Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A25510
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The Answer of the new converts of France to a pastoral letter from a Protestant minister done out of the French copy publish'd there with permission.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing A3297; ESTC R12752
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6,346
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20
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THE ANSWER OF The New Converts OF FRANCE TO A Pastoral Letter FROM A PROTESTANT MINISTER Done out of the French Copy Publish'd there with Permission Publish'd with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. THE ANSWER OF THE NEW CONVERTS OF FRANCE To a Pastoral Letter from a Protestant Minister IT is not Sir to give you an Account of our Conduct that we now write to you we know you are not in the Circumstance of approving it and we are much troubled at it Nor is it to Answer either your injurious Language or your Menaces the Holy Ghost confirms us against them both when he tells us 1 Pet. 3.13 14. Who is he that can hurt you if you do only that which is good but and if you suffer for Justice sake you shall be happy Fear not what they would make you fear nor trouble your selves but sanctifie our Lord God in your hearts and be always ready to satisfie every one that asks you a reason of the hope which is in you It is therefore in obedience to these last words we have now broken that profound Silence in which the Moderation that our Faith as yet but tender inspires into us would retain us were we not oblig'd to render an Account of that Faith and to hinder the weak from being scandaliz'd at the Reproaches you have cast upon us and the Church from being dishonor'd by those who are not happy enough to know her We shall not distinguish among us as you have done the Libertines those Christians whom you call cowardly nor those whom you think you honor by the name of simple Apostates because we cannot believe but that Division was rather a Figure and an Artifice then any real Effect of your Sincerity For we are perswaded there is not one of these three pretended States tho' never so Impious and Libertine but your Zeal would willingly draw back again into your Party and not one but you would rejoyce to see become a Martyr for your Religion The haste you would thereupon make to revoke the Sentence against them should make you consider with how much rashness you have pass'd it Doubtless Sir you never thought of this when you durst pronounce There was no further sacrifice remaining for their sins and like a God upon Earth condemn'd them to devouring Flames Without examining too nicely this Judgment God himself lets us see the rashness of it Psal 109. when he assures us the Priesthood of Jesus Christ shall never have an end because he will offer eternally the Sacrifice of his Cross for the Redemption of Sinners The transgressions even of the wicked Ezek. 18.22 23. say what you will God will not remember as the Scripture tells us from the moment he converts himself from them for I will not saith the Lord by the mouth of his Prophet the death of a sinner but that he should return from his wickedness and live But without doubt you will say this Conversion consists in returning into your Church which in your Letter you invite us to But can this Proposition move a Christian if it could not have been propos'd to him through every Age. since the Death of Jesus Christ And could this have been done Two hundred years since before you had any such thing as a Church It is of no purpose to tell us as we have so often heard That your Church subsisted always but that it was invisible For can the Church subsist without Faith Rom. 10.14 and Faith saith St. Paul without Preaching and Preaching without some Action that is both publick and visible Have not you your selves taught us Conf. de Foy. 28. That where the Word of God is not received and where the Sacraments are not in use no Man can judge properly speaking that there is a Church All these Consequences have they not made you own That at that time the State of the Church was discontinu'd How then could any one propose to a Neophyte to embrace that Faith which they could not make him know Nevertheless can we Sir believe that for so vast a time that according to your selves is from the Fourth or Fifth Age to this day in which you tell us the visible Church which was no other but the Roman was fill'd with Errors or at least since the Tenth Age when you assure us she was fall'n into all manner of Superstitions and Idolatries Can we I say believe that during so long a space of years the Gates of Heaven were shut the Blood and Death of Jesus Christ were ineffectual the Kingdom of the Saviour of Mankind ceased and the Empire of the Devil was full entire and absolute within the House of the Son of God Do's not Jesus Christ himself teach us to the contrary S. Mat. 16.18 S. Luc. 22.32 S. John 14.16 That the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church and that he has pray'd for her that her faith shall never fail in short that the holy Spirit shall remain with her for ever We formerly Sir believ'd according to the ancient Principles you taught us That is was enough to shew the truth of these words That there was a small number of the Faithful who liv'd according to outward appearances in the Communion of the Roman Church but whose Hearts you assur'd us never adher'd to its Worship But now you not only bid us preserve our selves from that Illusion but also tell us that nothing is more criminal then such a thought That such a Devotion is injurious to God That God requires all or nothing and that since he is the Redeemer of both he will be glorifi'd by both For 't is not enough say you after St. Paul to believe in your heart to justice but you must profess it with your mouth to salvation We believe you Sir and we acknowledge our selves oblig'd to you for so kindly contributing to confirm us more and more in the Church we are so lately enter'd into by leaving us no further doubt of the newness of yours For from henceforth where can we believe your Church subsisted during so many Ages when you had neither Temples nor Service nor Assembly nor Preachers nor Sacraments nor Faithful You have endeavor'd hitherto to come off by telling us as occasion serv'd sometimes that it was visible and sometimes that it was invisible You said your self to M. de Meaux That before the Reformation P. 120. the truly Faithful were mingled with the rest in the same outward Profession But thanks be to Heaven we are now likewise taught by you that we cannot believe without Illusion That one of the Faithful can preserve himself in the outward Communion of the Roman Church altho' his Heart do's not incline to the Worship and that there is nothing more criminal then such a thought There remains then no further doubt but that according to your selves not only
the State of the Church but even the Church it self to make use of your own Distinctions was discontinu'd and abrogated for the space of many Ages for that it could not maintain it self within the Communion of the Roman which alone had Churches and publick Worship How can we reconcile this with what the Holy Ghost teaches us That the Church is the Handy-work of the Son of God Ephes 5.25 26 27. That she is his most dear and faithful Spouse that he purchased upon the Cross by the Effusion of his most precious Blood That he himself is the Head 1 Tim. 3.15 That she is the Pillar and Ground of Truth That she is to be our Judge in all our Controversies S. Mat. 18.17 and so Infallible that whosoever do's not submit to her Decisions is to be esteem'd as a Heathen or Publican in short That he will never forsake her and that he will be always with her to the end of the World A Christian instructed in such Lessons drawn out of the Holy Writ can he find any difficulty to incline favourably towards the Roman Church which you your selves confess has stood from Jesus Christ and the Apostles down to this Day either in full Purity or at least with some Alterations that you pretend have crept into it We will not enter into an Examination of the Errors that you impute to it that is not now our Business but we must needs say for our own Justification That among those that gave us the greatest horror there are some of them in which we see you had more Obstinacy on your sides then Reason The Real Presence for Example of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist was always represented to us as a Rock of Scandal in the Roman Church as a Shelve to Shipwrack Salvation and as a Monster in Religion yet this Doctrine detestable as it is was nevertheless receiv'd into your Church and into your Communion with the Lutherans who never doubted of it and Preach'd it publickly It is in vain to tell us The Lutherans 'tis true believe that Jesus Christ is present in the Sacrament but they don't adore him For not only your own Writers as Calvin Beza and others condemn their Practice in this but maintain That if Jesus Christ be in the Bread he ought to be there adored And your own Church has declar'd by the Mouth of Daillé P. 66. That if the Subject matter which is call'd the Sacrament of the Eucharist be in its substance not Bread as she believes but the Body of Christ as those of Rome hold it is evident that it may and ought to be ador'd because the Body of Christ is an adorable Subject Seeing then according to you it is allow'd to believe that Jesus Christ is in the Sacrament it ought likewise to be permitted according to your own Tenets and according to your own Authors those who believe him present are oblig'd to adore him there So that properly speaking the Adoration of the Sacrament is nothing else but a Cavil that you make with the Church of Rome to colour your Division As the Communion under one Species is another much more visible and as ill grounded Every one say you ought indifferently to receive the Cup Dim 53. according to the Command of Jesus Christ against which it is unlawful to attempt any thing By this Article of your Faith we have been always possess'd with a belief of the necessity of Communion in both Kinds and always thought the contrary Practice an overthrowing of the Constitution of the Sacrament nor should we yet have doubted of it had not your own Practice at length open'd our Eyes and disabus'd us But now when we hear you determine in your Discipline That the Bread alone ought to be Administred to such as cannot drink Wine Art 7. c. 12. provided they make a Protestation that it is not through contempt Now when we see this Custom establish'd in your own Temples why do you condemn that in the Church of Rome which you allow and practice in your own If the Command of the Cup be positive it is indispensible if the Communion in both Kinds be of Divine Institution it cannot admit of a Modification But say you are we oblig'd to Impossibilities Without examining this pretended Impossibility which you suppose in the Faithful upon very slight Grounds we will suppose it with you But ought this want of Possibility in any to receive a Sacrament destroy the Sacrament This Infirmity may dispence with a Person from Receiving the Sacrament and justifie his abstaining from it but it can justifie neither Minister nor Church that gives it so divided and separated if God has declar'd it indivisible and inseparable In fine if the retrenchment of one of the Species be a violation of the Sacrament and of the Command of Jesus Christ no Church nor Reason can authorize it What can we then conclude when we see your Church as well as that of Rome practise the same Retrenchment but that the Communion in both Kinds is neither of necessity nor commanded It is much the same concerning the Real Presence A Man that beholds Christianity divided between the Adherents of Rome Luther and Calvin and finds that by the Doctrine taught in the Churches of the two first it is absolutely necessary for his Salvation to believe That Jesus Christ is really and substantially in the Eucharist and hears you your selves saying That this Belief against which you are such declar'd Enemies is no obstacle to Salvation Daillé Apol. p. 43. that it contains nothing contrary either to Piety or Charity or the Honor due to God or the Welfare of Mankind could this Man determine with himself to follow any other Doctrine then that which he is assur'd of on all Sides to be absolutely necessary or at least no way prejudicial to Salvation Believe us Sir these insensible tho' important Steps of yours have had greater power over our Consciences then all the Dragoons so terrible and so barbarous as your Pen has study'd to describe them But suppose the apprehension of them had made some of us reflect upon these things which perhaps we had otherwise never so much as thought of would this conclude any thing but what St. Paul saith That Kings are Gods Ministers for our good Can you blame any Christians for Examining the Causes of a Persecution before it comes upon them since Jesus Christ has promis'd to recompence only such as suffer for his and for Justice sake The Spirit of the Gospel do's it oblige us to meet Death boldly for Error or for Truth or is it the Suffering or the Cause for which they suffer that makes the Martyrs If the Cause then be found to be Man's and not that of God's have you reason to disclaim against those who have only avoided temporal Punishments to preserve themselves from those which are more terrible and eternal 'T is then the proof of this Cause that