Punishment lesser than the Wheel and Gibbet But this is certain that all Europe stood amazed at that Clause 'T is easie to discern that both Declarations have a double end First To deprive the new Converts of the Means of receiving any Comfort or Instruction And Secondly To ruine the poor Inhabitants of Orange the sad Remains of a Barbarous Persecution Since they were not dispatched by the Blows of the Dragoons who forced them to Mass their Punishment now must be to Starve by being bebarred of all Commerce with their Neighbours This is sufficient to undeceive those who believe the King of England Soveraign of Orange hath not done what he could to break off the Yoke of the Reformed in France he who could not continue Master in his own Dominions would have had much ado to make himself Master in the Territories of such a Neighbour Here is another Particular The Zeal make they King Lewis the XIV say we have constantly had for the only and true Religion having excited in us the desire of suppressing Heresy This is a new way of Expressing ones self in all the Declarations and Decrees formerly published against us they were pleased to design us by the Name of R. P. R. that is Pretended Reformed Religion but now this Religion is improved to an Heresie even in the Declarations set out against the Protestant Princes to whom they should be more Civil than they are to Subjects The Declaration is issued out under what Title soever you please but really and defacto against the Sovereign of Orange who is not at all subject to the French King They make no scruple to declare him an Heretick and his Religion a Heresie both at Rome and wheresoever the Bull of Caena Domini is publish'd and in France where the Decisions of the Council of Constance one whereof is That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks are so much reverenced any body may easily understand the Consequences of such a Declaration in respect to the King of England but 't is very well for this Prince that he is not liable to the Inquisition and God hath put him in a Capacity of being able to deal well enough with all those who will not perform what they have promised to him Here is another Clause at which Judicious Men have been mightily surprised As all our Desires had no other Aim but the Glory of God and the maintaining of his Church he has been pleasâ—d to bless them hitherto with all the success we could wish and we were extreamly pleased to see that even the greatest part of those whose Conversion lookt the most suspicious have acknowledged and sincâ—rely profâ—ssed the true Religion but as there still remains some c. 'T is not a Matter of great Wonder to see a King lying under so gross an Ignorance since they have raised so many Rampiers and Bulwarks about him on purpose to hinder thereby all the Truths of De jure and De facto all the Instructions Complaints Grievances and all the Objects capable of conveying Light into the Mind and Equity into the Heart from having access unto him but one cannot forbear being astonished at the boldness of those who impose upon that Prince's Credulity it is so far from being true that the most part of the Reformed are termed Papists bona fide that on the contrary the number of those who have been misled and continue in the Romish Religion by some slender degree of persuasion is so small that not one in a hundred and perhaps in a thousand could be found There are some Women and young Girles who although of the Protestant Religion were filled with a sort of a Whimsical and Blind Devotion proceeding rather from the weakness of their Understanding than the tenderness of their Consciences These poor Creatures have let themselves be deceived by the Pompous outside of the Romish Religion and by the shews of Piety which are to be seen chiefly in Nunneries but these being excepted we can assure you that all Wise Ingenuous and Judicious Men are still of the same Opinion only that their aversion against Popery is mightily increased since the time they see it under the Garb of the Dragon If there are no Protestants left but a few obstinate People why then is so much care taken before-hand against so small a number Why then did so many Frenchmen say both in Holland and Paris that if some Course or other was not taken about it all the Countrey of Orange would become a Town as big as the Principality it self Why have the Neighbouring People of Orange been so easily persuaded that Poperty was the true Religion and the Inhabitants of that Place bewitched with such an unbelief as to hold out for the space of 10 or 12 years against any Instruction and Persecution whatsoever in so much as they returned as soon as possibly they could to the Reformed Religion The Bishop of Orange and his Clergy are indeed Bunglers in Comparison with the Bishops of Montpellier and Nismes c. who made so many sincere Converts One must confess that such oversights afford those who suffer Persecution some little satisfaction and a kind of revenge If it be so that the number of stubborn People be so inconsiderable to what purpose then do they take so great a care to shut up the Gates of the Kingdom Why then do they see yet Four or five thousand of the Reformed at once meeting in one single Precinct of it It were to be wished that the Most Christian King would get better information in this Matter for then he would not suffer himself to be so exposed as he is in this Declaration and in that of February the 10th the Title whereof is this The Kings Declaration giving leave to those who are gone out of the Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Command to return within six months upon Condition of Professing and Exercising the Religion of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church wherein they set forth that a great number of those who were so unhappy as to be gone into Foreign Dominions notwithstanding all the prohibition to the contrary have desired to return into their own Country to profess the C. A. R. R. and that we out of our accustomed Goodness to all our Subjects have granted them particular Licenses so to do and have been also graciously pleased to grant a general one to all others who desire the favour What Equity can one expect I pray from a Council who hath either so bad Intelligence or so little Fidelity They make the King believe and say a great number of those who departed the Kingdom for the sake of Religion desire to return to Mass than which nothing was ever more false with respect to his Majesty be it spoken into whose Mouth these Impostors have put these Words True it is that those who are called Refugees did endeavour to get Liberty to return into France and withdraw their Effects from thence
not fit that the Protestant Princes should have no satisfaction for the Money they had advanced towards carrying on the War in which they had spent four times as much as the Roman Catholicks To the King of Spain they would have Catalonia Luxemburg Heinant and part of Flanders to be restored To the Duke of Lorrain his Dukedom To the Emperor Philipsburg and Friburg To the Prince Palatine the Palatinate To the Empire many Places upon and on this side the Rhine all this put together made up a Kingdom of Restitutions England as well as the States of Holland sued for nothing and so it was but reasonable they should procure the Protestant Religion some advantage since this was the only concern they had in the present Case It seemed to us they could oppose nothing to all this but their usual Answer viz. The impossibility of making the best of all these good Reasons in the present Juncture of Affairs To this we were sain to submit But you will see however by what we have said that we did not omit any thing necessary to perswade the Plenipotentiaries into a necessity of Negociating our Restauration When we perceived it could not go that way we were forced to have recourse to a bare Intercession and endeavoured that it should be at least powerful urgent unanimous and drawn after such a manner as might be best able to answer our End In short after many Conferences among these Gentlemen upon the Matter they agreed to Word their Intercession after the Form you may have already seen and may see here as follows Memoirs of the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the Protestant Princes in behalf of the Reformed Churches in France WE the Confederates of the Protestant Religion Considering the Calamities many of the Subjects of his Most Christian Majesty professing the same Religion with us have suffer'd and still do suffer upon the account only of serving God according to the Dictates of their Conscience A Liberty the said distressed Subjects might reasonably hope for by the Law of God by the Precepts of Charity and especially by the Laws of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty and which they are to enjoy as good and faithful Subjects who have constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereigns The said Allies moved by these Motives of Justice and Compassion are so much the more concerned for these Afflicted People by how much the more that the Miseries they suffer continuing still since the Peace has been re-establish'd might be imputed to the hatred of his Most Christian Majesty against all the Protestants in general a Consideration which would mightily disquiet the Princes of that Religion who hope by the Peace to live in Amity and keep a good Correspendence with his Most Christian Majesty and therefore it concerns them also to know what will become of so many of the said Subjects of France who have forsaken their Native Country and fled into the Dominions of the said Protestant Confederates for shelter to the end that they may incourage them after the Peace to return home if they can do it with freedom and a good Conscience Therefore the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the said Allies of the Protestant Religion having full Power to Treat about a General Peace think themselves obliged to recommend earnestly in the Name of their respective Sovereigns and Masters to their Excellencies the Embassadors of his Most Christian Majesty having also entreated his Excellency the Mediator to contribute his good Offices thereto that that Ease which this Distressed People have a long time most passionately desired be granted them and they may be re-establish'd in their Rights Immunities and Priviledges in Point of Religion in order to enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience and that those who are either in Prisons or otherwise detained be released and set at Liberty that so the said Afflicted Protestants may reap their share of the Peace which Europe is in all probability shortly to enjoy Delivered into the Hands of his Excellency the Mediator September 18. 1697. Concordare Vidi LELIENROOT It cannot be denied but these Memoirs are very Good Judicious Wise Respectful and yet very pressing as much as the Juncture of time could permit The first thing the Ministers of the Protestant Princes did was to declare That they did not look on themselves as two distinct Bodies but that they espoused the Interests of the Reformed in France as of their own Brethren They represented to the French King very nicely but yet with great plainness how much it concerned him not to reject the joint Intercession of the Protestant Princes That this great Concern of his was to give them good grounds to trust him for the future To make Peace with such powerful States as England Holland the Elector of Brandenburg the Princes of the Mighty House of Brunswick and so many Princes and Towns of Germany professing the Protestant Religion and at the same time to refuse them a thing so reasonable was to renounce all the Maxims of the best Policy and leave in Men's Minds immortal seeds of a War which will break out at the first opportunity Those who truly love the Protestant Religion will no doubt remember it and those who have no great kindness for it will not be sorry to have a Pretence ready of being angry at and revenged for those many Affronts they have received from the French Court. It was a piece of great Prudence and Wisdom of the Protestant Confederates to mention the Laws of the Kingdom of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty by Virtue whereof the Reformed are to enjoy all the Priviledges granted them as good and faithful Subjects who constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign This Clause fully answers the Objection the French had very often made unto them What authority had they to pretend that the Protestant Religion should be re-established in France seeing most part of them would not so much as tolerate the Publick Exercise of the Catholick Religion nay said they in some of the said Protestant States it was Death for one to turn Roman Catholick To this they prudently reply'd That they kept the Laws of the Kingdoms and States made either in the first Settlement or Reformation of the same but that on the contrary the Most Christian King by expelling the Reformed had broke all the Laws of his Kingdom Laws I say Fundamental Laws stiled Perpetual and Irrevocable Laws ratified in all the Supreme Courts of France received and approved by all the Orders of the State Laws renewed by all the Predecessors and Ancestors of the Prince who now sits upon the Throne and in short Laws Confirmed by his Majesty himself This Article of the Allies Demand suggests another Answer which is this The Subjects of the Most Christian King professing the Reformed Religion have all along behaved themselves as good and faithful
Intendants and to so many Eye-Witnesses as we have upon the respective Places We cannot insist any longer on such sad and doleful Particulars and therefore we have but just touched upon them but this short glance is enough for our purpose to stir up the Compassion of all Protestants Now the Compassion we desire is not such as consists in Words and Complaints much less in Expressions as evaporate only in Reproaches and have no real Effect 'T is properly Assistance and Relief we beg for the Afflicted Church and that not for the French Church only but also for all the Protestant Churches of Europe which are now more fiercely attack'd than ever they have been since the Reformation No sooner were they born but there was a Conspiracy to stiffle them in the Cradle and in order thereto the Antichristian Rome became every where a Boutefeu increased the Cruelties of the Inquisition set up Gibbets kindled Fires in Spain Germany England and France many Rivers of Blood and many horrid Massacres in France and in the Netherlands under the Reigns of Francis I. Hâ—nry II. Charles IX and Henry III. all French Kings and of Philip II. King of Spain In the beginning of this Age the Protestant Church sound some protection and enjoyed some ease whereby she recovered strength but we must also confess that she degenerated very much during the time of her tranquility God Almighty therefore being justly provoked by our Iniquities and Contempt of his Truth hath about the middle of this last Age raised up three Princes great Persecutors of his Church viz. Leopold Emperor of Germany and King of Hungaria Lewis the XIV and James the II. There is no question to be made but that the destruction of the Protestant Church was resolved upon by these three Princes The natural and we may say irreconcilable Enmity between the two Families of France and Austria is no hindrance to such an Agreement because Popery hath contrived a way for its own preservation which no other Religion can have and the Protestants are wholly deprived of that is the Bishop of Rome the Center of a Temporal Union The several and distinct parts united to that Center need not hold any Correspondence to adjust their Designs they are joined to a common Head and have nothing else to do but to follow its Motions even at that very time when they are the most divided by their Temporal Interests The Emperor began the Persecution He put the Churches of Hungaria and Silesia to incredible Sufferings The Publick hath seen the History of that Persecution and chiefly the Relation of the Calamities of those Glorious Confessors who were sent to the Galleys of Naples and released by the means of the Dutch Lewis the XIV immediately after the Pyrenâ—an Treaty formed the Design of rooting the Protestant Religion out of his Dominions This Undertaking he durst not attempt during the Life of Cromwell who was indeed an Usurper and a Parricide too if you will but who for all that perfectly understood that the true Interest of England and of the Rulers of it consisted in becoming the Head and Protectors of all the Protestants in Europe This was his Masterpiece of Policy whereby be kept all Europe in awe After his Death Charles the II. was re-established on the Throne of his Ancestors This Prince being Educated by a Popish Mother in Popish Courts was in his youth prepossessed against the Protestant Relâ—gion and many Heresies increased in his Reign James the II. succeeded him and it was chiefly between this Prince and the French King that the Measures for the ruine of the Protestant Religion were concerted No sooner did the French Court see him on the Throne but she resolved to give the fatal Blow K. Charles died in February and K. James was at the same time proclaimed King His Advancement to the Crown was more firmly Establish'd by the Death of the Duke of Monmouth in England and that of the Earl of Argyle in Scotland The Edict of Nantes was recall'd in October the same year and every body knows what hath been done since King James though he was influenced by the same Jesuitical Spirit which swayed in both Courts could not however go on so fast as Lewis the XIV and yet nevertheless he had in three years time promoted his Religion more than Lewis had in thirty five when unexpectedly it pleased God Almighty by a Revolution which surprised all Europe to advance William the III. to the Throne of England and by that means to make the greatest part of the Designs of that Antichristian League to prove abortive These short and cursory Observations have no other Aim but to make the Protestant Princes sensible that there is a Plot on foot for their ruine The last Treaty of Peace with the Emperor confirms this truth for by a mutual Agreement with the Emperor's Plenipotentiaries they have inserted an Article whereby the Protestant Princes of Germany are deprived of the Authority of regulating Ecclesiastical Affairs in their own Dominions which had been formerly granted them by the Peace of Passaw and the Treaty of Osnabruck Nay they are constrained to tolerate the Publick Service of the Romish Religion in all the Countreys lately conquered and now restored by France True it is that these Protestant Princes have opposed it but their Oppositions are but bare Protestations which will always prove insignificant if not supported by other Means more effectual The Popish League will every day get strength and the Protestant Party decline now in one place now in another and shall we stand still unconcerned and see to the reproach of our Profession the ruine of the only pure Christianity which hath cost us the best of our Blood If they do not awake and exert themselves in the present Circumstances the Wrath of God will not fail to awake against so heinous a Neglect We will not presume to prescribe the Means proper to prevent the Consequence of the League since they are obvious to every body It will be enough for us to say that it is high time to think on 't and that e're it be long the Disease will be past Remedy The great Revolution in Europe which now seems near at hand by the Death of a King leaving no Issue to succeed him in his vast Dominions will give a fair opportunity to take the fittest Measures for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion For whilst these two great Adversaries of ours shall be obliged to employ themselves in deciding the greatest Controversy they have had for these two hundred years they may be prevailed upon to let fall their Persecution and then the Reformation if powerfully assisted may be able to gain ground upon the Common Enemy In this general Design of protecting and promoting the Reformation upon which Popery hath in this Age so much incroach'd the Princes and People concerned ought in our Opinion to take a special care to preserve the Reformed Religion in France
respect of your Persecutors We do not Exhort you to Value and Esteem them If they Persecute you through the instigation of a false Zeal they must be lookt upon as blind Men into whose Hands they have put a Sword and who make an ill use of the Authority that is given them to destroy the Flocks of our Lord. They are Children of Babel and Idumeans who set Jerusalem on fire and say Rase rase it even to the foundation thereof If they are base Ministers of the fury of Popery who tell you If the King had Commanded me to force you to turn Turk I would do it could you look I pray on such Men but with a great Contempt and Indignation They have neither Religion nor Conscience and if they have any of the last they give it Mortal Wounds by sacrificing it to their Prince and their own Fortune Such is the Bigotted Persecutor of Languedoc appointed by the Jesuitical Caball to depopulate the Province of France most inhabited by Reformed This Man hearing one day the Excuses of a Gentleman who declared to him his Scruples and saying he could not believe such and such things answered him in a haughty and furious manner Believe in the Devil if you will but you must go to Mass or c. Here is the Character of the Zealots of the Holy Society of Jesus But let your Persecutors be what they will you must have neither Compliance nor Society with them because you cannot be long in their Company but you will hear them railing against your Ancestors those Martyrs whom you ought to Reverence and those Truths which you must love a great deal more than your Lives Therefore avoid them and do nothing whereby they may think that your Zeal and Courage does in the least yield to their Sollicitations But here I must give you a Caution That from what hath been said you must by no means infer that we advise you in the least to deny your Persecutors the lawful Homages you owe them both as Subjects and as Christians for as Subjects you must obey them in all things they Command you in the Name and Authority of the Prince those you owe to God and your Consciences only excepted and as Christians you must pray for them forgive their Cruel Usage be Instrumental as much as you can to their Conversion and even assist them with your Temporal Goods if they stand in need of them But this last Advice is we think useless seeing they are rich and have got the most part of your substance already Proceed we now to your behaviour towards God The first of your Duties is Patience and Submission There is a God and an Holy and Wise Providence disposing of all Events with an absolute Power and a Justice which can very rarely be fathomed by us You do not apprehend say you the reason why God permits his Enemies to triumph so long But is this a matter of wonder that God is incomprehensible to you Will you conclude that he hath no Reason in his Proceedings because you do not comprehend them Shall you have less Respect for God than for a Prince whose Wisdom and Piety are well known to you for when you see him doing something which looks contrary to Equity you do not use immediately to conclude that he hath forgot himself and acts against his own Principles and Laws and yet this Prince may be mistaken in his Proceedings and in that case you may suspend your Judgment till either he himself or time discovers unto you the lawfulness of them but you must never call in question the Wisdom and Justice of God which are inseparable from him David silenced himself with this reason I became dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing Ps 39. v. 10. Jeremiah the Prophet shed flouds of Tears upon a Desolation like yours saying Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not Out of the Mouth of the Most High proceedeth not Evil and Good Lament 3. v. 37 38. Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 The Work of God and Men are so twisted together in our Misfortunes that we have much ado to distinguish them but for all that it must be done and then by a diligent inquiry you will discover that the Work of the Persecutor is the Work of the Devil who is our Adversary from the beginning and therefore you ought to hate and abhor it but the Work of God is good seeing he puts you into the Fining Pot in order to cleanse and purifie you like Gold and make your sincerity and the purity of your Faith to shine before Men. We might here set before your Eyes several Pious Considerations in order to Comfort you in these your great Sufferings but before we undertake it we would fain be convinced that you stand in need of Consolation for we are mightily afraid you are already too much comforted we have but too many Instances of your Insensibleness and that your Sorrow doth not answer the terrible Chastisements God hath visited you with You live without any publick Exercise of your Religion without Instruction Sermons Exhortations and even without Books And it is made High Treason for you to meet together in order to pray unto God in Woods and Hollow-rocks In the beginning of the former Persecution you seemed mightily concerned for your Calamities and in this last you have been awaken'd but alas you are soon fallen again into slumber You think that it is enough for you to forbear going to Mass This we confess is something but there are a great many among you who are so Complaisant as to appear in Churches Consecrated to a false Jesus whom they turn into an Idol and to Saints who are but Creatures And suppose that you should be so courageous as to refuse to go to Mass would that suffice think you to pacifie your Consciences by no means You will say perhaps we cannot publickly serve God but who can hinder you from shutting your Houses on the Sabbath and Holidays and making them as so many little Churches Why do you not read and meditate the Word of God Or Why should not the Master of the House be able to Instruct and Edifie his own Family in Private We would have you to know that we take a great care to be well informed of your Behaviour that we may from time to time give you Advices suitable to your Necessities We have been told indeed that there are among you several Wise and well ordered Families which practice the Rules we have just now prescribed you and therefore we give hearty Thanks to our Gracious Saviour that we are not as yet like Sodom and Gomorrha and that he hath reserved to himself a Remnant according to the Election of Grace But we know very well that this Remnant is very small in comparison of the rest for we have lately read Letters from
length all the Declarations issued out and the particular Orders sent to the Intendants of Provinces against the French Protestants since the Peace And secondly To shew the speedy and severe Execution of them by several Particulars which prove to the full the Violences Outrages and Murthers committed upon the Reformed and especially the Barbarous Vsage of almost 300 of them who have been sent to the Gallies upon account of Religion but because the mentioning of all these Particulars would have Swolln these Papers into a bigger Bulk than it was intended at first we are constrained to put off the Execution of our Design to another opportunity and besides we must consider that we are not Writing a Book but a Preface ERRATA PAge 13. line 32. after Ratification read of Peace p. 14. l. 2. r. which we are not concerned in l. 16. dele who was l. 31. r. which calls her self p. 24. l. 18. r. have done p. 25. l. 27. r. Cevennes p. 27. l. 7. after France r. made many Martyrs p. 28. l. 10. dele yet p. 30. l. 13. dele their l. 14. r. as many use to do p. 40. l. 22. r. all in vain p. 41. l. 32. r. of the Persecutors p. 43. l. 31. after Church r. Newremberg p. 48. l. 4. r. may expect p. 60. l. 30. r. righteousnesses LETTER I. Wherein an Account is given to the Protestants Persecuted in France of what hath been done in their behalf at the Peace of Reswick YOU may justly wonder dear Brethren that having openly professed for some years past how great a share we bore in your Sufferings you have not of late heard any thing from us particularly this last year wherein the Peace Europe now seems to enjoy hath been transacting We have been told indeed you expected very much from us and lookt upon those of your Brethren whom God's Providence hath settled in the neighbourhood of that Place wherein the most important Affairs were transacted as your Agents who for many Reasons were engaged to omit nothing that might contribute either to your Deliverance or your Comfort and therefore they were obliged to give you a faithful Account how far they had discharged the Commission which you had either expressly or tacitly given them We had certainly resolved to do it long since but were hindred and kept silent for several Reasons chiefly for fear of preventing the good Effects of some secret Resolution or other which our Persecutors might have made of abating their Fury and moderating their excess of Cruelty as they had all the Reason in the World to do it so we had just cause to think they would at last hearken to some of those Remonstrances which from all parts of Europe were thus addressed unto them What blind Rage pushes you forwards to ruine a great Kingdom to banish out of it by your Barbarity those who have never acted any thing but for its advantage to disoblige so many of the Allies who had no other End in Fighting with you but the procuring a solid Peace to shew such implacable Hatred against a Religion the Professors whereof have been for these Hundred years the Glory of your Crown to instill into and foment an immortal Jealousie in the Minds of those Protestants with whom you would be glad to live peaceably How can one rely upon the Word of those who break the most Sacred Promises and the Laws which they had Sworn to with the greatest Solemnity Will you be more faithful to your Friends than to your own Children Do you think that an Opportunity will not some day or other offer it self to express our Resentments of such a Contempt But all these Remonstrances have been to no purpose nay they have not so much as vouchsafed to hear them in the mean while we kept silence that these formentioned Complaints being offered without any interruption might be the better heard We were afraid lest a Word taken in a contrary sense might either give occasion or at least be made use of as a colour to prevent the Effects of what they called good Secret Intentions But there is not now any Reason for us to hold our peace any longer seeing we are Eye-Witnesses of the ill Consequences of a Peace so pernicious to the Church it is high time for us to inform you both of what we have already and further had a mind to have done both for the Comfort of the Reformed Church in general and your Repose in particular Know then dear Brethren that nothing has been omitted which might either put a stop to or allay the present Persecutions of the Church and in order thereto be pleased to observe that the Foundation of this great Work they had a mind to build upon hath been laid above these Ten years for they have made use of every Moment and Opportunity that might be most seasonable to move the Protestant Princes and States to the most tender Compassion and prevail upon them to contribute to the Ease and Relief of the Afflicted Church especially in the year 1688 in which happened the Revolution of England As it was very easie to foresee that so great a Turn would be attended with Consequences of the highest importance so they endeavoured to improve it to the best advantage and prepared aforehand all things in order to another kind of Revolution Accordingly their first Essays succeeded as well as one could wish the Princes who had an hand in this extraordinary Event did expressly promise they would sacrifice all things even their own Lives for the good of the Church They were pleased not only to say so but more than that they gave it under their Hands Since the time of this Promise so much valued by us every even the least Opportunity hath been improved to the keeping up of so great a Zeal This was chiefly done in the year 1694 when the Famine raged in France it was thought that the Government of that Kingdom would pity the Case of so many Wretches starving before their Eyes and Court Europe to a Peace in behalf of their own Subjects of both Religions Upon this new Motions were made which had as good success as the former The Protectors of the Protestant Religion gave fresh Assurances that they would use their utmost Interest to promote this great Work and ordered Memoirs at that very time to be drawn for it The famous Author of that Excellent History of the Edict of Nantes was particularly chosen for that purpose with what Success he discharged that Employment he may perhaps himself one day inform you of But as we were strictly injoined to keep the whole Affair private so it was communicated but to few Persons who religiously concealed it there were among them several of great Quality and many Zealous Members of high Courts Perhaps it might have been wished that the secret had been kept a little longer but it broke out when they began to discourse publickly about the Peace One of the most
considerable Refugees a Counsellor of the supreme Court of Paris was informed by one of the chief Members of the Republick of Holland that it was high time for us to look after our Concerns he had often promised to give us timely warning he was as good as his Word and the Person who received it set himself about drawing up the Memoirs they had desired of him after having first discoursed it with those whom he thought fit God hath taken him since into his rest The Memoirs he had drawn proved very good and so well digested that there was nothing either wanting or superfluous in them and so there were Two Persons who prepared these Instructions And though they did not act jointly or communicate their Work one to another nevertheless the things they laid down agreed exactly because Truth and Right are constantly the same and cannot vary We desire you to take notice that those amongst us who have taken care of the Publick Cause have not done it of their own Heads but were impower'd by the Permission nay by a special Order of their Superiors and so you are not to impute the ill Success to the Imprudence of those who might have meddled with these Material Affairs without any Power and Warrant so to do The Instructions then I say were well drawn and exhibited in due time for they were delivered a little before the Conferences about the Peace begun at Reswick The ill Success must be laid neither upon these Instructions nor upon the Authors of them nor upon the Sollicitors nor upon the Sollicitations themselves which were made by the most Eminent Refugees and that with a great deal of Zeal and Conduct seeing they have obeyed the Advices of those Superiors by whom they were to be directed and who set us upon uniting together all the Protestant Powers of both Communions that of Augsburg and that of Geneva We must plainly tell you that we had almost no other Reason for our undertaking these our Sollicitations but to pay our Duty to Truth and Justice though with a slender prospect of Success for we saw well enough that the Authors of our Miseries were fully resolved not to lessen them in the least and that our Friends and Protectors were not able to give Laws to a Prince who is a Persecutor out of an Erroneous Conscience but we ought however to act after such a way as you should have no reason to blame our Conduct in the least This is the Consideration we often represented to the Protestant Plenipotentiaries who were pleased to give us several favourable Hearings and we begg'd them many times to put us in a Condition to acquaint you that the Protestant Princes had done their utmost towards the lessening of your Miseries and the recovering of your Liberties some of them did very Nobly and with all the Marks of Sincerity promise us to do it However after having as well as we could disposed the Embassadors of the Princes of our Communion in our favour we endeavoured pursuant to their Advice to bring both Communions separated from the Church of Rome to an agreement not for such an union as it was reported abroad we have so often desired but only to prevail with them to concur and join their good Endeavours to obtain from the Most Christian King an abatement of the Persecution We plainly discovered in every Member of the Ausgburg Communion not only a tender Compassion for our Sufferings but also very favourable Intentions towards us they were very sensible it concerned them as well as us We made bold to represent unto them that if the Protestant Princes did not stir up their Zeal they would see the great Work of the Reformation that had cost their Illustrious Ancestors a great deal of Sweat and Blood quite ruined under their Hands We desired them to consider how much Popery had in this Age incroached upon the true Religion We exposed to their View the Churches of Bohemia and Austria quite destroyed those of Hungary in extream distress those of the Palatinate devolved to a Popish Prince The City and Church of Strasburg in the power of a Zealous Popish King The Church of England who had lately seen her self upon the brink of ruine by the Conspiracy of two Kings and lastly the Electorship of Saxony now in the hands of a Prince who lately changed his Religion to purchase the Crown of Poland We begg'd them to observe that by adding the Ruine of the French Church to the former Losses it was evident that the true Religion was exposed to the greatest danger more than ever We told them it was high time for them to look out for the fittest Methods to stop the successful progress of Popery and to raise a Bank against the fierceness of Persecution That there was as yet some hopes to save the rest and recover either the whole or some parts of our Losses That the Protestant Religion as weak as it was was strong enough to counterpoise all the united Forces of Popery The Most Potent King of England the High and Mighty States of Holland the Most Serene Elector of Brandenburg the Landgrave of Hesse the Kings of Sueden and Denmark many Princes and Free Towns of Germany the Cantons of Swisserland and their Allies all these I say make up a Body able to compel others to hearken to their Demands since they are able when they please to keep them in awe There was not one among these Plenipotentiaries to whom we represented these Arguments but did acknowledge the Equity of our Requests and the solidity of our Reasons They did both promise and act for they agreed to Name Seven or eight Persons to draw up their Demands We did what we could to have this Business Negotiated so as not to be satisfied with a bare Intercession from which we saw we could reap but small advantage We did represent that in the Treaties of Westphalia at Munster and Osnabruck the Affairs of Religion had been treated of That the French King himself had acted in behalf of the Protestant Princes of Germany that the House of Austria should restore what they had taken from them We did alledge twenty Presidents of Subjects who being protected by other Princes had treated with their own We said indeed that although the present War was not properly a War of Religion Religion however had done all because England and Holland had not made so powerful a League but for the preservation of their Religion as well as their Liberties for they had understood that they bore an ill will against both and therefore said we since Religion hath under other pretences armed the Protestant Princes it is not reasonable that Religion should be forsaken in this Treaty of Peace We added That the said Protestant Princes had a right to demand their being reimbursed for the vast Charges they had been at in this War and for the Blood of so many Subjects whom they had lost in it That it was
Subjects and consequently have not deserved to forfeit these Priviledges which Henry the Fourth and Lewis the Fourteenth himself had granted them as a Reward not only of their Fidelity but of their great Services too Whereas the Popish Subjects in the Reformed Dominions are as so many fierce Lions kept in Chains who get loose at every turn and Plot against their Sovereigns and the Government as occasion serves In fine we must observe that in these Memoirs the Allies demand all not in hope of getting all but in prospect at least of obtaining something for they did not question but the French would wrangle and maintain their ground with a great deal of Erroneous Zeal but they thought that by yielding by degrees something would be granted These Memoirs being finished and the Plenipotentiaries agreed thereupon the Question was only how to deliver them into the hands of the French Embassadors but they could not agree about the time some were of Opinion not to have them delivered till after the Peace was signed and their Reasons for it were such different Motives as need not be related here and yet we cannot deny but that the fear of delaying and stopping a Peace so much wish'd for by all was the chief spring of this Motion This Opinion had carried it and the Memoirs had been put off till the Signature Ratification of the Peace had it been made the last of August 1697 as the Allies and chiefly the Spaniards required it But the new Memoirs of the French Embassadors whereby they declared in the Name of their Master that he would take off Strasbourg out of his first Offers and keep that Place in lieu of Barcelona which he had lately taken This Proposal I say the Germans were frighted at and that was the Cause why the Conclusion of the Treaty was put off to the 20th of September This little respite we lookt on as particularly designed by God's Providence to put us upon doing his Cause further Service once more and therefore we waited on the Protestant Plenipotentiaries again and represented unto them that a Memoir in our behalf delivered after the Peace was signed would signifie nothing but make the Persecutors of France believe they were not sollicitous for our Concerns and that the French Court would think so too we went through great oppositions upon that Point but the steadiness of that Noble Lord who was the chief of the English Embassy and of the first Minister in Ordinary of that State carried it They were also very much supported by the Embassadors of the Confession of Ausgburg The Memoirs were then delivered into the Hands of the Mediator two days before the Peace was signed The French Embassadors did absolutely reject it at first saying they were strictly forbidden by the King their Master either to receive or give Ear to any such thing The Chief of that Embassy acted very Honourably but as one that is willing withall to follow exactly his Masters Orders The others did not conceal their hatred against the Protestants and let us see that by obeying their Master they did the same time gratifie their own Inclinations The chief of the Embassy did not think fit to refuse obstinately the Protestant Allies this small Courtesy which could do no hurt to his own Religion so that at last he promised to send the Memoirs to his Master accordingly it was sent to the French Court with all the Articles of Peace signed by England Holland and Spain and they were in great expectation of an Answer to the Memoirs together with the Ratification of the Peace When the Express was come they discovered that the French King had sent Orders to his Embassadors to pretend the Memoirs had not been sent and had through forgetfulness been left in the Chief Embassador's Pocket This was their Excuse to the Mediator when at the Messengers arrival he required an Answer to them However no body gave any credit to it but look't rather on it as a sham for they knew very well that all the Ministers of Princes are so exact as to omit nothing upon such Occasions and that there is no Writing though never so little nor even of the least importance but they will take care to transmit it to their Masters and if the French Embassadors had so neglected their Duty they would undoubtedly have lost their King's Favour but the Council of France had some Reasons for not irritating the Protestant Allies by a down right denial at a time when nothing was as yet ratified and they stood in need of every body For all this the Mediator would not so give over but urged that the Memoirs should be sent if they had not done it already and that they should require an Answer to it which came at last but a great while after when all was done and the Chief of the French Embassy departed The two others pleased themselves with Answering in their Masters Name That his Majesties Conscience could not consent to re-establish a Religion of which he had a very bad Opinion That he was so far from restoring the said Religion that he would not so much as see in his Dominions any of those Refugees who had fled out of it That if they had a mind to come back again he was willing to forgive them upon condition they should discharge all the Duties of good Catholicks That as to their Estates he could not restore them not even to those who should have a mind to return because he had already given them to others from whom he did not intend to take them away No body did wonder at such an Answer nevertheless it struck a great many who could never have believed but they would at least deal as favourably with the new Subjects of England Holland and Brandenburg as with the old ones and as it was Lawful for those to go into and come out of France about their own Affairs they thought the same liberty would have been granted to those who 12 or 15 years since had sheltered themselves in Foreign Countreys The second and sixth Articles of the Treaty with Holland are so plain in this Cause that several Inhabitants of Rouen and other Places had sent word to their Friends that by virtue of the Treaty they had liberty to come back and manage their Affairs in France without any fear of molestation The second Article includes a general Pardon without restriction in behalf of all the Subjects of the Most Christian King now in Service of the United-Provinces for it is there provided by this Article That the said Persons of what Quality and Rank soever may and shall re-enter upon and be fully restored to the Possession and peaceable Enjoyment of all their Estates and Honours c. without any Clause excluding Religion And in the sixth Article Religion is expresly named Those whose Goods and Estates have been sersed upon and escheated upon the account of the said War their Heirs or Assigns of what
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
but 't is not true that they have declared and let the Court know that they had a mind to come back again into that Kingdom in order to profess the Romish Religion on the contrary they look on this Calumny as the most Barbarous Persecution they can inflict on them in the Countreys wherein they enjoy a perfect Security This is to make them to be esteemed in the Eyes of the World as Vile Wretches without Religion Conscience and Honour who are willing to sacrifice all the Truths they profess and betray their own Consciences for the sake of a little Interest I say a little Interest for they do not promise them so much as the Restitution of their Goods and Estates which were forfeited and adjudged to their Relations To what end then should they return into France To starve there and not enjoy so much as what is necessary to lay their Consciences asleep after they have given them such Mortal Wounds We know all those who have desired the Embassadors Passes to return home but the number of them is inconsiderable and there was not any among them dignified and distinguish'd by any Title or Merit they are for the most part young People of Loose and Scandalous Lives We were lately told of a younger Brother of a good Family near Lorrain who is gone thither but this Example is so extraordinary that I do not know whether they can find out the like and were it followed with many more as the Declaration supposes they would not have taken so much notice of it All these Declarations were but the Preliminaries and Skirmishes to the greatest Assault that ever Persecution stormed us with 'T is true they did not intermit their Hostilities but committed them in the most bloody manner even during the Treaty of Peace Witness those who were Hang'd at Poitiers and St. Maixant though accused of no other Crime but of Praying to God against the Commands of the Court But they were all along willing to flatter themselves and believe these were the last Acts of the Tragedy and now they see that these Punishments had no other end but to undeceive us of our vain hopes as they termed them The Peace was not yet made with the German Princes the greatest part of which are Protestants when they began afresh and in good earnest the fatal War against the Reformed Religion From whence it appears that the French Court hath no regard to the Protestant Princes of Germany and stands in fear of no body else but of England and Holland she hath kept a kind of Truce with the Reformed till the Ratification of Peace with these two Powers but no sooner was she secured on that side but she took no further notice of the Sollicitations Demands Memoirs and Discontents of all the Germans upon the Point of Religion Witness the Articles concerning the re-establishment of Religion in the restored Countreys which she would not in the least consent unto The Treaty with the Empire was not yet Signed much less Ratified but Orders were sent into all Dioceses to make a new Visit to all the New Converts and especially to those who did not as they term it do their Duty Accordingly they went from House to House in order to have them declare what they intended to do for the future The most of them did Courageously profess they were resolved never to go to Mass any more The Persecutors were extreamly enraged at that Answer and resolved to trie the Patience of the Reformed to the uttermost and in order thereto they sent them to Prisons renewed the Prohibitions formerly made against going out of the Kingdom and gave publick notice in all the Seaports that if any Master of a Ship should presume to receive any Fugitive of ours he should be punished with the loss of his Ship Goods Liberty and Life of what Nation soever English Dutch Dane Swedes Dantzickers and be dealt with without Mercy They sent reiterated and strict Orders to all the Governors of the Frontiers to keep the Passes with the utmost diligence under severe Penalties to be inflicted on those Officers who should neglect their Duty herein A Decree was published in Montpellier enjoining all Persons whatsoever immediately to give in the Names of the Reformed who either were already or should hereafter come from Foreign Countreys in order to have them seized and constrained to abjure their Religion If we add to this what we have before-mentioned concerning the Declarations published and precautions used to hinder the Reformed of Languedoc from going to Orange on purpose to receive any Comfort and Instruction there we must confess that Measures were never better taken in the Council of Hell nor Prudence more overstretched and push'd on to damn People infallibly than these are You shall go to Mass you shall Adore a piece of Bread you say you believe it to be an Idol 't is no matter you must for all that Adore but I shall be damn'd in so doing 't is no matter that is it we desire and to the end you shall be so you shall find no Gate left open to make your escape You shall be stript of all you have and dispatched out of the way by all kinds of Misery 't is true your Death will be more lingering but then 't will be attended with despair and this is what we wish for because you will thereby be more certainly Damned It is to be feared that those who find such sure ways of Damning Men may also find as sure a way to go to Hell themselves In this case 't is not one blind Man leading another but a Blind Man dragging one that is clear sighted into the same Pit If either of them escapes surely it will not be he that forceth but he who suffers force Having thus shut all the Gates upon these Wretches they have drawn the Sword let loose the Hounds upon them and set up the Standard of Persecution against them It is impossible for us to relate all particulars as being too numerous The publick News inform us of some of them and those Eye-witnesses who come every day to us confirm them and the rest are to be seen in private Letters which are no Mystery to any Body and whereof they give Faithful Copies and Communicate them to the Supreme Powers that they may see what regard is given to their Intercession The Provinces of Poitou Guienna and Languedoc as the most populous are assaulted with greatest Violence A Decree was publish'd in those Provinces enjoining Fathers and Mothers to have their Children Baptiz'd at Mass within 24 hours upon pain of forfeiting Five hundred Livres Formerly they were contented to take away Children one after another but now they sweep them away as it were with a Net 20 or 30 at once and shut them up into Monasteries as they have at Bourdeaux The Bishop of Lusson in Poitou ordereth not only Boys but all the Girls and Women from five to forty years of Age
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
their General End and Design but knew not how to attain it The Prefaces of their Declarations and Decrees were commonly ridiculous and contradictory For under pretence of putting the Edicts in Execution they Enacted such and such things as indeed did utterly Destroy them What was Decreed by one Declaration was commonly Annulled by the next For when they took away any one Privilege from the Reformed they still confirmed all the others And these Exceptions which they made seemed for the present to strengthen the Rules But some Weeks after 't was quite another thing Twelve or fifteen Months before the Recalling of the Edict of Nantes a Decree was issued out whereby the Ministers were to be Transported into other Places when they had for some years served their first Parishes And amongst these rare Ordonnances there were some which were to be in force for twenty years and consequently the Edict was at least to last to that very time Nevertheless within a few Months after it was totally Repealed From hence it is obvious to every body That our Persecutors had not yet laid down a certain Scheme of their Proceedings but lived as we may say from Hand to Mouth and advanced as the emergent Occasions or rather as Fancy guided them Whilst they were thus floating in these uncertain and blind ways God's Providence hath led them in to take a Course which will never prosper with them But rather end in the entire Ruin of Popery Their false Prudence hath set before them several means to choose which they pleased The first was that of a general Massacre We do not question in the least but this Method hath been proposed and debated and there are some pretending to good Intelligence who gave out that they were resolved upon it and that Dispatches had been already drawn up for the Governors and Intendants of Provinces and Packets delivered to be sent out but that a great Man wiser and milder than the others had prevented the Execution of them and upon his Advice the Expresses were stopt This hath been publish'd in some Books written both in England and in English But for our parts we never believed it to be either true or indeed probable True it is That there is not any Design though never so Cruel never so Bloody but the Bigotted Cabal of Jesuits and Monks are capable to Contrive But we are also certain That there is not any Wise-Man in the Council of France but did look on such an Execution with Horror There are but few Bavilles in that Kingdom for he who has Massacred so many private Persons would have made no scruple of a General Massacre And besides the Slaughter of St. Bartholomew succeeded so ill that one would think they should have no mind to attempt it a second time We have no Reason to doubt but it hath been Debated whether they should Banish all the Protestants without Exception out of the Kingdom But those who know that the multitude of Subjects is the Strength of a Nation did not approve of that Proposition In the beginning of this Age The Council of Spain drove away Twelve hundred thousand Moors and Sarrazins but they know how much it hath cost them For this has given the great stroke to their suddain Decay and unavoidable Ruine At last after many Deliberations taken and laid aside they resolved to shut up the Reformed and prohibit their going out of the Kingdom upon pain of the Gallies and Forfeiture of their Goods True it is That by this means the Kingdom is not depopulated but then their Churches are filled with People driven thither with Cudgels and rendred Prophane and Hypocrites All the Exercises of any Religion but the Romish are forbidden upon Pain of Death and by Virtue of this Prohibition they have Hang'd a great many in Vivares Cevennes and other Counties It is Evident That those who thought to extinguish the Protestant Religion by this Method have but little Understanding and much less Memory We would fain have them to allege any Presidents of such Undertakings that have succeeded well by the ways they have used There is nothing in the World which takes so deep root in the Hearts of Men as what they call Religion They have for many years and without intermission exercised the utmost Rigours and yet have not been able to destroy the Religion of those People Christians have suffered in the East and under the Turks almost all that one can suffer and for all that the Christian Religion is yet every where spread there What have they not done in Spain since the Moors lost their Authority to extinguish Mahometanism but all vain and altho' they have expelled above a Million there are still a great many left behind who by concealing their Belief provide for their own Security What Cruelty have they not committed and still commit in those Countries where the Inquisition is established to Root out the Jews Religion but still to no purpose And 't is a Question Whether one half of the Portugueses be not still Jews Nevertheless they go to Mass and some of them are got into Orders and enjoy Ecclesiastical Dignities but no sooner are they got into a free Country but they openly return to the Jewish Profession We must conclude then that there is no certain way of Ruining a Religion but the utter Destruction of all those who Profess it By that means the Sarrazens have destroyed Christiianity over all the Coasts of Africa where formerly there were many and flourishing Churches viz. By cutting off all the Ancient Inhabitants And by that Method the House of Austria hath almost rooted out the Reformation in Bohemia and the Hereditary Countries It is true That without these violent Proceedings Christianity hath by Degrees abolished the Heathen Religion within the extent of the Roman Empire both in the East and West But this Example must not be made a Precedent because false Religions have their Periods as well as the States they must end some way or another But the Cause of their Ruin is not the Yoke imposed upon Mens Consciences but their own Imperfections The Ancient Heathenism was so hideous a mass of Absurdities that 't is no matter of wonder to see it quite Abolish'd On the contrary we may admire at its subsisting so long among Nations so Civilized and Polite as the Greeks and Romans One would have thought That Christianity had nothing else to do but to appear in the World to ruin this horrid System of different Gods that were often Enemies one of another and whom the Devil made Men to Worship with the most unclean and ridiculous Rites And yet every body knows How this Religion as foolish and ridiculous as it is hath held out against the Lights of Common Sense Reason and Faith And this may serve for another instance to prove How difficult it is to Extirpate Opinions which have taken a deep Root in the Minds of Men by a long Possession What outragious
Cruelties have they not used in the Spanish Netherlands to Extinguish the Reformation there and have not as yet compassed their Design Not even since the time that the French Court hath added to the Yoke of the Protestants These People have but a step into Holland which is a Free-Country but worldly Interests keep them still chained to that spot of Ground wherein they were Born and Bred. 'T is true they save themselves as much as they can the trouble of going to Mass and if sometimes they yield 't is out of pure Necessity Therefore we shall not determine any thing about their Condition The Question now is not whether they be good Protestants or no and whether they are in the way of Salvation but however this at least is certain that they are by no means Papists And consequently we may be assur'd That the Protestant Religion will never go out of France unless the Protestants themselves be gone first so that Imprisoning them within the Kingdom is the sure way to Immortalize their Religion From what hath been said it is manifest that the present Persecution is by no means advantagious to Popery And by what follows it will be as evident That the Romish Religion loses its Authority and Reputation in France and Peoples Eyes begin to be more and more open every day Both the Outrages and the Persecutors and the Complaints of the Persecuted make them very intent upon the great Concern of Religion which perhaps they never would have troubled their Heads with had they let things continue as they were a Hundred years since They have taken away from the Protestants all their Books but have not been able to Burn all these Books They are Treasures which have been dispersed by our Shipwrack and Religious Men have had a more favourable opportunity of making advantage of them because others have not been apprehensive upon that Account In short Let the Cause of this be what it will 't is certain that there are whole Cantons and Provinces full of People who earnestly desire a Deliverance from Popery We have been well assured by honest and credible Persons that there are great Cities of Threescore or Fourscore Thousand Inhabitants whereof one third have some knowledge and very favourable Sentiments of the Truth This we know for certain because we see for these 12 or 15 years Proselytes come over to us from Popery in greater number than ever We will not deny but that among these Fryers Priests and Clergy-men who heretofore left the Romish Religion there were but few who were not moved by a Spirit of Libertinism but at present the case is much altered For now we have daily come over to us new Converts of that Character which are very good Men and have a sincere and earnest desire to work out their Salvation nay some of them are very Eminent for their Ability and Merit So that there are now among these Proselytes as few Cheats as there were many heretofore We are informed by them that were the Protestant States as Zealous for Propagating the Truth as the Papists are for their Superstitions they would see flocking to them many able and worthy Clergymen It might be wish'd That the Protestant Sovereigns would mind this great Concern and consider how much it would contribute to their Honour to provide Sanctuaries and Maintainance for so many Learned Men and who are besides enlightned by a Supernatural Grace a Supernatural Grace I say for one must be willfully blind not to discover herein the Finger of God which rouzes up Consciences that lay fast a Sleep and communicates his Light at the same time that the Devil endeavours to spread his Darkness But we must confess That the great necessity these Clergymen are threatned with by forsaking both their Native Country and Religion is a powerful Temptation that few are able to overcome 'T is indeed a great Affliction to a tender and compassionate Man to be forced to send away Persons of a good Character and sincerely Converted because he is not in a Condition to keep them from Starving But these things may alter when God Almighty shall be pleased to move the Hearts of the Higher Powers All we can do for them is to help them with our Prayers which God will we hope hear in due time If we consider how much Popery is divided and decays in France we shall the better comprehend the ill Condition it is reduced too it being crumbled into several Sects The Controversie between the Molinistes and the Jansenistes has made a great Noise for these forty or fifty years and now a new Sect is risen up under the Name of Quietists besides other impious ones like that of the Socinians begin to make a considerable Body there We were long since well informed that this wicked Heresie is spread amongst the most famous Societies and have it from the best hand that the Works of Episcopius are diligently perused by them in which one discovers first a meer Pelagianism and secondly that which the Bishop of Meaux calls a Mitigated Socinianism And all this is made good by one Mr. Vallone a Prebendary of the Church of St. Geneviefue and who appears to be a Man of Parts and Merit He has publish'd a Confession of his Faith and prefixed to it a Letter giving an account of his Conversion where he tells us that he chose rather to be a Fryer of St. Geneviefue than of St. Bernard He was not long there before he discovered a Party which called it self The Scripturists or Little Church agreeing openly with the Heterodox Opinions of the Socinians or Believing at least that in order to be a fine and delicate Wit one must allow a great liberty of Opinion These are what we call Latitudinarians according to the Tenents of their Masters Courcellus and Episcopius And this Cabal was spread in all Places where the Regular Canons of St. Geneviefue had Houses The Heads and Chief Members of this Society were the same to the Cabal as the General his Assistant the Visitor Ormessac Prior of St. Martin of Ruricourt the Abbot d'Essiat Polinier and many others Mr. Vallone was Informer against them and had very like to have lost his Life in a hideous Dungeon into which he was thrown by the General But at last after having undergone many Trials finding himself countenanced by the Abbot of Urbec he convinced the Court of the Truth of his Information Thereupon the French King sent by the Archbishop of Paris a Letter under his Privy Seal enjoyning the General Chapter which was to be held the next day to chuse another General declaring withall that he did Depose the Abbot of St. Geneviefue and all those who had any hand in the Cause of the Accuser Their Names were particularly mentioned and they were Commanded to lay down their Places In the same Work of Mr. De Vallone one may see a new instance of what we have already said concerning the multitude of those