we must renew in this place There was no regular exercise for preaching in the Walloon Church at the Hague he nevertheless Preach't there now and then with so much edification that in ending his Sermon he excited in the minds of his Auditours a passionate longing to hear him again and it was to gratifie that desire that he resolv'd to Preach on Christmas day the 25th of December 1686. His Son was gone abroad that day he supplied his place the circumstance of the season determin'd him upon the choice of the matter 't was requisite to speak of the Saviour of the Worlds Nativity for that purpose did he chuse these words of the Gospel according to St. Luke Chapter the 1. verse the 30 31 c. And the Angel said unto her fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God and behold thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus he shall be great he shall be call'd the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the House of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end This Sermon was very Learned passages it had of extraordinary perfection his fancy ever fruitfull and happy appear'd as much in this occasion as in any other of his Life It afforded that turn so fine and so natural which he knew how to give to the matters he explain'd flashes there were that did in no wise betray the driness and heaviness of old Age and we may say in short that there was throughout observ'd that grandeur of Spirit which influences all his works that so lively penetration that so wise so judicious a choice which made the ruling Character of that incomparable Genius He utter'd this Sermon with great eagerness was heated and inflamed and in all probability this was the first point of that fatal sickness which bereft the World of him His whole Auditory was charm'd with his action Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange who is no less Illustrious for the vast extent of her understanding and a solid piety and without pomp than through the bloud of so many Kings whence she derives her extraction lissen'd to this Preacher with a most steady application of mind and was extreamly well satisfied with this his performance It were to be wisht that this Sermon was Publish'd Monsieur Claude told us he had writ the greatest part of it I am persuaded his Son wou'd oblige many people if he caused it to be Printed as it is being a fragment that wou'd doe much honour to his Father's memory Monsieur Claude was no sooner at home but that he found himself extraordinary weary he was seiz'd that Evening with a most violent Rhume spent the Night with some uneasiness and on the Morrow would have gone and heard the Sermon whatever endeavours were used by his Family to hinder him from stirring abroad in that condition That Night he had a Fever with pains throughout his whole Body his Distemper was thought to be a Rhumatism upon this principle did they prescribe for his Recovery but the humours were in so very great a ferment that there was no moderating the course of them by any Remedy On the 6th of January he was prest by most sensible pains he was sensible of the decay of his Senses and as if he had had a full knowledge that he shou'd not ever have the liberty of expressing his thoughts he told his Son that he desir'd to speak with me I repair'd immediately to his House and in the presence of his Family he told me his mind in these terms I was desirous said he to me to see you and make my Declaration before you I am added he a miserable sinner before God I most heartily beseech him to shew me mercy for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and I hope he will hear my Prayer being the promise he made to repenting Sinners I have reason to praise him for the blessing he has laid upon my Ministry which has not been fruitless in his Church which is an effect of his grace for which I adore his Providence He took a little breath and it was to tell us that he had with great application examin'd all Religions but had found none worthy of the Wisedom of God and capable to lead a man to true happiness save the Christian Religion He then added that among the divers sentiments which divide Christians upon the Subject of Religion which he had carefully Studied he had found that the Reformed Religion was the onely good Religion which was to be followed that it was entirely found in the word of God that this was the Fountain from whence it was to be deriv'd and that this Religion was as it were the Trunk and Body of the Tree to which it became us to keep steady without ever forsaking it This is my opinion said he to me and I was willing to declare it to you I wou'd have told him that I was not surpriz'd to hear him discourse in these terms towards the end of his days after what he had taught the publick by his Books which had been of so great an Edification to the Church Let us break off there said he to me and let us not speak of praises at a time when moments are so precious and when they ought to be employed to a better use Here we let fall the Conversation for that I perceiv'd his pains prest him and that he askt to be put to Bed. A very worthy person and one of his intimate and ancient Friends wou'd needs pass that Night being Monday the 6th of January in his Chamber that he might do him some small Services His pains were most advantageously rewarded he had the opportunity of hearing him discourse of the happiness of those that had left France for Religion He made the application of it to him he besought him he exhorted him as a Pastour and as a Friend to enjoy that Privilege as a blessing which cannot be sufficiently valued The following days nature seem'd to make an utmost effort to bring him off He complain'd of a great pain in the Arm that was free 't was thought to be a spice of the Gout he was a pretty while in this pain and we in hopes through this new Distemper which in all likelyhood wou'd save his Life But his Strength decaying through the raging of the Fever and the length of the Disease did not help nature in that indication it shew'd us I often saw him and began to despair of his recovery on Friday because I perceiv'd he was threatned with a Delirium which was a thing we most dreaded His Wife askt him if he was not sorry to leave her no answered he because I am going to my God and I leave you in his hands in a free Countrey what can I desire more either for you or for my self On
they should Thou shalt keep therefore his Statutes and his Commandments which I command thee this day that it may go well with thee and with thy Children after thee and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth which the Lord thy God giveth thee for ever To wicked men God often threatens sudden and untimely death that they should die sooner than otherwise they should have done The fear of the Lord prolongeth or as we have it in the Margin addeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned That is they shall not live so long as otherwise they might have done Thus many men shall not live out half their days not half the ordinary time of a man's life Most observable is the instance of King Hezekiah in the 38. Isa to whom the Prophet positively declares Thus saith the Lord set thine house in order for thou shalt die and not live and yet upon his humble Prayer Fifteen years more were added unto his days which otherwise he should not have had From which it plainly appears that by sin and disobedience men may shorten their days and cut off from their lives and by Piety and Vertue men may procure to themselves a longer life and encrease of days Now the length or shortness of our lives depends often upon our own voluntary actions upon our pleasing or displeasing God which cannot agree with that Doctrine of Fate I before mentioned Nor do we need any such opinion against the fear of death because we allow that our life depends upon God's good will and pleasure that no instruments of death no ill practices can prevail against us without his appointment And this is a sufficient foundation of assurance and confidence notwithstanding the frailty and uncertainty of our condition here that the Watchman of Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth that his eye is always upon us for Good that we shall live as long and as well as is really best for us and then who would not be willing to die But Another means our Religion affords us to free us from the fear of death is a deadness to this present world and all the trifling pleasures of it For it is an over fond love and doating upon the things of this world and sensual enjoyments that makes persons so unwilling to die The more our appetites and desires are mortified and subdued the readier we shall be to bid an eternal farewell to all these things below It is no wonder that those who know no other happiness but what is to be found in these lower Regions are loth to be torn from their dear possessions and to venture into a strange Countrey which they have so little knowledge of But by this contempt of the world which our Religion teaches us we forsake it in the love of it even whilst we are living and so our business is better than half done before hand and we are freed from those worldly cloggs and encumbrances that too often hang on our vertue and most raised affections Farther the Consideration of Christ's conquering death for us gives a mighty encouragement against the inordinate fear of death For our blessed Saviour hath tasted death for every man and hath taken away its sting hath quell'd its force and overcome its power insomuch that he is said to have abolished it He hath made a way through death and the grave to his Father's Glory and shall we be afraid like Saint Peter to profess and fellow him wheresoever he goes Our Prince and Redeemer hath voluntarily passed through it and shall it grieve us to follow his steps and to come to him through that passage by which he himself entred into his Kingdom Lastly The hope of salvation is another great means that our Christianity administers to us against this base fear of dying I have read it is an ordinary saying among the Turks that if Christians had a right opinion concerning Heaven they could not be so afraid of death which is the onely way to life And it was reasonably asked by the Philosopher of him that promised that all that were of his Sect should be immediately happy as soon as they were dead why then he did not presently die Do we really believe a future Glory and are we afraid to enter into our Master's joy What are we Christians and yet would we live always here Have we already attain'd all the happiness which we aspire after Can we be contented to know no more of God to enjoy no more of his Glory and to love him no more than we can doe in this imperfect State Are we unwilling to receive that reward which we daily pray for Thou knowest not what thou art capable of what perfection what happiness thy soul shall enjoy freed from this troublesome Tabernacle this luggage of flesh and art thou afraid of being translated into the celestial Kingdom One glimpse of that Glory which our Saviour hath promised to us would make as all long to be with Christ No wonder Saint Paul was so ready to die when he had before hand been rapt up into the third Heaven and had seen and heard things not utterable Did we live in the hopes of the future happiness we shall enjoy we should not value any of the pleasures here below nor fear to undergo any thing that stood in his way between us and those blessed Mansions of happy Souls where dwelleth God and perpetual peace and satisfaction free from all care and disturbance from all fear and anxiety from all pain and danger where onely is to be found perfect contentment eternal joy and immortal happiness If Christians perfectly knew the felicity of the other life they would be impatient of the present they would be hardly able to brook or endure living or any thing that detain'd them from such unspeakable enjoyments Wo unto us therefore that yet dwell in Meshech and are forced to abide in the Tents of Kedar Blessed yea thrice blessed are are all those that have passed this miserable world and are received into the heavenly Mansions for one day there is better than a thousand elsewhere One thing have I desired of the Lord and that will I still seek after that I may live for ever with him and behold his Glory When shall we arrive at that eternal and celestial happiness where we shall have no more of these storms and dangers When shall we pass all fears and cares and grief and troublesome passions Even so saith the Church all true Christians and sincere Believers come Lord Jesus come quickly and deliver us from these crazy bodies and put on us that house that is eternal and in the heavens Is it so pleasant to us to wander to and fro in this wilderness and be tossed up and down upon these troublesome waves And can it be grievous to us to think of arriving at our journey's end How soon would all the grief and pain and uneasiness that accompanies sickness and the very
happy age wherein to spread its darkness He proves so well that these three things have concurr'd in the change of belief upon the subject of the Eucharist that all his reasons are as so many demonstrations against which there is no offering any thing that can weaken the proof of them The Authour of the little Tract of the perpetuity of the Faith of the Catholick Church touching the Eucharist hath acted in this Debate as shrewd men do who have nice concerns to defend in the Courts of Justice for though you produce against them a vast number of Witnesses considerable both for their Worth and their Dignity they plainly perceive that the onely way to Ward off the Blow that wou'd otherwise destroy them is to endeavour to invalidate the proof by reproaches good or bad which robs these witnesses of all Credit and thus you have a vast field open to contempt to foul language and imposture Nay and we have seen such as by a cunning slight suggested to them by their danger endeavour to derive advantage from the testimony that has been urg'd against them however opposite it may be to their Justification and this is much the Character of that Authour Monsieur Claude understood his design very well he trac'd him exactly through all his windings and as it highly behov'd him to maintain the Dignity Integrity and Authority of the testimonies which Messieurs Blondel and Aubertine had produc'd we may affirm that he did it with all the evidence and all the strength that can be desir'd in a disputation of that nature which turn'd much more upon matters of fact than upon questions of right Monsieur Claude having not been able to get the Prohibitions taken off that had been exhibited against his officiating his Pastourship in Nismes or in any other Town of Languedoc departed from Paris after six months abode in that Town and repair'd to Montauban certain it is that he had not then any settlement in his mind as seeing no appearance for it yet did he live much at his ease though he was not altogether unconcern'd at the Troubles he was made to suffer he overcame them by submitting himself with an absolute resignation to the Providence of God and this course of submission to the Decrees of Heaven which is ever the best did not fail to prosper with him he had not the trouble of wishing or of being tyr'd with expectation of seeing his desires accomplish'd the Church of Montauban prevented him and gave him not leasure to solace himself after the hardship of a long Journey he arrived there on the Saturday preach'd on the Sunday following being Communion day The Church assembled for his Vocation a Place was offer'd him he accepted it and the Synod authoris'd the choice of the Church He had serv'd eight years the Church of Nismes when he setled in that of Montauban where he staid but four years but with so much delight that I have heard him often say that that time compos'd the sweetest and happiest period of his Life He there liv'd in a perfect Union with his Collegues being cherisht and esteem'd by his Church and being charm'd with the Beauties of that Climate which he look't upon as his second place of Nativity having there perform'd his Studies There did he compose his answer to the second Tract of the perpetuity of the Faith of the Eucharist but did not imagine that the Manuscript he had left at Paris wou'd one day become a subject of Disputation because it was onely made for the instruction of Monsieur de Turenne who declar'd himself to be satisfied with it nevertheless this Work was three years after taken to task and the Authour of the perpetuity of the Faith of the Catholick Church touching the Eucharist made an answer thereunto For a long time not any Book about Religion had been seen in France that made so much noise as this the Authour not onely attackt the ashes of a dead person that are seldom fear'd as he had done in his former Tract which slightly ran over the Book of Monsieur Aubertine he knew he had to doe with another Authour who was not to be slighted which inspir'd him with a design of writing after a more sinewey and more elaborate manner Whether the event prov'd answerable to his good intentions is a point which I leave the Readers to judge of it onely appears as to me that Monsieur Claude was not of that opinion and that if he found more art in the second Tract than in the former more wit and more care to conceal the weakness of the matter which the Authour therein defends yet did he not therein observe the more solidity He saw in it somewhat less sincerity and eruptions of mind against persons of merit and probity to whom the publick has not done the same Justice as this Authour To remain mute when the whole Kingdom speaks such silence seem'd affected to Monsieur Claude the Roman Catholicks said openly that this last Book made their cause triumph and that it would not be answer'd the Protestants did not speak with so much arrogance though they had much greater confidence being necessitated to curb their sentiments when they were treated with ill Language and to make semblance of fearing Books that did not perplex them much at the bottom and this piece was of that rank Monsieur Claude ventur'd the repose of his Life by answering it the event did but too well justifie him he nevertheless determin'd to maintain his first Tract by refuting the Book which made so much noise at that time and this is the piece bearing the Title of an answer to the second Tract of the perpetuity of the Faith of the Eucharist this work is of a much larger bulk than the former though it turns much upon the same principles it was necessary to be more particular in Citations in the choice of proofs in the order and light wherein they were to be set and the consequences that are to be thence derived and this course is perhaps what is most difficult in a disputation of the nature of this under our consideration Monsieur Claude knew it very well and on that account did he contrive a method painfull for himself but easie and usefull for his Readers he onely took what was most essential in the passages of the Fathers and which was serviceable to his Subject he says not too much for fear of wearying out attention he says sufficient to illustrate his matter the Arguments he brings upon these testimonies are short but persuasive whether that he backs his own cause or attacks that of the Church of Rome and because it is a subject containing ungratefull matter by reason of the same expressions of the Ancients which are often reiterated in this kind of conflict Monsieur Claude thought fitting to enliven his matter with a gayety of discourse yet without deviating from the Character of a wise and Majestick Writer The Authour of the Treatise
the power of these Gentlemen extended in this case yet did he not fail as much as in him lay of crossing the design of the Clergy of France in writing against the Circular Letters that came from that Assembly which were spread abroad under the authority of its name He imagin'd that he ow'd the Sacrifice he made them of his rest to his own Conscience and to the Salvation of his Brethren for things were then in such a posture that the bare thought of maintaining our cause was in the opinion of those Gentlemen deem'd a kind of Felony as Monsieur Claude has publickly shewn when he explains the result of that expression whatever you may say or write 't is all in vain these are the terms of their Letter Monsieur Claude does not put his Name to that little Book intitled Considerations upon the circular Letters of the Assembly of the Clergy of France of the year 1682 because this piece had other Characters enough of its Authour and that Christian prudence does not oblige us to expose our selves when there is no motive of Conscience that calls us thereunto The perusal of those reflexions is not long and to it must I refer the Curious Possibly Monsieur Claude never composed any work that has done him more honour than this as small as it is he does not deviate from the terms of a profound respect when he reflects upon the temporal grandeur of those he speaks of and to whom he thinks this submission owing But after this he takes upon him a true air of greatness proceeding from the Majesty of the matter he handles insomuch that we see him march as an equal with those against whom he disputes upbraiding them with their affected mildness undermining the Foundations of an absolute Authority which they exercise over Souls and declaring to them roundly that he onely took Pen in hand to give a reason of his Faith not that he does herein own them for his Masters but to render the sentiments of the Protestants publick and the reason he alledges for it is that Religion and Conscience onely depend immediately on God. Some time after these circular Letters of the Clergy of France were notified after somewhat an extraordinary manner through all the Protestant Churches in the Kingdom The Intendents of the Provinces had order to convene the Consistories for the reading of them they had commonly among others the Prelates great Vicar in whose Diocese the Commission was perform'd As this was a case wholly new and whose influences created apprehensions our Churches waited to see what the conduct of Charenton wou'd be in this matter that so they might direct their own course by its Compass this course sped according to their desire those of the Consistory of Charenton were the first that were spoke to Monsieur Claude was chosen to answer he did it with great Prudence and steadiness and his answer serv'd for a model to most of the other Churches who were very glad to walk in the steps of so able a guide This answer was Printed 't is conceiv'd in few words but full of sense Monsieur Claude owns the august Character with which Monsieur the Intendent was invested and for which he declares that he and his Church have a profound respect he therein protests that it was from this onely Fountain of submission that proceeded the application they had used in the reading of a piece that had otherwise nothing but what was afflicting for our Churches he farther owns the mighty Station which my Lords the Prelates stand possest of in the Kingdom by the dignity of their Offices and that they thereby challenge our respects but that if they pretended to speak to us in those Letters as from off an Ecclesiastical tribunal he was bound in Conscience to declare to them that on that side we do not at all acknowledge their Authority Matters in Religion had their mode in France like other things that of Grace had for a long while possest peoples minds Monsieur Claude's dispute against Monsieur Arnaud occasion'd the sentiments of grace to be little talk't of The two parties wrote as if they had onely differ'd upon the single article of the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord's supper This battery had no sooner ceased but that they erected that of the Authority of the Church and this seems to be what made the most noise and on which they most insisted as seeming to those Gentlemen of a more efficacious use for conversion than all the rest together During these mighty Disputes there was another kind of calmer Writers who made Christian morals their business and who ever and anon gave the publick little pieces which it greedily receiv'd as finding therein wherewithall to recreate it self from that great application which was necessary to be had for other the more lofty questions of Divinity Monsieur Claude knowing that a man of his profession ought to doe all things for all in order to the Salvation of Souls took the resolution of writing upon a Subject of Morality and composed a little Book whose Title is the examination of ones self for the being duly prepar'd for the Communion the first of the Corinthians Chapter the 11th Verse 28. This is a Tract wherein man sees himself such as he is in a faithfull mirrour Monsieur Claude does herein make appear that he throughly knew the heart of man no feeble is there but he has penetrated he follows him in all the windings he uses to conceal himself from God the World and himself he takes off that Mask shews his Nakedness his Misery conducts him to our Lord Jesus Christ as to his sovereign good In the Gospel does he take the Lessons which ought to serve to illustrate and inflame him he turns all these instructions to the use of the holy Supper Monsieur Claude does farther shew that he perfectly knew the World as an able Physician knows Poisons that is to say with no other design but to oppose their qualities These are no outragious Morals like many others they are Just yet have their severities but withall they are ever conformable to the state of man upon Earth and to his Duty and this is what renders them sensible to all the World Whereas there are those that often vend us precepts of morality so above our reach that they make no impressions upon our hearts because our hearts do not find in those pourtraits one single Character that suits with them This little Book met with a very gratious reception from all sorts of persons and indeed it must needs have a most extraordinary privilege of goodness since it carries in its front a licence of a famous Magistrate of Paris of the 7th of November 1681. Monsieur Claude's Writings made so much noise in foreign Countries and especially amongst Protestants that Groninguen caused a Professours place in Divinity to be offer'd him in its illustrious University and