she is visible in this old age an corruption as she was visible in her youth and purity so that neither her youth nor her old age neither purity nor corruption signifie any thing to Visibility The case is the same concerning the Perpetuity of the Ministery the Ministery is perpetual therefore 't is incorruptible Deny that consequence without scruple for 't is false but some will say Does not the Lord teach with those Pastors which follow one another in the order of Ages Answer Ye because these Pastors teach the three Creeds conformably to the Holy Scriptures Jesus Christ teaches with them and they with Jesus Christ But because they teach beyond the three Creeds Idolatrous and superstitious Doctrines they teach against Jesus Christ My Brethren that which I have said unto you in this and the preceding Letter is sufficient to make you understand what is the perpetual Visibility of the Church Read it and read it again until you understand and possess it very well and you will easily answer the two Sophisms which your Adversaries put upon you The first is That if the Church hath not been always visible the Pagans for a thousand or twelve hundred years before Luther's Reformation had no door open to their conversion For how should they be converted and how should they find the Church if she were invisible Now 't is a prodigy contrary to all reason and probability that God for the space of so many Ages should hold the door of the Church close and hidden Besides this is contrary to History and Experience which learns us that the most part of the Northern Nations Sweden Denmark Poland and many Provinces of Germany did not receive the Christian Faith till since the eighth Age i. e. since the time that Antichristianity was mixed with the Christian Doctrine For the Roman Church began according to us to be Antichristian before the sixth Age. This is a difficulty which they propose to you to which you ought to answer That according to what we have told you we do not teach that the Church became invsible by the Antichristianity which is entered there she is corrupt but she continues visible Christianity hath not failed to continue its integrity in Popery therefore the Church remains intirely there I have told you that Christianity and the Church are the same thing This Christianity continuing visible in the Books of the Old and New Testament and in the three Creeds which the providence of God hath preserved in Popery the door of conversion hath been always open to the Pagan Nations for Jesus Christ crucified and his true Mysteries have not failed to preserve their force and efficacy in despight to all the Darkness which the bastard Mysteries of Antichristianity have brought in thither There hath been Conversion and Perversion and Perversion in the Pagan Nations which have joyn'd themselves to the Church of Rome since the eighth Age. There hath been Conversion for they have entertained one God in three Persons one God Creator of Heaven and Earth one Jesus the Eternal Son of God the Word made Flesh who died and rose again for the Sins of Men who will come to Judge the Living and the Dead and having raised men from their Graves will send some men to everlasting Torments and some to the Kingdom of Heaven This is Christianity by receiving this they became Converts to Jesus Christ There hath been Perversion also for by receiving a Vicar of Jesus Christ a Vice-God upon Earth a Soveraign to all the World a Master of Kings as of Subjects of Crowns as of Shepherds Crooks by adoring Bread Angels Saints Reliques and Images they have done nothing else but changed their ancient Paganism for a new one But however it be their Perversion has not hindered their Conversion and that they have entertained Antichristianity hinders not that they have not embraced also the Christian Doctrine So that the Gate of Conversion to Christianity was never shut But the question is Whether this Gate be saving whether these Conversions be profitable or whether we ought to say of the Missionaries of the Roman Church what Christ Jesus said of the Pharisees That they compass sea and land to make Proselites whom they made twofold more children of hell than themselves The question is Whether the Antichristianity which they have embraced hath more power to destroy them than the Christianity which they have received hath to save them It behoves you to answer that these People who are joyned to the Church of Rome since the eighth Age have some portion and lot with her ancient Members that God doth nothing in vain that he hath not converted so many men to Christianity to destroy them all though it be a corrupt Christianity which in the times when there were no Churches which were not very corrupt as well as the Church of Rome it may be granted that God did preserve unto himself children in these corrupt Societies that in these Pagan Nations which are joyned to the Church of Rome God had his Elect and that he found means to save these Elect from among the Nations by the Christianity which they had embraced and that he gave them the grace to separate the Antichristianity and not to be hurt or injured thereby How this was done is not for us precisely to determine These are the depths of the ways of God. We will say the same concerning the Conversions which the Roman Church hath made in the Indies that God saves his Elect from among these Nations by the Christianity which the Missionaries cause them to embrace and defends them from the wounds and hurts which the Antichristianity that is joyned unto it might do unto them by ways known to his profound Wisdom We might believe this say I were it not that according to the report that the Papists themselves make unto us of the Christianity which the Jesuites teach the Indians and the Chinesees is not so much as an honest Paganism This is it which must be answered to the first Difficulty Behold the second If you confess say they that the Church is visible and always visible the Church of Luther and Calvin cannot be the true Church for it was not visible two hundred years agon having no existence in the World. When you shall have made a dissection of this Difficulty you will find it the most pittiful one that ever was made Know then my Brethren that when we say the Church was visible and always visible we understand the Church Universal and not any particular Church By the Universal Church must be understood Christianity dispersed through all Nations in the East West North and South in all places where they retain the Books of the Old and New Testament with the three Greeds which are the Abridgment of them This Church is always visible for God cannot permit that she perish wholly nor yet that it be wholly hidden but the particular Churches of which the Universal Church is made
offered I say a thousand Reproaches to the Pagans about their Statues all which might be retorted against the Christians if they had had any themselves and to expose themselves to these Replies it must be said that they had lost both Memory and Sense I would very willingly know what Clemens of Alexandria would have said had he seen Images in Churches who said concerning Women that beheld themselves in Glasses * Pedag. lib. 3. c. 2. If Moses did for bid Men to make any Image which represented God how can these Women be innocent who by a fictitious Representation make Images of themselves Read therefore Tertullian Arnobius Minutius Foelix Lactantius Clemens of Alexandria and Origen And if ye be not qualified my Brethren for the reading of them ask your Converters if what we have said above be not true they will not have the impudence to deny it 't is a matter of Fact which is confessed by the more honest of the Roman Religion amongst others by Baluzius in his Notes upon Lactantius concerning the Death of Persecutors In the Third Age they began to give Rules concerning days of Fasting The African Church besides the Lords Day had two other days in the week consecrated to Prayer that is to say Wednesday and Friday Instead of Friday the Roman Church set apart Saturday to that end and use According to the Discipline of the Ancient Church it was not permitted to fast on the Lords Day and for that reason she set apart two other days in the Week to join Prayer with Fasting and called those days Stations They were reckoned for half Fasts because they fasted no longer than till three hours after Noon whereas in compleat Fasts they abstained from eating till the Sun were set At this day instead of half Fasts as they call them they ought to call them Fasts less than half for they fast not but from six in the Morning until Noon in the Church of Rome a great Mortification to make so great account on These half Fasts were accompanied with publick Prayers For the Christians assembled together continued in Prayer at the Church until three hours after Noon and as it was the custom of that time to communicate in all publick Assemblies they concluded these Stations or half Fasts with the celebration of the Eucharist They did not communicate in the Morning in the beginning of their Assembly because those days were accounted days of Fast and they then believed that the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist did break their Fast for as yet they were not instructed in the method of withdrawing the Substance and leaving nothing but Accidents there To conclude Lent and the other Fasts of this day were then wholly unknown They fasted in this Age as they did in the second the Passion-day and that which followed it but no more And because the Montanists a sort of Hereticks amongst which Tertullian listed himself towards the end of his life would consecrate two Weeks in the Year to fast in The Catholick Church made a great stir about it and that which is remarkable is that then the Church served it self exactly of the same reason against the Montanists which we make use of against the Fasts of the Papists * Tertul. Lib. de Jejun c. 15. particularly they made use of those words of S. Paul who said That false teachers should come who should command to abstain from meats which God had permitted to believers that we must not observe days and months and years that we must eat of every thing and at all times without asking questions for conscience sake We must suppose an extravagance of mind without excuse to believe that men who disputed thus against the Montanists about two Weeks Fasting should themselves have and observe five or six Nevertheless you must hold this for certain that these two Weeks of Fasting of the Montanists were the beginning of Lent for a little while after the Church was ashamed to see it self surpassed with Mortifications by persons they accounted Hereticks and therefore she was willing to out-bid and out do them My Brethren they make you extracts from S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage a great Man and a very holy Martyr in which you oftentimes read the words Satisfactions and Indulgencies But let this example teach you not to suffer your selves to be seduced by a similitude of terms and words for those Satisfactions and Indulgencies have no alliance or cognation with those of the Church of Rome Then the Discipline of the Church was extremely severe upon mens Faults and Crimes against which the Romish Confessors at this day do oftentimes appoint but very gentle Penances and no forbearance from the Sacrament But they commanded Sinners the forbearance of many years together with many long and tedious Fasts and Mortifications Those who had accomplished their years of Penance and Forbearance were said to make and have made Satisfaction But First They did not then imagin that these Satisfactions were intended to excuse them from the pains of Purgatory as hath since been believed Secondly These Satisfactions were properly made to the Church and its Discipline and not to the Justice of God. 'T is true that S. Cyprian speaks sometimes of Satisfying God but these words with him signifie no more than to appease God with Prayers and Humiliations Those Christians which fell through the violence of Persecution did owe to the Church very rough and severe Penances according to the Rules of her Discipline All were not capable of bearing the trouble of long Penances therefore they desired that they would remit the whole or some part of it and receive them to the Peace of the Church To obtain which they made their applications to their Martyrs and Confessors which were in Prison for the Cause of Jesus * Cypr. Epist 10 11 12 c. These Confessors wrote Letters of intercession addressed to the Bishop Presbyters and People to the end that they might receive these Sinners to the Peace and Communion without causing them to pass through the rigor of their Discipline They had so great a respect to the Confessors of the Name of Jesus Christ that they could deny them nothing So that at their Intercessions they admitted Sinners without Penance and this was called Indulgence this is it whereof S. Cyprian complains in many of his Epistles I intreat you my Brethren to observe in this place how the Devil takes occasion from things the most innocent to establish Opinions and Practices greatly faulty and criminal For behold the first original of application to the Intercession of Saints Indulgences and Merits of Supererogation From Saints who were in Prison for the Name of Jesus Christ they ascended to the Saints who are in Heaven At first they prayed the Holy Martyrs that were on earth to intercede for them with the Church Afterwards they came to pray the same Martyrs in Heaven to intercede with God for them They called Indulgences the relaxation of
St. Chrysostom and St. Austin Sermons or Works that are none of theirs and a man needs but indifferent Learning and little Sincerity to be convinced thereof But Father Crasset who has neither the one nor the other neither Skill nor Science takes and gives all for good In the Fifth Age he quotes Cyril of Alexandria who is surely one of the first which gave occasion to the Religious Worship of the Virgin. For by opposing Nestorius who would not suffer Mary to be called the Mother of God he passed unto the other extreme and advanced as far and as high as he could the praises of the Virgin Mary Nevertheless this might be reduced to Apostrophes Figures of Oratory and great Elogies but there is nothing of Invocation therein No Author of the Fifth Age speaks more expresly nor vehemently of the Invocation of Martyrs and of the Worship which is given to the Reliques than Theodoret. Nevertheless in the passage which Father Crasset quotes from him in his Commentary on the words of Solomon's Song My beloved is one there is nothing that favours the Worship of the Virgin in the least He applies these words My Dove my only one to the Virgin and that were the place to speak of the honour which ought to be given to her if ever there were any But all that he says concerning her is that she is the Mother of God a pure Virgin that all Nations call her blessed that she is the Dove and the only one which brought Christ Jesus into the World that in Charity she surpasses the Cherubims and Seraphims That were the place to have said that we ought to commend ourselves to her Charity and invoke her as our Mediatrix To conclude let these Gentlemen find us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages Chappels and Oratories consecrated to the Virgin as they find them consecrated to the Martyrs unless it be about the end of the Fifth age Now this being supposed I dare say that a man must have renounced all honour all modesty all sincerity and all judgment not to confess that here is an indubitable evidence that Invocation of Saints was a Novelty in the Fourth and Fifth Ages For these men had been fools not to have invoked the Virgin in those times when they invoked St. Protais and St. Gervais if they established Invocation upon the merit the dignity and the reputation that these Saints might have with God. I would fain know if those two Giants which suffered Martyrdom under Decius were in condition to intercede with God with so much efficacy as this Virgin-Mother to the Saviour of the World This false Worship had its birth from that foolish love which men had for Reliques And as they had no Reliques of the blessed Virgin so they consecrated no Churches or Chappels to her and in consequence thereof they did not call upon her We shall bring you yet in what follows new Proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts LEt us take up again at present what follows of the Illusions which the New Converts make for themselves who endeavour to lay their Consciences asleep They conclude two things 1. That all the fundamental Truths of Christianity being Confessed by the Church of Rome they are obliged to remain with her so you go on These fundamental Truths which Popery hath preserved are the Articles of the Three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Niece or Constantinople and that which is call'd by the name of St. Athanasius 'T is true that the Church of Rome hath retained these but to conceive how you cheat yourselves I intreat you to suppose Christians which receive these three Creeds and who nevertheless Adore the Sun the Moon the Earth and almost all the Idols of Paganism you will say that these things are inconsistent But you deceive yourselves for there is nothing more possible than that that a man should believe God is the Creatour of Heaven and Earth that Jesus Christ is his eternal Son and the Creatour of the World that he was Born that he Died that he was Crucified that he will come to Raise and Judge the Living and the Dead and nevertheless that he should believe that we may Adore the Earth the Trees the Sun and Moon because God does animate and fill them The Greed says not that we must Worship none but God yea it says not that we must Worship him So that a Religion may receive the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Universal Church and adore every thing but God Why may not men be capable of Adoring the Stars because God fills them since they Adore Bread under a supposition that Jesus Christ is there after a manner invisible precisely as God is in the Stars and Elements It is therefore a particular Providence that Christians who Adore the Eucharist are not fallen so far as to Adore the Sun Moon and Stars for I do maintain that the Papists may be carried to Adore a Stone as naturally as they are carried to Adore the Bread in the Eucharist on supposition that Jesus Christ is included under it Suppose you that they were come so far would you yet say Since all the fundamental Truths are Confessed by this Communion which Adore the Sun and Moon yea Stones we are obliged to continue with it Learn you therefore that we may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and build thereon Dung Poison and all sorts of Impurities The spirit of Man is capable of reconciling those things that are molt irreconcileable Behold another thing whereof you ought to be advertised that you ought to distinguish fundamental Truths from fundamental Errours You imagine that to retain all the fundamental Truths and to have no fundamental Errours is the same thing and because we do confess the Roman Church retains all the fundamental Truths you think that we confess to you that she has no fundamental Errours In this you are much mistaken a person may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and add thereunto fundamental Errours I gave you an Example in men who might believe the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Church and which might add under a hundred false pretences of Devotion Pagan Idolatries I do maintain that a man may adopt into the Religion of Christians almost all the Abominations of the Bonzes of Japan and the Brachmns of India without any formal Renunciation of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith. I demand if whilst men retain the fundamental Truths they do not add fundamental Errours by espousing these Pagan Worship 'T is exactly that which the Church of Rome has done upon the Foundations of Christianity she hath built a thousand Superstitions which are purely Pagan Popery is Paganism renewed and built upon Christianity 't is an Idol Temple raised upon the Temple of Jesus Christ. A fundamental Errour is therefore an Errour or Practice which
answered to all these people with firmness and an admirable presence of mind which touched them with admiration and compassion a sentiment which is not ordinary with persons of this Character when they are Persecuting true Christians They saw well that seeing the Monks were touched with his Discourses they might produce the same effect upon others for which reason they forbad all persons to see him A few days after they took him from the Prison of Alez to remove him to that of Nismes Those that had been hindred from seeing him when he was in Prison were willing to recompence the loss which they had sustained an incredible multitude of people of all Ages and Sexes pouring out tears followed him on the Road accompanying him with their Prayers and good wishes he returned them blessings and added vehement Exhortations to rise speedily from their fall and to glorifie God as he did by their Sufferings Whilst he was in Prison at Alez there were no ways imaginable which were not employed to oblige him to change his Religion The Ecclesiasticks served themselves of ways of Seduction the Judges with that of Authority They promised him not only impunity for what was past but all kinds of Favours and Advantages He equally resisted all and with the same courage surmounted these different temptations Whilst they carried him From the Prison of Alez to that of Nismes approaching the place of his Nativity and that where his Father and Kindred dwelt he felt some movings of his Bowels which made him fear lest that should be the place where he was to endure the strongest temptations through the softness and tenderness of nature He earnestly desired of the Judges that they would not let him see neither his Father nor his Relations Therefore he did not see them but was content to let them know that they might be assured of his stability of his constancy and perfect resignation to the will of God. They kept him but a few days in the Prison of Nismes the Monks and Ecclesiasticks of that City engaged him in new Combats but 't was with as little success as those that went before They had no intention to put him to death at Nismes because that City was full of Men of the Reformed Religion They feared either some emotion or at least that the beholding the Martyrdom of this young Man and his Constancy should waken the Conscience of a great many People who preserving the truth in their Heart hid it under the veil of Dissimulation They carried him therefore from Nismes to Beaucaire a Village where all the People are of the Roman Religion 'T was there his Process was to be made and he to receive the Crown of Martyâ—dom 'T was there also he was to sustain the most terrible Assaults The Intendent was present who began by Engines of Sweetness and Promises adding thereunto all that which is most terrible in death But to his Promises he answered I love not the world nor the things of the world I esteem all those advantages whereof you speak as dung I tread them under my feet Unto the threatnings of punishment he said My life is not at all dear to me if so be I may finish my course with joy and gain Jesus Christ whatsoever death is prepared for me it will be always glorious if I suffer it for God and for the same cause for the which my Saviour died An incredible company of other people came to see him in the Prison all to the same end and nothing was forgotten of all that which might soften the mind and weaken the firmness of his courage All these means being unsuccessful in conclusion the Intendent proceeded to his condemnation He appeared at the Bar when he was there the Intendent said to him Mr. Rey there is yet time for your preservation Yea my Lord answered he and for that reason I will employ the time that remains in endeavouring my salvation He replyed to him But you must change and you shall have life Yea saith he I must change but 't is to go from this miserable world and go to the Kingdom of Heaven where a happy life attends me which I shall speedily enjoy don 't promise me the present life I am intirely disengaged from it death is much more eligible If I had been afraid of death you had not seen me here God hath caused me to understand his truth and does me the honor to die for it Speak no more to me of the good things of the world they have no savour or taste with me for all the Treasures of the Earth I will not renounce that which I expect in Heaven When the Judges saw him thus firm and stedfast they gave over vexing him about his Religion and proceeded to make his Process He answered to all their Questions with a respect sweetness and moderation which melted all the Auditors When they were ready to pronounce his Sentence they solicited him anew to have pity on himself and not by an unhappy obstinacy sacrifice a Life which was given him to preserve I am no more says he in condition to advise about what I am to do I have made my choice here is no farther place for bargains I am ready to die if God hath so appointed it All the promises which can be made will never be able to shake me nor hinder me from rendering what I owe to my God. Therefore they read his Sentence by which he was condemned to be hanged and put to the Rack before he was led to the Gibbet He heard his Sentence read without any commotion and when it was ended he said They treat me more gently than they treated my Saviour in condemning me to so easie a death I had prepared my self to be broken on the wheel or be burnt And lifting up his eyes to Heaven he added I give thee thanks Lord of Heaven and Earth for all the Blessings that thou hast bestowed upon me I give thee thanks that thou hast found me worthy to suffer for thy Gospel and die for thee I give thee thanks also for that thou hast called me to suffer so easie a death after I had prepared my Heart to suffer the most cruel death for thee In execution of the Sentence he was put upon the Rack he suffered it without any complaint or one word of murmuring answering no other thing but that he had said all and had nothing more to answer And when he was taken from the Rack turning to the Judges he told them I have not suffered the pain which you would have made me suffer I believe that you have suffered more than I I have had no sense of pain I do profess before you 'T is an extraordinary effect of Grace for altho we should not give credit to those relations which tell us that the Rack was so violent that it was believed that he could not have made use of his Legs to go to execution it is nevertheless certain that
life which the Lord hath promised to those that love him I rejoyce in this that our Saviour declares them happy that suffer for Righteousness sake M. I make all my Glory and all my happiness to consist in this that my Saviour has not thought me unworthy to suffer shame for his Name I support my self on the Rock of Ages I put my whole trust in him I expect no succour or assistance but from him alone Upon a Foundation so solid I promise my self that nothing shall be able to shake me at present he makes me feel the effects of a singular goodness in the midst of wicked Passengers which it pleases him that I suffer he makes me to tast the sweetness of true and solid good he fills my soul with that joy unspeakable and glorious which surpasses all understanding he fills me with that hope by which he hath sustained all the happy Confessors of his Truth and by which I hope he will sustain me as well as they My principal study is to disingage my self from Earth to conceive a disgust for the World and an ardent desire for Heaven This Monsieur is my ordinary imployment as far as the infamous place where I am imprisoned will permit it I call it infamous because one never hears an honest word there all rings and sounds again with filthiness and execrable Blasphemies There is such a noise for the most part night and day that I have scarcely found heretofore one happy moment to lift up my Heart to God. I have been so oppressed with sleep that I have oftentimes fell under it before I finished my Prayers when I awake at three or four in the morning I indeavour to sleep no more to the end that whilst we are a little at rost I may with some attention perform my Devotions to God. I have had more liberty for ten or twelve days for when the weather is fair they let the Prisoners go forth and keep them in a Court all the day unless it be six which they keep inclosed I imploy one part of this time in Reading Meditation and Prayer and I take the liberty to sing some Psalms as I have done in all the places of my Captivity and no body hath complained thereof Behold in two words an abridgment of our misery We lie three and fifty of us in a place which is not above five fathom in length and one and a half in breadth There lies on my right side a Countryman sick with his Head at my feet and his Feet at my Head and so it is with others There is not it may be one among us which do not envy the condition of many Dogs and Horses This makes us all wish that the Prisoners may soon depart but that is a secret that must not be told us but as far as we can judge they will depart the next week There were 95 of us yesterday condemned but there dyed two on that day and one on this and we have yet 15 or 16 sick and there be few escape I have had five fits of a Tertian Ague but God bethanked I am very well recovered and prepared to take my Journey to Marseilles We shall take in Burgundy some of our Brethren which are in Prison for the same reason with my self who am the first that have had the honor to be Condemned by the Parliament of Paris There remains no more Monsieur but that I intreat you to continue to me the assistance of your Holy Prayers I desire the same favour of Mademoiselle your Wife whom with your leave I do here assure of my respect Obtain for me if you please the same advantage from those Frenchmen of your acquaintance which God doth admit to your Holy Assemblies Monsieur M arrived yesterday but I have not yet had the honor to see him Not having the liberty to write to my Sister nor my Nephew her Son I must be content here to give them my Salutations I do not write this but in great uncertainty whether it can go hence If your great imployment will permit you to give some Consolation to my Wife and Children as you have made me hope and she expects with a great deal of joy I intreat you do it You may well imagin that our separation will be a thing terrible to us all and above all to her Before I received your Letter I did nor forget in my Prayers those things which you recommended to me I pray God encompass you about with his protection and preserve you many years to labour profitably in his Vineyard Nâ—â—â—mber 1. 1686. The SIXTH PASTORAL LETTER WHAT WAS The Form of Christianity in the second Age. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Soviour Jesus Christ WHereas many things worthy of your Curiosity and proper to nourish your Piety have been communicated to us by many of our Brethren we have been tempted for a few months to communicate them to you at this time But in conclusion we have chosen to satisfie the impatience of those which are willing to see what we have to teach them concerning the Christianity of the second Age. We remit therefore to the following Letters that which we do not do in this and we do promise those that have sent us any Memorials touching our Martyrs and Confessors to enter them afterward in this Work according as we shall find place and occasion therein The second Age of the Church WE must consider first of all the manner wherein they did Celebrate the Sacraments and thereby we shall learn what Opinion they had of them They were Celebrated as yet with great Simplicity in the second Age. Behold that which Justin Martyr says concerning the manner of Administring Baptism We will here Expound after what manner we Dedicate our selves to Jesus Christ fearing lest if we pass over any thing concerning it we should be suspected of malignity and dissimulation All those therefore which are persuaded of the truth of our Doctrine and promise to live according to our Rules and Laws are commanded to Pray to Fast and beg the forgiveness of their sins and we Pray and Fast with them After that we lead them to a place where there is Water and we Regenerate them after the same manner which we our selves were Regenerated for we Wash or Baptise them in the Name of the Author of all things of the Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit Hitherunto we see nothing changed from the Apostolick Form. There is neither sign of the Cross nor Exorcism nor Salt nor Spittle nor nothing of that which is at this day practised in Baptism Behold after what manner the Mystery of the Eucharist was Celebrated in the same Age according to the Testimony of the same Author and in the same place After says he we have Baptised after the same manner him that doth believe we conduct him to the place where are those Believers
neither in the Apostolick Church 3. They undertook a custom of bringing Offerings and Alms not in Silver but in Merchandize Bread Wine Corn Raisins Fruits c. And of that they offered on the Holy Table those things which might be of use in the publick Service whereas in the Apostolick Church we see no other Alms but such as were gathered by the Hands of the Deacons either at the end or beginning of their Assemblies 4. Of these Alms of the Believers they made Oblations to God consecrating them by Prayer 5. At the end of their Prayers before the Communion they added the mutual kiss which was not of Apostolick Institution and was afterwards abolished 6. Many persons entertained an opinion of the separate state for Souls after death a third place which was utterly unknown to the Apostles 7. They conceive an excessive Love for the Bones of the Martyrs nevertheless without giving them any kind of Worship or Religious Homage This excessive love for Bones was not reasonable nor was it of the Apostolick Age. 8. About the end of the second Age they appointed Feasts to celebrate the memories of the Martyrs which was not neither of Apostolick Institution 9. They appointed a day or two for Fasting before Easter Behold the principal Innovations in the second Age in which there is nothing almost that can be blamed considered in it self and separated from the Fruits and Consequences thereof To conclude to the end that you be not abused by false Authors you ought to know that we entertain none for the Writers of the second Age but these S. Clement the Disciple of S. Paul who writ an Epistle to the Corinthians S. Ignatius of whom we have many Epistles concerning which the Learned doubt with reason but we will nevertheless receive them in the present Affair S. Polycarp who wrote an Epistle to the Philippians the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of S. Polycarp Justin Martyr whose Works ought to be distinguished for there are many among them which are falsly attributed unto him Athanagoras the Athenian of whom we have an Apology for the Christians and a Discourse concerning the Resurrection Theophilus of Antioch of whom we have three Books written to Autolycus Tatian of whom we have a Discourse in Defence of the Christian Religion and against that of the Pagans And in fine S. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons of whom we have a considerable Work against the Heresies of his Times If they quote unto you the Liturgies of S. Mark of S. James of S. Peter the Works of Dionysius the Areopagite the Canons of the Apostles and other like Discourses you ought to reject them as being false and forged in the opinion of all the Learned who have any thing of sincerity November 15 1686. THE SEVENTH PASTORAL LETTER CONCERNING Songs and Voices which were heard in several places in the Air. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ IN the last of our Letters we engaged our selves to communicate unto you certain notable matters of Fact which some of our Brethren have thought adviseable to impart unto us Amongst these matters of Fact I do not think there 's any one that better deserves to be examined than that which hath been reported to us That in many places where there have been formerly Churches Voices have been heard in the Air so perfectly like to our singing of Psalms that they could not be taken for any thing else If this be true 't is a wonder which very well deserves the labor of our attention We shall think our selves very ungrateful to the Divine Goodness if we should suppress so illustrious a Testimony of his Approbation He must be bold in this Age that dares speak of Prodigies Marvels Presages and other such like things There are times in which Men believe every thing in this wherein we now are they believe nothing I think there is a mean to be chosen we may not believe every thing but surely something ought to be believed For this Spirit of Incredulity and this Character of a brave Spirit is good for nothing and I have not as yet discovered the use thereof 'T is true Credulity hath destroyed Religion and introduced a thousand Superstitions for these unhappy Tales of Miracles done at the Tombs of Saints these Apparitions of Souls these pretended Visions of Spirits that come from the other World these say I have produced the Invocation of Saints the Adoration of Images Purgatory Masses the Prayers of the living for the dead For which reason I am content that Men stand upon their Guard when any thing is debated and reported concerning wonderful and pious Histories The generality of those which are called honest Men are come so far from thence that they have cast themselves on the other extreme and believe nothing 'T is to expose a Man's self and to be turned into Ridicule to maintain that there have been Miracles and that there may yet be they mock at Presages and have no Faith for that which they call Prodigies Nevertheless whither goes this and what will be the Issue of it 'T is to deny Providence 't is to make our selves believe God does not intermeddle in the Affairs here below and to ruine all the Principles of human Faith and by consequence to cast our selves on a perfect Scepticism which is peradventure a disposition of mind the most dangerous to Religion of any in the World. By doubting all matters of Fact which have any appearance of extraordinary they tell us they have no intention to extend it any farther than the History of the World. But we don't perceive that we insensibly entertain a habit of doubting which extends it self to every thing There is a God we all consent thereto There is a Providence we all profess and avow it Nothing comes to pass without him Is it possible that God should so hide himself behind his Creatures and under the veil of second Causes that he should never at any time tho never so little draw aside the Curtain If we have taken a resolution to deny the truth of all extraordinary matters of Fact what shall we do with History both sacred and profane Can we persuade our selves that the Historians of all Ages intended to deceive us by making us believe that the great Revolutions which have happened in the Societies of Men and the Church have been preceded by extraordinary Events such as Earthquakes Signs in Heaven and Prodigies on Earth They will say the most part of these Histories are Fables it may be so but if the most part be Fables there have been some which have been true If there had never been any true Prodigies they would not have reported those that were false for falshood is an imitation of Truth He must have a hardness and impudence that I understand not that can put all Historians in one rank and range them all together
amongst Forgers of Lies I admire the agreement of those Writers which lived two or three thousand years from one another who nevertheless have all conspired to deceive us according to our Moderns and there is neither Sorcerers nor Magicians nor Possessions nor Apparitions of Demons nor any thing like it 'T is much that these Gentlemen have not pushed on their confidence even to deny the truth of matters of Fact contained in the Scriptures which would be very convenient for them In the times that the Sacred Writers writ their Books there were all these things and where do we find that they ought to cease and that a time was to come in which Devils should no more deceive Men and in which he Heaven should speak no more Prodigies Because Historians have not been infallible must we believe they have been all Liars and in all things Can a Man for example honestly call in doubt the prodigies which Josephus reports to us as coming to pass a little before the final ruin of Jerusalem A Man walked round the City and its Walls perpetually crying Wo wo to the Temple City c. and in fine during the Siege as he was upon the Wall he added Wo to me aso that which he never did before and in the very moment a great stone coming from the Engines of the Besiegers knock'd him on the Brest and brake him in pieces A Sword of Fire passed over the City Jerusalem for a whole year together from East to West A Voice was heard in the Temple which said Let us go hence A brazen Gate in the Temple which eighteen or twenty Men could scarce open opened of it self It must be that Josephus had a design to prostitute his Reputation reporting such matters of Fact the falseness whereof he might be convinced of by a thousand Witnesses yet living if they were not true The Saviour of the World was willing to honor some mute presages altho he might well have passed them by since he had so many living Testimonies on his behalf 't was his pleasure that the Heavens should produce a new Star at his Birth or at least that the Air should produce a new Meteor that deserved that name And what shall we say of that great Miracle which was at the Pool of Bethesda where an Angel descended troubled the Waters and the first sick person that went into them after the action of the Angel was healed This marvel was not ancient and without doubt it had not continued long 'T is clear that this was done about the time that our Lord arrived at the age of thirty years and entered upon the Office of Mediator and 't was an admirable presage of the coming of him who is called A fountain opened to the house of Jacob for sin and for uncleanness whose Water that is to say whose Grace was to heal and cure all our Maladies I could bring you an infinite number of matters of Fact very well attested that is to say Visions Prophetick Dreams Signs seen in the Air and in the Heavens which have been Presages of Events little less considerable than those we see at present 'T is true that under color of Signs and Marvels an hundred and an hundred Fables have passed current in the World but all that we ought to conclude thence is that every wise Man will have great Securities before he will believe As soon as any event may have natural Causes it signifies nothing according to these Gentlemen as if God was not at all the Master of natural Causes and could not dispose them for the production of certain Effects when he would presage great Revolutions in the World. It seems to me that Earthquakes have their natural Causes and so have Famines Pestilences and Wars nevertheless Jesus Christ puts these things among those things which are to presage his coming Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom there shall be famines earthquakes and pestilences in divers countries And why may we not interpret that which he adds of Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and of Signs which are seen in Heaven The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from Heaven and the powers of Heaven shall be shaken 'T is believed that this is a Description of what shall be at the last Day of Judgment but if this were a place for it I could prove that it is no such thing Not that I am persuaded all Eclipses and all Earthquakes are Presages but there are such Circumstances of time and place and concomitant Signs that a Man cannot as I think without rashness deny that the Providence of God doth dispense them to strike the minds of Men with astonishment and make them attentive to his Judgments What shall we say concerning the Bow in the Heavens It is made without doubt by natural Causes Nevertheless it has been the pleasure of God in all Ages of the World that it should be a Sign by Institution to assure Mankind that there should never be an universal Deluge upon the earth God granted to Gideon a Sign in Nature to assure him of the truth of his Mission Ezekias received one in the Sun at least in the shadow of the Sun on the Dial of Ahaz as a Sign of his restauration to life we may not therefore imagine that 't is contrary to the order of Providence to do extraordinary things in nature for the marking and noting extraordinary events in the World. Let us conclude therefore that the Credulity of our Ancestors hath caused many mischievous Tales to be received as faithful Histories but also that it hath been the cause that very faithful Histories do at this day pass for false Tales I could not refuse this little Prologue to the Year wherein we are presently to engage as abundant in Prodigies as any has been for a long time for on all sides we have heard speak of nothing but extraordinary Storms Fires falling from Heaven others coming out of the Earth of Signs speaking loud which have appeared in the Air of Insects of an unknown shape which have been believed to have fallen from Heaven The Writers of publick News have not been able to forbear remarking them and making their Reflections thereon I believe 't is the interest of the publick to make evident all these Events and there lies an Obligation on those that desire to fear God to give a very exact Relation concerning all these Prodigies if they intend to learn us any thing concerning them we intreat them that it be not on Reports and Hear-says yea that it be not on the report of persons whose fidelity is not very well known for we have no design to deceive either our selves or others this will be known by the manner wherein we shall report a matter of Fact that is to say the singing of Psalms in the Air which has been heard in divers places It is near a year since that
Church did not as yet receive the Canons thereof So that frankly and openly 't is to scoff Men to call them General Councils in the sense which is given to the Word at this day 'T is true that these first Councils called themselves so but why and in what sense It was according to the Stile which was then in use The Roman Empire was then called Orbis the World Universal the Greeks called it Oikoumene the habitable part of the Earth the Emperors thereof were called the Universal Emperors the Vanity of the Emperors occasioned this the great ones always blow up their Titles The extent of the Roman Empire was great indeed but as if they had been Masters of the whole Earth they caused themselves to be called Masters of the World Universal A General Council in this sense signifies no more than a Council assembled from all parts of the Roman Empire 5. I intreat you to give attention to that which is necessary according to these Gentlemen to make a Council Oecumenical Is it necessary that there be Bishops from all parts of the Church by no means for then the Council of Constantinople were not Oecumenick The Pope was not there either by himself or his Legates and it is not known that there was any of the Western Bishops there Nevertheless 't is Oecumenick but why because that all the Church consented to it at last for its Canons were not received at Rome more than two hundred years after The Church Universal say I hath approved it not by Subscriptions and a formal Consent but by a Consent which they call tacit and implicite and this is indeed the Opinion of the Doctors of France That to make a Council Oecumenick 't is enough that it be afterward approved That is the reason why the Canons of the Council of Antioch which is generally believed to have been an Arrian Council are at this day seen in the Code of the Universal Church That is the reason why many men are willing the Council of Sardis should be Oecumenical 'T is because though there were none but Western Bishops there yet the most part of the Bishops of the East subscribed it afterwards Now I intreat you observe the Absurdity which I am about to make you sensible of Behold a Council for example the first Oecumenical of Constantinople which in its form is but a particular Council and by consequence cannot be Infallible nevertheless because God foresaw that the Council would be approved by all the Church he presides there by a Spirit of Infallibility against all the Rules which he hath establish'd for his own Conduct with respect to Councils So that when God foresees that a Council which is particular in its Composition will one day be accounted Oecumenical because of a consent that will be given to it either by Subscriptions sent and separately made or by a tacit consent he there pours out a Spirit of Infallibility But if he foresees that this Synod will be neglected as a particular Synod he lets it pass for as much as 't is worth and doth not make it Infallible Is not this to play with the Spirit of God and the Reason of Men Who sees not by this example that the Character of an Oecumenical Council doth in no wise depend upon a Spirit of Infallibility which presides there but on the consent of men which persuade themselves right or wrong that such an Assembly hath happily hit on the truth 6. I pray judge whether it be probable that these Assemblies called Oecumenical were infallible Judges of Controversies without knowing it At this day when the Pope assembles an Oecumenical Council this Council believes it self to be Infallible it acts and speaks as such Let them demonstrate to us this Character in the first Councils let them shew us that they acted as infallible and that they spoke as such If I should make a Book whereas I am only making a Letter I could shew you a hundred circumstances of these ancient Councils which will make it evident that this Dream never crept into the minds of any of the Members of those Assemblies that they were there as Infallible Judges But in this case 't is not we that are obliged to prove 't is the Papists for they are those which do affirm Press them say I about it and ask them their Proofs that the Ancient Councils believed themselves Infallible Go farther and ask them Whether it be possible that these Councils should be Infallible and that not one of the Divines of those Ages should doubt of it and that in their Disputes with Hereticks they should make no use of this Authority St. Hilary St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Athanasius had great Disputes against the Arrians but they never thought fit to oppose unto them the Authority of the Council of Nice as Infallible Where were their Wits Why did they not tell them God hath promised That when two or three are gathered together in his name he will be in the midst of them 'T is a Promise of Infallibility belonging to General Councils The Council of Nice was assembled in the Name of God held in all its forms and assembled from the whole Church it is therefore Infallible and by consequence you are obstinate not to submit unto it Thus they reason against us and 't is thus that men ought to reason naturally when they are of the Opinion and Principles of Popery We do not see one word of this in the Authors of the fourth and fifth Ages On the contrary St. Austin tells the Arrians Let us lay by the Council of Nice on my part and the Council of Ariminum on your part and let us dispute from the Scripture * Cont. Maxim. lib. 3. cap. 14. confessing the one and the other of these Assemblies might err although it be very certain that the Council of Nice did not actually do so 'T is as if I should say to a Mahometan Let us lay by my H. Scripture and your Alcoran as supposing it possible that both the one and other of them may be false It must be granted that I were wicked or a fool to speak thus if it were not upon those Suppositions which are called false and whereof we sometimes serve our selves to draw an Adversary to an absurdity Behold then a Prodigy which passes all imagination the Christians had among themselves infallible Judges and knew nothing of it but behold much more St. Austin not only knew not that he had right to oppose the Authority of the Council of Nice as Infallible to the Arrians but he even confesses to the Donatists that no Authority of Council was supreme and without Appeal The Donatists to prove to him that the Baptism of Hereticks was worth nothing brought him the Testimony of St. Cyprian He answers without ceremony That he acknowledged no Testimony sure and certain but that of the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that as
other Torches there There are also Mr. Guirant and Mr. Martin both of Nismes which are not less Illustrious for their Perseverance and their Piety having never made any Defection from the Faith. Mr. Serre of Montpellier Mr. Guy of Bederieux a Widdow named Madam de Bosc and her Sister Mademoiselle de Cavaille with Mr. Martin also of Mompellier two Sisters of Mr. Anauld Minister of Vaunert are also of this number There are also Gentlemen and Persons of Quality which we will not name unto you until we are perfectly assured thereof Behold a Letter from one of these honest Men which will acquaint you with the disposition of Mind in which they are on the Subject and in the prospect of this new kind of Punishment Feb. 12 th 1687. From Aigue-Mortes from the Tower of Constace I Have thought my dear Mother that before I am removed into another World as they threaten us it is my Duty to inform you of my State and to acquaint you with the true sentiments of my Soul Oh how happy are you and my dear Sisters whom GOD by his infinite Mercy hath preserved so long in your Retirement and preserved from the Snares that have been so often laid for you but more especially in that he hath led you in so miraculous a manner out of this sad and unhappy Kingdom that you may taste his Divine Consolations in Holy Assemblies with all the liberty that can be desired Be never forgetful of Benefits so great if you do desire that GOD should continue his Belssings and Mercies upon you and yours Pray continually for the Liberty of Zion for all our poor Brethren that have unhappily fallen and for the Prisoners of Jesus Christ. You have begun gloriously but all that is nothing if you don't persevere to the end therefore give up yourselves to Divine Providence and be assured that God will give you all that is necessary in this life and that which is to come if so be you offer unto him that acceptable Sacrifice of your Goods your Families and even of your Lives Never turn your face back again through Trouble and regret for what you have forsaken don 't do as the Wife of Lot least you partake in the same Punishment I do acknowledge that there is need of extraordinary Endeavours and very great Grace to surmount our Natural Affections and that Tenderness and Natural Compassion which does so strongly bind us to eath other but when the Glory of God and our own Salvation is discoursed on we ought not to stagger one moment from following our Duty for he which loves Fathor or Mother Husband Wife or Children more than his Saviour is not worthy to be called his Disciple Wherefore my dear Mother and Sisters make appear to your last breath the difference you make between Earth and Heaven betwixt the perfect love which we have for our Divine Redeemer and that which we have for the things of the World and let us assure ourselves of his Protection and Favour if we persevere to the end The death of my Father hath extreamly edified and comforted me his Patience and Perseverance hath given a joyful and certain Assurance of his Happiness that 't is so far from afflicting me that I desire to be dissolved as he is to be with Christ Jesus which is much better I reserve my Tears for the sad and deplorable State of the Church and for the fatal hard-hartedness of my poor Brethren for whom I pray unto God night and day that he would cause them to return from their wandrings and shew them Mercy and Grace This is that true Affliction which eats up my Soul and sadly overwhelms my Spirit for my own part I was never more content and at rest than I find myself at present So that after having exactly considered the World and all its Vanities I esteem with St. Paul that all things duely reckoned the Sufferings of the present World are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be Revealed So that my dear Mother I am fully resolved to do my Duty even to my last moment They have already conducted to Marseille a hundred Prisoners and the seventeenth of this Month we being Seventy in number departed from Montpellier thither They have brought from Sommieres twenty four Maids or Wives and to morrow they bring forty more from thence 't is the general Randevouze I know not what will be the eevent of all this nevertheless all are perfectly resolved for this long Voyage Monsieur de Cross is always here who is shortly to be embarqued with his own Daughters and four of Monsieur Audemard's who never changed their Religion Whatever be our fate we shall always be under the Eyes of God and his Protection Pray for us as we do for you and let all our Friends and all your Churches redouble their Prayers for those poor unhappy Persons which are carried away it may be to the Shambles God be with you my dear Mother and dear Sisters be assured that I shall be Faithful to my God to my last breath in whatsoever place I shall remain This last kind of Punishment has stricken men with more horrour than all the preceding whilst persons remain in their Country they endure the labours of flight the uneasiness of sojourning in Woods Famine Thirst Prison and the Gallies in some hopes of change and alterations but to see their Entrails torn from their bosoms the half of ones self a Wife a Husband Children unmercifully forced into another World exposed to the rage of the Sea to the dangers of a long Voiage and at the end of all to a cruel Slavery upon barbarous or unknown Shores where they live without any Communion which those that are their own without Consolation in the Rigours of a very calamitous Servitude This is the new kind of Punishment say I which puts the Patience of the most Confirmed to a period But nothing does more discover the temper of the Devil of Persecution It does not suffice to lay waste the Kingdom after a hundred manners to put to flight an infinite number of Men and to make Wildernesses of Countries heretofore well Peopled they will Depopulate the State and Transport the best of its Inhabitants into barbarous Countries Poor Slaves remember that God is every-where and that the Gates of Heaven are open in all places Be you perswaded that Canada will rejoyce to see your Constancy and that the Voice of your Confession will pass the Seas and come even to us but above all that it will pierce the Heavens and arrive even at the Throne of God where you will find favour and it may be your Enemies will find displeasure and wrath for the Voice of your Suffering will sollicite Divine Vengeance and hasten their Punishment the Lord have pitty on them and convert them they ought to be the Objects of our Compassion rather than those of our Wrath. Whilst they emptie the Cittadels on one side they
in these Countries they know GOD no better and it may be a great deal worse than in Turky The sacred Histories are utterly unknown to them they know nothing of Christianity but what we find thereof in their Catechism mingled and confounded with the Errours and Superstitions of Popery Instead of the true Gospel what do they preach in those places that are under the Dominion of Popery And what have they preacht in the times when it did Rule and prevail without contradiction They did there preach 1. Corrupt Morality according to which a man might commit Murder to save a Crown to defend his Honour and secure himself from some small Affront according to which a man might Rob when a person did not think himself sufficiently recompensed for his labours according to which a man might exercise Usury and infamous Monopolies according to which a man might keep Concubines and abandon himself to Sodomy without mortal Sin according to which a man might Lye by Equivocation and mental Reservations according to which he might live all his life without the Fear of God without performing one act of Contrition or the Love of God to his death and he might be Dispensed with that at the point of death provided he exercised an act of the fear of Hell when he receives the Sacrament of Penance Popery hath produced this detestable Morality it hath taught it where it could inspired it into private persons and suffered it where it durst not teach it For Holy History instead of the pious and sacred Histories of the Scripture which might turn mens minds towards Devotion they entertain the people with Fabulous Legends Instead of speaking to them of the Miracles and Greatness of Jesus Christ they speak of the Greatness of the Virgin they say that she was conceied without sin that her Father and her Mother had been advertised of her Birth by an Angel that at her Birth the Angels assembled together and formed a Quire and Consort in the Air that this Celebration of the Birth of the Holy Virgin is repeated every year on the same day that many Saints have heard them in the Air that this Holy Virgin was bred and brought up in the Temple and in the most holy Place called the Sanctuary that when she conceived Jesus Christ it was by three drops of her Bloud which the holy Spirit took from her heart that after she had lived most holily she died in the presence of all the Apostles whom the Holy Spirit brought in the Air from all parts of the World whither they were gone to preach the Gospel that three days after she rose again and was carried up into Heaven with charming Musick made by the Voices of Jesus Christ and the Angels and that she was set very near to Jesus Christ above all the Seraphims After the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven they made her do a thousand and a thousand ridiculous Miracles upon Earth sometimes she appeared to a Monk sometimes to a Pilgrim sometimes to some one of her devoted Servants she kisses them she makes them kiss her she opens her bosom to them she gives them suck from her breasts she appoints them to build a Chappel to her in such a place and that they should perform such or such Devotions to her she fixes herself in certain places and there makes her choice to dwell and do Miracles All those which come thither for Sickness Blindness Palsie loss of Bloud Deafness loss of Members return thence safe and sound when one of her Houses formerly frequented ceased to be so she transported it beyond the Seas and fixed it in another Country to draw thither new Servants to her Devotion she forgets nothing that may favour those which serve her In one Convent she takes the place office and figure of a debauched Nun which ran to the places of Prostitution because this Nun when she was going did devoutly commit the Convent into her hand In another place because an Abbess did most devoutly commend herself to her when she had polluted herself with her Domesticks she delivered her in private of her great Belly and restored her Virginity in such sort that those who had accused her remained ashamed and confounded Instead of entertaining the people with the Miracles and Vertues of true Saints as were the Apostles to oblige them to an imitation of them Popery hath substituted unto them new Saints which were Fools and wicked Fools too St. Francis St. Dominick St. Hyacinth St. Vincent Ferrerius or imaginary Saints as St. Christopher and the eleven thousand Virgins or modern and unknown Saints such as St. Milorus St. Alldem St. Colganus and a thousand others To which they attribute ridiculous and impertinent actions for Vertues and such sottishnesses for Miracles as are unworthy of those little Demons called Hobgoblins One to testifie his Humility made himself to be tossed in a Sieve by little Children another to draw upon himself contempt counterfeited the Fool and the Ideot another fouled the Bed of his Host that he might be despised of him another kept company with Beasts Wolves and Swallows another preached to Fishes or Birds another stripped himself naked and in that condition exposed himself to publick view another made himself Women of Snow and embraced them to cool and extinguish his Lust another through great Mortification lay with the fairest Women without touching them another made himself a Bed of Stones and Sticks and crowns of Nails and Girdles of Iron another thrust Thorns into his Body washed his hands in quick Lime and covered his face with an eating Powder which made the flesh thereof one intire Ulcer Behold a small part of the Idea that Popery gives us of the Vertue of its Saints As to Miracles they produce to the people faithful Chronicles as they say by which it appears that some of these Saints for their parts have raised fifty two dead persons another thirty another twelve another six three or four They have healed desperate Diseases raised Dogs Parrots and other Animals from the dead The Water in which they washed their hands cured all sorts of Diseases the clippings of their Hair and the parings of their Nails put into the craks of Walls closed them up again and have made Houses ready to fall firm and strong When these Saints preached to the Birds these Animals reached out their bills and clapt their wings when they preached to the Fishes they gathered together on the top of the Water that they might hear when they pleased they drove away not only evil Spirits which troubled them but also living Creatures which interrupted their Discourse They made Angles serve them not only at Mass but also they used them as Grooms to dress their Horses They caused themselves to be carried by the Devil to places whither they would go they made him hold the Candle till he burnt his fingers therewith if the Devil turned himself into a Cat they put him into such distress that
15 1687. The Twenty Third PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity The Church of the fourth and fifth Ages did not Adore the Sacrament of the Eucharist And Article of Controversie An Answer to the Consequences which are drawn from the perpetual Visibility of the Church Notable Matters of Fact. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to your from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. IN the two preceding Letters you have seen what the Ancients of the fourth and fifth Ages did think on the subject of the Eucharist You have seen that they acknowledge nothing there but Signs and Images of the Body and Bloud of our Lord and that they apprehended no other change there but a change of Grace which made no alteration in the nature of the species of Bread and Wine So the Faith of the Church was not changed therein there remains the Adoration concerning which it is also certain that there hapned no change in the Ages where we are They did not Adore the Sacrament in the three first Ages nor did they Adore it in these Suffer not your selves to be surprised my Brethren by five or six words which they quote to you from St. Ambrose or St. Austine who say That 't is necessary that we Adore the Flesh of Jesus Christ in the Mysteries and that we must not eat the Flesh of Jesus Christ when we have not Adored it We must not search the practice of an Age in rambling and extravagant Expressions as these are 'T is in History and in matters of Fact. There is not a person among us that does not acknowledge that we must Adore Jesus Christ in the participation of the Mysteries that is not the thing whereof we dispute It must be known whether they bowed the Knew before the Sacrament whether they lifted it up before the Communion that it might be Adored now we do maintain that this was not done And I do not know whether your Converters have the boldness to say the contrary at least they have not Ability enough to prove it They dazle your Eyes with a passage of Theodoret who says speaking of the Symbols of Bread and Wine (a) Dialog 2. That we conceive by the understanding that they are what they were made that we believe them and Adore them as being that which we believe them But observe 't is the same place where this Author tells us that which we have mentioned unto you before That the Mystical Symbols do not loose their proper Nature after their Consecration but that they remain in their first Substance their first Figure and their first Form they are visible and palpable as they were before He adds then immediately after the words which are abused to prove the Adoration of the Sacrament 'T is the same Author which hath told us after a very express manner that God in the Sacrament doth not change Nature but add Grace to Nature After this 't is unavoidable that he must have lost his Wits to say that we must Adore Bread and Wine which remain such and which have received no change in their Substance Who doth not see then that the word Adore is here taken for Venerate and in the same sense that we call the Mysteries of Religion Adorable and that we say we must Adore the Conduct of Providence In the sense that St. Isidore of Damietta calls the Gospels (b) Lib. 1. ep 136. Adorable That the Emperors were called (c) Conc. Calced part 1. Adorable by the Councils themselves And that the Table was called the Adorable Altar by the same Councils To conclude Theodoret must be understood as he desires to be understood for 't is he that says in the following Dialogue If the Body of Jesus Christ seems to you vile and of little value Why do you esteem its Figure whereof is Adorable and worthy of Honour can it self be abject and contemptible Behold again the Eucharist which is nothing but a Figure and a Figure opposite to the Body and which by consequence is not the Body But 't is nevertheless an Adorable Figure Judge whether Theodoret were so pitiful a Christian to believe we must Adore a Figure If we would find the practice of the Church in passages like these it were better to search it in passages of St. Austin where this Father says for example (d) Serm. 2. de diversis That that which he Adores is not a thing towards which he could stretch out his Finger and say Behold the God which I Adore Or rather in the place where he says (e) Serm. 74. de diversie Whilst we are in the Body we are absent from the Lord and if any one doubt or deny it and say to us Where is your God we cannot shew him Jesus Christ is always with his Father as to the presence of his Glory and Divinity as to his Corporeal Presence he is now above the Heavens at the right Hand of the Father but he is in all Christians by a presence of Faith. It must be professed that St. Austin is an inconvenient Author for these Transubstantiators we can't make him open his mouth but Thunders proceed from it against the now reigning Heresie and Idolatry It appears here that he neither adored the Sacrament nor lookt upon it as his God for he could not have found any difficulty in answering that question Where is your God It appear also that he had comprehended this admirable corporeal presence of Christ in the Sacrament for he reserves all the corporeal presence of Christ to the Heavens and leaves nothing to Earth but a presence of Faith. This poor man understood his Religion very ill We ought also to give attention to what St. Austin says speaking of sacred Signs that there are some of them subsist after the action as the Brasen Serpent * Lib. 3. de Trinit cap. 10. But others which cease after they have served the use to which they were designed as the Bread which we make expresly to be a sacred sign and is spent in the receiving the Sacrament But because these things being made by men are known to men they may well receive honour and give occasion for admiration as things miraculous What a poor man was this St. Austin and how many oversights in four lines 1. He would not have us worship the Bread we ought only to give it some respect as to a religious thing 2. He would not have us admire the Eucharist as a thing miraculous Of what did he think thus to speak of the greatest Miracle that ever was since the creation of the World Is it not a thing miraculous that the Body of Jesus Christ with all his substance should subsist in a point should be stript of all its Accidents and be in an infinite number of places at once I cannot tell then any more what will be called a thing miraculous 3. He supposes that 't is man that makes this Transubstantiation these things