to have been done by the Reliques of St. Stephen in Africa those of St. Martyn in France and those of the Anacorites in Egypt and Syria Not to enter into a long dispute on the subject of this pretended mark of the Church of Rome I answer three or four things briefly to which I pray give attention 1. That this pretended fountain of light fit and proper to make the Church of Rome visible is not for the simple and unlearned For to see the bottom and solidity thereof they must examine the History of the pretended Miracles which were done in the fourth and fifth Ages They must see what we have said in opposition to it they must examine circumstances and see if there be not reason to believe that all these stories of Miracles are either frauds or fictions They must also examine by History whether these pretended Prodigies of Sanctity be not either Fables or the disorders of sick and melancholick minds They must therefore be able to understand Latin and Greek and to read great and large Volumes To offer this as a light sutable to the capacity of the weak and unlearned is to scoff and deride them 2. I say that the Miracles of the Apostles which are certain and the Prodigies of the Sanctity of the three first Ages does not appertain by right of succession to the Church of the fourth and fifth Age but as far as she inherits the Doctrine of the Apostles These Miracles were good to prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion to Pagans But they are worth nothing to prove Novelties as are the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Reliques which are purely Pagan Practices With far greater reason the Church of Rome hath no right by succession to the Miracles of the Apostles to prove her Worship her Idolatries and Superstitions We have as much right as she to these Miracles They are truly and properly our Miracles They are good for us all in common against the ungodly and against Infidels to prove that there is one God in three Persons that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the true Redeemer of the World. But they are nothing to prove our Additions our Corruptions and our Alterations if it be so that either the one or the other of the Christian Sects whether Popery or Calvinism have introduced them into the Church This is clear the Miracles of the Apostles appertain not to us but as far as we have and do inherit their Doctrine 3. As to the Miracles of the fourth and fifth Age which were done in the times when they prayed to Saints and worshipped Reliques we say that they were false Miracles It is to be observed that from the death of the Apostles until the end of the fourth Age nothing was spoken of Miracles in the Church or so little and in so doubtful a manner that it doth not deserve to be reckoned for any thing but when the Devil desired to set up the Worship of Creatures he poured out a Spirit of Lying and a Spirit of Credulity which began to entertain discourses of Miracles 'T is a thing of importance press your Converters thereon Why did these Miracles cease for the space of well nigh two hundred Years or at least why were they so rare And why did they begin again exactly at the time when the Worship of Reliques grew famous Do we not see clearly that 't is a Wile of the Devil Hath God any interest to serve by Bones and Ashes was it necessary that he should begin again to do Miracles at that time And if it were of use to perswade the truth of the Religion which the Martyrs declared to the Pagans why did not God work Miracles by the Bones of the Martyrs for the first three Ages This had been much more profitable than when Paganism was rampant and the Church persecuted and oppressed Wherefore did not the Bones of Polycarpus of whom the believers of Smyrna speak with so much love work miracles Why did not so many Martyrs whose Reliques they had and whose Anniversaries they observed in the time of St. Cyprian work signs and wonders your Converters will never be able to answer this be you therefore perswaded that these pretended Miracles done by the Reliques of St. Stephen St. Gervais St. Protais St. Martyn c. were Illusions of the Devil whom God permitted to work false Miracles or the Cheats of Villains and lewd Superstitionists or to conclude Stories of the Vulgar and Fables which honest men received as Truths upon hear-say And as to the Miracles which are ascribed to the Anacorites of Aegypt and Syria I know not how Mr. Nicholas is not ashamed to draw from them a Light to make his Church visible They are Fables for the most part so gross that the Falseness of them stares in the face of the most Ignorant The Lives of St. Paul the Hermite of Hilarion and others written by St. Jerome that of St. Antony composed as they say by Athanasius are written with so little modesty and judgment that a man ought to be ashamed of them The judicious Readers that would preserve respect for the Authors of those Lives say that the Fathers composed them not as Histories but as pious Romances to divert Christians from reading the Pagan Fables We see in the Lives of those solitary persons of the Desart such as found Centaurs in the Woods Satyrs Men half Horses and half Goats who spake to them and prayed them to intreat the common Saviour to have pitty on them and to give them part in the common Salvation with them We see Hermites-which were in perpetual contests with the Devil always tempted and often beaten by him We see them which herded among the Beasts We there read in one word almost all the Impertinencies of our new Legends This makes it evident that the Fabulous Spirit entred into Christian Religion as soon as the Spirit of Superstition and Idolatry 4ly I say that although it should be true that these Miracles wrought in the Age of the establishment of the Worship of Saints and Reliques should be true Miracles it would not be a Light for the Roman Church any more than for the Greek who also worship Saints and Reliques 'T is therefore needful that we have Miracles from the Church of Rome since she was separate from the Greek Church and that it appear this Gift of Miracles is departed from all other Churches to affix itself to the Church of Rome Now the Greek Schismaticks have their Saints their Legends and their Miracles as well as the Latine Church Besides we do maintain that all the Miracles of the Church of Rome those of St. Bernard as well as others are Legendaries Tales or Illusions of the Evil Spirit 5ly To conclude I do maintain that every person who hath no other support of his Faith but Miracles is a false Believer I have said it elsewhere Miracles are not designed principally to prove Truth they are appointed above
from Judaism but bred up in the Schools of the Greeks having suck'd the Spirit of Fables and Lies wherewith those two Nations are justly reproached forged the Oracles which he attributes to the Sybils he caused to enter there as Oracles of those ancient Prophetesses all that which he believed proper to support the Christian Religion and render it plausible to the Pagans The better to persuade the Greeks he there mingled their Fables and to please the Philosophers he entered their Dreams there making himself all things to all Men that he might gain some Among other Philosophick Dreams he inserts two in his Work The first was drawn from the Platonick Philosophy 'T was that there was a certain separate place into which he pretended the Souls of the Faithful were carried after death and where they were lodged till the Day of Judgment without enjoying the happy vision of God. The other was this that at the end of the World there would be a great Fire through which all Men must pass that should be saved An imagination which seems to have some likeness to the Stoick Philosophy which teaches that the World would be burnt after which it would return into the State wherein it was at the beginning and in a continual vicissitude pass through the same Revolutions and Changes Or rather 't is taken from what the Holy Scripture says that the World at last must be burnt by Fire We are not able to say how these two Opinions the one concerâ—â—ng the separate state of Souls and the other concerning the Torrent of Fire through which they ought to pass did readily diffuse themselves among those which had any Learning and read any thing besides the Sacred Volumes The Ancients good Men and credulous being ravished to find Books under the name of Pagan Prophesies which foretold the coming of Jesus Christ his Names his Passion the Circumstances of his Birth of his Life Death and Resurrection much more clearly than the true Prophets embraced with greediness what they found in these false Prophesies Justin Martyr who wrote well nigh in the same time that these false Oracles were forged falls into the persuasion that Souls after death are in a separate place where even in some sort they are subject to the Power and Persecution of the Devil From thence it comes to pass that he said it was the Devil that caused the true Samuel to ascend by the Charms of the Witch of Endor ‖ Dial. cum Tryph. For which reason says he when a person is near death you ought to pray that his Soul don't fall under such a power S. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons the most considerable Writer of this second Age was of the same opinion concerning this separate place where all Souls must be inclosed until the Day of Judgment without seeing the Face of God. * Advers Haeres lib. 5. He calls this place Paradise whither Enoch and Elias were transported but he also calls it Hades Hell and a place invisible Note that this Opinion is universally at this day rejected by the Papists and passes among them for an Error Pope John XXII having been accused to be of this Persuasion there was a terrible noise about it and he was forced to retract it Now this Opinion is the original of Purgatory For as we shall see afterward this place changes by little and little its-nature until at length they made of it a place of Torments and Punishments for the purging of Souls This separate state produced a little while after Prayer for the Dead which we shall see had its original about the beginning of the third Age. But whereof nevertheless we see nothing in the second unless it be towards its end On the contrary Justin Martyr tells us that we must pray for dying Souls to the end that in the place of their Separation they fall not under the Power of Devils He would not have failed to have added that we must pray for Souls after death to the end that we might draw them from under the power of Devils if Prayers for the dead had then been in use On the Subject of this praying for the Dead whereof they make such great boasts in Antiquity tell them these three things 1. That it was not in use in the first and second Age. 2. That the Reason why they began to pray for the Dead is very different from that which causes Prayers for them at this day At this day 't is to draw them from Purgatory then it was to the end that in the terrestrial Paradise or other place of Separation where they were God would increase their rest and joy for it was believed that they were there in the beginning of Happiness 3. To conclude tell them that these Prayers for the Dead are no important business in Religion and that they are not the Reason of our Separation After that press them to shew you in the second Age the least footsteps of this place of Torments whither penitent Souls must go after Death to pay the remainder of those punishments which they could not satisfie during their life Demand proofs from them that in this Age the Church prayed for Souls that they might quickly get out of torment and you will see them forced to confess that there are none I come to the Worship and Adoration of Creatures such as are Relicks Images the Blessed Virgin Saints and Angels They treat this as a small business we shall have occasion to prove to you one day that without running into any extravagance 't is a Pagan Idolatry But for the present we will content our selves to shew you that we do not find the least footsteps of these worships in the second Age wherein we now are If they did invoke Saints the Blessed Virgin and Angels if they had Images if they did kiss and adore Relicks let them shew it you let them cause you to read one Author that speaks of it Bellarmine hath the impudence to produce the words of Justin Martyr to prove the Worship of Angels We adore and venerate the Father and the Son which is come to us from him who hath taught us both us and others which follow him and the Army of good Angels by the Spirit of Prophecy c. Apol. 2. He refers the word we adored to that of Angels as if the design of Justin Martyr had been to say that they adored Angels Whereas he ought to refer Angels to the word teach his Sense being that Jesus Christ hath taught the Angels as well as us the Mystery of the Gospel according to what S. Paul says To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 It is so clear that this is the Sense of S. Justin that at this day none of your new Doctors dare quote these words to prove that they worshiped Angels in the second Age. This passage being
lye about the Ages past when they speak to you of Tradition and of things said and done a thousand and twelve hundred years agone when they have no regard to present Truths in matters of Fact whereof there are as many Witnesses almost as there are persons alive in this part of the World. In the name of God think of it when they forbid you all tryal and examination of Doctrines and tell you that you must believe the Church that is to say false Teachers which affirm that you must believe things without taking any knowledge of them See I say whether there be any confidence or trust to be put in such men which have consecrated themselves to Lying and have renounced all modesty and shame The Bishop of Meaux hath heard all the Bishops say that no violence was used in their Diocesses We ought to understand how these Gentlemen do define Violence and what 't is they call Torments Among the Bishops he of Autun will find difficulty to say so and Monsieur de Meaux that those of his Diocess had not so much as heard of Torments He went accompanied with the Hangman to Madam de S. Andrew Montbrun Widow of a famous General which had the Honor to command in chief the Armies of the King and those of the Venetians with a great deal of Glory This Bishop I say with the Missionaries accompanied with the chief Magistrate and the Magistrate taking two or three Hangmen with all the Instruments of Torture went thus to endeavour her Conversion If this be false they will do well to convince the Men and Officers of her House which have seen said it and writ it But the Bishop of Meaux hath done nothing nor seen nothing of like nature in his Diocess We have good testimony that violence hath been committed there as well as elsewhere But altho what he says should be true behold a great marvel whereof he hath great reason to rejoice Paris and the Country round about it were last of all attacked All France had been covered with Fear Tears and Blood. Paris and the Brie saw nothing round about but bloody Troops and Emissaries loaden with the Spoils of the Reformed and red with their Blood. 'T is a great Miracle that these Objects without drawing nearer have anquished and overcome them As if the fear of an Evil which one sees within four steps of him were not as capable of doing violence to the mind as the Evils which are felt immediately On the contrary a person has fallen under fear which hath resisted pain and torment The Dragoons of Bearn of Guienne of Poictou of Languedoc of Normandy had laboured for the Bishop of Meaux After that let him glory if he can of the Facility of Conversions But I am weary of confuting these impudent Boldnesses by matters of fact which our Persecutors dispute and by Witnesses which they reproach Let us see if Monsieur de Meaux will reproach and object against himself He wrote his Pastoral Letter in the Month of April last a little before Easter to invite and prepare the new Converts for the approaching Communion 'T is precisely on the same time that he wrote to one of his Diocess which was fled the Letter following From Meaux April 3 1686. MONSIEUR I Continue to write to you notwithstanding the Answer you made to my former Letter I have there observed a Character and Style too much of a Minister to attribute it to you In a word I apprehend that it does not proceed from a Spirit such as yours But altho it be so I shall not cease to invite you to return I have seen in a Letter which you wrote to Mademoiselle of U. that the true Church does not persecute What understand you by that Sir Do you understand that the Church by her self never makes use of force That is very true since the Church hath no other Arms but spiritual Do you understand that Princes which are Sons of the Church never ought to make use of the Sword which God hath put into their hands to abase the Enemies thereof Do you dare to say contrary to the opinion of your own Doctors who have maintained by so many Writings that the Republick of Geneva had power and right to condemn Servetus to the Fire for denying the Divinity of the Son of God. And without serving my self of the Examples and Authority of your Doctors tell me in what Text of Scripture Hereticks and Schismaticks are excepted from the number of those Malefactors against which S. Paul says God hath armed Kings and Princes And altho you will not permit Christian Princes to take vengeance of such great Crimes because they are injurious to God can they not take vengeance on them because they cause trouble and sedition in States Do you not see clearly that you build upon a false Principle And if it were true they were the Arrians Nestorians and Pelagians which had reason of complaint against the Church since it was they that were the persecuted and banished and Catholick Princes those that persecuted and banished them And at present also the Catholicks which are punished with death in Sueden and so many other Kingdoms would have reason to complain of those that are called the Reformed and every one in his turn would have right and wrong right in one place and wrong in another and Religion would depend altogether upon uncertainties But this is enough on this Subject to convince so good a Spirit as yours Only know that when it pleases God to abandon us to our own thoughts and imaginations the best Spirits are touched and affected by the least appearances The fear that you have that they will make you adore Bread hath much appearance of truth through your prejudice and prepossession Consider in the mean time without entring into that Controversie which passes the Bounds of a Letter consider I say that it was a fear of like nature which made the Arrians and Disciples of Paulus Samosatenus that they would not give divine Honors to a Man an Infant a Creature how perfect and how great soever his privileges might be 'T was human reason 't was sense 't was prejudice which inspired them with these vain fears Take heed lest your Religion after their example do not too much call in Reason and human Sense to its succour and that your trouble and difficulty do not proceed from the custom of following them However it be you see that your Reformers have done nothing else but renew Controversies ended six hundred years ago when Berengarius moved them And if you call in doubt the Judgment which was given against him others will doubt with as much reason concerning all preceding Councils and then behold us under an obligation to examine anew all that hath been decreed as if we began to be Christians and all that our Fathers had resolved serve for nothing In one word the meaning is if Christians when they are not of an
overwhelm it Herein is the strength of the Church and 't is a Miracle and on the occasion thereof we ought to say 'T is the Finger of God. Without putting you upon Inquiries and Disquisitions consider whether it be likely that God who hath permitted so many depths in the Scriptures and that from thence have arrived so many Schisms among those that profess to receive and believe them hath not left some means in his Church to quiet and determine them Is it likely that there should be no remedy for Divisions but that every one may believe according to his own fancy and the minds of Men be thence led insensibly to an indifference in Religions which is the greatest of all Evils Is not this what I said but even now To discourse in the air against known matters of Fact and against such Truths as all the World confess and avow Let us say with Monsieur de Meaux it is not probable that God should leave so many depths in the Holy Scriptures from which so many Divisions might arise and not leave to his Church some means to put a period to them Behold the Principle And who can deny so plausible a Maxim But behold my Conclusion Therefore there have been never any Divisions about the sense of Scripture which the Church hath not found means to determine Therefore it hath well and easily determined the Divisions which continued well nigh the space of four hundred years about the Sense of those Words The Father is greater than I. Therefore it quieted the Difference about the Sense of those other Words The word was made flesh And 't is not true that there are millions of Christians in the East Nestorians and Eutychians that have not agreed with the Church of Rome about the meaning of them for 1200 years passed Therefore it hath raised the Divisions about the Sense of those Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Feed my Sheep And it is not true-that all the Greek Church is at a Schism with the Latin Church thereon and are not of the mind that they mean that the Bishop of Rome ought to be universal Pastor of all Churches They say and 't is believed that the Latin Church hath been divided almost two hundred years about the Sense of those Words This is my body The Lutherans give one sense the Calvinists another and the Romanists a third sense concerning them But that is not true 't is a popular Error and an illusion It is not probable that God should not leave any means to his Church to quiet the Differences that should arise about the Sense of Scripture A Man would think these Gentlemen had a design to scoff and deride Mankind they form an Eutopia a world made at pleasure out of their own imaginations and tell us that the present world is so made and that we are in it and very well and safe there 'T is in vain that we deny it and say 't is not so we see the contrary the world is not made as you report it They answer us you deceive your selves you are blind Buzzards and see nothing you seem indeed to see the contrary but nevertheless it can be no otherwise than we say and we will demonstrate it by reason My Brethren you may there perceive the falseness and illusion of the method of your Converters Learn from hence in three words what is the proper method of confuting them have recourse to experience and tell them you will prove that it ought to be so and I see with my eyes the contrary to what you say ought to be It is not therefore true that God hath given a sure and easie means to quiet the Differences which may arise about the Sense of Scripture God will save his select but he will abandon his Enemies to blindness T is his pleasure that there be Difficulties in the way of Faith and Salvation but he hath filled the Holy Scriptures with Light to dissipate these Darknesses with respect to his Elect. And as for the Reprobates he permit this spiritual darkness which hinders them from seeing the sparkling and lightsome Truths which are in the Scripture to remain upon their Hearts God hath not left certain means to prevent and pacifie Divisions we are convinced of that by experience For Divisions do continue among Christians and have done so for fifteen Centuries what means soever have been used to heal them But he hath left means sufficiently certain for the conduct of his Children to eternal Life by the way and path of Truth 'T is his Holy Word together with the direction of his Spirit which conducts infallibly not whole Societies but all that are his in particular in all the Truths that are necessary to Salvation and preserves them from all those Errors that are mortal to their Souls Think think of that Mr. hearken to your own reason and not to the subtleties of your Ministers Think think of that my Brethren consult both your reason and your sense attend to that which your eyes report and don 't hearken to the vain reasonings of Men who discourse not upon that which is but upon that which ought to be according to their imaginations Behold that which we have to say at present about this important matter which Monsieur de Meaux touches in his private Letter We must now return to his Pastoral Letter and see how he proves the Title of his second Article The second Article has for its Title in the Margin That the Pastors of the Catholick Church are the only true Pastors He proves it by two Mediums The first is That the Pastors of the Church of Rome alone have the advantage of mutual succession in place and feat one to another Monsieur de Meaux maintains that he is in the place af those that planted the Gospel in hit Diocess And all other Bishops he says have the same Glory The second proof is that they have also a succession of Doctrine 'T is well when these two things go together for otherwise to glory of a Succession of Seats without a Succession of Doctrine is in my opinion the most pitiful glory that any one can ascribe to himself The Patriarch of Constantinople who according to Monsieur de Meaux is a Schismatick he and all his Predecessors for above 800 years is also in the place of those who planted the Gospel in those Countries Nevertheless the Bishop of Rome hath anathematized him an 100 times and doth anathematize him every year on Good Friday in the Bull De Coena Domini The Arrian Bishops did hold the place of the Apostles in the East and at this day the Bishops of Denmark Sueden and England are also in the place of them which planted Christianity in those Countries Monsieur de Meaux perceives well that the Glory of Succession can do him no great good without Doctrine and therefore does very fairly renounce it To separate sound Doctrine from the Chair of Succession is to
Church or to speak better that the Church shall never fall into any Error Not at all For if one say to a Prince I will take care that your Enemies shall never prevail upon you that will not necessarily signifie that the Enemy shall never have any Victory upon him or gain any considerable advantage against him Altho this Prince should lose some Villages yea and some Provinces yet if the gross and capital parts of his Empire always subsist notwithstanding he would have the accomplishment of the promise made unto him Provided therefore that the Church subsist in all Ages altho corrupt provided that the Fundamentals of Christianity remain throughout in their integrity the promise the gates of hell shall not prevail against it hath its accomplishment But your Converters will tell you these words signifie not so for they signifie that the Church can never fall into any Error Answer them That is the thing that is in question between you and me But who shall judge for us concerning the sense of these words It must not be you for you are a party and who can better judge than Scripture and Experience Now 't is clear by the Scripture that the sense of these words the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is not that the Church shall never suffer any considerable Errors in its Faith. All the Holy Scripture affirms the contrary It complains sometimes that the ancient Church was become idolatrous and had served other gods It foretels in express words that the Christian Church should corrupt it self That grievous wolves should enter into the fold not sparing the flock That there would be perilous times in which there would be an Apostacy from the Faith and seducing Spirits would teach Doctrines of Devils That Antichrist the son of perdition should sit in the Temple and in the Church of God. That the Church should be hid and as in a desart for the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty prophetick days that is one thousand two hundred and sixty years That when the Son of Man shall come he shall not find faith nor love among Men. That false Prophets and false Christs shall arise and deceive many To conclude for one Text by which it may be proved that the Church cannot err we can produce an hundred that do affirm that false Teachers should introduce Errors there-into Let us leave the Scriptures and pass to Experience and see whether the Church hath not actually erred It is proved clearly that she hath erred because she hath established a Worship directly opposite to that pure and simple Worship the Model whereof is found in the New Testament viz. of Images of Saints and Saintesses of a second sort of Mediators of Masses Sacrifices and a hundred other things that have not the least shadow of appointment there Let us return to our Text The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church It is disputed whether this Text doth signifie that the Church can never Err in any wise or whether it signifies that the foundations and fundamental verities of the Church can never be overturned In truth the last sense is that of Jesus Christ And all that can be granted to the Papists is that they are capable of the other But is it not very clear that we ought to chuse the latter seeing the Holy Scripture and experience determines us thereunto by a manner wholly invincible It is true and we see it that by a singular Providence God hath not permitted the Foundations of Christianity to be subverted in any of the Christian Communions all receive the Creeds of the Apostles Nice Constantinople yea even that attributed to St. Athanasius Behold therefore what our Lord would mean thereby But besides this we see that there is no Communion that hath continued pure all have embraced Errors and some of them such as are filthy shameful and mortal Therefore it is not that which our Lord Jesus Christ would say it is not a promise of absolute infallibility that is made to the Christian Church Without doubt he foretold what is come to pass and not that which never happened Behold my Brethren two general methods by which you may be able to rescue your selves from the Sophisms and fallacious Arguments which they call ways of Prescription till we can clear up those difficulties that you your selves cannot resolve about that submission that people ought to have for their Guides to the end that they may walk safely The second medium or argument wherewith all these Gentlemen serve themselves and whereof Monsieur de Meaux serves himself here to prove that they have a succession of Doctrine as well as a succession of Seats is the impossibility of insensible changes If the Invocation of Saints say they the worship of Images Masses without Communicants the taking away of the Cup had been newly introduced the Innovator would have been known and his name would have been branded with infamy as that of Arrius and Nestorius I do not think that ever any thing hath been done more opposite to reason and fidelity than the disputes these Gentlemen have thought fit to raise against insensible changes and alterations I say first it is opposite to fidelity For it is not possible that these Gentlemen can believe what they say when they tell us that we cannot determine the Authors nor the times of the principal Changes whereof we complain seeing on the contrary we observe to them the times the principal Authors and the noise that these Innovations made in the World. Does not every one know that the introduction of Images into the Church the taking away of the Cup and the establishment of the Papal Authority did make a terrible noise suffer great contraditions cause great troubles and even the shedding of much blood in the Church It is therefore notoriously to dispute against honesty and fidelity to deny that we are able to give any account of the most eminent and principal Innovations But is it not to dispute against reason and sound judgment to say as Monsieur de Meaux doth that if there had been any Innovators in the Church the spirit of Truth would have marked them and their names would have been infamous as those of Arrius Nestorius c. How could the names of these Innovators be infamous seeing their Innovations were received and entertained The Authors of Heresies and Superstitions which are rejected are indeed noted with infamy but those that are received are Canonized and adored Therefore those of the fourth Age which introduced the Invocation of Saints had no note of infamy put upon them because the beginnings of that unhappy Superstition were greedily imbraced The reason why those things in those Ages were not treated as Innovations and the Authors of them as Innovators was because they adopted and received them Had they assigned any note of infamy upon them they had condemned the worship which they admitted they had accused it of
its Ceremonies were intirely unknown As to what appertains to other Sacraments as is that of Marriage and Penance he must have a mind blinded by prejudice beyond all imagination to believe they may be found in the Scripture Marriage and Penance are indeed found there but there is not one word which does establish them as sacred Ceremonies designed to seal the Covenant of Grace and to confer forgiveness of sins Confirmation is found there i. e. the custom of laying on of hands for the giving the Holy Spirit and that of Anointing the Sick to recover them from Diseases Some of the Proselytes of these Gentlemen make a great business of it and have said to us as a great reproach that we have taken away Confirmation and Extreme Unction It is a great pity that minds which seem inlightned should stumble at trifles And is it not clear that this Imposition of Hands and Extreme Unction was designed for doing of Miracles which are long since ceased But they say that the following Ages did nevertheless practise it That we shall see afterward The Invocation of the Holy Virgin and Saints the Worship of Relicks Adoring of Images and the Service of Creatures in Popery is an affair so considerable that it fills almost all Nevertheless the Scripture of the New Testament says nothing of it Nor is it possible that Men well Educated can persuade themselves that these are Apostolical Traditions when we see not the least footsteps of them in the Writings of the Apostles It is a blindness which cannot be understood As to matter of Fact we can have no dispute with Papists concerning it They must acknowledge that the Apostles and Evangelists speak not one word either of the Invocation of Saints and Angels nor of the Veneration of Relicks nor of the Adoration of Images As to matter of Right if the Church has power to introduce these new Worships let it be proved and put past doubt and Controversie for I do affirm that he must be smitten with a spirit of blockishness that maintains that we may Religiously invoke creatures without the Authority of God and order of his Apostles Plainly it will be said that the Apostles have appointed the Invocation of Saints and that they themselves have practised it but they have left nothing written concerning it I do affirm that he must have a Forehead made of Brass who shall say such a thing And the new Converts who can be persuaded of it make no use of their reason It will never enter into the mind of a reasonable Man that the Apostles have appointed Invocation of Saints and said nothing of it in their Writings Purgatory which they would have pass for a little thing is nevertheless a very great one For Prayers for the dead publick and private Masses and almost all the Roman Worship is founded thereon So that the Holy Spirit could not let it slip If there be a Purgatory it must be in the Scripture or there is none .. I take it for granted and 't is to scoff People to go search this pretended Fire in the prison whence we must not go out till we have paid the utmost farthing in the fire that ought to try all things at the end of the world in the prison where are the Spirits to which Noah preach'd If Heaven and Hell were no other ways revealed in the Scripture the profane would have a fair opportunity to laugh at us The Authority of the Pope is the last of those Articles of Popery that I have represented 'T is an Affair about which there can be no Controversie which has any foundation in the World. Ask your Converters where-is the Pope in the Scriptures they will quote to you the Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my church Call a Turk a Jew or any other Man that hath common sense and ask him whether he sees therein that God hath established a Man at Rome with full authority to guide the whole Church to damn to save to judge of all Differences to determine without Appeal to excommunicate Kings Princes and Sovereigns he will believe you laugh him to scorn The new Converts which see therein the Apostolick Chair from S. Peter to Innocent the Eleventh have very good Eyes I beseech you my Brethren take your Converters a little to those Texts of Scripture where S. Paul enumerates the Officers of the Church He has given some to be Pastors Teachers Apostles Evangelists Bishops Deacons Elders and Prophets in those places where he declares the Duties of those who enjoy the Offices of the Church Press them say I and demand of them whether they dare say that the Apostle hath omitted the first of all Offices an Office alone in its kind infinitely superior to all others Ask them if they do believe in good earnest that S. Paul declared the Duties of Bishops in general and that he said nothing for the Regulation of the Bishop of Bishops I am persuaded if you press them earnestly thereon they will blush in your Faces Behold I do maintain that I have said enough already for the History of the first Age. The silence of the Scripture about all the Articles of Popery is an indisputable proof that then it was wholly unknown But there is much more you have an hundred positive Proofs that then the Christian Religion was wholly opposite to Popery Against the Real Presence you have all those Passages where the Eucharist is called Bread and a Commemoration of the Death of our Lord all those where 't is said our Lord is on high and not here below Against the Sacrifice of the Mass you have all the Epistle to the Hebrews Against the Worship of Creatures you have the Decalogue and a thousand other Commandments which do appoint that you adore and invoke God alone Against the taking away the Cup and the Adoration of the Eucharist you have the History of its Institution Against Purgatory you have an hundred Texts which tell you that after this life Believers go to Heaven Against the Pope you have all those places where our Lord and the Apostles forbid the Domination of Church-Men both over their Flocks and one another This is not a place to engage in a long Controversie by the Scripture we compose a History not a Disputation Know therefore historically in the following Articles what was the Primitive Christianity Behold what was the form of the Apostolick Church 1. Christians having as yet no Churches assembled where they could for the Service of God and it was almost always from House to House This is apparent both in the History of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of S. Paul. 2. In the Assemblies they preached and declared the Word of God. This is also certain and read in divers Texts in the Book of the Acts. 3 They brake Bread from House to House the Sacred Scripture says so expresly that is to say
than thirty It has been told me that my Brother she means M. de Mont Vaillant elder Brother both of her and M. de Vallette distinguishes them all perfectly well Can you imagine that we hear these Voices night and day and that we can so much as doubt that they are Troops of Angels which God sends to us for Consolation to assure us that he hath not utterly forsaken us and that our deliverance is at hand God grant that we may make profit by these things I had forgotten to tell you that the noise of a Drum is also heard so clearly that no body can doubt thereof It hath been answered to this Letter that this might be natural considering the situation of the Country in which they then made Assemblies together with other circumstances to which the following reply was made This March 6. 1686. Be no more incredulous I do conjure you about the singing of Psalms for there are so many persons of good understandings convinced thereof that we ought to give up our selves to the power of truth I do avow that the thing passes all imagination but be assured that all care imaginable has been taken to prevent delusion The two Letters whereof my Brother has made the extracts above were truly written to me by my Cousin de Vebron from Cevennes whose Character and Spirit I so well understand that I cannot be deceived therein Louise Des Vignoles Mademoiselle de Vebron is a person which hath so much of Wit Understanding Honor and Piety that I am persuaded as much as any one can be that she has no intention to deceive us I do not at all doubt but that all those that have known her will readily give her the same testimony with my self She hath always been of the Reformed Religion and God hath preserved her hitherto from the general fall as it appears by two Letters the original whereof I preserve to shew them to such as desire it From Lausanna March 30. Styl Vet. 1686. Signed Des Vignoles Minister of Lower Languedoc I give the same Testimony to the Merit and Piety of Mademoiselle de Vebron Baschi Aubais We may add to these Certificates from Cevennes and Bearn the Testimony of M. Jacquelot Pastor of the Church of Vassy whom we have heard say that he was informed by one of his Parishoners a Man that never did appear to him of a humour inclined to sell Fables for truth that two hours after midnight passing by the Church of Vassy he there heard the singing of Psalms Testimonies of like nature may be reported from many other places but these are enough As to what remains I am willing before I conclude here to defend our selves against an injustice which is very ordinary in this kind of affairs and it is this by one sole Negative Testimony to endeavour to destroy many Affirmatives They will say I have asked a person that came from that Country who hath said that there is no such thing and the proof thereof is that he never heard it Behold a great Marvel that in a large Country and in a place where there are multitudes of persons scattered some on one side and some on the other there should be some of them that should not see and hear that which thousands of others did Let any Man judge if it be just to call in doubt that which a hundred Witnesses have seen for the sake of one that affirms he did not see it But it will be said yet that there are persons in Switzerland that after they had said they had heard the singing of Psalms in Cevennes had aftâ—rwards retracted it It is a matter of Fact that is told us here without any proof But I am content at present to receive it as true It is not a thing very extraordinary that a Man hearing speak of a Prodigy which holds all minds in doubt and suspence should boast to be of the Party and cry with the croud I saw it I saw it These sort of Affairs were never otherwise a hundred false Witnesses mingle themselves with true ones when the thing discovered is only matter of report and hear-say And it is likewise very possible that some may return to their integrities and confess that they saw nothing But can this invalidate the fidelity of those which Persevere which Write which Depose and which Sign with an Oath These Histories being set in so much light that it appears to me sufficiently difficult to call them in doubt I think it may be permitted us to draw some Conclusions from them Some will be for us others against us Against us for it is a reproach that the Providence of God makes unto us because you have so easily suffered your mouths to be stopped and because you have not dared nor been willing any more to sing his Praises and Songs of Thanksgiving which are the Symbols of your Reformation God has made mouths in the midst of the Air and he causes his Praises to proceed from Stones and Rocks And don't ye doubt but Rocks and these invisible mouths will rise in judgment against those that fear Men and will not glorifie God generously and in the presence of Persecutors The other Conclusions are for us and against our Enemies This event speaks and tells them if these hold their peace the Stones will speak You ought to give thanks to God that he approves your Worship by a Sign so considerable and by a Testimony so evident Let them not tell you that all this is nothing but delusion for all illusions come from the Devil who is the Father of lies and who hath the Praises of God in horror and detestation To conclude behold the Event as a happy Presage that God will not suffer your Voices and your Songs to dye the Angels have seized on them and will shortly restore them that you your selves may sound them forth in the Air. You are obliged to make a great change in your life that you may be worthy to receive this Grace from God. For which reason you ought to think of renouncing these worldly vanities of Cloaths Customs Words Food Houses Furniture Pleasures and Divertisements to take Sackcloth and Ashes to Cloath your selves with an Humility and Modesty truely Christian The time of your deliverance is at hand but it will not come till that of your Repentance hath gone before it the Spirit of Life will not return till the Spirit of Piety and Devotion be re-entered into your souls Decemb. 1. 1686. THE EIGHTH PASTORAL LETTER Alterations happening during the Third Age. Concerning Baptism Confirmation and the Sacrifice of the Mass Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE continue at this time the History of the Alterations that happened in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church We are in the third Age thereof we will divide what we have to tell you concerning this Age into three Letters to the
to its ancient Simplicity And it is certain that these are Additions of the third Age. We must therefore know that the Christians of the second and third Age being disgusted at the Simplicity of the Apostolick Worship did blow up the Sacraments with Ceremonies that were added with intention to signifie the Grace that God did communicate and give there They caused the new baptised to eat Wine and Milk because they were the nourishments of Infants and they would signifie that Believers newly baptised ought to be as Children new born For which reason Tertullian makes the word infantare to design the Action by which they made the new baptised to taste Wine and Milk. They anointed them with Oil to signifie that spiritual Unction of Grace which Believers did receive they laid hands on them to signifie the Descent of the Holy Ghost The following Ages added Wax Candles and Torches to signifie spiritual Illuminations white Garments to represent the Innocence of the newly baptised and with the same intention many other Ceremonies But I know not how by an imagination which may be called rough and impolished in a little time after the Institution of these Ceremonies which were not instituted by the Church but to signifie Men came to believe they had the virtue to confer Grace And of the divers Graces which are confirmed to the Believers in Baptism they attribute one to the washing with Water another to Unction and another to Imposition of Hands They imagined that the Water in Baptism did precisely give the Remission of Sins that the Oil did bestow the spiritual Unction and that the Imposition of Hands gave the Holy Ghost This Divinity is found in Tertullian in the Book which he has left us concerning Baptism Where he proves the Imposition of Hands after Baptism causes the coming of the Holy Ghost and he does it thus 1. Because the Priests and Magicians of Paganism did cause malignant Spirits to come upon their impure Waters by a Ceremony much like unto it 2. Because by the Imposition of Hands Jacob drew down a Blessing upon the Children of Joseph 3. By the Figure of the Ark and Dove who brought an Olive Branch from the the midst of the Waters of the Deluge wherein this Dove was a Figure of the Holy Ghost which falls upon him that comes out of the Baptismal Waters S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who lived a little while after taught the same thing viz. that Baptism gives forgiveness of sins and that the Holy Spirit is communicated by the Imposition of Hands But let it not offend these great Men This Discourse signified nothing in their Age and a person may see that it is a Language which is descended from the Age of the Apostles and from those times in which extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit were communicated by the Imposition of Hands For will they say that Remission of Sins was given by the washing of Water and the Holy Spirit by the Imposition of Hands is it to be thought according to their opinion that sanctifying Grace and the Spirit of Regeneration are not at all given in Baptism No on the contrary S. Cyprian lays it down in express words That the Spirit is received by Baptism And in another place he does affirm that sanctifying Grace whole and entire is given in Baptism and that Men augment or diminish it afterwards by the good or evil use that they make of it there is therefore no need of a new Ceremony for the donation of the Holy Spirit He himself teaches us whence the Church took that custom of imposing Hands after Baptism 'T is from the Action of the Apostles Peter and John who laid Hands on the People of Samaria to the end that they might receive the Holy Ghost Which thing is done among us says he Those that are baptised present themselves to the Governors of the Church and receive the Holy Spirit by our Prayer and the Imposition of Hands and are compleated by the Seal of the Lord. The original of this Ceremony which S. Cyprian acknowledges ought to have made him confess the inutility thereof in his Age since they had no longer the power of communicating the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost This Imposition of Hands was an imitation of the Apostles ill understood and Unction was also a pure Addition in this Age the effect whereof they were very much perplexed to express They said indeed this Unction was designed to give Grace but what Grace since Baptism communicates it whole and entire It is necessary says S. Cyprian that he who is baptised should also be anointed to the end that having received the Chrism that is to say the Unction he might be the anointed of God and have in himself the Grace of Jesus Christ Now the Eucharist and the Oil which they make use of to anoint the baptised are sanctified upon the Altar It is clear by these words that Unction is nothing else but a Ceremony of Baptism and that the Donation of the Grace of Jesus Christ is not attributed to it but because 't is annexed to Baptism For to give the Grace of Jesus Christ is the proper effect of Baptism according to all the Ancients It seems by this Passage that the Oil wherewith they anointed the baptised was consecrated Oil for S. Cyprian says It was consecrated on the Altar But this is not all for the sanctification of the Oil upon the Altar signifies no more than what we have observed concerning the second Age. 'T was that Believers brought Bread Wine and Oil and placed them upon the Holy Table They consecrated these Oblations by Prayer and they served themselves of them for the Usages of the Church among others they served themselves of Oil for Lights when they assembled by night and for the Unction of the baptised As to what remains you may observe that in the third Age nothing was seen but one Unction in Baptism whereas we shall find two afterwards Behold the Alterations which have happened to the Sacrament of Baptism in this Age. Let us consider the Eucharist We have observed that in the second Age they had added the mixture of Water with Wine the Custom of sending it to the absent by the Deacons and above all they had there annexed the Oblation of those Gifts that Believers made on the Altar as a part of the Ceremony This had already given it the appearance of a Sacrifice and indeed gave the name to the whole Action We shall not need to doubt but this imagination increased with time Christians having a very great desire to give to their Worship some appearance of a Sacrifice to take away the scandal which the Pagans conceived against them For they perpetually said to Christians You have no Temples Statues Altars nor Sacrifices and by consequence you are impious There was nothing in the Worship of the Christian Religion which might be dressed up in the likeness of a Sacrifice but the Eucharist They
Converters are not men of Fidelity to press you by Principles the falseness whereof they themselves confess for in the Pastoral letter of Monsieur de Meaux in his Catholick Exposition and every where else to hear him speak of the centre of Unity you would say that the Pope possessed this Title by divine Right and behold these Gentlemen profess to us That 't is by a handsome Usurpation tolerated and by the concession of Councils That which Councils have given him they may take away from him This makes it apparent how little of honesty there is in the Quotations which these Monsieurs make from St. Câ—prian who without doubt had a false Idea of the Unity of the Church so false and so ill formed that your Converters themselves will not dare to warrant it We have treated this matter at large in our Answer to Monsieur Nicholas where we have made it apparent that this false Idea of the Unity of the Church which St. Cyprian did communicate to St. Augustine did put the latter to that perplexity and confusion from which he could not withdraw himself on the subject of the validity of the Baptism of Hereticks In the following Letter we must say something as well on the point of Antiquity as that of Controversie and we will make it evident also in the same Letter that supposing this Roman Idea of Unity to be false all their Arguments and Sophisms vanish and come to nothing 15. January 1687. The ELEVENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity the end of the History of the Christianity of the Third Age concerning Tradition and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome An Article of Controversie Reflections upon a Writing lately addressed to the Reformed of France A Continuation of the matter concerning the Unity of the Church Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ I Have not obliged my self to acquaint you with all the sad Accidents that do betide us in our Exile and Persecution but the death of the excellent Mr. Claud is an event so grievous that I cannot forbear speaking one word concerning it God hath taken him to himself since our last Letter He was the Father of our Prophets and we may well cry after him My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horseman thereof God had formerly affixed him in a particular manner to the conduct of the most considerable of your Congregations but Providence made him become in a manner your universal Pastor by the care that he took to defend you from the dangerous Sophistry of those that endeavoured to seduce you and he was herein successful in â—uch a manner as might cover all our Enemies with shame and confusion I acquaint you with the loss that you have sustained that you may lament and look on it as a mark of the continuation of God's displeasure against you His Justice was not yet satisfied the Arrows of his Quiver were not all drawn forth this stroke was still owing to us I pray God this may be the last If you be grieved your Enemies you may be sure rejoyce at it but they must know that if the Ashes and Blood of the Martyrs hath been the seed of the Church the Tombs of the Prophets do preserve their Spirit which passeth to their Disciples If the Grave inclose the Flesh and Bones of this great Man his Writings will preserve his Wit Knowledge and Illuminations and God will not suffer a failure of Persons which shall prophesie on his Tomb for the maintenance of those Victories that he hath gained for the Truth God will do his work in your fight and you shall see this Church which is dead rise again after four days but it may be he will do this work himself and when you see those fall and drop away one after another whose Writings and Discourses might be of use to ruine the success and triumph of Lyes be persuaded that God will derive his Praise from the mouths of Children and that he that laid the Foundation of the Kingdom of his Son by Fishermen will re-establish the Ruines thereof by earthen Vessels into which he will pour his Treasures He whose loss we lament was whilst he lived one of those Instruments which God served himself of for your Edification and Defence Whilst you pour out tears upon his Grave and throw your showers there you may gather sweetness thence Out of the Eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness Death that devours and takes all things from us cannot hinder us from searching and finding our Edification in the Remains of this great Man. His last Words will serve as a Support to our Faith. It was not the pleasure of God that he should shed his Blood for the defence of his Truth but he hath made his last Words which are the effusion of his Spirit and of his Soul give Testimony to those Truths which he had preach'd and defended I have says he laboured all my life in the search of the best Religion and being now about to give up my Soul to God I do declare That I have not found any but our own which I have so often defended and in which I am now about to dye which is the true way to Heaven The Words of dying men are the proper Voice of Conscience for in that last moment Dissimulation has no place so that they are the Seal of all the Truths which he hath so gloriously defended My design will not permit me to speak all on this Subject which it were necessary you should know I shall leave it to some other Person and return to the matter of our preceding Letters This shall consist of one point of Antiquity and another of Controversie We are to finish the History of the Christianity of the Third Age. And after we have fortified you against the Illusions which your Seducers frame upon some Passages of the Writings of St. Cyprian and Tertullian on the Subject of Repentance Auricular Confession and Satisfaction I must also fortifie you against the Snares that they compose for you from the Writings of the same Tertullian on the Subject of Tradition for they do not fail to tell you That the Fathers nearest the Apostles had a great respect for the unwritten Word that they did often dispute against Hereticks by Tradition and that Tertullian himself did maintain That there was no other way of disputing against them But to secure you from this Snare Learn First That when Tertullian disputes and proves that which he advances by Tradition it is almost alway about indifferent Ceremonies and matters of practice As in the Book concerning the Soldiers Crown where he proves by Tradition the bearing of no Crown upon the Head of Dipping three times in Baptism of giving Milk and Honey to be eaten by the newly baptized of giving Alms and Oblations for the Dead of not Washing seven days after Baptism 'T
with a Spirit of Giddiness To conclude their own Authors have been quoted to them who in these last times on the subject of some Disputes about Grace have spoken against each other a thousand and a thousand heinous Calumnies Therefore if eagerness and transport against Brethren be always a mark of Reprobation 't is unavoidably that St. Epiphanius Jerome Cyril Chrysostome as well as all the Hero's of Popery be esteemed Reprobates This is enough to make it evident that instead of drawing prejudices against Doctrine from the faults of those who teach it we ought to admire the profound Wisdom of God who serves himself of weak Instruments to execute great things who leaves in men the faults of their temper and nevertheless fails not to use them profitably in his great Work of building up Jerusalem to the end that all the glory may be of God and not of us and that we may have reason to say We have this Treasure in earthen Vessels To conclude the last Accusation is founded on the difference of sentiments in which the Authors of our Separation were found with respect to some points I consider writes the Lady of whom we have spoken I consider says she three men which appeared almost in the same time who attempting to reform the Church in the mean while could not agree among themselves in the most essential points If a person had a mind well formed and fashioned as it ought to be instead of being scandalized at this that the Reformers were at a difference about some Articles he would be edified by this that they were at an agreement in so many I am troubled at this that they were not at an agreement in all but I much more admire this that without consultation as it appears by their Controversies with each other they agreed in so many points and I look on it as an evident proof that God guided them in this great Work. For 't is certain that if they had been inspired by a spirit purely Humane as all the Patrons of Heresies have been they would have agreed in nothing but in the general design of troubling the Peace of the Church Let a man read the History of Heresies and Hereticks and he will see that they made Sects and Parties that differed in every thing the Gnosticks the Manichees the Arrians the Entychians the Nestorians and a hundred others They might agree in certain points as the Gnosticks and the Manichees might agree in the Heresie of two Principles but it was with such enormous differences that it was visible they could not be guided by one and the same Spirit But I intreat you by what accident did the Authors of our Separation agree to condemn in Popery the Sacrifice of the Mass the taking away of the Cup Transubstantiation the Adoration of the Eucharist the Procession of the Sacrament private Masses Purgatory Indulgencies Humane Satisfactions the Adoration of Images the Invocation of Saints the Worship of Reliques Monastick Vows the Pope and Antichristian Tyranny a barbarous Language in the Worship of God Prayers for the Dead false Sacraments the abuse of Ecclesiastical Power the Merit of Works Works of Supererrogation Pilgrimages Idolatrous Devotions to the Blessed Virgin Legends Institution of divers Orders of Monks Miracles the Infallibility of the Church the supreme Authority of the Pope or Councils over Consciences Traditions the pretended imperfection obscurity and insufficiency of the Holy Scripture and the prohibition to read it This is the object to which we ought to give attention that we may admire and say it must be that all this be false wicked vicious and of such corruption as is plain and obvious since men that were at no agreement or correspondence among themselves yea who divided and oftentimes evil intreated each other should agree and be at good accord therein Indeed 't is a thing which we can never admire enough that men who were no Prophets nor inspired persons nor led by an infallible Spirit should condemn in Popery not that which continues of Christianity there viz. the Fundamental Doctrines contained in the Creed but precisely and only all the pernicious Additions yea and that one and the same Additions Wherefore did not one of them take one part of Popery and reject another Why without any correspondence did they treat as Abominations all these pieces patched on to Christianity Why did they agree that we ought to receive only the Word of God for the Rule of our Faith Why and how did they agree so admirably in the Interpretation of this Word of God If a man does not acknowledge something Divine therein he must be smitten with a spirit of Astonishment But they are not at an agreement about the manner how the Bread in the Eucharist is the Body of Jesus Christ Behold a thing very amazing that among a hundred and a hundred points in which they are agreed there should be one in which they could not come to an accord Moreover Popery cannot reasonably draw any advantage from this dissention for if they be not at an agreement among themselves they agree to condemn the Opinion of the Roman Church therein The Lutherans have nothing in this point in common with the Papists 't is a thing which we shall make plain to you one day This is therefore but one point against a hundred Is this worthy of consideration and thereof to make a Stumbling-block and a Scandal But however it be some will say how little considerable soever it may appear 't is the Foundation of a Schism the Lutherans and the Reformed make two different Communions On this subject and in general of all the Faults which are observed in the Authors of the Separation such as passion excess of heat quarrels divisions controversies too too warmly managed injuries and calumnies and to conclude the Schism which their Successours live in among themselves 'T is fit to admire the providence of God and to bring hither the excellent Reflections of Mr. Paschal saying with him A man will never understand any thing in the Works of God if he do not lay down this as a Principle That He does illuminate some and blind others Hear the Comment on this Maxim given by himself * Thoughts of Mr. Paschal cap. 17. God hath been willing to Redeem Men and to open the Door of Salvation to those that search it but Men make themselves so unworthy that it 's just that He refuse to some because of their Hardness and Impenitency that which He grants to others by a Mercy that is not due unto them If He had pleased to surmount the Obstinacy of the most hardned He could have done it by discovering himself so manifestly unto them that they should not have doubted of the truth of his Existence and so will appear at the last day even with such a lusture and brightness that the most blind shall see him It was not his pleasure to appear after this manner in estates of
That the Body of Christ which Believers receive doth not loose its sensible substance and remain inseperable from the intelligible Grace as Baptism being made intirely spiritual preserves the property of its sensible substance i. e. of Water This man had lost all sense to speak thus if he had believed Transubstantiation or unavoidably he believed that a Transubstantiation was made in Baptism In the same sixth Age Facundus Bishop of Hermiane doth very neatly express wherein this change consists (c) Lib. 9. We call says he The Sacrament of the Body and Bloud which is consecrated in the Bread and the Cup the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ not that the Bread is properly his Body and the Cup his Bloud but because they contain the Mystery of his Body and Bloud and thence it comes to pass that the Lord himself did call the Bread and the Cup which he blessed and gave to him Disciples his Body and Bloud In what kind of frame of mind must a man be to say after this That Facundus believed Transubstantiation and the real Presence It must be confessed that we owe something to the Heresie of Eutyches who confounded the two Natures in Jesus Christ For 't is in refuting this Error and for the confutation of it that Theodoret Gelasius and Facundus made use of the example of the Eucharist and have explained the change which is made there with such clearness that our own Divines never did it more plainly 'T is in disputing against these Hereticks that Theodoret says this That a man would believe it had been transcribed from the Books of a Calvinist (d) Dialog 1. Our Saviour saith he did make a change of Names he gave to his Body the name of the Symbol and as he named himself a Vine so he also called the Symbol his Blood c. Tell us in good earnest whereof think you that the holy Element is a Sign and Figure Is it of the Divinity of Jesus Christ or of his Blood 'T is evident that 't is of those things whereof they take their names For the Lord having taken the Sign says not this is my Divinity but this is my Body and this is my Blood. My Brethren as a matter of Fact tell your Converters that those passages which we produce unto you are not the tenth part of what we are able to produce to the same sence and importance To conclude when the Ancients please to express plainly and without circumlocution the manner how we feed on Christ Jesus they say exactly the same things that we do 'T is a strange thing that being of such contrary sentiments as they are supposed they should have expressions so very much alike Behold a Calvinistical Paraphrase upon the sixth Chapter of St. John taken from Eusebius Caesariensis he makes Jesus Christ to speak thus * Theod. Ecclesiast contra Marcel lib. 3. cap. 12. Do not think I speak of the Flesh wherewithal I am enclosed as if it were necessary that you should eat it nor do not think that I appoint you to drink sensible Blood but know that the words which I speak to you are Spirit and Life For they are my Words and my Discourses which are this Flesh and this Blood in which whosoever does always partake shall be a Partaker of Eternal Life as being nourished with Bread from Heaven 'T is pitty that St. Athanasius so great a Defender to the Truth against the Arrians should have also been a Calvinistical Heretick After he had quoted these words of our Lord Doth this offend you c. He adds ‖ Our Lord ‖ Hom. On That whosoever shall speak a word against the Son c. speak of the one and of the other i. e. of his Flesh and of his Spirit And he distinguished his Spirit from his Flesh to the end that not beleiving only that which was visible in him but also that which was invisible in him they might learn that the things which he spake were not carnal but spiritual For to how many persons must his Body serve as Meat to become the Nourishment of all the World 'T is for that reason that he makes mention of the Ascention of the Son of Man into Heaven that he might withdraw them from all corporeal thoughts and learn them that the Flesh whereof he had spoken to them was a heavenly Meat and a spiritual Nourishment which He must give them from on High. 'T is a thing very surprizing that the Arrians who watched the steps of Athanasius so very warily and made faults of every thing did not accuse him for being estranged from the Faith of the Church As to St. Austine he is upon thâ— matter more a Calvinist than Calvin himself And if the Jesuites have degraded him because he is a Jansenist in the matter of Grace I know not why they should treat him with more civility in this Case 'T is he that saith ‖ Lib. 3. de Doct. Christiana cap. 16. That Jesus Christ seems to command a Crime when he says If ye do not eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you have no life in you but 't is a Figure which commands that we communicate in the Passion of our Lord and that we do gratefully and profitably remember that his Flesh was wounded and crucified for us 'T is he which saith also * Seâ—â— 33. de Verhis Domin Do not prepare the Throat but the Heart Why do you prepare your Teeth and you Belly Believe and you will eat him You Converters my Brethren are not ignorant that we could easily make a Book of like passages of this Father for he speaks often of the Eating of the Flesh of Jesus Christ and never speaks otherwise thereof He says that this eating is by Faith and that the Wicked the Unbelieving and Unworthy Communicants have no part therein I conjure you my Brethren to consider whether any thing solid can be opposed to Testimonies so plain and express What can the Harshnesses of St. Ambrose the Rhetorications of St. Chrysostome and the perplext Ratiocinations of St. Hillary do against this Can it hinder that the Testimonies which we have heard do not make a clear and convincing Deposition against the Real Presence I enquire of you Whether if we must explain one by the other it be just to explain those which speak simply clearly and without ambiguity by those who speak like Orators or in a mystick Stile that they may not be understood by Infidels and Catechumens Besides is it not just to explain an Author by himself Are not five or six passages of St. Chrysostome where he speaks in plain terms and discourses of things as they are in themselves more than sufficient to give the Reader a true understanding of the sence and spirit of this Author Where are the Christian Orators with whom a man may not find Heresies if he will thus take them at advantage And in the Books of Protestant Meditations may not a man
the Opinions and Worship of the Roman Church in open light Are you assured you shall be able to resist these deceitful Charms these curious Devices these false Appearances these gilded Sophisms this studied Eloquence this Logick full of artifice wherewith they serve themselves to cover the ugliness of Falshood and to obscure the Beauty of Truth 'T is visibly to expose your selves to a Temptation against which God hath made no promise to protect you So that my Brethren if you do not give over frequenting Popish Churches I do foretel that God will permit the bud of Truth which is yet in you to die and that he will abandon you to a Spirit of Error But you will say what shall we do then Must we live without all Exercise of Religion Must we be deprived of the Word of God No but you must enquire after the Word of God in your Houses and amongst your Brethren You must assemble amongst your selves as often as you can read the Scripture together and good Books of Christian Morality and you must recal what you can remember of former Sermons You must mutually comfort one another by good Prayers and good Conversations and good Discourses which without being studied are oftentimes of greater edification than Sermons on which the fancy of a Preacher hath toiled and labored many days To conclude you must imitate the zeal of our Brethren of Languedoc of whom I have spoken something already and will now go on to pursue their History ☜ We left their Assemblies in the midst of Winter And we have seen that in despite to the rigor of the season the Precipices wherewith the ways are bordered and the darkness of the night these believing Christians did not fail to be found in those places in which they agreed to meet together and pray to God. The last of the Assemblies whereof we spake in the precedent Letter was that which was made in a place called Bebe We have seen that the Priest and Officers of Justice having removed themselves thither found no Body but the Wife of him that dwelt in the Farm with her Child They carried her Prisoner with many other persons of the neighbouring places which had not signed their Abjuration They put them in the Castle of S John where they were for the space of a Month to oblige them either to change or to confess those who were found at these Assemblies They made them a Fire with Leaves and Straw and all that which might make a dark and thick sinoak to choke them They endured this kind of Torment At the end of a Month they separated them to the end they might cause them to fall the more easily They said to one that his companion had subscribed to another that he had confessed those that were found at these Assemblies All this signifying nothing they carried these poor People to Montpellier where after three Months Imprisonment they were condemned and sent to the Gallies except one old Man named Mauris who was imprisoned with some Women in the Tower of Constance There happened at that time a thing considerable A Man without Learning of the Village of Colignac being one night in Bed with his Father believed he had a Vision and heard a Voice saying Go comfort my People I know not whether it were the force of his zeal and imagination which produced this effect or whether it were actually a Voice from Heaven however it were all the reasonings and warnings of his Father who turned both his Vision and Design into Ridicule could not hinder him from following this Call which he esteemed as coming from Heaven he gathered Assemblies he spake there with so much success and with so much order and method for a person of his quality that every one was surprised at it and all that heard him edified by it Under his Direction Assemblies were made of three thousand persons amongst others one in a place called Cabanis near S. Hypolite and another in a Farm of the Parsonage of S. Roman situate upon the Mountain Gezas there were full five and twenty hundred persons in that Assembly After the Sermon they named many Elders for the several parts of Cevennes and charged them with giving notice of the places and hours of Assemblies Of these many have been since taken and sent to the Gallies as Monsieur Arnaud of S. Hypolite and Monsieur Nadal of the Village de la Salle There is no danger in naming of them and 't is an Honor we owe them seeing they are at this day among the Confessors of Jesus Christ in the Gallies of Marseilles or Thoulon Many others which we will not name because they are not taken were hanged in effigie In the same Assembly they agreed to give to him that should preach to them power to administer the Sacraments In which we may not imagine that they committed any Irregularity For the true Call depends on the People and on the choice of Assemblies The Mission of one Pastor by another is but a form which ought to be observed in peaceful times of the Church but may be neglected in cases of necessity Before they departed they caused all those that were present to enter into new obligations not to go to Mass and resolved to make another Assembly the Wednesday following between S. Felix and Durfort The Curate of S. Roman or the Incumbent whereof the Farm depended where this Assembly was made caused a Vessel of Holy Water to be carried thither and sprinkled it about every where to expiate the place as if the Devil had kept a Sabbath there The Assembly was made the Wednesday following according to the project and there met near four thousand persons which was the cause they left the Farm which at first they had chosen and assembled in a Field and hung up Lamps on a Pear-Tree that was found there This Assembly was discovered they sent thither some Dragoons under the Conduct of one called Villeneufeu an Apostate of the Town de la Salle but the Dragoons durst not draw near because they believed themselves too weak to attack so great a people therefore they kept themselves in Ambuscade and when the people began to depart they took of them such as they could Among others one named Pouget of the Town of Valestalieres They Arrested also some days after in his own House Monsieur Teissier of the Town of Durfort who freely confessed that he was at the Assembly of St. Felix Among many Prisoners they chose Pouget of Valestalieres and Monsieur Teissier of Durfort to make examples as they speak that is to say to make Victims of their fury They were condemned to dye in the Village de la Salle by the Intendant and President of Nismes Monsieur Teissier publickly confessed the Crime for which he dyed and declared that if he had escaped their hands he had continued it and would yet continue it if it were possible for him Upon the Ladder he sung these words
of Psalm xxxi Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O God of truth Pouget was so weak as to change his Religion on promise that they would give him his life but they hanged him for all that Their vengeance did not stay upon these Victims it proceeded even to things inanimate They pulled the Farm down to the ground where the Assembly was made they plucked up the Pear-Tree by the Roots on which they hung the Lamps that they might see to sing Psalms It is a circumstance very singular and which makes known how far the fury of false Zeal may go It is well nigh to what they do by the places where Sorcerers have celebrated their horrible Mysteries and where Sodomites have exercised their abominable Brutalities There happened on this occasion a thing which seems to me very surprizing It is that at the same hour that they condemned Monsieur Teissier of Durfort to dye for having been at Assemblies one was made at mid-day in a Farm of Sr. Roman two Leagues from de la Salle where there were found fourteen or fifteen hundred persons And the day after the Execution another was made at mid-day also near to Valerangue whilst they were at Sermon an Apostate named Couchon of St. Andrew went away and made hast to advertise the Dragoons thereof which were in their Quarters at Valerangue The Intendant and the Marquess of Trousse being in a rage when they saw that nothing would hinder these nightly Assemblies caused some Files of Dragoons to be drawn off which ran too and fro all night over the Mountains but they could meet with no Assemblies But they made Prisoners all the single persons that they found supposing they had been at Assemblies or were going to them The Lords Day after the death of Monsieur Teissier another Assembly was made on the top of the Mountain Liron to the number of four or five hundred persons A while after there was another in a Farm near St. Germain it was so numerous that the Planchers of the Room cracked and brake under the weight of them But there was none hurt but one old Man whom they were forced to carry away The day after there was another near Connas Whilst they were preaching a Sentinel that they had set at the entrance of the place went and advertised the Dragoons and Curate of S. Germain and betrayed the Assembly The Dragoons discharged upon these poor people who had no other intention than to pray to God. Many were left upon the place dead and wounded others betook themselves to flight and in flying fell into a great Gulph of Waters where a great number of them were drowned others hid themselves in the Rocks whither the Soldiers went and apprehended them 'T was in one of these Assemblies that one of the Gentlewomen of Belcastell was wounded by a great blow on the Head. A Priest or Jesuit standing by cryed out Make an end of her But nevertheless they were content with leading her and many others away Prisoners A few days after another Assembly was made near a place called Boucovitan where there were found full two thousand persons and there they gave the Communion Many persons which were present at this Assembly were discovered and made Prisoners and the Men were sent to the Gallies We here take no notice of any Assemblies but those that are considerable for a great number of others have been made in Caves and Woods and private Houses and the most part of them have been made peaceably enough and without being discovered It was this inconceivable firmness of resolution to assemble in despight to so many punishments and persecutions which produced that terrible Declaration of the twelfth of July last by which the penalty of death is imposed upon all those that shall be Convicted of having exercised any Religion but that of the Church of Rome Before that time the Dragoons had orders to put to the Sword all such as were found at Assemblies And they discharged their Commission very well as it appears by what we have reported concerning the precedent Assemblies which were all made since October on the last year and June on this It was thought that the Order that the Dragoons had to Massacre and the Declaration of the twelfth of July would have put an end to these Assemblies Nevertheless they are as frequent as ever and many times at mid-day And from that time there have been Massacres and effusion of blood On the thirtieth of June there was an Assembly of about two thousand persons upon the Road from Calmette to Barutet The Dragoons of Nismes were there and took about thirty or forty Prisoners which they carried to the Tower of Vineliere it is a Tower that is joyned to the Walls of Nismes above the Arones The Thursday following there were two Assemblies the one at St. Cesari a Village half a League from Nismes the other at Iron Cross which is not above a quarter of a League from the same City There have been many others in those parts and every where there have been Massacres bloodshed and persons Hanged upon the place and great numbers made Prisoners But the most considerable Massacre was that which was made near Uzes upon the Road to Bagnol Upon the seventh of the month of July there were found on that place twelve hundred persons The Dragoons of Uzes being informed thereof hasted thither and found them at their Devotions They compassed them round These Christians did nothing but with Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven fell on their Knees and in that posture expected death The Dragoons discharged upon these poor people without Arms and without defence They succeeded so well therein that besides the wounded the field was covered with the dead An Eye witness that passed over the place three weeks after found then there the bodies of thirty Women half rotten Besides this the Dragoons strangled many with the Halters of their Horses They took more than three hundred Women which they knocked and beat upon the Breast and Sides with their Daggers they cut off their Coats to their Hips they stripped them naked and having covered themselves with their Cloths they returned with their spoils and Prisoners to Uzes Behold on one side how the Devil defends his Gospel And on the other part it was thus that the Primitive Christians and our first Reformers planted the Gospel of Christ in the midst of Paganism and Antichristianism that is to say by Courage Patience and Sufferings Since the month of July Languedoc and Cevennes have been a field of blood and slaughter The Dragoons under pretence of Assemblies kill all they meet and Letters from those Countries report that a Man can scarcely take four steps upon the Mountains without finding a Carcase either Hanging on a Tree or lying on the ground On the thirteenth of July a Lieutenant of Dragoons having been informed that there was a Man near the old Castle of Vauvert