of Maiâ—ant 1609. 4th Article of Observations upon the Discipline Then shall be read in the hearing of the whole Assembly 1. Tim. 3. and 1. Titus Where the Apostle delivers the Characters and Qualifications of a true Minister and that the Elect Person may be enabled by divine Grace faithfully and conscientiously to perform the Duties of this holy and honourable Office a pithy and fervent Prayer suitable to the occasion shall be powred out before the Lord for him in the close of which he shall Impose his hands on the Head of the Elect Person beseeching God that as he is consecrated unto his Service So that from the year 1559. to the year 1609. there was no stated Form of Prayer to whose words the Minister in Ordination was tied up necessarily and invariably so he may be replenished with the Graces of his Holy Spirit and that he would vouchsafe to bless his Ministery and pious Labours unto the Glory of his great Name the Edification of his Church and the Salvation of this elected Minister V. Under the Ninth shall be added And the Church-discipline and Confession of Faith shall be signed and subscribed by the Minister Elect. VI. The Tenth and Eleventh Articles shall be explained and conjoyn'd in one and after these Words They shall be Ministers during life there shall he this Addition If they be not lawfully discharged upon good and sufficient Grounds and those approved by the Provincial Synod Moreover there shall be added And deserters of the Ministery shall be excommunicate by the Provincial Synod in case they repent not And after these Words And as for those who be sent unto any Church shall be added for a time VII The Twelfth which was the Thirteenth shall be thus corrected Altho ' a Minister do tell it publickly that he was forsaken of his Church or persecuted yet shall he not be received by another Church without evidencing unto the Colloquy or Synod his conduct in this Matter and the said Colloquy or Synod shall act therein according to their best judgment and discretion VIII Under the Fourteenth after these words Such who intrude themselves into the Ministery in lieu of Places shall be inserted Provinces IX Under the Seventeenth after these words or expecting the Determination instead of the Council there shall be put in of the Colloquy or Provincial Synod and before instead of Sent there shall be Lent X. To the Eighteenth shall be added with the good Will and Consent of the said Minister XI The Two and twentieth Article shall abide unchanged only with this Addition And all Advises and Letters shall be sent unto one particular Church and not unto any one particular Person This Article iâ— the 37th of the Chapter of Ministers in the Book of Discipline XII Under the Twenty Seventh in lieu of those words After he was summoned there shall be put Three Months being past the first Summons Also after those words It may be lawful for him to joyn himself unto some other Church shall be added by the Advice of the Colloquy or Provincial Synod which shall consider both the Poverty of the Church and the Estate of the Minister And in case of urgent necessity the said Colloquy or Synod may shorten the said Term of Three Months and it shall be lawful for them to censure those ungrateful People even with Excommunication CHAP. IV. Acts passed on Wednesday the Fourth day of the said Month. This Article is the 19th in the Chapter of Ministers in the Book of Discipline I. UNder the 11th Article of Ministers which had been lain by whilst the Princes sate among us there shall be these Alterations for General shall be put Provincial and National and at the end there shall be added As shall be Advised on in an amicable Conference of Ministers of both sides that so what is most expedient may be followed And this Article was approved by the Queen of Navar and by the Princes of Navar and Conde and by my Lords Count Lodwick and the Admiral II. Under the 31st there shall be this Addition The Provinces shall be informed by each other of the deposed Minister that so the Deposed may not be received into other Churches III. Under the 32th after those words During the time of his Ignorance shall be added And this in case the said Minister abiding in his Ministry do bring greater scandal than Edification unto the Church whereof the Synods shall take Cognizance IV. On Article the 38th Monsieur Beza having propounded according to the Commission given him by our Brethren of Geneva that there might be some certain Person chosen to answer those many Books published against our Doctrine and that those Answers might be brought into the Provincial Synods and there perused by them and so to be Printed either with or without the Author's Name as the Synod should judge most convenient This Motion was well approved by the whole Assembly And it was also ordered That in whatsoever Churches there were sound Books Printed against our Doctrine they should be sent unto the said Deputies CHAP. V. V. THE Catalogue of Vagrants being read the Names of these following Persons were rased out of it Torteveau P. Bouleu La Tornevie Roberty and there were inserted into it Le Breuil of Lazan together with Merillo Paul de Haye Rouseau John Bougayott Bavillardy an Albigensis And the Churches were warned by Monsieur Beza to beware of them and of John Tevignon a Burgundian c. Claudius Alexius who bore about him a Certificate under the Hand of Mr. Melancthon deceased and yet both deposed by the Classis of Monbelliard VI. Ministers must use no other Calling but their Ministery This Article was added unto the former concerning Ministers Ministers shall be forbidden to practice Physick or any other Calling Trade or Vocation whatsoever VII Another Article was also subjoined That Ministers who had Estates of their own might nevertheless receive Wages from their Churches but in so doing they ought to consider the Necessities of the Church and the Rules of Charity CHAP. VI. A particular Matter about Elders and Deacons VIII MOnsieur * * * He is called in two other Copies Vires and in a fourth Virel Vercelle Deputy of Brie declareth unto this Synod that the Elders and People of Meaux are dissatisfied with the first Article of particular Matters and complain that they be deprived of their Freedom and Priviledge in Elections Whereupon it was advised that inasmuch as they had been divers times heard and particularly that by the Synod of La Ferte under Joarre they had been largely instructed in the Will of God from his Holy Word in this Article Letters should be dispatcht unto them from this Assembly exhorting them to acquiesce in the Order of Discipline received in our Churches of France and in case they will yet have the Business heard over once again they shall apply themselves unto their own Provincial Synod about
at home with them all Pastors of Churches and Elders who have no deputation from them unto the National Synods that so the complaints and importunity of those who have no call to sit or vote in them may be obviated and prevented CHAP. II. Observations upon Reading our Confession of Faith UPON the 14th Article The Provinces were exhorted to study whether it were not expedient to take away those particular expressions which mention the Heresies of Servetus and to acquiesce in a general detestation of his Errors and the rather because they be now extinct and buried in oblivion And the Province of Burgundy is ordered to communicate this Decree unto the Reverend Pastors and professors of Geneva for their advice The Confession being read with great attention every word point and article thereof was unanimously approved and ratified by all the Deputies who did promise and swear by the holy Name of God that for themselves and their Respective Provinces who had delegated them they should Teach and Preach it and unviolably keep and observe it CHAP. III. Observations upon Reading of our Discipline ON the fourth Article of the first Chapter The Deputies of Lower Languedoc propounded that the different courses took in divers Provinces about the Choice Examination and Ordination of Ministers brought with it a world of Inconveniences and was the occasion that unworthy persons were in several places admitted into the Ministry This Synod judged it exceeding needful to Establish an Express Canon exactly universally and most uniformly to be observed by all the Provinces which being prepared was approved and consented to by the whole Assembly and inserted into the Body of our Discipline in the form following The Decree for Receiving of Proposans into the Ministry 2. The 4th article of the first Chapter of our Discipline shall be couched in these words its beginning being joyned with the fifth Article in manner following A Minister of the Gospel unless in time of persecution in which case of great and urgent necessity he may be chosen by three Pastors only together with the Consistory of the place shall not be admitted into this holy Office but by the Provincial Synod or Colloquy provided that Colloquy be composed of seven Pastors at least and in case there be not so many to compleat it the Neighbour-Ministers shall be invited to concur in this Election And the Elected Proposan shall be presented to them with good and valid Testimonials not only from the Universities and particular Churches but also from the Colloquy of that Church wherein he hath been longest conversant The Proposan shall be examined in this method first by a Proposition one or more from the Word of God the Texts whereon his discourse is to be grounded shall be given him One of these his Exercises ought to be in French the other in the Latine Tongue in case the Colloquy or Synod do judge it meet and he shall have four and twenty hours time to prepare himself for each of these his Exercises If by these he shall have given satisfaction unto the Assembly then a Chapter of the New Testament in Greek shall be put into his hand upon which he shall be posed that it may be known whether he does understand that Language and can expound it and afterward he shall be examined in the Hebrew whether he can at least read it and use good Books for the better finding out of God's Sacred Will in the Scriptures And to this shall be added an Essay of his upon some of the most needful parts of Philosophy and the whole shall be managed with great tenderness and charity and without affectation of any thorny or unprofitable Questions Finally he shall make a Confession of his Faith in Latine upon which he shall be examined and opposed And if upon the whole he be judged capable the Assembly shall declare unto him the duties of the Office whereunto he is called and denounce unto him in Christ's Name that Authority which is now conferred upon him to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments in that Church of Christ whereunto he is now sent upon his full Ordination And in conclusion two Ministers shall be deputed to present him unto the people 3. The 5th Article shall begin with the words of the fourth He that shall be presented shall preach the Word of God publickly on three several Sundays but not administer the holy Sacraments all the people hearing him that so they may know his manner of teaching c. And after these words in the end The Order of presenting a Minister unto the Church Nor shall the Pastor be imposed upon the Church against his will shall be added this clause and the difference shall be determined according to the Canon above mentioned at the costs and expences of the Church which had demanded him 4. In the 7th Article about the manner of Imposition of hands towards the end after those words That so he may well and duly discharge it shall be added as followeth And a prayer meet and pertinent to the purpose shall be conceived in which the Pastor shall insert these or the like words We beseech thee O God to enrich and furnish this thy Servant duly chosen according to the Order established in this thy Church with the Gifts and Graces of thy Holy Spirits adorning him abundantly with all Endowments needful for his worthy discharge of this High Calling to the Glory of thy great Name the Edification of thy Church and the Salvation of his own Soul whom we do now dedicate and cousecrate by this our Prayer unto the Office of a Gospel Minister At these words the Pastor praying shall stand up and lay his hands on the head of the Ordained Minister who kneels before him at the foot of the Pulpit And Prayer being ended and the new Pastor risen up the two Ministers deputed by the Synod or Colloquy shall give him in the presence of all the people the Right hand of Fellowship And this Canon and Form shall be unanimously observed by all the Provinces 5. On the 11th Article the Provinces are bound in Conscience to give in a faithful report unto the National Synods whether the Ministers of their Churches do hold fast the form of sound words in their publick Sermons 6. On the 17th Article Colloquies and Synods shall have a watchful Eye over those Ministers who study Chymistry and grievously reprove and censure them 7. On the third Article of the 7th Chapter it was advised that for the future the additions made at the close of Propositions in Colloquies should be omitted because of the inconveniencies which have happened and do far exceed the benefit which we expected from them And all Pastors shall be censured by Pastors only in presence of the Elders 8. On the 7th Article of the 8th Chapter these words with a Low voice added by the Synod of Rochel shall remain and it 's enjoyned that if any Province do act otherwise
said Auditory shall be expresly charged That if any one of them do know any impediment for which his Ordination who shall be then mentioned by his Name may not be compleated or why he may not be accepted that they do then come and give notice of it unto the Consistory which shall patiently hear the Reasons of both Parties that so they may proceed to Judgment The Peoples silence shall be taken for a full consent But in case contention should arise and the afore-named Elect be pleasing to the Consistory but not unto the People or to the major part of them his reception shall be deferred and the whole shall be remitted unto the Colloquy or Provincial Synod which shall take cognizance both of the justification of the before-named elect Minister and of his reception And although the said Elect should be then and there justified yet shall he not be given as Pastor unto that People against their will nor to the discontentment of the greatest part of them nor shall the Pastor be imposed against his will upon that Church and the difference shall be terminated by order as above at the Costs and Charges of the Church that shall have demanded him CAN. VII Who so consenteth to be chosen unto the Sacred Ministry ought to accept of the Office with which he shall be invested and in case of his refusal he shall be solicited thereunto by fitting Exhortations but he shall in no wise be constrained CAN. VIII The Election of Ministers shall be confirmed by Prayers and Imposition of Hands always avoiding all Superstition and according to this ensuing form The Form of Ordination usually observed in the Churches of France at the Reception of their Ministers All things before-mentioned having been observed two Pastors deputed by the Synod or Colloquy to lay their Hands upon the Minister elect being come into that Church one of them who preacheth the Sermon shall discourse briefly of the Institution and Excellency of the Ministry alledging Testimonies pertinent to this occasion from holy Writ such as Ephes 4.11 12. Luke 10.16 John 20.21 22. 1 Cor. 4.1 2. 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. 1 Tim. 3.8 or others of the like nature admonishing every one to see to it that both Minister and People do perform their respective Duties The Minister to acquit himself of his Charge the more carefully because he knoweth it to be precious and excellent in the sight of God and the People with all humility and reverence to receive the Word of God which shall be declared by him who is now sent unto them Then shall be read in the hearing of the whole Congregation what is written in 1 Tim. 3. and 1 Tit. where the Apostle teacheth what kind of Man a Minister should be And that it may please God to vouchsafe Grace unto this elect person to acquit himself worthily and faithfully of his holy Calling a short Prayer shall be conceived to this purpose in which the said Pastor shall insert these or the like words O Lord God we beseech thee to endow with the Gifts and Graces of thy holy Spirit this thy Servant lawfully chosen according to that Order established in thy Church and abundantly to enrich him with all Abilities needful for his acceptable performance of the Duties of his Office to the Glory of thy holy Name the Edification of thy Church and his own Salvation whom we now dedicate and consecrate unto thee by this our Ministry And then the Minister that prayeth standing upright below the Pulpit shall lay his Hands upon his Head for whom Prayer is now made he being humbly on his knees And the new Pastor arising the two Deputies sent from the Colloquy or Synod shall give him before the People the right hand of fellowship And this Form and the above-mentioned Canon shall be unanimously observed in all the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom CAN. IX Our Confession of Faith and Church-Discipline shall be subscribed by such as are chosen in the Ministry both into the Churches in which they shall be ordained and in those unto which they shall be sent CAN. X. No Ministers shall be ordained without appointing them unto a particular Flock and they shall be the peculiar Pastors of those Churches unto which they be assigned And no Church shall pretend right unto any Minister by vertue of a particular promise made by him without the authority of the Colloquy or Provincial Synod CAN. XI Such as shall be chosen unto the Ministry of the Gospel must know that they be in that Office for term of life unless they be lawfully discharged upon good and certain considerations and that by the Provincial Synod CAN. XII The principal Duty of Ministers is to Preach the Gospel and to declare the Will of God unto their People and they shall be exhorted to forbear all strange ways of teaching which have no tendency to edification and they shall conform themselves to the simplicity and common stile of God's Spirit taking heed that there be nothing in their Sermons prejudicial to the Authority of holy Scripture and they shall never Preach without having for foundation of their discourse a Text of holy Scripture which they shall ordinarily follow and they shall handle and expound as much of that Text as they can forbearing all needless Enlargements all tedious and unseasonable Digressions all superfluous heapings up of Scripture-Quotations and vain recitals of various and different Expositions They shall very rarely alledge the Writings of the Fathers nor at any time prophane Histories and Authors that so they may reserve unto the Scripture intirely its own Authority Moreover they shall not handle any Doctrine in a scholastick way of Disputation nor with a mixture of Languages In one word they shall avoid whatsoever may serve for ostentation or in any wise occasion doubts or scruples And that this Canon may be more carefully observed and practised Consistories Colloquies and Synods shall put to their helping hand CAN. XIII Churches are admonished to use more frequently the Ordinance of Catechising and Ministers are to treat and expound it by short plain and familiar Questions and Answers accommodating themselves unto the capacity of the meanest People without expatiating themselves into common places Yea all Ministers shall endeavour to catechize every one in their Flocks once or twice a Year and shall exhort them to conform themselves thereunto very carefully CAN. XIV Ministers and their Families shall actually reside on their Churches on pain of being deposed from their Sacred Ministerial Office CAN. XV. Those Persons to whom God hath given Talents and Abilities for Writing are advised to use them in a modest manner suitable to the Majesty of God's Word and therefore consequently they shall not write after a ridiculous or injurious rate and in their ordinary Sermons they shall express this self-same modesty and gravity And they who are endowed with gifts for writing shall he chosen by the Provinces and if it happen that any Books
to assemble the National Synod in a great number of Ministers and Elders It is thought good for the present and till such difficulties can be removed that the Brethren assembled in every Provincial Synod shall chuse out only two Ministers and Elders who are Persons of great experience in Church-affairs to be sent in the name of the whole Province and these Deputies shall come with ample and sufficient powers and furnished with good memorials subscribed by the Moderator and Scribes of the Provincial Synod and lest any of the Deputies should fail three or four Pastors more and as many Elders shall be nominated by the Provincial Synods that so if the first named Persons should be by any accident hindered from taking their journey yet others may be at hand to supply their places in the National Synod N.B. That in all Letters of Commission signed by the Provinces to their Deputies unto the National Synods there was this Clause of submission to be inserted viz. We promise before God to submit our selves unto all that shall be concluded and resolved on in your holy Assembly and to obey and perform it to the best of our power being well perswaded that God presideth in the midst of you and guideth you by his holy Spirit into all truth and equity by the Rule of his Word for the weal and benefit of his Church and the glory of his great Name Which also we beg of him most ardently in our daily Prayers See the Acts of the National Synod of Vitré 1617. in that Canon next after the Catalogue of the Deputies CAN. IV. Provincial Synods shall not limit any certain time for the return of the Ministers and Elders whom they had deputed unto the National Synod but they shall suffer them to tarry at the said Synod so long as there shall be need of their presence and attendance in it and these Deputies shall have all their expences born and defrayed out of the common stock of the whole Province CAN. V. The Articles of our Confession of Faith and the Canons of our Church-Discipline shall be all read at the opening of every National Synod CAN. VI. And that the National Synod may not be busied about Questions already determined in the Acts of former National Synods The Provincial Deputies shall be advised to peruse the Acts of former National Synods before they prepare their Memoirs and they shall see that nothing be transmitted but what is of common and general concern to all the Churches and which meriteth the decision of a National Synod CAN. VII All Ecclesiastical matters may be finally decided and resolved by the National Synod the Provinces having been in the first place informed of them if possible by that Province which had the charge of assembling the National Synod CAN. VIII The Decisions shall be only made by the Provincial Deputies but and if there be in the National Synod other Ministers besides the Deputies they may propound their judgments as to what may be done but they shall neither have consultive nor decisive Votes N.B. This Canon is in three Editions in that of 1653. in that of 1666. and in that 1676. but in those of Paris and Quevilly 1663. it is omitted CAN. IX Those that appeal from Provincial Synods unto the National shall be bound to be present in Person at it or else they shall send unto it most ample Memoirs with a lawful excuse for their absence And on default hereof the Sentence of the Provincial Synod shall be ratified The same course shall be taken with Appeals from Consistories unto Colloquies and from Colloquies unto the Provincial Synods CAN. X. The Provincial Deputies shall not depart from the National Synod without carrying home with them the Synodical Decrees subscribed by the President and Scribe and a month after their return they shall give notice thereof unto the Colloquies of their Province that so they may send for the Acts of the said Synod and this at the sole charge of the said Colloquies CAN. XI And that Synodical Acts may be preserved and that they may be of use and service in after times for the determining of Controversies which may be propounded for resolution unto our National Synods The said Acts both for the time past and to come and all others which concern those Synods as also the Canons of Church-Discipline and the Confession of Faith of the Reformed Churches in this Kingdom shall be left in custody with the Provincial Deputies who are appointed to call the next National Synod and that Province shall be obliged to bring them unto the Synod CAN. XII Before the breaking up of National Synods there shall be an amicable and fraternal Censure of all the Deputies Ministers and Elders about those matters only which had been managed during its Sessions and whatever did in general respect their Provinces And the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ shall be Celebrated and partaken by them in testimony of their Cordial Union Provided always that this holy Sacrament shall be Communicated in with that very Church in which they held their Synodical Assembly and for this purpose the said Church shall be admonished to prepare themselves for it CHAP. X. Chap. X. Of Religious Exercises Of Religious Exercises performed in the Assemblies of the Faithful CANON I. THat great irreverence which is found in divers Persons who at publick and private Prayers do neither uncover their Heads nor bow their Knees shall be reformed which is a matter repugnant unto Piety and giveth suspicion of Pride and doth scandalize them that fear God Wherefore all Pastors shall be advised as also Elders and Heads of Families carefully to oversee that in time of Prayer all Persons without exception or acceptation do evidence by those exteriour signs the inward humility of their hearts and of that homage yielded by them unto God unless any one be hindred from so doing by sickness or otherwise the judgment of which shall be remitted to the testimony of their own particular Consciences CAN. II. Singing of God's praises being a divine Ordinance and to be performed in the Congregations of the Faithful and for that by the use of Psalms their hearts be comforted and strengthned Every one shall be advertised to bring with them their Psalm-Books unto those Assemblies and such as through contempt of this holy Ordinance do forbear the having of them shall be censured as also those who in time of singing both before and after Sermon are not uncovered as also when the Holy Sacraments are Celebrated CAN. III. In times of sore Persection and of War Pestilence or Famine or any other grievous affliction Item when as Ministers of the Gospel are to be Ordained and when as question is moved about calling a National Synod one day or more may be set a part for publick and extraordinary Prayers and Fasting yet without any scruple or superstition and all this shall be done upon mature consideration of the grounds and causes
yesterday we had one and that a very sensible one A Woman and her Son to secure an Estate of an hundred thousand Crowns had sunk under the temptation and revolted unto Popery but they were so tormented in their Consciences night and day after their Apostasie that they could have no peace nor rest till they had quitted both their Estate and Habitation Some others who had miscarried in the same manner durst not tarry through the stings of their inraged Consciences any longer than for the first opportunity of escaping and brought with them to this City their Abjuration This Abjuration of theirs is a certain Paper in which is written the Name of this new Popish Convert together with the Seal of the Bishop and that of the Magistrate of the place by vertue of which they be freed from quartering of Dragoons and are permitted to go and come and traffick when and wheresoever they please And among our new Converts this Paper is call'd The Mark of the Beast I have seen several Copies of them But you must not imagine that all are come unto Geneva Switzerland hath entertain'd a vaster multitude than we who have come unto them and are daily coming from all quarters some one way some another some as if they dropt down from the Clouds that is from the tops of the Mountains either of the Franche County or from those of Chablays in short no man can tell how or which way they are come unto them No longer than yesterday in despite of all Guards at the several Passes and dangers of the Gallies there arrived hither no less than fifty Persons A tall Chair-man who had been a Lacquey as he was coming from his House espying Monsieur de Cambiaquet passing over the Bridge immediately stopt and imbraced him in his Livery Coat Four young Ladies of Grenoble disguised in Mens Apparel after they had lodged four or five days in the Forests and Mountains without any other Provision than a little Bread and their Arms having travell'd only by night came hither but a few hours ago in this their gallant Equipage Should I write you all the stories I know we should never have done About a Fortnight since a panick fear of the Dragoons coming into the Land of Gex where yet are reckoned about 17000. Protestants though most of them very poor People had so seized upon their Spirits that one Morning we saw at our Gates five hundred Carts loaden with Houshold Goods and follow'd with an innumerable multitude of Persons who went and came from all Quarters On that side of Switzerland and of the Mountains there was yet a far greater power of them in so much that it affrighted all the Country The Governour came and complain'd of it unto our Magistrates but they replied they could not shut the Gates of their City upon his Majesty's Subjects and had they done it there had been an unavoidable uproar among the People However these poor People were desired to depart elsewhere and not to expose our Commonwealth To which they readily obeyed And in as much as the Governour a notorious bitter Enemy of the Magistrates and City of Geneva though without cause would not fail to make a foul brabble of this business and because our Resident was expected in three or four days we intreated generally but with a great deal of sweetness the greatest part of the French to withdraw themselves as soon as possible which they did and of their own accord without delay but with a great deal of grief on our part who lost at this first bout abundance of very godly People with whose Company we were very much comforted The Resident being arriv'd told us he had no order to speak about these matters yea contrariwise that he was only to treat with them as with particular Friends But three days after a Letter comes by which the King all in Choler commands his Resident to be instant with our Magistrates that immediately they drive out of the City all his Rebellious Subjects and charge them to return unto their respective dwellings But mark the stinging consequence hereof Hereupon the Council is assembled and after divers Debates they resolv'd though to the great heart-breaking and general sorrow of the Citizens to make Proclamation that all the French should immediately be gone Which was no sooner ordered but observed yet not without a redoubled grief on their hearts who had not departed the first time and would willingly have continued This Proclamation being published just as we were coming forth from Evening Prayers it perfectly astonished and over-whelmed those poor People who reckoned this expulsion as a second banishment from their Native Country In the mean while our Resident inform'd the King of the submission of Geneva unto his Orders and that in the fairest manner and dispatched also our Magistrates Memorial with reference to the particular Complaints and Accusations of the Governour of Gex our Magistrates intending a sincere performance of his Majesty's Order sent the Tithing-men to intreat every one to depart with the first conveniency This Order Executed with too much severity by the Under-Officers caused a new uproar among the People However every one took Boat without delay dreading worse News and Orders that might inforce them to return to their own Houses In three days time there departed from us above a thousand Persons Yet this wrought a very bad effect among the Commonalty of Switzerland who were not able to penetrate into the Causes moving our Commonwealth to yield this obedience at this time unto his Majesty But these is yet something more Cruel For the King sends us a thundering Letter by which he approves the whole procedure of the Governour of Gex in hindring all Commerce between Gex and Geneva so that not only no Provisions can from thence be imported into the City but also none of the Inhabitants of Geneva dare fetch in Herbs or Corn from their Gardens and Barns yea over and above he commands them immediately to expel out of the City all Ministers that had been setled in it within three years last past as a Company of Seditious Fellows that held private Cabals in Geneva to embroil his Kingdom And he requires also of them an account what they had done with his Subjects whom he had ordered them to dispatch back again to their own homes and that if he had not a satisfaction in full to all his Commands he would make them repent that ever they had offended him In a word never had we a Letter a Letter of this Nature in such a daring menacing stile Truly had it not been for our Magistrates the People who were exceedingly concerned at it had quite broken out The Switzers have a General Assembly this Week And thus you have a faithful account of our present Condition We wait impatiently for the King's Answer to those Letters which inform'd him of our ready Obedience unto his Orders But we fear every thing because he having once
forth our most earnest Prayers to that Divine Goodness for this intent and purpose The rest you shall understand from our venerable Brother Angelo Archbishop of Genua In the mean time we greet you most kindly with our Apostolical Benediction Given at Rome the 13 th of November in the 10 th Year of our Pontificate SECT LVI Whil'st the Ministers are in exile their Eyes and Hearts are towards France There is many a Loadstone that draws their Affections thitherward They left behind them many dear Relations many Christian Friends under great Temptations and very sore Tryals And tho' they cannot visit them in person and converse with them mouth to mouth for their edification and mutual comfort yet they do it by Ink and Paper Many Pastoral Letters have been transmitted But if I am not mistaken this was either the first or one of the first which was written tho' a multitude of them have since followed An Epistle to our Brethren groaning under the Captivity of Babylon For whom we wish the Mercy and Peace of our God WE have heard with extream Grief most Dear Brethren in our Lord that great temptation to which you have been exposed and those grievous Calamities it hath pleased God you should undergo We have also understood but to our far greater Grief the sad news of your Weakness in yielding to the Temptation We beseech you seriously to reflect upon your selves and to consider what you have to answer unto him who hath commanded that you should confess him before Men if you would obtain that honour of his Confessing and owning you before God and Angels How will you be able to stand before his Judgment Seat who hath injoined you to forsake Goods Possessions Wives Parents and Children for his Names sake promising you an hundred fold recompence Can you tell him that you have resisted unto Blood striving against Sin Pray what are your Sufferings if compared with those of our Saviour Christ Jesus Did he start back when he saw Death stare him in the Face when he was to be Scourged with Rods to be Crown'd with Thorns to be affronted with Spittle to be pierc'd with Nails and to be hang'd upon the Cross What think you at your reading those words Blessed are those who are persecuted for Righteousness sake You have no share in that Blessedness For to avoid Persecution you have renounced that Righteousness What answer will you make those holy Apostles who with Tears Preached the Gospel of the Cross unto the World and who all Suffered Martyrdom by the hands of Hangmen and who prepared all their Disciples for Persecution by telling them Whosoever will embrace the truth and live godly in Christ Jesus must cast up his accounts of suffering Persecution What answer will you make our Reformers who spared neither Watches nor Sweats nor Blood to draw us out of Idolatry and Superstition What will you say unto those blessed Martyrs whose Children you are and who for this very Cause abandon'd by you endur'd Fires Prisons Racks and the most cruel Torments They were for divers years together buried alive in deep Dungeons full of Ordures Toads and Serpents and drawn thence they were driven into the Fire their Hands and Feet burnt and being half dead they were yet pluckt out of those Flames but it was to increase their Tortures Whilst they were alive they saw their Bellies burning and their own Bowels gushing out In the midst of those Torments instead of renouncing the Truth of God they blessed his holy Name and sang his Praises What will you say unto those great Workmen who with such great travel have erected this glorious Fabrick of Reformation and which in a moments time you have suffered totally to be ruin'd How can you indure the Reproaches of your glorified Ancestors whose goods were plunder'd who were outragiously persecuted and who notwithstanding have handed down unto you their Children the purity and verity of the Gospel For God's sake Dear Brethren Consider sadly your offence with all its aggravations and cry out in the bitterness of the Spirit Men and Brethren what shall we do Undoubtedly your Consciences under this hard Bondage crave our advice and we freely give it you And first of all Beware of that great danger in which your are you have denied God with your Mouth do not forsalte him with your Heart For it oft-times so happens that God delivers them up to a Reprobate sense who had perfidiously betray'd their own Consciences And they are such as once seemed to love the Truth but afterwards proceeded to hate it yea and at last to persecute it Two things may produce this Cursed effect The first is Despair For the Mercy of God being despaired of by any Person he doth incontinently hate the truth yea and at last abhors it Do not precipitate yourselves into this Condition Seriously consider your Sin but never despair of the pardoning grace of God Your Sin indeed is great But the Mercy of our Saviour is Infinite The Lord preserveth his Elect every where Yea sometimes there be such as belong to Zion even in Babylon provided they do their endeavour to come out of it and not to participate in her Sins and Idolatries lest they participate in her Plagues Bestir your selves then to get out of this Sodom where your Salvation is in so great Jeopardy and till you can do it have nothing to do with her Idolatries How these may be avoided we shall anon direct you A second thing which will render your condition irrecoverable is a customary contempt of the Truth At first it may seem difficult to you to be present at a worship so contrary unto yours To see brutish and Superstitious Wretches prostrate themselves before Images will create trouble to you You will scarce brook that barbarous Language in which you shall hear Litanies sung to the honour of Creatures and the great dishonour of your Creator You will yet suffer more when you must be prefent at that which they call the Sacrifice of the Mass and where they will force you to give religious adoration to a piece of Bread However it s to be feared that by degrees you may be inured unto all this though at present you may say For my part I believe nothing of all this and that 's enough Yet in process of time you may come to find this not very evil and may count gross Idolatries but harmless Superstitions which do neither good nor evil This way will infallibly lead you to a despising and hatred of the Truth and thence infallibly to Hell And this is that Sin against the Holy Ghost which is not pardoned in this nor shall be in the World to come Our advice upon the whole is this Maintain in your Souls as it well deserves a due horrour of Popery The methods used by them to bring you back again unto it do abundantly contribute hereunto It must needs be the Devils own Religion that serves it self of such kind
transmitted Difficulties shall be maturely examined and the Arguments on both sides urged being fair and carefully written down shall be sent unto the National Synod And forasmuch as our present Circumstances will not admit any great Number of Ministers and Elders in this National Synod we are of Opinion that for this time only and during these Difficulties that the Brethren assembled in each Provincial Synod should choose from among them one or two Ministers and as many Elders of the ablest and most expert in Church-Affairs to be sent in the Name of the whole Province who shall come furnished with good Memorials and premeditated Thoughts upon those Difficulties which had been communicated to them The Provinces shall not prescribe any set time or term unto these their Deputies for returning but shall let them tarry in the said Synod as long as there may be need of them and the Charges of the said Deputies shall be defrayed by their respective Provinces And that the National Synod may be no more imployed in Matters already decided by former Synods the Provinces shall be advised to read over carefully the Acts of the past Synods before they prepare their Memorials and to send nothing but what is general â—nâ— of common concern to all the Churches or else that which merits the Resolution of the said National Synod And the Churches of Poictiers which is charged with the calling of the next National Synod shall be informed of all this that they may intend their Duty CHAP. XI General Advertisements unto the Churches XXIV THE Printers in every Province shall be advised That whereas at the end of Psalm-Books and Catechisms they do add the Confession of Faith of our French Churches that they do especially this which begins with these words We believe and confess that there is but One GOD c. and which hath an Epistle prâ—fixed to it dedicated to the King and not that other Confession which begins thus Forasmuch as the Foundation of Faith c. not but that both are conformable in Doctrine And hereof also Notice shall be given to the Printers of Geneva Elders not to be displac'd without great cause XXV Although the Elders Office as now used by us be not perpetual as is exprest in the 35th Article of the Discipline nevertheless the Churches shall be admonished not to discharge their Elders but for great Causes whereof the Consistories shall take Cognizance that so the Church may be be conducted after the bed manner by Persons well verst in her Government XXVI Ministers in places appointed by the King and in all others are advised not to receive the Members of any other Churches unto the Lord's Supper without a sufficient Attestation produced by them under the hand of their Pastors or Elders if it may be had No Books must be written ridiculously but Modesty is to be observed in them XXVII Ministers and others whom God hath endowed with Gifts and Abilities to write in Defence of the Truth are requested not to publish their Thoughts in a ridiculous or injurious manner but to keep to that Modesty and Gravity which becomes the Majesty of God's Word and to observe that self-same Modesty and Majesty in their Sermons and in their ordinary Stile to use the Language of God's Spirit in the Holy Scripture Schollars to be maintained by the Churches in the Universities XXVIII Because there is every-where a visible decay and a great want of Ministers and that some provision may be made for a Succession the Churches shall be admonished by our Brethren the Provincial Deputies that such as are rich would maintain some hopeful Schollars at the Universities who being educated in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and other good Learning may be fitted for and employed in the Sacred Ministry XXIX Altho' in our Churches for the most part the Lord's Supper is administred only sour times a Year yet the more frequent Celebration of it is very desirable due Reverence in approaching to it being always observed because it 's most beneficial for God's Children to be exercised and grow in Faith which is done by the frequent usage of the Sacraments as also because this was the Practice of the Primitive Church Nâ—â—â—e mâ—n may not carry with them in their Journeys the Ministers of the Churches leaving them â—â—â—upplied XXX Ministers being given to the Service of the Church and not to the Persons and Palaces of Great Lords altho' their Families may equallize in Numbers some Churches yet their Lordships shall be desired not to carry away with them in their Removals or Travels abroad with their Families the Churches Ministers least thereby they be left unprovided XXXI Lords and Gentlemen shall be censured according to the Discipline of our Churches if after frequent Admonitions they entertain in their Houses scandalous and incorrigible Persons especially if they suffer Priests to sing Mass or by Dogmatizing to debauch their Domesticks or if having cashiered them they shall again receive them into their Service XXXII The Churches shall be admonished to beware of a Book written by Mr. Charles Du Moulin Entituled Vnio quatuor Evangelistarum because in it there be divers Errors as about Limbus Free-will and the Sin against the Holy Ghost and the Lord's Supper and in particular about the Calling of Ministers and Church-Discipline which he treats with scorn and would totally subvert The Faithful also are warned not to assist at any of his Sermons or Sacraments it being against the Discipline of our Church Modesty to be kept in Attire See the Synod of St. Foy General Matters Art 2. The Faithful must use Charity towards their Brethren or Sisters that have forsook their Monastries XXXIII Ministers shall exhort their People to be modest in their Habits and that they themselves do in this and all other Matters give them the best Example forbearing all Gaudery in their own Persons and in their Wives and Children XXXIV They whose Brethren and Sisters have quitted their Monastery that they might serve God in freedom of Conscience shall be exhorted to admit them unto a part of their Estate at least they shall be compelled by all Censures to afford them Maintenance and a competent Pension according to their ability For they would otherwise shew themselves void of Natural Affection The End of the Second National Synod of Paris THE ACTS DECISIONS and DECREES OF THE VI. National Synod OF THE Reformed Churches of Christ IN The KINGDOM of FRANCE Held in the Town of VERTVEIL and Province of AVGOVLMOIS the First Day of September 1567. THE CONTENTS of this SYNOD CHap. I. Moderator Alterations and Annotations upon the Church-Discipline Chap. II. Marriage of Excommunicated Persons and Infidels Provincial Synods Reading of the Holy Scriptures Bread in the Lord's Supper to be taken by them who can't the Cup Church-Government Loan of Ministers Pastors deserting their Churches Rejection of Church-Officers Chap. III. A Case of Conscience about a Deaf and Dumb Man's
prefixed by the National Synod was expired when they might have lawfully redemanded their Pastor Moreover these Appellants themselves cannot be justified nor wholly absolved from guilt and miscarriages for they have testified too much animosity against a Reverend Minister of the Gospel for slight and trifling matters only and there be some of them who have merited a very smart and sharp reproof because they having at first endeavoured his restauration amongst them have since by an unaccountable Levity destroyed the Work which they were building and have attempted his total and perpetual exclusion But for as much as the infinitely Wise God hath extracted good out of all these evils and made all these Feuds and Animosities all these Heart-burnings and Contentions wonderfully to contribute to the advancement of his glory the propagation of the Gospel the conversion of many Sinners and the singular edification of both these Churches of Usez and Beziers This Assembly doth judge meet to accommodate and compound all these differences in manner and form following First Monsieur Brunier is presented unto the Ministry in the Church of Usez and the Province of Lower Languedoc is ordered to provide him an assistant out of hand And Monsieur Codur he also is conferred upon the Church of Beziers to be from henceforth their ordinary Pastor and the Sieurs Brunier de Janas and de la Rouviere were all actually reconciled one unto the other in the presence of this Synod and they did all solemnly promise that they would use their best endeavours to reconcile and reunite their several and respective parties now absent And that this might be more easily effected and attained the Sieurs Bayly Perrin de la Colombiere and Valeton are charged as they return home to their own Churches that they pass over to the City of Usez and compose the differences between the opposite parties in it And Monsieur Codur is also charged to bear them company and to deal with his Friends and Allies and Acquaintance there that they may embrace this sacred and desireable peace And Letters shall be written unto all the Appellants in the name of this National Synod and signed by Synodical Officers to press and exhort them to be at peace among themselves to put a period unto all their divisions and dissentions and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace 2. The Consistory and far greater part of the Church of Tonneias appealed from a Judicial Sentence given by their Provincial Synod held at Nerac for that they had freed and discharged Mr. Francois de Monjoux Pastor of their Church from his Ministry in it and relation to it and given him unto the Church of Bazas and its Annexes and for that he the said Mr. Monjoux had acquiesced in the said Sentence And the said Church complained that this was done without ever hearing them and that they did disown and disavow that Person who had been sent by some of the Jurates and Magistrates of their Town nor did they in the least approve of their Elder 's Silence in that Synod when as this matter was under debate This Assembly judgeth that the Synod had acted too precipitantly in giving Mr. de Monjoux his Dismission without a more ample hearing of his Church and therefore ordereth that he shall continue as formerly their Pastor but the said Church of Tonneias shall also for their part take care as in Conscience they are bound that his necessities be supplied and a comfortable maintenance be provided for him And in the mean time their Actings and Proceedings who procured his Congé and Dismission are very much blamed as also their Deputies and Monsieur Monjoux who were all present in this Assembly were censured and their Clubs and private Cabals about Church-matters out of Consistory were all reproved and particularly that Chicannery and contentious humour of theirs in getting all their Acts expedited and dispatched before Publick Notaries and Secular Judges Wherefore this National Synod doth advise and conjure them in the name of our Lord Jesus to be reconciled and at peace among themselves which these persons now present did readily yield and accord unto and as a pledge and token thereof did mutually take each other by the hand promising that they would deal and mediate effectually with their absent Parties to be at peace also and the Pastors of Lower Languedoc as they return homeward shall ride over unto Tonneins and labour to make up and conciliate all these differences And whereas the Parish of Dunet was heretofore incorporated with the Church of Tonneins it shall be conjoyned and reunited to it And in case any new difficulties should be started about it the next Provincial Synod is charged by the Authority of this Assembly to assoil and remove them And it the said Parish yield its consent to be united with that of Tonneins the said Church shall take an especial care about the safe going and coming of their Pastor in the exercise of his Ministry among them And as for that particular fact of John Carrier who complains of his being deposed from his Office in the Eldership without any just occasion the afore-mentioned Deputies are charged to hear him upon the place and to do him right by a final Judgment on his Cause and they shall do the same for the Deacon who also makes the like complaint as the Elder And it is farther decreed that there shall be twenty Crowns paid out of the common Stock of the said Church and Town unto the Sieurs Fassas and Carrier to defray their Expences and to recompence them for their Costs and Trouble in this business which could not amount upon a moderate computation unto a lesser sum 3. The Church of Angoulesine together with their Pastor Mr. Hog complained of the Synod of Xaintonge for condemning the said Church to pay unto the Heirs of Monsieur Mauget Vivian their late Pastor the sum of six hundred and twelve Livers and that it should be paid out of their portion of Moneys given by his Majesty unto the said Church This Assembly judgeth that the said Mr. Hog hath done very well in thus appealing because those Moneys granted us by the King are only appropriated unto Pastors in actual service so that the Provincial Synod did wrong the said Church of Angoulesme by that their Judgment And upon consideration had of the Heirs of Mr. Mauget Vivian deceased and their great poverty and the deep poverty of the said Church and the right that it hath unto the Moneys of his Majesties Bounty there was adjudged unto those Heirs the sum of three hundred Livers and the said Province of Xaintonge Aulnix and Augoumois is ordered to make payment of it unto them out of the Moneys which are in the hands of the Receiver General for the fourth quarter of the years 1604 and 1605. 4. The Church of Saujon appealed from the last Provincial Synod of Xaintonge held in their Town for that it
speedy advice of it and in the mean while to proceed against such at shall be found Delinquents according to due course of Law and the Tenour of our Edicts and Ordinances For such is our Will and Pleasure Given at Paris the 24th day of April in the year of Grace 1612. and of our Reign the Second Signed LOUIS And a little Lower by the King in his Council De Lomenie And Sealed with Yellow Wax the great Seal appendant at the bottom with a single Thread CHAP. IX The Synods Declaration against this Proclamation The Letters Patents of His Majesty bore date the 13th of April 1612. And the Synods Declaration was dated the first of Juâ— 1612. 1. HIS Majesties Letters Patents were read containing his Royal Pardon unto them who had called Political Assemblies since that General one held at Saumur which exceedingly surprized and astonished this National Synod and that there might be some remedy provided in time against such Impendent Storm it was judged needful by all the Deputies unanimously to prepare a Declaration on this occasion which should be inserted in this place among our Acts and forth-with Printed that so by this Imprinted Act the Innocency of our Churches might be attested and published to the whole Christian World Here followeth the said Declaration THE Reformed Churches of this Kingdom Assembled in a National Synod at Privas having as it usual took the Oath of Fidelity and Humble Obebedience to their Majesties Command and Service and being informed by divers Deputies of the Provinces that the Kings Letters Pattents were directed to the Parliaments and Courts of the Edict containing an Abolition and Pardon of the faults pretended to have been committed in calling of Particular Assemblies in the several Provinces as also a Pardon for what hath been heretofore and since transacted in them they could not be unsensible of such an horrid dishonour as this done unto them so great so contrary to their Intentions and to that Loyalty they have ever upon all occasions exprest both to the service of his Majesty and the happiness of his Government and they could not but be pierced with a most just grief to see themselves blasted with so great a reproach on the account of the said Provincial Assemblies which have been always held as they were in the Reign of Henry the Great of most happy Memory and since also by a Priviledge granted the said Churches in a Letter Written by her Majesty unto the General Assembly of â—aumur the 22th of August 1611. by which they were commanded every one of them to break up and depart unto their respective Provinces and carry back unto their Principals who had Deputed them the good Intentions of their Majesties Vpon which the said General Assembly inferred their Right and Priviledge of Meeting in particular Assemblies and voted the Congregating of them and ordained that the Deputies of every Province should bring with them their Cahiers to be perused and what reflexions had past upon them and answers given to them which was a matter well-known unto the Lords of the Council nor could they believe it or judge it unreasonable because that in those very Instructions given unto the Commissioners sent by their Majesties into the Provinces about the inexecutions and transgressions of the Edict they were commanded to return home immediatly and without delay that they might be in the Provinces before the meeting of those particular Assemblies and 't is a most certain truth they were for the most part either Authorized by the summons of his Majesties Lieutenants or by the conduct and direction of some one or other of the Presidents in the Soveraign Courts and ever in the Magistrates presence The Kings Officers and other persons of Quality having express charge from their Majesties to be there upon the place and sit with them or otherwise some one of the aforesaid Commissioners sent by the said Provinces did moderate and preside in them None of which would ever have plunged themselves in so much guilt in case there had been any as is now pretended Yea so far were our Lords of the Council from judging us guilty that on the contrary they received all our Cahiers Remonstrances and most humble Petitions framed in those Assemblies with the greatest kindness and have since answered them Insomuch at they never esteemed them Criminal nor needing Abolition and Pardon This grieveth and woundeth deeply the very Souls of all who do Profess the Reformed Religion in this Kingdom because it fastens the blot and brand of a Crime upon them which that they might evade they have on all occasions hazarded both their Lives and Fortunes But they have another and farther ground of Grief and Affliction which it that these Letters Pattents look at if some ill men had a design of kindling again those Flames and reviving once more those old hatreds and animosities of their Fellow Citizens and Countreymen against them which have lain Dead and Buried these many years and that they are seeking a new pretext wherewith their most inveterate Enemies may be hereafter furnished to assault and ruine them and finally to render them odious and execrable to all sorts of persons both at home and abroad within and without the Kingdom Such consequenoes as these cannot but involve them in great troubles cannot but shake and unsettle the repose and tranquillity of the Government and grievously augment their fears and sorrows being compelled after this manner to ease their burdened Spirits and to express their sense and resentments of such great indignities because they cannot but avow themselves the best and most Faithful Subjects that ever their Majesties had or shall have in their Kingdoms and Dominions For which cause the said Churches conformably to those humble Addresses made by their General Deputies unto the Council and to their Petition presented unto the Court of Parliament of Paris the 14th of May last do declare as they have done that they never requested nor demanded nor did by any Letters of theirs endeavour to obtain that Abolition or Pardon that it was never done by them nor are they so much as in word or thought guilty of those imaginary Crimes presupposed in them and that they be ready all of them jointly and singly to be responsible for their actions and to publish them to the whole World openly and at noon-day counting all manner of torments far more easie to be born than that they and their Posterity should be stigmatized with such a shameful brand of Infamy which might hereafter deprive them of that true honour and glory which was ever ascribed to them of being true French-men and to be reputed and accounted by strangers the most Loyal and most Faithful Subjects of His Majesty in the worst times persons uncorruptible and the best and most affectionate unto His Government Moreover they do farther declare that they will not in the least either help themselves or make use in any manner of way of those
one kind the Adoration of the consecrated Host Prayer in an unknown Tongue by the Petitioner Errors of this last sort altho in themselves less yet do they most often occasion the greatest divisions and do most venemously exasperate mens Spirits and immediately engender Schism For if a man communicate at the Lords Table with an erroneous person in the doctrine of Predestination or about the Nature of Jesus Christ or who believes that the Body of our Lord is every where in all places at once altho this Error be very great yet may it not trouble him who is a Communicant with him But and if we communicate with one who giveth religious adoration unto the bread or pretends to sacrifice the Lord Jesus Christ such an action would scandalize us and must needs drive us from that Communion lest we should participate with him in his Idolatry or in a false Sacrifice Now we have this advantage together with the Lutheran Churches that all our differences are of the first kind and as for those external Ceremonies used and practised by them we have no such difference but what may be easily composed yea and that too with a wet Finger 18. It were fitting to lay before them on the Table the Concordat of the Polonish Churches made at Sendomir in the year 1570. and since revived in the Synod of Ulodislan in the year 1581. that so we may learn by their example to serve our selves of all things which may contribute unto this Union and are worthy of our imitation And possibly there may be found some Lutheran Churches who for peace sake would not insist upon their Ubiquity but frankly yield it up and part with it 19. The same Order should be observed in this second Assembly as in the first and the same difference paid unto his Majesty of great Britain and it should be opened with a fast and concluded with the celebration of the Holy Supper of our Lord at which both the Lutheran Ministers and ours should communicate together 20. It is very needful that some course should be taken to bring the several Churches and People to embrace and practise the Articles of this Union and that Soveraign Princes and Estates do promise to exert their Authority about it and that those words of Lutheran Calvinist and Sacramentarian Gustazus Adolphus K. of Swiâ—â—dland would have them styled the Evangelical Churches being wicked badges of distinction were utterly abolished and that our Churches should ever after be called the Christian Reformed Churches And all Invectives from the Pulpit or Press or Writings against the Brethren of either side shall be forbidden under the severest penalties And that the Catalogues of Books vended at Frankford maybe no more stuft with injurious Titles as formerly And the German Princes should at some certain days mutually agreed on send their Pastors unto the principal Churches of their Neighbour Princes and also admit and receive of their Ministers into theirs and so communicate together on some set and solemn day at the Lords Table 21. If it should please God to bless this Holy and Laudable Design with success which would be a Crown of Eternal Glory unto his Majesty of Great Britain and to the Princes joyned with him therein then would it be a convenient time to sollicit the Romish Church unto a Reconciliation which whether it may be really effected or is at all feasible seems as yet very doubtful because the Pope will admit of no Council nor Conference at which he may not preside But could this General Union of all Christians be once accomplished we should be then more considerable and Ministers might Preach with more authority and greater success than ever CHAP. XIX A Letter from His Majesty of Great Britain To Messieurs the Pastors and Elders Assembled in their National Synod at Tonneins in France Sirs HAving received intelligence that your Assembly would be held in Gascony the first of May in which some persons may be engaged to revive that Controversly about Justification and to urge the Consciences of others to assent against their own judgment unto matters not sufficiently Understood by them We thought good to send you Monsieur Hume one of our subjects and of your Pastors with this our present Letter to exhort you in our Name not to suffer the spirits of your Pastors and Professors to be imbittered one against another about distinctions more substile than profitable more curious than needful but that you would indeavour to Moderate those animosities which are grown up already to too great an heighth among several of your Ministers and that you would quench those sparkles of dissention which meeting with wood hay stubble and slight rather than substantial matters may inflame you into such aschism as will Consume you all unless you do timely prevent it and stifle it in the birth by committing to the fire those Books Papers and Manuscripts which serve only as fewel unto new Controversies rather than promote your Edifying and give occasion to the Enemies of Gods Church to advance themselves on your weaknesses and to be the more hardned in their Errors Particularly we intreat you to compose the difference risen up betwixt the Sieurs du Moulin and Tilenus if it should be brought unto your immediate Cognisance and discussion and not be removed out of the way by Arbitrators which we judge of the two to be the best and by arbitrating their fact you your selves will publish unto the World how great a value you have for the Gifts of God in both those personages That honour with which God hath invested us by exalting us unto the highest and most eminent place in his Church for the defence of the truth or duty to serve it in our regall dignity and to the utmost of our power and that particular desire we have to see a good Peace and Vnion to flourish among all Sincere Professors of the Christian Faith and our care for your preservation as being the first Churches which have rejected the yoke of Idolatry do induce us to deal so freely with you And we promise our self from your prudence that all matters shall be pacified and amicably composed among you as we have commanded Master Hume to press you more amply by word of mouth thereunto to whom you may give credence receiving him as our Messenger and as a persom well-known unto you and sufficiently commended by his own excellent good parts and a Lover of peace which above all things we recommend unto you and so we pray God to Bless your godly debates and consultations and to have you always in his holy keeping From our Palace this 15th Day of March,1614 Signed James R. The Synods Answer To the King of Great Britain Sire THAT Zeal with which it hath pleased God to inflame your Royal Spirit and that abundant care which your most Serene Majesty vouchsafeth to take of all the Christian Churches obligeth every good servant of God to pour out continual
prayers and supplications to the Lord of Glory for your Majesties long Life and Prosperous Reign and Preservation The Churches of France in whose name we be here Assembled have the deepest sence of this obligation because they have most frequently and to their great advantage received the comfortable influences of this bright shining star in the Heaven of God 's Church for which we render unto our God the glory and to your most Serene Majesty our humblest thanksgivings and shall ever reserve in our Memories the perpetual character of an inviolable gratitude We have received with all reverence and submission those good and wholsome Counsels which your most Serene Majesty was pleased to send us which as flowing from the Holy Spirit of God have confirmed us in those pious resolutions that were before lodged up in all our hearts and since reduced into act with unanimous consent in our Synodical Decrees We are enforced to our great regret to acknowledg there was an evil thing flung in among us but also we can assure your Majesty that hitherto it hath met with very small incouragement and we trust it shall never be able to make any breach in the peace of our Churches because we are resolved through grace vigorously to oppose it and to Conserve that Order and Union which hath been until now kept up among us We had grubbed it up by the very roots if it had been found among us as it is elsewhere and out of this Kingdom And as for that difference between the Sieurs Tilenus and du Moulin we believe that your Majesties helpful hand will exceedingly advantage us and we promise your Majesty for our selves that we shall give all reasonable satisfaction unto those that trouble us provided they do not attempt to break us in pieces The way of Arbiters hath been ever desired by us and that silence which we ordered and imposed might have been successful if the divided parties had but a little yielded on their side and strove who should have made the first advances we believe so much of the good intention both of the one and other that they had joyned hands and each had quitted his particular Interest for the peace repose and comfort of their Consciences which desired it We will be responsible for one of them according to the power which God hath given us over him and we are in good hopes of the other especially if your most Serene Majesty shall be pleased to employ your powerful Counsels in the furtherance of so good a work In the mean while we have Judged it necessary to suppress those writings which might any ways feed and nourish this bitter controversy between these two servants of God leaving the total suppression thereof unto an interview of both parties which we have appointed at Saumur upon very equitable and most reasonable terms It is the desire of our Souls that those self same Writings disperst abroad without this Kingdom might be suppressed and we most humbly supplicate your most Serene Majesty to order their suppression in your Kingdoms of great Britain As for that Heroick design of your Majesties communicated to us by Mr. Hume for re-uniting the Churches of divers Nations into one and the self same Confession and Doctrine we look upon it as an Undertakement worthy so great a King and well becoming that Divine Zeal with which the Celestial Majesty hath inflamed your Royal Soul and we also shall bring in our poor offerings and tribute Penny thereunto in due time and place and with our whole Heart and Soul we ardently pray that the same may be hastned and brought unto perfection to the great Glory of our God and confusion of the Adversaries of his Truth in hatred of whom we have condemned and detested that Execrable Doctrine of Regicides which violates the sacred Majesty of Kings and asserteth that whole Realms may be interdicted by the Pope And farther we earnestly desire to maintain a good correspondence with the Churches of your Kingdoms whereof we give your most Serene Majesty all possible assurance and do most humbly beseech you to accept of our devoutest Prayers and Services which with submission to his Majesty our Natural King and Soveraign we do lay at your Majesties Feet ever remaining as we are of your Sacred Majesty c. From Tonneins May 1614. The most humbly devoted Servants the Pastors and Elders of the Reformed Churches in France Assembled by the permission of our most Gracious Soveraign Lewis the thirteenth in a National Synod and in the name of all Gigord Moderator Gardesy Assessor Scribes Andrew Rivet and Denys Maltrett A Letter from the Church of Geneva To the National Synod of the Reformed Churches of France assembled at Tonneins Messieurs and our most Honoured Brethren YOUR Charity and that Communion which we ever had with you in our Lord Jesus and the word of his Grace hath on all occasions made us joynt partners with you in those singular benedictions the great God hath poured down upon your Churches as also at all times and upon all occasions to sympathize with you in your afflictions by a most sensible and cordial fellow-feeling of them Yea 't is this very self-same passion that doth at present give us access to you and inviteth us not to let slip this opportunity of your National Synod for the consolating our own Souls by imparting to you our thoughts and purposes combined with yours in one and the same faith common to us all If our Wishes could have been granted we would not have put off our communion as now we do unto these dumb Letters but we had satiated our Souls by a personal presence interview and converse with you But for as much as the hard Laws of necessity do restrain us we believe it will not be unpleasing to you tho we be absent from you in body that by our Letters we testifie our presence with you in Spirit rejoycing in your Order and in the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ and that with Vows and Hearts most intimately united with your devoutest Prayers we first of all adore the infinite goodness of the Lord for inspiring their Majesties with that great benignity and singular clemency so as to continue you your Liberty and Priviledge of holding your National Synods in peace and security These Assemblies representing all your Churches are a divine Bulwark against the assaults and invasions of your Enemies and a most firm Cement of your Sacred Union a soveraign remedy against all your Maladies and in one word the very basis of that excellent building which God Almighty by his own wonder-working hand hath miraculously raised up in your Nation This is so rich and singular a Mercy that we cannot sufficiently admire the Providence and Wisdom of God which did at first suggest the usage and establishment of it and his special assistance support and bounty in continuing it And we doubt not of Satans machinations to unhinge it We must tell
broken with the din and complaints of their being surprized and of an usurped domination over Conscience and of reproaches for precipitancy and connivency as we are informed hath been the issue of that at Privas And in short we should think it best to leave your Confession alone immoveable and not as you often do dig it up and lay open this Foundation which though for the present it may be done with a good Intention and with laudable moderation yet may in after times produce a world of licentiousness Above all we most instantly request this of your Piety totally to extinguish those Accessory questions which being altogether needless and unprofitable do extreamly indanger Gods Church and are naturally apt to engender Heresies or Atheism among the ignorant people We very much fear that the Printing of Tilenus his book will be a great stumbling block and hindrance to this work and therefore we judged it necessary to obstruct the publication of its answer and are in great trouble what other lawful course we may take for the justifying of our Dear Brother whom he hath so grievously impeached However if it shall be thought good for the weal of the Church that he be silent and there be no more invectives or mutual recriminations left standing on the File we hope some other Expedients may be found out to salve the honour and the reputation of our Brother especially since the controversie is not about any point in it self fundamental which is to be defended but occasionally and in disputation where all sort of arguments and ways of proving though they be not always good and receiveable do not consequentially import a simple and absolute assertion because had it not been for their serviceableness to confirm the conclusions they had never been at all mentioned And we cannot think it any wise convenient to redeem the honour of a private dispute from the Laughter and Scorn of the Enemies of Truth by letting in upon us a swarm of perilous and curious Questions together with horrible scandals and scruples perplexing and tormenting Conscience Let 's labour rather to extirpate these animosities and to draw these divided Spirits nearer in love one unto the other And then the offendor who in our opinion cannot with any Conscience judge so unworthily of our Brother will be the first as in duty bound to acquit and clear him exchanging his Invectives into Brotherly admonitions We receive frequent and mournful relations of that accursed Practice of Duels yea and among persons of our Religion and tho we believe this violent and brutish Sin is so strongly rooted as to elude and reject all remedies yet because of its atrociousness and enormity we desire your holy Synod to consuls of the last and Soveraign Remedy even that dreadful power which the word of God hath given unto his Church to draws out the Spiritual Sword against such notorious delinquents without connivency dispensation or respect of persons that by its implacable severity against those daring Rebels the Lord blessing his own ordinance their feet which ran swiftly to shed innocent blood may be hereafter stopped and restrained At least let us weep and groan before the Lord that this evil may never be imputed to us that we may be delivered from the guilt of so much Blood as hath been wickedly spilt among us that it may never lie at our doors nor our Consciences may ever reproach us for having lent our heart or hands unto that murdering spirit and that we may never be marked with this brand of infamy which is peculiar to the enemies of God to have been Executioners of his vengeance upon themselves Finally most Honoured and Dear Brethren knowing the great care you have for us and how much you are allarumed with reports of Plots and Preparatives for War against us we give you to understand that through grace excepting Gods ordinary discipline of fears and threats he doth yet keep us in peace and lengthens out our tranquillity by which we are taught continually to conside in him who quickneth the dead and not to be puffed or lifted up with pride and carnal security but Religiously to improve our repose unto his service and glory and the general aid and benefit of all the Churches And we thank you heartily for your kind acceptance of our affection expressed in sending so great a number of your Scholars to Study in our University which is a very great honour to us and we shall do our utmost endeavours by all means to fit them for your future service by moulding them into the form of sound words and into that doctrine which is according to godliness weaning and withdrawing them as much as in us lieth from that vanity of Jesuitical knowledge wherein to our great grief so many gallant hopeful wits have through vain curiosity and affectation been wretchedly insnared especially in the endless Mazes and Labyrinths of Metaphysical terms and questions the true Siminaries of all novelties and heresies Help us as we shall you in united Prayers unto the throne of grace you have been exceeding helpful to us this way in our frequent distresses and we conserve the Memory thereof by us and ever shall as of a most pretious Jewel And may the most blessed God continue his divine grace and favours to you and us perfecting his strength in our infirmities uniting all our hearts in a perfect charity and grant us to keep the Faith unto the end and to finish our course with joy and to lay hold of Eternal Life and that we may all be to the praise and glory of his grace through our Lord Jesus Christ to whose power and Spirit we do with all our hearts recommend your holy Synod and all your Churches in general Subscribing our selves most sincerely Most Honoured and Dear Brethren Your most humble and most affectionate Brethren in the Lord the Pastors and Professors in the Church and University of Geneva and in their Names S. Goulart J. Diodati A Letter from the Lord of Plessis Marli unto the National Synod of Tonneins Sirs I Could not let the ' Deputies of this Province part from me without giving you assurance of my most humble and faithful service and to intreat you notwithstanding all the tricks and wickedness of this age to believe that I am speaking to you as one who is quitting this world and hath nothing left him to dispatch but his own Epitaph which through divine grace shall never give the lie to my past life and after all I shall never take my own private Interests for the Rule of my Life or actions nor so abound in my own sence as to counteract the common Resolutions of our Churches whose prudence I have always found safest because Conscience is its eye and guide Sirs All good men expect two principal blessings from your holy Synod the first is that you would be pleased by your Authority once for all to suppress those unnecessary Questions which trouble the
concord of our Churches in that Doctrine which notwithstanding the many evil times have past over us hath been preserved until now in its purity among us The other is that by continuing the Oaths injoyned by the last Synod of Privas you take the most proper and effectual course to heal the wounds which our unhappy divisions have these years last past made in the Vnion of our Churches and I see no Expedient more likely to suceed than unanimously and with joynt consent to agree and pitch upon one General end whereunto all and every one shall direct and aim I Salute most humbly every Member of your Assembly and beseech God Almighty to assist and fortify you by his holy Spirit for his own glory and for the Vnion Restauration and Propagation of his Church From Saumur April 20. 1614. Your most humble and most affectionate Servant Du Plessis The Duke of Rohan's Letter to the National Synod Assembled at Tonneins Sirs THOSE strong obligations which the Churches of France have laid upon me do ingage me to seek out all occasions whereby to testifie my gratitude 'T is this which causes me to write at present and to crave this favour of you to believe that I shall never forget those assistances I received from you in the last Synod of Privas and particularly from divers Churches of this Kingdom yea and from those I have never known Certainly Sirs I shall Confess it freely that the effects of your kindnesses have exceeded my services yet I hope that for the future you will know you have not have obliged an ungrateful person And that what you have kept for me shall be always chearfully employed for your selves We are fallen into such a time as need extraordinary Prayers unto God for his Guidance and Counsel We have been much afflicted since the Assembly of Saumur by divisions sown and fomented among us The Synod of Privas knowing it to be the most compendious Course for our Ruine did indeavour to prevent it But divers persons being unacquainted with our malady then there could not be a thorough cure effected But now every one knows it and may contribute something thereunto For my part I think it no difficult matter for us to use the true Remedy which consists in an entire re-union of all our Members that so we may be but one Body and the more fit to serve God the King and our Country and the more able to divert our enemies from enterprizing upon us from whom also we might take away the very will of doing it by its impossibility This Sirs is a work well-worthy of your Assembly I exactly conformed to the desires of the last Synod and I do now again renew my promises of observing your Orders not only in that but in whatsoever else you shall judge to concern the glory of God whom I ardently beseech that he would preside in your Councils and to give me that grace never to abuse his favours conferred upon me but that employing whatever I have received from his divine Majesty to the advancement of his Kingdom I may consecrate the remainder of my days unto his service My Lord Baron of Montausier hath particular orders from me to acquaint you with my intentions and proceedings and especially with that journey of the Lord of Hautefontain taken by my command unto his highness the Prince I desire you would believe him in what he shall inform you as if it were my self and I shall always approve my self to you all generally and particularly Sirs From St. John d' Angely this 24. of April 1614. Your most Humble and most Affectionate to do your service Henry of Rohan A Letter from the Lord of Caumont to the National Synod of Tonneins Sirs I Well hoped to have had strength enough to have been personally present with you and to have injoyed the honour and contentment of saluting your Holy Assembly and to have given you my self by word of Mouth the assurance of my fidelity and affection unto whatsoever the service of my God obligeth me for the support of his Churches and the advancement of his Glory But being at present detained by important businesses which the Sieur de Mailléz shall inform you of I intreat you therefore most humbly to be pleased with my absence and to believe that no person in the World is more ready to expose his life and the Lives and Estate of all his with greater chearfulness and willingness for Gods cause and yours than I shall be to adventure mine and the lives and fortunes of all mine And I pray God that by his Holy Spirit he would be pleased to preside in the midst of you and to conduct your Holy Wills in such manner as he knows to be most expedient for his Glory the Weal Repose and Conservation of his Church whereof having the honour to be a Member I shall ever remain in its Communion and subject my self wholly in all things unto it under the priviledge of the Edicts and the authority of their Majesties intreating you to lay your Commands upon me and to be assured that in whatsoever I may serve the publick and every one of you in particular you shall have evidence of my obedience and loyal affection The Lord follow you most Reverend Sirs with his choicest Favours and Benedictions I am From Paris May 2. 1614. Your most Humble and Affectionate Servant Caumont A Letter from the Lord of Chastillon to the National Synod of Tonneins Sirs MY past actions which through Divine Grace no Man hath just cause to complain of are I believe sufficient proofs of that care I ever had for the re-union and good intelligence of the great men of this Kingdom professing the true Religion and the fear of God as also of that respect I paid unto the desires of the last National Synod of Privas intimated to me by their Letters and what I have since done both at Court for our general concerns and since my return in this Province to conserve your Lives and Priviledges enjoyed by you during the reign of the late King will testifie that the true blood of the late renowned Lord Admiral de Chastillon is in my Veins and that I have managed all publick affairs fallen into my hands with all uprightness and justice as the Sieurs Gigord and Codur who have been Eye-witnesses of my deportments can more fully inform you if they please Sirs this my Letter drives at none other end than to let you see what deference I have for you and that my whole life shall be employed in the service of the Churches and I beseech you to believe that besides it and the service of the King and your preservation and advancement there is nothing in this world more dear unto me And if I can do you in my station any particular service either here or elsewhere you shall always find me ready for it Had it been as easy for me to have been personally present with you as
I have the will I swear unto you that my own mouth should have verified unto you what I now write that I am more than any man in the World of Montpellier April 26. 1614. Your Reverences The most Humble and the most Affectionate to do you service Chastillon The Letter of the Mareschall Duke of Bouillon to the National Synod of Tonneins Sirs I Delayed writing to you because I was in hopes to have sent my Letters by one of the Pastors of his Highness the Prince Elector Palatine who should have past through this City in his way unto your Synod and have delivered those of his Highness to you But that little time he had for so long a Journey and the little safety that now is on the High-ways having kept him at home they were directed to me that I may send them as I now do unto you and I shall take this occasion to confirm you in those assurances I have given you of my intire affection and service for the Weal Preservation and Increase of our Churches upon whose account you are now Assembled and that I desire to keep up with them a good Union and Correspondence 'T is to my very great regret that there have been some little differences between Monsieur du Moulin and Monsieur Tilenus one of the Professors in my University to the suppressing of which I have done all that lay in my power In so much that all those bitter reflections are allayed and quasht and I dare promise that from your prudence and the interposal of his Majesty of great Britain who writes to you by Mr. Hume Pastor of the Church of Duras and by the mediation of the Elector Palatin whose Letters this bearer from me delivers to you you will meet with some proper Expedient for their final determination so that those two great personages considerable for their Profession and merits may employ the gifts which God hath bestowed upon them more unto the Churches profit for the future And I will be Surety for the Sieur Tilenus that he shall pay the greatest deference unto your good Counsels and on my part I shall contribute all that you can expect from me to so good a work whereof I earnestly attend the happy Issue through your wise and prudent direction I shall detain you no longer but with the offer of my prayers unto God Almighty that he would please to guide and influence your Spirits and Councils that their result may be glory to his great Name and happiness unto his Church From Sedan May 3. 1614. A Postscript with his own hand Sirs ALtho I am well assured that your Intentions are all leading to a good Reunion both in Civil and Church-affairs yet will I not forbear quickening you hereunto and the rather because Satan and his Engines are now more than every at work marvellously busied and employed to divide us having found in this degenerate age more debauched persons and greater debaucheries than in times past Wherefore I protest unto you that in what concerns my self in particular that I shall freely discharge my duty and services according to what shall be resolved on in your Common and United Counsels and seek for my self none other benefit and advantage than to live and die in the fear of God Your most humbly to do you service Henry de la Tour. CHAP. XX. The Excommunication of Monsieur Jeremy Ferrier sometimes Pastor and Professor in the Church and Vniversity of Nismes denounced in the Church of Nismes upon the 14th of July 1613 being the Lords Day Extracted out of a little Book Intituled The Troubles happened in the City of Nismes in Languedoc July 15. 1613. and Printed the same year MAster Jeremy Ferrier formerly Minister of the Word of God having been judged by the National Synod yet hath not in the least owned and acknowledged God's singular Mercy and Benignity to him nor the Gentleness and Clemency of his Judges He hath took no notice of his great and hainous offences though God saw them the Church observed them and the World cried out of them Some days after Sentence had past upon him he made semblance as if he acquiesced in it requesting to be provided of another Church His Judges had respect unto his demand and provided for him very much unto his conveniency But the close and issue hath evidently demonstrated that what he did was all in Hypocrisie was nothing else but fraud and mockery Instead of humbling himself he waxed more fierce and fiery he kicked against the pricks he hardened his heart against the voice of God speaking to him He hath multiplied and increast his sins seeking Sanctuaries for his Rebellion from the World and protection by it in his Enter-prizes following the train and lure of his own lusts and loving this present World he would rather be a slave to the Mammon of Unrighteousness than to serve God and his Church and betaking himself to wicked and unworthy courses he hath refused to be reformed and hateth Discipline and Correction scorning and trampling under foot all Church-Order He hath most licentiously inveighed against and satyrically lampoon'd the Ecclesiastical Assemblies he hath let flie the worst of Calumnies against the Servants of God generally and particularly in publick and private by word of mouth by Pen and Writing He threw himself wittingly and wilfully upon temptations and into the snares of the Devil he became his own Seducer and like tile Devil endeavoured to seduce others He hath by his ungodly comportments scandalized those that are without and such as are within he hath attempted to mischief the Church of God for which the Lord Jesus hath shed his most precious Blood He did most solemnly engage unto the Church of Paris yea he swore it with as great seriousness as possible that he would never take upon him nor aspire unto any other Calling than that of the Sacred Ministry unless the Colloquy of Lionnois should discharge him by taking from him all possible means of subsistence Before which nevertheless when he was called he refused to appear and would not be judged of God nor by the Men of God He hath cast himself into a contumacious and audacious Rebellion into the most injurious and excessive Insolencies he hath published himself guilty of a notorious and horrible Perjury totally deserting the Sacred Ministry having rejected all the Summons and Invitations unto Repentance made him for a whole year together by divers Church-Assemblies in divers places and at divers times by many most excellent Servants of God who cordially and industriously laboured after his Conversion and Reformation He hath despised the long-suffering patience and forbearance of God and of the Church and never heeded those publick Admonitions which according to the Discipline were used to reclaim him and bring him back again unto his duty But he persists obstinately in his sins in his Disobediencies and Rebellions and hardens hardens himself in his Impenitency insomuch that we must speak it
which he was threatned that if he once more offended in the like manner he should be proceeded against with greater severity The Synod also that commissionated them was censured for assembling themselves irregularly and not observing the Rules and Orders which are usually and necessary to be observed in such Synodical Meetings And sith it appears there be very many and great Divisions in that Province the Province of Lower Languedoc is charged to Commissionate some certain Pastors and Elders who by the Authority of this Assembly shall assemble the Synod of the said Province and meeting with them shall use their utmost power and indeavour to appease their troubles and to reunite those that be divided and to restore and settle Order in those Ecclesiastical Assemblies 17. The twenty second day of May there came into this Assembly for the Province of Higher Languedoc Monsieur John Josion Pastor of the Church of Castres and James * * * Joly afterward turned Apostate Joly Pastor of the Church of Milland together with James de Laureney Baron of Mombrun Provost of Figeac Elder in the Church of Cajars and John de la Viale Counsellor for the King and Lieutenant Criminal in the Seneschalsey of Quercy and Montauban The excuses urged by them for their delays were rejected and their Letters of Commission judged defective And all these four Deputies did take and swear and subscribed for themselves and those who Commissionated them the Oath of Union the Confession of Faith and our Church-Discipline 18. All and every one of these Deputies swore and protested before God Privas Art 1. after the Election of the Moderator Alez Art 3. ibidem that they did not use any indirect nor underhand-dealing nor did any other for them procure as they knew their Deputation nor did they know that any of their Collegues had brigued his or their Election unto this Assembly CHAP. II. Rules and Orders about By-standers and Spectators in the Synod 1. WHereas the Letters of Commission brought by the greater part of the Provincial Deputies do exceedingly differ in that Clause of Submission due and owing by the Churches unto the Decrees of our National Synods And for that very much of our time is spent and wasted in examining and debating of them It is now decreed that for the future All the Provinces should confine themselves unto the words and substance of this ensuing form We promise before God to submit our selves unto all that shall be concluded and determined in your Holy Assembly to obey and execute it to the utmost of our power being perswaded that God will preside among you and lead you by his holy Spirit into all truth and equity by the Rule of his Word Tonneins Art 1. after the Roll of the Deputies for the good and edification of his Church to the glory of his great name which we most humbly beg of his Divine Majesty in our daily Prayers 2. Whereas divers Pastors and Elders chosen by the Provinces have not appeared in their own Persons but by their Surrogates in this Synod the Provinces shall be advertised to take Cognizance of their Excuses and to pass Judgment on them by the Authority of this Assembly 3. The Provincial Deputies of Brittain Tonneins at the â—nd and underneath g. m. 36. did give an Account of their Calling the National Synod unto this place because the Province of Bearn had resigned their priviledge unto them which the last National Synod held at Tonneins had conferred upon them This Assembly approved of what was done by them but yet told them it had been requisite on their part to have been more diligent and careful in acquainting the Provinces more early of the time and place of meeting by their Letters of Advice and Summons And this Advertisement shall serve for all the Provinces that when as any one of them shall have the charge and priviledge of Indicting our National Synods they may so order matters as to free and acquit themselves of all blame and complaint in this particular 4. Monsieur Petré Pastor of the Church of Vitré Petitioned for his Church and Consistory that he together with the Elders of the said Church might be permitted to sit in this Assembly whilst the Confession of Faith and the Ecclesiastical Discipline were reading The Synod granted it for himself and for two Elders chosen and named by the Consistory and unto those other Pastors who having leave from their Churches to attend the Synod about the concerns of their Churches 3. of Râ—chel Art 3. after the Elect. of the Moder St. Maixant the same Alez ibid. or their own private business as also unto Proposans But as for others who would intrude themselves that Canon of the National Synod of Rochell in the year sixteen hundred and seven shall be strictly observed 5. As soon as the Assembly was form'd and setled the first thing they Voted was an Address unto his Majesty to testify the Joy of all our Churches Below g.m. 29. for those many and wonderful Blessings which God hath graciously vouchsafed Him and to protest unto his Majesty from all the Deputies of the Provinces here Assembled and from all the Churches of this Kingdom that we are and ever will be his most humble most loyal most affectionate and most obedient Subjects and Servants And to this purpose there were deputed from among the Pastors Messieurs Hesperien and Bouteroue and from the Eldership Messieurs de Balene and de Moussac who had Letters given them to present unto his Majesty together with a particular Message which they were to deliver him in the name of this Assembly Of which the Lords Deputies who are now sitting in the Town of Rochel shall have notice given them and Letters shall be sent to the Lord du Candall to furnish these our Deputies with a supply of Monies to defray the Charges of their Journey 6. The Oath of Union of all the Churches of this Kingdom Priâ—as Art 4. after the Elect. of the Moderat under our most humble obedience due unto the King was renewed sworn and subscribed by all the Deputies in this Assembly both for themselves and the respective Provinces from whom they were Commissionated CHAP. III. The Confession of Faith THE Confession of Faith of these reformed Churches in the Kingdom of France was read word by word from the beginning to the end and approved in all its Articles by all the Deputies as well for themselves as for their Provinces that sent them and all of them sware for themselves and Provinces that they would teach and preach it because they believ'd that it did perfectly agree with the Word of God and they would use their best endeavour that as it had been hitherto so it should be ever more received and taught in their Churches and Provinces CHAP. IV. Observations on reading of the Church-Discipline Containing matter of advice given unto certain Provinces 1. THE Deputies of Anjou
Converts are not alwayes so guided and moved of God as they may not through their own fault in some particular Actions swerve from the Conduct of his Grace and be seduced by the Lusts of the Flesh to obey it Therefore they ought alwayes to watch and pray that they may not be led into temptation and in case they neglect this their Duty they are not only obnoxious to be seduced and drawn away by the Flesh the World and Satan into grievous and atrocious Sins but by the just permission of God they do actually fall and that very shamefully And we have sad instances of this in David Peter and divers other Godly Persons mentioned in Scripture CANON V. In the mean while by such Sins they hainously offend God and render themselves guilty of Death they grieve the Holy Spirit they interrupt the Course and Exercise of their Faith they do wound their Consciences most sorely and may lose the Sence and Feeling of the grace of God for a time 'till that he do once again lift up the Light of his Fatherly loving Countenance upon them vvhich he may do upon the serious renevval of their Repentance and returning into the good vvayes of their Duty CANON VI. For God vvho is rich in Mercy according to the unchangeable purpose of Election doth not utterly take away from his own his Holy Spirit no not in their greatest and most lamentable falls nor doth he suffer them to fall so low as to lose the grace of Adoption and their Estate of Justification or to commit that Sin unto Death against the Holy Ghost Nor doth he so forsake them as to suffer them to be precipitated into Everlasting Destruction CANON VII For even under those falls God preserveth in them principally and most carefully his Immortal Seed of Regeneration so that it is not totally lost nor destroyed in them Yea and afterwards he doth truely and effectually renew them by his Word and Spirit and bring them to Repentance working in them a godly sorrow for their Sins so that with a contrite and broken heart they do petition for and obtain their pardon through Faith in the Blood of the Mediator and feel once again the Grace of a Reconciled God and adore his faithfulness and tender bowels of Compassion and do for the future work out their Salvation more sollicitously with fear and trembling CANON VIII So then 't is not from any Merit or Strength of their own but by the Sole and Soveraign Free Grace and Mercy of God that they do not totally loose Faith and Grace nor live and die and perish finally in their Sins which might easily have been done and without all doubt would have eventually befallen them had it not been for God himself who can in no wise suffer his Council to be changed nor his Promise to be vacated nor that their Calling decreed in his Eternal Purpose should be revoked nor the Merit and Intercession of the Lord Jesus and his keeping of them should be annihilated nor the Seal of his Holy Spirit to be evacuated and abolished CANON IX And as for that keeping of the Elect unto Salvation and the perseverance of true Believers in Faith Believers themselves may be and are according to the Degrees of their Faith assured of it by which they be certainly perswaded that they are and shall continue true and lively Members of Christs Church and that they shall obtain the forgiveness of all their Sins and at last Everlasting Life CANON X. And therefore this Assurance doth not arise from any particular Revelation which is besides or without the Word but it proceedeth from Faith in Gods promises which he hath most abundantly revealed in his Holy Word for our comfort and from the witness of his Holy Spirit together with our Spirit that we be the Children and Heirs of God Rom. 8.16 17. and finally from a Serious and Religious Study and endeavour to keep a good Conscience and the unwearied performance of good works And should Gods Elect be deprived here below of this Sacred Consolation that they shall obtain at last the Victory should they be destitute of this infallible pledge and earnest of Eternal Glory they would be of all Men the most miserable CANON XI Yet notwithstanding the Scriptures testifie that Believers must conflict in this Life with many doubts arising from the Flesh and being thus agitated with grievous temptations they may not then feel this full Consolation of Faith and this certainty of preserving But God the Father of all Consolation will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able to bear but together with the temptation will give them strength to undergo it and a most happy issue out of it 1 Cor. 10.13 and by his Holy Spirit will again revive in them the assurance of their perseverance CANON XII And this Assurance of persevering to the end is so far from rendring true Believers proud or plunging them into Carnal Security that its rather the Soarce and Root of true Humility and of Filial Fear of true Godliness and Patience in all our Conflicts and Combats of most ardent Prayers constancy under the Cross confession of the Truth and of Solid Rejoycing in God So that the Consideration of this benefit is a Spur and Incentive to quicken and provoke them to a serious and dayly Exercise of Thanksgiving and good Works As is evident from Scripture Instances and the Examples of Saints CANON XIII So that when as the Confidence of Perseverance is enkindled again in the faithful which are recovered from their falls this doth not beget in them a laziness and neglect of Piety but a far greater care to keep themselves in the ways of God which are ordained for us to walk in And they retain the certainty of their hope least by abusing the Paternal Love and Kindness of their God he should once again turn away his gracious and loving Countenance from them the sight whereof is unto all the faithful far better than Life and the deprival of it far more bitter than Death and they should fall into greater anguish and torments of Conscience CANON XIV And forasmuch as it hath pleased God by his grace to begin his Work in us through the preaching of the Gospel so also will he preserve continue and perfect it by the Hearing Reading Counsels Threatnings and Promises of the Gospel and by our Usage of the Sacraments CANON XV. This Doctrine of the Assurance and Perseverance of Real Saints and sound Believers which is so abundantly revealed by God in his Word unto the glory of his Name and the Consolation of Pious Souls and which is imprinted by him on the hearts of the Faithful is such as no Flesh can comprehend Satan hates the World laugheth at the Ignorant and Hypocrites abuse and is opposed by erroneous Spirits But on the other hand it hath been ever beloved and that most ardently by the Spouse of Christ and as a most inestimable
his Holy Spirit thereunto the Churches of this Kingdom do injoy that great Blessing of Peace and yet nevertheless there remain in the hearts of many Persons very deep resentments of their past Sufferings which may prove hereafter the Seeds of new Broils and Dissensions whereby the Honour of God and of our King and the Publick Tranquillity of the Nation may be exceedingly prejudiced and endammaged It exhorteth in the Name and Authority of God Almighty all the faithful to suppress and stifle those bitter Animosities which the unhappyness of our late Civil Wars may have enkindled in them and that none of Our Members do trouble their Neighbours for Matters done during those Troubles sith the Remembrance of them is abolished by His Majesties Edicts and Declarations of Peace and that they would embrace each other with a Cordial Love and Affection and live for the future as Members of one and the same Body contending mutually and mostly who shall do His Majesty the best and greatest Service and repair the woful breaches in the House of God And in particular the Inhabitants of this populous City ate Exhorted to render all Reverence aâ—â— Obedience unto their Magistrates and Superiours as being established over them by the Authority of God and the Magistrates also are to exert their Duties towards them who be subjected to their Government with all due and becoming Moderation and Fatherly Affection That so all sorts of Persons both Superiours and Inferiours may aim and level in all their Actions at the Glory of God the Service of the King and the Peace and Safety of the Common-wealth 3. The Synod confirming the Canons of former Synods about an exhibition unto Monks decreeth that in case a Monk cannot be maintained by that Province in which he was born and that the said Province will not contribute any thing towards his subsistence then the Province which is charged with him shall make application to the Lord of Candal and take his allowance out of the Moneys belonging to that Province where he first lived and quitted his Frock and Idolatrous Religion 4. Hereafter in the breaking up of these National Synods the Deputies shall carry home with them the Accompts rendred by the Lord of Candal for Moneys distributed by him unto every Province that so all suspicions of partiality in the Dividends of His Majesties Bounty may be suppressed 5. All the Provinces are expresly enjoyned by this Synod that they do not prefer our Proposans before Ancient Pastors unto vacant Churches and in case any Moderators of Colloquies or Synods shall suffer this Canon to be violated they shall be suspended from their Charges 6. That no Pastor discharged by Colloquies or Synods may hereafter assume unto himself a liberty of wandring from one Province unto another and so intrude himself into a particular Church without the consent of Colloquies and Synods a matter which redounds exceedingly to the dishonour of the Ministry and is become a most Notorious Scandal The Synod ordaineth that when as a Pastor shall be taken off the Service of his Church and can not be presently setled in another yet shall he be obliged to live within the bounds of that Province either as a Pastor discharged or else as one imployed in such a manner as the Province shall judge convenient until such time as he meet with a Call unto some other Church whether within or without the Province desiring him to be their fixed Pastor 7. The Pastors of the Church of Paris are ordered to revise the Marginal Texts in our Confession of Faith and to inform the Churches which have Printers to take special notice of their Remarks and to see that it be printed according to their corrected Copy without any difference 8. Such Churches as have Printing-Houses belonging to them shall advise our Printers to be careful that they insert no Historical Remarks into the Calendars which may occasion trouble unto the Churches and irritate the rage and malice of our Adversaries 9. There shall not be inserted into the Lettâ—â—s of Deputation unto Colloquies and Provincial Synods from particular Churches those self-same clauses of absolute submission which are used in the Provincial Letters unto the National Synod 10. 'T is left wholly to the Discretion of Consistories what censures they shall inflict on such who assist in Person at Baptisms Marriages or Funerals solemnized by the Church of Rome 11. That Canon of the National Synod of Gap about Burying in Temples and Church-yards shall be most exactly observed by all the Churches CHAP. XXVI An Act to preserve the Churches Writings Deeds c. 12 DIvers Papers of very great Importance to our Churches being lost to their unspeakable prejudice and all occasioned through their neglect of choosing some one particular Church in each Province wherein the Originals of all proceedings by our General Deputies might be deposited This Synod desirous to prevent so great a disorder for the future Decreeth That all Writings remaining in their hands who have been imployed in the General Deputation shall be redemanded of them by the Consistories of those Churches in which they make their Residence that so they may be more carefully preserved than heretofore And the Originals of all Declarations Writts Answers unto Cahiers and such other Papers concerning the General Body of our Churches shall be carried unto Rochell and lodged up in the Archives there And as for other Papers and Acts of Proceedings relating to particular Churches there shall be one Church in every Province which shall have the keeping of them that so upon all occasions we may tell where to find them And to this purpose there was named for the Province of Higher Languedoc the Church of Montauban for the Lower Languedoc the Church of Nismes for Sevennes Anduze for Anjou Loudun for Burgundy Gex for Vivaretz Privas for the Lower Guyenne Ste Foy for Poictou Niort for Xaintonge Rochell for the Isle of France Paris for Normandy Alencon for Britain Belin for Dolphiny Die for Berry Chastillion on the Loir and for Provence Aignieres 14. Whereas divers Provinces have been charged with the Memoirs of very many Churches groaning under the cruel Oppressions of our Adversaries who do daily deprive them of their Liberty of Conscience in the Service of God and of those Rights and Priviledges granted us by the King and Necessity requiring us to seck out some Remedy against such growing Mischiefs from his Majesty's Justice and Protection Monsieur le Haucher was ordered to collect into one Body all those Grievances aforesaid and all others which have been averred and signed by two Pastors or Elders shall immediately upon the Departure of this Council be sent unto him that all may be gathered into one general Bill and laid at his Majesties Feet with our most humble Petitions unto his Majesty that he would be pleased to extend his Royal Protection unto his most faithful Subjects of the Reformed Religion who have no greater Ambition in the World than
Holy Work and as you have been made a Spectacle to Men and Angels so do you persist to hold forth the Light of the Gospel in all Pureness and to fight the good Fight with the Weapons of Righteousness on the right Hand and on the left taking all possible Care that no Root of Bitterness do spring up which under the Shadow and Pretext of subtle Questions may weaken or diminish the Union of all your Members and whom 't is most indispensably needful you should firmly cement in an Uniformity of Confession to avoid those dreadful Distractions which will infallibly arise from a Diversity of Opinions and Affections All the Reformed Churches as far as ever we could learn were filled with Joy at those solid Declarations made in your National Synods against revived Pelagianism and at that singular Care taken by those venerable and Holy Councils to exclude it out of your Churches Now he that lowed those Tares in God's Field is not asleep but is still at Work wherefore there is need of continual Watchings there must be no relaxing of your Circumspection lest you should lose the things which you have wrought But we may forbear insisting any longer on this Argument nor is there any reason that we should exhort you to continue in your godly Purposes and Resolutions Sith your great Zeal is a most powerful Example to excite others It 's enough that we have thus opened our Hearts unto your Reverences and have largely experienced the harmonious Uniformity of your Holy Thoughts and Intentions And forasmuch as by these late Troubles some famous Universities have to our unspeakable Grief suffered very sad Eclipses and Interruptions we shall do our best and utmost Endeavour to keep burning that little Candle which the Goodness of our God hath lighted up in our poor Candlestick And our most honoured Magistrates have resolved to continue their Incouragement and Maintenance of our School and University which from its first Foundation had none other Design or End than to prepare Instruments who might be another Day capable of edifying God's Church And they conceive themselves at this time more especially concerned and obliged to serve your Churches because 't is but the Repayment of an old Debt We owing the Original of our Academy unto the worthy Labours of some of your most eminent and famous Ministers besides your favourable Respects have been exceeding serviceable to it in its Growth and Progress and they do receive with singular Consolation the Assurances of your good Will both from the Letters of the last Synod at Charenton and from your sending of Students hither to whose Advancement in Learning and Godliness we shall most willingly contribute whatever God hath imparted to us that so we may return them to you well improved and furnished with those requisite Talents for the Ministry in the Temple of the Lord. Moreover we do return you our most hearty Thanks for your kind Remembrance had of our Church in times past and we do bless the Lord for the Expressions of his Majesty's Love and Kindness towards our City which is a Continuance of those Royal Favours we have ever received from the Crown of France and consonant to his former Declarations that he would not exclude the Natives of this Town in case according to your excellent Discipline they should be called out unto the Ministry in the Churches of his Kingdom And we are so very well satisfied of your Love unto us that it the aforesaid Declaration should not be notified unto some of the Churches yet by your means it shall be so for the future and this will be a renewed Pledg and Confirmation of your ancient fraternal Charity and Affection to us Whereupon we do most affectionately salute in the Lord your Holy Synod and tender you our most humble Service intreating the Continuance of your good Will unto us and that you would strive together with us in your Prayers for us as we do continually recommend you unto our God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the Word of his Grace and to his Spirit of Consolation and all your Churches Persons Labours and your whose sacred Assembly to his most blessed Protection beseeching the great Shepherd of Souls that he would daign to preside in the midst of you and make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you what is well pleasing to him and accumulate upon you his best and most Heavenly Benedictions to the Glory of his Holy Name And subscribe our selves Most Honoured Lords and Brethren Your most affectionate Brethren and most humble Servants in the Lord the Pastors and Professors in the Church and University of Geneva and in the Name of them all Prevost Diodati B. Turretin Du-Pan The Superscription was thus To our most Honoured Lords and Brethren the Pastors and Elders of the Reformed Churches of France assembled in their National Synod at Castres The Answer of the Pastors and Elders in the National Synod of Castres unto the Letter of the Right Reverend Pastors and Professors of Geneva Most Honoured Lords and Brethren AMong the Consolations which the Goodness of our God hath granted us in this Place this which we have received from your Communion in Spirit with us and those cordial Affections which you have expressed to us have been therefore the more acceptable because that as we rejoice in the Lord so we cannot but be thankful to him for that after so many Troubles and Desolations we be yet permitted to assemble from all Corners and Quarters of this Kingdom to the upholding settling and confirming of his Holy Worship You also are come in by your Letters to bear your Parts in this sacred Harmony augmenting by the Union of your Hearts with ours the rich Blessing which the Prophet hath compared to that precious Oil poured out upon the Head of Aaron and to the Dew which descends from Mount Sion and this too with such an Efficacy that the bare hearing of your sweet Consolations and Holy Counsels hath by a most secret and powerful Motion sensibly operated upon us and raised up the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Head in us who doth unite us though many Members into one Body in the Lord. We do therefore imbrace you in our God and accept thankfully of your Prayers and Holy Affections giving Thanks unto our Heavenly Father that as you have piously confess'd it he made us an Example of his Compassions and having saved us out of divers Perils and Distresses he hath preserved us our Lives by no less a Miracle than that of old when as he preserved the Bramble-Bush from being consumed in the midst of those Flames of War which ravaged our whole Country Nor can we sufficiently adore his singular Loving Kindnesses that although the Sins of his People had so far provoked his Wrath as to throw down all our Fences and to demolish all our Fortresses and to wither that Arm of Flesh in which we had so
very much confided yet he hath supported and doth still support by his own Almighty Arm the People of his Covenant confounding their Hopes who promised themselves no less than the utter Ruin of all our flourishing Churches upon the Change of their temporal Estate they not considering that the true Religion is kept up in the Hearts of God's Elect by the Efficacy of that Spirit of Life which having raised Jesus Christ from the Dead doth give Power and Virtue to the Faithful to triumph over all the Forces and Assaults of the World yea and of Death it self To this Occasion of Thanksgiving we will add another which is more particular viz. That since the Peace was ratified God hath filled our Hearts with Gladness by saving his Majesty to whose Clemency we owe our Peace from a great and horrid Conspiracy plotted against him by his perfidious Enemies and ours also The Lord grant that the lively Sense of his Benefits may make us groan for having sinned against him and inflame us with his Love and that we to whom he hath committed the Government of his House may be Pattners of Zeal and of every Christian Vertue and by the Light of sound Doctrine and of an Holy Life we may dissipate and drive away those black and dark Vices wherewith our Flocks have provoked his Anger for certainly we have very great Cause of Humiliation being as yet under the Cross and his Majesty's Edict in divers Points and Articles being not as yet executed observed or performed and the Malice of our Enemies increasing the Number of those Infractions and thereby the Measure of our Sufferings all which is ordered by the most holy wise Providence of our God for our Correction For as of old when he extended Mercy unto Jacob wrestling with him yet with a Blow from his own Hand he made him lame and halt ever after even so also now in these Deliverances from our past Miseries and Confusions which it hath pleased his Divine Grace to vouchsafe us yet hath he left divers Wounds on the Body of our Churches whereby to provoke us unto Repentance and to quicken us unto more Intenseness and Fervour in our Prayers and Supplications for the exciting of his Bowels of Compassion towards us We do acknowledg the free Grace of our God to be our truest Refuge and Sanctuary and that a Christian Patience and submissive Waiting for the Effects of his wise Providence will be our most assured Remedy against all the Evils that can befal us And we have this Consolation got by long Experience of the Vanity of all human Means and Aids that 't is in our Days as it was in ancient Times when God saved and restored his People it was not done by Might nor Power not by Arms nor by Swords and Bows but by his Spirit This self-same Spirit which levelled the great Mountains before Zorobabel and brought them into Plains worketh as powerfully now as heretofore so that we often see those very Mountains of Dangers and Difficulties which were raised up against his People reduced unto nothing giving us therefore a clear and full Knowledg of his great Name that he is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working Moreover we do give you farther assurance that it is our Intention That those who are called of God to serve and Minister before him in his House shall wholly and absolutely attend thereunto We well knowing that whilst with Moses in the Mount they give themselves to Prayer and apply themselves wholly to their Ministerial Work and Duty they will attract upon their People the Blessing of the Lord and they will be mighty with God for the throwing down of strong Holds and of every high thing that exalts it self against the Knowledg of God And whereas you remind us of that great Contentment you received at the sight of that Universal Harmony of our former Synods in Points of Doctrine and rejection of Errors which had troubled divers Churches we conceive our selves bound to promote the continuance of your holy Joys and Thankfulness unto God forasmuch as in this Assembly there was found but one Heart and one Soul to maintain the Confession of Faith and the Discipline of our Churches by which we know that the Lord will preserve his Heritage in this Kingdom he himself keeping up this Sacred Mound and Hedg by his own special Benediction whilst he hath broke to pieces that which was Terrene and Carnal in sundry places Yea 't is our hope that as heretofore he made his Ark triumph in Captivity and Dagon to fall down prostrate before it even then whenas Israel was most despicable so also in the midst of the Churches Sufferings shall his Gospel triumph over Superstition And as the Cross of his Son the Lord Jesus got the Victory over the World so shall the Cross of his Children which is also that of Christ be the Confusion of their Enemies This is most honoured Lords and Brethren our Consolation amidst the Ruins and Desolations of the Church of God in divers Regions of Europe which is intimated to us in your Letters Let us therefore lift up our Hands and Hearts unto our God that he would be pleased to take pity on the great and sore Afflictions of Joseph and that he would make Jerusalem a Praise and Renown in the whole Earth for his own Name 's sake Of which we have the more and greater Hopes because those great and violent Attempts of Satan do learn us that the time of his Confusion draweth near and we know that the Lord never humbleth nor casteth down his poor Church but with a design of exalting it and he layeth his Children as it were dead in their Graves that he may confound the World by raising them again from the Dead And inasmuch as amidst such horrible Afflictions God hath made your Church and Common-wealth a glorious Example of his Protection and of the Miracles of his Providence we render to his Divine Majesty from the bottom of our Hearts all possible Thanks and Praises and particularly for this that as your Golden Candlestick hath never wanted burning and shining Lights so also your University ceaseth not to educate and prepare for the Service of many Churches many fit and well-furnish'd Instruments for the Work of the Ministry In which we own and acknowledg the Zeal and Piety of our Lords your Magistrates to whom we do wish from the Lord of Lords all sorts of Benedictions And we praise God that through the goodness of our King we enjoy our ancient Priviledges of serving and building up the Churches in this Realm by their Ministry who owe their Education to your worthy Labours and Instructions and all our Provinces shall be as to their Profit so to your Contentment fully and sufficiently informed hereof at the return of their respective Deputies And in the mean while we most affectionately thank you for your singular care in cultivating and improving those many young and tender
Plants which have been sent you from divers Provinces of this Kingdom that through your well-deserving Pains and Counsels they may be prepared and made fruitful Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus And to these our Thanks we shall add our most ardent Prayers unto God that he would pour out upon you his most precious and saving Blessings and that he would always make you a most eminent Example of his Grace and Mercy in the Churches of his dear Son covering you and your Common-wealth wherein you live with the Wings of his Protection to the Glory of his Providence and to the Honour of his Holy Name as also to the Consolation of our Churches In whose Name we are From Castres this 6th of September 1626. Most Honoured Lords and Brethren Your most humble and most affectionate Servants in the Lord the Pastors and Elders of the Reformed Churches of France assembled in our National Synod and for them all The Superscription was thus To our Lords the Pastors and Elders in the Church of Geneva at Geneva Chauve Moderator Bouterove Assessor Scribes of the Synod O. Blondel Petit A Letter from the Church of Paris to our most Honoured Lords the Pastors and Elders assembled in the National Synod at Castres Most Reverend and very Honoured 'T IS with very great regret on our part that we are enforced to complain unto you against our Province but we have too just cause for out so doing We have ever held a fair and Christian Correspondence and Fraternal Union with it And indeed Sirs if it had been only our own particular Interest that was concerned we should much rather have chosen to suffer all manner of ill Usages than to have interrupted you in your most holy and important Occupations But the Honour of our Functions and the Glory of our God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ are all concerned Therefore we implore with the greater freedom the Assistance of your Charity and the Help of your Fatherly Protection because we are well assured of your Zeal to the Well-being and Edification of our Church You know Sirs that great Affliction wherewith our â—od hath of late visited us in calling unto himself that most excellent Person Monsieur Durant whose Gifts and Graces and singular ministerial Abilities were universally known throughout the whole Kingdom During his Sickness which lasted near sour Months and six Months since his Decease those two astors which were left us were so surcharged with hard Labour that they both fell dangerously Ill and must have infallibly funk under the weight of their Burden had they not been extraordinarily assisted and supported by God As soon as God had took into his Joys our late famous Pastor we faw immediately the great necessity we had to relieve and ease those two which survived and this was the unanimous Prayer and Desire of the whole Church It was utterly impossible for us to find in our Colloquy a Minister every way qualified for us for besides that none of those Pastors had a Voice strong enough for our Auditory and those other Abilities requisite for the edifying so great a People There were some afflicted with Sickness and divers Churches were destitute of Pastors and so far were we from being holpen by them that several of the Neighbour-Churches have importuned us to lend them our help To assemble a Synod for their and our Relief was out of our Power For besides the bitterness of the Season the rigour and sharpness of the Winter we were then in the very hottest and deepest of the late Trouble and without any hopes of Peace which since our good God out of his infinite Mercy hath bestowed upon us Being then obliged to provide for our selves elsewhere we were not in any great trouble on whom to sasten our Eyes for so had the gracious Providence of God ordered it that in the extremity of Monsieur Durant's Sickness Monsieur Daillé preached three Sermons to us which so much affected our whole Church that from that instant it was the common Discourse that as God afflicted us on the one Hand so did he seem to comfort us on the other by pointing out unto us such a Person as might he easily and speedily obtained by us because the Province of Anjou was well enough provided of able Pastors and of divers Proposans of very great Hopes Monsieur Durand resting from his Labours in Abraham's Bosom we believed it our Duty to concur with those ardent Desires that many of our Members had expressed for Monsieur Daillé and the rather because we were well inform'd of his singular Piety Probity and rare Learning who by reason of those excellent Gifts and Graces of God's Holy Spirit in him had been already sought after far and near by many of the greatest and most famous Churches in the Kingdom But the Lord out of his abundant Goodness had reserv'd him for us And that we might handsomly and regularly proceed in giving him a Call to the Pastoral Office in our Church we resolved at first to demand him by way of Loan as we can easily prove by our Letters written unto the Church of Saumur and to the said Monsieur Daillé and by the Acts of our Consistory But the Person whom we deputed to Saumur and to whose Prudence and wise Conduct we had confided this Affair having been refused as to the Loan advised us by an express Messenger that there was more hopes of gaining him as an absolute Gift because the Church of Saumur could more easily procure it self a fettled Pastor than borrow one for a few Months Whereupon he demanded of us new Letters and a more ample Commission The Quality of the Person imployed by us in this Negotiation and our most pressing urgent Necessity made us resolve to demand the Ministry of Monsieur Daillé purely and absolutely We in the mean while taking it for granted that our Synod would have approved and consented to what we had done as we on our parts were disposed to break off the whole Treaty in case they could make it appear that we were out and mistaken in our Choice and that there could be any thing opposed against the Doctrine Life and Conversation of him to whom we had sent our Call As soon as we had notice that our Synod should be assembled we to render all due Honours to it delegated the Sieurs Mestrezat Bigot and d' Huysseau to it and charged them to make report of our Conduct in this Affair and to petition that Assembly to approve of the calling Monsieur Daillé into Office among us though at that time we had no promise of him made us by the Church of Saumur We well hoped that those Reverend Gentlemen would have considered the great importance of our Church and the Kindnesses they continually receive from it and that they would have comforted us in our Affliction and would have praised our Proceedings or at least would
have suffered us to have finished what we had begun since we had entred upon it But contrariwise we were censur'd by them and they rejected our Call of Monsieur Daillé without ever giving us any reason for it This most honoured Sirs did exceedingly astonish us and is very bitter to us that after so many Travels we should be blamed for that Action of which we protest before God Angels and your Holy Assembly we had none other end than the Glory of God and the Advancement of his Kingdom nor durst we believe that our Synod could have been guilty of such an Excess unless the Interests and Pretensions of some particular Persons had not been predominant For we are not convinced of having violated any Canon of our Church-Discipline whereas on the contrary those Gentlemen under the pretext of establishing it do sap and undermine its very Foundations For the Discipline having prudently ordained that no Church may call a Pastor from another Province till it have first communicated it unto the Provincial Synod hath thereby provided for two things first For the publick Edification of our Churches and for the maintaining of an holy Union between all the Churches of this Kingdom it doth permit a Church to chuse and call a Pastor to it from out of another Province And if this be permitted unto all the Churches and many of them have made use of this Priviledg it ought more especially be allow'd unto this Church of Paris whose Importance is sufficiently known This hath been our practice ever unto this day nor till now was it contradicted by any Person For thus was Monsieur du Moulin called off from the Service of her Royal Highness the Dutchess of Barr deceased and thus did we call Monsieur Durant from her Highness the Dutchess of Deuxponts The other is that the Discipline would hinder Churches from calling rashly and unadvisedly such Persons whose Doctrine was unsound or Lives scandalous or in whom there was an Insufficieney So that if any Church should call such Persons the Provincial Synod might very justly and warrantably obstruct and hinder it But when-as nothing can be urg'd against the Person called the Synod hath no power to hinder that Call such an absolute Power being condemned by the Word of God And 't is very improbable that the Composers of our Discipline should ever harbour such a Thought or Intention as to impose this Yoke upon our Churches or that they would place Pastors of Churches in worse Circumstances than Scholars who being sought after by Churches and presented unto Synods cannot be rejected whenas they have those Qualities which are requisite for their imployment in the Sacred Ministry Therefore in our Opinion we have not in the least swerved from the Canons of our Discipline For we have called a Person admitted into the Pastoral Office already in our Churches and who hath discharged his Duty with Applause and Commendation and not a Stranger utterly unknown to us And we gave notice of it unto our Synod as soon as possibly we could and craved their Approbation But contrariwise our said Synod breaketh the Links in the golden Chain of Communion between us and our Churches and would deprive us of that Blessing and Franchise wherewith our Discipline hath endowed us and of which we have had the Possession and Enjoyment to this present Day and this without alledging of any other Reason besides their meer and bare Will and Pleasure For in case these Gentlemen should pretend Ignorance of Monsieur Daillé and that they do not in the least know him We answer that they might better have been acquainted with him and inform'd themselves concerning him than to have deprived us of so great a Blessing and to reject a Person whom having once the happiness of his Acquaintance they would most highly caress esteem and value Besides were there any force in this Argument all Pastors might be rejected who are called from out of the Province But should they say the Synod disapproved absolutely of this Call because we were over-hasty in it and that we did not in the first place consult with them about it We answer That we imparted this Affair unto them as soon as possibly we could and in case we did it not sooner it was not out of any disrespect unto them These Gentlemen do very well know with how much Humility and cordial Affection we are wont to treat and deal with them But this must be imputed to the unhappiness of the Times and that Affliction wherewith God had visited us And suppose we had failed in this Particular which yet they will never be able to convince us of What Zeal what Charity is this to punish our Miscarriage with the loss of God's Glory and the Edification of so considerable a Church as ours is And if God had not out of his great Goodness excited the Charity and moved the Compassions of Churches far distant from us the Condition of our Church had been most lamentable for our Synod made no better Provision for us than to send us unto our Colloquy And whenas we thought of addressing our selves to it the very first Church from whom we demanded help gave us this answer That it could not afford us any till such time as the Colloquy had prescribed them the manner How thereby deluding our very Demand For you know Sirs how rarely our Colloquies are held and the trouble we have now-adays to assemble them Therefore whenas the Church of Saumur had the Charity to consent that Monsieur Daillé should come and serve us and the Synod of Anjou imitating their Zeal agreed to this Removal we did not make any scruple of calling Monsieur Daillé to our Assistance in which also the Blessing of God is very visible For this Church receiveth a most singular Edification by his Ministry and we are full of hopes that it will be continued and be daily more and more useful and fruitful and that we have exceeding great cause of praising God for putting it into our Hearts to make such a Choice We beseech you then most Honoured Sirs that considering our Sincerity and Zeal in this Affair but above all the Glory of God and the Edification of our Church you would be pleased to confirm this our Choice and to roll away that Reproach wherewith some would blast our Honours and Office and to take off that Censure which hath been denounc'd against us and to admonish our Province to carry it with more Love towards us In doing whereof you will inspire us with new Courage in the midst of those Travels sustained by us for the Service of our Church and of many others to whom upon all Occasions we are ready to perform all kind of good Offices And we beseech God most Honoured Sirs to preside in your Council by his Holy Spirit to preserve your Persons and to shower down his Blessings upon your Labours Being Paris August 20.1626 Your most humble and most
that by his means they may as soon as possible have the Honour of waiting upon and Saluting His Majesty and Present Him with the Letters of this Assembly and shall follow His Orders when and after what manner they ought and may speak unto the King and to the Lord Cardinal and to the Lord Chancellor And having paid their Duties to the King the Lord Cardinal and to our Lord the Principal Ministers of State they shall give them to understand with what Respect and Thankful Acknowledgments we have received from the mouth of the Lord de St. Marc His Majesty's Commissioner in this Assembly those assurances given us in His Majesty's Name for preserving us the Privilege of His Edicts and to continue to us His Royal Favours But they shall not conceal that all the Members of this Assembly were exceedingly surprized and astonished that immediately after those aforesaid Assurances given us by the Lord Commissioner he made such Proposals to them as had no agreement at all with these Promises of His Majesty's good Will unto us as when He declared That he was charged by the King to forbid all Ministers to serve their annexed Congregations which tends to the utter Ruine of the far greatest part of our Churches and depriveth a vast multitude of the Professors of our Religion of their Spiritual Consolation As also when he propounded as from the King That it was his Majesty's desire That we should ratisie Baptism Administred by Midwifes and others who have no Call so to do which is formally contrary to our Belief They shall also insist on this That His Majesty be acquainted and from their own Mouths with that Rigorous Decree of the Council concerning the hanging forth of Tapistry and Adorning of our Houses on that Festival which they call by the Name of The Holy This being a matter directly contrary to the Edicts made in our Favour They shall take care also to Petition our Lord the Cardinal and the Lords of the Council and especially the Lord de Buillon That they would be pleased to supply this Assembly with Moneys for the defraying of our Charges and Expences during the Sessions thereof as hath been always accustomed to be done by His Majesty And the rather because for a very long time notwithstanding His Majesty's Promise we have not received one Farthing of His Bounteous Liberality The Assembly leaveth it to the Prudence of these our said Deputies either to prolong or shorten their abode at Court according to the Success of their Negotiation and they be ordered to acquaint us upon all occasions of what is necessary to be done by us CHAP. XXVI 3. Monsieur Ferrand's Speech made unto my Lord the Cardinal Duke of Richelieu My Lord SIth that in our days and under the Incomparable Wisdom of Your Government Peace and Justice are so Gloriously preserved that the Greatest Monarch of the Vniverse is not only known to be the Just King but also the King of the Just by the strict Observation of His Edicts and Sacred Orders The Ministers and Elders Assembled in a National Synod under the Favourable Authority of His Majesty and the Good Counsels of Your Eminency have took the Boldness to send us unto His Majesty as to the Common Father of His Subjects to render to Him Their most unfeigned Thanks and to Present Him Their most Humble Requests and in all Humility to demand His Royal Protection against those Violences which do every day Rob and Spoil us of His Favours and have most expresly charged us to Implore on this Account the Succours and Assistance of Your Eminency And that Experience we have formerly had hereof filleth our Hearts with Hopes for the future Because the Stedfastness of God and the King's Word are visible in the Face of Your Eminency You being Their most lively Protraiture We cannot be ignorant My Lord That Your Eminency is that Intelligence who moves this admirable Monarchy with the greatest Regularity That Assistant Spirit of this Great Body which heretofore was like one of the Floating Islands but now Your most Admired Conduct hath bound it so fast with the Chains of the Royal Authority that in the Greatest and most Astonishing Tempests it abideth firm and immovable And it will be with France as with the Land of Licia which tho' subject unto Storms and dreadful Earthquakes yet no sooner are those Tempestuous Winds which caused them dissipated but that the Inhabitants thereof do enjoy for Forty Days together 〈◊〉 most Wonderful Calm and Tranquility but these days of our Tranquility shall be Prophetical a Year for a Day and may Your Eminency's Life be prolonged to a full Century of those Years And we do protest in the Presence of God that we own our selves bound Eternally to Obey His Majesty by the Laws of our Birth and Conscience and for His Majesty's Favours continually accumulated upon us And therefore we do Address our Prayers without intermission unto the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth that he would be pleased to keep his Anointed as the Apple of his Eye His Majesty being the very Heart and Life of His Kingdom and that he would take from our days to add unto His and to add unto Yours also My Lord whom we reckon next to God and the King our surest Sanctuary hoping for some Rays and Beams of Your Eminency's good Will to be imparted to us that may quicken us under those disconsolating Troubles with which we are menaced and be a most meet and proper Remedy for those Afflicting Evils which press in sore upon us from every part and quarter of the Land And Your Eminency's Reward for this signal goodness of Yours extended to us will be the continuance of that Glory You have most justly acquired in all Christendom and we shall beg of God in our Prayers and may the Divine Majesty actually fullfil them to pour down upon Your Eminency an abundant Confluence of his best Blessings and that we may obtain this Consolation to be believed by Your Eminency that with all sincerity of Heart and Soul we are My Lord Your Eminency's most Humble and most Obedient Servants Banage Moderator of the Synod Coupe Assessor Blondel and de Launay Scribes CHAP. XXVII A Copy of the Bill of Grievances presented unto His Majesty by the Sieurs Ferr and Pastor of the Church of Bourdeaux Gigord Pastor of the Church of Montpellier and De Cerisy an Elder Deputed by the National Synod of Alanson May the 7th 1637. unto the King SIRE THe Deputies of Your Subjects of the Reformed Religion Assembled by Your Majesty's Permission in a National Synod at Alanson do most Humbly Petition That according to Your wonted Goodness and Justice continued to them You would be pleased to vouchsafe us the enjoyment of Your Edicts and Declarations of Peace which have to their very great prejudice been broken and violated in every Article and particularly in divers places of Your Kingdom nor can we get our Damages repaired
and becoming Conversation towards all Men so that you may remove all former Jealousies and Suspicions taken up against you and whatsoever may provoke them to wrong or hurt you and acquire unto your selves that Praise and Applause which is natural and peculiar to your Faith and Religion that learns you how to bear and suffer the worst of evils when God calls you to it which else you will never be able nor know how to practise This will be a Fence and Bullwark both to your Persons and Consciences against all Accusations which may be brought in against you before God We see with Joy and Admiration how the good Providence of God hath appeared for you in your Kingdom and what wonderful Salvations he hath wrought out for you in your greatest necessities and in what a glorious manner he hath owned and blessed the Fidelity and Vertue of many of our dear Brethren yea and those of the greatest Quality so that we are fully perswaded the mercy will be Universal and the memory thereof Immortal and that we shall be suffered to live in peace Wherefore we will leave it to the good pleasure of God to effect and bring about a perfect Union of mens minds in the Faith in his own time when he shall cause that great day of his Light to shine forth and in the mean while to make bare his Almighty Arm in setting bounds unto all Hostilities and putting a period unto all Contentions one only excepted which will be an Honour and a Blessing to the contending Parties to strive most one with another in all good Offices of Charity and Examples of Edification If there be yet behind any remaining troubles you are too well fortified in this old War to demand any great or singular consolation Possibly they will be none other than the foamings of the Sea after a violent Storm some frightful impressions upon the mind when the Ague-fits are over but whatever they may be they shall certainly be none other than the inseparable Marks and Badges of the word of Christ's Patience none other than necessary Exercises for our Faith than Barriers to rail us in and guard us from the impure Society of the World and Amulets to preserve and save us from its contagion and a Fire to purifie and refine the good Metal and to separate the Dross from it And indeed tho' the breaches which have happened among you by these dispensations have demonstrated this last effect in divers ill-grounded and unsettled Spirits yet also hath there been daily produced in others a far greater abundance of the power of Faith and of the perpetuity of the true Seed of God in their hearts The sad examples of Foreign Nations and Provinces which lie rotting in idle and brutish Pleasures the killing Vices of our Age should cause us not in the least to envy them this false and imaginary good or to regret and mourn at the bitterness and severity of that Discipline wherewith it pleased God to exercise us for he doth thus mortifie us unto the World and to the Concupiscences thereof and giveth us a taste and relish of the Powers of the World to come when we shall be fed and satisfied by him with those solid and substantial Blessings in the Palace of his Glory Yea the many difficulties and oppositions that God encounters with to disengage your hearts from the World should cause you to tremble lest he should remove that hand of his which seems so heavy and violent upon us And if he did we should infallibly lose our peace with him and tumble headlong into the deep gulph of Destruction from which we were but a little while since most miraculously delivered And in as much as by these overturnings of the World 't is visible that its last end cannot be a far off and that our long-look'd and long-hop'd for Redemption in the coming of the Eternal Kingdom of the Son of God draweth nigh for God's sake Most Dear Sirs and Honoured Brethren be not weary of fighting the good fight with the Weapons of Righteousness on the right hand and on the left against the Baits and Charms of this present World and against that hatred and fury you shall meet withal for opposing the Torrents of its general and reigning Corruptions Revive therefore the Zeal of Elijah Preach the words of Life and Wisdom get the Spirit of Might of Judgment and of Burning weild the two edged Sword of the Spirit of the word of God that it may cut on this side and on that that it may hew down them who do actually deceive and poyson Souls with their Erroneous and Seducing Doctrines that so the true Faith and Religion which we have received from our Godly and Blessed Fathers may be handed down unto our Children and we recalling into our personal practise and imitation that Holiness of their lives by which they did so nobly justifie their Profession and exalted to the highest pitch of Evidence the power of the Gospel and made it known unto the World to its Condemnation this very Holiness of our Heavenly Father may appear more conspicuous in the Holiness of our lives who are his own sanctified Children It would be not only a rash and needless undertaking in us to urge motives whereby you might be quickened and excited to the performance of these Sacred Duties in which you are labouring with so much courage and diligence but it would be a very inhumane thing also in us to increase thereby your sorrows now whenas you can enjoy but a small part of your Edicts and Priviledges yea and now when you are so frequently disturbed and affrighted with new Alarms as we have heard to our very great grief and astonishment how you have of late times been troubled in your own Bowels by the publishing and spreading of new Doctrines in the highest and most important Articles and Points of our Common Creed the substance whereof seems to be much wounded and altered and its Face and native Beauty exceedingly disfigured This accident hath been the worst and most ill-boding Sign and Token that could befal you for you had for many years together retained constantly and invariably that most Holy Faith taught and established in your Churches in its Purity and Simplicity the wicked one not being able during all that time to mingle any of his Leaven nor to sow any of his Tares among you you having therein imitated the most Famous Gallican Church of the best and purest times of Antiquity which was as free of Heresies as your Land is of Monsters And tho' these Opinions and Speculations may be reputed slight and venial by idle lazy and unthinking persons especially if compared with those more ardent Combats and serious Disputes of our quarrelsom Age managed by persons abstracted from all ties of Duty and sojourning among us yet the faithful Pastors who know how earnestly their Churches do desire solid and substantial Food will like Wise and Prudent Physicians Minister
to those necessitous Flocks the most Sovereign Antidotes for the preservation of their precious Faith and of their precious and immortal Souls and like faithful workmen who having well nigh finished a great Building well laid in its Foundation and far advanced to the top of its perfection do account it absurd and dangerous to rake and dig about the Foundation Besides the sad example of our Neighbour Provinces who have suffered this Canker to fret into their Bowels should oblige us to keep this Poyson at the greatest distance from us For since we have once agreed and seriously and sincerely consented unto the Faith and Canons of the Holy Synod of Dort both by word of mouth and our own manual Subscription it seems to us that we cannot recede from it without offering a most notorious injury to all the Reformed Churches and particularly to those of the Netherlands who have been at vast expence and trouble to give us those clear lights into and those Pious and Judicious Decisions and Determinations of these very Controversies and 't is a great unkindness in us to thwart and cross them by our contradictions and to assault and batter their Buttresses and Foundations The first essay and attempt of this nature was about those Opinions which like some certain Simples and Drugs are more wholsome when taken in the Mass than when they be minced and subtilized by Discourses Distinctions and Disputes which deprive them of all respect and enfeeble their Virtue for the instruction and comfort of the Soul and rob God of the greatest part of his Rights Glory and Adoration and do corrode mortally producing endless debates and strifes in no wise edifying but hugely embarrassing the Conscience to the disturbance of its peace polluting the heart by rash Judgments and Discourses about these deep and abstruse points and cause it to despise and reject that saving Grace of God which he would have us accept and entertain at the very first sight and tender thereof Moreover we are very much astonished and our dear Brethren of Switzerland are also extreamly offended that the Names of the greatest Doctors of our Churches have been used for the defence of these Novelties And would Charity suffer it we should believe that they were persons not in the least to be credited because the Novelists do impute and tax them with a very great inconstancy in their Doctrine the contrary whereunto notwithstanding their pretended Allegations out of them for their darling Opinions is Universally known and their different Sentiments from these new Dogmes will clearly and sufficiently justifie them before the whole World However we were somewhat comforted in our Spirits by the Advice given us That these upstarted Opinions were not at so great a distance from the Truth as was first reported nor estranged from that Center of Union in the Churches as the terms in which they were couched at their first publick appearance did represent and for that several persons of Eminent Piety had used their best endeavours to quench this Sparkle before it grew into a Flame and the Dread and Reverence born your then approaching Assembly hath happily contributed to the Reduction and Establishment of the Principal Truth And we give due Praises unto those Worthy Persons who first sounded the Alarm and marched forth against these Tenents as also unto those who brought the Waters of Moderation to extinguish the fire of this Controversy and who in the dressing of this Wound applied proper Lenitives whereby they qualified and removed the most dangerous Symptoms reserving for the more powerful hand of your Supreme and Venerable Assembly the total extinction of this fire-brand and the perfect cure of this Malady And we beseech you to exert your full Authority in and about these matters saving all that lieth in your power regaining what is lost retaining Truth and Love as much as is possible without violencing your own Integrity without degenerating into any dangerous Connivency and speedily and solidly repairing the Breach which otherwise the common Adversaries will not fail to keep open and come in upon you to your utter Destruction And tho' we very well know that your Wisdoms will not be wanting to suggest prudent Advice and Counsel and to prescribe wholsome Remedies yet we take upon us the boldness to acquaint you that forasmuch as these questions have been moved without occasion or necessity and that it will be very hazardous to let them be spread abroad to the scandal of the World to the raising of Disputes and Controversies among your selves and to the exasperating of Spirits who will be exceedingly moved and imbittered by a formal condemnation of them especially sith they have been along time revolved in their most secret thoughts by those who yet protest that in the bottom of this business they consent with you and sith they be persons who are at present and may be hereafter serviceable unto the Church of God we conceive the safest and most inoffensive Remedy that you can use will be this To enjoyn all the Churches and Universities to be wholly silent and that neither from the Pulpit nor Press any of these new Doctrines be broached nor vended And farther to Decree That when occasionally these matters shall come to be debated that all persons do keep themselves to the simplicity of our Confessions and to the Canons concluded and made in the Renowned Synod of Dort without mingling with them these new Hypotheses Phrases and Distinctions And so doing you will calm the now troubled Spirits and you will dispose them to a perfect cure and to joyn in with you in a full and uniform consent and divert them from gazing on an Object whose sparkling Lustre would attract their Affections and make them addict themselves unto others far more profitable and edifying A Puissant Neighbour Commonwealth did very happily fleer this course whenas divers years ago they were troubled with such Alterations and Scruples raised on the like points which were degenerating into profaneness and would have raised Factions and Confusions in the State and Schism in the Church This evil was nipp'd in the Bud and the Wound healed as soon as given by the sole interdiction of any farther Disputes and to prevent such dangers in time to come we conceive it very needful that you Establish if you have not done it already an Ordinary Super-Intendant over your Universities for 't is in those Schools of Learning where Leisure and the Pleasures of Speculation Variety of Reading and curious Inquiries into matters out of the common Road and the bait of Singularity do transport great Wits with too much facileness after these Novelties which how tolerable soever they may seem to be in Discourse and Conference with Learned and Accomplish'd Men yet ought not at any time to be published nor thrown into the minds of young Students who are to be dealt with all after another way to wit by a more careful instilling into them the choisest and soundest
Truths of the Sacred Oracles lest by the weakness of their Judgments and the fervour and instability of their age which enamours them of Curiosities they should be intangled in Debates and Controversies and embrace Factions and Partialities And indeed the Butt and Mark of well Educated Students in Divinity should not be to be the first Authors and Forgers of Novel and Subtil Opinions as in the Papacy where they be plung'd into a gulph of endless Errors and abastardized by a world of fruitless useless and endless Inquiries nor is it that they should be wrangling and worthless Disputants nor Speculative Doctors without any Savour or Power but the true End and Design of these our Theological Students ought be this That they may be a Holy Seed-plot of Able and Godly Pastors Sound in the Faith Mighty in Word and Doctrine Wise unto Sobriety keeping the great Mystery of Godliness in a pure Conscience delivering and dividing the word of Truth aright And in fine to be Men of God perfect and prepared for every good work of their Calling to which Holy and Noble ends all forts of Subtilties are utterly unserviceable and have ever marred the Divine Doctrine by wicked Errors or the Broachers of them by Ambition Contention Curiosity Conceitedness or the Church by a disgust of Scripture Purity and Simplicity or by Factions and Divisions which never happen when the common Sentiments of the Church are taught tho' by Ministers of meaner Parts and Talents whereas these have always happened by means of affected Singularities which is the true and genuine Food of the Romish Ambition which ever laboureth to subdue the common Sentiments because they be its greatest obstacles and most obstructing its growth and progress The Lord grant that the Sparkles of this Fire in the midst of you may not spring from the same Source Poor Germany hath sadly felt the direful effects of the flames kindled by it in its frequent and bitter Schisms Every Prince would have his University and every University admired and exalted its own Doctor as the most Eminent Professor of them all every Doctor had conceived and must needs broach and vend his new Notions and singular Opinions and these new Opinions are brought upon the publick Stage of the World where it hath met with fierce Antagonists and between these doughty Champions the poor Church of God hath been torn all to pieces To this consideration let us subjoin another for God's sake keep Philosophy within its due and proper bounds closely and strictly watched and restrained that it may only if we may so express it break up the Fallow ground of the Spirits of our youth but not in the least to take upon her by her Maxims and Assertions to bring in Seed and Food for the Church and House of God which must be fed with the pure Manna of the Divine Word whose Majesty and Liberty was so happily asserted and recovered by our Godly Fathers from that Bondage and Captivity whereinto the School-Divines of the Romish Church had enslaved it and into which 't is very likely it will be again insensibly reduced either by a too great fear of their false Weapons or by a perverse Emulation of them And yet in the mean while the Sacred Scriptures will be best understood by a diligent reading of them by comparing one Text with another and by Invocation of the Holy Ghost to enlighten our dark minds in the Knowledge of them and they will be thus more easily digested and brought home with a greater force and efficacy upon Conscience in a sober sensing of them according to the simplicity of Faith and Demonstration of the Spirit than by the most audacious and curious Applications of these false Lights new Notions and vain Discourses of Philosophy Pelagianism in the Low Countrys was the Plant of the Spanish Metaphysicks producing not Pious and Painful and Profitable but Subtile Pastors and Preachings an infinite Brood of Disputants void of Understanding and corrupt in Points of Faith Subtilties bring forth Thorns which never leave the Churches nor Consciences at rest but scratch and tear them to pieces And we exhort you to be Jealous and Suspicious of new Methods and imaginary Hypotheses and an affected singular way of Teaching and to avoid them Arminius took his walks at first in these by-paths till such time as he had gotten a stock of Credit and Reputation and had form'd for himself a Party then he pull'd off his Vizard and canvasseth all Points of Doctrine even those which were but accessary with no little vehemence in his Disputations and was uneasy till the roots had been searched and the most Fundamental Points had been assaulted and shaken Indeed the one wounds the other and it was always known that they who once chang'd their note and language and the sound Doctrine delivered to them have been attended by some secret hidden Vice or else they do engender it in their Followers Discharge therefore most Reverend and Honoured Brethren your bounden Duty unto your Churches and give this Memorable example unto them all and unto us this singular Consolation That you do maintain inviolably the Faith once Taught Established and Sealed among you far more than in any place of the World besides by a multitude of Divine Witnesses and Approbations which have rendered you a Spectacle of admiration to Men and Angels grub up by the Roots every Plant of Heterodoxy and by your Authority do you re-inforce as you shall find needful that Harmony and Agreement of the Reformed Churches which was declared in the Synod of Dort which having been the first General Council of the Churches in our days wherein God most evidently presided by his Holy Spirit and there will be difficulties enough to get such another doth therefore of right deserve the greater Reverence and Submission because of the disrespect offered it by the Broachers of these Novelties And this should be done unless we intend to be cry'd down as a sort of ungovernable persons refractary to that Order and Discipline which God hath Sanctified and Established from the very beginning in the Christian Church Ponder well how your past actions have been justified and may it please you to take that care that you may not hereafter be necessitated to make use of this Remedy against affected Ambiguities and Obscurities We very well know that some are charming your Ears with the Re-union of both Religions but that constancy and firmness you testified in your last Synod the nature of the points wherewith you be tempted that cannot admit of any reconciliation and for that you must make the first Overtures to a Party which keeps the wound open and holds the departure from them intolerable if ever you hope to get from them clear and plain Declarations of their Intentions and finally the whole set on foot without any Authority or Warrant and with apparent marks of very little sincerity and for great Worldly Respects and Interests freeth us of all
Face and called him to the Knowledg of thy self the only True God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent and animated him with a Spiritual Courage to make a publick Confession this Day of thy Holy Faith and that Hope which thou hast begotten in his Soul and granted him this Grace to offer himself in thy Presence unto this Holy Sacrament of Baptism the Seal of thy Covenant the Pledg of the Remission of our Sins and the Token of our Admission into thy House by a Supernatural New Birth So most blessed God we beseech thee to dart in upon him more and more the Beams of thy Mercy to forgive him all his Sins to purge his Conscience with the precious Blood of the Lamb without Spot who taketh away the Sins of the World O cause him Lord to feel the Almighty Vertue of his Propitiation Let thy Holy Spirit sanctifie him and make him a new Creature that he dying unto Sin may live unto Righteousness and putting off the Old Man with his Works he may put on the New Man who is renewed in Righteousness and true Holiness And as we are now pouring upon his Head the Waters of thy Sacrament so we beseech thee more especially to pour down upon him the Gifts and Graces of thy Holy Spirit Receive him into the Number of thy Domesticks and honour him with the Adoption of thy Children Give him Grace that during his whole Life he may devote himself entirely unto thy Service and yield that Obedience and Religious Worship to thee which is thy Due and his Duty And let him persevere faithfully in thy Holy Covenant for ever-more that as we do now receive him in thy Name into the Communion of thy Church Militant so thou mayest another Day exalt him into the Bosom of thy Church Triumphant and gather him at his Death unto that general Assembly of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven Hear us O merciful Father that this Baptism which we do now administer to him according to thy Sacred Ordinance may produce its Fruit and Vertue in him as thou hast declared in thy Holy Gospel to us for the sake of thy dear Son in whom thou art well-pleased even our Lord Jesus Christ who hath commanded us to call upon thee saying Our Father which art in Heaven c. Then the Minister addressing himself to the Sureties who present the Catechumen shall say My Brethren As you have charitably employed your selves in the Instruction and Edification of this our Brother and are Witnesses of tha Baptism which he shall now receive through our Ministry so do you not promise before God and this Sacred Assembly to continue more and more to strengthen and confirm him in the Faith and to stir him up unto all good Works Answ Yes This done the Minister speaking unto the Catechumen who upon his Knees waiteth for Baptism shall say Forasmuch as we have received these Evidences of your Faith pouring Water upon him N. I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Amen The Conclusion of the Form of Baptizing Strangers from the Covenant of God whether Pagans Jews Mahometans Anabaptists or any other Infidels who had not been before baptized 11. If in Churches served by divers Pastors any one of them be disabled either through Age or some other Infirmity from administring the Cup yet shall he always distribute the Bread in the Lord's Supper unto the Communicants and this Canon shall be observed in all the Provinces without exception 12. Whereas in many of the greater Churches of this Kingdom it hath been found requisite for their more general edifying to handle the Sunday's Catechisms by way of Common-Places in Divinity and not by familiar Questions and Answers And to promote their Instruction who are well grown in years they have substituted extraordinary Catechisings on certain Days immediately preceding the Lords Supper we approving their Practice do notwithstanding exhort the rest of the Churches to conform themselves unto the Order prescribed by the Discipline as much as possibly they can And in case they cannot every Lords Day Catechise their Children yet shall they chuse out some days of the Week peculiarly for this Exercise especially before the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is to be administred and the Provincial Synods are ordred to see this punctually observed in every Church of their Jurisdiction and to give an Account thereof unto the next National Synod 13. To explain that Canon of our Discipline which bindeth Pastors in their ordinary Course of Preaching to expound some one particular Book of Holy Scripture from the beginning to the end thereof this Assembly declareth that the Intention of the National Synod which decreed that Canon was not thereby to debar or hinder any Pastors from edifying their Churches by expounding of any Books or Texts of Scripture particularly chosen on extraordinary occasions as of the Lords Supper c. nor to impose upon them any necessity of prosecuting the Exposition of the same Book which was the Subject of their Lord's Day Sermon upon the Week Days in which the far greatest Part of the People are taken up with the Occupations of their Secular Callings and Families that they cannot attend upon such Sermons and so would be deprived of their chiefest Edification but in this respect to leave all Pastors to their Liberty 14. Henceforward the Moderators in Synodical Assemblies and the Deputies which shall be sent from the Provinces in their Name to assist in National Synods shall be chosen as the Canons of our Discipline have determined not by the Churches but by Plurality of Suffrages of the Provinces And in case any absent Person should be elected yet this shall not abridge the Pastors of their Liberty in Voting 15. For the better Understanding the Third Canon of the Ninth Chapter of the Discipline This Assembly declareth that the Memoirs wherewith every Province intrusteth their respective Deputies ought to be resolv'd in their Provincial Synods by plurality of Votes and signed in the said Assemblies by the Moderators and in case this be omitted there shall be no more regard had unto them than unto Motions made by Private Persons who had no Order nor Commission and propounded such matters of their own Head 16. Upon the Eighth Canon of the Ninth Chapter of the Discipline it was decreed that the Moderator of the Synod having propounded the Matters of Discipline which are to be debated shall defer the giving of his Suffrage till all the Deputies have given theirs and he having gathered their Votes shall then at last have the Casting Voice CHAP. X. Observations made on Reading the National Synod of Alenson held in the Year 1637. 1. IN compliance with that Petition of the Deputies of Vivaretz and of the Church of St. Stephen in Forest which had agreed in a particular Treaty made with the Church of Bonlieu and by Consent of the Province of Burgundy that the said Church
that his Majesty will not be offended if we produce Instances and Proofs hereof in that Bill of Grievances we intend to present unto him And as for the Poor's Monies which they suggest unto his Majesty to have been diverted from those uses whereunto they were destinated We most humbly beseech my Lord Commissioner to do us that Favour as to acquaint his Majesty that we take so great care of our Poor that rather than they should want things needful for them and wander up and down the Streets and make a Trade of begging our Ministers are of that generous Spirit they would first suffer their own Wages to be defalked and that Abatements should be made of their slender Stipends So that his Majesty in stead of being displeased at our Conduct and the pretended Infractions on our part of his Edicts being better and more truly informed by your Lordship my Lord Commissioner and by my Lord General Deputy his Protection will be continued to us and that he will be pleased to shrowd us from those Violences done us by those who delight in breaking of those Edicts and Spoiling us of those Priviledges which were granted us by his Majesty's Predecessors We do acknowledge that our National Synods cannot be held without a great deal of Labour and Expence but their meeting from time to time being absolutely necessary for us we undergo the Travail and Burden with a great deal of chearfulness And his Majesty having hitherto enabled us by his Bounty to bear in some measure the charge of it we cannot but promise our selves from his Royal Goodness the continuance thereof and that he will not deprive us of his Liberality when as we shall be obliged to come from all parts of the Kingdom unto these General Assemblies And could those Affairs which are brought unto these Synods be terminated any where else we would most willingly spare our selves the pains and trouble of travelling from one end of France unto another and to sit down about other Mens business for some Weeks at so great a distance from our own Habitations and Families as the most of us do But it being absolutely impossible that our Religion should subsist without these Assemblies and there having been a very long Interval of Years elapsed since the last held at Charenton unto this present we having found by sad Experience that Delays and Time do multiply Affairs and cause them to be dispatched with the more and greater difficulty we perswade our selves and ground our Perswasions and Confidence upon that unparallel'd Goodness of our Sovereign that it will be acceptable to him that my Lord our Deputy General should demand and press his Majesty to suffer it to be called when as the Necessities of our Churches do require it for the composing of our Affairs according to the Canons of our Discipline and as hath been customarily practised every three Years And as for that Expedient of ending matters in our Provincial Synods there is so great a quantity of Affairs of another Nature that without a total Subversion of our Discipline they can never be determined but in our Triennial National Synods And whereas his Lordship my Lord Commissioner was pleased to touch at our holding Correspondency with Foreigners over and besides what hath been said and is recorded in the Acts of former National Synods In answer to this there be yet several Persons now present who can very well remember that the Kings his Majesty's Predecessors did permit our Churches to hold up a Correspondence with our Neighbours in matters concerning our Religion and Discipline yea and as occasions offered that we should send our Deputies to them And however the People of Geneva Switzerland Germany and of other Countries do live under a Form of Civil Government quite different from ours yet because those Nations be Friends and in League with France and principally because our Religion is animated universally by the same Spirit and that it inspireth all its Professors with an inviolable Respect and Obedience for the Higher Powers of what kind or nature soever they be in any State the Kings his Majesty's Predecessors had never any reason to complain that this Correspondency was in any wise prejudicial to their Authority So that if it should please his Majesty our Sovereign Lord to give us once again the same Liberty he might be fully assured as ever of our inviolable Fidelity And as for our Students when as ever it shall please his Majesty as we most Humbly request him so to do to give them License of Visiting Foreign Universities there shall be no cause to fear that their good Inclinations should be corrupted or that they should return Home disaffected to the Person and Government of their Prince And as for Letters or Writings from Foreign Parts we shall not receive nor peruse any of them unless his Majesty's Commissioner do approve of it There is yet one Word more to be spoken about the duration of this Synod which my Lord Commissioner saith must be very short because it is his Majesties Pleasure it should be so To which we reply with all imaginable Duty and Reverence unto his Lordship that the length of these Assemblies doth depend upon the multitude of Business which cannot be dispatch'd in a trice but require time for so doing It is now Fifteen Years since we had a National Synod so that 't is an easie matter to judge that as Businesses are multiplied extraordinarily so are their Difficulties together with them And as it lay not in our Power to prevent their out-breaking at first so now is it not in our power so to shorten the time of the Sessions of this Synod as we would but it must of necessity exceed the ordinary term of former National Synods for otherwise we must leave many Affairs undecided or else their Decision must be precipitated But in case his Majesty had not declared his Pleasure to us herein yet it is the general Interest of our Churches and of every one of us in particular to hasten as much as possibly we can our return to our respective stations and therefore consequently we shall avoid all Delays and Protractings of Businesses which if unnecessary cannot but be very prejudical to us But whereas over and besides this Consideration his Majesty hath been pleased to notifie his Intentions to us we do most humbly beseech your Lordship my Lord Commissioner to believe that we will not lose one Moments time but shall intend our Synodical Affairs with all assiduity and diligence imaginable But our principal Request unto your Lordship is that your Lordship would be pleased to assure his Majesty that as we be Natural born French-men so have we the Interests and Glory of France lying at our Hearts and as we are Christians so we know our selves inviolably obliged to the Observation of that Apostolical Precept To Fear God and Honour the King We have already said it and we do once again repeat it that
repent rouze up thy self out of thy Spiritual Lethargy Awake then and give Glory unto God the God of Heaven and Earth and he will raise thee up again tho thou art fallen Call upon him for who knoweth but that he may have Compassion on thee He hath not forsaken thee but thou hast forsaken him and thou canst tell in what place thou shookst Hands with him Don't consult with Flesh and Blood go seek and find him out in the beginning of thy Sin that yet he may recover thee His Gifts and Callings are without Repentance Thou hast quitted the Pastoral Office to be a wandring Sheep a Sheep wandring after the Voice of a Stranger However thou knowest what the great Shepherd saith by St. John on this occasion make use of it to thy best advantage and if thou canst not be a Pastor yet at least become a Sheep of Christ's Fold In the mean while my dear Friend I will humbly beseech God from the bottom of my Soul and with all my Heart that he would recover thee from this thy most dangerous Malady by some proper and most effectual Remedy For I know him by good Experience to be the best Physician and that he can purge out of thee all thine Errors all Humane Considerations and corroborate the good infeebled in thee through the perverseness of the former that he can again enlighten thee ingraft thee into Christ tho thou hast broken thy self off from him and give Rest unto thy Soul in the Bosom of the Church Militant that so in the Church Triumphant thou mayst enjoy those everlasting Blessings which he hath prepared for them who persevere unto the end And I being filled with Joy at thy Recovery will take thee by the Hand and we will go together into the House of our God there to render him according to our poor Abilities that Sacrifice of Thanksgiving which is his Due and our Duty Now then under this Quality and with this Hope I subscribe my self Dear Friend Excuse if my Superscription do omit these Titles which once thou hadst and I am ignorant of what thou now bearest Thy Humble Servant Aide de Dieu Help of God A Monsieur Monsieur Martin at his House in Montoire CHAP. XXII Remarks upon the Deputies 1. MR. Boschart Pastor of the Church of Caen a Man of vast Learning and reputed one of the most able Scholars in all France His Hierozoicon and Phaleg proclaim his Worth to the whole World Christina Queen of Sweedland invited him into that Kingdom and he was for some time a Professor in the University there 2. Peter de la Musse Here is a Marquess of that Name in London a faithful Confessor for Christ having forsaken his Estate are embraced the Cross rather than part with his Religion and his God and I think the same Deputy 3. Monsieur Mussard Minister in the Church of Lyons but a Native of Geneva he married Mr. Beza's Granchild By a Trick of the Jesuits which he told me he was outed of the Church of Lyons The Cardinal of Villeroy Archbishop of that City and Diocess had an esteem and value for him For he was a Person of great Worth an excellent Scholar and a most eloquent Preacher The French Church of London invited him over to their Service and he died in the Pastoral Office of it There be Printed of his Works a Volume of Sermons in French in Quarto 2. Historia Deorum satidicorum 4 to And 3. Les Conformites des Ceremonies Modernes avec les anciennes His Modesty made him not put his Name to his Works But he himself told me he was the Author of them Les Conformites doth speak English for I have seen the Translation in a Booksellers Shop 4. Monsieur de Bourdieu Pastor of Montpellier this reverend and ancient Servant of the Lord Jesus resides in London and Preacheth tho 95 Years old 5. Monsieur Guitton Pastor of the Church of Sion fled here upon the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes into England and was some time in London but since for want of Employment left the Kingdom and retired I think into the Netherlands 6. Monsieur Amyraud the Famous Professor of Saumur His Learned Writings are well known I shall say more of him God willing in my Icones 7. Monsieur Daille Pastor of the Church of Paris A most Learned and Eloquent Preacher My Worthy and Reverend Friend Mr. Soreton an eminent Nonconformist Minister in Devon translated his Commentary upon the Colossians into English His Book of the Right Use of the Fathers was translated into English and highly valued He writ against Brachet Sieur de la Millitiere a Tool of Richlieu's to compound and reconcile if possible the Two Religions Millitiere at last turned Apostate He hath a most accurate Treatise De Imaginibus Apologie des Eglises Reformees and a great many other things of which and him I shall give an Account at large in my Icones 8. Monsieur Homel Pastor of the Church of Sojon a most pious and zealous Preacher he died a constant and Faithful Martyr His Execution was most barbarous being broken upon the Wheel and left under Torments for several Hours before his Inhuman Persecutors would give him the Coup de Grace as they call it the last Blow upon the Breast to put an end to his Torments But God filled him under his greatest Sufferings with the Consolations of his Spirit I have writ a larger Narrative of his Martyrdom and shall insert it into the Life of the Great Chamier for a Great Grandson of the Famous Chamier suffer'd about the same time unless my memory fail me with him FINIS