of a Riddle for he has in express Terms laid open his Design in the Explication of the Project Every body knows saith he that those who were so unhappy as to persevere willfully in their Errours and retire into these Countries where they are professed have contributed very much to the Troubles of the last War But one may now confidently say there is no more cause to fear c. in acknowledgement of this extraordinary benefit we enjoy by his Majesty's Courage and Conduct they have put an Hydra with her Heads cut off into the Hands of Fidelity with thâ—se words Audendâ— spes nulla super Those who fled out of France did shelter themselves under the Protection of the Protestant Princes who were very willing to be their Heads And they are the Hydra's Heads represented by the Author as cut off by the Peace that the King bath lately procured to his People The Republick of the United Provinces is counted very mild and indulgent but for all that they would not permit such an Affront as this should be put upon a King a Friend and an Allie After the Peace of Breda and the Campagne of the year 1667. they made a strict search after an Indiscreet Fellow who was accused of causing a Medal to be Coined with the Figure of Gideon stopping the Sun What they found out we do not know but 't is certain That the Medal hath never appeared abroad since and perhaps there never was any such This Jesuit besides his Impudence shews in this Abuse a great Stock of Rashness and Indiscretion Perhaps he was over-hasty in Celebrating the Funeral and making the Epitaph of the Reformed Religion We could easily prove by several Instances to the good Fathers and all those who are led by their Zeal and Example that their Prophecies and Visions do not always prove true Witness the Sede a Dextris of the Famous Anthem Sede a dextris meis donec ponam inimicos tuos Scabellum pedum tuorum persequar inimicos tuos Confringam eos nee convertar donec deficiant That is Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool I will pursue them I will destroy them I will not give over pursuing them till they be quite destroyed This was Solemnly Sung in all the Churches of Paris They have not made for above these Ten years any Speech Sermon Verses or Thanksgivings but they have all along supposed that Heaven was engaged to Restore King James upon the Account of King Lewis XIV his Piety who took up Arms to Vindicate this Prince's Quarrel thus dispossessed of his Throne and punish the Usurper of it They did not Discourse about the Event as a thing dubious In the mean time James was still at St. Germains and William Triumphing in London Every Body will be convinced that there is nothing more improperly applied than this Comparison Since King William hath been all along alive and Calvin's Heresie is dead and utterly destroyed in France But they would do well to remember that Sick People do frequently Recover of the most dangerous Distempers The Death of King William was some years ago believed at Paris with more Confidence than that of Calvinism is now And how many extravagant Fooleries were committed upon that Supposition every body knows but some weeks after they got nothing else but Shame and Confusion by it We have some ground to Hope that the magnificent Promises of the Fathers of the Society will prove ineffectual VVe see young People often get out of apparent Dangers And this Religion as young and new as it is may yet very well be Cured of this violent Disease There are many Heads yet behind on this Hydra to be cut off more than a Million of People must be put to Death And we do not believe That the Most Christian King's Wisdom and Humanity will ever allow such Executions They make him in this Pyramid hold a Discourse not much becoming the Grandson of Henry IV. Without the help of this Hydra bereft at this day of all her Heads the Glory of Extirpating Heresie had continued in the House of Guise and never come to that of Bourbon One word more about the Injury the Jesuist does us in that Emblem 'T is indeed a great peice of Indiscretion in him to force us to Recriminate The Heresie of Calvin and Luther is the Root of Rebellion Rebellion saith he Is the Product of Heresie But what is Popery I pray and what hath it been all along Would these Gentlemen have us to expose to their view at every turn the Assassinations committed at the Instigation of the Devout and Catholick Cabal upon King Henry III. and Henry IV. upon William Prince of Orange and many other great Persons upon score of their being either Hereticks or not Zealous enough to the liking of the Holy Society Who can Read without Horrour the History of England for these Ten years past When we see Murtherers upon Murtherers and Heads cut off still growing up again and supplied by new Assassinates of every Nation These are not only English Jacobites but French-Men also sent into the Camp upon that Service such as Grandval Dumont and such like Monsters There are at this very time lying in our Goals Murtherers who are no English Men who are so far from loving King James that on the contrary they perfectly despise and hate him and who for the Catholick Gang's Sake had devoted themselves to Murder this Prince with whom they are resolved never to be at Peace There is matter enough to write whole Books upon this Subject therefore we will lay it aside I will only say this in behalf of these poor Reformed whom they disguise in the shape of Monsters the better to represent their Cruelty and Rebellion that Thanks be to God they have not done any thing in the last War that looks like a Treasonable Attempt They are not very much obliged to them for it will the Jesuit our Adversary say they were well enough assured that all their Endeavours had been to no purpose But who does not know that Revenge is Sweet to those whose Patience is tired out and are not restrained from it by the Fear of God The good Catholicks and Bigots of the Society would have put all and the Towns of France too to Fire and Sword had they been Persecuted and Tortured asCruelly as we have been The Holy Catholick Church under the conduct of Garnet and Oldcorn two English Martyrs after the Jesuitical Fashion had in the time of King James I. contrived the Gun-Powder Treason in order to Blow up at once the King all the Royal Family and whole Nation but they were not dealt with so severely as they do now with us It did not lie in our power to be shorter in complaining of so Notorious an Affront Had the Jesuit acted as a private Man we should have taken no notice of him for this is the way and practice of his Society But
this is an Injury supported by publick Authority and a piece of Baseness attended with all the Evidences of Approbation 'T is a great instance of Cruelty to persecute the Unfortunate even to the Scaffold Comforters are granted even to Malefactors and 't is not lawful for any to Revile them at the very place of Execution But these Men even whilst they are putting us on the Cross add to our Torments the most terrible Abuses Well then It seems we are appointed to Die our Heads must be taken off without Hope of Redemption However let them give us leave to Die with our Innocence about us This is a Refining upon the implacable Revenge of the Italian who finds out a way to kill both the Body and Soul of his Enemy They do intend with the same stroke to Bereave us at once both of our Honour and our Life I desire you Dear Brethren to observe That God's Providence hath over-ruled in this Case in order to Comfort those that are concerned in it by the consideration of a wonderful Resemblance of ours with our Saviour's Sufferings You are lifted up on a shameful Pyramid as your Lord Jesus was on a Cursed Cross His Punishment was the Work of the Scribes and Pharisees who sat on the Chair of Moses Your Disgrace is exposed to the view of all by these Wretches wicked and ignorant Bigots who call themselves the Masters of Christ's Chair Jesus is Crucified on Mount Calvary and exposed Naked to the Sight of all as a Rebel to his Sovereign as an Impostor making himself the Son of God that he might become a King and gathering People together to intice them from their Allegiance to Caesar and they put over his Head an Inscription signifying all that King of the Jews that is who had a mind to be so and had moved the Subjects of the Empire to Rebellion And as for you Poor and Faithful Members of Christ you are Crucified in Greve on the Pyramid as Hereticks Rebels Impostors and Disturbers of the publick Tranquillity and Enemies to your Kings The Figures and Words of the Emblem are the Title of your Cross Another likeness of yours with Christ and his Members is this The Ancient Tyrants put Skins of Lions Tygers and other Wild Beasts on the Primitive Martyrs to render them thereby more Odious to the People But now a-days Wild Beasts are not horrid enough in the Eyes of your Adversaries They fetch out of Hell a Monster with a Hundred Heads to Cloth you with all Nevertheless Let us take Comfort My Dear Brethren God hath better Notions both of us and our Holy Religion than they will have the world to conceive and our Enemies have just cause to fear that God judges of them as they would have others to think of you and will at the last day deal with them as Blood-Thirsty Tygers That will be the day of our Triumph but it will also be a day of Retribution The Princes of Persia being jealous of the favour Daniel was in got Surreptitiously from the King's Goodness unjust Decrees against him Daniel is indeed cast into the Den of Lions but respected by them and in the morning comes safe and sound out of it and his Accusers are cast into it and the Lions brake all their Bones in pieces before ever they came at the bottom of the Den and Eat them up So you will get out of your Anguishes and your Life shall be unto you as a Prey and your Persecutors shall go into a Pit full of Lions that is Devouring Devils We do not wish them this dreadful Calamity on the contrary we do pray unto God for their Salvation and Conversion and say Father forgive them for they don't know what they do Grant them O God true Repentance whereby they may say Men and Brethren What shall we do to Expiate the Sin of having Crucified the Lord of Glory But let us finish the Picture of our Miseries After so terrible a Declaration of renewing the War against us as that of the Pyramid of Greve we could expect from thence nothing else but the most Barbarous Hostilities The First of that Kind which appeared was the King's Declaration prohibiting his Subjects to settle themselves in Orange and Exercise there the pretended Reformed Religion This bears date November 23. and the Pyramid November 16. there is betwixt these two dates but seven days difference they had no mind to allow the Reformed any time to breath or conceive any hope This Declaration was back'd by another dated the 13th of January following which explains or annuls rather an Article of the foregoing Declaration whereby it was lawful for the Kings Subjects to go to Orange and sojourn there upon the account of Trading The Bigots saw very well as they supposed that the new Converts would make a very ill use of that Clause and often pretend a great deal of Business in that Town and therefore they thought fit to Enact That the new Converts should not go and Trade at Orange without taking out a License and a Pass from the Governors of their respective Abodes and approved of by the Commanders of the Towns in the Neighbourhood of Orange that is they put them upon an impossibility The Penalty to be inflicted on those who contrary to the prohibition would presume to go thither either to hear Sermons or perform any Religious Exercise whatsoever is Death and on those who should take no Pass to be sent forthwith to the Galleys for Life if Men and Five years Prison and Three thousand Livres Fine if Women There are some Particulars in this way of Proceeding worthy our Attention or at least some Glances by the way The Pain of of Death pronounced against the New Converts who going to Orange under pretence of Trading should assist at any Congregation of the Inhabitants of that Place is one of these Particulars and it is such as perhaps the like could not be found in all the Histories both of Persecutors and Persecutions 'T is an horrid thing for one to extend his Authority on the Conscience so far as the Dominions of other Sovereigns it was generally believed that a Criminal had nothing else to do to get a sanctuary but to remove into Foreign Territories A Rivulet secures an unfortunate Wretch nay a Parricide The Merciless Creditors of his and the Avengers of Blood have no more authority to prosecute him because he is fled into another Jurisdiction but the Crime of Calvinism is of so high a nature that nothing can protect it against punishment We should be amazed at it had we not seen the French King's Consuls and Envoys at Lisbon the Seat of the Inquisition at Smyrna and Constantinople which are inhabited by Turks and Infidels enjoined to prosecute drive away and ruine all the French Merchants of the Protestant Religion This kind of Zeal was never seen before Our Astonishment would not perhaps be so great had this Prohibition been enforced by a
the Low-Guienna and are told by some who come over to us that there is no Piety nor Religion practised there chiefly among the younger People who spend their time in Drinking and Gaming whilst the Papists are performing their Superstitious Devotions and add that many of them have no knowledge of Christianity Those who were entrusted with the Care of their Education have contented themselves barely to Exhort them not to go to Mass and so they are not Papists but then they are not Christians Thus they let the Truth perish and your Neglect will contribute to the Ruine of the Church more than the Violence of your Persecutors for if God should Chastise you as you deserve he would utterly extinguish the light of Faith among a People which doth not care for it And therefore 't is not now our Business to afford you Comfort and we must forbear doing it till you give evident Proofs of your Godly Sorrow and sincere Conversion in order whereunto let us intreat you for the present to acknowledge that God is Just in his Judgments and even Merciful in the continuance of your Sufferings and to make a good use of all those places wherein you are exhorted to a speedy Repentance in hope of a speedy Deliverance Let us search and try our ways and turn unto the Lord Lament 3.41 Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly Pardon Isaiah 55.7 Our Ark is broken in pieces and our Wrecks float upon all Seas But let us gather our selves about our Noah our Jesus the Author of the Tranquility we hope for and follow particularly his Example Did he ever slacken his Zeal in his Persecutions And when the House of God was become a Den of Thieves did he not Consecrate the Wilderness by his Holy Prayers Did he not openly and couragiously own himself to be the Son of God before those Unrighteous Judges who Sentenced him to Death Do you the same If they ask you such Questions as these Are you Pretended Reformed Calvinists and some of those Hereticks who maintain that the Roman Church is the Spiritual Babylon Answer with a Courage becoming the Disciples of Jesus I am one of those whom you call Pretended Reformed I am not an Heretick but Believe in God speaking in his Holy Scriptures and Worship him according as my Fathers were Taught by the Prophets and Apostles and look on the Communion both of the Pope and his Religion as very dangerous and inconsistent with the intention I have of being saved But for God's Sake think Dear Brethren how much you are obliged to lead a Holy Life answerable to that pure Christianity God hath trusted you withall We have not taught you a Gospel Sophisticated through Philosophy Tradition of Men. Superstitions Idolatries and such abominable Maxims of loose Morals as the Jesuits and other Persecutors use to do You have not learned Christ so But what good will that do you if you have been well instructed but yet live very wickedly Learn we beseech you that a wavering and vicious Faith does as little contribute to ones Salvation as a Faith defiled with Errours if you do not Repent you shall likewise Perish We grant you are in a Condition very dangerous to your Salvation For you see on one hand a Bigotted People compleatly armed pursuing your Saviour with Swords and Staves and on the other Courtiers who have no more Devotion than what is requisite to attend their Prince to Mass and to put in Execution his most severe Orders against you But we know very well that most of them do not Believe in God and make no scruple to commit such Excesses as Sodom and Gomorrha would perhaps abhor Many of your Convertors are of such a Character as would strike one with horrour We have already acquainted you with the Discourse of the Intendant of Languedoc and now will relate that of a Governour of a Place in the same Province as it was communicated to us An Inhabitant of the Hague hath received a Copy of a Letter from Nismes containing a Dialogue no less dreadful than curious as follows The Governor of St. Hippolite having called the Chiefs of that Town together Exhorted them to go to Mâ—ss by such Reasons as Soldiers and Good-Fellows use to do These poor People holding their Peace at it the Governor said unto them Speak or give me some reason or other One of them Answered thus Well Sir since you will have us to speak I 'll tell you in the name of all those here present that neither we nor our Children will ever go to Mass do with us as you please for this is our Resolution The Governor reply'd You are a Company of Wretches go to Mass I say carry your Psalms thither and read them till you be tired Perform in your Houses all the Exercises of your Devotion and by that means you may laugh in your sleeve at the King his Declarations the Intendant my self and the Curate here present whom you may send if you will to all the Devils in Hell Hold Sir saith the Curate I had rather they should go to them than my self They omitted in this Letter many Circumstances for Brevities sake In the end of it is said That these poor People having withdrawn themselves have been Fined and constrained to pay it down You see here the Romish Church drawn to the Life Thus is the Nation framed in which you live viz. They are ignorant and cruel Bigots on one side and on the other Brutes without Conscience and Religion and what way soever you turn you see nothing but Precipices and Scandals But still your Duty enjoyns you to go betwixt these two Precipices by resisting the Persecutions of those who will drag you to Mass and to separate your selves from those wicked Pleasures which Bewitch you The Precepts we give you are but General but we must prescribe you some Particulars to teach you the way whereby you may disappoint the Designs of the Devil and all his Agents and make you know they are not as yet gone half way in your Total Destruction Our Enemies have conceived great Hopes of seeing their Undertaking to End in the speedy and entire Extirpation of the Reformed Religion in France but without pretending to Prophecy we may truly say their Design is not so near it's Accomplishment As God's Providence uses to put his Church into the Fining Pot not to Destroy but to Try her so has he put her Enemies upon such means as are never like to succeed 'T is now above 30 or 40 years they have been very busie about finding out some infallible Ways to Ruin the Protestant Religion in that Kingdom and have not been able as yet to determine what Course to take Hence proceed that uncertainty and indiscretion of their Conduct since the Pyrenaean Treaty They were agreed in