be found in the Roman Church who durst prove against them as did Tertullian against Marcion that the Sacrament of the Eucharist is the Figure of Christs Body and that consequently Christ was not a Ghost On the contrary a Protestant would be able to bring against those Heresies the same Arguments which the first Christians used and he would be warranted therein by all his Church From whence comes that difference if not from that that a Protestant believes nothing concerning the Sacrament but what they believed in the Primitive Church whereas a Divine of the Church of Rome acknowledges several articlesof Faith which were unknown among the First Christians and which consequently are the cause he cannot speak the same Language nor use the same Arguments they used These two Reasons seemed to me so much the stronger because I looked upon them not as the opinion of a single man who may be deceived or some place of a Book which may be corrupted and drawn into an ill sense but I looked upon these Reasons as the Reasons of all the Church and publick Weapons both of Learned Men and of the People to fight the Heathens and the Hereticks with all III. Third Proof drawn out of the manner whereafter the Fathers were wont to speak of this Holy Sacrament THat which confirmed me that in the Primitive Church they did not believe the Real Presence with Transubstantiation was the manner wherewith the Fathers both Greek and Latin were wont to speak of those Mysteries Theodoret (a) In 55 Quaestiosuper genesim says It is an extreme foclishness and extravagancy to Worship what one Eats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same in (b) Dialog 1. Intitled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another place The LORD says he did the honour to the visible Signs to call them his BLOOD and his BODY not having changed their Nature but having added Grace to Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is there any appearance that the Fathers believed what the Council of Trent teaches A Divine of the Church of Rome who should say that it is an extreme extravagancy to Worship what one Eats That Christ hath not changed the Nature of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament would he not presently be sent to the Inquisition and condemned as an Heretick to be burnt a live The Eucharist say the Fathers of the Church (a) Cyprian de Caena cap. 6. is a visible Sacrament whereupon the Divine Essence imparts it self after an unutterable manner It (b) Idem cap. 2. is an Holy Nutriment capable of rendering us Immortal which is very much different from the ordinary Nutriments we are daily fed withal It keeps indeed the kind of a corporeal substance but it makes known by an invisible efficacy that it possesses the Presence of a Divine Vertue (c) Hilary de Trinit lib. 8. we are in Christ by his corporeal Birth and he is in us by the Mysteries of his Sacraments (d) August cap. 12. cont Adimant The Lord did not doubt to say this is my Body when he gave the Sign of his Body He (a) Idem in Psal 3. permitted Judas to be present at the Banquet wherein he committed and gave to his Disciples the Figure of his Body and Blood If a Roman Author should use these expressions which the Holy Fathers used would not a Bishop of the Roman Church zealous for the Interests of the Council of Trent say to him Sir 't is not enough to say with Cyprian tha tthe Divine Essence imparts it self in the Eucharist after an unutterable manner the Hereticks say all that You must say furthermore the Body and Soul of Christ are there really in the room of the substance of Bread 'T is not enough to say the Eucharist is an Holy Nutriment of a Divine Vertue the Hereticks do confess all that You must say moreover it contains the Real Presence of Christs Body and Blood 'T is not enough to say that Christ is in us by the Mysteries of his Sacraments the Hereticks do believe the same thing but you must say he is in us really his Body his Soul his Divinity In fine you must have a very great care of saying the Sacrament is the Sign and the Figure of Christ's Body and Blood as St. Austin said you must say to the contrary that it is not the Figure of Christ's Body and Blood you must say that it is Christ's own Body and Blood into which the Bread and Wine of the Lord's Supper is Transubstantiated Certainly this Bishop would speak well according to the belief of the new Roman Church but he would be far from the Doctrin of the holy Fathers He would forsake the Faith of the Primitive Church he would bring forth propositions of which the first Christians have been wholly ignorant he would even condemn the Belief of 330 Bishops of a general Council held at Constantinople in the year 754. for those 330 Bishops condemning as Idolatry the Worshiping of Images among the Reasons they brought did exhort the People to be contented with the Images that Christ has instituted giving in the Holy Sacrament Bread and Wine as Images and Figures of his own Body and Blood and speaking of the Bread of the Eucharist Behold there is said those Fathers the Image of his life-giving Body and a little after The Lord say they has commanded us to put upon the Table this Image especially chosen to wit the substance of Bread least Idolatry should slip in among the Christians if he had been represented under an Human Figure IV. Fourth Proof drawn out of the Novelty of the Doctrin teaching Transubstantiation ALl those Reasons perswaded me not only that the belief of the Real Presence with Transubstantiation was not the belief of the Primitive Church but furthermore that they were Articles of Faith newly devised And I knew afterwards they were no older than the beginning of the thirteenth Age when Pope Innocent the Third in the (a) Scotus in 4. Sent. dist 11. quaest 3. Council of Lateran in the year â—214 set among the Articles of Faith the Belief of Transubstantiation since we see that in the end of the Ninth Age about the Year of our Lord 870. Bertram or John Scot one of the most learned Men of that time wrote a Book by the command of Charles the Bauld King of France touching the question of the Eucharist wherein he maintains openly the Belief of the Protestant Church since we (a) Biblioteca Patr. de Div. Offi. find a letter of the Emperour Charles Magne to his Teacher Alcuinus wherein these words are to be read Jesus christ supping with his Disciples broke the Bread and gave it to them likewise the Cup in figure of his Body and Blood In fine since even in the Canon of the Mass instead of these words which are to be found there now Ut nobis Corpus Sanguis fiat dilectissimi Filii tui c. That it may become to us
the Body and Blood of thy most well-beloved Son c. These other words were to be read Fac nobis hanc oblationem ascriptam rationabilem acceptabilem quod est Figura Corporis et sanguinis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi which is the Figure of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ All that made me know that to establish the belief of Reallity with Transubstantiation in the Church of Rome there hath been need not only to corrupt the Scriptures and to give them an interpretation which is absurd impossible and ridiculous but moreover to withstand all Antiquity Ch. 2. §. 2. to pervert the Writings of the Holy Fathers even to suborn the Canon of the Mass which afore such monstrous corruption was slipt into the Church was but a certain number of Prayers devout enough and very reasonable Those horrible alterations which I discovered caused me to look with detestation upon the belief of the Roman Church and to mistrust it in every thing SECT II. The Belief of Rome about the Sacrifice of the Mass is contrary to the belief of the Primitive Church I. In what sense it is true to say that the Holy Sacrament is a Sacrifice A Little while after I discovered the consequences and the progressions of the Error and the Falshood of this other Article of the Council of Trent (a) Sess 2.2 cap. 1 2. can 1 2 3. The Mass is a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and for the Dead To explain this Proposition we must suppose with the Scripture that Alms Prayers and Thanksgivings and the rest of our good Works are Eucharistick Sacrifices so the Prophet (b) Cap. 14. v. 3. Hosea calls the Thanks which we give to God The Calves of our Lips So David directs his Prayers unto God saying (c) Psal 141.2 Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my Hands as the Evening Sacrifice So (d) Ad Heb. 13.15 St. Paul following after David says Let us offer the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually that is the fruit of our Lips giving thanks to the Name It is in that sense that all the Christians in the Scripture are called Priests Ye are (e) 1 Pet. 2.9 says St. Peter awchosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the Parises of him who has called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light And St. John in his (f) Rev. 1.6 Revelations He has made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father From whence you see that the Sacrifices of the Christians are Prayers Alms Thanksgivings and good Works and that all the Christians are themselves the Priests who offer them to God In that sense I conceived very well that the Holy Sacrament being the Commemoration of the death of the Son of God was a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving of Praises of bounden Duty and Service as I have learned since more perfectly in the Book of Common-Prayer wherein immediately after having received the Holy Communion we say O Lord and Heavenly Father we thy humble Servants entirely desire thy Fatherly Goodness merceifully to accept this our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving And Although we be unworthy through our manifold Sins to offer unto thee any Sacrifice yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounden duty and service And then I did embrace very willingly the Doctrin I took since out of D. D. H. Hammond his (a) Lib. 4. Sect. 4. Practical Catechism out of Arch-bishop Cranmer his (b) Lib. 5. p. 377. Answer to Bishop Gardner D. Sim. Patrick in his Christian Sacrifice viz. That the Propitiatory Sacrifice had been made by our Lord Jesus Christ only but that the Sacrifice of Commemoration and Thanksgiving is made now by the Minister and the People II. The pretended Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Roman church is contrary to the Scripture THe Doctrine of the Council of Trent touching this Question seemed to me very harsh They must believe that Christ is Immolated every day in the Sacrament that a Roman Priest doth offer the Son of God unto his Father and that he doth offer him as a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead Alas said I is not that to wrong Christ's Priest-hood to give him so many Fellow-Priests and petti-Sacrificers St. Paul (a) Ad Heb. cap. 7.23 Teaches me that the difference betwixt Moses's Law and Christ's consists in this that in the Law of Moses there was need to keep several Priests for as much as being Mortal they were to be Successors one to another but in the Law of Christ our Saviour Jesus Christ who is the Priest himself has no need of a Successor since he is living for ever since he is Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec They truly were many Priests saith he because they were not suffered to continue by reason of Death but this Christ because he continueth for ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood after that who doth not see that the Roman Church which says that her Priests are true Sacrificers and Christ's Successors in his Priesthood wrong Christ our Lord supposing that his Priest-hood has the same Imperfection as that of Moses's Law St. Paul teaches me that the Reason why in Moses's Law they reiterated their Sacrifices because the Blood of the Beasts which were offered was not able to sanctifie Sinners The Law Ad Heb. 10.1 saith he can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect For then would they not have ceased to be offered Because that the Worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of Sins What then Doth the Church of Rome mean that the Sacrifice of the Cross was not able to Sanctifie Sinners that it has no more virtue than the Sacrifices of Moses's Law which were to be very oft reiterated doth that Church intend to give the Lye unto the Apostle who says (a) Ad Heb. 10.10 That we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all And that (b) Ad Heb. 10.14 By one offering he has perfected for ever them that are Sanctified If the Sacrifice of the Cross of Christ has sanctified us all there remains nothing to do but to gain to our selves by Faith an interest in the Merit of his Death and Passion What do then signifie all those reiterated Sacrifices And if Christ's Priest-hood is everlasting Christ being living for ever why do they appoint Successors in his Priest-hood Are not all the Masses of Rome as many Blasphemies which accuse the Death and Passion of Christ of insufficiency and imperfection And all those Romish pettiSacrificers erected without any Order or Vocation of God are not they the Usurpers of Christ's Priesthood III. What has given occasion to that Error and the Degrees of Corruption which brought forth that Belief TO discover the stock of that Error
we must know that the custom of the First Christians was thus Before they might participate of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ they came to present their Offerings Bread Wine Oyl Fruits and other things and those Offerings were called by the Fathers of the Church Sacrifices as it is evident by the reading of (a) Lib. 4. cap. 32.34 St. Ireny (b) Epist 34. Item Lib. de Oper. et Eleem. St. Cyprian (c) Lib. 5. cap. 17. Theodoret the second Council of (d) Can. 4. Mascon about the Year 587 as it is to be seen in (e) Lib. 1. cap. 7 8. Rebanus Maurus his Instructions of Church-men Let the Sub-Deacons says he receive the faithful Peoples Oblations in the Temple of God and give them to the Deacons to be put upon the Altar and this was the reason why they called the Table of Communion an ALTAR because of the Oblations they offered upon it Such was the belief the use and the simplicity of the Primitive Church But alas how much has error defaced this Holy Practice in the Roman Church How great alteration is happened from the belief of the first Christians 1. Instead of Bread the First Faithful offered upon the Lords Table they offer in the now Roman Church only some slender Hosts like to Wafers and it is that of which the Author of the Exposition of the Roman Order and Constitutions complains as (a) In his Comment upon the Capitular of Charlesmagne lits B. Monsieur Pithou relates In some Churches says he the Oblation of Bread which according to the Ancient Custom of the Church was offered by the Faithful People upon the Lords Table for the usage of the Sacrifice is at this time reduced to a very small and very light form to the form of a little piece of Money which has neither the Figure nor appearance of the true Bread And it is to authorize such error that in several Pictures of the Lords Supper Christ is to be seen with all his Apostles having every one upon his Plate a little Hoste of the bigness of one Farthing Is not that a mighty alteration in the Roman Church to offer to the Lord some little Hosts that have not any appearance of Bread instead of the true Bread which was offered in the Primitive Church And is it not a monstrous boldness worthy of punishment to make the World believe that Christ instituting the Holy Sacrament hath not taken ordinary Bread but some little Wafers alike to those they use in the Roman Church 2. Whereas in the Primitive Church the Oblations which were made were Sacrifices of Thanksgiving and Duty and that the Holy Sacrament was look'd upon but as a Sacrifice of Commemoration according to the belief the Church of England keeps still we have seen since altogether with the belief of Reality and Transubstantiation the belief of a Real and Propitatory Sacrifice in the Mass which has obliged the interessed to hold as they-did since in the Council of Trent That Christ was every day truly Sacrificed I do not know how many times for our Sins and that the Roman Priests were true Sacrificers and all that without any ground in the Scripture without any advowing or authority of the Primitive Church whose belief was very far from that of the Roman Church as it is proved in all this Section IV. The horrid abuse of the Roman Church to offer Sacrifice in the honour of Saints is a practice contrary to that of the Primitive Church FOr as much as Error is the Mother of Blindness as one deep calleth another Psal 42.9 and all the design of the Devil is to bring men to Impiety and to the Destruction of the Kingdom of Christ Whereas in the Primitive Church they directed their Oblations only to God Almighty they celebrated the Sacrifice of the Lords Supper only for the honour of his Divine Majesty the Church of Rome carried on Error to such excess as to hold that in the Sacrifice of the Mass which they do pretend Christ himself is Really Sacrificed that that Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ Really and Substantially present is offered Durst I rehearse such a Blasphemy that it is offered in honour of Saints and one comes boldly to say to a Priest who prepares himself to say the Mass Sir you must say the Mass of St. Peter The Mass of St. Paul Of St. James or some other that is to say You must Immolate Jesus Christ to day to the honour of St. Peter to the honour of St. Paul of St. James of St. Barnabas or of some other and that you may not think that I do impose upon the Church of Rome you are but to read upon that matter which you please of the Books of the Roman Theologians or to hear what the Priest says every day in his Mass when he reads the Canon thereof and you shall hear him saying with a low voice these words after he has recited the names of several Saints Ut illis proficiat ad honorem That it may profit them to honour he doth pray God that this Sacrifice be profitable to their honour If in the Old testament any should have offered Sacrifices to God in the honour of Abraham Isaac and Jacob would not they have stoned him in that very instant to expiate by his death the Impiety of this Blasphemy Alas in the Law of Moses there were in the Sacrifices only some Beasts whose throat were cut When Christ began to shew unto his Disciples how that he was to go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the Elders and Chief-Priests and be killed to appease the wrath of his Father provoked against the Sins of Men St. Peter was presently filled with Zeal and could not abide that his Master should go unto Jerusalem to be Sacrificed there (a) Math. 16.22 Be it far from thee Lord said he this shall not be unto thee Oh! should St. Peter be upon the Earth and some body should come to tell him Peter this Priest who goes to say the Mass is going for your sake to worship you to Sacrifice Christ himself his own Body and Blood Would not he hear the news with a mighty horrour Would not he say with much more reason Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee thou shall not be Sacrificed for my sake for my honour We do read in the Acts of (a) Cap. 14. the Apostles that some people of Lycaonia having seen the Miracle that St. Paul had wrought were ready to offer a Sacrifice to him and that the Priests of Jupiter brought Oxen and Garlands unto the Gates and would have done Sacrifice with the People in honour of Barnabas and Paul which when these Apostles heard of they rent their Clothes and ran in among the People crying out and saying Sirs why do ye these things we also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that ye
of Christ jesus There was before the Table of the Communion a great Curtain like to that Vail which was in the old time before the (a) Exod. 26.33 Ark of the Testimony and when the Curtain was drawn to set open to the sight of the People the Holy Mysteries the Faithful imagained they saw the Heavens opened as (b) Homil. 3. sup Epist ad Ephes St. Chrysostome speaks they consider'd the Table of Communion as an Altar imbrued all over with Christ's Blood they came to the Sacred Table with an holy horrour and a trembling like to that of Moses when he came nigh to the bush out of the midst whereof God spake with him they were all penetrated throughout with the light of their Faith and they breathed nothing but Fire of Charity which consumend them And in this manner they came near our Lord J. Christ to eat his own Body and to drink his own Blood they regarded the Minister who divided to them the Bread and the Wine of the Holy Sacrament as a Seraphin who was to put upon their tongues a coal of fire to quicken them with the Love of God and the Spirit of Christ But if somebody in that time should have worshipped the Sacr ament in stead of worshipping Christ who is received in the Sacrament he would have been lookt upon as an Idolater he would have been rejected out of the Church and dealt with as an Heretick or else they would have taught him that it is a dreadful Error to worship the Sacrament as if Bread and Wine were transubstantiated into Christ's Body and Blood and that the Faith of the True Church and of all the Saints is to believe That by the means of the Holy Sacr ament we are truly and really partakers of the true Body and of the true Blood of Christ who is in Heaven settled at the Right Hand of God his Father where we worship Him in receiving the Sacrament 3. The Beginning of the Celebration of the Eucharist in an unknown Tongue Now for the third Error which is to be found in the Roman Church in the Administration of the Sacrament we know that it is but fince the Popes have made themselves Soveraigns since they have raised themselves to be Arbitrators of Crowns since they took upon them to depose Kings from their Thrones and usurped that Temporal Power which they now injoy We know that it is but since that time that they have endeavoured as by Right of Conquest to oblige all Nations to speak the Roman Language as a Mark of their Bondage to the Pope following the Example of the old Roman Emperors who after they had reduced several Provinces and Nations under their Jurisdiction constrained them to speak the Roman language That Tyranny of constraining the People to celebrate the holiest of our Mysteries in a Tongue which they understand not is a thing so evidently contrary to that which the Holy Ghost teaches us in the * 1 Cor. 14.16 Scripture that almost all the Christian Churches which have received from the Apostles their Belief and the Form of Celebrating the Eucharist do celebrate it unto this day in the Vulgar Tongue of the Countries whereof they are Inhabitants The Greeks have their Lyturgy in their own Tongue as every one knows the Christians of Moscovia who received of the Apostle St. Andrew the Faith of Christianity have their Lyturgy in the (a) Guagn de Relig. Moscov pag. 250. Slavonian tongue which is the vulgar Tongue of the Country they inhabit The Armenians converted for the most part by S. Bartholomew speak their (b) Cassander Lyturg. cap. 13. pag. 31. own Tongue in the Celebration of the Holy Mysteries The Jacobites who dwell in Syria speak 9c) Brerewood pag. 194. Syriack in celebrating the Eucharist The Abissine Christians celebrate the Divine Service and the Communion in the (d) Chytraeus pag. 28. Tongue of their Country Which makes me believe that all Christian Nations conformed themselves to the practice of the primitive Church and that they have wel perceived the Holy Ghost frobid the celebration of these holy Mysteries which consist in Blessings and Thanksgivings in an unknown Tongue to which the Unlearned could not answer Amen CONCLUSION OF THE FIRST PART The Articles of the Roman Church cannot be proved either by the Practice of the Primitive Church or by the Authority of the Ancient Fathers ALl those Reflexions which I made for my own particular Instruction and Edification brought a great Light into my Soul and overthrew in part the false principles wherewith the Errors of the Roman Church are ordinarily intricated and darkened First I began to mistrust that Church and then afterwards to draw some Consequences against the Errors thereof I thought since it is a thing very natural to mistrust one in all his Conduct after we have once surprised him in a Dault that after having discovered the Errors of the Roman Church concerning the Question of the Eucharist I might reasonably mistrust it in all the other Articles of Faith of which it makes a particular profession and so I saw nothing sure nothing fast in the Church of Rome I believed I might justly mistrust that this Church had done in the Doctrine of Indulgences Purgatory Prayer for the Dead and Invocation of Saints the same that it has done in that of Transubstantiation Reality and Sacrifice of the Mass that is to say I feared they were Articles which had been framed against the Doctrine of the Ancient Church the Testimony of the Holy Fathers and the Authority of the Word of God Moreover I thought that having remarked the Errors of Rome in the chief and most holy of all the Mysteries of Christianity I was not obliged to examine the other Articles and that that only was enough to make me suppose that it had erred in all the other Points of its Doctrine and that one must consequently forsake its Communion if he doth desire to be saved The desire of my Salvation was a desire which Grace had rooted very profoundly in my Soul but the thought of forsaking the Communion of a Church within which I had been brought up was a thought very contrary to my natural Inclinations I could not blind my self from seeing the Errors of Rome but I had not yet strength enough generously to forsake them to the peril of whatsoever could happen The Reasons which made me understand my Errors came every day to present themselves to my mind with some new Lights and Evidences The Church of Rome hereupon I look'd before as if it had been encompassed round about with the Truths of the Scripture grounded upon the Authority of the Saints of the Primitive Church appeared to me at that time bared of all those fine Testimonies But at last the same Pretence which caused me to defer my conversion when the Grace of God had made me understand that the Romish Faith was not grounded upon the Word of God
the Apostles to be his Protector to present him to the Disciples and declare unto them after how marvellous a manner Vers 27 God had been pleased to accomplish his Conversion This was the condition wherein St. Paul was reduced after his Conversion and it is also my Lord the very same condition in which a man newly Converted is reduced now in our Age. On the one side those whose party he doth forsake become his most bitter and most irreconcilable enemies they threaten him with nothing less than his entire destruction and ruin and were not their vows and pernicious designs restrained by the severity of Laws we should see presently the Tragical consequences of their indiscreet and Passionate Zeal On the other side a great number of those who do profess the Purity of the Gospel do not trust him they avoid him they are affraid of him for the same reasons for which the Disciples were affraid of Paul they are affraid least he should not be truly and throughly Converted they are affraid least his Conversion should be interressed and imperfect or at least they are affraid that it should not be everlasting and least after having stayed some while amongst them he should return to his Errors and become once more the Persecutor of the Gospel and of the Truth In this condition what will become a man newly Converted For those whose Errors he has forsaken and who do persecute him without Mercy or Charity he doth direct his Prayers to the Everlasting God for their Conversion in the very time when he is the most unmercifully persecuted by them he lifts up his hands to Heaven continually to acknowledge that the sins which he has committed are the only causes which draw upon his head all these Persecutions But for those with whom he doth profess the same Faith he has need as well as St. Paul of a powerful Protector to be his advocate to speak in his favour and make known to all the People that his Conversion is not an effect of Interest of Inconstancy or of Necessity but that it is the Work of God and an Effect of his Mercies Though by the Grace of God it is almost three years since I professed the Purity of the Gospel yet I may for several reasons be accounted in the number of those who are newly Converted and in that condition I find my self reduced to the same fortune to fall into the hatred and detestation of those whose Errors I have forsaken and to find in a great many Protestants coldness and repugnancy when they shall know that I have formerly professed Error and Persecuted those who embraced the Purity of the Gospel I am not so ignorant how far the Zeal and the Passion of Men reach in matters of Religion as not to excuse my Enemies I forgive them with all my heart and I pray God that he will be pleased to enlighten them and give them the knowledge of his Truth I am not so unjust neither as to condemn the Prudence of the Protestants I acknowledge that they have reason to mistrust me since that others have deceived them and as I have not the vanity to think my self more perfect than St. Paul so do not I think them more guilty than all the Disciples and all the Saints who dwelt at Jerusalem who mistrusted this Apostle and were affraid least his Conversion should not be sincere It is in this condition that I acknowledge that I have need of a powerful Protection and it is to crave yours my Lord that I come with this humble Dedication The Disciples were satisfied when one of the Apostles presented them Paul and told them the Wonders which Grace did work in his Conversion have not I all the reasons in the World to think that all those who do profess the Purity of the Gospel will be satisfied also and that they will consider me as a true son of the Church as soon as they will hear that the motives of my Conversion appear in publick under your Lordships Protection He who presented St. Paul to the Faithful was an Apostle who peculiarly rejoyced in the Increasing of the Kingdom of Christ he was * Acts 11.23 filled with Heavenly satisfaction when he saw the effects of the Grace of Christ in the hearts of the People who were Converted to the Gospel * Vers 24. He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of Faith It is in abridgement the Panegyrick which the Holy Ghost made of all his Virtues It is that which caused the Apostles to be satisfied with St. Paul and to consider him as a man truly Converted since that he was presented to them by an Apostle whose Faith Zeal and Virtue were so perfectly known to them And have not I reason to hope that the true Protestants will consider me as a man truly Converted when they shall see that it is you My Lord who receive me into the Church You to whom God Almighty has granted a peculiar Gift of Discerning of Spirits You who have no greater joy in the World than to see the Divine Operations of Grace in the hearts of those who lived formerly in Errors You who take so much care of those that are newly Converted who maintain so openly their interests who take your delight in bringing them up in keeping them as young Plants wherewith God is pleased to adorn his Church notwithstanding all the enemies of the Propagation of the Gospel You whose Integrity stops the mouths even of all those who being the Enemies of the Church of Christ are become your Enemies You in fine My Lord whose Zeal and Faith appear every day so generously When there is something that concerns the Interests of God the Glory of Christ and the Purity of his Holy Word Have not I reason said I to think that all the Faithful will not doubt of the sincerity of my conduct as soon as they shall know that it is You My Lord who receive me into the Church and that you have been pleased to receive me likewise into your Protection Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant Lewis Des-écotais TABLE INTRODUCTION § 1. Les Raisons qui m'ont engagé d'escrire ces Memoires Page 1. § 2. Que la Conversion d'un homme qui a vêcu dans les erreurs de l'Eglise Romaine est un tres grand Miracle pag. 5. § 3. De quelle maniere et par quels degrés l'Esprit de Dieu m'a fait connoître mes Erreurs pag. 9. PREMIERE PARTIE Que la Doctrine de l'Eglise Romaine n'est point fondée ny sur les Escritures ny sur la Creance de la Primitive Eglise ny sur l'Authorité des Saints Peres CHAP. I. Commant j'ay connu que la Doctrine de l'Eglise Romaine n'est point fondée sur l'Ecriture § 1. La Lecture de l'Ecriture Sainte me dispose à reconnoistre les Erreurs de Rome pag. 11. § 2. Les Erreurs de l'Eglise Romaine dont
them with the Zeal of their Salvation and to turn away their hearts out of Error as he did yours Ah! how many thanks are you to give to God Almighty that he has drawn you out of the Tyranny where you were born But we should be very glad to hear the particularities of your Conversion And it is to rehearse them that I undertook this Discourse to engage you to joyn your Thanksgivings to mine for to thank Him to praise Him and to glorifie Him admiring the Greatness of his Goodness and the Wonders he doth work in the Souls of those whom he has 〈…〉 § 2. The Conversion of a Man who did live in the errors of the Roman Church is a very great Miracle SAint Peter's Chains broken by themselves many Blind men recovering their Eyes many Sick bodies healed many Dead rais'd up again these are very great Miracles and marvellous Deeds of the Highest's Mighty Hand But the Divine alterations which Grace works in our Souls are a great deal more marvellous more worthy of God's Majesty better becoming his Almightiness The Man whom the Finger of God has touched to work the Miracle of his Conversion doth not know himself any more so considerable is that change he feels his Soul entirely perswaded of certain Truths which God has revealed which he regarded heretofore as so many lies and he finds himself delivered from a multitude of errors which he worshipped as the Truth it self Peradventure you would have supposed that the prejudications of Error which he found in his mind from his Child-hood might be like so many petty Tyrants and young Devils who perplex him who vex him who trouble the quietness of his Conscience and raise up in him dimness and darkness stealing from his Eyes the very light of Truth You are mistaken Grace gives him strength to dissipate the evil Spirits and to withstand Error He doth enjoy the light of the Gospel with a peace and quietness which cannot be expressed and as the dawning of the Day which comes first after Night is received by all Creatures with more pleasant and more delightful wellcome than the very Light of Noon so I dare say there happens sometimes the same thing in the state of Grace A Soul newly lightened enjoys sometimes the Light with more pleasure and sweetness than do those who have been all their life long in the broad day-light of the Gospel That a man should live in such a Tranquillity of Conscience as the Saints themselves enjoy in Heaven That he should find pleasure and sweetness in being perswaded of a Truth which he lookt upon before as an Heresie and did not think of without Horrour it is a prodigious work of the Highest it is Almighty Gods mighty hand A Christian who has prostituted himself to all his Passions who has dived into all kinds of Vices and Deboachments who has transgressed all the Commandements of God when Grace touches and Converts him it is a great Miracle yet that man who prostituted himself to all kinds of Vices did never conceive any horrour against those who follow Virtue He did consider Virtue as a very hard thing but not as an Abomination and in the very same time wherein he broke all the Commandements he thought not that it was a great sin to keep them He did not look upon those who observed them as so many Monsters as so many Franticks as a people who deserving the malediction of God and the execration of Men ought to be exterminated out of the World with Sword and Fire But a Man who did live in the errors of Rome before God had hightened him by his Grace he looked upon the Reformed Church as a Church full of Abomination he never spoke of those who follow that Church but with Imprecation and Cursing he never read any proposition of their Doctrin but presently he added an Anathema and damned them to the pit of Hell he had rather have the conversation of Devils than that of a Protestant In a word all the Invectives Raylings Imprecations Maledictions Anathematizations he could heap up were to be poured out upon those who do profess the purity of the Gospel When after all those Repugnancies and Estrangements which seemed to be an obstacle to Truth you see a Man mollified opening his Eyes to the Grace of God changing his Dispositions his Notions his Thoughts and all his Manners Is not that a prodigie of Grace Have I not reason to say that this Miracle is not only greater than that whereby God gives again Eyes to the Blind Life to the Dead but even a great deal more marvellous than that which Grace works in the Conversion of the greatest Sinners § 3. After what manner the Spirit of God made me understasnd my Errors THe Lord our God doth not always shew altogether at once the effects of his mighty Power nor doth he work always after the same manner in all the Conversions of Sinners He speaks sometimes with a thundering Voice which altogether at once beats down dazles and converts a Sinner And it was with such a Voice he spoke to (a) Act. 9. St. Paul when in a minute of time he turned him from the most furious Enemy of the Gospel into a very Zealous Preacher of the same Gospel Other times he begins to speak to a Sinner softly and a great way off He prepares him he prevents him and he puts him in the Dispositions he judges fit for his Conversion It is after this manner he converted the (b) Act. 8. Eunuch of great Authority under Candace Queen of the Aethiopians he doth not overturn him out of his Chariot he doth not cast him to the ground to Convert him suddenly as he did afterwards St. Paul but he dispoes him by the reading of the Scripture to receive the light of the Gospel And it is after this manner the Lord has been pleased to draw me out of the Errors of Rome and to bring me through his great Mercies to profess here freely the purity of his Holy Word This is that which I intend to rehearse in all this Discourse in the First Part whereof I will recite how I understood that the Doctrin of the now Roman Church is grounded neither upon the Authority of the Holy Scriptures nor upon the belief of the Primitive Church nor the Authority of the Holy Fathers And in the Second Part how I understood that the Church of Rome is not the True Church that its Authority is not Infallible and that it is full of Corruptions and Errors FIRST PART The Doctrin of the Roman Church is grounded neither upon the Scripture nor upon the belief of the Primitive Church nor the Authority of the Holy Fathers CHAP. I. How I understood the Doctrin of the Roman Church to be not grounded upon the Scripture §. I. The Reading of the Scripture disposed me before-hand to acknowledge the Errors of Rome BEing in the Ecclesiastical Orders of the Church of Rome I thought
put his hand upon (a) Mar. 8.24 he did see truly but yet he was not able to distinguish Men from Tree the Word of God had restored my Eyes but they were but weak and subject to a great many dimnesses it was need to have some time to strengthen me in the Truth which I had but a glimpse of and to take away the Ignorance of Divinity under the pretences of which the Devil would cloak the Word of God Therefore the Divine Providence that took care for my Conduct disposed all things to hasten my Conversion it brought to pass several incidents which the Profane would call chance but the Saints stile The hand of the Lord. First I was destinated for the study of Divinity four years before all my Companions let the Flatterers and Profane say what they please those who judge holily of things that come to pass understand very well that the design of the Lord in that was no other but to take away as soon as it could be the fair Pretences wherewith Error would have offuscated Truth Secondly the Lord permitted I should come to an able man learned in Divinity both Scholastical and Positive perfect in Right Canon which is the Decrees of Fathers Councils and Popes in a word a man who was marvellous in Study of Controversies and in every thing which can contribute to make an absolute Divine But He permitted also that there might be in so excellent a man the fair Dealing and the Sincerity of a Child that was the reason that some Years after when he had known the Truth of God and the Errors of Rome because he knew not how to disguise Truth he published it every where he could not forbear to say that Indulgences Purgatory and the Obligations of Believing the Articles of Faith of the Pope and of keeping his Commandements upon â—ain of a mortal Sin were so many â—rafty Tricks of Rome to get Money He could not forbear to tell every Body the Mysteries the Factions the Impostures of the most part of those last Councils which are accounted General and Oecumenical by the Church of Rome he defended generously all the Truths which we profess in the Church of England wherefore he drew upon himself all the Persecutions he suffered for Truth so that afterward he died a Martyr for the Gospel by the severity of the Laws of Rome Oh! had he been in the time that I conversed with him as much lightned as he has been since he had saved me many troubles and perplexities he had doubtless delivered me out of that Suspension of Spirit whereunto I was reduced by the subtilty of his Answers and the height of his Resolutions But in that time the Lod did but begin his Conversion as well as mine and lighten us both by degrees yet with these two differences First the Lord destinated him to suffer all kinds of Persecutions to make him a Witness of his Holy Word a Martyr of the Gospel and he has not yet judged me worthy of Persecutions nor of Martyrdom Secondly he would have him raised up to the number of those great Saints whom the World afflicts and torments Ch. 1. §. 4. (a) Heb. 11.38 Of whom the World is not worthy Therefore the Lord ravished betimes that innocent Soul in the liveliness of his Years and speedily was he taken away (b) Wisd 4.11 as saith Solomon Lest Wickedness should alter his Understanding or deceit beguile his Soul Whereas the Divine Justice has looked upon me as a grievous Offendor who am suffered to live that I might Mourn and Weep longer for my Sons §. 4. The Conclusions of this Chapter How I came to know that the Articles of faith of Rome cannot be proved by Scripture IT was under the Conduct of that learned and holy Man that I began to give my self to the Study of Divinity I read what Authors do write concerning those Questions but specially and more exactly concerning the Questions which are controverted which are for the most part the Doctrines the Church of Rome hath received out of pride and covetousness without any ground in the Scripture I found in those Questions several difficulties I came to propound them to my Master there is said he what Bellarmin Answers there is for this matter the Exposition of Cardinal du Perron there is what Bonaventure what Thomas Aquinas what Scotus what Suarez what Valentia what Boivin what Herincx what others say touching that difficulty But when I asked him Tell me I beseech you freely what do you think He Answered me almost to every one of those Questions To tell you the truth said he the Doctrin of Purgatory of Indulgences of Worshiping Images and Reliques the Doctrin of Transubstantiation c. I do not find all these Doctrins very evident in the Scripture I do not see neither how they can be drawn very directly out of those places of the Bible th Authors of Rome are wont to produce to prove them by I give them you said he only to alledge to those who would have a place of the Bible he brought forth in every matter to have some pretence to say seasonably or unseasonably the Scripture speaks of that Matter and to content the Hereticks But to speak plainly I do sincerely confess it is not the Scripture which obliges or perswades me to believe all those Articles but the true and the only reason why I do hold them is because the Church teaches them so There are said I in self at once a great many difficulties abridged it is a great deal more just and more reasonable to deal after this manner than to consume all our brain to find in the Scripture with great pains of false discoursing what the Holy Ghost had never intention to teach therein Let us acknowledge then freely that all the Articles of the Faith of Rome are not in the Scripture nor grounded upon any thing else but upon the Authority of the Church After that all these difficulties may be very easily resolved All the business will be but to know whether or no I am obliged to believe as an Article of Faith what the Roman Church teaches without any ground from the Scripture This was the pass to which I was reduced to this I thought all the Theologie of Rome was to be reduced I did but loose my labour in consulting other Professors of Divinity in Conferring with those Friends of mine who were some Bachelors some Licentiates some Doctos of Sorbon and Curates of some chief Parishes in Paris They spoke but Gibbrish or some Latin words contrary to the good common Secne and Reason when they would have grounded the Doctrin of the Church of Rome upon the Scriptures and they never spake with reason but when at last they reduced themselves as to a Principle to the infallible definitive and final Judgement of the said Church in such matters CHAP. II. Chap. 2. How I understood the Articles of Faith of the
it is the most ancient of all the Churches which have been ever governed by St. Peter in antioch St. Peter executed the function of Bishop even according to Baronius seven years before he had ever been at Rome it was in Antioch that the faithful were first called Christians as it is reported in the Acts of the Apostles and it is the Church of Antioch which is called by St. Chrysosthome the chief and Capital of the whole world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In fine if the Mother is more ancient than the Daughter if the Spring is before the Brook the Greek Church is more ancient than the Roman the Greek Church was erected by St. Paul and S. Andrew and it was from that Church as from an holy Spring the name of Jesus Christ was scattered abroad afterward through the Kingdoms and Nations of the earth it was from the Greek Church the Roman received the New Testament the Apostles Creed that of Nice and St. Athanasius it was of the Greek Church that the Roman learnt the very names of Baptisme of Eucharist of Bishop of Priest of Deacon c. So that the Bishop of Bitonto (c) lib. de actis conc Trident. pag. 18. acknowledges in the Council of Trent that the Greek Church is the mother of the Roman and that it is from that Rome has received all it possesses ea igitur Graecia mater nostra cui id totum debet quod habet Latina Ecclesia You may judge now upon what are grounded those fine Titles of Eldership of the Roman Church of which they make so much noise and so much boasting §. 2. That the Multitude is not of the Roman Church's side THE vanity the Church of Rome is puffed up withal to have Multitude of its side is not better grounded than the Antiquity of it Truly if you should dwell in the middle of Paris or of Rome and without taking any notice of the things which are acted in the world should take the word of the Preachers of the Church of Rome they would make you believe that all the Christians in the world belong to the Roman Church and that there is but a very small number of those who will not submit themselves to the Pope's jurisdiction But if you will lift up your eyes and look upon that which is done in the world you shall find that of all the three great parts of the world which have been known to our Fathers ASIA is all full of Christians who have received their Faith from the very Apostles and who never have received nor receive yet the domination of the Pope you may find there the Christians of Palestine submitted to the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Syrians and the Melchites under the Patriarch of Antioch the Armenians and Georgians subjected to their own Patriarchs and Metropolitans who do not acknowledge the dominion of the Pope you may see there the Mingrelians the Circassians the Christians of the less Asia submitted to the Patriarch of Constantinople the Jacobites the Christians of St. Thomas submitted to their peculiar Patriarchs and not to the Pope of Rome If you set your eyes on AFRICA and on those in that part of the world who have received the Gospel you may find there the Egyptians and the Cophtes to be subjected to the Patriarch of Alexandria the Ethiopians or Abissins have their own Patriarch who doth not acknowledge yet unto this day the jurisdiction of Rome what relation soever the Pope's Missionaries had made of it As for that Province whereof the Jesuites make so much noise which they call the Kingdom of Congo the Governours whereof have submitted to the Popes Dominion it is very easie to know that it is nothing but a Mission of Jesuites such as those which they have erected in Goa in Jappan even in England in the very chief Town of this kingdom to root therein in spight of all the Laws of the Kingdom and all Magistracy In EVROPE the Greeks are submitted to the Patriarch of Constantinople the Moscovites have a Patriarch at Moskow who relies not on the Pope the Christian Protestants and Reformed in England in Danemark in Swedeland in Holland in Switzerland in Germany and in Hungaria are subjected to their Bishops and Metropolitans who are not subjected to the Pope and every body knows that in Bohemia in Poland even in France even in some Countrys of Italy all is full of Reformed Churches which do not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Pope So that all that great huge multitued whereof the Roman Church boasts so much is Spain most part of Poland France and It aly some Cantons of Switzerland part of the Low-Countries and of Germany this is that great multitude of people parturiunt montes c. what is that in respect of the whole world And lest some body should think that those Churches which are not submitted to the Pope be some small Churches those who will take the pains but to read the Historians shall find that the only Patriarchat of Constantinople has contained 80 Bishopricks and 40 Archbishopricks the Church of Antioch 150 both Bishopricks and Archbishopricks that of Jerusalem more that 76 and that there have been only in Africa 420 both Bispopricks and Archbishopricks according to Myraeus's relation a Pag. 94. which have never followed the belief of the Roman Church from thence you may Judge of the rest §. 3. Other Churches as well as the Roman have their Succession from the very Apostles AS for the matter of Succession if you hearken to those of the Church of Rome you would think that only in the Church of Rome the Bishops have succeeded one another from the beginning of the Christendom Those Gentlemen would make all the world believe that the Churches which are not of their Communion have neither Vocation nor Title nor Ordination and consequently no right in the Ecclesiastical Functions in the Administration of the Sacraments or Preaching the word of God But if you will but open your eyes and read Nicephorus Cedrenus and other Historians you shall find in the Churches which have never submitted to the Pope which have ever kept the purity of the word of God several Catalogues of Bishops and Patriarchs who have succeeded one another from the Apostles time In Jerusalem Jesus Christ our Lord the Son of God the Holy one began the function of an Everlasting Bishop which he will continue to exercise during all Eternity St. James was the first Bishop afterwards next Simon Cleophas then Justus the Jew c. and so successively Bishop after Bishop Patriarch after Patriarch unto Germanus and Theophanes who in our days have ruled that Church being the Patriarchs thereof In the Church of Antioch St. Peter was the first Bishop whom succeeded Evodius then Ignatius then Hero then Cornelius and others successively who have so well conserved the doctrine of the Primitive Church with the right succession of St. Peter that he of those Bishops who lived about the
Deus qui fecit Imperatorem dum se super Imperatorem extollit jam quasi hominum excesserat metas se ut deum non ut hominem aestimârat from thence it is manifest that the Pope makes himself equal to God Almighty since as I have shewed before he raises himself above Kings and the Emperors But he is not contented with that he maintains he may give dispensations against that which the Apostles have ordained even against that which is contained in the Old and New Testament Papa dispensat contra Apostolum Papa dispensat contra vetus Testamentum say the Interpreters of the Pope in the Gloss upon the Chap. (b) Decretal In. 3. lib. 8. de concess praebendis Proposuit and upon the Canon (c) Causa 25. q. 1. sunt quidam Papa dispensat in Evangelio interpretando ipsum and Thomas Aquinas holds (d) 2ª 2 a◠quest 1. Artic. 10. that the edition of a new Crred belongs to the Authority of the Pope According to those principles Luther was condemned because he held that it was not at all in the power of the Church nor in the power of the Pope to establish new Articles of Faith as it is to be seen in the Bull of Leo X. that begins Exurge which is to be found in the end of the first Council of Lateran You may give to that Theologie what name you please but for my part I cannot chuse but think that to give dispensations against the Laws of the Apostle St. Paul to release men from observing what is written in the Old and New Testament may well be called more than Judaisme more than Mahometisme must be stiled Heathenisme and monstrous Impiety 2. The Pope takes upon himself the same Titles that we use to give but to God Almighty and unto Jesus Christ our Saviour the true Son of God IN the Book of Decretals of Gregory the IX (a) Titul 7. ad caput quanto personam Innocent III. saies that the Pope upon the earth holds the place not of a mere man but of God himself and according to that upon one of the Gates of Rome these words are to be found Paulo III. Optimo maximo in terris Deo To Paul III. the best and mightiest God upon the earth after that what title can one give to God Almighty Optimo maximo to attribute those titles to men who dares maintain that it is not an Impiety And lest some should believe that it is the fault of him who built that Gate who gave to the Pope titles which the Pope does not assume we are but to read the titles which the Pope takes to himself Martin V. sends his Embassadors to Constantinople and in the beginning of the instructions he gives them concerning the business of which he commands them to treat these are the titles which he takes upon himself sanctissimus beatissimus qui habet coeleste arbitrium qui est dominus in terris successor Petri Christus domini dominus universi Regum pater orbis lumen c. The most holy and most blessed who has celestial Authority who is Lordin the earth successor of Peter the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World c. Truly when you hear those great Tibles do not you believe that it is Christ himself which is spoken of the most holy and most blessed there is none but God who can be the most Holy and the most Blessed who is Arbitrator of Heaven and the Lord of Heaven and Earth What think you is it not God Almighty is it not to give him a Rival and A Competitour in his mighty power to give unto the Pope titles which belong but to the Divinity In fine these other titles following the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse Father of Kings the light of the World c. Could you find in all the Scripture and in the Holy Fathers more stately and more magnificent titles to express the Kingdom the supream power the goodness and the highness of Christ our Lord If the Pope doth attribute to himelf the same titles and the same power which are attributed only to God Almighty is not this a good cause to say that it is a manifest Impiety And if the Roman Church be grounded upon the power of the Pope is there not good cause to say that it is grounded upon Impiety Such is the Religion of Rome it is not God Almighty who is worshipped in that Church it is the Pope Paulo III. Maximo optimo in terris Deo it is not the word of God which is received there for the word of truth it is the word of the Pope dispensat super Evangelium in the Roman Church it is not Jesus Christ who is the most holy one it is Martin it is Alexander Sixtus Innocent Clement or some other which you please who is Bishop of Rome Sanctissimus Beatissimus in the Roman Church it is not Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World it is the Pople Martin Alexander Innocent Clement Christus Domini c. And to be brief it is not Jesus Christ if I may dare rehearse that Blasphemie who participates the human and the Divine nature it is the Pope who participates those two natures as it was proved in the Theologie of the Papists about the time that Luther began to be known in the world * Erasm in Epist ad Timoth and some while after Could ever Impiety have been raised up to an higher degree could the Devil himself have devised any thing more profane and do you think that the ambition which cast him down head-long into Hell was more criminal and more opposed to God Almighty's Majesty than the ambition of the Bishops of Rome SECTION II. The Covetousness of the Popes THE second point whereupon doth turn all the frame of the Roman Church is covetousness 'T was to heap up riches that Pope Boniface VIII began to traffick with Indulgences and Forgivenesses and to declare that the Popes Bulls had efficacy even in Purgatory and that they were therein exactly executed in favour of those souls for whose deliverance a sum of mony was given 't is to heap up great Treasures that the Roman Church doth hold that the Pope for a certain sum of mony may dispense in the degrees in which it is forbidden by the Law of God to contract Matrimony 't is by reason of a certain sum of mony that your sins are forgiven you how great and horrid soever they be It is to heap up riches that the Church of Rome sells Bishopricks Archbishopricks Cardinalships all kind of Dispensations and all kind of Ecclesiastical preferments in a word it is to heap up riches that the Pope sends his Legates into all the Kingdoms which would receive them to preach there Croisadoes and Jubilees and to distribute