in itself is inconsistent with the Foundation I say in itself and by itself for men find ways of reconciling all things Impiety and Religion Piety and Superstition But we may not conclude That all that which men do joyn together is in itself reconcileable and compatible The Roman Church hath a hundred Errours and Practices of this sort her Worship of Saints Images Reliques and of the Sacrament is not by any means reconcileable with the Worship of the true God and with true Faith in Christ Jesus There is yet a third Advice which I have to give you on this subject 't is that to be able to say as you do That the Church of Rome confesses all fundamental Truths 'T is necessary not only that she hold the fundamental Truths of the Christian Religion but also those of Natural Religion 'T is a Fundamental of Natural Religion that we ought to Worship God the Church of Rome retains this Fundamental 'T is another Fundamental of Natural Religion that there is but one God and that we must Worship none but him Popery has ruined and rejected this Fundamental for it Adores a many other things beside God So that to speak properly we cannot say that the Church of Rome retains all Fundamentals We might yet observe other Fundamentals which flue receives not Don't flatter yourselves therefore my Brethren any more by this wicked Illusion The Roman Church confesses all fundamental Truths therefore we may continue there in safety For that reasoning is no better than this This Wine retains all the substance the strength the tast and the spirits of Wine therefore we may drink of it with safety though it be mingled with Poison Idolatry Errours and Superstition take away from the Doctrines of Christianity all that which is saving in them We are obliged to continue in Union with the Roman Church rather than make a positive Separation which is contrary to all the Duties of Charity and which instead of bringing back those which Err produces nothing but an eternal Distance and Animosity This is that which your Apologist says concerning which you ought to know That Christian Truths are Friends and do not desire that we should sacrifice one for the other We must not sacrifice Faith and Truth for Charity 'T is a false Charity which makes those that are re-united to the Church speak thus 't is indeed self-love and the love of ease If they could find means to cast off the Popish Superstitions which are uneasie to them from Religion without prejudice to their own Advantages it is sure that they would do it without having any regard to Charity and without concerning themselves about the scandal of Separation and the trouble of their Country-men For which reason while the King permitted every one to live peaceably without offering Violence to his Conscience Separation did not appear scandalous unto them I intreat you my Brethren to know and examine yourselves thereon do not suffer the Devil and Self-love to illude you and disguise himself into Charity and an Angel of Light. Charity demands Toleration I confess it but it hath its bounds For it is not expedient that you imagine that we ought to suffer all things under pretence of Charity Popery is Anti-christianity you can't doubt it without blinding yourselves Popery hath fundamental Errours to conclude Popery hath spoiled the Efficacy of those fundamental Truths which it hath preserved and by consequence is in no condition to require or expect Toleration Instead of bringing back those that Err Schism produces nothing but an eternal Distance and Animosity say you Do you think that this lead Complaisance which you are willing to have for those that Err is capable of reducing them Will you not confirm them in their Errours by living with them communicating with them and by partaking in their false Mysteries But let us hear what you have farther to say to us In the second place you say we do maintain That persons do not necessarily partake in the Errours of a Communion in which they are This is that you told us in the beginning of this Writing Abuses introduced by Governours cannot be imputed to the Faithful You add The common Confession of Faith ought to be esteemed as an Agreement to live together under the same Ministery but we are not therefore accountable for all the Abuses which may be or can be introduced into this Mnistery My Brethren this second thing which you tell yourselves and one another is no better than the former Where have you found that Abuses introduced by Governours may not be imputed to the Faithful Do you not very well know That there are no Abuses in the Church which have not been introduced either by the Malice or by the Ignorance of Governours They are the Doctors and Teachers which frame Heresies Were not those private persons seduced by Arrianism culpable because that Heresie was introduced by the Bishops Are you obliged to follow your Governours without examination Have you not a reasonable Mind as well as we And ought you not to make a good use of it And if you fail therein do you think that God will fail to take an account of you for it If we mull give no account of the Abuses introduced by Governours when the People of Israel suffered themselves to be seduced by a false Pastor to commit Idolatry were they not therefore culpable Nevertheless you see how God on such occasions thunders against both People and Governours When the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch saith our Lord. He did very ill to speak so according to your Principles there was no body but the first blind man that lead the way who ought to fall into the Ditch Jesus Christ said to the Jewish Doctors You compass sea and land to make a Proselite and when you have gained him you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourself And why so why doth this poor Proselite become a-Child of Hell since he follows his Governours yea Governours which had a lawful Call and were Pastors of the Church If Truth be the only way to Heaven it concerns you much how you go out of it be it of your own inclination or by the instigation of another you will always fill short of Heaven Whether you go to Hell or whether another leads you thither what difference will it make will you not be certainly there Discharge yourselves therefore of this pernicious Chimera That you are not at all accountable for Abuses introduced by your Guides But you say Me do not partake necessarily in the Errours of a Communion where we are How do you understand that whilst you subscribe these Errours and practise these Idolatries There are Errours of Speculation and Errours of Practice the means of not partaking in Errours of Speculation is openly to disavow them without Scruple or Hesitation The means of not partaking in Errours of Practise which are Superstitions and Idolatries is to
separate a stream from the Channel says he 'T is true the Channel remains in the Church of Rome we agree with them in that from the first Bishop of Rome to the last we see no considerable interruption either History is not to be credited or Bishops have succeeded one to another Behold the Channel mark'd and noted But by misfortune they have separated the River from the Channel and in this Succession of Bishops there has succeeded a dirty and impoisoned River to pure water and to a clean and clear River Monsieur de Meaux is very happy therefore in his comparison in this small Paragraph but he is not so altogethet in that which follows And to vaunt says he themselves of the understanding of the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserved the Waters after the Pipes are broken Surely if the Waters were no where but in the Channel Monsieur de Meaux and his Brethren had some reason on their side but 't is happy for us and mischievous to them that the Water is in the Fountain before it can be in the Channel The Channels may be broken the Bishops Successors of Seats may become Antichristian The Fountain of the Gospel-Doctrine continues always pure in the Holy Scripture It had been very fine if they had reason'd so at the time when Jesus Christ came into the World. The Pharisees and Doctors of the Law were in Moses's Chair and as such Jesus Christ commanded to hear them but according to the new Philosophy of our Doctors our Lord should have done otherwise for instead of thundering against the vain Ceremonies and false Glosses of these Doctors which corrupted the Law he ought to have followed them and caused his Disciples to do so to For to boast of understanding the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserved the Waters after the Pipes are broken The Pipes that is the Doctors were broken but did not the purity of the Law remain in the Books of Moses as in his Fountain Let that be remembred therefore and never be forgotten The Gospel-Church in this regard is in no better condition than the ancient Synagogue This had its Pharisees and false Priests in the Chair of Moses that hath its false Bishops in the Chair of the Apostles and Founders of Christianity Let it be remembred also that when the Pipes are broken and the Rivers corrupt we have the Fountain Jesus Christ had recourse thither he said From the beginning it was not so Frankly therefore 't is to delude and ridiculously to delude when they speak of a Succession of Chairs at least unless it be proved that Truth hath remained in them and that Infallibility hath always been placed there and that in matters of Doctrine there have been made no Innovation And thither Monsieur de Meaux comes at last The Doctrine and understanding of Scriptures says he is come even to him without any change or alteration And it has been the pleasure of God that it should come to us from Pastor to Pastor and from hand to hand without any appearance of Innovation This is easily said but I do not understand how persons that write in an Age so knowing and illuminated as ours is should have the impudence to advance such a thing that since S. Paul to the Bishop of Meaux the Doctrine is come down without any Innovation My Brethren 't is an important point 't is an Article about which they do miserably blind you 't is a voice that founds perpetually in your ears and does almost make you deaf Antiquity Tradition constant Succession and Perpetuity of Faith and how do they prove it to you They tell you the Church is infallible therefore it can't err nor turn aside from sound Doctrine Secondly Monsieur de Meaux tells you If there had been such changes among us the Authors thereof would have been named the Spirit of Truth which is in the Church would have noted them and their Names would have been infamous as that of the Arrians and Nestorians c. So that all which has been told us concerning insensible changes in Doctrine whereof they do not produce any example in the Christian Church is nothing but a vain accusation Thirdly To conclude they take up certain Shreds of the Fathers which they set to be seen with Glosses and in a false light and afterwards tell you boldly behold the Conformity of the Fathers with us behold the Succession of the same Opinions in the same Seats There has happened no change or alteration This say I deserves that we stay on it a little for 't is the fountain of Illusions by which they have seduced and made some new Converts Concerning the first of these three Proofs which is drawn from the Infallibility of the Church we hope at some time to shew you the absurdity of that pretension We will prove that all that which M. Nicholas and M. Pelisson have advanced to prove the necessity of this infallible Authority without which according to them truth cannot be found is a Contexture of Fallacies which lead Men directly to impiety But in expectation thereof my dear Brethren we intreat you to give attention to what we are about to say concerning this sovereign and infallible Authority of the Church of Rome I will give you two general methods by which without any great difficulty you may be able to quit your selves of the Fallacies of your Converters First tell me is there any reason can hold good against experience The Church of Rome can't err I 'll prove it say they by just proofs and demonstrations because the Church can't be left without a Guide because private and particular persons can't understand the Scriptures because there is a necessity that an Interpreter which ought to guide others cannot himself be deceived Behold that which is the most stately and magnificent reasoning in the world But by blowing upon these pompous Reasons of Right I will make them vanish by one sole Proof and Demonstration of Fact. 'T is that the Roman Church hath erred an hundred times by introducing Images into Churches and establishing the Invocation of Saints in taking the Cup from the Laity and in causing a Sacrament to be adored c. Call to mind my Brethren the Man to whom the Philosopher proved by subtleties which he could not answer that there was no such thing as motion After having long labored under the weight of his Fallacies he rose up briskly and walkd about the Room You find your selves often perplexed with the Sophisms invented to support the ways of Prescription and to prove the blind submission which ought to be had for the Church of Rome I do not doubt but you are oftentimes in some perplexity in this respect But go briskly out of that perplexity and always come to this The Church of Rome
St. Chrysostom and St. Austin Sermons or Works that are none of theirs and a man needs but indifferent Learning and little Sincerity to be convinced thereof But Father Crasset who has neither the one nor the other neither Skill nor Science takes and gives all for good In the Fifth Age he quotes Cyril of Alexandria who is surely one of the first which gave occasion to the Religious Worship of the Virgin. For by opposing Nestorius who would not suffer Mary to be called the Mother of God he passed unto the other extreme and advanced as far and as high as he could the praises of the Virgin Mary Nevertheless this might be reduced to Apostrophes Figures of Oratory and great Elogies but there is nothing of Invocation therein No Author of the Fifth Age speaks more expresly nor vehemently of the Invocation of Martyrs and of the Worship which is given to the Reliques than Theodoret. Nevertheless in the passage which Father Crasset quotes from him in his Commentary on the words of Solomon's Song My beloved is one there is nothing that favours the Worship of the Virgin in the least He applies these words My Dove my only one to the Virgin and that were the place to speak of the honour which ought to be given to her if ever there were any But all that he says concerning her is that she is the Mother of God a pure Virgin that all Nations call her blessed that she is the Dove and the only one which brought Christ Jesus into the World that in Charity she surpasses the Cherubims and Seraphims That were the place to have said that we ought to commend ourselves to her Charity and invoke her as our Mediatrix To conclude let these Gentlemen find us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages Chappels and Oratories consecrated to the Virgin as they find them consecrated to the Martyrs unless it be about the end of the Fifth age Now this being supposed I dare say that a man must have renounced all honour all modesty all sincerity and all judgment not to confess that here is an indubitable evidence that Invocation of Saints was a Novelty in the Fourth and Fifth Ages For these men had been fools not to have invoked the Virgin in those times when they invoked St. Protais and St. Gervais if they established Invocation upon the merit the dignity and the reputation that these Saints might have with God. I would fain know if those two Giants which suffered Martyrdom under Decius were in condition to intercede with God with so much efficacy as this Virgin-Mother to the Saviour of the World This false Worship had its birth from that foolish love which men had for Reliques And as they had no Reliques of the blessed Virgin so they consecrated no Churches or Chappels to her and in consequence thereof they did not call upon her We shall bring you yet in what follows new Proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts LEt us take up again at present what follows of the Illusions which the New Converts make for themselves who endeavour to lay their Consciences asleep They conclude two things 1. That all the fundamental Truths of Christianity being Confessed by the Church of Rome they are obliged to remain with her so you go on These fundamental Truths which Popery hath preserved are the Articles of the Three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Niece or Constantinople and that which is call'd by the name of St. Athanasius 'T is true that the Church of Rome hath retained these but to conceive how you cheat yourselves I intreat you to suppose Christians which receive these three Creeds and who nevertheless Adore the Sun the Moon the Earth and almost all the Idols of Paganism you will say that these things are inconsistent But you deceive yourselves for there is nothing more possible than that that a man should believe God is the Creatour of Heaven and Earth that Jesus Christ is his eternal Son and the Creatour of the World that he was Born that he Died that he was Crucified that he will come to Raise and Judge the Living and the Dead and nevertheless that he should believe that we may Adore the Earth the Trees the Sun and Moon because God does animate and fill them The Greed says not that we must Worship none but God yea it says not that we must Worship him So that a Religion may receive the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Universal Church and adore every thing but God Why may not men be capable of Adoring the Stars because God fills them since they Adore Bread under a supposition that Jesus Christ is there after a manner invisible precisely as God is in the Stars and Elements It is therefore a particular Providence that Christians who Adore the Eucharist are not fallen so far as to Adore the Sun Moon and Stars for I do maintain that the Papists may be carried to Adore a Stone as naturally as they are carried to Adore the Bread in the Eucharist on supposition that Jesus Christ is included under it Suppose you that they were come so far would you yet say Since all the fundamental Truths are Confessed by this Communion which Adore the Sun and Moon yea Stones we are obliged to continue with it Learn you therefore that we may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and build thereon Dung Poison and all sorts of Impurities The spirit of Man is capable of reconciling those things that are molt irreconcileable Behold another thing whereof you ought to be advertised that you ought to distinguish fundamental Truths from fundamental Errours You imagine that to retain all the fundamental Truths and to have no fundamental Errours is the same thing and because we do confess the Roman Church retains all the fundamental Truths you think that we confess to you that she has no fundamental Errours In this you are much mistaken a person may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and add thereunto fundamental Errours I gave you an Example in men who might believe the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Church and which might add under a hundred false pretences of Devotion Pagan Idolatries I do maintain that a man may adopt into the Religion of Christians almost all the Abominations of the Bonzes of Japan and the Brachmns of India without any formal Renunciation of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith. I demand if whilst men retain the fundamental Truths they do not add fundamental Errours by espousing these Pagan Worship 'T is exactly that which the Church of Rome has done upon the Foundations of Christianity she hath built a thousand Superstitions which are purely Pagan Popery is Paganism renewed and built upon Christianity 't is an Idol Temple raised upon the Temple of Jesus Christ. A fundamental Errour is therefore an Errour or Practice which
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
hath erred therefore it can err You will put your Converters in their turn into some kind of perplexity For there will be a necessity either that they hold their peace and say nothing but absurdities or else that they endeavour to prove by discussion of Opinions that the Church of Rome has not erred and 't is a Head of Discourse where I am in no fear or concern for you for how little soever you are instructed in the Word of God you will easily dismount the most able Sophisters when you endeavour to prove that neither Transubstantiation nor the Worship of Images nor the Invocation of Saints nor the Adoration of the Eucharist nor the Mass nor Purgatory are in the Scripture There needs no greater ability for that than for a Man to prove that a Chamber is empty when there is nothing in it They object unto you that the Scripture has not said all but 't is a sensible absurdity that the Scripture should be given to instruct us concerning what we ought to adore and it should forget three fourth parts of the objects of our Adoration It speaks not to us but of the Adoration of God and nevertheless Religious Worship must be given to Saints to Images to Reliques and to the Sacrament of the Altar Are you so filly as to be taken in so pitiful a snare The Scripture has not said all let it be granted with respect to the Ceremonies and Orders of Discipline which are not of the Essence of Religion but to believe that the Scripture has not told us all which is of the Essence of the Christian Religion is ridiculous I do maintain that he ought to have lost all shame that shall advance it and to permit himself to be persuaded thereof he must have lost all reason and be degenerated to a Beast Was it agreeable to the Wisdom of God imperfectly to instruct the Apostolick Church and to leave to posterity the charge of adding those essential parts which were wanting But provided you can draw your Converters from these Methods of Prescription which are the true Snares of the Devil invented as his last Remedies I shall not fear or be concerned for you altho they should batter you with the Arms of Tradition and tho they should tell you an hundred times the Scripture has not said all Tradition adds the rest For you will always have an infallible Refuge in the Scripture and you will be able to say if Tradition may add to the Scripture at least it ought not to destroy and teach or command that which the Scripture condemns After which it will not be difficult to prove that not only the Scripture says nothing of Transubstantiation or the taking away of the Cup or the Sacrifice of the Mass of Purgatory or the Worship of Images or the Invocation of Saints c. but that the Scripture does formally condemn them Behold the first general method for ruining the fallacious Arguments on the behalf of Infallibility Behold another the most sensible proof and that unto which you will be obliged to have regard when they would prove that you ought to have a blind submission to the Church of Rome is Texts of Scripture 'T is for example that which our Lord Jesus said Matth. 16. That he hath built his Church upon S. Peter in such sort that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That which S. Paul says in 1 Tim. 3.15 That the Church is the pillar and ground of truth There 's that which is their strength But first of all demand of these Gentlemen whether the Church of Rome be mentioned there Say I grant that Text signifies that the Church is infallible and that the Devil never can introduce any Error but how shall I know that 't is the Roman Church to whom this glorious promise of Infallibility is made The Greek Church that of the Nestorians Jacobites or Eutychians are very great Communions in the East which call themselves Christians upon as good a Title as the Church of Rome The Apostles certainly founded the Eastern Churches it is without peradventure and it is apparent that Jesus Christ hath left the privilege of being infallible to them Why should he cause it to pass from the East to the West To that they will say you see that 't is to the Church of S. Peter that the promise of Infallibility is made Upon thee will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Now the Roman Church is the Church of S. Peter Upon that demand that they prove by the Scripture these two Articles First That this promise was not made but to the Church of S. Peter Secondly That S. Peter is the Founder of the Church of Rome The first thing is impossible to be proved 'T is a prodigious absurdity that of the twelve Apostles to whom Christ Jesus said that they ought to found Churches he should have no regard but to S. Peter and to the Church which he ought to found 'T is more clear than the day that that which our Lord promised he promised to the twelve Apostles and to other Churches But your Converters will have yet more trouble to prove by the Scripture that the Roman Church is the Church of S. Peter There appears not any Footstep thereof in the whole New Testament on the contrary 't is clear there was a Church at Rome before S. Peter and S. Paul had been there It may be one may prove that S. Peter was never at Rome At least it may be proved that he never resided there in the Quality of Bishop For S. Paul says expresly that S. Peter was the Apostle or Bishop of the Jews or Circumcision and that he was the Bishop of the Gentiles Therefore S. Peter in the Quality of the Bishop of the converted Jews ought to have his Seat either at Jerusalem or Babylon in the Confines whereof was the main body of the dispersed Jews Moreover he writ and dated his Epistles from Babylon You may therefore hold your selves there and say I am well content that there be an infallible Church on earth but when I see with all my eyes that the Roman Church has erred you shall permit me to search an infallible Church elsewhere and to keep me where I am expecting till I sind it You may I say keep you there but don't do it move on further and tell your Converters Gentlemen I perceive that these words the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church may have two senses For they may signifie that the Devil shall never introduce any error into the Church of what nature soever it be Or it may signifie that the Devil shall never ruin the Church that he shall never entirely destroy it by ruining its Foundations i. e. it s fundamental Verities Tell me do these words signifie necessarily the first that is to say that the Devil shall never introduce any capital or considerable Errors into the
Church or to speak better that the Church shall never fall into any Error Not at all For if one say to a Prince I will take care that your Enemies shall never prevail upon you that will not necessarily signifie that the Enemy shall never have any Victory upon him or gain any considerable advantage against him Altho this Prince should lose some Villages yea and some Provinces yet if the gross and capital parts of his Empire always subsist notwithstanding he would have the accomplishment of the promise made unto him Provided therefore that the Church subsist in all Ages altho corrupt provided that the Fundamentals of Christianity remain throughout in their integrity the promise the gates of hell shall not prevail against it hath its accomplishment But your Converters will tell you these words signifie not so for they signifie that the Church can never fall into any Error Answer them That is the thing that is in question between you and me But who shall judge for us concerning the sense of these words It must not be you for you are a party and who can better judge than Scripture and Experience Now 't is clear by the Scripture that the sense of these words the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is not that the Church shall never suffer any considerable Errors in its Faith. All the Holy Scripture affirms the contrary It complains sometimes that the ancient Church was become idolatrous and had served other gods It foretels in express words that the Christian Church should corrupt it self That grievous wolves should enter into the fold not sparing the flock That there would be perilous times in which there would be an Apostacy from the Faith and seducing Spirits would teach Doctrines of Devils That Antichrist the son of perdition should sit in the Temple and in the Church of God. That the Church should be hid and as in a desart for the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty prophetick days that is one thousand two hundred and sixty years That when the Son of Man shall come he shall not find faith nor love among Men. That false Prophets and false Christs shall arise and deceive many To conclude for one Text by which it may be proved that the Church cannot err we can produce an hundred that do affirm that false Teachers should introduce Errors there-into Let us leave the Scriptures and pass to Experience and see whether the Church hath not actually erred It is proved clearly that she hath erred because she hath established a Worship directly opposite to that pure and simple Worship the Model whereof is found in the New Testament viz. of Images of Saints and Saintesses of a second sort of Mediators of Masses Sacrifices and a hundred other things that have not the least shadow of appointment there Let us return to our Text The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church It is disputed whether this Text doth signifie that the Church can never Err in any wise or whether it signifies that the foundations and fundamental verities of the Church can never be overturned In truth the last sense is that of Jesus Christ And all that can be granted to the Papists is that they are capable of the other But is it not very clear that we ought to chuse the latter seeing the Holy Scripture and experience determines us thereunto by a manner wholly invincible It is true and we see it that by a singular Providence God hath not permitted the Foundations of Christianity to be subverted in any of the Christian Communions all receive the Creeds of the Apostles Nice Constantinople yea even that attributed to St. Athanasius Behold therefore what our Lord would mean thereby But besides this we see that there is no Communion that hath continued pure all have embraced Errors and some of them such as are filthy shameful and mortal Therefore it is not that which our Lord Jesus Christ would say it is not a promise of absolute infallibility that is made to the Christian Church Without doubt he foretold what is come to pass and not that which never happened Behold my Brethren two general methods by which you may be able to rescue your selves from the Sophisms and fallacious Arguments which they call ways of Prescription till we can clear up those difficulties that you your selves cannot resolve about that submission that people ought to have for their Guides to the end that they may walk safely The second medium or argument wherewith all these Gentlemen serve themselves and whereof Monsieur de Meaux serves himself here to prove that they have a succession of Doctrine as well as a succession of Seats is the impossibility of insensible changes If the Invocation of Saints say they the worship of Images Masses without Communicants the taking away of the Cup had been newly introduced the Innovator would have been known and his name would have been branded with infamy as that of Arrius and Nestorius I do not think that ever any thing hath been done more opposite to reason and fidelity than the disputes these Gentlemen have thought fit to raise against insensible changes and alterations I say first it is opposite to fidelity For it is not possible that these Gentlemen can believe what they say when they tell us that we cannot determine the Authors nor the times of the principal Changes whereof we complain seeing on the contrary we observe to them the times the principal Authors and the noise that these Innovations made in the World. Does not every one know that the introduction of Images into the Church the taking away of the Cup and the establishment of the Papal Authority did make a terrible noise suffer great contraditions cause great troubles and even the shedding of much blood in the Church It is therefore notoriously to dispute against honesty and fidelity to deny that we are able to give any account of the most eminent and principal Innovations But is it not to dispute against reason and sound judgment to say as Monsieur de Meaux doth that if there had been any Innovators in the Church the spirit of Truth would have marked them and their names would have been infamous as those of Arrius Nestorius c. How could the names of these Innovators be infamous seeing their Innovations were received and entertained The Authors of Heresies and Superstitions which are rejected are indeed noted with infamy but those that are received are Canonized and adored Therefore those of the fourth Age which introduced the Invocation of Saints had no note of infamy put upon them because the beginnings of that unhappy Superstition were greedily imbraced The reason why those things in those Ages were not treated as Innovations and the Authors of them as Innovators was because they adopted and received them Had they assigned any note of infamy upon them they had condemned the worship which they admitted they had accused it of
the Opinions and Worship of the Roman Church in open light Are you assured you shall be able to resist these deceitful Charms these curious Devices these false Appearances these gilded Sophisms this studied Eloquence this Logick full of artifice wherewith they serve themselves to cover the ugliness of Falshood and to obscure the Beauty of Truth 'T is visibly to expose your selves to a Temptation against which God hath made no promise to protect you So that my Brethren if you do not give over frequenting Popish Churches I do foretel that God will permit the bud of Truth which is yet in you to die and that he will abandon you to a Spirit of Error But you will say what shall we do then Must we live without all Exercise of Religion Must we be deprived of the Word of God No but you must enquire after the Word of God in your Houses and amongst your Brethren You must assemble amongst your selves as often as you can read the Scripture together and good Books of Christian Morality and you must recal what you can remember of former Sermons You must mutually comfort one another by good Prayers and good Conversations and good Discourses which without being studied are oftentimes of greater edification than Sermons on which the fancy of a Preacher hath toiled and labored many days To conclude you must imitate the zeal of our Brethren of Languedoc of whom I have spoken something already and will now go on to pursue their History ☜ We left their Assemblies in the midst of Winter And we have seen that in despite to the rigor of the season the Precipices wherewith the ways are bordered and the darkness of the night these believing Christians did not fail to be found in those places in which they agreed to meet together and pray to God. The last of the Assemblies whereof we spake in the precedent Letter was that which was made in a place called Bebe We have seen that the Priest and Officers of Justice having removed themselves thither found no Body but the Wife of him that dwelt in the Farm with her Child They carried her Prisoner with many other persons of the neighbouring places which had not signed their Abjuration They put them in the Castle of S John where they were for the space of a Month to oblige them either to change or to confess those who were found at these Assemblies They made them a Fire with Leaves and Straw and all that which might make a dark and thick sinoak to choke them They endured this kind of Torment At the end of a Month they separated them to the end they might cause them to fall the more easily They said to one that his companion had subscribed to another that he had confessed those that were found at these Assemblies All this signifying nothing they carried these poor People to Montpellier where after three Months Imprisonment they were condemned and sent to the Gallies except one old Man named Mauris who was imprisoned with some Women in the Tower of Constance There happened at that time a thing considerable A Man without Learning of the Village of Colignac being one night in Bed with his Father believed he had a Vision and heard a Voice saying Go comfort my People I know not whether it were the force of his zeal and imagination which produced this effect or whether it were actually a Voice from Heaven however it were all the reasonings and warnings of his Father who turned both his Vision and Design into Ridicule could not hinder him from following this Call which he esteemed as coming from Heaven he gathered Assemblies he spake there with so much success and with so much order and method for a person of his quality that every one was surprised at it and all that heard him edified by it Under his Direction Assemblies were made of three thousand persons amongst others one in a place called Cabanis near S. Hypolite and another in a Farm of the Parsonage of S. Roman situate upon the Mountain Gezas there were full five and twenty hundred persons in that Assembly After the Sermon they named many Elders for the several parts of Cevennes and charged them with giving notice of the places and hours of Assemblies Of these many have been since taken and sent to the Gallies as Monsieur Arnaud of S. Hypolite and Monsieur Nadal of the Village de la Salle There is no danger in naming of them and 't is an Honor we owe them seeing they are at this day among the Confessors of Jesus Christ in the Gallies of Marseilles or Thoulon Many others which we will not name because they are not taken were hanged in effigie In the same Assembly they agreed to give to him that should preach to them power to administer the Sacraments In which we may not imagine that they committed any Irregularity For the true Call depends on the People and on the choice of Assemblies The Mission of one Pastor by another is but a form which ought to be observed in peaceful times of the Church but may be neglected in cases of necessity Before they departed they caused all those that were present to enter into new obligations not to go to Mass and resolved to make another Assembly the Wednesday following between S. Felix and Durfort The Curate of S. Roman or the Incumbent whereof the Farm depended where this Assembly was made caused a Vessel of Holy Water to be carried thither and sprinkled it about every where to expiate the place as if the Devil had kept a Sabbath there The Assembly was made the Wednesday following according to the project and there met near four thousand persons which was the cause they left the Farm which at first they had chosen and assembled in a Field and hung up Lamps on a Pear-Tree that was found there This Assembly was discovered they sent thither some Dragoons under the Conduct of one called Villeneufeu an Apostate of the Town de la Salle but the Dragoons durst not draw near because they believed themselves too weak to attack so great a people therefore they kept themselves in Ambuscade and when the people began to depart they took of them such as they could Among others one named Pouget of the Town of Valestalieres They Arrested also some days after in his own House Monsieur Teissier of the Town of Durfort who freely confessed that he was at the Assembly of St. Felix Among many Prisoners they chose Pouget of Valestalieres and Monsieur Teissier of Durfort to make examples as they speak that is to say to make Victims of their fury They were condemned to dye in the Village de la Salle by the Intendant and President of Nismes Monsieur Teissier publickly confessed the Crime for which he dyed and declared that if he had escaped their hands he had continued it and would yet continue it if it were possible for him Upon the Ladder he sung these words
naturally it cannot happen that a person should be on those Instruments of Torment without feeling very great pains But 't is a Miracle which hath a hundred and a hundred Examples in the History of the Martyrs both of the ancient Church and that of the Reformation They bring back our Martyr to the place where he was to prepare himself for death he dined because they would have it so and whilst he was eating he said to those that gave him his meat very calmly Others eat to live and I eat to die this is the last Repast that I shall take upon earth but against the Evening there is prepared a Banquet in the Heavens to which I am invited and whither I shall be conducted by the Angels These happy Spirits will suddenly remove me to make me partaker with them of the Delights of Paradise The rest of the day they let loose upon him many Monks who received no other Fruits of their Assaults but disappointment and confusion Amidst all those Distractions into which they endeavoured to cast him he employed himself in singing of Psalms in lifting up his Soul to God and presenting fervent Prayers to him About the Evening as he went forth of the Prison to go to Execution two Monks drew near to him saying We are here to accompany and comfort you He answered them I have no need of you I have a Comforter that is more faithful and which is within me for my Consolation I have a Guard of Angels round about my Person and which have assured me they will be with me to my last Breath He marched toward the place of Execution with an appearance of satisfaction and tranquillity of Spirit visible to all the Spectators and having observed some of our Brethren that were fallen pouring out floods of tears while they saluted him said to them Weep not for me but weep for your selves I shall be soon out of Sufferings and far from this Vale of Tears but I see and leave you there In the name of God recover and repent and he will have pity upon you When he was in a place and distance that he could see the Gibbet where he was to end his Combat he cryed out with transport of Joy Be strong be strong this is the place which I long since proposed to my self and for which God himself hath prepared me how welcome doth this place appear to me I there see the Heavens open to receive me and Angels coming to accompany me thither He would afterward have sung a Psalm as he drew near to the Gibbet but the Judges which saw that the Crowd was moved and pierced by the signs and tokens of his constancy imposed silence on him and forbad him to sing He obeyed because they constrained him and arriving to the Foot of the Ladder he said Oh how welcome is this Ladder to me sine it must serve me as a step to finish my course and mount to Heaven They permitted him to say his Prayers at the Foot of the Ladder And when he was ascended he saw Monks ascending after him which obliged him to repel them saying Retire I have told you and I tell you again I have no need of your succor I receive enough from my God to enable me to take the last step of my Journey He would have gone on and given a Reason of his Faith to that innumerable Crowd of People above which he was raised But they feared the effect of a Sermon preached from such a Pulpit and by such a Preacher They well foresaw that he would speak and therefore had set round about the Gibbet many Drums which they appointed to be beaten at once 'T is a new kind of Gag which is not altogether so frightful as that of another kind but produces the same effect The Spirit of Hell is always the same and hath always the same fears He hath often felt the force of those Preachers which preach from Gibbets and out of the Piles of Wood he fears their Eloquence and judges it most safe to impose silence on them Our Martyr therefore speaks not but for himself but his Countenance his Eyes his Hands bespeak his Courage his Faith and Constancy and this Language was so effectual that the Village of Beaucaire altho wholly plunged in darkness and prejudices for Popery was moved thereby in an extraordinary manner I do very earnestly wish that three or four sorts of persons would make Reflections on this death 1. The Enemies of Truth Is it possible that they cannot observe therein the Character of true Religion I do conjure them to consider what most resembles Jesus Christ and his Apostles whether a Man that dies as we have seen this young Man die or persons which cause him to die for his Religion and because he would not renounce it 2. I set this Object before the Eyes of the new Converts who being seduced either by their Passions or Illusions behold the Religion which they have left as abominable and such wherein the Spirit of God is not to be found can they well persuade themselves that so much Courage so much Piety so much Constancy so much Moderation so much Sweetness doth proceed from him who is the Father of Lies and the Fountain of Abominations If it be the Spirit of God which produces these miraculous effects in our Martyrs then our Religion is not deprived of it then God has not forsaken us then we are not out of his Church out of which there is neither Grace nor Holy Spirit To conclude I demand here the attention of the weak of those Men who bless themselves because they yet preserve the Truth in their Hearts and which perswade themselves that the Fault which they have committed in subscribing is very light I demand of them are not you obliged to do what this Martyr has done Has he given to God more than he owed him Who is he that is not obliged to seal and confirm the Truth by his Sufferings You have withdrawn your selves from paying that which you have received from God in the opportunities which he has offered you And you have withdrawn your selves by a faulty weakness and negligence by a lye both of Heart and Hand In what estate should we be if God had not left us a Remnant We should be like unto Sodom and Gomorrah we should not have had one Martyr i. e. one Witness of the Truth of our Lord Jesus You will say all are not capable of suffering Martyrdom At least confess then that you are in this respect in a great degree of Imperfection and that your Fault is great Don't justifie your selves at all recover your selves by Repentance if you would that God should pardon you I have given you the History of the Vigor which our Brethren of Languedoc have had to continue their Assemblies without interruption and thereby expose themselves to Martyrdom and Death with design to convince you of that which I have proved in
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
they are persons of Credit an Reputation who put into his Hands those things which they themselves heard If after all this the matter of Fact be false I do avow that we must no more believe any thing But there are but few people into whose minds it can enter that two or three thousand persons for there are not less of the Reformed Religion in Orthez should conspire to lye about an affair which after all is not of any great concernment to them For although the Angels should not have sung in the Air their Religion would not be the less true Moreover it is to be observed that our people are not Educated in the Spirit of Superstition and Credulity for Miracles On the contrary it is known that we have always made it part of our business to defend them against those delusions Besides this he must have an impudence which cannot be found but in very few Men to feign events as happening in the view of a whole City and to introduce on the Stage Men who can give them the lye and whose interest it is so to do To conclude I do not know how any one can imagine that the Magistrates of Orthez and the Parliament of Pau should publish Ordinances to hinder Men from going to hear these Voices if the thing it self were false At least it must be granted that the Reformed in Orthez did believe they heard it Incredulity which always finds out some intrenchment and defence for it self will demand that we produce the Ordinances of the Parliament of Pau and of the Magistrates of Orthez It is not at all probable that Men who would stifle both the knowledg and memory of so extraordinary an event and which was so disadvantageous to them should be willing to transcribe them upon Paper and yet much less Print and deliver these Ordinances which would have immortalized the memory of that Fact which they were willing should be forgotten But having heard above the Deposition of a person of honor who said that he heard with his Ears the publication of these Prohibitions he must be very incredulous that will deny the truth of this circumstance And he must suppose that two thousand persons are furnished with a great measure of impudence to attribute to a Court of Justice and to the Magistrates of a City a thing that is false If this be not sufficient to convince those that doubt they may tarry if they please till Men have found the secret of collecting the impressions that words make upon the Air and rendring them visible and then they will be made to see all things in their Original The same thing hath happened in Cevennes as this Country is full of Mountains where there are Eccho's which multiply and return the Voice and as night Assemblies have continually been made there where they sing Psalms with a loud Voice therefore the relations of singings which have been made in the Air would be more suspected by me But the Affair of Orthez which is a Country close and without Mountains being well proved I see no reason to doubt of that of Cevennes for which reason without scruple we will produce the Certificates which come from that Country The first Certificate I Certifie that one of my Sisters wrote to me on Feb. 8. last from a place called Collet in Cevennes where she then was in these words My dear Brother you would be informed touching the singing of Psalms which Men have told you that they hear in this Country there is nothing more true Monsieur the late Baron of Cadorve heard it two or three hours in the night with his whole Family I my self and almost all the World in this Country have heard this Voice but we have not been able to discern whether they were Psalms yea or no. It seems to us that it is a complaint and even now at the hour I write to you I hear and am sensible of it La Roquette Minister of Manoblet in Cevennes given at Lausanna March 30. 1686. The second Certificate I attest that Monsieur of the Dark Valley a Gentleman of Cevennes living near St. John de Gardonnengue writ to me September 17. 1685. this which follows We see strange things in all the places in Cevennes we hear singing of Psalms in the Air by night as if it were in the Church Wednesday last I was lying alone in my Chamber and about midnight I heard upon the roof a Voice very shrill which awoke me and afterwards five of six other Voices that assisted it and they sung five or six verses of the fifth Psalm all those of the House heard it many times The said Monsieur of the Dark Valley confirmed me in this belief by a second Letter Jan. 27. 1686. That this singing of Psalms doth constantly continue The said Monsieur adds now the beating of a Drum is heard as if Men of War were marching and this is heard at mid-day in many places Barjune Minister of St. Marselle in Cevennes now fled to Lausanna in Switzerland The third Certificate Towards the end of the month of September last being with M. d' Esperies a Gentleman of merit which is of Vigan in Cevennes and we flying to the Castle of a Gentleman of our friends named M. de Montualian we heard in the Air a considerable number of Drums Five or six days after being with the said M. d' Esperies in a little place named Ablatatz in Cevennes in the Parish of Fraisin and Fourques and in the Diocess of Mand whither my Family was fled for refuge we heard in the Air a Holy Harmony singing the Holy Praises of God this is that which I do certifie to be true forasmuch as I heard it Saligne de Marnis in Cevennes D' Esperies de Vigan in Cevennes do attest the abovesaid to be true The fourth Certificate Extracts of two Letters written to Lausanna to Mademoiselle Louise d's Vignoles by her Cousin Mademoiselle Jane de Vignoles a Maiden of Vebron Sister of M. De Lavalett who was Arrested in the Citadel of the Holy Ghost on the month of Octob. 1683. as it is reported in The defence of the Project c. which makes the third Tome of The Estate of the Reformed This Jan. 3. 1686. How happy are you my dear Cousin that you can Pray and sing the Praises of God in publick when in the mean time so many good souls have their mouths stopped and dare not discover that which passes in their minds But as to the business of singing the Praises of God it is necessary that I speak to you of the miracle which makes so much noise in this Country which is that since the intire loss of our Churches and our Pastors there has been heard in the Air Voices and sounds of Instruments very melodious and that which is most extraordinary is that many persons distinguish the Tunes of the Psalms and I can assure you of the truth thereof since I may self have distinguished more
than thirty It has been told me that my Brother she means M. de Mont Vaillant elder Brother both of her and M. de Vallette distinguishes them all perfectly well Can you imagine that we hear these Voices night and day and that we can so much as doubt that they are Troops of Angels which God sends to us for Consolation to assure us that he hath not utterly forsaken us and that our deliverance is at hand God grant that we may make profit by these things I had forgotten to tell you that the noise of a Drum is also heard so clearly that no body can doubt thereof It hath been answered to this Letter that this might be natural considering the situation of the Country in which they then made Assemblies together with other circumstances to which the following reply was made This March 6. 1686. Be no more incredulous I do conjure you about the singing of Psalms for there are so many persons of good understandings convinced thereof that we ought to give up our selves to the power of truth I do avow that the thing passes all imagination but be assured that all care imaginable has been taken to prevent delusion The two Letters whereof my Brother has made the extracts above were truly written to me by my Cousin de Vebron from Cevennes whose Character and Spirit I so well understand that I cannot be deceived therein Louise Des Vignoles Mademoiselle de Vebron is a person which hath so much of Wit Understanding Honor and Piety that I am persuaded as much as any one can be that she has no intention to deceive us I do not at all doubt but that all those that have known her will readily give her the same testimony with my self She hath always been of the Reformed Religion and God hath preserved her hitherto from the general fall as it appears by two Letters the original whereof I preserve to shew them to such as desire it From Lausanna March 30. Styl Vet. 1686. Signed Des Vignoles Minister of Lower Languedoc I give the same Testimony to the Merit and Piety of Mademoiselle de Vebron Baschi Aubais We may add to these Certificates from Cevennes and Bearn the Testimony of M. Jacquelot Pastor of the Church of Vassy whom we have heard say that he was informed by one of his Parishoners a Man that never did appear to him of a humour inclined to sell Fables for truth that two hours after midnight passing by the Church of Vassy he there heard the singing of Psalms Testimonies of like nature may be reported from many other places but these are enough As to what remains I am willing before I conclude here to defend our selves against an injustice which is very ordinary in this kind of affairs and it is this by one sole Negative Testimony to endeavour to destroy many Affirmatives They will say I have asked a person that came from that Country who hath said that there is no such thing and the proof thereof is that he never heard it Behold a great Marvel that in a large Country and in a place where there are multitudes of persons scattered some on one side and some on the other there should be some of them that should not see and hear that which thousands of others did Let any Man judge if it be just to call in doubt that which a hundred Witnesses have seen for the sake of one that affirms he did not see it But it will be said yet that there are persons in Switzerland that after they had said they had heard the singing of Psalms in Cevennes had aftâ—rwards retracted it It is a matter of Fact that is told us here without any proof But I am content at present to receive it as true It is not a thing very extraordinary that a Man hearing speak of a Prodigy which holds all minds in doubt and suspence should boast to be of the Party and cry with the croud I saw it I saw it These sort of Affairs were never otherwise a hundred false Witnesses mingle themselves with true ones when the thing discovered is only matter of report and hear-say And it is likewise very possible that some may return to their integrities and confess that they saw nothing But can this invalidate the fidelity of those which Persevere which Write which Depose and which Sign with an Oath These Histories being set in so much light that it appears to me sufficiently difficult to call them in doubt I think it may be permitted us to draw some Conclusions from them Some will be for us others against us Against us for it is a reproach that the Providence of God makes unto us because you have so easily suffered your mouths to be stopped and because you have not dared nor been willing any more to sing his Praises and Songs of Thanksgiving which are the Symbols of your Reformation God has made mouths in the midst of the Air and he causes his Praises to proceed from Stones and Rocks And don't ye doubt but Rocks and these invisible mouths will rise in judgment against those that fear Men and will not glorifie God generously and in the presence of Persecutors The other Conclusions are for us and against our Enemies This event speaks and tells them if these hold their peace the Stones will speak You ought to give thanks to God that he approves your Worship by a Sign so considerable and by a Testimony so evident Let them not tell you that all this is nothing but delusion for all illusions come from the Devil who is the Father of lies and who hath the Praises of God in horror and detestation To conclude behold the Event as a happy Presage that God will not suffer your Voices and your Songs to dye the Angels have seized on them and will shortly restore them that you your selves may sound them forth in the Air. You are obliged to make a great change in your life that you may be worthy to receive this Grace from God. For which reason you ought to think of renouncing these worldly vanities of Cloaths Customs Words Food Houses Furniture Pleasures and Divertisements to take Sackcloth and Ashes to Cloath your selves with an Humility and Modesty truely Christian The time of your deliverance is at hand but it will not come till that of your Repentance hath gone before it the Spirit of Life will not return till the Spirit of Piety and Devotion be re-entered into your souls Decemb. 1. 1686. THE EIGHTH PASTORAL LETTER Alterations happening during the Third Age. Concerning Baptism Confirmation and the Sacrifice of the Mass Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE continue at this time the History of the Alterations that happened in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church We are in the third Age thereof we will divide what we have to tell you concerning this Age into three Letters to the
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
We have nothing more to say about the Article of Purgatory than what we have said concerning it on the Subject of Oblations and Sacrifice for the Dead we will only add that Origen a Man of great sense in that Age and also of great boldness who among many bold and rash Opinions advanced that of a temporary Hell that is to say properly of Purgatory of a Fire in which the Wicked ought to be purified that they may be saved after some Ages of Torment And 't is of this temporary Hell jumbled with the separate state of Souls that the Purgatory of the Roman Church is at last formed and made We therefore pass to Worship Adoration and Invocation of Creatures of Saints of the Blessed Virgin of Angels of Relicks and of Images This is a place of Triumph for the Truth and Confusion for Error Ask my Brethren ask and be you never weary thereof bid them shew you Tertullian Cyprian Clemens of Alexandria Minutius Foelix Gregory Thaumaturgus Arnobius Lactantius and Origen of whom we have so many Writings let them shew you them I say recommending the Worship of the Virgin the Invocation of Saints and the Adoration of Relicks Their Silence suffices to make it known that then men knew not what this unhappy Superstition was and if their Silence be not enough remember that which we have proved unto you 't is first that then they prayed for all Saints in general both Apostles and Martyrs now it is inconsistent to pray to a Saint and for him as your Converters will acknowledge seeing to pray to a Saint supposes him glorified and to pray for a Saint or Martyr supposes him not glorified Secondly Remember also that in those Ages the prevailing Opinion was That the Martyrs themselves and Apostles were not yet in Heaven and by consequence did not see the face of God so that they could neither learn from God the necessities of the Living nor intercede for them before him After this know That in this Age as well as that preceding Christians made open Protestations That they did not serve adore nor invoke any other but God. Tertullian said * Scorpiac cap. 4. That 't is appointed that I call upon no other God that I may no more make another God by my tongue than by my hand 'T is ordained that I adore or worship no other after what manner soever it be besides the One God which commands this in his Law. * Ad Scapul cap. 2. We serve but one only God which you naturally know whose Thunder and Lightnings you fear and from whom you receive Blessings with great joy He serves himself of the Words Venerate and Serve and they are general words Where is the Papist that will say That he gives no Worship but to God alone Clemens of Alexandria saith †Strom. lib. 6. The Greeks ought to learn from the Law and the Prophets to serve but one only God who is truly Almighty Origen repeats the same thing in a hundred places That Christians worship and serve God alone But if this be not enough hear Origen after he had said in express words ‖ Lib. 5. cont Cels That we ought to address all Prayer Supplication Request and Thanksgiving to the Supream God Lord of all things by the Eternal Word God the High Priest who is above all Angels after that say I he excludes by name Angels from the number of those which ought to be invoked To the end saith he that Angels may be propitious to us and that they may do all things for us it suffices in the first place that we be very closely united to God and disposed to imitate Angels who imitate God c. That 't is best to trust in God and to beg of him all the aid and all the succour which can come to us from good Angels c. For 't is saith he a thing altogether unreasonable that we should invoke Angels seeing we know nothing of their service or knowledge because it is above men Although we should grant that their knowledge which is admirable and secret may be understood this same knowledge which we have of their Nature and of the thing over which every one of them presides would hinder us from daring to invoke any other but the Lord who is over all things and sufficient for all 'T is certain that Origen had lost his Understanding if at that time they invoked Angels and if they did not invoke Angels how could they invoke the Saints departed Do we not learn from Scripture that Angels are round about us and by consequence that they hear us Do we not know that God hath committed to them the care and preservation of his Children we know nothing of all this concerning Saints so those which did not invoke Angels certainly never did invoke Saints As for Relicks my Brethren ask your Converters ask their Proofs that men took them from their Tombs that they put them in Boxes that every one carried his part thereof in great Devotion that they wrought Miracles that Men went in Pilgrimage to the Tombs of Martyrs where Relicks were laid that they kissed them and fell on their knees before them If they cannot prove this let them confess that this Worship was perfectly unknown in the third Age. Mr. Demabis a revolted Minister confesses clearly enough that in the first Ages they gave not this external Honor to Relicks because says he the state in which they were did not permit it Is not this a miserable defence They say 't was a time of Persecution I confess it but it was the more easie for them to get the Ashes and Bones of Martyrs for they made them every day 't is true that in some places the Pagans hindred the Christians from taking their Bodies but in many others they left them on the Dunghil to him that would first take them and all their rigour could not hinder them from getting some one of their Bones from the flames as did the Believers of Smyrna those of Polycarpus The Persecution did not hinder Christians from kissing these Bones on their knees in their private Houses and Oratories As to what concerns Images I cannot resolve to make an Article thereof although I had intended it for I do not think that there is any learned man among your Converters who hath the impudence to maintain that there were Images in Churches during the time of the third Age and that men worship'd them after we have proved unto them that in that Age Painters and Statuaries were accounted infamous and that they drove them from the Communion of the Church as they did Comedians Bauds and other instruments of Wickedness and beastly Pleasures and that there the Christians scoffed at the Pagans which prostrated themselves before Images of Wood Copper Stone Gold and Silver which might be stoln and carried away in the mouths and ears whereof Mice made their Habitations and upon which Birds laid their Ordure They
Letters you will find one Article concerning Antiquity and another concerning the Questions of the Church as you will find in this And forasmuch as these Letters ought to be instead of Sermons to you we will joyn unto them some words of Exhortation as often as we can We return therefore to the Letter of Monsieur de Meaux one of the Bishops of Rome We are considering the third Article of his Pastoral Letter This third Article and that which follows will give us an occasion to confute the Sophisms which they make or you make for your selves about the Church The Bishop of Meaux in his Pastoral Letter does six things 1. He endeavours to establish the Idea and Unity of the Church principally upon the Testimony of S. Cyprian and in consequence thereunto the Unity of the Ministers 2. He proves * Page 12. There is none allowed to separate from the Church and that all separate Assemblies are in a state of Damnation †Page 14. so that a Martyr which dies for the Faith of the Church out of this Unity is nevertheless damn'd 3. ‡ Page 13. That we must not examin Opinions to know whether such an Assembly be the Church ‖ Page 14. But we must know if an Assembly be the Church and judg from thence concerning the truth of Opinions 4. He endeavours to answer to that Text Where two or three are gathered together in my Name I will be in the midst of them A Text that proves wherever is Truth there is a True Church and then comes to his Chimera that all Separation ruins Unity a Chimera which he supports by the Testimony of the great S. Cyprian who is indeed his only Author 5. * Page 17. By the same S. Cyprian he proves that the Church with whom we must preserve Union is the Church of Rome or the Chair of S. Peter 6. In conclusion he falls on the common place of the invalidity of the Call of our first Reformers he proves their Vocation invalid because they were either Laicks or Renegado Priests which had renounced the Ministry The first never having Mission the last having it no longer cannot be lawful Pastors This is the Abridgment of a great number of Volumns which have been made to seduce you within twenty years last past concerning which we do intreat you to be attentive to these invincible Arguments which we have to produce for the subversion of these wicked Engins Although we do not account it a Duty to follow precisely the order of the Articles of the Bishop of Meaux Nevertheless seeing he begins with the Unity and Visibility of the Church we will begin there also and we will make you understand 1. What is the true Unity of the Church 2. What is the Unity of its Ministry 3. What is its perpetual Visibility 4. That to separate from a corrupt Church is not to break the Unity thereof 5. That there is such a degree of Corruption that obliges to separation and that the Church of Rome is corrupt to that degree First My Brethren it is necessary that you make to your selves a just and ligitimate Idea of the Unity of the Church They tell you that there is but one Catholick Church and that there cannot be many This is true there is but one Church universal and even the Word Universal that is added thereunto makes it apparent that there can be but one Just after the same manner that the word Universe by which is signified the World signifies also that there is but one for if there were another World besides this ours would not be the Universe seeing it would not comprehend totally all But the Bishop of Meaux and those that are like unto him give you a pleasant Idea of its Unity and Universality both together The Church of Rome say they is this universal and only Church it is universal and yet nevertheless out of it and separate from it there are many other Churches This is just as if I should say our World is the Universe nevertheless there be many other Worlds besides it Is not this absurd But it will be said that these Propositions are not alike nor the same for we mean thereby all other Churches besides the Roman Churches are false Churches This is another absurdity altogether alike as if a person or a man should say 'T is true there are many Worlds besides ours nevertheless ours is the Universe because all the rest are false Worlds If they Church of Rome did say Indeed I am but part of the Church Universal but I am the only sound and entire part the others are sick and diseased where a man cannot be saved If it should speak thus say I it would speak false but it would speak nothing absurd or contradictory and there would be reason to examin its pretensions to the bottom to know if indeed it be the only Church that is sound and without Errors But it must have renounced common sense to avow that out of her Bosom there are many Churches and nevertheless call her self the Church universal However it be her pretension is that the Unity of the Church consists in a certain Communion characterized and distinguished from all others by certain limits and boundaries and under certain Pastors out of which Communion whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not whether you have considerable Errors or no you are always out of the Church and hopes of Salvation altho you should believe and maintain all the truths of the Gospel from the beginning to the end tho you should be Orthodox as S. Paul retaining all the Articles of the Christan Faith yea of the Faith of the Church of Rome if nevertheless you live in separation with this certain Seat and this certain Church which is the Church Catholick you must be certainly damned I intreat you my Brethren before you go further propose a Question to your Converts Tell them I am content to grant there is a certain particular Church in which is that Unity from which we must never separate But how shall I know that this Church in which is that Unity to which we ought to adhere is the Church of Rome for I have heard say that there are many other Churches among others it hath been told me there is a Church in the East called the Greek Church which hath six Patriarchs that is to say for Popes the Bishops of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria and these do all in like manner Anathematize the Pope of Rome Propose to them say I this difficulty and press it home and you will see them brought into such streights that they can say nothing but impertinences and absurdities They will tell you that Rome is the seat of S. Peter it is to her that this Priviledg was granted all those which separate from her depart from Unity So that the Greek Church and the three Popes whereof we have spoken are out of the Unity Can there be a
greater Absurdity than to answer by that which has been under dispute It is not true that Rome is the Chair of S. Peter we shall it may be have occasion to prove it to you in some other place But although it should be true where is it said that the Priviledg of Unity ought to be affixed to the Chair of S. Peter The Pope of Constantinople says I am in the Chair of S. Andrew who was an Apostle The Pope of Antioch says 'T is I who am in the true Chair of St. Peter for according to Tradition St. Peter was seven years Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome so that it is the first Chair sounded by the chief of the Apostles The Pope of Alexandria saith I am in the Chair of St. Mark who was an Evangelist and had the Spirit of Infallibility as well as St. Peter Behold three Popes against one three Churches against one three Apostles or Evangelists against one wherefore then Gentlemen Converters would you that I should esteem you as only in the rightful possession of Unity to the prejudice of Persons which pretend to have as good a Title to it as your selves Press these false Babylonish Teachers on this point and you will see such confusion and such a multitude of Words in their Discourse which will discover to you the falseness of their pretensions After this we will consider the Proposition in it self The Vnion that is necessary to Salvation is included in the Church of Rome alone out of it there is neither Salvation Faith Grace Remission of Sins nor the True Church so that every man which is separate from it by Schism alone without Heresie dies eternally I do maintain That this Proposition is the most foolish but withal the most cruel and barbarous that ever was asserted and I do beseech you my Brethren to be attentive to the proofs that I shall make thereof First According to the Scripture Fathers and Evidence of Reason the Unity of the Church ought to contain Universality in it self that is to say That Church which is One ought to be universal and extended through all the World it ought to comprehend all Christians I will not prove this for it 's clear and also confessed 't is a truth so known among the Ancients that they look on certain Schismaticks of the fourth and fifth Age called Donatists as Fools These People in the beginning of the fourth Age separated themselves from the rest of the Church of Carthage and all Africa this Separation was caused by the Election of a Bishop of Carthage This hath always been one of the most fruitful Sources of Division These Donatists said precisely that which the Church of Rome says at this day * Aug. de Agone Christi Cap. 28. All the Church is fall'n into Apostasie and is only preserved in the Communion of Donatus upon which St. Augustine thus cries out Oh proud and wicked Tongue Certain other Schismaticks called Luciferians fell into the same dotage That the Church was perished and continued not but in Sardinia and some Mountains near Rome where they had Followers and Disciples St. Jerome treats them on that Subject as men that had lost their Understanding †Jerome Dialog adv Lucifer If it be so says he Jesus Christ died only for the Peasants of Sardinia Where then is the accomplishment of that word of the Father Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance Behold exactly the folly of the Papists the Church is perish'd throughout the World except at Rome and in the West but we with the Scriptures and the Fathers say Let the North give up and let not the South keep back All the parts of the World shall bring forth Children to God and the Church ought to be extended to all places where the Gospel is Now the Church of Rome is not at Constantinople nor in Muscovy Asia Egypt Africa or Ethiopia where nevertheless there are multitudes of Christians it is not in England Holland Sweden Denmark nor in a great part of Germany The Church of Rome reacheth not to all the Countries and Kingdoms for 't is ridiculous to say that 't is dispersed throughout the World because there are some Jesuits at London in the Low Countries Sweden Constantinople and in the East and some Latines hid here and there where they have small Congregations but little known and as it were under ground I might as well say that Calvinism is extended through all Italy because there are some of the Reformed scatter'd here and there in it Secondly According to the Hypothesis of the Church of Rome every one that errs though never so little that is to say who goes off from that which the Romanists determine is out of the Unity of the Church and without hopes of Salvation Behold how ill this agrees with that notable Passage whereof those of ours that are weak and fearful make great use 't is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. iii. 11. where the Apostle says For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this Foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble every mans work shall be made manifest c. and the fire shall try every mans work c. And if any mans work be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved Without taking notice of what may be difficult in this Passage 't is clear That those which build are Teachers that the Gold Silver and precious Stones are sound Doctrines that the Wood Hay and Stubble are such as are unsound and false 't is also clear that they which teach these false Doctrines may be saved and with greater reason they which are seduced by them It follows not from thence as our perverted People pretend that a person may be saved in the practice of that Worship which ruines the Foundation as they do in the Church of Rome but it follows at least that a person may be saved that teaches Doctrines opposite to Truth provided that they subvert not the Foundation and by consequence the Church of Rome is ridiculous as well as cruel to damn all those which are out of her Communion for Errors that are light and trifling for having pronounced Anathema against those which deny for example that Infants dying without Baptism are damned Mr. Nicholas makes no difficulty to condemn all those which do not believe the sovereign and absolute necessity of Baptism Thirdly We have a third proof of the falseness of this Pretence that the Roman Church is in possession of that Unity out of which there is no Salvation in this That God preserves the Ministry of his Word in many Places and in many Churches which do not submit to the Latin Church The Word of God never returns without effect The Wisdom of God will not permit that he should preserve the Ministry in places where there are none but
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
Words of Tertullian ill understood learn from the Example of St. Cyprian who lived in the same Age That Tradition was at that time a proof whereof Men made use according to the diversity of their Apprehensions and their Interests Tertullian seems to make great account of it and St. Cyprian laughs at it when on the subject of Hereticks which he would re-baptize contrary to the Practice of the Church they objected to him Tradition Custom ancient Usage and antique Practice he rejected these Proofs with Contempt and Scorn Stephen had written to him Let nothing be innovated in Tradition Where is this Tradition answers he ‖ Epist 74. is it in the Gospels in the Acts or in the Epistles An ancient Custom without truth is nothing but an old Error And in another Epistle he saith * Epist 63. Since we must hear none but Jesus Christ we need not examine what those that went before us have done but that which Jesus Christ hath done before all for we must not follow the Custom of Men but the Truth of God. To conclude they endeavour to put Scruples in your minds on the Question of the pretended Primacy of the Bishop of Rome and the Roman Church by certain Passages of Tertullian and St. Cyprian either corrupted or ill expounded But that is a business the discussion whereof is too long to be handled at this time yea 't is above the capacity of most of you only know that 't is so far from truth that they did acknowledge the Sovereign Authority of the Pope in that Age that Tertullian makes no scruple to scoff at the Pretensions of the Bishop of Rome and to call him in Raillery the Bishop of Bishops because of some kind of Primacy which he began to pretend to For even in that time the Mystery of Iniquity began to work St. Cyprian despises the Excommunications of Stephen Bishop of Rome and opposes himself to the attempt of those who would appeal to Rome about matters determined in the Provinces of Africa This is that St. Cyprian to whom some Persons attribute the Acknowledgment of the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome who said on the Question of the Baptism of Hereticks and of the Admission of Bishops which had lapsed and fallen †Epist 72. In which case we will do violence to no man nor will we give Law to others observing that every Bishop may use the Power given him according to his Will in the Government of the Church being under no Obligation to give an account thereof to any one but the Lord. 'T was to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Judge you whether he acknowledged him for his Superior Hear how the same Cyprian speaks in the face of a Council assembled at Carthage in the Year 258. Let none of us call himself Bishop of Bishops or endeavour to force his Collegues to a necessity of Obedience by a tyrannical fear and terror seeeng every Bishop is Master of himself and cannot be judged by another Bishop nor can he judge other Bishops 'T was also with respect to Stephen Bishop of Rome that he spake thus Has any one the front to say That speaking thus he acknowledged him for his Superior Observe that it was no small Affair that was now under debate 't was about the Baptism of Hereticks a Question which had made a great noise and which Stephen would have decided with too much Authority The Bishop of Meaux after a hundred others of his Communion to prove the Primacy of the Pope by S. Cyprian quotes a Passage from his fifty second Epistle which proves that these Gentlemen do not fear to make themselves ridiculous provided they may seem to say somewhat 'T is a Passage where he pretends S. Cyprian says That the Roman Emperor did suffer in Rome a Priest which was his Rival with more impatience than he suffer'd a Caefar in his Armies which disputed the Empire with him That is to say that the Roman Emperors did impatiently suffer that the Bishop of Rome should be called High Priest to the prejudice of that Dignity which the Emperors assumed unto themselves So that according to this reckoning they were jealous of the Bishops of Rome and look'd upon them as their Rivals in the High Priesthood In truth this is more ridiculous than if one should say The King of England who calls himself Head of the English Church were jealous of the Curate of the Parish of St. Martin in London The Christians certainly were not above one in a hundred in Rome and the Bishops of Rome at that time made less Figure in the World than an Incumbent of five hundred Crowns per annum makes at this day for besides that they were Poor they were also humble What Agreement could the Emperor in quality of a Pagan High-Priest have with this pretended High-Priest of the Christians To be his Rival he must aspire to the same thing I should rather have chosen to have said That the Mufâ—i looks on the Patriarch of Constantinople as his Rival The meanest Scholar knows that the Word Aemulus which signifies Rival signifies also Enemy and 't is clear that S. Cyprian means that that cruel Persecutor the Emperor Decius beheld with more Indignation a Priest that opposed his Religion than he would have look'd upon an Enemy that had disputed the Empire with him To conclude although St. Cyprian should have intended to compare the Bishop of Rome with the Pagan High-Priest it would not follow that the Bishop of Rome was Head of all the Christians in the World for the Roman Priest was not Head but of the Religion of the City of Rome and not of the whole Empire 'T is true that St. Cyprian corrupted the Idea of the Church and opened a door to the most cruel Doctrine that ever was advanced he made a false Idea of the Unity of the Church which he encloses in one only external Communion And because the Unity of one visible Head was not yet invented he imagined I know not what Unity of Episcopacy which all the Bishops did individually possess whereof nevertheless they all administred but a part This inconsistent Imagination gave place afterwards for the Substitution of one single Head to the end that a visible Head might be given to the Unity of the visible Communion which might be the centre thereof This suffices to give you an Idea of the Christianity of the Third Age and by this History you may observe what was altered in Doctrine or Worship 1. They introduced the use of the Sign of the Cross at least in private for we find it not as yet in the publick Acts of Religion We have said nothing to you concerning it as yet because it is a little thing about which we should never make Complaints against any one provided they be not superstitious in the use of it 2. The Liturgy of the Sacrament of the Eucharist was augmented and increased exceedingly by many Prayers
and I will leave them in their Retirement very peaceably provided they put themselves into a state of Inaction as well in respect to us as to God but if they continue to trouble us the Dispute may have an Issue which will not turn to their honor This Digression which hath been longer than I could have wished will be the cause that we cannot proceed far in the Article of Controversie We are on the true Idea of Unity The last part of our preceding Letter was employed in refuting the false Idea of Unity We have made it appear that 't is a foolish and cruel Opinion to shut up Salvation in any single Communion and that of all the Sects of Christianity that of Rome has the least right to pretend to it The Bishop of Meaux brags much of four or five Passages of St. Cyprian to prove this cruel Paradox This ancient Doctor goes so far as to say * Lib. de Vnitate That there can be no Martyr but in the Church that when a man is separated from its Vnity 't is in vain that he sheds his blood for the Confession of Christ Jesus This Maxim in a large signification may be endured for indeed there may be Hereticks who confessing the Name of Jesus Christ but on the other side ruining the Foundations of the Christian Religion may dye for the Religion of Jesus Christ to no advantage but the Application which S. Cyprian makes thereof is one of those faults over which wise men ought to draw a Curtain He proceeds so far as to apply it to the Novatians Now it must be known these Novatians were good Christians a thousand times better than are the Papists seeing they did not ruine any of the Foundations but retained and believed all the Christian Verities only they were something severe in Discipline and would not receive those that fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church Was not this a great crime Was not this a fine occasion to say as Cyprian did That a Novation was no Christian Was not this a very fine Foundation for that terrible and cruel Sentence That a Novation dying a Martyr for Jesus Christ was nevertheless damned Of what make and constitution are the Doctors of the Roman Church that make use of these Excesses which ought to be hid out of Honor to those great men which fell into them These are Scars remaining in their Flesh to the end that we should not exalt them too much by reason of their great Virtues Behold my Brethren the eye wherewith Mr. de Meaux looks on you he for your sakes makes use of the eyes which St. Cyprian had for the Novatians concerning whom he said A Novatian is out of the Church he is no Christian So says Mr. de Meaux concerning you The Calvinists are out of the Church and are no Christians And why then Gentlemen do you address to us Pastoral Letters Why do you call us your wandring Brethren Will you dare to say that we are no Christians Let these Writers of Pastoral Letters says Mr. de Meaux who shrowd themselves with some shreds of S. Cyprian take all his Doctrine entire Go to Mr. you may say unto him If you find the Doctrine of S. Cyprian so good why don't you take it whole and entire Why don't you say that all the Greeks and all the Christians of the East are not Christians Dare you say that all the Greeks which have been martyred by the Turks and Saracens since the Tenth Age are damned and that they did not suffer Martyrdom although they suffered for Jesus Christ For my part I am persuaded that if you press your Converters on this Subject with their Passages of St. Cyprian they will blush on both Cheeks Remember therefore with respect to St. Cyprian that the love which he had for the Peace of the Church and the horror that he had for Schism ran him into that excess to believe or say That out of that I know not what exterior Unity of the Church a man could not be saved 'T was in this Age that men began to corrupt the Idea of the Church as I have already observed To what will all this come and what profit will you draw thence my Brethren 'T is that thereby you will prove to your Converters the falseness of this Doctrine That the Unity of the Church is included in the Roman Church that out of this Church or in any other private Communion there is no Salvation and thereby you will convince them that they are not infallible for if this Article be false That the Roman Church alone possesses that Vnity she hath erred and that in an important and capital Affair You will also thereby convince them That the Roman Religion is the most cruel and the most damnable of all the Sects of Christianity forasmuch as it condemns the most men For by defming that she alone possesses saving Vnity and by condemning all those that are not in this Vnity she damns three fourth parts of the Christian World. And to conclude you will establish your selves in a holy confidence that by being or having been out of the Roman Communion you have not bâ—en out of the Vnity and you have not shut the door of Salvation upon your selves since Salvation is not included precisely in the Roman Communion and that saving Vnity is not shut up within the circle of any certain Communion On the Subject of this Vnity you will desire me without doubt that I will furnish you wherewithal to answer the Question which your Converters will put to you In what then does the Vnity of the Church consist if it does not consist in adherence to such and such Pastors Answer them my Brethren That this Vnity consists 1. In the Vnity of Spirit forasmuch as God and the Spirit are the Soul of all Christian Communions which do retain the fundamental Truths 2. In the Vnity of Doctrine which is one through all the World where Jesus Christ is purely taught 3. In the Vnity of Sacraments which are the same every where where they have been preserved and not corrupted Let Churches be separated and set at a distance one from another as far as the Antipodes are from us let them have no knowledge one of another They will not cease to be one by this triple Vnity of Spirit Doctrine and Sacraments If there were a pure Church in the farthest part of Ethiopia or in the utmost part of China we should be one Church with them though we had never heard any thing said one of another It is not therefore the Unity of Ceremonies of Worship Discipline and Pastors which makes the Essential Vnity that 's an accidental Unity which a man may break without going out of the true Unity So the Novatians which were separated from the Church for a little unhappy point of Discipline were in the wrong no doubt and greatly in the wrong and Novatian above all who was the
first Author of that Separation But 't is a ridiculous Chimera to imagine that they were out of the Essential Unity seeing that when they went away they carried with them the true Jesus the true Doctrine and the true Sacraments They were yet the Church they were Christians whatever St. Cyprian says of them and not only their Martyrs obtained the Crown of Martyrdom but their penitent Christians obtained Salvation although they died in Schism There are particular Unities and a general Unity Particular Unity consists in certain Bonds such as are common Ecclesiastick Government common Discipline and certain common Ceremonies You are not in particular Unity with the Episcopal Church of England with respect to Government But this Unity signifies nothing to Salvation he must be a mad man to damn Christians because they either have or have not Bishops The general Unity which consists in the three things which I have said is the only essential necessary and saving Unity If you agree with the Church in Government Discipline and Ceremonies and don 't agree with it in Opinions in Sacraments and Spirit you have no Communion with it if you differ in Government and Discipline and agree in Truths Sacraments and the same Jesus you are at Unity with it and with God. This Vnity of the Church whereof we have now discoursed makes me think of that unity of Souls which ought to prevail among the true Members of the Body of Christ It is the Character under which the Apostolick Church is described unto us They were all of one heart and one mind 'T is this holy Unity which draws down the holy Spirit for when the firy Tongues fell upon the Apostles they were all with one accord assembled in one place 'T is the absence of this holy Unity which in part hath drawn down those unhappy Effects of the Wrath of God under which we now groan Call to mind the Divisions the immortal Hatreds Jealousies Quarrels and Strifes which have been seen in the midst of you even on occasions and in things for which Peace and the Spirit of Charity were particularly requited One was of Paul another of Peter but not one for Jesus Christ Men made their own Passions and Interests to triumph and trampled under foot the Glory of God and the publick Edification The strictest friendships were always ready to break on the first transport of Passion The Spirit of Vengeance had no rest till it had revenged the Injuries it thought it had received and we knew not what it was to sacrifice a resentment to the Love of God and his Christ God has made these civil Wars to cease by a cruel and strange War. You have a common tye more than you have had you have had the same Faith the same Sacraments the same Churches and the same Holy Table besides you have at this day your common Affliction and your common Misfortunes 'T is certain that even in the World this makes a tye among Souls and it should do with far greater reason when men suffer the same grief for the same cause and for the same God. You ought mutually to love each other because you are afflicted for God and by consequence you ought to love those also who suffer for you they are your Confessors who have the glory to maintain in the Prisons those Truths with you have been so weak only to keep close in your Hearts having not the courage to shew them openly Among those which are in divers Prisons of the Realm for the Cause of God there are an infinite number that want all things these are Voices that cry against you to Heaven in a terrible manner and say What a shame is it that Jesus Christ is in Prison that he is Sick Hungry and Thirsty that he freezes with cold during the rigor of the Winter and that these Peters who grew pale at the word of a Servant don't go to visit him to give him Bread and Cloaths You know what will be the Sentence that the Lord will give to such think of it and partake-in the Bonds of your Brethren though they be at the utmost ends of the Kingdom Feb. 1. 1687. The TWELFTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The beginning of the History of Christianity of the Fourth and Fifth Ages Of the Original of Monks An Article of Controversie Of the Unity of the Ministry HAving finished the History of the Christianity of the Third Age we enter upon the Fourth We shall not distinguish that of the Fourth and Fifth they are so interwoven that they cannot be separated All the Superstitions false Worship and Corruptions of Discipline which are found established in the Fifth Age took their beginning in the Fourth We enter upon Ages in which the Church had entirely changed its Face it is no longer a persecuted Church it triumphs it reigns it ascends the Throne The Emperors becoming Christians drew along with them by their Authority and Examples an infinite number of Pagans who had that Complaisance and Civility for their Masters as to become Christians But the Church also on her part had the Complaisance to burthen Religion with vain Worship and Ceremonies borrowed from Paganism All that which she thought might be innocently taken from thence she took to draw them over to her The Bishops inrich'd by the Liberality of Constantine and his Successors became proud they would have a distinct Jurisdiction from the Civil they established for themselves Tribunals It appears by the Book of Constitutions falsely ascribed to the Apostles that the Bishops had Flatterers which said of them or rather they said of themselves many incredible proud and impertinent things * Vit. Const lib. 2. cap. 37 38. They set themselves above Kings they said that they must pay them Tributes and Tenths and that Men owed them greater Honors than Kings and that they had power to condemn to everlasting Fire Above all the Pomp and Pride of the Bishops of Rome that ruling City became such that they gave jealousie to the Chief Magistrates of the Empire They added to the Sacraments new Ceremonies an Unction before Baptism beside that which followed after it the Prayers and Ceremonies of the Liturgy of the Eucharist which they call at this day the Mass were much increased and augmented they made use of Holy Waters they consecrated Oyls and Chrism their Funerals were enriched with Ceremonies borrowed from Judaism or Paganism they had their Ninth day their Fortieth day and their yearly Obits or Prayers for the Dead they affixed Prayers to certain hours which at this day they call Canonical the Cock crowing Nine of the Clock Mid-day Three of the Clock and Vespers In these Ages they did essentially alter Divine Service by intermingling therewith the Service of Creatures A kind of Furie for Relicks seized on the Spirits of Men nothing was heard to be spoken of but Visions by which they had been discovered and Miracles which had been done by them they carried
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
years without having one word of General Councils she passed without them during all that time Nevertheless she had never more need of them supposing them to be infallible means of ending Controversies and suppressing Heresies For in the first three Hundred years the Church was plagued with near Fifty differing Heresies Now judg you whether it be likely that God should appoint an infallible Judg to his Church and a sure way of knowing the Truth and that he should deny her the use of this means for the space of well near two Hundred and fifty years that is to say from the death of S. John the last of the Apostles till the Council of Nice So that in the Ages of greatest purity it will be found that the Church did not derive this purity from any other Fountain but from the simple and pure word of God it makes it evident that the Church may be pure without an infallible Judg in the midst of her Now if the Church may continue pure for the space of two Hundred and twenty five years without a General Council that is to say without an infallible Judg why may she not continue pure three four or five Hundred years For my part I call this a Demonstration that the Church may very well make a shift without those Judges that are called Infallible Let them answer it when they please Observe also that the Church was tormented with Fifty horrible Heresies which thought to have overwhelmed and sunk her and having no Councils she was then left to a Spirit of Error in those times that she had greatest need of a Guide for she had no other Rule but the Writings of the Apostles which according to our Adversaries are Medals with two Faces which may be looked on in a various manner and which all men expound in favour of their own Perswasions It is not amiss to bring hither Tertullian's Book of Prescriptions of which they make use with such success to deceive those that are weak among us It appears by this Book that the Orthodox were in the greatest distress in the World to convince and stop the mouths of Hereticks The Hereticks gave themselves to expound the Scripture after their own manner and in a sense contrary to the truth Tertullian complains thereof and says That false Interpretations do as much injury to Truth as the boldness of those that corrupt the Scriptures He adds That the weak find themselves confounded seeing Hereticks as well as Catholicks dispute from the Scripture To get out of this perplexity he recurs to the Succession of Bishops by whom it might be proved that they taught nothing but what the Apostles had taught before them he found no other way of escape this man had a Mind very much straitned or he was very ignorant Why did he not think of General Councils who are the only infallible means of knowing the sense of the Scriptures Neither he nor any of the Writers of this Age and of that which followed it had any knowledg of them Nevertheless as it is said it was a means established and appointed by God and yet for the space of two Hundred years it must be acknowledged that God hid this means from the whole Church and that he left her in a streight given up to the Humors of Hereticks and to their lewd and false Interpretations No reasonable Man will ever swallow such a Prodigy 3. I intreat you my Brethren to consider if it be likely that God should place Infallibility in Assemblies whose Original was wholly casual and accidental The occasion which gave birth to General Councils was the Conversion of the Roman Emperors to Christianity and the great extent of that Empire For if the Emperors had continued Pagans Councils from all parts of the Empire had never been assembled the Emperors would have looked upon it as a Conspiracy and would never have permitted it Besides if the Roman Emperors by becoming Christians had lost half the Provinces of the Empire there had never been any General Councils neither For the divers Princes which had possessed themselves of the Provinces of the Empire would not have permitted their Subjects to assemble with those who continued under the Rule of the Romans for fear lest these Conferences should be designed to search out ways of returning under the Government of their first Masters Now judg if a Tribunal which in the purpose of God was to be the Fountain of the Oracles of the Church in all Ages ought to owe its birth to a concourse of Affairs and Mundane Circumstances that were wholly and purely so Ought not God to have established this Tribunal without dependance on the World and the Affairs thereof as from the beginning he established Presbyteries so S. Paul calls the Assemblies of Pastors is every City and in every particular Church He must have a very obdurate Mind I think who is not moved and touched with this Discourse and Reason 4. What may be the assurance that a Man may have of such an Article of Faith which is founded on a Matter of Fact notoriously false 'T is that the Councils of the Fourth and Fifth Ages were assembled from the whole Universal Church That say I is notoriously false there were not above three Hundred and eighteen Fathers in the Council of Nice the most ancient and the most venerable of all the Councils What are three Hundred and eighteen Bishops for the whole vast extent of the Roman Empire where there was an infinite number of them It does not appear that all the Churches did depute their Bishops thither nor that all the Provinces of the Roman Empire did assemble to choose some one out of their Body who should carry their Counsel and Advice Constantine called together all the Bishops in general those that could and those that would appeared there none appeared there but those of the Eastern Church there were not Twelve of the Latin Church there out of all Spain none were seen but Hosius Bishop of Corduba out of all France none but Nicasius Bishop of Die or Dijon Besides this there were Churches out of the Roman Empire it may be there were Churches even in the Indies at least those which tell us that S. Thomas carried the Gospel thither ought to believe so 'T is certain at least that there were large Churches in Persia Ecclesiastical History speaks of a great Persecution which was raised at that time against the Christian Churches of Persia by the Impudence or ill guided Zeal of Maruthas a Bishop who burnt one of the Temples which the Persians had consecrated to the Honor of the Fire These Churches of Persia were not called to this Council nor did they appear there All the World are at an Agreement that the first Council of Constantinople held under Theodosius the Great was not General There were none but Eastern Bishops there yea two Hundred years after in the time of Gregory the first Bishop of Rome the Western
to the decisions of Bishops those which came after and above all Councils might very well correct them After which he adds * De Bapt. cont Donat. lib. 2. cap. 3. And even the Councils which are held in every Country and in every Province do without difficulty give place to full Councils which are assembled from all the Christian World and these full Councils so he calls Oecumenical Councils may be corrected by those which follow when that which was hid is discovered and by some experience men come to know what they were ignorant in Observe that the thing under debate was not a matter of Discipline only as they will tell you but to know whether the Baptism of Hereticks were of any value 'T was a Point of Doctrine if there were ever and such 7. To conclude I conjure you my Brethren give yet attention to this 't is that although the Dream of your Converters should have some foundation and that the Church Universal assembled in a Body by its Guides were Infallible the Church of Rome would have no part in this Privilege nor would it extend it self to the Councils since Berengarius which they desire you should look upon as the Rules of your Faith. For these Councils were never Assemblies of the Church Universal since the Schism of the Greeks they are at most but Councils of the Latin Church but the Latin Church say they is become the Universal and Catholick Church excluding all other Christian Communions which are separate from her and by consequence her Councils are those of the Church Universal This is the most foolish of all Pretensions That the Roman Church should be the only Church excluding all the Communions of Asia Africa and Europe We have shewn the extravagance of this Pretence in our former Letters for which reason at present we may well suppose it as indisputable viz. that the Church of Rome for 800 years past hath had no Oecumenical Councils in the sense that she her self understands the Word from whence you may conclude that she hath had no Infallible Councils Furthermore 't is necessary to oblige you to give attention to this Original of Oecumenical Councils in the fourth and fifth Ages because without doubt it was one of the means which the Devil made use of to establish the Empire and Domination of Antichrist Not that the first Councils called Oecumenical were not assembled with good intention and were not very useful at that season and in that time But it happens to this good thing as to the most part of others which have been introduced with a good intention the Devil hath taken occasion from thence to bring in either Opinions or Practices which have destroyed the Church Martyrdom is an excellent work yet from thence men have taken occasion to introduce the Opinion of Merits and Works of Supererogation Respect for the Martyrs is very just and very reasonable yet that hath made way for Indulgences the Invocation of Saints Adoration of Relicks and Images The use of Oecumenical Councils hath been found good upon several occasions The Bishops coming from all Parts have appeared not as Judges but as Witnesses of the Faith of their Churches and this unanimous consent in the Faith hath produced a very good effect for the establishing of Points fundamental But the Spirit of Lies hath nevertheless made use thereof afterwards as a means to build that Universal Empire over the Church an Empire which is one of the characters of Antichrist At the beginning it was the Emperors which assembled these Councils These Assemblies were made by their Authority the Bishops of Rome were of the number of those called to them he must have renounced all Sincerity that doth not agree unto it after he hath read Eusebius Socrates Zozomon and Theodoret. When the Roman Empire was ruined in the West the Emperors having no Authority and longer to call Assemblies of the whole Church because they were no longer Masters of it the Popes who advanced according to the measure that the Emperors declined were willing to lay hold of this Right They endeavoured to re-unite under their Authority all the Provinces which had formerly been united under the Emperors in which they were successful and thereby formed the second Roman Empire which is the Empire of the Boast and of Antichrist These Oecumenical Assemblies were of great use to them in this at the head of which Assemblies they placed themselves in the quality of the first Patriarchs The custom which the Councils took in the Fourth Age of adding Anathema's to their Decisions did also serve them afterwards to possess men with a Chimera of their Infallibility I have not been able to find that Councils did anathematize any one before the Council of Nice We have the Council of Carthage reckoned for the third in the Collection of Father Labbeus held under Cyprian in the year 258. Zonarus holds it for the most ancient of all the Councils he means whose Decisions we have It seems to me we have therein the form of the ancient Councils Every one there speaks his Opinion modestly that which had the plurality of Voices passed but they there made no Decrees nor Anathema's We do not see that in the first two Ages they held Councils for the deciding matters of Faith and Doctrine There was one held about the Controversie concerning Easter that is to say Whether they ought to celebrate the Fourteenth of the Month of March but this was a Point of Discipline There was in those times an infinite number of Hereticks as appears by the Book of Irenaeus but I have not observed that they did assemble Councils against them before the third Age nevertheless if they had look'd upon Councils as Infallible it would have been necessary to prevent Seduction and to secure the Faith of Christians An Article of Controversie The true Idea of Schism That those which are called Schismaticks are not out of the Church AFter having spoken of Vnity and confuted the Sophism which they draw from this Vnity in the preceding Letters we must answer the Sophism which is drawn from the Schism which ruines this Unity 'T is a Point which your Converters do continually repeat and beat upon you Schism say they is a hideous crime Schismaticks are out of the Church there is no Salvation for them and although the Church of Rome it self were corrupt you ought not to break with her Their modern Writers which seem willing to soften the Maxims of the Roman Church do nevertheless observe no measure on this Subject and on this Point They proceed so far as to maintain That although it should be true that even the Church of Rome should be fallen into Idolatry we ought not to forsake her and could not justly set up Altar against Altar We must return to these Gentlemen not Paradox for Paradox but Truth for Lies but a Truth which is opposite to their Falshood as our Antipodes are opposite to us They say
that though even the Church should fall into Idolatry we cannot be saved if we separate from it And I say although even the Church of Rome should have Reason at the bottom and were not Idolatrous and that we were out in our Separation we should not hazard our Salvation by continuing as we are Men are every where well where they have Christianity and the marrow and substance of it and 't is a folly to imagine that the Salvation of men depends upon the humor of their Guides It may be therefore that Luther and Calvin were mistaken i. e. That the corruption of the Church of Rome was not great enough to oblige the Faithful to go out of her let us suppose they had done better to leave things as they were I do nevertheless maintain that at this day you do not in any wise hazard your Salvation by continuing where they have placed you because however it be you have Christianity in its integrity you have it wholly pure and uncorrupt In every Society where that is found a man may be saved after whatsoever manner it be formed The Idea which men have formed of Schism for many Ages past is the most false that can be imagined but besides the falshood of it 't is the most dangerous and cruel Chimera that could be found Every Society would be Catholick Church to the exclusion of all others The Church of Rome pretends thus far for her self The Greek Church makes no less pretence thereto He that goes out of this Church breaks the Unity and he that breaks it is no longer in the Church Now he who is no longer in the Church is no longer in a state and way of Salvation whatever he say and whatever he do Behold what they say behold the Chimera We must therefore rectifie this Idea of Schism according to the Unity which we have given you The Unity of the Universal Church does not subsist within the bounds of one certain Communion nor in adherence to certain Pastors to the exclusion of all others but in the Unity of Spirit Doctrine Sacraments and Evangelical Ministry in general i. e. of Pastors declaring the Truth of the Gospel What must be done then to make a Schism with respect to the Church Universal He must renounce the Christian Doctrine the Sacraments of the Church and the Gospel Ministry that is to say He must be an Apostate or an Heretick But every Society that goes out of another and greater Society of which it was a part makes no Schism with respect to the Church Universal whilst it retains the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel it goes not out of the Church because it carries the Church with it and it carries the Church with it because it carries Christianity with it It carries say I the Church with it in such a manner nevertheless that it leaves it in the Society which it leaves for leaving true Christianity there it leaves the true Church there also And the advantage of being the Church and of having Christianity is a Privilege which may be possessed intire and without prejudice to other Christian Societies We must therefore know that there is an Vniversal and Particular Schism Particular Schism is a Separation from a particular Church a Universal Schism is a Separation from the Universal Church Universal Schism consists in the Renunciation of the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry For example If the one half of Christians should separate from the other and set up a new Gospel according to which Moses should be set side by side with Jesus Christ the legal Ceremonies re-established the Evangelical Ministry should be changed into the Ministry of Priests after the Order of Aaron the Sacraments of the Church should be joyned to the Sacraments of the Old Testament it were certain that this would be a true Schism for these Men would renounce the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel The Mahometans without renouncing Jesus Christ and calling him false Prophet have set up a Prophet superior to him and receive the Impostures of Mahomet admit Circumcision and reject Baptism have made a Religion truly and essentially different from that of Christ's 'T is therefore a true universal Schism The Socinians who have renounced almost all the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion who despise and neglect the Sacraments by going out of the Church are become Schismaticks and true Schismaticks with respect to the Church Universal for they have not carried the Church with them because they have not carried Christianity with them According to this Idea Universal Schism or Schism with respect to the Universal Church doth not essentially differ from Heresie and Apostacy Particular Schism is when a Man separates from a particular Church be it for some Point of Doctrine be it for some quarrel about Discipline be it for some personal Differences of the Guides among themselves Of this sort of Schisms there is an infinite number of Examples In the Second Age there was a Schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of Asia about a controversie of Ceremonies about the day on which Easter ought to be observed The Churches of Asia maintained that the Christian Passover ought to be observed on the same day that the Jews observed theirs and they said they held it as a Tradition from St. John. The Church of Rome on the contrary said that Christians ought to observe Easter on the Lord's-day following the Jewish Passover And for the sake of this goodly Controversie Victor Bishop of Rome was so rash as to separate the Churches of Asia from his Communion This Schism continued not only until the Council of Nice but a very long time after for mention is made of the Quartodecimani in the General Council of Ephesus against Nestorius in the year 431. So they called those who celebrated Easter with the Jews on the 14th day of the Month of March. In the Third Age Novatian formed a considerable Schism about a Point of Discipline viz. Whether we ought to receive those who fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church This Schism continued a long time We find this Schism continuing amidst all the great troubles that were betwixt the Arrians and the Orthodox the union of Opinions that was between the Novatians and the Catholicks with respect to the Doctrine of Arrius did not put a period unto it In the same Age the Donatists made another Schism in Africa about the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Two Parties being formed about it a Division was made it spread through all Africa and continued many Ages There happened another in the beginning of the Fifth Age by one named Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople who taught there were two Persons as well as two Natures in Christ Another was made a little while after by Eutyches Abbot of a Monastery in Constantinople who desiring to oppose Nestorius who distinguished two Persons
in Christ Jesus confounded the two Natures that he might not separate them and these two Schisms have continued for 1200 years and do continue to this day In the Tenth Age happened the great Schism of the Greek Church from the Latin. The Church of Rome it self has had an infinite number of Schisms in her own Bowels occasioned by her Anti-Popes And the greatest which may serve for a Rule for all was the great Schism of Popes and Anti-Popes whereof the one sat at Rome and the other at Avignon This Schism divided the West into two different Parties under two distinct Heads To conclude in these last times a great Schism is happened in the Latin Church which is divided into three great Bodies the Papists the Lutherans and the Reformed I pass by an infinite number of little Schisms which have been in the East between Church and Church and oftentimes among the Members of the same Church Two Bishops were seen for a long time at Antioch the Party of one of them was called Milesians the other Party Eustathians this was in the Fourth and Fifth Ages These are say I particular Schisms And it may be said that not one of these Schismatical Parties did separate from the Universal Church because not one of them abandoned Christianity they returned and carried it with them Now the Illusion in this matter comes from hence that we confound these two sorts of Schisms those that are Universal with those which are particular and we ascribe to particular Schisms that which belongs only to Schism universal viz. Exclusion from Salvation For 't is true that he who makes a Schism from the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry is utterly out of the Church and without any right to eternal Life But 't is false that particular Schism either from the Church of Rome or from the Greek Church or Schism of the Church of Rome in it self doth exclude from Salvation This folly proceeds from another and that is that every particular Church looks on herself as the Catholick and Universal Church and her particular Doctrines as the Universal and Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity In such manner that those who separate themselves from her and renounce her Doctrines she looks on them as being separate from the Universal Church and as having renounced the Universal Doctrine of Christianity But no Church hath carried this folly to that degree of extravagance as the Church of Rome hath done for she calls herself the Catholick and Universal Church to the exclusion of all others And she would fain that the Doctrines which are peculiar to her as the Supremacy of the Pope Transubstantiation Purgatory c. should be accounted the Universal Truths of Christanity Thence it comes to pass that she considers as Schismaticks and damned all those which separate from her and renounce the most inconsiderable Doctrines which she hath consecrated by her Anathema's To make this foolish Pretension vanish and disappear no more is to be done but to make more evident the true Idea of Schism which the Disputes of these last Ages and the Prejudices of the Ancients have strangely perplexed and confounded To this end it will be useful to consider divers of those Schisms of which we have spoken and see what we ought to judge concerning the Salvation of those who lived in them First there have been Schisms which have been made without any Controversies about Doctrine or Discipline only upon personal Quarrels between Bishop and Bishop such was that furious Schism of the Donatists in Africa which was made only upon the occasion of the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Afterwards the Donatists espoused the Opinion of S. Cyprian about the Nullity of the Baptism of Hereticks and it may be some other Opinions of little importance that they might the more easily maintain and continue their Schism with the Catholicks But the true foundation of the Schism was nothing but a particular Quarrel The Donatists held all the Opinions of the Catholick Church they had the same Sacraments the same Discipline and the same Ministry This being so he must be very cruel that will damn an infinite number of private Persons who followed their Guides as the Inhabitants of Jerusalem followed Absalom in the simplicity of their Hearts I say nothing concerning the Authors of the Schism nor of those who did maintain it as they violated the Laws of Charity and troubled the Peace of the Church we leave them to the Judgment of God We say nothing neither of the Circumcellians a sort of People which arose among the Donatists and offered an Hundred Violences to the Orthodox I speak of those plain People who in the simplicity of their Heart do without Dissimulation believe in Jesus Christ according to the Creed explicated according to the sense of the Church Universal who believe all the Christian Doctrine from the first Article to the last and besides labour with great diligence in the practice of Holiness and Devotion to condemn these Men say I only because they do not communicate with the Pastors of the Catholick Church is a foolish and a barbarous Doctrine of which I do not think there is a Man in the World throughly perswaded although there be a Thousand and a Thousand pretend so to be There are other Schisms which were made about Controversies in Doctrine such is the Schism of the Nestorians and that of the Eutychians who continue at this day and comprehend an infinite number of Christians in the East I believe that Nestorius designed to reduce the Opinion of Paulus Samosatenus to another form which Opinion is that of our Socinians who make Jesus Christ a mere Man. But we must judg otherwise of their Successors At this day the Nestorians and the Eutychians embrace the Apostles Creed and that of Constantinople as do the Greeks and the Latins they believe in Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God God himself dead and raised again for the Salvation of Men and the Disputes which they have with the rest of the Church are at present nothing but Questions about Words and differing manners of expression To damn these Millions of People because of the rashness of a single Man who had the boldness a Hundred and twenty years ago to teach contrary to the manner after which we ought to conceive of the Incarnation of the Word is a Cruelty founded in a most prodigious Error and Mistake 'T is evident that we ought to range them with the rest of the Eastern Church which is not much more pure than that of the West and to leave their Salvation to the judgment of God who alone knows how far his Patience will proceed These two Schisms were without doubt criminal in their Original But time hath changed the state of things and at this day those Christians which are called Jacobites and follow the Schism of Eutyches supposing they embrace all Christian Truths necessary to Salvation are as
well where they are as if they rejoyned themselves to the other Christians of the East provided they be endowed with a Spirit of Charity If they be so rash as to condemn the rest therein they sin but the Greeks which condemn them are not less guilty than they although they descend directly from the Catholick and Orthodox flock and the others be only a separate branch And this helps to shew you that although a Schism were criminal in its Original and headily and rashly made nevertheless it is not always necessary under pain of eternal Damnation to return from whence we came From whence I confirm the Thesis which I laid down at the beginning of this Question that the Idea which they make to you about the horror of Schism is a Dream and that tho it should be true that our separation from the Church of Rome in the beginning of the past Age were rash the People which followed it in the simplicity of their Hearts would not hazard their Salvation thereby they that made it were to account for it and at the most those which do maintain it So my Brethren you would be in safety and only we in danger But I very well perceive that this is not enough to calm the Perturbations which your Converters and your own Thoughts may give you about it For you will say supposing that our separation from the Church of Rome in the last Age were unjust and rash 't is true that we who did not make the Schism shall not suffer thereby Our Fathers when they went out of the Church of Rome carried the Church and Christianity with them and this Christianity may nourish and save us maugre the Separation Nevertheless on this supposition we do no ill yea we shall do well to re-unite our selves to the Church of Rome We shall heal a Wound which being open renders the Church deformed Peace is to be preferred before Division This is without doubt the descendants which acknowledg that their Ancestors did wrongfully separate from a certain stock do well to re-unite themselves thereto for edification although it were not absolutely necessary to their Salvation Therefore that we may come nearer to the case in which you are at present with the Church of Rome we must suppose a Separation which was made for reasons of some worth and value i. e. because of Corruption in Doctrine and Worship This is the case in which you are and on this supposition we will shew you in what follows that you cannot return to the Church of Rome March 1. 1687 The FOUTEENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The Original of the Hierarchy and the Antichristian Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the matter of Schism Although the Corruption of the Church of Rome were not extreme it would not be lawful for us to return thither Some Objections of the new Converts concerning it Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ SInce we have been upon the History of the fourth and fifth Ages we have found there two great Novelties which have had very unhappy effects in the following Ages They are the Monastick Life and the Councils that are called Oecumenick Behold a third of them 't is the Original of the Hierarchy which hath given birth to the Antichristian Tyranny This Word signifies sacred Rule or Government and thereby is understood that Subordination of Pastors which hath been seen in the Church for a 1000 or 1200 years In this Subordination are seen the lowest Orders in the lowest Seats above these lowest Orders are seen Priests subdivided into Curates Deans rural Deans c. Above the Priests are the Grand Vicars above the Grand Vicars are the Bishops above the Bishops are the Arch-Bishops or Metropolitans above the Arch-Bishops are the Primates above the Primates are the Exarchs above the Exarchs are the Patriarchs and above all these is seen a Head which was framed insensibly and by little and little and placed there this is it which is called the Pope All this is a new Invention with respect to the Apostles and this Hierarchy was unknown before the Fourth Age. We have the Happiness at this day to have the French Church that is to say your Converters for testimonies of this Truth They do maintain That the Apostles established no precise form of Government that they contented themselves to preach the Gospel to send persons to do so and to place in every Church a Bishop to govern it They say that it is not certain that S. John the eldest of the Apostles i. e. he which lived longest did give to the Churches of Asia amongst whom he died any form of Government that it was in the Fourth Age that the Hierarchical form of Government was given to the Church that therein they followed no divine Right or Institution of the Apostles who determined nothing concerning it but the Polick Order and Form of Government found in the Roman Empire As this Empire was divided into Provinces Metropolitical Cities and Prefectures i. e. Governments so they also divided the Churches into Metropolitan Provincial and National And indeed from the time of the Apostles there was no Principality nor so much as any Primacy in the Church The Apostles by an Authority which they received immediately from Jesus Christ governed the Church without Subordination and without Division The Spirit which guided them being one and poured out on them all they were always at agreement it what concerned the Edification of the Churches but they did not leave any Successor that had the same Authority with themselves It is not true that St. Peter was their Prince it does not appear that he had any Primacy of Order above the rest 't is true he is often named first but that doth not prove that he was the first or the President of the Apostolical College We see that the other Apostles treated with him after such a manner as makes it apparent that they did not acknowledge in him any kind of Preheminence which should advance him above them We see that they sent him to Samaria it would have appertained to him to send and not be sent if he had been the Prince of the Apostles We see that after he had preached the Gospel to Cornelius and some other Pagans they made great complaints thereon We see that S. Paul rebuked him to the face and even in publick because in the presence of the Jews he warped and used some dissimulation with respect to the use of indifferent things forbidden by the Law of Moses Men do not use to deal so with their Prince The Successors of the Apostles left in all Churches Presbyters or Bishops to preach the Word and administer the Sacraments but in the beginning the Presbyter and the Bishop were not distinguished Those which S. Paul calls Bishop in one place he calls also Elders or Presbyters in the
obscure Church subject to the Metropolitan of Heraclea a City of Thrace sees her self honored by the presence of the Emperors Constantine carried thither the Sâ—at of the Empire and called it Constantinople after his own Name and obtained for it the Name of New Rome Then the Bishop of Constantinople began also to make use of an Advantage by the Dignity of the City where he was So that instead of three Tyrants in the Church which aspired to make themselves Masters of the Flocks there are found four the Bishop of Rome he of Alexandria he of Antioch and he of Constantinople But as Rome always preserved a Character of Greatness and Preheminence over other Cities because it was the stock and root of the Empire they allowed a Primacy of Order to the Bishop of that city without contradiction And this by so much the more easily as the Spirit which built the Mystery of Iniquity had universally established the Opinion that S. Peter accounted the chief of the Apostles had placed his Episcopal Seat at Rome where he established Successors in such a manner that all Bishops in the World did silently consent to grant this Primacy of Order and of Presidence to the Church of Rome for these two Reasons the first that the City of Rome was the Capital of the Universe the second that the chief of the Apostles had had his Seat there so the Bishop of Rome was acknowledged for the first in order in their Assemblies but without any kind of Power or Jurisdiction over others In the mean time the rest of the Hierarchy was formed after the Model of the Government of the Empire The Rome Empire in the East was divided into Five principal Governments 1. That of the East whereof the Metropolis was Antioch and which extending it self over Syria is called East by distinction from the other Oriental Provinces 2. That of Egypt whose Head was Alexandria 3. That of Pontus whereof the Capital was Caesarea 4. That of Asia whereof the Capital was Ephesus 5. That of Thrace whereof the Metropolis was Constantinople So that these five Cities Antioch Alexandria Caesarea Ephesus and Constantinople were the places where the five great Governors of the Oriental part of the Roman Empire had their abode The Bishops of the same Cities advanced themselves also above the other Bishops of the Provinces and formed five Exarchates i. e. five sorts of Patriarchates independent the one from the other in every one of these Exarchates or Patriarchates there were many Bishops and even many Metropolitans in the sense that the Word is taken at this day The Exarchs of Antioch of Alexandria of Ephesus of Caesarea and of Constantineple every one in his Exarchate was above the Bishops in Government whether they were Metropolitans or simple Bishops so it was in the West also There was in Italy two principal Governments under the Name of Vicarships the Government of Rome and that of Milan for which reason the Bishops of these two Cities imitating the Civil Government advanced themselves also in the Ecclesiastick above the other Bishops of Italy The Bishop of Rome had therefore at that time a Primacy of Order and Presidence as we have observed because of the Preheminence of the City and the false Opinion that had obtained that S. Peter had been Bishop there But he exercised no Act of Jurisdiction or Superiority over others It was not permitted him to receive Appeals nor to make void the Decisions of other Bishops They were not the Bishops of Rome that called General Councils they were the Emperors it was not they that determined Controversies of Faith they were the Councils they could not send out their Interdicts nor Excommunications against other Churches or constrain them to Obedience by any Censure If the Bishops of Rome did separate other Churches from their Communion other Churches also kept themselves separate from their Communion adherence to the Bishop of Rome was of no necessity to obtain the esteem of an Orthodox and Catholick Church and there were Churches in those Ages which continued many Years in separation and without any Communion with the Church of Rome without ever being esteemed either Hereticks or Schismaticks Nevertheless it was in the Fourth Age that the Bishop of Rome did sow the Seeds of his Tyranny and took upon himself to judg those which other Bishops had already censured And this happened chiefly on the occasion of the Troubles which the Heresie of Arrius raised in the Church The Arrians became Masters in the East and drave the Orthodox Bishops from their Seats as Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Paul Bishop of Constantinople c. These Bishops unjustly deposed and driven away retired themselves into the West where Arrianism had made far less Ravages The Bishops of Milan Rome and the principal Seats of Italy continued Orthodox S. Athanasius and others came into Italy and to Rome to implore the Succour of the Bishop thereof and other Bishops of the West to the end that by their Credit and Authority as well with other Bishops as principally with the Emperors they might be re-established in their Seats The Bishop of Rome receives them treats them as Bishops and declares that he had no regard for the unjust and violent Decisions of the Arrians yea he did all that was in his power to re-place them in their Seats At this time i. e. in the heat of these Controversies stirred up by the Arrians the Bishops of the West which were Orthodox held a Council at Sardis in the Year 347. there to judge the Cause of Athanasius and Paul Bishop of Constantinople In this Council the Bishops of the West observing that the Violences which the Orthodox Bishops of the East had suffered from the hands of Heretick Bishops were without remedy whilst these Heretical Bishops should be absolute Masters they thought fit to make three Canons or Ecclesiastical Rules according to which when a Bishop found himself oppressed by unjust Judgment he might have recourse to Rome that the Bishop of Rome should have power to appoint a review of the Process and for that reason send Deputies on his part which should cause a Synod of the Province to assemble and re-judg the matter a second time that in expectation of this second Judgment the Affairs should remain in suspence and the place of the deposed Bishop should not be filled Behold exactly the fatal Point of the first conception of this tyrannical Power which hath since swallowed up the Church The truth is that the Council of Sardis was made up of Western Bishops which had no power to make Laws for the Eastern Church It is also true that the Churches of the East have always scoffed at the Canons of Sardis and never would receive them It is also true that in the West it self these Canons were not received but very lately and a long time after But 't is also true that since that time the Bishops of Rome have never ceased to make
Foundation upon which we at this day exhort you to make to your selves no longer a frightful Phantome of the Authority of the Pope Surely the Gallican Church in all this takes great steps in your favour and you are obliged unto them for it But yet there remains one without which all the rest are absolutely nothing and that is to break with the Pope We are preparing a Work in which we pretend to make it plain to these Gentlemen that they cannot dispense with themselves from finishing that which they have begun and that in the Estate in which their Divinity concerning it is at this day they ought to consider the Pope as the greatest and the most hateful Usurper A Point of Controversie A Continuation of the matter of Schism Although the Corruption of the Roman Church were not extreme yet it would not be lawful for us to return thither Objections of the new Converts about it MY Brethren in the preceding Letter we have made it appear that although we had been in the wrong in our Separation and that the Church of Rome had not been corrupt you would not wholly hazard your Salvation by continuing out of it I am at present to make it appear that the Church of Rome being corrupt with far greater reason you need fear nothing by not returning thither again But for the greater illustration of this matter let us suppose two sorts of corruption the one in some sort tolerable and the other wholly intolerable Let us argue upon the first and suppose that Persons separate themselves from a Church which hath Errors in Doctrine which nevertheless retains the Fundamentals in their Integrity which hath Superstitions and those very great in its Worship but which is no formally Idolatrous Those which separate from such a Church had done better if they had made no Separation They ought to have attempted all sorts of methods to have reformed their Church Those Remedies not succeeding but exasperating the evil they ought to exercise Patience and to expect a more favourable time for Reformation But supposing that whilst these men employ methods of Softness matters insensibly grow warm and fierce by the Contentions of Men a thing which happens almost always and necessarily supposing say I that the fierceness and heat of the one and the other Party thrust on things to an entire Rupture and Schism do you believe that the Party which separates it self from the main Body and embraces a Religion more pure than that which it left is obliged to return to the corrupt Party from which it is separated Not at all It may and ought to say If things had proceeded otherways 't is true we could have born for a while those Corruptions which are in some sort tolerable but things by the Providence of God happening thus we will stay where we are and keep our selves in that Purity which we have chosen and not return to the corruption which we have forsaken I do maintain that this separated Church had reason and were not obliged to return It were not obliged to return for Salvation for having carried Christianity with it yea having purged it it would be sure that a man might be saved in its Communion It will not be obliged for Edification for 't is not for Edification that being in a pure Church we should joyn our selves to another Church which we believe impure and is really so I go farther and maintain That such a separate Church were obliged not to return to its corrupt stock For when God hath separated us from corruption although this corruption be not extreme we are obliged to keep far from it 'T is true that Preservation of Peace is worth much but 't is a good thing which must not be purchased at the price of Truth Schism which is making and in action makes a great noise and gives great scandal for which reason I have said that when the corruption of a Church is in some sort tolerable it were better to suffer it than to make a violent Separation but the continuation of a Separation is not of the same scandal Custom reconciles us to every thing and the scandal of such a continuation is not so great that we should sacrifice important Truths for the sake thereof Let us at present apply these Reflections to the Subject that we are debating and do the Church of Rome that favour to suppose for one moment as true that which is very false viz. that her corruption is in some sort tolerable that she hath Errors but doth not ruine Fundamentals that she is Superstitious but not Idolatrous Let us suppose also that for this reason our Fathers did not do ill in continuing for some time in the Roman Church and exercising Patience therein But let us consider at the same time that things did not take this course there that the Providence of God did otherwise dispose thereof Our Fathers did their duty in demanding a Reformation they were obliged thereunto altho the corruption were in that degree where we suppose it i. e. tolerable But whilst the one demanded Reformation with Zeal and the other refused it with Passion a Separation is made There came Anathema's from Rome and Thunders from the Temporal Powers with Fires and Gibbets c. which took from us the liberty of remaining there It signifies nothing who had right or wrong in the manner of Separation however it were behold it done Now I maintain my Brethren the thing being done neither Edification Conscience Honour nor your Salvation can suffer you to re-enter into the Roman Church although you should suppose that her corruption is not extreme but in some sort tolerable First of all your Edification will not permit it You suppose that the Worship of Images the Invocation of Saints the Adoration of the Eucharist c. are at least great Superstitions how doth the Edification of the Church permit you to partake in all these things The Edification of the Church obliges you to do all that you can to purge it from these Superstitions and your returning to a Union with the Roman Church is a proper means to confirm all Men in them Conscience will not permit it neither for being convinced that they are Superstitions although you believe them in some sort tolerable you ought to have no more part in them 'T is a kind of Sin against the Holy Ghost to sin against Conscience and the Illuminations which God gives to you and that which would be a small fault in a state of Ignorance and Error becomes a great crime when 't is committed against knowledge so although the Invocation of Saints were but a little fault in an ignorant and a prejudiced Papist it is certain that in you 't is a heinous crime because you know the evil thereof Don't say that you do not invocate Saints for you do invocate them in the publick Service wherein you do partake and that is enough I add that neither will Honour
permit this re-union with the Roman Church even on supposition that her corruption is not extreme for 't is a shameful cowardize and unworthy of an honest man to betray his own Sentiments and to give to a Church which he believes impure that homage which is due only to a Church that is clean and undefiled To conclude I say that your Salvation will not permit you to put a period to your Separation from the Roman Church even supposing that her corruption is in some sort tolerable for that corruption which might not destroy your Soul when you were there having been educated brought up and instructed therein from your Infancy becomes mortal when you receive it not having been born brought up nor instructed therein The difference is clear and the reason thereof is evident It is certain that there is a Superstition ungrateful to God which he tolerates in an ignorant Person but he will not suffer nor endure it in a Man of Knowledge and Understanding for a Person which practises a considerable Superstition against his Conscience makes appear therein an Abyss of Perverseness contempt of God his Laws and Truth and such a love of the World and the interests of the Flesh which put him absolutely out of the state of Salvation Behold already something advanced to deliver you from those vain horrors which they would thrust upon you for your Separation under the name of Schism for 1. Although the Schism or Separation had been rash you would have no reason to be afraid of your Salvation 2. Although the corruption of the Roman Church had been in some sort tolerable and although there had been something of Precipitation in the Separation nevertheless you would have no Obligation to return to the Roman Church but you would be obliged to the contrary And here we shall find an occasion to answer to the Fallacy which the new Converts as they call them put upon themselves and which we have mentioned in our Tenth Pastoral Letter and which is one of the most effectual means by which they lay themselves to sleep in that unhappy state where they are There is in it a Question of Right and another of Fact. The matter of Fact is to know whether indeed the Roman Church be corrupted to that degree that we report it The Question of Right is Whether supposing the Roman Church very corrupt we may separate our selves from it and persevere in that Separation to this day We will first handle the Question of Right because 't is thereby that they enchant you and thereby that the most part of you do quiet and calm your selves 't is thereby say I that they do enchant you for your Converters following the Principles of the Author of the Legitimate Prejudices against the Calvinists and Mr. Ferrand's Treatise concerning the Church tell you * Book of Prejudices p. 147 148 c. That although the Church of Rome were Idolatrous and Heretical the Calvinists had no right to separate themselves from it and to set up other Churches and another Ministry 'T is also thereby that those which would be at rest in the Roman Church do lull themselves asleep for this Proposition that though the Roman Church were Heretical and Idolatrous you ought not to separate from it in the Writings of your Converters Mr. Nicholas and Mr. Ferrand is nothing but a false Supposition to make you see the more clearly the necessity of Adherence to the Church of Rome and the horror of Schism And if they found themselves pressed too hard on this spot of ground they might be able always to retrench themselves behind and say Now it is not true that the Church of Rome is Heretical and Idolatrous But at this day one part of these new Converts from a false Supposition draw a very solid Conclusion They receive the Supposition as true That the Church of Rome is very corrupt and maintain this Thesis That nevertheless they ought not to separate from it and that Men may or ought to return to it We have heard the Reasonings of one of these Men in our Tenth Letter we must hear it once more for he says all that these Men think Speaking of the Questions which perplex the New Converts First says he on the positive Separation which ous Fathers made we say that we ought to suffer many things rather than separate from the Vnity of the Church that the Abuses introduced by the Governors thereof may not be imputed to the Faithful that all Scripture which makes mention of Heresies doth not command Separation for the sake of them on the contrary it commands us to bear them It says that we may build upon the Foundation which is Christ Wood Hay and Stubble that Jesus Christ only will make Separation the one from the other that the good Grain and the Chaff will be separated at the last day but that they must grow together till then After he adds some Reflections on a Conjecture of the Author of the Accomplishment of Prophesies which 't is not necessary to report here because they will have their place elsewhere And he concludes this Points with these Words And although the Pope should be Antichrist that would not infallibly hinder Christians from being saved in the Roman Church The Letter contains another Article on the Question Whether the Roman Church be Idolatrous in worshiping the Eucharist or Jesus Christ in the Eucharist This also shall have its place elsewhere Afterwards he adds At last they conclude two things the first That all the Fundamental Truths of Christianity being confessed by the Roman Church we are obliged to continue united with it without making a positive Separation which is against all the duties of Charity and which instead of bringing back those which err produces nothing but an eternal Distance and Animosity In the second place they do maintain That we do not necessarily partake in the Errors of a Communion in which we are the common Confession of Faith ought to be esteemed as an agreement to live under the same Ministry but we are not therefore responsible for all the Abuses which may be or can be introduced into the Ministry Provided we adore the same God and profess the same Fundamentals of Christianity the rest cannot be imputed to single Persons above all when there is a necessity of joyning our selves to this first Christian Society and we cannot find any publick Worship more pure and more edifying The Examples of our Fathers before the Reformation prove clearly That we may secure our Salvation in the Roman Communion even in adhering to the publick Worship Whatever Men say it is inconceivable that Men born and brought up in a Religion who never heard speak of any other Doctrine and who lived and died without protesting against the Opinion of their Church should not partake in the Worship thereof Behold an exact account of all the Illusions which these new re-united Persons put upon themselves and an
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
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
and confusion and well perceiving that if they suffered me to return to my self they would gain nothing therefore they repeated their Assaults with the greater force and reduced me to the most pittiable condition in the world I do not hide my anguish from any one and I speak with greater courage than ever by the grace of my God I am prepared to suffer all the evil which can betide me in the world The good God will be my defence and my support I entreat you to pray to God for me and don 't think that I am fastned to this World I am more estranged from the love of it than ever It seems to me that my House is a Tomb I will never more see any person every thing that I see reproaches me my own Soul smites me so sharply that 't is deplorable Suffer with me in my grief I pray you I am worthy of pity and oh that the great God would pardon and deliver us quickly from the Torments which we feel From 15 Jan. 1687. THis Letter which hath made known what Conscience can do in the matter of Subscriptions obliges me to bring to your minds a matter of fact which happened lately In the month past forty persons embarked themselves on the Borders of Normandy in a Veslel of seven Tuns that is to speak properly in a Challop and this without any Provisions for the support of Life They abandoned themselves to death and it may be said to a death apparently inevitable For in such a Vessel if the Wind and Sea had been contrary to them they might have continued there long enough to have died of Famine But as it pleased God they were not above four days e're they gained the Coast of England and they passed them without eating Behold what the force of Conscience can do and 't is a good proof that those who are newly reunited to the Roman Church are in great distress and perplexity Amongst these persons there was Monsieur the Count of Marancay aged about seventy years of the Province of Normandy and Madam his Wife Sister to Monsieur the Marquess of Rochegifar This new Story brings to my mind another of an elder date which makes it farther appear what horrible Violence these forced Subscriptions do to the Consciences of men 'T is the examples of a Woman named Jane Baille Wife of a Chirurgeon named Isaiah Viridit of a little Village in the County of Charollois named Parayle Moyneau This poor woman being pressed to the uttermost by her Persecutions took Pen from the hands of a Jesuit named Father Langeroon but at the same instant she fell down as one dead without any other sign of life than a convulsive motion in her right arm The Jesuit returned again another time accompanied with the Major the Delegate of the Intendant and many other Papists This poor woman for fear of losing her Children took the Pen a second time in her hand to make her Subscription but in the very moment that she made the letter J which is the first letter of her name she fell into the same condition and continued in it more than six hours Every body was affected with it the Major protested that he would have given a great deal of Money not to have been there on that occasion and it was more than five days e're he did recover from the disorder that this Accident did occasion to him The Delegate himself was also moved at it and promised to endeavour to get her a Pasport There was no body but the Jesuit which was not moved at it who said Let her burst she is but an Hypocrite The Delegate instead of a Pasport for this poor woman received Order to carry her to a Convent to execute his Order he caused her to be seized on by four Serjeants in whose arms she fell into the same state in which she was in the two preceding times But nevertheless they laid her on a Horse like a Pack without motion and without life and carried her to the Convent of the Religious of St. Mary On occasion of these Events thus happening which discover the cruel Oppressions and Troubles of Mind in which those are which have signed their Abjurations I cannot forbear to speak to those that have been so unhappy and have yet no sense of it nor sorrow for it And here I will speak not only to those who are yet in that unhappy state but also to those who have found opportunity of getting out of the Kingdom and are risen from their falls We have seen some that have been touched and affected with it but in truth the insensibility of the most part makes me fear And I tremble for some persons whose Piety was very eminent who nevertheless count as nothing the fault which they have committed in withdrawing themselves through cowardize from the honour whereto God called them by suffering for his Name I will make but one Reflection thereupon to make you perceive how much their heart deceives them Let us suppose that all the Reformed of France had imitated them and that all preserving the Truth in their hearts had abandoned themselves to this unhappy complaisance for their Persecutors and signed their Abjuration I say if all had done so there had not been at this day in France one Confessor one Martyr one man that had spoken for God and maintained his Truth in Prisons and in the midst of Torments Now this would have been the most dreadful of all God's Judgments the greatest mark of Reprobation for the Church and the most frightful Curse of Heaven For this would have been a Castigation of God singular in its kind for since there was a Church and Persecutors there was never any such thing seen there have been always Martyrs always Confessors always Believers that have persevered in Prisons and in the midst of Punishments 'T is the Honour of the Church 't is her Triumph 't is the Glory of God and the Crown of Men Yea in humane Affairs in Interests purely secular in causes where men suffer only for Truth and humane Right there are no Examples where all forsook it and no body remained stedfast thereto So that if the Reformed Church of France had remained without Confessors and Martyrs she would have been charged with an eternal Reproach which the Bloud of all mankind would never have washt off Now 't is not owing to these weak persons who have subscribed to save their Lives and secure their Ease and Repose that the Church of France is not branded with this horrible Reproach For if all had imitated them that had been exactly our case I easily forgive this weakness to those whose Zeal and Piety was not eminent but I do acknowledge that without difficulty I cannot forgive those who after they had obtained the Reputation of very Pious and Devout persons have denied and refused to Jesus Christ the Sacrifice of their Sufferings Good God what discouragement is this to those who
given a Copy to the said Monsieur Ricottier that to maintain us in our Priviledges and prevent the Dissipation of our Flocks they offer not only to Interceed for us but also in case of Refusal to bear Arms into this Province if we promise them and give them assurance to put into their hands all the Cities and places whereof we can dispose The Society approving the care of the said Messieurs Ricottier and Vignier After having all promised by Oath made to GOD not to reveal a Secret of this importance return Thanks to the said Monsieur Durel for what be had already done to make it successful and do intreat him to go a soon as he can and know what Assurances they desire and promise on our part that we shall give all those that are possible and as a Pledge thereof they have drawn up the present Act which shall be dispatcht to him to this end and purpose and the Original put into the hands of the said Vignier to be secretly and faithfully kept there until the business can be executed to the Glory of GOD and the Comfort of our poor afflicted Congregations c. Signed Ricottier Moderator E. Durel Assistant J. Asimont Chosen to Collect the Acts. J. Meysonnet Secretary There are no attempts imaginable which the Priest Soulier doth not make to defend this false Piece But we see that God doth strike these Impostors with a Spirit of Blindness so that they stumble in places where it were easie for them to be upon their guard The Work hath appeared in publick a long time since and we were advertised from France that this part thereof was envenomed leud and worthy that we should make the Injury and Reproach thereof fall upon its Author But the Calvinists of Holland of whom Monsieur Soulier speaks with so much contempt have so little esteem for his Works that they did not put themselves to the trouble of obtaining this And the Printers of Holland who print all things at are saleable did not think that the Sale of the History of Calvinism would pay the charge of the Press The reason therefore why we Anwer to it so late is because we could not recover any Copy thereof at last we resolved to obtain it by an Express otherwise it had never passed our Frontiers We have therefore seen and read it and have judged that the Conspiracy of Montpazier did indeed deserve that we should reply to it But before we defend our Arguments for the Falshood thereof and produce new ones 't is necessary once more that you know who the Priest Soulier is that you may also know of what weight his Authority is but I choose rather that you know it from the mouth of one of his Brethren than from ours for which reason we shall here produce a Letter which Monsieur Le Feure a Doctor of the Sorbonne did write to one of his Friends concerning this Gentleman and this since the History of the Birth Progress Decay and Ruine of Calvinism appeared in the World. A Letter of Monsieur Le Ferre Doctor of the Sorbonne to Monsieur de M. concerning Monsieur Soulier the Priest. I Must confess faithfully Monsieur that I have always believed that a politick Dissimulation of those Resentments which a man cannot discover without prejudice to his interest was not the Vice of our Nation and that it ought to be the horrour of men of the Character which we bear I speak of Resentments which are believed just and whose end is the Defence of Truth and not a Chimera of Reputation or false worldly Honour I have been hitherto and am yet perswaded that 't is to be an Enemy to Truth to suffer it to be oppressed then when there is reason to fear that a man shall draw upon himself the Persecution of those which oppose it for I have made to myself a Rule of that ancient Maxim of the Fathers of the Church Let us be Banished so the Truth be Preached Behold Monsieur the only reason why I have had so few Contests with persons of eminent Merit so that the Priest Soulier had passed in silence if he had not observed a quite opposite conduct Judge thereof Monsieur by the following History in the Year 1681 the learned Jesuit Father Mesnier being chosen by the Clergy for their Agent-General and Counsel to the Syndicks of the Diocess of this Kingdom prosecuting the Destruction of the Temples of those of the Reformed Religion built contrary to the Edicts published a Collection about those matters printed at Paris by Monsieur Leonard Bookseller to the Clergy In the time of this Impression Monsieur Soulier published a little Work where by way of Essary he accuses the Syndecks of Ignorance as having suffered the Preservation of many Churches which ought to have been destroyed The Father Mesnier seeing that this blow would fall directly upon him thought himself obliged to refute this Dream of Monsieur Soulier he therefore employs about twenty of the last Pages of his Book to convince this Monsieur of Ignorance He concludes them by accusing him of Falshood of Calumnie and of being a person that at most knew no more than to Read and Write and sending him to the exercise of his first Trade and Employment Monsieur Soulier saw and dissembled the thing from 1681 until the end of this Year 1686 that is to say near six Years Why did he keep silence so long and why speaks he now after he had been so long dumb Think of it what you please Monsieur but behold that which I think most reasonable concerning it The Father Mesnier was alive and is now dead Soulier owed to him what he knew in the matter of Edicts against those of the Reformed Protestant Religion which he hath dressed over again to give a tast of them to the World. The Father Mesnier made use of him to be a Servant and a Scribe and he is not the first who from the Servant of an Author is become an Author himself The Servants of Physitians do every day steal the Secrets of their Masters The Father Mesnier is therefore dead and Monsieur Soulier hath filled up his place in a very short space of time The Revocation of the Edict of Nants followed by the Destruction of the Churches of those of the Reformed Protestant Religion having rendered his pretended Employment much more unprofitable than the Work which he reproaches me for sending into the World a little too late nevertheless being puffed up with his new Place and Preferment he was not able to endure any longer to be accused of Ignorance But why does he fall upon me 'T is because I being necessarily engaged to take part in the business contested by Father Mesnier and him I put myself on the side of the Master against the Servant and to save myself the labour of confuting Soulier I said that it had been done by Father Mesnier Yea I had the Charity not to name Soulier when I said as
before our general Banishment Is it credible he would have permitted a Minister convinced of Rebellion against his Majesty and of Conspiracy against the State to go out of his Kingdom He who had kept in Prison other Ministers of Guyenne for Preaching or Praying after the Prohibitions would he have given the Keys of the Gates to a Minister known guilty not only of the same faults but of a crime worthy of the severest Punishment Certainly there is nothing could have protected me and I must have expected to have been condemned to Prison or to the Gallies for ever Seeing therefore that after the sight of this Act he gave me my Pass-port and was content with my Banishment as well as with that of others 't is an indisputable proof that he gave no credit to it and knew the Falshood thereof only he thought fit to leave Soulier at liberty to fight us with the Weapons of his Tongue and Pen. To conclude though we have to do with a King who hath condemned his Faithful Subjects to Banishment even those who exposed their Goods their Lives and Liberties to his Service yet I do not repent the performance of my Duty 't is matter of Confidence to me and gives me the boldness to implore the Protection of GOD against the Cruelty of Men. Two things are considerable in this Testimony of Monsieur Asimont the first is That he is a man of great Age and of whom it may be said that he expects the moment in which he must go and appear before God. Can any one believe that a man so near to leave the World should be willing to keep measures with it for the preservation of I know not what trifle of Honour and Reputation and that being so near his appearance before God should dare to prophane his holy Name by so many Falshoods and Perjuries The other thing observable is The Circumstance which he observes in his Letter concerning the suspicion though unjust under which he fell in the minds of some of his Brethren by reason of a certain Letter of Favour and Thanks which the King caused to be written to him as an Acknowledgment of his Fidelity to his Service This is notorious and all the World knows it Is there any probability that they would trust such a man with a Conspiracy which they knew to have been so faithful and so perfectly in the Interests of the Court But is there any probability that a man who had been so faithful to the King and so fast and sure to his Service would have any part in such a Confederacy and Conspiracy I do acknowledge that I have no more to say after this and that if the Priest Soulier does continue to maintain his Act and Conspiracy of Montpazier he may very well boast that he hath the gift of Impudence to the highest degree and measure For never had Romance and Fiction so many marks of Falshood Let us see them a little altogether 1. Ricottier is here Minister of Clairac and in truth he was Minister of the Reformed Church of Burdeaux 2. Saint Blancard is here Commissary for the King but in truth 't was Monsieur Vivans of Vilefranche 3. Daret is he by whose Mediation they treated with the English this Daret is a Phantome who never was in the World. 4. Durel Minister of the Duke de la Force substituted in the place of Daret was not Assistant to the Synod 't was Dorde Minister of Montpazier itself 5. To Durel who treated with the English they give the name of Elijah or Estienne or Esay or some such name beginning with an E and yet his name was John. 6. Durel is present he receives the Act and nevertheless he was not so much as deputed to the Synod 7. Durel treated with Cromewell who even had been dead ten Months 8. Durel treated with the Parliamentarians to whom he was a mortal Enemy and by whom he was mortally hated 9. The English offer to enter France with their Arms in a time when they were in the greatest Confusion among themselves in an Anarchy and by consequence in a state of the utmost weakness 10. A Conspiracy is discovered to the Court part of the Authors are living and the Court says nothing thereof 11. Asimont one of the principal Conspirators begs leave for himself and his two Sons to depart the Kingdom 't is granted him without any difficulty 12. They suppress the Edict of Nantes they Persecute the Reformed even to death without objecting this Conspiracy as a fault unto them 13. Men enterprize and attempt to deliver places to an Enemy which they have not had in their hands these fifty Years 14. Men attempt to raise a Civil War in the time of the Peace of the Pyreneans at a season when the Kingdom remained without any trouble from abroad 15. They are four or five Ministers and it may be as many Elders which make this Conspiracy and pretend to execute this great Design without communicating it to any one 16. Or they did communicate a Secret on which the Lives of an infinite number of persons depended to an hundred and fifty Deputies yea to all the Consistories 17. To conclude the Reformed attempted to trouble a Kingdom and themselves in a time when they enjoyed a very great Peace I do maintain that here are a heap of Falshoods Contradictions and Follies so plain and sensible that a man must have a head and heart made like those of Soulier the Priest to be able to digest them To conclude let us see a little the Channels by which this Piece hath passed and Providence will therein shew us new Indications of Falshood As to its source 't is sufficiently difficult to discover it according to Soulier this Act made by the Synod of Montpazier is put into the hands of the Minister Vignier Vignier died in the Year 1666 and dying committed this Piece in trust into the hands of Mounier Minister of Nerac also and his Colleague the Minister Mounier turns Catholick in the Year 1675 and dies in the Year 1677 at Paris in an Inn near the House of Soissons Monsieur de Quesne Arch-Deacon and Vicar-General of Condom goes to see him in the time of his Sickness he gives him this Act of Montpazier Monsieur de Quesne gives it Monsieur Joly then Bishop of Agen Joly gives it to Monsieur the Cardinal of Bouillion the Cardinal of Bouillion gives it to the King and at last the King gives it to Monsieur Chasteau-neuf who puts it in his Office where it is sealed up and joyned to the Acts of the Synod of Montpazier Behold a great many hands which are either unknown to us or suspected by us As to the Minister Mounier we do continue to say he was a man wounded in his Reputation by Suspension from his Ministry he was besides an Apostate from the Truth and had the Character of all voluntary Apostates i. e. hatred for the Truth and for those which do
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
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
double Adultery against Christ Jesus These are pitiful Declamations according to my apprehension To judge of the nature of these Actions we must know what were the Principles of those who did them Why should they observe Celibacy since they lookt upon it as a Yoak of which they desired to deliver the Clergy because it had produced a world of Impurities and Abominations so that a Deluge was not capable of purging them They have broken their Vows They were unlawful Vows made under a tyrannical Empire conceived in a false Religion unacceptable to God because they served as a Vail to an infinite number of Corruptions and at the same time to a debaucht and hypocritical life They forsook Babylon and it behoved them to forsake all the Badges thereof This kind of life which under an appearance of Piety hides such great Disorders is the true Character of the Beast These Monks are those Hypocrites whose Consciences are seared as with a hot Iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God hath permitted which teach a Doctrine of Devils and serve as a Support to the Throne of the Beast So that these Reformers being delivered from the tyrannical Yoak of this unhappy Empire ought to return to the enjoyment of all their Rights and of all their Liberty and being put in the possession of it they may and ought to use it There needs but one thing to confound all these Calumniators who are willing to stain and blacken the Lives of the Authors of our Reformation What have these Reformers gained what have they gotten to do the work of Impostors Have they gained Riches Honours or great Dignities Have they left great Houses have they left Heirs and Children that were great Lords Never did persons despise their own Interests more than they did they never got wherewithal to be buried decently and scarcely got wherewith to live Their Zeal Firmness Constancy and Perseverance joyned with a contempt of their own Interest make up a Character very opposite to that of dishonest men If they had been debauched effeminate Lovers of Pleasure why did they go out of the Body of the Roman Clergy who enjoyed all the pleasures of the flesh even those which were most infamous with so much convenience and advantage These Gentlemen say that the principal reason which gave such success to the New Gospel was the licentiousness of the Church-men and the Monks of that Age. This is it which that same Lady does confess who makes the ill Conversation of the Authors of our Separation one cause of her return to the Church of Rome But this Confession and this Truth which is publickly known doth it not utterly ruine the Accusation which the Papists make against our Reformers Is there any probability that the great number of people which forsook the Roman Church being scandalized by the wicked Lives of its Guides should list themselves under the Ensigns of other wicked persons which were no better than those they had forsaken If they were not vicious and debaucht at least say they they were fierce proud Lovers of themselves passionate ambitious vain and violent These are stroaks striken in the Air and Accusations which make it evident they have nothing to say Concerning Ambition there doth not appear any footstep thereof in their Conversation And that which they call Pride and Fierceness is according to us Zeal and Vigour in the maintenance of Truth as we shall make it appear in examining the third Accusation The third Accusation is that it 's evident the Authors of our Separation were inspired with a dark Malignity against the Roman Church they vomited out against her say they flouds of Injuries and every-where is to be seen a Character of black Gholer which discharges it self both upon their Persons and Religion They support and strengthen this Accusation by the Confession of some Protestants who were of another frame and temper of mind and did not approve those methods of proceedure that were so full of flame and fire I answer That Grace which changes mens Manners does not change their Temper and Constitution but governs and serves it self thereof Although it should be true that there appeared a great deal of fire in the Authors of our Reformation that would be no sufficient cause to condemn them it being the temper of all Great men And this temper is of so great necessity for the execution of great things that without it 't is very difficult to carry on and prosecute great Designs and Enterprizes This is a thing unto which those men have too little regard which at this day do so highly commend and advance the Elogies of sweetness and moderation in Controversies and who perswade us to imitate other Great men who are of a quite contrary Character and temper of Mind If these honest men of this last Order that is to say these soft and moderate men had been born in the past Age and had been engaged in that great Work they had neither maintained nor carried it so far as did those men the heat of whose Temper they would fain make a Crime If Luther had not had a heart fearless and of inconceivable courage he had never been able to bear up against the Torrent of Contradictions and Oppositions that he met withal and repelled Father Paul the famous Venetian Divine who became famous on occasion of the Affair of the Interdict of that Republick knew assuredly the Corruption of the Roman Church at least as well as Luther He made no secret of it no eminent Protestant passed by Venice to whom he did not discover himself concerning it They often represented to him that he was obliged in Conscience to break with a Church the Impurity and Idolatry whereof he so well understood He had a thousand Reasons to offer on his own behalf sometimes that he separated the good from the bad sometimes that he was of use to a thousand persons that lay hid and had good sentiments at last when he was pressed hard he would say that God had not given to him the Heart and Spirit of Luther It is certain that if Father Paul had been of the Temper and Spirit of Luther Venice had been at this day what Geneva is And it is also certain that if Luther Zuinglius and Calvin had been of the Temper and Spirit of Father Paul all Europe had been yet what Venice is at this day It behoves us therefore to admire the great and profound Wisdom of God who chose for so great a Work men whose Temper was fit to maintain improve and exercise Zeal effectually To this Consideration add another the Authors of our Reformation have indeed spoken ill of the Church of Rome of its Priests of its High-Priest of its Monks and its Guides And why might they not speak ill of them I do maintain that they said nothing but what was true they could scarcely speak too much ill of Popery They said that the Church
Church be he Priest Bishop or Guide thereof Make Reflections in this place on the monstrous Doctrines of your Converters of whom the most part will tell you that to be a true Member of the Church it suffices to make profession of the Faith and to adhere to lawful Pastors So that Priests that are Sorcerers and Sodomites which you have oftentimes seen burnt at Paris were the true Members of Jesus Christ This is capable of making a man tremble with horrour They will say to you thereon if they were not true Members of the Church and of the Body of Jesus Christ they could not be the Guides thereof Such a one is an evil Man he is nevertheless a true Bishop he must therefore be a true Member of Jesus Christ and of his Body Answer to this that which one of the Writers of Port Royal says somewhere That oftentimes those which Build Jerusalem and Guide it are the Citizens of Babylon Tell them that to be a lawful Pastor and Guide of the Church to be able to administer the Word and Sacraments with Authority it s enough to be a Member of the external and visible Society it is not necessary to be a Member of the true Church to be in the hand of God an Instrument of his Work. A King may administer Justice and administer it very well by a wicked man who hath inwardly all sorts of inclinations to Injustice It will be said a man cannot be the Head and Guide of a Body without being a Member thereof for the Head is one of its principal Members It must be answered That false Pastors are true Members of the visible Society of the Church and that they are also true Heads of that Society whereof they are true Members but they are neither Heads nor Members of the principal and invisible part of the Church who are true Believers and truly righteous persons They are not therefore true Heads but of that part whereof they are true Members and that sufficeth them for the external Administration of the Word and Sacraments for the truely Righteous receive the Word and Sacraments in quality of the Members of the external Society They will press you further and tell you You do confess the Church is visible because she hath a Body which is an external Society But is it always visible Although you should answer That it is not necessary that the Church be always visible they would not be able to convince you of the contrary by reason For a man who is visible by his body may be sometimes hidden and by that means be invisible May not the external Society of the Church which is visible have been at sometimes and in some seasons hidden through the Persecution of Pagans or Hereticks But confess to them that the Church hath been always visible and will be to the end of the World. 'T is true that the Persecutions under the Pagan-Emperours were very great but they never proceeded so far as utterly to destroy all Assemblies of the Church to that degree that there were no visible Society of Christians the Christians were well known under the Persecutions seeing they knew where to find them to make Martyrs of them the Church was visible in the midst of the flames She remained visible in the Heretical Assemblies of the Arrians for those that held the Truth in those Assemblies themselves were more numerous than those that erred concerning it If there were any place where the Church were become invisible it was in the Papism for never was there a Church so corrupt and drowned in Superstitions as that Nevertheless the Church continued there visible because that Christianity and the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion did abide there I do not say that they did remain there in their Integrity but the contrary nevertheless it sufficeth that they did continue there 't is necessary therefore that you know that where-ever Christianity fore that you know that where-ever Christianity remains sensible and visible the Church remains visible for it is Christianity that makes the Church If a Sect become so corrupt that Christianity is no longer visible in it such are the Mahumetans and the Socinians who have rejected the Foundations the Church is no longer visible among them unless it be as a dead man remains visible but it is also visible that he is dead without life and without soul so in the Sects which have rejected the Foundations the Church remains visible but it 's also visible that such Churches are without life without soul without salvation In the Sects which preserve Christianity although they have added very many things thereunto and even such things as overturns the Foundations thereof the Church doth not fail to remain visible because Christianity both is there and is seen there If therefore they do inquire of you Where was your Church before Luther and Calvin Answer them She was in the Christian Societies that were in Aethiopia in those which were in Aegypt and in Africa in those which are and were in Asia in the Greek Church that was at Constantinople and Antioch in Muscovy and the Churches of Russia and she was even in the Church of Rome itself If they ask of you Was the Church visible in these Societies or were the Members thereof hidden Answer them That the Church was visible in these Societies forasmuch as Christianity and the Creed of the Apostles in the true sence thereof explained in the first six General Councils were visibly preserved there Add you that the true Members of Jesus Christ and of the Church were hidden and not visible because those that sincerely and truly adhered to this true Christianity contained in the Creeds of the Christian Church were not known by name but that these Believers were hidden was not at all peculiar to these corrupt Churches because of their Corruption for the case is the same in the purest Churches the true Members of Jesus Christ and of his body are hidden because we do not certainly know those which adhere to the Christian Faith in sincerity and with the heart Behold a pure and native Explication of the true Visibility of the Church and of the Perpetuity of that Visibility The Bishop of Meaux and your other Converters will seem to you very well pleased in this that you confess the Church is visible and always visible Behold they will say one point gained For if the Church be always visible 't is of necessity that there be a Succession in the Ministry a train of legitimate Pastours There will always be Teachers with whom Jesus Christ will teach and the true Teaching will never cease in the Church These are Monsieur de Meaux that great Converter's own words That is to say from the perpetual Visibility of the Church he draws these three conclusions 1. That pure and true Teaching hath never ceased in the Church 2. That there will always be a series and train of legitimate Pastours 3. That Jesus Christ
will always teach with these Pastours i.e. they must be Infallible I intreat you my Brethren to attend to what I shall say concerning these three Consequences 1. These Gentlemen suppose that the Church cannot be perpetual and perpetually visible without being pure and without continuing pure and exempt from corruption in the Faith. The Church is always visible therefore pure preaching must always remain there Can a man argue more pitifully 't is just as if I should say Whilst Man hath a Soul in his Body he must be always sound and hail as if Health were inseparable from Life Where have they found that Purity with respect to Faith is in separable from Visibility And because the Church is always visible doth it follow that she is always sound if the nature of the Church consisted in an indivisible point and in that certain state of purity of Faith in which there was no kind of Errors t is true the Church would perish cease to be and by consequence to be visible as soon as the Christian Doctrine should come to be mingled with any Doctrine that is strange and forreign thereto And indeed 't is the supposition of your Converters But 't is the most foolish Dream that ever entered into the mind of Man the most contrary to the Word of God and Experience that ever was asserted The most contrary to the Scripture for the Scripture says That there shall be in the Church thorns and thistles mingled with the good grain Wolves will creep in and destroy the flock That there must be heresies That men will build upon the foundation wood bay stubble And that even the Son of perdition will sit in the Church and Temple of God. The most contrary to Experience for for the space of 1300 or 1400 years which way soever we cast our Eyes we behold Christianity every-where spoiled by false and strange Doctrines Lay down this therefore as a thing indisputable that the Church must be always visible that she must always subsist but not that she must always subsist pure and underfiled The Church began to be corrupt considerably in the fourth Age and in two Ages the Corruption became such that Antichristianity which is the highest degree of the corruption of Christianity proceeded and came out from thence But in the midst of this great Corruption Christianity nevertheless preserved it self it remained very visible and by consequence the Church also continued visible for yet once more the Church remains every-where where Christianity remains and the Church remains visible every-where where Christianity remains yisible Remember-therefore that Popery is a very high and extream Corruption of Christianity but 't is not the Annihilation of it for we must well distinguish betwixt Annihilation and extream Corruption of it If the Church of Rome had rejected the Foundations as the Turks and the Socinians have done she would have been no more visible than as a dead Body is visible But because she hath only added an infinite number of false Doctrines superstitious and idolatrous whilst she hath retained Fundamentals she hath only corrupted Christianity But Christianity in the midst of these Corruptions hath not failed to remain visible to those which search after it with diligence and attention Imagine you an Egg not broken which swims in dirty and stinking water 't is the perfect Emblem of the Roman Religion The Egg whole and not broken is the Christian Creed preserved in its integrity in the sense of the Church The filthy and stinking Water where this Egg swims is the heap of Superstitions Errors and Idolatries of Popery The Egg remains visible in the midst of this filthy Water and even the opposition of the blackness of the Mire to the whiteness of the Egg make it in some sort more visible The Body of Christianity is also visible in the heap of Popish Errors and to him that will give attention thereunto it may be said that the true Christianity which doth continue in the Roman Religion serves to discover and make the ugliness of Popery more horrible The Mud and the stinking Water which encompasseth this Egg is visible as well as the Egg. 'T is the light of the day which manifests the one and the other The Corruption introduced by Popery in the Roman Religion is visible as well as Christianity 'T is the light of the day i.e. the light of the Word of God which manifests both for the Word of God manifests Christianity in the Romish Religion by the fair conformity of the three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Nice and of Athanasius with the Revelation This same word manifests Antichristianity the Mud and the Dirt of Popery by the frightful dissimilitude and unlikeness which is between Popery and Revelation It seems to me that he must be very blockish not to perceive all this and not to see that the Church may always endure and always be even visible although it be not necessary that she always continue in perfect Purity But nevertheless there is in the first consequence of your Converters some truth which serves for a foundation to that gross Illusion which they would put upon you They say The Church is always visible therefore pure Preaching must always continue there If the meaning be 't is of necessity that something of pure Preaching do always remain there yea and that the essential parts of true Preaching remain there 't is true for if the Fundamentals and essential parts of Christianity were not there there were no Church there Moreover 't is true that in Popery in the Religion of the Greeks in the Oriental Communions the Cophtis the Nestorians and the Armenians pure Preaching doth continue as to the Fundamentals of the Creed which make the Essence of Christianity But it doth not follow at all that Preaching must necessarily remain there wholly pure and incorrupt Not being able to proceed at this time to the examination of the two last consequences which your Converters draw from the perpetual visibility of the Church I will conclude by answering a Question which they put unto you and which it may be you put unto your selves Can a man be saved in Communions which you compare to a great Bason full of Dirt and stinking Water in which swims a good Egg clean and in its integrity This respects those who desire to save themselves in the Roman Church because she retains the Egg the Creed of Christians in its perfection You may well think that we should have a great many things to say to them if we would say all and were willing to repeat what we have said concerning it in our Seventeenth Letter But in this place I shall only answer to them That it does not follow that a man may be saved in a Communion which retains the Egg of Christianity whilst he swims in the Dung which compasses the Egg and nourishes himself with it a man plunged in a hideous Mire which receives the stinking dirt by his
there has happened very considerable and essential alterations since that in this time men have overwhelmed Religion by an infinite multitude of vain Ceremonies which have degenerated into Superstitions that they have introduced the criminal Worship of Creatures that they have established the distinctions of Powers and Tribunals which at last have destroyed the true Authority of the Holy Scripture 2. It appears by that which we have shewn to you that far greater changes have yet happened since the fifth Age than had happened before for seeing that in these Ages men knew neither Transubstantiation nor the Real Presence nor the Adoration of the Sacrament nor the Worship of Images nor Purgatory nor the Sacrifice of the Mass nor the Communion under One Kind nor the Soveraign Authority of the Pope all these points being at this day fundamental Articles of Popery 't is unavoidable that since that time there have happened great changes and alterations And to prove the truth thereof against the illusion of the impossibility of insensible changes you have nothing to do my Brethren but to serve your selves of the Proofs which we have put into your hands and say In the fifth Age the Real Presence was not believed 't is believed at this day they did not adore the Sacrament they adore it now they did not worship Images they do worship them at present therefore a change is happened To convince your Converters of the possibility of changes in things that are essential serve your selves only of the Example of Masses without Communicants They will not dare to deny that this is not a thing wholly unknown to all Antiquity And I dare tell you that if they had seen a Priest communicate alone in the Mysteries they would have believed the Spirit of Reprobation were fallen upon the whole Assembly * Canon 10. of Apost decret de Gratian de consecrat Dist 2. Canon per acta distinct 1. Canon Episcopus It was not so much as permitted to assist when they did not communicate and the Regulations thereof are yet found in their Canon-Law nevertheless 't is an important affair if there be any such in Popery For 't is a frightful difference that a Feast instituted to be eaten in common by all the Believers should be changed into a Spectacle where all the Devotion of the People consists in seeing without eating and without understanding Besides thereon depends the question concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass for if it be a true Sacrifice they have some reason to say that 't is not always necessary that the Faithful eat thereof But that the Ancients did never permit any to assist at the Mysteries without participation in them is an evident proof that they did not then look on them as a Sacrifice the efficacy whereof depends upon the Oblation but as a Sacrament the whole efficacy whereof depends upon the reception An Article of Controversie An Examination of the two last false Consequences which the Papists draw from the perpetual Visibility of the Church IN our preceding Letter we have explained how the Church is Visible and always Visible and we have refuted one of the Consequences which the Converters draw from thence behold another of them unto which it behoves us to answer The Church say they is always Visible therefore 't is necessary that she should always have had a Succession of lawful Pastours This is designed to make you confess 1. That the Pastours of the Church of Rome are lawful Pastours and always have been so 2. And by consequence that we are separated from lawful Pastours and a lawful Ministery To this answer That from this that the Church is always Visible it doth indeed follow that there hath always been true Preaching in some points i. e. in fundamental Articles in like manner that it doth follow that there hath been always true Pastors in some things and in some respect but it doth not follow that the Ministery which is legitimate in some things is so in every thing for you must know that the Ministery depends only upon the Doctrine If the Christian Doctrine be wholly corrupt and annihilated in a Society the Ministery is null'd nor is there any thing lawful there If the Doctrine be pure and Christian in all its parts the Ministery is intirely legitimate in all respects To conclude if the Doctrine be partly Christian and partly Antichristian the Ministery is partly lawful and partly unlawful This is the condition of the Ministery of the Church of Rome in that Church there is Christianity and Antichristianity Christianity in the Creeds and Antichristianity in the superstitions and Idolatrous Additions The Pastors of that Church receive Commission to preach both Christianity and Antichristianity the Ministery is legitimate in that they receive Commission to preach Christianity their Ministery and their Mission is wholly illegitimate in that they receive Commission to preach Antichristianity 'T is null for we can do nothing against the Truth If you well understand this you will easily answer the question proposed unto you Why do you Separate from a true and lawful Ministery Answer we do not separate from the Ministery of the Roman Church in that which it teaches of Truth in the preaching of the three Creeds nor in that which it hath of Lawful In this respect we are united for we are in the same Doctrine and by consequence in the same Ministery We are not separate from the Ministery of the Church of Rome but with respect to the Commission she gives her Pastors to make the Body of Jesus Christ and teach Idolatry now this part of her Ministery is null vain criminal and illegitimate The third false consequence which your Converters draw from the perpetual Visibility of the Church is That Jesus Christ will always teach with these visible Pastors If Monsieur de Meaux and those like him understand thereby that Jesus Christ ought to guide them by a Spirit of Infallibility the supposition is false and there is no necessity of adding any thing to make the Falseness thereof appear For I have proved that perpetual Visibility doth not signifie that the Church by remaining always visible must necessarily be always pure and infallible This is true in its Pastors as well as in its other Members for the Pastors have no priviledge of being infallible any more than the other parts of the Church If you desire that I should add something thereon it shall be only this 'T is that the Church is as a Man who after he hath been young and sound becomes old and diseased This Man is visible with his gray Hairs and his rotten Teeth and Wrinkles just as he was when he had his complexion fresh his colour lively the air of his countenance brisk vigorous In like manner the Church hath been young sound and pure in the Ages next to the Apostles by little and little she is grown old and at last is become deformed through corruption but
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
of the Roman Doctors They oppress you with Sophisms to convince you that there ought to be a Judge an infallible Interpreter of Scripture a Church that cannot err Answer them in one word Although all this which you say should be true it would be no advantage to you we must seek this Church and this infallible Interpreter elsewhere for 't is certain you have erred I come to the second sence viz. That the Scripture makes a Light which renders the Church visible because it shews with the Finger the Roman Church as the true Church to the exclusion of all others Now this is a Falshood sensible to all the World the Holy Scripture speaks not one word of the Church of Rome or of her Infallibility 'T is true there is an Epistle addressed to the Church of Rome but St. Paul so little thought of her as infallible that he speaks to her as a Church that would fall or at least as one that might be cut off from the true Olive and from the root of Jesus Christ There remains only the third sence in which your Converters can say that the Scripture forms a Light which makes the Church of Rome visible 'T is that the Doctrine of the Scripture is found perfectly conformable to that of the Church of Rome That is it which they must say if they will say any thing that is solid for the truth is that there is not any mark of the Church but this viz. Her conformity to the Holy Scripture Let alone therefore all this pretended heap of Marks of the Church which are either false or equivocal and keep you close to this alone Tell your Converters if you will make your Church visible to me let me see it conformable to the Scripture and 't is there you will reduce them to Extremities 'T is here that we have an evident proof that Popery is an Antichristian Religion Behold a proof to which all the subtilty of Hell can never oppose any thing we say then every Society and every Religion which hath nothing conformable with the Law of Jesus Christ is not the true Religion now Popery hath nothing conformable to the Law of Jesus Christ therefore it hath nothing of Christianity I intreat you to give attention to this If a Sect of the Turks calling themselves Mahometans had nothing among them like to the Alcoran which is the Law of Mahomet would you not tell them that they lie If the Jews calling themselves Jews should re-establish a Worship which hath nothing like the Worship prescribed by Moses would any one endure that they should say they were of the Religion of Moses Every Religion hath its Books and every Sect to shew that 't is of such a Religion ought to prove its conformity with those Books Common sence say thus If therefore Popery have nothing at all like the Writings of Christians 't is clear that 't is not Christianity Now this is it which we take for granted and which we are ready to prove before all sorts of Judges even Jews and Pagans viz. That Popery hath no conformity with the Scripture which is the common Law of Christians To be convinced of this my Brethren first separate Christianity from Popery in the Roman Church and don 't suffer yourselves to be blinded by what your Converters say unto you Are not we Christians Do we not believe one God in three Persons one Jesus crucified for the sins of men one Resurrection one Paradise and one Hell Does not the Scripture teach all this Is not our Religion therefore conformable to Revelation Answer them thereon Yea you are Christians in all that you believe with us but you are Antichristians in that wherein you believe without us These points whereof you speak are in the Scripture 't is true but 't is my Religion rather than yours 't is Christianity whereof 't is true I acknowledge you have preserved the Fundamentals But this makes nothing for your Religion which is Popery it makes nothing for Purgatory Invocation of Saints Adoration of Images and Reliques the Sacrifice of the Mass the Adoration of the Sacrament the Latine Tongue in the Worship of God a Communion without the Cup a Head of the Church besides Jesus Christ Behold Popery and 't is that which we maintain hath no conformity with the Scripture Indeed when your Converters will prove their Doctrines by the Scripture it seems they have renounced common Sence as well as Faith and Honesty To understand this there is no need to examine any Books of Controversie as they would fain perswade you there needs no more but eyes to open and read them For Example When they endeavour to prove the Pope is the Soveraign Head of the Church the Center of Unity the Mouth that utters Oracles and him to whom we must adhere if we will be saved and they produce to us for the whole proof these words Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not feed my sheep When say I they produce this and produce nothing else to prove the most important point of Popery which is the Authority of the Pope I do maintain that he must be stricken with a Spirit of Blockishness to regard it as proof He must I dare say be abandoned to a Spirit of Reprobation to suppose that the Scripture that tells us of Pastors and Teachers as Guides of the Church should not speak one word of this great Office of Pope and Soveraign Pastor When for the Sacrifice of the Mass propitiatory for the living and the dead they produce to us as proof from the holy Scriptures these Texts Melchizedeck offered bread and wine they shall offer to my Name a pure sacrifice from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same Soveraign wisdom hath prepared her victuals and mingled her wine We have an Altar of which they have no right to partake which serve the Tabernacle Do this in remembrance of me When say I they produce these passages for the intire proof of the Sacrifice of the Mass are you not tempted to believe they do not speak in good earnest for nothing seems more opposite to sound sense To prove that we must invocate Saints they refer us to those words of Jacob The Angel which delivered me from all evil keep the lads and those of Eliphaz to Job And to which of the Saints wilt thou turn thy self that is to say of the Saints which are upon Earth and those of Daniel Have mercy upon Israel for the sake of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. To prove that we must prostrate our selves before Images and worship Reliques they produce those words of God to Moses Pluck off thy shoes for the place where thou standest is holy ground and those of David Worship before his footstool and those of St. Paul to Timothy From thy childhood thou hast learnt the holy Scriptures Here is nothing to be laught at
't is that for which we ought to pour out tears of bloud that Christians should fall into so prodigious a Stupidity and into so great a want of Reason that if the Mahometans should fall into one like it and would prove their Religion after this manner by their Alcoran we should take them for mad men They ought not to tell you I dissemble their principal proofs drawn from Scripture for those points whereof we speak unto you for they have no other and the case is the same in all other Articles of Popery without excepting their Faith concerning the Eucharist For these words this is my Body although they should signifie a real Presence do not signifie Transubstantiation by any means in the World. 'T is a truth so evident that Cajetan and many other Doctors after him have confessed it Is it not a shame that on an Article so important as is the Adoration of the Sacrament when they should produce proofs from Scripture they cannot produce so much as one but these words this is my Body which do not speak one word concerning Adoration When they ought to prove the Power which is given to the Church to take away the Cup again they quote this is my Body This is in propriety of speech to mock men being not willing to confess plainly that which is truth i. e. our Religion hath no conformity to the Holy Scripture My Brethren that I may compleatly possess you of this truth that Popery hath no kind of Bond Union or Conformity with the Scripture observe these two things First That Popery treats the Scripture as a declared Enemy It disputes against its perfection its clearness its sufficiency and its authority It makes vast Volumes to prove it is obscure that 't is a Nose of Wax that 't is a Sword with two edges that it hath been an occasion by its obscurity of all Heresies that it contains not half the things that are necessary for salvation that it hath no authority without the testimony of the Church that it must be interpreted according to the Voice of the Church and her Practices that she contains a hundred things capable of raising scruple and giving scandal You have heard of the famous Cardinal Perron who collected together all that seems ridiculous to the profane in the Scripture as the Jaw-bone of Sampson's Ass and other like things to make it lose its authority They add that the Scripture is maimed and half lost corrupted by the Jews or Hereticks and as the top of all the Popes the Councils the Doctors the Inquisitors and the Parliaments have even forbidden the reading of it to the People as a dangerous Book Is not this to declare themselves and to act as enemies to the Scripture The other Reflection which I wish you would make is that the Church of Rome looks on the Scripture as her Enemy Popery is always on its guard against the Holy Scripture always prepared to give a Push always drawing back and recoiling always answering always distinguishing sometimes distinguishing Sacrifice into bloudy and unbloudy sometimes Adoration into Dulia and Latria sometimes the Head of the Church into Principal and Ministerial sometimes the Essence of the Body of Jesus Christ into natural and sacramental sometimes Mediators into Mediators of Intercession and of Redemption always to repel the Scripture and always to serve themselves of it Is it not therefore very clear that Popery is at a perfect opposition with the Scripture It attacks it as an Enemy by a hundred false Accusations it defends it self against it as against an Enemy by a hundred and a hundred imaginary distinctions to ward off the blows the Scripture gives it To attack and defend is all that Enemies do to one another Observe well my Brethren in the Instructions which your Converters give you in these late times the Scripture doth not enter among them They are ashamed of the proof which their Doctors have heretofore drawn from the Scripture to support their Doctrines At this day they beat and press upon you by nothing but the pretended Authority of the Church and Passages of the Fathers which you never read From all this I conclude that Popery in the quality of true Religion and the Church of Rome in quality of the true Church are by no means visible seeing they are destitute of that Light which alone can make the true Church visible viz. Conformity with the Holy Scripture An INDEX for the first Year OF THE PASTORAL LETTERS 1 LEtter A Refutation of what M. de Meaux says in his Pastoral Letter concerning the Manner of Conversions A Letter of M. de Meaux to M. D. V. 2 Letter Concerning the Right of Persecutors A Letter of Queen Christiana about Persecution The Use of the Sword of Princes extends not itself over the Conscience They do all that is necessary to assure themselves of the Damnation of the New Converts A Letter of M. P. M. a Confessour condemned to the Gallies 3 Letter Against the Necessity of a living and speaking Authority Against Successions of Seats Assemblies in Gevennes 4 Letter Advice to those which frequent the Sermons of Papists A History of many Assemblies in Cevennes The Martyrdom of the Blessed Teyssier of Burfort and Fulcran Rey in Languedoc 5 Letter The Form of Christianity in the first Age. A Letter to M. de M. a Confessour and his Answer 6. Letter What was the Form of Christianity in the second Age. 7 Letter Concerning Singing and Voices heard in divers places 8 Letter The Christianity of the third Age. M. de Monceaux Doctor in Physick of La Ferte Au-Coll his Confession M. de Juigne of Villiers a Confessour his Death in Prison M. Palmentier of Ville Dieu l'Aunay his Martyrdom Mademoiselle Carquett Vicountess of Novion and M. Chenevix drawn to the Dung-hill 9 Letter The Christianity of the third Age. M. de Voutron with two Damsels of Laon their Confession The Massacre of the Christians in Cevennes M. de Toumeyrol his Martyrdom M. le Feure a Confessor of Niuernois Mademoiselle de Chalmot indured the burning of her hand her Confession 10 Letter The Christianity of the third Age. Concerning the Unity of the Church we are not gone out of that Unity 11 Letter The Christianity of the third Age. A Continuation of the matter concerning Unity 12 Letter Concerning the Original of Monks Advice to persons which are in Convents Concerning the Unity of the Ministry A Letter from Geneva concerning the Christians of Piedmont 13 Letter Concerning the Original of Oecumenical Councils Seven Reasons against their Infallibility The true Idea of Schism 14 Letter Concerning the Original of the Tyranny of the Popes and the Hierarchy Concerning Schism Although the Corruption of the Church of Rome were not extream it would not be allowed us to return thither 15 Letter Concerning the Original of the Invocation of Saints in the fourth Age Three Proofs of its Novelty An Answer to a New Convert about Schism The