of the Sun as they suppose in producing those words this is my body our fear would have no foundation To defend us against this prejudice Monsieur de Meaux produces the false fear of the Arrians and the Disciples of Paulus Samosatenus who feared lest they should be made to worship a Man an Infant a Creature however perfect and highly priviledged he were Let not Monsieur de Meaux be displeased behold a shred of Antiquity ill placed and disposed for a person that prides himself of knowledg It supposes that the Arrians and Samosatenians have heretofore refused to adore Jesus Christ under pretence that he was a Creature a Man an Infant just as we refuse at this day to adore the Sacrament under pretence that it is but Bread. I would be very glad that he would a little shew us those places in the Ancients where the Arrians refused to adore Jesus Christ because he was nothing else but Man. First of all they did not say he was a mere Man they acknowledged he was God of God and Light of Light and that he was before Abraham but they said he was a God created before all Ages and afterwards incarnate And as for the adoration they so little refused to give it to Jesus Christ that all the Fathers made it their Crime and convinced them of Idolatry because supposing Jesus Christ was a Creature they nevertheless adored him It is good my Brethren that you observe this passage and that you conclude that these-Gentlemen know not how to quote the Ancients without impressing some footsteps of their falsness and perfidiousness on those quotations They ought to find an example about vain fear in Antiquity like unto ours they can find none and therefore it is expedient to make one But although it were true that the Arrians did refuse to adore Jesus Christ for fear that they should adore a Man an Infant they had been mistaken and we shall have reason to be unwilling to adore the Sacrament for fear of adoring Bread. For the Orthodox did invincibly prove to the Arrians that this Man was the Eternal Son of God but the Papists will never prove that the Sacrament is the true Body of Jesus Christ Your Reformers have done nothing but renew the Controversies ended six hundred years since when Berengarius moved them And if you call in doubt the judgment that was given against him others with as much reason will doubt concerning preceding Councils and behold us then obliged to examine anew all which hath been Decreed as if we began to be Christians and that all that our Fathers have determined is good for nothing It is not true that we have done nothing else but renew Controversies ended six hundred years ago We acknowledge no Authority in an Antichristian Church such was that in which Berengarius lived to determine Controversies It hath no right to determine them or at least we have right to have no regard to her decisions It is precisely that which our Arrians do now at this day say unto us your Divines and Schoolmen have done nothing else but renew Controversies already determined more than twelve hundred years ago in the Councils of Tyre Jerusalem Millan and Ariminum The date is a little older and the Authority in my opinion a little greater For the Church of the Arrians was much more pure than that of the Man of Sin. It had been a great marvel if Monsieur de Meaux had neglected to bring into this short Letter the Sophisms about the Judge of Controversies These Gentlemen have nothing else to say it is their only Rampart it is necessary they always return thither If it be permitted us to reject the Councils that have condemned Berengarius behold us under a necessity to examine anew all the Councils which have decided the Controversies against the Arrians Nestorians c. This signifies nothing neither according to my Principles nor those of Monsieur de Meaux Hath Monsieur de Meaux forgotten that according to his Principles no Councils are infallible but those that are General Wherefore then doth he demand the same submission for the Councils that condemned Berengarius as for those that condemned Arrius Nestorius and Eutyches These last are considered as Oeconomical and by consequence as Infallible in the Church of Rome But a Council of Tours of Verseille a Council of Rome which have condemned Berengarius were but particular Councils Therefore they were not Infallible Some of them had the Pope for their Head yea but according to Monsieur de Meaux a great friend of the Theology of the Gallican Church the Pope is not Infallible nor can he communicate it to any one Let these Gentlemen fix their Principles or let them not delude us by comparing Councils which can err to Councils which according to them are Infallible and cannot be mistaken If this be worth nothing according to the Principles of Monsieur de Meaux it is worth less according to mine These Gentlemen will not take it amiss if we have mote veneration for Councils held in the fourth Age where they judged by the word of God than for Councils of the eleventh Age held in a time in which the Church was plunged into an abyss of Corruption according to the confession of Baronius and others like unto him Therefore one may doubt of the truth of decisions of the Councils of that Age and not doubt of those of all the preceding Councils But because we are willing to have some submission for the decisions of the Councils of the fourth Age must we therefore pluck out our Eyes Must we cease to see that they did decide conformably to the Scripture Must we cease to build the submission that we have for Councils principally upon the conformity of their decisions with the Holy Scriptures Behold us obliged to examine all anew as if we began to be Christians Behold us obliged to examine all anew yea every one for himself And does not every one of us begin to be Christian when he begins to live and to make use of his reason Monsieur de Meaux is at agreement that when a Man begins to be a Christian he has right to examine Societies and Confederate Churches do not always begin to be Christians and therefore it is not always necessary that they examine And when once they have formed their Confessions upon the word of God it is not necessary that they repeat it at least unless it be made appear that they have erred and be mistaken But every particular person begins to be a Christian he hath therefore right to examine And so behold the right of single persons re established by the reasoning of Monsieur de Meaux We will not touch the rest of the private Letter of Monsieur de Meaux at this time because what he adds concerning the Judge of Controversies and the reflections which we have to make thereon will fall in very well with what follows in his Pastoral Letter
to mark here the Character of sweetness and Christian patience which is peculiar to those that suffer for the Truth his modesty hinders us from naming him but in seeing him behind his Curtain you will learn from him after what manner we ought to suffer all things for the Truth and to suffer with patience as our Lord has given us example The Grace of God be with you all Septemb. 15. 1686. The THIRD PASTORAL LETTER AND Confutation of what Monsieur de Meaux says to establish the necessity of a living speaking Authority concerning a Succession of Chairs without a Succession of Doctrine General Methods for making good the Sophisms and Fallacies concerning the Authority and Infallibility of the Church My Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be unto you from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ YOur Temptations which increase every day do also redouble our grief and cause us to desire with the greater passion to give you assistance and succor for which reason we prosecute what we have begun 'T is to furnish you with Lights for the dispelling of that Darkness wherewith they endeavour to obscure those Truths which you have learned from your childhood Among other things they make great and prodigious attempts to take you off from that adherence that you give to the holy Scriptures and to oblige you to forsake those living Fountains and to run after the broken Cisterns of Egypt which will hold no water The last periods of Monsieur de Meaux his private Letter and the second Article of his Pastoral Letter look that way They are these Periods and this Article upon which we shall make our Reflections and we do beseech you to give attention to them Behold then how Monsieur de Meaux prosecutes his Letter to Monsieur de V In a word the meaning is if Christians when they cannot agree upâ—n the sense of Scripture do not acknowledge a living speaking Authority to which they do submit the Christian Church is certainly the weakest of all Societies in the World the most exposed to remediless Divisions and most abandoned to factious Innovators This is it to which your Ministers with all their Subtleties have never been able to find an Answer In truth 't is to put great confidence in the Credulity of Men to tell them with so much impudence that the Ministers have not been able to find an Answer to this Sophism I do not think that there is any which hath been rejected with more force and more success And we do defie Monsieur de Meaux and Monsieur Nicholas to answer any thing that 's reasonable to what hath been said against the Infallibility of this pretended living speaking Judge in the Answer which hath been lately made to the Book of M. Nicholas intituled The pretended Reformed convinced of Schism We have there answered it and will answer it again But this is no place to answer to it at large We will content our selves to intreat you my Brethren to make two general Reflections thereon First That Remedy can never be good which never produces the effect which Men say it doth always produce M de Meaux pretends that this certain living speaking Authority is an infallible Remedy against Divisions and Heresies For without it says he the Church would be of all Societies most abandoned to Divisions Innovations and Factions If this Remedy be so good why hath it never produced its effect Was not this living speaking Authority in the world was it not say I from the times of the Apostles and the first Ages of Christianity Why therefore have we seen from the beginning swarms of Heresies and Hereticks Simonians Corinthians Basilidians Marcosians Valentinians Marcionites Manicheans and multitudes of others Wherefore in the fourth and fifth Ages of the Church was it torn in pieces by Arrians Nestorians Eutychians Photinians Why do they account to the number of two or three hundred Heresies Why did this brave Remedy against Divisions permit the Schism of the Donatists more than three hundred years That of the Eutychians more than twelve hundred That of the Nestorians as long Why doth not this excellent Remedy put an end to the Schism of the Greeks after the duration of near eight hundred years Was it this living speaking Authority which suppressed the Waldenses and Albigenses or the Fire and Sword of Simon de Montfort and his Villains Why hath this living and speaking Authority permitted the Latin Church to be torn in pieces in these latter Ages Behold in truth a fine Remedy good for nothing and which over and above is established upon inconsistent Principles as hath been proved an hundred times The other general Reflection which I desire you would make is on the great inconvenience that Monsieur de Meaux finds in acknowledging That the Church is the weakest of all Societies in the World. I do profess that it appears very uneasie to me as well as to him and I am not without all inclination to reason with him and say There is no appearance or probability that the Church should be the most impotent of all Societies under the Heavens and by consequence 't is not likely that it should have been the Tennis Ball of Persecutors of Tyrants of malignant Spirits of Schismaticks of Hereticks of factious Innovators and vitious corrupters of the Truth and Worship of God. And so all that hath been said of Persecutions Punishments Heresies Seditions happening in the Church Strife among Bishops their Quarrels and Divisions of the fury of Schisms of the horrible corruption of Manners that hath been seen in some Ages and is seen in this all these things say I are false For 't is impossible that the Church should be the weakest of all Societies which it would be if what hath been said yea and what our eyes see be true So that it must needs be that all Histories be Romances and all Objects that we see Illusions and that there be a Wall of Fire about the Church that hinders all sorts of Evils from approaching it 'T is a Prodigy in my apprehension that Men should be found that will destroy truths in matter of fact sense and experience by Discourses in the air These Gentlemen do never enter into the depths of God's ways they do not perceive nor understand that 't is indeed by the order of his Providence that to the apprehension of sense the Church is the most feeble of all Societies most given up to the will and lust of Persecutors and Men of Faction and Innovation Where is the Society that hath been given up and exposed to so many Schisms Divisions and Persecutions as the Church But the Power of God and the Stability of the Church consists in this that it subsists in despite to all Assaults and that God preserves in the midst of those Schisms and Divisions Errors and Superstitions those fundamental Truths and Precepts of Morality by which the Elect are preserved notwithstanding the general corruption that doth involve and
Paulinus that this leud saying hath taken its original That Images are the Books of the Ignorant 4. The fourth thing to which you ought to give attention is That then they did not set in Churches any Figure Image or Statue of a single person but Historical Representations in large Tables where many persons and many actions were represented This makes almost an infinite difference for it never entred into the mind of Man that Historical Tables whereon were some times represented the Devil tempting Jesus Christ oftentimes Hang-men pblucking off the flesh of a Martyr with Pincers were placed there for Worship For so men would Worship the Devil as well as Jesus Christ and the Hangmen as well as the Martyr Indeed when the Idolatry of Images was brought into the Church 't was by Pictures or Statues which represented but one or two of the Saints Now 't is certain say I that about the end of the fourth Age those which gave themselves liberty of introducing Images into Churches placed nothing there but Historical Pictures and Tables To prove the contrary to you they may produce a passage of Gregory Nazianzen where he complains of this That some would destroy the City of Diocesarea raze the Temples and pull down the Statues thereof * Epist ad Olympium Our greatest grief says he is not that the Statues are pluckt down although that be troublesome too Because immediately before he was speaking of the Ruine of Temples some it may be will serve themselves of that to perswade you that Statues were in their Temples But that is false and 't is certain that he speaks of Statues which were in their publick places Our grief is says he that with the Statues they pull down and destroy an ancient City And to the end that you may not be able to delude your selves thereby be advertised That the Greeks would never suffer Statues in their Churches and that yet to this day they Adore nothing but Images or plain and flat Pictures and by a humour sufficiently pleasant they accuse the Latines of being Idolators because they Adore Statues As if their Images of Mosaick Work were much more worthy of Adoration than Embossed Figures However it be this demonstrates that Gregory Nazianzen could not speak of Statues which were in Churches 5. To conclude the last thing whereof you are to be advertised about the Original of Images is That in the time that this mischeivous Custom of putting Images in Churches began in some places the good Bishops opposed themselves thereto with Zeal and treated it as an Abomination It were convenient that you should read thereon a passage of Epiphanius Bishop of Salamina in Cyprus who lived about the year 375 that is to say exactly in the same time that Gregory Nissen suffered Pictures in the Churches of Cappadocia I came one day says Epiphanius into a Village which is called Anablata 't was a Village in Palestine * Epiphan in Epist ad Joh. Jerus having seen there as I passed by a burning Lamp I enquired what place it was I learnt that it was a Church and being entred there to Pray I found on the Door of the Church a died Vail hanging there having an Image painted on it as it were of Christ or some Saint for I do not remember in good truth whose Image it was having therefore seen that contrary to the Authority of the Scripture they had hung the Image of a Man in the Church I rent the Vail and advised the Sexton of the place to employ it rather to wrap up the body of some poor dead person to carry him to his Grave John Patriarch of Jerusalem took it ill that Epiphanius had attempted such an Action in a Diocess where he had no Jurisdiction but he did not condemn the Action in itself This passage is without reply and your Seducers will never have any thing to answer to it It appears that the use of introducing Images into Churches was so rare and so little received that he which undertook to put one in the Church of Anablata did not dare to put it any farther then the Door At this day men have the insolence to set them upon Altars And even Epiphanius a little while before in the Church where this Image was lookt upon the attempt as the Violation of the Law although it were even the Image of Jesus Christ for he supposes it might be the Image of our Lord nevertheless he made not the least scruple to rend it and hated not the attempt ever the less Notwithstanding 't is very probable that after St. Epiphanius the Custom of so placing Pictures and Tables in the Churches of the Martyrs did continue and increase The People which naturally fall into Superstition did not tarry long ere they abused those Images which were placed for them in the Sepulchres of the Martyrs 't is from the People that the Worship of Images came as well as the Invocation of Saints that could not stay long after this for when they adored men which might be painted 't is natural to make Images of them So St. Austine learns us that in his time the Invocation of Saints passing from the People to the Pastors the People running much father began to Adore the Pictures of the Martyrs But behold how he speaks of it The Manichees heaped together all the popular Superstitions and all the Actions of private Persons to make Crimes of them against the Church and upon that St. Austine tells them * Lib. 1. de-Moribus Eccl. c. 34. Do not collect those who making profession of being Christians have nothing which answers to their Profession do not joyn yourself to the croud of ignorant People who being on the side of true Religion are superstitious c. I know there are many which Worship Pictures and Sepulchres Unto the middle of the fifth Age nevertheless few Images were seen in Churches after the year 450 many of them were seen there 'T was not only those of the Martyrs that were placed there they put also those of the Bishops in the Churches of their Diocesses The Image of Thomas Bishop of Apamea was set on the top of the Church †Evag. lib. 4. cap. 26. Theodorus Lector tells us That in the Reign of Anastatius * Lib. 2. Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople caused his Images to be set in Churches and that Timothy who was put in his place some time after would not perform Divine Offices in any Church before he had caused the Images of Macedonius to be removed It cannot be imagined these Images were set there for Adoration for no man makes his own Images to be adored But that in the fourth and fifth Ages men did not give any Religious Worship to Images by the publick Authority and Approbation of the Pastors is a truth which cannot be disputed by those who have any remains of Conscience and Honour This appears by the Testimonies of Authors of that time
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
amongst Forgers of Lies I admire the agreement of those Writers which lived two or three thousand years from one another who nevertheless have all conspired to deceive us according to our Moderns and there is neither Sorcerers nor Magicians nor Possessions nor Apparitions of Demons nor any thing like it 'T is much that these Gentlemen have not pushed on their confidence even to deny the truth of matters of Fact contained in the Scriptures which would be very convenient for them In the times that the Sacred Writers writ their Books there were all these things and where do we find that they ought to cease and that a time was to come in which Devils should no more deceive Men and in which he Heaven should speak no more Prodigies Because Historians have not been infallible must we believe they have been all Liars and in all things Can a Man for example honestly call in doubt the prodigies which Josephus reports to us as coming to pass a little before the final ruin of Jerusalem A Man walked round the City and its Walls perpetually crying Wo wo to the Temple City c. and in fine during the Siege as he was upon the Wall he added Wo to me aso that which he never did before and in the very moment a great stone coming from the Engines of the Besiegers knock'd him on the Brest and brake him in pieces A Sword of Fire passed over the City Jerusalem for a whole year together from East to West A Voice was heard in the Temple which said Let us go hence A brazen Gate in the Temple which eighteen or twenty Men could scarce open opened of it self It must be that Josephus had a design to prostitute his Reputation reporting such matters of Fact the falseness whereof he might be convinced of by a thousand Witnesses yet living if they were not true The Saviour of the World was willing to honor some mute presages altho he might well have passed them by since he had so many living Testimonies on his behalf 't was his pleasure that the Heavens should produce a new Star at his Birth or at least that the Air should produce a new Meteor that deserved that name And what shall we say of that great Miracle which was at the Pool of Bethesda where an Angel descended troubled the Waters and the first sick person that went into them after the action of the Angel was healed This marvel was not ancient and without doubt it had not continued long 'T is clear that this was done about the time that our Lord arrived at the age of thirty years and entered upon the Office of Mediator and 't was an admirable presage of the coming of him who is called A fountain opened to the house of Jacob for sin and for uncleanness whose Water that is to say whose Grace was to heal and cure all our Maladies I could bring you an infinite number of matters of Fact very well attested that is to say Visions Prophetick Dreams Signs seen in the Air and in the Heavens which have been Presages of Events little less considerable than those we see at present 'T is true that under color of Signs and Marvels an hundred and an hundred Fables have passed current in the World but all that we ought to conclude thence is that every wise Man will have great Securities before he will believe As soon as any event may have natural Causes it signifies nothing according to these Gentlemen as if God was not at all the Master of natural Causes and could not dispose them for the production of certain Effects when he would presage great Revolutions in the World. It seems to me that Earthquakes have their natural Causes and so have Famines Pestilences and Wars nevertheless Jesus Christ puts these things among those things which are to presage his coming Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom there shall be famines earthquakes and pestilences in divers countries And why may we not interpret that which he adds of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and of Signs which are seen in Heaven The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken 'T is believed that this is a Description of what shall be at the last Day of Judgment but if this were a place for it I could prove that it is no such thing Not that I am persuaded all Eclipses and all Earthquakes are Presages but there are such Circumstances of time and place and concomitant Signs that a Man cannot as I think without rashness deny that the Providence of God doth dispense them to strike the minds of Men with astonishment and make them attentive to his Judgments What shall we say concerning the Bow in the Heavens It is made without doubt by natural Causes Nevertheless it has been the pleasure of God in all Ages of the World that it should be a Sign by Institution to assure Mankind that there should never be an universal Deluge upon the earth God granted to Gideon a Sign in Nature to assure him of the truth of his Mission Ezekias received one in the Sun at least in the shadow of the Sun on the Dial of Ahaz as a Sign of his restauration to life we may not therefore imagine that 't is contrary to the order of Providence to do extraordinary things in nature for the marking and noting extraordinary events in the World. Let us conclude therefore that the Credulity of our Ancestors hath caused many mischievous Tales to be received as faithful Histories but also that it hath been the cause that very faithful Histories do at this day pass for false Tales I could not refuse this little Prologue to the Year wherein we are presently to engage as abundant in Prodigies as any has been for a long time for on all sides we have heard speak of nothing but extraordinary Storms Fires falling from Heaven others coming out of the Earth of Signs speaking loud which have appeared in the Air of Insects of an unknown shape which have been believed to have fallen from Heaven The Writers of publick News have not been able to forbear remarking them and making their Reflections thereon I believe 't is the interest of the publick to make evident all these Events and there lies an Obligation on those that desire to fear God to give a very exact Relation concerning all these Prodigies if they intend to learn us any thing concerning them we intreat them that it be not on Reports and Hear-says yea that it be not on the report of persons whose fidelity is not very well known for we have no design to deceive either our selves or others this will be known by the manner wherein we shall report a matter of Fact that is to say the singing of Psalms in the Air which has been heard in divers places It is near a year since that
Agents The Monks at this day think it an Honor to acquaint us with the Combats and the Travels which the Men of their Order have sustained to hinder the Worship of Images from falling 'T was in the Convent of Corbie and in the Brains of Paschasius the Monk that the Opinion of Transubstantiation had its Birth When that new sort of Monks which are called Mendicants came into the World a Man cannot tell the Evils which they caused there the Superstitions that they brought and the Corruptions which they introduced into it It is from them that those Excesses whereof the honest Men of the Church of Rome themselves at this day have an abhorrence took their Original These Excesses say I which respect the Worship of the blessed Virgin the Invocation of Saints and the Adoration of Images and Relicks Excesses which are gone so high by the assistance of the Monks that all which is most odious in Pagan Idolatry did never go beyond it 'T is that whereof your Converters themselves are at an Agreement with us 't is of that which they tell you that we ought to make no use that we ought not to impute those things to the Church which were the foolish imaginations of the Friers of the last Ages and the Devotions of Monks as they themselves call them and that honest Men did never approve 'T is a thing far enough from Truth that the Church of Rome never approved these Excesses But it is not a thing upon which we have any pâ—rpose to stay at present It is sufficient for you that it is evil by the confession of your Converters and that this Corruption took its original from Monks They are the same Men which have dishonored Christianity by a an Historical Theology more shameful and fabulous than was that of the Pagans and Poets 'T is to them that we owe the Legends the Lives of Saints the Châ—onicles and Annals the Orders of S. Francis the Jacobites and the Carmelites in which Works the least trace of Truth and Purity is not to be seen but a heap of ridiculous Fictions impertinent Miracles and filthy Fables whereof at this day Men of the Character of Canus Bishop of the Canaries and de Launoy are ashamed and make no scruple to confute them in all their Shapes and Forms Do not these Gentlemen also confess that the Monks have been always the Instruments of the Violence of Popes and the Incendiaries of Christendom They were the Men that preached the Croisades against pretended Hereticks 'T was they that kindled the Fires and committed the Massacres They were those that mutinied the People against those Kings and Emperors that would not obey the Pope They were they that seized on the Rights of Bishops and favoured the Pope in all those ways whereof he served himself to oppress the other Bishops They have withdrawn themselves from the Authority of their Ordinances by Immunities obtained in the Court of Rome They have withdrawn Confessions from the ordinary Pastors They were the Masters of the Chairs and publick Teachers during the space of four Hundred or five Hundred Years To conclude 't is certain they have always been the most potent Supports of that Throne of Iniquity which hath raised it self in the Church For their Manners I can make it appear by Testimonies that cannot be reproached that never were Lives so debauched as those of the Monks that during more than seven or eight Hundred Years they were the Sinks of all the Impurities that could be imagined and we have the Confession of the Arnolds the Maimbourghs and other famous Defenders of Popery in this Age concerning it They add that it is not so now and that the Convents at this day are well governed and the Monastick Life very clean and innocent He must be very bold to advance a matter of Fact so little known If there be some Convents reformed there are a great many others that are not so I have a little enlarged my self on this Article concerning the original of Monks their History their Spirit and their Conduct because I know 't is a Snare in which many Persons shut up in Convents have unhappily fall'n They have written to us from thence that they have been much moved with the great Piety which they have found in these Houses with the Mortification of the Nuns with their constancy in Prayer with their Humility with the continual elevation of their Hearts to God and with their entire renunciation of the World. And they have given us to understand that this hath been the principal Motive of their Conversion And even very devout and pious persons who thanks be to God do yet persevere in the Truth have not been able to escape some surprize by these fair Appearances and Formalities God is witness that we have no intention to lessen the Reputation of any Person in particular and yet much less of these Nuns of whom so much good is spoken we wish that there were more of truth therein And if it be so that there is so much virtue in Some of them we hope that God will not suffer them to die in the sad estate wherein they are But we do advise our Brethren and Sisters to be on their guard and beware of this Temptation and to consider First That these Mortifications wherewith they seem to be so much charmed are human Devotions upon which God doth not pour down his Blessing It may be seen by that which we have reported concerning the Mortifications of the first Monks how far this miserable Spirit of superstition and false Devotion may go That kind of Life observed by the Monks of Attrappe for example doth not find its Original or Model in the Gospel and they are those Worships of which it will be said Who hath required these things at your hands We must not make it a thing of Merit to be more wise than God than Jesus Christ and his Apostles and do more than they have done It is a folly and madness to believe that a Man is more acceptable to God by shutting himself up in a place where he may see no body where he speaks to no body where he renounces his Friends and Relations where he deprives himself of the society of good Men whose conversation might assist his piety 2. I do intreat them to consider that in these kind of things the false Religions go farther than that which is true Ask your Converters and they will not deny that the Mortifications of the Mahometan Monks and those of the penitent Indians and Mexicans are infinitely more cruel to the Body than are those of our most mortified Europeans so they are at least equivocal things with respect to which we must be extreamly upon our guards 3. In the third place it must be known That there are depths in the conduct of God which cannot be fathomed 't is his pleasure that we walk always in the midst of Thorns and among Snares 't is for
Saints are said to appear 't is not they which return 't is the Angels which appear and speak for them Behold I pray you how unformed and floating this Theology is But there is more than this in these same ages when they prayed to Martyrs at one time they prayed for them at another They prayed say I for the Martyrs and for the Apostles yea for the blessed Virgin and this is a new Proof of the Novelty of this Superstition This appears by the Liturgies of that time In that of St. Chrysostom we read We offer to thee this reasonable Service for those which rest in the Faith of our Ancestors our Fathers the Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles the Preachers the Evangelists the Martyrs the Confessors the Continents and for all the Spirits which were initiated in the Faith principally for the most holy immaculate and blessed above all Women our Lady Mary Mother of God and always a Virgin. And in that which is attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem O God have mercy on our Fathers on our Brethren which are at rest whose Souls are acceptable unto thee give them repose and remember also all the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Evangelists and all the Spirits of the Just which are dead in the Faith and principally the holy and the glorious Mary Mother of God always a Virgin. It would be at this day the greatest of all absurdities to pray for a dead man and pray to him at the same time Indeed if he be in a condition of doing us good if he see God if he be with him he hath no need of our Prayers The inconsistency of these two Worships which nevertheless were both used at the same time is a demonstrative proof that the Invocations of Saints was a Novelty Prayers for the Martyrs were found in the ancient Liturgies out of respect to Antiquity they were left there but the torrent of Novelty added unto them Prayers unto the Martyrs without taking notice that these latter were inconsistent with the former To conclude I do maintain that those who will not give attention to these Demonstrations which prove the Novelty of the Invocation of Saints in the 4th Age have an insensible and seared Conscience and so I think it unprofitable to dispute any more against them I well understand that the New Converts who are willing to be content with their change will yet find two Fortifications for their security They will say that this Worship of Saints was then new but that it was not evil and that therefore the Church might introduce it as a pious Custom and proper to incline the minds of men towards Devotion But let these Gentlemen have a little patience Monsieur de Meaux in that which follows will give us occasion to make it plain to you that this Worship and this Invocation is Paganism renewed and that it is in nothing better than the Invocation of Angels and Hero's which the Pagans practised in their Devotions we will make them see that 't is a true Idolatry The other Fortification is the Antiquity of this Worship However it be say they you do confess that the Invocation of Saints hath more than one thousand two hundred Years on its head Does this put you to no troubles Have you no respect for so goodly a piece of Antiquity and how can you believe that God hath left his Church under Idolatry for so many Ages We answer That we cannot have respect for Antiquity without Truth and in this we are of the Religion of St. Cyprian We add That we are not astonisht to see an Idolatry so aged in the Church because it hath been expresly predicted to us The Prophet St. John calls Idolatrous Christians Pagans and the Spirit saith to him * Revel 11. cap. 12. I have given up the outward Court of the Church to the Pagans that they may tread it under foot for forty two Months These are the thousand two hundred and sixty Days in which the Woman i. e. the Church ought to be hidden as in a Wilderness for the space of these thousand two hundred and sixty Days And the two Prophets which prophesied in Sack-cloth i. e. the Truth published by a small number of Witnesses and those under the Cross ought to continue under the oppression of Idolatry the same number of Days i. e. a thousand two hundred and sixty Now these thousand two hundred and sixty Days are so many Years according to the stile of the Prophets who denominate Years by Days We shall have it may be in what follows an opportunity to prove it to you It must be therefore that Idolatry Rule in the Christian Church one thousand two hundred and sixty Years It hath done so almost for that space of time it is therefore near its end But we ought not to be amazed that it hath continued so long An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions that the New Converts put upon themselves WE take up again the Continuation of the Controversie at the place where we left the Illusions of the New Converts The common Faith say you is a kind of Agreement to live under the same Ministery without being accountable for all the Abuses that have slipt into the Church By this fine reasoning we may live in safety among the Turks we believe as they do that there is one GOD one Paradise one Hell and that Jesus Christ is the greatest Prophet which ever came into the World. This common Confession of Faith will be an Agreement to live together safely under the same Ministery And we will leave to the Turks their prophane Abuses and their absurd and impious Doctrines Believe me such an Agreement resembles that of Pilate and Herod who agreed to despise and put to death Christ Jesus When the Ministery introduces small Corruptions this may be granted but when Corruption goes to the heart of Religion the Agreement signifies nothing and lays no obligation all is deadly either by itself or by its neighbourhood or contagion Provided that we Adore the same God and Profess the same Fundamentals of Christianity all the rest is not imputable to private persons Above all then when there is a necessity of joyning ourselves to this first Christian Society and when we cannot find any publick Worship more pure and edifying This is the Continuation of your Apology There are two words therein Provided and above all which destroy you Provided that we profess the same Fundamentals I have made it appear already that this provided is insufficient You must add Provided that fundamental Errours be not added to the Foundations Now Popery hath added to the Foundations of Christianity Tyranny Superstition and in one word Antichristianism So behold yourselves thrown out of your Fortification Provided that The Above all is no better Above all when there is a necessity of joyning ourselves There is no necessity of joyning ourselves to a Communion which we acknowledge
Castle of Saumiere to Valence with another of her Sisters and four Daughters of Monsieur Audemane's and Mademoiselle de la Farelle All these persons are a thousand times worse treated than if they were among Barbarians At their arrival in the Hospital he which hath the Government thereof caused them to be shaven afterwards he caused them to be stripped of their Shifts to give them others of Hair which made Sores and Ulcers on them to their fingers ends They give them little Food and a great many Blows Mademoiselle de la Farelle received a blow with a Cudgel over her Face which beat out all her fore-teeth They seize on persons every day of the Reformed Religion on the Borders of Lyons and Geneva Some days since they killed Monsieur Quista who was conveying his Wife and Child out of the Kingdom Meeting some Country-men and finding himself well horsed he made opposition to them but one of them gave him a knock with a Flint which overturned and killed him His Wife and Child are now Prisoners On this Accident the Wife of M. Bonigoll escaped and is now at Geneva April the 5th 1687. HE which commits these Cruelties of which this Letter speaks is the famous Rapin of whom we have already told you something The Cruelties which he exercises in the Prisons of Valence deserve a particular History which we will give you as soon as we can I hope that Marseilles which has seen the last hours of the Martyrdom of Mr. Du Crosse will become more famous by the number of Martyrs than by its Antiquities and other Singularities We have been informed that two good old men of Vassi in Champagne have there received their Crowns One of them is called Monsieur Chantguyon of seventy four years of age of which he employed thirty four in the service of that Church in quality of an Elder which great care and fidelity This good old man was arrested on the Frontiers of Champagne endeavouring to go out of the Kingdom he was condemned to the Gallies he appeals to the Parliament of Mets whither he was transmitted his Sentence was confirmed and there he received that glorious Chain under which he breathed his last he was so oppressed with Age and Infirmities that he was so far from being able to bear a Chain that he was not able to bear himself His Judges were touched and afflicted with it but they said they must make Examples He went from Mets about the end of September with his Brother-in-Law Mr. Chemet who was Sixty nine years of age and also in Chains and much more infirm than he having both a Rupture and an Asthma They were both full of joy and gloried that they were found worthy to suffer for the Name and Truth of God. In all the places through which they passed upon the Road they found persons which have given Testimony to their Constancy and Courage These two Martyrs bore their Chain to Marseilles but the end of their Journey was the end of their Race and the time of their Coronation They both died within a few days of each other giving glory to God and confessing his Truth having never had any inclination to deny it to deliver themselves out of this sad condition Mr. Chantguyon is of the Bloud of the Martyrs for he had for Grandfather Peter Chantguyon who was one of those that suffered death in the Massacre of Vassi which was the Signal to the Civil War of the past Age. How sad soever the state of these Confessors which suffer for the Name of Christ may seem to be 't is nevertheless infinitely less calamitous than that of those who are lapsed and fallen whose Conscience makes them feel those torments which cannot easily be expressed We have thought our selves obliged to communicate to you on this subject the Letter of a Person of great Quality Wife to one of our most famous Confessors She had imitated the courage of her Illustrious Husband for the space of above a whole year but the Tempter assailed her at an ill season and caused her to lose her Crown Behold how bitter the Tear are which dropped from this unfortunate Gentlewoman Alas my dear Mr. blame me not if I have not acquainted you with the unhappy State in which I am so great is my Confusion by reason of my Fall that I have not the boldness to publish it my self It is impossible to express unto you my Grief 't is such that I am not able to bear up against it I am oppressed by the weight thereof I am neither able to live nor die no body can conceive how lamentable my State is I was so content with my Tryal and so resigned to the Will of God that I could willingly have suffered death if he had called me thereunto I was acceptable and in good reputation among all persons and enjoyed a wonderful rest and repose of mind 'T is true it was a little disturbed by the coming of my Son who tormented me extreamly but all was to no purpose God bestowed those Mercies on me that I did not deserve nor did I make any suitable returns for them I presumed too much on my self yet I was not altogether without suspicion Alas how do I find true in experience that the Spirit is ready but the Flesh is weak and that it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an offended God! How great are my sins since the castigation of them is so terrible Whilst I write I pour out tears I do assure you and they flow from me night and day I repent O my God help my weakness I forgive you that upon the first hearing of this thing you cried out to all against me and did judge that it was the World Estate and Ease and to conclude whatsoever you please that was the cause thereof I do not justifie my self at all nor do I plead any thing for my excuse I was weak and feeble my Faith failed me in a time of need and God did not inable me to suffer for his Name In my unhappy state I have nevertheless this perfect confidence in the mercy of my great God that he will raise me up and I shall glorifie him whether it be in life or death and that my Christ will be always gain to me whether I live or die He desires not the death of a sinner but his conversion and life My God draw me and I will run after thee and do thou lead me to the Haven of Happiness Thou seest my heart O my God 't is intirely thine as well as my mouth I will confess thee every-where For the space of four hours I was tormented by fifteen persons I cried with all my strength begging the Gallows and Death I was nigh unto death and how happy had I been if I had died I had not one moment of rest I knew not where I was by reason of the great noise that was made They made use of this great trouble
admonishing us of our duty by these heavenly Voices who melodiously sung those holy Hymns which we were wont to sound forth in our Church which was then laid wast and destroyed I protest before God that these things are so as I have reported them and I am very glad to make known these truths for the Edification of all those that fear the Lord. In Testimony whereof I subscribe my self at Amsterdam September 4. 1686. V. Deformalagues I do maintain that a Testimony such as this though it were alone is capable of putting the spirit of incredulity to distress for what that is reasonable can be said against it It will be said this is the Testimony of a Woman but by being a Woman hath she renounced all Honor Shame and Conscience in the matter of Testimony She must have renounced all those things to attest with an Oath a matter of Fact with so many circumstances She is but a Woman but she is not a Woman that reports some Visions of the night or particular Revelations she is a Woman that reports things that happened in publick and whereof she hath for witnesses with her self many hundreds of persons Though she be a Woman it does not follow but she may be endued with good understanding now she must have lost all sense to advance such a falsity and to expose her self to be overwhelmed with shame as a maker of Fables to conclude she is a Woman but she speaks of a thing happened not above seven days ago if I may so say To conclude behold a Memorial of Monsieur de Brassalay a Gentleman of Honor and acknowledged such by all that know him Some days before the Interdiction of the Churches of Bearn there were many persons that heard the singing of Psalms in the Air in the City of Orthez The first that heard it was Lichigaray Brunier a Lawyer revolted some years since the most malignant of the Persecutors and who continually stirred up troubles to those of the Reformed Religion He rose from his Bed to go tell the Curate that there was an Assembly of people that sung Psalms without the City he also went to a Serjeant named Gowlan to conduct him to the place where he thought to surprize them but this Popish Serjeant having laid his Ear to the Window answered him there was nothing to be done for he well perceived the singing was in the Air. Afterward it was heard from time to time more than a month by divers persons sometimes at night and sometimes by day among others Lichagaray Canneille an Elder of the Church of Orthez protested and told me that sitting upon the bank of the River a thousand Paces from the City reading in a Book he heard a great singing of Psalms on that side the Church stands which is in the midst of the City and not doubting at all that is was an ordinary Assembly that were met together at Evening Prayers which was then very numerous because of the hazardous conjuncture and consisted at the least of two or three thousand souls he hasted to go thither and always heard a great singing of Psalms till he was entered into the City but having found the doors of the Church shut the Neighbours told him that it was not yet the hour of Prayer It is to no purpose to say they sung in some Cavern or Cave for there is nothing but Houses and the parts adjacent to Orthez are Vineyards Meadows and Fields it has been a long time since forbidden to sing Psalms in Houses and no body has dared to venture thereon and least of all would they think thereon in a time when they every hour feared the Interdiction of their Church and when they advised by all sorts of methods to defend themselves from it Moreover this Elder hath assured me that he never heard more lofty singing in the Church This he told me being in Bearne about sixteen months since in the presence of very many honest Men. After the Church of Orthez was razed to the ground this singing of Psalms was heard no more for some time but about the months of September and October last it was heard by most part of the people of Orthez and many others of the Country which tarried till night before they went home on Market-days those of the Suburbs as well as those of the City heard it every one in his Quarter ordinarily at the same hour viz. between eight and nine at night some heard the words others heard the Tune of the Psalms and there is not it may be a House in Orthez of which some one of the Family hath not heard it The said Lichiguray Bruneir went one night he and two others to that part where they heard this singing without the City and they all three heard the singing for a long time over their Heads the Tune of the 138. Psalm whereof they could not hear distinctly but these words Toward thy holy Temple I will look and worship thee and praised in my thankful mouth thy holy name shall be even for thy loving kindness sake and for thy truth withal for thou thy name hast by thy word advanced over all Du Faur a Physician and Magistrate of the City another Papist heard it divers times but their malice made them say they were Sorcerers and Devils A young Damosel of the Suburbs of Moncade which is near the Castle the ancient Habitation of the Lords of Bearn heard this singing being in her Bed she rose and caused more than fifty persons to go out who having heard it fell on their Knees and wept through the joy they conceived to hear so incomparable a Melody in the Air which continued more than half an hour And it must be known that it was in a place much raised above the City even as a very high Mountain and the people heard this singing over their Heads as if it had been in the Clouds I have heard an honest Man who was one of the Spectators make this relation who poured out Tears then when he spake of it the same thing I have heard from other places To conclude it is impossible to doubt of a truth which the far greatest part of the Inhabitants of Orthez are able to certifie The Parliament of Pau and the Intendent of Bearn have also given their Testimony thereto by a Decree which forbids Men to go hear these Psalms and to say they have heard it on the forfeiture of five hundred Crowns and by another Ordinance which forbids the same thing under the forfeiture of two thousand Crowns The Consuls of Orthez did publish these Ordinances in their City I do not as yet very well understand what can be opposed to the Testimony of Monsieur Brassalny Those that know him as we do know that he is not of a temper to impose upon any one nor to suffer himself to be imposed upon by any one whoever he be Those things which he reports are not hear-says at a great distance for
had that respect for the converted Pagans that they added as many innocent Ceremonies as they could to give to this Sacrament the appearance of a Sacrifice with the same intention they gave it the name with this intention to the first Oblation used in the second Age they added another And they began to present to God by Prayer the Bread and Wine they were about to consecrate and wherewith they made the Eucharist This is called Oblation and Sacrifice The Writings of the third Age are full thereof And 't is from thence that Popery would draw some advantage as if they found therein their Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead But this pretence is false for first of all it must be observed that the Fathers says expresly that 't is a Sacrifice of Bread and Wine we shall hear afterwards the Fathers of the fourth Age and those following At present we are to hear those of the third Clemens of Alexandria says that Melchisedec gave Bread and Wine as sanctified Provisions in Type of the Eucharist Which St. Cyprian explains in these words Our Lord hath offered to God the same Sacrifice that Melchisedec offered that is to say Bread and Wine viz. his Body and his Blood. We see says he farther the Sacrament of the Sacrifice of our Lord prefigured in the Priest Melchisedec according to what the Scripture testifies where it says Melchisedec brought forth Bread and Wine And a little below The Lord accomplishing and rendering perfect the image of his Sacrifice hath offered Bread and Wine Now who ever heard say that there were Propitiatory Sacrifices of Bread aad Wine All propitiation is in the effusion of blood and death of the Sacrifice 2. Moreover it is certain that the Fathers of the third Age called the Eucharist a Sacrifice because it is the commemoration of the Sacrifice of the Cross We make mention of the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ in all our Sacrifices saith St. Cyprian 3. We have yet an invincible proof that the Fathers of the third Age did not look upon the Eucharist as a true Sacrifice from the manner in which they answered the Pagans upon the reproach which they continually offered to them because they had no Sacrifices In the second Age Justin Martyr said That the Prayers and Thanksgivings of Saints and Believers were the only Sacrifices which were perfect and acceptable to God and were the only Sacrifices which Christians have learnt to Offer even then when they celebrated the Eucharist In truth this Author had lost either his understanding or his memory if the Eucharist it self had been a Propitiatory Sacrifice Athenagoras who lived in the same Age answered also the Pagans after the same manner What have I to do with Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings since God cares not for them He demands an unbloody Sacrifice a reasonable Service Can any thing be more express and more lovely than that which Minutius Felix says in answer to a Pagan that objected to him The Christians have no Temples nor Altars do you think that we hide what we adore under pretence that we have no Temples nor Altars The Sacrifice that ought to be offered to God is a good Mind a pure Conscience a sincere Faith it is to live Innocently exercise Justice abstain from Evil and prevent his Neighbour from Perishing this is to Sacrifice a fat Victim these are our Sacrifices this is our Service Origen answers absolutely after the same manner to the Objection which was made by the Pagan Celsus If we read Clemens of Alexandria he expresses himself almost in the same words Arnobius producing the Objection of the Pagans How then will some say that you are under no obligation to offer Sacrifice And answers after a manner very exact We are not at all obliged thereunto Lactantius answers no otherwise than those which went before Now it is a prodigious blindness in these Men not to have answered the Pagans You deceive your selves we have a Sacrifice and the most glorious of all Sacrifices For we offer the Body of Jesus Christ as a Propitatory Sacrifice to God his Father I intreat you my Brethren press your Converters and demand of them whether they dare say to a Pagan we have no other Sacrifices than Prayers and Thanksgivings as for true Sacrifices we have no need to offer them To Conclude my Brethren give attention to this last proof that the Ancients of the third Age did not account the Eucharist a true Sacrifice It is that they Consecrated and Celebrated this Sacrament out of Churches in private Houses and at their Meals besides their solemn Communions which were made in publick Assemblies they Celebrated the Mysteries in private and among their Domesticks This we see in a Letter of St. Cyprian where he disputes against certain persons who out of Mortification and Abstinence from Wine especially in the morning will not Celebrate the Eucharist but with Water Let not any one says he flatter himself with this consideration that although in the mornings they offer with Water alone nevertheless when they come to Supper they offer the Cup mixed with Wine and Water For when we eat this Supper we cannot call together all our people to Celebrate this Sacrament in all its truth in the presence of all our Brethren His sence is these Water drinkers against whom he disputes did not satisfie the Commandment and Institution of Christ Jesus to Celebrate with Wine by these private Communions which were made in Houses in which they mingled Wine with Water because they ought to follow the Institution of Jesus Christ and to Celebrate the Sacrament in its purity and integrity in the presence of all the Brethren and in the midst of publick Assemblies It appears then from thence 1. That they Celebrated it in private Houses in the Evening when they Supped together 2. That they there Consecrated the Cup and that it was not brought from Elce where 3. That the Bread as well as the Cup was Consecrated at the same instant for why should they Consecrate the Cup if they had not power to Consecrate the Bread 4. To conclude these Communions were private amongst a few-persons and out of the presence of the people I do not doubt at all but it is of these private Communions whereof Tertullian speaks in Chap. 3. of his Book concerning The Soldiers Crown We take says he the Sacrament of the Eucharist at Meal-time as also at Morning Assemblies before day where we do not Communicate but at the hand of the Presidents It is a passage that Men do not or will not understand For the understanding of it we must know that Tertullian made this Book on the occasion of a Christian Soldier who would not set a Crown of leaves upon his Head because it was forbidden to Christians By this refusal he discovered he was a Christian and exposes himself to Martyrdom which he suffering many blamed him and said why did he refuse to bear his
them Wine But the truth is they did all that could be done to destroy them that they might deliver themselves from the fear of seeing them in Arms and returning to their own Estates and Possessions They put Mortar in their Bread they gave them nothing to drink but stinking water and they let them die in their dung and ordure And they have been so successful in their design that there is a place where of 400 persons there are 250 dead nevertheless we have not heard that any one did renounce his Religion it were injustice to refuse both the Name and Glory of Martyrdom to those which have died in so constant and so difficult a Confession The Church hath put its Confessors one degree below Martyrs but in truth I do not find that they are much inferior to them I do openly avow that there are Confessors which I admire more than Martyrs It is in my opinion a more glorious Work to endure a terrible and furious Combat during the space of many months or years than to behold the face of death for a few moments And we may say with assurance that such persons have faln in a long Confession which would courageously have endured the sight of death Therefore my Brethren do honor to so many Believers which have suffered to afford you an example Remember how many righteous persons are in the Gallies laden in Chains but incircled with Glory We have there two which are very famous among many others who it may be are not inferior to them tho they be less known to us We have there M. de Marolles of whom we have spoken already and some of whose Letters we have communicated unto you We have there another Man of Learning and Merit called M. Le Feure of a considerable Family of Chastel Chinon in Nivernois of the Church of Corbigni This faithful Christian after he had avoided with a great deal of labor the occasions and seasons of Subscriptions by shifting hither and thither at length he puts himself on the way to go out of the Kingdom He was seised upon the Frontiers towards the beginning of the month of March he was conducted to Besancon where he was put into a Dungeon in which during the space of three months he experienced all the Severities which they put upon the greatest Criminals and he endured all the Temptations of Threatnings Promises and Disputes which the Persecutors are wont to make use of to vanquish the Constancy of the Saints By word of mouth and writing he caused all his Friends to know that they had no reason to fear on his behalf and all his Letters bore the Marks and Characters of true Christianity by the Humility Sweetness Piety and Patience which were manifested and displayed there After he had languished many months in Dungeons with a Body naturally weak and sickly he was condemned for ever to the Gallies They sent him in Chains to Dijon where he met with M. de Marolles which they brought from Paris So these two illustrious Confessors who already knew each other by the report of their Courage and Sufferings were joyned together to be a pair of eminent Witnesses to the Truth They had the same Fortune as they had the same Heart both were sick even unto death upon the way whilst they dragged their Chains after them both arrived at Marseilles and both are actually in the Gallies bearing their Chains both night and day by express order from the Court and both of them with the same courage pursue the glorious Race of their Martyrdom until it shall please God to grant them the Crown after which they breath Amongst the Confessions which are well worthy of Martyrs I cannot forbear to place that of a Gentlewoman of Poictou near St. Maixant about the Age of fifty or fifty five years whose name is slipt from us though there be many Witnesses of the same place who have informed and assured us with one consent of the truth of the following History She endured the first rage of the Dragoons that is to say the wasting of her Estate their Threatnings Blasphemies and other Evangelical means of our modern Converters Her Goods being wasted the Soldiers attacked her Person and there was not any kind of Torment Violence Blows or Reproaches which they did not offer to her They tied her to the post of a Bed where she remained a long time the object of the impudence and fury of the Soldiers who proceeded to commit all the outrages upon her that an honest Woman could suffer except Violation In conclusion one of these Wretches thought fit to tell her if you can suffer a living Coal upon your hand during the space of a Pater Noster we will let you go She consented very freely They then took the greatest and the most burning Coal that was in the Fire she had the Courage to stretch out her Hand and to hold it herself stretched out without complaint and to pronounce Our Father c. from the beginning to the end a Dragoon in the mean time blowing the Coal for fear it should go out which scorched her Flesh and Skin and made her Blood and Humours to bubble and boil when this as done one of the Soldiers raging and swearing said thou haft said the Pater Noster too quickly I will say it my self and if thou canst endure a light Coal of Fire on the other Hand whilst I repeat my Pater Noster we will give thee thy Liberty This poor Woman consented to this second proposition with the same chearfulness which she had manifested at the first this was done The Soldier takes the Coal she receives it and held up her Hand in the Air with the fire Coal which consumed it whilst the Soldier said his Pater Noster putting a great distance between word and word In conclusion another Soldier overcome by an example of Courage so extraordinary blamed him for repeating his Prayer so slowly and struck off the Coal from her hand and so they left her Behold say I in my Opinion a Confession well worthy of a true Martyr Praised be God that we have yet souls so inspired of God to overcome such punishments and so inflamed with his Love that they can surmount the burning Fire Jan. 1. 1687. The TENTH PASTORAL LETTER Two Articles the one of Antiquity the other of Controversie The Article of Antiquity The Faith of the Third Age about the Invocation of Saints Relicks Images Fasts Indulgences Human Satisfaction and Confession The Article of Controversie Concerning the Unity of the Church that 't is not included in the Church of Rome and that we are not excluded from it Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE have already begun in the last Letters to give you a History of the Faith of the Church in the Third Age and the last thing upon which we staid was the Real Presence and Transubstantiation
Non-elect and Reprobates so that it is absurd that God should cause his Gospel to be preached to a herd of Reprobates among which there is not one person on whom the Word can produce its effect It will be therefore in vain that God should preserve Christians in all the East and South for these Christians being out of the saving Unity will be damned just in the same manner as if they were Pagans Fourthly The Schism of the Ten Tribes gives us a convincing Proof that in Schismatical Churches every single Person is not in a state of Damnation Jeroboam separated ten Tribes from the other two he would not suffer them to go up to Jerusalem but engaged them in a formal Schism nevertheless God there preserved both Prophets as Elijah and Elisha and a multitude of Persons which he affirmed to be his own because they had not bowed the knee to Baal There is therefore no particular Church that has reason to boast it self of having Unity alone to the prejudice of all other Churches Fifthly The truth is that on one side the Jews converted to Christianity in the time of the Apostles and on the other side the Pagan Converts lived in a true Schism for these Jewish Christians would have no Communion with the converted Pagans nevertheless they did not mutually damn each other therefore we ought not to damn those which live in Schism whatever it be The converted Jews had considerable Errors they observed the Law and would retain Circumcision with all their might Things incompatible with Christianity as S. Paul declares so positively as to say If any one be circumcised Christ should profit him nothing nevertheless God suffers and saves them with considerable Errors It is not therefore true that the Church is shut up in one sole Communion and that every Error damns when we separate from a Society that is justly called the Church but it 's true that remaining in a Society bearing that Name we may nevertheless be damned when there are mortal Errors there as there are in the Church of Rome Sixthly Ask your Converters who would oblige you to return to the Church of Rome on pain of Damnation under pretence that Unity is in that Church alone ask them I say whether they would pronounce that all the Greek Christians of whom there are millions are damned for this only reason because they will not adhere to the Roman Church who alone has Unity in her possession If they have the front to say yea ask them if they acknowledge the Greeks for Christians They will also also answer you yea pursue and press them by asking how God can abandon to eternal Damnation an infinite number of Christians who according to the Church of Rome hold no Capital Errors and are only mistaken in things of small consequence If the Papists boast of the consent of all Christians of other Communions and particularly of the Geeks in the Invocation of Saints in the Adoration of Images in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation the real Presence and Adoration they do therefore hold all that the Church of Rome esteems necessary to Salvation why therefore will they damn them for little things and for this alone that they will not live in this pretended Unity To compleat the confusion of your Converters by themselves on the subject of this Unity out of which we are departed Ask them if this Unity be not a certain circle in which the true Church is enclosed They will answer you yea proceed to ask them Whether this certain Circle of Unity has not its Centre that is to say a certain eminent Church to which all the rest ought to have their Relation to the end that they may be within the ciâ—cle of Unity they will also answer you yea and they will add that the Pope or Bishop of Rome is this centre of Unity Monsieur de Meaux finds a way to secure himself from the Thunders of Rome by frequent repeating this and indeed this Supposition according to their Hypothesis is of absolute necessity for if this Circle of Unity have no Centre of Adherence it vanishes immediately a man will always be able to say with good reason To what Church would you that I should adhere is it to that of Paris or that of Toledo These are particular Churches which may err if therefore the Pope be ruined if the necessity of Adherence to the Pope be removed the circle of Unity perishes with him which they call the centre of Unity Now observe that at this day the Divines of the French Church your Converters ruine the Pope from head to foot they take away the centre of Unity and by destroying the centre they destroy the circle 'T is to this that so many modern Writings of Maimbourgh Gerbas Noel Alexander made after the Kings Declarations and the Definitions of the Bishops on this Subject or in prospect of them do tend But the Gallican Church never spake so openly as she hath done but a little while fince by the Pen of a Doctor of the Sorbonne called Elias Pin touching the ancient Discipline of the Church Those among you my Brethâ—en which do not understand the Latin Tongue may consuâ—t those that do and they will inform you that in this Book may be read 1. That the Bishop of Rome had originally no power over other Churches 2. That in the first Institution of Patriarchs he had no power but over the Suburbicane Provinces that is to say those near to Rome 3. That the Popes by little and little ruined the Rights of the Metropolitan Bishops and by Usurpation ascribed them to themselves 4. That the Pope has no right to review and finally judge the Causes determined by the Bishops 5. That the Priviledges which the See of Rome at this day enjoys are not by divine Right but either by Usurpation or the Concession of Councils 6. That to be a good Catholick and a good Christian it is in no wise necessary in many Occurrences to adhere to the See of Rome 7. That the Primacy of the Church which the Pope possesses appertains not to him but by a tolerated Usurpation or as a Priviledge granted by Councils This gives him no character of Infallibility nor the right of judging finally and above Councils Behold exactly the Divinity of the Gallican Church at this day for this man in the view of the Court had not written thus without its Order Behold also the centre of Unity intirely subverted and so subverted as it was by Calvin and Luther This being so why do these Gentlemen everlastingly beat upon your ears about their Unity and the centre of Unity There is no more Unity in the Church of Rome since there is no centre of it there for since adherence to the Pope is no farther necessary to be a true Christian you are not departed from Unity and Christianity by departing from the Communion of the Pope observe therefore thereon that Monsieur de Meaux and your
them in pomp they kissed them and built Churches to them They prayed unto Saints they relyed upon their Intercession they put themselves under their protection To conclude as the time of the manifestation of the Man of Sin drew near and Christianity to be established all things moved to wards it with prodigious speed There was nevertheless a profound divine Providence which appeared then and deserves to be admired and to which we can never give sufficient attention Antichristianity which then advanced it self was not to ruine Christianity nor overturn the Foundations thereof It was to be built upon those Foundations which were to remain entire from Age to Age. To set these Foundations of Christian Religion in security God permitted that they should be violently assaulted by Hereticks and zealously defended by the Orthodox The Arrians denied the Eternal God-head of the Son the Macedonians that of the Holy Spirit the Nestorians gave him two Persons as well as two Natures that is to say they renewed the Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus and Photinus who made a simple or mere Man of Christ Jesus This is a thing which some Persons at this time have not well considered who excuse Nestorius and his Heresie It seems to me that 't is easie to comprehend that he which places a human Person in Christ makes of him a mere Man For if the joyning the Divine Nature be not made in a personal Union it can be no more than a Union of Grace and Assistance such as is that of inspired Men. The Eutychians by an opposite Error confound the two Natures All these Heresies gave opportunity for the clearing these matters and setting the Foundations of the Christian Religion in great light and in lovely order and fortifying them with the consent of all Christians This is it which produced divers Creeds besides that of the Apostles which is too general If Providence had not taken this care and precaution Antichristianity which came a great pace had entirely ruined the Christian Religion for besides these Fundamentals whereof God had taken care and set them in safety in three or four Ages their remained nothing else sound in the Church We will not therefore busie our selves in reckoning all the Changes which happened in Religion during these Ages that would carry us too far and would not be peradventure very profitable for you we will stay our selves only on the most considerable Innovations For example we ought not to forget that it was in the Fourth and Fifth Age that Monastick Life had its Original Those among the Doctors of the Roman Church which will grant us nothing make it descend from Elijab the Rechabites John the Baptist and the Apostles but this Opinion is so difficult to be maintained that I do not know whether at this day any Men of Learning which make any pretence to sincerity will deny that this kind of Life had Paul and Anthony for its first Authors who during the Persecutions of Dioclesian in the beginning of the Fourth Age or about the end of the Third withdrew themselves into the Desart of Thebais and were followed thither by many Men and there began that which they call the Eremetick Life It must be that this truth is plain in History since many Doctors of the Roman Religion notwithstanding the Interest they have to maintain the antiquity of this Institution do confess that it is but of the Third and Fourth Age. 'T is a long while since that * Polid. Virg. lib. Invent. 7. cap. 1. Polidore Virgil Bishop of Vrbin proved it and in our days Mr. d' Auteserre Professor of Law at Tholouse not only confesses it but proves it by the Testimonies of S. Hierome †Ascet lib. 1. cap. 7. Athanasius Chrysostome Cassian and Sozomon and indeed he must be ignorant in Antiquity or very knavish that will not own it and you may reckon this as a thing certain since 't is confessed by Popish Authors â—t this day and by S. Hierome who lived in the Age when Monkery had its original and who was one of the most zealous Lovers of Monastick Life that ever was 'T is true that in the preceding Ages the Fathers tell us of Virgins consecrated to God yea and of Men who preserved their Virginity and lived in a chaste Celibate to the end they might serve God with greater freedom but this hath nothing common with the Life of the Monks and Nuns of the present Age. These young Damosels were not cloystered it appears by S. Cyprian * Cyprian Epist 72. that they might marry when they pleased that they lived with their Friends or in their own Houses And even in the time of S. Jerome the most part of them were so little restrained that they made and received Visits they went to Weddings they were found at Feasts they went to the Baths they adorned themselves with the same Pride and the same Excess as did the Daughters of the World. Paul and Anthony having been driven by Persecutions into the Desarts did there first establish the Hermetick Life Afterwards they formed there some kind of Convents and Societies So they instituted in the Desart a kind of Cenobitick Life but this kind of Life received its most perfect Figure about the end of the Fourth Age by three Bishops whereof two were Hereticks and the third Orthodox one of these Hereticks was Marathon * Socr. lib. 2. cap. 3. Bishops of Nicomedia an Arrian and a Macedonian The other Heretick was Eustachius of Sebaste in Armenia a semi-Arrian deposed by the Arrians the eldest of all those who made Rules for the Cenobitick Life †Sozom. lib. 3. cap. 14. The Orthodox was S. Basil Bishop of Cesaria in Capadocia This last drew the Monks from the Desart under pretence of confuting the Arrians he formed Societies of them near Cities and gave them Rules 'T is he which the Greek Monks at this day acknowledg for their Author and there are no Monks of any other Order in the East but of that of S. Basil whereas in the West there is an infinity of Orders We doubt not many of those and these who in the beginning engaged themselves in this kind of Life did do it with a good intention yea and there led a Life eminently Holy But as God does not bless Institutions which respect Religion which are but humane we may observe that the Spirit of Darkness and we may say a Spirit of Malediction fell upon this Institution even from its beginning It was not above a hundred years after there had been discourse of Monks and Nuns but the Spirit of Fables and Legends had seized on their Societies S. Jerome hath left us the Life of Paul and Hilarion two Founders of the Monastick Life These Lives are written in good Latin but with so little judgment and truth that we may be ashamed thereof for the sake of so great a man. There is the Life of S. Anthony attributed to Athanasius which
upon this folly and be ashamed thereof Be assured that every hand which gives you the true Doctrine is good in that respect the saving Remedy of Truth heals from whomsoever it comes Where is this pretended Unity of the Roman Ministry Where was this Ministry and this Unity of Ministry during the space of a hundred and fifty years in the Tenth Age and half the Eleventh a time in which Baronius and all the Roman Doctors do confess to us that the Popes were Monsters Ungodly Wicked Adulterers Magicians Poisoners Simoniacks and Blasphemers 'T is the Popish History it self which teacheth us this Was not this a very fine centre of Unity The Lines which proceed from this Centre to the Circumference were they not very clean The Rays which beam from such a Star do they not pour down benign Influences These were the Successors of the Apostles Blessed Successors They left what they did receive they gave one another an infamous Mission irregular and against the Canons by the Ministry of two Whores which ruled at Rome Behold the brave Vnity and Succession of this pretended Ministry What became of this glorious Unity of the Ministry in the time of the Western Schism when we saw for the space of fifty years a Pope at Rome and another at Avignon which damned one another of which one was the Vicar of Jesus Christ and the other of Antichrist who not only mutually damned each other but also thousands of millions of Men which lived in the different Obedience of Avignon and Rome What a fine thing was this to see two Centres of Vnity How finely at ease would Mr. de Meaux and his Collegues have been at that time they who speak so much to us of the centre of the Unity of the Ministry instead of one only centre to have had two Confess my dear Brethren that this Unity of Ministry is a foolish dream in it self yea vain in the Church of Rome who find it no more there than elsewhere The Church as all Societies in the World in its progress suffers a thousand changes in its form We may not imagine that the Ministry of the first Ages of the Church was constituted as that of this Age. The Bishops were neither Worldlings nor great Lords nor Plenipotentiaries nor Tyrants in the Church They were the first Presbyters and the perpetual Presidents of the Elders or Presbyteries who were of the same Order with themselves 'T is the Pride and Vanity of Man which hath made this distinction between the Bishop and the Presbyter 'T is the mystery of Iniquity which began to work even in the times of the Apostles The Presbyters were then so little distinguished from the Bishops that even the Clergy were not essentially distinguished from the People Remember my Brethren that which you have read in the eighth Pastoral Letter that in the time of Tertullian all the Laicks were accounted Presbyters and that it was permitted even to them to celebrate the Eucharist in private and in their Families So that this Unity of the Ministry could not depend upon I know not what external form for this external form hath changed perpetually until at length it degenerated into this Antichristian Power which is seen in the Roman Hierarchy This Unity is no more in Succession For we cannot find a Church which hath not suffered Interruption in its Ministry either by the Violences of Persesecutions or by the intrusion of false Pastors or by the Crimes and Vices of wicked Bishops If Mr. Bossuet were obliged to prove the Unity of his Ministry without interruption from Mr. St. Faron to himself he would it may be have something of trouble therein In what then consists the Unity of the Ministry In the Unity of Doctrine and Religion If the Bonzes of China and the Brachmans of India did preach the same crucified Jesus with my self and the same Christianity pure and without corruption they would have the same Ministry with me It would signifie very little with me from whence they derived their Succession whether from St. Thomas the Apostle or from another Thomas a Nestorian Heretick God has not tied Salvation to such and such hands nor hath he obliged us to a necessity of receiving the Gospel from some certain men rather than from others But enough concerning this Article of the Unity of the Ministry because 't is a matter which must be handled again when we come to dissipate the cheats and juggles by which your Converters endeavour to perplex you about the Character and Mission of those from whom we have received the Reformation If we would see a lamentable Desolation we must behold the Province of Languedoc Persons worthy to be believed lately arrived from thence do represent unto us this Desolation as one of the most hideous and frightful Objects which ought to have place in the Histories of these days It can never be well understood how the fury of false zeal should transport the Court to make a horrible Desart of one of the most lovely Territories of the Kingdom Cevennes and lower Languedoc are cover'd with Troops which find means to live where Turks would have died of Famine more than six months since after the Plunder Extortions and Wastes that have been made there that is to say after these miserable People had suffered those Oppressions which had drawn from them that little Blood that did remain so that Paleness Fear and Death may be seen written and engraven upon their countenances There are Villages and Towns wholly depopulate The Inhabitants that could not flee are guarded by Dragoons which carry them to Mass with Muskets and Swords in their hands and who at their coming out of the Church put them into Files that they may number them and see whether any be wanting yea or no. There are a great number that lye in Woods which have no other places of Refuge but Rocks no other Houses but Caves neither Nourishment but Roots of the Field because whereof they do better resemble Carkasses than Men. The City of Nismes have had experience of new Severities They have banished to the Islands and I know not whither beyond the Seas four hundred of its Inhabitants and they have hanged eleven and sent Prisoners the Heads of the chief Families M. Baudan la Cassaigne and others all eminent Persons to Carcassoon and Pierre An Cise Who can doubt but this is a just Castigation of that unworthy Action which the Country suffered to be extorted from them France did oblige a great number of men to give under their own hand that from henceforward they would do all the duty of good Roman Catholicks that they would be found no more at Conventicles that they would discover their Relations and Friends that they would Communicate and that if they failed in any of these things they intreated the King to chastise them severely for it Who doubts but such an Action as this is capable of bringing down the most terrible Judgments of
not exactly understand Nevertheless what your Apologist hath advanced is very rash and very criminal for he supposeth with Monsieur Nicolas Monsieur de Meaux and your other Convertors That all those that live in the Romans Church and which were saved there did partake in all her Superstitions This is false and we are perswaded that an infinite number received Christianity there without taking part in Antichristianity or that they repented of it before their death Because they do not comprehend how this may be done was it not therefore done This is to put bounds to the Divine Power God hath his ways which are known to none but himself Fifthly But I have almost no need of all this that I have said in the present Affair for I declare to you that although all your Ancestours should be saved in the Roman Church whilst they pertook in her Worships although all the honest Papists at this day should be saved nevertheless you would not be in the way of Salvation in the way in which now you are and I will convince you thereof in two words the first is That your own Apologist condemns you Your Father saith he were born and bred up in a Religion and never heard any other Doctrines discoursed on How dare you compare your state to that Although he should have mercy for such persons would he have it for such who have been brought up in the Bosom of Truth who have not forsaken the Faith but only the Profession of it who have subscribed to Errours against their Conscience who adhere to Worships whereof the strong and the weak do know the Filthiness and Impurities I have already said unto you and I do say it over again To act contrary to Conscience hath something so aggravating in an evil action that it makes a moderate Superstition become a kind of Sin against the Holy Ghost You do well perceive this when you go to Mass with such terrible regret and reluctancy it is your Conscience that accuses and condemns you The other circumstance which puts you absolutely out of all condition to compare with your Ancestours is That by your weakness you have ruined the greatest Works of the Grace and Providence of God which hath appeared since the Establishment of Christianity that is to say the Work of Reformation 'T is a thing past doubt that since the death of the Apostles there hath nothing happened so great as this magnificent Work whereby God at one shock did overthrow almost half the Antichristian Empire and very much weakned the other half God is jealous of his Works and he cannot but look with a Soveraign Indignation upon the lapse of those who by their fall runied the late glorious Reformation and who proceeded so far as to blame it and say as you say to us We must not Separate we must tolerate Abuses we must expect the Separation that Jesus Christ will make at the Day of Judgment Oh criminal Imagination We must live in the Dirt and Slime we must not restore to the Church her primitive Beauty we must not disengage the Truth from a hideous Mass of Lyes that do oppress it we must not restore to God that Worship that hath been ravished from him we must not remove from before his eyes so many Idols of Jealousie Have you never no holy Compunction for entertaining such thoughts Do not you perceive that your weakness in suffering yourselves to be led to Mass will ruine the Reformation if God don't bring a speedy Remedy thereunto The Protestants of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland will have the same Complaisance for their King that you have for yours Popery re-united will confederate against all Protestant States and then behold them speedily tumbling into Superstition by your Principles and by your Conduct So that by following you we shall soon see the fruit of much Blood so many Martyrs and so many glorious Confessions perish and come to nothing If you give attention to this you will no more compare yourselves to those poor miserable Ignorants which went whither they were led who being placed in a night of deep Superstition saw not a beam of better Light which way soever they turned their eyes on one hand they saw behind them a multitude of Ages corrupt as their own a Corruption which came by so long a descent to them that it appeared a natural state on the other hand they saw before them an Authority which swallowed them up a Clergy Magnificent Powerful Tyrannical Numerous rich and abounding in Spiritual and Temporal Thunders all this amazed them in such a manner that they could not distinguish the state in which they were We do not think them savable in this state but we think you far less so in the estate in which you are God by a blow from Heaven the most miraculous that ever was seen hath broken this dismal Charm he hath thundred he hath lightned from Heaven and dispersed this Darkness See whether you who have been Partakers of this Heavenly Light be in an estate to flatter yourselves with a Tolleration which God might have for your Ancestours so then if you gain any thing by your reasonings it will not be for you but for your Children for 't is of them concerning whom we may say it seems they were born in that Religion they were educated therein 't is probable God will save them although they do communicate in a Worship Impure and full of Superstitions But in truth you gain nothing either for your Children or yourselves The past time will return no more the times of Darkness and Ignorance may indeed return but the times of Tolleration and Sufferance will never return again That which is done can never be undone The Light of the Reformation hath cast abroad a very great Lustre and although at this day men endeavour to stifle it the memory thereof will never be extinguished and the Truth which we have set in so great a light can never be abolished For which reason both we and our Posterity in all following Ages are obliged to see follow and entertain this Light If we do otherwise there will be neither Excuse nor Illusion which will be able to save us out of the hands of the Judge of the World. IN the preceding Letter we sent you some News from Languedoc Behold a Letter that will tell you more we will give it you without any change or mutation You have heard of the Death of Monsieur de Cross Monsieur Brousson had bailed him seeing him sick in the Vessel which was to carry him with others into America He was an Example without Equal The Bishop of Marseilles told him Monsieur If your Religion be true I must confess that you are a Saint Let him die in his Religion and be buried in a Dormitory of the Turks He had not the grief to understand the death of his youngest Daughter who had been carried some little time since from the
number of their Nobility they Massacred more than three thousand of them they resolved to seize the Prince of Condy and the Admiral to cut off the Head of this and commit the other to perpetual Imprisonment To conclude they did not re-take their Arms but to repel those which were taken against them and to give way to the greatest necessity that ever was of defending themselves By these two Examples we may judge the Fidelity of Soulier in the rest The second thing which this Priest says upon occasion of that which we had said That in the Year 1659 we were not treated so ill as to incline us to a Conspiracy with the English 't was that even then the Court designed our Ruine that we knew it well and that it already appeared by many Declarations which had been published to our disadvantage which he quotes To this we answer That the design of the Clergy was to destroy us we do not doubt and that it may be the Court might have the same intents and purposes that 't is true some Declarations had been already published against us But we say That the fear of a future and uncertain Evil or some little present Evils did never engage us to make use of actual Conspiracies for our Preservation The Declarations and Decrees which the Clergy obtained against us were as yet nothing and then did us no Evil. The King himself granted us a National Synod at Laudun in the Year 1659 a Favour which had not been conceded to us since the Year 1641 an evident proof that the Court was not then under those wicked Inclinations in which it hath been since engaged or at least if it had already conceived the design of destroying us it was not possible for us to guess at it seeing their actions spake the contrary The third Argument of Falshood drawn from the State of England and France But to the sence of this second Argument drawn from the Condition of the Affairs of the Protestants in France we will add a third drawn from the State of Affairs in France and England at that time which will shew both the Ignorance and Bruitishness of Soulier himself and the other Authors of this Imposture They are pleased to affirm That in the Month of July in the Year 1659 we did treat with the English about their entring France We must enquire whether it be not a thing against all Sence at that time to attribute to the English a design of entring into France with Weapons in their hands through Guyenne First we must know that then the English were in the most strict Alliance with France which could be betwixt two States The English had caused their Troops to pass into Flanders to joyn those of the King Dunkirk was joyntly Besieged by both Nations it was taken from the Spaniards put into the hands of the English to the astonishment of all Europe and the scandal of all true French-men yea there were some that had the boldness to complain thereof by their Writings This may be seen in a Writing made by Monsieur Sillon to justifie the Conduct of Cardinal Mazarine his Master and in some of the printed Letters of Monsieur Coster Arch-Deacon of Mans. This Union of England and France was yet so great in 1660 that an English Garrison was received at Amiens to whom the publick Exercise of their Religion was allowed in the City This obliged the General Assembly of the Clergy to make complaint thereof to the King and to content them a Promise was made to give to the English a Farm-house in the Suburbs there to exercise their Religion out of the City Behold the English and French at Peace and perfect Correspondence and their Armies united against the Spaniard and France in so great a confidence of them that it delivers to them the important place Dunkirk and receives their Garrisons into their proper Cities When men make Fictions if they are not directly brutish they choose proper seasons for them he should have assigned to this Conspiracy of the Protestants of Guyenne some time in which France had been in War with England but in truth 't is to have a distempered mind to take a time of the most perfect correspondence that ever was between the two States But this is not all 't is needful to see in the second place the Condition of the Affairs of the English in themselves to know whether there be any probability that they then had a design of entring France It must therefore be remembred that Cromwell died in the Month of September 1658 and that from that time till the return of Charles the Second England was always in a dreadful Confusion as may be seen by the History of that time and by the News Books published one after another Richard was proclaimed Protector immediately after the death of his Father and he who hath collected the News of that time tells us See the Collection of News Ordinary and Extraordinary Relations and Reports of things happening in this Kingdom and elsewhere in the Year 1659. Printed at Paris 1660 with Priviledge That Richard did not think he could do better than preserve himself in the Friendship of those whose Alliance his Father had sought after and to continue War against those against whom his Father had declared it He continued therefore in a strict Alliance with France and at War with Spain Behold the man which they make to Treat with the Protestants of Guyenne to carry his Arms into France against the only Support that he could have to maintain himself in the place which he possessed who was otherwise uncapable thereof If Richard were not a mad man I don't understand how he could engage in this Affair This new Protector calls a Parliament in the beginning of the Year 1659 which is exactly the Year of the Conspiracy of Montpazier the Extraordinary of the sixth of March speaks of the opening of this Parliament and says That from the fifteenth of February to the twentieth it was employed in examining the Title and Rights of my Lord Protector In the following Sessions they endeavoured to Regulate the Power of this new Protector and to retrench the Excesses which he enjoyed to the prejudice of the Rights and Liberties of the Nation From that time behold Richard attacqued and yet he enterprizes new Work abroad which alone required a man and a whole Kingdom besides From the thirteenth of March there were great Contests in the Parliament touching the manner how it ought to be composed whether they should there permit two Houses the Upper and the Lower what persons ought to be received into the Upper House in case they suffered it to subsist These Differences continued all the Month of April with the utmost heat and with great violence and rage Behold these people in a good condition to carry Arms into France In the Extraordinary of the fifth of May is seen a large Remonstrance presented to the
the Poet said Furor arma ministrat Fury finds Arms and when they have no Cities they will take them There is some probability that Mr. Soulier knows how to read Latin for he hath transcribed three words thereof and this makes much to his honour against the Accusation of his Master Mesnier and Mr. Le Feure We answer to Mr. Soulier that we cannot warrant all the thoughts of other men but though it should be true that there were yet some reason to fear the Reformed as much abased and subjected as they are because Fury furnishes Arms yet there was no reason to fear them in the time of the Synod of Montpazier because then there was nothing which might move their Rage Lambs become Lions when they are run against the Walls The despair into which they thrust the Reformed might indeed have furnished them with Arms if God had not prevented those unhappy Commotions But it was impossible that the condition in which they were in 1659. should put them into that despair which puts them upon any thing and makes them sometimes successful therein An tighth Argument of Falshood and its Defence against the Wrangles of Soulier We drew an invincible Argument of Falshood against this wicked Piece from the Silence of the Court The King knew many Years since by the means of Joly Bishop of Agen and the Cardinal of Bouillion That they had formed a horrid Conspiracy in Guyenne against his State he knew the Authors thereof they were yet alive but he said nothing of it he did not chastise those who had made this bold Attempt He complained not of it any where and from whence comes this Spirit of Patience Have they forgiven the least fault to the Reformed for the space of twenty Years Have they not laid to their charge a thousand false Crimes Have they not had an open Ear for all their Accusors Have they not punished them severely for Faults falsely imputed and ill proved And would they neglect the punishment of Treason in him that was Principal therein who will believe it and whom can Soulier perswade of the truth of it Besides at what time was this Observe it was at a time in which they had sworn the Ruine of the Protestants in which they earnestly wished to find them culpable in which they did even all that can be imagined to make them so Was there any thing so much desired by the Clergy and the Court as to have a small occasion to say Seeing that our said Subjects have always persevered in a Spirit of Faction and Rebellion even in the times when they intirely enjoyed our Favour under the benefits of our Edicts as appears by the Conspiracy of Montpazier This would have been conveniently inserted in the Edict which revokes that of Nantes but there is nothing like it seen there they give no other reason there But that the greatest and the best part of our Subjects of the said Reformed Protestant Religion had embraced the Catholick so that the Edict of Nantes and all that had been granted in favour of the said Reformed Protestant Religion continues to no purpose It is very much worthy of Observation that only two Years before in the time when the utter Destruction of the Reformed was resolved the King gives a publick Testimony to their-Fidelity 't is in the Act of Oblivion granted to the pretended Rebels of Dauphine that is to say to those poor Men who were willing to pray to GOD upon the Ruine of their Churches without doing injury to any one but also without desires of being troubled there The King say I in the Oblivion which he granted to these men says The immoveable Fidelity of all our other Subjects of the said Religion hath inclined us rather to entertain thoughts of Clemency than of Rigour towards the Guilty How could it be that the Court should have such apprehensions of the Fidelity of the Protestants of the Kingdom if it had in its hand an Act capable of convincing them of desiring to expose the Kingdom as a prey to Strangers And if it had them not but knew well the Conspiracy of Montpazier and gave credit to it what could oblige it to insert a Clause so false in this Act of Oblivion I know very well that Kings in these fort of Acts pretend themselves satisfied oftentimes with persons which they do commend at that very season when they are least satisfied with them But it is when there is something to fear 't is when they would oblige men to lay down their Arms who are in a condition to make themselves feared and when actually and indeed they are afraid of them But I intreat you what is it that the King with 200000 Men in Arms without any foreign Wars hath to fear of a thousand or twelve hundred Peasants of Dauphine Vivarets and Cevennes of whom they had already massacred more than two thirds If Soulier can reconcile this with a pretended perswasion that the Court hath of the truth of the Conspiracy of Montpazier he will do us a kindness to do it But saith he the conclusion which they draw from the silence of the Court is no proof that it doubts the truth of this Act the liberty which the King hath given me of defending my self and maintaining it is an indisputable proof that his Majesty doth not doubt thereof A very fine proof The King hath permitted Soulier to defend this Piece therefore it is true and he believes 't is so First the King it may be knows not who this Soulier is and 't is known that these kind of Permissions pass by the means of a Father Confessour or some other Ecclesiastick who says concerning it what he pleases being much assured that he shall never be reprehended for it Besides behold a great Wonder that they suffer such a man as Soulier is to hazard his Reputation If he succeed to perswade this pretended Conspiracy of Montpazier with good luck the Court will always gain thereby and 't will be a reason and pretence to justifie its Conduct If he does not succeed therein the shame will remain upon him alone no name or person of Quality appears therein the hurt will not be great 'T is thus that men reason naturally in the World So that the Permission which the Court gives him to defend the truth of this Conspiracy is so far from being a mark of the value they have for him that 't is a proof they look on him as a Wretch which they abandon and leave as forlorn Let him shew us any man of Reputation which joyns with him in this Cause There is nothing more pleasant than to see the Value and Reputation which this Priest Soulier puts upon himself He demanded leave from the Court says he to defend himself and the King was pleased to permit it And speaking of an Author which goes for a person a little more able than he If this Writer expects I should do him the Honour
of Answering him This makes a man smile and he can hardly forbear to remember the Lesson which his Master Father Mesnier gave him Let every one meddle with his own Trade Ne Sutor ultra Crepidam Let not the Cobler go beyond his Last I never knew those Authors which took it for an Honour to have such an Antagonist First a Lacque secondly a sorry Mechanick thirdly a small Missionary though in the last place he be Monsieur the Abbot for men ascend by a criminal Ability more easily than by a true Merit But let us go on since we have begun and see what he says to prove the truth of his Act. If those saith he which are accused to have Signed this Act find themselves as Innocent as this Author would perswade us how comes it to pass that they have not attempted it since the time that my Book appeared in the World We have already answered to this How and before whom could they provide for the maintenance of their Innocencie seeing there was no Judge to receive their Complaints nor Notary who dared to receive their Protestations nor even a Bailiff that dare signifie the least thing on their behalf Soulier the Priest knows this the thing is of publick Notoriety and he hath the boldness to draw advantage from a Silence forced and which was impossible to be broken Therefore these Gentlemen speak when they can speak and I pray take the pains to hear them in the following Act UPon this day being the 24th of April 1687 the Gentlemen Joseph Asimont James Brun Isaac Goyon and James Philipot all Minsters fled to this City were personally present before me Henry Ram publick Notary admitted thereto by the Noble Court of Holland residing in the City of Amsterdam and in the prefence of the Witnesses under-named who at the desire of him to whom it appertains have said and do declare to be true and certain under Oath offered to them and made by them And first Monsieur Asimont alone saith That yesterday he received a Letter by which he is Summon'd and Adjur'd to speak the Truth on the subject of a pretended Act of the Synod held at Montpazier in Perigort in the Year 1659 which Monsieur Soulier has produced in his History of Calvinism at p. 552 of the Paris Edition containing in substance That the Ministers and Elders of Lower Guyenne assembled in Synod at the said Montpazier had made an Act to call the English to their Help and sollicite them to Arms for the Defence of their persecuted Churches Upon which Monsieur Joseph Asimont after he had read and considered exactly the Tenour of the said Act did say That indeed he remembers that he was chosen to draw up the Acts of the Synod of Montpazier but at the same time doth Protest and that with an Oath before GOD who searches the Hearts and as if he actually stood before the Tribunal of JESUS CHRIST who must Judge the Living and the Dead That he the first Deponent never drew up nor signed the said Act and that he never heard any thing spoken of it till since the said Soulier inserted it in his Writings and that therefore it is a Piece forged by a Spirit of Lies and he calls the GOD of Truth to be both Witness and Judge of this Imposture which bears in its own Characters the marks of its Falshood forasmuch as the said Act is said to be Signed by Durel Assistant which is notoriously false as may be seen by the Papers of the Acts of the Synod which were put into the hands of Monsieur de Villefranche de Vivans who assisted there on the behalf of the King and which Monsieur de Villefranche sent to the King's Council according to the Custom And afterwards the other Witnesses upon the same Summons did declare That they remembered that they assisted in the Synod of Montpazier in the Year 1659 from the beginning to the end that Monsieur de Villefranche was there sole Commissary of the King and that Monsieur Durel Minister to the Duke de la Force was not Assistant to the Moderator there but Monsieur Dorde Minister of the said Montpazier In this manner they did protest by Oath which they made to God That they heard nothing there of the Act alledged by Soulier in the said History of Calvinism in the 552 Page and that since that time they never heard any Minister or Elder speak of it nor any private person of the Reformed Religion but on the report which Monsieur Soulier hath made thereof alledging for reasons of their knowledge That they assisted at the Synod held at Montpazier from the beginning to the end and consequently what is above-said must be well known unto them This thus passed and done faithfully in the City of Amsterdam in the presence of John Hoekeback and Marcus Bauelaer called as Witnesses thereunto which I Testifie Henry Ram. WE Burgomasters and Governours of the City of Amsterdam do make known and certifie for Truth by these Presents That the Gentlemen Joseph Asimont James Brun Isaac Goyon and James Philipot all Ministers fled for Protection to this City did appear before us who at the desire of him to whom it appertains by solemn Oath have said declared affirmed and deposed the Contents of the Attestation and Affirmation abovesaid for all and every one of them did declare and affirm it to be true and certain after the reading of it unto them by the Secretary under-written So help them GOD. In Testimony whereof we have Sealed these Present by the Common Seal of this City the 25th of April 1687. The place of the Seal Pelters As to the Form nothing can be found to object against this Protestation It was received not only by Notaries but by the chief Magistrate of the most considerable City of the Country and is sealed with the Common Seal thereof As to the Sincerity of those who protest and attest it he must have renounced all Modesty ' who shall call it in doubt They are persons that are in a place of security who have almost nothing more to hope or fear from France it cannot be conceived that men would damn themselves by such an Oath as this for the maintenance of a Falshood If the Accusation were true why do they not permit Soulier and his Book to pass without saying any thing to it What great good can come to them hence forward when they shall have obliterated in the minds of the Publick the opinion that there was a true Conspiracy at Montpazier If the Affairs of the Reformed were in sound and good condition in France they might say That by this false Oath they have been desirous to prevent the Evils that such a thing if it were believed might draw upon the whole Body and also every single Member of it but at present when the business of our Ruine is consummate must he not have the Soul of a Devil and be willing to damn himself out of
That they are divided into three Sects of which Zuinglius Calvin and Luther made themselves the Heads That if the Spirit of God had sent them to Reform the Church he would also have united them in this great design and have inspired them with the same thoughts and the same apprehensions 5. To conclude they say that they have rent and torn each other by transports of Passion which are the true Characters of false Pastors and false Christians As to the first Objection I cannot avoid baptizing it by its own name and calling it an Impertinence Why should our Reformers work Miracles and why were they obliged thereunto When Jehu reformed the Church of Israel pull'd down the Temples of Baal broke in pieces his Statues rooted out his Prophets and abolished his Worship did he work Miracles or had he any need thereof Was it any spot to that Holy Reformation that Josiah made when he re-established the Service of God which was almost wholly under a heap of forreign Idolatries that he wrought no Miracles When Theodosius the Great reformed the Christian Church and drove away Arianism which was become the reigning Religion did he do Miracles or had he any need thereof There is no need to work Miracles but when men bring a new Religion and a new Revelation For that reason the Apostles wrought Miracles because they had a new Revelation to propose to the World. They brought a Gospel unknown to Jews and Gentiles and opposite to the prejudices of the one and the other We brought no new Gospel into the World we propounded the Old and the New Testament the one and the other were received without contradiction by all those Christians which we desired to reform When it shall please God to convert the Jews to Christianity according to his promises there is much probability that he will send them some Prophets which will work Miracles and that will be necessary For although the Gospel-Revelation be already manifested and we have the Books of the Evangelists and the Apostles nevertheless this is nothing with respect to the Jews because they do not esteem our Books Canonical but believe the Apostles to be Cheats and Impostors There is therefore need of new Miracles to recover them from their prejudices and oblige them to give attention to the truth But as for us it was in no wise necessary to work Miracles to establish that Book whereof we served our selves Otherwise as often as the Kings of Judah produced the Law of Moses to make Reformation in their Church they had been obliged to work Miracles They had nothing else to do but to produce the Book and make it evident that the Abominations which had been introduced into Religion were either forbidden or not commanded there Behold all that they had to do behold all that we have to do and 't is to misunderstand the Conduct of God and the Spirit of the Gospel to imagine that the truth cannot be commended to Unbelievers but by Miracles How many millions of men have been converted to Christianity since the days of the Apostles and the cessation of the gift of Miracles Miracles are designed to deliver men from their evil prejudices and to endue them with such as are good that they may hearken to the truth Men that believe not the Christian Religion but only for the sake of its Miracles are very ill-Christians And among those which became Converts by the preaching of the Apostles those who had no other reason to embrace this New Religion but the Miracles which they saw done by those which preacht it were very miserable Converts such persons are the seed of Apostacy and adhere to the Church but by a very feeble root We ought to adhere to it for the love of truth now 't is the knowledge of the truth and not the sight of Miracles which gives birth to the love thereof If Miracles be not necessary for the Conversion of Unbelievers with far greater reason they cannot be of necessity for the bringing back of wandring Christians to the right way For there needs no more but to shew them the holy Scripture which so exactly marks out the path in which they ought to walk As to what they say that those who will establish a new Ministry must have Miracles for the support of it 't is an Affair to be treated on elsewhere We have already said something concerning it and we shall have yet farther occasion to speak of it and shew that we have no more established a new Ministry than we have introduced a new Gospel Where there is no new Revelation there is no new Ministry our Ministry is that of the Apostles because our Doctrine is theirs The second Accusation which they make against the Authors of our Seperation is their Scandalous Life There is no probability say your Converts that God should suffer so strange an Alliance as that would be of a great abundance of the Spirit of Light on the one part and of so great disorders of Manners on the other And thereon they publish a hundred ugly stories to cry down the Memory of Luther Zuinglius Calvin Martyr Beza c. First we say that truth is truth without any dependance on those who declare it Your Converters have said somewhere That the Citizens of Babel may sometimes build Jerusalem 'T is a truth so certain that to deny it a man must be ignorant and false For in all Ages there have been very Evil men who have defended the part of truth and who have even maintained it against Hereticks whose Conduct and Manners have been very regular and oftentimes more edifying than that of the Orthodox We must not form a prejudice against the Doctrine upon the ill Conduct of those which preach it we must judge of Truth by it self So that although it should be true that our Reformers were such as they report them nevertheless it would behove us to see whether these Citizens of Babel were not the Builders of Zion But God forbid that we should have no other fortification to defend our selves We have made to appear the innocence of the Lives of the Authors of our Separation by Apologies of so much strength that their Calumniators have been covered with Confusion and the most part of our most resolved Enemies have been obliged to renounce them The Bolsacs the Bertheliers the Florimond de Raymonds and other like Calumniators ought to be the Horror and Execration of all Honest men The Author of the Legitimate Prejudices against the Calvanists and other like Authors who are willing to preserve themselves in the Esteem of Honest men fortifie and establish themselves upon notorious matters of fact such is for example Marriage of Priests Persons who have made a Vow of Chastity say they and who were obliged to celibate by so many Oaths have violated their Vows in the face of the Sun they have opened Cloysters to take Wives from thence and so have committed a
because that he well saw that his only Son would be forced to follow that Religion in which he began to be engaged he prayed God to take his Son out of the World and that he might see him die before he died himself Two days after the Son fell sick and in two days he died in the presence of his Father and the Father himself died the day after rendring a thousand Thanks to God that he had heard his Prayer and that he had taken them both out of this World to give them a better Life I learnt this Story from St. Maixent the 10th of August 1684. from two persons worthy of credit viz. the Husband and Wife who had a Child nursed by the Wife of the said Bardon he which made me the Report of this Matter is called Mr. Lavergnac Master of the Grange of the Village of Luzignan in Poitou a person of good credit and full of zeal for Religion his Wife also being present In the Year 1685. the 20th of January a Woman of Jonzac in Saintonge called Susan de Lisle the Wife of Boynard a Glover being with Child as she was in her House sitting upon a Settle by the Window rising up she felt that her Child stretcht it self in her Womb and at the same time she heard it utter a very extraordinary cry and a little after this Infant having again moved it self cried out about a quarter of an Hour with the true Voice of an Infant whereupon the Mother was much frighted and called some persons to help her she having then no body with her but her own Daughter about nine Years old who having plainly heard this cry said to her Mother my little Brothâ—r crys in in your belly this Child was born three Months and nineteen Days after this it was baptized at Linieres by Mr. Couyer Pastor of the said place and was a very vigorous Child and grew in six Months time twice as much as it ought to do We have learnt this story from Liniers from the mouth of the Mother of this Woman and from the Daughter which was present and from the Husband of the God-mother of the Child From Martinique the 24th of May 1687. MOnsieur Poysonnel who commanded a Frigate from Marseille which had taken two hundred Maids and Women and almost as many Gally slaves to bring hither was lost three days since as he was coming into this Town The whole number of persons which were on board the Vessel were 320 and were all drowned as 't is said excepting 30 of the Soldiers and Mariners This was by the imprudence of the Pilots God hath given rest to these poor miserable Creatures This Note teacheth us the sad and glorious end of the Confessors which we spake of to you Others write that this Shipwreck was by command because the Wind was very fair to bring them into the Haven of the Isle and that all the Soldiers and Mariners were saved As for me I will not prejudice the Spirits of men concerning this Fact it being an Action so enormous This is certain that God was pleased to deliver these blessed Confessors and snatch them from the cruel slavery which they had prepared for them August 1. 1687. The Twenty fourth PASTORAL LETTER That the Church of Rome is not visible and that she has no mark which makes her visible A confutation of those Means whereof Mr. Nicholas pretends to serve himself to make his Church visible Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ BEfore we pass to another part of the Controversie about the Church and leave the Question concerning its perpetual visibility and after examination of the visibility of the Church in general 't is needful that we take cognizance of the visibility of the Roman Church in particular 'T is needful that you say to your Converters since 't is so that the Church is always visible and that you are the Church help us to see her in and by what is the Roman Church visible If they shew you great Churches full of Men that pray and adore which hear Vespers and Mattins who prostrate themselves before Wafers and Images you will answer this is not to shew me the Church For if I were at Constantinople a Turk would shew me his Mosques all full of Worshippers which cry there is but one God and Mahomet is his Prophet Tell them If you please to go to London I will shew you the Church in England as you shew it me in France I will shew you great Churches full of men which pray and adore which prostrate themselves before God who pray and understand what they pray for 'T is unavoidable therefore that you shew me not Men and heaps of Stones which are called Churches but sensible and visible marks that Popery is the true Religion of Jesus Christ and that the Church of Rome is the true Church Add to this that the marks which they give you ought to be suitable to your capacity i. e. the capacity of plain persons and without learning For the space of twelve or fifteen Years the Popish Doctors of France have changed the Controversie this way The business is not to instruct the learned 't is acknowledged on both sides that the multitude and greater part of the Church is composed of men without learning and of plain people which must be saved as well as the more able From henceforth therefore it is necessary to furnish a means to the common people to inform them of the truth in matters of controversie and a means altogether suitable to their weakness Particularly in this Controversie Whether the Church of Rome hath certain and evident marks of her truth which make her visible For 't is an important Affair and which the weakest ought to understand It is certain that a Church cannot be visible in quality of a Church by any other means than what they call her marks of this we are at an agreement We must therefore see whether the Church of Rome hath those marks which may make the weakest perceive she is a true Church I will not here ingage you in that Labyrinth of Disputes which the Doctors of the Church of Rome have formed about the marks of that Church 'T is their manner to bury the truth under a prodigious heap of useless words and obscure questions I will not examine the sixteen marks which Bellarmine has given nor the forty which others have produced You cannot read those Books nor are they those which they put into your hands and since that time they are become more able in Sophistry Mr. Nicholas who is the last that hath laboured on this Subject has employed three Chapters to prove that the Church of Rome is very visible even to the most weak and plain In the first of these three Chapters he says * Chap. 17 18 19 of the 1st Book The Reformed convinced of Schism That a man may
prove the Church to the weakest by Scripture In the second That a man may prove the Church to the most weak by Tradition And in the third That the Church of Rome is not unfurnished with exterior marks which make her known to be the true Church to the weak Behold three Sources of visibility for the Roman Church 1. Tradition 2. Exterior Marks 3. The Scripture As this is one of the Books which your Converters put into your hands I do intreat you to give attention to what I have to say to you thereon I begin with Tradition They understand by Tradition the Testimony of the Fathers Councils and Authors of all Ages therefore the meaning is they can prove the Church of Rome is the true Church by the testimony of the Greek and Latin Fathers and by the Councils of the Greek and Latin Church And at first this is a contradiction that stares you in the face It may be proved says he to the weak by the Fathers and the Greek and Latin Councils that the Church of Rome is the true Church And how can a man prove to the weak a truth by the testimonies of the Greek and Latin Fathers To those which understand neither Latin nor Greek or who have neither means nor time to turn over the Leaves or read and examine these great Volumes Behold the way nothing more remains than to employ these two means the first is a Principle founded on a Rule of St. Austin that all Customs that are found universally established whose original and beginning we know not may be very justly ascribed to the Apostles The second means is included in this Syllogism which Mr. Nicholas makes The Scripture and Tradition teach that there hath been always in the World one Church visible and successive and that this Church is infallible for the instruction of believers in the truths of Faith. Now the Church of Rome is this only visible Church Therefore the Church of Rome is the infallible Church and to her alone it belongs to instruct men in the truths of Faith. And behold how Mr. Nicholas forms a light upon the first medium which makes the Church of Rome visible to the weak All the Traditions which the Hereticks dispute saye he have their certain Epoche's or beginnings which are not disputed by them The Calvinists agree that in the fourth Age men called upon Saints adored Reliques and observed Lent that in the seventh Age they worshipped Images in the eleventh they believed Transubstantiation The weak have no need to assure themselves of this matter of fact by way of examination for 't is confessed on both sides Apply the Principle of St. Austin that all Customs found universally established in one Age and whose beginning we know not may be justly attributed to the Apostles Now the customs of invoking Saints adoring Images observing Lent and worshipping the Sacrament are found generally established in some Ages as the Calvinists confess and we know not where to find the original of them therefore they ought to be referred to the Apostles A man cannot tell how many Illusions there are therein which are unworthy of an honest man yea a man of a good understanding First 't is to scoff at mankind to say 't is a light proper to make the Church visible to the weak For this method of reasoning doth necessarily suppose 1. That a person must know that this pretended Rule on which they support themselves is St. Austin's 2. That the Ministers consent to the truth of this rule 3. That they confess that upon certain times the customs of adoring Images praying to Saints c. were generally received 4. That from thence it follows that these customs generally established in some Ages ought to be referred to the Apostles All this is disputed and there are large Books written on the Subject which the weak cannot read and this requires an examination which is above the capacity of those which are not men of learning This is that which we have proved invincibly in our Answer to Mr. Nicholas * System of the Church l. 2. c. 16. Secondly It is to be observed that this fine Principle upon which this pretended Evidence is founded viz. the Rule of St. Austin is false especially if it be applied to all Ages It hath been observed that the Fathers of the fourth Age were very much inclined to support the Novelties crept into the Church upon the authorities of the Apostles and to make all things pass for Apostolick the beginning whereof the People were not then able to see It is therefore false that all Customs which are found establish'd in a certain Age although we be not able to find the beginning of them in a distinct manner ought to be ascribed to the Apostles For example The custom of adoring the Sacrament of the Eucharist was not generally established in the Latin. Church till the twelfth Age. Although we could not find the original of this Idolatry it were an impiety to attribute it to the Apostles There are certain Practices which are insensibly established by little and little the first point of whose original cannot be precisely observed It doth not follow therefore that we must ascribe the original to the Apostles We must attribute nothing to the Apostles but what is in their Writings 3. I observe that there is a faulty and shameful falseness in the application of the Rule Mr. Nicholas pretends that the Customs which are found generally established in certain Ages ought to be referred to the Apostles and that for this reason the custom of falling prostrate before Images must be referred to them because this custom is found generally established in the eighth Age. I do maintain that Mr. Nicholas does basely betray his conscience in this example for he is perswaded as well as I and all those Roman Catholicks in France which are men of knowledge and understanding do know that the Apostles did not establish Image-worship and these Gentlemen do not refuse to confess it when they are not in dispute Fourthly I say that this reasoning supposes a thing which is altogether false 't is that we are not able to find the original of those Customs which are generally established in certain Ages this is false the custom of praying to Saints is found established in the fifth Age. In our preceding Letters we have shewn the original and birth thereof In like manner we find in all the following Ages the birth of the Worship of Images of Purgatory the Sacrifice of the Mass the Real Presence and Transubstantiation They make a wrangling with us about it unworthy of honest men Shew us say they who was the first Heretick that taught either the Invocation of Saints or the Worship of Images or those other false Worships which you condemn I answer that I have no need to name their Author seeing I have shewn the Age of their birth I prove for example after a manner invincible that they did
advantage upon the Abyssines because they were very ignorant But King Claudias interposing therein had almost as much advantage on the Missionaries of Portugal as they had on the Ecclesiasticks of Aethiopia because he was without comparison the most able man of his Kingdom as well in Divinity as in the Art of Government Oviedo seeing that he got nothing by these ways resolved to employ those which were more violent He left the Court to testifie his displeasure and published a Writing injurious to the Abyssine Church in which he accused it of many Heresies and forbad the Portugese to have any Communion with it The King was angry also on his part but a little while after he was slain in a Battel and left his Brother Adamus Saghed Successor to his Realm This Prince used more rigour against Oviedo and his Companions he revoked all those Acts of Grace which his Predecessors had granted to them He forbad them upon pain of death to trouble his Estates by their new Gospel The Bishop withdrew to Fremone upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom and there abode thirty years with the Portugese under the Title of the Patriarch of the Abyssines which he took after the death of John Barrett Adam Saghed died and his Son Malec Saghed succeeded him He treated the Portugese more kindly and they being reformed by the correction they had received acted more wisely and with greater moderation Nevertheless this Mission was extinct because they had no way of sending Successors the Turks having possessed the Ports of the Red-Sea which gave admission into Aethiopia And the Portugese which would have converted all the Nation were found without Priests to give them the Communion But in the beginning of this Age in the year 1604. a Jesuit named Peter Pais was more happy than all those who had preceded them He entered into Aethiopia and made himself admired by an Ability which although it were but very indifferent seemed extraordinary among people which knew nothing He came to the Court of Zadengel who was then King of Aethiopia and managed him so well that he obtained an express Promise from him that he would submit to the Pope and the Religion of the Romans This Prince began with an Ordinance which forbad the observation of Saturday or the Sabbath which the Abyssines venerate as the Lord's Day The Great Men of the Realm being provoked by this Enterprize conspired against him and slew him after a Battel in which he was not successful Behold already the death of one King which Papery caused in Aethiopia This death cost the Jesuit Converters nothing on the contrary they found in Susneus the Successor of Zadengel a Protector much more proper to make the Minister of their Violence Susneus permitted himself to be managed by these Missionaries of Portugal in such a manner that they prevailed with him to declare openly that he would change the Religion of the Country and submit the Abyssine Church to the Pope He wrote concerning it to Clement the Eighth and to Philip King of Spain who was then also King of Portugal Many Great Lords of the Court and Officers of the Army out of complaisance to their King embraced the Religion of the Romans and communicated with them Susneus having received many kind Letters from Paul the Fifth writ to him again another Letter dated the 31th of January 1613. by which he acknowledges him for Pastor of the Universal Church and desires his assistance to confirm his Religion This Prince guided by the Jesuits to the end that they might do things a little in form caused many Conferences to be held upon the Question of the two Natures in Christ Jesus For the Aethiopians following the Schism of Eutyches acknowledge in him but one But the truth is there is at this day nothing but a dispute of words thereon for the Eutychians acknowledge the Divinity and Humanity in Christ Jesus but it pleases them to say this Union makes but one Nature compounded of two as the Body and Soul in Man make but one Compound so that 't is certain that we may very well give our selves indulgence therein but 't is not of the Spirit of Popery to tollerate any thing The King at the sollicitations of the Jesuits made an Edict by which he ordained That henceforward they should believe two Natures in Christ Jesus The Abyssine Monks which fell in the Dispute sustained themselves in their ignorance with obstinacy in their Opinion but one of them having spoken a little too freely was brought before the King and was beaten with a stirrup-leather Behold the Spirit of Popery which began to discover it self without disguise This first Violence awakened their sleeping Spirits Simeon the Metropolitan of the Abyssines came to Court he complains That without consulting him they had done such things upon Religion The King answered That for his satisfaction there should yet be a Conference on that subject The consequence was that after the Conference the Jesuits obtained an Edict by which it was forbidden on pain of death to say there was but one Nature in Christ Jesus This frightful Decree was a clap of Thunder which seemed to reduce the whole Empire of the Abyssines into powder and Aethiopia knew then by experience what Evils the Spirit of Popery drew along with it all the Realm was alarmed and the most moderate lost their moderation and considered that in truth the Controversie about two Natures in Christ in the estate in which now it was was of no importance but that such a severity was unheard of in Aethiopia since the times of the Apostles and that it was wholly opposite to the nature of the Christian Religion for which Religion they concluded they must not suffer such Violence Jamanaxus Brother by the Mothers side of the Emperour puts himself at the head of a very powerful Confederation into which many great Lords entered with all the Church-men and a great part of the People The Metropolitan Simeon who strove less against the two Natures in Jesus Christ than for his Dignity which they would have taken from him in favour of him whom it should please the Pope to name excommunicated all those which followed the Religion of the Franks for so they call the Religion of the Romans This boldness caused some fear to the Emperour he grew a little moderate and made another Edict in which he gave Liberty of Conscience to all his Subjects and in all appearance he had continued so to do if he had followed his own Inclinations But at the instigation of the Jesuits he returned to more violent Counsels The Queen-Mother the Metropolitan the Church-men and the Monks threw themselves at his feet in favour of the ancient Religion but he rejected them all with violence so that there was no more hopes of Peace Jamanaxus the King's Brother Elias his Son-in-Law Governour of the Province of Tygris with a great Party resolved to oppose the Violence by force The Metropolitan