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
Church be he Priest Bishop or Guide thereof Make Reflections in this place on the monstrous Doctrines of your Converters of whom the most part will tell you that to be a true Member of the Church it suffices to make profession of the Faith and to adhere to lawful Pastors So that Priests that are Sorcerers and Sodomites which you have oftentimes seen burnt at Paris were the true Members of Jesus Christ This is capable of making a man tremble with horrour They will say to you thereon if they were not true Members of the Church and of the Body of Jesus Christ they could not be the Guides thereof Such a one is an evil Man he is nevertheless a true Bishop he must therefore be a true Member of Jesus Christ and of his Body Answer to this that which one of the Writers of Port Royal says somewhere That oftentimes those which Build Jerusalem and Guide it are the Citizens of Babylon Tell them that to be a lawful Pastor and Guide of the Church to be able to administer the Word and Sacraments with Authority it s enough to be a Member of the external and visible Society it is not necessary to be a Member of the true Church to be in the hand of God an Instrument of his Work. A King may administer Justice and administer it very well by a wicked man who hath inwardly all sorts of inclinations to Injustice It will be said a man cannot be the Head and Guide of a Body without being a Member thereof for the Head is one of its principal Members It must be answered That false Pastors are true Members of the visible Society of the Church and that they are also true Heads of that Society whereof they are true Members but they are neither Heads nor Members of the principal and invisible part of the Church who are true Believers and truly righteous persons They are not therefore true Heads but of that part whereof they are true Members and that sufficeth them for the external Administration of the Word and Sacraments for the truely Righteous receive the Word and Sacraments in quality of the Members of the external Society They will press you further and tell you You do confess the Church is visible because she hath a Body which is an external Society But is it always visible Although you should answer That it is not necessary that the Church be always visible they would not be able to convince you of the contrary by reason For a man who is visible by his body may be sometimes hidden and by that means be invisible May not the external Society of the Church which is visible have been at sometimes and in some seasons hidden through the Persecution of Pagans or Hereticks But confess to them that the Church hath been always visible and will be to the end of the World. 'T is true that the Persecutions under the Pagan-Emperours were very great but they never proceeded so far as utterly to destroy all Assemblies of the Church to that degree that there were no visible Society of Christians the Christians were well known under the Persecutions seeing they knew where to find them to make Martyrs of them the Church was visible in the midst of the flames She remained visible in the Heretical Assemblies of the Arrians for those that held the Truth in those Assemblies themselves were more numerous than those that erred concerning it If there were any place where the Church were become invisible it was in the Papism for never was there a Church so corrupt and drowned in Superstitions as that Nevertheless the Church continued there visible because that Christianity and the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion did abide there I do not say that they did remain there in their Integrity but the contrary nevertheless it sufficeth that they did continue there 't is necessary therefore that you know that where-ever Christianity fore that you know that where-ever Christianity remains sensible and visible the Church remains visible for it is Christianity that makes the Church If a Sect become so corrupt that Christianity is no longer visible in it such are the Mahumetans and the Socinians who have rejected the Foundations the Church is no longer visible among them unless it be as a dead man remains visible but it is also visible that he is dead without life and without soul so in the Sects which have rejected the Foundations the Church remains visible but it 's also visible that such Churches are without life without soul without salvation In the Sects which preserve Christianity although they have added very many things thereunto and even such things as overturns the Foundations thereof the Church doth not fail to remain visible because Christianity both is there and is seen there If therefore they do inquire of you Where was your Church before Luther and Calvin Answer them She was in the Christian Societies that were in Aethiopia in those which were in Aegypt and in Africa in those which are and were in Asia in the Greek Church that was at Constantinople and Antioch in Muscovy and the Churches of Russia and she was even in the Church of Rome itself If they ask of you Was the Church visible in these Societies or were the Members thereof hidden Answer them That the Church was visible in these Societies forasmuch as Christianity and the Creed of the Apostles in the true sence thereof explained in the first six General Councils were visibly preserved there Add you that the true Members of Jesus Christ and of the Church were hidden and not visible because those that sincerely and truly adhered to this true Christianity contained in the Creeds of the Christian Church were not known by name but that these Believers were hidden was not at all peculiar to these corrupt Churches because of their Corruption for the case is the same in the purest Churches the true Members of Jesus Christ and of his body are hidden because we do not certainly know those which adhere to the Christian Faith in sincerity and with the heart Behold a pure and native Explication of the true Visibility of the Church and of the Perpetuity of that Visibility The Bishop of Meaux and your other Converters will seem to you very well pleased in this that you confess the Church is visible and always visible Behold they will say one point gained For if the Church be always visible 't is of necessity that there be a Succession in the Ministry a train of legitimate Pastours There will always be Teachers with whom Jesus Christ will teach and the true Teaching will never cease in the Church These are Monsieur de Meaux that great Converter's own words That is to say from the perpetual Visibility of the Church he draws these three conclusions 1. That pure and true Teaching hath never ceased in the Church 2. That there will always be a series and train of legitimate Pastours 3. That Jesus Christ
all to awaken mens minds to oblige them to give attention to Truth Mr. Nicholas to the Miracles and Prodigies of Sanctity of the Ancients which make the Church of Rome according to him visible joyns also the Sanctity of the present Church of Rome her Reformed Orders her great Men the Nuns de Trap c. and concludes That although a man should have regard to nothing but the Sanctity of the Manners of the Church of Rome she is even thereby distinguished from all other Societies and that she hath in persons of eminent Piety sensible Characters of the Spirit of God which will animate and inspire her to the end of the World. Mr. Nicholas speaking of all preceding Ages did always joyn Miracles with Sanctity At present he lays by Miracles and why is this He well knows his Church pretends as yet to have the Gift of Miracles And there is not a place eminent for Devotion as are the famous Ladies of Arsillieres of Montferrat of Loretto where they do not pretend to see Miracles The Father de Aviano ran all the World over to make it evident that the Gift of Miracles did not dye with the Apostles He dares not produce to us that as a Light he perceives very well that all these Miracles are suspected Plainly he himself hath not much Faith for them And so by this silence Mr. Nicholas doth tacitly consent that at this day the Roman Church doth no Miracles If it be so I would very willingly know why the Roman Church worke no more Miracles at this day when she had never more need thereof to convert so many ill converted Hereticks and which cry out so loudly of the Violence which they have suffered by the sending of the Dragoons The Miracles whereof they tell us as done at present may very well be Juggles or Fables according to what Mr. Nicholas lets us think by saying nothing of them for what reason may not all those of the Ages past for seven or eight hundred years particularly be very well also accounted Impostures These Miracles of the Church of Rome and of Popery do very well deserve that we should make larger Reflections on them and an occasion thereof will be presented to us elsewhere But in the mean while I pray give attention to this It is if they reckon the Miracles which are found in the Legends from the fifth Age wrought expresly to support the Invocation of Saints Adoration of Reliques Worship of Images and of Purgatory it will be found that God hath wrought without Hyperbole a thousand times more Miracles for the establishment of these false Doctrines these wicked Worships than he hath wrought to confirm the Christian Religion We have told you long since that a Monk for his part raised two and fifty dead persons and others in proportion Now judge if it were probable that these new Doctrines supposing they were true should be so important that to confirm them God should work a thousand and a thousand times more wonders than he hath wrought to establish the Faith of the greatest Mysteries of the Christian Religion As to the Article of the Holiness of the Church of Rome at this day whereof Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Arnold make an evidence for her I can destroy it by making appear the enormous Corruptions which are yet seen in her most considerable parts of Spain and Italy I can prove the disorders of her Clergy and of her Monks I can prove that these prodigious Austerities which they produce to us as the effects of the Spirit of God are but the effects of the Spirit of Hypocrisie or Fanaticism But to the end that I may not trouble those that pride themselves of the Virtue and Piety in the Roman Church I will say that if there be Piety in some of the Members of that Church they owe it not to Popery and Antichristianism but to the remainders of Christianity which continue in that Communion I come to the third Light by which Mr. Nicholas would make the Church visible It is the Holy Scripture To conclude behold him come to the only place from whence the true Light can be drawn It is false saith he that this Author hath believed that the point concerning the Church cannot be proved by the Scriptures and that the proofs are not accommodated to the capacity of the Vulgar We have shewn Mr. Nicholas how much there is of Absurdity in what he says here that a man may prove the point concerning the Church by the Scripture after a manner that is fitted to the capacity of the Vulgar and yet we know not how to prove the other Articles of Faith which are controverted after the same manner It hath been made evident that the Controversie concerning the Church is the most difficult of all It hath been represented to him that to deside this Controversie by the Scripture according to the method which he hath imployed against us it is necessary that an ignorant man should be able to compare the Translations with the Originals and by consequence that he should understand Greek and Hebrew that he may be able to read the Commentaries of the Ancients and the Moderns and by consequence that he should be able to understand Latine All this is as necessary to determine one single Controversie as to determine a hundred We have proved unto him that it is false to say that a man may very well prove by Scripture the Soveraign Authority of the Church but that he cannot prove thereby the Trinity or Incarnation and on that subject he is reduced to an eternal silence For which reason we shall not press him farther on an Article which he grants us by his silence But it is necessary to acquaint you that his Affirmation is intirely false and rash viz. That the Holy Scripture furnishes sufficient Light to the Vulgar to make them see that the Roman Church is the true Church Either these Gentlemen mean that by the Scripture they can easily prove that there ought to be always a visible and infallible Church upon Earth or they mean that the Holy Scripture shews with its finger the Church of Rome and makes it known for the true Church to the Exclusion of all other Sects of Christians or to conclude they mean the Holy Scripture forms a Light to make the Roman Church visible because it contains includes and teaches all the Doctrines and Worship which this Church doth authorize and command As to the first sence although it should be true Popery would gain nothing thereby although they should prove even by the Scripture that there ought always to be a visible and infallible Church upon Earth this would not prove that this must be the Church of Rome For the Greek Church pretends to be that Church which is built upon the rock and against which the gates of hell cannot prevail to the exclusion of the Latine Church and 't is that in which we ought to observe the perpetual Illusion
of the Roman Doctors They oppress you with Sophisms to convince you that there ought to be a Judge an infallible Interpreter of Scripture a Church that cannot err Answer them in one word Although all this which you say should be true it would be no advantage to you we must seek this Church and this infallible Interpreter elsewhere for 't is certain you have erred I come to the second sence viz. That the Scripture makes a Light which renders the Church visible because it shews with the Finger the Roman Church as the true Church to the exclusion of all others Now this is a Falshood sensible to all the World the Holy Scripture speaks not one word of the Church of Rome or of her Infallibility 'T is true there is an Epistle addressed to the Church of Rome but St. Paul so little thought of her as infallible that he speaks to her as a Church that would fall or at least as one that might be cut off from the true Olive and from the root of Jesus Christ There remains only the third sence in which your Converters can say that the Scripture forms a Light which makes the Church of Rome visible 'T is that the Doctrine of the Scripture is found perfectly conformable to that of the Church of Rome That is it which they must say if they will say any thing that is solid for the truth is that there is not any mark of the Church but this viz. Her conformity to the Holy Scripture Let alone therefore all this pretended heap of Marks of the Church which are either false or equivocal and keep you close to this alone Tell your Converters if you will make your Church visible to me let me see it conformable to the Scripture and 't is there you will reduce them to Extremities 'T is here that we have an evident proof that Popery is an Antichristian Religion Behold a proof to which all the subtilty of Hell can never oppose any thing we say then every Society and every Religion which hath nothing conformable with the Law of Jesus Christ is not the true Religion now Popery hath nothing conformable to the Law of Jesus Christ therefore it hath nothing of Christianity I intreat you to give attention to this If a Sect of the Turks calling themselves Mahometans had nothing among them like to the Alcoran which is the Law of Mahomet would you not tell them that they lie If the Jews calling themselves Jews should re-establish a Worship which hath nothing like the Worship prescribed by Moses would any one endure that they should say they were of the Religion of Moses Every Religion hath its Books and every Sect to shew that 't is of such a Religion ought to prove its conformity with those Books Common sence say thus If therefore Popery have nothing at all like the Writings of Christians 't is clear that 't is not Christianity Now this is it which we take for granted and which we are ready to prove before all sorts of Judges even Jews and Pagans viz. That Popery hath no conformity with the Scripture which is the common Law of Christians To be convinced of this my Brethren first separate Christianity from Popery in the Roman Church and don 't suffer yourselves to be blinded by what your Converters say unto you Are not we Christians Do we not believe one God in three Persons one Jesus crucified for the sins of men one Resurrection one Paradise and one Hell Does not the Scripture teach all this Is not our Religion therefore conformable to Revelation Answer them thereon Yea you are Christians in all that you believe with us but you are Antichristians in that wherein you believe without us These points whereof you speak are in the Scripture 't is true but 't is my Religion rather than yours 't is Christianity whereof 't is true I acknowledge you have preserved the Fundamentals But this makes nothing for your Religion which is Popery it makes nothing for Purgatory Invocation of Saints Adoration of Images and Reliques the Sacrifice of the Mass the Adoration of the Sacrament the Latine Tongue in the Worship of God a Communion without the Cup a Head of the Church besides Jesus Christ Behold Popery and 't is that which we maintain hath no conformity with the Scripture Indeed when your Converters will prove their Doctrines by the Scripture it seems they have renounced common Sence as well as Faith and Honesty To understand this there is no need to examine any Books of Controversie as they would fain perswade you there needs no more but eyes to open and read them For Example When they endeavour to prove the Pope is the Soveraign Head of the Church the Center of Unity the Mouth that utters Oracles and him to whom we must adhere if we will be saved and they produce to us for the whole proof these words Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not feed my sheep When say I they produce this and produce nothing else to prove the most important point of Popery which is the Authority of the Pope I do maintain that he must be stricken with a Spirit of Blockishness to regard it as proof He must I dare say be abandoned to a Spirit of Reprobation to suppose that the Scripture that tells us of Pastors and Teachers as Guides of the Church should not speak one word of this great Office of Pope and Soveraign Pastor When for the Sacrifice of the Mass propitiatory for the living and the dead they produce to us as proof from the holy Scriptures these Texts Melchizedeck offered bread and wine they shall offer to my Name a pure sacrifice from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Soveraign wisdom hath prepared her victuals and mingled her wine We have an Altar of which they have no right to partake which serve the Tabernacle Do this in remembrance of me When say I they produce these passages for the intire proof of the Sacrifice of the Mass are you not tempted to believe they do not speak in good earnest for nothing seems more opposite to sound sense To prove that we must invocate Saints they refer us to those words of Jacob The Angel which delivered me from all evil keep the lads and those of Eliphaz to Job And to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thy self that is to say of the Saints which are upon Earth and those of Daniel Have mercy upon Israel for the sake of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. To prove that we must prostrate our selves before Images and worship Reliques they produce those words of God to Moses Pluck off thy shoes for the place where thou standest is holy ground and those of David Worship before his footstool and those of St. Paul to Timothy From thy childhood thou hast learnt the holy Scriptures Here is nothing to be laught at
entertained However it be these Gentlemen persuade their Disciples that it is not the Spirit of the Roman Church that doth cause this Persecution Nothing must be imputed to any Religion but what it appoints to be believed The Church never serves it self of force for it hath no other Arms but such as are Spiritual There is among the Doctors of the Roman Church on the one hand an impudence and hardness of Face which is inconceivable and on the other hand there is in their Disciples an abyss of credulity that is incomprehensible Can hardiness and shamelesness be greater than to say that Persecution is not of the spirit of the Roman Church One of our * See the Letter of Doctor Sonstelle Brethre hath written concerning it a little while since with so much brevity that every one may read it and with so much strength as to convince them of the falshood thereof We prove that the Persecution is of the spirit of the Church of Rome by its Principles its Doctrine and its Practice I do not know whether there can be any other source or fountain of proofs when we treat of matters of Fact. The Principles of the Roman Church are that all those that are separate from their Church are damned eternally It s Doctrine is that the Secular Power with Fire and Sword may be employed for the extirpation of those that she calls Hereticks The Council of Constance which France esteems as the most Authentick that hath been these thousand years hath so determined and so it practised For it caused John Lous and Jerome Osprague to be burned The Albigenses Waldenses Bohemians and many others were not Massacred but by order of Councils and Popes who published Crusadoes against them and gave Indulgences and promised Pardon of sin to those that should destroy them The Tribunal of the Inquisition which burns all those that are either suspected or Convicted of Heresie is a Tribunal of the Church established and maintained thereby and it is looked on by the Popes as the great Rampart and Defence thereof Never were there any Massacres committed which were not either Commanded or Approved by Popes They are matters of Fact notoriously known and no body dares to dissent unto them Rome hath sung Te Deum that is We praise thee O God c. and given thanks to him for the Persecution of France Nothing is more proper to make known what is the Spirit of the Roman Church than the Conduct of the Court of Rome We have said that the Pope publickly commends what hath been done in France and hath caused Te Deum to be sung for it In the mean time it is certain that all Men of good sense in the Court of Rome do both detest and scoff at the Conduct of France Whence comes it then that this Court seems to approve in publick that which it condemns in private It is not to flatter the King for they have no respect or regard for him in that Country and every one knows the indignation that they have against him But it is because that Rome dares not declare against the Principles of their Religion If the Pope should condemn ways of violence against pretended Hereticks he would mutiny his whole Church against himself and make himself worthy of deposition He would condemn his Councils he would reproach the memory of his Predecessors he would overturn his own Principles from top to bottom So that the publick approbation which he gives to Persecution is the Sacrifice which he makes of his Conscience to his duty in quality of a Pope But like a Man of good sense he reserves the right of condemning in private all that which he publickly approves The Letter of the Queen of Sueden which hath been made publick in the News of the Republick of Learning hath conjectured discreetly concerning it For it is not to be believed that Queen Christina would dare so openly to declare her self against the Sentiments of the Court of Rome if that Court had approved of this manner of Conversions Behold a second Letter of the same Queen which tells us something more exact concerning the Sentiments which prevail in the Country where she is A Letter of Queen Christina to M 'T IS with astonishment that I have seen my Letter made publick in your Parts I do not understand how it is come to pass and I do assure you that it is not I my self that have published it Nor do I believe that he to whom it was written would so far disoblige his Master as to be willing to do me that pleasure However it be I do not repent that I wrote it for I do not fear any man. I pray God with all my heart that this false Joy and Triumph of the Church do not one day cost her true tears and sorrows In the mean time it must be known for the honour of Rome that all those that are men of merit and understanding here and animated with true Zeal do no more lick up the Spittle of the French Court in this case than I do They behold as I also do with pity all those things which pass in the World where there is given so much reason both of grief and laughter to those that are the Spectators thereof Our only consolation is that God will not abandon his Church but give a glorious issue to all its Calamities which are far greater than are imagined but it behoves us to adore God and the incomprehensible dispositions of his holy providence in every thing that betides us I heartily wish you prosperity From Rome May 18. 1686. Christina Alexandra It behoves us to speak as the case is the Court of Rome disapproves the conduct of the King because it is his Enemy The Persecution is of no value because 't is he that doth it However it be we are in no condition in France to make use of the moderate Sentiments of Italy For the Galican Church hath renounced this moderation She pays Men of Learning to prove that ways of Violence are permitted At this day all the Realm is full of Writers which labour to justifie compel them to come in They quote S. Augustin they report his opinions concerning the Persecution that was raised against the Donatists 'T is notorious that the Clergy of France have been the Authors of the Persecution They cannot deny that they have drawn up all the Edicts and that they have sollicited the execution of them so that we cannot comprehend how the Converters can endure that their Disciples should say That we ought not to impute any thing to a Religion but that which it appoints to be believed and practised and that the Roman Church doth not appoint any Violence to be practised against Hereticks But the Bishop of Meaux finds a very pleasant means to justifie her the Church never serves it self with force by it self says he that is to say it calls to her succour the secular Power to cut
to mark here the Character of sweetness and Christian patience which is peculiar to those that suffer for the Truth his modesty hinders us from naming him but in seeing him behind his Curtain you will learn from him after what manner we ought to suffer all things for the Truth and to suffer with patience as our Lord has given us example The Grace of God be with you all Septemb. 15. 1686. The THIRD PASTORAL LETTER AND Confutation of what Monsieur de Meaux says to establish the necessity of a living speaking Authority concerning a Succession of Chairs without a Succession of Doctrine General Methods for making good the Sophisms and Fallacies concerning the Authority and Infallibility of the Church My Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be unto you from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ YOur Temptations which increase every day do also redouble our grief and cause us to desire with the greater passion to give you assistance and succor for which reason we prosecute what we have begun 'T is to furnish you with Lights for the dispelling of that Darkness wherewith they endeavour to obscure those Truths which you have learned from your childhood Among other things they make great and prodigious attempts to take you off from that adherence that you give to the holy Scriptures and to oblige you to forsake those living Fountains and to run after the broken Cisterns of Egypt which will hold no water The last periods of Monsieur de Meaux his private Letter and the second Article of his Pastoral Letter look that way They are these Periods and this Article upon which we shall make our Reflections and we do beseech you to give attention to them Behold then how Monsieur de Meaux prosecutes his Letter to Monsieur de V In a word the meaning is if Christians when they cannot agree upâ—n the sense of Scripture do not acknowledge a living speaking Authority to which they do submit the Christian Church is certainly the weakest of all Societies in the World the most exposed to remediless Divisions and most abandoned to factious Innovators This is it to which your Ministers with all their Subtleties have never been able to find an Answer In truth 't is to put great confidence in the Credulity of Men to tell them with so much impudence that the Ministers have not been able to find an Answer to this Sophism I do not think that there is any which hath been rejected with more force and more success And we do defie Monsieur de Meaux and Monsieur Nicholas to answer any thing that 's reasonable to what hath been said against the Infallibility of this pretended living speaking Judge in the Answer which hath been lately made to the Book of M. Nicholas intituled The pretended Reformed convinced of Schism We have there answered it and will answer it again But this is no place to answer to it at large We will content our selves to intreat you my Brethren to make two general Reflections thereon First That Remedy can never be good which never produces the effect which Men say it doth always produce M de Meaux pretends that this certain living speaking Authority is an infallible Remedy against Divisions and Heresies For without it says he the Church would be of all Societies most abandoned to Divisions Innovations and Factions If this Remedy be so good why hath it never produced its effect Was not this living speaking Authority in the world was it not say I from the times of the Apostles and the first Ages of Christianity Why therefore have we seen from the beginning swarms of Heresies and Hereticks Simonians Corinthians Basilidians Marcosians Valentinians Marcionites Manicheans and multitudes of others Wherefore in the fourth and fifth Ages of the Church was it torn in pieces by Arrians Nestorians Eutychians Photinians Why do they account to the number of two or three hundred Heresies Why did this brave Remedy against Divisions permit the Schism of the Donatists more than three hundred years That of the Eutychians more than twelve hundred That of the Nestorians as long Why doth not this excellent Remedy put an end to the Schism of the Greeks after the duration of near eight hundred years Was it this living speaking Authority which suppressed the Waldenses and Albigenses or the Fire and Sword of Simon de Montfort and his Villains Why hath this living and speaking Authority permitted the Latin Church to be torn in pieces in these latter Ages Behold in truth a fine Remedy good for nothing and which over and above is established upon inconsistent Principles as hath been proved an hundred times The other general Reflection which I desire you would make is on the great inconvenience that Monsieur de Meaux finds in acknowledging That the Church is the weakest of all Societies in the World. I do profess that it appears very uneasie to me as well as to him and I am not without all inclination to reason with him and say There is no appearance or probability that the Church should be the most impotent of all Societies under the Heavens and by consequence 't is not likely that it should have been the Tennis Ball of Persecutors of Tyrants of malignant Spirits of Schismaticks of Hereticks of factious Innovators and vitious corrupters of the Truth and Worship of God. And so all that hath been said of Persecutions Punishments Heresies Seditions happening in the Church Strife among Bishops their Quarrels and Divisions of the fury of Schisms of the horrible corruption of Manners that hath been seen in some Ages and is seen in this all these things say I are false For 't is impossible that the Church should be the weakest of all Societies which it would be if what hath been said yea and what our eyes see be true So that it must needs be that all Histories be Romances and all Objects that we see Illusions and that there be a Wall of Fire about the Church that hinders all sorts of Evils from approaching it 'T is a Prodigy in my apprehension that Men should be found that will destroy truths in matter of fact sense and experience by Discourses in the air These Gentlemen do never enter into the depths of God's ways they do not perceive nor understand that 't is indeed by the order of his Providence that to the apprehension of sense the Church is the most feeble of all Societies most given up to the will and lust of Persecutors and Men of Faction and Innovation Where is the Society that hath been given up and exposed to so many Schisms Divisions and Persecutions as the Church But the Power of God and the Stability of the Church consists in this that it subsists in despite to all Assaults and that God preserves in the midst of those Schisms and Divisions Errors and Superstitions those fundamental Truths and Precepts of Morality by which the Elect are preserved notwithstanding the general corruption that doth involve and
hath erred therefore it can err You will put your Converters in their turn into some kind of perplexity For there will be a necessity either that they hold their peace and say nothing but absurdities or else that they endeavour to prove by discussion of Opinions that the Church of Rome has not erred and 't is a Head of Discourse where I am in no fear or concern for you for how little soever you are instructed in the Word of God you will easily dismount the most able Sophisters when you endeavour to prove that neither Transubstantiation nor the Worship of Images nor the Invocation of Saints nor the Adoration of the Eucharist nor the Mass nor Purgatory are in the Scripture There needs no greater ability for that than for a Man to prove that a Chamber is empty when there is nothing in it They object unto you that the Scripture has not said all but 't is a sensible absurdity that the Scripture should be given to instruct us concerning what we ought to adore and it should forget three fourth parts of the objects of our Adoration It speaks not to us but of the Adoration of God and nevertheless Religious Worship must be given to Saints to Images to Reliques and to the Sacrament of the Altar Are you so filly as to be taken in so pitiful a snare The Scripture has not said all let it be granted with respect to the Ceremonies and Orders of Discipline which are not of the Essence of Religion but to believe that the Scripture has not told us all which is of the Essence of the Christian Religion is ridiculous I do maintain that he ought to have lost all shame that shall advance it and to permit himself to be persuaded thereof he must have lost all reason and be degenerated to a Beast Was it agreeable to the Wisdom of God imperfectly to instruct the Apostolick Church and to leave to posterity the charge of adding those essential parts which were wanting But provided you can draw your Converters from these Methods of Prescription which are the true Snares of the Devil invented as his last Remedies I shall not fear or be concerned for you altho they should batter you with the Arms of Tradition and tho they should tell you an hundred times the Scripture has not said all Tradition adds the rest For you will always have an infallible Refuge in the Scripture and you will be able to say if Tradition may add to the Scripture at least it ought not to destroy and teach or command that which the Scripture condemns After which it will not be difficult to prove that not only the Scripture says nothing of Transubstantiation or the taking away of the Cup or the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory or the Worship of Images or the Invocation of Saints c. but that the Scripture does formally condemn them Behold the first general method for ruining the fallacious Arguments on the behalf of Infallibility Behold another the most sensible proof and that unto which you will be obliged to have regard when they would prove that you ought to have a blind submission to the Church of Rome is Texts of Scripture 'T is for example that which our Lord Jesus said Matth. 16. That he hath built his Church upon S. Peter in such sort that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That which S. Paul says in 1 Tim. 3.15 That the Church is the pillar and ground of truth There 's that which is their strength But first of all demand of these Gentlemen whether the Church of Rome be mentioned there Say I grant that Text signifies that the Church is infallible and that the Devil never can introduce any Error but how shall I know that 't is the Roman Church to whom this glorious promise of Infallibility is made The Greek Church that of the Nestorians Jacobites or Eutychians are very great Communions in the East which call themselves Christians upon as good a Title as the Church of Rome The Apostles certainly founded the Eastern Churches it is without peradventure and it is apparent that Jesus Christ hath left the privilege of being infallible to them Why should he cause it to pass from the East to the West To that they will say you see that 't is to the Church of S. Peter that the promise of Infallibility is made Upon thee will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Now the Roman Church is the Church of S. Peter Upon that demand that they prove by the Scripture these two Articles First That this promise was not made but to the Church of S. Peter Secondly That S. Peter is the Founder of the Church of Rome The first thing is impossible to be proved 'T is a prodigious absurdity that of the twelve Apostles to whom Christ Jesus said that they ought to found Churches he should have no regard but to S. Peter and to the Church which he ought to found 'T is more clear than the day that that which our Lord promised he promised to the twelve Apostles and to other Churches But your Converters will have yet more trouble to prove by the Scripture that the Roman Church is the Church of S. Peter There appears not any Footstep thereof in the whole New Testament on the contrary 't is clear there was a Church at Rome before S. Peter and S. Paul had been there It may be one may prove that S. Peter was never at Rome At least it may be proved that he never resided there in the Quality of Bishop For S. Paul says expresly that S. Peter was the Apostle or Bishop of the Jews or Circumcision and that he was the Bishop of the Gentiles Therefore S. Peter in the Quality of the Bishop of the converted Jews ought to have his Seat either at Jerusalem or Babylon in the Confines whereof was the main body of the dispersed Jews Moreover he writ and dated his Epistles from Babylon You may therefore hold your selves there and say I am well content that there be an infallible Church on earth but when I see with all my eyes that the Roman Church has erred you shall permit me to search an infallible Church elsewhere and to keep me where I am expecting till I sind it You may I say keep you there but don't do it move on further and tell your Converters Gentlemen I perceive that these words the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church may have two senses For they may signifie that the Devil shall never introduce any error into the Church of what nature soever it be Or it may signifie that the Devil shall never ruin the Church that he shall never entirely destroy it by ruining its Foundations i. e. it s fundamental Verities Tell me do these words signifie necessarily the first that is to say that the Devil shall never introduce any capital or considerable Errors into the
Church or to speak better that the Church shall never fall into any Error Not at all For if one say to a Prince I will take care that your Enemies shall never prevail upon you that will not necessarily signifie that the Enemy shall never have any Victory upon him or gain any considerable advantage against him Altho this Prince should lose some Villages yea and some Provinces yet if the gross and capital parts of his Empire always subsist notwithstanding he would have the accomplishment of the promise made unto him Provided therefore that the Church subsist in all Ages altho corrupt provided that the Fundamentals of Christianity remain throughout in their integrity the promise the gates of hell shall not prevail against it hath its accomplishment But your Converters will tell you these words signifie not so for they signifie that the Church can never fall into any Error Answer them That is the thing that is in question between you and me But who shall judge for us concerning the sense of these words It must not be you for you are a party and who can better judge than Scripture and Experience Now 't is clear by the Scripture that the sense of these words the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is not that the Church shall never suffer any considerable Errors in its Faith. All the Holy Scripture affirms the contrary It complains sometimes that the ancient Church was become idolatrous and had served other gods It foretels in express words that the Christian Church should corrupt it self That grievous wolves should enter into the fold not sparing the flock That there would be perilous times in which there would be an Apostacy from the Faith and seducing Spirits would teach Doctrines of Devils That Antichrist the son of perdition should sit in the Temple and in the Church of God. That the Church should be hid and as in a desart for the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty prophetick days that is one thousand two hundred and sixty years That when the Son of Man shall come he shall not find faith nor love among Men. That false Prophets and false Christs shall arise and deceive many To conclude for one Text by which it may be proved that the Church cannot err we can produce an hundred that do affirm that false Teachers should introduce Errors there-into Let us leave the Scriptures and pass to Experience and see whether the Church hath not actually erred It is proved clearly that she hath erred because she hath established a Worship directly opposite to that pure and simple Worship the Model whereof is found in the New Testament viz. of Images of Saints and Saintesses of a second sort of Mediators of Masses Sacrifices and a hundred other things that have not the least shadow of appointment there Let us return to our Text The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church It is disputed whether this Text doth signifie that the Church can never Err in any wise or whether it signifies that the foundations and fundamental verities of the Church can never be overturned In truth the last sense is that of Jesus Christ And all that can be granted to the Papists is that they are capable of the other But is it not very clear that we ought to chuse the latter seeing the Holy Scripture and experience determines us thereunto by a manner wholly invincible It is true and we see it that by a singular Providence God hath not permitted the Foundations of Christianity to be subverted in any of the Christian Communions all receive the Creeds of the Apostles Nice Constantinople yea even that attributed to St. Athanasius Behold therefore what our Lord would mean thereby But besides this we see that there is no Communion that hath continued pure all have embraced Errors and some of them such as are filthy shameful and mortal Therefore it is not that which our Lord Jesus Christ would say it is not a promise of absolute infallibility that is made to the Christian Church Without doubt he foretold what is come to pass and not that which never happened Behold my Brethren two general methods by which you may be able to rescue your selves from the Sophisms and fallacious Arguments which they call ways of Prescription till we can clear up those difficulties that you your selves cannot resolve about that submission that people ought to have for their Guides to the end that they may walk safely The second medium or argument wherewith all these Gentlemen serve themselves and whereof Monsieur de Meaux serves himself here to prove that they have a succession of Doctrine as well as a succession of Seats is the impossibility of insensible changes If the Invocation of Saints say they the worship of Images Masses without Communicants the taking away of the Cup had been newly introduced the Innovator would have been known and his name would have been branded with infamy as that of Arrius and Nestorius I do not think that ever any thing hath been done more opposite to reason and fidelity than the disputes these Gentlemen have thought fit to raise against insensible changes and alterations I say first it is opposite to fidelity For it is not possible that these Gentlemen can believe what they say when they tell us that we cannot determine the Authors nor the times of the principal Changes whereof we complain seeing on the contrary we observe to them the times the principal Authors and the noise that these Innovations made in the World. Does not every one know that the introduction of Images into the Church the taking away of the Cup and the establishment of the Papal Authority did make a terrible noise suffer great contraditions cause great troubles and even the shedding of much blood in the Church It is therefore notoriously to dispute against honesty and fidelity to deny that we are able to give any account of the most eminent and principal Innovations But is it not to dispute against reason and sound judgment to say as Monsieur de Meaux doth that if there had been any Innovators in the Church the spirit of Truth would have marked them and their names would have been infamous as those of Arrius Nestorius c. How could the names of these Innovators be infamous seeing their Innovations were received and entertained The Authors of Heresies and Superstitions which are rejected are indeed noted with infamy but those that are received are Canonized and adored Therefore those of the fourth Age which introduced the Invocation of Saints had no note of infamy put upon them because the beginnings of that unhappy Superstition were greedily imbraced The reason why those things in those Ages were not treated as Innovations and the Authors of them as Innovators was because they adopted and received them Had they assigned any note of infamy upon them they had condemned the worship which they admitted they had accused it of
its Ceremonies were intirely unknown As to what appertains to other Sacraments as is that of Marriage and Penance he must have a mind blinded by prejudice beyond all imagination to believe they may be found in the Scripture Marriage and Penance are indeed found there but there is not one word which does establish them as sacred Ceremonies designed to seal the Covenant of Grace and to confer forgiveness of sins Confirmation is found there i. e. the custom of laying on of hands for the giving the Holy Spirit and that of Anointing the Sick to recover them from Diseases Some of the Proselytes of these Gentlemen make a great business of it and have said to us as a great reproach that we have taken away Confirmation and Extreme Unction It is a great pity that minds which seem inlightned should stumble at trifles And is it not clear that this Imposition of Hands and Extreme Unction was designed for doing of Miracles which are long since ceased But they say that the following Ages did nevertheless practise it That we shall see afterward The Invocation of the Holy Virgin and Saints the Worship of Relicks Adoring of Images and the Service of Creatures in Popery is an affair so considerable that it fills almost all Nevertheless the Scripture of the New Testament says nothing of it Nor is it possible that Men well Educated can persuade themselves that these are Apostolical Traditions when we see not the least footsteps of them in the Writings of the Apostles It is a blindness which cannot be understood As to matter of Fact we can have no dispute with Papists concerning it They must acknowledge that the Apostles and Evangelists speak not one word either of the Invocation of Saints and Angels nor of the Veneration of Relicks nor of the Adoration of Images As to matter of Right if the Church has power to introduce these new Worships let it be proved and put past doubt and Controversie for I do affirm that he must be smitten with a spirit of blockishness that maintains that we may Religiously invoke creatures without the Authority of God and order of his Apostles Plainly it will be said that the Apostles have appointed the Invocation of Saints and that they themselves have practised it but they have left nothing written concerning it I do affirm that he must have a Forehead made of Brass who shall say such a thing And the new Converts who can be persuaded of it make no use of their reason It will never enter into the mind of a reasonable Man that the Apostles have appointed Invocation of Saints and said nothing of it in their Writings Purgatory which they would have pass for a little thing is nevertheless a very great one For Prayers for the dead publick and private Masses and almost all the Roman Worship is founded thereon So that the Holy Spirit could not let it slip If there be a Purgatory it must be in the Scripture or there is none .. I take it for granted and 't is to scoff People to go search this pretended Fire in the prison whence we must not go out till we have paid the utmost farthing in the fire that ought to try all things at the end of the world in the prison where are the Spirits to which Noah preach'd If Heaven and Hell were no other ways revealed in the Scripture the profane would have a fair opportunity to laugh at us The Authority of the Pope is the last of those Articles of Popery that I have represented 'T is an Affair about which there can be no Controversie which has any foundation in the World. Ask your Converters where-is the Pope in the Scriptures they will quote to you the Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my church Call a Turk a Jew or any other Man that hath common sense and ask him whether he sees therein that God hath established a Man at Rome with full authority to guide the whole Church to damn to save to judge of all Differences to determine without Appeal to excommunicate Kings Princes and Sovereigns he will believe you laugh him to scorn The new Converts which see therein the Apostolick Chair from S. Peter to Innocent the Eleventh have very good Eyes I beseech you my Brethren take your Converters a little to those Texts of Scripture where S. Paul enumerates the Officers of the Church He has given some to be Pastors Teachers Apostles Evangelists Bishops Deacons Elders and Prophets in those places where he declares the Duties of those who enjoy the Offices of the Church Press them say I and demand of them whether they dare say that the Apostle hath omitted the first of all Offices an Office alone in its kind infinitely superior to all others Ask them if they do believe in good earnest that S. Paul declared the Duties of Bishops in general and that he said nothing for the Regulation of the Bishop of Bishops I am persuaded if you press them earnestly thereon they will blush in your Faces Behold I do maintain that I have said enough already for the History of the first Age. The silence of the Scripture about all the Articles of Popery is an indisputable proof that then it was wholly unknown But there is much more you have an hundred positive Proofs that then the Christian Religion was wholly opposite to Popery Against the Real Presence you have all those Passages where the Eucharist is called Bread and a Commemoration of the Death of our Lord all those where 't is said our Lord is on high and not here below Against the Sacrifice of the Mass you have all the Epistle to the Hebrews Against the Worship of Creatures you have the Decalogue and a thousand other Commandments which do appoint that you adore and invoke God alone Against the taking away the Cup and the Adoration of the Eucharist you have the History of its Institution Against Purgatory you have an hundred Texts which tell you that after this life Believers go to Heaven Against the Pope you have all those places where our Lord and the Apostles forbid the Domination of Church-Men both over their Flocks and one another This is not a place to engage in a long Controversie by the Scripture we compose a History not a Disputation Know therefore historically in the following Articles what was the Primitive Christianity Behold what was the form of the Apostolick Church 1. Christians having as yet no Churches assembled where they could for the Service of God and it was almost always from House to House This is apparent both in the History of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of S. Paul. 2. In the Assemblies they preached and declared the Word of God. This is also certain and read in divers Texts in the Book of the Acts. 3 They brake Bread from House to House the Sacred Scripture says so expresly that is to say
from Judaism but bred up in the Schools of the Greeks having suck'd the Spirit of Fables and Lies wherewith those two Nations are justly reproached forged the Oracles which he attributes to the Sybils he caused to enter there as Oracles of those ancient Prophetesses all that which he believed proper to support the Christian Religion and render it plausible to the Pagans The better to persuade the Greeks he there mingled their Fables and to please the Philosophers he entered their Dreams there making himself all things to all Men that he might gain some Among other Philosophick Dreams he inserts two in his Work The first was drawn from the Platonick Philosophy 'T was that there was a certain separate place into which he pretended the Souls of the Faithful were carried after death and where they were lodged till the Day of Judgment without enjoying the happy vision of God. The other was this that at the end of the World there would be a great Fire through which all Men must pass that should be saved An imagination which seems to have some likeness to the Stoick Philosophy which teaches that the World would be burnt after which it would return into the State wherein it was at the beginning and in a continual vicissitude pass through the same Revolutions and Changes Or rather 't is taken from what the Holy Scripture says that the World at last must be burnt by Fire We are not able to say how these two Opinions the one concerâ—â—ng the separate state of Souls and the other concerning the Torrent of Fire through which they ought to pass did readily diffuse themselves among those which had any Learning and read any thing besides the Sacred Volumes The Ancients good Men and credulous being ravished to find Books under the name of Pagan Prophesies which foretold the coming of Jesus Christ his Names his Passion the Circumstances of his Birth of his Life Death and Resurrection much more clearly than the true Prophets embraced with greediness what they found in these false Prophesies Justin Martyr who wrote well nigh in the same time that these false Oracles were forged falls into the persuasion that Souls after death are in a separate place where even in some sort they are subject to the Power and Persecution of the Devil From thence it comes to pass that he said it was the Devil that caused the true Samuel to ascend by the Charms of the Witch of Endor ‖ Dial. cum Tryph. For which reason says he when a person is near death you ought to pray that his Soul don't fall under such a power S. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons the most considerable Writer of this second Age was of the same opinion concerning this separate place where all Souls must be inclosed until the Day of Judgment without seeing the Face of God. * Advers Haeres lib. 5. He calls this place Paradise whither Enoch and Elias were transported but he also calls it Hades Hell and a place invisible Note that this Opinion is universally at this day rejected by the Papists and passes among them for an Error Pope John XXII having been accused to be of this Persuasion there was a terrible noise about it and he was forced to retract it Now this Opinion is the original of Purgatory For as we shall see afterward this place changes by little and little its-nature until at length they made of it a place of Torments and Punishments for the purging of Souls This separate state produced a little while after Prayer for the Dead which we shall see had its original about the beginning of the third Age. But whereof nevertheless we see nothing in the second unless it be towards its end On the contrary Justin Martyr tells us that we must pray for dying Souls to the end that in the place of their Separation they fall not under the Power of Devils He would not have failed to have added that we must pray for Souls after death to the end that we might draw them from under the power of Devils if Prayers for the dead had then been in use On the Subject of this praying for the Dead whereof they make such great boasts in Antiquity tell them these three things 1. That it was not in use in the first and second Age. 2. That the Reason why they began to pray for the Dead is very different from that which causes Prayers for them at this day At this day 't is to draw them from Purgatory then it was to the end that in the terrestrial Paradise or other place of Separation where they were God would increase their rest and joy for it was believed that they were there in the beginning of Happiness 3. To conclude tell them that these Prayers for the Dead are no important business in Religion and that they are not the Reason of our Separation After that press them to shew you in the second Age the least footsteps of this place of Torments whither penitent Souls must go after Death to pay the remainder of those punishments which they could not satisfie during their life Demand proofs from them that in this Age the Church prayed for Souls that they might quickly get out of torment and you will see them forced to confess that there are none I come to the Worship and Adoration of Creatures such as are Relicks Images the Blessed Virgin Saints and Angels They treat this as a small business we shall have occasion to prove to you one day that without running into any extravagance 't is a Pagan Idolatry But for the present we will content our selves to shew you that we do not find the least footsteps of these worships in the second Age wherein we now are If they did invoke Saints the Blessed Virgin and Angels if they had Images if they did kiss and adore Relicks let them shew it you let them cause you to read one Author that speaks of it Bellarmine hath the impudence to produce the words of Justin Martyr to prove the Worship of Angels We adore and venerate the Father and the Son which is come to us from him who hath taught us both us and others which follow him and the Army of good Angels by the Spirit of Prophecy c. Apol. 2. He refers the word we adored to that of Angels as if the design of Justin Martyr had been to say that they adored Angels Whereas he ought to refer Angels to the word teach his Sense being that Jesus Christ hath taught the Angels as well as us the Mystery of the Gospel according to what S. Paul says To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 It is so clear that this is the Sense of S. Justin that at this day none of your new Doctors dare quote these words to prove that they worshiped Angels in the second Age. This passage being
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
to the decisions of Bishops those which came after and above all Councils might very well correct them After which he adds * De Bapt. cont Donat. lib. 2. cap. 3. And even the Councils which are held in every Country and in every Province do without difficulty give place to full Councils which are assembled from all the Christian World and these full Councils so he calls Oecumenical Councils may be corrected by those which follow when that which was hid is discovered and by some experience men come to know what they were ignorant in Observe that the thing under debate was not a matter of Discipline only as they will tell you but to know whether the Baptism of Hereticks were of any value 'T was a Point of Doctrine if there were ever and such 7. To conclude I conjure you my Brethren give yet attention to this 't is that although the Dream of your Converters should have some foundation and that the Church Universal assembled in a Body by its Guides were Infallible the Church of Rome would have no part in this Privilege nor would it extend it self to the Councils since Berengarius which they desire you should look upon as the Rules of your Faith. For these Councils were never Assemblies of the Church Universal since the Schism of the Greeks they are at most but Councils of the Latin Church but the Latin Church say they is become the Universal and Catholick Church excluding all other Christian Communions which are separate from her and by consequence her Councils are those of the Church Universal This is the most foolish of all Pretensions That the Roman Church should be the only Church excluding all the Communions of Asia Africa and Europe We have shewn the extravagance of this Pretence in our former Letters for which reason at present we may well suppose it as indisputable viz. that the Church of Rome for 800 years past hath had no Oecumenical Councils in the sense that she her self understands the Word from whence you may conclude that she hath had no Infallible Councils Furthermore 't is necessary to oblige you to give attention to this Original of Oecumenical Councils in the fourth and fifth Ages because without doubt it was one of the means which the Devil made use of to establish the Empire and Domination of Antichrist Not that the first Councils called Oecumenical were not assembled with good intention and were not very useful at that season and in that time But it happens to this good thing as to the most part of others which have been introduced with a good intention the Devil hath taken occasion from thence to bring in either Opinions or Practices which have destroyed the Church Martyrdom is an excellent work yet from thence men have taken occasion to introduce the Opinion of Merits and Works of Supererogation Respect for the Martyrs is very just and very reasonable yet that hath made way for Indulgences the Invocation of Saints Adoration of Relicks and Images The use of Oecumenical Councils hath been found good upon several occasions The Bishops coming from all Parts have appeared not as Judges but as Witnesses of the Faith of their Churches and this unanimous consent in the Faith hath produced a very good effect for the establishing of Points fundamental But the Spirit of Lies hath nevertheless made use thereof afterwards as a means to build that Universal Empire over the Church an Empire which is one of the characters of Antichrist At the beginning it was the Emperors which assembled these Councils These Assemblies were made by their Authority the Bishops of Rome were of the number of those called to them he must have renounced all Sincerity that doth not agree unto it after he hath read Eusebius Socrates Zozomon and Theodoret. When the Roman Empire was ruined in the West the Emperors having no Authority and longer to call Assemblies of the whole Church because they were no longer Masters of it the Popes who advanced according to the measure that the Emperors declined were willing to lay hold of this Right They endeavoured to re-unite under their Authority all the Provinces which had formerly been united under the Emperors in which they were successful and thereby formed the second Roman Empire which is the Empire of the Boast and of Antichrist These Oecumenical Assemblies were of great use to them in this at the head of which Assemblies they placed themselves in the quality of the first Patriarchs The custom which the Councils took in the Fourth Age of adding Anathema's to their Decisions did also serve them afterwards to possess men with a Chimera of their Infallibility I have not been able to find that Councils did anathematize any one before the Council of Nice We have the Council of Carthage reckoned for the third in the Collection of Father Labbeus held under Cyprian in the year 258. Zonarus holds it for the most ancient of all the Councils he means whose Decisions we have It seems to me we have therein the form of the ancient Councils Every one there speaks his Opinion modestly that which had the plurality of Voices passed but they there made no Decrees nor Anathema's We do not see that in the first two Ages they held Councils for the deciding matters of Faith and Doctrine There was one held about the Controversie concerning Easter that is to say Whether they ought to celebrate the Fourteenth of the Month of March but this was a Point of Discipline There was in those times an infinite number of Hereticks as appears by the Book of Irenaeus but I have not observed that they did assemble Councils against them before the third Age nevertheless if they had look'd upon Councils as Infallible it would have been necessary to prevent Seduction and to secure the Faith of Christians An Article of Controversie The true Idea of Schism That those which are called Schismaticks are not out of the Church AFter having spoken of Vnity and confuted the Sophism which they draw from this Vnity in the preceding Letters we must answer the Sophism which is drawn from the Schism which ruines this Unity 'T is a Point which your Converters do continually repeat and beat upon you Schism say they is a hideous crime Schismaticks are out of the Church there is no Salvation for them and although the Church of Rome it self were corrupt you ought not to break with her Their modern Writers which seem willing to soften the Maxims of the Roman Church do nevertheless observe no measure on this Subject and on this Point They proceed so far as to maintain That although it should be true that even the Church of Rome should be fallen into Idolatry we ought not to forsake her and could not justly set up Altar against Altar We must return to these Gentlemen not Paradox for Paradox but Truth for Lies but a Truth which is opposite to their Falshood as our Antipodes are opposite to us They say
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
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
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
find a hundred passages which Posterity may abuse after the same manner that they abuse those of St. Chrysostome to establish the Perpetuity of the Faith of the Eucharist in the sence of the Roman Church I will stop here and take it for granted that the Faith was not changed in this Article neither in the fourth nor fifth Ages nor in the three that followed them There happened neither any change in the Administration of the Sacrament under both Kinds And we boldly defie all your Converters to give us any proof or any example of any Communion celebrated in those Ages under the Species of Bread alone Monsieur de Meaux who writ last on this subject hath found no other example but that of St. Ambrose concerning whom the Author of his Life says That he died as soon as he had swallowed the Body of Jesus Christ A fine proof that they did not also give him the Blood As if it were not known that the whole Sacrament were not often expressed by the Flesh or the Body of Jesus Christ And as if there were any Figure more common than that of signifying the whole by a part I will not stay on this Article to prove that no Change happened therein in the fourth and fifth Ages for 't is a thing notorious and not disputed by our Adversaries themselves All that they say is That it was also permitted to communicate der one Kind although the Custom then was to communicate under both But that they can-never prove Monsieur de Meaux could not have made a Book which would have done him less Honour than that which he hath made on this subject It will never be believed that a man speaks sincerely when he charges himself with Falseness in a thing so publickly known as this is 'T is that for the space of four hundred or five hundred Years the Custom of Communicating under one Kind was wholly unknown An Article of Controversie An Answer to the fallacious Arguments drawn from the Visibility of the Church I Thought that I had finished telling you what was necessary you should know to dis-intangle your selves from the Sophisms which are drawn from the Unity of the Church and from that Schism which breaks this Unity We have employed Eleven Articles on that Subject in the Eleven Letters which are from the 9th to the 21th We shall at this time open a second Fountain of the Illusions of your Converters on the Subject of the Church 't is that of her Visibility 'T is a long time since that one of our most illustrious Confessors desired of me some Elucidations thereon not so much for himself as for many plain persons which they had ruffled and perplext But it was not possible for us to come at it sooner for if we had sooner left off our Discourse about its Unity and Schism we should have omitted something essential Behold after what manner they form the Sophism drawn from the visibility of the Church 'T is necessary they tell you that the Church be always visible for she is a City set upon a Hill and cannot be hid How could it be that the Pagans in all Ages should be able to come over to the Church if she had been hidden The Gate of Conversion had been shut upon them Your hidden Believers are Chimera's Besides 't is necessary that the Ministry of the Church be always visible For you will never perswade us that the Ministry hath intirely failed so that it was needful as your Confession of Faith says that God should extraordinarily raise up Men to re-establish it Besides 't is of the essence of the Church to be visible your Church cannot be the true Church for it was not visible 200 years ago it was not visible say I since it was not at all Concerning this in the first place Don't you engage yourselves to maintain that the true Church is Invisible as if this point were necessary to defend your Cause and our Church that was hidden before the Reformation Your Converters quote many places of Scripture as Monsieur de Meaux has done in his Instructions to Mademoiselle de Duras to prove to you that the Church is a visible Society Tell them that is to no purpose for we are at an Agreement therein with them They may quote unto you many of our Doctors who have maintained that the true Church was Invisible But know my Brethren that this is nothing but a Dispute about Words and that we are at an accord with them in the sence of the thing Our Divines mean that the true Members of the Church are Invisible and not that the Society in which the true Members of the Church are is Invisible This is true the true Members of the Church are Invisible for there are none but true Believers that are true Members of the Church If you hear my voice then are you my Disciples indeed Now true predestinated Believers are visible as Men but they are not visible as Believers for no body sees true Faith 't is in the heart and the actions which appear without may be equivocal But the Society where these true Members are is visible for 't is a Society of Men that serve God according to his Word and Laws this is visible Understand this by the example of a Man he hath a body and a soul but the body in which this soul is is visible True Believers are the soul of the Church that is invisible the body of the Church is the external Society and that is visible Therefore as you may say of a Man that he is visible and invisible invisible with respect to his soul visible with respect to his body so it may be said concerning the Church that she is visible and invisible invisible with respect to her soul which is true Faith and true Believers visible with respect to the Society in which this soul i.e. these true Believers are enclosed This is so clear and evident that your Converters cannot dis-allow it Behold already one point of Sophistry made void The Church is visible be it so as a Man is visible After this if they inquire of you Is this visible Church the Body of Jesus Christ Distinguish and tell them She is the Body of Jesus Christ forasmuch as she contains in herself truly righteous persons and true Believers but not because she encloses wicked hypocritical and vitious persons For 't is impossible that these persons should be the Body of Jesus Christ otherwise Jesus Christ would have rotten and stinking Members otherwise Dogs Swine c. would be in the Communion of Jesus Christ Now this is absurd for if any one have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and there can be no communion between light and darkness Christ and Belial So that a Christian which hath nothing but a simple Profession and neither Vertue nor Charity a Lover of the Word in the Christian Society is no true Member of Jesus Christ or his
will always teach with these Pastours i.e. they must be Infallible I intreat you my Brethren to attend to what I shall say concerning these three Consequences 1. These Gentlemen suppose that the Church cannot be perpetual and perpetually visible without being pure and without continuing pure and exempt from corruption in the Faith. The Church is always visible therefore pure preaching must always remain there Can a man argue more pitifully 't is just as if I should say Whilst Man hath a Soul in his Body he must be always sound and hail as if Health were inseparable from Life Where have they found that Purity with respect to Faith is in separable from Visibility And because the Church is always visible doth it follow that she is always sound if the nature of the Church consisted in an indivisible point and in that certain state of purity of Faith in which there was no kind of Errors t is true the Church would perish cease to be and by consequence to be visible as soon as the Christian Doctrine should come to be mingled with any Doctrine that is strange and forreign thereto And indeed 't is the supposition of your Converters But 't is the most foolish Dream that ever entered into the mind of Man the most contrary to the Word of God and Experience that ever was asserted The most contrary to the Scripture for the Scripture says That there shall be in the Church thorns and thistles mingled with the good grain Wolves will creep in and destroy the flock That there must be heresies That men will build upon the foundation wood bay stubble And that even the Son of perdition will sit in the Church and Temple of God. The most contrary to Experience for for the space of 1300 or 1400 years which way soever we cast our Eyes we behold Christianity every-where spoiled by false and strange Doctrines Lay down this therefore as a thing indisputable that the Church must be always visible that she must always subsist but not that she must always subsist pure and underfiled The Church began to be corrupt considerably in the fourth Age and in two Ages the Corruption became such that Antichristianity which is the highest degree of the corruption of Christianity proceeded and came out from thence But in the midst of this great Corruption Christianity nevertheless preserved it self it remained very visible and by consequence the Church also continued visible for yet once more the Church remains every-where where Christianity remains and the Church remains visible every-where where Christianity remains yisible Remember-therefore that Popery is a very high and extream Corruption of Christianity but 't is not the Annihilation of it for we must well distinguish betwixt Annihilation and extream Corruption of it If the Church of Rome had rejected the Foundations as the Turks and the Socinians have done she would have been no more visible than as a dead Body is visible But because she hath only added an infinite number of false Doctrines superstitious and idolatrous whilst she hath retained Fundamentals she hath only corrupted Christianity But Christianity in the midst of these Corruptions hath not failed to remain visible to those which search after it with diligence and attention Imagine you an Egg not broken which swims in dirty and stinking water 't is the perfect Emblem of the Roman Religion The Egg whole and not broken is the Christian Creed preserved in its integrity in the sense of the Church The filthy and stinking Water where this Egg swims is the heap of Superstitions Errors and Idolatries of Popery The Egg remains visible in the midst of this filthy Water and even the opposition of the blackness of the Mire to the whiteness of the Egg make it in some sort more visible The Body of Christianity is also visible in the heap of Popish Errors and to him that will give attention thereunto it may be said that the true Christianity which doth continue in the Roman Religion serves to discover and make the ugliness of Popery more horrible The Mud and the stinking Water which encompasseth this Egg is visible as well as the Egg. 'T is the light of the day which manifests the one and the other The Corruption introduced by Popery in the Roman Religion is visible as well as Christianity 'T is the light of the day i.e. the light of the Word of God which manifests both for the Word of God manifests Christianity in the Romish Religion by the fair conformity of the three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Nice and of Athanasius with the Revelation This same word manifests Antichristianity the Mud and the Dirt of Popery by the frightful dissimilitude and unlikeness which is between Popery and Revelation It seems to me that he must be very blockish not to perceive all this and not to see that the Church may always endure and always be even visible although it be not necessary that she always continue in perfect Purity But nevertheless there is in the first consequence of your Converters some truth which serves for a foundation to that gross Illusion which they would put upon you They say The Church is always visible therefore pure Preaching must always continue there If the meaning be 't is of necessity that something of pure Preaching do always remain there yea and that the essential parts of true Preaching remain there 't is true for if the Fundamentals and essential parts of Christianity were not there there were no Church there Moreover 't is true that in Popery in the Religion of the Greeks in the Oriental Communions the Cophtis the Nestorians and the Armenians pure Preaching doth continue as to the Fundamentals of the Creed which make the Essence of Christianity But it doth not follow at all that Preaching must necessarily remain there wholly pure and incorrupt Not being able to proceed at this time to the examination of the two last consequences which your Converters draw from the perpetual visibility of the Church I will conclude by answering a Question which they put unto you and which it may be you put unto your selves Can a man be saved in Communions which you compare to a great Bason full of Dirt and stinking Water in which swims a good Egg clean and in its integrity This respects those who desire to save themselves in the Roman Church because she retains the Egg the Creed of Christians in its perfection You may well think that we should have a great many things to say to them if we would say all and were willing to repeat what we have said concerning it in our Seventeenth Letter But in this place I shall only answer to them That it does not follow that a man may be saved in a Communion which retains the Egg of Christianity whilst he swims in the Dung which compasses the Egg and nourishes himself with it a man plunged in a hideous Mire which receives the stinking dirt by his