are matters of fact whereof we have not any Divine Revelation about which according to the very principle of our Adversaries all the whole Church may be deceived and which by consequence are not of faith nor can serve as a foundation for an Article so much concerning the faith as this is That the Church of Rome cannot err and that it is alwayes necessary to salvation to be in her communion Secondly We must be assured that the Bishops of Rome are the True and ordinary Successors of S. Peter in the Government of every Christian Church For why should not they be his Successors in the Government of the particular Church of Rome as well as the Bishops of Antioch in the particular Government of that of Antioch When the Apostles preached in those places where they gathered Churches and setled Pastors they did not intend that those Pastors after them should receive all the rights of their Apostleship nor that they should be Universal Bishops They say that there must have been one and that that could have been in no other Church but that where S. Peter dy'd But all this is said without any ground The Church is a Kingdom that acknowledges none besides Jesus Christ for its Monarch he is our only Lord and our Soveraign Teacher and after that the Apostles had formed Churches and that the Christian Religion had been laid down in the Books of the New Testament the Pastors had in those Divine Books the exact Rule of their Preaching and their Government Those who have applyed themselves only to that have alwayes well governed their Flocks without standing in need of that pretended Universal Episcopacy which is a Chimerical Office more proper to ruine Religion than to preserve it In the Third place we must be assured that S. Peter himself had received in those passages some peculiar dignity that had raised him above the other Apostles and some rights which were not common to all of them But this is what they cannot conclude from those forecited passages for granting that Jesus Christ has built his Church upon S. Peter has he not also built it upon the other Apostles is it not elsewhere written That we are built upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Is it not written That the New Jerusalem has twelve foundations wherein the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are written If Jesus Christ has prayed for the perseverance of the faith of S. Peter has he not made the same Prayer for all the other Keep them sayes he in thine own name that they may be one as we are If he said to him Strengthen thy Brethren is it not a common duty not only to the Apostles but to all the Faithful Let us consider one another sayes S. Paul to provoke unto love and to good works If he said to him Feed my sheep did he not say to all in common Go and teach all Nations If he said to him I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven has he not said to all of them I appcint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven In the Fourth place we must be assured that when there should be in all those passages some peculiar priviledge for S. Peter exclusive from the rest of the Apostles that it is a thing that could be transmitted down to his Successors and not some personal priviledge that resided in him alone and must have dyed with him For can we not say that the twelve Apostles being the twelve foundations of the Church the priviledge of S. Peter is to be first in order because he was the first who laboured in the conversion of the Jews at the day of Pentecost and in that of the Gentiles in the Sermon that he made to Cornelius May we not say that Jesus Christ has particularly prayed for his perseverance in the faith because that he alone had been winnowed by the Temptation that hapned to him in the Court of the High Priest That he said to him alone When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren because that he alone had given a sad experience of humane weakness That he said to him thrice Feed my sheep or my lambs because that he only having thrice denyed his Master by words full of horror and ingratitude our Lord would for his consolation and re-establishment thrice pronounce words full of love and goodness In fine when those Texts should contain a peculiar priviledge that might be communicated to the Successors of S. Peter we must be assured that that priviledge must be the perpetual infallibility of the Church of Rome and a certainty of never falling away from the quality of a True Church And this is that which they know not how to conclude from those passages for in respect of the first The Church may have been built upon S. Peter and upon his first Successors and remain firm and unshaken upon those foundations that is to say upon their Doctrine and Example although in the course of some Ages the Bishops of Rome have degenerated and changed the faith of their Predecessors and the words of Jesus Christ extended even to the Successors of S. Peter would not be less true when they should not extend themselves unto all those who bear that name S. Paul has called the Churches of Asia in the midst of which Timothy his Disciple was when he wrote his first Epistle to him he has I say called them the pillar and ground of Truth For although those Titles belong in general to every Church it is notwithstanding certain that they regard more directly and more particularly that part of the Universal Church I would say the Churches of Asia where Timothy resided when S. Paul wrote to him But the word of this Apostle does not fail to be true although in the course of many Ages those Churches have degenerated from their first purity and though the Successors of Timothy lost it very quickly after And as to the Prayer that Jesus Christ made to God that the faith of S. Peter might not fail when they would extend it down to his Successors they cannot conclude a greater Infallibility for them than that of S. Peter himself who preserving his faith concealed at the bottom of his heart outwardly denyed his Master three times and who according to the opinion of our Adversaries lost entirely his love and had fallen from a state of Grace being no more either in the Communion of God nor in that of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ Let the Church of Rome therefore call her self infallible as much as she pleases in vertue of the Prayer of Jesus Christ that Infallibility will not
them and will shed abroad his blessing upon your cares as far as shall be necessary for his own glory and the good of the people in whose favour you labour and he himself will one day give you a reward for all those toilsome Labours Although you do not need to be excited to do good yet I take the confidence to hope that you will be some way encouraged in the Duties of your place by the reading of this Work which will more and more discover to you the Justice of it You will see therein the Conduct of our Fathers justified in regard of their Reformation and Separation from the Church of Rome and by consequence you will therein see not only the Right that we have but the Obligation and indispensable Necessity also wherein we are to live apart and divided from that Church and united among our selves in a Religious and Christian Society till it shall please God to make the Causes of that Division cease and joyn again that which men I would say what the Court of Rome and her Council of Trent have put asunder That Re-Vnion is a Happiness that wee will alwayes beg of God with the most ardent Prayers and which we will receive as one of his highest Favours if his hand should bestow it But it is also a thing which it is impossible for us to promise our selves while we shall not see the same desire of a good and holy Reformation which was almost general in our West in the daies of our Fathers to be again revived in the Church of Rome which yet they knew how to stifle with incredible skill An Authour of those Times who himself contributed as much as any other to clude the good effects of that desire has not failed to own it and which is more to own it to be just I do not deny saies he that many at the beginning were not urged by a motion of Piety earnestly to cry out against some manifest Abuses and I confess that we must attribute the chief cause of that Division that at present rends the Church to those who being puff'd up with a vain pride under a pretence of Ecclesiastical power contemned and haughtily and disdainfully rejected those who admonish'd them with reason and modesty And imediately after that same Author reasoning about the means to re-establish a holy peace between the two parties I do not believe adds he that we ought ever to hope for a firm peace in the Church if those who have been the cause of that dis-union do not begin by themselves that is to say unlesse those who have the Ecclesiastical Government in their hands relaxe a little of that great rigour and contribute something to the peace of the Church and unlesse in hearkning to the ardent prayers and exhortations of the greatest part of good men they apply themselves to reform those manifest abuses by the Rule of the holy Scriptures and of the Antient Church from which they have wandred After this manner a man engaged in the Communion and Interests of the Church of Rome spake even in the Time of the Councill of Trent He would indeed after that have us also whom he accuses to have gone too far in the other extream yield something on our side and that we should return as he speaks to our selves but it ought not to be thought strange that he being such a one as he was would lenify by that corrective the confession that he made before and it is enough for us that he has owned the force of the evil and taken notice of the true and only remedy God who holds the hearts of all in his hand kindle in them the love of the true Religion and give us all the grace to look to the Blood that has ransomed the Church and that first Spirit who consecrated it to one onely Jesus Christ her Lord and Husband For it is he only who can re-unite us without me sates he ye can do nothing and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad I pray that the same God who has given you the knowledge of his Gospell would make you persevere in it to the end that he would confirm his love and fear in the souls of my Lords your children who already so well answer the honour of their birth and the cares you have taken for their Education and lastly that he would more and more shed abroad his blessings over your person and over all your house This is that which I desire from the bottom of my heart and that you would do me the favour to believe that I am My LORD Your Lordships Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant CLAVDE The ATTESTATION WE whose names are underwritten certify that we have read the Answer of Monsieur Claude our most honoured Colleague to a Book Intituled The Prejudices c. in which we have found nothing contrary to the Sentiments of the Religion which we profess Signed at Paris the nine and twentieth of November 1672. DAILLE ' MESNARD The Reader is desired to take notice That the word Historical in the Running-Title was inserted without the Translators knowledge or Consent An HISTORICAL DEFENCE OF THE Reformation Against a Book Intituled Just Prejudices against the CALVINISTS THE FIRST PART Wherein it is shewn that our Ancestours 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 IT is not difficult to understand why those who were possest of the Government of the Western Church in the days of our Fathers and those who have since succeeded them in the Church of Rome have thought themselves so much concerned to oppose the Reformation It would oblige them to strip themselves of that Soveraign and and absolute Authority which they had Usurped and by which they had disposed the Consciences of men to their wills And it would force them to give an Account of that Publick management which they held in their hands and no person is ignorant that that is a thing of all others in the World most intolerable to those persons who have made a Secular Empire of the Government of the Church As those Interests have made them lay hold of all they could to defend themselves so they have raised a new Controversy touching the Right that our Fathers had to reform themselves They demand of us who our Reformers were from whence they came and what Call they had for so Great a Work They accuse them to have been Rebels and Schismaticks who lifted themselves up against the Authority of their Mother the Church and broke the sacred bond of the Christian Communion They have defamed their persons as much as ever they could and have laid to their charge the most wicked manners to the end they might render them odious In fine they have put forward all that they could believe capable of retaining the people in a blind
Spirit shall be always with us and you have greived and drove him away 4. If the Church might err say they yet farther God would then be unjust in commanding us to keep our selves under the Guidance and the Ministry of the Church for that would not be an assured means of obtaining salvation All men know says Monsieur the Cardinal of Richelieu that God could not with any justice bind his creatures to incline to an end without giving them means to come to that end The Church cannot err since if she did err we should not have any means to come to everlasting salvation where God would have us come under the conduct of the Church But the Answer is not difficult God would that we should be saved under the Conduct of the Church that is to say of the Pastors of it not by giving a blind obedience to all that they tell us but by a wise discerning of that which is good from that which is bad and that we may make that discernment he has given us his word to which he will have usbring all that the Pastors teach to examine their Doctrine according to that Rule This is the assured means that he has left us for that If that means is not so agreeable to the men of the world who have other business to mind and wont break their brains with the Reading of the Word of God God will tell them one day that their greatest business was to serve him and to save themselves and that if they have not searched out the true means they ought only to accuse their own neglect and their too great grasping of the things of this world If they yet urge that that means is neither easie nor proper for the meaner sort we need but compare it with that of the pretended Infallibility of the Church and we shall quickly see that this last is infinitely more difficult and far less proper for the simple than the other For without taking notice of the impossibility that there is for them to be assured of this Principle that the Latin Church is Infallible supposing at the same time that it was where should any Woman or Tradesman go to seek that Infallibility to be persuaded that that which they believe and that which they practise is the true Belief and the true Worship of the Church Will they go to seek it in the Practises and Customs of the People But they all agree that the people may fall into those abuses and Superstitions that the Church does not at all approve of Will they look for it then from the voice of their Curate or from that of their Bishop But their Curate and their Bishop may be mistaken shall it be then from the Words of the Pope pronounc'd ex Cathedra But that poor Tradesman and that Woman can neither know where to find the Pope nor what they mean by ex Cathedra shall it be then from the Universal consent of the Church and her common customs But who shall tell them what that Universal Consent is Must those poor people know what they generally hold and prectise in France in Germany in Spain in Italy or that which they generally teach in the Schools It is then necessary for them to learn Greek and Latine But when they shall have learnt that how can they understand the true sence of the Councils since that without going any further the greatest part of the Canons of that of Trent are conceived in general and Ambiguous Terms which may be explained in divers sences and which very thing some say was done with design for the carrying on the different Opinions of the Schools Moreover those general and ambiguous terms somtimes leave the mind undetermined and the Conscience in suspence in matters of practice where they make it necessary to do a thing without shewing them after what manner they should do it For Example the Council of Trent decides That one ought to give to Images that Worship that is due to them this is the Infallible Voice of the Church which binds a man to give some Worship to Images which if he does not he fails in doing his Duty But what that Worship is the Council says nothing to Is it a Negative or a Positive Worship Is it that the same that they give to those they represent should be communicated to the Image as well as the Original or is it meant only of such Relative Worship that the Image should have no part of it or if has any part what is it Is it simply a customary Worship which consists in making use of those representations to excite their Piety by the remembrance of things past To tell that the Council says nothing It says indeed that the Worship which they give to Images relates to those they represent but this is not to define of what nature that Worship is for of what kind soever it is one may always say it has reference to the Original It says indeed yet further that when any Kiss their Images when they Bow to them and Kneel before them they adore Jesus Christ and the Saints but those terms denote only an external Worship without determining any thing of a more internal one and when it should determine of an internal that Council says not a word whether the Image has any part or what part it has Notwithstanding which they ought necessarily to determine it to some internal Worship for of that they treat How shall any man know whether that side which he takes in this matter be good or bad since the voice of the Church has abandoned him and after it has as it were set him in the midst of four ways and commanded him to march on never shews the way that he ought to follow but leaves him in the necessity of placing his Devotion at all adventure They will say that this is to urge things too far as to what relates to Women and Tradesmen For those persons know not what use to make of the Infallibility of the Church but only for certain General Articles which they cannot doubt of that the Church Teaches But not to insist here that those General Articles are themselves subject to form different meanings in the minds of the more simple and that they ought to make their choice with some certainty I say that the Worshiping of Images and other such like things is more used by such sort of persons than others and that many of those Devotions are proper to them about which they cannot have any certainty nor by Consequence practise them with any Faith I place in this Rank the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin which they solenmly celebrate for who can give them any certainty in that point Yet nevertheless it is a piece of Worship it is a matter of Practice or Duty whereof they cannot acquit themselves of a good Conscience without being assured of that which they do 5. In sine
the cumbrance of a thousand cares will not allow us to give more then a very little time for the examining the Truths of Religion all that hinders us from hearkning to you and makes us to cleave inviolably to the highest Authority that can be in the World and that we discover without any difficulty in our Society because that though there are Sects among us who dispute the Truth of its Tenets yet there is nothing in it that can make that Height of Authority which has so many external marks to be opposed with any colourable pretence In effect setting aside their Opinions their Worship and their Religion it self in the Foundation of it they cannot dispute with that Heathen Society from those external marks upon which they would found that Authority And the Christians would not have been in a condition to have equal'd themselves with them in that regard Would you have the consent of many people They had all the World of their side Would you seek for Antiquity They had been almost throughout all Ages Do you require Temporal Prosperity It was say they their Religion that gave them their Empire Would you have Magnificence Where was there any thing more Magnificent then their Temples and more splendid then their Solemnities Would you have Unity In the Plurality of their Gods and Varieties of their Ceremonies they kept peace among themselves and adopted the Gods of one an other Do you demand Miracles They boasted that they had them and the most Illustrious ones as those Oracles which foretold things to come those Apparitions of their Gods their Recoveries and Resurrections from the dead There was nothing then that could justify the Apostles but the falseness of the Pagan's Religion and the Truth of the Christian But for that they must of necessity enter upon that way of Examination and make those people to set about it whom they desired to convert But this is plainly that which that principle of the Author of those Prejudices would have hindred as we have shewn Whence it follows that it is a pernitious Principle contrary of Jesus Christ to his Apostles and to the true Interests of the Gospel But can they answer nothing to these last Reflexions that I have made It seems to me that they can possibly say but two things the one That those who were converted by the word of the Apostles and the other Preachers of the Gospel were constrained to hear them against that Order by a secret inspiration which dictated to them to make use of it also The other thing is That Jesus Christ and his Apostles proved their Call to be Extraordinary from Heaven and more eminent then that of their ordinary Pastors by Miracles and that in that Case the Faithful are bound to go beyond that Rule and to hear those that shall be so sent to them against that very Authority of the Church As to the first I do not believe that wise persons ought to admit of it For if they take those secret inspirations to be inward motions that form within a man frequent and strong desires to do a thing without suggesting any Reason the Spirit of God does not work so in the Conversion of men It works according to the Testimony of St. Paul as a light that inlightens the understanding to the end we may know what is the hope of our calling Then when those desires and inward motions are contrary to that duty to which we are all naturally engaged they ought rather to pass for Temptations then for Inspirations and a man would be very much bound to repress them under that Quality instead of following and obeying them Those pretended Inspirations then which tended to make the first Preachers of the Gospel be heard would have been so far from having had that effect that on the contrary they would have gone farther against their Consciences because they would have been found to have been contrary to a Duty supposing that intire obedience to the Church in matters of Faith a Duty They would have been troubled to know whether they ought to examine Religion or not That Rule might they say would have me not do it a blind Inspiration which is not supported by any Reason and which cannot have any certain mark of Divinity can never be strong enough to Authorise the breaking of that Rule But it cannot be yet alleadged to serve for an excuse towards that Religious Communion to which they had submitted themselves for if that Communion had a right of Soveraignty over them she would not be bound to strip her self of it when an inspiration should speak to them and we can but very ill defend the cause of the first Christians by that way If they would understand it so as those inward motions should be supported by some Reason that they should not be intirely blind it is necessary that they produce that Reason and not speak any more of Inspiration That Reason then in my Judgment can be no other then those Miracles that Jesus Christ and his Apostles wrought and by which they proved their Call to be divine and extraordinary I confess that if we suppose that all men have a right to make clear the Truth of things by themselves there is nothing more true then to say that Jesus Christ and his Apostles made themselves to be heard by their Miracles and that their Miracles were made use of to prove their Heavenly Call For their Miracles were plainly applied to the minds of men to make them consider that which they taught and in the end joyning their Miracles to their Doctrine they saw that they both mutually upheld one another that neither of them were false and that both the one and the other had the Characters of Divinity they did then conclude from thence that their Call was Divine and Extraordinary But if we suppose that Principle of the Author of Prejudices there is nothing more false then to say that their Miracles bound men to hear them and prov'd their Call to be Extraordinary For that Principle being as it is founded upon the darkness of our understanding upon the uncertainty of our Judgments and the easiness wherewith we are liable to deceive our selves it is manifest that it ought to be extended even unto Miracles because that there are true and false Miracles good and bad and those that false Prophets work as well as they that are sent from God We ought then to make a distinction and a distinction that is not easy to be made the Angels of darkness so disguising themselves into Angels of Light But that Reason of the darkness of the Understanding the uncertainty of our Judgments and that readiness we have to deceive our selves has if you please more place in that Distinction then in that of that Doctrine We may be easily surprized and by consequence we ought to give over that Discerning to the Church and yet follow in that its light and its decisions And
Sacrilegious and that those on the contrary who submitted themselves to the decisions of the Church were those good men who did nothing but their duty and that we our selves at this day who have received our Christianity from the hands of that small number are but the followers of Rebels and Schismaticks Yet all that they must say if they lay down that Principle of absolute Obedience It appears then that that Principle is false and unjust and invented for the ruin of Religion 10. In effect an absolute obedience and an intire resigning of ones self to the Conduct of another as to those matters that regard the Faith and the Conscience is a duty that we can render lawfully to none but God who is the first Truth the first Principle of all Justice A man cannot submit his understanding and his heart to the word of any one so as to believe blindly that which he says without giving him a kind of Adoration for there can be no homage greater than that of an inward blind submission It is an infinite act according as a creature may be said to act infinitely that is to say without bounds without reserve without measure It is then an act that can belong to none but God immediately that we ought not to transfer to the Church if we would not adore the Church and to which by Consequence a Church can never pretend without usurping the just rights of God 11. God himself has so far forborn his right that he does not very often absolutely make use of it but leaves it to our minds to judge of the Truths that he propounds to us For there are often in those things that he teaches us Characters that equally note their Truth and their Divinity so that at all times we may draw these two conclusions from them This Doctrine is true this Doctrine is of God without their depending one upon the other We may say the same of his Commandments they bear most frequently Characters of their Natural Justice as well as those of their Divinity and they give us leave to receive them not only by an Act of Obedience but by an Act of Judgment also As it is from him that we hold that admirable faculty of distinguishing the true from the false the good from the bad by Characters imprest in those things themselves so he would not take a way the use of it in matters of Religion On the contrary it is ordinarily by the using of that that he draws us that he convinces us first of all of the Truth of some Doctrines that he makes us afterwards acknowledg the necessary connexion that they have with others which he has revealed to us the Truth whereof appears not so clearly abstractly considered at first and by that connexion he makes us receive them He shews us the equity of his Precepts the horror of those Vices that are contrary to them and in that manner he gains our Hearts by making use of our own Reason Not that we may lawfully reject any of those things which he teaches us we have no right for that without doubt because where our Understandings are wanting to discover those Characters of Truth or of Equity in those things which he teaches us there he has ordained that his Authority shall help us It is God that says it it is God that commands it but it is not the same with respect to the Church the Church is not God she is but an Interpreter and Servant of God she ought then to shew us in all that she teaches us as matter of Faith or that she commands the Conscience to submit to those Characters of Truth and Equity in the things themselves or else those of their Divinity when she fails in that she cannot supply that defect by her Authority for in that case her Authority is purely no other than Humane and an Humane Authority is not sufficient either for the Faith or for the Conscience so that every man has right to examine that which she teaches and to reject that that is beyond the word of God 12. In fine Let those Gentlemen tell us if they please whether in this same Question concerning the Soveraign Authority of the Latin Church and the Obligation that lies upon every one to hold himself to its decisions they mean that every one should refer himself to the Latin Church and believe also meerly because that she says so without any other examination or whether they would grant that every one may have right to examine of what nature of what extent and of what force that Authority is and how far that Obedience goes which he ought to render to it There is no likelyhood they will say the former for that Authority cannot establish it self when it shall be establisht a man may refer himself to it for other things but while her own establishment is disputed it is requisite it should come from somewhat else and that there should be for that proofs capable of perswading us To what purpose do they tell us of its external marks which makes us says the Author of the Prejudices discover without any difficulty that height of Authority which is in the Catholick Church if they would not leave the Faithful a right to see those external marks and to examine them not any farther by the Eyes of the Church but by their own That being so they may see that they ought always to give men a right of making a Judgment by their own light and to give them in that Question the most important matter of all to wit that of choosing a Rule and a setled Principle for their Guidance and their Faith an Authority upon which their Minds and Consciences may rest and lye down in perfect Peace They must give them that in that Question which it is no ways easie for them to decide For besides that they ought to see those external marks of the Latin Church which say they gain her so great an Authority they ought also to see whether there are not others which they take away more reasonably from her then those that they give her they ought to see whether those marks are not common to other Religious Societies that may by that means dispute with the Latin Church that Authority they ought to see whether those marks when they shall become peculiar to the Latin Church may be capable of giving her so Soveraign an Authority over mens Faith and Consciences which seems naturally to belong to none but God And because in that Question we treat not of the whole Body of the Church but only of the Prelats and those who take up the Ecclesiastical Function they ought to know whether those external marks can hinder them from believing that those Prelats have abused their charges and brought in or suffered to be brought in divers Corruptions into the Church All that is not so easie as the Authour of the Prejudices tells us it is There is some
Body of the Church to which those words of Isaiah might be generally applied From the Crown of the head to the sole of the foot there was no soundness in her But if any would have us yet further Examine the other Circumstances they will find that they all concur to establish that Call whereof we Treat I rank in this place all those extraordinary Qualities wherewith it pleased God to inrich those among our Fathers who contributed most of all to the work of the Reformation Who may not perceive in them a lively and penetrating understanding a solid Judgment an exquisite and profound knowledge an indefatigable propension to Labour a wonderful readiness to compose and to deliver an exceeding exact study of the Scripture and the Principles of the Christian Religion a great and resolute Soul an unshaken courage an upright Conscience a sincere love of the Truth an ardent zeal for the Glory of God a solid Piety without Hypocrisie and without Pride a plain and open Carriage an intire disengagement from the things of the World an admirable confidence in God and in his Providence a Cordial Friendship to all good men and the greatest aversion to the Vices Prophanation and Sophistry of others These were the Gifts and Talents wherewith the Divine Favour Honoured the greatest part of them there yet remains the liveliest Characters of them in their Writings and they were as the Seal wherewith God would confirm their Call For when his Wisdom designs persons to any great work it is wont to bestow on them those necessary qualifications to acquit themselves in it and we may say without fear of being charged with derogating from the Truth by those who know History that from the Sixth Age until that of our Fathers that is to say for the space of more then nine hundred Years there could not be found any space of Time so fertile in great men as that of the Reformation was which shews that God had a design to make use of them for that Work as the event has justified Add to all that The Ardent and almost Universal desire among the People to see a good Reformation spring up in the Church for even that is a yet further Seal to the Call of the Reformers in as much as it is a Testimony that God had markt out that Age wherein to purge his floor as the Scripture speaks Who knows not that that desire was such as neither the Artifices nor the Violences nor the Calumnies wherewith they laboured to darken the Reformation could wholly put a stop to The Church was left in Ignorance and in Superstition she panted after the Light of the Gospel which had been for so long a Time hid under a dark vail and that general Disposition wherein she was may let us see that the Time of her Deliverance was come But lastly is it not true that then the greatest part of those who laboured in that Reformation were Ecclesiastical persons whom the Duty of their place obliged more particularly then others to root out Errors from the minds of men to purify Religion and to endeavour that God should be worshipped according to his Will Every one knows that Luther and Zuinglius who appeared the first in that Great Work were not only Priests but ordinary Preachers also the one at Wittenburg and the other at Zurich and that the former was Professour in Divinity And they are not ignorant that those who joyned themselves to them to advance that design were also in Publick Offices in the Church as the whole University of Wittenburg a very great Number of Priests and other Church-men with Bishops and Arch-Bishops in Germany in Swedeland and in Denmark and some even in France and the whole Body of Bishops in England They will say it may be that the Pope Excommunicated them all whence it follows that they had no more either any publick Call or lawful Ministry But that Answer would be fallacious For the Pope having Excommunicated them for nothing else but that business of the Reformation his Excommunication can be considered no otherwise then as null in this Cause without an Obligation to enter upon an Examination of the Validity of his Thunders in general In effect if they did their Duty if they obeyed their Call in Reforming themselves and in reforming their Flocks it ought not to be questioned that those Excommunications which they suffered for so good a Cause did not fall of right upon those who unjustly pronounced them and that not only what our Reformers had done before but also what they did afterward was well and lawfully done Who can deny that an Excommunication contrary to the Glory of God to the good of the Church and to the Salvation of men should not not be Null But if the Reformation was just and the Glory of God the good of the Church and the Salvation of the People called for it as we suppose they did in this Dispute they may very well see that the Thunders of Rome upon this Subject are unjust and by consequence of no consideration They ought not then to propound things so to us nor to deny the first Reformers to be publick persons who had a part in the Ministry of the Church and who for that Reason had a most strict Obligation to Labour in the Re-establishment of its Purity And to declare what we think those Excommunications of the Popes were so far from diminishing the Right and Call of the first Reformers that they did on the contrary confirm them the more and that for two Reasons The one in that they made them see more and more that they could hope for nothing on the part of Rome or the Bishops of its side from whence there arose an indispensable necessity on our Fathers to employ themselves in it and the other in that those pretended Excommunications furnisht them also with a just Subject of laying open more and more to the Eyes of the people the gross and fundamental Errors whose Protection the Popes took up with so great an Ardour To which I add That as much as the Popes and the Prelats of their party opposed themselves to the Reformation so much they lost of that Right which yet remained to them in that publick Ministry which they abused with so great Injustice and that very thing did but strengthen the Right of the other Party and render their Ministry more Publick and more Lawful For in those contests that divide a Body or a Society that which one of the parties loses by its ill Conduct is re-assembled together and reunited in the other But as it is only proper to our present purpose to Treat of the Call that our Fathers had to Reform themselves and to Labour to Reform others that is to say meerly to reject Errors and to excite others to do the same and not to go further to talk of their Right or Call to the publick Ministry We ought not to insist more upon this
Pastors as I have shewn But they are necessary to the well being of a Church but it is the hand of the Pastors alone that dispences the Sacraments to us and their Preaching is a publick instruction that more strongly sets before our Eyes the Truths of the Gospel that livelily applies its Precepts its Promises its Threatnings and its Exhortations to us and frequently forces us to make those Reflections on our selves which we should not do without their Aid Their Authority restrains us their light inlightens us their Direction guides us their Example excites us and their Labours case ours It is certain that a Flock without a Pastor cannot but be in a very bad condition for howsoever each of the Mystical Sheep who compose it may defend themselves against the assaults of the Wolves yet it is not ordinarily done either with such force or such success as when the defending of them lies in the hands of Faithful Pastors to whom God communicates a greater measure of his Light and Grace and although the External Society among the simple Faithful may not cease to subsist though they have not actually any Pastor since they may be joyned together in Jesus Christ by the profession of one same Faith and the same Piety which assembles them by vertue of the first Convocation that the Apostles made yet that Society as far as it is External would be far better maintained by the Actions of the Ministry of the Pastors then it would be otherwise 3. I shall not fear to say that even the Actions of the Ministry are necessary for the perpetual subsistence of that External Society for however the meer Reading of the Word of God Publick Prayers in Common the mutual Exhortations of the Faithful and the Writings of the Doctors of the Church are without doubt sufficient to preserve the Faith and Piety in the Souls of men not only during some time but even always if they do not neglect their duty yet notwithstanding it must be acknowledged that according to the way that we are made and to speak as they say after the manner of men a Flock cannot abide a long Time without a Shepherd so as not to fall into Negligence and by that Negligence into an Oblivion of its duty and in fine so as the Sheep should not be in a great danger of dispersion See here after what manner Pastors are necessary to the Church but to imagine that it cannot absolutely have any more a Christian Society or lawful Assemblies among the Faithful when their Ordinary Pastors forsake them is that which they can never maintain with any Reason For the Faithful are the Sheep of Jesus Christ and when their Pastors scatter them the Grace and Name of Jesus Christ calls them together They are in a Society by the right of the first Convocation of the Church which is a perpetual right which subsists every where where the True Faith and true Christian Piety are found Common among many persons and it is from that perpetual and immovable Right that that of the actual Assemblies Flowes But what Order can they hold in their Assemblies since they have none to direct them Externally I answer That the same Spirit of Grace which inspired them with Piety and Charity would it self suggest an Order and subject them one to another by a mutual consent for God does not forsake his own Children though men and the Church may always say in the Languague of the Prophet When my Father and Mother forsake me the Lord shall take me up If there be any Magistrate to be found among the Faithful it belongs to him to settle an Order among them for the Civil Society comes in Naturally to the succour of the Religious when the Religious is cast into any Extremity If there be no Magistrate they ought to agree about an Order in private Conferences before they come to Assemble together in a Body to avoid Confusion and every one has a Right to make those private Conferences But what can they do in those Assemblies They may pray to God there they may implore the succours of his Providence and put their Trust in his Promises They must begin by that Afterwards they will search out all possible means to have Pastors called to that Office by the Ordinary ways to receive the Sacraments and Preaching of the Gospel from them but if that is impossible or if they see that that would be evidently to Tempt God and put the Flock in danger of dissipation it is Necessary in that case that the Flock should chuse a Pastor for it self and Consecrate him to God by ardent Prayers in committing to his Trust the Rights of the Ministry that reside in the Body of the Faithful to whom Jesus Christ according to Saint Augustine has given the Power of the Keys For we ought not to imagine that the Body of the Faithful should be stripped of the Right of the Ministry as often as they should be actually without Pastors That Right is inviolable it cannot be either lost or separated from the Body of the Faithful We will in the Close examine whether an Election made after that manner gives a sufficient Call it is sufficient at present to know that neither the Right of a Christian Society nor that of Christian Assemblies is so necessarily tied to the Pastors That when there should be none of them the Faithful could not remain united together externally in a Body of a Visible Church or make those Assemblies lawful The Author of the Prejudices Treating about this matter distinguishes between two sorts of Separations the one Negative the other Positive There is says he a meer Negative Separation which consists more in the denyal of certain Acts of Communion then in positive Actions against that Society from which one separates And there is another Positive Separation which includes the erecting of a Separate Society the Establishment of a new Ministry and the positive Condemnation of the former Society to which he was united He says afterwards That we did not content our selves with the first kind of Separation that we have gone further that we have formed a new Society a new Church that we have set up new Pastors That it is that kind of Separation whereof he accuses us and that it is this also that we ought to Justify our selves about He repeats the same things in the end and concludes That when the Faithful should believe themselves obliged out of a good Conscience to separate themselves Negatively they ought not to form a Society nor have any Pastors But that they ought to remain in that State without any Pastors and without any External Worship in waiting until God extraordinarily raise up some with visible Characters of their Mission I acknowledge that that Distinction of two kinds of Separation is of some Use and I have my self made use of it for the putting of the matters of this Treatise into a more natural Order
but I deny that the Consequences which the Author of the Prejudices pretends to draw from them are True We shall see in the sequel whether the Society of the Protestants separated from those of the Church of Rome may with any reason be called a new Church We shall see also what Right they had to a Gospel-Ministry and whether they can say that their Ministry is new I consider only that Principle which he propounds which is That when the Faithful separate themselves Negatively from those with whom they were before united they ought not to set up a Society apart For he knows not how to say any thing that is more contrary to Piety and the Spirit of Christianity I hold then that if that Negative Separation of the Faithful be Just if it be necessary if they made it out of a good Conscience not only they can but they ought to hold a Christian Society among themselves to make a Visible Body to Assemble to pray to God together to Read his Word to consult and deliberate for their common Interests even while they should be separated from the greater number of the Ordinary Pastors or even when they should have no Pastors among them I mean that that is not only a Right but a Duty an Obligation and such an Obligation that there is nothing can dispence with but an absolute and invincible impossibility The Reason upon which I found this Proposition is taken from the very Nature of the Christian Faith Piety and Charity For when God has given us these vertues he has by that very thing indispensably bound us to keep and strengthen them and by consequence he has bound us to practise those means which he himself has established for that purpose But among those means That of External Communion with our Brethren to whom he has given the same grace is one of the most considerable as I have said before Therefore Saint Paul told the believing Hebrews Let us take heed to stir up one another to Charity and good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together but admonishing one another And to the Colossians Let the word of Jesus Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs And to the Thessalonians We entreat that you would admonish the disorderly that you comfort those that are in affliction that you uphold the weak And to the Ephesians Speake ye one to another in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Moreover according as our Brethren labour on their part in the preservation and confirmation of our Faith Piety Hope and Charity by the Society that we hold with them so we produce the same effect in respect of them for we mutually edify one another But it is further a Duty to which Christianity engages us God would not that we should only labour for our own preservation he would have us also take care of that of our neighbours and it would be a detestable word in the mouth of a Christian if he should say with Cain Am I my Brothers keeper We are further bound to propagate our Faith and Piety in the Souls of our Children and to labour even to the utmost of our power to make it spring up in the Souls of Infidels as one lighted candle may light another which evidently notes that the Instinct of Christianity is an instinct of Society that carries us out not only to own our Brethren when they are so but to gain more then we had before and even those which we cannot have In fine Piety would have us give God the highest honour and Worship that it is possible for us to give him But it is certain that God is more honoured in a Society when all in one Body offer up their Prayers to him their vows and their praises then when each does it apart more hearts united together pay God a homage more worthy of his Majesty They cannot then imagine a State more contrary to the nature of the true Faith of Christian Piety and Charity than that of Dispersion nor by consequence any thing that the Faithful ought to have more horror for and when the misery of the Age shall cast them into it by an unavoidable necessity they ought always to preserve a Spirit of Society and to pant after the company of their Brethren My Soul said David then when he was in that Condition Thirsteth after God after the living and true God O when shall I come and appear before the presence of God! My Tears have been my meat Day and Night while they say unto me Where is now thy God I remember the Time wherein I went with the multitude and when I went sweetly in company with others with the voice of Triumph and praise unto the House of God It is so certain that the Actual dispersion of the Faithful does not break the natural bond of their Society for they are always Brethren Children of the same Family it can only suspend the Acts of it and when that absolute necessity which forced them into dispersion is gone they return of themselves naturally into an actual Society by the force of that Unity of Faith and Religion that is among them without any necessity of a new Convocation It will signify nothing to say that the Duties which I have noted respect the Faithful only then when they are already in an Actual Society but that they are not bound to remain there nor to enter into it when they have no Pastors to Assemble them For I say that those Duties arise not from the nature of that Society but from that of Faith Piety and Charity and by consequence they bind them to preserve an actual Society where-ever it is and even to make one where it is not yet that is to say they oblige us to United all those to us in whom we see the same Faith Piety and Charity shine forth that we perceive in our selves In a word since Faith Piety Charity and the other Christian Vertues bind us to those Duties they bind us also to an External Society without which they cannot be performed whence it comes to pass that the Faithful are called in the Scripture Sheep not in respect of their Ordinary Pastors but in respect of their Faith in Jesus Christ to note That it is the Faith and not the Ministry which makes the Society and which renders by consequence their Assemblies lawful and necessary CHAP. II. That the Society of the Protestants is not a New Church ONe of the most Ordinary and powerful means that they make use of to render us odious to the People and to drive them from our Communion is to represent us to them as Innovators and full of Confusions who have overthrown all and made a new Religion and a new Church and it is very true that the greatest part of the World
are upon For if they mean That the Society or Church of the Protestants is new in respect of the State wherein it was or of that external form which it had immediately before the Reformation we shall voluntarily agree that it is made new in that sence after the same manner that the Scripture calls the Regenerate a new Man or as God promises to give us a new heart or as they call a House repaired and put into its natural State a new House That would speak the Favour God shew'd to our Fathers in re-establishing the Christian Society in that Just and lawful State wherein it ought to be according to its first Establishment and that that State is very much different from that wherein it was immediately before the Reformation This is that which we do not deny and are so far from it that on the contrary we praise and glorify God for it But if they mean that we have made a new Church that is to say one essentially differing from that which Jesus Christ and his Apostles would establish in the World and which has always subsisted even to our days or that in all that which depends on us we have not re-established it in its first and lawful State this is what we deny and in this sence which is the only one that can render the Accusations of our Adversaries just we maintain that we have not in the least made a new Church In a word we say that the Church of Jesus Christ has subsisted down from the Apostles to us inclusively in all that which it has Essentially and that she yet subsists at this day among us but that having changed her State or External Form in the Ages that preceeded the Reformation she was re-established in her just and lawful State by the Reformation of our Fathers which no ways hinders but that she was and might always be the same Church To make this Truth to be the better understood we need only to clear on the one side what that Essence of the Church is that ought always to remain immovable to shew that it may be but one and the same Church by descent and uninturrepted Succession and on the other side what State it is that she has suffered change in and how it could be altered and repaired The Essence of the Church consists in this That it is a Body of divers persons united together in the Commnion of one only True God under one only Jesus Christ their Head and Mediatour and it is Jesus Christ himself that has given us this Idea of it when he says that This is life Eternal to know the only True God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent That Definition which we give of the Church supposes 1. The subject or matter whereof the Church is composed which are divers men divers persons united among themselves and with God 2. It supposes the Necessary means without which that Communion cannot be which are the word of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit 3. It contains not only the True Faith Charity Hope which are the natural bonds of that Communion but all the other Christian Vertues also as Worship Adoration Truth Obedience Thanksgiving Justice Temperance c. which are the the duties to which that Communion engages us 4. It comprehends in it further all the fruits that we gather from that Communion as Remission of Sins Peace and Tranquillity of Soul Consolation in Afflictions Succours in Temptations c. 5. In fine it includes all the Rights that necessarily follow that Communion as that of being joyned together in an External Society that of Publick Assemblies that of the Ministry that of the Sacraments and that of External Government and Discipline See here that which is Essential to the Church for I call that Essential without which the Church cannot subsist and which yet is sufficient to make it subsist that which cannot subsist if that Church fail to subsist and that which cannot be wanting if there be a Church As to the State in respect of which it suffers changes it consists in all that that depends on the different disposition of Times Places and Persons For Example To have the Bodily presence of Jesus Christ to have Apostles and Evangelists for its Pastors to have the Miraculous gifts of healing that of Tongues that of the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Faithful by Visible Symbols that of Prophecy and that of an external and infallible direction and instruction is a State wherein the Church was in the Time of its Birth but which was changed in the other Times that followed To have Pastors illustrious for Zeal Learning and Piety as a Saint Augustine a Saint Basil a Saint Chrysostom is a State wherein it was not always nor every where but in some Times and Places only To be flourishing and in Peace without Persecution without Schism without Error is a State wherein it has neither been always nor in all Places nor in respect of all those persons who have composed it but which it has been in in some Times and Places only and with respect to some Persons We ought then to set down in their proper Order those things which belong to the State of the Church and to its Essence and which by Consequence are liable to change as to be extended every where or in the greatest part of the World to have a multitude or the greatest number Temporal Splendor or outward Glory Peace whether in regard of those without or in respect of those within Liberty in External Profession Visibility of Assemblies Purity of the Ministry Holiness of External Worship Form of Government that of Discipline and that of Liturgies an Actual Bond of the Parts of the Church in one Body of External Communion and the Actual Exercise of the Ministry or if you will the Actual Presence of the Pastors All those are things that do not absolutely belong to the Essence of the Church but only to its State or Condition and of which it may be sometimes spoyled either wholly or in Part without being absolutely destroyed It may be restrained to a few places and a few persons and therefore it is called in some places of Scripture a little Flock she may be so in her low State We are says Saint Paul not many wise not many mighty not many noble but God has chosen the weak things of this World to confound the strong She may be in Trouble and in Affliction through the Persecution of Infidels as she was under the Heathen Emperours or in Fighting against Hereticks as she has been almost always she may lose the Visibility of her Assemblies as she did in most places in the Time of Decius and Dioclesian she may find her Ministry corrupted as it hapned in the Time of the Arrians she may see her external Worship sullied by Actions of superstition and Idolatry as it fell out in Judah and Israel in the days of the Prophets As to
more than those External Guides that God has Established in the Church to lead men to the Scripture and even such Guides as cannot hinder us from going thither of our selves if we will and it is the Scripture the voice of the Apostles or to say better the voice of Jesus Christ that speaks by the Apostles that does all There is therefore a great difference between those two sorts of Ministers the one preceded the Church the other follows it the one is immediately Communicated by God and the other is Communicated by means of men the one has an Independent and Soveraign Authority and Infallibility on its side and the other is exposed to Vices Disorders Errours and humane weaknesses Inferior and depending on the Church the one is every way Divine and the other is partly Divine and partly Humane 7. From that sixth Observation there arises another not less important and that which I have already touched upon in divers places of this Treatise that is That the Ordinary Ministry is a Right that belongs to the True Church and of which it can never be spoiled The Reason of this Truth is taken from the very Nature of the Church For the Church being a Society that God has call'd together by the Ministry of his Apostles and which he yet every day calls together and upholds by the word of his Scriptures and the use of his Sacraments we must necessarily say that in forming it he has given it in that very thing that he has formed it a sufficient full and entire Right to make use of all the means that may help its preservation and upholding amongst which that of the Ministry is without doubt most considerable That same Providence that gives men a Natural Life and appoints them to preserve their life by that Food it furnishes them with gives them by that very thing a right to employ persons to gather that food together and to prepare it to the end they may make use of it according to what it is designed for and it would be a great Extravagance to demand of a man what Right he has to prepare himself to eat and drink for he could have nothing more to say but that the Nature that gave him life gave him at the same time all the Right that was necessary to provide for the upholding of that life And to make use of another Example The same Nature or to say better the same Providence that Assembles men together in a Civil Society and ordains them in their so uniting together to uphold that Society by a rational Order does it not give them at the very same time and by the same Right that Assembles them a Right to have Magistrates to Govern them by and to make the Laws of that Society to be Executed to have Judges to decide their differences to have Remedies for the Healing of Diseases and Tradesmen for the publick good And would it not be an absurdity to demand of a people what Right they had to have Magistrates Judges Physicians Tradesmen Teachers of Commerce Lawyers since they could not have a fuller and juster Right than that which is founded upon the reason of Order and the Society it self We need but to apply these Examples to the Subject we are upon The Church is a Body to which God has given a Spiritual Life and he has ordained it to be preserved and upheld in the use of Mystical Aliments of which he himself has made a publick Magazine in his Holy Scriptures it is therefore evident that he has given it by that very thing a Right to have Ministers or Pastors who should prepare those Sacred Aliments and season them for its Spiritual Nourishment The Church is a Religious Society composed of divers persons that God himself has Assembled to live together not in Confusion but in Order he would have that Society subsist he has appointed it to uphold and preserve it self he himself has suggested the means he has then without doubt by that very thing given a Right to have Guides to Govern her Pastors to lead them forth into the Heavenly Pastures of the Scriptures Ministers to dispense the Divine Sacraments that he has instituted for her Watch-men and Guides to be careful of her and to go before her In a word he who has given Faith Piety and Christian Holiness to the Church has at the same time indispensably obliged them to these four Duties one is to persevere in the Exercise of those Vertues unto the end The other is to defend themselves against the Assaults and wiles of the Enemy of their Salvation the third is to increase and strengthen themselves more and more and lastly to propagate them as much as in them lyes from us down to our Children and even amongst Strangers that is to say among those who are not as yet in that Relation It follows therefore necessarily that that has given the Church a sufficient full and entire Right for the Ministry since the Ministry is but a fit and lawful means for all that It could not have a Right more lawful than that which is founded upon those indispensable Duties for in that case it is not only a Right that makes the thing just but it is an obligation that imposes a necessity of it as in the State the Right that every one has to learn the Will of the Prince is indisputable because it is built upon the obligation that lies upon every one to conform himself to it It is clear then that there could not have been a Right to have Ministers more lawful than that of a Faithful People a True Church since it is founded upon those four Duties which I have noted that are indispensable and that give not only a Right but an Obligation to have a Ministry But we ought here to take notice of the Fallacy that their Missionaries are wont to make and that the Authour of the Prejudices who has Adopted their Method would have us make with them For see after what manner they argue Where there is no lawful Ministry there is no True Church But among the Protestants there is no True Church I set aside the Question Whether we have or whether we have not a lawful Ministry in the same sence that he intends I will only at present consider his way of Reasoning that makes the True Church depend upon a lawful Ministry Admitting that to be a True Church where the Ministry is and denying that to be a True Church where the Ministry is not I say that this is a vain deceitful and illusory way of Reasoning to which I oppose this other Argument Where there is the True Church there is a Right to a Lawful Ministry But the True Church is among the Protestants Therefore the Right to a Lawful Ministry is among the Protestants Of those two ways of arguing it is certain that this latter is the justest and almost only just right and natural For the True Church