first Author of that Separation But 't is a ridiculous Chimera to imagine that they were out of the Essential Unity seeing that when they went away they carried with them the true Jesus the true Doctrine and the true Sacraments They were yet the Church they were Christians whatever St. Cyprian says of them and not only their Martyrs obtained the Crown of Martyrdom but their penitent Christians obtained Salvation although they died in Schism There are particular Unities and a general Unity Particular Unity consists in certain Bonds such as are common Ecclesiastick Government common Discipline and certain common Ceremonies You are not in particular Unity with the Episcopal Church of England with respect to Government But this Unity signifies nothing to Salvation he must be a mad man to damn Christians because they either have or have not Bishops The general Unity which consists in the three things which I have said is the only essential necessary and saving Unity If you agree with the Church in Government Discipline and Ceremonies and don 't agree with it in Opinions in Sacraments and Spirit you have no Communion with it if you differ in Government and Discipline and agree in Truths Sacraments and the same Jesus you are at Unity with it and with God. This Vnity of the Church whereof we have now discoursed makes me think of that unity of Souls which ought to prevail among the true Members of the Body of Christ It is the Character under which the Apostolick Church is described unto us They were all of one heart and one mind 'T is this holy Unity which draws down the holy Spirit for when the firy Tongues fell upon the Apostles they were all with one accord assembled in one place 'T is the absence of this holy Unity which in part hath drawn down those unhappy Effects of the Wrath of God under which we now groan Call to mind the Divisions the immortal Hatreds Jealousies Quarrels and Strifes which have been seen in the midst of you even on occasions and in things for which Peace and the Spirit of Charity were particularly requited One was of Paul another of Peter but not one for Jesus Christ Men made their own Passions and Interests to triumph and trampled under foot the Glory of God and the publick Edification The strictest friendships were always ready to break on the first transport of Passion The Spirit of Vengeance had no rest till it had revenged the Injuries it thought it had received and we knew not what it was to sacrifice a resentment to the Love of God and his Christ God has made these civil Wars to cease by a cruel and strange War. You have a common tye more than you have had you have had the same Faith the same Sacraments the same Churches and the same Holy Table besides you have at this day your common Affliction and your common Misfortunes 'T is certain that even in the World this makes a tye among Souls and it should do with far greater reason when men suffer the same grief for the same cause and for the same God. You ought mutually to love each other because you are afflicted for God and by consequence you ought to love those also who suffer for you they are your Confessors who have the glory to maintain in the Prisons those Truths with you have been so weak only to keep close in your Hearts having not the courage to shew them openly Among those which are in divers Prisons of the Realm for the Cause of God there are an infinite number that want all things these are Voices that cry against you to Heaven in a terrible manner and say What a shame is it that Jesus Christ is in Prison that he is Sick Hungry and Thirsty that he freezes with cold during the rigor of the Winter and that these Peters who grew pale at the word of a Servant don't go to visit him to give him Bread and Cloaths You know what will be the Sentence that the Lord will give to such think of it and partake-in the Bonds of your Brethren though they be at the utmost ends of the Kingdom Feb. 1. 1687. The TWELFTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The beginning of the History of Christianity of the Fourth and Fifth Ages Of the Original of Monks An Article of Controversie Of the Unity of the Ministry HAving finished the History of the Christianity of the Third Age we enter upon the Fourth We shall not distinguish that of the Fourth and Fifth they are so interwoven that they cannot be separated All the Superstitions false Worship and Corruptions of Discipline which are found established in the Fifth Age took their beginning in the Fourth We enter upon Ages in which the Church had entirely changed its Face it is no longer a persecuted Church it triumphs it reigns it ascends the Throne The Emperors becoming Christians drew along with them by their Authority and Examples an infinite number of Pagans who had that Complaisance and Civility for their Masters as to become Christians But the Church also on her part had the Complaisance to burthen Religion with vain Worship and Ceremonies borrowed from Paganism All that which she thought might be innocently taken from thence she took to draw them over to her The Bishops inrich'd by the Liberality of Constantine and his Successors became proud they would have a distinct Jurisdiction from the Civil they established for themselves Tribunals It appears by the Book of Constitutions falsely ascribed to the Apostles that the Bishops had Flatterers which said of them or rather they said of themselves many incredible proud and impertinent things * Vit. Const lib. 2. cap. 37 38. They set themselves above Kings they said that they must pay them Tributes and Tenths and that Men owed them greater Honors than Kings and that they had power to condemn to everlasting Fire Above all the Pomp and Pride of the Bishops of Rome that ruling City became such that they gave jealousie to the Chief Magistrates of the Empire They added to the Sacraments new Ceremonies an Unction before Baptism beside that which followed after it the Prayers and Ceremonies of the Liturgy of the Eucharist which they call at this day the Mass were much increased and augmented they made use of Holy Waters they consecrated Oyls and Chrism their Funerals were enriched with Ceremonies borrowed from Judaism or Paganism they had their Ninth day their Fortieth day and their yearly Obits or Prayers for the Dead they affixed Prayers to certain hours which at this day they call Canonical the Cock crowing Nine of the Clock Mid-day Three of the Clock and Vespers In these Ages they did essentially alter Divine Service by intermingling therewith the Service of Creatures A kind of Furie for Relicks seized on the Spirits of Men nothing was heard to be spoken of but Visions by which they had been discovered and Miracles which had been done by them they carried
persevere in the Confession of the Truth the most part of whom never appeared so zealous as some of those who are fallen and flatter themselves because God has given them the opportunity of going out of the Kingdom and recovering themselves in a Country of Liberty and Freedom I do not call this Perseverance I commend the prudence of those which secure themselves but to account it their honour and reputation I cannot They sacrifice their Country their Wives their Children their Goods and their Ease I confess it and 't is true that is much But what will not a man give for his life Every one will give skin for skin and all that he has for his life but put forth thine hand and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face He who hath not suffered thus far hath not as yet given sufficient proof of his love for the Truth What shame and abatement of glory do these weak ones bring to our glorious Confessors who reckon their lapse and fall for a thing of naught According to them our Martyrs are fools and obstinate persons who suffer for a trifle for a signature and subscription which is required of them which when they have given they may save themselves by going out of the Kingdom Alas if this fault be so small a thing why do the holy Champions of God suffer so many Evils to avoid it Is it the Spirit of God which inspires them with this Courage If it be God that is the cause of this Holy Perseverance to what Spirit may we attribute this cowardize of refusing to Jesus Christ our Bodies to glorifie his Name and do honour to his Truth All that these poor Wretches say to us is this If you had been in our place it may be you would have done no better than we have done This may be true but is it a lawful Excuse Is the Crime the less because we are all capable of committing it I complain therefore but do not rigorously condemn those who have been so weak as to yield by Persecution provided they sigh and lament in the secret of their own Souls acknowledging and confessing their fault and their sin But I confess I am not able to bear those who after they have received much have returned so little and who being persons of great understanding have had so little stability and courage and cannot yet confess the fault they have committed is verâ— great and hainous The first of May 1687. The Eighteenth PASTORAL LETTER A. M. D. J. Vpon occasion of an Act falsely ascribed to the Synod of Montpazier in Perigort by which they would prove that in the year 1659. the Reformed of Lower Guyenne did Treat with the English about their entring into France and delivering several Places in the Kingdom into their hands Monsieur YOU have thought that the Accusation which Soulier the Priest hath renewed against the Protestants of France does deserve that we interrupt the course of our Pastoral Letters to give the Publick a small Apology concerning it And indeed seeing we do employ our selves in refuting errors in matters of Right for the justification of our holy Religion we maâ— and ought to confute errours in matters of Fact for the justification of persons who make profession of this Religion So that I yield to your Reasons and at this time shall make an Apology for our selves against this barbarous and inhumane Accusation And first I advertise the Publick that they give attention to the business about which we are now to treat for they will see one of the most famous Impostures that the eyes of him who seeth all things ever did behold they will see what is the Spirit of the Religion which for so long time we have opposed they will know what our Persecutors are capable of I Know not what cheating Priests and Apostate Ministers did forge some years since an Act in the Name of the Synod of Lower Guyenne which was held at Montpazier in the year 1659. on the first of July and some days following that they might perswade that the Reformed of that Province did at that time treat with the English about giving them entrance into the Kingdom and delivering into their Hands all those places of which they could make themselves Masters This piece of Forgery appeared at that time when they laboured with an incredible Heat to thrust the Reformed of France with all the speed they could to their utmost Ruine 'T was all this time that all the World to please the Court thought it a Duty to endeavour by all sorts of Accusations to render them Odious All places were full of Books and Libels against Calvinism endeavouring to shew the Impurities of its Birth the Horrors of its Life the Furies of its Conduct the Civil Wars that it did occasion the Spirit of Rebellion wherewithal it is animated the Dangers in which it engaged the Crown the Precipices to the very borders whereof it carried the Realm its divers attempts against the Persons of our Kings and the State. All then was well received which promoted the principal end of the Clergy and Court of France And 't was to animate the King to a speedy execution of his Design that this piece was forged This Conspiracy of the Synod of Monpazier which was sufficiently new was the most proper means in the World to swell and inlarge the Libels which were made against the Reformed Nevertheless no Writer would own or assert this Villainous Piece because 't was visible to be bad Mettal Mr. Maimbourg was not a person scrupulous in the value and worth of his Testimonies when he endeavoured to support what he had advanced and this pretended Conspiracy of Montpazier was a Testimony sufficiently good it seems to me to prove the Thesis which he had endeavoured to defend in his History of Calvinism 't is that the Spirit of Violence Fury and Rebellion is the Soul of our Religion Nevertheless neither he nor Mr. Arnald in his Apology for the Catholicks nor Mr. Feure who came sine did ever dare to hazard their Reputation on a Calumny so evident and an Accusation so ill proved and established I intreat you judge whether it be true as they pretend that the Court had the Act and the Proof of this Conspiracy in their hands that the resolution of Montpazier in its Original had been put into the hands of the King by Mr. Joly Bishop of Agen and by the Cardinal Bouillon and that the Court had judged the piece true Consider say I whether Mr. Maimbourgh who writ by the Order of the Court and on purpose to make Calvinism Odious would have had no knowledge or cognizance of it And in case he had known or understood it is it not plain and clear that he would have made use of it if he had thought it good and valuable But at last a Person is found fit to serve as a Godfather to this Reprobate and Bastard-Child
overwhelm it Herein is the strength of the Church and 't is a Miracle and on the occasion thereof we ought to say 'T is the Finger of God. Without putting you upon Inquiries and Disquisitions consider whether it be likely that God who hath permitted so many depths in the Scriptures and that from thence have arrived so many Schisms among those that profess to receive and believe them hath not left some means in his Church to quiet and determine them Is it likely that there should be no remedy for Divisions but that every one may believe according to his own fancy and the minds of Men be thence led insensibly to an indifference in Religions which is the greatest of all Evils Is not this what I said but even now To discourse in the air against known matters of Fact and against such Truths as all the World confess and avow Let us say with Monsieur de Meaux it is not probable that God should leave so many depths in the Holy Scriptures from which so many Divisions might arise and not leave to his Church some means to put a period to them Behold the Principle And who can deny so plausible a Maxim But behold my Conclusion Therefore there have been never any Divisions about the sense of Scripture which the Church hath not found means to determine Therefore it hath well and easily determined the Divisions which continued well nigh the space of four hundred years about the Sense of those Words The Father is greater than I. Therefore it quieted the Difference about the Sense of those other Words The word was made flesh And 't is not true that there are millions of Christians in the East Nestorians and Eutychians that have not agreed with the Church of Rome about the meaning of them for 1200 years passed Therefore it hath raised the Divisions about the Sense of those Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Feed my Sheep And it is not true-that all the Greek Church is at a Schism with the Latin Church thereon and are not of the mind that they mean that the Bishop of Rome ought to be universal Pastor of all Churches They say and 't is believed that the Latin Church hath been divided almost two hundred years about the Sense of those Words This is my body The Lutherans give one sense the Calvinists another and the Romanists a third sense concerning them But that is not true 't is a popular Error and an illusion It is not probable that God should not leave any means to his Church to quiet the Differences that should arise about the Sense of Scripture A Man would think these Gentlemen had a design to scoff and deride Mankind they form an Eutopia a world made at pleasure out of their own imaginations and tell us that the present world is so made and that we are in it and very well and safe there 'T is in vain that we deny it and say 't is not so we see the contrary the world is not made as you report it They answer us you deceive your selves you are blind Buzzards and see nothing you seem indeed to see the contrary but nevertheless it can be no otherwise than we say and we will demonstrate it by reason My Brethren you may there perceive the falseness and illusion of the method of your Converters Learn from hence in three words what is the proper method of confuting them have recourse to experience and tell them you will prove that it ought to be so and I see with my eyes the contrary to what you say ought to be It is not therefore true that God hath given a sure and easie means to quiet the Differences which may arise about the Sense of Scripture God will save his select but he will abandon his Enemies to blindness T is his pleasure that there be Difficulties in the way of Faith and Salvation but he hath filled the Holy Scriptures with Light to dissipate these Darknesses with respect to his Elect. And as for the Reprobates he permit this spiritual darkness which hinders them from seeing the sparkling and lightsome Truths which are in the Scripture to remain upon their Hearts God hath not left certain means to prevent and pacifie Divisions we are convinced of that by experience For Divisions do continue among Christians and have done so for fifteen Centuries what means soever have been used to heal them But he hath left means sufficiently certain for the conduct of his Children to eternal Life by the way and path of Truth 'T is his Holy Word together with the direction of his Spirit which conducts infallibly not whole Societies but all that are his in particular in all the Truths that are necessary to Salvation and preserves them from all those Errors that are mortal to their Souls Think think of that Mr. hearken to your own reason and not to the subtleties of your Ministers Think think of that my Brethren consult both your reason and your sense attend to that which your eyes report and don 't hearken to the vain reasonings of Men who discourse not upon that which is but upon that which ought to be according to their imaginations Behold that which we have to say at present about this important matter which Monsieur de Meaux touches in his private Letter We must now return to his Pastoral Letter and see how he proves the Title of his second Article The second Article has for its Title in the Margin That the Pastors of the Catholick Church are the only true Pastors He proves it by two Mediums The first is That the Pastors of the Church of Rome alone have the advantage of mutual succession in place and feat one to another Monsieur de Meaux maintains that he is in the place af those that planted the Gospel in hit Diocess And all other Bishops he says have the same Glory The second proof is that they have also a succession of Doctrine 'T is well when these two things go together for otherwise to glory of a Succession of Seats without a Succession of Doctrine is in my opinion the most pitiful glory that any one can ascribe to himself The Patriarch of Constantinople who according to Monsieur de Meaux is a Schismatick he and all his Predecessors for above 800 years is also in the place of those who planted the Gospel in those Countries Nevertheless the Bishop of Rome hath anathematized him an 100 times and doth anathematize him every year on Good Friday in the Bull De Coena Domini The Arrian Bishops did hold the place of the Apostles in the East and at this day the Bishops of Denmark Sueden and England are also in the place of them which planted Christianity in those Countries Monsieur de Meaux perceives well that the Glory of Succession can do him no great good without Doctrine and therefore does very fairly renounce it To separate sound Doctrine from the Chair of Succession is to
naturally it cannot happen that a person should be on those Instruments of Torment without feeling very great pains But 't is a Miracle which hath a hundred and a hundred Examples in the History of the Martyrs both of the ancient Church and that of the Reformation They bring back our Martyr to the place where he was to prepare himself for death he dined because they would have it so and whilst he was eating he said to those that gave him his meat very calmly Others eat to live and I eat to die this is the last Repast that I shall take upon earth but against the Evening there is prepared a Banquet in the Heavens to which I am invited and whither I shall be conducted by the Angels These happy Spirits will suddenly remove me to make me partaker with them of the Delights of Paradise The rest of the day they let loose upon him many Monks who received no other Fruits of their Assaults but disappointment and confusion Amidst all those Distractions into which they endeavoured to cast him he employed himself in singing of Psalms in lifting up his Soul to God and presenting fervent Prayers to him About the Evening as he went forth of the Prison to go to Execution two Monks drew near to him saying We are here to accompany and comfort you He answered them I have no need of you I have a Comforter that is more faithful and which is within me for my Consolation I have a Guard of Angels round about my Person and which have assured me they will be with me to my last Breath He marched toward the place of Execution with an appearance of satisfaction and tranquillity of Spirit visible to all the Spectators and having observed some of our Brethren that were fallen pouring out floods of tears while they saluted him said to them Weep not for me but weep for your selves I shall be soon out of Sufferings and far from this Vale of Tears but I see and leave you there In the name of God recover and repent and he will have pity upon you When he was in a place and distance that he could see the Gibbet where he was to end his Combat he cryed out with transport of Joy Be strong be strong this is the place which I long since proposed to my self and for which God himself hath prepared me how welcome doth this place appear to me I there see the Heavens open to receive me and Angels coming to accompany me thither He would afterward have sung a Psalm as he drew near to the Gibbet but the Judges which saw that the Crowd was moved and pierced by the signs and tokens of his constancy imposed silence on him and forbad him to sing He obeyed because they constrained him and arriving to the Foot of the Ladder he said Oh how welcome is this Ladder to me sine it must serve me as a step to finish my course and mount to Heaven They permitted him to say his Prayers at the Foot of the Ladder And when he was ascended he saw Monks ascending after him which obliged him to repel them saying Retire I have told you and I tell you again I have no need of your succor I receive enough from my God to enable me to take the last step of my Journey He would have gone on and given a Reason of his Faith to that innumerable Crowd of People above which he was raised But they feared the effect of a Sermon preached from such a Pulpit and by such a Preacher They well foresaw that he would speak and therefore had set round about the Gibbet many Drums which they appointed to be beaten at once 'T is a new kind of Gag which is not altogether so frightful as that of another kind but produces the same effect The Spirit of Hell is always the same and hath always the same fears He hath often felt the force of those Preachers which preach from Gibbets and out of the Piles of Wood he fears their Eloquence and judges it most safe to impose silence on them Our Martyr therefore speaks not but for himself but his Countenance his Eyes his Hands bespeak his Courage his Faith and Constancy and this Language was so effectual that the Village of Beaucaire altho wholly plunged in darkness and prejudices for Popery was moved thereby in an extraordinary manner I do very earnestly wish that three or four sorts of persons would make Reflections on this death 1. The Enemies of Truth Is it possible that they cannot observe therein the Character of true Religion I do conjure them to consider what most resembles Jesus Christ and his Apostles whether a Man that dies as we have seen this young Man die or persons which cause him to die for his Religion and because he would not renounce it 2. I set this Object before the Eyes of the new Converts who being seduced either by their Passions or Illusions behold the Religion which they have left as abominable and such wherein the Spirit of God is not to be found can they well persuade themselves that so much Courage so much Piety so much Constancy so much Moderation so much Sweetness doth proceed from him who is the Father of Lies and the Fountain of Abominations If it be the Spirit of God which produces these miraculous effects in our Martyrs then our Religion is not deprived of it then God has not forsaken us then we are not out of his Church out of which there is neither Grace nor Holy Spirit To conclude I demand here the attention of the weak of those Men who bless themselves because they yet preserve the Truth in their Hearts and which perswade themselves that the Fault which they have committed in subscribing is very light I demand of them are not you obliged to do what this Martyr has done Has he given to God more than he owed him Who is he that is not obliged to seal and confirm the Truth by his Sufferings You have withdrawn your selves from paying that which you have received from God in the opportunities which he has offered you And you have withdrawn your selves by a faulty weakness and negligence by a lye both of Heart and Hand In what estate should we be if God had not left us a Remnant We should be like unto Sodom and Gomorrah we should not have had one Martyr i. e. one Witness of the Truth of our Lord Jesus You will say all are not capable of suffering Martyrdom At least confess then that you are in this respect in a great degree of Imperfection and that your Fault is great Don't justifie your selves at all recover your selves by Repentance if you would that God should pardon you I have given you the History of the Vigor which our Brethren of Languedoc have had to continue their Assemblies without interruption and thereby expose themselves to Martyrdom and Death with design to convince you of that which I have proved in
life which the Lord hath promised to those that love him I rejoyce in this that our Saviour declares them happy that suffer for Righteousness sake M. I make all my Glory and all my happiness to consist in this that my Saviour has not thought me unworthy to suffer shame for his Name I support my self on the Rock of Ages I put my whole trust in him I expect no succour or assistance but from him alone Upon a Foundation so solid I promise my self that nothing shall be able to shake me at present he makes me feel the effects of a singular goodness in the midst of wicked Passengers which it pleases him that I suffer he makes me to tast the sweetness of true and solid good he fills my soul with that joy unspeakable and glorious which surpasses all understanding he fills me with that hope by which he hath sustained all the happy Confessors of his Truth and by which I hope he will sustain me as well as they My principal study is to disingage my self from Earth to conceive a disgust for the World and an ardent desire for Heaven This Monsieur is my ordinary imployment as far as the infamous place where I am imprisoned will permit it I call it infamous because one never hears an honest word there all rings and sounds again with filthiness and execrable Blasphemies There is such a noise for the most part night and day that I have scarcely found heretofore one happy moment to lift up my Heart to God. I have been so oppressed with sleep that I have oftentimes fell under it before I finished my Prayers when I awake at three or four in the morning I indeavour to sleep no more to the end that whilst we are a little at rost I may with some attention perform my Devotions to God. I have had more liberty for ten or twelve days for when the weather is fair they let the Prisoners go forth and keep them in a Court all the day unless it be six which they keep inclosed I imploy one part of this time in Reading Meditation and Prayer and I take the liberty to sing some Psalms as I have done in all the places of my Captivity and no body hath complained thereof Behold in two words an abridgment of our misery We lie three and fifty of us in a place which is not above five fathom in length and one and a half in breadth There lies on my right side a Countryman sick with his Head at my feet and his Feet at my Head and so it is with others There is not it may be one among us which do not envy the condition of many Dogs and Horses This makes us all wish that the Prisoners may soon depart but that is a secret that must not be told us but as far as we can judge they will depart the next week There were 95 of us yesterday condemned but there dyed two on that day and one on this and we have yet 15 or 16 sick and there be few escape I have had five fits of a Tertian Ague but God bethanked I am very well recovered and prepared to take my Journey to Marseilles We shall take in Burgundy some of our Brethren which are in Prison for the same reason with my self who am the first that have had the honor to be Condemned by the Parliament of Paris There remains no more Monsieur but that I intreat you to continue to me the assistance of your Holy Prayers I desire the same favour of Mademoiselle your Wife whom with your leave I do here assure of my respect Obtain for me if you please the same advantage from those Frenchmen of your acquaintance which God doth admit to your Holy Assemblies Monsieur M arrived yesterday but I have not yet had the honor to see him Not having the liberty to write to my Sister nor my Nephew her Son I must be content here to give them my Salutations I do not write this but in great uncertainty whether it can go hence If your great imployment will permit you to give some Consolation to my Wife and Children as you have made me hope and she expects with a great deal of joy I intreat you do it You may well imagin that our separation will be a thing terrible to us all and above all to her Before I received your Letter I did nor forget in my Prayers those things which you recommended to me I pray God encompass you about with his protection and preserve you many years to labour profitably in his Vineyard Nâ—â—â—mber 1. 1686. The SIXTH PASTORAL LETTER WHAT WAS The Form of Christianity in the second Age. Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Soviour Jesus Christ WHereas many things worthy of your Curiosity and proper to nourish your Piety have been communicated to us by many of our Brethren we have been tempted for a few months to communicate them to you at this time But in conclusion we have chosen to satisfie the impatience of those which are willing to see what we have to teach them concerning the Christianity of the second Age. We remit therefore to the following Letters that which we do not do in this and we do promise those that have sent us any Memorials touching our Martyrs and Confessors to enter them afterward in this Work according as we shall find place and occasion therein The second Age of the Church WE must consider first of all the manner wherein they did Celebrate the Sacraments and thereby we shall learn what Opinion they had of them They were Celebrated as yet with great Simplicity in the second Age. Behold that which Justin Martyr says concerning the manner of Administring Baptism We will here Expound after what manner we Dedicate our selves to Jesus Christ fearing lest if we pass over any thing concerning it we should be suspected of malignity and dissimulation All those therefore which are persuaded of the truth of our Doctrine and promise to live according to our Rules and Laws are commanded to Pray to Fast and beg the forgiveness of their sins and we Pray and Fast with them After that we lead them to a place where there is Water and we Regenerate them after the same manner which we our selves were Regenerated for we Wash or Baptise them in the Name of the Author of all things of the Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit Hitherunto we see nothing changed from the Apostolick Form. There is neither sign of the Cross nor Exorcism nor Salt nor Spittle nor nothing of that which is at this day practised in Baptism Behold after what manner the Mystery of the Eucharist was Celebrated in the same Age according to the Testimony of the same Author and in the same place After says he we have Baptised after the same manner him that doth believe we conduct him to the place where are those Believers
that are called Brethren which are assembled on purpose to Pray earnestly to God both for themselves and for him that hath been illuminated or Baptised and for all others in all places to the end that we may be worthy to be found Disciples to the Truth and Observers of those things that are commanded and to converse in all good Works for the obtaining of eternal Salvation When Prayers are ended we mutually Salute each other by a Kiss After that they present to him of the Brethren which doth preside Bread and a Cup of Wine mingled with Water he takes it and pronounces over it praises to the Father of all things in the Name of the Son and by the Holy Spirit Afterwards he inlarges much in Praises for that it hath pleased him to give us these things And when he hath finished his Prayers and Praises the people that are present concur by their acclamations saying Amen Now Amen in the Hebrew Language signifies so be it When the President hath finished his Praises and Thanksgivings and the people have said Amen those which amongst our selves we call Deacons distribute to every one that are present of this Bread that hath been blest and of this Wine and Water and they carry thereof to the absent And this Aliment is called among us the Eucharist It is not permitted to any one to eat thereof unless he receive our Doctrine as true and hath been partaker in the washing of Regeneration for the remission of sins and lives according to the appointment and Laws of Christ Jesus To conclude we do not receive this Bread as common Bread nor this Drink as common Drink But as by the word of God Jesus Christ our Saviour was made Flesh and took Flesh and Blood for our Salvation So we have been taught that this Aliment upon which have been pronounced Praises and Thanksgivings are the Flesh and Blood of that Jesus that was made Flesh Behold what was the Worship of the Ancients and the Ceremonies with which they Celebrated their Mysteries 1. They caused him that was to be Baptised to confess and own the Name of Jesus Christ and his Doctrine 2. They obliged him to Fast and Pray and they Fasted and Prayed with him 3. After that they carried him into a place in which there was Water appointed for Baptism 4. The place was separate because then Baptism was performed by immersion and that they might not expose the Nakedness of Men and Women to the view of other Believers 5. He that was Baptised was plunged in the Water and they pronounced over him the Invocation of the Father Son and Holy Ghost i.e. they Baptised him in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost 6. Afterwards they brought him back to the full Assembly and there he was gathered and received into the number of the Faithful 7. All the Assembly continued their Prayers in which they Prayed for the Church for the person Baptised for the Powers in general and in particular 8. When Prayers were ended they prepared themselves for the Communion by a Kiss of Charity which they mutually gave each other 9. They presented to the President and to him that had Prayed common Bread made after the ordinary manner and a Cup in which there was Wine mingled with Water 10. The President uttered or pronounced some Prayers to the Glory of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost 11. He adds some Prayers and Thanksgivings to God that he hath been pleased to give to us the pretious Gift of the Flesh and Blood of his Son at the Holy Table 12. When he finished his Prayers all the people said Amen 13. In consequence whereunto the Deacons distributed to the People the Bread and Wine that had been Consecrated by Prayer 14. They carried it to the absent they Collected the Alms of the People they dismissed the Assembly and finished the business and exercise Observe first that which seems added to the Practice of the Apostles 1. They mingled Water with their Wine We do not observe that it was either Practised by the Apostolick Church or that any such thing was appointed by them 2. They carried the Consecrated Bread to the absent It doth not appear that this was Practised in the first Age. These are indeed small changes but nevertheless they ought to be observed for the better knowledge of those that followed But on the other side observe that we see not here 1. Either Oblation or Sacrifice 2. He speaks nothing of any Altar 3. That there was no Elevation made 4. That no signs of the Cross were seen there 5. That no Prayers were made but to God and no Intercessions made use of but those of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit 6. That he speaks nothing of Adoration 7. That it doth not appear that they Communicated upon their Knees 8. That they gave to the People the Communion under both Kinds 9. That the Service was performed in a Language understood by the People for they answered Amen to the Thanksgivings 10. That all that were present did partake in the Mysteries and not the Priest only We Conjure you my Brethren to give attention to all this and so if there be any thing therein that hath the least tast or savour of Sacrifice What a prodigious change must have happened since that time to compose and frame such a Worship as they call the Mass where a Priest covered with extravagant Garments which they say are Mysterious heaps one upon another in a Language that the People do not understand a multitude of Prayers some good and some bad all without order and without reason make Oblations signs of the Cross Elevations where the people Adore and Prostrate themselves before the Sacrament when it is lifted up where the Priest eats alone after he hath made a hundred Ceremonies on the Bread and Wine Ceremonies that signifie nothing but render the Celebration of the Mystery ridiculous Do not insist pertinaciously on what remains viz. That Justin Martyr calls the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament the Flesh and Blood of Christ Jesus So we call them our selves and so have the Writers of all Ages called them So our Lord Jesus and S. Paul calls them And it signifies no more in Justin Martyr than those words of our Saviour This bread is my body this cup is my blood Theophilus of Antioch who lived in the same Age with Justin Martyr acknowledges that 't is a Denomination not a Transmutation When Jesus Christ saith he said This is my body he called his Body Bread which is made of many Grains 'T is not common Bread saith Justin Martyr 't is the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ But 't is such Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ as nourisheth our Flesh and Blood according to him That is to say which is changed into our bodily Nourishment and passes through our Veins Now no Man ever believed or can believe that the true Flesh of Christ passes into the
those that were baptised both before their Baptism and it may be after But it is ridiculous to make a Sacrament of this Imposition of Hands Concerning which my Brethren you ought to know 1. That Imposition of Hands is a Ceremony descended from the Jews our Lord approved and practised it for which reason he laid hands on all the Children they brought to him when he blessed them 2. You ought to be advertised that Imposition of Hands was an Appendage of Prayer and that they served themselves of that Ceremony as often as they would implore the extraordinary assistance of God upon any one When any one was sick they prayed and laid their hands on them When any one was reconciled to the Church they begged of God pardon of sins for him laying their hands on him When any one was admitted to a publick Office they prayed to obtain that assistance that was necessary for him and laid on him their hands When they sent any one upon a difficult Commission they laid hands on him and prayed as may be seen in Acts 13. The fathers after they had fasted and prayed laid hands on Paul and Barnabas to the end they might go preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles They were already Presbyters and had received Mission from God and the Church When they married they received also Prayer and the Benediction of the Church with Imposition of Hands annex'd unto it 'T is a prodigious Blindness to make of these differing Impositions of Hands so many Sacraments I should as soon chuse or rather sooner chuse to make of these differing Prayers which were made on sundry occasions so many Sacraments For 't is certain that Prayer over the baptised the penitent the sick those that took Office those that were sent on Commission those that were married was the chief of the Action and Imposition of Hands was but a decent Gesture and a Rite which signified that they desired the Grace of God and his assistance on the person that was concerned therein 'T is a pityful thing that Men lay hold alway on the Skin and meddle not with the Marrow and if the principal Action be accompanied with some little Ceremony which is but accessory the love of that which is external and easie to practise presently changes the principal into accessory and the accessory into principal Bowing the Knee and Imposition of Hands are two Rites of the same kind and of the same necessity To bend the Knee and lift up the Hands have been two signs which almost always accompanied Prayer the first signifies the Humiliation of the Spirit the second the Elevation of the Heart and when this Elevation of the Hands is made on the Head of any one 't is to signifie that the Heart lifts up it self according to the desire and intention of him over whom they lift up their hands Behold the whole Mystery of this Ceremony whereof they have made four or five Sacraments And 't is the first original of the Sacrament of Confirmation of Penance of Marriage of Orders and of Extreme Unction If the Humor of Popery and Superstition had turn'd on the other hand we had had it may be fourteen Sacraments instead of seven For of the Genuflection which is made in praying for the whole and sound of that which is made in praying for the sick for hardened Sinners and for those that are penitent c. Of these Genuflections say I they might have made as many Sacraments with as much reason as they have made five Sacraments of the five Orders of Prayers to which Imposition of Hands has been annexed Let this serve my Brethren to make you understand that nothing is more absurd that to make a Sacrament of Confirmation because in the first and second Age they laid hands on those which had been baptised The Apostles practised it also because they had power to obtain the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost for those which had received Baptism The Bishops affirming themselves Succession of the Apostles appropriated to themselves afterward a Ceremony which became vain and empty because they had not the power to cause the Holy Ghost to descend upon those on whom they laid hands Jesus Christ laid hands not only on Children brought to him but also on the sick as it appears in the Gospel of S. Mark * Mark 6.5.8.13 and that of S. Luke †Luke 4.40 When he healed the Woman that had been bowed together during the space of eighteen years he also ‖ Luke 13.13 laid his Hands upon her When * Act. 9.17 Ananias would give sight to Saul he laid his hands on him When S. Paul would heal the Father of Publius Prince of Malta of his Fever and Bloody Flux he laid his hands on him To conclude a Man must have a Spirit prejudiced beyond all that can be imagined not to see that Imposition of Hands is a simple Ceremony annexed to Prayer Concerning Extreme Unction i. e. the Ceremony of anointing the dying to obtain for them Vigor and Strength necessary to overcome death 't is that whereof there is not found the least footstep in all the Authors of this second Age. We do not doubt at all but that they did serve themselves of that Unction of which the Evangelist and Apostle speak an Unction wherewith they served themselves for the miraculous Cure of Diseases As in the second and third Ages there continued in the Church some Remainders of the Gift of Healing they might also serve themselves with the Ceremony of Unction But boldly defie your Converters to shew you any Example of a Man dying that was anointed with Oil in the second Age with this intent to make the passage of death more easie to him Press them with the same confidence about their other false Sacraments Orders Penance and Marriage and oblige them to shew you by antiquity in the second Age that the Doctors of the Church did regard them as Sacraments Purgatory in Popery is a Foundation upon which they build an infinite number of idolatrous and superstitious Worships for which reason 't is of importance to see what Men believed of it in the second Age of the Church The State of Souls after death hath always been an Abyss in which Men have seen nothing without Revelation And for that reason the Pagans fell in this regard into prodigious Errors and the Jews before our Saviour floated about in great Uncertainties The Primitive Christians fell close to that which our Lord said to the good Thief This day shalt thou be with me in paradise To that which S. Paul had taught 1 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. That if our earthly house of this tabernacle c. And that when we depart from hence we shall be with Christ Jesus To that which the Holy Spirit hath said in the Revelations that those which die in the Lord are happy and their works follow them About the middle of the second Age a Christian apparently come over
and I will leave them in their Retirement very peaceably provided they put themselves into a state of Inaction as well in respect to us as to God but if they continue to trouble us the Dispute may have an Issue which will not turn to their honor This Digression which hath been longer than I could have wished will be the cause that we cannot proceed far in the Article of Controversie We are on the true Idea of Unity The last part of our preceding Letter was employed in refuting the false Idea of Unity We have made it appear that 't is a foolish and cruel Opinion to shut up Salvation in any single Communion and that of all the Sects of Christianity that of Rome has the least right to pretend to it The Bishop of Meaux brags much of four or five Passages of St. Cyprian to prove this cruel Paradox This ancient Doctor goes so far as to say * Lib. de Vnitate That there can be no Martyr but in the Church that when a man is separated from its Vnity 't is in vain that he sheds his blood for the Confession of Christ Jesus This Maxim in a large signification may be endured for indeed there may be Hereticks who confessing the Name of Jesus Christ but on the other side ruining the Foundations of the Christian Religion may dye for the Religion of Jesus Christ to no advantage but the Application which S. Cyprian makes thereof is one of those faults over which wise men ought to draw a Curtain He proceeds so far as to apply it to the Novatians Now it must be known these Novatians were good Christians a thousand times better than are the Papists seeing they did not ruine any of the Foundations but retained and believed all the Christian Verities only they were something severe in Discipline and would not receive those that fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church Was not this a great crime Was not this a fine occasion to say as Cyprian did That a Novation was no Christian Was not this a very fine Foundation for that terrible and cruel Sentence That a Novation dying a Martyr for Jesus Christ was nevertheless damned Of what make and constitution are the Doctors of the Roman Church that make use of these Excesses which ought to be hid out of Honor to those great men which fell into them These are Scars remaining in their Flesh to the end that we should not exalt them too much by reason of their great Virtues Behold my Brethren the eye wherewith Mr. de Meaux looks on you he for your sakes makes use of the eyes which St. Cyprian had for the Novatians concerning whom he said A Novatian is out of the Church he is no Christian So says Mr. de Meaux concerning you The Calvinists are out of the Church and are no Christians And why then Gentlemen do you address to us Pastoral Letters Why do you call us your wandring Brethren Will you dare to say that we are no Christians Let these Writers of Pastoral Letters says Mr. de Meaux who shrowd themselves with some shreds of S. Cyprian take all his Doctrine entire Go to Mr. you may say unto him If you find the Doctrine of S. Cyprian so good why don't you take it whole and entire Why don't you say that all the Greeks and all the Christians of the East are not Christians Dare you say that all the Greeks which have been martyred by the Turks and Saracens since the Tenth Age are damned and that they did not suffer Martyrdom although they suffered for Jesus Christ For my part I am persuaded that if you press your Converters on this Subject with their Passages of St. Cyprian they will blush on both Cheeks Remember therefore with respect to St. Cyprian that the love which he had for the Peace of the Church and the horror that he had for Schism ran him into that excess to believe or say That out of that I know not what exterior Unity of the Church a man could not be saved 'T was in this Age that men began to corrupt the Idea of the Church as I have already observed To what will all this come and what profit will you draw thence my Brethren 'T is that thereby you will prove to your Converters the falseness of this Doctrine That the Unity of the Church is included in the Roman Church that out of this Church or in any other private Communion there is no Salvation and thereby you will convince them that they are not infallible for if this Article be false That the Roman Church alone possesses that Vnity she hath erred and that in an important and capital Affair You will also thereby convince them That the Roman Religion is the most cruel and the most damnable of all the Sects of Christianity forasmuch as it condemns the most men For by defming that she alone possesses saving Vnity and by condemning all those that are not in this Vnity she damns three fourth parts of the Christian World. And to conclude you will establish your selves in a holy confidence that by being or having been out of the Roman Communion you have not bâ—en out of the Vnity and you have not shut the door of Salvation upon your selves since Salvation is not included precisely in the Roman Communion and that saving Vnity is not shut up within the circle of any certain Communion On the Subject of this Vnity you will desire me without doubt that I will furnish you wherewithal to answer the Question which your Converters will put to you In what then does the Vnity of the Church consist if it does not consist in adherence to such and such Pastors Answer them my Brethren That this Vnity consists 1. In the Vnity of Spirit forasmuch as God and the Spirit are the Soul of all Christian Communions which do retain the fundamental Truths 2. In the Vnity of Doctrine which is one through all the World where Jesus Christ is purely taught 3. In the Vnity of Sacraments which are the same every where where they have been preserved and not corrupted Let Churches be separated and set at a distance one from another as far as the Antipodes are from us let them have no knowledge one of another They will not cease to be one by this triple Vnity of Spirit Doctrine and Sacraments If there were a pure Church in the farthest part of Ethiopia or in the utmost part of China we should be one Church with them though we had never heard any thing said one of another It is not therefore the Unity of Ceremonies of Worship Discipline and Pastors which makes the Essential Vnity that 's an accidental Unity which a man may break without going out of the true Unity So the Novatians which were separated from the Church for a little unhappy point of Discipline were in the wrong no doubt and greatly in the wrong and Novatian above all who was the
them in pomp they kissed them and built Churches to them They prayed unto Saints they relyed upon their Intercession they put themselves under their protection To conclude as the time of the manifestation of the Man of Sin drew near and Christianity to be established all things moved to wards it with prodigious speed There was nevertheless a profound divine Providence which appeared then and deserves to be admired and to which we can never give sufficient attention Antichristianity which then advanced it self was not to ruine Christianity nor overturn the Foundations thereof It was to be built upon those Foundations which were to remain entire from Age to Age. To set these Foundations of Christian Religion in security God permitted that they should be violently assaulted by Hereticks and zealously defended by the Orthodox The Arrians denied the Eternal God-head of the Son the Macedonians that of the Holy Spirit the Nestorians gave him two Persons as well as two Natures that is to say they renewed the Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus and Photinus who made a simple or mere Man of Christ Jesus This is a thing which some Persons at this time have not well considered who excuse Nestorius and his Heresie It seems to me that 't is easie to comprehend that he which places a human Person in Christ makes of him a mere Man For if the joyning the Divine Nature be not made in a personal Union it can be no more than a Union of Grace and Assistance such as is that of inspired Men. The Eutychians by an opposite Error confound the two Natures All these Heresies gave opportunity for the clearing these matters and setting the Foundations of the Christian Religion in great light and in lovely order and fortifying them with the consent of all Christians This is it which produced divers Creeds besides that of the Apostles which is too general If Providence had not taken this care and precaution Antichristianity which came a great pace had entirely ruined the Christian Religion for besides these Fundamentals whereof God had taken care and set them in safety in three or four Ages their remained nothing else sound in the Church We will not therefore busie our selves in reckoning all the Changes which happened in Religion during these Ages that would carry us too far and would not be peradventure very profitable for you we will stay our selves only on the most considerable Innovations For example we ought not to forget that it was in the Fourth and Fifth Age that Monastick Life had its Original Those among the Doctors of the Roman Church which will grant us nothing make it descend from Elijab the Rechabites John the Baptist and the Apostles but this Opinion is so difficult to be maintained that I do not know whether at this day any Men of Learning which make any pretence to sincerity will deny that this kind of Life had Paul and Anthony for its first Authors who during the Persecutions of Dioclesian in the beginning of the Fourth Age or about the end of the Third withdrew themselves into the Desart of Thebais and were followed thither by many Men and there began that which they call the Eremetick Life It must be that this truth is plain in History since many Doctors of the Roman Religion notwithstanding the Interest they have to maintain the antiquity of this Institution do confess that it is but of the Third and Fourth Age. 'T is a long while since that * Polid. Virg. lib. Invent. 7. cap. 1. Polidore Virgil Bishop of Vrbin proved it and in our days Mr. d' Auteserre Professor of Law at Tholouse not only confesses it but proves it by the Testimonies of S. Hierome †Ascet lib. 1. cap. 7. Athanasius Chrysostome Cassian and Sozomon and indeed he must be ignorant in Antiquity or very knavish that will not own it and you may reckon this as a thing certain since 't is confessed by Popish Authors â—t this day and by S. Hierome who lived in the Age when Monkery had its original and who was one of the most zealous Lovers of Monastick Life that ever was 'T is true that in the preceding Ages the Fathers tell us of Virgins consecrated to God yea and of Men who preserved their Virginity and lived in a chaste Celibate to the end they might serve God with greater freedom but this hath nothing common with the Life of the Monks and Nuns of the present Age. These young Damosels were not cloystered it appears by S. Cyprian * Cyprian Epist 72. that they might marry when they pleased that they lived with their Friends or in their own Houses And even in the time of S. Jerome the most part of them were so little restrained that they made and received Visits they went to Weddings they were found at Feasts they went to the Baths they adorned themselves with the same Pride and the same Excess as did the Daughters of the World. Paul and Anthony having been driven by Persecutions into the Desarts did there first establish the Hermetick Life Afterwards they formed there some kind of Convents and Societies So they instituted in the Desart a kind of Cenobitick Life but this kind of Life received its most perfect Figure about the end of the Fourth Age by three Bishops whereof two were Hereticks and the third Orthodox one of these Hereticks was Marathon * Socr. lib. 2. cap. 3. Bishops of Nicomedia an Arrian and a Macedonian The other Heretick was Eustachius of Sebaste in Armenia a semi-Arrian deposed by the Arrians the eldest of all those who made Rules for the Cenobitick Life †Sozom. lib. 3. cap. 14. The Orthodox was S. Basil Bishop of Cesaria in Capadocia This last drew the Monks from the Desart under pretence of confuting the Arrians he formed Societies of them near Cities and gave them Rules 'T is he which the Greek Monks at this day acknowledg for their Author and there are no Monks of any other Order in the East but of that of S. Basil whereas in the West there is an infinity of Orders We doubt not many of those and these who in the beginning engaged themselves in this kind of Life did do it with a good intention yea and there led a Life eminently Holy But as God does not bless Institutions which respect Religion which are but humane we may observe that the Spirit of Darkness and we may say a Spirit of Malediction fell upon this Institution even from its beginning It was not above a hundred years after there had been discourse of Monks and Nuns but the Spirit of Fables and Legends had seized on their Societies S. Jerome hath left us the Life of Paul and Hilarion two Founders of the Monastick Life These Lives are written in good Latin but with so little judgment and truth that we may be ashamed thereof for the sake of so great a man. There is the Life of S. Anthony attributed to Athanasius which
in these Countries they know GOD no better and it may be a great deal worse than in Turky The sacred Histories are utterly unknown to them they know nothing of Christianity but what we find thereof in their Catechism mingled and confounded with the Errours and Superstitions of Popery Instead of the true Gospel what do they preach in those places that are under the Dominion of Popery And what have they preacht in the times when it did Rule and prevail without contradiction They did there preach 1. Corrupt Morality according to which a man might commit Murder to save a Crown to defend his Honour and secure himself from some small Affront according to which a man might Rob when a person did not think himself sufficiently recompensed for his labours according to which a man might exercise Usury and infamous Monopolies according to which a man might keep Concubines and abandon himself to Sodomy without mortal Sin according to which a man might Lye by Equivocation and mental Reservations according to which he might live all his life without the Fear of God without performing one act of Contrition or the Love of God to his death and he might be Dispensed with that at the point of death provided he exercised an act of the fear of Hell when he receives the Sacrament of Penance Popery hath produced this detestable Morality it hath taught it where it could inspired it into private persons and suffered it where it durst not teach it For Holy History instead of the pious and sacred Histories of the Scripture which might turn mens minds towards Devotion they entertain the people with Fabulous Legends Instead of speaking to them of the Miracles and Greatness of Jesus Christ they speak of the Greatness of the Virgin they say that she was conceied without sin that her Father and her Mother had been advertised of her Birth by an Angel that at her Birth the Angels assembled together and formed a Quire and Consort in the Air that this Celebration of the Birth of the Holy Virgin is repeated every year on the same day that many Saints have heard them in the Air that this Holy Virgin was bred and brought up in the Temple and in the most holy Place called the Sanctuary that when she conceived Jesus Christ it was by three drops of her Bloud which the holy Spirit took from her heart that after she had lived most holily she died in the presence of all the Apostles whom the Holy Spirit brought in the Air from all parts of the World whither they were gone to preach the Gospel that three days after she rose again and was carried up into Heaven with charming Musick made by the Voices of Jesus Christ and the Angels and that she was set very near to Jesus Christ above all the Seraphims After the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven they made her do a thousand and a thousand ridiculous Miracles upon Earth sometimes she appeared to a Monk sometimes to a Pilgrim sometimes to some one of her devoted Servants she kisses them she makes them kiss her she opens her bosom to them she gives them suck from her breasts she appoints them to build a Chappel to her in such a place and that they should perform such or such Devotions to her she fixes herself in certain places and there makes her choice to dwell and do Miracles All those which come thither for Sickness Blindness Palsie loss of Bloud Deafness loss of Members return thence safe and sound when one of her Houses formerly frequented ceased to be so she transported it beyond the Seas and fixed it in another Country to draw thither new Servants to her Devotion she forgets nothing that may favour those which serve her In one Convent she takes the place office and figure of a debauched Nun which ran to the places of Prostitution because this Nun when she was going did devoutly commit the Convent into her hand In another place because an Abbess did most devoutly commend herself to her when she had polluted herself with her Domesticks she delivered her in private of her great Belly and restored her Virginity in such sort that those who had accused her remained ashamed and confounded Instead of entertaining the people with the Miracles and Vertues of true Saints as were the Apostles to oblige them to an imitation of them Popery hath substituted unto them new Saints which were Fools and wicked Fools too St. Francis St. Dominick St. Hyacinth St. Vincent Ferrerius or imaginary Saints as St. Christopher and the eleven thousand Virgins or modern and unknown Saints such as St. Milorus St. Alldem St. Colganus and a thousand others To which they attribute ridiculous and impertinent actions for Vertues and such sottishnesses for Miracles as are unworthy of those little Demons called Hobgoblins One to testifie his Humility made himself to be tossed in a Sieve by little Children another to draw upon himself contempt counterfeited the Fool and the Ideot another fouled the Bed of his Host that he might be despised of him another kept company with Beasts Wolves and Swallows another preached to Fishes or Birds another stripped himself naked and in that condition exposed himself to publick view another made himself Women of Snow and embraced them to cool and extinguish his Lust another through great Mortification lay with the fairest Women without touching them another made himself a Bed of Stones and Sticks and crowns of Nails and Girdles of Iron another thrust Thorns into his Body washed his hands in quick Lime and covered his face with an eating Powder which made the flesh thereof one intire Ulcer Behold a small part of the Idea that Popery gives us of the Vertue of its Saints As to Miracles they produce to the people faithful Chronicles as they say by which it appears that some of these Saints for their parts have raised fifty two dead persons another thirty another twelve another six three or four They have healed desperate Diseases raised Dogs Parrots and other Animals from the dead The Water in which they washed their hands cured all sorts of Diseases the clippings of their Hair and the parings of their Nails put into the craks of Walls closed them up again and have made Houses ready to fall firm and strong When these Saints preached to the Birds these Animals reached out their bills and clapt their wings when they preached to the Fishes they gathered together on the top of the Water that they might hear when they pleased they drove away not only evil Spirits which troubled them but also living Creatures which interrupted their Discourse They made Angles serve them not only at Mass but also they used them as Grooms to dress their Horses They caused themselves to be carried by the Devil to places whither they would go they made him hold the Candle till he burnt his fingers therewith if the Devil turned himself into a Cat they put him into such distress that
flames before they gave up the ghost they were made to live by skill and art in the most cruel torments sometimes many days and sometimes many weeks together and never did one word of murmuring or impatience escape from them they prayed for their Hangmen they gave Thanks to God they sung his Praises and to their last breath called upon his Name When they tell you at this day If your Religion were true you would adhere more closely unto it answer them If our Religion had been false they had never had so invincible an Adherence to it and so strong a Passion for it nor had they ever suffered death for the defence of it or if there have been some heady persons that have maintained their Opinions with obstinacy even to punishment and death their pains and death hath not been accompanied with an humility so profound a patience so exemplary a love and sweetness so perfect a zeal so ardent a piety so pure and undefiled a submission so entire a joy so firm solid bright and shining The Spirit of Lies and Delusions doth not produce such effects These are the Characters of the Spirit of God they are the effects of Grace and of that Grace that is not given to Reprobates and Martyrs of falshood and imposture My Brethren these Objects are at a distance they are behind you and you will find some difficulty in reflecting on them but you will find none in considering those that are before your eyes they are sufficient to defend you against the scandal of that Facility wherewith they reproach you and wherewith they affirm that your Brethren have forsaken their Religion Oppose thereunto above one hundred thousand persons that have left the Realm within the space of one year last past without counting almost as many more that have forsaken it within twenty years that this Persecution hath continued tho not in its height and rage There are among them those that have forsaken all those things which are called Goods Honours Ease and the convenient Accommodations of Life certainly they did not find it a thing so easie to enter with a satisfied mind into the bosom of the Roman Church Oppose thereunto more than forty thousand Prisoners that are in the Goals and Cloisters of the Realm which chuse to suffer all sorts of miseries and calamities there rather than to embrace the Popish Religion Oppose thereunto Persons of Quality such are the Marquess of Bordage condemned to the Galleys and afterwards to perpetual Imprisonment the Marquess of Musse who every day expects the same condemnation the Marquess of Rochegade and the Gentlemen his Sons the Marquess of Cagni Monsieur Beringhen and all his Family the Marquess of Lunge the Marquess of the Isle of Gast who is in the Citadel of Anger 's and an infinite number of other Gentlemen who prefer the Galleys or a Prison before the pleasure to which the Bishop of Meaux invites them that is of rejoining themselves to that Church in which their Fathers served God. Oppose thereunto a considerable number of Martyrs and Confessors whereof some are in Dungeons that are really the Images of Hell they being deep obscure dark and a hundred feet under ground such are the Reformed of Diepe Haure and other places which are in the Prisons of Aumale of whom we shall be able to tell you particular stories at some other time Add to these more than six hundred persons that are now actually in the Galleys for their Religion This is no hyperbolical Computation but one made by a Roman Catholick a maritime Officer now living at Marseilles we have his Letter and without naming him we shall be able to produce it at a convenient season behold a line or two thereof at present Here are six hundred Gally-slaves of the Religion called Protestant who by their patience move compassion from the most hard-hearted and unpitiful of their Officers The number of them must needs be augmented since that time for the Letter was dated from Marseilles the 27th of June 1686. that is to say more than two months since and without doubt there are more arrived there 'T is newly reported that at this time there are to the number of two thousand some say four thousand in that miserable state and case The famous Monsieur Lewis of Marolles Advocate of Stemenehaud was not then arrived there for he parted not from Paris with the other Prisoners under the same condemnation with himself till the 20th of July and came not to Dijon till the 30th of the same Month from whence at last he arrived at Marseilles laden with a Chain of fifty pound weight about his neck and a violent Fever which never left him during the time of that sad Journey He is a Confessor of Jesus Christ which all Paris beheld at the ‖ Tournello loaden with Chains of an extraordinary weight A Court of Judicature in Paris and also a Prison and preaching in the midst of his Irons All France have their eyes turned upon him as on the greatest example of Courage Piety and tenderness of Conscience that this Age hath seen We shall one day give you the History of his Confession and make you to understand his Sentiments by his own Letters where you will see the Spirit and Character of the ancient Martyrs He is one of our most illustrious Confessors but he is not alone God raises up others every day as you shall learn hereafter The same Sea-Officer that wrote from Marseilles that there were already six hundred Gally-slaves of the Reformed Religion there adds 'T is fifteen days since that Monsieur de Lezan a Gentleman of Quality was condemned to the Gallies being accused and convicted of having been at a Meeting The day after many persons were put to the Rack to oblige them to accuse some men of Name These unhappy Wretches endured both the ordinary and extraordinary Rack with such a constancy as affrighted the Judges and softned the Spirit of the Hangman to that degree that the chief Magistrate was forced to stand over him with a Cane to oblige him to turn the Wheel Behold here truth in matters of fact which can never be doubted seeing they are attested by a person of a contrary Religion who is upon the place and in the Country where these cruelties are committed Behold Confessors which make it apparent that the Church of Rome does not find it a thing so facile as the Bishop of Meaux reports it to cause the Reformed to enter into their Communion Behold Examples of Constancy that are worthy of your most attentive Consideration Death is more easie to be endured than the ordinary and extraordinary Rack and those illustrious Confessors do well deserve the Title of Martyrs But will you oppose to that Facility which your Converters find and whereof they make an Argument to draw you into the Roman Religion will you I say oppose to your Seducers Martyrs in all forms Oppose to them Monsieur Teissier
Viguier of Durfort in Cevennes who was hanged in the borders or entrance into that Country some months since in a place called La Salle only because he had served God in a publick Assembly as also one named Gysot who was burnt alive at Nâ—rac This poor man was so weak as to sign an Abjuration of his Religion through fear and the persecution of the Dragoons or it may be through the weakness and infirmity of his Age for he was more than seventy and drew nigh to eighty years of age Being fallen sick God restored to him his Zeal and Courage that he might obtain the Crown of Martyrdom He refused to communicate after the manner of the Church of Rome and declared That he retracted that unhappy Signature that they had extorted and forced from him The Priest that he might execute the Law that ordains that at any rate whatsoever they must give the Holy Sacrament to the Sick forced him to receive the Host or consecrated Bread and put it into his mouth the old man according to his duty spit it out and therefore was condemned to be burnt alive in the fire He went to this horrible Punishment with the joy of the holy Martyrs He was bound to the Post without any appearance of commotion He sung the Praises of God in the midst of the Flames to his last breath This Constancy made so great an Impression upon the Spirits of all the Inhabitants of Nerac and gave so great an Astonishment to the Executioners that they have not proceeded to execute a like Sentence pronounced against one named Fabiores of the same City and of the same Country condemned also to be burnt alive for having as the former spit out the Host which by force was put into his mouth We have not yet heard that the Sentence hath been executed when 't is done we shall give you notice of it We have a Martyr of a more sublime and raised Order 't is Monsieur Rey of Mismes Student in Theology who after he had preached eight or nine months in Cevennes was taken arrested condemned to Death and executed at Beaucaire on the 7th of August The Circumstances of his Martyrdom his Courage his Answers his Piety are too eminent and peculiar to be wrap'd up and buried in a short Narration We do promise it you at large when we shall have collected from faithful Records all the parts of the holy History of this glorious Martyr Behold already my dear Brethren many things that you have to oppose to those Words of the Bishop of Meaux I do not wonder that you are returned in Troops and with so much facility to the Church But this is not all Set him matter of fact against this pretended Facility and assure him that for more than four months time there have been Assemblies almost every day in Cevennes and in the adjacent parts for the offering up Prayers and Supplications to God sometimes in Woods and at other times in Caves and Rocks and Dens of the Earth The Dragoons which almost always surprize them put them to the Sword according to their Instructions they Kill and Hang and drag them into Prisons but all signifies nothing they assemble nevertheless In the month of June last near the end thereof the Dragoons having surprised an Assembly near Nismes they killed many of them on the place and four they hung upon the trees The Hangmen withdrew supposing that they would have no great inclination to return again to that place But two hours after there was another Assembly in the same place on the dead bodies and in the view of the Carkasses that hung on the trees of the mountains There is not a week passes without like Assemblies and like Massacres They reckon more than sixty persons at an Assembly that was made between Uzes and Bagnol in the beginning of July some add That women were ravished and others ripped up But we reserve the particulars of these things till afterwards and you may reckon that we tell you nothing but what is true and câ—rtain for which reason we chuse rather to defer the edification that you might receive from the firmness and constancy of our Martyrs â—nd Confessors than to tell you any thing as certain that may prove false But this is enough at present to give the B. of Meaux and others of his spirit to understand that they have no great cause to triumph in our weakness and the facility they find in overcoming us It may be they have boasted too soon they are not yet where they thought they were We do already see the vanity of those Bravado's That in four months time there would not be any thing heard of a Hugonot in France These fine projects are shipwrecked and the difficulty is yet to come As for you my Brethren that which we shall say and the Objects that we shall set before your eyes ought to shame you If you have been so weak as to fall you ought to take courage and rise again and to redouble your strength if you have not had enough to support you hitherunto But let us continue to hear the Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of Meaux Not one of you hath suffered violence either in his Person or Goods Let them not bring you these deceitful Letters which are addressed from Strangers transformed into Pastors under the Title of Pastoral Letters to the Protestants of France who are fallen by the force of Torments These Letters concern you not any otherwise than as they are made by persons that could never prove their Mission So far have you been from suffering torments that you have not so much as heard them mentioned I hear other Bishops say the same But for you my Brethren I say nothing to you but what you may speak as well as I. You are returned peaceably to us you know it Behold one of those objects whereunto we have not been accustomed Maimbourg Varillas Brueys and multitudes of others have had the front to say that Conversions are made without violence On that subject they have been baffled in a manner sufficient to have covered impudence it self with confusion But 't is to wash the Blackmoor's skin These Gentlemen have Foreheads of Brass and can blush at nothing By this little judge of the fidelity of your Converters You that have seen your Goods wasted your Persons contained your Neighbours dragged to Prisons Women shaven and put into Convents Christians let down into Holes where putrified Flesh and Carrion had been thrown Others put into Prisons where the Water runs under their feet being supported by narrow planks upon which they are mounted night and day lest they fall as from a Precipice and perish Others have been burnt and roasted and others made fools by watching them without cessation or intermission All France hath seen it all Europe is witness of it and they dare affirm the contrary to what your eyes have seen Do you think that these Gentlemen dare not
lye about the Ages past when they speak to you of Tradition and of things said and done a thousand and twelve hundred years agone when they have no regard to present Truths in matters of Fact whereof there are as many Witnesses almost as there are persons alive in this part of the World. In the name of God think of it when they forbid you all tryal and examination of Doctrines and tell you that you must believe the Church that is to say false Teachers which affirm that you must believe things without taking any knowledge of them See I say whether there be any confidence or trust to be put in such men which have consecrated themselves to Lying and have renounced all modesty and shame The Bishop of Meaux hath heard all the Bishops say that no violence was used in their Diocesses We ought to understand how these Gentlemen do define Violence and what 't is they call Torments Among the Bishops he of Autun will find difficulty to say so and Monsieur de Meaux that those of his Diocess had not so much as heard of Torments He went accompanied with the Hangman to Madam de S. Andrew Montbrun Widow of a famous General which had the Honor to command in chief the Armies of the King and those of the Venetians with a great deal of Glory This Bishop I say with the Missionaries accompanied with the chief Magistrate and the Magistrate taking two or three Hangmen with all the Instruments of Torture went thus to endeavour her Conversion If this be false they will do well to convince the Men and Officers of her House which have seen said it and writ it But the Bishop of Meaux hath done nothing nor seen nothing of like nature in his Diocess We have good testimony that violence hath been committed there as well as elsewhere But altho what he says should be true behold a great marvel whereof he hath great reason to rejoice Paris and the Country round about it were last of all attacked All France had been covered with Fear Tears and Blood. Paris and the Brie saw nothing round about but bloody Troops and Emissaries loaden with the Spoils of the Reformed and red with their Blood. 'T is a great Miracle that these Objects without drawing nearer have anquished and overcome them As if the fear of an Evil which one sees within four steps of him were not as capable of doing violence to the mind as the Evils which are felt immediately On the contrary a person has fallen under fear which hath resisted pain and torment The Dragoons of Bearn of Guienne of Poictou of Languedoc of Normandy had laboured for the Bishop of Meaux After that let him glory if he can of the Facility of Conversions But I am weary of confuting these impudent Boldnesses by matters of fact which our Persecutors dispute and by Witnesses which they reproach Let us see if Monsieur de Meaux will reproach and object against himself He wrote his Pastoral Letter in the Month of April last a little before Easter to invite and prepare the new Converts for the approaching Communion 'T is precisely on the same time that he wrote to one of his Diocess which was fled the Letter following From Meaux April 3 1686. MONSIEUR I Continue to write to you notwithstanding the Answer you made to my former Letter I have there observed a Character and Style too much of a Minister to attribute it to you In a word I apprehend that it does not proceed from a Spirit such as yours But altho it be so I shall not cease to invite you to return I have seen in a Letter which you wrote to Mademoiselle of U. that the true Church does not persecute What understand you by that Sir Do you understand that the Church by her self never makes use of force That is very true since the Church hath no other Arms but spiritual Do you understand that Princes which are Sons of the Church never ought to make use of the Sword which God hath put into their hands to abase the Enemies thereof Do you dare to say contrary to the opinion of your own Doctors who have maintained by so many Writings that the Republick of Geneva had power and right to condemn Servetus to the Fire for denying the Divinity of the Son of God. And without serving my self of the Examples and Authority of your Doctors tell me in what Text of Scripture Hereticks and Schismaticks are excepted from the number of those Malefactors against which S. Paul says God hath armed Kings and Princes And altho you will not permit Christian Princes to take vengeance of such great Crimes because they are injurious to God can they not take vengeance on them because they cause trouble and sedition in States Do you not see clearly that you build upon a false Principle And if it were true they were the Arrians Nestorians and Pelagians which had reason of complaint against the Church since it was they that were the persecuted and banished and Catholick Princes those that persecuted and banished them And at present also the Catholicks which are punished with death in Sueden and so many other Kingdoms would have reason to complain of those that are called the Reformed and every one in his turn would have right and wrong right in one place and wrong in another and Religion would depend altogether upon uncertainties But this is enough on this Subject to convince so good a Spirit as yours Only know that when it pleases God to abandon us to our own thoughts and imaginations the best Spirits are touched and affected by the least appearances The fear that you have that they will make you adore Bread hath much appearance of truth through your prejudice and prepossession Consider in the mean time without entring into that Controversie which passes the Bounds of a Letter consider I say that it was a fear of like nature which made the Arrians and Disciples of Paulus Samosatenus that they would not give divine Honors to a Man an Infant a Creature how perfect and how great soever his privileges might be 'T was human reason 't was sense 't was prejudice which inspired them with these vain fears Take heed lest your Religion after their example do not too much call in Reason and human Sense to its succour and that your trouble and difficulty do not proceed from the custom of following them However it be you see that your Reformers have done nothing else but renew Controversies ended six hundred years ago when Berengarius moved them And if you call in doubt the Judgment which was given against him others will doubt with as much reason concerning all preceding Councils and then behold us under an obligation to examine anew all that hath been decreed as if we began to be Christians and all that our Fathers had resolved serve for nothing In one word the meaning is if Christians when they are not of an
to mark here the Character of sweetness and Christian patience which is peculiar to those that suffer for the Truth his modesty hinders us from naming him but in seeing him behind his Curtain you will learn from him after what manner we ought to suffer all things for the Truth and to suffer with patience as our Lord has given us example The Grace of God be with you all Septemb. 15. 1686. The THIRD PASTORAL LETTER AND Confutation of what Monsieur de Meaux says to establish the necessity of a living speaking Authority concerning a Succession of Chairs without a Succession of Doctrine General Methods for making good the Sophisms and Fallacies concerning the Authority and Infallibility of the Church My Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be unto you from God and our Saviour Jesus Christ YOur Temptations which increase every day do also redouble our grief and cause us to desire with the greater passion to give you assistance and succor for which reason we prosecute what we have begun 'T is to furnish you with Lights for the dispelling of that Darkness wherewith they endeavour to obscure those Truths which you have learned from your childhood Among other things they make great and prodigious attempts to take you off from that adherence that you give to the holy Scriptures and to oblige you to forsake those living Fountains and to run after the broken Cisterns of Egypt which will hold no water The last periods of Monsieur de Meaux his private Letter and the second Article of his Pastoral Letter look that way They are these Periods and this Article upon which we shall make our Reflections and we do beseech you to give attention to them Behold then how Monsieur de Meaux prosecutes his Letter to Monsieur de V In a word the meaning is if Christians when they cannot agree upâ—n the sense of Scripture do not acknowledge a living speaking Authority to which they do submit the Christian Church is certainly the weakest of all Societies in the World the most exposed to remediless Divisions and most abandoned to factious Innovators This is it to which your Ministers with all their Subtleties have never been able to find an Answer In truth 't is to put great confidence in the Credulity of Men to tell them with so much impudence that the Ministers have not been able to find an Answer to this Sophism I do not think that there is any which hath been rejected with more force and more success And we do defie Monsieur de Meaux and Monsieur Nicholas to answer any thing that 's reasonable to what hath been said against the Infallibility of this pretended living speaking Judge in the Answer which hath been lately made to the Book of M. Nicholas intituled The pretended Reformed convinced of Schism We have there answered it and will answer it again But this is no place to answer to it at large We will content our selves to intreat you my Brethren to make two general Reflections thereon First That Remedy can never be good which never produces the effect which Men say it doth always produce M de Meaux pretends that this certain living speaking Authority is an infallible Remedy against Divisions and Heresies For without it says he the Church would be of all Societies most abandoned to Divisions Innovations and Factions If this Remedy be so good why hath it never produced its effect Was not this living speaking Authority in the world was it not say I from the times of the Apostles and the first Ages of Christianity Why therefore have we seen from the beginning swarms of Heresies and Hereticks Simonians Corinthians Basilidians Marcosians Valentinians Marcionites Manicheans and multitudes of others Wherefore in the fourth and fifth Ages of the Church was it torn in pieces by Arrians Nestorians Eutychians Photinians Why do they account to the number of two or three hundred Heresies Why did this brave Remedy against Divisions permit the Schism of the Donatists more than three hundred years That of the Eutychians more than twelve hundred That of the Nestorians as long Why doth not this excellent Remedy put an end to the Schism of the Greeks after the duration of near eight hundred years Was it this living speaking Authority which suppressed the Waldenses and Albigenses or the Fire and Sword of Simon de Montfort and his Villains Why hath this living and speaking Authority permitted the Latin Church to be torn in pieces in these latter Ages Behold in truth a fine Remedy good for nothing and which over and above is established upon inconsistent Principles as hath been proved an hundred times The other general Reflection which I desire you would make is on the great inconvenience that Monsieur de Meaux finds in acknowledging That the Church is the weakest of all Societies in the World. I do profess that it appears very uneasie to me as well as to him and I am not without all inclination to reason with him and say There is no appearance or probability that the Church should be the most impotent of all Societies under the Heavens and by consequence 't is not likely that it should have been the Tennis Ball of Persecutors of Tyrants of malignant Spirits of Schismaticks of Hereticks of factious Innovators and vitious corrupters of the Truth and Worship of God. And so all that hath been said of Persecutions Punishments Heresies Seditions happening in the Church Strife among Bishops their Quarrels and Divisions of the fury of Schisms of the horrible corruption of Manners that hath been seen in some Ages and is seen in this all these things say I are false For 't is impossible that the Church should be the weakest of all Societies which it would be if what hath been said yea and what our eyes see be true So that it must needs be that all Histories be Romances and all Objects that we see Illusions and that there be a Wall of Fire about the Church that hinders all sorts of Evils from approaching it 'T is a Prodigy in my apprehension that Men should be found that will destroy truths in matter of fact sense and experience by Discourses in the air These Gentlemen do never enter into the depths of God's ways they do not perceive nor understand that 't is indeed by the order of his Providence that to the apprehension of sense the Church is the most feeble of all Societies most given up to the will and lust of Persecutors and Men of Faction and Innovation Where is the Society that hath been given up and exposed to so many Schisms Divisions and Persecutions as the Church But the Power of God and the Stability of the Church consists in this that it subsists in despite to all Assaults and that God preserves in the midst of those Schisms and Divisions Errors and Superstitions those fundamental Truths and Precepts of Morality by which the Elect are preserved notwithstanding the general corruption that doth involve and
separate a stream from the Channel says he 'T is true the Channel remains in the Church of Rome we agree with them in that from the first Bishop of Rome to the last we see no considerable interruption either History is not to be credited or Bishops have succeeded one to another Behold the Channel mark'd and noted But by misfortune they have separated the River from the Channel and in this Succession of Bishops there has succeeded a dirty and impoisoned River to pure water and to a clean and clear River Monsieur de Meaux is very happy therefore in his comparison in this small Paragraph but he is not so altogethet in that which follows And to vaunt says he themselves of the understanding of the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserved the Waters after the Pipes are broken Surely if the Waters were no where but in the Channel Monsieur de Meaux and his Brethren had some reason on their side but 't is happy for us and mischievous to them that the Water is in the Fountain before it can be in the Channel The Channels may be broken the Bishops Successors of Seats may become Antichristian The Fountain of the Gospel-Doctrine continues always pure in the Holy Scripture It had been very fine if they had reason'd so at the time when Jesus Christ came into the World. The Pharisees and Doctors of the Law were in Moses's Chair and as such Jesus Christ commanded to hear them but according to the new Philosophy of our Doctors our Lord should have done otherwise for instead of thundering against the vain Ceremonies and false Glosses of these Doctors which corrupted the Law he ought to have followed them and caused his Disciples to do so to For to boast of understanding the Scripture when they acknowledge they have lost the stream of Tradition in their Pastors is to vaunt of having preserved the Waters after the Pipes are broken The Pipes that is the Doctors were broken but did not the purity of the Law remain in the Books of Moses as in his Fountain Let that be remembred therefore and never be forgotten The Gospel-Church in this regard is in no better condition than the ancient Synagogue This had its Pharisees and false Priests in the Chair of Moses that hath its false Bishops in the Chair of the Apostles and Founders of Christianity Let it be remembred also that when the Pipes are broken and the Rivers corrupt we have the Fountain Jesus Christ had recourse thither he said From the beginning it was not so Frankly therefore 't is to delude and ridiculously to delude when they speak of a Succession of Chairs at least unless it be proved that Truth hath remained in them and that Infallibility hath always been placed there and that in matters of Doctrine there have been made no Innovation And thither Monsieur de Meaux comes at last The Doctrine and understanding of Scriptures says he is come even to him without any change or alteration And it has been the pleasure of God that it should come to us from Pastor to Pastor and from hand to hand without any appearance of Innovation This is easily said but I do not understand how persons that write in an Age so knowing and illuminated as ours is should have the impudence to advance such a thing that since S. Paul to the Bishop of Meaux the Doctrine is come down without any Innovation My Brethren 't is an important point 't is an Article about which they do miserably blind you 't is a voice that founds perpetually in your ears and does almost make you deaf Antiquity Tradition constant Succession and Perpetuity of Faith and how do they prove it to you They tell you the Church is infallible therefore it can't err nor turn aside from sound Doctrine Secondly Monsieur de Meaux tells you If there had been such changes among us the Authors thereof would have been named the Spirit of Truth which is in the Church would have noted them and their Names would have been infamous as that of the Arrians and Nestorians c. So that all which has been told us concerning insensible changes in Doctrine whereof they do not produce any example in the Christian Church is nothing but a vain accusation Thirdly To conclude they take up certain Shreds of the Fathers which they set to be seen with Glosses and in a false light and afterwards tell you boldly behold the Conformity of the Fathers with us behold the Succession of the same Opinions in the same Seats There has happened no change or alteration This say I deserves that we stay on it a little for 't is the fountain of Illusions by which they have seduced and made some new Converts Concerning the first of these three Proofs which is drawn from the Infallibility of the Church we hope at some time to shew you the absurdity of that pretension We will prove that all that which M. Nicholas and M. Pelisson have advanced to prove the necessity of this infallible Authority without which according to them truth cannot be found is a Contexture of Fallacies which lead Men directly to impiety But in expectation thereof my dear Brethren we intreat you to give attention to what we are about to say concerning this sovereign and infallible Authority of the Church of Rome I will give you two general methods by which without any great difficulty you may be able to quit your selves of the Fallacies of your Converters First tell me is there any reason can hold good against experience The Church of Rome can't err I 'll prove it say they by just proofs and demonstrations because the Church can't be left without a Guide because private and particular persons can't understand the Scriptures because there is a necessity that an Interpreter which ought to guide others cannot himself be deceived Behold that which is the most stately and magnificent reasoning in the world But by blowing upon these pompous Reasons of Right I will make them vanish by one sole Proof and Demonstration of Fact. 'T is that the Roman Church hath erred an hundred times by introducing Images into Churches and establishing the Invocation of Saints in taking the Cup from the Laity and in causing a Sacrament to be adored c. Call to mind my Brethren the Man to whom the Philosopher proved by subtleties which he could not answer that there was no such thing as motion After having long labored under the weight of his Fallacies he rose up briskly and walkd about the Room You find your selves often perplexed with the Sophisms invented to support the ways of Prescription and to prove the blind submission which ought to be had for the Church of Rome I do not doubt but you are oftentimes in some perplexity in this respect But go briskly out of that perplexity and always come to this The Church of Rome
Church or to speak better that the Church shall never fall into any Error Not at all For if one say to a Prince I will take care that your Enemies shall never prevail upon you that will not necessarily signifie that the Enemy shall never have any Victory upon him or gain any considerable advantage against him Altho this Prince should lose some Villages yea and some Provinces yet if the gross and capital parts of his Empire always subsist notwithstanding he would have the accomplishment of the promise made unto him Provided therefore that the Church subsist in all Ages altho corrupt provided that the Fundamentals of Christianity remain throughout in their integrity the promise the gates of hell shall not prevail against it hath its accomplishment But your Converters will tell you these words signifie not so for they signifie that the Church can never fall into any Error Answer them That is the thing that is in question between you and me But who shall judge for us concerning the sense of these words It must not be you for you are a party and who can better judge than Scripture and Experience Now 't is clear by the Scripture that the sense of these words the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is not that the Church shall never suffer any considerable Errors in its Faith. All the Holy Scripture affirms the contrary It complains sometimes that the ancient Church was become idolatrous and had served other gods It foretels in express words that the Christian Church should corrupt it self That grievous wolves should enter into the fold not sparing the flock That there would be perilous times in which there would be an Apostacy from the Faith and seducing Spirits would teach Doctrines of Devils That Antichrist the son of perdition should sit in the Temple and in the Church of God. That the Church should be hid and as in a desart for the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty prophetick days that is one thousand two hundred and sixty years That when the Son of Man shall come he shall not find faith nor love among Men. That false Prophets and false Christs shall arise and deceive many To conclude for one Text by which it may be proved that the Church cannot err we can produce an hundred that do affirm that false Teachers should introduce Errors there-into Let us leave the Scriptures and pass to Experience and see whether the Church hath not actually erred It is proved clearly that she hath erred because she hath established a Worship directly opposite to that pure and simple Worship the Model whereof is found in the New Testament viz. of Images of Saints and Saintesses of a second sort of Mediators of Masses Sacrifices and a hundred other things that have not the least shadow of appointment there Let us return to our Text The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church It is disputed whether this Text doth signifie that the Church can never Err in any wise or whether it signifies that the foundations and fundamental verities of the Church can never be overturned In truth the last sense is that of Jesus Christ And all that can be granted to the Papists is that they are capable of the other But is it not very clear that we ought to chuse the latter seeing the Holy Scripture and experience determines us thereunto by a manner wholly invincible It is true and we see it that by a singular Providence God hath not permitted the Foundations of Christianity to be subverted in any of the Christian Communions all receive the Creeds of the Apostles Nice Constantinople yea even that attributed to St. Athanasius Behold therefore what our Lord would mean thereby But besides this we see that there is no Communion that hath continued pure all have embraced Errors and some of them such as are filthy shameful and mortal Therefore it is not that which our Lord Jesus Christ would say it is not a promise of absolute infallibility that is made to the Christian Church Without doubt he foretold what is come to pass and not that which never happened Behold my Brethren two general methods by which you may be able to rescue your selves from the Sophisms and fallacious Arguments which they call ways of Prescription till we can clear up those difficulties that you your selves cannot resolve about that submission that people ought to have for their Guides to the end that they may walk safely The second medium or argument wherewith all these Gentlemen serve themselves and whereof Monsieur de Meaux serves himself here to prove that they have a succession of Doctrine as well as a succession of Seats is the impossibility of insensible changes If the Invocation of Saints say they the worship of Images Masses without Communicants the taking away of the Cup had been newly introduced the Innovator would have been known and his name would have been branded with infamy as that of Arrius and Nestorius I do not think that ever any thing hath been done more opposite to reason and fidelity than the disputes these Gentlemen have thought fit to raise against insensible changes and alterations I say first it is opposite to fidelity For it is not possible that these Gentlemen can believe what they say when they tell us that we cannot determine the Authors nor the times of the principal Changes whereof we complain seeing on the contrary we observe to them the times the principal Authors and the noise that these Innovations made in the World. Does not every one know that the introduction of Images into the Church the taking away of the Cup and the establishment of the Papal Authority did make a terrible noise suffer great contraditions cause great troubles and even the shedding of much blood in the Church It is therefore notoriously to dispute against honesty and fidelity to deny that we are able to give any account of the most eminent and principal Innovations But is it not to dispute against reason and sound judgment to say as Monsieur de Meaux doth that if there had been any Innovators in the Church the spirit of Truth would have marked them and their names would have been infamous as those of Arrius Nestorius c. How could the names of these Innovators be infamous seeing their Innovations were received and entertained The Authors of Heresies and Superstitions which are rejected are indeed noted with infamy but those that are received are Canonized and adored Therefore those of the fourth Age which introduced the Invocation of Saints had no note of infamy put upon them because the beginnings of that unhappy Superstition were greedily imbraced The reason why those things in those Ages were not treated as Innovations and the Authors of them as Innovators was because they adopted and received them Had they assigned any note of infamy upon them they had condemned the worship which they admitted they had accused it of
of Psalm xxxi Into thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O God of truth Pouget was so weak as to change his Religion on promise that they would give him his life but they hanged him for all that Their vengeance did not stay upon these Victims it proceeded even to things inanimate They pulled the Farm down to the ground where the Assembly was made they plucked up the Pear-Tree by the Roots on which they hung the Lamps that they might see to sing Psalms It is a circumstance very singular and which makes known how far the fury of false Zeal may go It is well nigh to what they do by the places where Sorcerers have celebrated their horrible Mysteries and where Sodomites have exercised their abominable Brutalities There happened on this occasion a thing which seems to me very surprizing It is that at the same hour that they condemned Monsieur Teissier of Durfort to dye for having been at Assemblies one was made at mid-day in a Farm of Sr. Roman two Leagues from de la Salle where there were found fourteen or fifteen hundred persons And the day after the Execution another was made at mid-day also near to Valerangue whilst they were at Sermon an Apostate named Couchon of St. Andrew went away and made hast to advertise the Dragoons thereof which were in their Quarters at Valerangue The Intendant and the Marquess of Trousse being in a rage when they saw that nothing would hinder these nightly Assemblies caused some Files of Dragoons to be drawn off which ran too and fro all night over the Mountains but they could meet with no Assemblies But they made Prisoners all the single persons that they found supposing they had been at Assemblies or were going to them The Lords Day after the death of Monsieur Teissier another Assembly was made on the top of the Mountain Liron to the number of four or five hundred persons A while after there was another in a Farm near St. Germain it was so numerous that the Planchers of the Room cracked and brake under the weight of them But there was none hurt but one old Man whom they were forced to carry away The day after there was another near Connas Whilst they were preaching a Sentinel that they had set at the entrance of the place went and advertised the Dragoons and Curate of S. Germain and betrayed the Assembly The Dragoons discharged upon these poor people who had no other intention than to pray to God. Many were left upon the place dead and wounded others betook themselves to flight and in flying fell into a great Gulph of Waters where a great number of them were drowned others hid themselves in the Rocks whither the Soldiers went and apprehended them 'T was in one of these Assemblies that one of the Gentlewomen of Belcastell was wounded by a great blow on the Head. A Priest or Jesuit standing by cryed out Make an end of her But nevertheless they were content with leading her and many others away Prisoners A few days after another Assembly was made near a place called Boucovitan where there were found full two thousand persons and there they gave the Communion Many persons which were present at this Assembly were discovered and made Prisoners and the Men were sent to the Gallies We here take no notice of any Assemblies but those that are considerable for a great number of others have been made in Caves and Woods and private Houses and the most part of them have been made peaceably enough and without being discovered It was this inconceivable firmness of resolution to assemble in despight to so many punishments and persecutions which produced that terrible Declaration of the twelfth of July last by which the penalty of death is imposed upon all those that shall be Convicted of having exercised any Religion but that of the Church of Rome Before that time the Dragoons had orders to put to the Sword all such as were found at Assemblies And they discharged their Commission very well as it appears by what we have reported concerning the precedent Assemblies which were all made since October on the last year and June on this It was thought that the Order that the Dragoons had to Massacre and the Declaration of the twelfth of July would have put an end to these Assemblies Nevertheless they are as frequent as ever and many times at mid-day And from that time there have been Massacres and effusion of blood On the thirtieth of June there was an Assembly of about two thousand persons upon the Road from Calmette to Barutet The Dragoons of Nismes were there and took about thirty or forty Prisoners which they carried to the Tower of Vineliere it is a Tower that is joyned to the Walls of Nismes above the Arones The Thursday following there were two Assemblies the one at St. Cesari a Village half a League from Nismes the other at Iron Cross which is not above a quarter of a League from the same City There have been many others in those parts and every where there have been Massacres bloodshed and persons Hanged upon the place and great numbers made Prisoners But the most considerable Massacre was that which was made near Uzes upon the Road to Bagnol Upon the seventh of the month of July there were found on that place twelve hundred persons The Dragoons of Uzes being informed thereof hasted thither and found them at their Devotions They compassed them round These Christians did nothing but with Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven fell on their Knees and in that posture expected death The Dragoons discharged upon these poor people without Arms and without defence They succeeded so well therein that besides the wounded the field was covered with the dead An Eye witness that passed over the place three weeks after found then there the bodies of thirty Women half rotten Besides this the Dragoons strangled many with the Halters of their Horses They took more than three hundred Women which they knocked and beat upon the Breast and Sides with their Daggers they cut off their Coats to their Hips they stripped them naked and having covered themselves with their Cloths they returned with their spoils and Prisoners to Uzes Behold on one side how the Devil defends his Gospel And on the other part it was thus that the Primitive Christians and our first Reformers planted the Gospel of Christ in the midst of Paganism and Antichristianism that is to say by Courage Patience and Sufferings Since the month of July Languedoc and Cevennes have been a field of blood and slaughter The Dragoons under pretence of Assemblies kill all they meet and Letters from those Countries report that a Man can scarcely take four steps upon the Mountains without finding a Carcase either Hanging on a Tree or lying on the ground On the thirteenth of July a Lieutenant of Dragoons having been informed that there was a Man near the old Castle of Vauvert
its Ceremonies were intirely unknown As to what appertains to other Sacraments as is that of Marriage and Penance he must have a mind blinded by prejudice beyond all imagination to believe they may be found in the Scripture Marriage and Penance are indeed found there but there is not one word which does establish them as sacred Ceremonies designed to seal the Covenant of Grace and to confer forgiveness of sins Confirmation is found there i. e. the custom of laying on of hands for the giving the Holy Spirit and that of Anointing the Sick to recover them from Diseases Some of the Proselytes of these Gentlemen make a great business of it and have said to us as a great reproach that we have taken away Confirmation and Extreme Unction It is a great pity that minds which seem inlightned should stumble at trifles And is it not clear that this Imposition of Hands and Extreme Unction was designed for doing of Miracles which are long since ceased But they say that the following Ages did nevertheless practise it That we shall see afterward The Invocation of the Holy Virgin and Saints the Worship of Relicks Adoring of Images and the Service of Creatures in Popery is an affair so considerable that it fills almost all Nevertheless the Scripture of the New Testament says nothing of it Nor is it possible that Men well Educated can persuade themselves that these are Apostolical Traditions when we see not the least footsteps of them in the Writings of the Apostles It is a blindness which cannot be understood As to matter of Fact we can have no dispute with Papists concerning it They must acknowledge that the Apostles and Evangelists speak not one word either of the Invocation of Saints and Angels nor of the Veneration of Relicks nor of the Adoration of Images As to matter of Right if the Church has power to introduce these new Worships let it be proved and put past doubt and Controversie for I do affirm that he must be smitten with a spirit of blockishness that maintains that we may Religiously invoke creatures without the Authority of God and order of his Apostles Plainly it will be said that the Apostles have appointed the Invocation of Saints and that they themselves have practised it but they have left nothing written concerning it I do affirm that he must have a Forehead made of Brass who shall say such a thing And the new Converts who can be persuaded of it make no use of their reason It will never enter into the mind of a reasonable Man that the Apostles have appointed Invocation of Saints and said nothing of it in their Writings Purgatory which they would have pass for a little thing is nevertheless a very great one For Prayers for the dead publick and private Masses and almost all the Roman Worship is founded thereon So that the Holy Spirit could not let it slip If there be a Purgatory it must be in the Scripture or there is none .. I take it for granted and 't is to scoff People to go search this pretended Fire in the prison whence we must not go out till we have paid the utmost farthing in the fire that ought to try all things at the end of the world in the prison where are the Spirits to which Noah preach'd If Heaven and Hell were no other ways revealed in the Scripture the profane would have a fair opportunity to laugh at us The Authority of the Pope is the last of those Articles of Popery that I have represented 'T is an Affair about which there can be no Controversie which has any foundation in the World. Ask your Converters where-is the Pope in the Scriptures they will quote to you the Words of Jesus Christ to S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my church Call a Turk a Jew or any other Man that hath common sense and ask him whether he sees therein that God hath established a Man at Rome with full authority to guide the whole Church to damn to save to judge of all Differences to determine without Appeal to excommunicate Kings Princes and Sovereigns he will believe you laugh him to scorn The new Converts which see therein the Apostolick Chair from S. Peter to Innocent the Eleventh have very good Eyes I beseech you my Brethren take your Converters a little to those Texts of Scripture where S. Paul enumerates the Officers of the Church He has given some to be Pastors Teachers Apostles Evangelists Bishops Deacons Elders and Prophets in those places where he declares the Duties of those who enjoy the Offices of the Church Press them say I and demand of them whether they dare say that the Apostle hath omitted the first of all Offices an Office alone in its kind infinitely superior to all others Ask them if they do believe in good earnest that S. Paul declared the Duties of Bishops in general and that he said nothing for the Regulation of the Bishop of Bishops I am persuaded if you press them earnestly thereon they will blush in your Faces Behold I do maintain that I have said enough already for the History of the first Age. The silence of the Scripture about all the Articles of Popery is an indisputable proof that then it was wholly unknown But there is much more you have an hundred positive Proofs that then the Christian Religion was wholly opposite to Popery Against the Real Presence you have all those Passages where the Eucharist is called Bread and a Commemoration of the Death of our Lord all those where 't is said our Lord is on high and not here below Against the Sacrifice of the Mass you have all the Epistle to the Hebrews Against the Worship of Creatures you have the Decalogue and a thousand other Commandments which do appoint that you adore and invoke God alone Against the taking away the Cup and the Adoration of the Eucharist you have the History of its Institution Against Purgatory you have an hundred Texts which tell you that after this life Believers go to Heaven Against the Pope you have all those places where our Lord and the Apostles forbid the Domination of Church-Men both over their Flocks and one another This is not a place to engage in a long Controversie by the Scripture we compose a History not a Disputation Know therefore historically in the following Articles what was the Primitive Christianity Behold what was the form of the Apostolick Church 1. Christians having as yet no Churches assembled where they could for the Service of God and it was almost always from House to House This is apparent both in the History of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of S. Paul. 2. In the Assemblies they preached and declared the Word of God. This is also certain and read in divers Texts in the Book of the Acts. 3 They brake Bread from House to House the Sacred Scripture says so expresly that is to say
pains God will prepare for you in the Heavens a Glory distinct from others for you must believe the Crown of Martyrs is more rich and illustrious than that of ordinary Believers Say them All things well considered this light and transient Affliction is not worthy to be compared to the Glory which is to come and which shall be revealed in me Would to God I could depaint before you the Glory of Heaven the Joy of Souls which see God and possess him the Satisfaction of the Blessed which are plunged in an Ocean of Delights the Transports of Saints which embrace their Divine Saviour which are in the glorious Society of the Patriarchs which sing the Praises of God with Angels and are full of Joy which exceeds all understanding In the name of God dear Brother lift up your eyes that way and let that grand object support you Take heed of the perilous Temptations to which the World and your own Heart may expose you 1. Your Heart may peradventure say the Difference which is between the Roman Religion and mine is so little that 't is not worth the while to suffer Martyrdom for it Say thereon Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me Rome is that spiritual Babylon concerning which God has said Go out of her my people The Church of Rome is the Court trod under foot by the Gentiles for the space of twelve hundred and sixty days The Papists are the Gentiles which tread under foot the Church of God and oppress it their Images are the Idols of the ancient Pagans and their Saints are in the place of the false Gods of Antiquity The Sacrament which they appoint to be adored is an Idol which cannot be adored without stirring up the holy Jealousie of the true Jesus Christ Remember my dear Brother that our Truths are not less important than they were an hundred and fifty years ago when our Fathers went joyfully to death in defence of them They deserved that they should die for them then they deserve that we should suffer for them at this day Take head of another very grievous Temptation Your Heart will say What must I condemn to Hell all those persons that have fallen through weakness which go to Mass by constraint Without doubt God will shew them mercy and save them He will do the same by me I will follow their example I shall have the same lot with them To that remember the Precept of Jesus Christ Judge not that ye be not judged Leave the Brethren that are fallen to the Judgment of God. We do hope that God will shew them mercy that is to say that he will give them Repentance of their great fault but in the name of God be not tempted to imitate them Is it not certain that the state in which they are is at least doubtful And is not yours certain Will it not be then a madness to quit a state and way which certainly leads you to the Greatest Glory of Paradise to put your self in a way which may lead you to ruine and damnation this is the best that you can think of it Moreover my dear Brother you ought to remember that where much hath been given much will be required the Favours which God hath bestowed upon you hitherto are so great that you can never make sufficient acknowledgments for them He hath given you a courage and resolution that hath few Examples Oh! how precious is the Talent that you have received But also how faulty will your laziness be if you go dig and hide it When a person falls at the beginning of his Race it will be said he was not fit for so long a Course and Men will excuse him But if he run vigorously within two steps of the end and having his hand already upon the Crown lets it go and loses it all Men will blame him and treat him as wretched and sloathful Run you therefore the race that is set before you with patience and perseverance seeing you are encompassed with so great a Cloud of Witnesses Look to that Cloud of holy Martyrs of Jesus Christ which have gone before you which have been Burnt Tortured torn with Pincers sometimes whole years together which have seen their Bowels fall out in the Fire before they gave up the Ghost The Chain which you wear about your neck is fifty pounds but it is more supportable than flames of Fire Say therefore We have not yet resisted unto blood fighting against sin How glorious is the Chain that you bear about your neck It is more precious than if it were of Gold and Diamonds Being coloured with your sweat and sometimes with your blood it may one day prove if it pleases God the most precious of your moveables and you will say behold there the Carcanet and Collar that my Divine Spouse hath given me Behold the Nuptial Jewel wherewith he hath honoured me He hath done me the honor to make me conformable to him in his Sufferings that I may be conformable to him in his Glory In the name of God my dear Brother do not suffer your self to be softned by the memory of your Wife and Children God who is rich in Mercy the Father of the Fatherless and Husband of the Widow will take care of her and them and not leave them without all Consolation He that loves Father or Mother Wife or Children more than me is not worthy of me We ought not to love any thing but God and for the love of God this good God will be to us in the stead of all things and will comfort us effectually The moment of time in which you leave the Prison to go to the Galleys to which you are designed will be a terrible moment to you but in the name of God fortifie your self against the horrors of it and say I follow Jesus Christ my Saviour he went forth of the Judgment-Hall bearing his Cross and I go out of my Prison bearing my Chains I shall arrive at my Calvary but I shall also arrive at the Mount of Olives at the Mountain of Peace and at last I shall ascend up into Heaven to my God and dear Redeemer In your Journey you will bear your Chain by the Roads but it will sparkle with glory and whereas the shame and infamy wherewithal Galley-Slaves are laden is usually the heaviest part of their burthen on the contrary you will be laden with glory and your Enemies themselves will admire you I praise God for the moderation with which you speak of your Persecutors therein I observe a proof that you are a true Martyr of Jesus Christ Continue to bless and pray to God for them When Men suffer for an ill Cause it is always with impatience and fury against those that are the cause thereof But the true Religion inspires this spirit of sweetness and kindness So that without going further than your own Heart you may there find evidences of the truth of the Religion that
Nourishment of our Members The same Justin which calls the Eucharist Flesh and Blood calls it Bread and Wine after the Consecration and at the time of the Distribution They give says he to all those that are present Bread and Wine over which Praises and Thanksgivings have been made Because he hath said that 't is not common Bread we must not conclude that 't is not Bread at all if it be not thought fit that we say a great Man is no Man because it hath been said that he is no ordinary or common Man. I must also give you notice in this place my Brethren that you beware of a snare that they compose or make of several Passages of the Fathers of this Age where they make you read the words Altar Oblation and Sacrifice on the Subject of the Eucharist and by these Words and Terms they endeavour to perswade you that the Sacrifice of the Mass was then known The word Altar is not found in the Authors of the second Age whose Writings are indisputable 'T is found in the Canons attributed to the Apostles and in the Epistles of S. Ignatius But 't is known that their Writings are not owned by all the World. Nevertheless I am inclined to believe that from that time they called the Table of the Eucharist Altar For why should they make any scruple of using the word Altar seeing they made use of the words Oblation and Sacrifice when they spake of this Sacrament But you must know 1. That 't was an Innovation in the Terms and that in the Writings of the Apostles you never find the words Altar Oblation or Sacrifice on that Subject Read the History of the Institution of the Eucharist the Acts of the Apostles where the breaking of bread is often spoken of that is the Celebration of the Sacrament of the Supper Read the tenth and eleventh Chapters of the first Epistle to the Corinthians where much is said of this Sacrament you do not see these Terms there 2. You must know that these terms Altar Oblation and Sacrifice took their originals from the custom that Christians had in those times of bringing their Offerings of Bread and Wine and other things necessary for the Service of the Church and the maintenance of its Pastors and setting them as an Offering to God on the Communion Table Yea they offered them to God by certain Prayers the Forms whereof are still found in the ancient Liturgies 3 To conclude you ought to hold for certain that these Oblations these Sacrifices c. of the second Age had no relation to the consecrated Signs or Elements For no Oblation was made to God of the Signs or Elements of Bread or Wine after their Consecration Observe that in the passage of Justin Martyr immediately after the Consecration of Bread and Wine the distribution was made and no Oblation between them And for an undoubted proof thereof observe that they are the Believers that make these Oblations and not the Priests alone Hear S. Clement Romanus the Disciple and Companion of S. Paul Those says he who make their Oblations at appointed times are acceptable and happy for in following the Commandments of God they commit no sin By this we do not intend to affirm that afterwards the Priest don't bless these Oblations and present them to God. But learn from S. Ireneus what 's understood by these Oblations and what they were Jesus Christ says he hath given advice to his Disciples to offer to God the first Fruits of his Creatures not that he hath any need of them with respect to himself but to the end they might not appear with respect to themselves ungrateful and unfruitful he took Bread which is a Creature and gave thanks thereon saying This is my body c. And he hath taught us a new Oblation of the New Testament which the Church receiving from the Apostles offer as the first Fruits of his Gifts to God which gives us food and nourishment You very well see that the Church offers not Jesus Christ the Creator to God but Bread which is the first Fruits of his Creation You see well that this Oblation is presented to God as a Thanksgiving because he has given us the Nourishments of Bread and Wine and not transubstantiated Bread for a propitiatory Sacrifice Hear how he speaks yet of these Oblations They are not Sacrifices that sanctifie the Man but it is the Conscience of him that offers sanctifies the Sacrifice c. seeing then that the Church offers with simplicity 't is but Justice that its Oblation pass for a pure Sacrifice before God. Behold an undoubted Blasphemy according to the Principles of Popery The Eucharist is a Sacrifice but the Sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ doth not sanctifie the Man on the contrary 't is the Conscience of him that offers who sanctifies the Sacrifice of the Body of our Lord in the Mass There is say I a Blasphemy in all shapes and forms Acknowledge therefore that nothing is debated there but the Offerings that Believers set upon the holy Table And that ye may have a perfect knowledge of what was then done in the Celebration of the holy Supper add from S. Clement and S. Ireneus that which was wanting in S. Justin 1. 'T is the Believers brought Bread Wine Wax Oil and other things necessary in the Church And as for Fruits and Animals Apples and Pulse necessary for the maintenance of life they carried them to the Bishops House 2. These things set upon the Table were consecrated to God by Prayer 3. Of the Bread and Wine which had been thus offered they took one part for the Celebration of the Eucharist and the rest was spent by the Ministers of the Church and divided among them for their support and maintenance Behold the only Oblation that was then made and 't is nothing nevertheless from thence is come an Innovation in the Terms and from thence insensibly is come the Sacrifice of the Mass Behold the meaning of the third the fourth and the fifth Canons attributed to the Apostles The third forbids that they present upon the Altar Hony Milk Birds Beasts and Pulse The second permits to offer Ears of Corn Raisins Oil for the Lights and Incense And the fifth ordains that they carry their Fruits to the Bishops and Presbyters to be distributed among them and their Deacons In the Margin of these Canons the Roman Doctors set these Words The Sacrifice of the Mass appointed by our Lord. What shameless Foreheads have they Do Men sacrifice Oil and Incense in the Sacrifice of the Mass In the second Age where we now are nothing is found of that which is called Confirmation which is one of the Popish Sacraments But it doth not appear that the Primitive Christians even to the end of the second Age did employ any Unction for the giving the Holy Spirit and for the Confirmation of those that had been baptised 'T is true they imposed Hands on
to its ancient Simplicity And it is certain that these are Additions of the third Age. We must therefore know that the Christians of the second and third Age being disgusted at the Simplicity of the Apostolick Worship did blow up the Sacraments with Ceremonies that were added with intention to signifie the Grace that God did communicate and give there They caused the new baptised to eat Wine and Milk because they were the nourishments of Infants and they would signifie that Believers newly baptised ought to be as Children new born For which reason Tertullian makes the word infantare to design the Action by which they made the new baptised to taste Wine and Milk. They anointed them with Oil to signifie that spiritual Unction of Grace which Believers did receive they laid hands on them to signifie the Descent of the Holy Ghost The following Ages added Wax Candles and Torches to signifie spiritual Illuminations white Garments to represent the Innocence of the newly baptised and with the same intention many other Ceremonies But I know not how by an imagination which may be called rough and impolished in a little time after the Institution of these Ceremonies which were not instituted by the Church but to signifie Men came to believe they had the virtue to confer Grace And of the divers Graces which are confirmed to the Believers in Baptism they attribute one to the washing with Water another to Unction and another to Imposition of Hands They imagined that the Water in Baptism did precisely give the Remission of Sins that the Oil did bestow the spiritual Unction and that the Imposition of Hands gave the Holy Ghost This Divinity is found in Tertullian in the Book which he has left us concerning Baptism Where he proves the Imposition of Hands after Baptism causes the coming of the Holy Ghost and he does it thus 1. Because the Priests and Magicians of Paganism did cause malignant Spirits to come upon their impure Waters by a Ceremony much like unto it 2. Because by the Imposition of Hands Jacob drew down a Blessing upon the Children of Joseph 3. By the Figure of the Ark and Dove who brought an Olive Branch from the the midst of the Waters of the Deluge wherein this Dove was a Figure of the Holy Ghost which falls upon him that comes out of the Baptismal Waters S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who lived a little while after taught the same thing viz. that Baptism gives forgiveness of sins and that the Holy Spirit is communicated by the Imposition of Hands But let it not offend these great Men This Discourse signified nothing in their Age and a person may see that it is a Language which is descended from the Age of the Apostles and from those times in which extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit were communicated by the Imposition of Hands For will they say that Remission of Sins was given by the washing of Water and the Holy Spirit by the Imposition of Hands is it to be thought according to their opinion that sanctifying Grace and the Spirit of Regeneration are not at all given in Baptism No on the contrary S. Cyprian lays it down in express words That the Spirit is received by Baptism And in another place he does affirm that sanctifying Grace whole and entire is given in Baptism and that Men augment or diminish it afterwards by the good or evil use that they make of it there is therefore no need of a new Ceremony for the donation of the Holy Spirit He himself teaches us whence the Church took that custom of imposing Hands after Baptism 'T is from the Action of the Apostles Peter and John who laid Hands on the People of Samaria to the end that they might receive the Holy Ghost Which thing is done among us says he Those that are baptised present themselves to the Governors of the Church and receive the Holy Spirit by our Prayer and the Imposition of Hands and are compleated by the Seal of the Lord. The original of this Ceremony which S. Cyprian acknowledges ought to have made him confess the inutility thereof in his Age since they had no longer the power of communicating the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost This Imposition of Hands was an imitation of the Apostles ill understood and Unction was also a pure Addition in this Age the effect whereof they were very much perplexed to express They said indeed this Unction was designed to give Grace but what Grace since Baptism communicates it whole and entire It is necessary says S. Cyprian that he who is baptised should also be anointed to the end that having received the Chrism that is to say the Unction he might be the anointed of God and have in himself the Grace of Jesus Christ Now the Eucharist and the Oil which they make use of to anoint the baptised are sanctified upon the Altar It is clear by these words that Unction is nothing else but a Ceremony of Baptism and that the Donation of the Grace of Jesus Christ is not attributed to it but because 't is annexed to Baptism For to give the Grace of Jesus Christ is the proper effect of Baptism according to all the Ancients It seems by this Passage that the Oil wherewith they anointed the baptised was consecrated Oil for S. Cyprian says It was consecrated on the Altar But this is not all for the sanctification of the Oil upon the Altar signifies no more than what we have observed concerning the second Age. 'T was that Believers brought Bread Wine and Oil and placed them upon the Holy Table They consecrated these Oblations by Prayer and they served themselves of them for the Usages of the Church among others they served themselves of Oil for Lights when they assembled by night and for the Unction of the baptised As to what remains you may observe that in the third Age nothing was seen but one Unction in Baptism whereas we shall find two afterwards Behold the Alterations which have happened to the Sacrament of Baptism in this Age. Let us consider the Eucharist We have observed that in the second Age they had added the mixture of Water with Wine the Custom of sending it to the absent by the Deacons and above all they had there annexed the Oblation of those Gifts that Believers made on the Altar as a part of the Ceremony This had already given it the appearance of a Sacrifice and indeed gave the name to the whole Action We shall not need to doubt but this imagination increased with time Christians having a very great desire to give to their Worship some appearance of a Sacrifice to take away the scandal which the Pagans conceived against them For they perpetually said to Christians You have no Temples Statues Altars nor Sacrifices and by consequence you are impious There was nothing in the Worship of the Christian Religion which might be dressed up in the likeness of a Sacrifice but the Eucharist They
Converters are not men of Fidelity to press you by Principles the falseness whereof they themselves confess for in the Pastoral letter of Monsieur de Meaux in his Catholick Exposition and every where else to hear him speak of the centre of Unity you would say that the Pope possessed this Title by divine Right and behold these Gentlemen profess to us That 't is by a handsome Usurpation tolerated and by the concession of Councils That which Councils have given him they may take away from him This makes it apparent how little of honesty there is in the Quotations which these Monsieurs make from St. Câ—prian who without doubt had a false Idea of the Unity of the Church so false and so ill formed that your Converters themselves will not dare to warrant it We have treated this matter at large in our Answer to Monsieur Nicholas where we have made it apparent that this false Idea of the Unity of the Church which St. Cyprian did communicate to St. Augustine did put the latter to that perplexity and confusion from which he could not withdraw himself on the subject of the validity of the Baptism of Hereticks In the following Letter we must say something as well on the point of Antiquity as that of Controversie and we will make it evident also in the same Letter that supposing this Roman Idea of Unity to be false all their Arguments and Sophisms vanish and come to nothing 15. January 1687. The ELEVENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity the end of the History of the Christianity of the Third Age concerning Tradition and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome An Article of Controversie Reflections upon a Writing lately addressed to the Reformed of France A Continuation of the matter concerning the Unity of the Church Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ I Have not obliged my self to acquaint you with all the sad Accidents that do betide us in our Exile and Persecution but the death of the excellent Mr. Claud is an event so grievous that I cannot forbear speaking one word concerning it God hath taken him to himself since our last Letter He was the Father of our Prophets and we may well cry after him My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horseman thereof God had formerly affixed him in a particular manner to the conduct of the most considerable of your Congregations but Providence made him become in a manner your universal Pastor by the care that he took to defend you from the dangerous Sophistry of those that endeavoured to seduce you and he was herein successful in â—uch a manner as might cover all our Enemies with shame and confusion I acquaint you with the loss that you have sustained that you may lament and look on it as a mark of the continuation of God's displeasure against you His Justice was not yet satisfied the Arrows of his Quiver were not all drawn forth this stroke was still owing to us I pray God this may be the last If you be grieved your Enemies you may be sure rejoyce at it but they must know that if the Ashes and Blood of the Martyrs hath been the seed of the Church the Tombs of the Prophets do preserve their Spirit which passeth to their Disciples If the Grave inclose the Flesh and Bones of this great Man his Writings will preserve his Wit Knowledge and Illuminations and God will not suffer a failure of Persons which shall prophesie on his Tomb for the maintenance of those Victories that he hath gained for the Truth God will do his work in your fight and you shall see this Church which is dead rise again after four days but it may be he will do this work himself and when you see those fall and drop away one after another whose Writings and Discourses might be of use to ruine the success and triumph of Lyes be persuaded that God will derive his Praise from the mouths of Children and that he that laid the Foundation of the Kingdom of his Son by Fishermen will re-establish the Ruines thereof by earthen Vessels into which he will pour his Treasures He whose loss we lament was whilst he lived one of those Instruments which God served himself of for your Edification and Defence Whilst you pour out tears upon his Grave and throw your showers there you may gather sweetness thence Out of the Eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness Death that devours and takes all things from us cannot hinder us from searching and finding our Edification in the Remains of this great Man. His last Words will serve as a Support to our Faith. It was not the pleasure of God that he should shed his Blood for the defence of his Truth but he hath made his last Words which are the effusion of his Spirit and of his Soul give Testimony to those Truths which he had preach'd and defended I have says he laboured all my life in the search of the best Religion and being now about to give up my Soul to God I do declare That I have not found any but our own which I have so often defended and in which I am now about to dye which is the true way to Heaven The Words of dying men are the proper Voice of Conscience for in that last moment Dissimulation has no place so that they are the Seal of all the Truths which he hath so gloriously defended My design will not permit me to speak all on this Subject which it were necessary you should know I shall leave it to some other Person and return to the matter of our preceding Letters This shall consist of one point of Antiquity and another of Controversie We are to finish the History of the Christianity of the Third Age. And after we have fortified you against the Illusions which your Seducers frame upon some Passages of the Writings of St. Cyprian and Tertullian on the Subject of Repentance Auricular Confession and Satisfaction I must also fortifie you against the Snares that they compose for you from the Writings of the same Tertullian on the Subject of Tradition for they do not fail to tell you That the Fathers nearest the Apostles had a great respect for the unwritten Word that they did often dispute against Hereticks by Tradition and that Tertullian himself did maintain That there was no other way of disputing against them But to secure you from this Snare Learn First That when Tertullian disputes and proves that which he advances by Tradition it is almost alway about indifferent Ceremonies and matters of practice As in the Book concerning the Soldiers Crown where he proves by Tradition the bearing of no Crown upon the Head of Dipping three times in Baptism of giving Milk and Honey to be eaten by the newly baptized of giving Alms and Oblations for the Dead of not Washing seven days after Baptism 'T
who make a very great noise in Italy They reproach the Pastors excessively and under an appearance of Zeal there is nothing which they do not say to make odious and contemptible both the publick Ministry and those that exercise it in the one and other Religion This may be seen in the Writings of their Foundrâ—ss Anthoniette de Bourignon They perform no private Exercises of Devotion in their houses at least which are visible for Mr. P. himself hath made known to the Publick that Madam Meiselle de Bourignon had no Prayers in her Family unless it were at Table and yet he observes that that also was done with a low Voice not that they do not permit the use of Prayers to such as will as they permit them to go to Sermons or to Mass indifferently but those which are perfect among them do not concern themselves about it And one of the Principles of Mr. P. is That Desires Prayers Elevations of Heart towards God and Meditation are perfectly contrary to the Spirit of perfect Christianity and hinder the descent of the holy Spirit and the coming of his Grace According to him the only estate proper to draw down the holy Spirit is that which he calls a state of Inaction by which in a privation of Prayers Desires and Motions a man lets himself fall into nothing And this annihilation of all the Faculties is that acceptable Sacrifice to God which causes a descent of the Holy Spirit They have perpetually those Words in their mouth Let all Creatures keep silence and let God speak by which they signifie not only that we ought to impose silence on our Passions that we may hear God which is very true but also that we ought to shut the doors to all external Objects and to lay all our internal Faculties asleep to procure a kind of Extasie which whilst it continues God speaks to the Heart immediately and by himself Behold one of the Dreams of this Sect whereof you will see some footsteps scattered here and there throughout the whole Letter for this is the meaning of those Humiliations Annihilations and internal acts of Adherence to God which you are there exhorted to make Behold another Dream of these diseased Minds which is read also in this Writing in the fourth Page thereof and the second Column Moreover says he it must be remembred that 't is said in the Gospel That all things are possible to him that believes That Faith can remove Mountains and that Jesus Christ always said to Men Be it unto you according to your Faith. So that if those which officiate and assist at the Celebration of the Eucharist do believe that Jesus Christ is present there this Faith is ratified by God and it engages him beyond his Word and his Promises to make himself present as it is believed and this is a Conception so clear that I do not doubt but you will comprehend the force thereof Must not he have a besotted mind to call this a clear Conception I will explain it to you One of the Opinions of this mysterious Cabala is that originally God created Man master of all things in the literal signification of the Words so that he was able to stop the Sun in his course to remove the Globe of the Earth to remove Mountains c. and the Instrument by which he doth this or could do it is his Faith for all things are possible to him that believes without any Figure or Exceptions The state of Perfection to which Christ calls us is that of Faith which makes all things possible to us so that at this day to overturn the order of the World you have no more to do but to believe that you can do it and it shall be done for 't is precisely in the literal sense that they would have us understand the words of Christ If you had Faith but as a grain of Mustard-seed you should say to this Mountain be thou removed and cast into the Sea and it would be done And that it was not a Priviledge of the Apostles but for all Believers Behold that admirable Conception which he tells you is so clear that it is impossible you should not understand the force thereof If you don't understand its strength at least you will understand the convenience of it for when it shall please you to believe that Christ is corporeally present in your Andiron and in the Mantle-tree of your Chimney it will be so and by that means without going out of your Chimney-corner you will go to Mass and every one of you by his Faith will consecrate and transubstantiate all the Utensils of his House In the same Writing you will find another Dream which to me seems yet more ridiculous 'T is in the sixth Page and the second Column on the Subject of Purgatory Then when it happens that a Soul departs this Life in the love of God having nevertheless some impurities and evil habits in it self the Blood of Jesus Christ or the purifying Grace of Jesus Christ which comes after death into this Soul to purifie it or to finish its purification from all sin finding there as yet more or less of the remainders of Evil and of evil Habits and Inclinations fights with them that he may expell them this Combat of the purifying Grace of Jesus Christ against the evil which is in a Soul very sensible which he would cleanse from all the remainders of Sin is not done nor can be without great and sensible sorrows Is not this very singular That when a Soul is separated from his Body the blood of Jesus Christ should thrust it self in there like Sand to scour to cleanse this Soul which is an occasion of quick and pungent Sorrows Surely Mr P. could not have done better to excite the curiosity of the Publick than to give us this little spark of his Mysteries This also will be worth something to his Printer for I am assured that the Curious of France would at any rate whatsoever see a compleat Systeme of this admirable Theology However it be it is not without a particular Providence that it happens that in a Writing otherwise apt enough to flatter the minds of our Nicodemites the Author hath sufficiently discovered himself and made known what he is After this my Brethren judge what credit you ought to give a man who gives you an Idea of Piety according to which the Israelites might worship the Golden Calf without fault because they believed it to be God according to which a Man may be a Turk and adore even Cabages provided he makes use of them as a means of uniting him to God and to excite his Love. These Gentlemen desire of us to leave them in peace let them leave us so then and let them not intermeddle to give Advice to our Congregations being not called thereto With all my heart I am willing to leave them at rest for I take no pleasure to trouble any body
of the Fourth and Fifth Ages The Original of Oecumenical Councils Seven Reasons against their Infallibility drawn from their Original An Article of Controversie The true Idea of Schism All those which are called Schismaticks are not out of the Church Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our god and Saviour Jesus Christ IN our preceding Letter we began the History of the Novelties which appeared in Christianity during the Fourth and Fifth Ages and the first which we found there was the Original of the Monastick Life The Second thing considerable to the Original whereof we ought to give attention in the Fourth and Fifth Ages are the Councils called General or Oecumenical Not as to the Original of a thing evil in it self but as to a thing of which ill use hath been made and of which they make a snare at this day for ignorant and feeble Minds The pretended Infallibility of the Church is the great Illusion by which they endeavour to deceive the new Converts They know not where to fix this Infallibility sometimes they fix it in the Pope and sometimes in a Council But the French Church by the Authority of the King hath declared her self boldly a little while since for the Infallibility of Councils against the Infallibility of the Pope for which reason 't is expedient that you here learn in a few words the History of the Birth of General Councils that you may understand the absurdity of the Principle upon which your Converters build You must therefore know my Brethren that the French Church not knowing assuredly where to place the Infallibility of the Church distinguisheth Councils into Diocesan Provincial National Oecumenick or General Diocesan Councils are those which the Bishop assembles where he reads his Ordinances to his Curates Provincial Councils are Assemblies of the Suffragan Bishops of one and the same Metropolitan National Councils are those where the Bishops of one or more Nations are Assembled They have not been so bold as to ascribe Infallibility to any one of these Assemblies but there are Councils of an higher Order which it pleases these Gentlemen to call Oecumenical or General Councils to which they ascribe Infallibility they are say they those in which the whole Vniversal Church is assembled When we ask them where is the Institution of these Assemblies in the Holy Scripture they cannot find the least foot-steps thereof I say the least 't is true they there find Assemblies of Believers of Pastors and Elders who considered Matters that were disputed We see one among others in the 15th Chapter of the Acts Some of the Apostles Elders and Brethren which were at Jerusalem assembled to advise about means to determin the Controversie which the Pharisees had raised in the Church concerning the necessity of observing the Law of Moses But it would be ridiculous to call a very small Assembly and very private a General Council where there appeared but three Apostles of thirteen and only the Clergy which happened to be then at Jerusalem When we continue to ask these Gentlemen where we must then take the Original of Oecumenical Councils they answer us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages of the Church and indeed they have reason for it The First of those Councils which bears this Name is that of Nice assembled by the Authority of Constantine in the year 325 to determine the Controversie of the Divinity of the Son against Arrius The Second was assembled by Theodosius the Elder in the year 381 to determine against Macedonius who denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit The Third was called together at Ephesus under the Empire of Theodosius the Younger in the year 431 against Nestorius who affirmed two Persons in Jesus Christ The Fourth was assembled in the year 451 by the Authority of the Emperour Martian against the Heresie of Eutyches who confounded the two Natures Behold four in 125 years or little more before this Men knew not what a General Council meant Now I intreat you my Brethren give attention to six or seven short Reflections which I shall make thereon that you may understand the great absurdity of affixing Infallibility to these kind of Assemblies this is at this time of the greatest importance to you You must throw to the ground this Phantome of Infallibility which serves as a support to all the Errors of Popery Now this Phantome knows not where to fix its foot and when you shall have forced it out of this last Entrenchment where your Converters have placed it you will see it vanish and disappear 1. Make reflection upon the silence of the Holy Scripture concerning it and see if there be any probability that the design of God was to establish a seat of Infallibility in certain Assemblies and that he should never speak a word thereof It must be granted that there is nothing in the World more important in Religion than this It is not enough that the Scripture hath established the Infallibility of the Church in general as they pretend for it would be in vain for God to say the Church is Infallible if we know not what this Church is where the seat of this Infallibility is placed and by what Mouth she ought to give her Oracles 'T is true they send you to Tradition for all that whereof the Scripture says nothing But this cannot be a Point for which we are to be sent to Tradition for this is the Foundation of Tradition it self Tradition is the consent of the Ancients and this consent is found in Councils All the Authority of Tradition is nothing at least before the Infallibility of Councils is established The Infallibility of Tradition is not in the testimony of single Persons of S. Austin S. Chrysostom c. for these single Persons were not infallible and as yet it has not been thought advisable to make them so 'T is therefore the Infallibility of Councils which alone can make Tradition certain Now Tradition is the second Rule of Faith equal in Authority to the Holy Scripture 't is therefore necessary at least that the Scripture hath given credential Letters to these Oecumenical Councils that their Authority and that of Tradition may be confessed and acknowledged This is not say I an Affair for which we are to be sent to Tradition as well because it is the most important Point of Christianity on which the Faith of the rest depends as because this were to send to Tradition to prove the Authority of Tradition it self which is absurd it is not absurd in the Scripture to have recourse to the Scripture it self to prove the Authority of the Scripture because it is the highest Principle and because there is nothing beyond it it must be that it prove it self But the Scripture is above Councils and Tradition and by consequence it is necessary that the Scriptures establish the Authority both of Tradition and Councils 2. I intreat you to observe that the Church continued three Hundred
Church did not as yet receive the Canons thereof So that frankly and openly 't is to scoff Men to call them General Councils in the sense which is given to the Word at this day 'T is true that these first Councils called themselves so but why and in what sense It was according to the Stile which was then in use The Roman Empire was then called Orbis the World Universal the Greeks called it Oikoumene the habitable part of the Earth the Emperors thereof were called the Universal Emperors the Vanity of the Emperors occasioned this the great ones always blow up their Titles The extent of the Roman Empire was great indeed but as if they had been Masters of the whole Earth they caused themselves to be called Masters of the World Universal A General Council in this sense signifies no more than a Council assembled from all parts of the Roman Empire 5. I intreat you to give attention to that which is necessary according to these Gentlemen to make a Council Oecumenical Is it necessary that there be Bishops from all parts of the Church by no means for then the Council of Constantinople were not Oecumenick The Pope was not there either by himself or his Legates and it is not known that there was any of the Western Bishops there Nevertheless 't is Oecumenick but why because that all the Church consented to it at last for its Canons were not received at Rome more than two hundred years after The Church Universal say I hath approved it not by Subscriptions and a formal Consent but by a Consent which they call tacit and implicite and this is indeed the Opinion of the Doctors of France That to make a Council Oecumenick 't is enough that it be afterward approved That is the reason why the Canons of the Council of Antioch which is generally believed to have been an Arrian Council are at this day seen in the Code of the Universal Church That is the reason why many men are willing the Council of Sardis should be Oecumenical 'T is because though there were none but Western Bishops there yet the most part of the Bishops of the East subscribed it afterwards Now I intreat you observe the Absurdity which I am about to make you sensible of Behold a Council for example the first Oecumenical of Constantinople which in its form is but a particular Council and by consequence cannot be Infallible nevertheless because God foresaw that the Council would be approved by all the Church he presides there by a Spirit of Infallibility against all the Rules which he hath establish'd for his own Conduct with respect to Councils So that when God foresees that a Council which is particular in its Composition will one day be accounted Oecumenical because of a consent that will be given to it either by Subscriptions sent and separately made or by a tacit consent he there pours out a Spirit of Infallibility But if he foresees that this Synod will be neglected as a particular Synod he lets it pass for as much as 't is worth and doth not make it Infallible Is not this to play with the Spirit of God and the Reason of Men Who sees not by this example that the Character of an Oecumenical Council doth in no wise depend upon a Spirit of Infallibility which presides there but on the consent of men which persuade themselves right or wrong that such an Assembly hath happily hit on the truth 6. I pray judge whether it be probable that these Assemblies called Oecumenical were infallible Judges of Controversies without knowing it At this day when the Pope assembles an Oecumenical Council this Council believes it self to be Infallible it acts and speaks as such Let them demonstrate to us this Character in the first Councils let them shew us that they acted as infallible and that they spoke as such If I should make a Book whereas I am only making a Letter I could shew you a hundred circumstances of these ancient Councils which will make it evident that this Dream never crept into the minds of any of the Members of those Assemblies that they were there as Infallible Judges But in this case 't is not we that are obliged to prove 't is the Papists for they are those which do affirm Press them say I about it and ask them their Proofs that the Ancient Councils believed themselves Infallible Go farther and ask them Whether it be possible that these Councils should be Infallible and that not one of the Divines of those Ages should doubt of it and that in their Disputes with Hereticks they should make no use of this Authority St. Hilary St. Ambrose St. Austin St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Athanasius had great Disputes against the Arrians but they never thought fit to oppose unto them the Authority of the Council of Nice as Infallible Where were their Wits Why did they not tell them God hath promised That when two or three are gathered together in his name he will be in the midst of them 'T is a Promise of Infallibility belonging to General Councils The Council of Nice was assembled in the Name of God held in all its forms and assembled from the whole Church it is therefore Infallible and by consequence you are obstinate not to submit unto it Thus they reason against us and 't is thus that men ought to reason naturally when they are of the Opinion and Principles of Popery We do not see one word of this in the Authors of the fourth and fifth Ages On the contrary St. Austin tells the Arrians Let us lay by the Council of Nice on my part and the Council of Ariminum on your part and let us dispute from the Scripture * Cont. Maxim. lib. 3. cap. 14. confessing the one and the other of these Assemblies might err although it be very certain that the Council of Nice did not actually do so 'T is as if I should say to a Mahometan Let us lay by my H. Scripture and your Alcoran as supposing it possible that both the one and other of them may be false It must be granted that I were wicked or a fool to speak thus if it were not upon those Suppositions which are called false and whereof we sometimes serve our selves to draw an Adversary to an absurdity Behold then a Prodigy which passes all imagination the Christians had among themselves infallible Judges and knew nothing of it but behold much more St. Austin not only knew not that he had right to oppose the Authority of the Council of Nice as Infallible to the Arrians but he even confesses to the Donatists that no Authority of Council was supreme and without Appeal The Donatists to prove to him that the Baptism of Hereticks was worth nothing brought him the Testimony of St. Cyprian He answers without ceremony That he acknowledged no Testimony sure and certain but that of the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament that as
that though even the Church should fall into Idolatry we cannot be saved if we separate from it And I say although even the Church of Rome should have Reason at the bottom and were not Idolatrous and that we were out in our Separation we should not hazard our Salvation by continuing as we are Men are every where well where they have Christianity and the marrow and substance of it and 't is a folly to imagine that the Salvation of men depends upon the humor of their Guides It may be therefore that Luther and Calvin were mistaken i. e. That the corruption of the Church of Rome was not great enough to oblige the Faithful to go out of her let us suppose they had done better to leave things as they were I do nevertheless maintain that at this day you do not in any wise hazard your Salvation by continuing where they have placed you because however it be you have Christianity in its integrity you have it wholly pure and uncorrupt In every Society where that is found a man may be saved after whatsoever manner it be formed The Idea which men have formed of Schism for many Ages past is the most false that can be imagined but besides the falshood of it 't is the most dangerous and cruel Chimera that could be found Every Society would be Catholick Church to the exclusion of all others The Church of Rome pretends thus far for her self The Greek Church makes no less pretence thereto He that goes out of this Church breaks the Unity and he that breaks it is no longer in the Church Now he who is no longer in the Church is no longer in a state and way of Salvation whatever he say and whatever he do Behold what they say behold the Chimera We must therefore rectifie this Idea of Schism according to the Unity which we have given you The Unity of the Universal Church does not subsist within the bounds of one certain Communion nor in adherence to certain Pastors to the exclusion of all others but in the Unity of Spirit Doctrine Sacraments and Evangelical Ministry in general i. e. of Pastors declaring the Truth of the Gospel What must be done then to make a Schism with respect to the Church Universal He must renounce the Christian Doctrine the Sacraments of the Church and the Gospel Ministry that is to say He must be an Apostate or an Heretick But every Society that goes out of another and greater Society of which it was a part makes no Schism with respect to the Church Universal whilst it retains the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel it goes not out of the Church because it carries the Church with it and it carries the Church with it because it carries Christianity with it It carries say I the Church with it in such a manner nevertheless that it leaves it in the Society which it leaves for leaving true Christianity there it leaves the true Church there also And the advantage of being the Church and of having Christianity is a Privilege which may be possessed intire and without prejudice to other Christian Societies We must therefore know that there is an Vniversal and Particular Schism Particular Schism is a Separation from a particular Church a Universal Schism is a Separation from the Universal Church Universal Schism consists in the Renunciation of the Universal Church by renouncing her Doctrine Sacraments and Ministry For example If the one half of Christians should separate from the other and set up a new Gospel according to which Moses should be set side by side with Jesus Christ the legal Ceremonies re-established the Evangelical Ministry should be changed into the Ministry of Priests after the Order of Aaron the Sacraments of the Church should be joyned to the Sacraments of the Old Testament it were certain that this would be a true Schism for these Men would renounce the Doctrine the Sacraments and the Ministry of the Gospel The Mahometans without renouncing Jesus Christ and calling him false Prophet have set up a Prophet superior to him and receive the Impostures of Mahomet admit Circumcision and reject Baptism have made a Religion truly and essentially different from that of Christ's 'T is therefore a true universal Schism The Socinians who have renounced almost all the Fundamentals of the Christian Religion who despise and neglect the Sacraments by going out of the Church are become Schismaticks and true Schismaticks with respect to the Church Universal for they have not carried the Church with them because they have not carried Christianity with them According to this Idea Universal Schism or Schism with respect to the Universal Church doth not essentially differ from Heresie and Apostacy Particular Schism is when a Man separates from a particular Church be it for some Point of Doctrine be it for some quarrel about Discipline be it for some personal Differences of the Guides among themselves Of this sort of Schisms there is an infinite number of Examples In the Second Age there was a Schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of Asia about a controversie of Ceremonies about the day on which Easter ought to be observed The Churches of Asia maintained that the Christian Passover ought to be observed on the same day that the Jews observed theirs and they said they held it as a Tradition from St. John. The Church of Rome on the contrary said that Christians ought to observe Easter on the Lord's-day following the Jewish Passover And for the sake of this goodly Controversie Victor Bishop of Rome was so rash as to separate the Churches of Asia from his Communion This Schism continued not only until the Council of Nice but a very long time after for mention is made of the Quartodecimani in the General Council of Ephesus against Nestorius in the year 431. So they called those who celebrated Easter with the Jews on the 14th day of the Month of March. In the Third Age Novatian formed a considerable Schism about a Point of Discipline viz. Whether we ought to receive those who fell in times of Persecution to the Peace of the Church This Schism continued a long time We find this Schism continuing amidst all the great troubles that were betwixt the Arrians and the Orthodox the union of Opinions that was between the Novatians and the Catholicks with respect to the Doctrine of Arrius did not put a period unto it In the same Age the Donatists made another Schism in Africa about the choice of a Bishop of Carthage Two Parties being formed about it a Division was made it spread through all Africa and continued many Ages There happened another in the beginning of the Fifth Age by one named Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople who taught there were two Persons as well as two Natures in Christ Another was made a little while after by Eutyches Abbot of a Monastery in Constantinople who desiring to oppose Nestorius who distinguished two Persons
Woman fearing God more than Men resisted all their Temptations and constantly refused to participate in this false Mystery which would have deprived her of true Communion with Jesus Christ After her Death the Justice seized on her Body and before Sentence was pronounced against her they plucked out her Eyes they cut off her Nose pulled out her Tongue they cut off her Fingers and Toes her Lips and Ears and committed those kind of Indignities on this poor Body which we dare not name Good God! What Spirit is this what kind of fury And of what Persons did the Holy Spirit speak if it be not of these men when it said Even the Sea-monsters draw out the breast they give suck to their young ones but the Daughter of my People is in the hands of cruel and barbarous persons like the Ostriches in the Wilderness So some translate the Words We will place here a matter of Fact which we had determined to have acquainted you with long since but could not find a convenient place for it And eye-witness hath sent us the Relation of the Martyrdom of one called Monsieur Charpentier of the Village of Rufac in Angoulmois who died in the midst of Torments about the time that the Edict of Nantes was revoked We shall pass by the ordinary Violences committed by the Dragoons on the Goods of this poor Man. These mischievous Villains fell on his Person they lighted up many Candles and caused him to dance round about them until he had lost both Sense and Breath They hindred him from sleeping which having heated his Blood put him into a malignant Fever the Dragoons seeing him in this condition forsook him and he was carried from his own House to that of one of his Relations When he was there the Dragoons of Pinsone came to Rufac they soon learn'd the House where the sick Man was thither they went and at first contented themselves to keep guard about his Bed offering him a thousand Outrages accompanied with Threatning and Blasphemies At last seeing this did not shake him they caused him to drink down twenty great Glasses of Water and his Daughters drank as many more to excuse their Father This prevailing nothing as yet they caused melted Grease to drop down upon his Eyes for a whole Night together He lost his Sight and his Eyes never opened more He lost his Life also and died in those Torments without the least appearance of Weakness confessing the Truth couragiously to his last Breath April 1. 1687. The Sixteenth PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity A Fourth Proof of the Novelty of the Invocation of Saints in the Fifth Age They did not Invoke the Blessed Virgin And Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts about Schism Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. IN our preceeding Letter we have confessed to your Converters that the Invocation of Saints began to be practised about the end of the Fourth Age and in the Fifth But we have offered to you three Proofs that that Worship was New. Behold a Fourth proof of the Novelty thereof 't is that in the Fourth and Fifth Ages nothing was known concerning the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin. We know what difference Popery puts at this day between the blessed Virgin and other Saints She is vastly preferred before them her Worship is called Hyperdulia and the Worship of others simple dulia For one Prayer addressed to other Saints there are a hundred to the blessed Virgin where St. Paul hath one worshipper she hath a hundred The Titles which are given to the holy Virgin are a thousand times more pompous and great than those which are given to the greatest Apostles And there is some reason for it For surely the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to have greater Priviledges than his Servants If then the Invocation of Saints be an Apostolick Tradition we ought to Invocate the holy Virgin Mother of God in the first place and as the Head of our He and She Mediators of the second Order The Second Age ought to have known this Worship or if any politick reason had hindred the Invocation of Saints from manifesting itself in the Third Age certainly the Invocation of the Virgin ought to have appeared in the front of the Fourth Age amongst others like the Sun among the Stars What folly what a humour was it then to Invoke St. Mamas St. Julitta and forty Soldiers which suffered Martyrdom in the beginning of the Fourth Age and not to Invoke the Virgin Mother of God. As to matter of fact we do maintain that the blessed Virgin was not prayed unto till near 100 Years after the first birth of that Worship And you may my Brethren boldly defie your Converters on that subject Whil'st there were Churches consecrated to St. Stephen St. Mamas St. Julitta to the forty Soldiers to St. Gervais St. Protais and many others which they shew unto you there was not so much as a little Chappel for our Lady Nothing was then spoken of but Miracles done by the Martyrs Mothers desired of them the recovery of their Husbands and of their Children the blind went to them to recover their sight and the paralitick to be restored to strength and soundness they took them for Protectors in their Voyages And as a mark of the acknowledgment of the miraculous Deliverances they had received from them they inriched their Churches with precious and invaluable Treasures This we learn from Theodoret who writ about the Year 450. And all this while nothing is said of the Miracles of the Virgin who nevertheless afterwards wrought many more than all the other he and she Saints together except only that Zozomen says by the by that about the time whereof we speak it was believed at Constantinople that the Virgin appeared there and wrought Miracles in the Church of the Resurrection called Anastasia But he does not say that they prayed unto her in that Church The Martyrs had not only their Churches but they had also their Feasts in the Third Age in which mention was made of their grievous sufferings The Virgin had then no Feasts At this day she has seven but the most ancient of them is not above 800 or 900 years old 'T is true that that which at this day is called Candlemas which the Greeks call Hypapante is more ancient But at the beginning it was celebrated in the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ and not of the Virgin. 'T was the Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple and not the Purification of the Virgin. It was called Hypapante which signifies meeting because of the meeting of Simeon and Anna the Prophetess who went before the Child and both concurred to prophesie concerning the Wonders of this new-born Infant To conclude that which is found most ancient for the Invocation of the Virgin is what Nicephorus Calistus saith *
St. Chrysostom and St. Austin Sermons or Works that are none of theirs and a man needs but indifferent Learning and little Sincerity to be convinced thereof But Father Crasset who has neither the one nor the other neither Skill nor Science takes and gives all for good In the Fifth Age he quotes Cyril of Alexandria who is surely one of the first which gave occasion to the Religious Worship of the Virgin. For by opposing Nestorius who would not suffer Mary to be called the Mother of God he passed unto the other extreme and advanced as far and as high as he could the praises of the Virgin Mary Nevertheless this might be reduced to Apostrophes Figures of Oratory and great Elogies but there is nothing of Invocation therein No Author of the Fifth Age speaks more expresly nor vehemently of the Invocation of Martyrs and of the Worship which is given to the Reliques than Theodoret. Nevertheless in the passage which Father Crasset quotes from him in his Commentary on the words of Solomon's Song My beloved is one there is nothing that favours the Worship of the Virgin in the least He applies these words My Dove my only one to the Virgin and that were the place to speak of the honour which ought to be given to her if ever there were any But all that he says concerning her is that she is the Mother of God a pure Virgin that all Nations call her blessed that she is the Dove and the only one which brought Christ Jesus into the World that in Charity she surpasses the Cherubims and Seraphims That were the place to have said that we ought to commend ourselves to her Charity and invoke her as our Mediatrix To conclude let these Gentlemen find us in the Fourth and Fifth Ages Chappels and Oratories consecrated to the Virgin as they find them consecrated to the Martyrs unless it be about the end of the Fifth age Now this being supposed I dare say that a man must have renounced all honour all modesty all sincerity and all judgment not to confess that here is an indubitable evidence that Invocation of Saints was a Novelty in the Fourth and Fifth Ages For these men had been fools not to have invoked the Virgin in those times when they invoked St. Protais and St. Gervais if they established Invocation upon the merit the dignity and the reputation that these Saints might have with God. I would fain know if those two Giants which suffered Martyrdom under Decius were in condition to intercede with God with so much efficacy as this Virgin-Mother to the Saviour of the World This false Worship had its birth from that foolish love which men had for Reliques And as they had no Reliques of the blessed Virgin so they consecrated no Churches or Chappels to her and in consequence thereof they did not call upon her We shall bring you yet in what follows new Proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions of the New Converts LEt us take up again at present what follows of the Illusions which the New Converts make for themselves who endeavour to lay their Consciences asleep They conclude two things 1. That all the fundamental Truths of Christianity being Confessed by the Church of Rome they are obliged to remain with her so you go on These fundamental Truths which Popery hath preserved are the Articles of the Three Creeds that of the Apostles that of Niece or Constantinople and that which is call'd by the name of St. Athanasius 'T is true that the Church of Rome hath retained these but to conceive how you cheat yourselves I intreat you to suppose Christians which receive these three Creeds and who nevertheless Adore the Sun the Moon the Earth and almost all the Idols of Paganism you will say that these things are inconsistent But you deceive yourselves for there is nothing more possible than that that a man should believe God is the Creatour of Heaven and Earth that Jesus Christ is his eternal Son and the Creatour of the World that he was Born that he Died that he was Crucified that he will come to Raise and Judge the Living and the Dead and nevertheless that he should believe that we may Adore the Earth the Trees the Sun and Moon because God does animate and fill them The Greed says not that we must Worship none but God yea it says not that we must Worship him So that a Religion may receive the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Universal Church and adore every thing but God Why may not men be capable of Adoring the Stars because God fills them since they Adore Bread under a supposition that Jesus Christ is there after a manner invisible precisely as God is in the Stars and Elements It is therefore a particular Providence that Christians who Adore the Eucharist are not fallen so far as to Adore the Sun Moon and Stars for I do maintain that the Papists may be carried to Adore a Stone as naturally as they are carried to Adore the Bread in the Eucharist on supposition that Jesus Christ is included under it Suppose you that they were come so far would you yet say Since all the fundamental Truths are Confessed by this Communion which Adore the Sun and Moon yea Stones we are obliged to continue with it Learn you therefore that we may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and build thereon Dung Poison and all sorts of Impurities The spirit of Man is capable of reconciling those things that are molt irreconcileable Behold another thing whereof you ought to be advertised that you ought to distinguish fundamental Truths from fundamental Errours You imagine that to retain all the fundamental Truths and to have no fundamental Errours is the same thing and because we do confess the Roman Church retains all the fundamental Truths you think that we confess to you that she has no fundamental Errours In this you are much mistaken a person may retain the fundamental Truths of Christianity and add thereunto fundamental Errours I gave you an Example in men who might believe the Creed in good earnest in the sence of the Church and which might add under a hundred false pretences of Devotion Pagan Idolatries I do maintain that a man may adopt into the Religion of Christians almost all the Abominations of the Bonzes of Japan and the Brachmns of India without any formal Renunciation of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith. I demand if whilst men retain the fundamental Truths they do not add fundamental Errours by espousing these Pagan Worship 'T is exactly that which the Church of Rome has done upon the Foundations of Christianity she hath built a thousand Superstitions which are purely Pagan Popery is Paganism renewed and built upon Christianity 't is an Idol Temple raised upon the Temple of Jesus Christ. A fundamental Errour is therefore an Errour or Practice which
Saints are said to appear 't is not they which return 't is the Angels which appear and speak for them Behold I pray you how unformed and floating this Theology is But there is more than this in these same ages when they prayed to Martyrs at one time they prayed for them at another They prayed say I for the Martyrs and for the Apostles yea for the blessed Virgin and this is a new Proof of the Novelty of this Superstition This appears by the Liturgies of that time In that of St. Chrysostom we read We offer to thee this reasonable Service for those which rest in the Faith of our Ancestors our Fathers the Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles the Preachers the Evangelists the Martyrs the Confessors the Continents and for all the Spirits which were initiated in the Faith principally for the most holy immaculate and blessed above all Women our Lady Mary Mother of God and always a Virgin. And in that which is attributed to Cyril of Jerusalem O God have mercy on our Fathers on our Brethren which are at rest whose Souls are acceptable unto thee give them repose and remember also all the holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Evangelists and all the Spirits of the Just which are dead in the Faith and principally the holy and the glorious Mary Mother of God always a Virgin. It would be at this day the greatest of all absurdities to pray for a dead man and pray to him at the same time Indeed if he be in a condition of doing us good if he see God if he be with him he hath no need of our Prayers The inconsistency of these two Worships which nevertheless were both used at the same time is a demonstrative proof that the Invocations of Saints was a Novelty Prayers for the Martyrs were found in the ancient Liturgies out of respect to Antiquity they were left there but the torrent of Novelty added unto them Prayers unto the Martyrs without taking notice that these latter were inconsistent with the former To conclude I do maintain that those who will not give attention to these Demonstrations which prove the Novelty of the Invocation of Saints in the 4th Age have an insensible and seared Conscience and so I think it unprofitable to dispute any more against them I well understand that the New Converts who are willing to be content with their change will yet find two Fortifications for their security They will say that this Worship of Saints was then new but that it was not evil and that therefore the Church might introduce it as a pious Custom and proper to incline the minds of men towards Devotion But let these Gentlemen have a little patience Monsieur de Meaux in that which follows will give us occasion to make it plain to you that this Worship and this Invocation is Paganism renewed and that it is in nothing better than the Invocation of Angels and Hero's which the Pagans practised in their Devotions we will make them see that 't is a true Idolatry The other Fortification is the Antiquity of this Worship However it be say they you do confess that the Invocation of Saints hath more than one thousand two hundred Years on its head Does this put you to no troubles Have you no respect for so goodly a piece of Antiquity and how can you believe that God hath left his Church under Idolatry for so many Ages We answer That we cannot have respect for Antiquity without Truth and in this we are of the Religion of St. Cyprian We add That we are not astonisht to see an Idolatry so aged in the Church because it hath been expresly predicted to us The Prophet St. John calls Idolatrous Christians Pagans and the Spirit saith to him * Revel 11. cap. 12. I have given up the outward Court of the Church to the Pagans that they may tread it under foot for forty two Months These are the thousand two hundred and sixty Days in which the Woman i. e. the Church ought to be hidden as in a Wilderness for the space of these thousand two hundred and sixty Days And the two Prophets which prophesied in Sack-cloth i. e. the Truth published by a small number of Witnesses and those under the Cross ought to continue under the oppression of Idolatry the same number of Days i. e. a thousand two hundred and sixty Now these thousand two hundred and sixty Days are so many Years according to the stile of the Prophets who denominate Years by Days We shall have it may be in what follows an opportunity to prove it to you It must be therefore that Idolatry Rule in the Christian Church one thousand two hundred and sixty Years It hath done so almost for that space of time it is therefore near its end But we ought not to be amazed that it hath continued so long An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions that the New Converts put upon themselves WE take up again the Continuation of the Controversie at the place where we left the Illusions of the New Converts The common Faith say you is a kind of Agreement to live under the same Ministery without being accountable for all the Abuses that have slipt into the Church By this fine reasoning we may live in safety among the Turks we believe as they do that there is one GOD one Paradise one Hell and that Jesus Christ is the greatest Prophet which ever came into the World. This common Confession of Faith will be an Agreement to live together safely under the same Ministery And we will leave to the Turks their prophane Abuses and their absurd and impious Doctrines Believe me such an Agreement resembles that of Pilate and Herod who agreed to despise and put to death Christ Jesus When the Ministery introduces small Corruptions this may be granted but when Corruption goes to the heart of Religion the Agreement signifies nothing and lays no obligation all is deadly either by itself or by its neighbourhood or contagion Provided that we Adore the same God and Profess the same Fundamentals of Christianity all the rest is not imputable to private persons Above all then when there is a necessity of joyning ourselves to this first Christian Society and when we cannot find any publick Worship more pure and edifying This is the Continuation of your Apology There are two words therein Provided and above all which destroy you Provided that we profess the same Fundamentals I have made it appear already that this provided is insufficient You must add Provided that fundamental Errours be not added to the Foundations Now Popery hath added to the Foundations of Christianity Tyranny Superstition and in one word Antichristianism So behold yourselves thrown out of your Fortification Provided that The Above all is no better Above all when there is a necessity of joyning ourselves There is no necessity of joyning ourselves to a Communion which we acknowledge
of Answering him This makes a man smile and he can hardly forbear to remember the Lesson which his Master Father Mesnier gave him Let every one meddle with his own Trade Ne Sutor ultra Crepidam Let not the Cobler go beyond his Last I never knew those Authors which took it for an Honour to have such an Antagonist First a Lacque secondly a sorry Mechanick thirdly a small Missionary though in the last place he be Monsieur the Abbot for men ascend by a criminal Ability more easily than by a true Merit But let us go on since we have begun and see what he says to prove the truth of his Act. If those saith he which are accused to have Signed this Act find themselves as Innocent as this Author would perswade us how comes it to pass that they have not attempted it since the time that my Book appeared in the World We have already answered to this How and before whom could they provide for the maintenance of their Innocencie seeing there was no Judge to receive their Complaints nor Notary who dared to receive their Protestations nor even a Bailiff that dare signifie the least thing on their behalf Soulier the Priest knows this the thing is of publick Notoriety and he hath the boldness to draw advantage from a Silence forced and which was impossible to be broken Therefore these Gentlemen speak when they can speak and I pray take the pains to hear them in the following Act UPon this day being the 24th of April 1687 the Gentlemen Joseph Asimont James Brun Isaac Goyon and James Philipot all Minsters fled to this City were personally present before me Henry Ram publick Notary admitted thereto by the Noble Court of Holland residing in the City of Amsterdam and in the prefence of the Witnesses under-named who at the desire of him to whom it appertains have said and do declare to be true and certain under Oath offered to them and made by them And first Monsieur Asimont alone saith That yesterday he received a Letter by which he is Summon'd and Adjur'd to speak the Truth on the subject of a pretended Act of the Synod held at Montpazier in Perigort in the Year 1659 which Monsieur Soulier has produced in his History of Calvinism at p. 552 of the Paris Edition containing in substance That the Ministers and Elders of Lower Guyenne assembled in Synod at the said Montpazier had made an Act to call the English to their Help and sollicite them to Arms for the Defence of their persecuted Churches Upon which Monsieur Joseph Asimont after he had read and considered exactly the Tenour of the said Act did say That indeed he remembers that he was chosen to draw up the Acts of the Synod of Montpazier but at the same time doth Protest and that with an Oath before GOD who searches the Hearts and as if he actually stood before the Tribunal of JESUS CHRIST who must Judge the Living and the Dead That he the first Deponent never drew up nor signed the said Act and that he never heard any thing spoken of it till since the said Soulier inserted it in his Writings and that therefore it is a Piece forged by a Spirit of Lies and he calls the GOD of Truth to be both Witness and Judge of this Imposture which bears in its own Characters the marks of its Falshood forasmuch as the said Act is said to be Signed by Durel Assistant which is notoriously false as may be seen by the Papers of the Acts of the Synod which were put into the hands of Monsieur de Villefranche de Vivans who assisted there on the behalf of the King and which Monsieur de Villefranche sent to the King's Council according to the Custom And afterwards the other Witnesses upon the same Summons did declare That they remembered that they assisted in the Synod of Montpazier in the Year 1659 from the beginning to the end that Monsieur de Villefranche was there sole Commissary of the King and that Monsieur Durel Minister to the Duke de la Force was not Assistant to the Moderator there but Monsieur Dorde Minister of the said Montpazier In this manner they did protest by Oath which they made to God That they heard nothing there of the Act alledged by Soulier in the said History of Calvinism in the 552 Page and that since that time they never heard any Minister or Elder speak of it nor any private person of the Reformed Religion but on the report which Monsieur Soulier hath made thereof alledging for reasons of their knowledge That they assisted at the Synod held at Montpazier from the beginning to the end and consequently what is above-said must be well known unto them This thus passed and done faithfully in the City of Amsterdam in the presence of John Hoekeback and Marcus Bauelaer called as Witnesses thereunto which I Testifie Henry Ram. WE Burgomasters and Governours of the City of Amsterdam do make known and certifie for Truth by these Presents That the Gentlemen Joseph Asimont James Brun Isaac Goyon and James Philipot all Ministers fled for Protection to this City did appear before us who at the desire of him to whom it appertains by solemn Oath have said declared affirmed and deposed the Contents of the Attestation and Affirmation abovesaid for all and every one of them did declare and affirm it to be true and certain after the reading of it unto them by the Secretary under-written So help them GOD. In Testimony whereof we have Sealed these Present by the Common Seal of this City the 25th of April 1687. The place of the Seal Pelters As to the Form nothing can be found to object against this Protestation It was received not only by Notaries but by the chief Magistrate of the most considerable City of the Country and is sealed with the Common Seal thereof As to the Sincerity of those who protest and attest it he must have renounced all Modesty ' who shall call it in doubt They are persons that are in a place of security who have almost nothing more to hope or fear from France it cannot be conceived that men would damn themselves by such an Oath as this for the maintenance of a Falshood If the Accusation were true why do they not permit Soulier and his Book to pass without saying any thing to it What great good can come to them hence forward when they shall have obliterated in the minds of the Publick the opinion that there was a true Conspiracy at Montpazier If the Affairs of the Reformed were in sound and good condition in France they might say That by this false Oath they have been desirous to prevent the Evils that such a thing if it were believed might draw upon the whole Body and also every single Member of it but at present when the business of our Ruine is consummate must he not have the Soul of a Devil and be willing to damn himself out of
That they are divided into three Sects of which Zuinglius Calvin and Luther made themselves the Heads That if the Spirit of God had sent them to Reform the Church he would also have united them in this great design and have inspired them with the same thoughts and the same apprehensions 5. To conclude they say that they have rent and torn each other by transports of Passion which are the true Characters of false Pastors and false Christians As to the first Objection I cannot avoid baptizing it by its own name and calling it an Impertinence Why should our Reformers work Miracles and why were they obliged thereunto When Jehu reformed the Church of Israel pull'd down the Temples of Baal broke in pieces his Statues rooted out his Prophets and abolished his Worship did he work Miracles or had he any need thereof Was it any spot to that Holy Reformation that Josiah made when he re-established the Service of God which was almost wholly under a heap of forreign Idolatries that he wrought no Miracles When Theodosius the Great reformed the Christian Church and drove away Arianism which was become the reigning Religion did he do Miracles or had he any need thereof There is no need to work Miracles but when men bring a new Religion and a new Revelation For that reason the Apostles wrought Miracles because they had a new Revelation to propose to the World. They brought a Gospel unknown to Jews and Gentiles and opposite to the prejudices of the one and the other We brought no new Gospel into the World we propounded the Old and the New Testament the one and the other were received without contradiction by all those Christians which we desired to reform When it shall please God to convert the Jews to Christianity according to his promises there is much probability that he will send them some Prophets which will work Miracles and that will be necessary For although the Gospel-Revelation be already manifested and we have the Books of the Evangelists and the Apostles nevertheless this is nothing with respect to the Jews because they do not esteem our Books Canonical but believe the Apostles to be Cheats and Impostors There is therefore need of new Miracles to recover them from their prejudices and oblige them to give attention to the truth But as for us it was in no wise necessary to work Miracles to establish that Book whereof we served our selves Otherwise as often as the Kings of Judah produced the Law of Moses to make Reformation in their Church they had been obliged to work Miracles They had nothing else to do but to produce the Book and make it evident that the Abominations which had been introduced into Religion were either forbidden or not commanded there Behold all that they had to do behold all that we have to do and 't is to misunderstand the Conduct of God and the Spirit of the Gospel to imagine that the truth cannot be commended to Unbelievers but by Miracles How many millions of men have been converted to Christianity since the days of the Apostles and the cessation of the gift of Miracles Miracles are designed to deliver men from their evil prejudices and to endue them with such as are good that they may hearken to the truth Men that believe not the Christian Religion but only for the sake of its Miracles are very ill-Christians And among those which became Converts by the preaching of the Apostles those who had no other reason to embrace this New Religion but the Miracles which they saw done by those which preacht it were very miserable Converts such persons are the seed of Apostacy and adhere to the Church but by a very feeble root We ought to adhere to it for the love of truth now 't is the knowledge of the truth and not the sight of Miracles which gives birth to the love thereof If Miracles be not necessary for the Conversion of Unbelievers with far greater reason they cannot be of necessity for the bringing back of wandring Christians to the right way For there needs no more but to shew them the holy Scripture which so exactly marks out the path in which they ought to walk As to what they say that those who will establish a new Ministry must have Miracles for the support of it 't is an Affair to be treated on elsewhere We have already said something concerning it and we shall have yet farther occasion to speak of it and shew that we have no more established a new Ministry than we have introduced a new Gospel Where there is no new Revelation there is no new Ministry our Ministry is that of the Apostles because our Doctrine is theirs The second Accusation which they make against the Authors of our Seperation is their Scandalous Life There is no probability say your Converts that God should suffer so strange an Alliance as that would be of a great abundance of the Spirit of Light on the one part and of so great disorders of Manners on the other And thereon they publish a hundred ugly stories to cry down the Memory of Luther Zuinglius Calvin Martyr Beza c. First we say that truth is truth without any dependance on those who declare it Your Converters have said somewhere That the Citizens of Babel may sometimes build Jerusalem 'T is a truth so certain that to deny it a man must be ignorant and false For in all Ages there have been very Evil men who have defended the part of truth and who have even maintained it against Hereticks whose Conduct and Manners have been very regular and oftentimes more edifying than that of the Orthodox We must not form a prejudice against the Doctrine upon the ill Conduct of those which preach it we must judge of Truth by it self So that although it should be true that our Reformers were such as they report them nevertheless it would behove us to see whether these Citizens of Babel were not the Builders of Zion But God forbid that we should have no other fortification to defend our selves We have made to appear the innocence of the Lives of the Authors of our Separation by Apologies of so much strength that their Calumniators have been covered with Confusion and the most part of our most resolved Enemies have been obliged to renounce them The Bolsacs the Bertheliers the Florimond de Raymonds and other like Calumniators ought to be the Horror and Execration of all Honest men The Author of the Legitimate Prejudices against the Calvanists and other like Authors who are willing to preserve themselves in the Esteem of Honest men fortifie and establish themselves upon notorious matters of fact such is for example Marriage of Priests Persons who have made a Vow of Chastity say they and who were obliged to celibate by so many Oaths have violated their Vows in the face of the Sun they have opened Cloysters to take Wives from thence and so have committed a
That the Body of Christ which Believers receive doth not loose its sensible substance and remain inseperable from the intelligible Grace as Baptism being made intirely spiritual preserves the property of its sensible substance i. e. of Water This man had lost all sense to speak thus if he had believed Transubstantiation or unavoidably he believed that a Transubstantiation was made in Baptism In the same sixth Age Facundus Bishop of Hermiane doth very neatly express wherein this change consists (c) Lib. 9. We call says he The Sacrament of the Body and Bloud which is consecrated in the Bread and the Cup the Body and Bloud of Jesus Christ not that the Bread is properly his Body and the Cup his Bloud but because they contain the Mystery of his Body and Bloud and thence it comes to pass that the Lord himself did call the Bread and the Cup which he blessed and gave to him Disciples his Body and Bloud In what kind of frame of mind must a man be to say after this That Facundus believed Transubstantiation and the real Presence It must be confessed that we owe something to the Heresie of Eutyches who confounded the two Natures in Jesus Christ For 't is in refuting this Error and for the confutation of it that Theodoret Gelasius and Facundus made use of the example of the Eucharist and have explained the change which is made there with such clearness that our own Divines never did it more plainly 'T is in disputing against these Hereticks that Theodoret says this That a man would believe it had been transcribed from the Books of a Calvinist (d) Dialog 1. Our Saviour saith he did make a change of Names he gave to his Body the name of the Symbol and as he named himself a Vine so he also called the Symbol his Blood c. Tell us in good earnest whereof think you that the holy Element is a Sign and Figure Is it of the Divinity of Jesus Christ or of his Blood 'T is evident that 't is of those things whereof they take their names For the Lord having taken the Sign says not this is my Divinity but this is my Body and this is my Blood. My Brethren as a matter of Fact tell your Converters that those passages which we produce unto you are not the tenth part of what we are able to produce to the same sence and importance To conclude when the Ancients please to express plainly and without circumlocution the manner how we feed on Christ Jesus they say exactly the same things that we do 'T is a strange thing that being of such contrary sentiments as they are supposed they should have expressions so very much alike Behold a Calvinistical Paraphrase upon the sixth Chapter of St. John taken from Eusebius Caesariensis he makes Jesus Christ to speak thus * Theod. Ecclesiast contra Marcel lib. 3. cap. 12. Do not think I speak of the Flesh wherewithal I am enclosed as if it were necessary that you should eat it nor do not think that I appoint you to drink sensible Blood but know that the words which I speak to you are Spirit and Life For they are my Words and my Discourses which are this Flesh and this Blood in which whosoever does always partake shall be a Partaker of Eternal Life as being nourished with Bread from Heaven 'T is pitty that St. Athanasius so great a Defender to the Truth against the Arrians should have also been a Calvinistical Heretick After he had quoted these words of our Lord Doth this offend you c. He adds ‖ Our Lord ‖ Hom. On That whosoever shall speak a word against the Son c. speak of the one and of the other i. e. of his Flesh and of his Spirit And he distinguished his Spirit from his Flesh to the end that not beleiving only that which was visible in him but also that which was invisible in him they might learn that the things which he spake were not carnal but spiritual For to how many persons must his Body serve as Meat to become the Nourishment of all the World 'T is for that reason that he makes mention of the Ascention of the Son of Man into Heaven that he might withdraw them from all corporeal thoughts and learn them that the Flesh whereof he had spoken to them was a heavenly Meat and a spiritual Nourishment which He must give them from on High. 'T is a thing very surprizing that the Arrians who watched the steps of Athanasius so very warily and made faults of every thing did not accuse him for being estranged from the Faith of the Church As to St. Austine he is upon thâ— matter more a Calvinist than Calvin himself And if the Jesuites have degraded him because he is a Jansenist in the matter of Grace I know not why they should treat him with more civility in this Case 'T is he that saith ‖ Lib. 3. de Doct. Christiana cap. 16. That Jesus Christ seems to command a Crime when he says If ye do not eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you have no life in you but 't is a Figure which commands that we communicate in the Passion of our Lord and that we do gratefully and profitably remember that his Flesh was wounded and crucified for us 'T is he which saith also * Seâ—â— 33. de Verhis Domin Do not prepare the Throat but the Heart Why do you prepare your Teeth and you Belly Believe and you will eat him You Converters my Brethren are not ignorant that we could easily make a Book of like passages of this Father for he speaks often of the Eating of the Flesh of Jesus Christ and never speaks otherwise thereof He says that this eating is by Faith and that the Wicked the Unbelieving and Unworthy Communicants have no part therein I conjure you my Brethren to consider whether any thing solid can be opposed to Testimonies so plain and express What can the Harshnesses of St. Ambrose the Rhetorications of St. Chrysostome and the perplext Ratiocinations of St. Hillary do against this Can it hinder that the Testimonies which we have heard do not make a clear and convincing Deposition against the Real Presence I enquire of you Whether if we must explain one by the other it be just to explain those which speak simply clearly and without ambiguity by those who speak like Orators or in a mystick Stile that they may not be understood by Infidels and Catechumens Besides is it not just to explain an Author by himself Are not five or six passages of St. Chrysostome where he speaks in plain terms and discourses of things as they are in themselves more than sufficient to give the Reader a true understanding of the sence and spirit of this Author Where are the Christian Orators with whom a man may not find Heresies if he will thus take them at advantage And in the Books of Protestant Meditations may not a man
to have been done by the Reliques of St. Stephen in Africa those of St. Martyn in France and those of the Anacorites in Egypt and Syria Not to enter into a long dispute on the subject of this pretended mark of the Church of Rome I answer three or four things briefly to which I pray give attention 1. That this pretended fountain of light fit and proper to make the Church of Rome visible is not for the simple and unlearned For to see the bottom and solidity thereof they must examine the History of the pretended Miracles which were done in the fourth and fifth Ages They must see what we have said in opposition to it they must examine circumstances and see if there be not reason to believe that all these stories of Miracles are either frauds or fictions They must also examine by History whether these pretended Prodigies of Sanctity be not either Fables or the disorders of sick and melancholick minds They must therefore be able to understand Latin and Greek and to read great and large Volumes To offer this as a light sutable to the capacity of the weak and unlearned is to scoff and deride them 2. I say that the Miracles of the Apostles which are certain and the Prodigies of the Sanctity of the three first Ages does not appertain by right of succession to the Church of the fourth and fifth Age but as far as she inherits the Doctrine of the Apostles These Miracles were good to prove the Divinity of the Christian Religion to Pagans But they are worth nothing to prove Novelties as are the Invocation of Saints and the Worship of Reliques which are purely Pagan Practices With far greater reason the Church of Rome hath no right by succession to the Miracles of the Apostles to prove her Worship her Idolatries and Superstitions We have as much right as she to these Miracles They are truly and properly our Miracles They are good for us all in common against the ungodly and against Infidels to prove that there is one God in three Persons that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the true Redeemer of the World. But they are nothing to prove our Additions our Corruptions and our Alterations if it be so that either the one or the other of the Christian Sects whether Popery or Calvinism have introduced them into the Church This is clear the Miracles of the Apostles appertain not to us but as far as we have and do inherit their Doctrine 3. As to the Miracles of the fourth and fifth Age which were done in the times when they prayed to Saints and worshipped Reliques we say that they were false Miracles It is to be observed that from the death of the Apostles until the end of the fourth Age nothing was spoken of Miracles in the Church or so little and in so doubtful a manner that it doth not deserve to be reckoned for any thing but when the Devil desired to set up the Worship of Creatures he poured out a Spirit of Lying and a Spirit of Credulity which began to entertain discourses of Miracles 'T is a thing of importance press your Converters thereon Why did these Miracles cease for the space of well nigh two hundred Years or at least why were they so rare And why did they begin again exactly at the time when the Worship of Reliques grew famous Do we not see clearly that 't is a Wile of the Devil Hath God any interest to serve by Bones and Ashes was it necessary that he should begin again to do Miracles at that time And if it were of use to perswade the truth of the Religion which the Martyrs declared to the Pagans why did not God work Miracles by the Bones of the Martyrs for the first three Ages This had been much more profitable than when Paganism was rampant and the Church persecuted and oppressed Wherefore did not the Bones of Polycarpus of whom the believers of Smyrna speak with so much love work miracles Why did not so many Martyrs whose Reliques they had and whose Anniversaries they observed in the time of St. Cyprian work signs and wonders your Converters will never be able to answer this be you therefore perswaded that these pretended Miracles done by the Reliques of St. Stephen St. Gervais St. Protais St. Martyn c. were Illusions of the Devil whom God permitted to work false Miracles or the Cheats of Villains and lewd Superstitionists or to conclude Stories of the Vulgar and Fables which honest men received as Truths upon hear-say And as to the Miracles which are ascribed to the Anacorites of Aegypt and Syria I know not how Mr. Nicholas is not ashamed to draw from them a Light to make his Church visible They are Fables for the most part so gross that the Falseness of them stares in the face of the most Ignorant The Lives of St. Paul the Hermite of Hilarion and others written by St. Jerome that of St. Antony composed as they say by Athanasius are written with so little modesty and judgment that a man ought to be ashamed of them The judicious Readers that would preserve respect for the Authors of those Lives say that the Fathers composed them not as Histories but as pious Romances to divert Christians from reading the Pagan Fables We see in the Lives of those solitary persons of the Desart such as found Centaurs in the Woods Satyrs Men half Horses and half Goats who spake to them and prayed them to intreat the common Saviour to have pitty on them and to give them part in the common Salvation with them We see Hermites-which were in perpetual contests with the Devil always tempted and often beaten by him We see them which herded among the Beasts We there read in one word almost all the Impertinencies of our new Legends This makes it evident that the Fabulous Spirit entred into Christian Religion as soon as the Spirit of Superstition and Idolatry 4ly I say that although it should be true that these Miracles wrought in the Age of the establishment of the Worship of Saints and Reliques should be true Miracles it would not be a Light for the Roman Church any more than for the Greek who also worship Saints and Reliques 'T is therefore needful that we have Miracles from the Church of Rome since she was separate from the Greek Church and that it appear this Gift of Miracles is departed from all other Churches to affix itself to the Church of Rome Now the Greek Schismaticks have their Saints their Legends and their Miracles as well as the Latine Church Besides we do maintain that all the Miracles of the Church of Rome those of St. Bernard as well as others are Legendaries Tales or Illusions of the Evil Spirit 5ly To conclude I do maintain that every person who hath no other support of his Faith but Miracles is a false Believer I have said it elsewhere Miracles are not designed principally to prove Truth they are appointed above
advantage upon the Abyssines because they were very ignorant But King Claudias interposing therein had almost as much advantage on the Missionaries of Portugal as they had on the Ecclesiasticks of Aethiopia because he was without comparison the most able man of his Kingdom as well in Divinity as in the Art of Government Oviedo seeing that he got nothing by these ways resolved to employ those which were more violent He left the Court to testifie his displeasure and published a Writing injurious to the Abyssine Church in which he accused it of many Heresies and forbad the Portugese to have any Communion with it The King was angry also on his part but a little while after he was slain in a Battel and left his Brother Adamus Saghed Successor to his Realm This Prince used more rigour against Oviedo and his Companions he revoked all those Acts of Grace which his Predecessors had granted to them He forbad them upon pain of death to trouble his Estates by their new Gospel The Bishop withdrew to Fremone upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom and there abode thirty years with the Portugese under the Title of the Patriarch of the Abyssines which he took after the death of John Barrett Adam Saghed died and his Son Malec Saghed succeeded him He treated the Portugese more kindly and they being reformed by the correction they had received acted more wisely and with greater moderation Nevertheless this Mission was extinct because they had no way of sending Successors the Turks having possessed the Ports of the Red-Sea which gave admission into Aethiopia And the Portugese which would have converted all the Nation were found without Priests to give them the Communion But in the beginning of this Age in the year 1604. a Jesuit named Peter Pais was more happy than all those who had preceded them He entered into Aethiopia and made himself admired by an Ability which although it were but very indifferent seemed extraordinary among people which knew nothing He came to the Court of Zadengel who was then King of Aethiopia and managed him so well that he obtained an express Promise from him that he would submit to the Pope and the Religion of the Romans This Prince began with an Ordinance which forbad the observation of Saturday or the Sabbath which the Abyssines venerate as the Lord's Day The Great Men of the Realm being provoked by this Enterprize conspired against him and slew him after a Battel in which he was not successful Behold already the death of one King which Papery caused in Aethiopia This death cost the Jesuit Converters nothing on the contrary they found in Susneus the Successor of Zadengel a Protector much more proper to make the Minister of their Violence Susneus permitted himself to be managed by these Missionaries of Portugal in such a manner that they prevailed with him to declare openly that he would change the Religion of the Country and submit the Abyssine Church to the Pope He wrote concerning it to Clement the Eighth and to Philip King of Spain who was then also King of Portugal Many Great Lords of the Court and Officers of the Army out of complaisance to their King embraced the Religion of the Romans and communicated with them Susneus having received many kind Letters from Paul the Fifth writ to him again another Letter dated the 31th of January 1613. by which he acknowledges him for Pastor of the Universal Church and desires his assistance to confirm his Religion This Prince guided by the Jesuits to the end that they might do things a little in form caused many Conferences to be held upon the Question of the two Natures in Christ Jesus For the Aethiopians following the Schism of Eutyches acknowledge in him but one But the truth is there is at this day nothing but a dispute of words thereon for the Eutychians acknowledge the Divinity and Humanity in Christ Jesus but it pleases them to say this Union makes but one Nature compounded of two as the Body and Soul in Man make but one Compound so that 't is certain that we may very well give our selves indulgence therein but 't is not of the Spirit of Popery to tollerate any thing The King at the sollicitations of the Jesuits made an Edict by which he ordained That henceforward they should believe two Natures in Christ Jesus The Abyssine Monks which fell in the Dispute sustained themselves in their ignorance with obstinacy in their Opinion but one of them having spoken a little too freely was brought before the King and was beaten with a stirrup-leather Behold the Spirit of Popery which began to discover it self without disguise This first Violence awakened their sleeping Spirits Simeon the Metropolitan of the Abyssines came to Court he complains That without consulting him they had done such things upon Religion The King answered That for his satisfaction there should yet be a Conference on that subject The consequence was that after the Conference the Jesuits obtained an Edict by which it was forbidden on pain of death to say there was but one Nature in Christ Jesus This frightful Decree was a clap of Thunder which seemed to reduce the whole Empire of the Abyssines into powder and Aethiopia knew then by experience what Evils the Spirit of Popery drew along with it all the Realm was alarmed and the most moderate lost their moderation and considered that in truth the Controversie about two Natures in Christ in the estate in which now it was was of no importance but that such a severity was unheard of in Aethiopia since the times of the Apostles and that it was wholly opposite to the nature of the Christian Religion for which Religion they concluded they must not suffer such Violence Jamanaxus Brother by the Mothers side of the Emperour puts himself at the head of a very powerful Confederation into which many great Lords entered with all the Church-men and a great part of the People The Metropolitan Simeon who strove less against the two Natures in Jesus Christ than for his Dignity which they would have taken from him in favour of him whom it should please the Pope to name excommunicated all those which followed the Religion of the Franks for so they call the Religion of the Romans This boldness caused some fear to the Emperour he grew a little moderate and made another Edict in which he gave Liberty of Conscience to all his Subjects and in all appearance he had continued so to do if he had followed his own Inclinations But at the instigation of the Jesuits he returned to more violent Counsels The Queen-Mother the Metropolitan the Church-men and the Monks threw themselves at his feet in favour of the ancient Religion but he rejected them all with violence so that there was no more hopes of Peace Jamanaxus the King's Brother Elias his Son-in-Law Governour of the Province of Tygris with a great Party resolved to oppose the Violence by force The Metropolitan