Seats and more costly Pews are ordered to be pulled down Formerly Papists were allowed solemnly to renounce their Religion in the Protestant Temples and scarce a Lords-day passed in the places where they were * As at Charenton La-Rochelle Montpellier Nismes numerous but some Converts might be seen so to renounce but now all Papists are forbidden to turn Protestants under pain of death or the penalty of an infamous sort of Penance called L' amando honorable in which the recanting person only in his Shirt with a Torch in his hand and a Rope about his neck and the Hangman standing behind him begs pardon of God and man for having renounced the Catholick as they mis-call the Romish Religion and is afterwards punished with Banishment if not with confiscation of Goods On the contrary Protestants have all imaginable encouragement to turn Papists Pensions Honours Offices and Preferments and to secure them after they have once declared the forementioned severity as I have been informed is the punishment of a relapse The Magistrates of the place have Authority to go with the Priest and what other company they please to visit sick Protestants and turn their Friends and Attendants out of the Room and discourse with them about their Religion and if either hopes of reward or a delirous condition or impatience or any other cause make them speak any thing in favour of the Romish Religion then they presently take witness that they turned Papists After which if the sick persons die they are to be buried as Papists and if they left Children behind them they also are to be bred Papists but if they recover they are obnoxious to the Law against a relapse Their Ministers cannot without great danger and difficulty visit Protestants which lye sick in Popish Houses but every pitiful Sacrificulus every ignorant busie Priest hath Authority to go into Protestant Houses and visit the sick as often as they please and when their Women are in travail like the Hebrew-women in the time of hardned Pharaoh they must have Popish Egyptian Midwives which is a far greater terror to many of them than the pains of Childbirth it self Formerly they were capable of the Magistracy in Cities and Burghs where they lived but now they are incapacitated Formerly they were to sit in their Courts of Justice as the Chambers of the Edict so called from the Edict of Nantes by which they were erected in favour of Protestants and the Party-Chambers of the Provinces where half the Judges are Protestants and half Papists but now they are deprived of that priviledge So that for want of Judges of their own Religion they have little or no benefit of the Law when a Catholick is their Antagonist but when both parties are Protestants if one change or promise to change his Religion he is usually sure to gain the Cause And as they are banished from the Bench so are they banished from the Bar and Faculties For no Protestant can be Councellor Atturney Notary Chirurgeon Apothecary Midwife c. In one word they are made utterly uncapable of all employments Civil or Military and by that means are deprived of all Honours and better conveniences of life of all the comfortable means of subsistence and well-being which the Papists enjoy in their Offices at Court and in the Country in Peace and in War and in the Armies both by Sea and Land This is their miserable condition and what is yet worse their Children have liberty at Seven years of Age to chuse their own Religion and if to prevent the mischief that may follow upon this they send them away they must forfeit a years revenue of their Estates if they do not produce them within a year but if they do not produce them within two then they must forfeit the whole But in case they have no visible Estates then they are subject to Arbitrary valuations and to Arbitrary Fines imposed thereupon If their Children upon this liberty happen to change their Religion as many will do rather than endure wholsom Discipline their Parents are bound to maintain them as they do their other Children or else to allow them a Pension for their maintenance and their Daughters so changing may leave their Parents and go into Nunneries when they please This is the complement of all their other miseries and to avoid so great a mischief it is that they fly in flocks to Protestant Countries that they may save the Souls of their own bowels and not have them bred up in Popish darkness and the regions of the shadow of death Some have slipt away by night with their Families and driven without intermission till they have got out of their imperious Princes Dominions and others as is credibly reported have shipt off their little Ones pack'd up in Bales of Merchantable Goods As for their Ministers they upon any pretended crimes are banished fined or imprisoned on purpose to make them forsake their Flocks and discourage the People from putting their Children to the study of Divinity Nay they are in an especial manner obnoxious to the barbarous cruelties and insults of the Souldiery who have free Quarter upon the poor Protestants whom they abuse to what degree they please In some * As Poictou Xaintonge and about Rochelle Provinces they trail them like dogs by the neck to Masse torture them till they renounce their Religion and most inhumanely misuse or murder those whom God enables to resist unto bloud and though these tyrannical and arbitrary outrages be not done by open order yet it may be presumed they are done upon connivance and according to the secret will of the Supream Authority since those that do them are neither punished nor restrained notwithstanding the complaints which the sufferers daily make at Court These barbarous insolencies added to the severity of the Royal Edicts you may be sure adds wings to their haste and makes them fly in great hurry and confusion into foreign Countries and the providence of God hath cast many of them like ship-wracked men on our Coasts and expects that we should shew them no little kindness but receive them courteously and do good unto them in an especial manner as unto them that are of the houshold of Faith They are Persecuted but we must not forsake them they are grievously cast down but in such an exigence as this we must not let them be destroyed IV. And therefore I proceed in the last place to shew that it is our duty to help and assist them to encourage and support them in this time of calamity to refresh their bowels and minister unto their pressing wants For there are but three ways by which the spirits of persecuted men can be supported by the testimony of a good Conscience the comforts and joys of the Holy Ghost and the charitable assistance of their Brethren when as the Apostle speaks the members have the same care one for another and if one member suffer all the members suffer
syllabis nec in veteri nec in novo instrumento tradantur de iis tamen ut utroque fundatis inter omnes semper convenit Christianos demptis tantummodo paucis quibusdam haereticis quorum in religione haud major habenda est ratio quam monstrorum in naturâ Sic etiam Infantes sacro Baptismate abluendos esse sponsores ad illud Sacramentum adhibendos dominicum sive primam per singulas septimanas feriam religiosè observandam esse Passionis Resurrectionis Ascensionis Domini ad Coelum nec non Spiritûs Sancti adventûs commemorationem per singulos annos peragendam Ecclesiam ubique per Episcopos à Presbyteris distinctos iisque Praelatos administrandam esse Haec per mille quadringentos ab Apostolis annos in publicum Ecclesiae usum ubique recepta fuerunt nec ullam intra illud tempus invenire est Ecclesiam in ea non consentientem adeò ut quasi communes sint notiones omnium ab origine Christianorum animis insitae non tam ex ullis particularibus Scripturae locis quam ex omnibus ex generali totius Evangelii scopo tenore ex ipsâ religionis in eo stabilitae natura proposito atque ex constanti denique Apostolorum traditione qui Ecclesiasticos hujusmodi ritus generales ut ita loquar Evangelii interpretationes per universum terrarum orbem unà cum fide propagarunt Alioquin enim non credibile imò vero impossibile prorsus esset ut tam unanimi consensione ubique semper ab omnibus reciperentur Vid. etiam Cassandri defensionem officii pii viri adversus Calvinum Catholick principle for what part of Christianity for what Gospel Doctrine they suffer or in obedience to what Gospel Law for 't is no matter how much they are perswaded in their own Consciences and to what degree they suffer but do you enquire after their opinions and then try if they are any part of Christianity and if upon trial they be not found to be so their clamour and noise about persecution must be unjust and vain As for example there is now a loud cry among the Papists of the persecution of the Catholicks as they mis-call themselves and of the persecuting Laws against the Catholicks in England but suppose all our Laws were executed against them for what Article of the Creed for what Gospel-doctrine or Precept for what Catholick principle or for what part of Christianity would these Pseudocatholicks suffer are these Gospel-truths or Catholick principles that the Bishop of Rome is Christ's Vicar General and that he is Supream above all other Bishops of the Catholick Church Can they prove either by the Scriptures or by universal Tradition that he is infallible either in the Chair or out of it and that there is no Salvation to be had without the Pale and Communion of his Church Are these not to mention Transubstantiation Image-worship the Invocation of Saints and Angels Praying in an unknown Tongue c. any parts of the Christian system or did the Primitive Christians or so much as one Church of Primitive Christians know or profess these things No! they are not Articles of Faith nor Gospel-doctrines nor common notions of Christianity but contradictions to all these and the Doctrines and Traditions of men In like manner not to mention the late * Mitckel King Kid Hackston c. Malefactors in Scotland our dissenting Brethren here have made grievous cries about Persecution and their writings are full of reflections upon the persecuting Laws of invectives against the makers of the Law for Uniformity but for what Gospel-truth or Precept for what Catholick principle or for obedience to what Law of Jesus Christ did they ever yet suffer or can they suffer by those Laws Is this a Gospel-doctrine or Catholick principle that the original Government of the Church was Presbyterian and that the Government of it by Bishops above Presbyters and distinct from them is an alteration of the original Government and an usurpation over the Church of God If it be let them shew us when this disparity of Bishops from Presbyters began Let them assign the time of this universal Aberration and Apostasie from the Primitive platform whether it was done in the time of the Apostles or in the times next unto them If it was done in their time let them tell us whether it was done with their consent or without it or if in the times next unto them let them tell us the names of those Diotrepheses who did first attempt or atchieve it let them shew us so much as one Record that doth make mention of it or let them tell us how so great an alteration was made both over the Presbyters and over the Church and yet not one Church or Presbyter assert its right Or how it came to pass for example that Ignatius an holy Martyr Presbyter of Antioch should so early usurp the Ecclesiastical Government of * Ad Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syria at a time when there were such vast multitudes of Christians in it and elsewhere that ‖ Epist ad Trajan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tyberianus President of Palestine told the Emperor Trajan under whom he suffered that he was wearied with punishing and killing the Galileans and * Neque enim civitates tantum sed vicos atque etiam agros superstitionis istius contagio porvagata est satis constat propè jam desolata templa Pliny Propraetor of Bithynia told the same Emperor that the Christian Religion had so infected the Cities Towns and Villages in his Province that the Heathen Temples were become desolate and unfrequented or if Bishops then had not many particular Congregations under their inspection how should the same holy Martyr in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna distinguish between personal Communion with the Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with another Minister licensed by him and disallow all other Communions but such In like manner is it a Gospel doctrine or Catholick principle that Book-forms of prayer are unlawful or that God cannot be so worthily worshipped by them or in so spiritual a manner as by extemporary prayers Is there one place in the Bible that prefers extemporary before prescribed Forms of Prayer Doth the practice of the Catholick Church prefer those before these Or is there any thing in Scripture or Antiquity to shew that it is a sin for a Minister to wear a Linen garment when he officiates in the Church Are National Churches unlawful or inconsistent with the progress of the Christian Religion or the notion of Christian Union and Communion Doth either the Gospel or any thing in Christianity teach us that the use of Ceremonies is unlawful in Divine worship or that the Sign of the * Clem. Alex. Strom. l 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tertul de resur Caro abluitur caro signatur De corona Ad omnem frontem Crucis signaculo terimus
himself in Conclus Apol. pro Hieronymo which by the importunity of the Agents of the general Assembly he was prevailed with to leave out with great numbers more to be seen in Dr. Fern against Champney Bancrofts Survey ch 8. Mason's defence of the Ordination c. Dr. Durell of the Reformed Churches and the posthumous piece of Bishop Morton published by Sir Hen. Yelverton Lastly see Mr. de Langle and Mr. Claude's Letters at the end of the most worthy and most learned Dean of Pauls his Vnreasonableness of Separation which the late Agent at Charenton did in vain endeavour to make them retract though they have not Bishops yet their and other Reformed Writers have approved the Office and protested that they would if they could have retained them and desired that their rejecting of them might be imputed to necessity and not to their choice They have generally declared that they will submit to their own Bishops if they will Reform and some of them for want of Episcopal Government which they believe to be of Apostolical Institution have thought their own Churches deficient and in that respect not so perfect as ours They are formed into a National Church and are for National Churches detest Sovereign Independent Communions and their Ministers officiate in a distinct habit and are so far from disliking or undervaluing Liturgies that they Pray Baptize and Administer the holy Communion in Liturgical Forms They silence and suspend Ministers in their Consistories and Synods They would have had Church-Musick Organs I mean if they might and would condemn all those as guilty of Schism who only under the infinite pretence of purer Ordinances and purer Worship would set up private Congregations and erect private Altars in opposition to the publick and then teach the People that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in Ecclesiastical matters but that they ought to repair to those Congregations where they find they can profit most No! they dissent not upon such thin and absurd pretences as these but for the same reasons that their noble Ancestors the Albigenses and our Ancestors since them dissented from the Church of Rome They do not only pretend Conscience and say their Consciences tell them that such and such things are unlawful but they produce the Rules and Precepts and Doctrines of the Gospel which those Doctrines which they cannot profess and those things which they cannot practise plainly contradict The reasons of their Non-conformity do not vary as time serves but they are the same that they were from the beginning and they are not such as would overthrow all Communions and destroy all the Churches that are or can be in the world In a word they dissent and disobey in the defence of the Gospel and of the plain and undoubted Gospel-truths They are the most noble essential and integral parts of Christianity which they adhere to and it is not so much a Christian as a Pagano-Christian a most corrupt tyrannical and Idolatrous Church to which they refuse to conform As Rome is mystical Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth So the Gallican-Church is a Province belonging to the mystical Babylon a Daughter of that Mother of Harlots full of Fornication and also drunk with the bloud of the Saints Her Kings have all committed Fornication with her but these are come out of her that they might not be partaker of her Sins This is their hard case they are reduced to a necessity of sinning or suffering and therefore their sufferings are truly and properly Persecutions for they suffer for Righteousness-sake and the Gospels-sake and according to the will of God 'T is for Conscience towards God that they endure grief for a good Conscience as the Apostle speaks which is opposed to an evil Conscience defiled with sinful principles and sin A good Conscience in the Scriptures is otherwise called a pure Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 2 Tim. 1.3 and it is compared to a body washed with water Hebr. 10.22 1 Pet. 3.21 because it is devoid of all sinful prejudice and corrupt affections which pervert men's understandings and render them indocile and are able to make them call black white and white black The same is called in the Parable of the Sower an honest and good heart because it receives the Truth with all readiness and impartially searcheth the Scriptures whether things be so or no and in what person soever this sort of Conscience is he would be glad to obey his Sovereign and be of the established Communion because he knows these are indispensable duties when they can be done without denying Gospel-doctrines or breaking Gospel-Laws Such ingenuous Souls will be ready to hear and ready to give an answer to every man that shall ask them a reason of their doings with meekness and fear and when they suffer for doing good as our French Brethren and fellow-members now do they are made partakers of Christ's suffering in this world and shall be made partakers with him in everlasting Glory among Martyrs and Confessors in the world to come III. Having now shewn first what Persecution is and secondly That our French Brethren are Persecuted I proceed in the Third place to shew to what a degree they are Persecuted and how deplorable their sufferings are and how uneasie and dangerous it is for them to continue in their Native Country where they are treated more like Slaves than Subjects and daily vexed with Julian Edicts and Decrees For they are deprived of the ancient Liberties which were granted unto them by former Princes the Father and Grandfather of this present King Many of their * Sedan the Colledge of Roche-foucaut and that of Châtilion Universities are dissolved and more than half their Temples razed contrary to the Faith of Oaths and Edicts and against the common right of Prescription of Three and Fourscore years They are not allowed to erect Free-Schools for the Education of their own Children nor Hospitals for the maintenance of their own Poor nor can they have the benefit of any already Erected without turning to the Popish Religion The Lords of Mannors among them who formerly had right to keep Ministers and set up the Reformed Worship in their own Houses and call their Neighbours and Tenants unto it by the sound of a Bell are now in a most Arbitrary manner deprived of that priviledge And in the Cities where they are most numerous Colledges of Jesuits or Houses of Mission for propagating the Faith are erected into which undutiful Children or Servants under a pretence of turning Catholicks may retreat when they please and in the greatest of those Cities where perhaps Ten School-Masters could hardly teach all their Children the late Laws allow them but one and their unjust Magistrates commonly none They are forbidden to set up the Fleurs de Luces in their Churches because they must not bear any marks of Royal favour and as a further token of Royal displeasure and contempt their chief