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A56905 Synodicon in Gallia reformata, or, The acts, decisions, decrees, and canons of those famous national councils of the reformed churches in France being I. a most faithful and impartial history of the rise, growth, perfection and decay of the reformation in that kingdom, with its fatal catastrophe upon the revocation of the Edict of Nants in the year 1685 : II. the confession of faith and discipline of those churches : III. a collection of speeches, letters, sacred politicks, cases of conscience, and controversies in divinity, determined and resolved by those grave assemblies : IV. many excellent expedients for preventing and healing schisms in the churches and for re-uniting the dismembred body of divided Protestants : V. the laws, government, and maintenance of their colleges, universities and ministers, together with their exercise of discipline upon delinquent ministers and church-members : VI. a record of very many illustrious events of divine providence relating to those churches : the whole collected and composed out of original manuscript acts of those renowned synods : a work never be extant in any language. Quick, John, 1636-1706.; Eglises réformées de France. 1692 (1692) Wing Q209; ESTC R10251 1,424,843 1,304

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Effigies Reverendi Viri IOHANNIS QUICK S ti Evangely Ministri an o Aetat 55o. SYNODICON in GALLIA REFORMATA SYNODICON IN Gallia Reformata OR THE Acts Decisions Decrees and Canons Of those Famous National Councils OF THE REFORMED CHURCHES IN FRANCE BEING I. A most Faithful and Impartial History of the Rise Growth Perfection and Decay of the Reformation in that Kingdom with its fatal Catastrophe upon the Revocation of the Edict of Nants in the Year 1685. II. The Confession of Faith and Discipline of those Churches III. A Collection of Speeches Letters Sacred Politicks Cases of Conscience and Controversies in Divinity determined and resolved by those grave Assemblies IV. Many excellent Expedients for preventing and healing Schisms in the Churches and for re-uniting the dismembred Body of divided Protestants V. The Laws Government and Maintenance of their Colleges Universities and Ministers toge●●er with their Exercise of Discipline upon delinquent Ministers and Church-members VI. A Record of very many illustrious Events of Divine Providence relating to those Churches The whole Collected and Composed out of Original Manuscript Acts of those Renowned SYNODS A Work never before Extant in any Language In Two VOLUMES By JOHN QUICK Minister of the Gospel in London LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst and J. Robinson at the Three Bibles and Crown in Cheapside and the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard 1692. TO THE Right Honourable WILLIAM EARL of BEDFORD BARON of THORNHAVGH Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Middlesex Cambridge and Bedford Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and one of the Lords of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council May it please your Lordship SEals as Coats of Arms an a kind of Hieroglyphicks Those Mother-Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont where our holy Religion hath been conserved in its Power and Purity during that long black night of Popish Superstition and Idolatry had this for their Common Seal A Taper burning in a golden Candlestick scattering its glorious Beams in a Sable Field of thick darkness It is a truth incontestable that most of the European Nations do stand indebted to them for that comfortable Knowledge of the blessed Gospel of our Lord Jesus which is now shining forth in its Meridian-Glory in the midst of them The Famous Waldo of Lions was their near Neighbour and received his most Excellent Instructions together with that Book of Life the Holy Bible from them And Lollard that famous Preacher in England from whom God's Saints and Martyrs with us four hundred years ago were denominated was one of their Barbes I have met my most Noble Lord with another Seal as Illustrious an Hieroglyphick as the former appertaining unto the National Synods of those Renowned and once Flourishing though now Desolate Reformed Churches of France which was Moses's Miraculous Vision when he fed his Flock under the Mount of God viz. A Bramble-Bush in a flaming Fire having that Essential incommunicable name of God Jehovah engraven in its Center and this Motto Comburo non consumor in its Circumference I burn but am not Consumed With this those venerable Councils Sealed all their Letters and Dispatches A sacred Emblem of their past and present Condition Whilst Mystical Babylon Spiritual Sodom and Egypt where our Lord hath been in his most pretious Truths and Ordinances and in his dearest Saints and Members for many Ages successively Crucified did swim in the calm Ocean of Worldly Riches and Grandeurs in the pacifick Seas of secular Felicities and Pleasures Poor Zion in that bloody Kingdom of France hath been in the storms and flames hath passed from one fiery Tryal unto another from Cauldrons of boyling Oyl into burning Furnaces heated with fire seven times hotter than before she hath been driven from populous Cities and the pleasant Habitations of Men unto the cold snowy Lebanon to the high craggy tops of Amana and Shenir to the frightful Dens of Lions and to the horrid Mountains of Dragons and Leopards Why their Heavenly Father should afflict and exercise so frequently and so severely these his Children and Churches he himself informeth them by that weeping Prophet All thy Lovers have forgotten thee They seek thee not for I have wounded thee with the Wound of an Enemy with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of thine Iniquities because thy Sins were increased Why criest thou for thy Afflictions Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity because thy Sins were increased I have done these things unto thee And in truth the mournful Relicks of these Calamitous Churches do justify God in all the evil that is befallen them do condemn themselves and kiss his Rod accepting patiently the punishment of their Iniquity But this Bramble-Bush though always burning is not consumed This is a Miracle of divine Mercy entailed upon them for many Generations I will mention the loving kindnesses of Jehovah and the praises of Jehovah according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed on them and his great goodness towards the House of Israel which he hath bestowed on them according to his Mercies and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses In all their affliction he was afflicted with them and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old When they passed through the Waters he hath been with them and through the Rivers they have not drowned them and though they have walked through the fires yet they have not been burnt up those Flames have purified and refined but not devoured them And though these last storms like the Fluctus decumani have been the worst and forest yet they have not been without Illustrious tokens of God's gracious presence with them and most merciful providence over them He hath made the Earth to help the Woman he hath spread a Table for their sustenance in the Wilderness and provided for them in their flights dispersions and banishments a most quiet habitation and in this last and greatest persecution that ever did befal them they have found in this Land as well as in other Protestant Countries an inviolable Sanctuary and which cannot but be observed it was in that very juncture when those two smoaking Firebrands Rezin with Syria and the Son of Remaliah were in a joint Confederacy totally to extirpate the blessed Gospel as out of France so out of these Fortunate Islands they met with a safe Harbour in Great Brittain The pernicious Plot was carried on as vigorously here at home against the Reformation as it was cruelly Executed in Kibroth Hattaavah that Land of Graves from whence they fled and where thousands of God's Saints were buried alive When the Bartholomaean Massacre was projected in the last Age there was a design to have tricked over some of our most Noble Patriots unto that unfortunate Marriage in which more Blood was drunk than Wine who should have been Sacrificed together with that Valiant Lord
of Grace all other our Brethren who he groaning under the heavy Yoak and Burden of Afflictions that he would restore unto them the Consolations of his Spirit and put an end in his appointed Time according to his own good Pleasure unto all their Anguish and Sufferings Those many and sad Objects which are daily presented to our Eyes of a multitude of Refugees who were once themselves a Refuge unto the Faithful from the Storm and a Covert from the Tempest but being now saved by a mi●aculous out-stretched Arm from a most calamitous Shipwrack are wandring up and down seeking an Ark and Retreat from this overflowing Deluge and sheltring themselves as in a Sanctuary in this our poor City will not permit us to leave our God alone nor to give him any Rest till by our most importunate Prayers we have prevailed with him to stir up the Bowels of his Compassions for the deliverance of his Children And we also pour into your Bosoms the Sentiments of this Grief which as on the one hand it cannot but move our Sympathies so on the other hand it doth make us seriously reflect on God's Methods and Dealings with his Churches and principally to consider his exquisite Trials of Church-Officers who be constituted by him Overseers in his House and Service and were bound to sanctify his Name in their Performances lest he should sanctify himself upon them by his Judgments This was what he had denounc'd against all that draw near unto him and they have seen it executed in its Perfection Besides we cannot in these last Troubles of the Church but observe how poor and feeble a thing an Arm of Flesh is and how very perillous thole Succors and Assistances are which Men receive from it Whereas the true Shields and Bucklers of Salvation do belong to God who only hath the Priviledg and deserves the Glory of his Churches Protection and Deliverance And in this Confession the Faithful knowing that the Assistance of Heaven is promised unto those who do patiently wait for it as you your selves most honoured dear Brethren have frequently sensed and experienced in your Trials do always prefer the Resolutions and Weapons of the Spirit of God to the Counsels of the Flesh that so there may not be the least pot reflected or fastned upon the Gospel And those who despise Dignities and subject them to the Power of that Man of Sin to be trampled under foot by him may be ashamed and confounded at their Lies and Calumnies cast upon us from those evident Testimonies of our Loyalty and Fidelity which according to the Gospel is rendred unto God and unto those to whose Authority he hath subjected our Persons and Estates in this World And this will be most clearly owned and acknowledged even then whenas Pastors shall intend the interiour Service of the Sanctuary which is the Edification of precious and immortal Souls and do not walk according to the World nor fear their Fear but glorify God in the Day of their Tribulations by an absolute and intire resignation of themselves to him and dependance on him whom they must need know can never divest himself of that Care and Charge of them which he hath once took upon him so expresly and particularly as to be their Guardian their Fortress their strong Tower and a Wall of Fire and Brass round about his Church marching as their Captain-General in the Van and Front and bringing up the Rear-guard of his Israel whilst that the Priests are wholly busied and imployed in carrying the Ark of his Covenant And we do not speak this as taking upon us to be the Judges of any one's Work but with all due Respects communicating to you the Sentiments of our Consciences which we hope will be approved also by your Reverences we do hereby express the most affectionate Desires of our Souls that the Breaches in the Temple of God may be repaired and that the Face of our Lord Jesus Christ may shine forth more gloriously upon our Brethren and our selves unto Salvation by the Spirit of his Power in the Gospel of his Glory waiting always for that blessed Hope of his last Coming whose near Approaches are notoriously visible and conspicuous from those frequent Travel-Pangs of the Church and general Convulsions and Shakings of the Nations infallible Harbingers and Fore-runners of his glorious Appearance before which we comfortably hope that having chastised his Church he will turn the fiery Stream and Current of his Judgments upon the Enemies of his Truth and Glory and will most effectually by the Spirit of his Mouth destroy the Son of Perdition True indeed there is one thing which cuts the Sinews of our Hopes and obstructs the Progress of this Divine Work and exceedingly damps and saddens our Hearts to wit that incredible and astonishing Stupidity of vast Numbers of Persons who harden themselves in their Sins under the Rods of God's Wrath and do sottishly yield unto the Temptations of the Devil in the Hour of their Trials Yet notwithstanding we be greatly comforted most Honoured Lords and Brethren at the glad Tidings of those excellent Fruits which the Lord's Visitation hath produced in many of your Churches once again bringing into use and exercise those Graces and Vertues so necessary for the Faithful and so difficult to be exerted and practised in Times of Prosperity such as the love of God's Word contempt of the World and kindling again a Fire of holy Zeal by the Spirit of God upon the Altar of the Sacred Ministry to the conviction of Sins and Errors and the reformation of Life and of former Miscarriages and the strengthning of the infirm and weaker Christians This is a demonstration of the Spirit and Power of God who is not only magnified in rescuing of his Church whenas the World gave her up for lost but also as we are from all Parts credibly informed and for which we rejoice together with you in our Lord in manifesting the Power of his Truth whenas the Adversaries taking occasion from your Afflictions believed that it was as easy for them to triumph by their Sophistry over the Doctrine of the Gospel as to throw down your sorry Ramparts of Earth but they have in truth sound the Rock of God's Word to be then inexpugnable whenas there was least of the Work of Man and the Truth then most prevalent and invincible when discovered in its primitive native Beauty and Simplicity Whence we ground our Hopes and Considence that God who hath poured out his Blessing upon your Labours will not begin and advance his Work to destroy it nor will he build his Sion with your Hands and at last abandon it unto those of his most cruel Enemies Wherefore most honoured Lords and Brethren The Joy and Crown of God's Churches be you incouraged in the Lord and whatsoever Difficulties may befal you from without or from within by those who suffer themselves to be debauched by this evil World do you be fortified in your