to its ancient Simplicity And it is certain that these are Additions of the third Age. We must therefore know that the Christians of the second and third Age being disgusted at the Simplicity of the Apostolick Worship did blow up the Sacraments with Ceremonies that were added with intention to signifie the Grace that God did communicate and give there They caused the new baptised to eat Wine and Milk because they were the nourishments of Infants and they would signifie that Believers newly baptised ought to be as Children new born For which reason Tertullian makes the word infantare to design the Action by which they made the new baptised to taste Wine and Milk. They anointed them with Oil to signifie that spiritual Unction of Grace which Believers did receive they laid hands on them to signifie the Descent of the Holy Ghost The following Ages added Wax Candles and Torches to signifie spiritual Illuminations white Garments to represent the Innocence of the newly baptised and with the same intention many other Ceremonies But I know not how by an imagination which may be called rough and impolished in a little time after the Institution of these Ceremonies which were not instituted by the Church but to signifie Men came to believe they had the virtue to confer Grace And of the divers Graces which are confirmed to the Believers in Baptism they attribute one to the washing with Water another to Unction and another to Imposition of Hands They imagined that the Water in Baptism did precisely give the Remission of Sins that the Oil did bestow the spiritual Unction and that the Imposition of Hands gave the Holy Ghost This Divinity is found in Tertullian in the Book which he has left us concerning Baptism Where he proves the Imposition of Hands after Baptism causes the coming of the Holy Ghost and he does it thus 1. Because the Priests and Magicians of Paganism did cause malignant Spirits to come upon their impure Waters by a Ceremony much like unto it 2. Because by the Imposition of Hands Jacob drew down a Blessing upon the Children of Joseph 3. By the Figure of the Ark and Dove who brought an Olive Branch from the the midst of the Waters of the Deluge wherein this Dove was a Figure of the Holy Ghost which falls upon him that comes out of the Baptismal Waters S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who lived a little while after taught the same thing viz. that Baptism gives forgiveness of sins and that the Holy Spirit is communicated by the Imposition of Hands But let it not offend these great Men This Discourse signified nothing in their Age and a person may see that it is a Language which is descended from the Age of the Apostles and from those times in which extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit were communicated by the Imposition of Hands For will they say that Remission of Sins was given by the washing of Water and the Holy Spirit by the Imposition of Hands is it to be thought according to their opinion that sanctifying Grace and the Spirit of Regeneration are not at all given in Baptism No on the contrary S. Cyprian lays it down in express words That the Spirit is received by Baptism And in another place he does affirm that sanctifying Grace whole and entire is given in Baptism and that Men augment or diminish it afterwards by the good or evil use that they make of it there is therefore no need of a new Ceremony for the donation of the Holy Spirit He himself teaches us whence the Church took that custom of imposing Hands after Baptism 'T is from the Action of the Apostles Peter and John who laid Hands on the People of Samaria to the end that they might receive the Holy Ghost Which thing is done among us says he Those that are baptised present themselves to the Governors of the Church and receive the Holy Spirit by our Prayer and the Imposition of Hands and are compleated by the Seal of the Lord. The original of this Ceremony which S. Cyprian acknowledges ought to have made him confess the inutility thereof in his Age since they had no longer the power of communicating the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost This Imposition of Hands was an imitation of the Apostles ill understood and Unction was also a pure Addition in this Age the effect whereof they were very much perplexed to express They said indeed this Unction was designed to give Grace but what Grace since Baptism communicates it whole and entire It is necessary says S. Cyprian that he who is baptised should also be anointed to the end that having received the Chrism that is to say the Unction he might be the anointed of God and have in himself the Grace of Jesus Christ Now the Eucharist and the Oil which they make use of to anoint the baptised are sanctified upon the Altar It is clear by these words that Unction is nothing else but a Ceremony of Baptism and that the Donation of the Grace of Jesus Christ is not attributed to it but because 't is annexed to Baptism For to give the Grace of Jesus Christ is the proper effect of Baptism according to all the Ancients It seems by this Passage that the Oil wherewith they anointed the baptised was consecrated Oil for S. Cyprian says It was consecrated on the Altar But this is not all for the sanctification of the Oil upon the Altar signifies no more than what we have observed concerning the second Age. 'T was that Believers brought Bread Wine and Oil and placed them upon the Holy Table They consecrated these Oblations by Prayer and they served themselves of them for the Usages of the Church among others they served themselves of Oil for Lights when they assembled by night and for the Unction of the baptised As to what remains you may observe that in the third Age nothing was seen but one Unction in Baptism whereas we shall find two afterwards Behold the Alterations which have happened to the Sacrament of Baptism in this Age. Let us consider the Eucharist We have observed that in the second Age they had added the mixture of Water with Wine the Custom of sending it to the absent by the Deacons and above all they had there annexed the Oblation of those Gifts that Believers made on the Altar as a part of the Ceremony This had already given it the appearance of a Sacrifice and indeed gave the name to the whole Action We shall not need to doubt but this imagination increased with time Christians having a very great desire to give to their Worship some appearance of a Sacrifice to take away the scandal which the Pagans conceived against them For they perpetually said to Christians You have no Temples Statues Altars nor Sacrifices and by consequence you are impious There was nothing in the Worship of the Christian Religion which might be dressed up in the likeness of a Sacrifice but the Eucharist They
naturally it cannot happen that a person should be on those Instruments of Torment without feeling very great pains But 't is a Miracle which hath a hundred and a hundred Examples in the History of the Martyrs both of the ancient Church and that of the Reformation They bring back our Martyr to the place where he was to prepare himself for death he dined because they would have it so and whilst he was eating he said to those that gave him his meat very calmly Others eat to live and I eat to die this is the last Repast that I shall take upon earth but against the Evening there is prepared a Banquet in the Heavens to which I am invited and whither I shall be conducted by the Angels These happy Spirits will suddenly remove me to make me partaker with them of the Delights of Paradise The rest of the day they let loose upon him many Monks who received no other Fruits of their Assaults but disappointment and confusion Amidst all those Distractions into which they endeavoured to cast him he employed himself in singing of Psalms in lifting up his Soul to God and presenting fervent Prayers to him About the Evening as he went forth of the Prison to go to Execution two Monks drew near to him saying We are here to accompany and comfort you He answered them I have no need of you I have a Comforter that is more faithful and which is within me for my Consolation I have a Guard of Angels round about my Person and which have assured me they will be with me to my last Breath He marched toward the place of Execution with an appearance of satisfaction and tranquillity of Spirit visible to all the Spectators and having observed some of our Brethren that were fallen pouring out floods of tears while they saluted him said to them Weep not for me but weep for your selves I shall be soon out of Sufferings and far from this Vale of Tears but I see and leave you there In the name of God recover and repent and he will have pity upon you When he was in a place and distance that he could see the Gibbet where he was to end his Combat he cryed out with transport of Joy Be strong be strong this is the place which I long since proposed to my self and for which God himself hath prepared me how welcome doth this place appear to me I there see the Heavens open to receive me and Angels coming to accompany me thither He would afterward have sung a Psalm as he drew near to the Gibbet but the Judges which saw that the Crowd was moved and pierced by the signs and tokens of his constancy imposed silence on him and forbad him to sing He obeyed because they constrained him and arriving to the Foot of the Ladder he said Oh how welcome is this Ladder to me sine it must serve me as a step to finish my course and mount to Heaven They permitted him to say his Prayers at the Foot of the Ladder And when he was ascended he saw Monks ascending after him which obliged him to repel them saying Retire I have told you and I tell you again I have no need of your succor I receive enough from my God to enable me to take the last step of my Journey He would have gone on and given a Reason of his Faith to that innumerable Crowd of People above which he was raised But they feared the effect of a Sermon preached from such a Pulpit and by such a Preacher They well foresaw that he would speak and therefore had set round about the Gibbet many Drums which they appointed to be beaten at once 'T is a new kind of Gag which is not altogether so frightful as that of another kind but produces the same effect The Spirit of Hell is always the same and hath always the same fears He hath often felt the force of those Preachers which preach from Gibbets and out of the Piles of Wood he fears their Eloquence and judges it most safe to impose silence on them Our Martyr therefore speaks not but for himself but his Countenance his Eyes his Hands bespeak his Courage his Faith and Constancy and this Language was so effectual that the Village of Beaucaire altho wholly plunged in darkness and prejudices for Popery was moved thereby in an extraordinary manner I do very earnestly wish that three or four sorts of persons would make Reflections on this death 1. The Enemies of Truth Is it possible that they cannot observe therein the Character of true Religion I do conjure them to consider what most resembles Jesus Christ and his Apostles whether a Man that dies as we have seen this young Man die or persons which cause him to die for his Religion and because he would not renounce it 2. I set this Object before the Eyes of the new Converts who being seduced either by their Passions or Illusions behold the Religion which they have left as abominable and such wherein the Spirit of God is not to be found can they well persuade themselves that so much Courage so much Piety so much Constancy so much Moderation so much Sweetness doth proceed from him who is the Father of Lies and the Fountain of Abominations If it be the Spirit of God which produces these miraculous effects in our Martyrs then our Religion is not deprived of it then God has not forsaken us then we are not out of his Church out of which there is neither Grace nor Holy Spirit To conclude I demand here the attention of the weak of those Men who bless themselves because they yet preserve the Truth in their Hearts and which perswade themselves that the Fault which they have committed in subscribing is very light I demand of them are not you obliged to do what this Martyr has done Has he given to God more than he owed him Who is he that is not obliged to seal and confirm the Truth by his Sufferings You have withdrawn your selves from paying that which you have received from God in the opportunities which he has offered you And you have withdrawn your selves by a faulty weakness and negligence by a lye both of Heart and Hand In what estate should we be if God had not left us a Remnant We should be like unto Sodom and Gomorrah we should not have had one Martyr i. e. one Witness of the Truth of our Lord Jesus You will say all are not capable of suffering Martyrdom At least confess then that you are in this respect in a great degree of Imperfection and that your Fault is great Don't justifie your selves at all recover your selves by Repentance if you would that God should pardon you I have given you the History of the Vigor which our Brethren of Languedoc have had to continue their Assemblies without interruption and thereby expose themselves to Martyrdom and Death with design to convince you of that which I have proved in
end that we may not overcharge your memory and we will fill the Sheet with matters of Fact respecting the Persecution which you suffer and whereof our Brethren from divers places have given us information The Doctrine of the Church is a Flood which rolls and swells in rolling it unhappily gathers more of impurity than good things we shall see it in the third Age. We have already observed Additions and Alterations in the Simplicity of the Christian Worship arrived in the second Age. We shall see many more in this We will begin with the Sacraments as we have done in the second Age. The first of these Sacraments is Baptism we have not observed by the manner wherein Justin Martyr tells us they did administer it that there was made unto his time that is to say until the year 160. of our Lord any considerable Addition But Tertullian a Priest of Carthage who wrote in the beginning of the third Age about forty years after Justin Martyr learns us that in his time they had added some Ceremonies to Baptism that they gave Milk and Honey to the baptised when they came out of the Baptismal Font. E fontibus egressi lact is mellis concordiam praegustant During the space of seven days after Baptism they abstained from ordinary Washings i. e. from going unto the Baths they added also an Unction of Oil after Baptism and the Imposition of Hands Afterwards says the same Tertullian when we are gone out of the water we are anointed with the blessed Unction according to the ancient Discipline by which they were accustomed to anoint the Priests with Oil which they poured out of a Horn c. As to what concerns the Imposition of Hands I believe sufficiently that it was a Ceremony not used in Baptism For it has always been an Appendage of Prayer when they prayed for any one in particular and demanded on his particular the Spirit of God and his Grace Tertullian does not say that it was the custom to kiss those persons that were received to Baptism But it appears by the Answer of S. Cyprian to Fidus that Custom was afterward introduced This Bishop Fidus made scruple to baptise Children before the eighth day because that before that day the Impurities which proceed from their Birth do not appear well wiped off Thereupon S. Cyprian tells him Concerning what you say that a Child in the first days after his Birth is not sufficiently clear and that every one of us have some abhorrence to kiss him we do not think that that can be any hinderance to the giving of him Grace In the mean while as we find no Authors of this Age who speak of this kiss as one of the Ceremonies of Baptism so it is more probable that S. Cyprian speaks it with respect to the kiss which the faithful gave each other before the Communion For then they caused Infants to communicate after their Baptism all together after the same manner they did the adult and before they did communicate it was necessary that they should salute them The same S. Cyprian speaks of certain possessed persons which they did efficaciously exorcise in Baptism in such a manner that the Devils which had resisted all kinds of Conjurations gave place to the Sacramental Waters But it does not appear that this Exorcism was as at this day a Ceremony practised in the Baptism of all Catechumens in whatsoever state they were nor did the Devil go out by virtue of any Exorcism but by the sole virtue of the Baptismal Water sprinkled on them So that we see nothing added to Baptism in this third Age but Milk and Hony which they caused the baptised to eat and the Unction wherewithal they did anoint them when they came out of the Font. These Ceremonies of Unction and Imposition of Hands which were of use in the third Age do oblige us to observe here that they were not at all the pretended Sacrament of Confirmation as they would since make us believe It is true they are that whereof the Roman Church have made their Sacrament of Confirmation But it is false that the Church did then consider it as a Sacrament They were purely Ceremonies of Decency or Mystery which made up part of the Baptismal Administration 1. This appears because this Unction and Imposition of Hands was performed immediately after Baptism this no Man disputes At this day Confirmation is deferred a long time after Baptism and thousands of persons even amongst the adult die without being confirmed 2. The same Minister that had baptised was he that performed this Unction and Imposition of Hands whereas afterwards this privilege was affected by and appropriated to the Bishop 3. To conclude Tertullian tells us expresly that this Unction was in imitation of the ancient Jewish Discipline according to which the Priests were anointed Which he would never have said if he had believed it a Sacrament of the Christian Church For the Sacraments of the New Covenant derive their original from Jesus Christ and not from Moses 'T is the opinion of the Learned Dr. Reynolds of the famous Grotius and of almost all the Learned that are unprejudiced that these Ceremonies were Appendages of the Baptism of the Ancients and that they were added in the second and third Age. But it 's of very little importance to know how the Ancients did consider these Ceremonies of Unction and Imposition of Hands whether as Dependances of Baptism or as Ceremonies separate and distinct from it It is sufficient that they did not consider it as a Sacrament descended from Christ Jesus and that Tertullian who is the first in whom this Unction is observed professes that it is in imitation of Judaism just in the same manner as is the Imposition of Hands The English Church amongst the Reformed hath rejected this Unction which makes the principal part of Confirmation and has retained nothing but the Imposition of Hands to which she hath left the Name of Confirmation 'T is an Ecclesiastical Ceremony which she might retain without crime and which we might abandon without any prejudice to Christianity We have learned that many of the new Converts which have suffered themselves to be seduced are very obstinate and wilful thereupon viz. about the Sacrament of Confirmation about its antiquity and because we have rejected it but they ought to know that we have renounced it 1. Because they have made a Divine Sacrament thereof whereas it was nothing but a Ceremony of human Institution 2. Because it is always permitted to reject those observances which are of no necessity as the Roman Church at this day does not practise the giving Hony and Milk to those that are baptised nor to forbid them bathing during the space of seven days Unction is a Ceremony of no other nature or importance than this 3. To conclude we have judged it to purpose to omit the Ceremony of Unction with the others because we were willing to restore the Christian Worship
who make a very great noise in Italy They reproach the Pastors excessively and under an appearance of Zeal there is nothing which they do not say to make odious and contemptible both the publick Ministry and those that exercise it in the one and other Religion This may be seen in the Writings of their Foundrâ—ss Anthoniette de Bourignon They perform no private Exercises of Devotion in their houses at least which are visible for Mr. P. himself hath made known to the Publick that Madam Meiselle de Bourignon had no Prayers in her Family unless it were at Table and yet he observes that that also was done with a low Voice not that they do not permit the use of Prayers to such as will as they permit them to go to Sermons or to Mass indifferently but those which are perfect among them do not concern themselves about it And one of the Principles of Mr. P. is That Desires Prayers Elevations of Heart towards God and Meditation are perfectly contrary to the Spirit of perfect Christianity and hinder the descent of the holy Spirit and the coming of his Grace According to him the only estate proper to draw down the holy Spirit is that which he calls a state of Inaction by which in a privation of Prayers Desires and Motions a man lets himself fall into nothing And this annihilation of all the Faculties is that acceptable Sacrifice to God which causes a descent of the Holy Spirit They have perpetually those Words in their mouth Let all Creatures keep silence and let God speak by which they signifie not only that we ought to impose silence on our Passions that we may hear God which is very true but also that we ought to shut the doors to all external Objects and to lay all our internal Faculties asleep to procure a kind of Extasie which whilst it continues God speaks to the Heart immediately and by himself Behold one of the Dreams of this Sect whereof you will see some footsteps scattered here and there throughout the whole Letter for this is the meaning of those Humiliations Annihilations and internal acts of Adherence to God which you are there exhorted to make Behold another Dream of these diseased Minds which is read also in this Writing in the fourth Page thereof and the second Column Moreover says he it must be remembred that 't is said in the Gospel That all things are possible to him that believes That Faith can remove Mountains and that Jesus Christ always said to Men Be it unto you according to your Faith. So that if those which officiate and assist at the Celebration of the Eucharist do believe that Jesus Christ is present there this Faith is ratified by God and it engages him beyond his Word and his Promises to make himself present as it is believed and this is a Conception so clear that I do not doubt but you will comprehend the force thereof Must not he have a besotted mind to call this a clear Conception I will explain it to you One of the Opinions of this mysterious Cabala is that originally God created Man master of all things in the literal signification of the Words so that he was able to stop the Sun in his course to remove the Globe of the Earth to remove Mountains c. and the Instrument by which he doth this or could do it is his Faith for all things are possible to him that believes without any Figure or Exceptions The state of Perfection to which Christ calls us is that of Faith which makes all things possible to us so that at this day to overturn the order of the World you have no more to do but to believe that you can do it and it shall be done for 't is precisely in the literal sense that they would have us understand the words of Christ If you had Faith but as a grain of Mustard-seed you should say to this Mountain be thou removed and cast into the Sea and it would be done And that it was not a Priviledge of the Apostles but for all Believers Behold that admirable Conception which he tells you is so clear that it is impossible you should not understand the force thereof If you don't understand its strength at least you will understand the convenience of it for when it shall please you to believe that Christ is corporeally present in your Andiron and in the Mantle-tree of your Chimney it will be so and by that means without going out of your Chimney-corner you will go to Mass and every one of you by his Faith will consecrate and transubstantiate all the Utensils of his House In the same Writing you will find another Dream which to me seems yet more ridiculous 'T is in the sixth Page and the second Column on the Subject of Purgatory Then when it happens that a Soul departs this Life in the love of God having nevertheless some impurities and evil habits in it self the Blood of Jesus Christ or the purifying Grace of Jesus Christ which comes after death into this Soul to purifie it or to finish its purification from all sin finding there as yet more or less of the remainders of Evil and of evil Habits and Inclinations fights with them that he may expell them this Combat of the purifying Grace of Jesus Christ against the evil which is in a Soul very sensible which he would cleanse from all the remainders of Sin is not done nor can be without great and sensible sorrows Is not this very singular That when a Soul is separated from his Body the blood of Jesus Christ should thrust it self in there like Sand to scour to cleanse this Soul which is an occasion of quick and pungent Sorrows Surely Mr P. could not have done better to excite the curiosity of the Publick than to give us this little spark of his Mysteries This also will be worth something to his Printer for I am assured that the Curious of France would at any rate whatsoever see a compleat Systeme of this admirable Theology However it be it is not without a particular Providence that it happens that in a Writing otherwise apt enough to flatter the minds of our Nicodemites the Author hath sufficiently discovered himself and made known what he is After this my Brethren judge what credit you ought to give a man who gives you an Idea of Piety according to which the Israelites might worship the Golden Calf without fault because they believed it to be God according to which a Man may be a Turk and adore even Cabages provided he makes use of them as a means of uniting him to God and to excite his Love. These Gentlemen desire of us to leave them in peace let them leave us so then and let them not intermeddle to give Advice to our Congregations being not called thereto With all my heart I am willing to leave them at rest for I take no pleasure to trouble any body
first Author of that Separation But 't is a ridiculous Chimera to imagine that they were out of the Essential Unity seeing that when they went away they carried with them the true Jesus the true Doctrine and the true Sacraments They were yet the Church they were Christians whatever St. Cyprian says of them and not only their Martyrs obtained the Crown of Martyrdom but their penitent Christians obtained Salvation although they died in Schism There are particular Unities and a general Unity Particular Unity consists in certain Bonds such as are common Ecclesiastick Government common Discipline and certain common Ceremonies You are not in particular Unity with the Episcopal Church of England with respect to Government But this Unity signifies nothing to Salvation he must be a mad man to damn Christians because they either have or have not Bishops The general Unity which consists in the three things which I have said is the only essential necessary and saving Unity If you agree with the Church in Government Discipline and Ceremonies and don 't agree with it in Opinions in Sacraments and Spirit you have no Communion with it if you differ in Government and Discipline and agree in Truths Sacraments and the same Jesus you are at Unity with it and with God. This Vnity of the Church whereof we have now discoursed makes me think of that unity of Souls which ought to prevail among the true Members of the Body of Christ It is the Character under which the Apostolick Church is described unto us They were all of one heart and one mind 'T is this holy Unity which draws down the holy Spirit for when the firy Tongues fell upon the Apostles they were all with one accord assembled in one place 'T is the absence of this holy Unity which in part hath drawn down those unhappy Effects of the Wrath of God under which we now groan Call to mind the Divisions the immortal Hatreds Jealousies Quarrels and Strifes which have been seen in the midst of you even on occasions and in things for which Peace and the Spirit of Charity were particularly requited One was of Paul another of Peter but not one for Jesus Christ Men made their own Passions and Interests to triumph and trampled under foot the Glory of God and the publick Edification The strictest friendships were always ready to break on the first transport of Passion The Spirit of Vengeance had no rest till it had revenged the Injuries it thought it had received and we knew not what it was to sacrifice a resentment to the Love of God and his Christ God has made these civil Wars to cease by a cruel and strange War. You have a common tye more than you have had you have had the same Faith the same Sacraments the same Churches and the same Holy Table besides you have at this day your common Affliction and your common Misfortunes 'T is certain that even in the World this makes a tye among Souls and it should do with far greater reason when men suffer the same grief for the same cause and for the same God. You ought mutually to love each other because you are afflicted for God and by consequence you ought to love those also who suffer for you they are your Confessors who have the glory to maintain in the Prisons those Truths with you have been so weak only to keep close in your Hearts having not the courage to shew them openly Among those which are in divers Prisons of the Realm for the Cause of God there are an infinite number that want all things these are Voices that cry against you to Heaven in a terrible manner and say What a shame is it that Jesus Christ is in Prison that he is Sick Hungry and Thirsty that he freezes with cold during the rigor of the Winter and that these Peters who grew pale at the word of a Servant don't go to visit him to give him Bread and Cloaths You know what will be the Sentence that the Lord will give to such think of it and partake-in the Bonds of your Brethren though they be at the utmost ends of the Kingdom Feb. 1. 1687. The TWELFTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The beginning of the History of Christianity of the Fourth and Fifth Ages Of the Original of Monks An Article of Controversie Of the Unity of the Ministry HAving finished the History of the Christianity of the Third Age we enter upon the Fourth We shall not distinguish that of the Fourth and Fifth they are so interwoven that they cannot be separated All the Superstitions false Worship and Corruptions of Discipline which are found established in the Fifth Age took their beginning in the Fourth We enter upon Ages in which the Church had entirely changed its Face it is no longer a persecuted Church it triumphs it reigns it ascends the Throne The Emperors becoming Christians drew along with them by their Authority and Examples an infinite number of Pagans who had that Complaisance and Civility for their Masters as to become Christians But the Church also on her part had the Complaisance to burthen Religion with vain Worship and Ceremonies borrowed from Paganism All that which she thought might be innocently taken from thence she took to draw them over to her The Bishops inrich'd by the Liberality of Constantine and his Successors became proud they would have a distinct Jurisdiction from the Civil they established for themselves Tribunals It appears by the Book of Constitutions falsely ascribed to the Apostles that the Bishops had Flatterers which said of them or rather they said of themselves many incredible proud and impertinent things * Vit. Const lib. 2. cap. 37 38. They set themselves above Kings they said that they must pay them Tributes and Tenths and that Men owed them greater Honors than Kings and that they had power to condemn to everlasting Fire Above all the Pomp and Pride of the Bishops of Rome that ruling City became such that they gave jealousie to the Chief Magistrates of the Empire They added to the Sacraments new Ceremonies an Unction before Baptism beside that which followed after it the Prayers and Ceremonies of the Liturgy of the Eucharist which they call at this day the Mass were much increased and augmented they made use of Holy Waters they consecrated Oyls and Chrism their Funerals were enriched with Ceremonies borrowed from Judaism or Paganism they had their Ninth day their Fortieth day and their yearly Obits or Prayers for the Dead they affixed Prayers to certain hours which at this day they call Canonical the Cock crowing Nine of the Clock Mid-day Three of the Clock and Vespers In these Ages they did essentially alter Divine Service by intermingling therewith the Service of Creatures A kind of Furie for Relicks seized on the Spirits of Men nothing was heard to be spoken of but Visions by which they had been discovered and Miracles which had been done by them they carried
Woman fearing God more than Men resisted all their Temptations and constantly refused to participate in this false Mystery which would have deprived her of true Communion with Jesus Christ After her Death the Justice seized on her Body and before Sentence was pronounced against her they plucked out her Eyes they cut off her Nose pulled out her Tongue they cut off her Fingers and Toes her Lips and Ears and committed those kind of Indignities on this poor Body which we dare not name Good God! What Spirit is this what kind of fury And of what Persons did the Holy Spirit speak if it be not of these men when it said Even the Sea-monsters draw out the breast they give suck to their young ones but the Daughter of my People is in the hands of cruel and barbarous persons like the Ostriches in the Wilderness So some translate the Words We will place here a matter of Fact which we had determined to have acquainted you with long since but could not find a convenient place for it And eye-witness hath sent us the Relation of the Martyrdom of one called Monsieur Charpentier of the Village of Rufac in Angoulmois who died in the midst of Torments about the time that the Edict of Nantes was revoked We shall pass by the ordinary Violences committed by the Dragoons on the Goods of this poor Man. These mischievous Villains fell on his Person they lighted up many Candles and caused him to dance round about them until he had lost both Sense and Breath They hindred him from sleeping which having heated his Blood put him into a malignant Fever the Dragoons seeing him in this condition forsook him and he was carried from his own House to that of one of his Relations When he was there the Dragoons of Pinsone came to Rufac they soon learn'd the House where the sick Man was thither they went and at first contented themselves to keep guard about his Bed offering him a thousand Outrages accompanied with Threatning and Blasphemies At last seeing this did not shake him they caused him to drink down twenty great Glasses of Water and his Daughters drank as many more to excuse their Father This prevailing nothing as yet they caused melted Grease to drop down upon his Eyes for a whole Night together He lost his Sight and his Eyes never opened more He lost his Life also and died in those Torments without the least appearance of Weakness confessing the Truth couragiously to his last Breath April 1. 1687. The Sixteenth PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity A Fourth Proof of the Novelty of the Invocation of Saints in the Fifth Age They did not Invoke the Blessed Virgin And Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts about Schism Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. IN our preceeding Letter we have confessed to your Converters that the Invocation of Saints began to be practised about the end of the Fourth Age and in the Fifth But we have offered to you three Proofs that that Worship was New. Behold a Fourth proof of the Novelty thereof 't is that in the Fourth and Fifth Ages nothing was known concerning the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin. We know what difference Popery puts at this day between the blessed Virgin and other Saints She is vastly preferred before them her Worship is called Hyperdulia and the Worship of others simple dulia For one Prayer addressed to other Saints there are a hundred to the blessed Virgin where St. Paul hath one worshipper she hath a hundred The Titles which are given to the holy Virgin are a thousand times more pompous and great than those which are given to the greatest Apostles And there is some reason for it For surely the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to have greater Priviledges than his Servants If then the Invocation of Saints be an Apostolick Tradition we ought to Invocate the holy Virgin Mother of God in the first place and as the Head of our He and She Mediators of the second Order The Second Age ought to have known this Worship or if any politick reason had hindred the Invocation of Saints from manifesting itself in the Third Age certainly the Invocation of the Virgin ought to have appeared in the front of the Fourth Age amongst others like the Sun among the Stars What folly what a humour was it then to Invoke St. Mamas St. Julitta and forty Soldiers which suffered Martyrdom in the beginning of the Fourth Age and not to Invoke the Virgin Mother of God. As to matter of fact we do maintain that the blessed Virgin was not prayed unto till near 100 Years after the first birth of that Worship And you may my Brethren boldly defie your Converters on that subject Whil'st there were Churches consecrated to St. Stephen St. Mamas St. Julitta to the forty Soldiers to St. Gervais St. Protais and many others which they shew unto you there was not so much as a little Chappel for our Lady Nothing was then spoken of but Miracles done by the Martyrs Mothers desired of them the recovery of their Husbands and of their Children the blind went to them to recover their sight and the paralitick to be restored to strength and soundness they took them for Protectors in their Voyages And as a mark of the acknowledgment of the miraculous Deliverances they had received from them they inriched their Churches with precious and invaluable Treasures This we learn from Theodoret who writ about the Year 450. And all this while nothing is said of the Miracles of the Virgin who nevertheless afterwards wrought many more than all the other he and she Saints together except only that Zozomen says by the by that about the time whereof we speak it was believed at Constantinople that the Virgin appeared there and wrought Miracles in the Church of the Resurrection called Anastasia But he does not say that they prayed unto her in that Church The Martyrs had not only their Churches but they had also their Feasts in the Third Age in which mention was made of their grievous sufferings The Virgin had then no Feasts At this day she has seven but the most ancient of them is not above 800 or 900 years old 'T is true that that which at this day is called Candlemas which the Greeks call Hypapante is more ancient But at the beginning it was celebrated in the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ and not of the Virgin. 'T was the Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple and not the Purification of the Virgin. It was called Hypapante which signifies meeting because of the meeting of Simeon and Anna the Prophetess who went before the Child and both concurred to prophesie concerning the Wonders of this new-born Infant To conclude that which is found most ancient for the Invocation of the Virgin is what Nicephorus Calistus saith *
Saints are said to appear 't is not they which return 't is the Angels which appear and speak for them Behold I pray you how unformed and floating this Theology is But there is more than this in these same ages when they prayed to Martyrs at one time they prayed for them at another They prayed say I for the Martyrs and for the Apostles yea for the blessed Virgin and this is a new Proof of the Novelty of this Superstition This appears by the Liturgies of that time In that of St. Chrysostom we read We offer to thee this reasonable Service for those which rest in the Faith of our Ancestors our Fathers the Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles the Preachers the Evangelists the Martyrs the Confessors the Continents and for all the Spirits which were initiated in the Faith principally for the most holy immaculate and blessed above all Women our Lady Mary Mother of God and always a Virgin. And in that which is attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem O God have mercy on our Fathers on our Brethren which are at rest whose Souls are acceptable unto thee give them repose and remember also all the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Evangelists and all the Spirits of the Just which are dead in the Faith and principally the holy and the glorious Mary Mother of God always a Virgin. It would be at this day the greatest of all absurdities to pray for a dead man and pray to him at the same time Indeed if he be in a condition of doing us good if he see God if he be with him he hath no need of our Prayers The inconsistency of these two Worships which nevertheless were both used at the same time is a demonstrative proof that the Invocations of Saints was a Novelty Prayers for the Martyrs were found in the ancient Liturgies out of respect to Antiquity they were left there but the torrent of Novelty added unto them Prayers unto the Martyrs without taking notice that these latter were inconsistent with the former To conclude I do maintain that those who will not give attention to these Demonstrations which prove the Novelty of the Invocation of Saints in the 4th Age have an insensible and seared Conscience and so I think it unprofitable to dispute any more against them I well understand that the New Converts who are willing to be content with their change will yet find two Fortifications for their security They will say that this Worship of Saints was then new but that it was not evil and that therefore the Church might introduce it as a pious Custom and proper to incline the minds of men towards Devotion But let these Gentlemen have a little patience Monsieur de Meaux in that which follows will give us occasion to make it plain to you that this Worship and this Invocation is Paganism renewed and that it is in nothing better than the Invocation of Angels and Hero's which the Pagans practised in their Devotions we will make them see that 't is a true Idolatry The other Fortification is the Antiquity of this Worship However it be say they you do confess that the Invocation of Saints hath more than one thousand two hundred Years on its head Does this put you to no troubles Have you no respect for so goodly a piece of Antiquity and how can you believe that God hath left his Church under Idolatry for so many Ages We answer That we cannot have respect for Antiquity without Truth and in this we are of the Religion of St. Cyprian We add That we are not astonisht to see an Idolatry so aged in the Church because it hath been expresly predicted to us The Prophet St. John calls Idolatrous Christians Pagans and the Spirit saith to him * Revel 11. cap. 12. I have given up the outward Court of the Church to the Pagans that they may tread it under foot for forty two Months These are the thousand two hundred and sixty Days in which the Woman i. e. the Church ought to be hidden as in a Wilderness for the space of these thousand two hundred and sixty Days And the two Prophets which prophesied in Sack-cloth i. e. the Truth published by a small number of Witnesses and those under the Cross ought to continue under the oppression of Idolatry the same number of Days i. e. a thousand two hundred and sixty Now these thousand two hundred and sixty Days are so many Years according to the stile of the Prophets who denominate Years by Days We shall have it may be in what follows an opportunity to prove it to you It must be therefore that Idolatry Rule in the Christian Church one thousand two hundred and sixty Years It hath done so almost for that space of time it is therefore near its end But we ought not to be amazed that it hath continued so long An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions that the New Converts put upon themselves WE take up again the Continuation of the Controversie at the place where we left the Illusions of the New Converts The common Faith say you is a kind of Agreement to live under the same Ministery without being accountable for all the Abuses that have slipt into the Church By this fine reasoning we may live in safety among the Turks we believe as they do that there is one GOD one Paradise one Hell and that Jesus Christ is the greatest Prophet which ever came into the World. This common Confession of Faith will be an Agreement to live together safely under the same Ministery And we will leave to the Turks their prophane Abuses and their absurd and impious Doctrines Believe me such an Agreement resembles that of Pilate and Herod who agreed to despise and put to death Christ Jesus When the Ministery introduces small Corruptions this may be granted but when Corruption goes to the heart of Religion the Agreement signifies nothing and lays no obligation all is deadly either by itself or by its neighbourhood or contagion Provided that we Adore the same God and Profess the same Fundamentals of Christianity all the rest is not imputable to private persons Above all then when there is a necessity of joyning ourselves to this first Christian Society and when we cannot find any publick Worship more pure and edifying This is the Continuation of your Apology There are two words therein Provided and above all which destroy you Provided that we profess the same Fundamentals I have made it appear already that this provided is insufficient You must add Provided that fundamental Errours be not added to the Foundations Now Popery hath added to the Foundations of Christianity Tyranny Superstition and in one word Antichristianism So behold yourselves thrown out of your Fortification Provided that The Above all is no better Above all when there is a necessity of joyning ourselves There is no necessity of joyning ourselves to a Communion which we acknowledge
persevere in the Confession of the Truth the most part of whom never appeared so zealous as some of those who are fallen and flatter themselves because God has given them the opportunity of going out of the Kingdom and recovering themselves in a Country of Liberty and Freedom I do not call this Perseverance I commend the prudence of those which secure themselves but to account it their honour and reputation I cannot They sacrifice their Country their Wives their Children their Goods and their Ease I confess it and 't is true that is much But what will not a man give for his life Every one will give skin for skin and all that he has for his life but put forth thine hand and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face He who hath not suffered thus far hath not as yet given sufficient proof of his love for the Truth What shame and abatement of glory do these weak ones bring to our glorious Confessors who reckon their lapse and fall for a thing of naught According to them our Martyrs are fools and obstinate persons who suffer for a trifle for a signature and subscription which is required of them which when they have given they may save themselves by going out of the Kingdom Alas if this fault be so small a thing why do the holy Champions of God suffer so many Evils to avoid it Is it the Spirit of God which inspires them with this Courage If it be God that is the cause of this Holy Perseverance to what Spirit may we attribute this cowardize of refusing to Jesus Christ our Bodies to glorifie his Name and do honour to his Truth All that these poor Wretches say to us is this If you had been in our place it may be you would have done no better than we have done This may be true but is it a lawful Excuse Is the Crime the less because we are all capable of committing it I complain therefore but do not rigorously condemn those who have been so weak as to yield by Persecution provided they sigh and lament in the secret of their own Souls acknowledging and confessing their fault and their sin But I confess I am not able to bear those who after they have received much have returned so little and who being persons of great understanding have had so little stability and courage and cannot yet confess the fault they have committed is verâ— great and hainous The first of May 1687. The Eighteenth PASTORAL LETTER A. M. D. J. Vpon occasion of an Act falsely ascribed to the Synod of Montpazier in Perigort by which they would prove that in the year 1659. the Reformed of Lower Guyenne did Treat with the English about their entring into France and delivering several Places in the Kingdom into their hands Monsieur YOU have thought that the Accusation which Soulier the Priest hath renewed against the Protestants of France does deserve that we interrupt the course of our Pastoral Letters to give the Publick a small Apology concerning it And indeed seeing we do employ our selves in refuting errors in matters of Right for the justification of our holy Religion we maâ— and ought to confute errours in matters of Fact for the justification of persons who make profession of this Religion So that I yield to your Reasons and at this time shall make an Apology for our selves against this barbarous and inhumane Accusation And first I advertise the Publick that they give attention to the business about which we are now to treat for they will see one of the most famous Impostures that the eyes of him who seeth all things ever did behold they will see what is the Spirit of the Religion which for so long time we have opposed they will know what our Persecutors are capable of I Know not what cheating Priests and Apostate Ministers did forge some years since an Act in the Name of the Synod of Lower Guyenne which was held at Montpazier in the year 1659. on the first of July and some days following that they might perswade that the Reformed of that Province did at that time treat with the English about giving them entrance into the Kingdom and delivering into their Hands all those places of which they could make themselves Masters This piece of Forgery appeared at that time when they laboured with an incredible Heat to thrust the Reformed of France with all the speed they could to their utmost Ruine 'T was all this time that all the World to please the Court thought it a Duty to endeavour by all sorts of Accusations to render them Odious All places were full of Books and Libels against Calvinism endeavouring to shew the Impurities of its Birth the Horrors of its Life the Furies of its Conduct the Civil Wars that it did occasion the Spirit of Rebellion wherewithal it is animated the Dangers in which it engaged the Crown the Precipices to the very borders whereof it carried the Realm its divers attempts against the Persons of our Kings and the State. All then was well received which promoted the principal end of the Clergy and Court of France And 't was to animate the King to a speedy execution of his Design that this piece was forged This Conspiracy of the Synod of Monpazier which was sufficiently new was the most proper means in the World to swell and inlarge the Libels which were made against the Reformed Nevertheless no Writer would own or assert this Villainous Piece because 't was visible to be bad Mettal Mr. Maimbourg was not a person scrupulous in the value and worth of his Testimonies when he endeavoured to support what he had advanced and this pretended Conspiracy of Montpazier was a Testimony sufficiently good it seems to me to prove the Thesis which he had endeavoured to defend in his History of Calvinism 't is that the Spirit of Violence Fury and Rebellion is the Soul of our Religion Nevertheless neither he nor Mr. Arnald in his Apology for the Catholicks nor Mr. Feure who came sine did ever dare to hazard their Reputation on a Calumny so evident and an Accusation so ill proved and established I intreat you judge whether it be true as they pretend that the Court had the Act and the Proof of this Conspiracy in their hands that the resolution of Montpazier in its Original had been put into the hands of the King by Mr. Joly Bishop of Agen and by the Cardinal Bouillon and that the Court had judged the piece true Consider say I whether Mr. Maimbourgh who writ by the Order of the Court and on purpose to make Calvinism Odious would have had no knowledge or cognizance of it And in case he had known or understood it is it not plain and clear that he would have made use of it if he had thought it good and valuable But at last a Person is found fit to serve as a Godfather to this Reprobate and Bastard-Child
in these Countries they know GOD no better and it may be a great deal worse than in Turky The sacred Histories are utterly unknown to them they know nothing of Christianity but what we find thereof in their Catechism mingled and confounded with the Errours and Superstitions of Popery Instead of the true Gospel what do they preach in those places that are under the Dominion of Popery And what have they preacht in the times when it did Rule and prevail without contradiction They did there preach 1. Corrupt Morality according to which a man might commit Murder to save a Crown to defend his Honour and secure himself from some small Affront according to which a man might Rob when a person did not think himself sufficiently recompensed for his labours according to which a man might exercise Usury and infamous Monopolies according to which a man might keep Concubines and abandon himself to Sodomy without mortal Sin according to which a man might Lye by Equivocation and mental Reservations according to which he might live all his life without the Fear of God without performing one act of Contrition or the Love of God to his death and he might be Dispensed with that at the point of death provided he exercised an act of the fear of Hell when he receives the Sacrament of Penance Popery hath produced this detestable Morality it hath taught it where it could inspired it into private persons and suffered it where it durst not teach it For Holy History instead of the pious and sacred Histories of the Scripture which might turn mens minds towards Devotion they entertain the people with Fabulous Legends Instead of speaking to them of the Miracles and Greatness of Jesus Christ they speak of the Greatness of the Virgin they say that she was conceied without sin that her Father and her Mother had been advertised of her Birth by an Angel that at her Birth the Angels assembled together and formed a Quire and Consort in the Air that this Celebration of the Birth of the Holy Virgin is repeated every year on the same day that many Saints have heard them in the Air that this Holy Virgin was bred and brought up in the Temple and in the most holy Place called the Sanctuary that when she conceived Jesus Christ it was by three drops of her Bloud which the holy Spirit took from her heart that after she had lived most holily she died in the presence of all the Apostles whom the Holy Spirit brought in the Air from all parts of the World whither they were gone to preach the Gospel that three days after she rose again and was carried up into Heaven with charming Musick made by the Voices of Jesus Christ and the Angels and that she was set very near to Jesus Christ above all the Seraphims After the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven they made her do a thousand and a thousand ridiculous Miracles upon Earth sometimes she appeared to a Monk sometimes to a Pilgrim sometimes to some one of her devoted Servants she kisses them she makes them kiss her she opens her bosom to them she gives them suck from her breasts she appoints them to build a Chappel to her in such a place and that they should perform such or such Devotions to her she fixes herself in certain places and there makes her choice to dwell and do Miracles All those which come thither for Sickness Blindness Palsie loss of Bloud Deafness loss of Members return thence safe and sound when one of her Houses formerly frequented ceased to be so she transported it beyond the Seas and fixed it in another Country to draw thither new Servants to her Devotion she forgets nothing that may favour those which serve her In one Convent she takes the place office and figure of a debauched Nun which ran to the places of Prostitution because this Nun when she was going did devoutly commit the Convent into her hand In another place because an Abbess did most devoutly commend herself to her when she had polluted herself with her Domesticks she delivered her in private of her great Belly and restored her Virginity in such sort that those who had accused her remained ashamed and confounded Instead of entertaining the people with the Miracles and Vertues of true Saints as were the Apostles to oblige them to an imitation of them Popery hath substituted unto them new Saints which were Fools and wicked Fools too St. Francis St. Dominick St. Hyacinth St. Vincent Ferrerius or imaginary Saints as St. Christopher and the eleven thousand Virgins or modern and unknown Saints such as St. Milorus St. Alldem St. Colganus and a thousand others To which they attribute ridiculous and impertinent actions for Vertues and such sottishnesses for Miracles as are unworthy of those little Demons called Hobgoblins One to testifie his Humility made himself to be tossed in a Sieve by little Children another to draw upon himself contempt counterfeited the Fool and the Ideot another fouled the Bed of his Host that he might be despised of him another kept company with Beasts Wolves and Swallows another preached to Fishes or Birds another stripped himself naked and in that condition exposed himself to publick view another made himself Women of Snow and embraced them to cool and extinguish his Lust another through great Mortification lay with the fairest Women without touching them another made himself a Bed of Stones and Sticks and crowns of Nails and Girdles of Iron another thrust Thorns into his Body washed his hands in quick Lime and covered his face with an eating Powder which made the flesh thereof one intire Ulcer Behold a small part of the Idea that Popery gives us of the Vertue of its Saints As to Miracles they produce to the people faithful Chronicles as they say by which it appears that some of these Saints for their parts have raised fifty two dead persons another thirty another twelve another six three or four They have healed desperate Diseases raised Dogs Parrots and other Animals from the dead The Water in which they washed their hands cured all sorts of Diseases the clippings of their Hair and the parings of their Nails put into the craks of Walls closed them up again and have made Houses ready to fall firm and strong When these Saints preached to the Birds these Animals reached out their bills and clapt their wings when they preached to the Fishes they gathered together on the top of the Water that they might hear when they pleased they drove away not only evil Spirits which troubled them but also living Creatures which interrupted their Discourse They made Angles serve them not only at Mass but also they used them as Grooms to dress their Horses They caused themselves to be carried by the Devil to places whither they would go they made him hold the Candle till he burnt his fingers therewith if the Devil turned himself into a Cat they put him into such distress that