the state of grace where the goodness of God had sent the Gospel in declaring to them that they ought to fear being cut off as the Jews from the Covenant of God he addresses himself to the whole body of the Gentiles converted to Jesus Christ Ad totum Gentium corpus adds he And certainly that horrible Apostasy of the whole world which has fallen out since manifestly shews us that this advice of S. Paul was not unprofitable For God having diffused in so great an extension of Countreys almost in a moment the waters of his Grace so that Religion flourished every where within a very little while after the truth of the Gospel was vanished and the treasure of salvation banished out of the Earth But whence could that change come unless from this that the Gentiles were fallen away from their Call and therefore it is that he clearly professes in a Letter to Melancthon that they had separated from all the world Plusquam enim absurdum est postquam discessionem à toto mundo facere coacti sumus alios ab aliis desilire The Author of the Prejudices yet further makes use of an Article of our Confession of Faith to prove the same thing which sayes That we believe that no one ought of his own authority to thrust himself into the government of the Church but that that ought to be done by election while it is possible and while God permits it Which exception we emphatically add to it because it has failed sometimes and even in our time in which the state of the Church was interrupted till God had raised up men after an extraordinary manner to order the Church a new which was in ruine and desolation Grounding himself on these two passages he insults over Monsieur Vigerius the Author of the Discourse in the Book of the Perpetuity of the Faith because he had declared That none of us had ever said that it could be possible that the Church should no longer subsist and that he defied Monsieur Arnaud to shew him one only Author among us who had thought so Before he had expressed such desires sayes the Author of the Prejudices it would have been well to the purpose that he had better informed himself about that which not only some Authors of his Sect have wrote but the Master of all their Authors which is Calvin who sayes a great deal more than that which is contained in that Book of the Perpetuity of the Faith since he looks upon the Church not only as possible to perish but as having effectually done so for many Ages so far as to say that the threatning of S. Paul which he pretends to be spoken to the whole body of the Gentiles had its effect that all the Gentiles had fell from their Call through a general Apostasy that the light of the Gospel had vanished in respect of them and that they had lost the treasure of salvation It is upon this foundation that he builds his Proposition and pretends to make us pass for worse men than the Donatists But all this is nothing else but an effect of the unjust and violent hatred that this Author has conceiv'd against us and Monsieur Vigerius had reason to deny that which he has denyed As the dispute here is only to know what our Hypothesis is upon the point of the perpetual subsistence of the Church it would be sufficient methinks to stop the mouth of the Author of the Prejudices to tell him that he troubles himself to no purpose that we do not believe that intire extinction of the Church throughout all the world which he layes to our charge and that he has mistaken the meaning of Calvin and that of our Confession of Faith for there is no likelihood that he should better know what we believe than our selves nor that he should be a more faithful Interpreter of the sense of Calvin and that of our Confession of Faith than we our selves Notwithstanding to make the Character of the Author of the Prejudices more and more known and what judgement we ought to make of that which he propounds when he speaks with the greatest confidence it will be good to relate here the testimony that Monsieur the Cardinal of Richelieu has given to the Protestant Churches concerning that that they believe and teach upon the subject of the perpetual subsistence of the Church until the end of the world For we might say that he had the Author of the Prejudices in his view and wrote about this matter only to confute him There is not sayes he any point in controversie between our Adversaries and us about which their Confessions of Faith speak so clearly and agree so uniformly as this which I may truly say ought not to be put into the number of the controverted points The Confession of Ausburg which may be said to be as well the Rule as the source and origine of all the other Confessions of Faith of our Adversaries sayes in express terms that the Church ought perpetually to remain one and holy That of Saxony sayes that the Article of the Creed which declares the Church Holy and Catholick was inserted therein only to confirm the faithful against the doubts that they might have of the stability of the Church That of the Switzers does not only affirm this truth but sets down the same reason for it that I my self have made use of here above since God sayes it would from all eternity that men should be saved we must acknowledge this truth that the Church has alwayes been for the time past that she subsists for the present and that she will do so till the end of the world The Scotch holds this Article to be so undoubtedly true that it compares the belief of it to that of the Mysterie of the Trinity saying That as the faithful believe the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost so they also constantly believe the perpetuity of the Church The Flemish professes the same truth and gives the reason altogether founded upon the Regality of Jesus Christ which being perpetual supposes in all times some subjects over whom he must reign The French Confession alone sayes nothing upon this occasion but it is so far from saying nothing of it through the difficulty that they found in this point that on the contrary the certainty which they had of it was in my opinion the cause of their silence She does not therefore it may be speak any thing because she did not think she could doubt of so evident a truth of which her founders have spoke so clearly for her Luther teaches it in terms so express that he makes perpetuity to enter into the definition of the Church as a quality that making a part of its essence is altogether inseparable from it He draws the duration of the Church from an Article of the Creed and the words of Jesus Christ which bind us to believe it saying that it is an
learned The one extends its use unto all that is Necessary for Instruction and the Conduct of life and the other in heaping up of general difficulties makes it unprofitable to Instruct us in the least Truths What Judgment can we make of this diversity unless this that the language of these Gentlemen changes according to the difference of Times and Interests as one has said of them elsewhere When the case is about gaining credit to their Translation of the New Testament they speak as advantagiously of the Scripture as it is possible for them to speak and when the business is to oppose a Reformation made according to the Rule of the Scripture but which notwithstanding has not the happiness of their Agreement you see what they say of that same Scripture The Scripture shall then to speak properly be only to be commended by the Intrest of their Translation and as long as that Interest shall remain shall be the Collection of the divine Teachings of our Lord The Testament that assures us of the Inheritance of our Father The mouth of Jesus Christ who although he is in Heaven speaks continually upon earth not only the nourishment of sound Souls and those who are establish'd in grace as the Body of the Son of God but even the Consolation of Sinners the light of the blind the remedy of the Sick and the life of the dead For these are the Titles that the Preface gives it but whenever that Interest shall cease those praises shall do so too and it shall be nothing but a Ridiculous way and impossible for the Instructing of men in the Truth I would therefore very fain know of these Gentlemen whether it were only upon the sight of their Translation that S. Cyprian S. Augustine and S. Gregory wrote that which the Preface relates or whether those Fathers did not consider the Scripture in it self For if it be the first they forgot to tell us that they only spake out of a Prophetick Spirit of that Translation and if it be the Second why have they entertained us with that admirable proportion of the Scripture to great and small to the strong and weak and that easy and intelligible manner wherewith it propounds to us all that is necessary for the Conduct of our life since that without the Translation of Mons it is an Infinite way which has no end a ridiculous way and Impossible to Instruct men in the Truth What can the Author of the Prejudices say to defend himself from this Manifest Contradiction which he discovers between him and his Colleague Will he say that the Scripture is in truth a good means for the Instruction of men but that it is so only with the Interpretations of the Fathers But the Author of that Preface speaks for Scripture alone separated from the Interpretation of the Fathers such as its Translation is for he excuses himself in that he had not made a collection of notes and explanations drawn out of the writings of the holy Fathers and he does not fail to say that in his Translation as plain as it is not only the Souls of the more learned but of the more simple also and unlearned may find that which will be necessary for their Instruction Will he say that he does not mean to exclude the learned from the use of the Scripture but only the more simple for the Instruction of which former he does not deny but that it would be a most proper means But besides that his Brother speaks formally of the Instruction of the more simple why has the Author of the Prejudices made it a ridiculous and Impossible way an infinite way which has no Issue a way which is of so excessive a length that one can never rationally hope to come to the end of it whatsoever diligence one should make Will he say that the Scripture ought to be joined with Tradition and that without Tradition it cannot give a perfect Instruction But the Preface says expresly that they will find in that Translation all that will be necessary for Instruction Will he say that in order to the Scriptures Instructing one the Sence of the Church ought to be added to it But the Preface says that according to Saint Augustine the Scripture lays down all that is necessary for the Conduct of our lives after a most easy and Intelligible manner and that she explains and makes clear her self Will he say that in order to the Scriptures being capable to Instruct us we ought at least to read it with Dependance upon the Church and to take it from her hand But wherefore then would these Gentlemen have the People to read their Translation since they are only private Doctors and not the Church Wherefore when the Prelats rais'd to the highest dignities have forbid the reading of it by their Ordinances have we seen Printed writings maintain on the contrary there was in those Ordinances a Threatning of the Will and Commandment of God who would that we should hear his Son and not that we should suppress his Gospel a Contradiction to the Holy Scripture which was set down in writing for no other end but to be heard and practis'd by all Nations of the world a Contradiction of all the Councils which have always taken the Scripture for the Judge of the belief of the Church and of all the Difficulties and Questions that can arise in the Doctrine of Faith or Manners a Contradiction of all the Holy Fathers who advis'd the Faithful above all things continually to read the word of God Why has one Introduc'd two Lay-men Parishoners Saint Hilary Montanus saying one to another The Bishops cannot take away from us the Gospel that Jesus Christ has given us that God spoke to all his People when he said To day if you will hear my voice harden not your Hearts a Bishop cannot take away our Eyes from us to hinder us from seeing and considering our way we should not see Jesus Christ our Saviour our Pastor and our great Bishop who goes before us in his Gospel That if a Bishop would turn us away from if an Apostle if an Angel from Heaven would stop up this way and would go about to lead and guide us in another we ought not to believe him Why has he made us see those Parishoners holding That there is nothing more contrary to the Gospel then a prohibition to read and have it that bread and nourishment is not more necessary to preserve the life of the Body then the word of God is to maintain Life in our Souls That all Christians have a natural right that cannot be taken from them of Instructing themselves by the word of God and labouring to understand it and that the Holy Scriptures were given to the whole Church and not only to the Bishops who have no right to deprive the Faithful of them That this is say they what the Divel would preach up if he were
visible and Transfigured into an Angel of light and in the shape of a Preacher in the Chair of Truth and what else would he perswade the Faithful too but that the Faithful ought to take very great heed not to read the Holy Scripture and not to meditate day and night upon the words of life that the Spirit of God has dictated to the Prophets and which God the Father has given to his Son for the Instruction of his Church and to draw it from the Corruption of the world to render it Holy and without Spot to his Father who gave it to him Jesus Christ was the Word uf God and liv'd by that Word and to make his Church live he gave it his word in an Intelligible Tongue out of his own mouth and by his Disciples Search says he and examine carefully the Scriptures for they are they which Testify of me Thus it is that they speak of it sometimes Jesus Christ gave his Scripture to the Faithful with a Commandment to read it to examine it carefully and to hear it It was the Judge of the beleif of the Church and the Difficulties and Questions that arose in the Doctrine of the Faith and Manners The Parishioners made use of them against their Bishops They encountred even their Ordinances by passages out of that Scripture they maintain'd that the use of them belonged to all Christians by a natural right and that to go about to deprive them of them was to do an action of the Devil But now a days they speak no more after that manner for they tell us on the contrary that it is a Ridiculous and Impossible way to Instruct men in the Truth an Infinite way which has no Issue and which is of so excessive a length that whatsoever dilligence we should use we can never arrive to the end and they labour to heap difficulties upon difficulties to drive them back and to make a Labyrinth full of Circles and confus'd ways that so out of a fear of those Confusions the world should take heed of entring into it For my own part I freely acknowledg That I can comprehend nothing in all that For if before one can assure ones self of one only Passage of Scripture whatsoever it be we must needs go through a thousand tedious ways and overcome a thousand Obstacles that arise from the Question about the Canonical Books about the Conformity of the Translations with the Originals about the different manner of reading the Passages and about the difference of Interpretations as the Author of the Prejudices would have it according to his ordinary Exaggeration to what purpose is it to give the publick a Translation which after the manner that it was given and receiv'd in cannot but be subject to the greatest part of those difficulties and yet notwithstanding they put it into all mens hands as well the Ignorant as the Learned as well of the simple as the more Inlightned as well to women as to men The Church of Rome has not declared it Authentick Two Bishops and a Doctor have approved it but two Arch-bishops and a Cardinal have forbidden it and yet one has not failed notwithstanding those Prohibitions to maintain that all the world ought to read them and that that forbidding them is a Violence a Novelty an unexampled Enterprise a bold Attempt upon the Liberty that God has given to the Church ransomed at the price of the Blood of his own Son that it is an usurpation and the Introducing of a Tyrannical Authority that was never excercised in the Church until this day and that every one is bound not only not to obey that Ordinance but even to have an Horror for it and to resist it as much as he can What will then become of those Difficulties and those unconquerable Confufions which hinder them according to the Author of the Prejudices so that they cannot assure themselves of one only Passage of the Scripture through the uncertaitty wherein a man is of the unfaithfulness of the Translations through the Ignorance wherein we are of the different manner of reading those Passages and through the necessity of consulting Interpreters Is it because they would expresly engage the People in an Infinite way and which can come to no Issue and in a ridiculous way and which is Impossible for the Instructing of any in the Truth or is it rather because they did not propound to themselves in that Translation to Instruct men in the Truths of the Faith but only to satisfy their Curiosity and to make them read good French The Author of the Prejudices may acknowledge therefore if he pleases that the heat of Disputation has carried him beyond the bounds of Right and Reason and the respect which he ought to have for the word of God and that in endeavouring to have troubled us he has done it for himself and his Freinds for if that which he has propounded were true they would give us a ground to accuse those who have publish'd the Translation of Mons of Rashness and Imprudence And it will be nothing to the purpose to say that they Publish'd it for those persons who were already Instructed in the Truths which the Church believes that therein they might receive a Confirmation and increase of the Faith by the Conformity which they should find the Doctrines of the Church have with it and that it was necessary for that that they should go through all the difficulties which the Author of the Prejudices has worked since the Sole Conformity of it with the Doctrines of the Church would be sufficient to assure them that it was truly the word of God I say that answer will not satisfy For besides that it is an Injury to the word of God to make the Efficacy that it has in our Souls to depend upon the Conformity which it has with the Doctrine of the Church whereas on the contrary the Efficacy of the Doctrine of the Church ought to depend on its Conformity with the word of God besides that the Author of the Preface says expresly That the Souls of the simpler sort may find that in his Translation which is necessary for their Instruction He says not those who shall be already Instructed in that which the Church teaches but he says the Simpler sort he does not say that they would be Confirmed in the Instruction which they had already but that they would find that which should be necessary for their Instruction And elsewhere he says That the word of God that is to say in his Translation for it is about the Subject of that Translation that he speaks is the Light of the Blind and the Life of the Dead Which signifies that it gives by it self the first Impressions of the Spiritual Life So that it was not in the view of the knowledge that the simple might have of the Doctrine of the Roman Church that he publish'd that Translation if we believe the
to our Children as well as to us it ought to be given not only to us but to our Children So that without going any further I have in that respect all the Certainty that I can reasonably desire As to the second I say that the Word Baptise equally signifying in the Original Tongue to plunge and to wash and being used divers times in this latter sence as it may appear in the Translation of Mons in the seventh of Saint Mark and eleventh of Saint Luke and there being moreover nothing in the Scripture that precisely enjoins Immersion or forbids Aspersion it is my part to believe that in the Thoughts of Jesus Christ those two wayes of Baptizing are indifferent and that so much the more as I know the Spirit of the Gospel is not so nice and punctual about forms or the manners of External Actions which is proper to Superstition So that I have further for that all the Assurance that I ought to have For the third being certain as I am by the Promises of Jesus Christ that God has alwayes Preserved a True Church in the World that is to say the Truly Faithful howsoever mixt they may have been with the Worldly I am assured also that the Baptism which was Administred not only before the Reformation but since in the Latin Church and in other Christian-Societies where the Essence of Baptism remains is good because that being made in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost it is the Baptism of the True Church although it be administred by Persons filled with Errors and Superstitions Baptism is not theirs they are only the Ministers of it That Sacrament belongs to God and his Truly Faithful ones in what Quarter of the World soever they be That same Scripture that sayes That the Promise is made to us and to our Children and to all that are a far of even as many as the Lord shall call says by a necessary Consequence that the Seal of that Promise which is Baptism and all the other Rights of the Covenant of Jesus Christ belongs to us and to our Children that is to say to the Truly Faithful The Hereticks who Administer it do not do it as a good that belongs to them under that Quality for in that respect nothing belongs to them but as a good that belongs to the True Church the Dispensation whereof they have by the part which they have yet with her For they Baptise not by that which divides them from the truly Faithful but by that which after some manner Associates and unites them with them It is therefore the Baptism of the True Church which they give and not that of Heresy it is the Church that Baptises by them and in that respect they are yet as I have said the Dispensers of its goods If the Author of the Prejudices desires yet further to see a greater Number ot proofs drawn from the same Scripture that should Establish this Truth he needs but to read what Saint Augustine has wrote in his Treatise against the Epistle of Parmenio and that of Baptism against the Donatists and he will learn there not to make any more Questions of that Nature I know not for the rest whether he as well as the others of his Communion who shall take the pains to read this work will be satisfied But I dare say at least that I have done all that was possible for me to do to set before them without Offence the Truths that are most Important for them to know It belongs to them to make a serious Reflection upon that which I have represented to them and upon the present State of Christianity which the prophaneness Impiety and Debauchery of mens Minds do every day reduce into an Evident danger of ruine if we do not bring a Remedy both on the one and the other side Nevertheless instead of having in view that grand Interest upon which the Glory of God wholly depends and the Salvation of men they apply themselves only to destroy us and their Passion prevails to that height that they do not take heed of making irreparable Breaches in Religion as that is of bringing the Use and Authority of the Holy Scripture to nothing provided they can but do us any Mischief But although they should do whatsoever they pleas'd God would alwayes be a Witness on our Side that in the Foundation of the Cause that upon which we have Separated from them is the Love which we have for the Truth and the Desire that we have to Work out our own Salvation And to let them see that it is not a false Prejudice that Corrupts us let them go through all the Christian Communions that are in the world Let them Judg in cold blood and I am assured that they will come to a serious Agreement that ours is the purest Church nd the most approaching to the Primitive one Our Opinions are the Fundamental Opinions of Religion which are great Solid and Convincing our Worship has nothing that is not Evangelical for it consists in Prayers to God in Thanksgivings in Singing of Psalms in Celebration of Fasts in Humiliation in Acts of Repentance in tears and groans when we are prest with the thoughts of our Sins and the Wrath of God our Morals consist more in Exhortations in Censures in Corrections in Threatnings on Gods side in Representations of the Motives that bind us to do good Works then in unprofitable decisions of Cases of Conscience Our Government is plain remote from the Formalities of the Bar founded as much as can be upon good Reason Justice and Charity but very opposite to the Maximes of Humane Policy and especially to Ambition Covetousness and Vanity which we believe to be the Mortal Enemies of Religion Every one in the World knows that and yet notwithstanding the Author of the Prejudices and all those who with him take false lights have not fail'd to cry out against us not only after a very uncharitable but an unchristian manner As for us we shall alwayes pray to God for those who will not Love us we shall bless them that Curse us but we shall also with Gamaliel give them this Advice Take heed that in Tormenting us you do not fight against God instead of fighting with him Let us pray on both sides that he would give us his Blessing and his Peace and that he would make us to do his Will FINIS A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS The First Part. Wherein it is shewn that our Ancestors were obliged to Examine by themselves the State of Religion and of the Church in their Days CHap. I. General Considerations upon this Controversy The Division of this Treatise Page 1. Chap. II. That the State of the Government of the Latin Church some Ages ago gave to our Fathers Prejudices of its Corruption in Doctrine and Worship sufficient to drive them more nearly to Examine their Religion Page 8. Chap. III. That
had a Plenitude a fulness of Power 11. What could they say to those Titles which the Popes attributed to themselves of being the spouses Husbands of the Church and the Vicars of Jesus Christ The Church my Spouse said Innocent the Third were not married to me if she did not bring me something she has given me a Dowry of an inestimable price the fulness of all spiritual things the greatness and spaciousness of Temporals the Grandeur and Abundance both of the one and the other She has bestowed on me the Miter in token of things Spiritual The Crown for a sign of the Temporal the Mitre for the Priesthood the Crown for the Kingdom substituting me in his place who had it wrote on his Vestment and his Thigh The King of Kings and Lord of Lords After the same stile Martin the fifth intitled himself in this manner in the Instructions which he gave to a Nuntio that he sent to Constantinople as Raynaldus relates The most Holy and most Happy who has Heavenly power who is the Lord of the Earth the successor of Peter The Christ or Annointed of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World the Soveraign High Priest Pope Martin 12. What could they say to that Scandalous applying to the Popes those passages of the Scripture which only and immediately regard God himself and his Son Jesus Christ Baronius relates that Alexander the Third making his Entry into the Town of Montpellier a Sarasin Prince prostrated himself before him and adored him as the Holy and venerable God of the Christians and that those that were of the Popes train ravished with Admiration said one to another those words of the Prophet All the Kings of the Earth shall worship him and all Nations shall do him service So in the Council of Later an one complemented Leo the Tenth with these Applications of Scripture God has given you all power both in Heaven and in Earth Weep not Daughter of Sion Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah of the stock of David And those of Palermo by the Relation of Paulus Jovius prostrate at the feet of Martin the Fourth made their addresses to him in the same words that they say to Jesus Christ before their Altars Thou that takest away the Sins of the World have mercy upon us Thou that takest away the the sins of the World have mercy upon us Thou that takest away the sins of the World grant us thy peace 13. What could our Fathers say to those strange Declarations of some Popes that maintained that all Laws resided in them that all the Rules of Justice were enclosed within their Breasts that it was necessary to the Salvation of every Creature that he should be subject to the Pope of Rome that they had in their hands the Temporal and Spiritual Sword and other expressions of the like nature So Paul the second answered Platina who requested him that he would dismiss him to the prosecuting of his suit about a very important affair before the Auditors of the Rota because the Sentence that the Pope had given was unjust Is it so then says he that you would have us be brought to be try'd before the Judges Do not you know that we have all the Laws shut up within our own Breast In the close of that business Platina having taken the boldness to say he would demand Justice of a Council the Pope put him into a strait Prison So also Boniface the Eighth begins one of his Decretals in these words Licet Romanus Pontifex qui jura omnia in scrinio pectoris sui censetur habere It was the same person who desin'd the necessity of subjecting ones self to the Pope after this manner Subesse Romana Pontifici omni humanae Creaturae dicimus declaramus definimus pronuntiamus esse de necessitate Salutis and who said that although the Papal Authority was given to a man and that though it was exercised by a Man it was never the less Divine that though the Papal power came to be depraved yet it could not be judged by any man but by God alone because the Apostle has said that the Spiritual man judges all things and is himself judged of no man That there are two Swords that are in the power of the Church the Spiritual and the Temporal the one of the which had its use for the Church and the other the Church her self exercised the one is in the hand of the Pope and the other in those of Kings and Souldiers but whose management depends on the good pleasure and the sufferance of the Pope 14. What could our Fathers say to those prodigious pretensions that the Popes made over Emperours and Kings even to make their Crowns depend on their pleasure to dethrone them to give away their Kingdoms to others and to absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance Every one knows what the decisions were that Gregory the Seventh made in a Council held at Rome in the year 1076. against the Emperor Henry the Fourth whom he had deposed and whose Subjects he had absolved of their Oaths of Allegiance One may call those decisions the Dictatorship of the Pope do but see some of their Articles as they are set down by Baronius That the Bishop of Rome only could wear the Imperial Ornaments That all Princes were wont to kiss the feet of the Pope alone That only his name ought to be mentioned in the Churches That there was but one chief name in the World which was that of the Pope That he had right to depose Emperours That his Decrees could be made void by none whosoever he were but that he alone could make void all others That he could loose the Subjects of wicked Princes from their Oaths of Allegiance The Decretals are full of the like attempt of Boniface the Eighth upon Philip the Fair one of our Kings He went so far as to excommunicate him and to absolve his subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and in fine to give away his Crown to the Emperor Albert. I confess that he was punished as he deserved and that the French on this occasion served their Prince with great zeal The same Platina mentioned before could not forbear making this reflexion on the Death of this Pope Thus dy'd this Boniface who thought of nothing less then of terrifying Emperors Kings and Princes and all men that he might the more inspire into them a Religious respect and who pretended to give and take away by force whole Kingdomes to overturn and re-establish all men by the meer motion of his Will But howsoever it was the bad success of Boniface could not hinder our Fathers from judging as they ought of these insolent pretensions of the Popes and taking notice that those who made their very Religion to serve their Ambition seeing their Ambition had no bounds had a peculiar interest
much frequented it would be nevertheless least of all so in the quality of a True Church in that its natural beauty is so darkned and its Visage so disfigured that in judging according to its Appearances one can but very difficultly say that God does yet preserve some Faithful ones in that Communion and under that Ministry But they will say may not a Church fall into that Condition and yet for all that be a true Church I answer that a Visible Society as I have shewn is not called a true Church but only with respect to those true Believers who are in it and not with respect to the others When then it comes to pass that the party of the Men of the World prevails and fills that Society with its Corruptions all that Society taken in the general does not fail as yet to be called a True Church while their is some appearance how small soever it may be that God does yet keep and hold in it those good men who do not defile their Souls with that Corruption of the wicked But how can say they yet further those good men preserve themselves in the midst of such a Society I answer That they may preserve themselves there after that manner that one may preserve himself in a contagious Air where he draws in the Air because it is necessary to his Life but yet he may keep himself as well as he can from that Contagion by the help of Antidotes There are two things in a Corrupted Church the good and the evil if a Man can separate that good from the evil that is to say if he can take the one and keep himself from the other without falling into Hypocrisy and being bound to do as those who equally take the good and the evil which he knows not how to do without dividing between God and his Conscience he may be saved in a corrupted Communion and there may not be another more pure This evidently appears from the Examples of Zachary and Elizabeth of Simeon of Joseph and the Holy Virgin and divers other persons who liv'd in the Jewish Church when our Saviour came into the World and who preserved their Piety though that Church was fallen into the highest Corruption under the Ministry of the Scribes and Pharisees Jesus Christ himself who reproved the abuses of those wicked men and exhorted his disciples to take heed of their false Doctrines did not fail to live in that Common Society and to be found in the Temple with them and after that he had been Crucified by them his disciples did not wholly withdraw themselves from their Communion during some time and till they had indispensable reasons for it I will shew in the Progress of this Treatise that it does not from thence follow that we may at this day abide in the Roman Communion and that it much less follows that we may return thither by forsaking the Communion of the Protestants under a pretence that we may separate the good from the bad the pure from what is impure since we can no more do that then not become wicked Impostures Hypocritical and Detestable before God and Men. But as this is a point that belongs to another Place it shall suffice me to have clearly shewn in this Chapter in what manner and with what distinctions it may be said that there is always a true Visible Church and to have made it appear that it no ways follows from thence that she must needs be Infallible as the Church of Rome pretends that she is After all this it is not difficult to find out the just and true sence of some passages of Scripture which they abuse in this matter of Visibility For as to that of the Gospel whereof we have spoken Tell it to the Church and if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as the Heathens and the Publicans It is clear that particular Churches are treated of there and that the personal differences which we may have one with another and the meaning of it is that the Faithful are bound when they receive any wrong from their brethren to carry their complaints to the Church and to refer themselves to its Judgment Or if it is not to be understood in those Times and in those places where there shall be Churches established to the Judgment of their Guides and Pastors who may end those private Quarrels And if they will infer from thence that then there must be always a Visible Church that may be in a Condition to attend to those Reconciliations this is that that has no colour of Reason For that Command of Jesus Christ obliging the Faithful no further then as it lies in their power it would be but a very bad arguing to say that he has so engaged for that that he will so order it that there shall be perpetually a visible Assembly to hear Complaints and give Judgments It is within a little as if one should say that he was engaged that we should always have wherewithal to Lend and wherewithal to give Alms because he has bid us to Lend without hoping for any thing again and to make our selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness Or that our Kings were bound never to leave vacant the Office of a Constable or that of the Mayor of the Palace under a pretence that heretofore they order'd their subjects to acknowledge those Dignities and to have recourse to them in certain Affairs Tell it to the Church then does not in the least suppose that the True Church ought to be always in such a State wherein she should have Authority to pass her Judgments for the determining private Quarrels And besides what I have said Experience contradicts it for it is most true that during the hottest Persecutions of the Heathen Emperours where all was laid in desolation that it had in many places nothing like a Visible Tribunal to which men could easily address themseves There are some other Passages that denote the duty of the Pastors and in particular of the Apostles as those where they are called The Salt of the Earth the light of the World a City set upon a Hill a Candle not lighted to be set under a Bushel and the Gentlemen of the Roman Church do not fail to set them down to give some colour to their Pretensions But this is evidently to abuse the Scriptures to make them establish the perpetual Visibility of the Church after that meaning wherein they understand those passages which exhort the Apostles and after them the Ministers of the Gospel to acquit themselves faithfully of their charge without negligence and weariness from the Consideration of their Calling and the end to which God had appointed them For besides that their Office does not bind them to that of a Martyr which does not suppose a very splendid State of the Church Besides that the same does not oblige them to be Martyrs if they were not specially
Sienna told them that in the blindness wherein they were they placed their glory in that which was truly their shame and that on the contrary they held those things to be a reproach to them whereon their honour and Salvation did depend to wit in humbling themselves under their Head which was God Furthermore they have no love for any but sinners they despise the poor and howsoever the Canons forbid them they keep about their persons Pimps debauchers of Women Flatterers Buffoons Players where they should have had wise and holy men In fine instead of the Law of Truth the Law of Vanity is in the mouths of the Bishops and the lips of the Priests preserve knowledge but it is that of the World and not of the Spirit And a little after At present says he the State and Dignity of the Bishops may be known by their Earthly riches by their affairs and sordid cares of the World by their troublesome Wars and by their Temporal Dominion Alas the Lord Jesus said plainly that his Kingdom was not of this World he retired himself alone into a Mountain when he knew that they went about to make him a King How then is it that he who holds the place of Jesus Christ not only accepts Dominion but seeks it and that he whom Jesus Christ has taught to be meek and lowly in heart should reign in pleasures in luxury in violence in pride in haughtiness in riches and in rapines And yet a little after The Bishops have renounced Hospitality they neglect the poor of Jesus Christ but they make themselves fat and feed their Dogs and other Beasts as if with a formed design they would be in the number of those to whom Christ shall say I was poor and you relieved me not go ye cursed into Eternal fire For Generally almost all the Bishops lie under the evil of Covetousness they are ravishers of others goods and but ill despencers of the Churches turning aside to other uses that which they ought to employ in Divine uses or the feeding of the poor What Bishop is there adds he who does not more love to be a rich Lord and Honoured in the World then to help the poor The whole design of their lives is but for the things of the World They love to array themselves after the Fashion of that and as for the Ecclesiastical Ornaments whether they be Corporal or Spiritual they scarce make any account of them and therefore it was that S. Brigit said That the Bishops took the counsel of the Devil who said to them Behold those honours which I offer you the riches that are in my hand I dispence pleasures the delights of the World are sweet you must enjoy them That same Saint says further that the Covetousness of the Bishops is a bottomless Gulph and that their pride and their luxurious Lives was an unsavoury steam which made them abominable before the Angels of Heaven and before the Friends of God upon Earth As to the other Prelats and the Curats the same Author represents them to us after this manner In these Times says he there are very few Elections that are Cononically made and without under hand canvassings on the contrary the greatest parts of the Prelats and Beneficed men are made by Kings and Princes in an unlawful manner and which is more being brought in by Canvassings and Simony they are confirmed by the Popes against the Priviledges of the Churches and the Statutes of Germany and against all manner of Justice Furthermore the Bishops ordinarily promote to dignities and the Cure of Souls their Cooks their Collectors of their Tribute their Pensionaries the Grooms of their Stables Hence Ubertine said That the Antient Holiness of the Prelats wasted away by degrees and that it began to fall by Canvassings by Pomp and by Simony by unlawful Elections by Covetousness and by the abundance and superfluity of Temporal things by the promotions that the Bishops made of their Creatures by neglecting the Divine-worship and by other perverse works and that by Reason of those ill dispositions the Devil was let loose against the present State of the Church Now none of them who are called to the Pastors Charge and the Cure of Souls inform themselves either of the quality of their Flock or of their manners or their vices Not one Prelate called to the Government of a Monastery will take the pains to Observe either its Rules or the Order of its Ceremonies or the Discipline of the Religious there is not wholly any more mention made of the Salvation and Edification of those that are under them but they only inform themselves very exactly of the plenty of their Revenues and what such a Benefice may bring in Yearly though yet they do not reside there It is these Curates that Vincentius cri'd out upon when he said O what Obduration is there in the Church of God! The Prelats are Proud Vain Sumptuous Simonists Covetous Luxurious Men that regard only this Earth They neglect their Ecclesiastical Duties they are void of Charity Intemperate Lazy For they neither perform Divine Offices nor Preach and do nothing but what creates Scandal They despise the foresight of their Holy Mother the Church which ordains that when the Rectors of Churches shall not be able to Preach they should employ fit persons which should in their stead edify the people by their word and their Example and that they should supply them with all needful things But on the contrary the Prelats and Curates are only careful to put into their places men that are very well skilled not to feed the sheep but to poll them to destroy and flea them He goes on with that vehemency throughout a large Chapter where he relates the many complaints of the Abbot Joachim Saint Catherine of Sienna and of Saint Brigitt Behold this last among the others Those who Rule the Churches commit three sins the one is that they live a beastly and luxurious life the other that they have a Covetousness as insatiable as the Gulphs of the Sea and the third is That they are Prodigal to satisfy their own vanity as the Torrents that pour forth their waters impetuously such horrible sins which they commit ascend up to Heaven before the face of God and hinders the Intercession of Jesus Christ as the black Clouds disturb the purity of the Air The Revenues of the Church are given not to the Servants of God but to those of the Devil to the Debauchers of Women to Adulterers Gamesters Hunters Flatterers and such like men and hence also it is that the house of God is become Tributary to the Devil The Abbot who ought never to be out of his Monastery but to be the head and example to the rest of the Religious is become the head of a whole Troop of leud Women with their Trains of Bastards instead of being an Example to and feeder of the poor he makes himself Master
Arms against their Brethren the Catholicks that pernitious Errors against the Orthodox Faith might be observed to increase in all places That the Church of Rome the Mother and Root of the Vniversal Church was every day more and more despised that Luxury reigned in the Clergy and that it was extream among the people That the Patrimony of Saint Peter was wasted That Christian Princes animated with a mortal hatred one against another were just ready to destroy one another and that in fine to make use of the words of Jeremy One desolation called to another which made him to weep over the Church and say to it Daughter of Sion thy Desolation is great as the stretching out of the Sea who is it that will bring thee any Remedy After having represented those things he adds That although the affliction of the Church was exceeding great yet they might notwithstanding mitigate it if laying aside their own passions their Canvassings and their Cabals they would look to nothing else in chusing a Pope but Holiness Learning and Fitness or Capacity That the Eyes of all the Church were upon them to beg of them a Pope who might by the good odor of his Name allure the Faithful people to Salvation He urged that discourse much farther in shewing them the necessity that the Church stood in of a Holy man whose life should be without reproach He added to his Exhortations threatnings on Gods part and passed by nothing that might move the minds of those Cardinals to do some good Will you not say that words so weighty and so pungent ought to have made some Impression on the minds of those Cardinals and that at least for that Time they should have done well They saw the whole Church in disorder the Conquests that the Infidels made Christian Princes in Arms one against another Church-Discipline overthrown the lives of the Clergy profuse Piety violently beat down and Christianity degenerated in all places could any one imagine that such sad representations would not have been considered But be not hasty All the effect that they produced was the Creation of Alexander the sixth That Name alone sufficiently Celebrated in the History of the Popes was enough to make men understand of what disposition those Prelats were and how little they were touched with the wounds of the Latin Church Let us hear nevertheless what Raynaldus says who in these kind of things is an Author that can no ways be suspected The greatest part of the Cardinals says he were very remote from those good Counsels for Authors complain that some corrupted with Money others gained by promises of Benefices and Places and others drawn by the Conformity of a vitious and impure life gave their Voices to Roderic Borgia So that in stead of chusing a chaste man they chose one who was infamous for his uncleannesses and fornications for which he had been reproved by Pius the Second yet was so far from amending under that reproof that he took no care to conceal his impurities For on the contrary he lived with Vacosia a Courtisan of Rome as if she had been his real Wife and he had divers Children by her upon whom he heape'd Riches and Honors as much as it was possible for him to do as if they had been his Legitimate Children Behold what the Court of Rome was then Alexander the Sixth being dead and Pius the Third who succeeded him having lived but thirty days after his Election the Cardinals met again in the Conclave And because the Life and Government of Alexander had given scandal to all the World and that the Cardinals themselves had been but very ill satisfied with it before they proceeded to an Election they drew up some Articles which every one swore to observe upon condition the Nomination should fall upon him and there was one among the rest which carried this with it That the new Pope should call at the end of two years a General Council for the Reformation of the Church in its Head and its Members Julius the Second was chosen but he did not believe himself bound to keep his Oath for seven years past away without any thing being talkt either of a Council or a Reformation And therefore it was that this Pope thought the less of it Nevertheless it fell out that having ill Treated one party of the Colledge of Cardinals and having moreover stired up the Emperor Maximilian and Lewis the Twelfth the King of France against him those two great Princes joyned with the disgraced Cardinals and called a Council at Pisa The Act of that Convocation on the part of the Princes says expresly that it was for the Extirpation of Heresies and Errors which through the negligence of Superiors had sprung up in divers parts of the World and particularly for the Reformation of the manners of the Vniversal Church in the Head and the Members and for the amendment of many great notorious long continued and almost incorrigible crimes which had scandalized the Vniversal Church The Cardinals also alleaged the Oath that the Pope had took just before his promotion in these very words I swear to observe and perform these Articles throughout and in every particular sincerely unfeignedly seriously and in good earnest and under pain of falling under perjury and an Anathema from which I cannot absolve my self nor give power to any other person to absolve me They added to that that by another Article they all and Julius himself had sworn That if he who should be chosen should not perform his promise in good earnest he should be held guilty of perjury to be a breaker of his Vow and of his Faith a disturber of the Church and the cause of Scandal to all Christianity and that then two thirds of the Sacred Colledge should have power to assemble a General Council The Council then being assembled declared openly That there was a most evident necessity of Reforming the Church in the Head and the Members and made a Decree formed in these words The Holy and sacred General Synod of Pisa lawfully called in the name of the Holy Ghost composing a General Council and representing the Catholick Church doth define and declare That that Holy Synod would not nor could not dissolve it self till the Vniversal Church should be Reformed in Faith and Manners as well in the Head as the Members and till the Heresies and Schisms that had sprung up should be Extinguished Behold hitherto the fairest hope in the World It is not necessary for us to inquire whether that Reformation was the true Cause of the Calling of that Assembly together or whether it was only a pretence and according to all appearances it was the latter But whatsoever it might be whether a pretence or not three thing result from it the one That that Reformation was generally judged to be most necessary the other That it was extreamly desired by the people for they would never have contrived to have took up
some were even contrary to the word of God and the Authority of the Councils They add that a certain Book of their Adversaries was full of Propositions that were Dangerous Seditious Impious Schismatical Blasphemous with some openly Heretical See here what M. Daille has set down immediatly after the Examples of Cyril Saint Jerome Stephen and Saint Cyprian in which it had been well if the Author of the Prejudices would have satisfied us for he cannot be ignorant that we could urge this matter a great deal further then M. Daille has done and that he who would make up a Collection of all the Injuries that these Gentlemen say of one another would make a very strange Vocabulary But he has Judged that he ought to pass over this Article in silence and that it was more fit for his purpose to answer only upon Saint Cyril Saint Jerome Stephen and Saint Cyprian Howsoever it be it seems to be clear to me by what I have said a very ill prejudice in matters of Religion to make the Judgment that we ought to make of a Doctrine to depend upon that that we may make of the Persons instead of Judging it by the Doctrine it self and by the word of God and the Author of the Prejudices may suffer us if he pleases to say to him on the Part of our first Reformers what Saint Augustin said on the Part of the Orthodox to Cresconius Since you are not the Judge of the inward motions of our heart set your selves only to know whether we fight for or against the Truth For if we Teach the Truth if we refute Error when our intentions should not be good and if we should seek either for secular advantages or vain-glory those who have a love for the Truth will not avoid joyning with us since it would be the Truth that would be always declared after what manner soever it were so But besides those two Remarks which I have made I must further take notice in the Third place that the Reasoning of the Author of the Prejudices is founded upon another supposition which is not less unjust nor less rash then those other Two which I have examined For it is founded upon this Principle That we ought to Judge of Persons meerly by that ill which appears in them whereas in order to the making an equitable Judgment we ought at least to consider the good with the ill and after having made an exact discernment of the one and the other to approve of that good that may be seen and to blame that bad that may be found there It was after this manner that Zuinglius and Calvin passed their Judgments on Luther and that we Judge him also we discover a great many Excellent things in him an Heroical Courage a great Love for the Truth an ardent Zeal for the Glory of God a great Trust in his Providence Extraordinary Learning in a dark Age a profound respect of the Holy Scripture an indefatigable Spirit and a great many other high Qualities We see that he was in his Time one of the first who had their Eyes opened to consider the Errors and Abuses that were then currant in the Latin Church that he earnestly applyed himself to it that his Example excited divers others to do the same that he endured upon that Account very great Persecutions under all which his heart never failed and that by his Cares and Learned Labours he recovered divers people out of the Superstition wherein they were buried Under this prospect we cannot but give him the Just praise which we believe he merits and because we know that God is the Author of every perfect gift as Saint James says we attribute all the good that we see in Luther to his Grace and his Holy Spirit and all the happy Successes of his Preaching to the Divine Benediction looking upon him as a servant of God and an instrument which he made use of for the work of the Reformation But because there is no person in the World who has not his Excesses and his Faults amidst that which Luther had of praise worthy we see also a great many things which we know not how to approve We believe that he had not light enough about the matter of the Eucharist we find that he was very much prepossessed about the Real presence we acknowledge that his stile was too impetuous and too violent and we make no scruple to say that he has not well enough distinguished his differing opinions so as to be able to support them without breaking the bond of Communion with those who could not tolerate them which makes him fall into a great piece of injustice in respect of us Thus far methinks we may go without impugning Christian Charity if any one among us have pushed his Judgment further and would needs have Penetrated into the heart of Luther to impute his Actions to the Principles of Jealousy of Pride and Hatred as the Author of the Prejudices says that Hospinian has done it is what we do not approve of For there is nothing in the World wherein we are more easily deceived then in the Judgments which we pass upon the internal Principles of any ones Actions We may say this Action is good this Action is not good but when one Action may proceed from divers differing Principles we ought to Judge with Charity or if there be no place for a Judgment of Charity the surest way is not to Judge at all but to leave it to the knowledge of God If the Author of the Prejudices had followed this Rule he had never attributed as he has done our carriage towards Luther and the Lutherans to a piece of Human Policy he had said on the contrary that it was the effect of a Just Discernment which we could not tell how to hinder our selves from making without being culpable We blame in Luther and in the Lutherans what we Judge to be blamable there we commend that therein which we Judge to be commendable we bear with that which we believe to be tolerable without approving it and if there be any excess either in that Praise or Blame or Toleration we are ready to amend it when they shall make us to perceive it Notwithstanding we chuse rather to incline towards the side of Charity then towards that of Rigor and we would be much rather in a state wherein by the Mediation of the grace of God all sharpness animosity harsh expressions accusations complaints might be for ever banished then that we should banish our Praises and Toleration We will always preserve towards the Church of Rome the same Charity and the same Justice as much as it shall be possible for us to do but in Observing that equality we are grieved to see that we cannot but make very differing Judgments of her and of those of the Confession of Ausburg and which produce contrary effects in us These latter are in difference with us only about
matter of this importance we should take the greatest care to avoid dazling our sight with words that would have more of shew then Solidity it will be good to inform our selves more exactly whether this way is so easy as they represent it whether there do not occur some Obstacles that hinder our passing further and whether it be not of so excessive a length that we ought not rationally to hope to come to the end of it whatsoever diligence we use whether it be fitted to all the World and whether there be not any person who may not going on faithfully in it arrive to the end whether it leads Behold here another Conclusion against our way inwraped under a so to wit that it is of a length so excessive as we ought not rationally to hope ever to get to the end whatsoever diligence we use and that at least it is not fitted to all the World In what follows he fills his Chapter with the Objections and difficulties that tend to turn away men from the Scripture and to make them conceive that in effect it is that infinite way which has no issue at all of which he had spoke and that way of so excessive a length that we could never come to the end of whatsoever Diligence we should use But the meaning of that is that according to him the way to be assured of the Articles of the Faith by the Scripture is absolutely unprofitable to all men of what order soever they be and for what Truth soever it be For an infinite way which has no issue and the length of which is so excessive that we could never with all the diligence we should use come to the end of it is equally unprofitable to all as well to the Learned as the Ignorant And moreover the greatest part of the difficulties that render it infinite according to him being not to be found in some private passages but in the Scripture in general it follows that we can never be assured by that means of any Truth So that behold here according to the Author of the Prejudices the Scripture absolutely unprofitable and that for all sorts of men and all sorts of Truths In one word as the Tilte of his Chapter bears it is a ridiculous way and impossible to instruct men in the Truth Whatsoever Prejudice there has been in the Church of Rome against the Reformation I cannot believe that it would not be shaken at so scandalons and un-Christian a Proposition For to treat the holy Scripture which is the Oracle of Christians and the word of God as a ridiculous way and to reject it as absolutely unprofitable and improper to instruct men in the Truth without distinction without Limitation as much for one sort as for another as much for one truth as for another is methinks a new Gospell which we have not yet heard spoken of for there was never any thing spoke so high till this or to say better none were ever yet carried out to such Excesses We have read in Pamelius and some others with Indignation and Horrour That the Scripture is a nose of wax which may he turned which way we please and that it is far more easy to wrest it to Profane and Impious things then it is to make use of half the verses of Virgil to Compose Epithalamiums We have seen in Pighius and elsewhere that the Scripture is a dumb Rule a dumb Witness a dead and lifeless thing a Sword that cuts with both edges and such other Expressions injurious to the Scripture But no body that I know of ever went so far yet as to make it a ridiculous way for the Instructing of men in the Truth There are enough in the world who know that these Gentlemen of whose number the Author of the Prejudices is write nothing but for one and the same Intrest and with the same Spirit I may therefore methinks with very good reason make use for this occasion of what the Author of the Translation of the New Testament of Mons has wrote in his Preface to oppose it to the Author of the Prejudices to shew him that the Spirit that animates them is an unequal Spirit that blows both cold and hot For behold what that Preface carries in it We hope that not only the Souls of the more learned but even of the Simpler sort may find here that is to say in the Translation that which shall be necessary for their instructtion provided that they read at with an intire Simplicity of heart and Address themselves humbly to the Son of God in saying to him with Peter Lord to whom should we go It is thou who hast the words of Eternal Life and it is thou alone who canst make us learn They must goe to him as those in the Gospel of when it is said that they came to hear him and to be healed of their Diseases And a little lower The Holy Scripture is like to a great River saith Saint Gregore which has always slid 〈◊〉 and which will do so 〈◊〉 the end of the world The great and the small The mighty and the feeble may find there that living water which rises up even unto Heaven it â—ffers it self to all and is fitted to all it has a simplicity that descends even to the Souls of the most simple and a height that excercises and elevates the most raised all may draw there indiffirently but it will be farr from being able to be drawn dry by filling us we may always lose our selves in the bottomless depths of learning and wisdom that we may adore without being able to comprehend But that which ought to comfort us in that Obscurity is that according to Saint Augustine the holy Scripture sets before us in an Easy and Intelligible manner all that which is necessary to us for the Conduct of our Lives which she explains and makes clear her self in telling us clearly in some Places that which she said obscurely in others This Language is very different from that which they hold in the Book of the Prejudices The one says That we shall find in the Scripture all that which is necessary for our Instruction and the other assures us that the way of the Scripture is Ridiculous and Impossible to instruct men in the Truth The one declares that the Scripture propounds to us after an Easy and Intelligible manner all that is necessary for the Conduct of our lives which it explains and makes clear her self and the other says that it is a way of so excessive a length that we ought not rationally to hope ever to come to the end whatsoever dilligence we should use The one makes it a means of Instruction proper not only for Inlightned Souls but even for the Simpler sort for great and small for strong and weak and the other in making it an Infinite way which has no Issue makes it improper not only for the simple but even for the most
Article of Faith taught in the Creed and founded upon the promise of Jesus Christ who ought alwayes to have a holy Christian Society in this world that should subsist until the consummation of Ages Calvin does not say less and his words are not less express We must sayes he hold it for certain that from the beginning of the world there never was a time wherein the Church of God was not and there never will be till the consummation of Ages in which it shall not be Vpon this foundation refuting Servetus who maintained that the Church had been banished from the world for a certain time he sayes boldly that to say that God had not alwayes preserved some Church in this world would be to accuse him of a lye because he has promised that it shall endure as long as the Sun and Moon shall Beza speaks as the Flemish Confession which acknowledging that the reign of Jesus Christ is perpetual acknowledges also that he ought alwayes to have subjects upon whom to exercise that Kingly Office Du Moulin and Mestresat are not less ingenuous in this point c. Thus it is that Monsieur the Cardinal of Richelieu has justified us against the Author of the Prejudices He could not in my judgement have spoken either more clearly or more strongly In effect they cannot without ignorance or calumny ascribe that opinion of the intire extinction of the Church throughout all the world to us We say indeed and we say it with an extream grief that the Church has been for some Ages in so great an obscurity that we can very hardly see any traces of the natural beauty of Christianity shine forth there Ignorance Error Superstition as most thick Clouds have covered the face of Religion and the Government of the Church has fallen into so strange a disorder that we can see nothing but confusion in all parts so that the Church could not but appear under a very deplorable condition under that Eclipse This is that which Calvin means by that intire defection of the world whereof he speaks in the passage that the Author of the Prejudices has alledged and that which is also represented in our Confession of Faith by that ruine and desolation whereinto we say the Church was fallen But how great soever that ruine should have been we do not believe as the Donatists do that the Church had absolutely perished or that it was intirely extinct through all the world We do not so much as believe that it was restrained to those Societies which the passion of their enemies has laboured to cry down under the names of Sects calling them Berengarians Waldenses Albigenses Petro-busians Henricians Wicklefists Hussites c. and over whom the Author of the Prejudices has insulted so fiercely after his usual manner Those Societies were yet the most illustrious part of the Church because they were the most pure the most enlightned and the most generous but the Church did not wholly and entirely reside in them For not to speak of the little Children that dyed before the Age of discretion and to whom we do not doubt that God was merciful we are perswaded that while Errors and Superstitions might be seen to reign in their Pulpits in their Books in their Schools and in the Councils and that a great number were filled with them that God preserv'd to himself amidst the people a considerable number of the truly faithful who have kept their faith and their conscience pure by reason of their simplicity contenting themselves with the principles of the Christian Religion adoring one only God their Creator and Father putting their confidence in one only Jesus Christ dead and risen again for them and as to the rest living holily and Christianly with embarassing themselves either with the opinions of the School which they did not know or the Superstitions wherewith they beheld Christianity loaded and which the sole instinct of their conscience could make them reject We no wayes doubt that even among the most enlightned persons there has been a great number who have groaned under so many corruptions as they saw the Church afflicted with and who in waiting for better times have kept themselves without bearing a part in them But we say nothing upon this subject but what the Fathers and in particular S. Augustine have said concerning the state of the Church under the domination of the Arians For they have said two most remarkable things First That while the wicked and the Hereticks possessed the Pulpits while they preached their blasphemies there whilst they were Masters of the Councils whilst they had the multitude and the powers of the Age on their side while they persecuted the good to the utmost and while all seemed to stoop under their yoak God preserved in that corrupted Ministry a considerable number of the truly faithful who kept under the veil of their simplicity their faith pure receiving that which they preached of good to them and not being infected with the bad The second thing that they have said is that there were those there who being more enlightned and more strong in the faith than the others opposed themselves to the Heresie of the Arians and would not have any communion with them suffering constantly their banishments and the most cruel punishments for so just a cause To justifie this truth I shall only here set down that which S. Augustine has wrote upon this subject in his Epistle to Vincentius but before I relate his words we must note that the Donatists precisely did that which the Author of the Prejudices has done when he has abused some hyperbolical expressions that Calvin made use of and the words of our Confession of Faith to lay it to our charge that we believe an entire extinction of the Church For the Donatists after the same manner abused some passages of S. Hilary in which that Saint had exaggerated the lamentable state of the Church in his dayes under the domination of the Arians from whence they conclude that S. Hilary had thought that the Church had entirely failed It is therefore to refute this Objection that S. Augustine explains himself after this manner The Church sayes he is sometimes obscured and covered as it were with clouds by the great number of scandals when the wicked take the advantage of the night to shoot against those who are true in heart But even then she is eminent in her most firm defenders and if it be allowed to us to make some distinction in the words that God spake to Abraham Thy posterity shall be as the Stars of Heaven and as the Sand that lyes upon the Sea-shore I mean that we must understand by the Stars some few persons more firm and illustrious than the others and by the Sand the multitude of the weak and carnal which in a time of a calm appears quiet and free but which is sometimes covered with the floods of tribulations and temptations Such
Assemblies most lawful For as to that which is said in the Scripture I will smite the Shepheard and the Sheep shall be scattered abroad it would be manifestly to abuse that passage if they would conclude from it an absolute necessity of the Pastors for the subsistence of that Society For that is a Prophecy which notes not that which the Faithful ought to do when they have no Pastors but that which should befal the Disciples of Jesus Christ in the Time of his Passion when the fury of the Jews and the sad Condition wherein they should behold their Divine Master should force them to be scattered which has nothing common to the Question we are now Treating of In the Third place I say that to understand well the true use and the Necessity of the Actions of the Ministry the Church must be considered in two Seasons in her first formation and in her subsistence For in her first formation it is certain that the Actions of the Ministry were necessary for the calling of men to the light of the Gospel whereof as yet they had no knowledge and by Consequence they were necessary to the Establishment of the Christian Communion or Society amongst them which could not be without that knowledge To this end Jesus Christ employed his Apostles and Evangelists Go says he and Teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and it is that to which Saint Paul has a chief regard when he says That Christ has given some Apostles and some Prophets and some Exangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the gathering together of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ Those glorious Heralds by the efficacy of their word accompanied with the power of Jesus Christ called together the Church if we must so say as the Holy Assembly of God they Established the Christian Religion in the World and so united men among themselves in an External Society by the profession of one and the same Faith of one and the same Hope and Charity which inspired them so that the Acts of their Ministry were absolutely necessary for that first Establishment because their Preaching was the only means that God would make use of to draw men from the Pagan Idolatry or the Jewish Obstinacy and to give them that Faith without which they could never have had a Christian Society In this respect there is Reason to urge the force of the word Church which signifies not a rash and tumultuary Assembly made by chance or Sedition but an Assembly lawfully called for it was God himself who called it by the voice of his Apostle according to the Prophecy of David The mighty Lord the Eternal God hath spoken and called to all the Earth from the rising up of the Son to the going down of the same He has called the Heavens from on high and the Earth to Judge his People saying Gather ye my Saints together In this first Establishment the Apostles and Evangelists did three things On one hand they spread abroad the Faith every where and by this means bound men in an External Communion or Society on the other hand they set together the Christian Truths which are the Objects of Faith in the Cannon of the Scriptures and in fine they established Ordinary Pastors for the upholding and Government of the Church By the first of those things in Establishing the Faith in mens hearts they assembled called them together and put them into a Society by the second they laid as I may so speak the Fountain or the External and perpetual Magazine of the Evangelical Doctrine By the Third they provided for the Ordinary Dispensation of that Fountain setling of Ministers to distribute it by their Preaching the Sacraments and the Exercise of Discipline Of these three things there is none but the first only to which we ought to refer the Convocation of the Church and Establishment of the Christian Society But we must say that all Three serve for its preservation and increase for they are so many ways and means which the Apostles left for the preservation of the Faith and strengthning of it in those who had before received it and to propagate it to their Children and in those who had not as yet received it in which the preservation of a Society consists The first contributes much for as Lights or Torches lighted all together preserve and mutually strengthen their fire and are capable of lighting others So many faithful Christians united together confirm one another in the Faith and Piety and are fit to Communicate that Faith and Piety to those who have not yet received it The Second does not contribute less for the Faithful preserve and increase their light their Faith Piety Sanctity by the immediate Reading of the Holy Scriptures Infidels themselves may be converted this way and those that go astray be brought back to the purity of the Gospel The Third is also of exceeding great Use for the Pastors by their Preaching their Direction and their Writings by their Examples by the Sacraments they Administer and in a word by all the Actions of their Ministry confirm the Faith where it is and propagate it where it is not The Divine Wisdom has so prepared its divers means for the preservation of that Society and the Propagation of his Church That if the Actions of the Ministry do not produce that effect for which they are appointed the other means shall and supply that defect In Effect when the publick Preaching and presence of the Pastors fail the Reading of the Scripture private Exhortation of the simple Christians the writings of their Pastors either dead or absent may come to succour and make the Faith and Charity and Piety subsist and by consequence the External Society of the Church and its Assemblies How then are the Actions of the Ministry necessary They are so first By Necessity of Precept as they speak I mean as it is a means that Jesus Christ has ordained the Use whereof we cannot neglect without sin Those who contemn it resist the Order that God himself has established and make themselves unworthy of his Grace and to this those passages in the Scripture refer which recommend the Pastors to the Faithful He that heareth you heareth me and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls 2. The Actions of the Ministry are necessary to the Churches well being though not absolutely necessary to its being It is not absolutely impossible for a Church to subsist without having actually any Pastors not only because sometimes Faith and Piety may subsist without their heavenly food which is the Word and Sacraments as a Body may subsist sometimes without its nourishments but also because one part of that food may come to us otherwise then from the mouth of the
shalt worship one only God in believing the Sacrifice of the Mass and Transubstantiation they annihilated in effect the Sacrifice of the Cross and they removed as much as in them lay Jesus Christ from the Right hand of his Father But those who took things in a good sence destroyed on the contrary the evil by the good for in adoring one only God they taught others not to pay any Religious Worship to Creatures in placing their confidence in the Death of Jesus Christ for their sakes they taught Learned to reject the Sacrifice of the Mass all humane Satisfactions and in seriously believing that Jesus Christ was in Heaven they were dis-abused about his corporal presence on the Altars In fine they could each in particular very well do what our Fathers did altogether when they Reformed themselves for their Reformation wrought nothing but what the same Doctrine which they had Taught them One only God and one only Jesus Christ made them reject all that they rejected Besides it is certain that the greatest part of those things which we believe contrary to the true Faith were then Taught and received and practised in the Latin Church more by force of Custom then any publick Authority that could impose any necessity on mens Consciences even according to the principles of the Church of Rome at this day which leaves private men liberty enough to reject them And when they should come to be even publickly determined with all the necessary formalities which they have not been yet there would always remain to every private man a natural right to examine and reject them since the Authority of Men how great soever it be can never bind the Consciences of the Faithful We do not therefore Question but that God has always preserved under that Ministry a great number of persons who have made that Separation of the good from the ill and it is in those that the Church may subsist But besides those how many simple people were there whose own simplicity and ignorance hid them from those Errors that then reigned in the Ministry They knew enough to believe in one only God the Father Son and Holy Ghost their Creator and Father and in one only Jesus Christ their Redeemer Born Crucified and raised again for them and to practice without Superstition all the Actions of Christian Piety that those Doctrines inspired into them but they did not know enough to believe the Sacrifice of the Mass Transubstantiation the real presence humane Satisfactions the merit of good Works and a multitude of other things that did not enter into them Their knowledge was bounded with the Articles of the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Ten Commandments which they received with all the submission of their hearts and which they laboured to practise the best that they could and we ought not to doubt that that knowledge alone plain and disintangled from all Error which they had furnished them with a sufficient direction for their Salvation without their being bound to make a more express rejecting of those Doctrines they did not understand But supposing that they had a knowledge of them I say that we ought carefully to distinguish two sorts of Times the one in which the falseness of a Doctrine or Worship is not so palpable discovered and open to mens Eyes that their should be only a voluntary blindness or an ill Prejudice that should hinder us from acknowledging and understanding how that Doctrine and that Worship are contrary to the True Faith and Piety and the other in which that falseness and contrariety are so openly or publickly manifested that one cannot be ignorant of them or not see them without shutting voluntarily ones Eyes For in the second of those Times every one is bound for the integrity of his Faith and Religion and the preservation of his Soul earnestly and publickly to reject those Errors to avoid them with an aversion to withdraw from those Assemblies where they are either taught or practised and not to take part how little soever or if any do they have no excuse for their crime and this is the Time wherein we are at this day But as to the former it is enough not to be corrupted with them without any absolute necessity of testifying publickly that strong aversion In the second Time they ought to look on those kinds of things as they are in Effect because they are fully discovered and they may be seen in all that have them to be opposite to the glory of God and Salvation of men But that Obligation can never be so strong in the first Time because there one has neither the same light nor the same helps nor the same easiness to own them to be such as they are not only meer natural Light dictates this Distinction but Jesus Christ himself has very well established it in the Gospel If I had not come says he and spoken unto them they had not had Sin but now they have no Cloak for their Sin which evidently establishes those two seasons I spoke of the one wherein the Manifestation of good and evil is not yet so throughly made that one can acknowledge them in their greatest Latitude and the other wherein it is so that one cannot without a crime know it confusedly But I say that before the Reformation they were in that first Time in regard of that which we call the Errors and Superstitions of the Church of Rome they were neither so well Examined nor so clearly discovered as they have been since the Faithful then could not openly believe and practise them for that could not be done according to us in any Time without destroying the true Faith and Piety but they could look upon them with a greater indifference bear them with far less Pain nor cease for all that from frequenting their Assemblies from holding their peace and contenting themselves with keeping their own Righteousness See here after what manner we believe that the Essence of the Church was preserved before the Reformation How corrupted soever the Ministry was the Foundation of Christianity remained there and God had yet his remnant there according to the Election of Grace that is to say his Truly Faithful It was those alone in all that great mixt body who were the Church for they only were in Communion with God and his Son they alone enjoyed the benefits of the Gospel Covenant to them only how small a number soever they were pertained all the Rights and advantages of the Church of the External Society of Assemblies of the Ministry of the Holy Scriptures of the Sacraments Government and Discipline according to the inviolable Maxim of Saint Paul All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or Life or Death or things present or things to come all are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods All the rest then which were without in that mixed Body which they Call the Latin Church and which had
to practise it self a Worship contrary to the true service of God or to celebrate the Sacraments that Jesus Christ has not instituted It belongs therefore to the Author of the Prejudices to tell us how he pretends to avoid that Discussion for it is certain that the first Question that must be decided to make the Validity of a Call clear is that of the Justice of the Ministry in it self that is to say in regard of those things that are taught and practised in it when that Justice is in dispute as it is between the Church of Rome and us after which when that point is once decided we must pass over to two other Questions the one whether the body that is to say the Society wherein one is has it self the Right to have Ministers and the other whether the Persons who exercise the Ministry therein are well and duly called as I have shewn in my third Observation That first Point then being supposed to wit that the things that are taught and practised among the Protestants are good and Christian I say that they cannot dispute with them the Right of their Ministry but by accusing them of a Schism like that of the Luciferians or the Donatists But we have so clearly shewn that if we have Reason at the bottom our Separation from the Church of Rome is just and that she her self is guilty of chism that there is no further ground for that unjust Accusation They cannot therefore any further contest our Ministry with us and in effect if we are true Believers and if we are justly Separated from the Church of Rome it is Evident that we are Lawfully United among our selves in a Religious Society as I have shewn in the first Chapter of the Fourth Part. And if we are Lawfully United in a Religious Society it is not less Evident that all the Rights of the Christian Society belong to us and that in all those Rights that of the Ministry is Comprised as it appears from my Sixth and Seventh Observation So that our Right to a Ministry is indisputable supposing that we have Reason in the Foundation and all that which they propound against us will remain null and Fallacious If we have Reason at the bottom we are the true Church of Jesus Christ but the true Church of Jesus Christ can never lose its Rights she is never deprived of them and she cannot so much as deprive her of them none can ravish them from her they are Rights that cannot be Alienated they can neither be lost by the Inundations or Concussions of the World with and by Interruption of Possession or Invasion of Enemies as the Inheritances of the World are and in one word there where the true Faith and Charity is there is the true Church and where there is a true Church there is the Right to a Ministry But say they Is the Ministry which you have that Antient and perpetual Ministry that Jesus Christ has established in his Church or is it a new one For if it be a new one it is a false and Unlawful Ministry and if it be the Antient and perpetual Ministry of the Church whence comes it to pass that we do not see among you any of the degrees of that Hierarchy which was established in the Church before your Reformation I answer that our Ministry is that Antient and perpetual one that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have set up in the Church and if it were a new one we must needs have set up a new Gospel which is a thing so remote from the Truth that our most passionate Adversaries except the Author of the Prejudices would never in my Judgment have us charged with it But I say that we must distinguish of the Essence of a Ministry from its State as I have shewn in my Fourth Observation Before the Reformation we grant that the Ministry was preserved in the Latin Church in regard of all that which was Essential to it and it is in that that our Church has Succeeded it so that in that Respect they are not two Ministries but only one and the same which we have retained We preach the same Truth that they teach yet we Adore one and the same God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost There is among us a Baptism an Eucharist a Government a Discipline as there was then but we have not succeeded it in that bad and Corrupted State whereinto the Ministry was then fallen we have no more either any Sacrificers of the Body of Jesus Christ or a Soveraign Monarch of the Church or Patriarchs or Cardinals or Preachers of Indulgences or Framers of Legends all that was not any thing of the Essence of the Ministry and in having retrenched those kinds of things we have it no more abolish'd then a Town is abolished when its excesses are retrenched or then a House is abolished when it is cleansed and its ruines repaired As to a Personal Call I say that we have that Body of the Church which only upon Earth has a Lawful Right to confer it on us That which our Reformers had they had from the Church in their days which did not consist in that Multitude of Prophane Worldly and Superstitious Persons which swell'd their Assemblies then but in those truly Faithful Persons who as yet preserved themselves pure in the midst of that Corruption in that good Corn which as yet grew amidst the Tares although it was almost Swallowed up by them It was in those that the Right of the Ministry properly and truly resided it was those who made as yet that Society any wayes Lawful and it was from those that the Justice of a Call proceeded I confess that they Communicated it then in a very corrupted State and after a very impure manner but God gave our first Reformers the Grace to purify theirs by the sound Doctrine and to rectify it by a Holy and Lawful Use It is therefore with and by those that the Body of that Society which is Reformed has conferred that Call upon others and that the Propagation of the Ministry has come down even to us after the most Evangelical manner in the World on one side with Instruction Examination Proof Inquiry and Testimony of good manners as exact as could possibly be made and on the other with publick Prayers Exhortation Benediction laying on of hands Mission and a particular Tye to a Flock Behold here what our Call is in Regard of the Body of the Protestants I do not deny that in some places of this Kingdom at the beginning of the Reformation there was not some Calls which were conferred by the People without a Pastor as that of La Riviere was at Paris in the year 1555. Which the Author of the Prejudices has not been wanting to reproach us with But besides that these are particular Cases of a very small number which hath not followed nor produced any setled Custom and by Consequence cannot be imputed to the
ordinary Ministry was intirely lost and that it was renewed by an extraordinary and immediate Call of God For it is upon that that with great heat to very ill purpose he spends his reasonings throughout his whole fifth Chapter in Allegations of Fathers and Observations to no purpose upon the Rights of that pretended immediate Ministry We Answer him in a Word that he only Combats his own Shadow for we do not hold that the Ordinary Ministry established by the Apostles was absolutely extinct It is a Good that belongs to the Church and as the Church has alwayes subsisted by the special Providence of God though in a different State that same Providence has also made that Good to subsist alwayes It is True that it was very ill dispens'd while it was in the hands of bad Stewards and that where the Inheritage should have been cultivated and have brought forth without doubt much fruit it produced on the contrary abundance of Thorns and Briars But notwithstanding the Inheritance was not lost The Ministry was alwayes preserved not only de Jure in as much as the Church is never lost but de facto also for it alwayes had Ministers ill chosen indeed ill called designed to bad uses called by very confused Calls but called notwithstanding and having a Right sufficient to make them do their Duty if they would and if they were capable So that the good State of the Ministry might be very well altered Corrupted Interrupted overthrown but the Ministry was not absolutely lost I will not be afraid even to go further and to say that when it should be true that the Ministry should be wholly annihilated that which notwithstanding has never hapned and it may please God that it never shall it would not be necessary that God should renew it by an immediate and every-way Supernatural Mission while there should be two or three of the Faithful in the World who would be able to Assemble together in the Name of Jesus Christ For the Right of the Ministry would alwayes remain in those two or three and they might confer a Lawful Call upon one of themselves If it could even happen that there should not be absolutely any more Faith upon the Earth and that Heresy or Paganism or Judaism or Mahumetanism should generally overspread the whole World without leaving any Truly Faithful in it which certainly will never come to pass since we have the promise of Jesus Christ to the contrary I say in that case Provided that the Book of the Holy Scripture remained the young Buds of the Church and that of the Ministry would subsist even there The Apostles who left it to the world would yet further call men from thence a second Time to the true Faith and by that true Faith to the Re-establishing of a Christian Society and by the Re-establishing of that Christian Society to that of the Ministry without any absolute necessity of Gods immediately sending new Apostles One man only who should learn the heavenly Truths contained in that Book might teach them to others and reduce Christianity to its first State if God would Accompany the word of that man with his Ordinary Blessing Those who are acquainted with History are not Ignorant that in the Fourth Century two young men named the one Edesius and the other Frumanius having been taken on the Sea and carried Captive to the King of the Indies converted many persons to the Christian-Faith in that Country and that they might make Assemblies there where they might celebrate the Worship of God This is that which manifestly discovers the Injustice of the Author of the Prejudices and other Writers of Controversy of the Church of Rome when they demanded Miracles to prove the Call of the first Reformers For while the Scripture remains in the midst of men it is not necessary to make new miracles to Authorize Ministers that Scripture sufficiently Authorises the Church immediately by it self to confer a Call when its Pastors forsake it It would sufficiently Authorise one man alone whoever he should be a Lay-man or Clergy-man to communicate the light of his Faith to others if he were the only Faithful Person that was in the World it would Authorise two or three Faithful who should find themselves alone to Assemble together and to provide for the Preservation and Propagation of their Society and Miracles would not be necessary for all that because in all that there would be nothing new there nothing that might not be included in the Revelation of the Scripture or drawn from thence by a just Consequence as it may appear from what I have handled in the foregoing Chapter Miracles are necessary to those who preach new Doctrines and those which are not of antient Revelation and which besides have not in themselves any Character of Truth such as the Sacrifice of the Mass the Corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament Transubstantiation Purgatory Invocation of Saints Merit of good Works Adoration of the Host c. are It belongs to those who teach those things to tell us whence they hold them and since they give us them as holding them from Gods hand it belongs to them to prove them by Miracles for they cannot prove them otherwise and when they should even have wrought Miracles or things that should pass for such it would belong to us to examine them since Jesus Christ has given us warnings upon that point which we ought not to neglect See here what I had to say upon the Fifth Chapter of the Author of the Prejudices The sixth wherein he treats further of the same matter contains nothing which I have not already satisfied It pretends that the Call of our First Reformers was not Ordinary under a pretence that some few received their Ministry from the people that others were ordain'd by meer Priests and that those who had been Ordained by Bishops have says he Anathematiz'd that Church from which they received their Ordination But as to the first we have shewn him that the Calls that are made by a Faithful People are Just and Lawful in a case of absolute necessity that naturally dispences with Formalities Besides that those Calls were very few in number that they were not followed that they do not infer any Consequence against the Body of the Pastors and that even when it should have had any Irregularity that Irregularity would have been sufficiently repaired by the hand of Fellowship which the other Pastors have given those who were so called and by the consent that the whole Body of that Society gave to their Calls We ought not for that to leave off holding them for Ordinary although in that Respect they should be remote from the Common Practice no more or less then they in the Church of Rome to leave off holding the Call of Pope Martin V. and that of divers other Popes for Ordinary although they were not made according to the accustomed Forms I demand