such success to the New Gospel was the licentiousness of the Church-men and the Monks of that Age. This is it which that same Lady does confess who makes the ill Conversation of the Authors of our Separation one cause of her return to the Church of Rome But this Confession and this Truth which is publickly known doth it not utterly ruine the Accusation which the Papists make against our Reformers Is there any probability that the great number of people which forsook the Roman Church being scandalized by the wicked Lives of its Guides should list themselves under the Ensigns of other wicked persons which were no better than those they had forsaken If they were not vicious and debaucht at least say they they were fierce proud Lovers of themselves passionate ambitious vain and violent These are stroaks striken in the Air and Accusations which make it evident they have nothing to say Concerning Ambition there doth not appear any footstep thereof in their Conversation And that which they call Pride and Fierceness is according to us Zeal and Vigour in the maintenance of Truth as we shall make it appear in examining the third Accusation The third Accusation is that it 's evident the Authors of our Separation were inspired with a dark Malignity against the Roman Church they vomited out against her say they flouds of Injuries and every-where is to be seen a Character of black Gholer which discharges it self both upon their Persons and Religion They support and strengthen this Accusation by the Confession of some Protestants who were of another frame and temper of mind and did not approve those methods of proceedure that were so full of flame and fire I answer That Grace which changes mens Manners does not change their Temper and Constitution but governs and serves it self thereof Although it should be true that there appeared a great deal of fire in the Authors of our Reformation that would be no sufficient cause to condemn them it being the temper of all Great men And this temper is of so great necessity for the execution of great things that without it 't is very difficult to carry on and prosecute great Designs and Enterprizes This is a thing unto which those men have too little regard which at this day do so highly commend and advance the Elogies of sweetness and moderation in Controversies and who perswade us to imitate other Great men who are of a quite contrary Character and temper of Mind If these honest men of this last Order that is to say these soft and moderate men had been born in the past Age and had been engaged in that great Work they had neither maintained nor carried it so far as did those men the heat of whose Temper they would fain make a Crime If Luther had not had a heart fearless and of inconceivable courage he had never been able to bear up against the Torrent of Contradictions and Oppositions that he met withal and repelled Father Paul the famous Venetian Divine who became famous on occasion of the Affair of the Interdict of that Republick knew assuredly the Corruption of the Roman Church at least as well as Luther He made no secret of it no eminent Protestant passed by Venice to whom he did not discover himself concerning it They often represented to him that he was obliged in Conscience to break with a Church the Impurity and Idolatry whereof he so well understood He had a thousand Reasons to offer on his own behalf sometimes that he separated the good from the bad sometimes that he was of use to a thousand persons that lay hid and had good sentiments at last when he was pressed hard he would say that God had not given to him the Heart and Spirit of Luther It is certain that if Father Paul had been of the Temper and Spirit of Luther Venice had been at this day what Geneva is And it is also certain that if Luther Zuinglius and Calvin had been of the Temper and Spirit of Father Paul all Europe had been yet what Venice is at this day It behoves us therefore to admire the great and profound Wisdom of God who chose for so great a Work men whose Temper was fit to maintain improve and exercise Zeal effectually To this Consideration add another the Authors of our Reformation have indeed spoken ill of the Church of Rome of its Priests of its High-Priest of its Monks and its Guides And why might they not speak ill of them I do maintain that they said nothing but what was true they could scarcely speak too much ill of Popery They said that the Church
mouth because he sees some Fruits useful for nourishment swim in this slime can he live thereby Yea suppose that he eats of these Fruits if at the same time he eats this corrupt slime will he die e're a whit the less If this man finds an Art to separate the slime from the nourishments which swim there so that he take nothing but the nourishments I do confess that he may live In like manner if a Christian can live in the Roman Communion and separate the good from the bad he may be saved But this is that which we do maintain to be impossible at this time for the adult These corrupt and dirty Communions are therefore saving to those alone who partake in Christianity without any participation in the corruption thereof For example We ought not to call in doubt the salvation of Infants which die in the Church of Rome for they have eaten the Egg God hath communicated to them his Grace by their Baptism or their Birth because they were born within the borders of Christianity As for the adult if they can eat the Egg and not swallow the Dung if they can partake in pure Christianity without taking part in its corruption they may I do confess live and be saved in that Communion But this is the difficulty or rather impossibility Who is he that can live in the Roman Communion without assisting at the false Sacrifice of the Mass without worshipping Bread consenting to the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Images This is enough at present to disabuse our unhappy Indifferents who would very falsly perswade themselves that they may be saved in the Estate wherein they are FOR News we give you this day a Letter which will teach you the Constancy of some of our Confessors of Dauphine We have yet in Dauphine some Illustrious Persons which maintain the Cause of God in the midst of their Enemies There is Mr. de l' Alo of the House of Epheluche a Counsellor in the Parliament of Dauphine who being at Paris in 1685. and refusing to change his Religion was banished with Madam his Wife into a paltry Village where he could not get so much as one person that would serve him for his money After that they had been kept there some months Madam de l'Alo fell into very great indispositions they sent her into Dauphine and removed Mr. de l'Alo to the Castle of Trompette where he was confined within four Walls without suffering him to have any other society than that of a Monk who went every day to torment him after a thousand ways and when he could gain nothing he left him and said to him He must make himself ready to be transported to the Pyrenees This is it that he wrote to one of the Gentlemen his Brethren about six months since testifying to him That he reckoned all that he had suffered as nothing or any thing that he could suffer and that he would never abandon the Faith which he had professed to that moment Monsieur the Marquiss of Pierre also a Counsellor in the Parliament of Grenoble is one of our most Illustrious Confessors he was extreamly famous in his Religion as well as in his Employ so that his Zeal went an equal pace with his Knowledge and both the one and the other hath gained him great Reputation among his Brethren The Court which fear'd he might confirm them if he were suffered among them commanded him to render himself at Paris by a Letter under the Privy Sign which they sent him a little before the Dragoons came into that Province This Lord who was not conscious to himself of any fault and who had long before prepared himself to suffer not only the loss of his Office and of all his Goods and to beg from door to door with Madam his Wife and the Gentlemen his Sons but also to lose his Head upon a Scaffold yea to be burnt alive rather than betray his Saviour yea to be burnt alive rather than betray his Saviour as he said in these very words to a Pastor of his Province It was to him who gave us this Intelligence about three weeks before he received that Letter under the Privy-Sign He was in that generous resolution when he went for Paris in the month of August with one of the Gentlemen his Sons Arriving at Paris he addressed himself to the Ministers of State to know the cause of that Summons that they had given him But they said nothing to him He abode at Paris about six months without having any thing said to him at the last they proposed to him to change his Religion he refused it They took from him Monsieur his Son who was all his comfort and said to him that the King would have him brought up in the Roman Catholick Religion This was the most smart stroak of all the rest He resolved to depart from Paris he went thence with Mr. de Vic and some other Gentlemen They were arrested at Laudrecy the other for â—ear changed their Religion Mr. de la Pierre would not do so There was an Order from the King to convey him to the Citadel of Cambray and thither he was conveyed A Counsellor of the Parliament of Tournay had a Commission to examine him and to make his Process He answered him always with a perfect freedom of mind and unmovable firmness The Commissary told him that he deserved the Gallies for attempting to go out of the Realm without leave and that he could not hinder his condemnation He answered him That he was ready not only to go to the Gallies but also to death We have not yet learnt that he hath been condemned He continues a Prisoner but always stout and firm We must put in the Rank of our Illustrious Confessors Madam de Bardonnanche Wife of a Counsellor in the Parliament of that Name and Vicountess of Trienes in Dauphine This Lady who was formerly distinguished by her great Knowledge above all in Piety and by her Eminent Vertues as well as by her great Quality is now distinguished after another manner in these last Tryals About four years since she saw that revolt of her Husband which she testified by a great Grief Since that they took from her one of her Daughters to bring her up in the new Religion of her Father she was more wounded for this then for the loss of her Husband In fine she saw the last and great Desolation of our Churches But all this hath not the least moved her nor frighted her in any sort When that the Dragoons had put all into Dispair in her Country and the rest of the Province she boldly exhorted every one to be firm and as a Pastor of her acquaintance it was he who wrote her Story bad her to think of departing out of the Kingdom because she saw her self unprofitable there the Edict of Nantes was not revoked She wrote to him that she must not be one of those Mercenaries who seeing
you defend Call to mind our glorious Ancestors and their Sufferings and say they were not Fools and desperate persons when they sufiered for the same Truths that I defend On the contrary they were full of Piety good Understanding and Zeal I will therefore imitate them and not be troubled at the Judgment that the Men of the World shall make concerning it Endeavour to get a Bible or a New Testament it matters not what Translation it be it will be always sufficient for your Consolation If this Letter come to your hands inform me if possible where your dear Wife is to the end that I may comfort her She it a good Woman and I have always esteemed and loved her and I hope God will have pity on her Farewel my dear Brother Mademoiselle de P your Sister is well I communicated to her your Letter for her Consolation Do not fear lest we should forget you in our Prayers Do not forget us in yours Pray to God to preserve this small Country in which there are so many of his Children Your Prayers proceeding out of Irons will be more effectual than ours The Grace of our Lord Jesus be with you Amen From the Tournelle July 2. 1687. I Have received that which you did me the honor to write it hath been a great Consolation to me and I did not expect less from so faithful a servant of God as you are It hath not only edified and confirmed me but it may produce the same effect upon some few others to whom we have thought fit to communicate it I have not the satisfaction to read it as often as I have desired and do yet desire I have not read it but in secret because of the difficulty of getting any thing from abroad without the knowledge of our Guards I return you thanks for the care you have had of representing so much to the life what I ought to fear and hope in the condition and state wherein I am I had already formed to my self Ideas sufficiently clear of those things and thanks be to God your good advice hath impressed them more strongly upon my Heart so that I have reason to hope that with help from on high God will finish that good Work that he hath begun in me and that my Sufferings shall end in his Glory my own Salvation and the Edification of my Brethren When I make reflection upon the merciful conduct of God towards me I am ravished in admiration thereof and cannot find words sufficient to testifie my sense of them and my acknowledgment for them There are few Prayers that I make which are not accompanyed with tears of joy when I make mention of them As soon as our Churches were shut up in the Province where I lived and that pretious liberty lost which now we breath after God put it into my Heart to go and search it at Lixim where yet they did enjoy it and a few days after we were deprived of it there as well as elsewhere without staggering I put my self to find it among Strangers forsaking with courage and joy all the accommodations of Life which we enjoyed in France In these Travels and in the different Prisons and Dungeons through which the providence of God led me I have been preserved from violent temptations which have made almost all our Brethren fall and which would not have failed to have born me down with the first For the imprisonments that I have suffered this day seven months compleat are a small matter in comparison of those terrible tryals and nevertheless I have not been without giving some marks of my weakness The tears of a Wife and Family which are dear to me and which could not shake me at Strasburgh joyned to those of two Brother-in-Laws which came to see me at Chalons prevailed with me to accept certain propositions which were made to me by two persons the most considerable of that Province but a few days after God having shewed me my fault and presented me an occasion to repair it I embraced it with Zeal Joy and Tears and the Father of Mercies that knows how to bring light out of darkness made use of my infirmities to give me that vigor and firmness that I have had ever since This gives me ground to hope that he will continue this favour to me to the end and that he will always proportion his Gifts and Graces to the tryals whereunto he shall please to expose me for that which was done not being executed other offers were afterwards made unto me which touched me less than the former and I rejected them without any deliberation wherewithal they were so provoked that on the morrow I was put in the Dungeon Thirteen days before my Condemnation being in the Prison at Paris one of my friends Tutor to the Children of the King and Madam de Mortespan with his Majesties leave came to see me he proposed to me that I should go eight or ten months to the Bishop de Meaux to be instructed so they speak here I soon returned him thanks and assured him that time was not capable of changing my Illuminations and Persuasions and that I did believe that Monsieur de Meaux would give me no more satisfaction than other Ecclesiasticks that I had seen It is about eight days since that M. Morel le Riche Partisan sent me word that he would take me out of my Chains on the morrow if I would take time and that undetermined faithfully to imploy for my Instâ—uction and did assure me that the promise that should be made me should be faithfully observed 'T was Le which spake to me in his Name I prayed him to go quickly and tell M. Morel that I was sensibly affected with the kindness that he testified towards me and that I made him all the acknowledgments imaginable and gave him my humble thanks but I was resolved to expiate my fault by suffering the penalties to which I was condemned I give you this particular account of things M. that you may know the Disposition of my Soul. The manner after which I suffer and the bright side on which God causes me to behold all my Evils persuade me that he will do me the favour to be faithful to him even to the death I do not fix my consideration on the estate in which I am which is much more uneasie to all those that see it than to my self I carry it only to those Recompences that God has promised to those that fear his Name I am certain that the light Afflictions wherewithal he is pleased to visit me will produce in me according to his promises a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory I comfort my self on this that the Sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in us I assure my self of what S. James says Blessed is he that endureth temptation when he is tryed for he shall receive the crown of
Banville the best Voice of our Church whose back was near the Crucifix remained there as dead and was there a long time without feeling sight or knowledge it is not known whether he can be recovered for they say to day that all his back is burnt and that he vomits his entrails The Gentlemen of the Chapter take all possible care of him As it was the first Thursday of the Month immediately after the Mass of the Sacrament the Church was extreamly full very many swoon'd and were carried off without knowledge The Church appeared for sometime all on a fire and filled with a thick black smoak and a very stinking savour It would take more time than I have to make you an exact Picture of our Misfortunes I was in the Chapter-house upon the Tower close by the place where the Thunder fell I thought it necessary to write to my Lord of St. Malo at Beignon five Leagues from hence to have his Orders and Advice upon this whole matter Our Express went thither in a few hours and my Lord came hither on Horse-back with two or three only of his men where a great and famous Procession was prepared against the Afternoon at which all the body of the Religions were to attend at three of the Clock Behold the Advertisements which God has given us which afford fair occasion for Reflections Adieu I am wholly yours About two hundred years ago the Thunder fell nigh the same place It is not safe in this Age to entertain the Publick with Prodigees and yet much less to draw Consequences and Presages thence nevertheless this speaks so loud that he must be as deaf as a rock that hears not The Thunder almost without any Tempest falls into the Church attacks the Images breaks the Crucifix goes directly to three Priests saying Mass at three different Altars burns the Ornaments of the Altars consumes the Blood of Jesus Christ as they call it in one of the Chalices overturns the other imprints the mark of a Pistol-shot on the Pattin kills the most famous Singer fills the Church with a most horrible stink Behold enough it needs no Commentary Mr. Simon had reason to say that these are Advertisements from God which give fair occasion for Reflections We desire these Gentlemen at the same time to do so upon that which happened at Paris upon Corpus-Christi day which we will report also as it hath been written by an infinite number of persons The last Corpus-Christi day in this Year 1687. in most places it was as calm as any Summer-day could be On the contrary it was very tempestuous almost throughout all France they could not make their Processions at Montpellier and other places of Languedoc because of the Rain And the same Tempest was also at Paris The Sacrament being brought out of the Church of St. Saviour had not gon far when the Wind or a Blow from Heaven smote down the Pix or Box in which the consecrated Host was carried to the ground It fell into the Water and Dirt the Vessel opened and the Host fell out and mingling with the Dirt was confounded and moistened by it And all the care which they could take to restore it by taking away the Dirt the Water and pieces of the Ground that stuck to it could not hinder it from suffering the utmost indignities Let him that please make Reflections I cannot forbear observing it as a visible Judgment from God and as a Presage In the greatest of the Popish Festivals in the greatest City where Bread-worship reigns in the going out of a Church which bears one of the Names of Jesus Christ and which ought not to be given to any thing but himself the Idol of Bread fell with its face on the ground and was buried in the Mire Behold a third Matter of Fact which is not less notorious it is the burning of the great Church of Rochel this Church was formerly the great Church of the Reformed They took it away from them after the Siege and taking of the City Every one knows that the day on which the Inhabitants made a Bon-fire the fire took hold on this large and fair Church none knows how nor where and that it was consumed the Lead was melted and all the Vaults burnt without being able to quench it there is something singular in the event the day and the occasion and 't is impossible not to see the finger of God therein God grant that it may signifie that the Life and Health of the King may not be so favourable to the Persecutors as they hope If you would have Matters of Fact like that of St. Malo behold here are some There happened one at God-derville in the Country of Caux upon Corpus-Christi day as the Inhabitants discharged their Muskets to the Honour of the Sacrament the fire took hold of some Houses and ran in such a manner that there was more than 80 burnt down On the third day of July the very same day that the Thunder fell upon the Church of St. Malo at Seven of the Clock at Night the Thunder likewise fell upon the Church of a Place called Pouille situated in Normandy carried away the Weather-cock from the Steeple entered into the Church and burnt all the Altars It also fell at Bâ—yeux in Lower Normandy upon a Steeple where it killed twenty five persons In the Suburbs of St. Gervas of Roan It carried away the Roof of a Garden-house belonging to the Curate of the Parish It must be confessed that the Thunder hath done much this Year to Churches and all things belonging thereunto After these notorious Matters of Fact which speak so loud it may be permitted us to report two others contained in a Memorial which was sent us from Poictou by a very honourable person The Memorial AT Jaseneuil in Poitou there happened this which follows while Mr. Marillac did such mischiefs in the said Province A Peasant by Name Bardon married to a Wife of the Roman Catholick Persuasion who pressed him vehemently to change his Religion meeting the Curate of the place in the Field suffered himself to be persuaded to go to Mass and to change his Religion Which when he had done he immediately repented thereof greatly as he said to one of his Neighbours whom he found as he returned home and being come to his House while his Spirit was in disorder instead of opening his Lock he hampered it in such sort that he was forced to send for a Locksmith to take it off when the Door was open he saw all the Chamber on fire and he crying out Fire five or six of his Neighbours ran with his Wife and altogether saw this miraculous Fire which filled all the Chamber and burnt nothing and in the end disappear'd This Man some days after fell sick praying God without ceasing that he would give him the grace that he might never return to the Mass and to this purpose that he would take him out of the World and
because that he well saw that his only Son would be forced to follow that Religion in which he began to be engaged he prayed God to take his Son out of the World and that he might see him die before he died himself Two days after the Son fell sick and in two days he died in the presence of his Father and the Father himself died the day after rendring a thousand Thanks to God that he had heard his Prayer and that he had taken them both out of this World to give them a better Life I learnt this Story from St. Maixent the 10th of August 1684. from two persons worthy of credit viz. the Husband and Wife who had a Child nursed by the Wife of the said Bardon he which made me the Report of this Matter is called Mr. Lavergnac Master of the Grange of the Village of Luzignan in Poitou a person of good credit and full of zeal for Religion his Wife also being present In the Year 1685. the 20th of January a Woman of Jonzac in Saintonge called Susan de Lisle the Wife of Boynard a Glover being with Child as she was in her House sitting upon a Settle by the Window rising up she felt that her Child stretcht it self in her Womb and at the same time she heard it utter a very extraordinary cry and a little after this Infant having again moved it self cried out about a quarter of an Hour with the true Voice of an Infant whereupon the Mother was much frighted and called some persons to help her she having then no body with her but her own Daughter about nine Years old who having plainly heard this cry said to her Mother my little Brothâ—r crys in in your belly this Child was born three Months and nineteen Days after this it was baptized at Linieres by Mr. Couyer Pastor of the said place and was a very vigorous Child and grew in six Months time twice as much as it ought to do We have learnt this story from Liniers from the mouth of the Mother of this Woman and from the Daughter which was present and from the Husband of the God-mother of the Child From Martinique the 24th of May 1687. MOnsieur Poysonnel who commanded a Frigate from Marseille which had taken two hundred Maids and Women and almost as many Gally slaves to bring hither was lost three days since as he was coming into this Town The whole number of persons which were on board the Vessel were 320 and were all drowned as 't is said excepting 30 of the Soldiers and Mariners This was by the imprudence of the Pilots God hath given rest to these poor miserable Creatures This Note teacheth us the sad and glorious end of the Confessors which we spake of to you Others write that this Shipwreck was by command because the Wind was very fair to bring them into the Haven of the Isle and that all the Soldiers and Mariners were saved As for me I will not prejudice the Spirits of men concerning this Fact it being an Action so enormous This is certain that God was pleased to deliver these blessed Confessors and snatch them from the cruel slavery which they had prepared for them August 1. 1687. The Twenty fourth PASTORAL LETTER That the Church of Rome is not visible and that she has no mark which makes her visible A confutation of those Means whereof Mr. Nicholas pretends to serve himself to make his Church visible Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ BEfore we pass to another part of the Controversie about the Church and leave the Question concerning its perpetual visibility and after examination of the visibility of the Church in general 't is needful that we take cognizance of the visibility of the Roman Church in particular 'T is needful that you say to your Converters since 't is so that the Church is always visible and that you are the Church help us to see her in and by what is the Roman Church visible If they shew you great Churches full of Men that pray and adore which hear Vespers and Mattins who prostrate themselves before Wafers and Images you will answer this is not to shew me the Church For if I were at Constantinople a Turk would shew me his Mosques all full of Worshippers which cry there is but one God and Mahomet is his Prophet Tell them If you please to go to London I will shew you the Church in England as you shew it me in France I will shew you great Churches full of men which pray and adore which prostrate themselves before God who pray and understand what they pray for 'T is unavoidable therefore that you shew me not Men and heaps of Stones which are called Churches but sensible and visible marks that Popery is the true Religion of Jesus Christ and that the Church of Rome is the true Church Add to this that the marks which they give you ought to be suitable to your capacity i. e. the capacity of plain persons and without learning For the space of twelve or fifteen Years the Popish Doctors of France have changed the Controversie this way The business is not to instruct the learned 't is acknowledged on both sides that the multitude and greater part of the Church is composed of men without learning and of plain people which must be saved as well as the more able From henceforth therefore it is necessary to furnish a means to the common people to inform them of the truth in matters of controversie and a means altogether suitable to their weakness Particularly in this Controversie Whether the Church of Rome hath certain and evident marks of her truth which make her visible For 't is an important Affair and which the weakest ought to understand It is certain that a Church cannot be visible in quality of a Church by any other means than what they call her marks of this we are at an agreement We must therefore see whether the Church of Rome hath those marks which may make the weakest perceive she is a true Church I will not here ingage you in that Labyrinth of Disputes which the Doctors of the Church of Rome have formed about the marks of that Church 'T is their manner to bury the truth under a prodigious heap of useless words and obscure questions I will not examine the sixteen marks which Bellarmine has given nor the forty which others have produced You cannot read those Books nor are they those which they put into your hands and since that time they are become more able in Sophistry Mr. Nicholas who is the last that hath laboured on this Subject has employed three Chapters to prove that the Church of Rome is very visible even to the most weak and plain In the first of these three Chapters he says * Chap. 17 18 19 of the 1st Book The Reformed convinced of Schism That a man may