in Christ Jesus confounded the two Natures that he might not separate them and these two Schisms have continued for 1200 years and do continue to this day In the Tenth Age happened the great Schism of the Greek Church from the Latin. The Church of Rome it self has had an infinite number of Schisms in her own Bowels occasioned by her Anti-Popes And the greatest which may serve for a Rule for all was the great Schism of Popes and Anti-Popes whereof the one sat at Rome and the other at Avignon This Schism divided the West into two different Parties under two distinct Heads To conclude in these last times a great Schism is happened in the Latin Church which is divided into three great Bodies the Papists the Lutherans and the Reformed I pass by an infinite number of little Schisms which have been in the East between Church and Church and oftentimes among the Members of the same Church Two Bishops were seen for a long time at Antioch the Party of one of them was called Milesians the other Party Eustathians this was in the Fourth and Fifth Ages These are say I particular Schisms And it may be said that not one of these Schismatical Parties did separate from the Universal Church because not one of them abandoned Christianity they returned and carried it with them Now the Illusion in this matter comes from hence that we confound these two sorts of Schisms those that are Universal with those which are particular and we ascribe to particular Schisms that which belongs only to Schism universal viz. Exclusion from Salvation For 't is true that he who makes a Schism from the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry is utterly out of the Church and without any right to eternal Life But 't is false that particular Schism either from the Church of Rome or from the Greek Church or Schism of the Church of Rome in it self doth exclude from Salvation This folly proceeds from another and that is that every particular Church looks on herself as the Catholick and Universal Church and her particular Doctrines as the Universal and Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity In such manner that those who separate themselves from her and renounce her Doctrines she looks on them as being separate from the Universal Church and as having renounced the Universal Doctrine of Christianity But no Church hath carried this folly to that degree of extravagance as the Church of Rome hath done for she calls herself the Catholick and Universal Church to the exclusion of all others And she would fain that the Doctrines which are peculiar to her as the Supremacy of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgatory c. should be accounted the Universal Truths of Christanity Thence it comes to pass that she considers as Schismaticks and damned all those which separate from her and renounce the most inconsiderable Doctrines which she hath consecrated by her Anathema's To make this foolish Pretension vanish and disappear no more is to be done but to make more evident the true Idea of Schism which the Disputes of these last Ages and the Prejudices of the Ancients have strangely perplexed and confounded To this end it will be useful to consider divers of those Schisms of which we have spoken and see what we ought to judge concerning the Salvation of those who lived in them First there have been Schisms which have been made without any Controversies about Doctrine or Discipline only upon personal Quarrels between Bishop and Bishop such was that furious Schism of the Donatists in Africa which was made only upon the occasion of the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Afterwards the Donatists espoused the Opinion of S. Cyprian about the Nullity of the Baptism of Hereticks and it may be some other Opinions of little importance that they might the more easily maintain and continue their Schism with the Catholicks But the true foundation of the Schism was nothing but a particular Quarrel The Donatists held all the Opinions of the Catholick Church they had the same Sacraments the same Discipline and the same Ministry This being so he must be very cruel that will damn an infinite number of private Persons who followed their Guides as the Inhabitants of Jerusalem followed Absalom in the simplicity of their Hearts I say nothing concerning the Authors of the Schism nor of those who did maintain it as they violated the Laws of Charity and troubled the Peace of the Church we leave them to the Judgment of God We say nothing neither of the Circumcellians a sort of People which arose among the Donatists and offered an Hundred Violences to the Orthodox I speak of those plain People who in the simplicity of their Heart do without Dissimulation believe in Jesus Christ according to the Creed explicated according to the sense of the Church Universal who believe all the Christian Doctrine from the first Article to the last and besides labour with great diligence in the practice of Holiness and Devotion to condemn these Men say I only because they do not communicate with the Pastors of the Catholick Church is a foolish and a barbarous Doctrine of which I do not think there is a Man in the World throughly perswaded although there be a Thousand and a Thousand pretend so to be There are other Schisms which were made about Controversies in Doctrine such is the Schism of the Nestorians and that of the Eutychians who continue at this day and comprehend an infinite number of Christians in the East I believe that Nestorius designed to reduce the Opinion of Paulus Samosatenus to another form which Opinion is that of our Socinians who make Jesus Christ a mere Man. But we must judg otherwise of their Successors At this day the Nestorians and the Eutychians embrace the Apostles Creed and that of Constantinople as do the Greeks and the Latins they believe in Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God God himself dead and raised again for the Salvation of Men and the Disputes which they have with the rest of the Church are at present nothing but Questions about Words and differing manners of expression To damn these Millions of People because of the rashness of a single Man who had the boldness a Hundred and twenty years ago to teach contrary to the manner after which we ought to conceive of the Incarnation of the Word is a Cruelty founded in a most prodigious Error and Mistake 'T is evident that we ought to range them with the rest of the Eastern Church which is not much more pure than that of the West and to leave their Salvation to the judgment of God who alone knows how far his Patience will proceed These two Schisms were without doubt criminal in their Original But time hath changed the state of things and at this day those Christians which are called Jacobites and follow the Schism of Eutyches supposing they embrace all Christian Truths necessary to Salvation are as
overwhelm it Herein is the strength of the Church and 't is a Miracle and on the occasion thereof we ought to say 'T is the Finger of God. Without putting you upon Inquiries and Disquisitions consider whether it be likely that God who hath permitted so many depths in the Scriptures and that from thence have arrived so many Schisms among those that profess to receive and believe them hath not left some means in his Church to quiet and determine them Is it likely that there should be no remedy for Divisions but that every one may believe according to his own fancy and the minds of Men be thence led insensibly to an indifference in Religions which is the greatest of all Evils Is not this what I said but even now To discourse in the air against known matters of Fact and against such Truths as all the World confess and avow Let us say with Monsieur de Meaux it is not probable that God should leave so many depths in the Holy Scriptures from which so many Divisions might arise and not leave to his Church some means to put a period to them Behold the Principle And who can deny so plausible a Maxim But behold my Conclusion Therefore there have been never any Divisions about the sense of Scripture which the Church hath not found means to determine Therefore it hath well and easily determined the Divisions which continued well nigh the space of four hundred years about the Sense of those Words The Father is greater than I. Therefore it quieted the Difference about the Sense of those other Words The word was made flesh And 't is not true that there are millions of Christians in the East Nestorians and Eutychians that have not agreed with the Church of Rome about the meaning of them for 1200 years passed Therefore it hath raised the Divisions about the Sense of those Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Feed my Sheep And it is not true-that all the Greek Church is at a Schism with the Latin Church thereon and are not of the mind that they mean that the Bishop of Rome ought to be universal Pastor of all Churches They say and 't is believed that the Latin Church hath been divided almost two hundred years about the Sense of those Words This is my body The Lutherans give one sense the Calvinists another and the Romanists a third sense concerning them But that is not true 't is a popular Error and an illusion It is not probable that God should not leave any means to his Church to quiet the Differences that should arise about the Sense of Scripture A Man would think these Gentlemen had a design to scoff and deride Mankind they form an Eutopia a world made at pleasure out of their own imaginations and tell us that the present world is so made and that we are in it and very well and safe there 'T is in vain that we deny it and say 't is not so we see the contrary the world is not made as you report it They answer us you deceive your selves you are blind Buzzards and see nothing you seem indeed to see the contrary but nevertheless it can be no otherwise than we say and we will demonstrate it by reason My Brethren you may there perceive the falseness and illusion of the method of your Converters Learn from hence in three words what is the proper method of confuting them have recourse to experience and tell them you will prove that it ought to be so and I see with my eyes the contrary to what you say ought to be It is not therefore true that God hath given a sure and easie means to quiet the Differences which may arise about the Sense of Scripture God will save his select but he will abandon his Enemies to blindness T is his pleasure that there be Difficulties in the way of Faith and Salvation but he hath filled the Holy Scriptures with Light to dissipate these Darknesses with respect to his Elect. And as for the Reprobates he permit this spiritual darkness which hinders them from seeing the sparkling and lightsome Truths which are in the Scripture to remain upon their Hearts God hath not left certain means to prevent and pacifie Divisions we are convinced of that by experience For Divisions do continue among Christians and have done so for fifteen Centuries what means soever have been used to heal them But he hath left means sufficiently certain for the conduct of his Children to eternal Life by the way and path of Truth 'T is his Holy Word together with the direction of his Spirit which conducts infallibly not whole Societies but all that are his in particular in all the Truths that are necessary to Salvation and preserves them from all those Errors that are mortal to their Souls Think think of that Mr. hearken to your own reason and not to the subtleties of your Ministers Think think of that my Brethren consult both your reason and your sense attend to that which your eyes report and don 't hearken to the vain reasonings of Men who discourse not upon that which is but upon that which ought to be according to their imaginations Behold that which we have to say at present about this important matter which Monsieur de Meaux touches in his private Letter We must now return to his Pastoral Letter and see how he proves the Title of his second Article The second Article has for its Title in the Margin That the Pastors of the Catholick Church are the only true Pastors He proves it by two Mediums The first is That the Pastors of the Church of Rome alone have the advantage of mutual succession in place and feat one to another Monsieur de Meaux maintains that he is in the place af those that planted the Gospel in hit Diocess And all other Bishops he says have the same Glory The second proof is that they have also a succession of Doctrine 'T is well when these two things go together for otherwise to glory of a Succession of Seats without a Succession of Doctrine is in my opinion the most pitiful glory that any one can ascribe to himself The Patriarch of Constantinople who according to Monsieur de Meaux is a Schismatick he and all his Predecessors for above 800 years is also in the place of those who planted the Gospel in those Countries Nevertheless the Bishop of Rome hath anathematized him an 100 times and doth anathematize him every year on Good Friday in the Bull De Coena Domini The Arrian Bishops did hold the place of the Apostles in the East and at this day the Bishops of Denmark Sueden and England are also in the place of them which planted Christianity in those Countries Monsieur de Meaux perceives well that the Glory of Succession can do him no great good without Doctrine and therefore does very fairly renounce it To separate sound Doctrine from the Chair of Succession is to
Letters you will find one Article concerning Antiquity and another concerning the Questions of the Church as you will find in this And forasmuch as these Letters ought to be instead of Sermons to you we will joyn unto them some words of Exhortation as often as we can We return therefore to the Letter of Monsieur de Meaux one of the Bishops of Rome We are considering the third Article of his Pastoral Letter This third Article and that which follows will give us an occasion to confute the Sophisms which they make or you make for your selves about the Church The Bishop of Meaux in his Pastoral Letter does six things 1. He endeavours to establish the Idea and Unity of the Church principally upon the Testimony of S. Cyprian and in consequence thereunto the Unity of the Ministers 2. He proves * Page 12. There is none allowed to separate from the Church and that all separate Assemblies are in a state of Damnation †Page 14. so that a Martyr which dies for the Faith of the Church out of this Unity is nevertheless damn'd 3. ‡ Page 13. That we must not examin Opinions to know whether such an Assembly be the Church ‖ Page 14. But we must know if an Assembly be the Church and judg from thence concerning the truth of Opinions 4. He endeavours to answer to that Text Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of them A Text that proves wherever is Truth there is a True Church and then comes to his Chimera that all Separation ruins Unity a Chimera which he supports by the Testimony of the great S. Cyprian who is indeed his only Author 5. * Page 17. By the same S. Cyprian he proves that the Church with whom we must preserve Union is the Church of Rome or the Chair of S. Peter 6. In conclusion he falls on the common place of the invalidity of the Call of our first Reformers he proves their Vocation invalid because they were either Laicks or Renegado Priests which had renounced the Ministry The first never having Mission the last having it no longer cannot be lawful Pastors This is the Abridgment of a great number of Volumns which have been made to seduce you within twenty years last past concerning which we do intreat you to be attentive to these invincible Arguments which we have to produce for the subversion of these wicked Engins Although we do not account it a Duty to follow precisely the order of the Articles of the Bishop of Meaux Nevertheless seeing he begins with the Unity and Visibility of the Church we will begin there also and we will make you understand 1. What is the true Unity of the Church 2. What is the Unity of its Ministry 3. What is its perpetual Visibility 4. That to separate from a corrupt Church is not to break the Unity thereof 5. That there is such a degree of Corruption that obliges to separation and that the Church of Rome is corrupt to that degree First My Brethren it is necessary that you make to your selves a just and ligitimate Idea of the Unity of the Church They tell you that there is but one Catholick Church and that there cannot be many This is true there is but one Church universal and even the Word Universal that is added thereunto makes it apparent that there can be but one Just after the same manner that the word Universe by which is signified the World signifies also that there is but one for if there were another World besides this ours would not be the Universe seeing it would not comprehend totally all But the Bishop of Meaux and those that are like unto him give you a pleasant Idea of its Unity and Universality both together The Church of Rome say they is this universal and only Church it is universal and yet nevertheless out of it and separate from it there are many other Churches This is just as if I should say our World is the Universe nevertheless there be many other Worlds besides it Is not this absurd But it will be said that these Propositions are not alike nor the same for we mean thereby all other Churches besides the Roman Churches are false Churches This is another absurdity altogether alike as if a person or a man should say 'T is true there are many Worlds besides ours nevertheless ours is the Universe because all the rest are false Worlds If they Church of Rome did say Indeed I am but part of the Church Universal but I am the only sound and entire part the others are sick and diseased where a man cannot be saved If it should speak thus say I it would speak false but it would speak nothing absurd or contradictory and there would be reason to examin its pretensions to the bottom to know if indeed it be the only Church that is sound and without Errors But it must have renounced common sense to avow that out of her Bosom there are many Churches and nevertheless call her self the Church universal However it be her pretension is that the Unity of the Church consists in a certain Communion characterized and distinguished from all others by certain limits and boundaries and under certain Pastors out of which Communion whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not whether you have considerable Errors or no you are always out of the Church and hopes of Salvation altho you should believe and maintain all the truths of the Gospel from the beginning to the end tho you should be Orthodox as S. Paul retaining all the Articles of the Christan Faith yea of the Faith of the Church of Rome if nevertheless you live in separation with this certain Seat and this certain Church which is the Church Catholick you must be certainly damned I intreat you my Brethren before you go further propose a Question to your Converts Tell them I am content to grant there is a certain particular Church in which is that Unity from which we must never separate But how shall I know that this Church in which is that Unity to which we ought to adhere is the Church of Rome for I have heard say that there are many other Churches among others it hath been told me there is a Church in the East called the Greek Church which hath six Patriarchs that is to say for Popes the Bishops of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria and these do all in like manner Anathematize the Pope of Rome Propose to them say I this difficulty and press it home and you will see them brought into such streights that they can say nothing but impertinences and absurdities They will tell you that Rome is the seat of S. Peter it is to her that this Priviledg was granted all those which separate from her depart from Unity So that the Greek Church and the three Popes whereof we have spoken are out of the Unity Can there be a
same place or in another 'T is a matter of Fact which our Adversaries cannot deny In the 20th of the Acts the Apostle speaking to the Presbyters or Elders of the Church of Ephesus calls them Bishops and in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus where he speaks sometimes of a Bishop he speaks more frequently of Elders and by Elders he understands the very same which he had called Bishops In the Cities where the Churches were great there were many Presbyters one of them did preside over the rest not by turn but by a privilege which did always appertain to him St. Paul speaks of this President The Elder which rules well is worthy of double honor This presiding Presbyter in the beginning of the second Age arrogates to himself the name of Bishop which before was common to his Collegues so that there was no other but the President of the Presbytery who call'd himself Bishop He attributed to himself also the right of imposing hands as well on those which were received as Pastors as on the Penitents and those which were received to the Communion of the Mysteries In all this there was as yet no Hierarchy no Dependence no Appeals no Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Every Bishop with his College of Presbyters was Sovereign in his District and in his Church and this Church was not dependent of any other You may remember how S. Cyprian in our Eleventh Pastoral Letter hath told us in express words * Epist 74. Every Bishop may use his Authority in the Government of his Church according to his own Will being under no obligation to give an account thereof to any but the Lord. And elsewhere †Concil Carth. Anno 258. That every Bishop is Master of himself and cannot be judged by another Bishop as he also cannot judge other Bishops All honest men are agreed at this day therein The Divines themselves of the Gallican Church maintain it and at this time they lend us their Studies and Illuminations to refute the Flatterers of the Papal Tyranny who would find in the three first Ages of the Church Proofs of the Primacy i. e. of the Principality of the Bishop of Rome over all the Churches of the World. The Defenders of this Antichristian Power quote to us the Action of Victor Bishop of Rome who about the end of the Second Age excommunicated the Churches of Asia because they would not keep Easter precisely the same day that he did and from thence they conclude That the Pope was even then the Prince of all Churches But to this your own Converters do answer for us that in this Victor exercised no Right but what was common to all Bishops and that the Bishops of Asia might exercise it on Victor as he had exercised it on them that this Excommunication of Victor was a separation from his Communion that the Bishops did communicate one with another by Letters which they called Letters of Communion formed Letters c. When they were angry or discontented one with another they did no longer write these Letters of Communion to those of whom they believed the Church had reason to complain and they received no more from them that this is it which Victor then did and that all Bishops have Right by custom to do the same thing The Flatterers of Popes quote to us also the Words of Irenaeus who speaking of the Church of Rome says * Lib. 3. cap. 3. That it was necessary all other Churches should have recourse to this Church because it was the principal and the most potent But the French Roman Catholick Doctors answer for us that the sense is That the Roman Church because the City of Rome was the Capital City of the Empire and because of its grandeur might be a sufficient Witness of Apostolical Tradition because Christians came thither upon business from all Parts of the World and that coming thither they might there be Witnesses of the Faith of all Churches scattered throughout all the Empire and that so the Roman Church made up and formed of all Nations might be a Witness of the Faith of all the Churches in the World. They object to us also That it appears by the Works of St. Cyprian that Bishops condemned and deposed in Africa had recourse to the Bishop of Rome for their re-establishment But the French Doctors answer with us That by the same Letters of St. Cyprian it appears also that these Attempts were disallowed and condemned and that they gave the Bishop of Rome to understand that he had nothing to do to receive the Complaints of any of the Ecclesiasticks of the African Church So that these Gentlemen acknowledge with us that in the three first Ages of Christianity there was no Principality no subordinate Jurisdiction nor no dependence of one Church upon another not excepting the Church of Rome it self But we do also maintain unto them That from the Third Age the Churches that had their Seats in those Cities which are called Metropoles i. e. Heads of the Provinces did obtain a certain Superiority upon the lesser Churches that were in the little Villages of the Neighbourhood because of the need they had of them The Metropolitan Cities were the dwelling places of the Governors of the Provinces the Courts of Justice were there 't was thither they carried their Tributes so that all the Provinces had business there besides the Bishops of these Cities were ordinarily more able than those of little Cities for it has always been the ordinary custom to choose the ablest men for the conduct of the most important Churches and such as were most exposed to the Temptations of human Authority Besides this there were in these Cities many Presbyters which assisted the Bishop and who with him made a Senate able and knowing in matters of Faith and Discipline For these Reasons the Churches of the Country and such as were Provincial addressed themselves to the Churches of the Metropolitan Cities in all their doubts and in all their necessities sometimes to obtain Pastors sometimes to know how they should suppress Hereticks and those which were scandalous and sometimes in other cases and on other occasions This was the reason that the Churches of the Metropolitan Cities obtained by consent a kind of Superintendence over others They confirmed by imposition of hands Pastors in vacant Churches after the People of those Churches had made an Election of them This is the estate in which the Government was found in the beginning of the Fourth Age. Before that time the Names of Arch-Bishops Primates Exarchs Patriarchs and every other Name of Power and Dignity were wholly unknown in the Church But the Emperors becoming Christians Pride introduced it self into the Ecclesiastical Government and in the space of an 150 years or thereabout that Hierarchy was seen to be born and to establish it self which certainly made way for the birth of the Antichristian Empire of Rome and behold how it came to pass Constantine the Great
St. Chrysostom and St. Austin Sermons or Works that are none of theirs and a man needs but indifferent Learning and little Sincerity to be convinced thereof But Father Crasset who has neither the one nor the other neither Skill nor Science takes and gives all for good In the Fifth Age he quotes Cyril of Alexandria who is surely one of the first which gave occasion to the Religious Worship of the Virgin. For by opposing Nestorius who would not suffer Mary to be called the Mother of God he passed unto the other extreme and advanced as far and as high as he could the praises of the Virgin Mary Nevertheless this might be reduced to Apostrophes Figures of Oratory and great Elogies but there is nothing of Invocation therein No Author of the Fifth Age speaks more expresly nor vehemently of the Invocation of Martyrs and of the Worship which is given to the Reliques than Theodoret. Nevertheless in the passage which Father Crasset quotes from him in his Commentary on the words of Solomon's Song My beloved is one there is nothing that favours the Worship of the Virgin in the least He applies these words My Dove my only one to the Virgin and that were the place to speak of the honour which ought to be given to her if ever there were any But all that he says concerning her is that she is the Mother of God a pure Virgin that all Nations call her blessed that she is the Dove and the only one which brought Christ Jesus into the World that in Charity she surpasses the Cherubims and Seraphims That were the place to have said that we ought to commend ourselves to her Charity and invoke her as our Mediatrix To conclude let these Gentlemen find us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages Chappels and Oratories consecrated to the Virgin as they find them consecrated to the Martyrs unless it be about the end of the Fifth age Now this being supposed I dare say that a man must have renounced all honour all modesty all sincerity and all judgment not to confess that here is an indubitable evidence that Invocation of Saints was a Novelty in the Fourth and Fifth Ages For these men had been fools not to have invoked the Virgin in those times when they invoked St. Protais and St. Gervais if they established Invocation upon the merit the dignity and the reputation that these Saints might have with God. I would fain know if those two Giants which suffered Martyrdom under Decius were in condition to intercede with God with so much efficacy as this Virgin-Mother to the Saviour of the World This false Worship had its birth from that foolish love which men had for Reliques And as they had no Reliques of the blessed Virgin so they consecrated no Churches or Chappels to her and in consequence thereof they did not call upon her We shall bring you yet in what follows new Proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts LEt us take up again at present what follows of the Illusions which the New Converts make for themselves who endeavour to lay their Consciences asleep They conclude two things 1. That all the fundamental Truths of Christianity being Confessed by the Church of Rome they are obliged to remain with her so you go on These fundamental Truths which Popery hath preserved are the Articles of the Three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Niece or Constantinople and that which is call'd by the name of St. Athanasius 'T is true that the Church of Rome hath retained these but to conceive how you cheat yourselves I intreat you to suppose Christians which receive these three Creeds and who nevertheless Adore the Sun the Moon the Earth and almost all the Idols of Paganism you will say that these things are inconsistent But you deceive yourselves for there is nothing more possible than that that a man should believe God is the Creatour of Heaven and Earth that Jesus Christ is his eternal Son and the Creatour of the World that he was Born that he Died that he was Crucified that he will come to Raise and Judge the Living and the Dead and nevertheless that he should believe that we may Adore the Earth the Trees the Sun and Moon because God does animate and fill them The Greed says not that we must Worship none but God yea it says not that we must Worship him So that a Religion may receive the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Universal Church and adore every thing but God Why may not men be capable of Adoring the Stars because God fills them since they Adore Bread under a supposition that Jesus Christ is there after a manner invisible precisely as God is in the Stars and Elements It is therefore a particular Providence that Christians who Adore the Eucharist are not fallen so far as to Adore the Sun Moon and Stars for I do maintain that the Papists may be carried to Adore a Stone as naturally as they are carried to Adore the Bread in the Eucharist on supposition that Jesus Christ is included under it Suppose you that they were come so far would you yet say Since all the fundamental Truths are Confessed by this Communion which Adore the Sun and Moon yea Stones we are obliged to continue with it Learn you therefore that we may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and build thereon Dung Poison and all sorts of Impurities The spirit of Man is capable of reconciling those things that are molt irreconcileable Behold another thing whereof you ought to be advertised that you ought to distinguish fundamental Truths from fundamental Errours You imagine that to retain all the fundamental Truths and to have no fundamental Errours is the same thing and because we do confess the Roman Church retains all the fundamental Truths you think that we confess to you that she has no fundamental Errours In this you are much mistaken a person may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and add thereunto fundamental Errours I gave you an Example in men who might believe the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Church and which might add under a hundred false pretences of Devotion Pagan Idolatries I do maintain that a man may adopt into the Religion of Christians almost all the Abominations of the Bonzes of Japan and the Brachmns of India without any formal Renunciation of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith. I demand if whilst men retain the fundamental Truths they do not add fundamental Errours by espousing these Pagan Worship 'T is exactly that which the Church of Rome has done upon the Foundations of Christianity she hath built a thousand Superstitions which are purely Pagan Popery is Paganism renewed and built upon Christianity 't is an Idol Temple raised upon the Temple of Jesus Christ. A fundamental Errour is therefore an Errour or Practice which
humour by engaging the name of God and those which bear his Image upon Earth to maintain a Lye which he knows to be a Lye and a Lye from which very little good can come in comparison of the evil The pleasure of making Soulier pass for an Impostor is not I think great enough to be willing to purchase it by Perjury When Soulier and his Companions Forged this Act they were supported in their Crime by the consideration of the great advantage which was to come according to them to the Catholick Church by hastning the Ruine of the Hereticks in France But behold men who commit a crime by an horrible Perjury without being suported by the consideration of any profit or interest Can this enter into the mind of any man of sound sense and understanding Behold then four irreprovable Testimonies who assisted at the Synod of Montpazier who attest the Falshood of the History in all its parts who say that Durel or Daret were no Assistants in this Synod that Saint Blancard was not Commissary but Villefranche of Vivans that nothing of like nature did pass in the Synod against the Service of the King But behold in particular this Monsieur Asimont who was Secretary to the Synod he who by consequence must be privy to the business who must have digested the pieces that were drawn up and who did really Sign the Act as the Priest Soulier pretends 't is this Asimont to whom Soulier addresses himself in particular As to what respects the Signatures and the Subscriptions of the Minister Asimont and the Secretary Meyzonet saith he I know them so well and they are so conformable to other Acts which they have signed that I assure myself they will not dare to disavow it However it will be very easie for me to convince them by other Acts which they have signed the Minister Asimont may remember the Conference that we had in the City of Eymet in the Diocess of Sorlat in the Year 1657 and that the Original signed by him at the foot of all his answers is remaining in my hands If any honest men have a desire to compare the Signature of the Act of Montpazier with the true Signatures and Subscriptions of Monsieur Asimont they will see them very true and very well attested and till then seeing the Priest Soulier appeals to the Conscience of the Minister Asimont and to the Conference of Eymet I am of opinion we ought to hear Monsieur Asimont himself in particular The Letter of Monsieur Asimont I Never was of the humour to detain the Truth in Unrighteousness on the contrary I have always taken a great freedom to declare it as far as Charity doth permit it and I have had great joy in seeing it triumph over Lyes and Falshood As you labour vigorously to make it victorious and triumphant over its Enemies I received with respect the Adjuration you have given me in your Letter to bear Testimony to that Truth which Monsieur Soulier doth engage and combate in his History of Calvinism I have shewn your Letter to the Gentlemen the Pastors of the Province of Guyenne who can give Testimony concerning it with myself and I have sent you their and my Declaration upon the subject of the Act of the Synod of Montpazier with the Affirmation upon Oath which we made before our Lords the Soveraign Magistrates of this City My Brethren have thought that we ought to note the name of the Assistant to the Moderator of the Synod to prevent the Impostures of this Wrangler for my part I have not expressed it in my Deposition for fear least it should make a new wrangle about the names of Dorde and Durel and least he should say that the Transcriber by this allusion of names putting Dur for Dor and al for de in imitation of the great Etymologist who derived the Latine word panis from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And how so Why by changing saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into pa and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into nis Make what use of them you judge fit As to what concerns me in particular as Soulier attributes to me the Subscription of this pretended Act and says that he knows my Subscription because of a Conference about Religion which we had by Writing in the City of Eymet so I heartily wish I could recover an Original of the said Conference which I have among my Papers in France to make it appear that he has the gift of Impudence in the highest degree and cannot forbear Lying since he there gives himself the Lye by a gross and manifest Contradiction but I fear this Writing was burnt with many others as well as my Books But for want of this Piece which would render him unworthy of all Belief I can say to justifie myself from the Accusation by which he charges me to have signed an Act of secret Correspondence with the Enemies of the State That I have been so far from being suspected of Unfaithfulness to the King that some of my Brethren grew jealous of me in their own minds by the very close adherence which I testified to his Service in the Civil Wars and by reason of a Letter under the Great Seal which his Majesty caused to be written to me in the Year 1654 to assure me That he took in good part my Fidelity and Zeal with assurance of Recompence according to my Merits when occasion should be offered to him By the Grace of God I never desired nor caused it to be requested of him although occasions thereof presented themselves unto me This Letter could not protect me from divers Decrees of Imprisonment which the Parliament of Guyenne did afterwards grant against me for the cause of my Religion nor from the Decree of the Intendant of Agesseau for preaching in forbidden places by the order of the Synod nor from the Imprisonment and Quartering of Souldiers appointed by the Intendant of Ris because going from Bergerac I wrote to one of my Friends That I went away because I would not see the Abomination of Desolation which was about to fall upon this Church God hath bestowed on me the Mercy of escaping happily out of these troublesome Affairs by manifesting the Integrity of my Conduct and the Sincerity of my Intentions 'T is true at last perceiving I could not serve two Masters in France who were of such contrary Sentiments viz. GOD and the Most Christian King I desired of him in the Year 1683 three Pass-ports for myself and two Sons both Ministers by Monsieur of Corbichet heretofore the Steward of the Duke de la Force and who was then in the Service of Monsieur the Prince of Condy who obtained them with great ease to allow me the liberty of going out of the Kingdom From whence I reason thus against Soulier If the King having been informed of the pretended Act of Montpazier had given credit to the Accusor would he so easily have granted my Pass-port
Church did not as yet receive the Canons thereof So that frankly and openly 't is to scoff Men to call them General Councils in the sense which is given to the Word at this day 'T is true that these first Councils called themselves so but why and in what sense It was according to the Stile which was then in use The Roman Empire was then called Orbis the World Universal the Greeks called it Oikoumene the habitable part of the Earth the Emperors thereof were called the Universal Emperors the Vanity of the Emperors occasioned this the great ones always blow up their Titles The extent of the Roman Empire was great indeed but as if they had been Masters of the whole Earth they caused themselves to be called Masters of the World Universal A General Council in this sense signifies no more than a Council assembled from all parts of the Roman Empire 5. I intreat you to give attention to that which is necessary according to these Gentlemen to make a Council Oecumenical Is it necessary that there be Bishops from all parts of the Church by no means for then the Council of Constantinople were not Oecumenick The Pope was not there either by himself or his Legates and it is not known that there was any of the Western Bishops there Nevertheless 't is Oecumenick but why because that all the Church consented to it at last for its Canons were not received at Rome more than two hundred years after The Church Universal say I hath approved it not by Subscriptions and a formal Consent but by a Consent which they call tacit and implicite and this is indeed the Opinion of the Doctors of France That to make a Council Oecumenick 't is enough that it be afterward approved That is the reason why the Canons of the Council of Antioch which is generally believed to have been an Arrian Council are at this day seen in the Code of the Universal Church That is the reason why many men are willing the Council of Sardis should be Oecumenical 'T is because though there were none but Western Bishops there yet the most part of the Bishops of the East subscribed it afterwards Now I intreat you observe the Absurdity which I am about to make you sensible of Behold a Council for example the first Oecumenical of Constantinople which in its form is but a particular Council and by consequence cannot be Infallible nevertheless because God foresaw that the Council would be approved by all the Church he presides there by a Spirit of Infallibility against all the Rules which he hath establish'd for his own Conduct with respect to Councils So that when God foresees that a Council which is particular in its Composition will one day be accounted Oecumenical because of a consent that will be given to it either by Subscriptions sent and separately made or by a tacit consent he there pours out a Spirit of Infallibility But if he foresees that this Synod will be neglected as a particular Synod he lets it pass for as much as 't is worth and doth not make it Infallible Is not this to play with the Spirit of God and the Reason of Men Who sees not by this example that the Character of an Oecumenical Council doth in no wise depend upon a Spirit of Infallibility which presides there but on the consent of men which persuade themselves right or wrong that such an Assembly hath happily hit on the truth 6. I pray judge whether it be probable that these Assemblies called Oecumenical were infallible Judges of Controversies without knowing it At this day when the Pope assembles an Oecumenical Council this Council believes it self to be Infallible it acts and speaks as such Let them demonstrate to us this Character in the first Councils let them shew us that they acted as infallible and that they spoke as such If I should make a Book whereas I am only making a Letter I could shew you a hundred circumstances of these ancient Councils which will make it evident that this Dream never crept into the minds of any of the Members of those Assemblies that they were there as Infallible Judges But in this case 't is not we that are obliged to prove 't is the Papists for they are those which do affirm Press them say I about it and ask them their Proofs that the Ancient Councils believed themselves Infallible Go farther and ask them Whether it be possible that these Councils should be Infallible and that not one of the Divines of those Ages should doubt of it and that in their Disputes with Hereticks they should make no use of this Authority St. Hilary St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Athanasius had great Disputes against the Arrians but they never thought fit to oppose unto them the Authority of the Council of Nice as Infallible Where were their Wits Why did they not tell them God hath promised That when two or three are gathered together in his name he will be in the midst of them 'T is a Promise of Infallibility belonging to General Councils The Council of Nice was assembled in the Name of God held in all its forms and assembled from the whole Church it is therefore Infallible and by consequence you are obstinate not to submit unto it Thus they reason against us and 't is thus that men ought to reason naturally when they are of the Opinion and Principles of Popery We do not see one word of this in the Authors of the fourth and fifth Ages On the contrary St. Austin tells the Arrians Let us lay by the Council of Nice on my part and the Council of Ariminum on your part and let us dispute from the Scripture * Cont. Maxim. lib. 3. cap. 14. confessing the one and the other of these Assemblies might err although it be very certain that the Council of Nice did not actually do so 'T is as if I should say to a Mahometan Let us lay by my H. Scripture and your Alcoran as supposing it possible that both the one and other of them may be false It must be granted that I were wicked or a fool to speak thus if it were not upon those Suppositions which are called false and whereof we sometimes serve our selves to draw an Adversary to an absurdity Behold then a Prodigy which passes all imagination the Christians had among themselves infallible Judges and knew nothing of it but behold much more St. Austin not only knew not that he had right to oppose the Authority of the Council of Nice as Infallible to the Arrians but he even confesses to the Donatists that no Authority of Council was supreme and without Appeal The Donatists to prove to him that the Baptism of Hereticks was worth nothing brought him the Testimony of St. Cyprian He answers without ceremony That he acknowledged no Testimony sure and certain but that of the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that as