An historical defence of the Reformation in answer to a book intituled, Just-prejudices against the Calvinists / written in French by the reverend and learned Monsieur Claude ... ; and now faithfully translated into English by T.B., M.A. Défense de la Réformation. English Claude, Jean, 1619-1687. 1683 Approx. 1452 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 343 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2007-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A33380 Wing C4593 ESTC R11147 13115701 ocm 13115701 97749 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A33380) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 97749) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 411:14) An historical defence of the Reformation in answer to a book intituled, Just-prejudices against the Calvinists / written in French by the reverend and learned Monsieur Claude ... ; and now faithfully translated into English by T.B., M.A. Défense de la Réformation. English Claude, Jean, 1619-1687. T. B., M.A. 4 pts. ([14], 280, 135, 102, [6] p.) Printed by G.L. for John Hancock ... and Benj. Alsop ..., London : 1683. Translation of: Défense de la Réformation. Pts. 3 and 4 have separate paging. Pt. 1, p. 243, 267 and 270 have faded print. Pt. 2, p. 5, 33, 41, 49-51 and 69-73 have print show-through. Pt. 1, p. 230-pt. 2, p. 82 photographed from Harvard University Libraries copy and inserted at the end. Includes advertisements. Reproduction of original in Union Theological Seminary Library, New York. Marginal notes. 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Reformation. 2006-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2006-08 Apex CoVantage Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-09 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-09 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2007-02 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion An HISTORICAL DEFENCE OF THE Reformation : In Answer to a Book Intituled , JUST PREJUDICES AGAINST THE CALVINISTS . Written in French by the Reverend and Learned Monsieur CLAVDE , Minister of the Reformed Church at Charenton : AND NOW Faithfully Translated into English , By T. B. M. A. LONDON : Printed by G. L. for John Hancock , at the Three Bibles over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil ; and Benj. Alsop , at the Angel and Bible in the Poultrey . 1683. THE PREFACE . HOwsoever Men fall into the Misery of being deluded by Errors , nothing appears Amiable under that Name ; and whatsoever carries the name of Reformation , is therefore thought Honourable and Glorious , because it professes to cast out those . The Romanists themselves applaud a Reformation , and will therefore own Ours to be no other then Pretended ; and plead that their Religion is Actually a Reformation , that they may more confidently urge the Unnecessariness of another . But we cannot be ignorant how the Name has been abused , and Experience has shew'd us what Reformation They have made in the Gospel of our Saviour ; what Truths they have expunged , how they have perverted and depraved , and indeed made it quite another Gospel then what was at first delivered : They have Reformed it , only to make it serve their Interests , and elevate their God , both which it so much opposes and condemns . As this raised a Generous Indignation and an Heroick Zeal in those whom God had prepared to discover and overthrow their Abuses , so it made them see the high Necessity of another Reformation , and to endeavour it with that Success which the Protestant World justly admires and blesses God for at this day . Our Fathers have to their Honour and Praise taken care to instil the Principles and the Love of a true Reformation into their Posterity , and it has been so strong as to increase with fresh vigour and more largely to diffuse it self in our times . But how many are there even among our selves , who owe their Religion to little else then their Education , and cry up still loudly for the Reformation , without being able to give solid Reasons and Grounds of their Profession ? They have suck'd it in with their Milk , and as they took it up without their own foresight , so they have thought it needless to take a view of the Justice and the Reasons of it , if they did but profess themselves Protestants . The most have a Zeal , but not according to Knowledge , which were highly commendable if it were joyned with it . Indeed , if we take a view of all who unite under the Name of Protestants , and the divers Parties who have little else common between them , we must sadly acknowleged our selves like the Ephesians , who when they had made an Insurrection in the City , and for two hours space cried up their Diana , yet 't is hard to define which excelled , their Zeal or their Ignorance , when a far greater part of them knew not so much as why they were come together . Therefore it is high time for us to be instructed in what we so much talk of ▪ that we may be sensible Reformation is somewhat more than a Pretence , and that our Adversaries are not to be vanquished as some Armies have been , by the great Noise and Clamour before the Engagement : No , there must be solid Argument , and well temper'd Truths , to assert our Religion ; and our Reason , as well as our Faith , must be able to remove those Mountains which the Deluge of Errors in the Church of Rome will be sure to raise in our way ; as some impute the Origine of Natural Hills to the Universal Flood , which caused even the Ararat on which the Ark rested . There are Alps to be past , before we can enter Italy by way of Conquest ; and if we would pass them , we have no other way to do it , but by cutting through them . Considerations like these , made me first Read , and consequently admire this Author , whose cause was the same with ours , and he maintained it , not without success , and I expected something extraordinary of Courage and Conduct , from a man , who had so well defended himself even in the Enemies Country , where he had no advantage but his Cause ; the only Conquest he could pretend to , was , not to be overcome ; and he could expect no assistance from men , but what our Saviour himself found , when he was assaulted with Swords and Staves , his Disciples forsook him and fled . Yet notwithstanding all these seeming Inconveniences and Discouragements , they gave him only greater occasions of setting forth his Makers Glory , and purchasing his own ; for though he came to them fairly in the Name of the Living God , and they Armed with Helmets of Brass , and Spears like Weavers Beams ; his smooth Stones taken out of that Current of Living Water , strikes down the haughty Gathites , and sinks into their Foreheads , the certain Fate of all those , who defy the Armies of the Living God. And we may guess at the compleatness of his Victory , by the Grandeur of his Triumph , for he put them to their last Reserve , their Censure ; they condemned what they could not Confute , and when their School-Divinity failed , the Flames ( as I have heard ) were called in to their assistance . This is the Infallible and Catholick Argument , and whatsoever opposeth the Popes Supremacy , must expect to feel that of the Faggot . And to shew that this way is antient enough , the Persians by the same , proved the greatness and Universality of their Deities , because it consumed all the Images of the other Gods , till Canopus his Water Retorted the vain Sophistry upon them , and with a more powerful Pitcher , quenched their pretensions and their Numen together . But Books have Souls as well as men , which survive their Martyrdom , and are not burnt but crowned by the Flames that encircle them . They quickly found that there was nothing Combustible in it , but the Paper ; The Truth flew upward , like the Angel from Manoahs Sacrifice , untoucht by the fire , and unsullied by the Smoak , and found a safe Refuge at the Footstool of the God of Truth . And sure whatsoever Received so severe a Doom from our Adversaries , may challenge from us a kind Reception ; They have taught us to value , what they thought not below their Malice , and it will be the greatest Commendation amongst Protestants , that the Papists knew it worth the Burning . This likewise may supply the place of a Panegyrick upon the Author , then whom none has done or suffered more in so glorious a Cause , and seeing we give so great a welcome to numbers of French Protestants that daily arrive amongst us , let us receive Mr. Claude as one of them , and use him no better , nor any worse then he deserves . It is the Prerogative of a Translator , to make him an Englishman , to give him all the Immunities our own Authors enjoy , and to make him equal in Liberty and Property with the best of our Native Writers . And indeed no man can wonder why he has now crossed the Seas , and appears in this dress , with half the reason I do , that he appeared in it no sooner ; I have heard it has been the wish of some Great Divines , but their own Employments hindred them from Effecting it ; and it might have been expected that it should have moved somebody to have attempted it upon that very account , because they desired it . For since the Gift of Tongues is ceased , and those Inspired Linguists have been long ago silenced , Translation is none of the worst ways of supplying that absent Grace ; neither can it be accounted beneath any man by his Industry to retrieve a departed Miracle . I could wish he had come forth in all the Ornaments of our Language , as he did at first in those of his own : Those Ceremonies of Speech , though in themselves not absolutely necessary , and add not much to the Substance , yet they contribute not a little to the Decency and pleasing part of an Author ; for there is a Delightful Prospect arising from the Agreeable Mixture of the Colours of Language , without which a Book is never the less solid , but with which it is much more perswading . However , he appears the more in his own Dimensions , the thinner his Garments are , and the closer they sit about him . I shall make no Apology for the Author , because I know nothing in him that needs it , unless some should mistake some of his expressions about Episcopacy . Where if he has let fall any thing that may offend , he has these two things at least for his excuse : First , that he lived under an external constitution of a Church that did not exercise that way of Government : Secondly , he himself tells us , those that he mentions were only such who were of the Popish Communion , and only as such he uses them . I shall not detain the Reader any longer from the Book it self , only I am to desire him , that , whatsoever faults he finds in the Preface , may not be imputed any further to the Book it self : For the more mistakes there are in it , the more proper it is for that Perfect Piece it is set before ; as the Errors of the Church of Rome had no small share in the occasion of our Religion , and may in some sense be stiled , The Preface to the Reformation . The Epistle Dedicatory of the Author , To the Right Honourable The MARQUESS of RUVIGNY , Lieutenant-General of His Majesties Armies , AND General Deputy of the Protestants in FRANCE . MY LORD , MY first thoughts after I had read the Books of the Prejudices , were , not to write any Answer to it : For besides that I saw in that Book nothing else but the same Accusations from which our Fathers and we have already been frequently justified ; and that moreover they were wrote there in so extreamly passionate and invenomed a stile , for my own particular I did not think my self bound to follow every where those persons who seem to make it their design to load me with the number of their Volumes , affecting to take me for a Party in all the Works that they daily publish , and even in those that are most remote from the chief Subject of our Controversy . Yet when I perceived the loud Out-cries that these Gentlemen and their followers made about their Prejudices , to draw the applause of the World to themselves , as if they had silenced us , and our Reformation remained over thrown under the weight of their Victory , I judged it necessary to enter upon this new labour , and the deference that I had for those who exhorted me to undertake it , has brought forth this Treatise that I now give to the publick . Those who shall take the pains to read it , will find that I have not meerly tied my self to the Book that I confute , but that to save my self the labour of doing it at twice , I have considered the matter in its first Principles , and examinëd it in its just extent , that I might be the better able to judge of it . I acknowledg the Subject Treated on required more Learning , readiness , and leasure then I was master of , but it may be also they will find in the plain and natural way wherein I have handled it , something more easy , then if I had employed more Art and Meditation in it . It is this makes me hope , that when I shall not fully have answered the expectations of those who have engaged me in this work , yet they will not read this Defence without some satisfaction , However it be , My Lord , I take the boldness to present it to you , and to entreat the favour of you to receive it as a token of the acknowledgment that I have for so much goodness as you have testified towards me . I am perswaded that those of our Communion in this Kingdom will very heartily consent , that my weak pen should also express the sentiments that they all have of your person , and of the cares that you take to uphold their common interests . I will also affirm , that your Merit is so generally acknowledged , that when nothing shall be disputed , but the just praises that are due to your prudence , to the wisdom that appears throughout your whole Conduct , to the inviolable Principles of Honour and Justice that are the perpetual Rules of your Actions , and in a word to the great and solid Vertues that you practise with such exactness , they can assure themselves that there will be no difference about that , between those of the one and the other Communion . But all those Qualities that they take notice of in You , how Rich and Resplendent soever they are , even in the eyes of those who are destitute of them , would be nothing else but false dazling light , if they were not accompanied with real Piety , which only gives a value to all the Moral Virtues . You are not ignorant , My Lord , you , in whom we saw it but a few Months ago , how your Soul ready to take its flight , trembled and remained confounded in the view of all that humane . Righteousness , and that you could find no rest in your Spirit , any where else , then in the bosom of Religion and Piety . This alone was that which gave you the Tranquillity of Soul , which taught all those who had the honour to come near your Bed , after what manner a good man who could rest assured of Gods Mercy , and the Grace of Jesus Christ , might look Death in the Face . It is this that has yet prolonged your days , or to speak better , that has restored Life to you by an extraordinary blessing of heaven , little different from that which Hezechias heretofore received as the fruit of his humiliation and prayer . Continue , MY LORD , to lay out that life which has been given you again , in the service of God , and in the employments to which your calling engages you , and of which you have so great an account to render . Those employments are certainly difficult , and if I may take the boldness to say it , they are oppressing , through their quality , through their numbers , and through the accidents that either accompany or follow them . But he who has called you to them , will give you ability to discharge them , and will shed abroad his blessing upon your cares , as far as shall be necessary for his own glory and the good of the people , in whose favour you labour , and he himself will one day give you a reward for all those toilsome Labours . Although you do not need to be excited to do good , yet I take the confidence to hope , that you will be some way encouraged in the Duties of your place , by the reading of this Work , which will more and more discover to you the Justice of it . You will see therein the Conduct of our Fathers justified , in regard of their Reformation and Separation from the Church of Rome ; and by consequence you will therein see not only the Right that we have , but the Obligation and indispensable Necessity also wherein we are , to live apart and divided from that Church , and united among our selves , in a Religious and Christian Society , till it shall please God to make the Causes of that Division cease , and joyn again that which men , I would say what the Court of Rome and her Council of Trent , have put asunder . That Re-Vnion is a Happiness that wee will alwayes beg of God with the most ardent Prayers , and which we will receive as one of his highest Favours , if his hand should bestow it . But it is also a thing which it is impossible for us to promise our selves : while we shall not see the same desire of a good and holy Reformation ( which was almost general in our West in the daies of our Fathers ) to be again revived in the Church of Rome ; which yet they knew how to stifle with incredible skill . An Authour of those Times , who himself contributed as much as any other to clude the good effects of that desire , has not failed to own it , and which is more , to own it to be just . I do not deny , saies he , that many at the beginning were not urged by a motion of Piety , earnestly to cry out against some manifest Abuses , and I confess , that we must attribute the chief cause of that Division that at present rends the Church , to those who being puff'd up with a vain pride , under a pretence of Ecclesiastical power , contemned and haughtily and disdainfully rejected those who admonish'd them with reason and modesty . And imediately after that same Author reasoning about the means to re-establish a holy peace between the two parties ; I do not believe , adds he , that we ought ever to hope for a firm peace in the Church , if those who have been the cause of that dis-union do not begin by themselves ; that is to say , unlesse those who have the Ecclesiastical Government in their hands , relaxe a little of that great rigour , and contribute something to the peace of the Church , and unlesse in hearkning to the ardent prayers and exhortations of the greatest part of good men , they apply themselves to reform those manifest abuses , by the Rule of the holy Scriptures and of the Antient Church , from which they have wandred . After this manner a man engaged in the Communion and Interests of the Church of Rome , spake , even in the Time of the Councill of Trent . He would indeed after that , have us also , whom he accuses to have gone too far in the other extream , yield something on our side , and that we should return , as he speaks , to our selves ; but it ought not to be thought strange that he being such a one as he was , would lenify by that corrective the confession that he made before , and it is enough for us that he has owned the force of the evil , and taken notice of the true and only remedy . God who holds the hearts of all in his hand , kindle in them the love of the true Religion , and give us all the grace to look to the Blood that has ransomed the Church , and that first Spirit who consecrated it to one onely Jesus Christ her Lord and Husband . For it is he only who can re-unite us ; without me sates he , ye can do nothing ; and he that gathereth not with me , scattereth abroad . I pray that the same God who has given you the knowledge of his Gospell , would make you persevere in it to the end ; that he would confirm his love and fear in the souls of my Lords your children , who already so well answer the honour of their birth , and the cares you have taken for their Education ; and lastly , that he would more and more shed abroad his blessings over your person , and over all your house . This is that which I desire from the bottom of my heart , and that you would do me the favour to believe that I am , My LORD , Your Lordships Most Humble and Most Obedient Servant CLAVDE . The ATTESTATION . WE whose names are underwritten , certify that we have read the Answer of Monsieur Claude our most honoured Colleague , to a Book Intituled , The Prejudices , &c. in which we have found nothing contrary to the Sentiments of the Religion which we profess . Signed at Paris the nine and twentieth of November , 1672. DAILLE ' MESNARD . The Reader is desired to take notice , That the word Historical , in the Running-Title , was inserted without the Translators knowledge or Consent . An HISTORICAL DEFENCE OF THE Reformation ; Against a Book Intituled , Just Prejudices against the CALVINISTS . THE FIRST PART : Wherein it is shewn , that our Ancestours were obliged to Examine by themselves , the state of Religion , and of the Church in their Days . CHAP. I. General Considerations upon this Controversy . The Division of this Treatise . IT is not difficult to understand , why those who were possest of the Government of the Western Church in the days of our Fathers , and those who have since succeeded them in the Church of Rome , have thought themselves so much concerned to oppose the Reformation . It would oblige them , to strip themselves of that Soveraign and and absolute Authority which they had Usurped , and by which they had disposed the Consciences of men to their wills : And it would force them to give an Account of that Publick management which they held in their hands , and no person is ignorant that , that is a thing of all others in the World most intolerable to those persons who have made a Secular Empire of the Government of the Church . As those Interests have made them lay hold of all they could to defend themselves , so they have raised a new Controversy , touching the Right that our Fathers had to reform themselves . They demand of us who our Reformers were ? from whence they came ? and what Call they had for so Great a Work ? They accuse them to have been Rebels and Schismaticks , who lifted themselves up against the Authority of their Mother the Church , and broke the sacred bond of the Christian Communion . They have defamed their persons as much as ever they could , and have laid to their charge the most wicked manners , to the end they might render them odious . In fine , they have put forward , all that they could believe capable , of retaining the people in a blind submission , and hindring them from entring upon any Examination of the Matters of Religion . But , blessed be God , that notwithstanding all the endeavours they have hither to made on a subject that has exhausted all the subtilties of the Schools , the Justice of our Cause , which is the same with that of our Fathers , has not receiv'd the least prejudice ; and we can even assure our selves , that there has been nothing said , the weakness and impertinency of which , may not easily be display'd , to the bare light of common sence . For , either those things which our Fathers rejected , and which we reject with them , are in deed Errors , Superstitions , and Inventions of men , as we believe them to be , or they are not . If they are not , we will be the first that shall Condemn the Reformation , and when they shall let us see that on the contrary they are the Truths , and right worship that belong to the Christian Religion , we shall be very ready to receive them . But if in deed they are Errors and Corruptions , as we are perswaded they are , with what Reason can any man demand by what right we rejected them , since it is all one as to demand what right we have to be good men , and to take care of our own Salvation ? We may see then from thence , that all those Evasions , are nothing else but vain wranglings , and that we ought always to examine those Tenets that are Controverted , for the Justice or Injustice of the Reformation intirely depends on their Truth or Falshood . If we have right at the Foundation , they ought not to raise a contention about the Form ; for to be willing , to believe in God according to the purity of his word , and to be ready to serve him sincerely , are the things to which we are all obliged , and which cannot be condemned , in whomsoever they are found , as on the contrary side , to harden one's self in Errors , to practise a false Worship , and to expose one's self to the danger of Damnation under pretence of observing some Formalities , is such a guidance of one's course , as can never be Justified . It will here be to no purpose , that they say , that in this Controversy concerning the Justice of the Reformation , they do not suppose that we have any reason in the Foundation of it ; but that on the contrary , they have a mind to let us see that we have no right at all in the Foundation , since we have none at all in the Form ; and that they would only say , that those things , which we call Errors , and a false Worship , are not so indeed as we imagine them to be ; since they are the Institutions of a Church that can't Err , and to whose Authority we ought absolutely to submit our selves . This is , in my judgment , the course that not long since an Author has took , in a Book Intitled , Just Prejudices against the Calvinists . For he pretends to conclude that our Religion is faulty in the very Foundation , because there are Errors in the manner of our Reformation , and that those things which we reject as Errors , are the Truths that we ought to believe , because we ought to acquiesce in the Authority of the Church of Rome . But that can never hinder us from coming to a discussion of the Foundation it self , separated from all Forms , and from all prejudices : for when these Gentlemen have reasoned against us after this manner , You are faulty in the very Foundation , because you have not had right in the Form ; we oppose to that , this other Reasoning , whose consequence is not less Valid , as to the subject about which it is concerned , We have not done wrong in the manner , because we have right in the Foundation . And when they tell us , That which you call our Errors , Transubstantiation , Adoration of the Host , Purgatory , &c. they are not Errors , since we cannot Err , we Answer them , You can Err , because the Transubstantiation ; the Adoration of the Host , the Pargatory , &c. that you teach , are Errors . And when they reply , You ought to believe that which we teach you , because you ought to acquiesce and rest in our Authority ; we rejoyn again , We ought not to acquiesce in your Authority , because you teach us those things which we ought not to believe . In these two ways of Reasoning , it is certain that ours is the more equal , the more just , and more natural . For it is by far the more just and natural , that the Judgment of those Formalities should depend on the highest Interest that can be in the World , which is that of the glory of God , and ourown Salvation ; then on the contrary , to make the glory of God , and our own Salvation , to depend upon some Formalities . It is far more reasonable to judge of the Infallibility that the Church of Rome pretends to by the things that she teaches , then to judge of the chings that she Teaches by a pretence of her Infallibility . But although these two ways were equally Natural , and equally Reasonable , they can not deny , that that which at first drew nearer to the Examen of the Foundation were not more sure , and that all good men who ought to neglect nothing conducing to their Salvation , were not bound to enter into it , in Order to the avoiding of Errors . They Propose on one side for a Principle , the Authority of the Church of Rome , against which there are a thousand things to be said ; on the other side we Propose , the Authority of God himself speaking in those Scriptures , which all Christians receive , and which the very Enemies of Christianity respect ; who will dare to deny that in this Opposition , it were not more sure to side with that part , which rules all by the Authority of God ? You may deceive your selves , say they , in taking that for the word of God , which is not so . And are not you , answer we , more liable to deceive your selves , in taking that for the Church of God , which is not so , and in taking those for Infallible , who are no ways so ? There is far greater Reason to hope that God will then assist you with the illumination of his Spirit , when with humility you search out the sence of the Scriptures , which you are so often commanded to do , then when you search them through humane prejudices , to submit your Consciences to a certain Orde of Men , whom God has never told you that they ought to be the Masters of your Faith. After all , if they will make use of the Authority of the Church of Rome , and the pretended faults of our Reformation , as an Argument sufficient to let us see that those things which we call Errors are not really so , they can demand nothing more of us , then to set down this proof in its order with the rest , and maturely to consider it in its turn , before we determine our selves . But to pretend that that ought to hinder us from considering also the proofs on the contrary side , by which we may see that those things that we call Errors are really so , this were an injust pretence and bordering on [ the greatest ] rashness . For the Authority of the Church of Rome , and the pretended faults of the Reformation , whatsoever they be , are not Principles so demonstrative and so evident among Christians , that after them , they ought to hear nothing more . We ought then to yield to this proof , its place in our discussion , but without any prejudice as to those that may be drawn for or against the very Tenets that are contested , which ought to be first examined , as the more natural and most decisive . That being so , I hold , that that which they have set before us will be to no purpose at all . For if from the Examination that we shall make of those matters in themselves , it results , that those things are not Errors which we have rejected as such , but Christian Truths , we have no further need either of the Authority of the Church of Rome , or of the prejudices against the Reformation , The Reformation is sufficiently overthrown . And if on the contrary , it results , that those are Errors , all the Authority of the Church of Rome , and all the prejudices in the World , shall not be able to perswade men of good understandings that they are Truths , and by consequence that the Reformation is not just , for it is always just to extirpate Errors . It seems to me , to appear already , that that debate which they have raised against us about the Justice of our Reformation , and our separation from the Church of Rome , is rather a field wherein they would busy themselves in subtilties and declamations , to amuse the People , then a just Controversy whence one might justly expect any profit . Yet , as those subtilties and declamations , how vain and false soever they are , fail not of finding applause in the World , and always making some impressions on the minds of men , we acknowledge the too great effect that they have produced , which is that the greatest part of those of the Church of Rome look upon us as Schismaticks , and think that we have disturbed the peace of the Family of God , and violated the right of that Religious Society which had united us with them . The Idea which they form of our Religion appears not half so odious to them . After what manner they have disguised us , the most equitable among them discern , and fail not sometimes freely to confess the same , that we have all Doctrines that are necessary to mens Salvation , that our Worship , as plain as it is , has nothing which does not tend to nourish in their hearts a true Piety and a solid Vertue , and that as to the Form of our Government it has nothing so remote , either from prudence , or from equity or from the Charity that Jesus Christ has recommended to us . But it is a far different Idea which they Form within themselves of our Separation , for it becomes insupportable to them , when they compare it with the Specious name of a Church , that ought to command the Veneration of all Holy men . So that this is most ordinarily the matter of their reproaches , which they the more exaggerate as a thing about which they imagine we have not the least shew wherewith to defend our selves ; I dare affirm that as to the far greater part , that is the chiefest and almost the only matter , that makes them appear so much Exasperated against us . It is necessary then that we justify our selves , and that we clear to their minds that honour which we have , not only to live among them in the same civil Society , but also to depend on their lawful Authority in respect of those humane affairs wherein we are engaged . Our own Innocence commands it of us ; not to say that the inheritance which we have received from our Fathers is of a value sufficiently great , to merit a defence , after what manner soever they attack it . We ought then to indeavour to let them see , that that which they are made to believe concerning us , is nothing but a false imputation , that we have an infinitly greater respect for the Church , then any of those who oppose themselves to hinder its Reformation ; that their Maxims tend to the Ruin of the Church , where ours tend only to preserve it ; that our Separation from Rome is nothing else but an effect of that Love and Jealousy that we have for the Church , and that it will be most unjust if they shall hate us upon an account , that ought on the contrary to draw from them all their esteem and Love toward us . It is then about this , that we intreat that they would calmly hear us , and judge us without passion , and without interest , in the fear of that God , whom we all acknowledge for our Soveraign Judge . Those who always act against us with a pride that hurries them away , and who have resolved to condemn us , and to the uttermost of their power to destroy us what ever we say , will not possibly take our request to be just , and in that Case we shall content our selves as to them , with the Testimony of our Consciences , which perswades us not only that God will not condemn us for having been Reformed , but also that he certainly will , if we do not in that follow the sence of our hearts . But there are yet enough persons in the Church of Rome of too much equity to follow the Examples of such a sort of People ; these equitable persons are those of whom we demand that hearing , and that same equity , and moderation , of which they make such profession , and which the importance of the subject treated on , challenges them to yield us . We shall tell them nothing which shall not be founded , either on matters of fact known to all , or upon the inviolable principles of Religion , or upon the light of Common sence . To set down this matter in some order , I propose to my self to make evident these four Propositions . 1. That our Fathers , had both right and obligation to examine the State of Religion , and the Latin Church , such as it was in their days . 2. That the Reformation which they made was just and lawful . 3. That in Reforming themselves they had right , and were bound to separate themselves from the Church of Rome . 4. That in Reforming and Separating themselves they had right , and obligation to maintain among themselves a Christian Society by publick Assemblies , and the exercise of the Ministry . I do not pretend that in Treating of these four Propositions I have exhausted all my subject , but yet I hope that there will be few Questions that have some Relation to it , which I do not sufficiently touch upon , and few Objections which I do not ▪ answer . I will particularly answer to all those that are contained in that Book of Prejudices , as the order of the matters that I Treat of , shall present them to me ; none of which will begin to oppose themselves till the seventh Chapter , because that Author having passed by in silence a great many things that belong to the Foundation of this Controversy , it will be necessary to touch upon them before we go any farther . CHAP. II. That the State of the Government of the Latin Church some Ages ago , gave to our Fathers Prejudices , of its Corruption in Doctrine and Worship , sufficient to drive them more nearly to Examine their Religion . AS our Fathers did not Reform themselves , but by following the Examination which they made of Religion , such as it was in their days , and as they did not enter upon that Examination but by the Prejudices which they received that its state was extreamly corrupted , it is necessary to our judging of their Conduct , to consider in the first place , of what nature and force those Prejudices were , whether they were just , or unjust , rash or reasonable , and whether they justly led our Fathers to make a more particular Reflection upon that which they taught them . It shall be then by this Fundamental Question that we will begin , and first propose the Prejudices that the corrupted estate of the Ecclesiastical Government gave them some Ages before ; and afterwards we shall consider those that the same External State of Religion furnisht them with . But because this matter will engage us to declare those Truths , which it may be will not be agreeable to all the World , they ought to remember that we are within the bounds of a just and natural defence , having been publickly provoked to it , by a Famous Book , which is alledged on all occasions with great boasting ; and that that Book in assaulting us with Prejudices has furnisht us with the very same Example , to defend our Ancestours likewise by Prejudices , and that it will be a strange injustice , if while on the one side they charge us with such foul accusations , they will not allow us on the other side to declare those things that are essential to our justification . We will declare them then , but no otherwise then Historically , and upon the proper Testimony of those Authors which the Church of Rome approves , with a design rather [ nakedly ] to shew them , then [ subtilly ] to represent or exaggerate them . In the first place , Our Fathers beheld , that instead of having kept that Evangelical simplicity which Jesus Christ and his Apostles had so much recommended by their Sermons , and their Examples , they had on the contrary framed the Government of the Church , according to the Platform and Model of Secular Empires : They saw an almost innumerable Company of Dignities , elevated by Pompous Titles , Canons , Honours , Preeminencies and Priviledges , upheld by the vast Riches and the Splendor of the World , and all of them together depending on a Soveraign High-Priest who had lifted himself up above the whole Church , as its rightful Monarch , yea as a Divine Monarch , whose words must be Laws , and whose Laws Oracles , who pretended to reign not only over the external Actions of men , but to Lord it also over their Souls , and their Consciences , and who left nothing so reserved in the deepest and most inward motions of the Soul , of which he did not demand its Subjection . It had been very hard , if our Fathers had not found in the midst of the Grandeur of this Body so ordered , somthing very much alien to the natural Aspect of the Church of Jesus Christ , which is much rather a Ministry , then an Empire , in respect of its External Government . Indeed , if Jesus Christ had had a design to have established such a Dominion as our Fathers beheld established , he had never told his Disciples that which he said to them , The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them ; and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactours . But it shall not be so with you : but he that is great among you let him be as the less , and he that is chief , as he that doth serve . St. Peter would never have said to the Pastors of the Church that which he told them , Feed the stock of Jesus Christ which is committed to you , not as being Lords over God's Heritage . It had then already from thence , in that very Dominion , a great sign of its Corruption . It was an evil , but an evil that discover'd divers others . For it had this appearance with it , that the Spirit of the World had got possession of the Ministers of the Church , till it made them forget what they were in their first Institution , beyond which it had made them often commit many outrages . 2. They had not contented themselves to establish a Spiritual Dominion upon the plat-from of Secular ones , unless they joyned the very Temporal one it self to it . The greater part of the Bishops were become Lords properly so called , and even some of them had got to be Soveraign Princes , with the Titles and Preregatives of other Princes and Lords , without any difference : had not the Popes themselves done far better , if they had put themselves in possession of that which they now call the State of the Church under the quality of Temporal Lords and Monarchs ? I will not mention by piece-meal the Disorders the Complaints , the Contentions , the Wars that this Spirit of Temporal Dominion has raised : This is not my design . It is sufficient for me to remark , that one can scarce give a more certain Character of the Corruption of a Church , then that . For where that Spirit reigns , it is by that , that men will easily bring in Errors and Superstitions , at least those that can bring them any advantage , and those that have a tendency to adjust the Crown with the Miter , and the worldly Grandeur with the Dignities of the Church . It is not very easy in such a state to be studiously watchful over the Flock , and much less to repel the Doctrines , the Customes , and the Maximes that can any ways advance or favour that Elevation . 3. Covetousness is almost always inseparable from Ambition . They are those two things that nourish and mutually sustain one another . So , our Fathers saw them reigning together through a long tract of time among the Church-men . I will not here speak of the complaints which they made many Ages ago of the Avarice of the Court of Rome , because I shall mention something about them hereafter in this Discourse . I will only say , that those Complaints were universally extended to all the Clergy , whom they reproacht with an insatiable greediness of heaping up of Riches . The vast stocks they had gained , the great Cares they took to hinder an Alienation , and procure an increase , would not possibly be the worst proofs . But as that evil spread it self very far , so it was lamented for a long time after , They feed on the sins of my people , said St. Bernard , who lived in the twelfth Century , that is to say , they require money for their sins , without making any other account of the Sinuers , Who of the Clergy may you not observe far more careful to empty the Purses of those set under them , then to destroy their Vices ? A disorderly Appetite of those Lands that are annexed to the Churches , said Cardinal Cusanus , dwells at this day in the hearts of the aspiring Bishops , so that we see them do that openly after their promotion , which they secretly coveted before . All their Care is for the Temporal , and nothing for the Spiritual . But this was never the mind of the Emperours . They did not then think that the Spiritual affairs would be ingulpht in the Temporal , when they gave those goods to the Churches . So , our Fathers were but too well acquainted with that Spirit of Avarice with animated the Governours of the Church in their Days , and every one knows that one of the matters that very much Scandalized them , and made them deliberately examine the state of Religion , was the Traffick of Indulgences . In effect what likelyhood was there , that a Vice that corrupts all things , and which St. Paul calls the root of all evil , and elsewhere a kind of Idolatry being as it was for many Ages so universally spread over the Clergy , over the Head , and the Members , even to the Monks themselves , what likelyhood I say was there , that this Vice , which was found to be so much increased by their Superstitions , should have left Religion in its natural purity ? 4. Our Fathers discern'd a prodigious neglect of the Functions of the Ministry joyn'd with that Covetousness . For a Preaching Bishop was for a long time so rare , that it was altogether unusual . The Care of the poor , the visiting of the sick , the comforting the Afflicted , the correcting the Ignorant , the studying of the Scriptures , and all the other offices belonging to the Pastoral Crosier , were , if not quite quite abandoned , yet at least extremly neglected , All was may almost reduc't to saying of the service as one speak , and to reading of the Administration of the Sacraments , & the Formularies of a Liturgy , which a very few of the People understood , and neither he himself sometimes who read it before them . It was this that made Nicholas de Clemangis Archdeacon of Bayeux , who flourished in the beginning of the fifteenth Centuary , to say , that the study of the Holy Scriptures , and those who taught them were derided by all , and that which is yet more amazing , is that it is chiefly the Bishops that scoff at them , preferring their own Traditions to the Ordinances of God. Now a days , the charge of Preaching which is an Office so admirable and so glorious , and which heretofore belonged to the Pastours only , is now thought so vile by them , that there is nothing which they judge more unworthy of their Grandeur , and to bring more reproach to their Dignity . He adjoyns , that they made no difficulty openly to profess , that it belonged only to the begging Fryars to Preach , and not to them . But this Negligence did not spring up in that Age of the Reformation , nor in that , that immediatly preceded it , for since the ninth Century the Pastors of the Church have been extream slack in dressing the Vineyard of our Lord. Which could not but have made way for false Doctrines and Superstitions , and have caused a very great alteration in Religion . 5. Ignorance was one inevitable Consequence of that carelessness of the Ministers of the Church , that is to say , that which of all things in the world was the most improper to engage any to have relied on their Conduct , and to have rested assured of the sincerity of their instructions . This Ignorance was very great and very general , in the time of our Fathers , and the most prejudiced of our Adversaries will not deny it . But it had began a great while before their days , as it appears , from the Barbarism of the Schools , and from the matter and stile of the greatest part of the Books that the preceding Age had produced , and from the express Testimony of divers Authours . The Church of God , saith St. Bernard , every day in divers manners finds by sad experience , in what great danger she is , when the Shepheard knows not where the Pastures are , nor the Guide , where the right way is , and when , that very man who should speak for God , and on his side , is ignorant what is the will of his Master . In these days , said Marsilius of Padoua in the fourteenth Century , in these days wherein the Government of the Church is corrupted , the greatest part of the Priests and Bishops are but meanly instructed in the Holy Scriptures , and I dare say they are uncapable of deciding the doubts of their Faith. For Ambition , Covetousness , and Canvassings obtain the Temporal Benefices , and they purchase in effect by their services , or by their prayers , by their Gold or by their Favour , all the Dignities of the Age. God is my witness , and a great number of his faithful also , that I remember I have seen many Priests , many Abbots , and many Prelats so void of knowledge , that they have not known how to speak even according to the Rules of Grammar . Is it not very natural to conclude that a number of Errors and Superstitions would infallibly accrew from the favouring of this Ignorance , and thereby be established in the Church , and that that , would produce Novelties , and that those which formerly were but private opinions , or which consisted but in some first dispositions and [ tendencies ] to Errors , would become general , and be changed into habits ? 6. But , might not our Fathers very well conclude the same thing from that dreadful depravation of manners , which they and their Fathers had seen reign for so long a time among the Church-men ? Those who have any knowledge of History are not ignorant of the Lamentations that all honest men made then , and the mournful descriptions that they have left of those times in their writings . One may read for the twelfth Century , only St. Bernard ; for the thirteenth , Cardinal Hugo ; for the fourteenth , William Bishop of Mende ; for the fifteenth , Werner Rollewink a Carthusian Monk of Cologne ; for they say but too much for the justifying of these Articles ; and for the sixteenth , which was the Age of the Reformation , who does not know that it was extremely corrupted ? One of the matters of which the Ambassadour of the Duke of Bavaria so vehemently complain'd before the Council of Trent , on the behalf of his Master , and upon which he so much insisted , was , the wicked lives of the Clergy , where he said , that he could not describe their horrible wickednesses without offending the chast ears of the Audience ; He subjoyns , That the Prince his Master remonstrated to the Council , That the Correction of points in Doctrine , would be vain , and unprofitable , if they did not first correct their manners . That the Clergy was defamed by reason of their Luxury . That the Civil Magistrate did not suffer any Lay-man to have a Concubine , that notwithstanding amongst the Clergy it was so common a thing to have them , that amidst a hundred Priests one could not find above three or four who either kept not Whores , or were not Married , the one secretly , and the others publickly . It is with shame that I speak of it , said the Cardinal of Lorrain , in an Oration that he made to the same Council , but it is also with a sensible displeasure that I mention the lives that we have led . We are the causes that have swell'd this storm so high , let us cast our selves into the Sea , and since you have our Confession , punish us after what manner you please . A little before that , he had said , That the Troubles wherewith France was found to be agitated , were the effect of a just Judgment of God , and that they had drawn that judgment upon themselves by that Corruption of manners which was to be found among all Orders of men , and by the subversion of all Ecclesiastical Discipline . Charles the ninth also , in those Memoirs that he gave to that Cardinal for the Council , had expresly set down this Article , That his Majesty with the most extreme regret was constrained to complain of the unclean lives of the Ecclesiasticks , who brought so much Scandal and Corruption amongst the Common people , beyond the scandal they took at their Ministers , that to him it seemed necessary that it should be very speedily provided against . Tell me I beseech you , what could any justly conclude from the so licentious lives of Persons who for so long a time since had made themselves Masters of that Religion , but that there was very little appearance that that Religion was preserv'd in its Antient Purity . I acknowledge , the ill life of the Pastour is not of its self a sufficient reason to separate from him ; but I affirm , that when that wicked life is found to be so general in the Clergy , and remains there for some Ages without amendment , it gives a prejudice exceeding reasonable of some great corruption in that very Religion it self : For Men of such impure manners can be but very ill Guardians of Faith and Piety . 7. The Corruption of the Church of Rome in particular , that is to say , of that Church which calls her self the Mother and Mistress of all others , and which had in possession the Government of them according to her own will , confirmed our Fathers in this prejudice . For by this means they saw the Evil did not confine it self only to the borders , but that it was got into the very heart it self , that is , into that Church which as the Chief , shed its influence on the others . Further , I think I need not prove that Corruption , where every one will yield it as a thing that cannot be contested . Those who have read the Histories of Luitprand , of Glaber , of Matthew Paris , of Platina , of Baronius , and Onuphrius , and of many others , cannot deny that since the ninth Century , the See of Rome has been most frequently filled with Popes , whose Lives and Government have not very much edified the World. Every one knows the Complaints that all the Earth had made , and which it made yet in the days of our Fathers , not only against the Popes , but against all that they call the Court of Rome , the Corruption whereof , was looked on as the Cause of that in all the other Churches . I shall not urge this matter further , but it seems to me that our Fathers did not deserve the least blame , if they could not believe that such a sort of men , could have a great zeal for the glory of God , and the Salvation of men , or that they were so fit and likely to preserve Christianity intire amongst them , nor in fine , that whereas it was for so many Ages accused to be the very Center of all Vices , it could be the Centre of all the Doctrines of Faith and Holiness . 8. But altho' our Fathers should not have reflected on the persons of such men , yet it is very certain that they found enough Characters of Irregularity in the Maxims , in the pretensions , and the Government of the Popes , to make them justly conclude , That they could not but be very ill Conservators of the purity of Religion . What else could they gather from that excessive Pride so intolerable to all Christians , that consisted in making their Feet to be Kissed with a submission far beyond what was yeilded to Kings , in making themselves to be born on the shoulders of men , and to be served by the greatest Princes , or by their Ambassadors , to wear three Crowns , and to be Adored upon the Altar after their Election , & c ? 9. What could they say , to those proud Titles which they with the greatest scandal affected to have given them , as that of God in the Canon Law , whereof see the words , It evidently appears that the Pope who was called God by Constantine , can be neither bound to any thing , nor loosed by any Secular Power . For it is manifest that a God cannot be judged by men . To the same purpose Augustin Steuchus says , That Constantine called the Pope God , and that he acknowledged him to be so , and he assures us that from thence it was that he made that Excellent Edict in his Favour , he would say , that false Donation . He adored him , says he , as God , as the successour of Christ , and of Peter , and rendred him all the ways that he could , Divine Honours , Worshipping him as the living Image of Jesus Christ . So Clement the seventh , Anti - Pope , with his Cardinals at Avignon in a Letter which they wrote to Charles the sixth , which is set down by Froissard , they make no scruple of calling him a God upon Earth , seeing as there is , say they , but one only God in the Heavens , there cannot , and ought not of right to be more then one God on Earth . After the same manner Angelus Politianus in an Oration that he made for those that were sent as Deputies from the City Sienna to Alexander the sixth , ascribes Divinity to him . We rejoyce among our selves , says he , to behold you raised above all humane things , and elevated even to Divinity it self , seeing nothing next unto God which is not set under you . He was not the only person that treated that Pope as God , for Raynaldus relates that amidst the Pomps of his Coronation one might see in divers places of the streets of Rome the Arms of the Pope with Verses and Epigrams underneath , among which this Distich might be Read : Caesare magna fuit , nunc Roma est maxima , sextus Regnat Alexander : ille vir , iste DEVS . 10. What could our Fathers say to that Divine power that the Flatterers of the Popes attributed to them ? As the Glossary of the Decretals , which remarks , That every one said of the Pope that he had all Divine power , caeleste arbitrium . That by reason of that he could change the nature of things , applying the essential properties of one thing to another . That he could make something of nothing , that a Proposition which was nothing , he could make to be something ; That in all things that he should please to do , his will might serve for a Reason . That there is none that could say to him , why dost thou do that ? That he could dispence with whatsoever was right , and make injustice to become Justice , by changing and altering of that which was right . And in fine , that he had a Plenitude , a fulness of Power . 11. What could they say to those Titles which the Popes attributed to themselves , of being the spouses , Husbands of the Church , and the Vicars of Jesus Christ ? The Church my Spouse , said Innocent the Third , were not married to me , if she did not bring me something , she has given me a Dowry of an inestimable price , the fulness of all spiritual things , the greatness and spaciousness of Temporals , the Grandeur and Abundance both of the one and the other . She has bestowed on me the Miter in token of things Spiritual , The Crown for a sign of the Temporal , the Mitre for the Priesthood , the Crown , for the Kingdom , substituting me in his place who had it wrote on his Vestment , and his Thigh , The King of Kings , and Lord of Lords . After the same stile Martin the fifth , intitled himself in this manner , in the Instructions which he gave to a Nuntio that he sent to Constantinople , as Raynaldus relates , The most Holy , and most Happy , who has Heavenly power , who is the Lord of the Earth , the successor of Peter , The Christ or Annointed of the Lord , the Lord of the Vniverse , the Father of Kings , the Light of the World , the Soveraign High Priest , Pope Martin . 12. What could they say to that Scandalous applying to the Popes those passages of the Scripture , which only and immediately regard God himself , and his Son Jesus Christ ? Baronius relates , that Alexander the Third making his Entry into the Town of Montpellier , a Sarasin Prince prostrated himself before him , and adored him as the Holy and venerable God of the Christians , and that those that were of the Popes train , ravished with Admiration , said one to another those words of the Prophet , All the Kings of the Earth shall worship him , and all Nations shall do him service . So , in the Council of Later an one complemented Leo the Tenth with these Applications of Scripture , God has given you all power both in Heaven and in Earth , Weep not Daughter of Sion . Behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah , of the stock of David . And those of Palermo , by the Relation of Paulus Jovius , prostrate at the feet of Martin the Fourth , made their addresses to him in the same words that they say to Jesus Christ before their Altars , Thou that takest away the Sins of the World , have mercy upon us , Thou that takest away the the sins of the World , have mercy upon us , Thou that takest away the sins of the World , grant us thy peace . 13. What could our Fathers say to those strange Declarations of some Popes ? that maintained , that all Laws resided in them , that all the Rules of Justice were enclosed within their Breasts , that it was necessary to the Salvation of every Creature that he should be subject to the Pope of Rome , that they had in their hands the Temporal and Spiritual Sword , and other expressions of the like nature ? So Paul the second answered Platina , who requested him that he would † dismiss him to the prosecuting of his suit about a very important affair , before the Auditors of the Rota , because the Sentence that the Pope had given was unjust , Is it so then , says he , that you would have us be brought to be try'd before the Judges ? Do not you know that we have all the Laws shut up within our own Breast ? In the close of that business Platina having taken the boldness to say he would demand Justice of a Council , the Pope put him into a strait Prison . So also Boniface the Eighth begins one of his Decretals in these words , Licet Romanus Pontifex qui jura omnia in scrinio pectoris sui censetur habere . It was the same person who desin'd the necessity of subjecting ones self to the Pope after this manner . Subesse Romana Pontifici , omni humanae Creaturae , dicimus , declaramus , definimus , & pronuntiamus , esse de necessitate Salutis , and who said , that although the Papal Authority was given to a man , and that though it was exercised by a Man , it was never the less Divine , that though the Papal power came to be depraved , yet it could not be judged by any man , but by God alone , because the Apostle has said , that the Spiritual man judges all things and is himself judged of no man. That there are two Swords that are in the power of the Church , the Spiritual and the Temporal , the one of the which had its use for the Church , and the other the Church her self exercised , the one is in the hand of the Pope , and the other in those of Kings and Souldiers , but whose management depends on the good pleasure , and the sufferance of the Pope . 14. What could our Fathers say to those prodigious pretensions that the Popes made over Emperours and Kings , even to make their Crowns depend on their pleasure , to dethrone them , to give away their Kingdoms to others , and to absolve their Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance . Every one knows what the decisions were that Gregory the Seventh made in a Council held at Rome in the year , 1076. against the Emperor Henry the Fourth whom he had deposed , and whose Subjects he had absolved of their Oaths of Allegiance . One may call those decisions the Dictatorship of the Pope , do but see some of their Articles as they are set down by Baronius . That the Bishop of Rome only could wear the Imperial Ornaments . That all Princes were wont to kiss the feet of the Pope alone . That only his name ought to be mentioned in the Churches , That there was but one chief name in the World , which was that of the Pope . That he had right to depose Emperours , That his Decrees could be made void by none whosoever he were , but that he alone could make void all others . That he could loose the Subjects of wicked Princes from their Oaths of Allegiance . The Decretals are full of the like attempt of Boniface the Eighth , upon Philip the Fair , one of our Kings . He went so far as to excommunicate him , and to absolve his subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance , and in fine to give away his Crown to the Emperor Albert. I confess that he was punished as he deserved , and that the French on this occasion served their Prince with great zeal . The same Platina mentioned before , could not forbear making this reflexion on the Death of this Pope , Thus dy'd this Boniface , who thought of nothing less then of terrifying Emperors , Kings , and Princes , and all men , that he might the more inspire into them a Religious respect , and who pretended to give and take away by force , whole Kingdomes , to overturn and re-establish all men by the meer motion of his Will. But howsoever it was , the bad success of Boniface could not hinder our Fathers from judging as they ought of these insolent pretensions of the Popes , and taking notice , that those who made their very Religion to serve their Ambition , seeing their Ambition had no bounds , had a peculiar interest to feed the people with their Superstitions , for they were such as enslav'd their Souls , where true Piety would have ennobled , and freed Men from that yoak which they would have imposed on us . Further , if any would more particularly see how far the Claims of the Roman See went , they need but to read what Augustine Steuchus Library-keeper to the Pope , has wrote , for he ascribes to the Popes the very same Temporal rights , in the same Latitude , wherein the Old Roman Empire possest them , and he proves from the Register of Gregory the Seventh , that Spain , Hungary , England , Denmark , Russia , Croatia , Dalmatia , Arragon , Portugal , Bohemia , Swedland , Norway , Dacia , did all heretofore belong to the Popes , and that all that Pepin , Charlemain , Henry , and other Emperors gave to the Church , brought him not any new rights , but only set him in the possession of that which the violence of the Barbarians had wrested from him . 15. What could our Fathers say to those unjust Usurpations of the Popes over the whole Body of the Church , over which they pretended Soveraignly to reign , to have Authority to decide matters of Faith , to make new Laws , to dispence with the Antient Constitutions , to call Councils , to transfer them from one place to another , to Authorise , or to condemn them , to Judge all the World , without being liable to be judged of any , in a word of making all things to depend on their power , and binding all Churches to submit themselves to its decisions about matters of Faith and Rules of Discipline , not only with a bare external obedience , but with a real acquiescence of their Consciences ? By Reason of which they were accustomed , as they practise it even at this present in their Bulls , to place in the Front the fulness of their Power , and to adjoyn this Clause , That no man should dare to be so rash as to infringe or go contrary to their Decrees , under penalty of incurring the indignation of God , and the blessed Apostles , Peter and Paul. I know there were some that sometimes did very strongly oppose these pretensions of the Court of Rome , that some Councils did labour to repress them , and that the Church of France has appeared often enough jealous of its Liberty . But besides that those oppositions never had that success which might justly have been hoped for , on the part of the Popes , who almost always eluded them , besides that , I say , they did but serve to confirm the prejudices of our Fathers , by dayly discovering to them more and more of the Corruption of the See of Rome . 16. What could they Judge of those Dispensations that the Popes gave in the business of Marriages within prohibited degrees , against the express words of the Law of God , and in the Case of Vows which they themselves held to be lawful , and in divers other matters , even against that which they call the general State of the Church ? What do we think we ought to say at present , said Gerson , of the easiness whereby Dispensations are given by the Pope and by the Prelats , to lawful Oaths , to reasonnable Vows , to a vast Plurality of Benefices , against all the minds , or as he speaks even to a universal gainsaying of Councils , in priviledges and exemptions that destroy common Equity ? Who can reckon up all the ways whereof they serve themselves to loosen the force of Ecclesiastical Discipline , and to oppose and destroy that of the Gospel ? Who can read without some Commotion , that which Innocent the Third has wrote ? That by the fulness of his Power , he had a lawful power to dispence with that that was beyond all Equity . And that , that the Glossary has subjoyned , That the Pope can dispence against an Apostle , against the Canons of the Apostles , and against the Old Testament in the Case of Tithes . It is added that he cannot dispence against the general State of the Church , and yet elsewhere the Gloss on the Decree of Gratian assures us , that the Pope may sometimes dispense against the General State of the Church , and for that alledges the Example of Innocent the Third in the Council of Lateran . 17. What could our Fathers Judge of those vast abuses that were committed in dispencing with the Ecclesiastical Functions , given most frequently to persons altogether unworthy and uncapable , and sometimes to Children , to the great scandal of Christianity , which complained of it highly a long time ago ? They prefer , said St. Bernard , little School-boys , and young Children to Church Dignities , because of the Nobility of their Birth . So that you may see those that are just got from under the Ferula , go to command Priests , who were yet more fit to escape the Rod , then to be employ'd in Government , for they are far more sensible of the pleasure of being freed from their Masters , then of that of becoming Masters themselves . Those are their first thoughts , but afterwards growing more bold , they very soon learn the Art of appropriating the Altars to themselves , and of emptying the purses of those that are under them , without going to any other School , then that of their Ambition and their Covetousness . How few may one find now a days of those who are raised to the Episcopal Grandure , said Nicholas de Clemangis , who have either read , or know how to read the Holy Scripture , otherwise then by first beginning to read ? They have never touched any other part of the Holy Bible then the Cover , although in their Installment they swear that they know it all . 18. What could our Fathers say to that Simony which was every where openly exercised in the Church of Rome in all things ? The Court of Rome , says Aeneas Sylvius , gives nothing without money . It sells the very Imposition of hands , and the gifts of the Holy Ghost , and will give pardon of Sins to none but such who will part with their Money . The Church that Jesus Christ has chosen for his Spouse without spot and blemish , says Nicholas de Clemangis , is in these days a Warehouse of Ambition and Business , of Theft and Rapine . The Sacraments and all Orders , even to that of the Priests , are exposed to Sale. For Money they bestow Favours , Dispensations , Licences , Offices , Benefices , They sell pardons of sins , Masses , and the very Administration of our Lords Body . If any one have a mind to a Bishoprick , he needs but to get himself furnished with Money , yet not a little Sum , but a great one must purchase such a great Title . He needs but to empty his Purse to obtain the Dignity that he seeks , but he may soon after fill it again with advantage by more ways then one . If any one desire to be made a Prebendary , or a Priest of any Church , or to have any other charge , it matters not whether his merits , or his Life , or his Manners be known , but it is very requisite it should be known how much Money he has . For according as he has that , he must have his hopes succeed . Such were the Complaints that honest men made in those days , and one might make a large Volum of them , if these Antient Disorders were not so publickly known . One has publisht not long since a Book of the Rates of the † Apostolick Chamber , and the Taxes enjoyned for Penances , which alone declares more then it will be necessary for us to stay upon for our Edification . There not only every dispatch of business , but every sin also , every crime has its set Price , and as there is nothing to be done without Money , so there is nothing which Money cannot do . 19. I could add to all that I have said , a multitude of other things , that could not but have been very proper to have raised those prejudices in the minds of our Fathers , whereof we have spoken . For those unjust ways which Rome has made use of to draw all affairs to it self , with all the Riches of the West , all the underhand Canvassings , and strange Practices it has used in the Elections of Popes , the Scandalous Schisms that have sprung from the Divisions of Parties , and Differences of Elections , The Bloody Wars that the Popes are accused to have divers times kindled among Christian Princes , the Intrigues , the dishonest ways whereby they are said to have served themselves , to engage the Kings and Grandees of the World in their Interests , the endeavours they have always used to elude the demands of a Reformation ; all these things sufficiently discover more of the Spirit of the World , then of the Spirit of Jesus Christ , and will easily perswade all those who are not wholly deprived of their Reason , that there must needs have been latent at the bottom an extream Coruption . But we ought to make an end of this Chapter , and to leave a matter so ungrateful , into which we had not at all entred , if we had not been obliged by the necessity of a just defence , as I have before declared . It only remains that we shut up in the Close of all those things which we have represented , by concluding that they cannot , at least without renouncing all equity , any more condemn our Fathers , either of rashness or presumption , if they durst perswade themselves , that the Church and Religion were fallen into the very worst hands , and if they judged from thence that they ought to enter upon a more particular scrutiny of those Doctrines that they taught , and of those Laws whereby they would bind their Consciences . That Consequence which they drew from thence , was but the just effect of a Reason animated by the fear of God , and a desire which they had of their own Salvation : for what colour or pretence could there be , that a Disorder in the Government of the Church , so great , so antient , so general , should not be accompanied with a multitude of other Errors contrary to the word of God , and prejudicial to the Salvation of men ? CHAP. III. That the External State of that Religion it self had in the times of our Fathers , signs of its Corruption sufficient to afford them just motives to Examine it . ALthough these Reflections that I have already set down , drawn from the Government of the Church , were very weighty , and by themselves capable of making the most just impressions on the Minds and Consciences of those who would set themselves to work out their own Salvation , according to the Exhortation of the Apostle with fear and trembling , yet we ought not to imagine that our Fathers were determined by those considerations alone . They yet made others which they had , that we may yet be more sensibly touched by them , since they had for their object not the outward Form or State of the Ministry , nor the persons who possessed the Offices and Dignities of the Church , but their Religion it self , in that State in which it was in their days . For it is most true , that it was scarce possible for those who did the least in the World fix their Eyes on that Religion , to consider its Draught and its External Form , without discovering , or at least without discerning infinite Characters of its Corruption . And this is that which I design to treat of in this Chapter . 1. One of the chief Objects that presented it self to our Fathers , was that of the great Number of Ceremonies , with which they beheld that Religion either shrowded or overwhelmed : It matters little which of the two we affirm , for which way soever we take it , it was always a true Pourtrait of the old Oeconomy of Moses , which seem'd to be reviv'd in the World. They took special notice of their external sacrifices , their solemn Feasts , distinction of Meats , of their Altars , of their Tapers , of their sacred Vessels , of their Censings , of their set Fasts throughout the Year , of their mystical Figures , and a multitude of particular things altogether resembling those that were enjoin'd under the Law , and in general , a great Conformity to that Antient-Worship consisting in such a Love and Excessive usage of Ceremonies . This was without doubt a Character very opposite to that of the Gospel of Jesus Christ , where the Spirit Rules , and not the Letter , and which is made free from all that great cumbrance of External Observations . St. Paul calls these Observances , weak and beggerly Elements , a Yoak of bondage , the rudiments of the World , the shadow of things to come , whereof the body is Jesus Christ . and St. Peter , a Yoak which neither the Jews in his days nor their Fathers were able to bear . Jesus Christ himself told the woman of Samaria , That the time was come , when the true worshippers of his Father , should worship him in Spirit and in truth . What likelyhood was there that they would have spoke after that manner if the Church of Christ her self should be burthened with as many or more Ceremonies then the Synagogue ; And , if as Tertulian speaks , God had not removed the difficulties of the Law , to substitute in their places the easy Rules of the Gospel ? They would have Preached to us the Spirit and Liberty , only to have us subjected again to the Letter , and to have placed us under a servitude far more insupportable then the Former . 2. Moreover , as our Fathers saw one part of those Ceremonies taken from the Jews , so they preceiv'd a multitude of others that were drawn from , or imitated , the Heathens , by their approving of the same which they either Authorised , or practised . For we might put into this rank the use of holy water , or water Consecrated for sprinkling , in the entrance into Churches as well as private Houses , and the Funerals of the dead , the blessings and the sprinklings , the using of Spittle in the Baptism of little Children , the Invocation of Saints , their Canonization , their Patronages , and ordering of their Charges and Imployments ; Their Images and Pictures , their Agnus Dei's , their Feasts for all the Saints , for the deaths of St. John , and many others , their usage of Processions , of Rogations , their visiting the Shrines or Reliques of Saints , of setting up the sign of the Cross where four ways met , of Anniversaries for the dead , of swearing by their Reliques , and I know not how many others , that were evidently either the Remnants , or Imitations of Antient Paganism . Who would think it strange that an Idea of a Religion that plainly appear'd to be so little advantagious to it , or to say better , which was so contrary to the Spirit and the true design of Christianity , should have touched our Fathers , and inspir'd into them a desire of knowing those things a little more particularly then they had as yet done ? 3. They were yet further carri'd out with that desire , when they considered the ill Effects that those Ceremonies borrow'd from the Pagans had produc'd , and some others that were annexed to them , as Rosaries , Chaplets , holy Salt , their Pilgrimages , and and Monastick Vows , and such like things . For they manifestly fill'd the minds of men with superstition , they caused a thousand abuses among the people , they ordinarily made way for lying Forgeries , and , which rendred them yet far more odious , they fomented a too natural negligence which every one has , for works of true and solid Piety , whether , by busying the minds of Christians too much , or perswading them , that they had very well acquitted themselves of their duty by doing these External things , or lastly , whether it was by infusing into them a false Idea of Divinity , as if all its worship did consist in such Trumpery . Who is it that sees not what a great prejudice this was against a Religion that taught such things , and so solemnly enjoyned them to be practised ? 4. It had been yet very hard , if our Fathers had not been offended by that worldly Pomp , wherewith they saw Religion so excessively cloathed . For they very well knew , that true Christianity was contented to gain the Hearts and Souls of men by the Majesty of its Doctrines and Holiness of its Precepts . And that for the rest , it professed to retain its simplicity , notwithstanding which they observed a clean contrary Character in the Magnificence of their Tenples , in the Gold of their Tabernacles , in the Pride of their Sacrifices , in the Riches of their Ornaments , and in general in all that external splendour , which seem'd destin'd only to strike extraordinarily the sences , and by this means to raise an ill grounded Admiration , that which is proper to only corrupt Religions , which as Tertullian takes notice , labour to gain their Authority , and to obtain the belief of the People , by their Pomp , and their profuseness . 5. The Natural Effect of the Doctrines of Christianity , when they are receiv'd with Faith , and when its worship is practised with Devotion , is to comfort the Conscience , and to give it a certain satisfaction and calm , which is better felt , then it can be exprest . But our Fathers were so far from receiving that Effect from the Doctrines and worship wherein they made in their days almost the Fundamentals of Religion to consist , as in the Invocation of Saints , the absolute Obedience to the Pope or to his Councils , the conceit of Mens satisfactions , the Adoration of Reliques , the Pilgrimages and other things of the like nature ; they were I say , so far from receiving it from these Doctrines , that on the contrary they could not but feel secret remorses after having practised them . For the Consciences of Christians are naturally carried out to none but God alone , and cannot endure that that which is due to him , should be divided between him and the Creatures . They have naturally a reluctance , to call upon any other Being then the first Cause of all , to pay a Religious service to lifeless Images , to subject themselves to any other Oracle , then that of God , to attribute any part of their Redemption to any others besides Jesus Christ , who has acquired for them a fullness of Salvation ; And in a word , to lay hold on any Creature as the object of their Confidence or Piety ; so our Fathers knowing from their own Experience , that these Tenets and Devotions were , not only barren of all that quiet , but at the same time contrary to the peace of their Souls , they could not but receive a great prejudice against those Tenets , and against those Devotions themselves , and against that Religion that proposed them . 6. But that was not all , they saw yet many things in that Religion most formally opposite to many plain and express passages of Scripture ; As the point of Images , to the second Commandment , Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image , &c. That of Communion only in one kind , to that Command of Jesus Christ , Drink ye all of this , That of Praying in an unknown Tongue , to the Prohibition of St. Paul in the fourteenth of the first Epistle to the Corinthians : Else , if thou shalt bless with the Spirit , how shall he that occupieth the Room of the unlearned , say Amen at thy giving of thanks , seeing he uuderstandeth not what thou sayest ? For thou verily givest thanks well , but the other is not Edified . And the business of blind Subjection to the Ministers of the Church , to that strict Declaration of the Apostle , We have not Dominion over your Faith. That of the Papal Monarchy , to these words of our Saviour , The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship , &c. but it shall not be so with you , That of humane satisfactions , to the words of St. John , The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin. And that of the Sacrifice of the Mass , to that Doctrine of St. Paul to the Hebrews , That Jesus Christ has once offered up himself for us . I do not at all enquire , whether the force of these passages may be eluded , and distorted to a sence that may agree with those points which I have mentioned , I do not enter upon that . It is enough if any see that opposition of which I speak to appear at 1 sight , that it likewise strikes the Soul , and seems at least strong enough to Create great scruples , and to form a prejudice that carri'd our Fathers on to examine those things a little more narrowly . 7. To which they were yet further urg'd by the Consideration that they made of some Maxims and Distinctions which they ordinarily made use of to uphold the worshipping of Creatures , for they discovered in them something that was extremly Scandalous . For Example , where they maintained the Worshipping of Angels , and that of the Saints , by saying , that they did not adore them , but by a lower sort of Adoration , proportioned to the excellency they acknowledged to be in them , not , that they gave them that supream Adoration which is due to none but God alone . I do not here put it in Question , whether this distinction be good or bad , it is sufficient that it had the ill luck to fall in with that which the Antient Heathens made use of for the defence of those Adorations which they paid to their Genius's , to their Heroes , to their Demy , and inferiour Gods , &c. For the Pagans said the same , that men did them great wrong in laying it to their charge , that they worshipped their Genius's and inferiour Gods with that Soveraign Worship , which they gave to none but the chief and greatest of the Gods. And that that worship about which the Question was , was only an inferiour and lower kind of Worship . So they defended their worshipping of Images by that Distinction of Absolute and Relative Worship ; but that was the very same distinction which the Pagans serv'd themselves of , to excuse the Worship they rendred to the Statues of their Gods , alledging , that any one very much wrong'd them , in imagining that they serv'd Stocks of Wood , or Stones , but their Devotion was carried out only to those objects that those Statues represented . They defended the Invocation of Saints by that distinction , That they did not pray to them , as the Authors of those graces which they desired , but only as they were meer Intercessours before God. But yet the very Heathens said the same as to those Prayers which they offered up to their Inferiour Gods , whom they acknowledg'd to be but as the Friends and Favourites of the great God , whom they made use of towards him to obtain blessings for themselves . They defended a Company of Opinions and Customs in their Religion , by saying , that they were the Traditions which they had received from the hands of their Fathers ; but that defence had yet this unhappiness ; that it favoured the Jews against those censures of Jesus Christ , and that which Jesus Christ had wholly beaten down by those words , in vain do they worship me , teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men . 8. We might here very well joyn to what has been said , the scandal our Fathers must needs have taken at that School-Divinity , which for a long time had fill'd the World with Questions not only vain and frivolous , but pernicious also , and leading men to wickedness ; we could make a long Catalogue of those Questions , if the common interest of Christianity did not oblige us to conceal them from the Publick , but because we fear the ignorant or the malicious will lay it to our charge that we would impose on the World under a pretence of an affected modesty , we will send our Readers to that Collection which Cardinal Perron himself has made in his Treatise of the Eucharist . Page 920. where I assure my self they will find on one only Article , which is that of the Incarnation of the Word , more then enough to justify that which I have said . What can any one think of such a manner of treating of the Mysteries of Religion , and of that Art they had joyn'd with it , to defend all things by , and that even the most remote from sence , and by distinctions crude and senceless , if it were not , that all that was very likely to raise an abundance of Errors , and excellently contrived for the maintaining of all such , as Ignorance , Passion , Engagements or Interests would yet have produced ? I know that the wiser sort among our Adversaries , are themselves ashamed of it , but they cannot deny that it was almost the only way of Teaching the Divinity of Rome for a long time before the Reformation , and that it was but a very just prejudice against the State of Religion , that depended so absolutely on that of the Schools . 9. One of the Effects of that disorder of the Schools , was the depraving of Christian Morality , by the introduction of divers destructive Maxims , which tended only to corrupt men's minds and hearts , as well in respect of Piety towards God , as of Justice and common Charity toward men , and of that Temperance that every man ought to maintain in his Actions . It would be too long to relate in this place all the proofs that make good this Charge , I shall content my self to alleadge only some Pieces that have made too much noise in the World to be unknown , They are on one side the Provincial Letters ascribed to Mr. Paschal , and some other Treatises which we have seen Publish'd against the Moral Divinity of the Jesuits ; And on the other side , The Apology for the Casuists , and the Book of Amedeus Guimenius . Those former pieces accuse the Jesuits of Teaching and establishing Maxims , Rash , Erroneous , Scandalous , and altogether contrary to good manners , and the others let us see , that the Doctrine of the Jesuits in that respect , is wholly like to that of the Antient School-men , and that one cannot condemn the Jesuits without condemning at the same time the whole Antient School of the Roman Church . For Example , The one sort accuses the Jesuits of Teaching , That it is lawful for one man to rejoyce within himself at the death of another , and to desire it , not only when it is an evil to him who suffers it , but also when it is advantageous to him who desires it . But Guimenius shews us , that , that is exactly the Doctrine of Thomas Aquinas , of Cajetan and divers others , who all maintain the same . The one accuses the Jesuits for Teaching , That it is but a Venial sin , to be disobedient to Divine Inspirations . But Guimenius shews , that that is also the Doctrine of Aquinas and Cajetan . They accuse the Jesuits of Teaching , That it is lawful to advise and at the same time to draw in a man to commit a lesser Sin , to avoid a greater Evil ; As to perswade a Lascivious man to meer Fornication , that he may avoid committing Adultery . But Guimenius proves this to be the Doctrine of Cajetan , Sotus , and Sylvester Prierias . They accuse the Jesuits of maintaining , that a man may , not only not remove an occasion or ground of sin from another whom they know will abuse it to that end , but that they may at the same time present it to him , and by that means lay a snare for him to make him fall into Sin , provided , they do it with a good intention , either to correct his Viciousness , or to make him shun some other inconvenience ; so that a Husband who is jealous of his Wives committing Adultery , may present her with an opportunity or occasion to commit it , and a Father may lay an occasion in his Childrens way to steal from him . But Guimenius lets us see that this is the very opinion of Aquinas , Sotus , Navarr , and of Cajetan . I omit an abundance of other beastly cases , which no one can propose without wounding his modesty . They will say to this , it may be , that the Sorbonne has censured that Book of Guimenius : but this Answer signifies nothing , for we are not concerned to know what the Sorbonne holds in these days , nor what it approves or condemns , but to know , whether those Authors that Guimenius has alledged , are well or ill quoted , whether it were not true , That those Scandalous and Pernicious Maxims were taught in the School in the days of our Fathers , and whether our Fathers ought not to have looked on them as evident and certain proofs of a great corruption ? 10. I know not whether we might not here make a particular Reflexion on the procedure of the Council of Constance , which notwithstanding the safe conduct granted by the Emperor Sigismund to John Huss , and Jerome of Prague , made no scruple to condemn them to be burnt alive , and to Cause that Sentence of their Condemnation to be executed . For so that Council violated the publick Faith , by a most Solemn and resplendent Action . But it was not contented with that , unless it did at the same time add a Decree that it expresly made on that Subject , bearing this with it , that all Letters of safe Conduct granted to Hereticks by any Emperors , Kings or Princes , ought not to hinder the Judges [ to whom it should appertain to take Cognisance of their Crimes , whether they were Lay-men or Church-men , ] from proceeding against them , and punishing them with the greatest severity . Aeneas Sylvius relates that that sentence , through the force of which they were exposed to the Fire , was given in Full Council , Lata est , says he , in concessu Patrum adversus contumaces sententia , CREMANDOS esse qui Doctrinam Ecclesiae respuerent , prior igitur Joannes combustus est , Hieronimus diu postea in vinculis habitus , cum resipiscere nollet , pari supplicio affectus . He adds , that those two men suffered that Torment , with and admirable Fortitude , singing of Hymns in the midst of the Flames . This was in that time very astonishing , to see a Council gathered in a Body , wholly intent upon the causing the death of two Christians ; since it is certain amongst Christians , that the Church has no power over the Temporal Lives of men . But that Scandal was yet made greater by the way they carried it on , for to come to that , they made no difficulty of violating all that was the most sacred and inviolable in humane Society , I would say , the publick Faith given by the Authentick Authority of the Soveraign Magistrate , and given , with all the appearances of their own consents , as one may collect from the Words of Aeneas Sylvius . For he says as that Council was labouring in the affairs of Bohemia , Placuit tandem , Sigismundo Imperatore suadente , Joannem & Hieronymuus ad Synodum vocari . They thought good through the Entreaties of the Emperor Sigismond , that John and Jerome should be called to the Council . They then made no scruple of violating that Faith , to which they had consented , and not only to break it by that Action , and in that Practise , but framed at the same time a Decree to authorise that breach of Faith , and made it a lawful Rule for Posterity to go by . Who can deny that our Fathers had not here a just cause to be shaken at that management of affairs which had violently born down all that wise and moderate men since have conceived , and that they had not reason to joyn that to all those other things I have mentioned , as a most powerful prejudice against a Religion that maintain'd it self , by such strange proceedings ? 11. They might have added also to the rest , methinks , the establishment of Inquisitions , and usage of Croisado's against those who were pretended to be Hereticks . For it is most true that such a way of maintaining Religion by Torments and Armies raised by the Clergy , as the Popes had used some ages since against the Waldenses , the Albigenses , the Wicklifists , and the Hussites , was not at all proper to make it be beloved , or to instil into mens minds an extream good opinion of it . There where they would introduce the Faith by force , they shut up peoples hearts instead of gaining them . That course is good no farther then for Temporal Monarchies , or Mundane Religions , where men are not much concerned whether they reign over the Spirits of men , provided they reign over their Bodies . But that is not at all the way that Jesus Christ uses , who sets up his throne in their Consciences , and who knows no other conquests but those , which the sword that comes from his mouth , gains . 12. But besides those cruel ways which they made use of for the upholding their Religion , they employed yet others , as well as those , which tho' they were not so severe , did not fail of being as odious , and of raising as strong suspitions against that Religion it self . I might rank in this place , those false Miracles which they invented every day to gain credit to some Doctrines and Devotions , which of themselves had no foundation at all in the word of God. For every own knows how much these sort of Fables were in use in the days of our Fathers , and some Ages before , with what care they spread them among the people , in Preaching them up with Zeal , and defending them with heat , and in stuffing their Legends with them , and other Books of that nature . But every own knows likewise that the greatest part of them were so grosly invented , that a very mean understanding could easily detect their falsness . We might joyn with those false Miracles , those stories of Visions , or Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin , or some other Saint , to the Religious men or women , which were so frequent that one can find nothing else in the Books of the Monks of those Ages . We might Place here also those so often devised Tales of the returns of Souls out of Purgatory , of their Apparitions , their Complaints , and pitiful Groans , of their requests to be eased of their pains by their Masses , and Foundations , and of the outcries and terrible din that they ▪ made upon Mens least neglect to perform what they beg'd of them . I do not now examine whether those Doctrines which gave ground to those pretended Miracles , to those Visions , and Apparitions , were Evangelical or not ; it is enough for me to note that , that falseness that appear'd in the greatest part of those gross , Inventions , which were so often publickly detected , rendred that Religion justly suspected , not only in respect of those Opinions and Devotions which they pretended to authorise by those frauds , but also in general , as to all that which came under the name of Traditions . 13. Might we not say the same thing of so many forged and supposititious Books , the making and use of which had been so frequent in the Ages that preceeded the Reformation ; not to meddle with what is reported of the Monks , that they did not scruple to serve themselves by forged Deeds , to enrich their Convents , and gain Priviledges to them . Without touching upon that , there are few Persons that are ignorant of what Character the Decretal Epistles of the Antient Popes are , collected under the name of one Isidore Mercator , whereof the Court of Rome has made so advantagious a use for the establishing of its Authority , and of the pretended donation of Constantine , by which that Emperour is said to have given away the Roman Empire , and all its rights to the Pope . Every own knows also how they had forg'd whole Books and Treatises under the most Antient and Venerable names , as the Epistle of the Blessed Virgin to Saint Ignatius , the Works of Dionysius the Areopagite , the Epistles of Saint Martial , the Acts of the Passion of Saint Andrew , by the Priests of Achaia , the Liturgies of Saint James , Saint Peter , and of Saint Mark , and divers others of the same nature : None are ignorant how they had mingled some false pieces into the true Works of the Fathers , as in those of Justin Martyr , of Origen , of Saint Cyprian , of Saint Athanasius , of Saint Hilary , of Saint Ambrose , of Saint Chrysostome , of Saint Jerome , of Saint Augustin , and almost generally of all the Fathers , whose names they have made use of to authorise their forgeries . None are ignorant what alterations they had made in the true writings of the Fathers , whether by changing their words , or adding to them , or sometimes in cutting off considerable clauses and whole passages entire . Who sees not that these ill practises , which of themselves are so odious in all sorts of matters , and especially in those of Religion , could not but encrease the just suspitions that our Fathers had of all that which they named Tradition ? 14. We might make the same judgment of that visible abuse about Reliques which was brought into the Church . For on the one side , the devotion of the people was so hot as to that point , that it could not keep it self within any measure , and on the other , the Cheats about them were so multiplied , that even those of the weakest understandings could not behold them without being ashamed of them . That prodigious quantity of the wood of the true Cross which is scattered over the World , witnesses this ; as likewise the Slippers and Hose of Saint Joseph , the Shift of the Blessed Virgin , her Coifs , her Fillets , her Girdles , her two Combs , her Cloaths , her Wedding-Ring , the Sword wherewith Saint Michael fought with the Devil , the twelve Combs of the Apostles , some of the Stones wherewith Saint Steven was stoned , the Skin of Saint Bartholomew , the Coals that broiled Saint Laurence , Aarons Rod , the Bones of Abraham , of Isaac and Jacob ; And beyond all that , the multiplication of one and the same Relique , which is to be found in divers places ; for there is nothing more ordinary then for one to see two , three , or four Bodies of the same Saint , as of Saint Gervase , Saint Protais , Saint Sebastian , of Saint Pretonilla , Saint Anthony , and some others . All which being very much recommended to the People as the true objects of their Devotion , not only without any certain grounds , but very often with all the appearances of falsness , could not but create a vast prejudice of corruption in that Church and Religion . 15. Moreover , when our Fathers cast their eyes upon the four chief means that God has established in his Church for the preserving of true Faith and Piety in it , which are , the Scriptures , the publick Worship , Preaching , and the Sacraments , and when they considered after what manner they were altered , and the use of all those means almost brought to nothing , it was not possible they could do otherwise than conclude that corruption whereof we dispute . For as to the Scripture , instead of making that the only Rule of Faith , they had joyn'd Traditions with them , that is to say , the most uncertain thing in the World , the most subject to Impostures , and the most mixed with humane inventions and weaknesses . Instead of recommending the reading of that Divine word , to the Faithful , for their Instruction and their Comfort , it could scarce be found even in the hands of some Church-men . And as for the Schools , they knew far better how to quote Aristotle , the Master of the Sentences , Albertus Magnus , Saint Thomas , and Saint Bonaventure , then the Prophets and Apostles . As for the publick Service , they performed it some Ages ago in a strange Tongue unknown to the people , who by this means were depriv'd of that benefit which they might justly expect . So that the Assemblies were become in that respect , Springs stopt up for any publick edification , and their little Prayers themselves , the Lords Prayer and the Creed , were then read almost only in Latin , and the Women , and Children , and People , seemed to know God only by the Idea that was given them of that Tongue , in which notwithstanding they understood nothing . As for Preaching , besides that the Pulpit in the greatest part of that time was abandoned , we have yet some Books of the Sermons which they made in those days , as of Jacobus de Voragine , of a Menot , a Maillard , a Barelette , a Discipulus de Tempore , which did no very great honour to their Age. They treat there far oftner of the Legends of the Saints , then the truths of Religion ; and that which was yet more deplorable , instead of the Word of God , they Preached , almost nothing else but scandalously extravagant Opinions , raw Parallels of a Saint with Jesus Christ , ridiculous stories , pleasant buffooneries , and such like things , which to speak moderatly , were exceedingly remote from the natural design of the Pulpit , and rendred it not only despised , but after a sort odious . For that which respects the Sacraments , [ not to touch on those multitudes of unprofitable ceremonies wherewith they had loaded them , ] we must confess , that that opinion of the necessity of the intention of the Priest which was so generally taught in the School , and which Eugenius the Fourth had defin'd in his Instruction to the Armenians in the Council of Florence , it destroy'd almost all the benefit of those sacred Mysteries , and cast mens Consciences into perpetual scruples and uncertainties . For unless they could establish a revelation for every particular Christian , what assurance could we have , that he who administers the Sacrament to us , had an intention to do that which the Church enjoyns him to do , or that he had not an intention contrary to that of the Church ? What assurance could be given , that in all that long Train of Priests , Bishops , and Popes , that is to say the Bishops of Rome , who had been from the beginning of Christianity down to this present time , there had not been any in whom that intention , which they make so necessary to the operation of the Sacrament , had been defective ? Yet if one only Priest that shall happen to Baptise a Pope , had not had an intention to Baptize him , or if he himself was not truly a Priest , by the default of the intention of him who gave him Orders , or him who Baptized him ; If one only Bishop who confers Orders on a Pope then when he is made Priest , had not an intention to do what the Church pretends to do , all that which would come in consequence of that default would be spoiled , the Bishops that that Pope afterwards should promote , would not be lawful Bishops , the Priests on whom those Bishops had conferred Orders , would be no lawful Priests , and the Sacraments that those Priests should administer , would not be lawfully administred . What could our Fathers think of such a dreadful confusion , which they knew not how to undo , unless by supposing a perpetual Miracle ? Which is , that God should have so over-rul'd the intention of all those men , that howsoever Wicked , Athestical , Hypocritical or Profane they should have been , yet that not one of them nevertheless should fail in having an intention to do that which the Church enjoyns . But what assurance have we of such a Miracle , or what promise can we find of it in the Scripture ? Not to insist here , that it very ill agrees with the Doctrine of those among them , who make the will of man so much Lord of all his Actions , that whatsoever Grace God shall manifest towards it , it remains always indifferent and free to follow that Grace , or to reject it . It is then very certain that hitherto our Fathers could not be very much edified in the point of the Sacraments in general ; but they were yet far less in the matter of the Sacrament of the Eucharist in particular . For if we look only on one side , they were plung'd into that perplexity about the intention , where they taught one another that the Transubstantiation of the Bread into the Body of Jesus Christ was the effect of that Consecration , and that they were bound to Worship the Host after the words of Consecration , as being Jesus Christ himself ; What assurance could they have of so important a change ? Since it also depended upon so impenetrable a secret , as that of the intention of the Priest , which could only be known by God alone , what assurance could they have that they were not deceived ? What ground had they to give a supream Worship to an Object of which none could have any certainty of Faith , what likelihood they should believe it to be , that which it was pretended to be , and that it ought to be reckoned an adorable Object ▪ What likelihood that God would have given to his Church so doubtful an object to be the object of perpetual adoration ? Which on one side , is so visible and so determinate that one may always say , Behold it , but of which notwithstanding no one can be assur'd that it is that indeed ? Is it any ways agreeable to his goodness and his wisdom , to leave the Church to be perpetually held in suspence in that inexplicable doubt , and exposed to the danger of taking the Bread for the true Son of God , and the Wine for his real Blood , and reduc'd to the necessity of putting that adoration daily to a hazard upon the credit of one man ? CHAP. IV. That such a Corruption of the Latin Church as our Fathers had conceived , was no ways an impossible thing . THese things , were well nigh , the chief Objects that stroke the minds of our Fathers , and cain'd them to a more strict examination of the matters of that Religion . Whether those motives were weak or strong , just or unjust , I leave to the judgment of every rational man to determine . But , some may say , what , did your Fathers never call to mind that so ordinary Maxim , and so generally receiv'd in their days , That the Church could not err , at least in matters relating to Faith , and the general Rules of manners ? and if they had so call'd it to mind , could they not by that very thing easily have repell'd all those importunate prejudices of corruption which you have set before us ? It cannot be doubted but our Fathers did often think of it , but it cannot likewise be imagined , that they would not have endeavoured to search a little more narrowly upon what that Maxim was founded , what construction they ought to make of it , if in a word that Corruption , whereof they saw such great signs had been a thing absolutely impossible . 1. I say then , in the first place , that one of the thoughts that most naturally fell into their minds , upon this matter ▪ was this , That the same thing which has happened almost in all human affairs , might very well befall the Christian Religion in the space of about five hundred Years , wherein it had been in the hands of the † Romans . Every one might observe it to be chang'd by the succeeding Age , to be rendred so as it could not be known , and to become quite another thing , than it was at first , according as they degenerated from their Original . That inclination that men had to alter the first institutions of things , to add to them , or diminish from them , to give to them new Forms and new Customs , Reigned at least as much in our Western Parts , as among other Nations . It Reigned also so universally , that there was nothing reserved from its Dominion , either in their Languages , or their Discipline , or their Professions , or in the Governments of the People , or in their Laws , or in the Distribution of Justice , or in one word in any of those things that depend in any manner whatsoever , on the management of men . It had been then a kind of Miracle , if Religion had been spared , and its Truth , its Worship and Customs regarded and kept with so great care , that nothing should be altered in that , either by additions or diminutions . And we cannot say that Religion being so Heavenly and Divine a thing , is also above all those accidents . For it is most true that it is Divine in it self , and consequently inviolable de jure , and of right ; but there is none that sees it not in effect too often violated through the rashness of men ; and our Fathers were not ignorant , that as perfectly holy as it was , yet it was found to be as much or more exposed to the passions and disorders of the Soul of man , in all other things . 2. But besides that general Inclination which never fails to change things from their natural state , our Fathers could not but know also , that all men did very much lean towards superstitions and errours in the matters of Religion ; They saw the proofs of this in those Chimaera's wherewith the false Religions had filled the World. Chimaera's that were yet so much the more strange , as those people who believed and authorised them , as the Greeks and Romans did appear , as to every thing else to have minds exceedingly inlightened [ and refin'd ] which made our Fathers clearly see that blinde love that men always had for errours in the matters of Religion . And without doubt that very thing carri'd them out to suspect that that pretention to Infallibility was null and vain , and that there might very well be Corruptions in the State of the Church of those times ; for what likelihood was there , that that ill inclination should have had no place among those of the Latin Church , that it was wholly extinguish't beyond a possibility of returning , or that the Enemy of our Salvation would not make use of it for our destruction , or that having made use of it , it should remain so long without any effect during the course of so many Ages ? 3. The example of the Church of Israel , whereof the Bible teacheth us the History , confirm'd our Fathers in those thoughts . That was the very Church of God , as well as that of the Christians ; That Church was purchased by the Blood of Jesus Christ , as well as ours , altho' that Blood had not yet been shed . God not only kept his Chosen and his truly Faithful under that Ministration , but he had not any other Church , nor any other Ministry in all the World , for the Salvation of his Children . Whence it follows not only that God had the same concern in the preservation of the purity of that Church , as of that of the Latin Church , but that he had yet a far greater . For above this , that Church had external help for the Conversation of its purity , far greater than the Latin Church ever had . For it was shut up in one only people , and in one Country only . It had one Language only , one only Tabernacle , one only Temple , but one civil Government , but one only Political Law , and but one King ; where the Western Church had all those apart in many places . And yet notwithstanding all that , it could not be kept from Corruptions , not only at one , but divers times : not only in matters of small Consequence , but after a strange manner , by a heap of depraved Traditions , by false glosses on the Law , by open Idolatries , and by a multitude of other things , wherewith their Prophets reproached them . Had they not then very great reason to think that the Latin Church , which had no peculiar promises that it should be kept from Corruption , in being distinguisht from that of Israel , was not more happy then that in the Conservation of its Purity ? 4. To this example of the Church of Israel , our Fathers adjoyn'd that of the Greek and other Eastern Churches , which God had at first honour'd with Christianity , as well as the Latin ; and that the times had nevertheless so dissigur'd them , that they did not any farther appear to be what they were heretofore . Indeed into what errours and superstitions did not those Churches fall ? And in how many points does not the Church of Rome find it self to differ at this day from them ? Some of them observe Circumcision with Baptism , others keep up the sacrificing of living creatures , after the manner of the Jews ; some solemnly every Year Baptize their Rivers , and their Horses ; others believe that the smoke of Incense takes away their sins ; others hold , that the Prayers of the Faithful deliver from the pains of Damnation those Souls that are then in Hell ; others give Pass-ports in due Form to the dying , to carry them to Paradise ; and a thousand other such-like impertinencies that are found to be establisht among those People : Why might it not be possible that the Latin Church should have degenerated as well as those Churches ? Is it , that their Christianity was from the beginning , different from that of the Latin's ? or is it because the Latin Church had some peculiar priviledges beyond all others ? No , certainly , their Vocation was equal on one part , and on the other ; and the nature of things being so , if those Nations had corrupted themselves , those of Rome might corrupt themselves as well as they . 5. Our Fathers who were not ignorant of those Examples , could not but represent all to themselves also in my judgment , the times past , wherein errours and corruption had visibly prevail'd over the Truth , even then when those very Churches of the East and West were joyn'd together in one Body . They knew that that had past in the Council of Antioch , in favour of the Macedonians ; in the Councils of Sirmium , of Milan , of Ariminum , at Selucia , and at Constantinople in favour of the Arrians ; and in a Council at Ephesus , in favour of the Eutychians ; without thinking of that which they said of those two Councils held at Constantinople in favour of the Iconoclastes [ or abolishers of Images ] the one under the Emperour Leo Isaurious , the other under Constantine Copronimus . That very thing was an evident token to them , that the Latin Church might be very likely in their times fallen into other corruptions , and that errour had triumpht over truth . For it was not at all impossible , that that which had hapned frequently in respect of some errours , might not yet with greater success and longer duration happen in respect of other errours . 6. Moreover , They observed that Councils of a great name among the Latins , as those of Constance and Basil , had been rejected and opposed by other Councils , and that in the most weighty points of Religion , to wit , in the Case of the Supreme Authority that ought to govern the Church upon Earth . For some rais'd the Authority of the Councils above that of the Pope , and others would have it , that the Popes should have an absolute and an independent , and perfectly Monarchical Rule over the Church ; what could our Fathers conclude from so manifest a contest , if not , that it had a vast confusion in it , and that it was exceeding necessary to the quiet setling of their Minds and Consciences , to enter on an examination of that which those men taught in the business of Religion ? 7. Our Fathers were confirmed in that design , when they set before their eyes , those obscure Ages through which the Latin Church had past . For who knows not what the ninth , tenth , and eleventh Centuries were , not to speak of those that followed them ? As for the ninth , Baronius is forc't to conclude the History of it with saying ; That it was an Age of affliction to the Church in general , and chiefly to the Church of Rome ; as well by reason of the complaints it had against the Princes of the West and East , and the Schism of Photius , as by reason of intestine and implacable Wars , which had began then to be formed within the very Bosom of that Church . That this Age was the most deplorable , and dismal , above all the rest , because those who ought to have been watchful in the Government of the Church , not only slept profoundly , but the very same Persons laboured all they could intirely to drown the Apostolick-Ship . For the Tenth , as there are very few Persons but will acknowledge that it was buried in darkness more gross then that of Aegypt , so it will be needless here to produce the proofs . The eleventh was scarce happier , and Baronius begins the History of it with a remark of so universal a Corruption of manners , cheifly among the Church-men , that it had made way , says he , for the common beleif of the near approach of Antichrist , and of the end of the world . How could it be possible , that during such gloomy times , Religion , Faith and Worship , should be preserved without any alteration ? Saint Paul has joyn'd together Faith and a good Conscience as two things that mutually sustain one another , and has taken notice that those who cast off a good Conscience ; make Shipwrack of the Faith. In effect , saith Saint Chrysostome ; then when men lead corrupted Lives , it is impossible they should keep themselves from falling into perverse Doctrines . 8. To these considerations , we might joyn that of the two sorts of Philosophies which successively had reign'd in the Church , to wit , that of Plato , and the other of Aristotle , to whose principles they had strove to accomodate the Christian Religion . For it is scarce to be conceiv'd but that mixture of Platonic and Peripatetic Opinions with the Doctrines of Jesus Christ , should have defaced the Faith , and quite alter'd his true Worship . It was for this Reason that Saint Paul had caution'd the Faithful , to take heed that no one seduc'd them through Philosophy , and vain deceitful reasonings , after the Traditions of men , after the rudiments of the Wisdom of the World , and not after Jesus Christ . 9. They will say , without doubt , that all these considerations ; how strong soever they appear , do yet make no more then conjectures and likelihoods , which ought to have been immediatly stifled by the only name of the Church , which improves so profound a respect for it self in the Souls of all true Beleivers . But that very thing serv'd but to increase the just suspitions of our Fathers ; They understood what respect they ow'd to the Church ; but they were not also ignorant how easie it was to be deceiv'd by so specious a Name . That visible society of men who profess Christianity , which we call the Church , is not wholly composed of true Believers , it takes into its Bosome a great number of false Christians , of wicked , Worldly and Hypocritical men , who are mingled with the good , as chaff amongst the Wheat , or as the mud of the Stream is , with the Water of the Fountain . And as on the one side , the false Christians are not all so , after the same manner , for some are full of light and knowledge , others of ignorance , some are prophane , others superstitious , one sort are full of contrivances and intrigues in the affairs of Religion , others take little care of its interests ; some are ambitious , others covetous , others fierce and inflexible , others full of impostures and deceits , according as we see those different humours ordinarily reign among the men of the world ; so on the other side , the true Beleivers who are in the same visible Society , have not all of them the same Degree either of knowledge , or sanctification , that they have more or less of natural light , more or less of supernatural grace , more or less of zeal , of courage , or of vigour , according to the measure of the Spirit that is communicated to them ; it is now almost scarce conceivable , that that Medley should not corrupt Religion in a long Train of Ages , and that it should not cause to enter in , Maxims , Doctrines , Services and Customs far more conformable to the Spirit of the World , then to that of Jesus Christ . There needs but a little leven , saith Saint Paul , to corrupt the whole Mass . From thence , that two Parties , whereof the one is good , the other is evil , are joyned together , experience always instructs us , that the ill does far more easily deprave the good , then the good better the bad . And we cannot say , that God is bound to hinder that Corruption , and that otherwise his Church would Perish from the Earth : For besides , that it no way belongs to us to order so boldly what God is bound to do , or not to do , for the execution of his designs ; it is certain that he has not hindred it , as we have but just before seen in the Church of the Jews , nor in the Eastern Christian Churches , nor in the the whole Body of the Church in the time of the Arians . He has other ways to preserve his Elect , and his sincerely Faithful ones , who only are , to speak properly , his Church ; he can preserve them in the midst of a corrupted Ministry , and when that is become impossible , he knows how to separate them from the wicked , and to draw them away from their Communion . But we will speak to that more largely at the end of this Treatise . 10. To go on with our Remarks , That which I have said supplies us with another , which is not less considerable than the rest . It is in consequence of that mixture of the good and the wicked in the same visible Church , that it might fall out , and it has very frequently hapened , that the far greatest Number , the external Splendour , Force , and Authority , is found among the Party of the wicked , and that they are cheifly those who fill up the highest places in the Church . For as those highest places yeild them honour , and the goods of the World in a very great measure , so it is very natural , that they should be more hunted after and obtain'd by the men of the World , then by the truly Faithful , who ordinarily are not so violently carried out to those things . After that manner , one may very often see the Government of the visible Church to fall into exceedingly wicked hands , and then there needs but a capricious Humour , but a Passion , but an Interest , but a Whimsey , but some neglect or some other thing of the like nature , which it is not hard to conceive to be in such Persons as we suppose , to bring into the Church false Doctrines , and false Worship , to which those of the best minds shall no sooner oppose themselves , but they shall be immediatly quell'd , which often forces them to keep silence , and to give way for a season , till it shall please God to deliver them from that oppression . 11. Could it not in the least happen , that those errours and superstitions that were but little taken notice of at first , sprung up in the Schools , or among some other sort of men , should be by little and little , and insensibly spread over the Body of the Church , by the means of ignorance and negligence of the Pastours ? And might not the same thing fall out according to the pleasure and interest that the Pastors might take to see them establish't ? that in the end being found to be rooted in mens minds , and as I may so say , incorporated into Religion , they might be lookt upon as Traditions , or as Customs that for the future ought to be observ'd as Laws . No one can deny that a multitude of things had crept after that manner into the Latin Church ; as the keeping back the Cup , which the Concil of Constance had taken up in express terms , as a Custome that had been , says it , rationally introduc'd , and which ought to be kept as a Law. It was after the same manner that the Celibacy of Priests , the Worshipping of Images , the Distinction of Meats , and many other things , which how particular [ and private ] soever they were at first , came after to be made publick , and in the end , to be changed into Articles of Religion . 12. All these Reflexions might serve to let our Fathers understand , that it was no ways impossible for the state of the Latin Church to be corrupted ; but besides that Reason , those examples , and that experience , which convinc't them of it , they yet farther saw the plain proofs of it in the Declarations of the Holy Scripture . For after whatsoever manner they expounded that Mystery of Iniquity , of which Saint Paul speaks to the Thessalonians , which in his days had began to work , and that Captivity of God's People , whom God commanded to go out of Babylon , lest in partaking of its sins , it partook also of its plagues , no one could avoid acknowledging from those two places , but that a great Corruption must needs fall out in the visible Church . The Mystery of Iniquity which had began to work , or to form it self , could not be conceiv'd of but under the Idea of a secret Plot , whose lowest Foundations were laid in the very days of the Apostles , and which must at length after a long Train of Ages have come to its utmost pitch , and be manifested . And as to that other Passage , it supposes in the first place a Captivity of the People of God ; Go out , says it , of Babylon . Secondly , a Captivity of that People , who did not yet fail to be the People of God , Go out of her , says it , my People . And in the third place , a Captivity , in which , while they abode , they were in danger of partaking of the sins of their Oppressours , Least , it adds , in partaking of its sins , Yee partake also of its plagues . All that formed an Idea of a Church that groan'd under the weight of a great Corruption , which easily gave way to that thought , that it might possibly be the Latin Church as soon as any other , and that it might as well fall out in the times of our Fathers , as in any other season . CHAP. V. More Particular Reflections upon that Priviledge of Infallibility which they ascribe to the Church , and of its Authority . ANy one may now see methinks , from what I have laid down , what Judgment ought to be made of that pretended Infallibility that the Latin Church ascribed to it self , and by what means they would shut our eyes , and reduce us to a slavish Obedience . We shall yet nevertheless make here some reflexions upon it , and see whether it has any solid Foundation , and any Justice in that claim . 1. But before we proceed farther , it will be necessary to know what they understand by that Infallible Church , and examine all the Sences that may be given to this Proposition , that the Church cannot err . For our Adversaries themselves very differently understand it . In the first place then , if they would plainly say , That that which has been believ'd , and universally practis'd by all those who have compos'd the Body of the visible Church , throughout the extent of all Ages , is Infallibly true : I say that it is a very useless Principle , since , to speak according to men , it is impossible to know that which has been so believ'd , and universally practis'd . So that one need say no more against it , but to send back those men to an Infallibility of that nature . Who could make a search so just , so clear , and so general as he ought , to assure himself of the unanimous consent of all the particular Members , unless he could raise all that were dead , and understand them one after another ? I acknowledge that we have the Books of the Antients ; but all have not wrote , and who can warrant us that those who have not wrote had the same Sentiments with those that have ? Who can warrant that the many Books that are lost were not in very many points contrary to those that are extant ? Who can teach us nicely to distingush what those Authors have wrote in Copying out of , or in imitating one another , from their true and natural Sentiments ; and that which they have wrote on their own heads , from that which they have wrote as Witnesses of the general Belief of their Ages ? Who can assure us that they were not sometimes deceived in taking for the general Belief or Practise of the Church , those things which were not so ? For the same Case happens in these very days , that as to those things that seem so exceeding clear , there are yet a sort of men who would perswade us , that we do not very well and perfectly know , what the General belief of the Church of Rome is , and that we may very easily deceive our selves , and deceive others ; how much more then heretofore , when those things were by nothing near so clearly decided , and so manifest as they are now at this day ? Who can exactly enough tell us what those Articles were wherein all the Antients were universally agreed , and those wherein they did not agree , since it has very often fell out that one and the same Author has wrote things very contrary upon one and the same Subject ? Who can assure us that what three or four Antient Authors had wrote after an agreeable manner , was not one of those particular deviations from the Truth , which one may often discover in them , which does not at all hinder , but that the contrary Opinion may be more received , and more general ? In fine , there is nothing so vain and so fallacious , as that pretended Infallibility of the Church , if they restrain it to those Doctrines which shall be found established by the unanimous consent of all Persons and of all Ages . Moreover , Such a kind of Infallibility , would not only have been no hindrance to our Fathers from entring on an examination of the matters of Religion ; but it would also have obliged them to it . For they must always have known whether that which was taught and practis'd in the Church in their days , concerning Faith and Worship , had been confirm'd by the consent of all the foregoing Ages , which they could never have known but by such an examination . So that those who in these days dispute with us about the right of the Reformation , will never find any reason on their side . The Church of Rome must needs be very Infallible with them , but it can be so but in one respect ; I would say , in those matters wherein She agrees with the Church throughout all Ages , and with all those Persons who Compose it , which could not in the least have taken away her possibility of erring in those matters wherein she should withdraw her self from the Antient Church , and by consequence she must submit her self , her decisions , her Doctrines , and her Customs , to a Rule and an Authority that was superiour , according to which they ought to be examined . 2. If they understand by it , That the Church in every Age cannot err , that is to say , for Example , That that which was believed and generally practis'd , and beyond all controversy , in the Church in the days of our Fathers could not be otherwise then true and good , I say that they make this a Principle which cannot be to any purpose , and from which they cannot draw any advantage . For how could they assure themselves that all those who made up the Body of the Visible Church a little before the Reformation , did well approve of the Doctrines that they then taught , and the Worship that was then practis'd , and how could they distinctly and precisely affirm , that any such thing had been generally received ? For it cannot be imagin'd , under a pretence that some certain Opinions had been ordinarily taught in the Schools , or that certain Devotions had been commonly used , that they should be brought into the publick Service , and spread over their Books under that same pretence ; It cannot I say be imagin'd , that there had not been many in the World who disapprov'd them , and look'd on them as errours and abuses , altho' they did not forbear as yet to abide with the rest in the same Communion . And it was certainly from thence , that as soon as our first Reformers had began to speak openly against such kind of things , their voice was heard , and their words receiv'd with the applauses of , and being follow'd by a great part of Europe . For that was from no other reason , but because they found all matters ordered so readily , and that for a long time they had vehemently breathed after Reformation . There is then nothing more ridiculous , then when they would send us back to an Infallibility which could never be found there , and of which they can give us no marks or sure characters that may be had there . Besides which , if the Church is not Infallible , but only in those things that are generally believed and approved of without all disputes , and if it may err in other matters , none can blame our Fathers for having entred on an examination of them , since it had formal oppositions to one part of the Church in a great many points , as in the opposition of the Berengarians , the Waldenses , the Albigenses , the Wicklefists , and the Hussites . They will say that these were such Hereticks as the Church had condemned . But this answer will be but a meer Fallacy ; For if then when the Church was divided into two Parties , and that which was the weaker should have been condemn'd by the stronger Part ; they would treat all those as Hereticks who should have been condemn'd , to elude , under that pretence the weight of their opposition , and that they might still attribute Infallibility to the stronger Party , in respect of those very things that are contested , this is but to deceive our selves , to say at the same time , That the Church is not Infallible , but only in regard of those things that all generally hold without Controversie . They ought to change their Principle and to say the same of it that they affirm in the case of that Contestation , That their Infallibility follows the stronger side , and that those who oppress the other by their Intrigues , by their Authority , by the force of their Arms , or otherwise , are the truly Infallible , since the opposition of the others ought not to be looked on but as the Insurrection of Hereticks , and not as just opposition . It will always depend on the most powerful to make themselves Infallible , by beating down all that oppose themselves ; for there will need no more for that purpose than to condemn them , and they are presently Hereticks , excluded from all right in their oppositions ; either this is that which I call a Fallacy , or there never was any such thing in the world . 3. But if they will indeed change their Principle , and say , that that Infallibility is to be placed in the greater number , in the Ruling party , any one may convince them of the contrary , by the example of the Arrians , who had made themselves Masters of the Church , under the Successors of Constantine . The greater part in the Council , were for them , the Pulpits were for them , the people followed them as they were lead either by their own humours , or by Constraint and Force , they Persecuted the Orthodox , which evidently shews the falsness of this Proposition , That the greater number , or that side that finds it self the stronger , can never err . Jesus Christ had never had any Defenders , if in the days of his flesh , all had been persuaded of the Truth of this Maxim. 4. This Experience of the Arrians makes it appear more evidently that Infallibility could not be attributed to that which they call the Church representative , that is to say , to the whole Body of Pastors , or as they speak , to all the Clergy : For it is but too true , that the whole Body of Pastors assembled in a very great number at the Council of Ariminum , gave way to the Arrian Infidelity , by rejecting the word of Consubstantial , which signified that the Son of God was of the same Essence with his Father , and declared only , That he was like to the Father , and that he was not a creature , as other creatures were , which supposed that he was a creature , altho different from others . They will say that it was not of their own motion that these Bishops made that Arrian Confession , but that they were forced to it by the Emperours Ministers : That moreover , they were deceived by the Arrians , not taking notice that that clause that the Son was not a Creature as other Creatures , made him always a Creature , and in fine that they rejected the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they did not throughly understand it . But all that is not of any advantage to their Cause , for if the whole Body of Pastors , assembled in Council to decide matters of Faith , did determine of Heresie , either out of weakness , or through surprise or ignorance , since they determine of it in effect , what does it signifie in what manner , or in what respect they determined it ? Could they call those men Infallible who were capable of making a Wicked and Infidel Confession , in an Article so Fundamental as that of the Eternity of the Person of the Son of God is , in such a manner , and by such Principles as that came to pass ? We can never commit any faults , but that they must have some cause , but what cause soever they have , our faults are always faults , and certain Arguments that we are not Infallible . 5. There are some of them that say , that Councils are not Infallible but when they are approved by the Popes . But that neither has any solid ground , for how can an approbation which ordinarily passes after the separation of a Council , possibly confer any Infallibility on it ? has that any Retroactive vertue , and can that change the state of a thing already past ? They will say , that the Pope does not confer any Infallibility on it , but only acknowledges it , and makes it to be acknowledged by others , and that his approbation is as the Seal and Impression that denotes that such a Council ought to be held Infallible . But if the Pope himself is not Infallible , as the sounder part of the Gallican Church holds that he is not , what certainty can his approbation give us ? May he not err in approving those things which he ought not to approve , and in taking for Infallible a Council , which was really deceived ? And let not any one say that I produce the opinion of the Gallican Church to the prejudice of all the others , for after what manner soever it be , it seems to me that one may very well affirm , without offending any person , that it is not an Article of the Faith of the Church of Rome to believe that the Pope must needs be Infallible , for otherwise the Gallican Church would be guilty of Heresie . And from that only it follows , that one could have no such assurance as one ought to have to settle the Mind and Conscience in quiet , if it were possible for him to err in approving a Council , and by Consequence , his approbation could not be a certain character of the Infallibility of that Council . But why do we use Arguments in a matter , in which experience has sufficiently instructed us ? The Fifth Council assembled at Constantinople , on occasion of three Books published , the one of Ibas Bishop of Edessa , the other of Theodorus of Mopsuesta , and the other of Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus , was it not held in spight of all the oppositions of Pope Vigilius , did not that Council condemn those Writings as Heretical , against the express prohibitions that Vigilius had made , by a publick Decree to Condemn them , and yet notwithstanding was not that very Council in the end approved by the Successours of Vigilius , and in fine received throughout all the Church for a True and Holy Oecumenical Council ? Those Approbations therefore are only a juggle , which wholly depend on the capricious humours of the Popes , on their different Interests , on their good or ill humours . One Pope disapproves of a Council , and makes it void , to advance all that he does ; by that the Council is remote enough from Infallibility , and ought not to be held for Infallible : another Pope comes , and receives and approves of it , and behold on a sudden that Council changes its condition and becomes Infallible . Besides that , did not Pope Liberius approve an Arian Council held at Sirmium , in subscribing an Heretical Confession that had been drawn up , and which Saint Hilary calls the Arian perfidiousness , the Heresie sprung from Sirmium , for which he pronounced an Anathema against Liberius . For what else was that Subscription in Consequence of which Liberius embraced the Communion of the Arians , but a Ratification and real Approbation of the Act of an Erroneous Council ? and it signifies nothing to say , That Liberius was in Exile when he committed that Error , for without alledging here what he himself declared to the Eastern Arian Bishops , That he was in Peace and Unanimity with them , and all their Provinces , in good earnest , and that he had received that Catholick Faith with all his heart , that he had never in the least contradicted it , that he had readily given his consent , that he followed and held it ; his Exile and Concern to get away from them , does not hinder but that it should be true , That he did approve an Infidel Confession , nor by Consequence , letting us see , that it might very well happen , That the Popes did Authorize the Acts of wicked Councils , and that it ought not to be pretended that their Approbation makes Councils Infallible , nor that it has any certain ground for declaring them to be such . 6. That Example of Liberius encounters also all those who ascribe that Infallibility to the Popes ; for behold one in whom by the Testimony of St. Hilary , and St. Jerom , that Priviledge had no effect . But as that Opinion is not generally received in this Kingdom , and we need not to fear objections from any here , so it is needless to refute them . I shall only say , that that Dispute that is in the Church of Rome about those to whom this Infallibility belongs , whether to the Pope only , or a Council only , or to a Council approved by the Pope , or to the Pope as the Head of the Council , lets us see that that pretence in general has no ground ; for if in truth the Latine Church had that Priviledge , it would never be so uncertain as they have made it , but it would have been known a little more clearly where it resided . However it be , it plainly appears that the Latine Church does not pretend to it , as a Law of Nature , for she is composed of no different blood from the rest of men , nor as a right joyned to the profession of Christianity , nor as a meer quality of a Church , for in that case the Greek and other Churches would have the same advantage , but that she pretends to it as a peculiar priviledge , whereby they were distinguished from other Churches , as the Greek and Armenian , &c. It appears that they would not set this Prerogative before us , as a first Principle , which is evident of it self , without needing any proof : for in fine , it is not so clear that the Latin Church should be Infallible , as it is that one and one make two , and that the whole is greater than any of its parts . It is then , certainly , but very reasonable to demand that they would give us the proofs and grounds of so important a right . I mean other proofs than those that are commonly taken from the same Authority of that Church . For it will not be enough to confirm that Infallibility , for her only to say , I am so ; every Church may say the same , and yet not be believed . They ought to produce proofs , and proofs that come from Heaven , since there is none besides God that can confer so great a Right , and they ought to shew them to us , to the end we may judge of them and weigh their Cogency and Truth . That being so , I affirm that our Fathers were bound to use all sorts of Rational methods to examine that Question , whether the Church of Rome was Infallible or no ? And to look to both sides to settle themselves in a good Judgment . This is that , which , in my opinion , none will contest . But from thence these things will clearly follow . 1. That our Fathers had right to examine one of the Tenets of the Latin Church , which is that of her Infallibility . 2. That they had right to judge of it according to the Nature of those proofs which presented themselves for , or against it . 3. That they might lawfully reject it as false , if in their examination of it ▪ it appeared to be false . 4. That it is neither absurd nor rash to maintain , that every one has right to examine a Tenet of the Church and to judge of it . 5. That all those General Objections which they have hitherto made against that Truth are false and frivolous , such as these , that if one give All , that Liberty of examining , every one may make a Religion of his own . That there is no other way to keep men in the Unity of the Faith. That he who examines , makes himself a Judg above the Church . That it is the ready way to bring in a private Spirit , and other such like things , all which are refuted by that one Example in the Point of Infallibility . 6. That if it is no ways absurd that every one should have right to examine a Tenet of the Church that cannot be proved otherwise than by the Scriptures , it is not also absurd to say , that that right of searching out the true sence of Scripture belongs to every Christian . 7. That it is not absurd to say , that a Believer is Master of his own Faith , by depending only upon God , and independant on men . 8. That if every Christian has right to examine one of the chief Articles of Religion , it is no ways inconvenient to say that he has right to examine all , for there is not less danger , nor less consequence , for all than for one . 9. In fine , it will also follow from thence , that our Fathers were bound upon that pretence of the Latin Church to examine all the Points of that Religion . For firmly to assure themselves of the Truth of that Priviledge , it was not enough to consider it in its Grounds and its Causes which are those Proofs that they call a Priori , they ought further to look on it in its effects , that is to say , to see it in the Doctrines of that Church , in its Maxims , in its Voice , and diligently to take notice whether they may see all the Characters of Infallibility resplendent in it , or whether they may not discover some Error . It was after this manner that the Disciples of Jesus Christ acknowledged and cleaved to him . I have given unto them , says he , the words which thou gavest me , and they have received them , and have known surely that I came out from thee . To whom should we go ? Said they to him , Thou hast the words of Eternal Life : Our Fathers had so much the more reason , to use theirs also , when all the prejudices of Corruption which we have taken notice of in the foregoing Chapters , presented themselves to their sight . They observed there all the Characters of humane Weakness , of Ambition , Covetousness , Interest , Negligence , of plotting Contrivances , and of the Spirit of the World , and all the other marks of Fallible men , who can then blame them for holding so circumspect a course to come to the full and clear knowledge of the Truth ? So that that pretence of Infallibility was so far from driving our Fathers from the examining of those Doctrines which were taught in their days , that the very same thing necessarily engaged and led them to it . CHAP. VI. An Examination of the proofs which they produce to establish the Infalliblity of the Church of Rome . LEt us see nevertheless upon what Foundations that pretended Prerogative of the Latin Church is built . They produce on this Subject some passages of Scripture , and some Arguments . But as to the Passages of Scripture , it is evident that there is not any one which respects more peculiarly the Latin Church then the Greek , the Aegyptian , the Aethiopian , and others , every one of which has as much reason to apply them to themselves as the Latin. Yet we do not here dispute about a favour common to all Christian Societies , but about a peculiar prerogative pretended to by the Latins . For they are all agreed that all other Societies have err'd , notwithstanding all those passages . They ought then necessarily to alleadge something which belongs to the Latins peculiarly , exclusively from all others ; or they ought to come to an acknowledgment that those passages do not at all establish the Infallibility of a visible Church , since if they did so establish it , being so general as they are , they would have the same cogency in favour of the Greeks , the Armenians , and the Jacobites , as well as the Latins . 1. In effect , one sort of those passages respect the true Church of Jesus Christ , that is to say , not that multitude of men who make profession of Christianity , or who live in the same external Society of Religion , but the truly faithful , those holy men whom God has inwardly regenerated by his Spirit , and whom he leads to life everlasting . It is of that Church that it is said , That she is the body of Jesus Christ . That there is one Body , and one Spirit , That Jesus Christ is her head , That she is his spouse . It is only of the truly Faithful and no otherwise that these promises are verifi'd , Vpon this Rock will I build my Church , and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it ; I will be with you always unto the end of the World ; I will pray the Father , and he shall give you another Comforter , who shall abide with you for ever . The Spirit of Truth shall lead you into all Truth ; where two or three are gathered together in my Name , I will be there in the midst of them . These passages denote nothing less then an Infallibility , either in the whole Body of the Visible Church , or in the side that is strongest , or in Councils , or in the Decisions of Popes , or in Traditions and Ancient Customs ; but they only signify that God will have always some truly Faithful upon the Earth even unto the end of the World , and that he will accompany them with such a measure of the light and grace of his Spirit , as shall in the end bring them to the Glory of his Kingdom . 2. There are others , which they yet make use of , far less to the purpose , because they signify only the Duty of Pastors , and what they are appointed to do , and not that , that in effect they shall do . Such as these : Go , Teach all Nations , Baptising them , in the Name of the Father , the Son and the Holy Ghost . Son of man , I have set thee for a Watch-man over the House of Israel . The Priests lips shall keep knowledge , and they shall seek the Law at his Mouth . I have set watch-men upon thy walls , O Jerusalem , which shall never hold their peace day nor night . And he gave some Apostles , and some Prophets , and some Evangelists , and some Pastours and Teachers ; For the perfecting of the Saints , for the work of the Ministery , for the edifying of the Body of Christ : These and some other like passages shew to what the Offices of the Ministry are naturally appointed , and the Obligation of those that are called to it , but they are very far from giving from thence a Prerogative of Infallibility . 3. They alledge also some passages that recommend to the Faithful the having a respect for and an Obedience to their Pastors . Such are these , He that heareth you , heareth me ; and he that rejecteth you , rejecteth me : Obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves : for they watch for your Souls . The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat , All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe , that observe and do , but do not ye after their works . But I cannot see what this last passage should let us see , but that all those Exhortations that God makes to the Faithful to have a submission to the word of their Pastours , denote very truly the Duty of the people in that matter , but they do not in the least settle any Infallibility in their Pastours . For is this that that Jesus Christ would say , That the Scribes and Pharisees as long as they sat in the Chair of Moses were Infallible : he that on the contrary accus'd them of having made void the Commandments of God by their Traditions , and who elsewhere gave his Disciples such a Charge to take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees , that is to say , of their pernicious Doctrines ? How many times is that Obedience , that Respect and that Submission recommended to Children to give to their Fathers , in the Scriptures ? Is it that the Scripture in that ascribes to their Fathers an Infallibility ? It is without doubt the Kings pleasure that we should submit our selves to his Officers , and that we should obey them , but he does not mean to advance them to be Infallible , nor to ordain us to obey them , if they shall happen to command us these things that are directly contrary to his service , and to that Fidelity which we owe to our Soveraign . It is then True that all those Exhortations to hear our Pastors and to obey their words , are always to be restrain'd by this clause understood , as far as their words shall be conformable to that of God ; that they can never go beyond that , and that they cannot from thence draw any Priviledge of Infallibility . 4. As these Gentlemen let slip nothing that may serve for their Interests , so they ordinarily make use of that passage in the 18th . Chapter of St. Matthew , where Jesus Christ ordains that if any one receive an injury from another , he is to reprove him between himself and him alone ; and if that first complaint signifies nothing , then he must take witnesses with him ; and if he neglect to hear those witnesses , he is to tell it to the Church ; and if he neglect to hear the Church , he is to be unto us as a Heathen and a Publican . All that that follows in the close of that discourse of Jesus Christ shews , that he speaks there neither of Faith nor Worship , but of some private quarrels that we might have against our Brethren to be taken away , and of the use of that Discipline . For the mind of our Lord is , that before we break off absolutely with our Brethren , we should observe all the Rules of Charity , and that we should there make use of the Church , but if he would refuse to hear the Church , that in that case it was allowed us to treat him no longer as a Brother , but as a real stranger . Who sees not that if they would draw any thing of consequence from that passage , they ought to pretend that the Church is Infallible not in matters of Faith , for they are not medled with there , but in matters of Fact , and in the Censures that it gives upon private Quarrels , in which nevertheless all the World agrees that she may be deceiv'd . And therefore it is that these Gentlemen are wont to alleadge these last words , Tell it to the Church , and if he will not hear the Church , let him be unto thee as the Heathens , and Publicans ; and they alleadge them also as separated from the sequel of that Discourse , because otherwise they could not but observe that they would signify nothing to them . 5. In fine , they produce those words of St. Paul to Timothy , These things write I unto thee , hoping to come unto thee shortly : But if I tarry long , that thou mayest know how to behave thy self in the House of God , which is the Church of the living God , the pillar and ground of the Truth . How can , say they , the Church be the pillar and ground of Truth , if it is not Infallible in the Doctrines it proposes as of Faith , and in the Worship which it Practises ? But what likelyhood is there that he would have established an opinion so important , as that of the Infallibility of the Latin Church , on such Metaphorical terms , which St. Paul did not make use of upon the sight of any Infallibility , which should respect no other but the Latin Church in particular , and which should much rather have respected the Church of Ephesus , or the other Churches of Asia , where Timothy was then , when the Apostle wrote to him , which yet did not fail of falling into Error ; in Terms which may be explained in divers sences , and which have been appli'd to divers particular Bishops , without yet pretending to raise them up to be Infallible , what colour I say , is there that they can prove the Infallibility of the Church of Rome ? It appears in the end of that discourse of St. Paul , that he never thought of making the Church Infallible , for in all that Chapter , he aims at nothing else then to set down the duties of Bishops and Deacons ; and after having markt out in particular some qualities with which they ought to be endow'd , and from what Vices they ought to be more especially exempt , after what manner they ought to govern themselves , he adds in the close of all , That he wrote all that to his disciple , to the end he might know how to behave himself in the House of God , which is the Church of the Living God , the pillar and ground of Truth . Who sees not that that Infallibility , comes not in at all to the purpose in that close of the Discourse ? Let the Bishops , says he , and the Deacons take heed they be wise , sober , &c. That they hold the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience , that their Wives should be honest and faithful in all things , that their Children should be well educated , &c. And that which I say in general , I apply also to thee Timothy , to the end thou mayst live unblameably in the House of God , in the Church of the living God : Add , according to the Interpretation of these Gentlemen ; Which Church is Infallible and cannot err ; and there is nothing of any natural Connexion in it . On the contrary that conceit of the Infallibility of the Church , according to the Principle that our Adversaries makes use of in the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints , would harden them in security , for let them do as they will , all would go well , and after whatsoever manner the Pastors govern , the Church could never be corrupted , nor its Truth be lost . Which would seem far more proper to inspire negligence into the Bishops , then to animate them to do their duty . In effect if they cannot tell how to exhort men by motives of that nature , They ought then to confess the Truth , to wit , that these words , The Pillar and Ground of Truth , note the end , and natural design of the Church , that for which she is made , and to which she is called , which is to sustain and bear the Truth , and to make it subsist in the World , and so the discourse of the Apostle appears very just , and well connected : Behold , says he , after what manner the Bishops ought to frame their course , and after what sort thou oughtest to live in the Church of God , in behaving thy self in it so , as remembring that God has appointed it to be the pillar and ground of his Truth ; Live therefore in that manner that may answer that end , or that natural appointment of the Church . Just as if the King , exhorting one of the Officers of his Parliament to do his duty , should tell him , That he liv'd in a body that was the Pillar and Ground of Justice , and the Rights of the Crown ; that is to say , which is naturally ordain'd for the maintaining Justice in the State , and to defend the Rights of the Crown . But as that speech of the Prince would not establish any priviledge of Infallibility in the Parliament , so neither can that of the Apostle do it for the Church : for Societies do not always follow their natural appointments , we see that they often enough depart from them . I confess that the Church does not always wander from its end , nor in all things ; yet it cannot also be imagin'd that she never departs : For the wicked are mingled with the good in the same Society , the Dignities of the Church are sometimes to be found more possessed by the men of the World , then by the truly Faithful ; the very best men themselves are subject to weaknesses , and they sometimes commit faults of that importance , that may consequently be dilated by continuance , and all that cannot but produce Errors and Corruptions , which it will be most necessary to reform . Behold all those passages of Scripture upon which , they seem to me , to found that pretension of the Infallibility of the Latin Church ! To them they joyn some Arguments . 1. If , say they , it be possible for the Church to err , why do we call it holy , as we do in the Creed ; I believe the Holy Catholick Church ? Such an Assembly that is united in the profession of an error , is so far unfit to be called Holy , That on the contrary it is Impious , since it agrees in a Doctrine that is contrary to the Holy Truths revealed by God. I answer : That if this Argument were good , it would follow , not only that the Church should be Infallible as to matters of Faith , but also that she should be impeccable in respect of manners , for she is called Holy as well from that Holiness that regards good works , as from that which regards the Faith. The Church is Holy , but yet after an imperfect manner , while she is here upon Earth , and she will never be perfectly so , but in Heaven . Furthermore they ought to remember that the Title of Holy , and generally all other Titles of Honour and Glory that are given to the Church , belong to it in truth only , in respect of the true Believers , and not in respect of the Hypocrites and wicked which are mingled with the good in the same visible Society ; and that it is but only on the same account of the Good , that all that visible Body is called the Church . For they are none but those whom God has called to his Salvation , who only can be the true mystical Body of Jesus Christ . When then it shall come to pass that the number of the wicked prevails in that Visible Society , they will fill up the Pulpits , they will be Masters of Councils and of Decisions of Faith , of the Government and Ministry of the Church , and will not fail to introduce Errors and a false Worship ; but when those persons should introduce and authorise them , the Church would not cease to be Holy , not in respect of those wicked men who waste it , and corrupt it as much as it lyes in their power to do , but in regard of the Faithful whom God will keep pure by the illuminations of his Holy Spirit , and the methods of his Providence . The Church of Israel in the midst of its greatest Idolatries did not cease to keep the Titles of a Holy Nation , and a Kingdom of Priests , which Moses had given her , but she kept them , not in respect of her Corruptors , and those wretched men that would have seduc't her , but in respect of those that were Holy. For it is certain that God has always done that which he did in the days of Elias , where he reserv'd seven thousand men who had not bowed the Knee unto Baal , and it is in those that the Church is preserv'd , and always kept Holy. 2. But yet further , say they , If the Church may err , and particularly the Church Representative , that is to say , the Body of Pastors , why do the Councils pronounce Anathema's against all those who shall not consent to their Decrees ? Would it not be very unjust to bind men under so great a penalty to consent to things that are uncertain , and which may be false ? I answer , that the force of the Anathema's of those Councils depends altogether on their Justice . If those Councils have lawfully decided controversies according to the word of God , and if with the Truth they have kept Love and Charity , according to the Precept of the Apostle , their Anathema is very efficacious , and all that they bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven . But if they have decided any thing against the Truth , or against Charity , if they have abused their Places , their Anathema's are vain and rash , and will fall upon none but their Heads who pronounce them . For God has never submitted his Righteousness to the Unrighteousness of any Prelats . All the force of those Thunderbolts depends on those very things which have been decided . We can do nothing , says the Apostle , against the Truth : We ought not then to imagine that those Anathema's must needs be Infallible , we ought not also to believe that they could not be rightly used if they had not that Infallibility . Saint Hilary did not pretend to be Infallible , and yet nevertheless he pronounc'd an Anathema against Liberius , who was a Deceiver . Saint Paul did not pretend to make us Infallible , and yet notwithstanding he commands us to Anathematise even an Angel from Heaven , and himself , if he should Preach any other Gospel then that which he has preached unto us . Cyril of Alexandria did not aspire after Infallibility , and yet he thunders out his Anathema's against all the Errours of Nestorius . The second Council of Tours never thought of being Infallible , and yet nevertheless , it Anathematis'd all those who after the third admonition refus'd to restore the goods of the Church . In fine , every private Person pronounces an Anathema against all Heresies . The Anathema's of the Councils are not the Sentences of the Magistrate , the force of which depends on the Authority of him who pronounces them , they are only the Denuntiations , that men make on Gods side , as his Interpreters and his Ministers , of the severity of his Judgments against the Unbeleivers , the Wicked , and the Hereticks . And provided that those Denuntiations should be founded on the word of God , as far as the light of the Pastors of the Church and their good Consciences could perswade them , we ought not to doubt but that they would be just , altho' they would not be Infallible . For howsoever it be , that good and lawful Councils assembled in the Name of Jesus Christ , would never pretend that their Anathema's should bind any person , any farther then their Decisions and their Canons were just , and conformable to the Scripture . 3. They add yet , if it were possible for the Church to err , it were possible for it totally to fall away after that manner , that there should not be any longer a Church upon the Earth , and yet notwithstanding how many promises have we in the Scripture that denote the Perpetuity of the Church ? God says in Hosea , That he would betroth her unto him for ever . Saint Paul calls her the Body of Jesus Christ . But the Body of Jesus Christ is Eternal . Jesus Christ promises to be with his even unto the end of the World , and says , that the Comforter shall abide with them for ever , and that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against his Church . But it is no need of heaping up these Proofs of a thing which was never contested . God will always keep a Church upon Earth ; that is to say , he will always have a number of true Believers , whom he will guide by his Word and by his Spirit , and they are those that are betroth'd to him for ever , and the Mystical Body of his Son , to whom he will grant his gratious presence for ever , and an assured Victory against the Gates of Hell. There is nothing disputed in that point . Our business is only to enquire , whether all that Body composed of the good , and the wicked , that Assembly in which the worldly men and Hypocrites are mixt with the truly Faithful , and that which they call the Visible Church , can never fall into errour , after what manner soever it be . Whether it is not possible , for that party of the men of the World which may be sometimes the stronger , to corrupt the publick Ministry , and for the same in respect of some errours and superstitions less Fundamental , to infect the Good , and to draw them , tho' not so far from the Truth as to make them wholly lose the true Form of Piety , and Communion with God ( for if that might happen , the Church would be brought to nothing ) yet after such a manner as that their Faith and their Religion could not be said to be altogether pure . But this experience justifies . For in the Corruptions of the Church of Isral , and in those times wherein they had introduc't the Worship of false Gods into the publick Ministry , God had reserv'd seven thousand men who had not bowed their knees to Baal , and that which is most considerable , is , that that very Religion of those seven thousand was not pure ; for they liv'd in that Schism that Jeroboam made , and no more went to render that Worship to God which they were bound to pay at Jerusalem , but to Bethel . It will signify nothing to them to say , that the Church then subsisted in the Tribe of Judah ; for besides that , that would not hinder any from seeing clearly by that example of those seven thousand , that God can when he pleases preserve his own in a corrupted Communion , and that yet the far greater number might fall into errour , and that the publick Ministry might be contaminated , it will not follow notwithsanding that that Church was wholly extinct , which is only that which we say : Besides that , I say , it is yet manifest , that those two Churches ; that of Israel , and that of Judah , were often found to depart both together sometimes from the true Worship of God , as it appears from that which Jeremiah says ; That God having given a Bill of Divorce to that of Israel for her Idolatries , Judah her Sister feared not , but that she also had turned aside from his true Worship . It appears also by that which Ezekiel said , that Samaria had not committed half the sins of Judah , who had justifi'd her Sister in multiplying her Abominations . The same History of the Kings of Israel and Judah teaches us concerning Joram the Son of Ahab King of Israel , that he clave to the sins of Jeroboam , by which he had made Israel to sin , and that at the same time Joram the Son of Jehoshaphat , and his Son Ahaziah Reigned in Judah , and walked after the ways of the Kings of Israel , in doing that which displeased the Lord. But , without going so far , is it not true that when Jesus Christ came into the World , he did not find a pure Church upon Earth ? The Schismatical Samaritans had so confused a Religion , that Jesus Christ did not scruple to say , that Salvation was of the Jews . The Jews on their side had defac'd their Religion by a thousand superstitions , and by the false Doctrine of the Pharisees , and in fine , they had crucifi'd the Lord of Life , the only Messoas they expected . Notwithstanding which , we ought not to believe that the Church was perished from the Earth , and that God did not preserve his Children in the midst of those Confusions . The same thing happened then , when the Arrians had made themselves Masters of the Ministry of the Church ; and when under the Emperour Theodosius the younger , the Eutichians prevailed in the second Council of Ephesus . For it would be a very absurd thing to imagine that during the time of the Triumph of those Hereticks , there were no more , any true Believers in those Churches , all whose Pulpits they had fill'd , and none in all that Communion but those who obeyed the erronious Councils of Milan , of Ariminum and of Ephesus . At this very day the most zealous among those of the Church of Rome acknowledge , that God saves many persons who live under the Schismatical Ministry of the Greeks , and the Muscovites , although besides that Schism , they accuse them of holding a multitude of errours and superstitions . For so Possevin sets it down in one of his Relations of Muscovy . We ought not then to make the subsistance of the Church to depend absolutely on that Infallibility , whereof we dispute . We ought yet far less to abuse the promises of God , by pretending under that pretext , that they can never do that that is ill . The true use of the promises , is to encourage us to our Duty , and in stead of making us presumptious , they ought on the contrary to humble us , and to shew us the horrour of our sins when it is contrary to that promise . For so the Scripture makes use of it in the second Book of the Kings , upon the subject of the Idolatries of Manasseh King of Judah ; for after having reckoned them over particularly , it adds , that he set up a graven Image of the Grove that he had made in the House of which the Lord had said to David , and to Solomon his Son , In this House , and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the Tribes of Israel , will I put my Name for ever . See there the promise employed to its right use , not to defend Manasseh in what he had done under a pretence , that God had promised that his Name should never depart from the Temple , which is the Language they speak in these days ; but to condemn Manasseh of that , that as much as it lay in his power he had nullified that promise of God. And so also it is that good men ought to speak to the Corrupters of Religion . God has promised us , that he would betroth his Church to himself for ever ; and you have laboured to break off that happy Marriage . Jesus Christ has promised us , that he will be always with us even unto the end of the world , and you have endeavoured to deprive us of his presence . He has promised us that his Holy Spirit shall be always with us , and you have greived and drove him away . 4. If the Church might err , say they yet farther , God would then be unjust , in commanding us to keep our selves under the Guidance and the Ministry of the Church , for that would not be an assured means of obtaining salvation . All men know says , Monsieur the Cardinal of Richelieu , that God could not with any justice bind his creatures to incline to an end without giving them means to come to that end . The Church cannot err , since if she did err we should not have any means to come to everlasting salvation , where God would have us come under the conduct of the Church . But the Answer is not difficult ; God would that we should be saved under the Conduct of the Church , that is to say , of the Pastors of it , not by giving a blind obedience to all that they tell us , but by a wise discerning of that which is good , from that which is bad : and that we may make that discernment , he has given us his word , to which he will have usbring all that the Pastors teach , to examine their Doctrine according to that Rule . This is the assured means that he has left us for that . If that means is not so agreeable to the men of the world , who have other business to mind , and wont break their brains with the Reading of the Word of God , God will tell them one day , that their greatest business was to serve him , and to save themselves , and that if they have not searched out the true means , they ought only to accuse their own neglect , and their too great grasping of the things of this world . If they yet urge , that that means is neither easie nor proper for the meaner sort ; we need but compare it with that of the pretended Infallibility of the Church , and we shall quickly see that this last is infinitely more difficult , and far less proper for the simple , than the other . For without taking notice of the impossibility that there is for them to be assured of this Principle that the Latin Church is Infallible , supposing at the same time that it was , where should any Woman or Tradesman go to seek that Infallibility , to be persuaded that that which they believe , and that which they practise , is the true Belief , and the true Worship of the Church ? Will they go to seek it in the Practises and Customs of the People ? But they all agree that the people may fall into those abuses and Superstitions , that the Church does not at all approve of . Will they look for it then from the voice of their Curate , or from that of their Bishop ? But their Curate and their Bishop may be mistaken , shall it be then from the Words of the Pope pronounc'd ex Cathedra ? But that poor Tradesman , and that Woman can neither know where to find the Pope , nor what they mean by ex Cathedra ; shall it be then from the Universal consent of the Church and her common customs ? But who shall tell them what that Universal Consent is ? Must those poor people know what they generally hold and prectise in France , in Germany , in Spain , in Italy , or that which they generally teach in the Schools ? It is then necessary for them to learn Greek and Latine . But when they shall have learnt that , how can they understand the true sence of the Councils , since that without going any further the greatest part of the Canons of that of Trent are conceived in general and Ambiguous Terms , which may be explained in divers sences , and which very thing some say was done with design for the carrying on the different Opinions of the Schools . Moreover , those general and ambiguous terms , somtimes leave the mind undetermined , and the Conscience in suspence , in matters of practice , where they make it necessary to do a thing without shewing them after what manner they should do it . For Example , the Council of Trent decides , That one ought to give to Images that Worship that is due to them ; this is the Infallible Voice of the Church , which binds a man to give some Worship to Images , which if he does not , he fails in doing his Duty . But what that Worship is , the Council says nothing to . Is it a Negative or a Positive Worship ? Is it that the same that they give to those they represent , should be communicated to the Image as well as the Original ? or is it meant only of such Relative Worship that the Image should have no part of it , or if has any part , what is it ? Is it simply a customary Worship , which consists in making use of those representations to excite their Piety , by the remembrance of things past ? To tell that , the Council says nothing . It says indeed , that the Worship which they give to Images , relates to those they represent ; but this is not to define of what nature that Worship is , for of what kind soever it is , one may always say it has reference to the Original . It says indeed yet further , that when any Kiss their Images , when they Bow to them , and Kneel before them , they adore Jesus Christ and the Saints ; but those terms denote only an external Worship , without determining any thing of a more internal one , and when it should determine of an internal , that Council says not a word whether the Image has any part , or what part it has . Notwithstanding which they ought necessarily to determine it to some internal Worship , for of that they treat . How shall any man know whether that side which he takes in this matter be good or bad , since the voice of the Church has abandoned him , and after it has as it were set him in the midst of four ways , and commanded him to march on , never shews the way that he ought to follow , but leaves him in the necessity of placing his Devotion at all adventure ? They will say , that this is to urge things too far as to what relates to Women and Tradesmen : For those persons know not what use to make of the Infallibility of the Church , but only for certain General Articles , which they cannot doubt of that the Church Teaches . But , not to insist here , that those General Articles are themselves subject to form different meanings in the minds of the more simple , and that they ought to make their choice with some certainty . I say , that the Worshiping of Images , and other such like things is more used by such sort of persons than others , and that many of those Devotions are proper to them , about which they cannot have any certainty , nor by Consequence practise them with any Faith. I place in this Rank the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin , which they solenmly celebrate , for who can give them any certainty in that point ? Yet nevertheless it is a piece of Worship , it is a matter of Practice or Duty , whereof they cannot acquit themselves of a good Conscience , without being assured of that which they do . 5. In sine , they make use of the Visibility of the Church , to prove its Infallibility . The True Church of Jesus Christ , says one , ought always to be Visible , always plainly to be discerned , whence it follows that she cannot err ; for if it were possible for her to do so , she could be no longer acknowledged as a True Church , and there would be no more means proposed to all men for their Salvation . None can be saved out of the Communion of the True Church , since it is impossible for any to be saved without Faith , and that according to the Apostle none can have Faith without that Preaching which ought to be made by the Ministers of the Church . The True Church ought then to be always Visible , to the end that all men should set themselves under its Ministry to obtain Salvation , or that at least they should be inexcusable if they did not so place themselves , and by Consequence it is necessary that she should be Infallible . To this Reason , which alone makes a long Controversie , and about which they make very long Chapters , they add some passages of Scripture , from whence they conclude that the Church is always Visible , and some others that contain in their Opinion , not only the promises of a perpetual Visibility , but of a Visibility shining with such a brightness and such splendour , that the True Church may be known to Strangers and Infidels to be so . To Answer this Argument of theirs , in the first place I say , That the True Church may be so far from being always discernable by all men , as they pretend it to be , as that one cannot say so much as that all men have always been able to know that there has been a Society of Christians in the World ; for not to alledge that the Christian Church , in its Original , then when the Apostles were as yet in Jerusalem , or thereabouts , was very little known to the rest of the world ; not to say , that the knowledge of that new Society did not so soon spread it self over the Roman Empire , nor in the bordering Countries , that the most of the people were ignorant for some time , of what it was to be Christians ; it cannot be denyed that many Ages had slipt away , before that the most considerable part of the Earth , as all America , could have any knowledge that there were any Christians in the World. How then , can any one say the True Church is always Visible , and always discernable to all men ? Is it because those Americans before these last Ages were not men , or is it because they were not bound to work out their own Salvation ? They ought then in good earnest to acknowledge that God is most free in the dispensing of the means of Salvation , which he proposes to whom he will , and refuses to whom he will. Till the external Communion with the True Church shall be the only means of , and absolutely necessary to Salvation , none can conclude that she ought to be perpetually visible , and discernable by all men . For it frequently happens , that God for most just reasons , but which we ought not to search out with too great Curiosity , may withdraw from men the external means of their Salvation , and yet notwithstanding he does not fail to convince by other ways , which render them inexcusable & worthy of Condemnation . Men are bound to place themselves in the true Church , then when it is discernable to them to be so , but when it is not so , as it is not at this day to the Southern Nations , we ought not to believe that God will damn them for not having put themselves into it , they have other crimes enough to be punished for , without making God to violate his Justice in that respect . See here what I say for the defending of Gods Justice , and to let you see the rashness of those Arguments , which suppose that God is bound to make those Gentlemen Infallible , to the end that he may condemn men with some reason . But further , I do not deny , that one cannot in some sence say , that God has always preserved some True Church Visible upon Earth ; but that one ought not to play with those ambiguous Terms , it is necessary to make a distinction , and to shew clearly in what sence it may , and in what sence it may not be found to be True. For beside that that I have said in the first place , That the True Church is not Visible , nor to be generally known by all , we ought not to imagine that the True Church must be always Visible in one certain place , that is to say , that one only People , one Society , one body which has been for time a True Church , may not in the end lose that quality , after whatsoever manner that comes to pass , whether it be by an entire forsaking of Christianity , or whether it be by an extreme and general Corruption of that Religion . God has sometimees taken away his Candlestick from the midst of a people , according to that threatning which he made to the Church of Ephesus . I will come quickly unto thee , and take away thy Candlestick out of its place except thou repent . The greatest part of the African Churches which heretofore were so flourishing , are now no longer so ; and there is not any place upon the Earth , neither Paris nor Constantinople , nor Jerusalem , nor Antioch , nor Rome , nor Avignon , neither the Latin Church , nor the Greek , nor the Armenian , nor the Aethiopian , neither the Chair of Saint Peter , nor that of Saint James , nor that of Saint John , nor that of Saint Denis , that can promise it self that it shall never perish . There are no such promises in the Scripture , and it is a speech very criminal in the Mouth of any Church whatsoever it be , if she says , I sit a Queen , and am no widow , and shall see no sorrow . When therefore they shall say , that God keeps up always a True Church in the World , let them remember , that it is in a way Independant on any Places , and Sees ; or if that restriction will not please them , let them produce those clear and solid and peculiar priviledges to us , which may set the Latin Church above all its Fellows . For as to that that some set before us that saying of Jesus Christ to S. Peter , I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not ; it is clear from a plain view of that passage , that it only regards the person of Saint Peter , with relation to that violent Temptation wherewith he was hurried in the House of the High Priest , and under which there wanted but a little of his Faith having wholly perished , and that it does not in the least concern his pretended Successours , whereof there is not so much as one word in all the Scripture . I say the same , to that Commandment that Jesus Christ gave him to Feed his sheep , which respects only his re-establishment in the Office of an Apostle after his fall , nor is there any promise adjoyned for his Successors , nor for their See , whereof there is not a word mentioned either there , or any where else . And as to that passage , Thou art Peter , and upon this Rock will I build my Church , &c. Whether they understand it of that Confession which Saint Peter had made , or whether they refer it to his person , I say that no one can understand it of his Successors since there is not any mention made of them either directly or indirectly . For when the See of Rome was not , when it had never yet been ; The Church did not fail of being built upon that Confession of Saint Peter , comprehended Jesus Christ , upon whom the Church is every way built ; but also because that Confession of Saint Peter , or Saint Peter Confessing , was as one of the Chief Stones in that mystical Building , which is not left alone , for Jesus Christ , who is not only the Foundation , but the Soveraign Architect , has added many others in all Ages , and will always joyn others to them till the Building be intirely finished , that is to say till God fulfilled the Decree of his Election . But to go on with our Discourse of the Visibility of the True Church . I affirm in the third place , that we ought to know very well what a True Church Visible is . For we ought not to imagine that all those persons who compose that Visible Society , should be that True Church . None but those True Believers ; I would say , those who joyn to their external Profession of Christianty , a true and sincere Piety , are really the Church of Jesus Christ , and as for the others , that is to say , the worldly , Prophane and Hypocritical , they are but the Church in appearance only , and not indeed . For having no inward Calling , which consists in Faith and Love , they do not belong to the Mystical Body of our Saviour , nor are they of his Communion . Notwithstanding , they do not fail to be mixt with the Faithful by reason of that external profession , as if they really were in the same Religious Society with them . What then is the Visibility of the True Church as to us ? It is not that we can distinctly , and with any certainty affirm . Behold these be the Truly faithful of Jesus Christ . None but but God alone can know them after that distinct manner , and and without a possibility of being deceived . But this we may say of that Visible Society , that Vnder that Ministry , and in that Communion , God preserves and raises the truly Faithful . Whence we may from this Judgment with Solidity and Truth , and I may say also without a possibility of being deceived , that there is a True Visible Church . In that sence , I declare , that there has always been some way or other a True Church Visible upon Earth , not but that God can make it wholly disappear to the Eyes of men whensoever it shall please him to do so without doing men any wrong , or any breach of his promises , since he has without doubt , extraordinary ways to beget Faith in the hearts of his Children , and to keep them on in that course and to lead them in the end unto Salvation , without making use either of the publick Assemblies , or Ministry , but only because we ought not to believe that there ever hapned since the first rise of Christianity an Eclipse so full and intire , that one could not some way say , There is a Society in which God does keep the truly Faithful . I say , after some way , For as that Judgment depends on two things , the one to be able to know a Society and a Ministry , and the other to know that under that Ministry and in that Society a Man may work out his own Salvation , in respect of the first it is necessary to distinguish between two seasons , the one of Liberty and Prosperity , where the Church has its Assemblies and exercises its Ministry openly in the face of all the World. For then she is much more visible then she would be otherwise , that is to say , it is far more easy to be known what Society and what Ministry that is . Such was the State of the Church under Constantine and other Christian Emperours ; and it is in such times as those that the promises of Its outward splendour , if there are any such in Scripture , are accomplished . The other season is that of its Afflictions and Persecution , such was that of the first Century of the Church under the Pagan Emperours , and the Enemies of Christianity . For none can deny that then , the Church was less discernable by its Assemblies , not only because they were more private and less exposed to the publick view , but also yet further because , the name of Christian had been defamed by a thousand calumnies , and charged with a thousand false imputations , which made the knowledge of the Church to be far more difficult . And it will be to no purpose to say , That then the Church was visible , and illustrious by the blood of its Martyrs . For the blood of its Martyrs , did not in the least hinder the accusing of the Christians of most odious crimes , that which hindred its being liable to be easily known . Those Accusations were as a Cloud before the eyes of the Common people , which was necessarily to be discipated , before they could come to know what Christianity was . So that the True Church is more or less Visible according to the difference of its Seasons . As to the second thing , which is to know that one may be saved in that Society and under that Ministry , it is necessary that we distinguish of the two States or Conditions wherein that Society may be found . The one is a more pure State , then when the word of God is preached without mixtures of the Doctrines of men when the publick Worship is perform'd without superstitions , and the Sacraments plainly administred according to their Primitive Institution , and when generally Religion is established , taught , and observed , after the same manner wherein Jesus Christ and his Apostles left it to the World. In that Condition , it is certain that the True Church in very visible , and very discernable ; for it is easy to behold all the Characters of its Truth , which only consist in its Conformity to that lively , primitive , and natural Image of Christianity , which God has left us in his Holy Scriptures . But it is not less certain that a Church may fall into a quite contrary Condition , that is to say , into a State of Corruption , then when it adds to divine Truths , strange and adulterate Doctrines , when it mingles superstitions with the true Worship of God , and when in stead of a just Government , it exercises an insolent and absolute Dominion over Mens Consciences , in one word , then when all things appear so confused and in that disorder , that one can scarce any more see any traces of that beautiful and glorious Image of Christianity which I have before spoke of , to shine forth . In that Condition I affirm that True Church is very hard to be known , for howsoever it were most Visible in quality of a Church , because its Assemblies might be much frequented , it would be nevertheless least of all so , in the quality of a True Church , in that its natural beauty is so darkned and its Visage so disfigured , that in judging according to its Appearances , one can but very difficultly say that God does yet preserve some Faithful ones in that Communion and under that Ministry . But they will say , may not a Church fall into that Condition , and yet for all that be a true Church ? I answer , that a Visible Society , as I have shewn , is not called a true Church , but only with respect to those true Believers who are in it , and not with respect to the others . When then it comes to pass , that the party of the Men of the World prevails , and fills that Society with its Corruptions , all that Society taken in the general does not fail as yet to be called a True Church , while their is some appearance , how small soever it may be , that God does yet keep and hold in it those good men who do not defile their Souls with that Corruption of the wicked . But how can , say they yet further , those good men preserve themselves in the midst of such a Society ? I answer , That they may preserve themselves there , after that manner , that one may preserve himself in a contagious Air , where he draws in the Air , because it is necessary to his Life , but yet he may keep himself as well as he can from that Contagion , by the help of Antidotes . There are two things in a Corrupted Church , the good , and the evil : if a Man can separate that good from the evil , that is to say , if he can take the one and keep himself from the other without falling into Hypocrisy , and being bound to do as those who equally take the good and the evil ( which he knows not how to do without dividing between God and his Conscience , ) he may be saved in a corrupted Communion , and there may not be another more pure . This evidently appears from the Examples of Zachary and Elizabeth , of Simeon , of Joseph , and the Holy Virgin , and divers other persons who liv'd in the Jewish Church , when our Saviour came into the World , and who preserved their Piety though that Church was fallen into the highest Corruption under the Ministry of the Scribes and Pharisees . Jesus Christ himself who reproved the abuses of those wicked men , and exhorted his disciples to take heed of their false Doctrines , did not fail to live in that Common Society , and to be found in the Temple with them , and after that he had been Crucified by them , his disciples did not wholly withdraw themselves from their Communion , during some time , and till they had indispensable reasons for it . I will shew in the Progress of this Treatise , that it does not from thence follow , that we may at this day abide in the Roman Communion , and that it much less follows , that we may return thither by forsaking the Communion of the Protestants , under a pretence that we may separate the good from the bad , the pure from what is impure , since we can no more do that , then not become wicked , Impostures , Hypocritical and Detestable before God and Men. But as this is a point that belongs to another Place , it shall suffice me to have clearly shewn in this Chapter , in what manner , and with what distinctions it may be said , that there is always a true Visible Church , and to have made it appear that it no ways follows from thence , that she must needs be Infallible , as the Church of Rome pretends that she is . After all this it is not difficult to find out the just and true sence of some passages of Scripture , which they abuse in this matter of Visibility . For as to that of the Gospel whereof we have spoken ; Tell it to the Church , and if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as the Heathens and the Publicans . It is clear , that particular Churches are treated of there , and that the personal differences which we may have one with another , and the meaning of it is , that the Faithful are bound , when they receive any wrong from their brethren to carry their complaints to the Church , and to refer themselves to its Judgment . Or , if it is not to be understood in those Times , and in those places where there shall be Churches established , to the Judgment of their Guides and Pastors , who may end those private Quarrels . And if they will infer from thence , that then there must be always a Visible Church , that may be in a Condition to attend to those Reconciliations , this is that that has no colour of Reason . For that Command of Jesus Christ obliging the Faithful no further then as it lies in their power , it would be but a very bad arguing , to say that he has so engaged for that , that he will so order it , that there shall be perpetually a visible Assembly , to hear Complaints and give Judgments . It is within a little , as if one should say , that he was engaged that we should always have wherewithal to Lend , and wherewithal to give Alms , because he has bid us , to Lend without hoping for any thing again , and to make our selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness Or , that our Kings were bound never to leave vacant the Office of a Constable , or that of the Mayor of the Palace , under a pretence that heretofore they order'd their subjects to acknowledge those Dignities , and to have recourse to them in certain Affairs . Tell it to the Church , then does not in the least suppose that the True Church ought to be always in such a State , wherein she should have Authority to pass her Judgments for the determining private Quarrels . And besides what I have said , Experience contradicts it ; for it is most true , that during the hottest Persecutions of the Heathen Emperours , where all was laid in desolation , that it had in many places nothing like a Visible Tribunal , to which men could easily address themseves . There are some other Passages that denote the duty of the Pastors , and in particular of the Apostles , as those where they are called , The Salt of the Earth , the light of the World , a City set upon a Hill , a Candle not lighted to be set under a Bushel , and the Gentlemen of the Roman Church do not fail to set them down , to give some colour to their Pretensions . But this is evidently to abuse the Scriptures , to make them establish the perpetual Visibility of the Church , after that meaning wherein they understand those passages which exhort the Apostles , and after them the Ministers of the Gospel to acquit themselves faithfully of their charge , without negligence and weariness from the Consideration of their Calling , and the end to which God had appointed them . For besides that their Office does not bind them to that of a Martyr , which does not suppose a very splendid State of the Church ; Besides , that the same does not oblige them to be Martyrs , if they were not specially called to it . Jesus Christ having told them , That when they should be persecuted in one place , they should fly unto another ▪ besides that I say , there is so great a difference between the duty of the Pastors of these last Ages , which are so far behind that of the Apostles , and that which those Pastors have actually done , that one caunot know how to draw any consequence from the one to the other . One cannot also conclude any thing from some Expressions of the Antient Prophets , which seem to promise a great Temporal Prosperity to the Church ; no one is ignorant that the Stile of the Prophets may be full of figures and darkned with Vails , that they ought not to be taken Literally unless men would be deceiv'd and imitate the Error of the Jews , who take them in that manner . For the Prophets are wont to represent Spiritual blessings under the borrowed Images of Temporal things , and so also the Spirit of Christianity obliges us to explain that which they said of the Messiah and of his Church , and not to delineate its prosperities , and worldly Grandeur which have no relation at all to the nature of the Gospel . Not that one cannot say , that some of those Prophecies have been accomplish'd according to the Letter of them , in the Times of Christian Emperours for then Kings were its nursing-Fathers , and Queens its nursing-Mothers . But that one ought not to draw a necessary consequence , from thence either for all Times , or for all Places , and as men are always prone to abuse Temporal blessings ; such a worldly Prosperity of the Church would tend but in the end to corrupt it . CHAP. VII . That the Authority of the Prelats of the Latin Church had not any right to bind our Fathers to yeild a blind obedience to them , or to hinder them from examining their Doctrines . HItherto we have not opposed in our course the Book of Prejudices ; not but that the end which he proposes to himself , has a great connexion with the things of which I have treated ; but because that Authour has not beleived it necessary ( to make us renounce the Reformation ) to justify the Latin Church from those strange disorders which moved the minds of our Fathers , nor to speak of that priviledge which she pretends that God has given her by making of her Infallible . We do not pretend , says he , to prove directly the Authority and Infallibity of the Catholick Chureh . For although it would be most profitable to do it , and though those among the Catholicks who have taken that method have used a most just and lawful way . Yet as the prepossessions , wherewith the Calvinists are full , keep most of them from entring upon these Principles , howsoever solid and true they are ; Charity obliges us to try other ways also , and that which follows here seems one of the most natural . It supposes for a Principle nothing but a Maxim of Common Sence ; to wit , That a man who finds himself joyned to the Catholick Church by himself or by his Ancestors , ought not to break off from her to joyn himself to any other Communion , if he discover in that new Communion any signs of errour , which may make him judge with reason that he ought not to follow it , and that he cannot reasonably hope that God has established it , to lead men into the truth . So it is that he has thought himself bound to employ himself wholly in that way , to rid himself of a great deal of trouble , and that he may in this progress load us with a multitude of injuries . Yet he must excuse me , if I am not of his mind . The way which he takes is neither just nor natural . It is not just , because it takes for granted , and indisputable , those things , which not only are , but are almost only to the matters of our Difference . For it supposes that that Party which would not have a Reformation , and from which our Fathers broke of , was the Catholick Church ; but that is that very thing which is questioned , and our Dispute can never be decided , but by deciding the whole controversy . If he will take that advantage of us , that we to accommodate our selves to the custom of the World , sometimes give those of the Church of Rome the Name of Roman-Catholicks ; he cannot be ignorant that those sorts of Condescentions , which only respect words cannot infer any consequence as to things , nor that they can give any ground to make those suppositions in this Dispute , which may be regulated by more solid Principles . Further , that way which he would follow , supposes , that our Fathers in reforming themselves , made a new Communion , and that is yet that very thing that is in Question , and we maintain that it cannot be reasonably called so , as it will appear in the Progress of this Treatise . I say also , that that course is not natural . For before we should come to consider whether there were not signs of errour in our Reformation , the nature of things would first let us see whether our Fathers had not just reasons taken from the state of the Latin Church , to Reform themselves , and whether it was not possible for that Church to corrupt it self . But that could not be well known , but by examining what that State was in the days of our Fathers with that pretence of Infallibility ; as we have done . But though the Author of those Prejudices has beleived , that he might spare himself the trouble of proving to us the Infallibility and Authority of those whom he calls the Catholick-Church , yet he fails not to require us to submit our selves to those by rendring them an absolute obedience . He would have it that we being all so apt to deceive our selves in our Judgments , and that the search of true Religion being so difficult , that the surest way is for us to see with their Eyes , says he , to tread in their steps , and wholly to strip our selves of our own guidance to give it unto them . So also the chief Priests and the Scribes spake among the Jews ; This People who know not the Law , are cursed . But Jesus Christ said of these also . Let them alone , they be blind leaders of the blind , and both shall fall into the Ditch . If the Maxim of that Authour be good he must affirm that our Fathers were very unhappy , for having had their eyes to see those disorders which reigned among the Church-men in their days , and that God had highly favoured them ; had he made them to have been born stupid and blind ; for he conceivs it would be so far from causing them to fall and be deceived , according to the threatning which Jesus Christ gives to those who leave themselves to be so blindly guided , that it would be on the contrary the only means to go on with any certainty . Howsoever it be , we are not bound to be so blind ; that before we lose the use of our Eyes , we must not examine this Question , whether we ought to lose them or not . Nature and Grace have given them to us , they would have us to surrender them , but let them give us leave to use them at the least this one time , to search whether it be just that we should deprive our selves of them . Jesus Christ himself has forbid us to do it , the Authour of those Prejudices has commanded it . We ought at least to examine which of the two has reason on his side . That then shall be the business of this Chapter , wherein I propose to my self to shew , That the Authority of those Prelats who governed the Latin Church in the time of the Reformation , could not be high enough to oblige our Fathers blindly to believe all that they told them , nor to hinder them from examining the Doctrines of those Prelats . But as we find it frequently fall out , that they disguise our Sentiments , and that they may render them odious they urge them beyond their due bounds , it will be meet before we go farther , precisely to determine what is Treated of in that Right , to the end that all equitable persons may the more easily judg of it . We do not here treat of the use of the Ministry in General . We acknowledge that God has appointed it in his Church , and that it would be a rashness very criminal to go about to abolish it . The Confession of our Faith , our practice , our Books , and the very writings of our Adversaries sufficiently justifie us , to make us believe that they will not lay any thing to our charge in that point . We do not here also meddle with that order that ought to be observed in the Election and Ordination of Pastors , we all agree , that when the state of the Church is regulated , it ought not to be permitted to any that will , to thrust themselves into the Ministry , nor to encroach upon their Function without being lawfully called , and if there is any difference in this matter , it only regards other questions , and not that which we handle at present . Nor do we further Treat of that respect , or that obedience which every one ows to good and lawful Pastors . Jesus Christ has said , He that heareth you , heareth me ; and he that rejecteth you , rejecteth me : and St. Paul exhorts the Faithful to submit themselves with all teachableness to their conduct . Obey them that are set over you , and submit your selves ; for they watch for your souls , The word then of good Pastors ought to be received with humility , their Functions to be considered with veneration , and their persons to be loved and honoured , not only in respect of their charge , but because they acquit themselves faithfully in it . We do not yet further concern our selves to know , whether one ought not to give that obedience to these Ministers of the Church who preach to us the Word of God , although their lives are impure and scandalous , and no ways correspond with their Doctrine . We confess , that it is not allowable for personal crimes to separate our selves from them , nor from those who adhere to them , whether they own those crimes , or whether they deny them . We ought to indeavour to reduce them to their duty , and if they are incorrigible , or if they have committed Actions which render them unworthy of their Function , there are ordinary ways that one ought to take to deprive them ; if they amend , the scandal is repaired , and if they do not either because they will elude by Artifices the Ecclesiastical Discipline , or because that depravation may become so general that there shall be no more punishment of vice ; then we may pray God that he would send more faithful Labourers into his Harvest , nay we ought to do it , but we ought always to own those for Pastors , who are in that Charge , and to receive the Word of God from their Mouths , while they Preach it purely . I go yet further , and I say that we ought always in General , to think well of those Pastors , and not lightly to entertain suspicions of their goodness and faithfulness , especially when we speak of the whole Body , and the disorder that appears to be great and very visible therein , that we are not absolutely to form a just prejudice against their Ministry . This is what we acknowledge and our fathers acknowledged as well as we . But if they will not be contented with that , if they will have it yet farther , that the faithful are bound blindly to receive the Doctrines of their Pastors , without having any right to examine their Nature or their Quality , and that it would be a crime but to set upon that examination ; if they would , that the Authority of the Pastors , after whatsoever manner we consider it , whether separatly or conjunctly , or altogether , or in the greater number , should be without any bounds or measures , as to matters of Faith , or Worship and the general Rules of Manners , and that , though they cease to believe the Divine Faith , and to practise all that which they say , without informing our selves any farther : This is a Maxim we deny , and which we maintain is contrary to the Word of God , to right reason , and the true interest of Christianity . 1. To begin with the Word of God , we may say , That there never was any Maxim in the World , against which it does more expresly declare it self . For , first it absolutely forbids Lordship in Pastors . The Kings of the Gentiles , said Jesus Christ in that passage before alledged , exercise Lordship over them , and those that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors . But it shall not be so with you , but he that is great among you , let him be as the less , and he that is chief as he that doth serve . In the same sence Saint Peter bids them , Feed the flock of Jesus Christ , taking the oversight thereof , not by constraint , but willingly , not for filthy lucre , but of a ready mind , neither as being Lords over Gods heritage , but being examples to the Flock , St. Paul Preached the same Doctrine with St. Peter , We have not , says he to the Corinthians , Dominion over your Faith , but are helpers of your joy . We may observe , that on purpose to hinder the introducing that Dominion into the Church under the name of Instruction , as they have done in these last Ages , Jesus Christ goes so far as to forbid his Disciples the name of Masters . Be not ye , says he , called Rabbi , for one is your Master even Christ , but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant . And therefore it is , that the Scripture gives the Title of chief Shepheard to none but Jesus Christ alone . When the chief shepheard shall appear says St. Peter , ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away . God has brought again from the dead , the great shepheard of the sheep , says St. Paul. But as to other Pastors , the Scripture is so farr from giving them any Character of Dominion , that on the contrary they are often called Ministers or Servants , Stewards of the Mysteries of God , Ambassadors , Messengers , Interpreters , to teach us , that they ought not to pretend to reign over mens souls , but to make Jesus Christ reign , who is the only Monarch of the Church . We Preach not our selves , saith St. Paul , but Jesus Christ the Lord , and our selves your servants for Jesus sake ; and elsewhere he says , that he was made a Minister of the Church of God. All these passages by themselves are very concluding , but taken together , make up a Demonstration that will persuade all men who are not prepossest with prejudice . For what likelyhood is there that God would have filled his Scriptures with so many things contrary to this Dominion , if he had had a design to invest the Pastors of his Church with an Authority so absolute over mens Consciences , and of making them Soveraign Lords of their Faith ? Is not that Authority , after the way they pretend to it , a real Empire , and a much more powerful Empire than the Temporal ones , which they set up over the Hearts and Souls of men , where the others do but establish theirs over their bodies ? Bellarmine and Du Perron busie themselves very much in eluding the force of that passage where Jesus Christ forbids his Disciples that Dominion . They say , that he forbids not Dominion , but the manner of that Dominion , that is to say , that he would not have them affect that Dominion , nor that they should Rule Tyrannically or with violence , but that nevertheless he would have them Rule . Who sees not the absurdity of this answer ? For when Jesus Christ said , The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship , but it shall not be so with you , it is clear that the distinction that he makes between Kings and Pastors , falls upon that Dominion , and not upon the manner of that Dominion . I confess , that he forbids the affectation of that Dominion , but , I affirm , that he forbids also that Dominion it self , as it appears from his words , for he says not , the Kings of the Gentiles affect Dominion , but he says , they do exercise that Dominion , and that it shall not be so with them , which shews he would distinctly say , that they should not exercise Lordship . Else it was necessary that in those words Jesus Christ should have set down some difference between the Government of the Gentile Nations , and that of his Church . But that difference cannot consist in this , that they ought not to affect the manner of Dominion in his Church , for that would make him say , that they ought , or might lawfully affect it in the Civil Government , which yet is not true . And as to what they say of a Tyrannical and violent Domination , they evidently deceive themselves . For the contest of his Disciples was no ways about that violent Dominion , nor about the gentleness of that Dominion , but about the Dominion it self , they strove among themselves which of them should be greatest . Whence it follows that Jesus Christ , who answers to their thoughts , speaks of a Dominion whatsoever it be , and not simply of a Tyrannical one . To which I add , that those other Passages to which they know not how to apply those evasions , learly determine the sence of that saying of Jesus Christ . 2. But the Scripture is not contented only to forbid that Soveraign and Absolute Authority to the Ministers of the Church , it farther gives the Faithful a right to examine that which they teach , and at the same time obliges them to do it , to separate the Good from the Bad. Hence it is that Jesus Christ , who would have his Disciples do all that , that the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in the Chair of Moses , commanded them to do , yet would have them discern also their false Doctrines , and to take heed of them . Take heed to your selves , says he , of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Saducees , which in the close he explains of the leaven of their Doctrine . In the sight of that , Saint John gives this Lesson to the Faithful , Not to believe every spirit , but to try the spirits whether they be of God ; and Saint Paul , To prove all things , and to hold fast that which is good . The same Apostle elsewhere , prays . That they may have an abundant measure of all judgment and knowledge . That they might try things that differ , that they might be sincere and without offence until the day of Jesus Christ . And there where he lets us understand that the Pastors in building upon the Foundation , might heap up Wood , Hay , Stubble , as well as Gold , Silver , and Pretious Stones , it is evident from that Advertisement , that he engages them to make a just discerning of those things : It is not less clear , that he supposes in the Faithful an Examination , and a judgment in respect of those things which their Pastors should teach them , when he has recourse to their Testimony for the Justification of his Doctrine . We have not , says he , handled the word of God deceitfully , but have commended our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God by the manifestation of the Truth . Ye are witnesses , and God also , says he to the Thessalonians , how holily , and justly , and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe . But what more can be added to the force of his words which we find in his Epistle to the Galatians ; If we our selves , or an Angel from Heaven preach to you another Gospel than we have preached to you , let him be accursed . Who can deny that he forbids by those words that blind obedience which they would have us give at this day to the Pastors of the Church , and that he does not on the contrary command us to examine their Preaching by the Rule of the Primitive and Original Gospel ? Who sees not that that exaggeration which he uses , serves but to let us see the importance , the necessity , the force of that obligation which he would lay upon us , and how inviolable and indispensable it is ? He commands us not only to make a sincere discernment , he does not only speak of a simple rejecting of that that shall be Forreign and Alien to it , and shall not agree with the Gospel ; He enjoyns an Anathema , an Execration ; He would not only have us pronounce it against men indefinitely , or against those whom the Councils and the Popes shall declare Hereticks , he declares that it ought to be pronounced against an Apostle , against himself the most famous among the Apostles , against him who had had Visions and Revelations , who had been caught up into the third Heaven , and who had laboured with such an abundant expence of his blood , and of his Life for Jesus Christ . This is not all yet , he enjoyns the same against an Angel from Heaven , if he undertook to Preach another Gospel than that which he has Preached unto us . What can be said , more weighty ? What is there in the Church beyond an Anathema ? What is there upon Earth among men greater than Saint Paul ! What is there in Heaven above an Angel ? And shall the ordinary Pastors , the Prelates , Patriarchs , Popes and Councils be exempted from that Rule , when the Apostles and Angels themselves are not ? 3. But we must go yet higher , and follow the Scripture yet farther . It teaches us that God has put his Sacred Writings immediately into the hands of all the Faithful , as well as into those of the Pastors , with an obligation to read them exactly , and to build their Faith and their Hope upon them , whence it follows that they have right to refer the Doctrines of their Pastors , and to examine them by that Rule , and that they are not bound To see with the Eyes of the Prelates , nor to devest themselves of their own guidance to rest themselves upon that of their Prelates . The Proof of this Truth may appear from a thousand places of Scripture . When God would give his Law to the Israelites , he said to Moses , Gather me the people together , that I may make them hear my words , that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth , and that they may teach their children . Moses just before his death assembled all of Israel together , and said to them , O Israel hearken unto the Statutes , and unto the Judgments which I teach you , for to do them that ye may live — Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you , neither shall ye diminish ought from it — Keep the Statues and Judgments of God , and do them : for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the Nations , which shall hear these Statutes — And another time having assembled the same people , he speaks to them these words , Hear , O Israel the statutes and judgments which I pronounce this day , that hearing them ye may learn them , and keep and do them . The words which I command thee this day , shall be in thine heart . Thou shalt teach them diligenty unto thy children , and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house , and when thou walkest by the way , and when thou liest down , and when thou risest up . Thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand , and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes . Thou shalt write them upon the post of thy house , and upon thy gates . It was in following that Primitive Institution , that the Faithful among the Jews Read the Scripture so carefully . Blessed is the man , says David , whose delight is in the Law of the Lord , and meditates in that Law day and night , and elsewhere he would have the young men order their ways according to the word of God : Saint Paul by the same Spirit , commends Timothy in that from a child he had known the holy Scriptures . See then the Old Law , the Antient Scriptures given immediately into the hands of all the Faithful , with a command to Read them , and meditate upon them , and consequently , to build immediately upon them their Faith , their Piety , and their Comfort . But because we should not imagine that that Order has been changed under the New Testament , we need but to run through the first Verses of the greater part of the Epistles of Saint Paul , and those of Saint Peter , of Saint James , of Saint Jude , and they will see that they are addrest to the Faithful of the Churches , as well as to the Pastors . To all that be in Rome , called to be Saints . To the Saints and Faithful in Jesus Christ which are at Ephesus . To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi ; where he distinguishes them from the Pastors , for he adds , with the Bishops and Deacons . All that lets us see clearly that there was nothing changed in that regard . They will say it may be that it does not follow from thence that the more simple among the Faithful should take to themselves that liberty of searching out by themselves the true meaning of the Scriptures , and that they ought not to refer themselves to their Pastors who are the Interpreters of them . But if that were so , why should he have addrest them immediately to them , why should he have put them in their hands , with commands to Read them , to Learn them , and to Mediate of them in their Houses , in their Journeys , in their rising Up , and lying Down ? why should he have said that it was all their Wisdom , and all their Understanding , if he had not supposed that they could of themselves comprehend the meaning of them , at least of so much as might be sufficient for their particular Comfort , and for their Salvation ? Moreover , that is clearly refuted by the Use that Jesus Christ and his Apostles would have us make of the Scripture , that we might know him to be the true Messiah , notwithstanding the contradictions of the ordinary Pastors of that Church , who gave to that Scripture a quite contrary meaning . Search the Scriptures , said our Lord to them , for in them ye think ye have eternal life , and they are they which testifie of me . To what purpose should he have said that , if he would not have them by themselves search out the true sence of the Scripture , and that they should correct the false Interpretations which their ordinary Pastors gave of it . It is from this Principle that Saint Peter and Saint Paul proved Jesus Christ to be the Messiah , not of the Scriptures , and Converted the people , as it may appear by their Sermons . And it is also upon this Foundation , that the Inhabitants of Berea are praised for having made use of that Right , and for having by themselves had recourse to the Scripture , to know whether that which Saint Paul and Silas told them , was true : These were , saith St. Luke , more noble than those Jews in Thessalonica , in that they received the word with all readiness of mind , and searched the Scriptures daily , whether those things were so . After that , how can any one affirm , that the Faithful ought blindly to believe their Pastors , and to strip themselves of their own conduct , to rest themselves upon that of the Prelates ? Is not this to condemn that which the Scripture praises ? If you look on those of Berea as being yet Jews , had they not their ordinary Pastors who had before condemned Jesus Christ , and all his Doctrine ? Wherefore then had they recourse to the Scriptures ? Could they better comprehend the sence of them , than all the Church , to which they had submitted themselves , a Church , I say , which was upheld by all the Authority of Moses , by the Sacred Names of Abraham , of Isaac , and of Jacob , by the glory of a thousand Miracles , by the sending of the Prophets , by the Holiness of a Temple where God had placed his Name for ever , and by the Majesty of a Succession that had been preserved for near twenty Ages ? And if you look upon them as new made Christians , were not Paul and Silas their True Pastors , whom their Zeal , their Constancy , their Travels , their Preaching , their Knowledg , and their Miracles had made famous every where ? Why did not they trust them , why did they yet farther compare their words with the Scripture ? CHAP. VIII . A Further Examination of that Authority of the Prelats , and that absolute Obedience which they pretend ought to be given them . IT is an amazing thing to behold a prejudice and a present Interest , so far to blind those , who set before us this absolute Obedience to the Governours of the Church , and who would have the Faithful strip themselves intirely of the care of their Souls , to place it in their Pastors hands , that they should not have considered , that it is the most pernitious Maxim in the World , the most contrary to the Glory of God , to the Interests of his Justice , and his service , to the subsistence of his true Church . They will themselves I hope be perswaded of it , if they will but make with me these following Reflexions . 1. The first is , That by that Principle they justify the people of the Jews , when they adhered to that false worship brought into their Church by the Authority of their Ordinary Pastors , or practised with their consent and approbation , which fell out very often , as we have before noted , and as it appears from the History of the Old Testament . The people in that Story , were not in the least culpable either for sacrificing upon the high places , or in the Groves , as they had began to do under the Reign of Rehoboam , nor for having of Images , or as the Scripture speaks carved Idols , nor in offering up incense to the Brazen Serpent , as they did even down to the reign of Hezekiah , since in doing all those things they did but follow their Priests , and could say that they referred themselves to them to see for them , according to what they were bound . They were not to be blamed then , when under the reign of Ahaz they offered their oblations on a strange Altar , made after the manner of that of the Syrians , since it was Vriah the Priest that ordered it , and set it up in the place of the Altar of God , to the end that the people should there offer up their Devotions . They were not in the least to be blamed in those days wherein their Prophets charged their Priests and ordinary Pastors with having sinned against God and prophesied by Baal , and saying to a stock , Thou art my Father , and to a stone , Thou art my Mother , and by that means to have corrupted the people of God. For what could those people do more then follow their Pastors , if it were true , that we ought to see with their eyes , and to tread always in their steps . 2. But if by establishing that Principle , they justify a People in their Idolatry and Violation of the Law of their God , if they acquit them of all fault in that respect , it is not less certain , that at the same time they condemn God for Injustice , in having sent his chastisements upon an innocent people , who had done nothing but what they were bound to do , in following their guides , in that he was not satisfied with punishing only the Authours of those Crimes , I mean , those Guides who only were culpable . For why should he punish those who submitted themselves to their guides , whom they could do no otherwise , then obey ? They condemn all the Complaints of the Prophets , which they addrest immediately to the People , and all the Threatnings , and stinging Censures with which their writings are full . For to what purpose should they complain , censure and threaten with so much Exaggeration and vehemency , if the people ought not by themselves to examine the points of Religion , and that they ought on the contrary to commit themselves only into their Pastours hands ? They condemn all those holy men , who did not adhere to their Errors , and Profanations ; and they must see themselves reduced to the necessity of condemning them of rashness and presumption , for having been willing to make use of their own Eyes , and not to refer themselves wholly to the conduct of their Church . They condemn all those in that Church who have first spoke of a Reformation , and all those who have followed them in it . For those who would not see but by the Eyes of the Church , would never have a Tongue to speak any thing against its present State , nor ears to hear any thing that could be said upon that subject . So those good Kings , as Hezekiah and Josiah , who set up the true worship of God , and did pull down Idolatry , would have been no other but rash persons , who had Executed that which they should not have so much as undertaken . What can they answer to that ? Will they say that all those Reformers wrought miracles , to Authorise their Calls ? But that is not true . For neither Hezekiah nor Josiah , nor those other Kings who abolished those Superstitions , and Errors , did any Miracle ; for that , they had recourse to nothing but the Law of God. Will they say , that they were the Ecclesiasties themselves who laboured in those Reformations ? I confess it . But that alone lets us see , that they had done ill in referring themselves meerly to their Authority , since they themselves had comdemned what they had before approved of , and by their change and their Repentance , they acknowledged they had done ill , whence it may follow , that the people had done ill also in reposing their trust in in them . Will they say , that the True Worship of God having been of primitive Institution , and by consequence the first Church having been pure , the people would have done ill , if when a change should have happened , they had not abode with , and stuck to their first Pastors ; and that by that means of rendring to the Church that submission which they owed to it , they would have hindred its Corruption . But to assert that , is but to affirm well nigh what we would have . When the Latin Church began to corrupt it self , the people ought to have set themselves in Opposition to it , in sticking close inviolably to their first guides , and if they had done so , they had not needed ever to have spoke of a Reformation . Notwithstanding , the have not done so , and the Jews likewise had not done so , they have not failed of walking after that inclination which all men have to do ill . The Faithful City became an Harlot , its silver was turned into dross , and its Wine was mixt with Water , as one Prophet reproaches them . What ought they to have done in that Misery , must they have remained in that State , under pretence of no more seeing , then by the eyes of the Church of walking only in its Steps , and of devesting themselves of their own conduct to rest upon that of the Church ? No certainly , whatsoever the Author of those Prejudices says . They ought on the contrary to have re-ascended up to the Primitive Church , to the first Institution of their Religion , to have ruled themselves by that , and to have laboured to save the present Church from that ruin where into its Corrupters would have precipitated her . That had been the duty of all good men , and a contrary sentiment would have been criminal . But all that lets us distinctly see how false and pernitious that Maxime of the Author of the Prejudices is . Will they say , to defend themselves , that their is a very great difference between the Jewish Visible Church , and the Christian , that this has its Rights , Priviledges and Promises which the other had not . For she has a Soveraign Authority over the Faith of her Children , a priviledge , that she can never err , and promises of a perpetual visibility ? But to come to that , they ought first to renounce all those general proofs upon which they found that Absolute Obedience to the Latin Church . They need say no more as the Author of the Prejudices has done , that , the darkness of our minds , our personal Prejudices , the uncertainty wherein we are of being deceived in our Judgments , the being overwhelmed with a thousand cares , and a thousand Temporal necessities which almost wholly take us up , and which will not allow us to give more then a very little Time to the Examining the Truths of Religion , the want of necessary helps , the ignorance , narrow and limited understandings of the greatest part of mankind , constrain us , to refer our selves to the Church . All that would be to no purpose , if they restrain it to a priviledge of the Christian Church . For these very same general reasons had place in the time of the Jewish Church , men saw not then more clearly then they do in these days , they were not more assured in their Judgments , they were not less cumbred with worldly affairs , they were not less unprovided of necessary helps for the Examination of the Truths of Religion , they were not then less ignorant , and their minds less narrow , then men are now in these days , and yet notwithstanding , all that did not make it their duty blindly to follow their Pastors , or Ordinary Guides . These are then nothing but shadows , and frivolous pretences , which having been of no force then , cannot have any weight now . We need not further say , as the Author of Prejudices has done , That it is certain that God can save men , and even the most ignorant and simple . That yet he does not offer them any other way to Salvation , then that of the True Religion . That it is therefore necessary that that should be not only possible , but easy to be known ; that yet notwithstanding it is clear , that there is no way more difficult , more dangerous , and less fitted to all capacities then that of examining all its Tenets . One may equally apply all those propositions to the Times of the Old Testament , as well as to those of the New. God could save men there . He made no other way to Salvation then that of the True Religion . That ought then to have been easily known , and that way of Examination was not less dangerous , nor more fitted to all sorts of capacities , then it is now . Notwithstanding all that had not any force to hinder the Faithful from Examining it . They cannot then in these days draw any consequence from what they so propose . I affirm the same thing of all those other inconveniences which they invent to take away from every one that right of Examining the State of Religion by the Scripture , and not wholly to believe their Pastors , as , that it would be to introduce a Principle of Schism and Division , that every one might make himself a Judge of the Church , that every one might make a Religion according to his Fancy , that it is a great rashness for private Persons to imagine that they have more Understanding and more Wisdom than the whole Church , and other such like things . They may see that all those arguings are brought in vainly and to no purpose ; for if they were good and solid , being so general as they are , they would serve for all Times and all Places , and would have their Force in favour of the Jewish Church , as well as they would have them conclude in Favour of the Latin. In the second place , those Rights , Priviledges , and Promises which they would ascribe to the Christian Visible Church , in exclusion of the Jewish are evidently null , if they would make them depend precisely on Christianity . For as I have before noted , the Greek Church , the Armenian , the Nestorian , and Aethiopian might pretend to them as justly as the Latin , and yet , the Latin applies them to her self in particular , to the prejudice of all the others . They ought then either to shew us what reason she has to appropriate those Rights , Priviledges , and general Promises , and to make that , that regards the Body of the Universal Church become particular to her ; or it is necessary they shew us that indeed they are not those Rights , Priviledges , and Promises that are common to all Christian Societies , and that they are peculiar to the Latin Church . But they know not how to do either the one or the other . For neither Nature nor Grace have given any of those Priviledges or Rights to the Latins , in exclusion from all other Christians . They are neither more Lords of our Consciences , nor more Infallible than others . Christianity is Uniform throughout . The Scripture also does not contain any one particular promise for them . On the contrary , Saint Paul says , That in Jesus Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek , nor Barbarian , nor Scythian , nor Bond nor Free , but Christ is all and in all . So that the Latin Church has no reason to draw that to her self which is a common Right , nor to pretend any peculiar Priviledges . But , in the summ of all , we have made it appear in the foregoing Chapters that those pretended Priviledges of Infallibility which they ascribe to the Christian Church Visible , and those promises of perpetual Visibility , in that Sence of Visibility wherein they understand it , are Chimaeras which have not any Foundation either in Scripture or Reason . And as to that right of Soveraign-Authority , it cannot here be alledged but to very ill purpose . For it is that which is yet in Dispute , and whereof we have shewn the falsity from the example of the Jewish Church . But they may draw from that example a consequence against the Latin one , because that if that pretence would have been heretofore pernicious and destructive to Religion and the true Church , as they may see it would have been , it follows that it will be so yet in these days . If then they cannot set before us any other difference between those two Terms , and those two Churches , which hinders my Conclusion , the Argument will hold intire ; for it will not be enough to overthrow it , meerly to say , that the Christian Church has that Authority , and that the Jewish had it not , but they ought to give us a reason for it . 3. But to proceed with our Reflexions , If that Maxim whereof we treat , were true , that is to say , if men were bound to give to their ordinary Pastors a blind obedience in the matters of Religion , to see with their Eyes , to tread in their Steps , and to devest themselves of their own conduct to rest upon theirs , the Jews who rejected Jesus Christ and his Doctrine , during the time of his Preaching , those who demanded of Pilate his Death by crying against him , away with him , away with him , Crucify him , and those in fine who rejected the word of his Apostles , and who instead of being converted by them , persecuted them , would be sufficiently justified in their bold unbeleif , and that detestable Parricide which they committed on the Person of the Son of God. For what were all those things but just consequences of that Principle ? They would not hearken to the Censures that Jesus Christ made of the Traditions and Doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees ; their Church admitted those Traditions . They would not believe that Jesus was the true Messiah ; their Church had determined that whosoever did believe it should be cast out of their Synagogues . They rejected the Proofs that he gave them from the Scripture ; it was not for them to judge of the true meaning of the Scripture , and the Church understood it otherwise . They demanded that he might be Crucified ; the Church had condemned him for a Seducer , as an Enemy to Moses and the Law ; it was not for them to inform themselves any farther . They rejected his Miracles ; the Church did so too , and said , that he cast out Devils by the power of Beelzebub . They would not hearken to his Apostles , the Authority of the Church forbad them . Hitherto their conduct is within due Rules , supposing that the Principle of the Author of prejudices , might be just and lawful , and those miserable People are very much obliged to him for furnishing them with arms wherewith to defend themselves . 4. That Maxim of the Author of those Prejudices , draws yet far greater absurdities after it . It ministers accusations against Jesus Christ himself , against his Apostles and all those who were converted by their Words . If the Faithful , by those Laws of their submission to the Church , ought not to have any other Eyes than hers , why did Jesus Christ present himself immediatly to the People , when he should first of all have made known his call from Heaven the Glory of his Person , and the Dignity of his Office to the Church , to have made them own it by proving it to them before he Preach't to the People ? He was they will say her Lord , and the Church her self would have had no Authority but by him ; that is true ; But if the People owed the Church an absolute obedience , they would have owed it all that time that the Lord would have remained unknown . He ought then to have began to make himself known to her , and to have opened her Eyes , that he might at the same time have opened those of all the People . If Jesus Christ had been known to have been indeed what he was there is no doubt to be made , but that he would alone have been heard without any dependance on the Church , of which he is the Soveraign Lord ; but as yet he was not , and till that knowledge had obtained , the People would have been always bound , according to the Principle of the Author of Prejudices , not to have seen but by the Eyes of the Church to which God had subjected them . To speak then home to this Question , whether Jesus Christ was the Son of God , the promised Messiah , or whether he was not , the Faithful being bound to believe nothing but what the Church should tell them , he could not but have addrest himself to her , and not to the Faithful People immediatly . Nevertheless , it is most true that he addressed himself neither to the Priests , nor to the Scribes , nor to the Pharisees , nor to the Doctors , he Preached his Gospel to the simple People , out of them he took his Disciples , and it was among them that he did almost all his Miracles , in fine he himself gives thanks to his Father for that he had hid his Mysteries from the Wise and Prudent , and had revealed them unto Babes . Whence could such a conduct proceed so contrary to that Soveraign Authority , wherewith at this day they would invest the Church , that is the Pastors , in respect of the Lay-men ? It is not difficult to understand , that it was because Jesus Christ did no ways act from that Principle , nor owned it for a good one ; for if he had owned it , he had never suffered the People to have violated it , he had made use of another way to make himself known to them , and he would have employed the Ministry of the Church for that end . 5. One may see the same thing of the Apostles , if the People ought entirely to refer themselves to the Church , in matters of Faith and Religion . Why did the Apostles sollicit the Jews to embrace their Doctrine , when they could not so much as hear them without being criminal ? They will say they had a commandment from their Master to Preach this Gospel ; I confess it , but the Jews lived under a Church that had openly declared it self against their Preaching , and they might tell them according to the Maxim of those Gentlemen , It is vain that you Preach to us , that you work Miracles , that you alledge the Scriptures ; We see by the Eyes of the Church , we hear by her Ears , we march after her Steps , and we devest our selves of our own guidance to rest our selves upon hers ; This is our Duty , and the Law that is imposed on us , why do you go about to tempt us to violate it ? Suppose we that a Jew after having heard one of those Divine and admirable Sermons of Saint Paul should have addrest himself to him , and have demanded of him what Authority he pretended to give to that new Christian Church which he took such care to establish , whether he did not mean that its Children should render a blind Obedience to it , and that they should refer themselves wholly to their Pastors for deciding matters of Faith , without intermedling themselves to search out the true sence of the Scripture ? Suppose yet , that that great Apostle should have answered him according to that Maxim of the Author of Prejudices ; That it was true that the darkness of our understandings , and our prejudices , might be able to hinder us from seeing in the Scriptures those Truths that are clearly contained in them , that a man could not assure himself that he was not of the number of those who deceived themselves . That that doubt is terrible , but that which yet infinitely heightens that dread which it must needs cause , is , that men are necessarily bound to chuse their Party , and to make so weighty a choice ( to wit of that Religion that they ought to follow ) amidst the cumbrances of a thousand cares , and a thousand worldly necessities that almost wholly take them up , and that will allow them but a very little time to examine the Truths of that Religion . That the greatest part of Mankind wanted necessary helps , that the half of Christians could not tell how to read , that others did not understand any Language but their own , that others had so narrow and limited a Capacity , that they could but very difficultly conceive the most easie things . In fine , that there was no way more dangerous , more difficult , and less fitted to all sorts of Capacities then that of a particular examination of its Tenets . That the cutting off of that way , led of it self to that of the Authority of the Church , since every man is bound to know the truth of something , and he that could not learn by himself , must necessarily learn it of another . They will then have no reason to doubt whether they shall take the Catholick Church for their Guide , and borrow its Eyes to discern the Truths of the Faith , and they will believe themselves a thousand times more assured in following that , than if they were left to the weak ef-forts of their own Reason . Tell me I pray , whether that discourse would have been very proper for the Conversion of that Jew ? and whether he might not justly have answered , That he was also uncertain whether he should not deceive himself , and take the wrong side , from the very same Reasons that he had alledged ; from whence he might as well conclude that he was bound to yeild himself to the Authority of the Jewish Church , which had been the most eminent one that was ever in the World ; because that although it had Sects among it who disputed the Truth of its Tenets , yet it had nothing that could make that high Authority which arose from external signs , to be opposed with any colourable pretence . To speak in the same Language that the Author of Prejudices uses , That he sought then to take her for his Guide , and to believe himself a thousand times more assured in following her , than if he had been left to the weak ef-forts of his own Reason . Furthermore , he might think it very strange that the Apostles of Jesus Christ should go about to violate , in respect of the Jewish Church , a Principle , which in the end they had a design to establish for the preservation of their own , that they should then plead for that Maxim , that every one ought to examine the Tenets of the Faith , and search out the true Religion by himself , without absolutely trusting to his ordinary Pastors , since that they would have them to hear them , notwithstanding the condemnation that their Church had pronounced against them . But that afterwards they should quickly change that Maxim towards those whom they should have converted , and have bound them to have depended blindly on their Guides . That Inequality would not have appeared fair . Tell me I pray yet once more , whether the Jew had not had some Reason of his side ? and whether that Maxim of the Authour of Prejudices is not far more destructive of the Interests of Christianity than can be easily conceived ? It opens a Gate to the Jews to defend their Unbelief , to justify all their bold attempts , and to calumniate Jesus Christ himself and his blessed Apostles . 6. What might not those unbelievers have said against those who were Converted ? They might have treated them as rash , presumptuous , as Rebels and Schismaticks , as disturbers of Order , as a sort of men of a private spirit , who would make themselves Judges of the Church , and despoil it of its lawful Authority , to invest themselves in it . But that which is most scandalous , is , that as that Principle which we oppose opens the mouths of the Enemies of the Gospel , so it shuts up those of the new Christians , and deprives them of the means of justifying themselves . For what could they have said , to which those others might not immediately have repli'd by the meer application of that Principle ? Could they have said that they had known out of the Scripture , out of Moses and the Prophets , that Jesus was the true Messiah ? But they might have answered them , that it belonged to the Church and not to them to judge of the true meaning of the Scripture . Could they have said that Jesus Christ and his Apostles had an extraordinary Call ? But they might have told them also , That it was not for private men to judge whether those who said they were extraordinarily sent , were so indeed , that that would be to give way to impostors , that the Church ought to make that discernment , and that she had loudly declared that they were no other then such . Could they have alleadged the Miracles of Jesus and his Apostles ? But they might have given them the very same for an answer , that seeing there were true and false miracles , it was not for the common people who ow'd an absolute obedience to their Guides , to undertake to discern between them , but for the Church , which had then explained them , when she said that Jesus cast out Devils by the Prince of Devils . Could they have complained of the Disorders and Corruptions that then reigned in the Jewish Church ? But they might have told them , That they were ingrateful and unnatural Children , who lifted themselves up against their Mother , and thought of nothing else but dishonouring her , and that whatsoever they might say , they ought to borrow her eyes , for the discerning the Truths of the Faith , and to rest assured in following of her . In fine , that Principle seems to do nothing else but to give a compleat Victory to Judaism over Christianity . 7. But there is more in it yet ; for the Heathens might so have prevailed against the first Preachers of the Gospel , and have stopt its Progress . I confess that the Heathens did not call their Religious Society by the name of the Church . But what does the Name signify ? Were they not all united in one Religious Society ? Had they not all their Guides , their Priests , those that offered up their Sacrifices , and their high Priests ? Put into their hands then that Maxim of the Author of Prejudices , with the grounds upon which it is established , the obscurity of mens understandings , that doubt of being deceived , the cumbrance of worldly affairs , the want of necessary helps , and all those other pretences which they propose to us to make us blindly follow their conduct , and it will work the same effect as it did in the hands of the Jews . The Heathens would not have failed to have made use of it , for the hindring their hearkning to those Preachers , to justify that obstinacy with which they resisted the Gospel , to elude those Miracles , to condemn the Apostles themselves and those who had been converted by hearing them , as a sort of men who had broken that Order , which they themselves acknowledg'd so necessary to be kept . They might very well have told them , You have not the True Religion , you are not that Church to which we ought to give an absolute submission , we have a Heavenly and an extraordinary Call , and we prove it by Miracles . The Heathens might have answered them , out of the Instructions of the Author of these Prejudices , All those things are in question between our Guides and yours , we cannot of our selves decide them , the darkness of our understandings , the little assurance we can have that we are not deceiv'd , the just fear that that doubt must infer , the cumbrance of a thousand cares will not allow us to give more then a very little time for the examining the Truths of Religion ; all that hinders us from hearkning to you , and makes us to cleave inviolably to the highest Authority that can be in the World , and that we discover without any difficulty in our Society , because that though there are Sects among us who dispute the Truth of its Tenets , yet there is nothing in it that can make that Height of Authority which has so many external marks to be opposed with any colourable pretence . In effect setting aside their Opinions , their Worship , and their Religion it self in the Foundation of it , they cannot dispute with that Heathen Society from those external marks upon which they would found that Authority . And the Christians would not have been in a condition to have equal'd themselves with them in that regard . Would you have the consent of many people ? They had all the World of their side . Would you seek for Antiquity ? They had been almost throughout all Ages . Do you require Temporal Prosperity ? It was , say they , their Religion that gave them their Empire . Would you have Magnificence ? Where was there any thing more Magnificent then their Temples , and more splendid then their Solemnities ? Would you have Unity ? In the Plurality of their Gods , and Varieties of their Ceremonies , they kept peace among themselves , and adopted the Gods of one an other . Do you demand Miracles ? They boasted that they had them , and the most Illustrious ones , as those Oracles which foretold things to come , those Apparitions of their Gods , their Recoveries and Resurrections from the dead . There was nothing then that could justify the Apostles , but the falseness of the Pagan's Religion , and the Truth of the Christian . But for that they must of necessity enter upon that way of Examination , and make those people to set about it whom they desired to convert . But this is plainly that which that principle of the Author of those Prejudices would have hindred as we have shewn . Whence it follows that it is a pernitious Principle , contrary of Jesus Christ , to his Apostles , and to the true Interests of the Gospel . But can they answer nothing to these last Reflexions that I have made ? It seems to me that they can possibly say but two things ; the one , That those who were converted by the word of the Apostles and the other Preachers of the Gospel , were constrained to hear them , against that Order , by a secret inspiration which dictated to them to make use of it also . The other thing is , That Jesus Christ and his Apostles proved their Call to be Extraordinary , from Heaven , and more eminent then that of their ordinary Pastors by Miracles , and that in that Case , the Faithful are bound to go beyond that Rule , and to hear those that shall be so sent to them against that very Authority of the Church . As to the first , I do not believe that wise persons ought to admit of it : For if they take those secret inspirations , to be inward motions that form within a man frequent and strong desires to do a thing , without suggesting any Reason ; the Spirit of God does not work so in the Conversion of men . It works , according to the Testimony of St. Paul , as a light , that inlightens the understanding , to the end we may know what is the hope of our calling . Then when those desires and inward motions are contrary to that duty to which we are all naturally engaged , they ought rather to pass for Temptations , then for Inspirations , and a man would be very much bound to repress them under that Quality , instead of following and obeying them . Those pretended Inspirations then which tended to make the first Preachers of the Gospel be heard , would have been so far from having had that effect , that on the contrary , they would have gone farther against their Consciences , because they would have been found to have been contrary to a Duty , supposing that intire obedience to the Church in matters of Faith a Duty . They would have been troubled to know whether they ought to examine Religion or not : That Rule , might they say , would have me not do it ; a blind Inspiration which is not supported by any Reason , and which cannot have any certain mark of Divinity , can never be strong enough to Authorise the breaking of that Rule . But it cannot be yet alleadged to serve for an excuse towards that Religious Communion to which they had submitted themselves , for if that Communion had a right of Soveraignty over them , she would not be bound to strip her self of it when an inspiration should speak to them , and we can , but very ill defend the cause of the first Christians , by that way . If they would understand it so as those inward motions should be supported by some Reason , that they should not be intirely blind , it is necessary that they produce that Reason , and not speak any more of Inspiration . That Reason then , in my Judgment , can be no other , then those Miracles that Jesus Christ and his Apostles wrought , and by which they proved their Call to be divine and extraordinary . I confess , that if we suppose that all men have a right to make clear the Truth of things by themselves , there is nothing more true then to say , that Jesus Christ and his Apostles made themselves to be heard by their Miracles , and that their Miracles were made use of to prove their Heavenly Call. For their Miracles were plainly applied to the minds of men , to make them consider that which they taught , and in the end joyning their Miracles to their Doctrine , they saw that they both mutually upheld one another , that neither of them were false , and that both the one and the other had the Characters of Divinity , they did then conclude from thence that their Call was Divine and Extraordinary . But if we suppose that Principle of the Author of Prejudices , there is nothing more false , then to say that their Miracles bound men to hear them , and prov'd their Call to be Extraordinary . For that Principle being , as it is , founded upon the darkness of our understanding , upon the uncertainty of our Judgments , and the easiness wherewith we are liable to deceive our selves , it is manifest that it ought to be extended even unto Miracles , because that there are true and false Miracles , good and bad , and those that false Prophets work as well as they that are sent from God. We ought then to make a distinction , and a distinction that is not easy to be made , the Angels of darkness so disguising themselves into Angels of Light. But that Reason of the darkness of the Understanding , the uncertainty of our Judgments , and that readiness we have to deceive our selves , has ( if you please ) more place in that Distinction , then in that of that Doctrine . We may be easily surprized , and by consequence we ought to give over that Discerning to the Church , and yet follow in that its light and its decisions . And if you would give to the simpler sort , to those Babes for Example whereof Jesus Christ speaks , that his Mysteries have been revealed unto them , if you give them I say that right and liberty to judge of that important and fundamental Question , to wit , Whether the Call of a man be Extraordinary and Divine , or whether it be not so , whether his Miracles are those of a true Minister of God , or of a false Prophet , whether it be a true Angel of Light , or a disguised Angel of darkness , and to judge of all those things after the Church and against the Church , I see no Reason why they should refuse them the right and liberty of judging also of its Doctrine and the points of Religion , whereof the true knowledge is by nothing near so difficult . God had forewarned his People that they should not give themselves over to be deceiv'd by the first appearances of Miracles , and he had appointed that they should judge of them by the Doctrine they accompanied . Whence it follows , that the discerning of Miracles , and judging of that Doctrine , are two inseparable things , and that their right belongs to the same persons . If there arise , saith God , among you a Prophet , or a dreamer of dreams ; and giveth thee a sign or a wonder , And the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee , saying , Let us go after other Gods , ( which thou hast not known ) and let us serve them : Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet , or that dreamer of dreams : For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart . It appears from thence , that the way for men to judge well of Miracles , is to examine the Doctrine of him that works them . So that if they will a gree to give the people a right to discern Miracles , they cannot take away from them that of discerning that Doctrine they uphold . Jesus Christ supposes the same thing when he says , that there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets , and that they shall work great signs and wonders , to seduce if it were possible the very Elect. For how could they otherwise discern those Miracles of the false Prophets , but by examining their words ? So a famous man of the Roman Communion has not scrupled to write , that we are bound to reject Miracles , and those men who make use of them , then when they are joyned with a Doctrine which the Church has condemned , his words are considerable , and very well deserve to be transcrib'd . The Application , says he , and direction of a miracle to prove the Truth of a Doctrine , is an enterprise so rash , and so scandalous , that it deserves to be punished . There is not any Catholic in the World , who knows his Creed and understands it , that can be capable of such a persuasion . What if the appearance of a Miracle is contrary to the definitions of the Church , can any one hesitate or doubt , whether it would be better to adhere to the Church supported by the truth of a Miracle , or to deny the truth of a Miracle founded upon the Authority of the Church ? Saint Peter has taught us a great while since what we are to do on that occasion . He had been an eye Witness of the Transfiguration of our Saviour , and of that glory that lay hid under the Vail of a Suffering and Mortal state , and yet nevertheless he trusts more in the obscurity of Prophets , than to the clear and manifest experience of his Eyes ; we have a more sure word of Prophesie . The Authority of the Church which is in nothing less than that of the Prophets , breaks in pieces all those reasons that oppose it , and we ought to take to our selves in regard of the Church that which Saint Peter says with respect to the Prophets , To which we do well that we take heed , gathering together all our attention to know the true sence of the Church , and turning aside from all the Miracles , and all those Reasons the men propound to us to make us call into question that which we know the Church to have determined . We may see clearly , by that passage , how far one may carry that Principle of the Authority of the Church , in the thoughts of those that admit of it , that is to say , even to make Miracles themselves submit to it . He says , that we ought to Collect all our attention to know the true Sentiments of the Church , and to turn aside from all those Miracles which would make us call into question that which the Church has determined . He says , that to go about to make use of Miracles for the proving of a Doctrine that is condemned by the Church , is a rash and scandalous enterprise , and such as deserves to be punished . In effect , if they suppose that Maxim that we ought to give to the Church an absolute obedience , to see with her Eyes , and to rest upon her Conduct , those Miracles could not make them be heard , whom the Church should have condemned , and by which they should have been looked on as false Miracles : the Consequence is good and just . But because that very thing applied to the times of the first rise of Christianity , justifies the Unbeleivers , condemns the proceedings of Jesus Christ and his Appostles , accuses those of rashness who have believed on their preaching , destroys the Gospel , and overthrows the Christian Church , it is a manifest proof that that Maxim it self is false and rash , since those Consequences that arise from it are so detestable , that they leave neither to Jesus Christ nor to the Apostles any way to make their Gospel to be heard by men , with a good Conscience , and the care of their Salvation . 8. They must give me leave to speak a little earnestly for the interest of our Lord Jesus Christ . The more I consider these inevitable Consequences of that Maxim , the more I am astonished . If those first Christians , who had been Jews , could not hear the Doctrine of the Son of God , nor receive his Miracles , without violating of their Duty toward the Church that had condemned them , what scruples might not all that cast into all the Christians that are at this day in the World ? For in fine we are the Successors of that people , our Fathers were not Converted but by their Ministry . If then we cannot see clearly that they themselves had a right to be Converted ; if they laid down on the contrary a Principle , which of right ought to have hindered their Conversion , where then are all we , as many as we are ? The Reasons that the Author of those Prejudices produces to make us devest our selves of our own guidance in favour of the Church , that we should see with her Eyes and tread in her steps , had as much place with the Jews as they have with us , they could not doubt but that their Church was the Church of God , none can dispute with them that eminent Authority which had so many external marks . To her belonged the Adoption , the Glory , and the Covenants , and the giving of the Law , and the service of God , and the Promises ; of whom were the Fathers , and who had the Oracles of God committed unto them , and in whose bosom Christ according to the flesh was born . If that Maxim of the Author of Prejudices were good , it must necessarily have been good for that Church which had condemned Jesus Christ , his Person , his Call , his Miracles , his Doctrine , and what right then had his Disciples to hear and follow him ? We have seen them from Reason , and from the Testimony of a very considerable person of our Age , and to whom one of the greatest Kings has given the honour of committing the concerns of his Conscience to him , that if that Maxim had place , that we ought entirely to refer our selves to the Authority of the Church , we could not any more regard those Miracles when they were opposite to that Authority . Let them tell us then what right the Disciples had to follow Jesus Christ , by what right did the first Converts , and those who were afterwards Converted by others , embrace the Gospel ? And if they did it without any right , and against their duty , into what Labyrinths we cast you ? What would become of the Christian Church , what would become of you your selves ? You form prejudices against us , drawn from the faults that have , say you , appeared in the persons of our first Reformers . You tell us of a pretended precipitancy , by which the Magistrates of Zurich Reformed themselves ; you conclude from thence without entring upon the points in dispute , that we ought to renounce the Reformation of our Fathers . Answer then your selves to the Prejudices , that according to your Maxim , the Jews may form against the first Disciples of Jesus Christ , and to the Consequence that they may draw from thence , that without entring any further into a Discussing of the Points of that Religion , without examining either the Miracles or the Antient Prophecies , or the success of the Preaching of the Gospel , or all the other things that we could alledge in our favour , we ought to renounce our Christianity . You your selves Authorise their Principle , by one that is altogether like it , which you lay down , and which you know not how to make use of against them , without overthrowing your selves ; in a word , you draw the same Consequence from it with them , shew us then by what secret Art both you and we may get out of that Abyss whereinto you have plunged us . If your Fathers , say you , have Reformed themselves with an ill design , you ought without farther examination to renounce their Reformation . If the chief Authors of your Religion , a Jew will say , have adhered to Jesus with an ill design , against the obligation which they had to cleave to the Church , you ought to renounce their Christianity . Answer if you can to those Arguments , and set our Consciences in quiet . As for us indeed , we are not in pain : for we know that that Principle which you urge to those unbelievers is false . There is not any person who has not right to examine the points of that Religion , and to discern by himself the true from the false , the good from the bad , that which is from God , from that which which from men . The Authority of the Church never goes so far as to hinder us with any justice from it , and so there is nothing to reproach the first Christians . 9. But we ought not to give over these reflections , without making one upon the state of the Church in the times of the Councils of Sirmium , of Milan , and of Ariminum , whereof I have spoken before . There is no person who knows not that the Arrians were then Masters of the Ecclesiastical Ministry , which they called the Catholick Church , treating the Orthodox as Hereticks and Disturbers of its Peace , deposing them and sending them into banishment . The Poyson of the Arrians , says Vincentius Lirinensis , had not only infected one part , but almost all the world , and almost all the Latin Bishops , some by force , others by simplicity giving themselves over to be deceived , found themselves engaged in the darkness of Error . We are in that condition , said Phaebadius , that if we would be called Catholicks , it is necessary that we embrace Heresie ; and yet nevertheless if we do not reject Heresie , we cannot be truly Catholicks . God did yet keep to himself notwithstanding some Bishops , few in number , but great in Courage , and that small remnant in the end serv'd for a spark to rekindle the Fire of the Faith in the Church . Apply then to them that Maxim which we have before opposed , and weigh those Consequences that may be drawn from it , against those , and against the Faithful who Heard them and Read their Writings . The least is , that they were Schismaticks , and Corruptors of the people , who after having themselves broken off that obedience which they owed to the Church , sollicited others to do the like . They might have very well urged , that they had the Scriptures on their side , that they had the Council of Nice for them ; but they would have answered them , That it was no longer time to dispute , that they ought to submit themselves to , and acquiesce in the definitions of the Church . Since it was the duty of the Faithful to strip themselves of their own Conduct , to rest upon that of the Church . Nevertheless , they did not fail generously to maintain the Truth , to dispute and write for it , to address themselves not only to the Bishops , but to the people , and to defend it against that specious name of a Church , which they set before them , and the words of Saint Hilary upon this subject are worthy of a particular consideration . The Church , says he , terrified men by Banishments , and by Prisons , and constrained them to believe what she tells them , she that her self had never been believed , but by the Exile and Prisons which she suffered . She which had been only Consecrated by the Persecution of men , Bene & a dignatione Communicantium . She drives away the Priests , forgetting that by the Banishment of her Priests she increased . She boasts that she is beloved by the world , but she could not belong to Jesus Christ unless the world hated her . Haec de comparatione traditae nobis olim Ecclesiae , nunc quam de perditae res ipsa que in oculis omnium est at que ore clamavit . Can any one be rash enough to maintain , that he was bound then to refer himself to the Authority of that Church , to see with its Eyes , to tread in its Steps , and to rest himself upon its Conduct ? Will any say that that handful of good men who have since re-established Christianity , was nothing else but a company of Rebels , and of presumptuous minds ? Will they charge their Writing and their Letters to the people with Forgeries and Subornations ? Will they justifie their being Deposed , their Banishments , the Persecutions which they so constantly suffered ? Will they say that the Faithful that heard them were rash and Sacrilegious , and that those on the contrary who submitted themselves to the decisions of the Church , were those good men , who did nothing but their duty ; and that we our selves at this day , who have received our Christianity from the hands of that small number , are but the followers of Rebels and Schismaticks ? Yet all that they must say , if they lay down that Principle of absolute Obedience . It appears then that that Principle is false and unjust , and invented for the ruin of Religion . 10. In effect , an absolute obedience , and an intire resigning of ones self to the Conduct of another , as to those matters that regard the Faith and the Conscience , is a duty that we can render lawfully to none but God , who is the first Truth , the first Principle of all Justice . A man cannot submit his understanding and his heart to the word of any one , so as to believe blindly that which he says , without giving him a kind of Adoration , for there can be no homage greater than that of an inward blind submission . It is an infinite act , according as a creature may be said to act infinitely , that is to say without bounds , without reserve , without measure . It is then an act that can belong to none but God immediately , that we ought not to transfer to the Church , if we would not adore the Church ; and to which by Consequence a Church can never pretend without usurping the just rights of God. 11. God himself has so far forborn his right , that he does not very often absolutely make use of it , but leaves it to our minds to judge of the Truths that he propounds to us . For there are often in those things that he teaches us , Characters that equally note their Truth and their Divinity , so that at all times we may draw these two conclusions from them , This Doctrine is true , this Doctrine is of God , without their depending one upon the other . We may say the same of his Commandments , they bear most frequently Characters of their Natural Justice , as well as those of their Divinity ; and they give us leave to receive them not only by an Act of Obedience , but by an Act of Judgment also . As it is from him that we hold that admirable faculty of distinguishing the true from the false , the good from the bad , by Characters imprest in those things themselves , so he would not take a way the use of it in matters of Religion . On the contrary , it is ordinarily by the using of that , that he draws us , that he convinces us first of all of the Truth of some Doctrines , that he makes us afterwards acknowledg the necessary connexion that they have with others which he has revealed to us , the Truth whereof appears not so clearly , abstractly considered at first , and by that connexion he makes us receive them . He shews us the equity of his Precepts , the horror of those Vices that are contrary to them , and in that manner he gains our Hearts , by making use of our own Reason . Not that we may lawfully reject any of those things which he teaches us ; we have no right for that without doubt , because where our Understandings are wanting to discover those Characters of Truth or of Equity in those things which he teaches us , there he has ordained that his Authority shall help us . It is God that says it , it is God that commands it : but it is not the same with respect to the Church ; the Church is not God , she is but an Interpreter and Servant of God : she ought then to shew us in all that she teaches us as matter of Faith , or that she commands the Conscience to submit to , those Characters of Truth and Equity in the things themselves , or else those of their Divinity ; when she fails in that , she cannot supply that defect by her Authority ; for in that case her Authority is purely no other than Humane , and an Humane Authority is not sufficient either for the Faith , or for the Conscience : so that every man has right to examine that which she teaches , and to reject that that is beyond the word of God. 12. In fine , Let those Gentlemen tell us if they please , whether in this same Question concerning the Soveraign Authority of the Latin Church , and the Obligation that lies upon every one to hold himself to its decisions , they mean , that every one should refer himself to the Latin Church , and believe also meerly because that she says so , without any other examination ; or whether they would grant that every one may have right to examine of what nature , of what extent , and of what force that Authority is , and how far that Obedience goes which he ought to render to it . There is no likelyhood they will say the former ; for that Authority cannot establish it self ; when it shall be establisht , a man may refer himself to it for other things , but while her own establishment is disputed , it is requisite it should come from somewhat else , and that there should be for that proofs capable of perswading us . To what purpose do they tell us of its external marks which makes us , says the Author of the Prejudices , discover without any difficulty that height of Authority which is in the Catholick Church , if they would not leave the Faithful a right to see those external marks , and to examine them not any farther by the Eyes of the Church , but by their own ? That being so , they may see that they ought always to give men a right of making a Judgment by their own light , and to give them in that Question the most important matter of all , to wit , that of choosing a Rule and a setled Principle for their Guidance and their Faith , an Authority upon which their Minds and Consciences may rest , and lye down in perfect Peace . They must give them that in that Question which it is no ways easie for them to decide ; For besides that they ought to see those external marks of the Latin Church , which say they , gain her so great an Authority , they ought also to see whether there are not others which they take away more reasonably from her then those that they give her ; they ought to see whether those marks are not common to other Religious Societies , that may by that means dispute with the Latin Church that Authority ; they ought to see whether those marks when they shall become peculiar to the Latin Church , may be capable of giving her so Soveraign an Authority over mens Faith and Consciences . which seems naturally to belong to none but God. And because in that Question , we treat not of the whole Body of the Church , but only of the Prelats , and those who take up the Ecclesiastical Function , they ought to know whether those external marks can hinder them from believing that those Prelats have abused their charges , and brought in , or suffered to be brought in divers Corruptions into the Church . All that is not so easie as the Authour of the Prejudices tells us it is . There is some difficulty to get thither ; and yet that belonging of right to the examination of all men , the darkness of the understanding , the easiness wherewith men may deceive themselves , the want of necessary helps , the ignorance and simplicity of the greatest part of men , would not hinder it . Those are then no other than frivolous Reasons , which cannot take away from men that right that God and Nature have given them . They ought therefore to enjoy it , at least in some respect , to wit , for the deciding of the question , whether they ought to lose it or no. 13. But it is certain they can never so enjoy it in that regard , nor decide that Question without entring upon an examination of all their Doctrines , which lets us see yet more and more the absurdity of our Adversaries Principle . For there is not any Principle more absurd , than that which destroys it self , which cannot be established but by making use of a contrary Principle , and which precisely can have no place , but there where it cannot be of any use . But all that may be said of that Principle of those Gentlemen , since it is most true that to establish it , one must necessarily proceed to examine their Doctrines , and that they can never know whether they ought to refer themselves to the Latin Church , or examine that Doctrine by themselves , till they have made that examination , that is to say , till there shall be no farther occasion to refer themselves to that Authority of the Latin Church , which makes pleasant sport enough . This is that which is evidently manifest , if one consider it , that before one can acknowledge the Authority of the Latin Church , it must be supposed , that one is assured that among all the Religious Societies that are in the World , the Christian is the only one in which one ought to place himself ; and that can never be known but by one way only , which is that of examining its Doctrine and its Worship . In effect there is not any one of those external marks that can make that difference . The Jews had their Miracles , Antiquity , Succession , an uninterrupted Duration , the Holiness of their Patriarchs , the Light of their Prophecies , the Majesty of their Ceremonies ; we do not dispute these marks with them , and as to Temporal Prosperity , they had it heretofore , and we are not assured that we have always had that , whereof we make such boasting , which nevertheless is not very great . The Mahometans glory that they have the same things , with the consent of the People , and the admirable success of their Arms ; and as for Antiquity , which they fail in , they say , that as Jesus Christ did but succeed Moses , so Mahomet also has succeeded Jesus Christ . As for the Heathens they had , as I have said , their Miracles , their Saints , their Prophets , their Ceremonies , their Succession , their uninterrupted Duration , their Temporal Prosperities ; and if we strive with them about Antiquity , and Multitude , the advantage will not lye on our side . There is then nothing more deceitful than those external appearances , separated from their Doctrines , they are as proper to make a Jew remain a Jew , a Heathen a Heathen , and a Mahometan to remain a Mahometan , as to make a Christian to remain a Christian ; whence it follows , that to form well that difference , and to be assured that the Christian Communion is the only good one , one ought to examine its Worship and its Doctrines . Moreover , before they could acknowledge the Authority of the Latin Church , they must suppose , that a man is sure that among all the Christian Sects , the Latin only is the true Church , and that cannot be known but by the examination of its Doctrines . Those external marks can be no ways proper for it . The Greeks , the Abyssines , the Nestorians ascribe to themselves Antiquity , Succession , Miracles , an uninterrupted Duration , as well as the Latins . They have their Saints , their Prophets , their Ceremonies , and their Multitude , which is not less considerable ; and as to worldly Prosperity , the Abyssines may boast of it , and the Muscovites also , who make a part of the Greek Church , and who knows whether that of the Latin Church shall never change ? It is then manifest , that they can conclude nothing from those marks separated from their Doctrine , they are so ambiguous , and uncertain , that they cannot fix any setled Judgment upon them , concerning the truth of the Latin Church . But , supposing that they could by those external marks , or by any other ways which they would take , be assured that the Latin Church was the true Church , I say , it must necessarily be understood in this Sence , to wit , that in that visible Communion God brings up and preserves his truly Faithful ones ; For it is in those only that that name of the visible Church is verified , and not in the prophane , the wicked , and the worldly , who are mingled with them , and who are none of that Body that is the Spouse of Jesus Christ . They must then be assured , before they can know whether they ought to refer themselves absolutely to that Body of Pastors that governs the Latin Church , that the prophane and the worldly do not prevail in that Body , and that they never have prevailed ; for if they do prevail , or if they ever have prevailed , they may introduce errours into the publick Ministry , and false Worship , or suffer them to come in through their negligence or otherwise , or scatter abroad the ill Doctrines of the Schools amongst the People , favour ill customs , and in a word , corrupt that Communion , as it appears that that did come to pass in the Jewish Church , and sometimes in the Christian . But how can any be fully assured that it may not be so at present , otherwise then by the examining of her Doctrine ? They ought then to give up that point of external marks ; our Fathers have gained their cause without going any farther , by the Prejudices of Corruption which I have set down in the second and third Chapters . But if you take them only as meer conjectures , and if you will reckon them to be nothing , it is certain , that to be assured that there is nothing corrupted in a Communion where God brings up and preserves his true Faithful people , that the publick Ministry is pure in all its Doctrines and in its Worship , one must of necessity take that way of examination , and that examination must be very exact . So that before we can enter only upon that Question , whether we ought to give to the Latin Church a Soveraign Authority over our Faith and Consciences , the discussing of which they know not how to avoid , all must be examined : from whence it follows that that Principle which I have opposed is absur'd , because it destroys it self , and none can ever practise it , till it cannot be any more of any use ; and more absur'd yet , in that when it would hinder us from examining , it constrains us to make an examination as exact as can be thought of . CHAP. IX . An Examen of those Reasons they alleadge to Establish that Soveraign Authority of the Prelats in the Latin Church . TO defend in some manner a Principle that Scripture , Reason , the Interest of the Antient Jewish Church , and the Christians , do so loudly condemn , they propound some Inconveniences which arise , they pretend , from that of the Contrary Principle : But it is certain , that if it were enough to alleadge those Inconveniences to overthrow those Rights which are found to be so solidly established , there is nothing in the world sure , since there is nothing so just , so reasonable , or so necessary , which the weakness or the malice of men may not abuse . It is necessary to yield to men the right of eating and drinking , of Cloathing and Marrying themselves , of selling and buying , of holding Commerce between themselves , of building Houses and Towns , and to distinguish themselves by their several Arts and Professions . And yet how many Inconveniences are there that arise from all those things ? It is the same in the usage of the most holy and inviolable things , as of Religion it self , of which a Libertine , says in General , because of the Abuses that were made of it , Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum . If all must be abolisht that is subject to Inconveniences , one must abolish every thing . Gold and Iron , Night and Day , Fire and Water would be criminal , and the very Air it self which makes us live , causes sometimes our death . They cannot then take a worse way then that of those Inconveniences to cry down a Right , founded upon Nature , and upon Grace , and Authorized by Jesus Christ , by the Prophets and Apostles . Let us see nevertheless of what nature those Inconveniencies are . One of the most Considerable is , That if they allow those who are subject to the Church , to Examine the matters of Religion , there will be no more any way to keep men in the Unity of the Faith , that every one will have a Religion by himself , and that by this means they should open a way for Extravagancies and Heresies , and by consequence for the intire ruin of the Church , since the minds of men are so different and confused that that which pleases one , will not please another . To Answer to that Objection , I would demand of those Gentlemen whether they propose to themselves to find out any humane and efficacious way , which shall go so far as actually and effectually to hinder those Extravagances and Heresies ; or whether they would only establish a Maxim , which in supposing that it should be followed , and that all men would receive it , should contain all in the Unity of the Faith. Let them take which of those two sides they please , they cannot rationally say any thing . The first contains a rash and absurd pretence , for to go about to seek a humane means that shall actually hinder all Errors and Heresies , is to seek for that which they can never be able to find . To retain men in the Unity of the Faith and of True Piety , two things are necessary , the one , That they teach all the pure Truths of God ; and the other , That they give them all a right understanding , to the end they should follow it . Their Pastors might very well do the first , but the second , which does not depend on them , none but God alone can do . And that also he does in regard of all his Elect and truly Faithful for whose sake only there is a Church , and Pastors in the World. For he bestows on all those his Holy Spirit , in that measure that shall suffice to unite them in the same Faith , and to hinder them from falling into Errours wholly inconsistent with their Salvation . As for the others , as he has not ordained their Salvation , so he would not actually hinder them from casting themselves into Heresies , or into Errors . On the contrary , he has resolved to permit those strayings , the better to distinguish them from his True Children . There must be also , saith St. Paul , Heresies among you , that they which are approved may be made manifest among you . And elsewhere he says , That God should send strong delusions to them that perish , that they should believe a lye . So that God who alone is Lord of the hearts and minds of men , not having propounded that end to himself in establishing his Visible Church , to hinder any Heresies from being in the World , nor that they should not arise within that very Church it self , but only that his Elect and truly Faithful ones should not be infected with them , it is a great rashness , for those men who cannot dispose hearts as he does , to extend not only their desires but their pretensions also farther , and to search out a way by which there should not be in effect any Heresie . I confess that we ought to desire the destruction of all Heresies , that we ought to labour for their Extirpation , and that as the Elect and true Children of God are not distinctly known , the cares that we should take for them ought to be extended indifferently to all . But I say , that we cannot make use of any thing for so great a work , but those external means , which are the pure Preaching of the Truth , and Confuting the contrary Errors . When their Pastors shall acquit themselves well in that duty , they may rest assured that God will bless their conduct and their word , not to all men , but to the persons of his true Children . If their Pastors would urge their pretensions from thence , and would find a human expedient that might absolutely hinder those Heresies from touching them , and from actually and effectually springing up as well among the good , as the wicked ; I affirm , that they would be wiser then God , that they would encroach upon his rights , that they would hunt for a Chimaera , and that by that very means they would change the Ministry into a Tyranny ; for under that pretence of rooting out those Heresies , they would come to be Soveraign Lords over mens Souls and Consciences , which cannot nor ought to be suffered , and which is so far from being a means to avoid them , that it would fill the Church with Heresies . If they say , they intend only to establish a Maxim , which supposing that it would be followed , and that all men would receive it , would contain all in the Unity of the Faith , and that Maxim is , That they ought to refer themselves absolutely to their Pastors . I say , in the first place , That , that Maxim is as proper to contain men in the Unity of Heresie and of Schism , as in the Unity of Faith. For the Hereticks and Schismaticks have their Church and their Pastors , to whom they should absolutely refer themselves . So that they could never discern whether they are in Unity of the Faith , or in that of Error and wandring from the Truth , if they were not before all things , assured that they were in the true Church . But who shall warrant us , that when they would be so assured of the true Church , that men would not divide themselves by different sentiments , and that that which pleases one , should not displease another ? What principle of Unity would they give us , to settle all in the same thoughts , in that search which they should make of the true Church ? The Jews would say , We are the true Church of God , the Mother Church , from which the Christians have separated themselves , The Pagans will say , We are that Mother Communion , for as well the Jews as the Christians came out of the midst of us . The Mahometans will say , That as Christianity was the perfection of the Law , so their Religion is the perfection of the Gospel . The Greeks would come foorth and maintain , That they are the true Catholick Church , and not the Latins ; the Copticks , the Abyssines , the Jacobites , and Armenians maintain , That as well the Latins as the Greeks departed from the Church , when their Council of Chalcedon had made void the Council of Ephesus . The Arians will say , That if one latter Council could abrogate what had been done by a former , as it appears from the Example of the Council of Chalcedon , then that of Ariminum , might very well correct and repair the Errors of that of Nice . In fine , every one would alledge his Reasons , and concern himself to know which of all those Communions was the true and good one , and which had the true Faith. Tell us what means of Unity would you have beyond that , to hinder men from dividing themselves ? For if it be true that in yielding men a right to examine the matters of Religion , they open a Gate to let in Divisions and Heresies , by reason of the Confusion of mens minds , it is not less true that in leaving them a liberty to examine those Churches and Religious Societies , to come to know which is the True , you open the same Gate to Errors and Apostacies . If you would further take from them that Liberty of searching out the true Church , and if you say that they ought to suppose the Latin to be it , without other reason ; besides that that is very absurd , you introduce a Maxim that under a pretence of shutting the Door to all Divisions , shuts it also to all Conversions . For why should not every Society have right to say the same thing ? So the Jew , without any other Reason , would presume for the Jewish Communion ; the Heathen for the Heathen ; the Greek for the Greek , and every one for that wherein he finds himself set . That then would not be so much a Principle of Unity in the true Faith , as a Principle of Confusion and Obstinacy , a Principle that would be not so proper to keep men in the Unity of the true Faith , as in that of any Religion whatsoever it might be , without coming to know whether it were good or bad . In the second place , I say , That with all that , they do not yet make any thing of that which they would lay down , if they would avoid those Heresies , and those Divisions which may arise from the inequality of humane understandings , when men are left to be Masters of their own Sentiments . For to obtain that effect , they must suppose that that Maxim of referring ones self absolutely to the Pastors of the true Church , when they shall be so assured , will be received and followed by all men . But who can tell them that men will not divide upon that very Principle , and that when they endeavour to make them receive it , they can make them agree ? If they apprehend so much those Divisions and Errors in the matters of Religion , what assurance can they have that there shall not be any upon that point of the Authority of the Church ? Is it because mens minds will less differ about that subject then about others , or that that same Authority proves it self , as the First Principles do ? Who has told them , that those who shall once have received this Maxim , will not be un-blinded in the end , and that they will not be weary in fine of remaining slaves to men in respect of their Consciences , which is the most considerable part of themselves , and that which should give them the greatest Jealousie ? So that that pretended Remedy of Schisms and Divisions is null , for you must always run upon that Rock you would avoid , to wit of the humane understanding , and wipe off its differences , its inequalities , its humors , at the same time that you would have them give away that liberty of judging the points of the Faith. Let us suppose , since our Adversaries would have us , that that Principle of absolute obedience to the Guides of the Church , had had place from the birth of Christianity , would it have hindred the Heresies of the Valentinians , of the Gnostics , of the Marcionites , of the Montanists , and the Manichees ? Would it have hindred the Arrians , the Samosatences , the Eutychians , the Nestorians , and so many others , that in the first Ages of Christianity troubled the State of Religion ? To say that those men were presumptuous and rash , is but to say what we would have , which is , that there can be no humane means that can stop that rashness and presumptuousness of men , and that it is a folly to go about to do it . They may by the force of Torments and Prisons , by their Threats or their Promises hinder the external effects , but that is not to contain men in the Unity of the Faith , but it is to contain them in that of Hypocrisy , and of Treachery . A second Inconvenience is , That they cannot give to the Church , that is to say , to the Body of the Pastors , that respect which is due to them ; for where they should be set up to be Judges of Controversies , private men would rise up against them , and those private men would on the contrary become their Judges . But that Inconvenience is not so great , as that it should make us hazard our own Salvation . How many Judges have in we our Civil Society , to whom we yet give that respect that is due to them , though still we are not bound to believe that all that they have judged , is well judged ? The respect which men owe to their Pastors is not unlimited , it has its bounds and its measures ; while they act as true Pastors , in Teaching the pure Truth , and acquitting themselves of their Duty , they are worthy to be heard , to be followed , to be respected . But when they come to be Deceivers , if , that in stead of Teaching the Truth they oppose it , if they mix with Gold and Silver , Wood , Hay , and Stubble , ( to make use of the words of the Apostle ) they deserve in that regard , neither the Hearing , nor Respect . For they are neither Pastors , nor the Church , but only as they Teach the Truth , and follow Righteousness ; and when they withdraw themselves from it , give us their own Fancies , or when they follow their Passions , then they are but private men , who belye their Character , and they can owe them nothing for those kinds of things , but repulses and contempt , or at the most but Indulgence , if the Evil be yet tolerable ; that is to say , if their word and their conduct do not destroy the Gospel , or hinder a saving efficacy . But if they may see their Ministry to become so corrupted that their is an eminent danger of loosing their Salvation , who can doubt that they ought not to be lookt on , only as the Enemies of God and the Church , rather then the Ministers and their Pastors , and that they should not fail to take heed of them and their Doctrine , as pernitious leaven , in stead of blindly following them ? The Duties are then reciprocal between the Pastors and the People : The Pastors ought to guide their Flock well , to give them good pasture ; and the people owe them , Respect , Obedience Teachableness and Love : on supposition that the Pastors well acquit themselves of their duty , those who are under them will become guilty before God and Men , of the Crimes of Rebellion Profaneness , and Ingratitude , if they do not acquit themselves of theirs . But if the Pastors abuse their charges , if they overturn the Gospel , or if they do any thing coming near to it , if they abuse their Titles ; their Sees , their Dignities , their Sacerdotal Ornaments ; all that will signify nothing , they owe them no more in that regard , either that Respect or that Obedience . The Reason is manifest , because they ought to respect nothing but the cause of God , and upon the Consideration of its saving Truth , when then they may see that they withdraw themselves from God , and that Truth , that respect also which ought to be given to God and his Truth should be withdrawn from them . And as to what they say , that private men would become Judges of their Pastors , where of right those Pastors ought to Judge of Controversies , who are above private men ; this is nothing but a playing with words . How many of our Judges are there , who Judge us every day , without our finding any inconvenience or ill in it ? They Judge us with a Judgment of * Indictment , which is a publick Judgment , and they Judge us with a Judgment of Distinction , which is a private Judgment . For they do not bind us blindly to believe that all that they declare is equitable , because they so declare it ; we have in that respect a full liberty to examine those things as they are in themselves , though we fail of always presuming in their favour . But say they , whatsoever liberty we have to examine their Judgments , their Judgments must be executed notwithstanding , when we our selves believe them unjust ; I confess it , but it is because their Execution consists only in those things , or in those external Actions , which leave the thoughts of the mind always free , and not in an inward acquiescence . And this is that that puts a difference between their Sentences , and the decisions of Pastors concerning the matters of Religion , for the Execution of these latter consists in an acquiscence of the Soul and the Conscience , which cannot but examine them in the end , and be decided but by the knowledge we have of the Equity and Truth of those Doctrines . The same thing may sometimes happen in the Civil Society , where in stead of putting in Execution the Commands of Superiours , one shall be bound formally to oppose and resist them ; as when the Sates of a Province , or a Governour shall command things prejudicial to the Obedience that one owes to one's Soveraign , and which would engage the people in a Rebellion ; Then , we may not only Judge our Judges by a private Judgment , but our private Judgment is a thousand times more general and publick then that of those Judges , yea though it shall not be accompanied with any formality . For those formalities signify nothing , when the fidelity which we owe to our Prince is concerned . Then neither respect of Magistrates , nor consideration of Order , nor the Authority of our Governours ought to turn us aside , but they must all give place to that Great and Fundamental Duty . It is the same thing in a Religious Society , God and our Salvation are to be preferred before all things , and if it fall out that the Pastors , either in their Pulpits , or in their Writings , or in their Councils , would plunge us into errors , and into a worship that dishonours God , and corrupts his Christian Religion , we may not only judge them by a private judgment , but we ought also at the same time to labour to make that private judgment to become publick , and as general as it can be made ; and howsoever we do it , we do not in any thing withdraw our selves from that fidelity which we all owe to God. The Inconveniences that arise from that Conduct , ought to be imputed not to private men , who do but what they are obliged to do , but to the Pastors who abuse their Charge , and pervert the rule and natural design of their Ministry . But , say they , Is not this to introduce a private spirit into the Church , where we all ought to have but one same spirit , which is that of the Church ? There is , saith St. Paul , but one Body and but one Spirit , and therefore it is that he himself exhorts us to abide all in the same spirit , and to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace . I answer , that there ought to be in the Church in effect but one and the same Spirit ; but that that ought to be the Spirit of God , the Spirit of Truth , the Spirit of Wisdom : not the spirit of the World , not the spirit of Errour . God gives his holy Spirit immediatly to all his truly Faithful ones , whether they be Pastors , or whether they be Lay-men , which is in all but one same Spirit , though the measure according to which each receives may be different : Grace , says the Apostle , is given unto every one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ . And in that Description of the State of the Church under the new Testament , which is set down by the Prophet Joel . God says , That he will purer out his Spirit upon all flesh , that their Sons and their Daughtes shall Prophecy , and that he will give this Spirit to his Servants and to his Handmaids . Elsewhere , God promises his Children , That he will give them a new heart and a new spirit , and that he will put his Spirit within them : Saint Paul teaches the same thing . By one Spirit , says he , we are all Baptized into one Body , whether we be Jews or Gentiles , whether we be bond or free , and have been all made to drink into one spirit . Because ye are Children , says he to the Galatians , God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts ; and in the Epistle which he addresses to the Saints and Faithful of Ephesus , he tells them , That they were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise , and desiring that they might receive a more abundant measure of it , he prayed God to give them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation : St. Peter tells the faithful of his age , who were persecuted for the name of Jesus Christ , That the Spirit of Glory , and the Spirit of God rested upon them , In fine the whole Scripture is full of this Doctrine , that the Spirit of God is immediately given to every Believer , even down to that place where St. John tells them , That they had an Vnction from the Holy Spirit , and that they knew all things ; that the anointing which they had received of Jesus Christ abode in them , and that they needed not that any man should teach them , but that that anointing taught them all things . From whence these two Truths result , the one , That every faithful one in particular has Fellowship with the Holy Spirit , which animates and governs him immediatly ; and the other , That that Spirit is not a meer Spirit of Docility , and resting in what is taught them , to make the Faithful receive the words of their Pastors ; but a Spirit of discerning , which makes them capable of knowing things by themselves , and to judge of them . For this is that St. Paul means by that Spirit of Wisdom and of Revelation , and St. John by that Vnction which teaches all things , and frees us from the necessity of being taught by men ; that is to say , of depending absolutely on their Authority , as those men would do who should not be capable of discerning by themselves ; and there is this thing very considerable in that Discourse of St. John , that he makes the subjects of it , those false Teachers who laboured to seduce the Faithful . I have , says he , wrote these things concerning those who seduce you ; But the anointing which you have received abideth in you , and you have no need that any man should teach you , &c. Which lets us plainly see that he meant , that that Unction was sufficient to secure them from that Seducing , and by Consequence to make them discern by themselves the true from the false . As to all the rest , they do but mock when they call that Spirit a private Spirit , under a pretence that it is given to each Believer : for it is the same Spirit that animates the whole Mystical Body of our Saviour , that Regenerates and Sanctifies them , it is in one word , the Spirit of the whole Church . It may with far greater reason be said , that they introduce a private Spirit , who restrain to the Pastors alone the right of discerning the good from the bad , and who would not that any Laymen should interpose . For if the whole body be animated but by one only and the same Spirit , why should not all the Faithful have the same right with the Pastors , since they all partake of one same Light , though in a different measure ? In fine , if they would have it , that to yield to every one a right to examine the matters of Religion , would be to bring in a private Spirit , let them tell us , by what Spirit they would have one examine the question of the Church ? by what Spirit they would have every one know and rest assured that the Latin Church is the True Church of Jesus Christ ? by what Spirit they would have the Faithful chuse that side where they should refer themselves to their Pastors ? for in all those points , they cannot deny that men ought to follow their own light , since they cannot in the least make those judgments by the Eyes of their Prelates , as we have noted before . Behold then that private Spirit , since it pleases these Gentlemen to call it so , which they themselves are constrained to admit , which shews us the nullity of that inconveence that they would pretend to remedy . We ought then to go higher yet , and to examine that great Argument which the Author of those Prejudices has chose above all others , as being alone sufficient to make us acknowledge the necessity of referring ones self blindly to the Church . It consists in letting us know , That all the men in the world may deceive themselves , that the darkness of our Vnderstandings , our Prejudices and our Passions engage us to that . And if M. Claude , says he , can propose evident falshoods as proofs of the highest certainty , who can assure us that we are not in the number of those who deceive themselves , and make an ill choice in the matters of Religion , and that the persuasion that we have well chosen is not any effect of our Prejudices and our Passions , and other secret obstinacy in our Opinions ; from whence he concludes , that it must be a thing to be despaired of ever to be able to distinguish the true Religion , amidst so many Sects who all lay claim to it , or to chuse among so many Opinions which they propose as Authorised by the Scripture , those which one ought to believe , from those that one ought to reject , unless that same impotence that lies upon us to discern the Truth by our own light , and which would not open a way to find it , should make us go from the way of Reason , wherein we should see nothing but uncertainty , to that of Authority , which would draw us out of that confusion , and in the end he advertises us , that that Authority is that of the Catholick Church , that is to say , the Latin Prelates . We see then , that thanks to the Philosophy of this Author , all must be good Pyrrhonists , to become good Catholicks , we ought to doubt of every thing if we would be assured of any thing . But to speak what appears to me , that Argument cannot make any impression on the mind , because it destroys it self , as usually those false subtilties do . For if we cannot be assured in those judgments that we make by our own Light , because that may deceive us , who can assure us that that Authors Argument will be good and concluding , since we cannot judg of it but by that same Light , which will not give , according to him , any certainty ? If the use of our Reason produces nothing but doubts , why would he yet give us a Reason , the Consequence whereof can be no other than doubtful , and by which he cannot also gain any thing over us ? It may be it is good , it may be it is not so ; our Light deceives us in other things , it may very well deceive us in that . What likelyhood then is there that we should be persuaded by an Argument that combates it self , and which takes away from it self the force of persuading ? Moreover , That Argument destroys the design of the Author of those Prejudices , and overthrows the Cause it would Establish . For if there be no certainty in the judgments that we make by our own Light , who shall secure us that we do not deceive our selves in chusing the way of Authority , since we cannot make choice of that , but by that same Light , which is , says he , so deceitful ? We cannot less fear in that very thing , the obscurity of our Understandings , our Prejudices and Passions , the inclination that we have to Error , and who shall assure that Author , who shall assure us our selves , that that persuasion where it is , and which he would communicate to us , is not an effect of his Prejudices , of his Passions , or of some obstinacy in his Opinions ? Who shall warrant us that we do not deceive our selves in that particular choice that we make of the Authority of the Latin Church , to refer our selves to her ? For we must in that choice rely on our own Reason . Who shall secure us that the Lain Church herself does not deceeive her self in the discerning that she makes of the Tenets of Religion ? That Church is composed of the People and Prelates , those people have not more Light than other men , and those Prelates are not less subject than the others to that darkness of understanding , to Negligence , to Prejudices , to Passions , to a secret Obstinacy in their Opinions , and beyond all , that they have not a peculiar Interest to favour mens Errors and Superstitions , to retain them the more easily in their obedience . But those People and those Prelates are a very great number . What does that signifie ? The Heathens and their Guides are yet a far greater number than they , and yet they fail not to deceive themselves . They are , say they , rich and powerful , and raised in dignity . The Heathens and the Mahometans are not less . They have external marks , but who knows whether those marks are good , and whether they do not abuse themselves in the Consequence they pretend to draw from them ? They assure you that they do not deceive themselves , they condemn you if you do not believe that which they believe ; and they live , as to themselves , in a perfect peace of mind . But the Author of those Prejudices has taught us to answer , That all those who compose other Societies , appear to have the same assurance with us that they are in the Truth , they do not condemn the Latins with less confidence , than the Latins condemn them with , they are not less exempt from the fear of deceiving themselves , they live also in as great a Peace and Tranquillity . That assurance also , and that confidence , that freedom from trouble and fear , that Peace and that Tranquillity grounded upon the belief that they are in the right way , and that they walk after their Light , are marks so ambiguous and so deceitful , that they may be found most frequently to be joyned infinitely more frequently with Errour , and the way of Hell , than with Truth and the way of Salvation . These are the very words of the Author of those Prejudices , whereof we change only the Application . But , say they , yet farther , Do you not believe that the Latin Prelates have a more clear light than you ? We cannot know any thing by that , and they do not know anything themselves from thence , since no person can make himself certain by his own light , according to the Author of Prejudices . They may from thence methinks see of what Nature that Argument is , but they will be more apt to be distasted with it , if they will but consider that their Principle tends to confound all Religion , and to render the very existence of a Deity suspected . For if there be nothing of certainty in those Judgments that we make by our own light , why do we follow the Christian Religion , more than the Pagan or the Mahometan ? Is it because that the Church has bid us do so ? This is but a very bad reason , for the Church would never tell us that its Religion was bad , when it would be so in effect ; there is no Society whatsoever , but would say that its Religion was good , and better than all others . Is it because our Birth , our Education , Interest , Reputation , or the the friendship that we have with some persons , or the Laws of the Country wherein we are , will not suffer us to embrace any other Religion , and such-like motives that engage us ? These are yet but the very worst Reasons , and those who are not Christians but from thence , though possibly they may not be a small number , may say , that they are not at all such : for if those very tyes had been applyed to Paganism , they would have been Pagans , as they are now Christians . How then ought we to be Christians ? It is necessary that we should be so from out of a Love , and Approbation of that Religion it self . But that Love and that Approbation ought to be the effects of our own Light , and not of that of other men , and our own light ought to dictate to us what is the Religion of God , and to make us approve of , and love it , under that quality . Should we then have nothing of certainty in that matter ? should we be always in doubt , under a pretence that our Light might deceive us ? and those admirable effects that Religion produces in our souls , that confidence , quiet , joy , that tranquillity , hope , freedom from trouble , and from fear , would they be nothing but ambiguous and deceitful marks , which are most frequently to be found more joyned with error and the way of Hell , then with the Truth and way of salvation ? thither it is that that Principle of the Author of those Prejudices leads us . Besides , how do we come to believe there is a God ? Is it because the Church tells us so ? That would be a very ill reason , for we believe on the contrary , that there is a Church , but by the belief that we have that there is a God ; we believe it without doubt by the impression of a thousand Characters of the Deity in our minds , and on our hearts , that appearin the Fabrick of the World , in his Government , or his ordering the Affairs of it , and particularly in man himself , and in his most pure and most natural inclinations . Our Reason it self is a lively Image of it . But that impression is wrought but by our own Eyes , which make us see a Deity in things , it is not by others Eyes that we see it , but by our own . Is it necessary then that we should doubt whether there be a God or not ? Must we never be certain , because our Eyes deceive us somtimes , and because we are not Infallible ? The Author of the Prejudices will say , without doubt , That we urge his Principle too farr , that he never pretended to shew , that we could not be assured by our own light , without the Authority of the Church , that there was a God , and that the Christian Religion , in opposition to that Religion which the Jews now profess , or to all those Fantastick Religions that reign in the World , and are the meer effects of the impostures and humours of men , cannot but be the true Religion ; That that discernment is not hard to be made the advantage of the Christian Religion , above all those others , being most clear and manifest . Indeed so he has explained himself from the very beginning of his Preface : whence it appears , that he would not hinder the examination of the matters of Religion , but when particular controversies that divide the divers Sects of Christians shall be treated of . I may say then , if I am not mistaken , That there are two parts in his Hypothesis , that in the first , he yields to every one a liberty to judg by his own Light of the Truth of the Christian Religion , and that he does not take away from them in that respect the certainty of their Judgments , but that in the second , he takes it from them over other particular matters ; but all that is but an Artifice whereby he would prevent and elude , if he could , those just and natural Consequences which he foresaw might be drawn from his Principle . For the very same Reasons which he proposes to hinder us from the examining the particular points of Religion , and the very same grounds upon which he builds his Conclusion , have place also in the comparing the Christian Religion with other Religions . So that one may say , that the second part of his design destroys the first , and that he himself overthrows that that he had establisht . For , tell me , if the uncertainty of our Judgments founded upon this , that we see that others deceive themselves by the darkness of our understanding , by our Prejudices , by our Passions , and by those secret Attacks that we have of our thoughts , tell me , if that has not place as well in the Judgment that they make , That there is a God , and that the Christian Religion is alone from God , and the only True one , as in that , that we make , That their Purgatory is but an imaginary Fire , that their Transubstantiation is but a human invention , and that the Sacrifice of the Mass is no where to be found in the Scripture ? Are there no Profane or Atheistical persons in the World ? Are there no Jews , nor Pagans , nor Mahometans ? As we are persuaded that they deceive themselves , so are they persuaded that we deceive our selves : but may not they demand of us , what assurance we have that the darkness of our Understandings , our Prejudices , our Passions , or some other secret tye that lyes upon our thoughts have no part in our persuasion ? What will the Authour of the Prejudices answer to them ? Will he say , That the advantage that the Christian Religion has over all other Religions is most clear and manifest ? I may say to him the same , that the advantage that the Protestant Religion has above the Roman , is most clear and manifest ; and in saying so , I shall affirm nothing whereof I am not well convinced . If he replies to me , that I ought not to be so confident of my own Light , that that which appears to me to be most clear and manifest , does not appear so to others , that the darkness of the Mind , Prejudices , Passions , &c. make men deceive themselves , and that I have no assurance that I am not of that number . The Jew , the Mahometan , the Pagan , the Libertine , the Atheist , who shall come behind him , will exclaim , as often as they shall have occasion , after the same manner . This is justly what we have to say , this Author pleads our cause admirably well . After all , That Principle of the Author of those Prejudices was so far from turning aside our Fathers from examining by themselves the matters of Religion , that on the contrary it bound them to do it the more . For being concerned for their own salvation , there was no person more intrested than themselves , and being so easily apt to deceive themselves in the choice of those Opinions that they were enjoyned to believe , and of that Worship which they were to practise , they ought not naturally to have trusted any but themselves . They might , it is true deceive themselves , but their Prelates might deceive themselves as well as they , and if in the Church the people must refer themselves to their Prelates , and each of those Prelates in particular must refer themselves to the whole body of the Church , they will find that neither the one nor the other will be cured , and that that Church to which they should all refer themselves , would be but an Ens Rationis , as they speak in the Schools , and a Platonic Idea . Prudence then bound our Fathers to examine that which they should know , both from the imperfections of the Minds or the Hearts of men , and from the examples of those before them who fell into error , together with the danger which men are in , on the account of their Prejudices , their Passions , and their Interests ; all that could produce no other effect in them than to excite them to make an examination the most exactly and diligently that it was possible for them to do , cleansing their Hearts from every evil thought , and imploring the Grace and Blessing of God upon them : For they were assured , that if they did the Will of the Father , they should know his true Doctrine , and that if any did lack Wisdom , & begg'd it of God , that he would give it them , since he gives to all liberally and upbraideth not . Those are the promises of the Gospel . Those to whom God grants that Grace which inlightens the mind and opens the Heart , do not only , not deceive themselves in the choice of Saving Doctrines , and in the rejecting of those that are Damnable ; but they have for that all the assurance that they can reasonably wish for : for the Truth makes it self to be perceived by far other Characters than those of a disguised falshood . The Invocation of Saints , the Worshipping of Images , the Adoration of the Host , the Conceit of Purgatory , have never produced in the souls of the Devout Persons of the Church of Rome , that sweet joy , that Peace , and that Contentment of the Soul , which the Protestant rejoyces in , when he calls upon God alone , when he Worships him without Images , as he has commanded him , when he Adores Jesus Christ sitting at the Right Hand of his Father , and when he places his only Confidence in his Satisfaction , and in his Merit ; a deceived Conscience may be sometimes in Security ; but that security is never enjoyed like a true Quiet . It is the Rest of a Lethargy where a mans feels no pain , because he has no feeling , which is very different from that Rest that gives a perfect Health : besides that , the security of a deceived Conscience is not long continued , inquietudes return from time to time , chiefly in the Affections , and at the time of Death , where that Tranquillity that the True Religion gives , is solid and well grounded , and displays its vertue peculiarly in the most grievous Accidents of our Life , and in the very Agonies of Death it self : Such are those Divine impressions that David felt , when he said , The Law of the Lord is perfect , Converting the soul : the Testimony of the Lord is sure , making wise the simple ; The statutes of the Lord are right , rejoycing the heart ; his judgments are more desirable than gold , and sweeter than honey . And elsewhere , Thy word has been sweet unto my taste , yea sweeter than honey to my mouth . And yet further in another place . The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him , and he will shew them his covenant . The Disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ felt them when they said , Did not our heart burn within us , while he talked with us by the way , and while he opened to us the Scriptures ? And upon another occasion , Lord to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of Eternal Life . And we believe , and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God. If those of the Church of Rome were accustomed to the reading of the Holy Scripture , they would find the proofs of this Truth in a thousand places , but the far greatest part of our Controversies come from the neglect they have of that Divine Book , and that neglect it self is one fruit of that excessive confidence they have in their Guides . The End of the First Part. An HISTORICAL DEFENCE OF THE Reformation ; Against a Book Intituled . Just Prejudices against the CALVINISTS . THE SECOND PART : Of the Justice of the Reformation . CHAP. I. That our Fathers could not expect a Reformation either from the hands of the Popes , or from those of the Prelats . WE may now , methinks , suppose it evident and proved , That our Fathers had a right and were bound to examine by themselves the matters of Religion , and not to refer themselves absolutely to the Conduct and Authority of their Prelats . But from thence it manifestly follows , that they had a right to Reform themselves . For since they could examine only in order to discern the good from the bad , and the true from the false , who can doubt , that they having a right to make that discernment , would not also have had a right to reject that which they should have found to have been contrary to , or alienated from Christianity , which is precisely that which is called Reformation . I acknowledge that it yet remains to be inquired into , whether those things which they have rejected are indeed Errors and Superstitons , as they are pretended to be , and whether they did not deceive themselves in the Judgment that they made . But who sees it not necessary , for the deciding of that Question , to go to the bottom , and to enter upon that discussion which our Adversaries would avoid ? From whence it may appear , as I have said in the beginning , that all that Controversy which they raise against us about the Call of our Reformers , is nothing else but a vain amusement ; and that to make a good Judgment of that Action of our Fathers , and to know whether it be just or unjust , we ought always to come to the bottom of the cause , and to those things themselves which are Reformed , for upon that the Question doth wholly depend , whether they did well or ill . Notwithstanding to shew that we would forget nothing that may serve for our Justification , and that after the desire to please God , we have not a greater then that of approving our selves to our Country-men , and in general to all men , we shall not fail to make yet some particular Reflexions upon the Circumstances of the Reformation , which will more and more confirm the right of our Fathers , and manifest the Justice of their Conduct , and at the same time we shall answer to some Objections of the Author of the Prejudices . That shall be the business of this Second Part. Our first Reflexion shall be , on that deplorable State of the Latin Church in the days of our Fathers , in respect of its Prelats ; for its Condition was such , that there was no more hope of ever seeing a good Reformation to spring up by their Ministry . In effect , what could be expected from a Body that had almost wholly abandoned the care of Religion , and of the Salvation of Souls , ( which was plunged in the intrigues and interests of the World ) which kept the People in the ignorance of the Mysteries of the Gospel , and in the most gross Superstitions , and with which ( the whole body ) it self did entertain it self , and was found to be possest by Ambition , by Luxury , and by Covetousness , and engaged in the vilest manners , and living in almost a general opposition to overthrow of all Discipline ? They will SEE then what a German Bishop says in a Book intituled Onus Ecclesiae , who lived and wrote in the year , 1519. that is to say , near the very time of the Reformation , but one who was no ways Luthers friend , as it appears by his writings . I am afraid , says he , That the Doctrine of the Apostle touching the Qualifications of a Bishop is but very ill observed in these days , or rather that we are fallen into those Times , which he noted , when he said , I know that after my departure , ravenous Wolves will come among you , not sparing the flock : Where may one see a good man chosen to be a Bishop ? one approved by his works and his Learning , and any one who is not either a Child , or Worldly or Ignorant of spiritual things ? The far greater number come to the Prelateship more by underhand canvassings , and ill ways , then by Election and lawful ways . That Disorder which may be seen in the Ecclesiastical Dignities , sets the Church in danger of perishing ; for Solomon says , There is one evil which I have seen under the Sun , as an Error which proceedeth from the Ruler , when a fool is raised to high dignity . It is therefore that I said , that the Bishops ought to excel in Learning , to the end that by their Instructions and their Preaching they might govern others profitably . But alas ! What Bishop have we now a days that Preaches , or has any care of the Souls committed to him ? There are , besides that , very few who are contented with one Spouse alone , that is to say , with one only Church , and who seek not to appropriate to themselves more Dignities , more Prebends , and what is yet more to be condemned , more Bishopricks . Our Bishops are feasting at their own Tables then when they should be at the Altar , they are unwise in the things of God , but they love the wisdom of the World , they are more intent on Temporal Affairs , say it may be , that I suffer my self to be carried away by my Passion , and that all these clamourous Accusations are but the effect of that Engagement in which we all are set against the Church of Rome . But to leave no ground for that Suspicion , besides what I have set down in general in the second Chapters of my first Part , I will further produce here more particular Testimonies of that Truth , by applying them to the Ages of our Fathers . I will say nothing of my own head , I will make their Authors that are not suspected by them , to speak , whose passages I will faithfully relate , which they may see in the Originals if they will take the pains . And as I hope that they will not lay to my charge what may appear to be too vehement in their Expressions , so also I not do pretend to impute to the Prelats of these days , that which those Authors censured in those of the former Times . then on the work of Jesus Christ . Their Bodies are adorned with Gold , and their Souls defiled with filth , they are ashamed to meddle with Spiritual things , and their glory lies in their Scurrilous humor and carriage . Whence it was that Catherine of Sienna told them , that in the blindness wherein they were , they placed their glory in that which was truly their shame , and that on the contrary they held those things to be a reproach to them whereon their honour and Salvation did depend ; to wit , in humbling themselves under their Head , which was God. Furthermore they have no love for any but sinners they despise the poor , and howsoever the Canons forbid them they keep about their persons Pimps , debauchers of Women , Flatterers , Buffoons , Players , where they should have had wise and holy men . — In fine , instead of the Law of Truth , the Law of Vanity is in the mouths of the Bishops , and the lips of the Priests preserve knowledge , but it is that of the World , and not of the Spirit . And a little after , At present , says he , the State and Dignity of the Bishops may be known by their Earthly riches , by their affairs and sordid cares of the World , by their troublesome Wars , and by their Temporal Dominion . Alas , the Lord Jesus said plainly that his Kingdom was not of this World , he retired himself alone into a Mountain , when he knew that they went about to make him a King. How then is it that he who holds the place of Jesus Christ , not only accepts Dominion , but seeks it ; and that he whom Jesus Christ has taught to be meek and lowly in heart , should reign in pleasures , in luxury , in violence , in pride , in haughtiness in riches and in rapines ? And yet a little after , The Bishops have renounced Hospitality , they neglect the poor of Jesus Christ , but they make themselves fat , and feed their Dogs and other Beasts , as if with a formed design , they would be in the number of those to whom Christ shall say , I was poor and you relieved me not ; go ye cursed into Eternal fire . For Generally almost all the Bishops lie under the evil of Covetousness , they are ravishers of others goods , and but ill despencers of the Churches ; turning aside to other uses , that which they ought to employ in Divine uses , or the feeding of the poor . What Bishop is there , adds he , who does not more love to be a rich Lord and Honoured in the World , then to help the poor ? The whole design of their lives is but for the things of the World , They love to array themselves after the Fashion of that , and as for the Ecclesiastical Ornaments , whether they be Corporal or Spiritual , they scarce make any account of them : and therefore it was that S. Brigit said , That the Bishops took the counsel of the Devil , who said to them , Behold those honours which I offer you , the riches that are in my hand . I dispence pleasures , the delights of the World are sweet , you must enjoy them . — That same Saint says further that the Covetousness of the Bishops is a bottomless Gulph , and that their pride and their luxurious Lives was an unsavoury steam , which made them abominable before the Angels of Heaven , and before the Friends of God upon Earth . As to the other Prelats and the Curats , the same Author represents them to us after this manner . In these Times , says he , there are very few Elections that are Cononically made , and without under hand canvassings ; on the contrary , the greatest parts of the Prelats and Beneficed men , are made by Kings and Princes in an unlawful manner , and which is more , being brought in by Canvassings and Simony , they are confirmed by the Popes , against the Priviledges of the Churches , and the Statutes of Germany , and against all manner of Justice . Furthermore the Bishops ordinarily promote to dignities and the Cure of Souls , their Cooks , their Collectors of their Tribute , their Pensionaries , the Grooms of their Stables : Hence Ubertine said , That the Antient Holiness of the Prelats wasted away by degrees , and that it began to fall by Canvassings , by Pomp , and by Simony , by unlawful Elections , by Covetousness , and by the abundance and superfluity of Temporal things , by the promotions that the Bishops made of their Creatures , by neglecting the Divine-worship , and by other perverse works ; and that by Reason of those ill dispositions , the Devil was let loose against the present State of the Church . — Now , none of them who are called to the Pastors Charge and the Cure of Souls inform themselves either of the quality of their Flock , or of their manners , or their vices . Not one Prelate called to the Government of a Monastery will take the pains to Observe either its Rules , or the Order of its Ceremonies , or the Discipline of the Religious , there is not wholly any more mention made of the Salvation and Edification of those that are under them , but they only inform themselves very exactly of the plenty of their Revenues , and what such a Benefice may bring in Yearly , though yet they do not reside there . It is these Curates that Vincentius cri'd out upon , when he said , O what Obduration is there in the Church of God! The Prelats are Proud , Vain , Sumptuous , Simonists , Covetous , Luxurious Men , that regard only this Earth . They neglect their Ecclesiastical Duties , they are void of Charity , Intemperate , Lazy . For they neither perform Divine Offices , nor Preach , and do nothing but what creates Scandal . They despise the foresight of their Holy Mother the Church , which ordains that when the Rectors of Churches shall not be able to Preach , they should employ fit persons , which should in their stead edify the people by their word and their Example , and that they should supply them with all needful things . But on the contrary the Prelats and Curates are only careful to put into their places , men that are very well skilled , not to feed the sheep , but to poll them , to destroy , and flea them . He goes on with that vehemency throughout a large Chapter , where he relates the many complaints of the Abbot Joachim , Saint Catherine of Sienna , and of Saint Brigitt ; Behold this last among the others ; Those who Rule the Churches commit three sins , the one is that they live a beastly and luxurious , life the other that they have a Covetousness as insatiable as the Gulphs of the Sea , and the third is , That they are Prodigal to satisfy their own vanity , as the Torrents that pour forth their waters impetuously , such horrible sins which they commit ascend up to Heaven before the face of God , and hinders the Intercession of Jesus Christ as the black Clouds disturb the purity of the Air ? The Revenues of the Church are given , not to the Servants of God , but to those of the Devil , to the Debauchers of Women , to Adulterers , Gamesters , Hunters , Flatterers , and such like men , and hence also it is that the house of God is become Tributary to the Devil . The Abbot who ought never to be out of his Monastery , but to be the head and example to the rest of the Religious , is become the head of a whole Troop of leud Women , with their Trains of Bastards : instead of being an Example to and feeder of , the poor , he makes himself Master of their Alms , and he may be seen far oftner in the field with the Souldiers , then in his Cloister . He ought to be the Father and the Instructer of his Brethren , but he is their Seducer , and their Tyrant . For while he enjoys himself , and lives in Pomp and Delights , those poor miserable Religious , pass away all their days in murmurings and afflictions . That Author describes in the same Stile the Lives of the Canons , Monks and other Ecclesiasticks , and that which he has said does not leave us any more room to doubt that there was in the Church in those days , as great and as general a disorder as can be conceived . He does not spare the Court of Rome , but on the contrary , he sets forth livelily enough their excess , even to say , that that Court is the Seat of the Beast , that is to say , the Church of the wicked , that is , the Kingdom of darkness . That it is a loathsome pit that devours Riches , and is filled by Covetousness , That the Law is far from the Priest , the Visions of the Prophet , and the Councel of the old men . That the heads of the Church serve themselves by Simony and Ambition , and that in a word , the sins of those people are such , that they cannot be either concealed or denyed , since Rome is become a Gulph of Crimes . Where the Pope ought to cry with Jesus Christ , Come , and you shall find rest for your Souls ; he cries , Come and see me in a far greater Pomp and Pride then ever Solomon was in , come to my Court , empty your purses there , and you shall find destruction for your Souls . The disorder of that Court , and that of the whole Clergy of those times was a thing so little to be contested , that Adrian the sixth did not scruple to acknowledge it in the Memoirs that he gave his Nuntio for the Diet of Nuremberg , and which Raynaldus Relates . For he gave him an express charge to confess , That the Troubles of Germany , about the matters of Religion , had fallen out by Reason of the sins of Men , and particularly of the Priests and Prelats of the Church ; That the Scripture shewed that the sins of the people came from those of their Priests , for which Reason it was , as Chrysostome says , that when our Saviour would heal Jerusalem , he entered first into the Temple to correct the sins of the Priests , doing like a wise Physitian , who goes to the root of the evil . That for many years past , abominable things had been committed in the holy See , that spiritual things had been abused , through the excess of its Injunctions , and that all things had been perverted there . That the evil had spread it self from the Head to the Members , from the Popes to the Inferiour Prelats , and that as many as they all were , that is to say , Prelats and Ecclesiasticks , they were come to that pass that for a long Time there had not been any that were good , no not so much as one . We could produce a multitude of other such Testimonies if we did not hope that unbyass'd persons would agree upon it , as not long since an Author in these Times has done in a Book Intituled , Motives to a Re-union to the Catholick Church . The cause of the Separation , says he , was the open abuse of Indulgences , and the Ignorance , Covetousness , and the Scandalous lives of the Church-men . The Superstition of the meaner sort of people who had not been well instructed , the immense riches , and riotous profuseness of the Prelats , their too great care in Externals , in their Magnificence , Ornaments , and increasing of Ceremonies , and little Devotion in the Chief-worship of God , the indiscreat zeal of some Brethren , who seemed to have cast off all honour for the Master , to give it to his Servants . The Tyranny that Parents exercised over their Children to imprison them in Cloisters ; the wickedness of those who contrived false Miracles , to draw to themselves the concourse of the People . Add to that , Politick humane Considerations of some Princes and Kings , who had not received from the Pope all possible Satisfaction , or who took occasion from thence to cast themselves among a Party of persecuted men , the better to Establish their affairs ; in brief , all that which Ignorance , Superstition and Covetousness could Contribute , served for a pretence to those who would separate themselves to Reform those Disorders . The Ground was not only specious , but it had been in a manner accompanied with Truth , if the Church in those days had been throughout in that miserable condition , which we have described , and principally so in those places wherein that detestable Separation began . Those who separated were aided indirectly by the zeal of some good men , who cried out loudly against those disorders , abuses , and corruptions of manners . The people who judged no otherwise then by the appearance suffered themselves to be easily carried away with that Torrent , seeing that they did not complain but of those things which they knew were but too true , and which the better sort of Catholicks granted . Behold then in what a condition the Church was in those days , and we may from thence , methinks ask all rational persons , whither they believe in good earnest , that our Fathers ought to have expected a Reformation from the hands of a Clergy , which on the one side had so many worldly interests that bound them to oppose it , and which on the other found it self so deeply sunk into Ignorance , Superstition , and Corruption . But to urge that matter yet further , we need but to set down those just complaints which they had made for a long time touching those disorders , and the continual demand that all the World made for a good Reformation , at least in respect of manners , of Discipline , and those most gross abuses , without ever being able to obtain it . I pass by the complaints of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries , which would be but too great , if they were compared , with those just grounds that all honest men in those days had for them . For those two Centuries were famous for wickedness , ( grievous ) crimes , and those who know any thing of History cannot deny it . But , not to go so far , not to say any thing either of the Scandalous Lives of the Popes of that Time , or the Wars wherewith they filled all the West , or of the Abuses they committed in their Excommunications , or of the Baptizing of Bells : Wherewith they increased the Ecclesiastical Ceremonies , or of the vices which reigned then throughout all the Clergy , can they tell us what good effect those smart Censures of Saint Bernard wrought , and those of Petrus Cluniensis , of Abbot Joachim , of Petrus Blesensis , of Conrard Abbot of Vrspurg , of Honorius of Autun , of Bernard Monk of Cluny , of Arnoul an English Monk , of John Bishop of Salisbury , of Matthew Paris , of William Durandus Bishop of Mande , of Robert Bishop of Lincolne , of Francis Petrarch Archdeacon of Parma , of John Vitoduram of Dante , of Marsilius of Padua , and I know not how many others , who cried out as loudly against the abuses of the Court of Rome , as those of the rest of the Prelats ? Can they tell us what effect the complaints of Emperors , of Kings , of Princes , and of the People produced who for so long a Time panted after a Reformation ? It is a hundred and fifty Years said Arnald du Ferrier the Ambassador of France to the Council of Trent since a Reformation of the Church has been all along in vain demanded in divers Councils , at Constance , at Basil , at Ferrara . Let them tell us what good change has hapned since St. Bernard wrote , That the Dignities of the Church were managed by a most dishonest bartering , and with a Trade of darkness , That the saving of Souls was no more sought after , but the abundance of Riches . That it was for this that they took their Orders , that they frequented the Churches , and Celebrated Masses , and sung Psalms . Now a days , says he , they strive without any shame for Bishopricks , for Arch-Deaconries , and Abbies , and other Dignities , to the end they may dissipate the revenues of the Church , in Superfluity and Vanity . What remains but that the Man of sin , the Son of Perdition should be Revealed ? The Demon not only of the day , but of the noon day , who transforms himself into an Angel of Light , and lifts up himself above all that is called God , and worshipped . What good change could they see since Cardinal Hugo borrowing the words of Saint Bernard , had wrote , That those words of David could not be more properly applied to any , then to the Clergy , They are not in Trouble as other men . For every order of men has its Labours and its pleasures , but I admire , says he , the wisdom of our Clergy , who have chosen all the pleasures for themselves , and rejected the Labour . They are as proud as Souldiers , they have as great a train of Servants as they , and of Horses , and Birds , and they live as merrily as they . They are arrayed like women with skins of great value , they have rich Bids , Baths , and all the Allurements of soft delights . But they take great heed least they put on a Breast-plate with the Souldiers , or pass away the nights in the Field , or to expose themselves to Battels , and yet they take less heed to keep Modesty and the Laws of Decency , which are proper to women , and to labour so much as they do . At the Resurrection then , when men shall arise every one in his own order , what place do you imagine those men will find ? The Souldier will not own them , for they took no part with them in their Labours , nor in their dangers . The Labourers and Dressers of the Vineyard will not any more for the same Reason . What then can they look for ? But to be driven from and accused by all Orders , and to go into those places where there is no Order , but where Everlasting horrour Dwels . Has it been amended since William Bishop of Mande wrote these words , Alas ! the Churches are reduced to that Condition , that when they come to be vacant , one can hardly find any persons fit to be chosen to succeed . And if sometimes , which rarely happens , there be found some good Man hid as a Lilly among the Thorns , the Number of the wicked and uncapable , exceeds so much , that they will never let a good man be chosen Prelate ; but crying up such as themselves they chuse men after their own hearts , to the Ruin of the Church , and the people that are under them . Else if the greater part in the Church were good , the Elections would be made by the Majority of voices , and they would be good and Canonical , for those that would chuse for God , would be the far greater number then those who should chuse for the Devil . But in these days it is quite the contrary . It is the Fashion , that there must be more wicked then good , so that usually , the Elections are rather Diabolical then Canonical , and not made by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit , but by a Conspiracy , or Treacherous Machination . All these Complaints were to no purpose , the evil was too general , and too inveterate to be stopt or remedied . In the Council of Constance , all those Nations who liv'd under the disorders of a long and obstinate Schisme , propounded some Articles to Reform as well the Head as the Members , and correct the ill manners of the Church . But Martin the Fifth , who was then Pope , eluded that Proposition , with saying , That that Council had already lasted four years to the great damage of the Bishops and the Churches , That it was needful to turn over that business to another Time , and that that Affair deserved to be thought on more leisurely ; because , says he , according to St. Jerome , every Province has its Maxims , and its opinions which cannot be changed without stirring up great Troubles . As if Justice , Piety , Holiness , and good Discipline , were not the same among all people and in every Countrey . The Council of Basil assembled some Time after , with a design to proceed to a Reformation of the Head and the Members ; A Declaration was made very Solemnly that there the very beginning , and their first Acts should contain no other thing . But when they would have meddled with the Court of Rome , and the Popes Soveraign Authority , every one knows after what manner Eugenius the Fourth exalted himself against them , and what endeavours he used to separate them , or at least to render their designs unprofitable . That produced new Troubles , and new disorders , and cast the Latin Church into a new schism . For that Council declaring its right , deposed Pope Eugenius , and chose Amadeus Duke of Savoy ; but all that came to nothing . For Eugenius remained Master , Amadeus was at length constrained to renounce the Papacy . The Council of Basil and all its good designs , were brought to nothing , and things remained in the same State in which they were before . Which made an Author in those Times say , That there could not be any thing expected from those who presided in the Councils on the behalf of the Popes , unless that , when they saw the affairs of the Council ordered against their Masters and against themselves , they should oppose their Decrees either by Dissolving the Council , or making Divisions spring up in it . So that , says he , matters come to nothing , and return into their old Chaos , that is to say , into Error and Darkness , which no man can be ignorant of , at least , that has any knowledge of things past ; and the Tragedy that hapned in our Age at the Council of Basil , is a most manifest proof of . Some Time after that , Pope Innocent the Eighth being dead , and all preparations made for a new Nomination , Lionel Bishop of Concordia made a long and fine Oration to the Cardinals , who were to go into the Conclave to perswade them to make a good Election , that might answer the desires of the whole Church ; he represented to them , That Christianity was threatned every day by the Power of the Turk , that the Hussites were in Arms against their Brethren the Catholicks , that pernitious Errors against the Orthodox Faith might be observed to increase in all places , That the Church of Rome , the Mother and Root of the Vniversal Church , was every day more and more despised , that Luxury reigned in the Clergy , and that it was extream among the people . That the Patrimony of Saint Peter was wasted , That Christian Princes , animated with a mortal hatred one against another , were just ready to destroy one another , and that in fine , to make use of the words of Jeremy , One desolation called to another , which made him to weep over the Church , and say to it , Daughter of Sion thy Desolation is great as the stretching out of the Sea ; who is it that will bring thee any Remedy ? After having represented those things , he adds , That although the affliction of the Church was exceeding great , yet they might notwithstanding mitigate it , if laying aside their own passions , their Canvassings , and their Cabals , they would look to nothing else in chusing a Pope , but Holiness , Learning , and Fitness , or Capacity . That the Eyes of all the Church were upon them , to beg of them a Pope who might by the good odor of his Name allure the Faithful people to Salvation . He urged that discourse much farther , in shewing them the necessity that the Church stood in of a Holy man , whose life should be without reproach . He added to his Exhortations , threatnings on Gods part , and passed by nothing that might move the minds of those Cardinals to do some good . Will you not say that words so weighty and so pungent ought to have made some Impression on the minds of those Cardinals , and that , at least for that Time , they should have done well ? They saw the whole Church in disorder , the Conquests that the Infidels made , Christian Princes in Arms one against another , Church-Discipline overthrown , the lives of the Clergy profuse , Piety violently beat down , and Christianity degenerated in all places , could any one imagine that such sad representations would not have been considered ? But be not hasty , All the effect that they produced was the Creation of Alexander the sixth . That Name alone , sufficiently Celebrated in the History of the Popes , was enough to make men understand of what disposition those Prelats were , and how little they were touched with the wounds of the Latin Church . Let us hear nevertheless what Raynaldus says , who in these kind of things is an Author that can no ways be suspected . The greatest part of the Cardinals , says he , were very remote from those good Counsels : for Authors complain that some corrupted with Money , others gained by promises of Benefices and Places , and others drawn by the Conformity of a vitious and impure life , gave their Voices to Roderic Borgia . So that , in stead of chusing a chaste man , they chose one who was infamous for his uncleannesses and fornications , for which he had been reproved by Pius the Second , yet was so far from amending under that reproof , that he took no care to conceal his impurities . For on the contrary he lived with Vacosia a Courtisan of Rome , as if she had been his real Wife , and he had divers Children by her , upon whom he heape'd Riches and Honors as much as it was possible for him to do , as if they had been his Legitimate Children . Behold what the Court of Rome was then . Alexander the Sixth being dead , and Pius the Third who succeeded him having lived but thirty days after his Election , the Cardinals met again in the Conclave . And because the Life and Government of Alexander had given scandal to all the World , and that the Cardinals themselves had been but very ill satisfied with it , before they proceeded to an Election , they drew up some Articles , which every one swore to observe upon condition the Nomination should fall upon him ; and there was one among the rest which carried this with it , That the new Pope should call at the end of two years a General Council for the Reformation of the Church in its Head and its Members . Julius the Second was chosen , but he did not believe himself bound to keep his Oath , for seven years past away without any thing being talkt either of a Council or a Reformation . And therefore it was that this Pope thought the less of it . Nevertheless it fell out , that , having ill Treated one party of the Colledge of Cardinals , and having moreover stired up the Emperor Maximilian , and Lewis the Twelfth the King of France against him , those two great Princes joyned with the disgraced Cardinals , and called a Council at Pisa . The Act of that Convocation , on the part of the Princes , says expresly , that it was for the Extirpation of Heresies and Errors , which through the negligence of Superiors had sprung up in divers parts of the World , and particularly for the Reformation of the manners of the Vniversal Church in the Head and the Members , and for the amendment of many great , notorious , long continued , and almost incorrigible crimes , which had scandalized the Vniversal Church . The Cardinals also alleaged the Oath that the Pope had took , just before his promotion , in these very words , I swear to observe and perform these Articles throughout , and in every particular , sincerely , unfeignedly , seriously and in good earnest , and under pain of falling under perjury and an Anathema , from which I cannot absolve my self , nor give power to any other person to absolve me . They added to that , that by another Article they all , and Julius himself had sworn , That if he who should be chosen should not perform his promise in good earnest , he should be held guilty of perjury , to be a breaker of his Vow and of his Faith , a disturber of the Church , and the cause of Scandal to all Christianity , and that then two thirds of the Sacred Colledge should have power to assemble a General Council . The Council then being assembled , declared openly , That there was a most evident necessity of Reforming the Church in the Head and the Members ; and made a Decree formed in these words , The Holy and sacred General Synod of Pisa , lawfully called in the name of the Holy Ghost , composing a General Council , and representing the Catholick Church , doth define and declare , That that Holy Synod would not , nor could not , dissolve it self , till the Vniversal Church should be Reformed in Faith and Manners , as well in the Head as the Members , and till the Heresies and Schisms that had sprung up should be Extinguished . Behold , hitherto , the fairest hope in the World. It is not necessary for us to inquire , whether that Reformation was the true Cause of the Calling of that Assembly together , or whether it was only a pretence , and according to all appearances it was the latter . But whatsoever it might be , whether a pretence or not , three thing result from it ; the one , That that Reformation was generally judged to be most necessary ; the other , That it was extreamly desired by the people , for they would never have contrived to have took up those things for a pretence which did not appear necessary , and which were not wisht for ; and the Third is , That a Reformation so necessary and so much desired should extend it self to Faith as well as to Manners , even , say they , 'till the Vniversal Church should be Reformed in Faith and Manners . See then what was the success of so weighty a business . Julius on his side , who according to the general mind of the Popes , mortally hated those Propositions of a Reformation , display'd all the Authority , Force , and Artifice that he had to elude that Council , and to turn all those projects into Air. And first of all , he made void and disanull'd that Convocation that had been called , he declared them the Authors of Schisme , and Rebellion , as Dathan , and Abiram , and their Council , a Conventicle of Schismaticks , a Synagogue of Satan , and a Church of Malignants , he forbad all Prelats to go thither under pain of Anathema , and excommunicated all those who should afford them any help or assistance directly or indirectly , and in fine , he interdicted the Towns and Churches that should receive them . But as that way of Authority alone could not produce the effect which he desired , since the World did not care always to be frightned with the Papal Thunder , so it was necessary for him further to elude that pretence of a Reformation which those of Pisa had taken up . He then had recourse to that Ordinary Artifice of the Popes , which is , that when they cannot longer avoid a Council , they labour to make themselves Masters of it , to the end that nothing may pass there but what agrees with their Interests and their desires . For this Reason he called he called one at Rome it self , and to make himself more sure , taking up as well as his Adversaries that pretence of the Reformation of the Church ; the better to colour his Affairs , and to strengthen his Party , he created some new Cardinals . Nevertheless as he would not omit any thing , he had recourse to Arms , he made a League with Spain against France , he assaulted Ferrara that was held by the French , he went himself in Person into his Army , he filled all Italy with War , he drew the Switzers and Venetians to his Interests , he gave Battels , he Excommunicated the King of France and all his Confederates , and after having got off the Emperor Maximilian from them , he gave away their Kingdoms to him who should first Conquer them , and in fine he set up his Conventicle at Lateran , where he and his Successour Leo the Tenth made all things pass that they would have . I say , he and his Successour Leo the Tenth , For Julius dy'd after the fifth Session , and Leo not being yet thirty seven years Old was chosen in his place , by the Faction of the young Cardinals , against the mind of the elder sort , by Reason of which Alphonsus Petrucius , a young Cardinal , having had it given him in charge to declare the new Election to the people , he did it in these words , We have chosen Leo the Tenth for our Pope , Let the young men live . Leo then , continued that Council , in which , in favour of some light Reformations which consisted but in words without any effect , he more then ever established the Soveraign Authority of his See , and confirmed the Abuses of his Court , and the disorders of the Latin Church . For he there Solemnly made void the Pragmatick Function , which was almost the only good thing that remained in the Government of the Latin Church , he there made the Council of Basil to be declared a Conventicle , and caused it to be determined , That the Authority of the Popes is above all Councils ; which obliged the University of Paris to reject that Decree , and to sue forth an appeal made to a Council lawfully called . After this , I know not whether they can any farther say with any confidence , that our Fathers ought to entertain good hopes of the Latin , Prelats , and that they ought to have expected a good Reformation from their hands . All the World desired that there should be a Reformation in the Government of the Church , they impatiently demanded it , they themselves acknowledged the necessity of it , in the Head and the Members , the Pope found himself engaged to do it by a Solemn Oath , but when it was urged to be put in Execution , he chose rather to enflame all Christendome , then to deliberate to reform himself , and to re-establish Order , and he managed his party so well , that he found a whole Council disposed blindly to do whatsoever should please him , without any regard had either of God or the Church , or of themselves . Did not all that give a fair hope of a Reformation ? They will say , it may be , that Adrian the sixth , Successour to Leo , after having ingenuously confessed , in the Diet of Nuremberg , the disorders of the Court of Rome , and of all the Prelats , as we have seen before , promised also to Reform them . For he declared . That he was resolved , as well , from his own inclination , as from the duty of his place , to labour to correct so great an Evil ; And he would do it in such sort , that first of all the Court of Rome , whence possibly the evil had grown so extream , and so destructive , should be reformed ; and so much the more , as he saw that all the World passionately desired it . I confess those Historians give a good Testimony enough of the Intentions of that Pope in that respect ; but we ought also to adjoyn , what they add , to wit , that that Confession and promise of his , which he made were very ill taken at Rome , and moreover , that they generally offended the Prelats , that they seemed to be too ignominious for them , saying , that it rendred them yet more odious to the Seculars , and contemptible to the People , and that especially , they were amazed to see a door opened for the introducing a diminution of their conveniencies , or convincing them of an incorrigible obstinacy . We ought not also to omit , that Adrian dyed soon after the Return of his Nuntio from Germany , not without a suspition of being Poisoned , as William Lochorst , insinuates in a Letter set down by Raynaldus , Seu nimio , says he , Estu laboreque fatigatus , seu infesto esu aut potu refectus , incidit in Morbum ; by Reason of which , Paulus Jovius relates , that immediately after the Death of Adrian , some young debauched persons went by night and set up a wreathed Garland on the door of the House of his Physitian , with this Inscription , Liberatori Patriae S. P. Q. R. We ought not likewise to pass by in silence what the Author of the History of the Council of Trent has told us , That Clement the Seventh , who succeeded Adrian , saw clearly that Pope Adrian , having too far abandoned the Ordinary Stile of the wiser Popes , had been too facil , as in Confessing the Faults of the Court of Rome , so in promising a Reformation , and that he was too mean spirited , in asking the Counsel of Germany how provision might be made against the Contentions of that Kingdom . For thereby he drew upon his back the demands of a Council , which was of great importance , especially with a condition to Celebrate it in Germany , and had given too much courage to the Princes , that they dared not only to send , but to print also a Book which they called the Centum Gravamina , or Hundred Grievances , a writing that was ignominious to all the Ecclesiasticks of Germany , but more to the Court of Rome . That notwithstanding having considered all things well , he resolved , that it was necessary to give some satisfaction to Germany , yet so , that his Authority might not be indangered , and that the advantages and profits of the Court of Rome might not any ways be diminished . In effect , he sent a Legat to Nuremberg , where the Princes of Germany were afresh assembled , who propounded to them such a Reformation , as should only respect the inferiour Clergy ; So that it was judged , that that Reformation would not only foment the evil as light and palliating Medicines usually do ; but that it would serve to enhance , and raise the Dominion of the Court of Rome , and the greater Prelats , to the Prejudice of the Secular Powers , and that it would open a door to a greater Extortion of Money , so that it was not received , being looked upon meerly as a mockery to elude the Expectations of Germany , and to reduce it to a greater Slavery . CHAP. II. A Confirmation of the same thing , from the History of that which passed in the First Quarrels of Luther , with the Court of Rome , concerning Indulgences . BUt we ought to add something to all that we have said , that if so many publick Proofs will not be sufficient to make that Conclusion , That there could not be any Reformation hoped for on the part of Rome and its Prelats ; they may further see , if they will , something more particular . Let us Examine after what manner they received the first complaints that Luther made against the Preachers of Indulgences , and the Questors that Leo the Tenth had sent throughout the whole extent of his Empire , and especially into Germany , there to sell publickly the Pardon of sins , under a pretence of the building of the Church of Saint Peter at Rome ; but in effect , to have by that means , wherewithal to Enrich his Kindred , and satisfy his own profuseness . The History of that , which is as a Preamble to that of the Reformation of our Fathers , must needs give us a great deal of light to judge rightly of their Conduct , and to decide the Justice or the Injustice of their Actions . See then well near how that business was managed . Besides the manifest abuse that there was in the using , and in the very Doctrine it self of Indulgences , the Questors were constrained to set before the people every day divers Novelties upon that subject , to enhance their price and value before them , and they lived further and guided themselves in that affair after a very filthy and dishonest manner . Luther who was then Professour of Divinity in the University of Witenberg , thought himself bound by the duty of his Charge , and his Conscience , to oppose himself to a Traffick so Mischievous , and so destructive of true Piety . To effect that , he proposed some Theses for the clearing of that matter , and wrote them to the Arch-Bishop of Mayence , who was also Bishop of Magdeburg , beseeching him to make use of his Authority to put a stop to those excesses , and representing to him , that it was the Duty of Bishops throughly to instruct the people in the Doctrine of the Gospel , and not to suffer their credulity to be so abused . He wrote also almost to the same sence , to the Bishop of Brandenburg , under whose Diocess he was , and sent him those Theses which he had framed on that Subject ; with a more large Explication of them , which he added to them . He wrote the same to Pope Leo , he sent him his Writings , he complained to him of the Follies that his Questors taught , and of the havock that they made , reposing themselves upon him , and abusing his Authority ; he cleared himself before him of the false imputations of his Adversaries , and was so far from having any ways violated that respect which as yet he believed due to his Dignity and to his See , that he stooped even to excessive submissions , which his Adversaries did not fail to make use of in the end . Hitherto the most rigid Censurers cannot find any thing blameable in the Conduct of Luther . For I pray tell me what could any one have done better ? He beheld a sort of men that dishonoured Religion , that made a mockery of the Devotion or rather of the superstition of the People , who were a scandal to the whole Church , who promoted false and destructive Maxims . He opposed himself to them , but of the duty of his place , he made his Complaints to those , to whom ordinarily it belonged to repress those excesses , he went even to the Pope himself , he acquainted him with the Mischief that his Questors wrought . He begg'd of him to give Order about them , he used all the Terms of respect that the Pope could desire . What can any find to blame in all that ? They will say , it may be , that his Complaints against the Preachers of Indulgences were false , and ill-grounded . To clear this matter , we need but to see what his most fiery Enemies wrote . Miltitus , the Apostolick Nuntio , says Ulembert , one of the most fiery Enemies of Luther , had sufficiently acknowledged , that the Questors and Preachers of Indulgences , who had first given occasion to Luther to oppose himself , were not altogether blameless . That therefore he had earnestly reproved Tetzel ( who was the Chief of the Questors ) that he had not hindred those abuses that were intolerable to all honest men , and that grounding himself on the Authority of the Pope , he had done divers things of his own head , which could neither be approved of , nor defended ; So that he had brought dishonour on the Holy See , and given ground for a most dangerous complaint , whereof he must one day give an account to the Pope . Florimund of Raymund acknowledged the same , that those Questors committed most enormous Crimes , in Publishing their Indulgences , and taking care for nothing else but to extort Money from the People . Belcair Bishop of Mets , said , That the Impudence of the Popes Ministers was so great , that they made amongst themselves a publick Merchandise of Indulgences , sometimes debauching themselves in the Taverns , they played them away , and at Dice , and other Games , especially in Germany ; and it was the common talk That the Pope had given away all the Money that should be collected in some Countries of Germany to his sister Magdalen . Guicchiardin goes so far as to blame the Pope himself , in that following the Counsel of Cardinal Peccius he had published the largest Indulgences , without any distinction of Places or Time , not only for the living , but to draw Souls out of Purgatory also by means of his suffrage . That it was manifest , that he did that to extort Money from the People , and that those who were employed to do it had bargained for the place , of the Court of Rome , by Reason of which the thing came to be turned into a publick Scandal , chiefly in Germany , where the greater part of those Ministers , sold them at a cheap rate , or gamed away the power of delivering Souls out of Purgatory . He adds , That which rendred this Affair yet more odious , was the Donation that Leo had made , of a sum of the Money that should be raised by those Indulgences to his sister Magdalen , and the Commission that was given for that to a certain Bishop Archimbald , a man unworthy of such an Employment , and who behaved himself with an extream Covetousness and Rigour . Behold then two things indisputable , as it seems to me ; the one , That Luther had right at the Bottom , and that the business which gave him occasion to speak and write [ against it ] was filthy and scandalous in all respects ; and the other is , That he guided himself after a most prudent and respectful manner , and that had nothing in it of any disorder . Let us see now , after what manner he was Treated . The first thing that fell out was , that neither the Pope , nor the Arch-Bishop of Mayence , nor the Bishop of Brandenburg vouchased to take any care to put a stop to those abuses that were committed . They know that afterwards the Arch-Bishop of Mayence was himself concerned in a part of those Indulgences , and that he got considerable sums by them . The second thing was , That Luther instantly raised against himself not only that whole swarm of Preachers and Questors , but the whole Empire of the Pope , that is to say , all the Creatures of the Court of Rome spread abroad throughout Europe , who stirred up all their Endeavours to ruin him , raising against him the Princes and the People by many false imputations . Ecc us Doctor of Divinity , Silvester Prierias , Master of the Sacred Palace at Rome , and James Hockstraten Inquisitor , wrote against him , the last of whom exhorted the Pope to make use of fire and Sword , for the Convincing of that Heretick . Luther defended himself against this sort of men , by Publick Answers , wherein he laid open their Absurdities , and their false and scandalous Assertions which they had proposed : but he did yet always contain himself within the bounds of a great Respect for the Pope , and for the Church of Rome , holding , nevertheless , that they were not infallible , and that the Authority of a Council lawfully assembled was above that of the Pope ; in which he said nothing , that the Faculty of Paris , and Gallican Church , does not say likewise . It appeared that it was their last interest that urged them to irritate Leo against him , and all his Court. Who , else , were not well contented with that which he had undertaken to put a stop to , or at least , to trouble the course of their exactions . Howsoever it was , when they set themselves to find out a way to repress those manifest Excesses of the Ministers of Indulgences , and those who defended them Luther was cited by the Pope , to appear in person at Rome to give an account of his writings , and his Conduct in that business , before the Judges that Leo had assigned to him , who were Jerome Bishop of Ascoli ; Auditor of the Chamber , and Silvester Prierias Master of the sacred Palace . Leo wrote , at the same time , to Cajetan his Legat in Germany , a Letter full of Fire and Choler , against Luther , whom he treated as an Heretick and Seditious person , and gave him order to cause him to be seized as an Heretick , and conducted safely to Rome , commanding all Dukes , Marquises , Earls , Barons , and all Universities , Communities , and Powers , under pain of Excommunication , with a reserve of the Emperour only , to use all their force to seize Luther , and to give him up into the hands of his Legat. He wrote also to the same purpose to Frederick the Elector of Saxony . Luther seeing so violent a proceeding against him , proposed the Reasons that hindred him from obeying that Citation , which were taken from the infirmity of his health , which would not permit him to expose himself to the wearisome toils of that Journey ; from his povery , to which did not afford him wherewithal to do it ; from the Tye that he had at the University of Wittenburg , from whence it was not in his power to depart without the consent of his Prince ; but more especially from that evident oppression which he suffered , in that he had the same person ordered to he his Judge , to wit , Sylvester Prierias , who was , not only of the same Order with the Preachers of Indulgences , but the same person , who had immediately before wrote a Dialogue against him ; so that it was visibly to give him up into the hands of his Adversaries , and the Parties themselves . The University of Wittenberg wrote to Rome in his Favour , and the Prince Frederick of Saxony , having most earnestly applyed himself to the Legat , obtained , in the end , with a great deal of difficulty , that the cause should be tryed in Germany , and that for that business , Luther should come and appear before the Legat at Auspurg . Although Luther could not be further ignorant , what Spirit the Court of Rome , and all its Ministers were animated with , as to himself , yet he did not fail notwithstanding to appear before Cajetan ; but it was after his friends had obtained a safe Conduct for him from the Emperour Maximilian . Cajetan was vext with such a prevention , that broke all his measures , nevertheless he received Luther honestly enough , and propounded at first to him on the part of the Pope , To Recant , and to promise for the future , that he would not fall back again into his Errors , nor any more disturb the Church . Luther answered , That his Conscience did not accuse him of any Error , that he entreated him to tell him in what he had Erred , and that he was ready either to justify himself , or yield himself to be instructed . Cajetan then objected to him , as two great and fundamental Errors , That he had wrote , That the Merits of Jesus Christ did not belong to the Treasure of Indulgences , against the Extravagance of Clement the Sixth , and that Faith , that is to say , a firm belief of ones Justification , was necessary to those who came to the Sacrament , and those who should appear before the Judgment of God ; for on the contrary , said he , it is uncertain whether those who draw near to God shall obtain his grace or not : Luther defended his Propositions , and the discourse falling upon the Soveraign Authority of the Pope , whom Cajetan affirmed to be above a Council , above the Scripture , and above all that was in the Church ; Luther formally denyed it to him , and maintained , on the contrary , that the Pope was beneath the Scripture and a Council . The next morning Luther presented to him a justification of his Propositions in Writing , in which he inserted a great many words full of respect to the Pope , to the Church of Rome , and to the Legat himself in particular . But Cajetan , without being willing to hear him speak of his justification , shut up all with this , That it was his pleasure that he should revoke his Errors , under pain of incurring the Censures , with which he had received Orders to punish him ; adding , That if he would not recant , he had nothing to do but to withdraw himself , and to come no more before him . Luther withdrew from the Legats House , and having been advertised some days after , that they endeavoured to imprison him , notwithstanding the safe Conduct of the Emperour , he withdrew himself from Auspurg , not being ignorant of what had befell John Hus and Jerome of Prague in the Council of Constance . Before his departure he wrote to Cajetan , two very submissive Letters , in one of which he acknowledged that he had not in treating of that business of the Indulgences , preserved all that respect which he ought to have had for the name of the Pope , and that howsoever he had been urged by the carriage of his Adversaries , he confest , that nevertheless he ought to have handled that matter with more modesty , humility , and respect ; that if he had any ways displeased him , he beg'd his pardon , offering to publish it himself , and to use civiller Terms for the Future . He offered likewise not to speak any more from thence forward of Indulgences , provided he imposed silence on the Questors also , or obliged them to observe the same measures in their discourses . And as to the Recantation which they required of him , he protested that he had done it in good earnest , if his Conscience had allowed him to have done it , but that there was no command , nor Counsel , nor Consideration of any person in the World , that could make him say , or do any thing against his Conscience . In the second Letter observing all along the same submissive and respectful Stile , he declared to him , That he had withdrawn himself from Auspurg , and beg'd that he would not think the worse of him , if he appealed from him to the Pope , and at the same Time he sent him his Act of Appeal . That Appeal was founded . 1. Upon this , That he had not determined any thing upon the point of Indulgences , but that he had only proposed some Theses to be disputed on according to the Custom of the Schools . 2. That the Opinions of the Doctors , as well Canonists as Divines , being very different , and there being nothing defined for certain in the Church upon that subject , he had had right to chuse one side to chuse one side to maintain in the dispute , much more when he was urg'd to it by the indiscretion of the Questors , who under a pretence of those Indulgences had dishonoured the Church of Rome , and the power of the Keys , by their detestable covetousness , and scandalous Conduct , seducing the People unto new opinions and selling Justifying Grace for Money . 3. That he had not only submitted his Disputation to the Judgment of the Church , but even to the Judgment of every man more Learned then himself , and in particular to Pope Leo. From whence he concludes that he had had no just Cause to Cite him . That nevertheless he had offered to his Legat to refer himself to the judgment of the Church of Rome , and of the Universities of Basil , of Friburg , of Lovain , and of Paris ; which his Legat would not accept . That he would not let him see wherein his Error lay ; but that he had only pressed him meerly to recant , threatning him if he did not , or if he did not go to Rome , he would Excommunicate him and all who adhered to him ; howsoever that he had always protested , that he had not any opinion but what was founded on the Scripture , on the Fathers , and the Canons . That therefore finding himself oppressed by that whole proceeding , he appeal'd from the Legat , and from all that the Pope , through ill Information , had done against him , to the Pope himself better Informed . Notwithstanding , he withdrew himself from Auspurg , and by his retreat , rendred vain and ineffectual all the Conspiracies they had contrived against his person , to make him a Prisoner . Cajetan having failed of his intent , Wrote to Frederick Duke of Saxony , against Luther , accusing him as guilty of a heinous Crime , in that he would not Recant ; and further exhorted and required that Prince , either to send him to Rome , or to drive him out of his Territories . Luther very solidly justified himself before his Prince , and made him see the oppression , and most evident Tyranny that they used against him . And because that the Cardinal had formally declared in his Letter to Frederick , that so weighty and Pestilentious an affair could not remain a long Time in that Condition , and that the Cause should be carried on at Rome . That menace obliged Luther to make an Act of Appeal from the Pope , and from all his proceedings against him , to a Council lawfully called . At the same Time almost , Leo sent a Bull into Germany confirming his Indulgences , and the Doctrine upon which they were grounded . That Doctrine was , That by the Power of the Keys given to Saint Peter , and to his Successors , The Bishop of Rome had a right to pardon to the Faithful all the guilt and punishments of their Actual Sins , to wit , the guilt , by means of the Sacrament of Penance , and the temporal Punishment by means of Indulgences , whether in this Life , or in Purgatory , and that by those Indulgences he could apply to the Living and the Dead , the superabundance of the merits of Jesus Christ , and the Saints , either by way of Absolution , or by way of Suffrage , so that the Living and the Dead participating of those Indulgences , were delivered from the Punishment that the Divine Justice would inslict on them for their actual sins . He commanded therein all under pain of Excommunication , from which they could not be absolved till the point of Death to believe it also : and to the end no person might alledge ignorance , he gave Order to all Arch-Bishops , and Bishops , by vertue of their Holy Obedience , to cause his Bull to be published in all their Churches , giving nevertheless power to his Legat to proceed against the disobedient , and to punish them as he should think fit . Behold here the true History of the first Quarrel of Rome with Luther ! Let them judge now , whether our Fathers , under whose eyes all that business past , could any more hope for a Reformation either from the Popes hand or his Prelats . Instead of making a Holy and Christian Reflexion , upon the just complaints of this man , how mean and contemptible soever he might appear to them , they thought of nothing but keeping up that evil , which they did , then in publishing their Indulgences , which they knew had not any Foundation , either in the Word of God , or in the Practise of the Primitive Church . They thought of nothing but how to protect them , and indirectly to forbid those scandalous and wicked excesses of their Ministers , instead of correcting them severely and repressing them . They thought of nothing but their own Interest , and not to let slip any occasion that might be offered to heap up money , without having any regard either of the Honour of the Christian Religion , or of the Salvation of Souls . They thought of nothing but how to settle more and more the Soveraign and Monarchical Power of the Pope of Rome , where they should have wholly applied themselves to make Jesus Christ Reign in the hearts of men . They thought of nothing else but putting a stop to the happy breakings out of those first bright Beams of the Truth which came out of Luthers Mouth and Pen ; where they should have received them , and made use of them to obtain from God a further and greater Light. They made it a Fundamental matter , to get Luther to recant ; and not being able to compass that , they thought of nothing but how to ruin him by all the ways they could use . They raised a strife and process about a matter of Faith , of Religion , and of Conscience , and a process that was unjust , and that could not be defended in the very Form of it . For what kind of proceeding was that , openly to cite a man to appear at Rome , who had done nothing but only proposed some Theses to dispute of , on a matter upon which there had not yet been any thing defined ? What manner of proceeding was it , to give him a party himself to be his Judge , and to declare him a Heretick before ever he had heard him , as the Pope did in his Letter to Cajetan , to stir up Kings , Princes , and the People against him , and to shew it was his mind to begin to Treat of so weighty a matter with his Imprisonment , without any regard had , either of the Protestations which he made , or of the Reasons he alledged , or of his respectful Submissions towards the Pope and his Legat ? Who may not see in all that , an inflexible Resolution always to retain the Latin Church in that deplorable condition wherein it was found to be then , and even to make its Yoak heavier , if it had been possible ? So far were they from having any design to Reform it , and to free it from those Enemies and Superstitions under which it groaned . I am not ignorant , that some way to excuse so violent a proceeding , one has said , That almost at the same time wherein Luther had wrote his first Letter to Pope Leo , full of respect and submission , he had caused to be Printed two little Books against the Epitome of Sylvester Prieras , wherein he spake of Rome and its Bishops in terms extreamly injurious , that which , says one , evidently discovered a wicked and deceitful Spirit , that should send forth nut of the same mouth sweet and bitter . But all that is nothing else but a discourse of a certain Vlemburg , full of falshood and calumnies , a sworn Enemy of Luther and his Doctrine . For it is manifest that the first Letter of Luther to Pope Leo , which is that that is treated of , was wrote in the beginning of the Year 1518. when he had not as yet any other dispute then with the Questors and Preachers of Indulgences , and that those little Books that Vlemburg speaks of , which served for an answer to that Epitome of Sylvester , were not wrote till the Year 1520. after the Pope and his whole Court had openly declared themselves against Luther , after Luther had appealed from the Pope to a Council , and after the Pope had made his Doctrine to be condemned as Heretical by the Divines of Lovain and Cologn ; which evidently appears from that very Epitome of Sylvester , which makes mention of that Appeal of Luther to a Council , and from the Marginal Notes that Luther made upon that , which also make mention of those decisions of Lovain and Cologn . It is then a false report of an Enemy of Luther , who not being able to find any thing till then blameable in his Conduct , has on purpose confounded those times to render him odious , and to justify , after some manner , a proceeding that cannot be defended . They know not how to deny , that the violence which they used against him , was not openly condemned , not only by the common people , but by the more wise and knowing Persons themselves . He complained , says Coclaeus , that is to say , one of his most fiery Enemies , that he was unjustly oppressed by his adversaries , whom he openly produced , and gained to himself in a little time the favours not only of the simple people , who easily believed him , and who listned after all sorts of Novelties ; but that also of divers grave and learned men , who giving credit to his words , through an ingenuous simplicity , thought that that Monk had no other end , than defending the Truth against the Questors of Indulgences , who as Luther accused them , appeared to have a greater zeal for the drawing of Money to themselves , then for procuring , the good of Souls . He adds , That the Learned men , Poets and Orators , defended him , and charged the Pretats and the Divines with Covetousness , Pride , Envy , Barbarousness , and Ignorance ; saying that they only persecured Luther for his Learning , because he appeared to be more Learned than themselves , and more free in speaking the Truth against the cheats and impostures of Hypocrites . Some time after that Luther had appealed from the Pope to a Council , the Emperour Maximilian dyed , which obliged Leo to send Charles Miltit into Germany in the Quality of his Nuntio . He presented a golden Rose to the Elector of Saxony , which the Pope had sent him as a Token of his particular Friendship , but that Present was accompanied with Letters which were sent both to the Prince and his Council , in which the Pope all along requested them , that they would give up Luther into his hands as an Heretick , and a Child of the Devil . Luther has wrote in some part of his works , that Miliet was loaden with sixty six Apostolick Breves , to cause them to be stuck up from place to place , and by that means to conduct him more securely to Rome , in case that Prince Frederick should give him up into his hands . But all those Breves , and all those Letters were to no purpose ; for that Prince would not leave Luther to so unjust a Passion . This oblig'd Miltit to betake himself to other measures : He thought that to make up that business , he ought to take a course contrary to that of Violence and Authority . He would then have some private conferences with Luther to reconcile him to the Pope , he highly blamed the lewd conversations of the Sellers of Indulgences , and perswaded Luther to write yet once more to the Pope with respect and submission , and yet notwithstanding it was agreed that he should impose silence on both Parties , and that the whole business should be committed unto some Bishop of Germany , as to him of Treves , or to him of Saltzburg . Luther performed on his part in good earnest all that was agreed on ; he wrote to Leo with all the respect imaginable , and let him see that the Questors , and those who had till that time upheld them , had dishonoured his See and his Church ; that as to himself , he found himself very unhappy to see that their Calumnies should have prevailed over his Innocence , and he further offered to give over that matter of Indulgences , and wholly to be silent in it , provided that his Adversaries should do the like . But whether it was that all that Negotiation of Miltit was but feigned on his part , or that in effect his counsel was not approved by those of his Party , as Luther himself insinautes , it is certain that from the time that that Letter had been drawn from him , George Duke of Saxony , a Prince that stuck very close to the Interests of the Pope , desired that he would make a publick Disputation at Leipsic upon the matters in controversy ; the dispute was managed , the beginning between Eccius and Carolostad concerning Free-will and Grace , but they drew in Luther himself upon the subject of Indulgences , of Purgatory , and the Power of the Pope . And they procured almost at the same time from the Universities of Cologn and Lovain , a condemnation of divers Articles drawn out of his Books . He defended himself against these new Adversaries , and made the World see by his publick writings the truth of his Doctrine , and the injustice of those Condemnations . But within a little after , Pope Leo being unwilling to try any thing further , published his terrible Bull of Excommunication against him , which they call the Bull Exurge ; There , after having earnestly importuned Jesus Christ , Saint Peter and Saint Paul , with all the Saints in Paradise , to come to the succour of the Church of Rome , he sets down in particular one and forty Articles of Luthers Doctrine , which he declared to be respectively pestilent , destructive , scandalous , false , heretical , offending pious Ears , seducing Souls , and contrary to the Catholick Truth , and to the Charity , to the respect and obedience that was owing to the Church of Rome , which is the Mother of all the Faithful , and the Mistriss of the Faith ; and as such severally , he condemned them , disproved them , rejected them , and declared that they ought to be rejected by Christians of both Sexes . He forbad all Bishops , Patriarchs , Metropolitans , and generally all Church-men , and Kings , the Emperour , the Electors , Princes , Dukes , Marquesses , Earls , Barons , Captains , &c. and in a word , all sorts of men , to hold those Articles , or to favour them in any manner what soever , under the penalty of Excommunication , and being deprived of their Lands and of their Goods , and treated as infamous Hereticks , favourers of Hereticks , and guilty of High Treason . And as to Luther , he complained of him , that he would not come to Rome , where he would have let him have seen that he had not done so much evil as he believed , and he agravated it as a great rashness in him to have appealed to a Council , against the Constitutions of Pius the Second , and of Julius the Second , who would have those punished as Hereticks that made such appeals . That therefore he condemned as Hereticks , him , and all his Adherents , if in the space of fifty days they did not renounce all their Errours ; he forbad all Christians to have any Commerce or Conversation with them , or to yeild them any necessary things , and gave his Orders to the Emperour , to Kings and Princes , &c. to seize their Persons , and to send them to Rome , promising great rewards to those who should do so good a work . Luther , some time after , wrote against that Bull , and appealed afresh to a Council lawfully called ; notwithstanding he justified himself with great solidity about all those condemned Articles . And it is pertinent to note , that among those Articles that the Pope Anathematized as Heretical , or Rash , or Scandalous , and contrary to the Catholick Truth , these following Propositions might be found : That , that Proverb was most true , that said , That the best Pennance is a good Life , that it would be very well if the Church in a Council should ordain that the Laity should receive the Communion in both kinds . That the Treasure of the Church , from whence the Pope drew his Indulgences , is not the Merits of Jesus Christ and the Saints . That the Bishop of Rome , the Successour of Saint Peter , is not the Vicar of Jesus Christ over all the Churches of the world , nor that there was any one established by Jesus Christ himself in the Person of Saint Peter . That it is not in the power of the Church or of the Pope , to make Articles of Faith , nor to establish new Laws for Manners or for good Works . That tho' the Pope should hold with a great part of the Church , an opinion , which should not it self be erronious , yet it would not be a sin or an heresy to hold a contrary opinion , especially in things not necessary to Salvation , until a General Council should have disproved the one and approved of the other ; that the Ecclesiastical Prelats and Secular Princes , did not do ill when they abolished the Order of begging Friers . That Purgatory could not be proved by the Holy Canonical Scripture . These Propositions are declared to be either pestilent , or pernicious , or scandalous , or heretical , without specifying any one in particular , for the Pope speaks of them only in the whole , that they are such . So it was that Leo and all his Court managed those matters . To affirm that a true amendment of Life , a holy and sincere return from Vice to Vertue , is the best of all Pennances , appeared to be a detestable crime to them . To wish that a General Council might establish the Communion of the Eucharist , according to the Institution of Jesus Christ and the Custom of the Primitive Church , was such an abomination with them , as was thought sufficient to deserve the Flames . Not to beleive that the Merits of Jesus Christ and of the Saints , made up a certain Treasure , which neither Faith nor Holiness , nor Repentance could give the Faithful any part of , but which were to be dispenced only by the way of Indulgences for money , pass'd in their Judgments for a Hellish Heresie . To hold that our Faith has nothing else but the Word of God for its object , and not that of men also , and that God alone can impose moral Laws on the Conscience , was in their opinion , an astonishing wickedness . To believe that one may without Herefy hold an opinion contrary to that of the Pope , in matters not necessary to Salvation , and not determined by any Council , was a pestilent errour . To give the least blow to the interests of Monks , or the Fire of Purgatory , was an horrible sacriledge , for which there was not any remission . After that condemnation , the Pope wrote to John Frederick Elector of Saxony , earnestly entreating him not to give any more protection to Luther , and he sent Hierome Aleander his Nuntio into Germany , to cause that condemnation to be executed . But Aleander not being able to obtain of Frederick what the Pope desired , obliged the Emperour Charles , who had been Elected in the Room of Maximilian , and the Princes assembled at Wormes , to cite Luther to appear before them . The Emperour gave him , to that effect , his Letters of safe Conduct ; and Luther having compared and constantly maintained his Doctrine , without any ways regarding either the threats or the sollicitations of the Partisans of the Court of Rome , they were upon the point to imprison him , notwithstanding the safe conduct of the Emperour , and to treat him as they had heretofore done John Huss and Jerome of Prague in the Council of Constance . But the Elector Palatine vehemently opposing himself to that breach of the publick Faith , they were contented with proscribing him by a publick Edict . In that Edict ▪ they treat him as a Lunatick , as one possest by the Devil , and as a Devil incarnate ; they banish him all the Territories of the Empire , they forbid him Fire and Water , Meat and Drink , they order that his Books should be publickly burnt , and threaten to all that contradict , the most rigorous punishments in the world . After all that , who can say that our Fathers could yet with any shadow of Reason hope for a Reformation on the part of the Popes and the Prelats ? We may see in their Conduct , not only a repugnance to a Reformation , but a setled design , and an unshaken resolution to defend their Errours , Superstitions , and Abuses , of what nature soever they were , and to hazard all , rather then once to consent that the Church should be purged . We may see that they made use of all that the most exact and refined policy could make them contrive of all the Authority that the splendour of their Dignities , and the places which they held could give them amongst men , and of all that force and violence , that the Favour of Princes and the credulity of the people could afford them . They went so far as loudly to declare themselves Lords of mens Faith : They exclaimed , they wrote , they disputed , they accused , they condemned , they terrified , they excommunicated , they had recourse to the secular power ; and could our Fathers , without being blind , look any further for a Reformation from such persons as those ? CHAP. III. That our Fathers , not being able any more to hope for a Reformation , on the part of the Pope , or his Prelats , were indispensably bound to provide for their own Salvation , and to Reform themselves . VVE come now to inquire what our Fathers were bound to do , in so great a Confusion . They were perswaded , not only , that it was possible for the Latin Church to have within it a great many Corruptions and Abuses , but that it really had a very great Company of them ; that false worship , Errors and Superstitions had broke in as an Inundation , upon the Christian Religion , and that those abuses growing more gross , and growing every day more strong , put Christianity into a manifest danger of Ruin : Moreover , there was not any hope of Remedy , either on the part of the Pope , or on the part of the Prelats ; For the Court of Rome with all its Associates , had loudly declared against a Reformation , maintaining that the Church of Rome could not Err , that she was the Mistress of Mens Faith , and not to believe as she believed was a Heresie , worthy of the Flames ; and as to the Prelats , they had all servile obedience to the wills of the Popes , besides that Ignorance , that Negligence , that Love of the things of the World , and those other Vices in which they were plunged . How be it , the business was not about matters of small Importance , nor about the Questions of the School , most commonly unknown to the People , nor about some speculative notions , which could not be of any Consequence to the Actions of true Holiness . The Controversy was about divers things essential to Religion , which not only fell within the knowledge of the People , but which likewise consisted in matters of practice , and which by Consequence being wicked , as our Fathers could make no doubt that they were , could not but be very contrary to the right Worship of God , and mens Salvation . For the debate was about a Religious Worship which they were to give not to God alone , but to Creatures also , to Angels , to Saints , to Images , and to Relicks ; about certain and infallible Springs from whence they ought to draw their Salvation , in building their confidence upon them ; for besides the mercy of God through the Merit and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ , they joyned to that , the merit of our good-works , our own Satisfactions , the over and above Satisfactions of the Saints , and the Authority of the Bishop of Rome in dispencing of Indulgences , They Treated of other works which they held that we ought to do through the Obligation of our Consciences , and with assurance that they were good , and those they made a part of our Sanctification , for they added to those that God had commanded us , those that the Popes and their Prelats commanded out of their meer Authority . They Treated of ill actions , from which we ought to abstain out of the motions of our Consciences , and which one could not commit without sin , for besides those that God had forbidden us , they likewise placed in this Rank , those which it should please the Church to forbid us . They Treated about a certain and infallible Rule of Faith upon which the Minds and Consciences of Christians might stay and rest , for they would have that principle consist in the Interpretations , in the Traditions and Decisions of the Church of Rome or its Prelats . The Controversy was about Jesus Christ himself ; for they said that the Sacrament of the Eucharist was the very Person of the Son of God , and they adored it under that Quality . the Question was about divers Customs , introduced into the publick Ministry , or generally establisht by the Customs of the People that our Fathers thought very contrary to the Spirit of the Gospel , and true Piety . In fine , in all those and other such like things they Treated about the peace and just rights of the Conscience , the glory of God , the hope of Salvation , and the Preservation of the Church of Jesus Christ upon Earth . Let them tell us then precisely what our Fathers ought to have done . Was there any thing in the World of greater concernment then those things which I have set down ? Or to speak better , was there nothing that could any ways stagger them , or hold the minds of all honest men in suspence , for so much as one moment ? Were they bound to renounce their Conscience , their God and their Salvation , under a pretence that the Flatterers of the Church of Rome speak of her , what the Holy Scripture says of the Godhead , That if she pulls down , there is no person that can build up , if she shuts , there is none can open , if she retains the Waters all is dried up , if she lots them out they shall overflow the Earth . Do they believe that , they ought to have precipitated themselves into a inevitable Damnation , and to have precipitated others by their Example , to consent to the Ruin of the Christian Religion , and utter extinction of the Church , and that lest they should have been wanting in that respect , and blind Obedience that the Court of Rome , and its Prelats require of all the World ? This would be in Truth to set that obedience at two high a price , and it would cost us very dear : but they will find but few persons of good understanding , who will not confess that that would be to push on things a little too far . They will say , it may be , that we ought not also to suppose a thing so much in Question ; that that prodigious corruption of the Latin Church whereof we speak , and those pretended Interests of the Christian Religion , and Mens Salvation , which according to us obliged our Fathers to Reform themselves , without having any regard of the Court of Rome or its Prelats , were nothing else but Chimaera's that we our selves have formed at our pleasure , or specious pretences that our Fathers took , for occasions to separate themselves , and that we take after them to defend them with . To answer to this Objection , I will not say , that there is no appearance that our Fathers made use of those motives , as a pretence to cover their other Interests with . They can scarce know how to imagin any interests interwoven in a business that evidently drew after it a Thousand persecutions , and a Thousand afflictions , and wherein they were necessarily to go through the most violent storms , as the sequel will justify . In effect , let them say as much as much as they will that Luther was hurried away by his resentments , it belongs to those who Treated him with so much injustice , to dispute that matter with him before the Tribunal of God , who will one day render to every man according to his works . But as to our Fathers , who had no part in those personal Quarrels , they can no ways be suspected to have had an interest of Passion , or Animosity . I will not likewise say , that if our Fathers themselves had had other interests then those which they have set before us , which is contrary to all appearance , that yet it cannot be said in respect of us , that we do not follow them in the True Faith , since we have had leasure enough to acknowledge what our Reformation has drawn along with it , and what it has cost us . But I will only say , that I make that supposition only to let our Adversaries see , that without amusing us any more with those formalities , and those perplexing ways which they make use of continually which are proper for nothing , but to defend Errors , and to destroy the Church by the Tyranny of those who govern , they ought to come to the bottom , and to Determine with us those Fundamental Articles upon which we ground the right that our Fathers had to Reform themselves . I do not then prejudge any thing by my supposition , I explain only the sentiment of the Protestants , and the perswasion that they entertain . If what they say , is not true , it is certain that they have had Reason to Reform themselves for without any more Reasoning , a man ought always to prefer God , and his own Salvation before a hundred Popes , and before ten Thousand Bishops . We ought then to come to an Examination of those Matters . This is what the Author of those Prejudices , as hot as he is in his Controversy , has been forced to acknowledge . For to disintangle himself from an Argument , to which he says the whole Book of the Apology of Mr. Daille is reducible , [ and which he represents in these words . ] We ought not to remain united to such a Communion as binds us to profess Fundamental Errors against the Faith , and to practise an Idolatrous and Sacrilegious Worship . But the Church of Rome binds us to profess divers fundamental Errors , and to practise Idolatrous and Sacrilegious Worship diverse ways , as in the Adoration of the Host , &c. Therefore we ought not to remain in her Communion , &c. ] He distinguishes between two sorts of Separation , one of which he calls simple and Negative , which , says he , consists more in the Negation of certain Acts of Communion , then in Positive Acts against that Communion from which we separate . The other he calls a Positive Separation , which includes the Erecting of a separate Society , the Establishing of a new Ministry , and the positive Condemnation of the former Communion , to which it had been Vnited . Upon that Distinction , he says , That it is to no purpose that the Calvinists say , That their Consciences will not any more allow them to be united with the Catholicks sheltring themselves under that Ambiguous Term of Vnion , That their Consciences cannot any further hinder them from taking part in some Actions , which their false Principles make them look upon as criminal ; but they would no ways engage them to all those excesses to which they are carri'd out . That in fine , if it were true , that without betraying your Consciences , they could not give that honour which we pay to the Saints and their Relicks , they ought to content themselves not to give it . But that it will in no wise follow from thence , that they ought to go about to set up a body apart . That it is this latter sort of Separation whereof they accuse us , and that it is that kind of it that we ought to justify our selves from . And a little lower , If says he , the Calvinists should make what suppositions they pleased upon the State of the Church of Rome , if they should as much as they had a mind to do , accuse it of Error , and Idolatry ; it would be enough to Answer them in one word , That if those pretended Errors should give them any right to refuse to profess them , and to practise those actions which should include them , yet they no ways gave them any night to set up themselves against the Church of Rome , to anathematize her , to set up a body a part , and to take to themselves the Quality of Pastors , although they had neither Authority nor Mission . I do not now meddle with that positive Separation , which the Author of the Prejudices makes so great a Crime in us . We shall shew in the end , that our Fathers did nothing in that respect , but what they were bound to do in their Consciences , and with the neglect of which they could not dispence without Sin. But this we shall come to consider in its proper place , it may be enough for us at present , to know , that with the consent of the Author of Prejudices we may suppose it as a thing indisputable , That our Fathers , obeying the Dictates of their Consciences , had right to resuse to profess those Errors , in which they believed the Church of Rome to be entangled , and no more to take any part in certain actions that involved those Errors . I profess it were desirable that the Author of Prejudices had told us a little more clearly his own thoughts of that Negative Separation ; But howsoever he has carried himself in his Expressions , I may say , if I am not mistaken without fear of any opposition , that that which he has here granted us is not one of those Concessions , which are sometimes given to adversaries , only to cut off the Dispute ; but that indeed he has spoken according to his real thoughts . For when in a Controversy of this nature a man distinguishes about this general Thesis ; That one ought to separate from a Church which binds one to profess Error , in noting , that it may be said in two sences , the one That one ought to separate ones self Negatively , in not medling with that which would wound the Conscience : and the other , That one ought to separate positively , that is to say , that one ought to set up a Society separate from that , and to establish a new Ministry . That he quitted the former sence , in saying only , that it was very ill applied to the Catholick Church , restrained himself only to the latter , that he would say , that it was this latter kind of Separation whereof he accused us , and about which we ought to justify our selves , that our Consciences could not any further hinder us , then from taking part in those actions which our Principles should make us look on as Criminal ; that if we could not without betraying our Consciences , render that Honour to Saints and Relicks which they give them , we ought to content our selves with not doing it . When a man , I say , speaks as the Author of Prejudices after this manner in the heat of a dispute , which he believes to be as weighty as that ; there is a great likelyhood , that it is not a meer condescending to his adversaries , but a true and lively expression of that which he finds in himself to be very Just and Reasonable . Howsoever it be , without informing our selves further about a thing wherein we are little concern'd , we will suppose it , since he will have it so , as a proposition not to be disputed , That our Fathers could lawfully seperate from the Church of Rome , by a Negative Separation , that is to say , in not to taking any part in that which would wound their Consciences . But that signifies , in our stile , that they had right to reform themselves , since we call nothing else precisely Reformation , but that publick Rejection , which they made of divers things , which they judged to be ill , and contrary to Christianity . Whether they did ill to go further and to proceed to a Positive Separation , that is a Question apart , which does not in the least hinder , that their Reformation taken only as a Negative Separation , might not have been done with Justice and according to that right , that Conscience gives to every man. But now , methinks , this point being so well clear'd , clears a multitude of others , and we may , by that concession of the Author of Prejudices , very well decide some Questions . In the first place , They ought no further to set before us that absolute obedience to the Orders and decisions of the Church of Rome in the matters of Faith and Worship , to which they would hitherto have all the Faithful indispensably obliged . For if those , whose Consciences shall tell them , that , That Church binds them to believe Errors and to practise a false worship , may refuse to profess to believe those Errors , and to performe that Worship , who sees not that that absolute obedience is overthrown ? Since it will depend on the dictates of the Conscience of every one , and that the Conscience of each one will give it its bounds , and suspend it , in respect of some certain things and actions . 2. The Church of Rome can no more treat those as Disobedient and Rebellions , who through the dictates of their Consciences refuse to profess to believe that which she decides and to practise that which she ordains , nor persecute them as such , and whatsoever she should make them suffer upon that pretence of Rebellion and Disobedience , would be but an unjust persecution , of which she will be bound to give an account to God and men . 3. They cannot also any farther demand of us what Call our Fathers had to reform themselves , that is to say , to reject their Superstitions , and the Errors which were to be found in the Church of Rome in their days ; for they needed nothing else but the motions of their Consciences to give them a Right to refuse to profess them . 4. They ought also to acknowledge that the Authority of the Church , how great soever it may be , is it yet far less then that of the Conscience , since it is not only limited , but surmounted , and that whensoeveer they should be in oppositian , a man would have right to leave the Authority of the Church , and to follow his Conscience . 5. And since even an erronious Conscienes , such as the Author of the Prejudices supposes ours , and that of our Fathers to be , could suspend Acts , commanded by the Church , it follows necessarily from thence , that to reconcile the Church and the Conscience when they should be set in opposition , we must come to the Foundation , and discuss the things themselves , for there is no other way to free the Conscience from Errors . And how much more are we obliged to do it , when the Church abuses her Authority , in teaching those things which are really false , or in commanding those actions which are indeed unjust and criminal . All then depends on the discussion of those matters by themselves . But , they will say , your Fathers ought to have been contented to have made use of their rights , each one in particular , they could have kept themselves from making any profession of believing those pretended Errors , and not have taken any part in those actions which they disapproved , and yet nevertheless have kept silence . Wherefore did they disturb the publick peace by their Tumults ? Why did they divulge by their out-cries the Judgment which they made of the Tenets and Customs of their Church ? Did they not in that , sin against that respect which they owed to their Prelats , and that Charity which they owed to their Brethren ? To answer to this Objection , I say , That the keeping silence is not always equally just , it has its bounds and its measures according to the weight of the things that are treated of , and to the Circumstances of Times and Persons . If the business had been only about some meer Questions of the School , upon points of Speculation , or about some unprofitable Ceremonies , or some bad order in the Government , or even about some popular Superstitions , which should not have proceeded so far as to corrupt the saving Efficacy of the Gospel , I confess our Fathers had been more obliged to have kept silence , then to have encountred their Prelats , and raised those troubles through the diversity of their Opinions . The Love of Peace , respect for Order Christian Charity , bidds us to bear things of that nature well , which we do not so well approve of our selves , and even there to follow the Fashion as far as we can , without wounding our Consciences , and if we happen to speak or write of them , it ought to be done in a gentle and prudent manner , with a regard had to the Times , and the dispositions of Men , always remembring that the Church of God will never be in a State of compleat perfection upon Earth , and that God himself bears with the defects of his Children through his mercy . But we ought also to take heed how we stretch the keeping of that silence too far ; for there are certain Seasons , wherein one cannot hold one's peace , without betraying of God , without weakly abandoning the true interests of the Church , and without falling into that detestable Sin , which Saint Paul calls , holding the Truth in unrighteousness . Such was the Time of the Triumph of Arrianism , in the fourth Centuey , for there the matter being a capital Heresy , which had then took hold of the publick Ministry , there was not any more place for silence , there was a necessity on the contrary of crying out , and of crying very loud , without any regard had either to the compleasance which they owed to their Brethren , or to the Love of peace , or the Dignity of the Prelats , or the Authority of Councills , or to all those false reasons of silence which humane prudence ordinarily suggests . Therefore it was , that a simple Monk of those Times , called Aphraates , although he neither had any other Call , or Office , then that of the concern that every one has for the Conservation of the Truth , yet could not contain himself within his Cell , nor be hindered from opposing himself with all his might to that Heresy ; and the Emperor Valens , who favoured the Arrians , having check't him for that boldness , in telling him , that he ought to have kept himself in his Cell , and to have applied himself only to pray to God , according to the Conditions of that Religious Life into which he had entred , Aphraates answered him , If I were a maid , and should keep my Chamber with my Father , and if I should see Fire take hold of the House , should I not be bound to go out of my Chamber , and run on every side to bring water to put out the Fire . Meaning by that , That when the safety of Christianity was in danger of being destroyed , it was a Crime to hold ones peace and sit still in quiet . But this is exactly the Case wherein our Fathers found themselves . For they beheld the Christian Religion , and by consequence , The Latin Church ready to be Ship-wrackt , as a Vessel that takes in water on every side . They saw in that miserable Church , Divinity falsified and corrupted by a thousand vain and ridiculous Questions . The Schools infected with the Art of Sophistry and Cheats , the Pulpits prostituted to Tales , Jests and Legends , Benefices filled with persons unworthy and uncapable . Church Dignities sold to those who bid highest , good Learning banisht , and persecuted , Religion loaded with a rabble of childish Ceremonies , the People abused by a thousand Follies , Church-Government changed into an intolerable Oppression . The Worship of God transferred to Creatures , and even to those Creatures that were dead and insensible , the saving Truths of the Gospel neglected , Errors and Fancies of Mens minds Preached up in stead of them . The Study of the Holy Scripture abandoned , the Actions of true Piety , altered by false Ideas , the Commands of God broken , his Soveraign Authority usurped , his mercy set in partnership with Satisfactions of men , his Laws associated with the Laws of men , and his Grace with our Free-will , the only Sacrifice of his Son multiplied , the Vertue of his Intercession communicated to Saints and Angels . The Substance of Bread adored as his Divine Body , his Soveraign Prophetick and Kingly Offices Transported to the Pope , and his Priestly to the Priests , his Sacraments altered , his clearest words eluded by their Glosses , and rash Distinctions , and his Ministry changed into a Despotick Empire over mens Consciences . In a word , they saw nothing that remained intire in that Religion . Whether their Sentiments , in that regard , were just or unjust , Reasonable , or ill grounded , it is what a discussion will justify , when they will seriously come to consider it . But nevertheless our Fathers were perswaded of all that which I have mentioned , and under that perswasion who can doubt that they ought not to have loudly declared themselves , and that a deep silence would not have rendred them Criminal before God and men ? And they were the more Obliged to speak , in that as we have shewn in the foregoing Chapter , they had nothing more to look for from their Prelats , and in that the injust and violent Proceedings of the Court of Rome against Luther , made them sufficiently know that the Evil was not to be Remedied on that side , and that the Time for each man to Reform himself , was already come . CHAP. IV. That our Fathers had a Lawful and Sufficient Call to Reform themselves , and to Labour to Reform others . ALthough this Question about the Call of our Fathers for a Reformation , is already sufficiently decided , by what I have before Represented , since they cannot require a more lawful Call , then that which is founded upon the indispensable Obligation of our Salvation , I shall not fail notwithstanding , to Treat of this matter yet a little further , to omit nothing that may serve for our Justification . I say then , that the chief thing that ought to be done to make a right Judgment of a Call , in the business of Religion , is to search into what nature those Actions are of , about which it is engaged , whether they be just or unjust , good or ill in themselves ; for there cannot be the least lawful Call for that which is ill , but there is always one naturally for what is good , which I shall name a Call of things , to distinguish it from that Call of persons whereof I shall speak in the sequel . But now upon this Principle , which to me seems indisputable , we have little else to do , then to demand of our Adversaries whether they do not believe , that as it is naturally just to embrace and to defend the Truth , so also that 't is as just to reject and oppose Errors , and to banish them not only out of that Society wherein a man is , but even out of the world it self as much as it lies in his power to do : We need , I say , but only to demand of them , whether they believe not , That a Falshood has not in its own nature any right to be believed , or to be taught , and that it is for that Reason , that she makes use of the Colours of Truth , to make her self to be received under another Name then her own , because that when she appears in her natural dress , it excites , or at least it ought to excite the hatred and aversion of men . I know very well that all Falshoods do not equally deserve that Aversion , and that there are some that may appear indifferent enough in comparison of others , but I say that there are also some , of which one can't tell how to pass so favourable a Judgment . Errors in Religion have a far different Character from those in Philosophy , and in Religion it self those which always when they arrive vitiate the mind and heart , are far more odious then those which do not deprave the mind ; and those which hinder all the saving Essicacy of the Gospel are infinitely more so ; how much more when they are gathered together to an exceeding great number , and mutually uphold and sustain one another , not unlike those black Clouds which in the most Stormy days of Winter joyn themselves one to another to make up but one general one , and to deprive us of the light of the Sun. Hitherto , possibly they will not contest any thing . But if it be reasonable enough that there should be no quarrel made about those general Propositions , they ought not further to make any in this particular Question , if the Actions of our Fathers were in their own nature good and just , since we suppose , not only , that those things which they rejected and caused others to reject , were Errors , but also that they were Capital Errors of that last sort which I spoke of just before , which one cannot look on without dread and amazement . For it is upon that supposition that we defend our Fathers , and if they dispute it with us they ought to quit this dispute about Forms , and to enter upon a Discussion of the very Foundation it self . They may alleadge , that they had a long continued possession , in favour of those things which our Reformers opposed ; since they were found establisht in the Church many Ages ago ; and that , as in a Civil Society , the Laws forbid those to be molested , who are in a long and Antient possession , and to be bound to produce their first Title , though at the same time it should be maintained , that they are Usurpers . So also our Fathers ought not to be heard any further , against the Sentiments and Customes which the Times had in some sort consecrated and made venerable . But this Answer will be of no Use to them ; for not to alleadge here , That the greatest part of those Opinions and Practises were new , enough as has been sufficiently Justified ; not to say , that they had been publickly disputed , and by consequence , That that possession whereof they speak was not peaceable : Who knows not , that there can be nothing prescribed in matters of Faith and Worship against the True Religion , since that Religion is of God in all its parts , and that there is neither any Time , nor Custom , nor possession that can make a true thing of a false , or a Divine institution of a humane Tradition , or any Vertue of a Vice ? In a Civil Society , Laws Establish Prescriptions with very good Reason , because without them , the peace of the Community , which is the only end that those Laws propound to themselves , cannot be well preserved . But in a Religious Society , the principal end is the Glory of God and Salvation of the Faithful , which are two things that are established on certain Perpetual , and Invariable Foundations , and by consequence have no respect to any long prepossessions on the contrary side how Antient soever they may have been . If Religion were capable of any such Prescriptions ; Christianity would be bound to let Paganism alone , for how long time past has Paganism been seated in the Possession of the Faith of men ? Saint Paul himself acknowledges it in those very places wherein he exhorts such to be Converted . Turn you , says he , from these Vanities unto the living God who made Heaven and Earth , who in Times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways , and elsewhere , God having winked at the Times of Ignorance commands now all men every where to Repent . They cannot therefore bring any thing of Prescription against us , and it will always remain certain , that , if that which our Fathers have said concerning the Corruption of the Latin Church in their days be true , as we suppose it to be , the Reformation was an Action good and just in it self , and by Consequence in that respect , they can have nothing to say against their Call to it . But as it is not enough to establish a Lawful Call , to suppose that what is done is good in it self , and as it is further necessary that the person that does it should have right to do it , it remains yet to be further inquired into , whether our Fathers had power to do what they did . For how many Actions are there that are just in themselves which it does not belong to all the World to do , and which then become unjust and ill , when every one thrusts himself in of his own Authority without being lawfully called ? It is not permitted , for Example , to all the World , to punish the wicked , although that punishment might be just , it is not permitted to all men to change publick Customs , although those changes should be good and advantageous to the Society . We ought then to see what Call our Fathers had to Reform themselves , and others . But this Question would be easily decided , if it be considered , that in all Societies there are two sorts of Common Actions , the one fort of those that are so Common , as to belong to all the Body taken Collective as they speak in the School , and not to each particular person . So in a Parliament , to pronounce a Sentance , to absolve a man , or to condemn him , they are the Actions of the whole Body , and not of each of those who compose it , so , to declare War and to make peace , are the Acts of him or those who hold all the Rights of the State in their hands . But there are other Actions which are so Common in a Society , as to belong to each particular person , or as they say to all Distributive , and not to all Collective . So , to give ones advice in an Assembly , is the Act , not of the whole Body , but of each particular person who composes it ; and to live in a Kingdom , to contract Alliances , to possess one's goods , to labour , to defend one's self against the incommodities of Life , are Actions so Common , as to belong to all particular Persons . And so the Civilians have very well distinguished , in saying , that there are some Acts which respect , Omnes ut singulos , and that there are others , which belong ad Omnes ut universos . To Apply that Distinction only to our present Subject , I say , that in Religious Society which is the Church , Faith , Piety , Holiness , and by Consequence the Rejecting of Errors , of false Worship , and of Sins , are those common Actions that belong to all private men . The Just Lives by his Faith , says the Scripture , and as it would be ridiculous to demand of any man in a Civil Society , what Personal Call he had to live , to labour to avoid that which would be hurtful to his Life , and to have a care of his own preservation , so it is also an Absurdity to demand of our Fathers , what call they had to believe aright in God , to worship him purely , and to remove far from them , all that which they believed to be contrary to a Spiritual-Life and their own Salvation : For they need not for that , any other Call , then the Obligation that lies upon every one to save himself , and the necessity of beating back all that which would oppose it self to so just an Obligation , There are not in a Civil Society any certain Select Persons , who only have a right to Live , to Act , and to labour for others , whilst those others should be dead , or not able to move . So also there are none in a Religious Society , who ought to believe and to be good for others , whilst those others should remain in ignorance or in sin ; and that Implicit Faith , which some have invented , by which a man is to believe in general that which the Church believes , to go no further , is in truth the most Commodious way of all others for those men who have something else to do then to serve God ; but it is also most proper for the Damnation of men . Faith then is a thing so common as to belong to particular Persons , she is so one in the whole Body of the Church , as to distribute her self to each one , and one could not be of that Body of the Church , if one were not a believer , as one could not be of the Body in a Civil Society , if one were not a man and had not Life . So , each man , has not only a personal Call , but lies also under an Obligation to believe , and to live as a good Christian , whence it follows , that each man has a Call to remove far from him all that he shall judge to be contrary to the Truth of his uprightness , Faith , and Piety , as also that being under an Obligation to live Holily , and Justly , he has a Call to avoid Sins , and to repent of them when soever he shall commit them . But is not this , some will say , to rend the Church by Divisions , and to make ones self guilty of a Schism , so to reject , out of self-will , the common Sentiments and Customes , without the consent of the whole Society ? No certainly , for the true Union of the Church does not consist in holding of Errors , how common soever they may be , nor in any false-worship , after what manner soever it be Established . These things do not only , not belong to a Christian Communion , but they destroy it , as diseases , how popular and general soever they may be , do bring nothing but desolation on a Civil Society , instead of being the Bonds to Unite it . So the Union of the Church doth not bind any person in that respect ; on the contrary , it engages us to shew our Brethren a good Example in beginning to Reform by our selves . For the greater Love any one has for the Church , the more he ought to free it from those evils that press in upon it , and especially then when those evils shall put it into a manifest danger of Ruin. If it is so , our Adversaries will yet further reply , Is not that some way to break that Communion , when those things that you renounce , are Publick and common ? I confess , that it is to break a Society , but a bad Society , which being against the right of Christianity , gives no lawful Call to any person to enter into it , or to defend it , but on the contrary , she gives a Call to all , and binds them at the same time to break and oppose it . A Corrupted Church has two bonds of its Communion , the one consisting in what is good , the other in what is ill , the one of which makes it to be a Church , the other a Corrupted Church , the one binding not only men among themselves , but with God also , and the other , that in Uniting men among themselves , tends to divide and separate them from God. The former of those bonds ought to be regarded , and preserved intire , as much as lies in our power , but the Second is a mortal bond , which no person has a right to make , and which all men have a Call and Obligation to dissolve . It is as certain , that the first of those bonds gives us a right , and Call to Act against the other ; for Truth and Piety Authorise us against Error and Superstition , and it is the Love that we bear to the Church that opens our mouths against its Corruptions . There can then be nothing further contested about the personal Call of our Fathers concerning their own Reformation . But had they any Right to Labour in the Reforming of others ? Who can doubt it ? Charity would have bound them to procure that good for others , which they had thought it their duty to procure for themselves . That Christian Communion in which they lived among their Brethren , did not less oblige them to it . The Interest of the Glory of God which appeared to them to cry loudly for a general Reformation urged them on to it , and their own Innocence exacted it of them that they should make it appear to the Eyes of the Publick , in laying open the Foundations of those Errors , which they were constrained to forsake , which could not well have been done without exhorting others to imitate them . Being then bound to all these Duties , none can deny , that they had not a sufficient Call to stir up their Brethren to Reform themselves with them . That which I have said will appear more evident , if we pass on to the Consideration of the Circumstances of the Reformation , for we have already seen after a long and vain Expectation , there could be nothing more hoped for on the side of Rome or its Prelats . We have seen also that the evils whereof our Fathers made such Complaints , and which they would have cured , did not lye in things indifferent , that were trivial or tolerable , but in the very Essentials of Religion ; and these two Circumstances added to what I have just before represented , let us see that our Fathers were not only in the right , and not only under an Obligation , but under a necessary and indispensable Obligation to do that which they have done . I confess that if the Court of Rome and its Clergy would have laboured in good earnest for a Reformation , it had been the Duty of our Fathers to have received it from their hands ; for how rude and corrupt soever their Call had been , that Action had rectified it . I confess also that if the Dispute had been only about things of small imporstance , our Fathers had done better to have kept themselves quiet , as I have acknowledged in the foregoing Chapter . But they can alleadge neither the one nor the other ; for Rome and its Bishops were obstinate in the design to Reform nothing , and matters were reduced to the very utmost extremity , so that the Call of our Fathers appears yet more indisputable , being grounded on these three Foundations , of Right , of Obligation , and Necessity , and that same Necessity was so much the greater , as the evil was more inveterate , and had spread it self almost over all the parts of the Body of the Church to which those words of Isaiah might be generally applied . From the Crown of the head to the sole of the foot there was no soundness in her . But if any would have us yet further Examine the other Circumstances , they will find that they all concur to establish that Call whereof we Treat : I rank in this place all those extraordinary Qualities wherewith it pleased God to inrich those among our Fathers who contributed most of all to the work of the Reformation . Who may not perceive in them a lively and penetrating understanding , a solid Judgment , an exquisite and profound knowledge , an indefatigable propension to Labour , a wonderful readiness to compose and to deliver , an exceeding exact study of the Scripture , and the Principles of the Christian Religion , a great and resolute Soul , an unshaken courage , an upright Conscience , a sincere love of the Truth , an ardent zeal for the Glory of God , a solid Piety , without Hypocrisie , and without Pride , a plain and open Carriage , an intire disengagement from the things of the World , an admirable confidence in God , and in his Providence , a Cordial Friendship to all good men , and the greatest aversion to the Vices , Prophanation , and Sophistry of others ? These were the Gifts and Talents wherewith the Divine Favour Honoured the greatest part of them , there yet remains the liveliest Characters of them in their Writings , and they were as the Seal wherewith God would confirm their Call. For when his Wisdom designs persons to any great work , it is wont to bestow on them those necessary qualifications to acquit themselves in it , and we may say without fear of being charged with derogating from the Truth by those who know History , that from the Sixth Age until that of our Fathers , that is to say , for the space of more then nine hundred Years , there could not be found any space of Time so fertile in great men , as that of the Reformation was which shews that God had a design to make use of them for that Work , as the event has justified . Add to all that , The Ardent and almost Universal desire among the People to see a good Reformation spring up in the Church ; for even that is a yet further Seal to the Call of the Reformers , in as much as it is a Testimony that God had markt out that Age wherein to purge his floor , as the Scripture speaks . Who knows not that that desire was such , as neither the Artifices , nor the Violences , nor the Calumnies wherewith they laboured to darken the Reformation , could wholly put a stop to . The Church was left in Ignorance , and in Superstition , she panted after the Light of the Gospel , which had been for so long a Time hid under a dark vail , and that general Disposition wherein she was , may let us see that the Time of her Deliverance was come . But , lastly , is it not true , that then the greatest part of those who laboured in that Reformation , were Ecclesiastical persons , whom the Duty of their place obliged more particularly then others , to root out Errors from the minds of men , to purify Religion , and to endeavour that God should be worshipped according to his Will ? Every one knows that Luther , and Zuinglius who appeared the first in that Great Work , were not only Priests , but ordinary Preachers also , the one at Wittenburg , and the other at Zurich , and that the former was Professour in Divinity . And they are not ignorant that those who joyned themselves to them to advance that design , were also in Publick Offices in the Church , as the whole University of Wittenburg , a very great Number of Priests , and other Church-men , with Bishops , and Arch-Bishops in Germany , in Swedeland , and in Denmark , and some even in France , and the whole Body of Bishops in England . They will say , it may be , that the Pope Excommunicated them all , whence it follows that they had no more either any publick Call , or lawful Ministry . But that Answer would be fallacious ; For the Pope having Excommunicated them for nothing else , but that business of the Reformation , his Excommunication can be considered no otherwise then as null in this Cause , without an Obligation to enter upon an Examination of the Validity of his Thunders in general . In effect , if they did their Duty , if they obeyed their Call in Reforming themselves , and in reforming their Flocks , it ought not to be questioned , that those Excommunications which they suffered for so good a Cause , did not fall , of right , upon those who unjustly pronounced them , and that not only what our Reformers had done before , but also what they did afterward , was well and lawfully done . Who can deny that an Excommunication contrary to the Glory of God , to the good of the Church , and to the Salvation of men , should not not be Null ? But if the Reformation was just , and the Glory of God , the good of the Church and the Salvation of the People called for it , as we suppose they did in this Dispute , they may very well see that the Thunders of Rome , upon this Subject are unjust , and by consequence of no consideration . They ought not then to propound things so to us , nor to deny the first Reformers to be publick persons who had a part in the Ministry of the Church , and who for that Reason had a most strict Obligation to Labour in the Re-establishment of its Purity . And to declare what we think ; those Excommunications of the Popes were so far from diminishing the Right and Call of the first Reformers , that they did on the contrary confirm them the more , and that for two Reasons . The one , in that they made them see more and more , that they could hope for nothing on the part of Rome , or the Bishops of its side , from whence there arose an indispensable necessity on our Fathers to employ themselves in it ; and the other , in that those pretended Excommunications furnisht them also with a just Subject , of laying open more and more to the Eyes of the people , the gross and fundamental Errors , whose Protection the Popes took up with so great an Ardour . To which I add , That as much as the Popes and the Prelats of their party opposed themselves to the Reformation , so much they lost of that Right which yet remained to them in that publick Ministry , which they abused with so great Injustice , and that very thing did but strengthen the Right of the other Party , and render their Ministry more Publick and more Lawful . For in those contests that divide a Body or a Society , that which one of the parties loses by its ill Conduct , is re-assembled together and reunited in the other . But as it is only proper to our present purpose to Treat of the Call that our Fathers had to Reform themselves and to Labour to Reform others , that is to say , meerly to reject Errors , and to excite others to do the same ; and not to go further to talk of their Right , or Call to the publick Ministry ; We ought not to insist more upon this matter , which shall be Treated of in its place . In effect , there are two sorts of Calls which we ought not to confound , That of the Reformation , and that of the perpetual Exercise of the Gospel-Ministry . And the Author of the Prejudices himself seems to have Judiciously enough distinguished them , when he lays down two sorts of Separation , the one Negative , which consists only in a rejecting of those things that are ill ; and the other Positive , which goes so far as to set up a Body apart with the Exercise of the Ministry . We shall therefore speak elsewhere of the Right that our Fathers had to set up a publick Ministry , and it shall suffice for the present to have solidly Established their Call to Reform . To shut up this Chapter , it remains only that we speak a Word to a Question , which they here raise about this Call , in the same sence in which we here consider it ! For they demand of us whether it was Ordinary or Extraordinary ? To which I Answer , That it was both the one and the other , in different respects . It was Ordinary as to its Right , since all men have an Ordinary and perpetual Right to reject Errors , and Superstitions , and to employ themselves in making their Brethren to reject them , according to the Common Laws of Piety , and Charity . The Pastors also have an Ordinary and perpetual Right to do the same Thing , and to make use of that Publick Authority which their Function gives them for the guidance of their Flocks . It was Ordinary as to the Obligation which lay as well upon the People as the Pastors to do that which they did , because it was a Law of Christianity , and not a new Law or Commandment that bound them to it , their Duty was founded upon the principles of that very Gospel , and of the same Christian Religion which Jesus Christ had Founded , and whereof they made a Profession . But I affirm that it was likewise Extraordinary in two things . First of all , in respect of that extream and indispensable Necessity which lay upon them , to do what they did . For although we have always a Right to reject those Errors , and that false Worship which may creep into the Church , and although we should be always bound to make use of it also , if it were so , yet it is not always Necessary to come to the practise , or the Exercise of that Right and of that Obligation , at least to so Publick and Splendid a one as that of our Fathers was , because the Church is not always in a State of Confusion and Disorder , as she was in their Time. Things Ordinarily glide away in a more regulated course ; the Publick Ministry is more pure , and the Gospel more disingaged from the oppression of Traditions , or Humane Superstitions . Secondly , That Call was Extraordinary in respect of those qualities wherewith God invested our first Reformers , and those who joyned with them in so great a work ; for it is not an Ordinary thing to see such eminent gifts , and that in so great a Number , as those which appeared in the Age of the Reformation , accompanied with such an Heroical Spirit , as our Fathers had , and such a great Love for the purity of the Gospel , as the People had , who received their Instructions ; All which constrains us to acknowlede , a particular and special Providence of God , throughout the whole Conduct of that great Divine Work , who raised up Labourers , fitted for the Harvest which he had prepared . CHAP. V. An Answer to the Objections , that are made against the Persons of the Reformers . WE have hitherto , methinks , sufficiently justified the Action of our Fathers in the business of the Reformation . It appears , that they had but too many Reasons to suspect a great Corruption , not only in the Government of the Church , but in the Worship and Doctrines of it also , and too just motives to engage them to make a more particular Examination . It may not less appear by what we have said concerning the Infallibility of the Church of Rome , and that absolute Authority which she ascribes to her self over mens Consciences , that her pretensions have no Foundation , and that all the Faithful have a Right to Judge of the matters of Religion by themselves , and to discern what is good from what is ill . We have seen nevertheless that our Fathers were not moved so publickly to make use of their Right , but by an extream and utmost Necessity , and if they will do them Justice , they ought freely to acknowledge , what the Author of the Prejudices has not dared to deny , that they had a sufficient Call , to go as far , as a Negative Separation , and openly to refuse to believe and to Act , what their Consciences should not allow them to approve . But as that Motion of Conscience was not Universal , or common to all those of their Time , and as it had encountred the interests of a great Body , that was in possession of the Government of the Latin Church , they have laboured to render it odious by all sorts of ways , and even those , who were not able directly to condemn it , have not failed to search out divers pretences to cry it down ; and having nothing to say against their Actions , they have taken up something against their persons . This is that that the most of our Adversaries endeavour with great Care ; this is that , that their Writers of Controversies and Missionaries , who are spread abroad on all sides among us , and who make use of all sorts of ways to gain Proselytes , do , even now , all their days ; and this is that , that the Author of the Prejudices in particular , has done . His Argument may be well nigh reduced to this : That there is no likelyhood that God committed the care of Reforming his Church , to persons whose Life and Conduct was Disorderly and Scandalous . And the Conclusion that he pretends to draw from it is , that we ought to reject , without any further Examination , that Reformation , and to put our selves into the Communion of the Church of Rome . 1. It will be no difficult matter to shew him , that , Blessed be God , we have as to what concerns us , on every side matter of Edification , from the manners of those who were first of all made use of , in so Holy and so Necessary a Work ; and this we shall presently make out . But before I come to that , I am obliged to tell him , that his way of Reasoning , is the most captious and the most contrary to the interests of the true Religion that can be imagined , and that it is contrary even to the Interests of that Church of Rome which it would defend . I say in the first place that it is captious , For since our Fathers Reformed themselves only out of the motion of their Consciences , which dictated to them that they ought to do it for the Glory of God and their own Salvation , how can he pretend that we who have followed them out of the same Reason , can revoke an Action which we believe to be just and lawful , out of meerly Forreign Considerations , taken from the persons of those who excited us to do it , if otherwise it does not appear to us that the Consciences of our Fathers , and our own were deceived , and that our Action is unjust in the Foundation ? If the Law of the Conscience obliges us , and gives us a right to separate our selves , at least Negatively , how can we depart from that Separation on the account of personal Actions , in which neither our Fathers nor our selves have had any part , and which have nothing of common with our Separation ? Our Reformation being good and just , as we are perswaded it is , is it not true , that we ought to hold our selves to it , whatsoever they tell us further of the Passions of Luther , or of the Marriage of some Monks ? These things are wholly separate ; For our Fathers might very well Read the Writings of Luther , and hear the Preaching of these Monks who should discover to them the Abuses of the Church of Rome , they might very well Reform themselves in the end , out of a motion of their Consciences stirred up by their Teachings , without either approving or Canonizing their other Actions . But they will say , to have avoided falling into that motion of Conscience , your Fathers ought not to have heard them . And why ought they not ? That same motion that their Teachings stirred up , and that produced a Reformation , sufficiently notes that they ought . But whether they ought , or whether they ought not , they did hear them , the thing was done ; and that which they heard having caused that Sentiment of their Consciences which obliged them to Reform themselves , we should be impious if we should quit that Reformation , without any ones satisfying us about that Sentiment , or shewing us that it is ill , and fit to be condemned . But that they can never do by those personal Actions which have no Relation to it ; else , they would be bound to condemn the comfort which we every day receive from the Psalms of David , under a pretence that David had committed Adultery with Bathsheba , and to reject that Instruction that we gather from the Books of Solomon , under a pretence that Solomon was not so constant as he ought to have been in the Worship of the True God. There is then nothing else but a Sophism in all that . 2. But if that way of Reasoning is captious , it is not less contrary to the interests of the True Religion , since it would have us Judge of the Reformation , by the Quality of the persons who Preached it , and not by it self or the Nature of the things it Treats of , which would Establish a Principle whose Use could not but be very pernicious to the Church ; For if we ought not to consider its Doctrine in it self , but to judge of it by the Persons who should teach it us , how could any one discern the Angels of Darkness , when they should be disguised into Angels of Light , and be able to know the false Prophets when they should work signs and wonders even to deceive if it were possible the very Elect ? How could any know those Impostors and those Hypocrites , who come in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly are ravening Wolves ? Moreover would it be a hard matter for those men who should be interested against the sound Doctrine to invent a Thousand Calumnies against the persons of the Teachers of it , and how many did they invent in the beginning against the Apostles , and the Primitive Christians , whom they represented to the people as the most wicked among men ? I confess it is a great means of Edification , that those who Preach a good Doctrine confirm it by good Examples , and that on the contrary , it is Scandalous when their works do not correspond with their words . But nevertheless it does not follow , that one ought to receive a Word because it is spoken by persons of an honest life , or to reject it for the contrary Reason ; for this Maxim would make us very often reject Truths and receive Heresies . It is then certain that we ought to examine that Word in it self without any dependance on those who Preach it ; For Truth is not in Men , but in God alone , she cannot change her Nature nor lose her right through the Vices of its Ministers . If our Fathers were Reformed by the Authority of Luther , or by that of Zuinglius and Calvin , they would have some Reason to draw us back to the Examination of their manners , since in that Case , they would treat of that that would either establish or destroy the Right which they would have had to believe their meer words . But how many times have our Fathers and we protested , that we do not believe that which our Reformers said , because they said it , but because they proved it ; and because those things appeared sufficiently evident in themselves . We look upon them only as persons whom God made use of to teach men their Duty ; they discovered it , our Fathers saw it , we see it also , and it is on the sight of this Duty alone , and not on their Authority , that the Reformation depends . As it frequently falls out that our very Enemies make us know our Duty in reproaching us with our faults : suppose we that a Jew or some other Infidel should have accused and convinced the Latins that they had corrupted their Christianity , and had not preserved the Gospel in that State wherein Christ and his Apostles left it , is it not true , that without any regard to the person , the Latins would be bound to do that which our Fathers have done , and that the Quality of him who should have so reproached them , would not have been a sufficient excuse before God , to hinder them from the doing of their duty . It is then very evident that we ought to Judge of those matters by the matters themselves , and not by the persons who teach them to us , and by Consequence , that the Principle of the Author of Prejudices is false and contrary to true Piety . As to what he says , that there is no likelyhood that God has committed the Care of Reforming his Church , to Scandalous Persons ; I answer , that God has committed to all his Faithful , the Care of Reforming themselves , and to all his Pastors that of Exhorting their Flocks . If it falls out , that among those Pastors who have acquitted themselves , in that respect , of their charges , there should have been some few who did Actions worthy to be blamed , that ought not to create any Prejudice against the Word , nor put a stop to the motion of the Consciences of the Faithful , any more then the defection of Saint Peter , or his excessive compliance with the Jews ought to have hindred the Conversion of People to Christianity . The Ministers that God makes use of , are men who have their faults , and faults sometimes of the highest nature , as may appear from the Example of Aaron who encouraged the Israelites in Idolatry , and of Jonas who fled to Tarsis when he was bound to have gone and Preached to Ninive ; but their faults make the word of God lose nothing either of its Truth , or its Authority . 3. It is a very strange thing that the Author of the Prejudices has not taken any heed , in laying down a very bad Argument against us , of furnishing us with a very good one against the Church of Rome in that Estate , wherein it was in the days of our Fathers . For if we ought to Judge of the Doctrine by the Qualities or the Actions of those who Teach it I pray consider , what Judgment could our Fathers make of that Religion that the Court of Rome and its Prelats taught , and whether they had not all the grounds in the World to reform themselves . If there be no likelyhood that God committed the Care of Reforming his Church to persons who were guilty of Scandalous Actions , there is far less that God has given Infallibility , and a Soveraign Authority over mens Consciences to such persons as the Popes and Prelats in the days of our Fathers were , according to the Description which the unsuspected Authors that we have quoted , give us of them , and divers others that we might here add to them if we so pleased . And that which makes these two Arguments differ , is , that his concludes upon a Principle which we maintain to be false and ill ; where ours concludes upon a Principle which he himself admits and acknowledges to be good ; so that in his own Judgment , we have a sufficient Fundation whereon to Establish the Justice of our Reformation . Let us see , nevertheless , of what Nature those Actions are wherewith he reproaches our first Reformers . I will not , says he , stay to examine the Accusations wherewith they have been charged by divers Authors . I do not pretend to detain my self in any but those publick things that are so manifest , and so exposed to the Eyes of all the World. I confess he has Reason , not to stay upon all that which his Passion has invented against them ; for who knows not , that Calumny has no bounds especially when interest and passion stir it up ? Our Reformers are not the only persons who have been attacked after that manner , The Jews said of John the Baptist that he had a Devil , and of Jesus Christ that he was a Blasphemer , a Samaritan , a glutton and a Wine-bibber , a friend of Publicans and sinners . If then they have called the Father of the Family Beelzebub , what will they not say of his Servants ? But what then are those things that are so Publick , so manifest , and so exposed to the Eyes of the whole World , which the Author of the Prejudices has found fit to be insisted upon . That new Gospel , says he , was Preached only out of the mouths of those Monks , who had quitted their habit and their profession , ouly to contract Scandalous Marriages , or from the mouths of those Priests who had violated that Vow of Virginity which the Calvinists themselves confess to have been imposed on all Priests , and on all Monks in the West , by divers Councils , and on all the Monks , and all the Bishops in the East , and the first fruit of this Doctrine was the setting open the Cloisters , the taking off the Vails of the Nuns , the abolishing of all Austerities , and overthrowing of all manner of discipline in the Church . This is that that forces him to say , That the Reformers struck mens Eyes , with a Spectacle that could not but create horrour , according to the common Idea's of Piety and Vertue , whech the Fathers give us . The Author of the Prejudices will not take it ill , that in order to our Answering him , we must put him in mind , what he himself exhorts us to , To Transport our selves into another Time then that wherein we are at present , and to represent to our selves our Separation in its first rise , and during the first years wherein it was made amidst the Switzers and in France . Upon his thus placing us in that State which he desires , we will declare to him , that , The general Depravation which reign'd amidst the Monks and the Priests , is to our Eyes a Spectacle worthy of horror , according to the common Ideas of Piety and Vertue which the holy Scriptures and right Reason give us . We will tell him , that that which Scandalizes us , is to see that for a respect of a purely humane Order , they endured for so long a time a disorder that dishonoured the Latin Church , that drew upon it God's Judgments , and that laid open the Ministry of the Church to an everlasting reproach . It is in the detesting of those Infamies and those Impurities , that the true zeal of Christians ought to consist , and it is to the searching out of a solid remedy for them that one ought to apply the Discipline of the Church , and not to keep them up under a pretence of observing rash Vows and a Caelibasy that God never commanded . If the Author of the Prejudices is more Scandalized to see Priests and Monks Married , then to see them plunged into all the filthyness of Debauchery , I cannot hinder my self from telling him that he makes Christianity a Law of Hypocrisy , and it may be yet somewhat worse ; for Hypocrisy does not content it self with meer Names , she would have fair appearances without , of those things which she really rejects . Whereas for him , he rejects not only the things but their appearances also , suffering patiently the loss of any more seeing either the things , or their appearances , provided we do not meddle with those empty names of Caelibacy and Virginity . But true Moral Christianity inspires other Sentiments , she would have us honour that Caelibacy and Virginity as gifts that come from God ; but she would also have a Contempt and horrour for those specious names when they shall be applyed to those beastlinesses and excesses which both God and Men condemn . She would have us in that Case instead of being Scandalized to see a false Caelibacy made void , and a vain shadow of Virginity abolished , that we should on the contrary be edified to see them got out from those snares of sin , and to have recourse to a lawful Marriage that God has allowed unto all , and that he has even commanded unto those who have not received the gift of Continency . It was in the View of this that our Fathers lookt upon the Marriage of those Priests and Monks as the Abolishing of an unjust Law , contrary to the express words of Saint Paul , if they cannot contain , let them Marry , and which moreover had produced such mischeivous effects as it was no longer possible for them to indure . But , says the Author of Prejudices , we do not intend to speak of the Interests of Families , of Marriage , nor of base and fleshly passions in the lives of those Great Bishops , and all those great men of old , whom God opposed to the Heresies that rose up against his Church , as Saint Cyprian , Saint Athanasius , Saint Basil , Saint Gregory Nazianzen , Saint Jerome , Saint Epiphanius , Saint Chrysostome and Saint Augustine . They were all of them eminent in Sanctity , in a disingagement from Interests ; and continency was always joyned to their Ministry . We may say of that Author , without doing him an injury , that he does not write ill , what he thinks , but that he scarce thinks well , that which he writes , and that which I shall here come to shew is an Example of it ; for he here lays down a great Trifle under the shew of one of the fairest things in the World. Saint Cyprian , Saint Athanasius , and those other Bishops were not Marryed . I see it , but who told him , That they did it by vertue of a general Law that forbad Bishops to be Married ? Who told him , that divers other Bishops , who were not less great then those , for their Sanctity , their disengagement from the interests of the World , never lived in Marriage , as Saint Spiridion , Saint Gregory the Father of Gregory Nazianzen , Saint Gregory Nysscne , Saint Prosper , Saint Hilary , Sydonius Apollinaris , Synesius , Saint Eupsychus of Cesarea and divers others ? Who told him , that Priests were not generally Married in the Primitive Church , whether it were in the East , or in the West , as may be justified by a Thousand Proofs ? And in fine , that they do not vainly wrangle in saying , that those Bishops or those Priests were really Married before their Ordination ; but that they were not during their Prelateship or Priesthood , whether it were that their Wives were dead , and whether they were put away , it is good to Note what the History of Saint Eupsychus of Cesaria in Cappadocia relates , whom Saint Athanasius formally called a Bishop , suffered Martyrdom within a little after his Marriage , being as yet as it seemed in the days of his Nuptials , and what Saint Cyprian relates of Novatus a Priest , who was accused to have kicked his Wife who was great with Child , and to have caused an Abortion ; which evidently concludes the use of Marriage during the Prelateship and Priesthood . What then can the Author of the Prejudices conclude from the Example of Saint Athanasius , and Saint Chrysostome , and those others unmarried unless this , that each one was in that regard in his full liberty , and that as there were some that did marry , so there were also some that did not ? Did he need for so little a matter to declaim Rhetorically , and to set down these great words with an Emphasis , That our Reformers struck mens Eyes with a Spectacle , that could not but Create horrour according to the general Idea's of Piety and Vertue that the Fatheri give us . I shall not say , that the Idea's of Piety and Virtue do not depend on the Fathers , but on the Gospel and right Reason , and that it is by them that we ought to judge the Fathers , and not those by the Fathers . I will not say that the Fathers of the purer Antiquity , are so far from giving us an horrour at the Marriage of Ecclesiasticks , that Chrysostom assures us on the contrary , that what Saint Paul wrote to Titus concerning a Bishops being the Husband of one Wife , he has wrote wholly to stop the months of those Hereticks who condemned Marriage , and to shew that Marriage is not only an Innocent thing but that it is so Honourable also , that according to him it may be elèvated as high as the Episcopal Throne . But I will only say , and I will say it with an assurance of its being approved by all honest and upright men , that the Marriage of Church-men , which of it self is an honest and Holy State practised under the Old Law , practised in the primitive Church , and Authorised by the Scripture , cannot be considered but with the greatest Edification when it shall be set in opposition to the disorders , and filthinesses that Caelibacy has produced , which is but a purely humane Institution , without any lawful Foundation . It belongs therefore to those of the Church of Rome to tell us , whether they are much edified by the lives that their Priests led , in the Age of the Reformation , and by that permission which they gave them , for a Sum of Money , publickly to keep their Concubines . They are to tell us , whether they have no horrour for those strange assertions of their Doctors , That a Priest Sins less who through the infirmity of the flesh falls into the Sin of Fornication , then if he should marry , and that it is a less evil for Priests to burn then to Marry . As for us , we have that general precept of Saint Paul , which has its use as well in respect of Church-men , as others , if they cannot contain let them Marry , and the Doctrine of the same Apostle , Marriage is Honourable in all , or in all things , but the Whoremongers , and Adulterers God will judge . But the Author of the Prejudices says , That the Law of Celibacy , whether it were just or unjust , or whether it did not begin if they will have it so , till Pope Siricius's time , they cannot at least deny , That the spirit of God did not carry out all the Famous Bishops of Old , and those who have been eminent for Sanctity , to imitate Saint Paul , and to follow that Counsel which he gives to renounce Marriage , to set themselves wholly to please God , and that the same spirit did not from the very first Ages of the Church inspire a very great number of Christians of both Sexes to remain Virgins all their Lives , as Saint Justin witnesses , and Origen against Celsus . Whence then comes it to pass that there should have nothing appeared of that instinct , or of those motions of Gods spirit in the pretended Reformers , nor in the Societies which they have established , any more than all those other Graces which shone so Illustriously in the Saints of Antiquity . Here is yet further , another example of that which I said just before , that that Author does not take too much care of that which he writes . For can there be a rasher thing in the World than to offer to thrust ones self into the Counsels of God , and magisterially to decide , what qualities the Reformers ought to have had ? Continency and Virginity are the Cifts that God distributes to men as he pleases , but it is what he has given only to some Persons , it no ways follows either that their Persons were not acceptable to him , nor , that he could not make use of them in the greatest works of his Providence . Abraham , the Father of the Faithful , as the Scripture calls him ; was not he Married ? Isaac , Jacob , and the twelve Patriarchs who founded the Church of Israel , were not they ? Moses the deliverer of the Antient People , by whom God gave his Law , and by whom he had wrought so many Miracles , was not he ? Aaron and all the High-Preists who succeeded him , were not they ? All those Calls and divers others whereof the Scripture speaks , were methinks , most weighty and for the greatest part extraordinary , and nevertheless we do not see , that God in giving them , has made any Reflection upon the Advice of the Authour of the Prejudices . Who ever gave him a right to lay down Rules with such Authority of what God ought to do , and what he should not have done , and by that means to raise himself so high as to be a Censor of God's Actions ? He ought at least to have called it to mind , that Jesus Christ made no scruple to chuse married men , out of whom to make his Apostles and Evangelists . The Scripture mentions the Mother-in-law of Saint Peter , that is to say his Wives Mother ; for that word in Greek can be taken in no other sence but that . It speaks also of the four Daughters of Philip the Evangelist . The Authour of the Commentaries upon the Epistles of Saint Paul under the name of Saint Ambrose , assures us that all the Apostles had Wives except Saint Paul and Saint John ; and Saint Ignatius , and Saint Basil say the same thing without any exception . Virginity is not then an inseparable character of the Call of God , as the Authour of the Prejudices would perswade us . But after that first assault of the Authour of the Prejudices , which was made with all the weapons that he first found in his hands , he reproaches the Reformers , with the little fruit that their Preaching wrought for the Sanctification of those people who followed them . Their Ministers themselves , says he , have been constrained by the Evidence of the Truth , to acknowledge , That all their pretended Reformation did not produce any Renovation of the spirit of Christianity , and that it had rather increased then lessened the disorders of those who embraced it ; and for that he produces the complaints of some Ministers as of Capito and Calvin himself , and of Luther against the Vices of their Age. I acknowledge that if they compare our Fathers manners and ours , with the Grace that God has given us in renewing his Gospel in the midst of us , they would find but too much reason to make us cover our Faces with confusion , that we were unworthy of so great a Favour . I confess also that there may be many found among those who at first embraced the Reformation , who instead of profiting by it , abused it , as the best things may be abused . But I say , that they ought not to insult over that Confession that we make in that regard ; for besides , that a Doctrine is not the less found , for not being so carefully observed as it deserves , we can yet further say for our selves , and say it to the Glory of that God whom we serve , that he has poured forth a sufficiently abundant measure of his blessing on our Fathers , and that if any compare their manners with those of the other Party who rejected the Reformation , they will find reason enough to confess , that God was in the midst of us . It is true indeed , that they might not see there those Pharisaical Devotions of which the hypocrites and superstitious make a vain shew : They might not see there those men who publish to all the world their Mortifications and their Fasts , who withdraw themselves out of the crowd , to make themselves to be more taken notice of , and who never enter into their secret retirements but with the greater ease to be able to mix themselves in all that that is common in the World. But they may there behold a solid Piety , plain and natural , without Art and Affection , a true fear of offending God , with a free and open carriage , which never sought to hide it self by distinctions and illusions ; but in good earnest to follow the dictates of Conscience , without saying , to hinder them from doing their Duty , either what will become of us , or what will become of our Brethren or Sisters ? Because they knew that those Events were in the hand of God , and that poor worldly interest ought never to prevail over the love of the Truth . As to the Wars that the Author of the Prejudices imputes to the Reformation , it had been , methinks , his prudence not to have turned the Dispute upon a Matter , on which he well knows that we have but too many things to say for our Justification . If some Princes of Germany took up Arms to defend themselves against the assaults of their Enemies , they thought that the Justice and Law of Nations authorised that defence , and that being Soveraign in their States , they were bound to protect their Subjects and to preserve that Trust that God had put into their hands . And as for those Commotions that hapned in France in the times of the Reformation , there is no person who is ignorant of their true Causes . It is true , that the Interest of our Religion had some part in them ; but it had at least the good fortune , to be found joyned with that of the preserving of that great Kingdom to its just possessours , against those pernitious designs which made but too great a noise afterwards ; and whatsoever sad Remembrances the Authour of the Prejudices has awakened , by his undeserved reproaches , yet we shall not fail to maintain , that the blood of our Fathers was very well spent for so good a Cause . Luther , says he , was not afraid of animating his followers to Murders , and Blood , by those horrible words which are to be found in his first Tome of his Works of Wittingburg Edition ; If we hang up Robbers on Gibbets , if we punish Hereticks and Thieves with the Sword , why do not we assault with all our Forces those Cardinals and those Popes , and all that scum of the Roman Sodom , that ceases not to corrupt the Church of God , why do we not embrue our hands in their Blood ? It is certain , that there can scarce be any passage related after a more invenomed and base manner , than the Authour of the Prejudices relates that , and this will appear if they well but make these following Observations . 1. That he separates those words from the sequel of the Discourse to give them quite another Sence than Luther intended by them , which is , to speak Properly , a kind of falsification , more dangerous then that of corrupting the words of a Sentance . 2. That he would make us imagine that those words are addrest to the followers of Luther , to animate them to Blood and Slaughter , which is a perfect Calumny . 3. That he quotes them not as spoken upon a supposition , but as spoken purely and simply , which is further contrary to the Truth . Behold then what the matter truly was ; Sylvester Prierias Master of the Sacred Palace at Rome , having wrote against Luther's Doctrine concerning the Pope , and in particular against his Appeal to a Council , had peremptorily maintained , That it was not lawful to Appeal from the Pope to a Council , because the Pope was a Soveraign Judge , and liable to no Appeal , and that those who sued out such Appeals were cast out of the Church and Excommunicate . That the Pope alone was the Infallible Rule of Truth , whose decisions were certain and irrefragable without a Council ; where those of a Council were nothing without the Pope , nor bound any person if they were not authorised by the Pope , so that whatsoever should not receive the Doctrine of the Pope as the Infallible Rule of Faith , from whom the Holy Scripture it self heretofore and now , derives all its force , he is a Heretick ; and many other Propositions of that nature . Upon that Luther writes , that , All those things were maintained only out of a hatred of a General Council , and to hinder any one from being heard who should give any succour to the afflicted Church . That the Popes Creatures seeing well that they could not hinder a Council , began to seek out ways to elude it , by saying , that the Pope was above a Council , and that without his Authority , none could either be called or held ; in a word , that a Council had not any Power , but that the Pope alone was the Infallible Rule of Truth . That it seemed to him then , that if the Fury of those men took place , there would not further remain any other Remedy but this ; That the Emperour , the Kings and Princes should make use of their Arms against those publick Posts , and that those matters should not be decided by Words , but by the Sword. In the close of which , he adjoyns those words which the Author of the Prejudices has related . So that his meaning is not to Animate his Followers to Blood and Slaughter , as the Author of the Prejudices interprets it ; but only to draw an absur'd consequence from his Adversaries Hypothesis , which is , That if he would also take away the only Remedy that was left to provide against the desolations of the Church in assembling a Free Council , he would set the Emperour , the Kings and Princes in Arms against the Popes and the Cardinals and all the Court of Rome , and would reduce things to the utmost extremity . I my self will not say , that there may not be somewhat too violent in those kind of expressions ; but after all , his design is not to animate his Followers to Blood and Slaughter ; but only to let Sylvester see the necessity of a Council , that might judge above the Pope , from that inconvenience , that otherwise there would remain no other course to the Emperour , to Kings and Princes , to re-establish Order in the Church , then to make use of their compelling power . And that further appears to be the Sence , because he adds immediately after , That the Authority of the Bishop of Rome , whether it were of Divine Right , or whether it were of Human , could not be urged , but by the Precept , Honour thy Father and thy Mother , which in granting him to be a Father , puts him under the first Table ; so that if he should do any thing in opposition to them , he might be admonished , and even accused by the least of the Faithful . Which let us see that his meaning was no other than that which I have represented . I confess it were to be wished that Luther had observed more of the mean , than he did , in his manner of writing , and that , with that great and invincible Courage , joyned with that ardent zeal for the Truth , and with that unshaken Constancy , that he always shewed , there might have been discernable more of stayedness and moderation . But those faults which most frequently proceed from Temperament , do not take away mens esteem of such , when besides them they may see a good foundation of Piety in them , and Vertues Heroical throughout , as they may discern-to have shone in Luther . For they cannot cease extolling the zeal of Lucifer Bishop of Cagliari , nor admiring the eminent qualities of Saint Jerom , although they do acknowledge too much sharpness and passion in their Style . And it may be that there was even some particular necessity in the time of the Reformation to use vehemency of expression , the more easily to rouse men out of that profound sleep wherein they had lain for so long a time . However it be , I had rather come to agree that Luther ought to have been more moderate in his expressions , and if the Authour of the Prejudices would be coutented with complaining of the sharpness of his Style , he should be also contented , for every answer to be entreated , that hereafter , he will not himself any more imitate that which he condemns in another ; especially , in writing against those , who having lived in the last Age , cannot have given him any personal occasion , to be carried away against them with passion , after the manner that he has been , in many places of his Book . If in the Judgment that he passes on them , he would not hearken to Charity , he ought , at least , to hearken to Justice , and not to have charged them with foul Accusations , under the pretences of having mistaken and misunderstood ; I place in this Rank , that which he furthers forms against Luther in these words . There never was any one , says he , but Luther , who durst to boast in his Printed Works , that he had had a long conference with the Devil , that he had been convinced by his reasons that private Masses were an abuse , and that that was the motive that had carried him out to abolish them . But common Sence , adds he , has always made all others conclude , not only that he was in an excess of extravagance , to take the Devil for a Master of Truth , and to give himself up to be his Disciple ; but that all those who had any marks that they were his Ministers and his Instruments , and who had not any lawful Authority in the Church to make themselves be heard , did not deserve , that any should apply themselves to them , or that they should so much as examine their Opinions . Behold here Luther , a Disciple , a Minister and Instrument of the Devil , if one will believe the Author of the Prejudices . To refute that Calumny , we need but to represent in a few words what that business was that he there speaks of . Luther following the Style of the Monks of those days , who were wont by a Figure of Rhetorick to fill their Books with their exploits against the Devil , relates , that being one time awakened in the midst of a dark night , the Devil began to accuse him for having made the people of God Idolatrize , and to have been guilty of Idolatry himself for the space of fifteen years , wherein he had said private Masses , and that the Reason of that Accusation was , that he could not have any thing consecrated in those private Masses ; from whence it followed that he had adored , and had made others adore meer Bread and meer Wine , and not the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ . He adds , that that accusation struck him at his heart , and that to defend himself he alledged that he was a Priest , that he had done nothing but by the Order of his Superiors , and that he had always pronounced the words of Consecration very exactly , with the best intention in the World ; from whence he concluded , that he could see no reason to have the Crime of Idolatry laid to his Charge : That notwithstanding the Tempter did not fail to reply , that those excuses would nothing avail him in that the Turks and the Priests of Baal obeyed also the Order of their Superiours , with a very good intention , and that , nevertheless they were truly Idolaters . Vpon this , he says , that he was seized with such a violent agitation of Spirit , accompanied with a general sweat over all the parts of his Body , and a confusion wherein he found himself , having been made to understand that his defence was not Solid , since besides a good intention and obedience to his Superiors , he ought to have examined further whether the Action disputed was good in it self and agreeable to God , and on that he made a Resolution to renounce all private Masses . This was the Discourse of Luther there , upon all which I shall make no scruple to profess , that that manner of expressing things under the form of a Combat with the Devil , appears to me indeed , a little remote from common Use , and makes that return into my thoughts , that Luther himself has said somewhere in his Works , Pium Lectorem oro ut ista legat cum Judicio , & sciat me fuisse aliquando Monachum . In effect he could not wholly throw off , as he would the Stile of the Convent . But I say , notwithstanding , there is nothing in all that which is remote from the Duty of an honest man , nor which may not be intirely innocent , whether one take that Narration Literally , or as a kind of Figure and Parable . He says , that the Devil accused him in his heart , That signifies , that he represented to himself , in his Conscience , the Accusations that the Devil might one day form against him , before the Tribunal of God ; What crime was there in all that ? Is not the Devil called in Scripture , The Accuser of the Faithful ? And does not the History of Job introduce him as appearing before the Throne of God , to render the Piety of that Holy-man suspected ? Luther adjoyns , that in his first Defences , he alleadged his Priesthood , his Obedience to his Superiours , his good intention and exactness . What is there extraordinary in all that ? It is not very natural that those sorts of pretences should come in to the succours of a burthened Conscience ? He says in the sequel that these Defences were opposed by the Accuser , as insufficient and uncapable to hide him from the sin of Idolatry . What is there here that may deserve any blame ? May not the Devil speak Truths in Accusing us ? Does not he know how to exaggerate our sins , and strongly to oppose our vain Excuses ? At last Luther says , that to render those instances of the Accuser unservicable for the future , he resolved within himself to abandon private Masses , which served for the ground of that Accusation . What is there in all that , that may not be the Motion of a good Conscience ? He would shut the mouth of the Adversary , and take away from him any means of accusing him before God , as if he had been a wicked person and an Idolater , he would snatch away from him those weapons that he made use of to combat and terrify him . Let the Author of the Prejudices turn all that as he pleases , he can never find it in a bad sence . Every Christian is bound to order his conduct so that he may be sheltered from the Attempts of the Devil , for he is a Roaring Lion , saith Saint Peter , who walks daily about us , seeking whom he may devour , and when to put a stop to the Accusations of that Enemy , a man Examines his own Actions , with a design to amend them , and to forsake the evil of them , He had need be a good , Detractour and well skilled in Calumniating , that can take a pretence from that to say of him , That he has taken the Devil for a Master of Truth , and that he has given up himself to him to be his Diseiple , his Minister and Instrument . Would the Author of the Prejudices take it well , that we should give those horrible Titles to Dominic , one of the greatest Saints of the Church of Rome under a pretence that Antonine has Wrote of him somewhat like that we have seen of Luther ? He says , That Dominic saw the Devil one Night , holding in his Iron hands a Paper , which he Read to him by the Light of a Lamp , and that having asked him , what that meant which he Read , the Devil answered him , That it was a Catalogue of the Sins of his Brethen . Vpon which Dominic having commanded him to leave the Paper to him , and the Devil doing it accordingly , that Saint found therein certain things , about which , says Antonine , he Corrected his Religious . See here then , according to the Stile of the Author of the Prejudices , the Disciple , the Minister , and the Instrument of the Devil ; Not only because it was he who taught him the disorders of his Covent , but also , because the Accusations of the Devil gave him an occasion , and a Motive to make new Orders in his Society , neither more nor less , then those that Luther made use of for the Abolishing of private Masses . But as it would be no difficult matter to defend Dominic , by saying , that he did but make use of that Paper against the Intention of that Accuser , and to shut his Mouth for the future . So also it is not a difficult thing to justify Luther by saying precisely the same thing , since that was in effect against the intention of the Devil , that he made use of his Accusation , and that he did so , only to confound him , and to take from him for the future , any ground of Accusation . I will end this Chapter , in desiring the Authour of the Prejudices to Remember , that we have seen not a long time since , men taken up in defending themselves , not only against those common reports , that are spread abroad of them amongst the People ; but also , against those publick Writings that charge them with very strange Accusations . We have heard their Complaints , that they have seen , so many Mouths of Calumny opened to tear them , So many Enemies conspiring together to destroy their Honour and Reputation , and those Enemies vomiting up against them all that Hell can invent of the blackest and foulest Calumnies , and violating the Truth by a hundred infamous Lyes , even to lay to their charge Crimes against the State. We have heard them complain in these Terms . That one has broken Charity by Latin Printed Poems , where one heaps upon them all the Curses that the most inflamed Choler is capable of conceiving , and where one crys down their Solitude as the Hell of the Heathen Poets , and as the residence of damned Souls . That beyond all that , one has yet further violated all Modesty , and broke all the bounds that should have restrained persons of the most deplorable Consciences before God , and lost honour before men , if they had not wholly prostituted themselves to Calumny , in forging a Chimerical Assembly at Bourg-fontaine , and charging six Divines , with abominable designs to destroy the Incarnation of the Son of God , the Gospel , all the Sacraments , and all the other Mysteries of the Christian Religion , and to Establish Deism upon the Ruines of Christianity . Let him learn then , by that Example , not lightly to believe the Calumnies wherewith they have laboured to darken our first Reformers , and to cease to give himself over to a passionate Spirit that suggests those odious accusations against persons , whose lives have appeared pure and intire to a great people , who having known and followed them , can give a better Testimony of their Conduct , then their interested Enemies do . Let him Remember what Monsieur Arnaud has wrote to justify some of the Religious of our time , whom he accuses to have been Uncommunicants , Asacramentarians , and foolish Virgins , who in all matters affected an Extravagant and Schismatical Singularity . That there was a Time in the life of Saint Teresia her self , who was the Ornament of these last Times , wherein she was decried not only concerning the Faith , but concerning manners also . That moreover , divers , have thought her possessed with a Devil , and would have her Conjure . That after that and toward the end of her life , she was Treated as one possessed with a Devil , as a Hypocrite , and Dissembler , and one that had lost all Honour . They publickly defamed her in the Pulpits in the Churches , and they compared her with one Magdalen de la Craix , a Woman filled with a lying Spirit , and Famous throughout all Spain for her Forgeries , and her Communication with the Devil . That they witnessed against her and her Religious , things of so foul a nature , that they were accused in the Sacred Office , and charged with having committed a Thousand Forgeries ; That the Inquisition was forced to inform against her and her Nuns , and that they expected every day when they should be made Prisoners . That her Books were seized by the same Inquisition to be censured . That her General markt out one of her Monasteries to be a Prison for her . That the Popes Nuntio Treated her as a turbulent Woman , and a common Whore. That he thought to have overturned from top to bottom a new Edifice of the Dechaussez . That he used them with the greatest rigour , banishing some , imprisoning others , and generally condemning them as if they had been a People of a new Sect infected with Errors , or such an ill life as it was necessary to cut off that course , that they might not infect and destroy the whole World. This is well nigh the Treatment that they give the first Reformers , they have laboured to cover them with reproaches , to weaken the efficacy of their Preaching , and those very persons themselves that so loudly complain , that we load them with Calumnies by so unjust a proceeding , are now a days the first that make use of it themselves against us . CHAP. VI. A Further Justification of the first Reformers , against the Objections of the Author of the Prejudices , contained in his Tenth and Eleventh Chapters . AS the Book of the Prejudices is nothing else but a confused heap of Objections , and unjust Accusations , that the Author of that Book has piled up one upon another , without Connexion , and without Order , So I find my self constrained , that I may not break off the Connexion of my Subject , to break off that of his Chapters . Therefore after having answered his third where his Invectives begin , against the manners and conduct of the first Reformers , I shall dismiss the Examination of his 4th . 5th . and 6th . Chapters , where he Treats about the Call of the Ministers of our Communion to my Fourth Part , and where he Treats of the Right that we have to a Gospel Ministry , and that which he afterwards says in the 7th . 8th . and 9th . Chapters concerning our pretended Schism , to my Third Part wherein we shall Treat of our Separation from the Church of Rome , and I shall now pass on to the Examination of his 10th . 11th . 12th . and 13th . wherein he renews the same personal Invectives against the first Reformers . But as those Chapters are composed of almost nothing else but frivolous matters , swelled up with Declamatory Exaggerations , by Injuries and Passion . We shall not think it unfit , if setting aside all that in them which is to no purpose , or too passionate , we set down in a few Words all that that is more Essential in those Objections , and that we Answer them also in a few Words . 1. Objection , is , That Andrew Carolostadius Arch-Deacon of Wittenburg , whom Melanchton runs down as a brutish Fellow , without wit , and without Learning who embraced the Fanatical Doctrine of the Anabaptists , was the first who had the boldness to assault , the Doctrine of the Real presence , and to that effect he invented an Extravagant Explication of those words , This is my Body , saying , that by the word , This , Jesus Christ did not mean that which he held in his hand , but that he pointed to his own true Body . Answer . It is not True that Carolostadius was the first that opposed the Doctrine of the Real presence . Bertram , Erigenes , Rabanus , opposed it in the ninth Century when Paschasius spread it abroad : Berengarius opposed it in the Eleventh , and in the Age of the Reformation it self the Bohemians called Taborites , and those of the Valleys of Piemont and Province , called Waldenses , openly rejected it . So , that although all they have said of Carolostadius were true , yet we have not any particular interest in him , and we shall say in respect of him , that which Saint Augustine said in respect of Caecilianus . Caecilianus is not my Father , for Jesus Christ has said , call no man Father upon Earth , for one is your Father even God , but I call Caecelianus my Brother , my good Brother , if he be a good man , but my bad Brother if he be not good . Notwithstanding I know not whether that pretended Anabaptism of Carolostadius is not an ill-grounded Accusation , into which Mclancthon and Luther himself , who did not love Carolostadius , might have been surprized , as it frequently happens among persons divided in their Opinions , at least it is certain that Carolostadius defended himself by publick Writings , and that he protested that he was innocent . And as to that Explication that he gave of the word , This , in the words of Jesus Christ , it is an Error from the Truth , and a false gloss on the Signification of that Word , but it is an Error notwithstanding that does not hinder , that the ground of his sentiment concerning the Eucharist should not be true and right , and how many different interpretations are there of the same word , upon which they refute one another amongst the Doctors of the Church of Rome , and who almost all say things very remote from common sence ? 2. Object . Zuinglius had already began his Reformation before ever he spoke a word of the Real Presence , and Adoration of the Host , although he notes in his Works that from that very Time he was perswaded in his heart that Jesus Christ was not really present in the Eucharist . But as it is very hard to believe that during all that Time he never said Mass , that he never assisted at it , and that he never administred the Sacrament , that he should not all the while be discovered by those who adored it , and that he should never have done the same Actions that were practised by others , they may very well understand what Judgment their Ministers used in their Conduct during those first Years . For according to all their Principles they ought to have Condemned it , since it was as little allowable to Zuinglius to partake with that Worship , as it is at present to the Calvinists , and since they pretend that it is so far forbidden them , that they urge the Obligation that they say lies upon them not to take any part in it , as the chief Reason of their Separation . So that Zuinglius remaining yet in Communion with those who adored the Eucharist , contributed to that adoration by his Ministry and joyning himself to their Assemblies , rendred himself guilty of all those sins which the Calvinists apprehend to be committed in remaining united to the Church . He would every day have betrayed his Conscience , he would every day have committed a criminal Idolatry . And it is in that condition , that the Calvinists pretend that God made use of him for the greatest Work that ever was done , which was the Reformation of the Error of all their Fathers . Answer , As that Accusation is founded upon this only thing , That it is very hard to be believed , so also we shall here Answer in saying , That it is very hard to be believed , That Zuinglius did any thing during that Time that should be repugnant to the Dictates of his Conscience . All the Histories of his Life shew that he was a man of strict Piety , and of a severe Virtue , that he was not used to those Juggles of the Hypocrite , which we may see practised by so many , and even by those who would appear the most severe , and that moreover he never did any thing remote from the sincerity of an honest man. They cannot then without equally violating the Laws of Justice and those of Charity , suspect on those meer Conjectures , that he went contrary to his sentiments on that Occasion , and the Author of the Prejudices ought to produce the proofs of his Accusation , or to suffer himself to be condemned for Injustice and Malignity . It is true that during that Time Zuinglius neither quitted his Ministry nor forsook those who adored the Eucharist ; but who has told the Author of the Prejudices , that men ought to forsake a People that are in Error , in the same Time that they have hopes of disabusing them , and labour to reduce them into the right way ? As the Reformation of a Church is not the work of a Day , none can think it strange that Zuinglius did not propose all of a sudden all that he had to say , and that he did one thing after another . It is sufficient , that during the Time wherein he set himself to that Work , he did not in the least partake in the abuses which he had a design to correct , and therefore the Author of the Prejudices ought not to have accused him without ever laying down the proofs of his Accusation . The History of Zuinglius relates that he was called to the † Church of Zurich in the beginning of the Year 1519. and that from the first moment wherein he was there , he set himself with all his might to the Instruction of his Flock , to the Reformation of those grosser Errors wherewith the Ministry was then infected , and to the correcting of mens manners , which succeeded so well with him by the blessing of God , that within less then four years he changed the Face of that Church , and disposed it to a thorough Reformation . But among those Errors that he opposed , he applied himself particularly to the Sacrifice of the Mass , shewing the People out of the Scripture that there could be no other real Sacrifice , then that upon the Cross , whence it is very easy to conjecture that he carefully avoided to assist in a Ceremony that he so openly opposed , and from which he himself withdrew his Hearers . 3. Object . Zuinglius engaged the Magistrates of Zurich to call a Synod , and to make themselves Judges and Arbiters for the Ordering the State of the Religion of their Canton . There was never till then a Synod of that Nature spoke of , and it is an astonishing thing , that mens rashness and insolence should have been able to have carried them out to so great an excess . The Council of two hundred , that is to say , Two hundred Burghers of a Switz Town , as learned and ready in matters of Divinity , as one may believe the Switz Burghers were , called together all the Church-men under their jurisdiction , to dispute before them , with an Intention to Order the State of Religion with the understanding of the matter . Answer . It were much to be wished that the discourse of the Author of the Prejudices were as well Ordered as that Action of the Senate of Zurich was ; besides these Abuses and Superstitions that were Ordinary , they had seen for some Time past a Preacher of Indulgences in that Church called Samson , sent by the Pope to distribute his Pardons . That Preacher managed his part so well , that there were not any Crimes how great soever they were , that were or should be committed which he did not set a price upon , without making any other difficulty then about the Sum that was be paid to him ; and by that means he put the whole Country into a dreadful disorder , filling it with profligate Persons . Zuinglius opposed this Seducer with all his might , and at the same time he laboured to give his Flock the knowledge of the true Principles of the Christian Religion , and to reduce them back to one only Jesus Christ , and his Scripture , in freeing them from the Errors and Superstitions of Mens Invention . But as the Word of God was never yet without Adversaries , the greater number of the Church-men lifted themselves up against Zuinglius , and accused him before the people to be a Heretick , which forced the Senate it self to take knowledge of those Accusations , and to call together a Synod composed of all the Church-men of its State , wherein every one had the liberty to propose what he would against Zuinglius , and Zuinglius that of defending himself . And that very thing was done by the consent of the Bishop of Constance , who sent his Deputies thither , and among others John le Fevre his Vicar General . What was there in all that that might not come from the Justice and Prudence of a Senate ? If the Accusations wherewith they charged Zuinglius had been well grounded , it had been the Duty of the Magistrate to have enjoyned him Silence ; and being false as they were , it was the Magistrates duty to uphold him . What is it that the Author of the Prejudices can blame in that Conduct ? They called a Synod . We maintain it to be the Right of Kings and Soveraign Magistrates within the extent of their States . The Holy Story Testifies that Josias intending to set up the pure worship of God in his Kingdom , called together an Assembly of Priests , Prophets , and the Elders of the People . Can they deny that the Christian Emperours did not heretofore call Councils to Order the State of Religion , and to provide against disorders in the Church ? Can they deny that our Kings have not often done the same in their Kingdome ? But the Senate of Zurich would of it self take Cognizance of the matters of Religion . I say that that very thing was its Right , for if it be the Duty of every Christian , for the Interest of his own Salvation , to take Cognizance of those things that the Church-men Teach , and not blindly to refer themselves to their Word , as I have made it appear to be in the first Part , it is not less the Duty of Magistrates to do the same , to bind the Church-men to acquit themselves faithfully in their Charges , and to Teach men nothing that might not be conformable to the Word of God. So that if the Ministers of the Church go astray from that Word , and if they corrupt their Ministry by Errors and Superstitions , it belongs to the Magistrate to Labour to reduce them to their Duty , by the mildest and justest methods he can use . Thus the Kings of Judah used it heretofore as it appears from the History of Hezechias , Josias , and of some others who made use of that lawful Authority that God gave them for the Reforming of their Church by the Word of God. We all know that the Antient Emperors took Cognizance either by themselves of their Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs , and not only of those that respected the Discipline , but of those also which related to the Doctrine and the very Essence of Religion it self , to that degree , that they frequently published under their Names in the Form of Edicts , Decisions of Opinions , Condemnations of Heresy , and the Interpretations of the Faith , which they had caused to be disputed in their Presence in Synodal Assemblies . We ought not therefore to imagine , that Magistrates ought not to interpose in matters of the Faith , under a pretence that they are Lay-men , for on the contrary they ought to interpose themselves more in those , then in those of Discipline , because the Faith respects every man , where Discipline relates to the Clergy more peculiarly . Therefore it was that Pope Nicholas the First told the Emperour Michael , who was present in person in a Council where only the Fact of Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople was treated of , whom that Emperour had deposed , That he did not find that the Emperours his Predecessours had been present at Synodal Assemblies , unless they might possibly have been in those where matters of the Faith were Treated of , which is a common Thing , relating Generally to all , and which belongs not only to the Clergy , but the Laity also , and universally to all Christians . There was nothing therefore in that Action of the Magistrates of Zurich that was not a Right common to all Soveraign Magistrates within the extent of their Jurisdictions . But they will say , Was it not to break off the Unity of their Church , with the rest to go about so to order the State of Religion within their Canton , without the Participation of other Churches , and were they not Schismaticks in that very thing ? I answer , That when a Prince or a Soveraign Magistrate is in a condition to call a General Council together to deliberate about the Common Faith , he would do better to take that way . But when he is not , as the Senate of Zurich evidently was not , ought he to abandon all care of the Churches of his State ? They will see in the end of this Treatise , that the States of Germany seeing the Oppositions that the Popes made to the calling of a general Council , often demanded a National one of the Emperour Charles the Fifth . They will see also that that Emperour was sometimes resolved to do it , and that he Threatned the Popes to cause divers Colloquies or Conferences of Learned men to be held , to labour to decide those Articles that were Controverted . They will see that our Kings for the same design , have sometimes deliberated about assembling a National Council in France : And no body is ignorant of the Conference of Poissy under the Reign of Charles the Ninth . There was nothing therefore in the Conduct of that business that did not belong to the Right of Soveraigns , and nothing which they can charge with Schism in it . For when a Prince or a Senate Assembles a Synod , to condemn Heresies or Reform Errors , and by that means takes Cognizance of matters of Religion , provided that in effect , that which it condemns be a Heresy , or that which it Reforms be an Error ; he is so far from breaking Christian Unity , that on the contrary he confirms it , as much as he can , in freeing it from a false and wicked Unity , which is , that of Error , which cannot be other then destructive to the whole Body of the Church , and which cannot be too soon broken . So that we ought to Judge of their Action , more by the Foundation , then the Form or Manner . For the Foundation being good , its Action cannot but be approved . When a Man is Sick , with divers others , as it frequently happens in Epidemical Diseases , it would be Injustice in him , not to provide for his own particular healing , but to stay for a general one ; and it would be a great absurdity to say that if he did do so , he violated the Rights of the Civil Society , for the Civil Society does not consist in being a Communion of sickness , but in being a Communion of Life . On the contrary it ought to be said that in healing himself in particular , he established as much as in him lay that Civil Society which he had with his diseased Companions , because he encouraged them by his Example to heal themselves with him , the better to enjoy in common the advantages of Life . It is the same case here , where a Church sees it self infected with Error and Superstition with divers other Churches , she no ways violates Christian Unity in labouring to reform her self particularly , for the Christian Unity does not consist in the Communion of Errors and Abuses , it consists in the Communion of that True Faith and Piety . It establishes therefore on the contrary that Unity , because it gives others a good Example , and thereby encourages them to reform themselves , as it has done . All that which a Prince or Soveraign Magistrate ought to observe in those Seasons , is , on one side to take heed that he makes a just discerning of good and evil , I would say , that he reforms nothing , which would not be in effect an Error , or a Superstition , or an Abuse , and that he does not give any wound to the True Religion under a pretence of Reformation ; and on the other side , to offer no violence to Mens Consciences , but to purify the Publick Ministry as much as he can , by the general consent of the People that God has committed to him . But this is that , which not only the Magistrates of Zurich , but those also of other places who laboured in the Reformation of their Churches religiously Observed . They constrained no person , and they rejected nothing that was not Alien to the Christian Religion . But , says the Author of the Prejudices , Those two hundred Burghers of a Swisse Town were as Learned , and ready in matters of Divinity , as we may easily Judge Swisse Burghers to be . I answer that this is the Objection of the Pharisees : This People , said the Enemies of Jesus Christ , know not the Law. But Jesus Christ did not answer them amiss , when he said to them , Father I thank thee , Lord of Heaven and Earth , that thou hast bid these things from the Wise and Prudent , and revealed them unto Babes . Let the Author of the Prejudices , if he will , be of the number of those wise and prudent ones , we shall not envy him his readiness and his Learning , and we shall rest satisfied with this , that it has pleased God to place us in the same Rank , with those mean Swisse Burghers , to whom , as much Babes as they were , God vouschafed to make his Gospel known . The true knowledge of Christians does not consist in having a head full of Scholastick Speculations , and a Memory loaded with a great many Histories , and multitudes of passages of divers Authors , or a great many Critical Notions , nor in having well-studied Lombard , Albertus Magnus , Thomas Aquinas , Scotus , Bonaventure , Capreolus , Aegidius Romanus , Occham , Gabriel Biel , the Canon Law , the Decretals ; and all those other great Names wherewith they stunned the People in times past . Our True knowledge is the Holy Scripture , Read with Humility , Charity , Faith and Piety . See here all that those poor Burghers of Zurich knew , they were neither Prelats , nor Cardinals , nor Doctors of Lovain , nor of the Sorbonne , but they were good men , they feared God , they studied his Word , and for the rest of the State of their understandings , and the degree of their light , may appear by the Reformation which they made , for the Tree may be known by its Fruits . 4. Objection , The matter which was to have been handled in that pretended Synod cannot be more considerable . For they Treated therein about abolishing all at once the Authority of all the Councils that were held in the Church since the Apostles days , under a pretence of reducing all to the Scripture . Answer , Since the True Authority of the Fathers and Councils consists in their Conformity with the Divine writings , the way solidly to establish them is to reduce all to the Scripture , as they did in that Synod . If the Author of the Prejudices pretends to give the Fathers and Councils and Authority quite different , from that of the Word of God , whereof they ought to be the Ministers and Interpreters , we may answer him , that he affronts them under a pretence of Honouring them . For as it is the greatest real injury that can be done to a Subject , to give him the Authority of his Prince ; So it is the most real injury which they can do to the Fathers , to invest them with the Authority of God. 5. Objection , They medled with the Faith of all the other Christian Churches , which the Switzers could not but condemn in embracing a new Faith. Answer , The Swisses did not embrace a new Faith , but they renounced those Errors , that it may be might have prevailed for some Ages , but which were new in regard of the Christian Religion . They did not condemn other Churches in that which they had of good , but they condemned that evil which they had in them . A sick person who has cured himself condemns the diseases of others , but he condemns not that Life which remains in them . On the contrary he exhorts them to be healed , for fear least remaining in that sick condition they should die . 6. Object . They treated about all those dangerous Consequences , which that Change of Religion would have produced , and which were easy to have been foreseen . Answ . They Treated also about the Glory of God and their own Salvation : and all those dangerous Consequences which could not but come from the blindness and passion of those who would hold the People of God under their servitude , ought not to have prevailed over two such great interests as that of the Glory of God and Mens Salvation . All these Objections are well near the same that the Pagans made against the Primitive Christians , and it seems that the Author of the Prejudices has studied them out of Celsus , Prophyrie , and Julian , to make use of them against us . 7. Object . Moreover they declared that they would have men make use of the Authority of the Scripture only , and by that rash and unheard of Prejudice , they condemned the procedure of all the foregoing Councils , wherein they were wont to produce the opinion of the Fathers to decide the controverted Questions . Answ . The Scripture is the only Rule of the Faith of Christians , and there is no other but that alone whose Authority we ought to admit as Soveraign and decisive of Controversies . It is not True that all the foregoing Councils admitted of the Opinions of the Fathers and their Traditions under that Quality . The Author of the Prejudice lays it down , without Proof and Reason . 8. Object . The Church being in possession of its Doctrine , they ought to have forced Zuinglius to produce his Accusations against that Doctrine , and to have made the proofs which he alleadged against it to have been examined . But in stead of that they ordered that he should appear in that Disputation in Quality of Defender , and that it should be the others part to convince him if Error . Answ . If the Church of Rome would have the World believe the Doctrine that she Teacheth , it is fit she should furnish it with proofs , and her pretended possession cannot assure it . Those who propound any thing as matter of Faith are naturally bound to prove it , and it is absurd to say that Possession discharges that Obligation , for the Faith ought to be always founded upon proof , and it never stands upon meer possession , otherwise the Heathens ought to have kept their Religion which was established on so Antient a Possession . 9. Object . All that Examination was further grounded upon this ridiculous Principle , That if there could not be found any person within the Territory of Zurich that could make the Errors of Zuinglius appear by the Scripture , it ought to be concluded that he had none . As if the weakness of those who opposed his Doctrine could not be an effect of their Ignorance , rather then a default in the cause they defended . Answ . This Objection is no more to the purpose then the foregoing . What could the Senate of Zurich have done more then to have assembled all the Clergy of their States to have called the Bishop of Constance or his Deputies thither , to have received all the World , and given all liberty of propounding their Arguments and Proofs ? It belonged to them to propound them if they had any and if they had none , they ought to have acknowledged that 'till then they had abused the Conduct of the people , in Teaching them those things which they had no proofs for . Notwithstanding I see well that the Author of the Prejudices tells us how he understands we should be bound to believe things upon this frivolous Foundation , that there may be some in the World able to prove them , or that it may be there might be some to come hereafter to do it . This is the Faith which he wishes that the Magistrates and People of Zurich would have had for the hindring their Reformation . He would have had them imagined that although they should have seen nothing that should have perswaded the Worshipping of Images , and that of Reliques , the Sacrifice of the Mass , and the other points that were in Controversy , yet that they ought not to have ceased from believing them with a Divine Faith , and to have devoutly practised them , because there might have been possibly some men in the World ready enough to prove them , or that if there were none then there might have some arose afterwards to have done it . By this Principle the Jews and Heathens , may yet at this day accuse all the Conversions of the first Christians of Rashness . 10. Object . The Calvinists cannot deny that their pretended Reformation , was not established on the Spirit of Error , and that the Burger-masters of Zurich were not perswaded of falshood , since they immediately rejected divers things which Zuinglius had maintained there with as much obstinaecy as those points of Doctrine which they have yet common with him . He laid down also some Propositions manifestly contrary to the Scripture , without taking any pains to explain them . Answ . When the Author of the Prejudices will take the pains to consider well the sence of Zuinglius and ours , he will find a perfect agreement . Zuinglius denied the Intercession of the Saints , we do no less in the sence wherein they understand the word Intercession in the Church of Rome , to wit , that the Saints intercede for us as True Mediators . We deny not that the Saints pray in general for the Church a Prayer of Charity and Communion ; Zuinglius denied it no more then we . Zuinglius denied that it was allowable to make Images for the use of Religion ; we deny it with him . We believe that it is indifferent to make them for a Civil use ; Zuinglius never said the contrary . Zuinglius said that the True way not to err was to cleave wholly to the Word of God , we say so also . He said that Jesus Christ alone was given us for the Pattern of our Life , and not the Saints ; But he meant it of a first and perfect Pattern , and so he explained himself when he added these words , Capitis enim est nos deducere non Membrorum : It belongs to the Head to guide us , and not to the Members . There is nothing in that contrary to the Scripture . 11. Object . Zuinglius , to gain the Burgermasters to his side , had the art to pick out certain vulgar Reasonings , and very well sitted to the Vnderstandings of the Switzers , he declaimed fiercely against the Popes , who had forbidden the Priests Marriage , he highly exaggerated the Rigidness of the Command of the Church which enjoyned Abstinence from Meats , which he Attributed to the Popes only . Answ . Those Vulgar Reasonings were nevertheless very pertinent Reasons , for they made them see that the Prelates had Usurped a Tyrannical Domination over their Consciences and that they Exercised it after the most Scandalous manner in the World , enjoyning a Caelibacy that filled the Church with beastlinesses and impurities , and forbidding the use of Meats on certain days , which they abstained not from themselves . For the rest , those injurious Discourses against a whole Nation which had always a great deal of Vertue and Glory , are not methinks within the Rules of Christian Charity , nor even within those of Civil Honesty . If the Switzers have not naturally as florid a wit as some other Nations have , they have a Solid , Right , Judicious , Laborious , Constant , Faithful , Sincere mind , which are Qualities far more estimable then those which usually accompany that which they call the Heat of Imagination . 12. Object . Zuinglius answered to a Reason of the Chancell ur of Zurich , after a very False and Sophistical manner at the Foundation , but proper enough to confound the understandings of the Switzers . He accused the Chancellour of Ignorance in that he took , he said , these words , The field us the World , for a Parable , whereas they were only an Explication of the Parable , and not the Parable it self . But the Chancellour would have said no more but this , That these Words , The seed is the Word of God , could not be taken according to the Letter , since they were the Explication of a Parable to which they had Reference , therefore Zuinglius took great heed how he answered , and he was forced to save himself by a trick in giving the words a change . For there is no body who sees not that what the Chancellour said was indisputable ; and that those words , The seed is the word of God , being the Explication of a Parable , could not be taken in the Letter , but that it is as if Jesus Christ had said , When I spake of the seed in this Parable , I mean by that the Word of God. But these words , This is my Body , being no Explication of any Parable , and not being accompanied with any circumstances that should oblige us not to take them according to the Letter , there is nothing more ridicul us then to compare them with the Expressions that explain Parables . Answ . This is no great subtilty from a man who talks of nothing but a gross and Suitz understanding . As we ought not to take litterally those words which explain a Parable , so we ought not to take litterally those words which explain a Sacrament . For in this respect a Sacrament is as a Visible Parable , since it is a Visible sign , that represents an invisible Grace . The Reason for which we ought not litterally to take those words that explain a parable , is because we see the matter Treated of there , is one thing that represents another , and which by consequence cannot be that other thing Substantially and Really . And the whole Reason for which we ought not to take literally the words that explain a Sacrament is , because we see the matter Treated of there is one thing which signifies another , and which by consequence cannot be that thing Substantially and Really . So that these words , This is my Body , and those , The seed is the Word of God , are alike , and if we ought not to take the latter litterally because they are the Explication of a Parable , we ought not also to take the others litterally because they are the Explication of a Sacrament . These are the principal Objections of the Tenth Chapter of the Book of Prejudices , excepting one which is taken from the manner wherein they formed our first Assemblies at Paris , at the beginning of the Reformation , and the Election that they made there of a Layman to the calling of the Ministry , for the Solution whereof I remit you to the Fourth Part , where it shall meet with its fit place . We are now to go on to the Eleventh Chapter . 13. Object . All the Discourses , and all the Writings of the Reformers , says the Author of the Prejudices , breathed forth nothing but a poysonous malignity , and an implacable hatred against the Church of Rome , and that Spirit is so plain to be seen , that it astonishes me how persons , be they never so Little equitable , can endure it , and not conclude , as Reason would force them to do , that it is impossible they should have done that by the Spirit of God. Answ . To answer to that Reproach , I shall not here make an Apology for injuries and outrages , under a pretence of zeal , as Mr. Arnaud has done in his pretended , Overthrow of the Morality of Jesus Christ . For I acknowledge that zeal ought to be moderate and discreet . I shall not also say , that the Author of the Prejudices may with very good Reason leave that Censure to a Pen less violent and less passionate then his own , which in giving us Lessons of Mildness and Charity , should it self fill his Pages with nothing but these words , Insolent , R●sh , Ridicul●us , Impostors , Calumniators , Furious , Devils , and Instruments of Devils . For any one may very well apply these words of the Gospel according to the Translation of Mons to him . Take out first the Beam that is an thine own Eye , and then shalt thou s●e how to take out the mote that is in thy Brothers Eye . But I shall say , that when they find in the Writings of the first Reformers Expressions that plainly appear to be too vehement , whether in respect of things or persons , equity would require it of them , that before they Judge , they should consider , whether they had not some particular Circumstances that obliged them to speak after that manner . But although we acknowledge that our first Reformers were not wholly free from faults , and that we no ways pretend to Canonize all their Words , nor all their Actions , yet if they take heed to the Circumstances of the Times wherein they wrote , they will see that they ought to Judge of them far otherwise then the Author of the Prejudices has done , and that it is neither through malignity , nor hatred , that they spoke with so much vehemence against the Church of Rome , but that they were urged to it by Reasons which they Judged most Weighty . First of all , they thought that there was some necessity of using such a Stile , to awaken men out of that profound sleep wherein they appeared to have been for a long time , and to put all of them into that just fear which they ought to have of God's Judgments , when they were plunged into Errors like to those , wherein they pretended the Church of Rome then was . And it is most true , that until their days , the World had lain under a great Insensibility . Not , that they did not know the evil , that they did not bewail it , that they did not thirst after a remedy , and that they did not readily hear all who would proclaim it ; but after all , they remained all along in the same State , or to say better , they grew worse and worse every day . Upon that account it was , that our first Reformers thought that they ought to represent things livelily , without extenuating words , to make the greater impression upon those minds that security or fearfulness had held bound in sleep . 2. They were obliged to all that , by the Protection that Errors and Abuses found in their days , among the greater part of the Prelats , and the Monks of the Church of Rome , who had Orders from Rome , as I have proved elsewhere , to lift themselves up in all places for the defence of that which they called the Antient Religion , and who accused the Reformers of Heresy and Impiety . For then it was necessary , to make use of all the force of Expressions that they had , to dissipate those accusations , and to discover to the World the grosness of the Abuses which the Court of Rome maintained . 3. They saw themselves further constrained to it , by the severity which they had to wipe of , on the part of their Adversaries , for , as they were perswaded of the Justice of their Cause , the most natural effect of the Persecutions which they were to endure was to open their eyes more , and the more to urge their understanding to acknowledge that Justice , and to make all the World acknowledge it , not only to comfort themselves and to encourage themselves in their afflictions , but also to strengthen their Brethren whom they saw every where in the Fetters of the Inquisitions . Being then provoked to it by these Three Reasons , the one taken from the stupidity wherein they saw the greatest part of men , the other from the obstinate defence that was made of Errors and Abuses , and the Third from the Persecutions which they had to endure ; it must not be reckoned such a wonder that they spoke with vehemence upon the Subject of the Roman Religion . It had been ill done to have done so otherwise . 4. They themselves ought to acknowledge that the greater part of those Abuses were of such a nature , that it had been a very hard matter not to have spoke of them without Indignation . As for example , that vain Devotion that they had kindled in the minds of the People for Images , Reliques , for Agnus Dei's , for Pilgrimages ; that credulity which they had instilled into them for all sorts of Miracles , for Apparitions of Saints , for the returns of Souls out of Purgatory , and I know not how many other things which our more inlightned . Age has some kind of shame of , but which yet made up the greatest part then of Religion with respect to practise . How could they coldly Treat of the Abuse of Indulgences , which had gone so far as not only to give pardon of sins for Money by means of Confession and Contrition , but even to pardon them in express words without either , as Pope Bonif●ce the IX . did to the whole State of John Galeacius Viscount of Milan , For so Corionel relates it in his History , where he says that , The Lombards not being able , by Reason of the War which they were engaged in , to go to Rome to gain Indulgences , Pope Boniface at the request of John Galeacius , gave the same Indulgences to Milan that were at Rome , and would that all the Subjects of that Viscount should be absolved from all their sins , without any Contrition or Confession . Sianche non fosse Contrito ne Confesso , fosse absoluto di qualcunque peccato . With a charge nevertheless to remain Ten days at Milan , and to visit five Churches every Day , and to offer to one of those Churches , the two Thirds of that which they should have dispended if they had gone to Rome . The Pope took one Third part to himself , and designed the rest to the building of a certain Church . Behold here that which refers to things . As to Persons , I confess there may be found lively complaints in the writings of the first Reformers against the Abuses of the Court of Rome , against the ignorance and negligence of the Prelats , against the Scandalous lives of the Clergy , against the Tyrannical Government wherewith they ruled the Church . I acknowledge also , that when they looked upon that Great Body of the Roman Hierarchy , its Props , its Pretensions , its Maxims , its Interests , its Occupations , they could not hinder themselves from speaking of it as an Empire very opposite to that of Jesus Christ , but they ought to be so far from laying it to their charge , that they said it out of a hatred or an implacable aversion toward the Church of Rome , as the Author of the Prejudices does , that they ought on the contrary to attribute it to a real compassion which they had for the People of God , to see them so ill instructed , so ill guided , so ill governed , and to an ardent desire to procure a good Reformation throughout the whole Body of the Latin Church . And the greater their compassion was , the more difficult it was to manage that matter without giving some touches to persons in whom the source of all that evil resided , and especially in a Time which they saw overspread on all sides with injuries and Calumnies , and exposed in diverse places to Rigorous Persecutions . 14. Object . To that Reproach , the Author of the Prejudices adds another , which he begins ●o express in these words : Although they should have had a right to have drawn away from the bosom of the Church of Rome its Children , they had certainly no right to make use of Impostures and Frauds for that purpose , and if they did , it is a visible conviction that it was the Devil that acted by them , and that their pretended Reformation was his work . He alleadges in the close a passage of Calvin's , wherein he pretends that Calvin calumniated the Church of Rome in laying it to her charge , that she had a far greater care of her Traditions then of the Commandments of God , and that she reckoned it a lesser sin to be defiled with the debaucheries of the Flesh , then not to be confessed or not to have fasted on Friday ; to have broken all promises , then not to have fulfilled a Vow of Pilgrimage ; and upon this the Author of the Prejudices makes his Exclamation with his usual heat . Answ . I Answer that Calvin speaks in that Passage not of that which the Roman Church Dogmatically taught ; but of that which might be seen in the common Practise of his Time , and unless they should deny the most clear Truths , they cannot deny that the Idea which the Authors themselves of the Church of Rome give us of its deplorable State in the Age of the Reformation , does not fully confirm the Testimony of Calvin . That which I have set down upon this sad Subject , justifies the too little care that the Prelats and other of the Ecclesiasticks took to root out Vices from the midst of their Flocks , and settle in their places a True Holiness , when they had then a far greater ardour to make mens Traditions to be observed , and if we had need to urge this proof further , it could be done without doubt with a great deal of ease . 15. Object . Another kind of Calumny is , to lay to the Charge of the Church the Opinions which she either rejects , or which she never Authorised as matters of Faith. Examples of this may be seen in every Page of the Books of their Ministers , as when they reproach the Catholicks with setting up as Articles of Faith , the Corruption of the Greek and Hebrew Text , the immunity of the Clergy to be of Divine Right , the certainty of the Declarations that the Popes make of the Holiness of particular men which they call Canonization , the efficacy of Agnus Dei's , the Infallibility of the Pope , his Temporal Power over Kings , his Pre-eminence over Councils , the Jurisdiction of the Church over the Souls in Purgatory , and many other opinions of that nature that the Church does not prescribe to its Children , that she does not insert into the Confession of Faith , which she requires of those that return to her , and which she never defined by the Voice of her Councils . Answ . If the Author of the Prejudices would be satisfied about all the Points that he has noted in that Objection , he ought to cite those passages of the Ministers against whom he forms his complaints , and not to make as he does a Captious heap of divers things wherein he may mix the false and true together . Notwithstanding I shall not omit to say by the way something of my own head upon each of those Articles . Upon the first I can easily believe that there have been some Ministers who have reproached the Church of Rome with the having Canonized the Corruptions of the Greek and Hebrew Text , because that in effect there are a great many such Corruptions in the Vulgar Version , which the Council of Trent has Canonized , not only in declaring it Authentick , and forbidding any to reject upon any pretence whatsoever , but also in saying that they ought to be held under the penalty of an Anathema for the Canonical Books of the Bible , prout in Ecclesia Catholica legi consueverunt , & in veteri vulgata Latina editione habentur . All the Question therefore may be reduced to this , to wit , whether we ought to hold under pain of Anathema some ill Translations which are to be found in the Vulgar , for the Corruptions of the Greek and Hebrew Text , and for us , we believe that they cannot rationally contest it . As for the Immunity of the Clergy , it may be also that some Doctors of the Church of Rome , have been reproached for holding it as a matter of Faith , because there are some among them that in effect ground it upon the Scripture , and every one knows that all that which they hold as out of the Scripture , ought to be held as a matter of Faith. But they would have said nothing against the Truth , when they should have maintained that Pope Leo X. in the Council of Lateran defined , That there was none either Divine or humane right that gave the Laity any power over the persons of the Clergy ; which implies that the Clergy are excepted by Divine right from that general Rule that subjects all the Word to the Higher Powers : We all know that our Kings opposed that rash decision , but in the end it was a Council that did it which had the Pope for its Head , and it belongs to the Author of the Prejudices to tell us whether he believes that that Pope and that Council erred . As to the Certainty of Canonizations , since there is no body in the Church of Rome that makes any scruple to invocate those Saints which the Pope Canonizes , and that moreover they agree in that Maxim of Saint Paul , that whatsoever in the matter of Religion is not of Faith is Sin , methinks it is not ill grounded to say either that the Church of Rome Sins , when she invocates those Canonized Saints without any certainty of Faith , or that she holds it as a matter of Divine Faith that the Pope cannot be deceived . The Author of the Prejudices shall chuse which side he pleases , if he takes the last , he contradicts himself ; if he takes the former , Saint Paul condemns him ; for he condemns all those who throw away the Acts of their Religion after that manner at all Adventure . If the Efficacy of Agnus Dei's has not been established by the Councils , that belief may be found at least heretofore so strongly and universally established in the Church of Rome , that it may be very well ascribed to her without any fear of mistaking . They tell us that Pope Vrban V. sent to John Palcologus the Emperour of the Greeks an Agnus folded up in fine Paper , wherein there was written Fine Verses which explained all its properties . Those Verses carry with them , That the Agnus was made of Balmsanus and Wax with Crisom , and that being Consecrated by Mystical words , it drove away Thunder and scattered Storms , that it gave Women an easy Birth , that it prevented one from perishing on the Seas , that it took away Sin , that it kept back the Devil , that it made a man to grow Rich , that it secured one against Fire , that it hindred one from dying a sudden death , that it gave a man Victory over his Enemies , and that in Fine a small piece of the Agnus had as much Vertue as the whole . As for that which regards the Infallibility of the Popes , their Temporal power over Kings , and their Pre-eminence over the Councils , we do not say that those were Articles of the Faith received throughout the whole Church of Rome . There is not one of us that knows not that those pretensions were always opposed by the Sounder part of the French. But they cannot deny that they were not at least the Pretences of Rome , and that its Popes did not Determine , That it was necessary to the Salvation of every Creature to be subject to them . They cannot deny that Pope Gregory VII . did not decide in a Council , That the Church of Rome did never Err , and that it would never Err according to the Testimony of the Scripture , nor that the opinion of those who believe that the Pope is Infallible in his decisions of Faith , is not the more common and general one in the Church of Rome , and that those who hold it speak of the other only as an opinion that the Church Tolerates for the present , and that they look upon it as an Errour , and such a one as approaches even to Heresie , for those are the express words of Bellarmine . They cannot deny that they generally hold in the Church of Rome that the Pope is by Divine right the Soveraign Monarch of the Church , whom all Christians are bound to obey , the Soveraign and Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ , his Soveraign Pastor , to whom Jesus Christ has given a fulness of power , which goes not far from ascribing Infalliblity to him . They cannot deny that the Popes did not often define that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches , and that the Council of Trent has not also declared it in divers places . They cannot deny that the Popes did not pretend to be above the Councils , that Sixtus IV. did not condemn a certain man called Peter de Osma , for having taught that the Pope could not dispence with the Ordinances of the Universal Church , nor that Leo X. did not declare in the Council of Lateran with the approbation of the Council , That it was evident as well from the Testimony of Scripture , as that of the Fathers , and of other Bishops of Rome who had gone before , and by the Holy Cannons , and by the very Confession of the Councils themselves , that the Pope alone had a right and power to call Councils together to transfer and dissolve them , as having Authority over all Councils . They cannot deny that the same Leo did not condemn Luther for having appealed from him the Pope to a Council , against the Constitutions , says he , of Pius II. of Julius II. who ordained that those who made such Appeals should be punished with the same Penalties that were decided against Hereticks , nor that the Council of Trent did not submit it self to its Confirmation of the Pope , as it may appear by the last Act of that Council . And as to the pretences of the Popes over the Temporalties of Kings , they cannot deny that Clement V. has not declared in one of his Clemintines , as they are called , That it ought not not to be Questioned , but that he had a Superiority over the Empire , and that the Empire being void he sucbeeded in the power of the Emperour , nor that Alexander VI. did not give out of his pure Liberality , says he , of his certain knowledge and fullness of power , to the Kings of Castile and Leon all the Lands newly discovered in the Indies , as if they had belonged to him , nor that Gregory VII . did not decide in his Council of Rome , That the Pope could depose Emperours , and dispence-with the Oaths of Allegiance to their Subjects , nor that Innocent III. did not ordain in the Council of Lateran , That if any Temporal Prince neglected to purge his Territories of all Heresie , the Bishops should Excommunicate him , and that if within a Year he gave no Satisfaction they should make it known to the Soveraign Bishop , to the end that he should declare his Subjects absolved from their Duty of Fealty , and that he should expose his Land to be taken by Catholicks . They cannot also deny as to Practice that there are not divers Examples to be found of Popes who undertook effectually to depose Emperours and Kings , and to give away their Kingdomes to others . In fine , as to that which regards their Jurisdiction over Souls in Purgatory , no Body is ignorant that the Popes pretended to have Power to draw Souls out of Purgatory , at least through the dispensation of the Treasure of the Church , which is that , which they say is made up of the Super-abundant Satisfactions of Jesus Christ and the Saints . It is upon that also that their Indulgences in respect of the Dead are Founded , and Leo in his Bull of Excommunication against Luther had wrote , That Indulgences were neither necessary nor useful to the Dead . Furthermore I cannot forbear taking notice here of the Fallacy that the Author of the Prejudices gives us , and which is common to him with a great many other persons . He would have us Judge of that Doctrine of the Roman Church , but only by that which she has decided in her Councils , or by that which is contained in an Act of the Profesion of the Faith which she makes those make who embraue her Communion . This I say is a perfect Fallacy . 1. Because we ought also to Judge of her by her common Practice , which being open to the Eyes of all the World , discovers much more clearly the true Sentiments of that Church , when the decisions of the Councils do not , and the Act of which the people scarce know any . 2. Because the Council of Trent it self and the Act of the Profession of the Faith , obliging as they do those who submit themselves to it , to receive in general unwritten Traditions and those things which the Church of Rome Observes , they engage them by consequence to receive and practise all that which is commonly observed and practised in that Church , under a pretence of Tradition and observance , although it should not be formally contained either in the decisions of Councils , or in that Profession of Faith. So that the Conscience of a man who is in that Communion , binds him to believe , and do all that others believe and do . 16. Objection , The Third kind of Calumny is not less ordinary in their Ministers , nor less unjust in it self . It consists in running down as blameable Errors certain Articles of the belief of the Church , which not only were no Errors , but about which they have been at last constrained to acknowledge that the difference between them and the Church consists more in words then in the thing it self , whether they themselves have forsook their first thoughts , to take up those of the Catholicks , or whether by a blind rashness they had openly condemned them without understanding them . To prove this Corruption , the Author of the Prejudices lays down the point of Justification , which , he says , the first Reformers took for the chief ground of their Separation , and yet nevertheless he adds one of their Professors of Sedan named Ludovicus le Blanc , who has made some Theses of Justification , after having examined the Doctrine of the Catholicks , and that of the Protestants and their principal differences about that matter , concludes upon all the Articles that that of the Catholicks is good , and that the Protestants are only contrary to them in name . Answ . I acknowledge that in this Controversy the Church of Rome takes the word Justification in one sence , and that we take it in another , and I do not deny but that has sometimes produced in that dispute , ambiguities and differences or Words . This is also that which M. le Blanc had a design to clear in his Theses of Justification , which the Author of the Prejudices has abused . But besides that in that very thing we have two advantages over the Church of Rome , the one , that we speak as the Scripture has done , and that we take the words after the manner that Jesus Christ , that Saint Paul , and Saint James have taken them , when they have Treated about this Doctrine , whereas the Church of Rome gives them another sence , and the other , that in so taking the words in their true Signification that Idea that we give of Justification is distinct and clear , where that of the Church of Rome is embroiled and confused . Besides that , I say , it is certain that we have but too real differences upon that point which no ways consists in words , but in the very things themselves , and which make very weighty Controversies . To Manifest this Truth , we need but to cast our Eyes upon the four chief Doctrines that form the Idea of our Justification according as the Scripture has given it us . The First is , That it is an Act of the Soveraign mercy of God that pardons our sins , and which by Vertue of the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ , discharges us from the punishment we have deserved by them . The Second is , That God out of that same mercy in pardoning our sins adopts us for his Children , and gives us a right to his Eternal Inheritance by the merit of Jesus Christ his Son. The Third , That we apply to our selves the satisfaction and merit of Jesus Christ by a lively Faith , accompanied with a sincere Repentance , and a Holy Recourse to the Divine Mercy , and that it is this Faith that puts us into the Communion of our Redeemer . And the Fourth , That God in pardoning and adopting us , imposes this Condition upon us , that for the time to come we live Holily according to the Laws which he has given us , and that this very thing is a necessary Consequence of that Communion which we have with Jesus Christ , as well as of our Faith , our Repentance and our Recourse to the Divine mercy . There is not any one of these parts of our Justification upon which we have nor very considerable differences with the Church of Rome . For in the First we differ , 1. Concerning him who Pardons us ; The Church of Rome would have it , not only that it should be God in the Quality of a Soveraign Judge , but men also , that is to say Priests and Bishops in Quality of inferiour and Subordinate Judges , and that their Absolution is a Judiciary Act , for so the Council of Trent has defined it to be . But we believe that there is none besides God who can pardon our sins under the Quality of a Soveraign Judge , and that the Pardon which we receive from the Mouth of his Ministers , is a Ministerial Pardon , which consists in a Declaration that they make to us of Gods Pardon , as the Interpreters of his will revealed in the Gospel . 2. We differ about the extent of that Pardon ; The Church of Rome would have it , that God in pardoning the Sin retains the Punishment , that is to say , that he acquits us from eternal Punishment , but that reserves to himself the inflicting of Temporal Punishments ; and we on the contrary hold that he remits all sorts of Temporal and Eternal punishments , and that the Afflictions which he sends us are not the Punishments of his Justice , but the Corrections and Chastisements of his Fatherly Discipline . 3. From whence there arises a Third difference , which consists in this , that the Church of Rome believes that those Temporal Punishments wherewith God visits us , are true Satisfactions to his Justice for our sins , which we deny . 4. There arises from thence yet another difference concerning that , which they call those penal works which every one imposes upon himself , or which their Confessors impose on their Penitents , for they would that these should be also satisfactions to the Justice of God , which we do not believe . 5. The Church of Rome would have it , that those satisfactory Punishments should go beyond this Life , and it is partly upon this that they ground their Doctrine of Purgatory , which we reject . 6. It is also upon that very thing that the Indulgences of the Church of Rome are grounded , which cannot be taken for meer Relaxations of Canonical Punishments , since they extend most frequently very far beyond the life of man , and sometimes even unto five and twenty , and Thirty thousand Years . 7. We may say also , that it is a difference which we have with them , by which we understand that first Act of the mercy of God that Pardons our sins , which comes from the difference which we have with them , concerning the Opinion of the Necessity of Auricular Confession , for that Opinion is partly founded upon this , that Absolution of the Priests is a Judiciary Act , and that in that respect the Church has a true Tribunal before which the Faithful are bound to appear , and partly upon the Opinion , that the penances which the Priest enjoyns are true Satisfactions to the Divine Justice which they are bound to undergo . 8. Lastly it is from the same source that the difference proceeds which we have with them concerning the Super-abundant satisfactions of the Saints , of which they will have it that the Faithful may partake , and whereof in part they compose the Treasure of the Church . Behold here Eight Controversies included in the Explication of the first Act of our Justification . Upon the second we differ about the Foundation upon which the right that God gives us to life eternal is established ; or if you will , about the proper and direct cause in consideration of which God gives us that right , for we establish it alone upon the merits of Jesus Christ in Vertue of that Comunion which we have with him . But the Church of Rome Establishes it upon the merit of our works also , for she would have it , that after God has given us his Grace by which we do good works , we truly inherit not only an increase of Grace but Eternal life , and even an increase of Glory , and she Anathematizes those who do not believe it . 2. We differ also about those to whom God gives that right , for we believe that God gives it only to his Elect , in whom he preserves it by his Grace , and by the gift of perseverance ; but the Church of Rome believes that he gives it also to divers Reprobates whom his Grace abandons , and who finally Perish in their Sins . Upon the Third Doctrine , we differ concerning the Nature and the Definition of Justifying Faith , for as for us , we look on it as an Act of the Soul that embraces or accepts the satisfaction and merit of Jesus Christ , and which applies the promises of God's mercy made to us in the Gospel , and we labour as much as we can to live according to that thought . But the Doctors of the Roman Church frame an Idea of that Faith of a very great coldness and negligence , for they content themselves to say that it is a consent that we yield in general to all the Truths revealed in the Word of God ; and there are some that go so far as to say , that Faith fails not to Justify us , although it should not have the least regard to the particular mercy of God towards us , which is a thing that we cannot understand without horrour . For the rest , when I shall say that the Doctrines of the Imputation of the merit of Jesus Christ , and his satisfaction are known but to a very few in the Church of Rome , as that also is , of the Application that we make of them to our selves by the internal Act of our Souls which receives them ; when I shall say that these Truths so important and so necessary to the practise of Christianity ▪ are almost stifled , by that great Multitude of external Exercises with which they busy the People , I shall say nothing in my Judgment , that the more sincere persons will not acknowledge , and of which , God grant they may be able hereafter to convince me of a falshood in that respect . In fine , the last Doctrine that fully makes up the Idea of our Justification according to the Scripture , produces of it self a considerable Controversy between the Church of Rome and us . For as for us , we limit our selves to the good works to which our Justification Obliges us , and which God has enjoyned us , without going any further . But the Church of Rome extends them even to those which she her self Commands , for the pretends that her Laws properly and directly bind the Conscience under pain of mortal Sin ; and therefore it was that Leo X. condemned Luther for having wrote that the Church had no power to make Laws concerning manners or good works . All these Controversies that naturally arise from the different Explications which they give of the Tenet of Justification , let us sufficiently see that the Author of the Prejudices is mistaken , if he thinks that we should have no more upon this matter then differences about words , and M. le Blanc is too sincere and too Learned to have pretended to deny any of those things which I have mentioned , although he has Judiciously remarked , that men may easily Equivocate upon the different Significations of the Terms . It is therefore neither a piece of Rashness , nor Impertinency , that our first Reformers had such a regard to the matter of Justification , as being a thing of the greatest importance in Religion , and it is on the contrary most Just , that having seen that Doctrine of the Salvation of Christians , neglected , obscured , and depraved , that they should have Judged it necessary to set themselves upon the re-establishing of it . CHAP. VII . An Answer to the Objections of the twelfth and thirteenth Chapters , of the Prejudices . TO understand well what is in the Twelfth Chapter of the Author of the Prejudices , we must in the first place take notice of the design he propounds to himself , and the means he makes use of to reach it . As to his design , he Explains himself in the very Title of the Chapter , which bears this , That the Spirit of a Politician , every way Humane , that appears in the differences that the Calvinists have had with the Lutherans , gives a right to reject them , without any further Examination , as a sort of men without any Conscience . He explains himself yet further in the beginning of his discourse after this manner . It has been demanded , says he , of the Calvinists with good reason , how it could come to pass , that if Luther , Zuinglius and Calvin , had received a Mission from God , and were the Instruments that he made choice of for the greatest work that ever was , which is the Reformation of the Errors of sixteen Centuries , they should not avoid being openly divided between themselves , to dismember themselves from one another , to persecute one another , after so outragious a manner , and to Treat one another , as the declared Enemies of God and his Church . He explains himself also in another place , where he speaks after this manner . The Innocence or the Crimes of Luther equally condemn the Calvinists , either for having declaimed against an innocent person , or for having given unjust praises to one of the most wicked men that ever was , and that monstrous conjunction which they have made in his person , of holiness , with the most detestable Crimes , is an evident proof , that they have not the least Idea of Christian Vertue , nor of the Spirit of Christianity . See yet further how he speaks in the same Chapter , If Luther were an instrument of the Devil , a wicked person , a Schismatick , a violent and passionate man , what will become of the Reformation that he has established , and which serves as a Foundation to that of the Calvinists . In fine he explains himself in the 321 Page , where he says , That our behaviour in respect of the Lutherans is enough to give a ground to conclude that the Heads of the party of the Calvinists have been such as have guided themselves more by Policy then Conscience ; which being , adds he , most contrary to the Spirit of God , and remote from that which ought to be found in those new Prophets which he would extraordinarily raise up , for the reforming of his Church , it is not possible for us to take them for men of that kind , and we have a most just ground to refuse to hearken to them . It results from thence that the Author of the Prejudices had a design to conclude , 1. That they ought to reject us without Examining any thing that we say , and without so much as hearing us . 2. That we are a sort of men without any Conscience , who have no Idea of Christian Vertue , nor of the Spirit of Christianity , and who guide our selves by Worldly Policy . 3. That we overthrow the Reformation of Luther , which serves nevertheless for the Foundation of our own . 4. That our First Reformers had none of their Mission from God , and that they were not the Instruments which he made choice of to Reform the Errors of the Church of Rome . To establish these propositions he heightens on one side the differences that were between Luther , Zuinglius , and Calvin , and all that the heat of Disputation made them say on one side and on the other , and in the end he sets down the esteem that we have always had of Luther notwithstanding those Divisions , and the Condescension that we have for him and those of his Party , in oposition to the hatred that we have always , says he , Testified against the Church of Rome . All that unjust Reasoning is founded upon divers false Propositions that the Author of the Prejudices has supposed as evident and beyond all doubt , and of which notwithstanding he has captiously suppressed one part , to give the more Colour to his Invective . 1. His Reasoning is founded upon ' this Proposition , That we hold our First Reformers to be new Prophets , or as he speaks , to be the Apostles of a new Gospel . But this is a false and calumnious Supposition , for we hold on the contrary , that our Reformers Preached nothing new , they were not under the Quality either of new Prophets , or Apostles of a new Gospel ; they did not boast that they brought a new Revelation into the World , but they only opposed humane Errors that had no Foundation in the old Revelation , and in that respect I have shewn that they had a more then sufficient Call in the Right that is Common to all Christians and in the Ministry which they themselves exercised in the Latin Church , without any necessity that there should be any Extraordinary and immediate Mission of God for that , and I have explained in what sence it must be understood that there was something of Extraordinary in their Call. 2. That Reasoning supposes , That we ought not to hear any Reformers 'till first we have examined the Quality of their persons , and if the Quality of their persons do not satisfy us , we ought to reject their words , and to remain in the State we were in before . But there is nothing more pernitious then this Principle , to which I oppose a contrary Principle , which is , That we ought to judge of that which our Reformers said by the word of God , and by the proper Characters of Truth or Falshood which are in the things themselves , after a manner abstracted from the Judgment that we may make of those persons , and that it is a way to Error to Judge by the Qualities of the persons . This is that which I have made appear elsewhere , and shall not omit to establish it yet further in this place , for the greater clearing of this Truth . I say then that when it falls out that those who Preach have personal Qualities that do not satisfy us , it is indeed a Reason that Obliges us to take the greater heed to their Doctrine . But those matters being at the bottom , as they are , true or false in themselves , without the persons that propound them changing their natures , they ought to be chiefly considered in themselves , if we would assure our selves in a good Conscience that we are in the way of Truth ; for we cannot have that assurance if we Judge only by the persons , since the Faith is immediatly founded upon the word of God , and not upon that of men , whosoever they be . Moreover , every one knows that a Judgment concerning persons , is oftentime far harder and more subject to Error then that of the things themselves , whether it be because ordinarily it depends upon a great number of particular circumstances , which one cannot exactly know , and which yet one ought to know before a man can be able to Judge , or whether it be also because it is open to the Illusions of Hypocrisy , which hides real vices under the appearances of Vertue , and to those of Calumny , which turns the best actions into a bad meaning , that suppresses the good and heightens the bad . Besides that it is certain that the Judgment which is made of persons ought partly to depend on that of things , so far is it from that , that what is made of things should depend on that of persons . For on the one side how many Founders of Heresy have there been whose life has appeared to have been very exemplary , and who were notwithstanding ravenous Wolves ? how many Pharisees who have boasted of their righteousness , while their Doctrine was a Leaven , whereof great heed was to be taken ? There have been some who have even gone so far as to have wrought Miracles , and Jesus Christ has foretold , that false Christs , and false Prophets shall arise , who shall work great Signs and Wonders , capable of seducing the very Elect , if it were possible . And on the other side do not sufficiently understand the ways of Divine Providence , to be able to conclude without rashness , that it never makes use of persons guilty of many crimes either for the Propagation of its Truth , or the Reformation of Errors . Saint Paul says , that God puts his Treasure into Earthen Vessels , that the Excellency of his power may be of God and not of man. The same Apostle Teaches us that divers in his Time Preached Jesus Christ out of a Spirit of Envy and Contention . God heretofore made use of Salomon , not only for the building and preservation of his Temple , but also to give the Church one part of the Canon of its Scriptures , which is much more then the Temple , and yet notwithstanding that Prince gave himself over to the love of Women , and fell into Idolatry ; and lastly , Jesus Christ made use of a Judas at first , that sold him into his Enemies Hands . But to decide this Question by Examples drawn out of the Scripture , we find in the History of the Church of Israel , that Jehis King of the Ten Tribes Reformed that Church , that he took away the Worship of the False gods which Ahab had introduced , that he demolished the Temple of Baal , and broke down his Images ; see here without doubt a good Reformation . Notwithstanding it is said that he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam , but that he retained the worshipping of the Golden - Calves that were at Dan and Bethel . It is also related that he accomplisht that Reformation in a very odious manner , and very unworthy of a Prince that made profession of the fear of God. For having assembled all his People , he told them that he would serve Baal much more then Ahab had done , he commanded that all his Prophets and Priests should meet together , and all the worshippers of that false God to Celebrate a Solemn Feast for him . He himself pointed out the day of the Feast , and caused a Publication of it to be made . But when the Assembly was come into the House of Baal , and all those poor People who trusted in his word , when they thought of nothing but their Devotions , he put them all to Death without letting any one escape . Suppose we , that we ought to Judge of a Reformation by the persons that make it , what may not be said against this here ? Jehu made use of Hypocrisy and Treachery , he broke the publick Faith and his own , in the most Scandalous manner in the World , and the most contrary to the sincerity of an honest man. Besides that , he yet remained in the Superstitions of Jeroboam , and made the Israelites remain in them too . If we would believe the Author of the Prejudices , the Reformation that he made would be rather the work of the Devil , then that of the Spirit of God. Jehu would not have been Extraordinarily chosen by God to reform his Church and purge it from Idolatry . But this is not the Sentiment of the Scripture , it does not without doubt approve of the Treachery and Hypocrisy of Jehu , it condemns the Golden Calves that he kept up , but it does not omit the praising of that Reformation in that good which it had , and to say that it was well pleasing to God. And it is True that Jehu was extraordinarily called to that , as it appears by the Anointing that the Prophet Elisha gave him by one of his Disciples . We find in that same Scripture , the History of divers other Reformations which were made in the Church of Judah , but we find also that they were almost wholly different among themselves . Some went so far as the abolishing the usage of the high places and the Groves , which were Heathenish Superstitions , and the incense that was offered to the Serpent of Aaron , which was a kind of Idolatry ; others yet retained all these things . Some even of those who made these Reformations committed Actions very unpleasing to God , which the Scripture Reflects on . It says of Asa , who was one of those Reformers , that being sick of the disease whereof he died , he sought not to God , but to the Physitians , It says of Jehoshaphat , who was another , that he aided a wicked King , and that he loved those whom God hated , because he joyned himself with wicked Ahab . It says of Joash , who was yet another , that he fell in with the people into the Exercise of Idolatry and the use of the Groves , and that he cruelly killed a Prophet , because he opposed those Superstitions . If you Judge of those Reformations by their persons , according to the Principle of the Author of the Prejudices , you must say not only that those Reformers ought not to be heard , but that the Spirit of God was not there . For you see their Dissentings , since some went further then the others , and that some condemn'd what the others retained ; you see their personal Actions that you cannot excuse , since the Scripture it self condemns them . But if you Judge according to the Scripture , which is more worthy to be followed then the Author of the Prejudices , you will give to those Reformations the Praises which they merit in themselves , you will approve of the more perfect ones , you will distinguish in the imperfect the good from the bad , without having respect to the Persons ; and when at last you would Judge of the Persons , you would do it as Justice and Charity would Ordain you to do . If the Principle of the Author of the Prejudices were reasonable in regard of the Reformers of the Latin Church , it is certain that it would be so further in regard of the Propagators of the Christian Religion and of its Ordinary Teachers . I would say , that if those of the Church of Rome had reason not to hear the Reformers because they had differences among themselves , because they spoke injurious words of one another in the heat of their disputes , because they can take notice of some Vices in them , or a Conduct that may be suspected to have had too much Worldly Policy , it follows from thence , by a far greater reason , that the Heathens ought not to have heard the Christians as often as they should have seen the same things to have appeared among them . But when was it that they might not have seen them appear ? The Age of the Apostles , which we may justly call the Age of innocence , and of the peace of the Church , in comparison of others , was that exempted from Divisions and Vices ? Those who have read the Epistles of Saint Paul cannot be ignorant , that there were divers among the first Preachers of Christianity , who would yet have retained Moses with Jesus Christ , and the Law with Grace , that there were divers who opposed themselves to Saint Paul about divers points of his Doctrine , and who laboured to blast the honour of his Ministry , that there were some who in Preaching the Gospel , discovered themselves to be too much Transported with humane Passions , that there were even some who went so far as to deny the Doctrine of the Resurrection . Saint Paul does not spare them , and the Just Complaints that he frequently makes of them , sufficiently note that they had not on their parts all the respect for him which they ought to have had . Notwithstanding whatsoever complaints he made of them , howsoever vehement he was in his disputes , yet we do not see that he Excommunicated them , nor that he delivered them over to Satan as he did the incestuous person of Corinth . He defends his Apostleship , he calls them deceitful workers , Ministers of Satan Transformed into the Ministers of Righteousness , but he fails not yet in the same Chapter to give them the Title of Ministers of Jesus Christ . Are they Ministers of Jesus Christ ? I speak as a Fool , I am more . Would the Author of the Prejudices have thought it well done if the Heathens of that Time had followed his Maxim , and if without ever Examining the Christian Religion in it self , they should have presently prejudged , upon the Divisions which they beheld , and upon the Moderation that Saint Paul yet kept towards those persons , whom elsewhere he Treated roughly enough , that the Spirit of God did not accompany the Christians , and that their Doctrine could not proceed from Heaven ? Will they say that those Infidels ought to have carried themselves after that manner in the time of Constantine , when the Bishops that composed the Council of Nice appeared so eager , and so divided among themselves , that they presented the Emperour with Books of Accusations one against another , managing a bloody War while they saw themselves united together in the same Assembly ? Will they say that they had Reason to be prejudiced against Christanity , then when they saw the quarrels that rent the Church upon the Subject of the Consubstantiality of the Son of God , or then when they saw those which fell out about the word of Hypostasis between the Orthodox themselves who accused one another to be Hereticks , or then when the East and West were divided about the concurrence of Meletius and Paulinus for the Bishoprick of Antioch , or when the Two great and Illustrious Reformers of the Church , in the Time of the Arrians Eusebius of Verceil , and Lucifer of Cagliari , were divided upon the Subject of the Arrian Bishops who returned to the Orthodox Faith , or when the Catholicks and the Donatists mutually persecuted one another , and that in the very Flames of those Persecutions , the Catholicks did not cease to call the Donatists always their Brethren , although they oftentimes called them also Hereticks , Schismaticks , Pharisees , &c. And though they loaded them with injuries , and though the Donatists on their part Treated the Catholicks with all the indignities imaginable , even to the outragiously rejecting of the name of Brethren , which they gave them . Those who are well versed in Ecclesiastical History , will yield that we might urge those Examples a great deal further if we would but take the pains to do it , for there have been very few Ages wherein Christians have not been divided between themselves , and that frequently upon grounds trivial enough , and wherein there may not have been found in their Conduct that very thing which the Author of the Prejudices believes to be incompatible with the Spirit of God , that is to say , the heats of Dispute on the one side , and on the other some † Measures of that which he calls Humane Policy . I shall not here mention the disorders which hapned about the business of Nestorius and his Heresy , nor those which followed quickly after on the occasion of the Eutychians and Monothelites . I shall omit the Schism of the Greeks and Latins , and the re-unions which they made up sometimes among themselves out of a Humane Policy . I shall say nothing of the confusions wherewith the Latin Church was agitated in those Times , which Baronius calls unhappy , and wherein he says the Popes made void the Acts of one another . Infelicissimo tempora cum alter alterius res gestas intrusus quisque Pontifex aboleret . In effect , Formosus having accepted of the Papacy against the Oath that John VIII . had made him take in deposing him , that he would never think of being Bishop , Stephen VII . his Successour made him to be condemned in open Council , and all the Ordinations that he had made , to be void ; and having at last caused his Body to be taken out of his Grave , he made the three Fingers wherewith they give their blessing to be cut of and thrown into the River Tiber : but John IX . Successour to Stephen , Assembled another Council at Ravenna , wherein he not only made all that Stephen and his Council had done against Formosus to be void , but he even made all his Acts to be Canonically burned , re-establishing the memory of Formosus , and the Ordinances that he had made . Some Time after , Sergius a great Enemy of Formosus , came to the Papacy , and he annulled in his turn the Acts of the Council of Ravenna , and made void all the Ordinances of Formosus . Notwithstanding the Church of Rome reckons all those men among her Popes , and acknowledges them all to have been lawful ones : And which is further remarkable , John IX . in the same Act wherein he makes void the Council of Stephen , and wherein he condemns it to the Flames , he does not fail to call Stephen his Predecessor of Holy Memory , Piae recordationis predaecessorem . Upon which Baronius exhorts his Readers to Consider , that although the Popes have had Predecessors very worthy of blame , yet they have been wont notwithstanding to have a great deal of respect for them . So that , says he , although Stephen had been a Detestable Pope , who had invaded the Sea , and who during his Papacy had committed all sorts of Execrable crimes , yet John nevertheless calls him his Predecessor of Holy Memory ; which may appear at lest as strange as the Moderation of Zuinglius and Calvin in respect of Luther . I might add to all that , another Example drawn from the Conduct of the Church of Rome , upon the occasion of her latter Schisms . Every one knows the Divisions of the Fourteenth Century , which divided all the West about the concurrence of two Anti-Popes . Both Parties were extreamly Animated , they look'd upon one another as Excommunicated as Anti-Christs , the Enemies of God and his Church , they mutually Anathematised one another , they took up Arms one against another , and made a bloody War , Vrban VI. on his side , in a Bull that began , The Vine of the Lord of Sabaoth , that is to say , the holy Church of Rome , has a great evil in her Womb , and sends forth grievous Sighs , &c. Treats his Anti-Pope and his cardinals as a child of iniquity and Son of Perdition , Vipers , wicked Wretches animated with the Spirit of the Devil , Schismaticks , Apostates , Conspirators , Blasphemers , &c. He deposed , and spoiled them of all their Honours , Dignities , Prelacies , Offices and Benefits , he confiscated their goods , and declared their persons to be infamous and detestable ; he Excommunicated all those who believed , who received them , their Defenders and Favourers , and even those who should give them Ecclesiastical burial , if they did not pull them out of the Grave again with their own hands : he forbad all faithful People of what Quality soever , even Kings themselves , Queens , Emperours , to receive them into their Lands , to give or to send them either Bread , or Wine , or Meat , or Wood , or Money , or Merchandise . He Excommunicated particularly all those who should hold his competitor for Pope , or who should call him Pope , or who should receive any Favours , Indulgences , Dignities or Prelacies from him . And as if all that had not been enough , he ordained a Holy Croisado against those Shismaticks and those condemned Persons , to pursue and root them out , under the same Priviledges which are given to those who take up Arms for the Conquest of the Holy Land. He absolved also the subjects of those Princes who should acknowledge his Anti-Pope , of their Oath of Allegiance , and he Excommunicated those subjects themselves if they should yield any obedience to their Soveraigns . On the other side , Clement VII . who kept his seat at Avignon , was not wanting to proceed against Vrban and his Followers , and to Treat him and his Party with the same heat that Vrban had shew'd against him . See here differences which were methinks sufficiently heightned . Notwithstanding whatsoever Animosity there was there between those two parties , whatsoever Wars they made one against another , whatsoever Anathema's they mutually thundred out , the Church of Rome has not failed to own and Canonize for Saints , those person who lived and died in those two contrary Obediences , and who even died in the hottest Quarrels of those two Anti-Popes . For she has Canonized on the one side Saint Catherine of Siena , who took part with Vrban , and who Treated his competitor as Anti-Christ , and a member of the Devil , and his Cardinals as Devils incarnate ; and on the other side , she has Canonized Peter of Luxemburg , who died the Cardinal of Clement VII . and who had received that Dignity from his hands , against the express prohibition of Vrban VI. under pain of Excommunication ; so that here are two Saints on the one and the other side lawfully Excommunicated . Mr. Daille in his Answer to the Monsieurs Adam and Cottiby , intending to retort this same Objection , that the Author of the Prejudices gives us , has set before us the Example of Saint Jerome , and Saint Cyril of Alexandria , who were cruelly and passionately carried out against Saint John Chrysostom , so far as to compare his fall , to the fall of Babylon , and to call him Traytor , Judas , Jechonias , he has also alledged the Example of Stephen Bishop of Rome , who in the Quarrel that he had with Saint Cyprian , calls him a false Christ , a false Apostle , and deceitful worker . But the Author of the Prejudices does not think that these Examples are to the purpose . He says , That the Difference between Saint Chrysostome , and Saint Jerome , and Saint Cyril , respected only personal Actions , in which none ever denied but that it might happen to the Saints themselves to be surprized in respect of one another . But this is only a shift , for if we may understand that it has hapned to the Saints to be violently carried out against another Saint after the fiercest manner in the World , upon personal differences which have no other Foundations then a Surprise , I see not why we may not also understand , that it may happen to good men to be violently carried out against one another , about the points of Religion , which afford a more just pretence of Animosity , when each thinks he has the Truth of his side . Before I let go this Example , I cannot forbear noting , by the by , that it is but very ill to the purpose that the Author of the Prejudices censures M. Daille for having said that Theophilus of Alexandria and Epiphanius had condemned , Excommunicated , and deposed Chrysostom from his Bishoprick , for it is evident to those who are not ignorant of History , that Theophilus condemned and deposed him , and that Epiphanius being gone to Constantinople before that same condemnation , refused to hold Communion with Chrysostom , which is precisely that which M. Daille would have said . But the Author of the Prejudices does not Answer me better upon the Quarrel of Saint Cyprian and Stephen ; Their difference , says he , was only upon a point which had not then been decided by the Church . This Evasion is very pittiful . The more trivial the occasion is about which one is violent , that passion is both the more blameable , and the prejudice against the persons who are so carried away with it is the better grounded . To Answer after that manner aggravates the passion of Stephen , in stead of excusing it . Stephen , adds he , who had more reason at the bottom , was carried out by the ardour of his Zealonly to some threats of Excommunication . Or if you will , to an Excommunication which having had no ground would have produced no real division , and would not have hindred but that Saint Cyprian should still have been honoured by the Church of Rome , and Saint Stephen by that of Africa . It is not certain that Stephen had more reason at the bottom then Saint Cyprian , on the contrary there were in their days as many Hereticks at least , whose Baptism ought to have been rejected , as there was whose ought to have been admitted . And as for the rest , whether Stephen had in effect Excommunicated Saint Cyprian , or whether he had meerly threatned it , what is that to our Question ? If he contented himself with a meer Threatning of it , he remained in Communion with a man whom he called a false Christ , a. false Apostle , a. deceitful Worker , and with a man whom on his part he accused of Stupidity , of Pride , of Obstinacy , of Presumption , of Folly , of blindness of Mind , and of Wickedness . He abode in Communion with Firmilianus who had the same interests with Saint Cyprian , and who also accused Stephen of Inhumanity , Boldness , of Insolence , of Schism , and manifest Folly , who compared him to Judas , and said of him that he took part with Hereticks . If he actually Excommunicated them , it further notes the excess of his Passion , which could not in effect have been Judged to have been less then a Passion and a violent heat , since according to the Author of the Prejudices himself , it would have had no ground , and would not have hindred but that Saint Cyprian should have been always honoured by the Church of Rome . Since the Author of the Prejudices was in the way to refute the Answer of M. Daille , it had possibly more conduced to the publick Edification , if in stead of shallowly insisting on those remote Examples , he had applied himself to that wherein M. Daille adjoyns , the fierce injuries , wherewith the Divines of the Roman Church may be every day seen to rend one another , although they then remain and though they yet live in one and the same Communion . They acknowledge one another for Brethren , they assist at the same Altars , they call upon the same Saints , and yet nevertheless , as M. Daille relates , they write one against another after the most passionate and violent manner in the World. One sort of them say of their Adversaries , That they were infected with Heresies , and were Enemies of the Apostolick See , and that their Opinion was full of Heresie and Perfidiousness ; That it was Presumptious , Injurious to the State of the Religious , and that it savoured of Calvinism , and to speak Plainly , that it was Erroneous in the Faith , that it openly stifled the word of God and the Authority of the Fathers , that it was blasphemous against Jesus Christ and all the Saints , plainly and evidently Heretical , and contrary to the Council of Trent . The others say on the contrary That the Propositions which they have laid down were false , rash , presumptious , pernitious to all faithful People , that they were Erroneous , and injurious to the Bishops , tending to overthrow or disturb the Hierarchy , and that some were even contrary to the word of God and the Authority of the Councils . They add that a certain Book of their Adversaries was full of Propositions that were Dangerous , Seditious , Impious , Schismatical , Blasphemous , with some openly Heretical . See here what M. Daille has set down immediatly after the Examples of Cyril , Saint Jerome , Stephen , and Saint Cyprian , in which it had been well if the Author of the Prejudices would have satisfied us , for he cannot be ignorant that we could urge this matter a great deal further then M. Daille has done , and that he who would make up a Collection of all the Injuries that these Gentlemen say of one another , would make a very strange Vocabulary . But he has Judged that he ought to pass over this Article in silence , and that it was more fit for his purpose to answer only upon Saint Cyril , Saint Jerome , Stephen and Saint Cyprian . Howsoever it be , it seems to be clear to me by what I have said , a very ill prejudice in matters of Religion , to make the Judgment that we ought to make of a Doctrine to depend upon that that we may make of the Persons , instead of Judging it by the Doctrine it self and by the word of God ; and the Author of the Prejudices may suffer us , if he pleases , to say to him on the Part of our first Reformers , what Saint Augustin said on the Part of the Orthodox to Cresconius . Since you are not the Judge of the inward motions of our heart , set your selves only to know whether we fight for , or against the Truth . For if we Teach the Truth , if we refute Error , when our intentions should not be good , and if we should seek either for secular advantages , or vain-glory , those who have a love for the Truth will not avoid joyning with us , since it would be the Truth that would be always declared , after what manner soever it were so . But besides those two Remarks which I have made , I must further take notice in the Third place , that the Reasoning of the Author of the Prejudices , is founded upon another supposition which is not less unjust , nor less rash then those other Two which I have examined . For it is founded upon this Principle , That we ought to Judge of Persons meerly by that ill which appears in them ; whereas in order to the making an equitable Judgment , we ought at least to consider the good with the ill , and after having made an exact discernment of the one and the other , to approve of that good that may be seen , and to blame that bad that may be found there . It was after this manner that Zuinglius and Calvin passed their Judgments on Luther , and that we Judge him also ; we discover a great many Excellent things in him , an Heroical Courage , a great Love for the Truth , an ardent Zeal for the Glory of God , a great Trust in his Providence , Extraordinary Learning in a dark Age , a profound respect of the Holy Scripture , an indefatigable Spirit , and a great many other high Qualities . We see that he was in his Time one of the first who had their Eyes opened to consider the Errors and Abuses that were then currant in the Latin Church , that he earnestly applyed himself to it , that his Example excited divers others to do the same , that he endured upon that Account very great Persecutions , under all which his heart never failed , and that by his Cares and Learned Labours he recovered divers people out of the Superstition wherein they were buried . Under this prospect we cannot but give him the Just praise which we believe he merits ; and because we know that God is the Author of every perfect gift , as Saint James says , we attribute all the good that we see in Luther to his Grace and his Holy Spirit , and all the happy Successes of his Preaching to the Divine Benediction , looking upon him as a servant of God , and an instrument which he made use of , for the work of the Reformation . But because there is no person in the World who has not his Excesses and his Faults , amidst that which Luther had of praise worthy , we see also a great many things which we know not how to approve . We believe that he had not light enough about the matter of the Eucharist , we find that he was very much prepossessed about the Real presence , we acknowledge that his stile was too impetuous and too violent , and we make no scruple to say that he has not well enough distinguished his differing opinions so as to be able to support them without breaking the bond of Communion with those who could not tolerate them , which makes him fall into a great piece of injustice in respect of us . Thus far , methinks , we may go without impugning Christian Charity , if any one among us have pushed his Judgment further , and would needs have Penetrated into the heart of Luther , to impute his Actions to the Principles of Jealousy , of Pride , and Hatred , as the Author of the Prejudices says that Hospinian has done , it is what we do not approve of . For there is nothing in the World wherein we are more easily deceived then in the Judgments which we pass upon the internal Principles of any ones Actions . We may say , this Action is good , this Action is not good ; but when one Action may proceed from divers differing Principles , we ought to Judge with Charity ; or if there be no place for a Judgment of Charity , the surest way is not to Judge at all , but to leave it to the knowledge of God. If the Author of the Prejudices had followed this Rule , he had never attributed , as he has done , our carriage towards Luther and the Lutherans , to a piece of Human Policy : he had said on the contrary , that it was the effect of a Just Discernment , which we could not tell how to hinder our selves from making without being culpable . We blame in Luther and in the Lutherans , what we Judge to be blamable there , we commend that therein which we Judge to be commendable ; we bear with that which we believe to be tolerable without approving it , and if there be any excess either in that Praise , or Blame , or Toleration , we are ready to amend it , when they shall make us to perceive it . Notwithstanding we chuse rather to incline towards the side of Charity , then towards that of Rigor , and we would be much rather in a state , wherein by the Mediation of the grace of God , all sharpness , animosity , harsh expressions , accusations , complaints might be for ever banished , then that we should banish our Praises and Toleration . We will always preserve towards the Church of Rome , the same Charity and the same Justice , as much as it shall be possible for us to do ; but in Observing that equality , we are grieved to see that we cannot but make very differing Judgments of her , and of those of the Confession of Ausburg , and which produce contrary effects in us . These latter are in difference with us only about the point of the Real presence , and about some Questions of the Schools which we cannot yet impute to their whole Body ; and as for the rest , they reject with us the Invocation of Saints , Religious Worship of Images , humane Satisfactions , Indulgences , Purgatory , worship of Reliques , the publick Service in an unknown Tongue , the merit of good Works , Transubstantiation , the sacrifice of the Mass , the Monarchy of the Pope , the opinion of the Infallibility of the Church , and the principle of blind obedience to the decisions of Councils . They acknowledge the Scriptures to be the only Rule of Faith , they carefully practise the Reading of them , they own their sufficiency , they believe their Authority independant from that of the Church , in regard of men . They distinctly explain the Doctrine of Justification , and that of the use of the Law , and its distinction from the Gospel , they do not conceive amiss of the nature of Faith , and that of good works , and as for popular superstitions , we can scarce see any reign among them . Would to God the Church of Rome were in that condition , and that we could purchase it at the price of our Blood and our Lives . But alas ! We are very far from seeing any likely-hood of success to that wish ; all those points that I have set down , are so many differences which we have with her ; and in our Judgments , there are so many Errors , and so many abuses in her ; and we are so far from any reasonable hope of their Correction , that we see on the contrary that they strengthen themselves in them every day , and that they discover every day more and more signs of their aversion for , or contempt of a Reformation . Who therefore can think it strange that upon the business of Religion we place a great difdifference between those of the Roman Church , and those who are called Lutherans , the one appears to us as a Body spread all over with a great many boils , which all together put a stop to the Functions of Life , and the others , as a Body that has only one or two which do not hinder its Life , or its Action . In a word , we do not believe that those who have imbibed the Tenets of the Roman Church , where we differ from them , and who practice them , are in the way of Salvation , as well by reason of the Quality of the greatest part of those Tenets , as by reason of their number . But as to the Errors which remain yet among the Lutherans we do not pass the same Judgment , either as to their Quality or their number . I say as to their Quality , and the reason that we alledge is is very solid , whatsoever endeavors they have used to elude it , for although the opinion of the Lutherans about the Real presence be erroneous , though we are so far from approving of it , that we oppose it as much as possibly we can , yet while they shall make a profession , as they do , to distinguish in the Sacrament the substance of bread from that of the Body of Jesus Christ , we cannot say that their Error compels them actually to adore the meer creature of Bread , for the same Body of Jesus Christ that is hypostatically united with the word . We can very well say that they deceive themselves in imagining that the Body of Jesus Christ is in a place where it is not , but we cannot tell them that they take another subject for the Body of Jesus Christ , which really and in effect is not so . They do not therefore deceive themselves in regard of the Object of their Adoration , for they do not take the one for the other ; I would say they do not take the substance of Bread for the Body of Jesus Christ , but they deceive themselves in regard of the place wherein they conceive the Body of Jesus Christ to be , for they conceive it to be in the Bread , and it is not there . But this Error about the place , how gross soever it be , does not , notwithstanding , include Idolatry , for as I have said , they do not take one subject for another , the substance of Bread for the Body of Jesus Christ . But it is otherwise in the Church of Rome , for if she deceives her self , she does it not only as to the place wherein she conceives the Body of Jesus Christ , but also as to the subject that she takes for the Body of Jesus Christ , since it is in effect but the substance of Bread. There is actually and really in the Sacrament but one only substance , the Church of Rome does not distinguish it from the Object of her Adoration , on the contrary she delieves it to be the Body of Jesus Christ , and she Adores it under that Quality , if she deceives her self , it is manifest that in believing she adores the Body of Jesus Christ , she adores that which is actually the substance of Bread. It is to no purpose therefore that the Author of the Prejudices says , That it is false that the Catholicks adore the Sacrament in taking that word for an external Vail . That makes nothing to the Question . Whether they adore or do not adore the accidents of Bread , that is to say its figure , colour , roundness , is a thing by it self , whereof we do not now dispute , we speak now of the substance which the Priest holds in his hands . But it is yet nothing to the purpose what he further adds , That although the Bread should remain there , as the Lutherans hold , yet we could not accuse the Catholicks of adoring it , their adoration terminates upon Jesus Christ alone , whom they believe to lie hid under those sensible species . This is an Ordinary Fallacy of their Missionaries , fit only to deceive Children . I distinguish , We cannot accuse those of the Church of Rome of believing that they adore the Bread , or of being willing to adore it , or of having an intention to adore the Bread ; I grant it , for they believe that it is no longer Bread , they believe that the substance of Bread is changed into that of Jesus Christ , so that they can never be accused of believing that they adore , or that they are willing to adore , or that they have an intention to adore the Bread. They defend themselves in that whereof no Body accuses them . But if the bread remain in effect no Bread , I deny that we cannot accuse them of adoring , that which is actually and in the Truth of the thing , Bread , in believing that it is the Body of Jesus Christ , and a man must be of a very bad faith not to see it . For if I should imagine , for example , that a Tree , that a Rock , that a flower was a God hid under the form of a Tree , a Rock , a Flower , and if I should adore it under that Quality of a God which my imagination gave it , it would be past all doubt that I should adore a Tree , a Rock , a Flower , in believing my self to adore God. But besides that we are , in regard of the Lutherans , in very different Terms from those , wherein the Church of Rome would have us that we should be with her : For in respect of the Lutherans the business is only about a meer Toleration , which we give to those among them who desire it , with a Spirit of Charity , waiting till it shall please God to dissipate their Error . But the Church of Rome that calls it self infallible , would have us not only to have a meer Toleration for her , but that we should make a profession of believing all that she believes ; for when she separated her self from us , she Anathematised all those who did not believe all that she had decided in her Council of Trent . The Matters therefore are not equal between the Roman and the Lutheran Communion in respect of us . To put them into an Equality it is necessary that the Roman Church should openly put her self into the state wherein the Lutherans are , that she renounce the Invocation of Saints , Religious worship of Images , humane Satisfactions , Indulgences , Purgatory , the worshipping of Relliques , the publick Service in an unknown Tongue , the merit of good Works , Transubstantiation , Adoration of the Sacrament , the Sacrifice of the Mess , the Papal Monarchy , the pretension of Infallibility , the blind Obedience that she would have us give to her decisions . It is necessary , that she should acknowledge the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith and manners , that she should carefully recommend the Reading of them to the People , that she should confess their sufficiency without the help of tradition , that she should believe the Authority of that Scripture , independent ( even in respect of us ) on that of the Church , that she should distinctly lay down the Doctrine of Justification , and that of the distinction of the Law and the Gospel , that she should form a Just Idea of the Faith , and of good works , and that she should take care to abolish all the popular Superstitions which we behold among them . When she shall have done all that , with some other things which the Lutherans have done also , although she do retain the point of the Real presence after the same manner that they do , we shall not fail to offer her the same Toleration which we yield to the Lutherans , and the same conditions which we give to them ; which is , that we should not engage our selves to believe that presence , that we should always protest against it as an Error , and that they shall do nothing to force us to embrace it . When the Church of Rome shall be in that condition which I have set down , if we do not make her these offers , if we do not even make them with all the ardour imaginable , we will be very well contented in that Case , that they should accuse us of humane Policy , and that they should tell us that we are a sort of men without any Conscience , Justice , and Charity . But 'till then we will take God and men to witness , that there is not the least equity in those invectives , and that it is to oppress our innocency , to ascribe that , as the Author of the Prejudices has done , to an interested Policy , or a capricious humour , which is but too well founded upon the things themselves . See here what I had to say upon the Twelfth Chapter of the Author of the Prejudices . It may now be Judged of what force his Accusations are . We should after that pass on to his Thirteenth Chapter . But as that Chapter is but a sending us to a Book of Monsieur Arnaud's , Intituled , The Overthrow of the Morals of Jesus Christ by the Calvinists , I shall also content my self with referring my Readers to the Answer which I hope to make him . It shall suffice for the present to say , That the Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance , as the Synod of Dort has laid it down , is a Doctrine of the Scripture , and that all the pretended Consequences which Monsieur Arnaud would draw from it , are of the same nature of those which profane Persons draw from all the Doctrines of Religion , when they would abuse them to their Ruin. CHAP. VIII . That our Fathers , in their Design of Reforming themselves , were bound to take the Holy Scripture alone for the Rule of their Faith. IT it now necessary to Examine by what Principle , or upon what Rule our Fathers proceeded in their Reformation . But before we go any further , we shall do well to weigh what the Author of the Prejudices says , who has made an express Chapter upon this matter . The Argument of that Chapter is framed in these words . That the way which the Calvinists propound to instruct men in the Truth , is ridiculous and impossible . After having entred upon his subject , As the matter is , saith he , about the promise which they make of discovering divers Truths of the Faith to the Catholicks , which are in their Judgments obscured and quite altered in the Church of Rome , there will be nothing more Just , or more natural , then in the first place to inquire into the way , which they would take to perform it , to the end that we may Judge by the very nature of that way what we may justly expect . For if it be found that they would engage us in an infinite way , and which could not come to an issue , there could not be a more lawful excuse to hinder us from hearkening to them , nor a more evident conviction of the rashness of their enterprise . Behold here , methinks , Two Declarations of that Author sufficiently express , concerning the means which we propound to instruct men in the Truth , the one , That it is a ridiculous and impossible way ; and the other , That it is an infinite way , &c. and which can come to no issue ; for we may well perceive that that Periphrasis of expression , If it be found that they would engage us in an infinite way , &c. made use of , in the beginning of a Disputation , means , that it will be so found in effect , and that it is as much as if it had been positively said , they would engage us in an infinite way , and which has no end , there being no other difference between those two expressions , unless that this latter is the more plain , and that the other has more of the Air of the Philosophical Method of those Gentlemen . After that preamble the Author goes on . It is true , says he , that if we will hear them speak upon this subject without any more deep searehing into that which they say , we shall have reason enough to be satisfied . For they baldly promise to lead us to the Faith , by a short , an easy and a clear way , without confusion , without danger of wandring aside , and this way say they , is the Examination of the Articles of the Faith by the Scripture , which is the only Rule that God has given us for the deciding of the differences of Religion , and assuring us of what we ought to believe , all others being subject to Error . This is the Explication of the way which we propose , which is to take the Holy Scripture for the only Rule of our Faith. He adds , But because in a matter of this importance we should take the greatest care to avoid dazling our sight with words that would have more of shew then Solidity , it will be good to inform our selves more exactly whether this way is so easy as they represent it , whether there do not occur some Obstacles that hinder our passing further , and whether it be not of so excessive a length , that we ought not rationally to hope to come to the end of it , whatsoever diligence we use ; whether it be fitted to all the World , and whether there be not any person who may not going on faithfully in it , arrive to the end whether it leads . Behold here another Conclusion against our way , inwraped under a so , to wit , that it is of a length so excessive , as we ought not rationally to hope ever to get to the end , whatsoever diligence we use , and that at least , it is not fitted to all the World. In what follows he fills his Chapter with the Objections and difficulties that tend to turn away men from the Scripture , and to make them conceive that in effect it is that infinite way which has no issue at all , of which he had spoke , and that way of so excessive a length that we could never come to the end of , whatsoever Diligence we should use . But the meaning of that is , that according to him , the way to be assured of the Articles of the Faith by the Scripture , is absolutely unprofitable to all men , of what order soever they be , and for what Truth soever it be . For an infinite way which has no issue , and the length of which is so excessive that we could never with all the diligence we should use come to the end of it , is equally unprofitable to all , as well to the Learned , as the Ignorant . And moreover , the greatest part of the difficulties that render it infinite , according to him , being not to be found in some private passages , but in the Scripture in general , it follows that we can never be assured by that means of any Truth . So that , behold here , according to the Author of the Prejudices , the Scripture absolutely unprofitable , and that for all sorts of men , and all sorts of Truths . In one word , as the Tilte of his Chapter bears , it is a ridiculous way , and impossible to instruct men in the Truth . Whatsoever Prejudice there has been in the Church of Rome against the Reformation , I cannot believe that it would not be shaken at so scandalons and un-Christian a Proposition . For to treat the holy Scripture , which is the Oracle of Christians , and the word of God , as a ridiculous way , and to reject it as absolutely unprofitable , and improper to instruct men in the Truth , without distinction , without Limitation , as much for one sort as for another , as much for one truth as for another , is methinks a new Gospell , which we have not yet heard spoken of , for there was never any thing spoke so high till this , or to say better , none were ever yet carried out to such Excesses . We have read in Pamelius and some others , with Indignation and Horrour , That the Scripture is a nose of wax , which may he turned which way we please , and that it is far more easy to wrest it to Profane and Impious things , then it is to make use of half the verses of Virgil to Compose Epithalamiums . We have seen in Pighius and elsewhere , that the Scripture is a dumb Rule , a dumb Witness , a dead and lifeless thing , a Sword that cuts with both edges , and such other Expressions , injurious to the Scripture ; But no body , that I know of , ever went so far yet as to make it a ridiculous way for the Instructing of men in the Truth . There are enough in the world who know that these Gentlemen , of whose number the Author of the Prejudices is , write nothing but for one and the same Intrest , and with the same Spirit . I may therefore , methinks , with very good reason make use for this occasion , of what the Author of the Translation of the New Testament of Mons has wrote in his Preface , to oppose it to the Author of the Prejudices , to shew him that the Spirit that animates them is an unequal Spirit , that blows both cold and hot . For behold what that Preface carries in it ; We hope that not only the Souls of the more learned but even of the Simpler sort may find here ( that is to say in the Translation ) that which shall be necessary for their instructtion , provided that they read at with an intire Simplicity of heart , and Address themselves humbly to the Son of God in saying to him with Peter Lord , to whom should we go ? It is thou who hast the words of Eternal Life , and it is thou alone who canst make us learn. They must goe to him , as those in the Gospel , of when it is said that they came to hear him , and to be healed of their Diseases . And a little lower , The Holy Scripture is like to a great River , saith Saint Gregore , which has always slid 〈◊〉 , and which will do so 〈◊〉 the end of the world . The great and the small . The mighty and the feeble may find there that living water which rises up even unto Heaven , it ●ffers it self to all , and is fitted to all , it has a simplicity that descends even to the Souls of the most simple , and a height that excercises and elevates the most raised , all may draw there indiffirently , but it will be farr from being able to be drawn dry by filling us , we may always lose our selves in the bottomless depths of learning and wisdom , that we may adore without being able to comprehend . But that which ought to comfort us in that Obscurity , is , that according to Saint Augustine the holy Scripture sets before us in an Easy and Intelligible manner , all that which is necessary to us for the Conduct of our Lives , which she explains , and makes clear her self , in telling us clearly in some Places , that which she said obscurely in others . This Language is very different from that which they hold in the Book of the Prejudices : The one says , That we shall find in the Scripture all that which is necessary for our Instruction ; and the other assures us , that the way of the Scripture is Ridiculous and Impossible to instruct men in the Truth . The one declares that the Scripture propounds to us after an Easy and Intelligible manner all that is necessary for the Conduct of our lives , which it explains and makes clear her self ; and the other says , that it is a way of so excessive a length that we ought not rationally to hope ever to come to the end , whatsoever dilligence we should use . The one makes it a means of Instruction , proper not only for Inlightned Souls , but even for the Simpler sort , for great and small , for strong and weak ; and the other in making it an Infinite way which has no Issue , makes it improper not only for the simple , but even for the most learned . The one extends its use unto all that is Necessary for Instruction and the Conduct of life , and the other in heaping up of general difficulties , makes it unprofitable to Instruct us in the least Truths . What Judgment can we make of this diversity , unless this , that the language of these Gentlemen changes according to the difference of Times and Interests , as one has said of them elsewhere . When the case is about gaining credit to their Translation of the New Testament , they speak as advantagiously of the Scripture as it is possible for them to speak ; and when the business is to oppose a Reformation made according to the Rule of the Scripture , but which notwithstanding has not the happiness of their Agreement , you see what they say of that same Scripture . The Scripture shall then , to speak properly , be only to be commended , by the Intrest of their Translation , and as long as that Interest shall remain , shall be the Collection of the divine Teachings of our Lord , The Testament that assures us of the Inheritance of our Father , The mouth of Jesus Christ , who although he is in Heaven speaks continually upon earth , not only the nourishment of sound Souls and those who are establish'd in grace , as the Body of the Son of God , but even the Consolation of Sinners , the light of the blind , the remedy of the Sick , and the life of the dead . For these are the Titles that the Preface gives it ; but whenever that Interest shall cease , those praises shall do so too , and it shall be nothing but a Ridiculous way , and impossible for the Instructing of men in the Truth . I would therefore very fain know of these Gentlemen , whether it were only upon the sight of their Translation , that S. Cyprian , S. Augustine , and S. Gregory , wrote that which the Preface relates , or whether those Fathers did not consider the Scripture in it self . For if it be the first , they forgot to tell us that they only spake out of a Prophetick Spirit of that Translation ; and if it be the Second , why have they entertained us with that admirable proportion of the Scripture to great and small , to the strong and weak , and that easy and intelligible manner wherewith it propounds to us all that is necessary for the Conduct of our life since that , without the Translation of Mons , it is an Infinite way , which has no end , a ridiculous way , and Impossible to Instruct men in the Truth ? What can the Author of the Prejudices say to defend himself from this Manifest Contradiction which he discovers between him and his Colleague ? Will he say , that the Scripture is in truth a good means for the Instruction of men ; but that it is so , only with the Interpretations of the Fathers ? But the Author of that Preface speaks for Scripture alone , separated from the Interpretation of the Fathers , such as its Translation is ; for he excuses himself in that he had not made a collection of notes and explanations drawn out of the writings of the holy Fathers , and he does not fail to say that in his Translation , as plain as it is , not only the Souls of the more learned , but of the more simple also and unlearned , may find that which will be necessary for their Instruction . Will he say , that he does not mean to exclude the learned from the use of the Scripture , but only the more simple , for the Instruction of which former , he does not deny but that it would be a most proper means . But besides , that his Brother speaks formally of the Instruction of the more simple , why has the Author of the Prejudices made it a ridiculous and Impossible way , an infinite way which has no Issue , a way which is of so excessive a length , that one can never rationally hope to come to the end of it , whatsoever diligence one should make ? Will he say that the Scripture ought to be joined with Tradition , and that without Tradition it cannot give a perfect Instruction ? But the Preface says expresly , that they will find in that Translation all that will be necessary for Instruction . Will he say that in order to the Scriptures Instructing one , the Sence of the Church ought to be added to it ? But the Preface says , that according to Saint Augustine the Scripture lays down all that is necessary for the Conduct of our lives after a most easy and Intelligible manner , and that she explains and makes clear her self . Will he say that in order to the Scriptures being capable to Instruct us , we ought at least to read it with Dependance upon the Church , and to take it from her hand ? But wherefore then would these Gentlemen have the People to read their Translation , since they are only private Doctors , and not the Church ? Wherefore when the Prelats rais'd to the highest dignities have forbid the reading of it by their Ordinances , have we seen Printed writings maintain on the contrary , there was in those Ordinances , a Threatning of the Will and Commandment of God , who would , that we should hear his Son , and not , that we should suppress his Gospel ; a Contradiction to the Holy Scripture , which was set down in writing for no other end but to be heard and practis'd by all Nations of the world , a Contradiction of all the Councils which have always taken the Scripture for the Judge of the belief of the Church , and of all the Difficulties and Questions that can arise in the Doctrine of Faith or Manners ; a Contradiction of all the Holy Fathers who advis'd the Faithful above all things continually to read the word of God. Why has one Introduc'd two Lay-men Parishoners , Saint Hilary Montanus , saying one to another , The Bishops cannot take away from us the Gospel that Jesus Christ has given us , that God spoke to all his People , when he said , To day if you will hear my voice , harden not your Hearts ; a Bishop cannot take away our Eyes from us , to hinder us from seeing and considering our way , we should not see Jesus Christ our Saviour , our Pastor and our great Bishop , who goes before us in his Gospel . That if a Bishop would turn us away from , if an Apostle , if an Angel from Heaven would stop up this way , and would go about to lead and guide us in another , we ought not to believe him . Why has he made us see those Parishoners holding , That there is nothing more contrary to the Gospel then a prohibition to read and have it ; that bread and nourishment is not more necessary to preserve the life of the Body , then the word of God is to maintain Life in our Souls , That all Christians have a natural right that cannot be taken from them , of Instructing themselves by the word of God , and labouring to understand it , and that the Holy Scriptures were given to the whole Church , and not only to the Bishops , who have no right to deprive the Faithful of them . That this is , say they , what the Divel would preach up if he were visible , and Transfigured into an Angel of light , and in the shape of a Preacher in the Chair of Truth , and what else would he perswade the Faithful too , but that the Faithful ought to take very great heed not to read the Holy Scripture , and not to meditate day and night upon the words of life , that the Spirit of God has dictated to the Prophets , and which God the Father has given to his Son for the Instruction of his Church , and to draw it from the Corruption of the world , to render it Holy and without Spot to his Father , who gave it to him — Jesus Christ was the Word uf God , and liv'd by that Word , and to make his Church live , he gave it his word in an Intelligible Tongue , out of his own mouth , and by his Disciples : Search , says he , and examine carefully the Scriptures , for they are they which Testify of me . Thus it is that they speak of it sometimes , Jesus Christ gave his Scripture to the Faithful , with a Commandment to read it , to examine it carefully , and to hear it . It was the Judge of the beleif of the Church , and the Difficulties and Questions that arose in the Doctrine of the Faith and Manners . The Parishioners made use of them against their Bishops , They encountred even their Ordinances by passages out of that Scripture , they maintain'd that the use of them belonged to all Christians by a natural right , and that to go about to deprive them of them , was to do an action of the Devil . But now a days they speak no more after that manner , for they tell us on the contrary that it is a Ridiculous and Impossible way to Instruct men in the Truth , an Infinite way which has no Issue , and which is of so excessive a length that whatsoever dilligence we should use , we can never arrive to the end , and they labour to heap difficulties upon difficulties , to drive them back , and to make a Labyrinth full of Circles and confus'd ways , that so out of a fear of those Confusions the world should take heed of entring into it . For my own part I freely acknowledg , That I can comprehend nothing in all that . For if , before one can assure ones self of one only Passage of Scripture , whatsoever it be , we must needs go through a thousand tedious ways , and overcome a thousand Obstacles that arise from the Question about the Canonical Books , about the Conformity of the Translations with the Originals , about the different manner of reading the Passages , and about the difference of Interpretations , as the Author of the Prejudices would have it , according to his ordinary Exaggeration , to what purpose is it to give the publick a Translation , which after the manner that it was given and receiv'd in , cannot but be subject to the greatest part of those difficulties ; and yet notwithstanding , they put it into all mens hands , as well the Ignorant as the Learned , as well of the simple as the more Inlightned , as well to women as to men . The Church of Rome has not declared it Authentick , Two Bishops and a Doctor have approved it , but two Arch-bishops , and a Cardinal , have forbidden it ; and yet one has not failed , notwithstanding those Prohibitions , to maintain , that all the world ought to read them , and that that forbidding them is a Violence , a Novelty , an unexampled Enterprise , a bold Attempt upon the Liberty that God has given to the Church , ransomed at the price of the Blood of his own Son , that it is an usurpation , and the Introducing of a Tyrannical Authority that was never excercised in the Church until this day — and that every one is bound not only not to obey that Ordinance , but even to have an Horror for it , and to resist it as much as he can . What will then become of those Difficulties , and those unconquerable Confufions which hinder them , according to the Author of the Prejudices , so that they cannot assure themselves of one only Passage of the Scripture , through the uncertaitty wherein a man is of the unfaithfulness of the Translations ; through the Ignorance wherein we are of the different manner of reading those Passages ; and through the necessity of consulting Interpreters ? Is it because they would expresly engage the People in an Infinite way and which can come to no Issue , and in a ridiculous way , and which is Impossible for the Instructing of any in the Truth ? or is it rather because they did not propound to themselves in that Translation to Instruct men in the Truths of the Faith , but only to satisfy their Curiosity , and to make them read good French ? The Author of the Prejudices may acknowledge therefore if he pleases , that the heat of Disputation has carried him beyond the bounds of Right and Reason , and the respect which he ought to have for the word of God , and that in endeavouring to have troubled us , he has done it for himself and his Freinds ; for if that which he has propounded were true , they would give us a ground to accuse those who have publish'd the Translation of Mons , of Rashness and Imprudence . And it will be nothing to the purpose to say , that they Publish'd it for those persons who were already Instructed in the Truths which the Church believes , that therein they might receive a Confirmation and increase of the Faith , by the Conformity which they should find the Doctrines of the Church have with it , and that it was necessary for that that they should go through all the difficulties which the Author of the Prejudices has worked , since the Sole Conformity of it with the Doctrines of the Church , would be sufficient to assure them that it was truly the word of God. I say that answer will not satisfy ; For besides that it is an Injury to the word of God to make the Efficacy that it has in our Souls to depend upon the Conformity which it has with the Doctrine of the Church , whereas on the contrary the Efficacy of the Doctrine of the Church ought to depend on its Conformity with the word of God ; besides that , the Author of the Preface , says expresly , That the Souls of the simpler sort may find that in his Translation which is necessary for their Instruction . He says not those who shall be already Instructed in that which the Church teaches , but he says , the Simpler sort , he does not say that they would be Confirmed in the Instruction which they had already , but that they would find that which should be necessary for their Instruction . And elsewhere he says , That the word of God , that is to say in his Translation , for it is about the Subject of that Translation that he speaks , is the Light of the Blind , and the Life of the Dead . Which signifies that it gives by it self the first Impressions of the Spiritual Life . So that it was not in the view of the knowledge that the simple might have of the Doctrine of the Roman Church , that he publish'd that Translation , if we believe the Parishioners of Saint Hilary Montanus ; But on the contrary in the view of that Ignorance under which they were held . For see how they speak . Our Lord said , I have Compassion on the Multitude , for they have nothing to eat ; and you see the Complaint that the Prophet made , The Children ask for Bread , and there is none to give unto them . It were a small matter if they would content themselves with the not giving them the Bread of the Gospel ; They will not suffer them to take it , and if they take it , They snatch it out of their Hands ; They do not Instruct them , and they would hinder them , so that they should not Instruct thenselves out of the word of God , and that that Prophecy should not be accomplish'd , Erunt omnes docibiles Deo , and they shall be taught of God. I thought my self bound to make these first Reflections , to shew the injustice and inequality of these men that we have to do with . Nihil est , says Cicero , quod minus ferendum sit , quam rationem vitae ab altero reposcere eum quinon posset suae reddere . Notwithstanding after having a little cooled that impetuous motion of the Author of the Prejudices , I shall not fail to Justify our Fathers touching the Principle upon which they made their Reformation . I say then in the first place , That they could not in that State wherein things were , take the Church in their days for the Rule of their Faith , without renouncing Common sence . The Church in their days , or to speak better , that which they would call the Church , was made up of Three sorts of persons . The Court of Rome , the Prelats and the other Clergy , and the People . The Court of Rome was the source of all evil , it was that that had spread abroad all the Errors and Superstitions in the Latin Church , or that had at least fomented and maintained them when they took their rise elsewhere . Her Usurpations and the disorder of her Government , was one of the complaints of our Fathers . They complained of her Principles , her Maxims , and some decisions of the Faith which she had caused to pass in Councils that were servilely subjected to her will and her interests . She was therefore a resolute party in this affair , evidently interested , and by consequence uncapable of Judging . It is True that she called her self the Mother and the Mistress of all Churches , and that one of her pretensions was Infallibility in the Faith. But that very thing was one of the Errors of which our Fathers required a correction , whatever probability she had of ascribing it to her self . Adrian the sixth acknowledged a great part of the disorders of that Court , in his instructions to his Nuntio whom he sent to the Diet of Nuremberg , as we have already seen , and the General voice of the whole Church , which demanded a long time ago a Reformation in capite & membris , make it known enough to leave us out of all doubt . Moreover , the Court of Rome did so loudly and vehemently declare her self against a Reformation , that it could not be any further hoped for , and why should our Fathers have taken her for the Rule of Faith , since not only the Gallican Church who lived in Communion with her , maintained that she was not , but even the Experience of many years had very evidently shewed that she could not be : Does not Tertullian , turned Montanist , Testify , That Eleutherius Bishop of Rome had received the Prophecies of Montanus , of Priscilla and Maximilla , and that he had already wrote Letters of Communion to the Churches of Asia and Phrygia which were Montanists , and that those Letters should have their effect , although Praxeas had not made them to be recalled , in relating false things concerning those Churches and their Prophets ? And has not the sixth General Council condemned Pope Honorius as a Monothelite Heretick , with Sergius Patriaerch of Constantinople , and some others ? I know that some have said , that that Council was deceived in the business of Honorius ; but without entring upon that Question , in which it is certain that they deceive themselves , as not long since P. Louis Thomassin , Priest of the Oratory , in his Dissertation about that sixth Council has acknowledged . It is enough that that Council condemned Honorius for an Heretick , and that it proscribed his name and his Memory . For that Condemnation , after what manner soever it hapned , is an Authentick Declaration that a General Council has held , that Popes may Err , and by eonsequence that they are not the Rule of Faith. And it is nothing to the purpose to say , as P. Thomassin has done , that Henorius Erred only in the quality of a private man and not as Pope , or to speak more properly , That he did not Err , but only that he had a mind to make use of a Dispensation for the procuring the peace of the Church , which was divided about the Question whether there were two wills , and two operations in Jesus Christ , or whether there was but one , and that he desired that they would be silent about that point . Which side soever they chuse , it will always follow from that Example of Honorius , that the Bishops of Rome are not the Rule of Faith. For to make a Rule of Faith , it is not enough to be exempt from Error , either in quality of Popes , or even in the quality of private men , it is further necessary that they should be always in a state of not fomenting or entertaining Heresy , but of opposing it on the contrary , of condemning it when it has made any progress , and of maintaining the True Faith. But this is that which they cannot say of Honorius , in respect of the Heresy of the Monothelites . That Heresy had over-ran all the East , the Patriarchates of the East were infected with it , the Emperour Heraclius had established it by a publick Edict , a Council it self held at Constantinople had confirmed it , whether therefore they say that Honorius embraced Heresy in quality of a private man , or whether they say that by a false Dispensation he would only have imposed silence on the Orthodox , which way soever they take , it is manifest , that he was not in a state under the quality of Pope , to put a stop to the course of Heresy , nor to succour the true Faith. For what likelyhood is there , that as Pope he should have condemned himself as a private man ; or that in quality of Pope , or as they speak , ex cathedra , he should have Published the Truth that ought to be held , while his own private opinion was that he should hold his peace about it and suppress it . It is therefore a Mockery to make a Rule of Faith of such a Pope , who through his own private Heresy , or his imprudent Dispensation , could not hinder Monothelism from Triumphing . And it cannot be a less one , if they should pretend that the Church of Rome should be the True Rule of Faith , while such Popes are her Head , since she can do nothing without them , and since they might render it incapable to defend the Truth . I pass over in silence a multitude of other things , which sensibly shew us the falseness of that pretence of Rome , such as are the lapses of Marcellinus and Liberius , the Contradictory decisions of divers Popes , their inconstancy , their capricious humours , their interested Judgments , and I know not how many other Characters incompatible with a true Rule of Faith. It is sufficient to know that that pretence has never been publickly received in France , and that our Kings and our Parliaments have always most vehemently opposed it . As to the Prelats and the other Ecclesiasticks , after the sad Descriptions that we have given of their state , in the days of our Fathers , and many Ages before them , there is no likelyhood that they can yet further with the least shadow of Reason , propose them as a Just Rule of Faith , which way soever they are considered , whether in General , or in particular , whether separated , or assembled together . Their Ignorance , their negligence in spiritual things , their sinking into vices , their excessive love of the World , and in a word all that which we have have seen in them , will not permit us to believe that we should be bound to trust absolutely to their word , about the Subject of the Reformation . They had given but too many marks that they were subject to Error , since the greatest part of those things which were to be reformed came from them , or from those who went before them . And besides that they were themselves express parties in that affair , considering the complaints that they made of them , and that they were engaged to uphold the superstitions in which they had held the People , we are not Ignorant that they had a servile dependance on the Court of Rome to which they were bound by Oath that they would no stir , nor speak , nor act but according to her Inspirations , and her Orders , as experience has Justified it to us in the Council of Trent . In fine , their Prelats were men , and such men as had made the Church to fall into that Lamentable Corruption , out of which our Fathers sought to get out , and how could they take them for an Infallible Rule ? As for that which respects the people , if the Author of the Prejudices is , as is reported , the Author of the Treatise of the Perpetuity of the Faith , he would it may be fain make them pass with us for Infallible , and give them to us to be the Rule of our Faith. But we have shewn him often enough already that he is deceived in his opinion . What was there more liable to deceive them , and more to incline them to abuses and superstitions , then the people , and above all a people ignorant of the Mysteries of the Gospel , such as was for a long time that of the Latin Church ? How could a people that ought themselves to undo the false prepossessions , with which they had been imbued , serve for the Rule of a Reformation ? But some will say , if there had been nothing in the Body of the Church capable of being a Rule of Faith , why did your Fathers demand a Council to hear their Complaints , and give them a remedy ? I answer that our Fathers demanded a Council not such a one as that of Trent , made up of the Creatures of the Pope , who waited for the Holy Ghosts coming from Rome in a Cloak-Bag , as the Roman Catholicks have reproached them ; but such a free Council as wherein they might yet have hoped that God would have presided , and his word have been heard . They demanded it not as the Rule of Faith , blindly to submit their Consciences to all that which should be there determined ; for they well knew that they owed that submission only to God ; but as a humane Ordinary means in the Church that Christian Charity and the love of Order made them desire , to try if they could not by that way re-establish the purity of the Gospel in the West by the way of the Scripture , I acknowledge , that there had lain a great difficulty in the choice of persons ; but if yet notwithstanding they would have proceeded sincerely in it , and in the fear of God , without letting the interests of flesh and blood enter in , the difficulties were not unconquerable . Passion , Contention , a Spirit of Division was not as yet generally spread over all , they were not as yet so obstinate in Error as they have been since . All the Learned men that were then in it , acknowledged the necessity of a Reformation , and desired it . They had therefore a ground to demand a free Council , and these who know History ; are not ignorant that to elude that demand which appeared to all the World to be so Just and Reasonable , that the Court of Rome thought it needful to make use of the most deep and imperceptible piece of its Policy . But howsoever it be , there is a great difference between a Council that should submit it self to , and Rule it self by , the Word of God , and between a Rule of Faith. Our Fathers might very well demand the first , and expect to obtain it , although he state of the Church was then extreamly corrupted ; for there was yet some good desires , which without doubt would have wrought some effect , if they had not been stifled or turned aside . But it does not follow from thence , that they must after what manner soever have taken that Church , for the Soveraign and Infallible Rule of their Religion . They would not have more reason to say , that we ought to turn to the side of Tradition , which the Council of Trent has raised to the same Honour and Authority with the Scripture ; We shall quickly see which ought to have been believed . It shall suffice to say here , that although the greatest part of the Roman Traditions are new , as the Protestants have often demonstrated them to be , yet that in the Age of our Fathers which was as it were the sink of the foregoing , there was scarce any Error , nor any Superstition how gross soever , that they did not labour to defend , under the pretence of Tradition , so that Tradition is so far from being able to serve for a Rule , that it ought it self to be corrected and regulated according to that Maxim of Jesus Christ , In the beginning it was not so . As to the Antient Fathers , I confess that their Writings may be of great use to Learned men , to furnish them with a great measure of knowledge ; but they can never have Authority sufficient to serve for a Rule of Faith. The Fathers were men subject to Errour , to Prejudices , and Surprises , as well as other men , and there appear but too many signs of it in their Writings . They have submitted themselves to the Authority of the Scripture . They have called it , the balance and exact Rule of all things , a sure Anchor , and Foundation of the Faith. They have taken , in their Controversies Jesus Christ speaking in his Gospel , for their Judge . They have Exhorted their Hearers and their Readers , to believe them only so far as their words should be found confirmed by proofs drawn from the Scripture . They have said that they did not care for the Testimony of men but that they would confirm what they said by the Voice of God , which was more certain then all Demonstrations , or to say better , the only Demonstration . It is Evident therefore , that our Fathers could not take any other Rule of the Faith , or Principle of the Reformation then the Holy Scripture . In effect , the Scripture is the Word of God , the Law of our Soveraign Lord , according to which we must all be Judged Pastors and People , great and small , Learned and Ignorant . It contains the Foundations of Divine Revelation , without which there is neither Faith , nor a good Conscience , nor peace of mind , nor hope of Salvation , and if they would consider these things a little more carefully then they ordinarily do , I am perswaded they would make no Difference with us about this Article . All Christians are agreed that the Word of God is the only source of all the Mysteries that are necessary to our belief in Order to our Salvation ; and that his will , is the only Rule of our Worship . This is a Maxim about which there is no dispute between us and those of the Church of Rome ; for they know with us , that Faith comes out of the Word of God , and that it is in vain to Honour God , when we follow the Commandments of men . All our difference consists but in the knowing where that word and that will is ; we restrain it to the Scripture , our Adversaries extend it further ; for they would have it to be found in Traditions , in the writings of the Fathers , in the decisions of the Popes , in the Determinations of the Councils , and in all that which they call the belief of the Church , not only while those things are conformable to the Scripture , but also while they are besides the Scriptures . But as for the decisions of the Popes and Councils , our Adversaries themselves consess , that God gives them not any new and immediate Revelation , that discovers new Objects of Faith to them , or new ways of Worship , and that since Jesus Christ and his Apostles , God has not given the like Revelations to men , either in these latter or the proceeding Ages . It is certain , says Monsieur du Val , his words being set down by Monsieur Arnaud in his second Letter , That the Holy Ghost does not assist the Pope in the decisions of points of Faith , by an immediate and express illumination , as well because that Illumination would be miraculous , and that there would be no necessity of establishing such a Miracle , as because that no Pope ever attempted to prove that when he would decide any matter , he should be immediately and expresly inlightned by the Holy Spirit . A Council also , adds he , has not the like illumination , or ever had . And if ever any had had it , it would have been without doubt , the first of all , which the Apostles held at Jerusalem , at a time wherein the Holy Ghost visibly descended upon the Faithful . And yet notwithstanding the Apostles , in that Council , did not determine any point of difference about the Legal Ceremonies , by an express and immediate illumination ; but after a long debate and discussion . It is therefore an unquestionable Truth , that there is no new and immediate Revelation in the Church , and that Revelation ceased in Jesus Christ and his Apostles . From whence it evidently follows , that all that is to be found , either in the decisions of the Popes , or in the Definitions of the Councils , or in the Writings of the Fathers , or the belief of the Church , or in that which they call Tradition , or in a word , in all that proceeds from the Mouth and hands of men , whatsoever Denomination they may pass under , is the word of God , but as far as it may be found conformable to that Revelation of Jesus Christ and his Apostles . But that being so , as it is without any difficulty , how can they be certain of that Conformity , but as they refer to and compare things with the Scripture ? They say , that there are certain Articles of that Revelation , which the Apostles have delivered down in Trust from their own living voice , alone to their Successors , and which from hand to hand have came down to us . But besides that that very thing is a matter of History , about which we cannot have any certainty of Faith , and upon which by Consequence we can build nothing firmly , what certain sign can they give us to know those pretended Apostolical Traditions by , or to discern the True by , when they should be mingled with the false ? From the first Rise of Christianity , Hereticks , would say as may be seen in Saint Irenaeus , to gain credit to their Errors , that they had were the secret Mysteries which the Apostles taught not to all in Common , but to the perfect in particular . Papias himself , as Eusebius Testifies , had made a Collection of Tables , and New Doctrines , under the Title of unwritten Traditions , which he had Learned , from the Mouths of those who had seen the Apostles and conversed familiarly with them . Saint Irenaeus speaks of a certain Tradition , which had passed for currant in his Time in Asia , as immediately coming from the Apostle Saint John , to wit , That Jesus Christ Taught after his Fortieth Year , which is notwithstanding now held to be false by all Chronologers . They do not not hold the Opinion of the M●llenaries to be less false , which divers Antient Fathers have approved and maintained as a Tradition proceeding from the Apostles . The Churches of Asia who have the Feast of Easter Celebrated precisely on the Fourteenth Day of the Moons Age after the Vernal Equinox , boast for that purpose of the Tradition of Saint John , and Saint Philip ; and the rest of the Church , hold on the contrary by Apostolical Tradition that it ought to be Celebrated on the Sunday of our Lord's Resurrection . The Greeks , Nestorians , Abassines , Latins , Armenians have their contrary Traditions ; for Tradition changes its Face and Form , according as the Nation changes ; one sort hold for a Tradition , the necessity of three immersions in Baptism , and that of the use of Leavened bread in the Sacrament of the Eucharist ; and the other mock at it and reject it . The one sort believe a Purgatory by Tradition , the others believe it not . The one by Tradition Circumcise their Children ; the others have that practise in horrour , as being a Relique of Judaism . The one sort fast by Tradition upon the Saturday ; the rest have that fasting in Execration . One sort , by Tradition Sacrifice Lambs at this day after the manner of the Jews ; the rest detest that custom . Who can say Justly in so great a Confusion , which this is Apostolical , and this is not so ? Moreover , there are a great many Antient Traditions , which publick use heretofore Authorised , and which Time has so abolished ; that there remains not the least shadow of them among the Latins , as that of not Baptizing , without a Case of necessity but only at the Solemn Feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide , of giving of Milk and Honey to the Baptized , of Administring the Eucharist to little Children after Baptism , of Praying standing upon the Lords day , and from Easter till Whitsuntide , of Celebrating the Communion on the Evening of Fast-days , of every ones carrying home with him a piece of the Bread of the Communion , of distributing the Cup to all the faithful Communicants , of receiving the Communion not on ones Knees , but standing , of mutually kissing one another before the Communion ; and divers others , which the Latins have Abrogated . On the other side , how many Latin Traditions are there which the use of the Church of Rome Authorises at this Day , of which we cannot find the least Trace in the Primitive Church , and which from thence visibly discover themselves to be New , and by consequence false , and not Apostolical , as the Worshipping of Images , Invocation of Saints , Transubstantiation , Adoration of the Host . Use of Altars , that of Lights or Tapers , Masses without any Communion , the Divine Service in a Tongue not understood by the People , the Soveraign Authority of the Church of Rome over all other Churches , Auricular Confession , the Number of the seven Sacraments , and as many more , that the Primitive Church which came nearest to the Apostles never knew , as we have often Justified , from whence it follows , that they are not Apostolical , and descending from that only and last Revelation without which there is no word of God. There is therefore nothing more improper to be the Rule of Faith then that pretended Tradition , which is not established upon any certain Foundation , which serves for a pretence to Hereticks , which is embraced pro and con , which changes according as times and places do , and by the favour of which they may defend the greatest absurdiries , by meerly saying that they are the Traditions which the Apostles Transmitted from their own Mouths to their Successours . In a word , if they would have us to believe a Mystery with a Divine Faith , if they would that we should practise a Worship with a perswasion that it is agreeable to God , they ought to shew us that that Mystery , and that Worship proceeds from the Revelation of Jesus Christ , and his Apostles ; for without that , all that is in the World is of Men's Invention , since after Christ and his Apostles there has been no Revelation , as we are both agreed . But they can only shew us that by these two ways , either by that of the Scripture in shewing us that those Mysteries , and that Worship are conformable to it , or by that of Transmission viva voce . But as to that Transmission viva voce , we are so far from being able to have a Divine certainty , that we can't have so much as a humane , for the Reasons which I have alleadged . Which are , that from the beginning of Christianity , Hereticks have boasted of them , and yet they were not believed for them ; that the Orthodox themselves , were deceived in them , alleadging them in false and vain things , which the following Ages have rejected ; that the Schismatical Churches alledge them against the Latins , and the Latins against the Schismaticks , without one sides having any better ground then the other ; that the Church of Rome sets them before us for those New things , which the first Ages never knew . It remains therefore that the way of the Conformity to the Scripture , upon which we are all agreed , is that in which the Divine Revelation is contained . CHAP. IX . An Examination of the Objections , which the Author of the Prejudices makes against the Scripture . BUt this way of the Scripture , according to the Author of the Prejudices , is Infinite , Ridiculous , Impossible , it has such consusions and length that we cannot come to the end of it , with all our diligence . The Principle of the Calvinists , says he , includes all these Maxims without which it cannot subsist . 1. That the Church is not infallible in its decisions concerning the Faith. 2. That Traditions do not make any part of the Rule of the Faith. 3. That the Scripture contains in general all the points of Faith , and so that whatsoever is not contained in the Scripture , cannot be of Faith. 4. That it contains them clearly , and after a manner that is fitted to the under standing of all the World. So that the certainty of that way , and the hope that we can rationally conceive of it must depend upon the certainty of these Maxims . Upon that , we must note , that it is not here Questioned whether the Scripture be Divine or not , but that supposing that it is so , he says only , That he must demand of us those formal and decisive passages that prove those four Propositions . And that , when we do propose any one , we must first be assured that it is taken out of a Canonical Book , and to that effect , we must examine the controversy of the Canonical Books , and see by what Rules they may be known . 2. We must be certain that that passage is conformable to the Original , and to that effect , we must consult the Originals . 3. We must be certain that there are not different ways of Reading it , that may weaken the proof . 4. That we must narrowly see into the sence of the passage , not to give it too great a Latitude , nor to blind our selves with an appearance . 5. That we must see whether there are no expressions , or contrary passages , which force us to take the passage in another sence . 6. That we ought to consult the Interpreters of one side and of the other , and to know what they say upon that passage . 7. That after this , we must come to the distinction of Fundamental points , and those that are not Fundamental and prove it by Scripture . 8. That we must examine the passages which each Sect produces in its Favour . 9. That lastly , after all this , it is necessary that a man should trust his own Eyes and his Memory , which failing to go through all the former reasons , and preserving only a consused Idea of them , will not further allow him to make a Just Judgment of things . He concludes from thence , that this way is not only interrupted with unconquerable difficulties and obstacles ; but that it is of a length so little proportioned to mens minds , that it is evident that it cannot be that which God has chosen to instruct us in the Truths by which he would lead us to Salvation . For , says he , if they themselves who make a profession of spending all their lives in the Study of Divinity , ought to Judge that Examination to be above their abilities , what will become of those who are obliged to spend the greatest part of their Time in other Occupations ? What will become of Judges , Magistrates , Tradesmen , Labourers , Souldiers , Women , Children , who have as yet a very weak Judgment ? What will become of those who do not understand so much as any of the Languages into the which the Bible is Translated ? What will become of the blind who know not how to Read ? What will become of those who have no understanding , nor any readiness of mind ? How can all those People examine all those Points , the Discussion of the least of which notwithstanding , is evidently necessary to make them rationally determine ? It is easy to see that all that heap of Objections and Difficulties which the Author of the Prejudices has proposed against the way of the Scripture , tends only to lead men to the Authority of the Church of Rome , to the end they should subject themselves to that as a Soveraign and Infallible Rule . But as the Doctrine of the Soveraign Authority of that Church is not one of those first Principles which the light of Nature dictates to all men , since of Thirty parts of our known World , there are at least nine and twenty who do not acknowledge it , and as they cannot also say , that it is one of the first and common notions of Christianity , since of all those who profess themselves to be Christians , there are Three parts which reject it , The Author , may freely give us leave if he pleases , that we should first demand of him upon what Foundation he would build that Doctrine , to make us receive it , as a point of Divine Faith ? I say of Divine Faith ; for if we should hold it only as a matter of human Faith , he himself would see well that we could not believe the things which the Church of Rome should teach , in vertue of its Authority , otherwise then with a humane Faith , since the things which depend upon a principle , cannot make an impression in us different from that which the principle has made . To the end therefore that I should believe with a Divine Faith that which the Church of Rome shall teach me by its Authority , it is necessary that I should also believe its Authority with a Divine Faith. Thus far methinks we should not have any Controversy . Let us see therefore upon what Foundations of Divine Faith he would pretend to establish this Proposition , The Authority of the Church of Rome is Soveraign and Infallible : He can only do it by these Three ways : The first is , by a new Revelation that God should have made to us of this Truth ; the Second , in shewing that it is one of the Articles that is contained in the Revelation of the Apostles ; and the Third , in shewing us the Characters of Divinity and Infallibility impressed upon the Church of Rome , even after the same manner as every thing proves it self by the marks that distinguish it ; and thus it is that we pretend that the Scripture forces the acknowledgment of its own Divinity . The first of these ways is nullified , since they agree with us that since Jesus Christ and his Apostles there has been no new Revelation , and that there must not be any expected . The second would be proper , and necessarily supposes a recourse either to Tradition or the Scripture ; for there are but these two Channels in which we can seek for the Revelation of the Apostles . But that of the Scripture is forbidden us by the Author of the Prejudices , by reason of the unconquerable difficulties which he discovers there . It is , says he , a way full of obstacles and difficulties , and even those who profess to spend all their days in the Study of Divinity , ought to judge that Examination to be above all their abilities . He must therefore content himself with the way of Tradition . But before he can make use of that , he must be first assured , and that with a certainty of Divine Faith , that that which that Tradition contains is come down from the Revelation of Jesus Christ and his Apostles , or at least , that this particular point of the Authority of the Roman Church , in the state wherein it is at present , must have proceeded from thence , that the Apostles must have Transmitted it viva voce down to their Successours , and that their Successours must have received it and Transmitted it down to those who descended from them in the same sence , and every whit the same , as the Apostles had given it to them . If he cannot be assured of that Transmission , all that he would build upon it will be uncertain , and if he cannot be assured of it with a Divine Faith , that which he would build upon it will not be more so . But how can he be assur'd of that ? He has no more that living Voice of the Apostles to represent it to us , he must rely upon Testimonyes ; would it therefore be the Roman Church that must assure us ? But her Divine and Infallible Authority is as yet in Question , and while it shall be questioned , it remains suspended , it cannot be believed any further then with a humane Faith. Shall it be the Scripture that must give Testimony to that Tradition ? But there are so many Difficulties in that way , says the Author of the Prejudices , That it is Evident that it is not that which God has chosen to Instruct us in his Truths . Must we learn it from that Tradition it self ? But to decide that point , whether that Tradition came from the Apostles or no , Tradition it self can be yet no other than a humane Testimony . I mean that the Successors of the Apostles declare to us that they have received such and such Doctrines from the Apostles viva voce , and that they have receiv'd them in the same sence in which the Apostles gave them to them , we cannot at the most have more then a humane Faith for them , for they are men as well as others . Hitherto therefore there cannot be had a Divine Faith concerning the point of the Sovereign and Infallible Authority of the Roman Church , and nothing , by Consequence , that can assure the Conscience , and set the mind of man at rest . Let us therefore pass over to the third means , which is that of examining the Characters of Divinity and Infallibility , that may be seen in the Roman Church . It is , in my Judgment , in the sight of this , that they give us certain external Marks , and we have already seen that the Author of the Prejudices establishes upon this , that Authority about which we dispute . The most eminent Authority , says he , that can be in the world , is easily discover'd to be in the Catholick Church , because though there are Sects that dispute with it the Truth of its Tenets , yet there are none that can with any Colour contend with it for that eminence of Authority which arises from its External Marks . But without entring here far into the Controversy touching those Marks , I say , that he is very far from being able to establish such a certainty upon them as we ought to have of a Principle of Religion . And this will appear from these three Reasons : The First is , That the greatest part of those marks are common to false Societies , and even to Schismatical Churches , which not only are not Infallible , but which are actually in Errour , as I have shewn in the first part of this Treatise . The Greek Church , for example , in its greatest contests with the Latin , was always a Catholick Church , she was of as great Antiquity as the Roman , she had an uninterrupted duration from many Ages ago , she had her large extent , and her multitude , as well as the Roman , she had a Personal Succession of her Bishops down from the Apostles , she gloried in a Conformity to the Doctrine of the Fathers , she had her members united among themselves , and with her Patriarchs , she did no less then the Roman , affirm her Doctrine to be Holy , and her word to be Efficacious , and that her Authors were holy men ; she has yet at this day her Miracles , which she boasts of , she had her Prophets and Temporal Prosperity ; in a word she might propound all that which the Church of Rome alleadges . The Aethiopian Church on her side , may do it as much , and yet nevertheless those Marks no ways conclude a Soveraign and Infallible Authority for them , they do not therefore conclude it for the Roman Church . The Second Reason is , that of all those pretended marks , some are disputed with the Church of Rome , others are fallaciously attributed to it , and others conclude nothing less then that which they pretend . We dispute with her , her Conformity to the Fathers , the Unity of her Members between themselves and with their Head , the Holiness of her Doctrine , and the Efficacy of her Word . It is true that she boasts of these advantages ; but if we should come to examine them , we should find they would have nothing of Solidity in them , she fallaciously ascribes to her self the name of the Catholick ; The Antiquity and Holiness of her Authors , Miracles , Prophecy , and the Personal Succession of her Bishops ; For before they can make any advantage of those marks , they ought to shew that she is a Catholick not only in name , but in deed , that she has chang'd nothing in the Antient Doctrine , nor in the Antient worship , that she has in nothing degenerated from her first Authors , that she is conformable to her first Christians , whose Miracles and Prophecys are beyond all question , that her Bishops are the Successors of the Mind and Doctrine , as well as of the Sees of the Antient Bishops ; and unless they do so , those marks are an Illusion . She produces others , which conclude nothing less then that which she should conclude , as the Multitude of her Children , or the largeness of her extent , and Temporal Prosperity ; which are wordly advantages more proper to denote a corruption , then an Infallibility . The third Reason is , That there are contrary Characters in the Church of Rome , which note , not only , that she has been , and that she is yet subject to err ; but that she has actually err'd , and we have propos'd some in the beginning of this Treatise , which it may be , deserve to be better consider'd . No man can therefore establish any thing of certainty upon those pretended external marks ; and in general that principle of the Soveraign and Infallible Authority of the Church of Rome cannot be a matter of divine Faith , on which side soever he takes it , nor by Consequence can any of those things be so , which depend upon that Authority . See here then the Obligation which lies upon those in the Roman Communion to the Author of the Prejudices , for having thus Abolish'd all manner of Divine Faith , for those things which that Church teaches by her Authority , in shutting up , as he has done , the way of the Scripture , with his Obstacles , and unconquerable Difficulties , he has reduc'd all to meer Conjectures , or almost all , to humane Testimonies . Is it therefore after that manner that he would have us believe Transubstantiation , the Real presence , Purgatory , The Sacrifice of the Mass ? Is it upon the Foundations of that nature that he would have us to Invocate Saints , that we should worship Images , That we should adore the Host , and receive the Indulgences of the Pope , and Absolutions of their Confessors ? But he has done yet worse ; for it is not only the Laity and private men from whom he has taken away a divine Faith , he has torn it away even from the whole Body of his Church , from her Prelats , her Popes , and her Councils , since if this Point of their Soveraign and Infallible Authority is founded upon nothing but Conjectures and humane Testimonies , They can neither have a Divine Faith for those Conjectures and those humane Testimonies , nor for all those other things which depend upon them . Have they a Revelation , an immediate Illumination that instructs them ? There is no more either for the Popes or Councils . Should they have it from the Scripture ? The Author of the Prejudices has told them , that it is an Infinite , a Ridiculous way , to Instruct men in the Truth , a path which we cannot know how to find an end of , whatsoever Diligence we use . But it may be he says that only for the Laity , and not for the Clergy . Let us see his words : Even those , says he , who profess to spend their whole Lives in the Study of Divinity , ought to judge that Examination to be above all their Abilities . The Church of Rome , the Body of her Prelats , the Councils , cannot at furthest but be made up of those men , who profess to spend their whole Lives in the Study of Divinity , and that Examination is above all their Abilities . He ought not to say that they can altogether do that which it would be impossible for each one to do in particular . For when they go about to decide the matters of Faith by their Soveraign Authority , as they pretend that Councils should do , each particular man ought to be assured by himself of the Truth , and not to refer himself to the knowledge of his Brethren . With what Conscience therefore can they exercise their Authority ? With what Conscience can they decide the points of the Faith , and propose them to be believed as points of a Divine Faith ? With what Conscience can they retain men in their Dependance ? And with what Conscience can men remain therein ? The Author of the Prejudices may disintangle this Business with his Church as it shall please him , we have no peculiar Interest in it , but only to let him see more and more , the Truth of that which I have said elsewhere , that he does not sufficiently consider what he has wrote . Let us grant him , that there is no necessity of a Divine Faith for the establishing of that Article of the Soveraign and Infallible Authority of the Roman Church , let us yield , if he will have it so , that he may be contented with the having a humane certainty , such as he may have ; it is clear , that whether he takes the way of Tradition , or that of the Examination of the External marks , we shall find the same Difficulties there , thes me Obstacles , the same Hindrances , the same length , that the Author of the Prejudices pretends to have discovered in the way of the Scripture ; And as the External Marks themselves cannot be otherwise justified then by Tradition , it shall suffice to shew what I have said in the way of Tradition ; for all will be reduced to that . 1. In the first place , it is certain that we ought not to take all sorts of Traditions to be true , indifferently , since we have already seen that there are some false and Apocryphal ; so that we must learn plainly to distinguish it by it self , the good and the Authentick from the others , and to that effect to know certainly the rules by which we ought to make that distinction , always remembring that the Authority of the Church of Rome is not here of any use , because it is in question , and that it is that Authority which we are treating of in that search . See here already a no small Confusion ; for we must , for this , turn over a great many Books , be well read in Histories , Pass a great many Judgments , which cannot be very easy to a man who will not help himself with the Authority of the Scripture . 2. After we have set aside Apocryphal Tradition , and it being restrained to the True , we must enter upon the Examination of the question that is controverted , to wit , Whether the Authority of the Church of Rome , as it pretends at this day , be taught in that Tradition ? And to this effect , he must see whether the Passages that are brought to prove it , are faithfully related , and for that he must consult the Originals , and compare them with the Translations , which require a great knowledge of the Tongues , or at least as the Author of the Prejudices says , that one should referr himself to a sufficient number of fit persons , to have no occasion to doubt of the Fidelity of their Relations . And as the number of Antient Books is not small , that Consultation could not but be long enough . 3. He must not forget also to inquire , whether there be not diverse ways of reading the Passages that may weaken that proof . For since the Author of the Prejudices would have us observe this Precaution to assure our selves of one only passage of Scripture , why would he not have it observed to assure himself of the Passages of that Tradition ? It will therefore be necessary to consult the Manuscripts of Libraries , or at least , to read the notes which the Criticks have made upon the Books out of which those Passages shall be taken ; this would be yet a matter of further Labour . 4. But must he not also be bound to examine narrowly the meaning of the Passages , not to give them too great a Latitude , and avoid being blinded with a meer Appearance ? For if there are in the Scripture , as the Author of the Prejudices assures us , that the Passages that appear clearly to Contain certain Truths , and which do not in Effect contain them , are an occasion of deluding those who are too easily led by that Appearance which at first sight presents it self . Why must it not be so in Tradition also ? They ordinarily alleadge that Passage of Saint Irenaeus in Favour of the particular Church of Rome , Ad haue Ecclesiam propter . Potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem , convenire Ecclesiam hoc est cos qui sunt undique Fideles , in qua semper ab 〈◊〉 qui sunt undique , Conservata est ea quae est ab his Apostolis Trad●tio . These words seem clear to the Partisans of the Court of Rome , for the establishing a necessity of being united with the particular Church of Rome , and living in Dependance upon it ; and yet if we look a little narrowly into them , we may see that they signify nothing less then that which they pretend they signify , and that Irenaeus would only say thus much , That the Faithfull came from all parts to the Church of Rome , by reason of the Imperial power which drew all the World thither , and that from thence it was that they all together preserved the Doctrine that the Apostles had left , without their having any considerable difference between them . That this was the meaning of Saint Irenaeus , appears from the Connexion of his discourse , wherein he proposes to prove that the Pretended Traditions of Hereticks could not come from the Apostles , and his reason is , that if they could have come from them , they would have been yet found in his Time in the Churches which they had instituted , and particularly in the Roman , which was in a manner an Abridgment and Composition of all others , by reason of the concourse of all Nations to Rome . So that to shew that the Church of Rome in those times did not own any of the Tenets of those Hereticks , was at once to shew that they were Traditions unknown to all the Churches , and by Consequence false and not Apostolical . This Example therefore shews us that one ought not to let himself be dazzled by the first Appearances of a Passage ; but that it ought to be narrowly examined , and that , as every one may see , requires time , and is not altogether so easy to be done . 5. To carry on that Examination well , in respect of the Passages of the Scripture , the Author of the Prejudices would that we should carefully consider the like Expressions and contrary Passages , to see whether we should not be bound by them to give another meaning to those Passages which we gather . He says , That Common Sense dictates this Rule , and that it is full of Equity and Justice . I see not therefore how he can exempt his Catechumeni from it , in regard of the Passages of Tradition . It is requisite that he should carefully remark the ways of speaking in the Fathers , in diverse matters , in order to the making them mutually give light to one another . It is necessary , that he should look after the contrary Passages of the Antients , and that he compare them one with another , to draw out clear Observations from them . But this will be yet further no small Business ; for it is very well known that there are things enough in the Antients directly opposite to the Pretensions of the Church of Rome . 6. But not to detain the Readers much longer upon so clear a matter , all the Intricate Perplexity which he pretends to find in the way of the Scripture , f●lls back again upon the way of Tradition , when they would by this , without the aid of the Scripture , be fully satisfied concerning the Authority of the Church of Rome . It is necessary to discern a true Tradition from a false one ; It is necessary to consult the Originals ; It is necessary to know the Different Ways of reading passages ; It is necessary to search out the meaning with great Attentiveness ; It is necessary to examine the like Expressions , and contrary Passages ; It is necessary to see divers Interpretations of both sides ; It is necessary to know why the Roman Church distinguishes between points which every Faithful man is bound to believe with a distinct Faith , and those which it is enough to believe upon the Faith of the Church ; It is necessary to Examine that , which each Sect that does not acknowledge the Roman Church , says against her ; And after all that , it is necessary that every one should mistrust his own Eyes , and the defects of his memory , and that he should be always recollecting his first thoughts to keep himself from passing a wrong Judgment . In fine , we will also demand of the Author of the Prejudices whether he would not give the Scripture this Honour , to reckon it for one part of Tradition , since it contains the first Sermons of the Apostles , from whence we may draw a great deal of light for the deciding of the Question upon which we are , which is that of the Authority and Infallibility of the Church of Rome ? For how can any man rationally determine himself , upon a point of that weight , without consulting the first and the most Antient piece of Tradition ? But that being so , we see here how we are fallen back into the difficulties and perplexities which the Author of the Prejudices pretends to be unconquerable . And as those Gentlemen are liable enough to be beaten with their own Weapons , we will only turn against him the conclusions that he pretends to draw against us from his Principles , and demand of him , Whether he believes this way very proper for those who are Obliged to spend the greatest part of their time in other Employments ? Whether he believes it proper for Judges , Magistrats , Tradesmen , Labourers , Souldiers , Women , Children , for those who do not understand any of the Languages into which the Fathers are Translated , for the Blind who cannot Read , and for those who have no quickness of understanding ? If I only propounded to my self to refute this Author , I might content my self with what I have said , and wait with patience for what he should have to propose , to disintangle his Catechumeni from the Difficulties and lengths whereinto he himself has plunged them . But because I desire also to satisfy mens Con - Consciences , I think my self bound to Answer directly to his Objections . Let us therefore see those four Maxims , which he says , our Principle includes , and without which he is certain it cannot subsist . As to the first , we shall tell him , that it does not belong to us , to lay down the proofs of this Proposition , That the Church of Rome ( for this is that we are about ) is not infallible in her decisions concerning the Faith , she is naturally subject to be deceived ; if she pretends to have a priviledge that exempts her from a weakness common to all men , it belongs to her to shew it , and to convince the world of it ; but till then we shall always have a ground to presume that she is subject to that general Law , and that is sufficient , without any other proof , to hinder us from acknowledging her for the Rule of Faith. As to the Second , which is , That Traditions do not make up any part of the Rule of Faith ; we shall tell him , That it is not necessarily incumbent on us to bring a passage of Scripture to exclude Traditions , that Common sence is enough for that , because it dictates to all men , even to the most simple , if they would take heed , that after sixteen hundred years , or thereabouts , which are gone since the Apostles days , Tradition cannot but be a very confused and uncertain thing ; and that being so vagous as it is , after its having passed through the hands of an infinite number of men , naturally unsetled and changeable , it is not imaginable that they should not have altered , increased , lessened it , since that happens through a long tract of Time to all other things ; and by consequence , that it could not at present but be out of a condition to serve for a Rule of Faith. Thus far the most simple are within the limits of nature and general Experience . If they pretend that Tradition ought to be exempted , it does not belong to us to shew that it is not , it is their part who make that pretension to produce their Reasons ; and yet for all that , it must be presumed on the side of Nature , and general Experience . It appears therefore already , that the Two First Propositions which our Hypothesis includes , according to the Author of the Prejudices , to wit , That the Church of Rome is not Infallible in its decisions concerning the Faith ; and that Traditions do not make up any part of the Rule of Faith , do not give us the least difficulty , but they give an infinite one to our adversaries . For they ought solidly to prove the contrary Propositions , not only to the Learnned , and knowing persons ; but to the most simple also , to Tradesmen , to Labourers , to Souldiers , to Women , and generally to all ; or otherwise they abuse their credulity ; retaining them without Reason and without Justice in their Communion , in which they cannot remain with a good Conscience , unless they are assured of the Truth of these two Articles , That the Church of Rome is Infallible in her decisions of Faith , and that Traditions make up a part of the Rule of Faith. But how can those people have that certainty ? As for what respects the Third Proposition , to wit , That the Scripture contains all the points of the Faith generally , it has no more need then the others , to be proved by passages of Scripture . It is sufficient to establish it , to see , that we cannot be assured of the Faith either by the decisions of the Church , or Tradition . For that thing it self necessarily leads all Christians to the Scripture alone , there being nothing besides the decisions of the Church , and Tradition , that can Dispute a part with it . There remains therefore only the Fourth Proposition , which is , That the Scriptures generally contain all the points of Faith , after a manner fitted to the understandings of all the World. But this proposition so framed , is not ours , neither is it included in our Hypothesis . We only say , that that which the Scripture contains in a manner fitted to the understanding of all the World concerning the Faith and Manners , is sufficient for Salvation , provided that moreover they have not Errors that hinder that effect . But there is no need of proving this proposition by Texts of Scripture . It sufficiently proves it self , as well by the very nature of the things that the Scripture clearly Teaches , as by the light of common sence and the first notions of the Conscience . For those first notions dictate to all Christians , that although God be free in the dispensation of his Call , he is notwithstanding in good earnest towards all those to whom his Call is addressed , and that there being among those the weak as well as the strong , the simple as well as the Learned , it must necessarily be concluded that he would render his Salvation inaccessible , or impossible to the simpler sort , provided that they seriously applyed themselves to it according to their Call. The Author of the Prejudices himself acknowledges this Principle , and he calls it , a principle of common sence . He draws ill consequences from it , but the True Consequence that must be drawn is , Those things which the Scripture clearly Teaches , and after a manner fitted to all the World , are sufficient to Salvation . The Author of the Prejudices may chuse therefore , whensoever it shall please him , other Propositions to exaggerate the pretended difficulties of the Scripture . But what choice soever he should make , and what side soever he should take , it is certain that those unconquerable difficulties , which according to him render the way of the Scripture ridiculous and impossible to the simpler sort , are nothing else but the Visions and Dreams of Fancy , which admits , or would create changes ; and that he can say nothing more vain and chimerical then that which he has displayed in the 14th . and 15th . Chapters . This is what will manifestly appear , if we consider that the Scripture is the Rule of Faith two ways ; for it is so either to form the Faith to a degree of perfection and compleatness , as much as a Man is capable of it in this Life ; or to form it to a degree of meer sufficiency for Salvation . In the former respect , it is the Rule of Faith , not only for the things which it clearly contains ; but generally for all that which it contains , whether in express Terms , or in equivalent , whether by near consequences , or remote ; in a word , after what manner soever it be . In the Second , it is the Rule of Faith meerly for the things that are Essential to Religion , which it clearly contains , and after a manner fitted to the understanding of all the World. To make a Just and Right use in the former respect , I confess that we must necessarily go over a great many Obstacles , and conquer a great many difficulties . We must weigh the words exactly , examine the Stile , consider the Reasons , compare it with like expressions , consider the passages that seem contrary to it , penetrate into the true sence of ambiguous and obscure places , look to the connexions of the Discourse , to the matter treated of , and to the end and design of him who speaks . To this effect , it is necessary to know how to distinguish the Apocryphal Books from the Canonical , to understand the Original Tongues , to Judge of the Translations by , and even to consult Interpreters . All that requires , without doubt , a great deal of care , earnest application , a great deal of study , and it is very true , that to acquit ones self well of it , the whole life of a man is not too long . I shall even say , that it is too short , and that humane abilities are too weak to exhaust the Scripture , which is an infinite depth of Mysteries and Heavenly Truths ; and therefore it is , that the Author of the Preface to the New Testament of Mons , has very well said , that , we may always lose our selves in the abysses of Learning and Wisdom , which we adore without being able to comprehend . Notwithstanding , it is our duty to advance in that knowledge as far as we can , and it would be but a very bad reason for dispensation in that Case , to alledge the lengths and difficulties of it ; for however we cannot attain to an intire perfection , yet we may notwithstanding make a considerable progress , and the more a man advances in that study , the more Joy and Comfort he has . But as to the Second way in which the Scripture is the Rule of the Faith , to wit , to form the Faith in a degree of meer sufficiency for Salvation , through the Essential things which it clearly contains ; in this regard I say , its use is freed from all those lengths and all those difficulties , and accomodated to the capacity of the meanest , requiring nothing else but good sence and a good Conscience , which God gives to the smallest of his Children . First , There is no necessity for that , that a man should study the Question of the Apocryphal and Canonical Books ; for that discussion which is necessary when they would penetrate into the abstruse things of the Scripture , which may be drawn from it by 〈◊〉 consequences , or by a narrow Examination of its terms , and the structure of the discourse , because those particular things do not carry so sensible a Character of their Divinity with them as the rest ; That Discussion I say , which is necessary in that Case , is not so when they restrain themselves , as the simpler sort do , to the essential things which the Scripture clearly Teaches , because those things make themselves sensibly to be owned to be Divine , and by consequence Canonical , which is sufficient for the certainty of their Faith , if they remain in that Degree . Secondly , They have no need either to consult the Original Tongues , or the different ways of Reading , because , that those exact Observations which are necessary when we would make use of the Scripture in the first Degree , are not so , when they would in the Second . Imperfect Translations sufficiently contain those clear things that make up the Essence of Religion , and the different ways of Reading do not make any difference . Those things are neither in one only passage , nor in one only Book , they are so abundantly spread over the whole body of the Scripture , that the faults of Translators , or varieties of Manuscripts , cannot hinder us from finding them there . And if sometimes it happens , that the boldness and unfaithfulness of a Translator should go so far as on set purpose to falsify any place of Scripture , as Veron , has done not long since in reference to a passage in the Acts , which says , that the Apostles served the Lord , and which Veron has Translated , that , they said Mass in the Lord , or as the Authors of the Translation of Mons have done , who have inserted into that same passage , that the Apostles Sacrificed to the Lord ; and another in the Epistle to Philemon , wherein Saint Paul says that he trusted to be given to the faithful through their Prayers , where they have Translated it , that he trusted he should be given to them , through the merit of their Prayers ; when that I say should fall out , there would be found enough persons in the Church , who would not fail to advertise the people of such unfaithfulness , that they might take heed of them . Lastly , I say , That it is not necessary that the simpler sort should consult the interpreters of the Scripture , to assure themselves of its true meaning ; for the Objects of their Faith are so clearly explained there , they are laid down in so many places , they are so well connected with one another , they are there in such a manner that provides so well for all that is necessary for the instruction of the mind , for the consolation of the conscience , and the Sanctification of the Soul , that with the Grace of God which accompanies them in his Elect , they have no need of any thing but their meer view to insinuate and enter into their hearts , and to form therein a True Faith. To dissipate in a few words all that the Authour of the Prejudices has set down in his 14th . and 15th . Chapters , I shall only tell him , that he can require but these four conditions in the Objects of Faith , to render them capable of forming a true and saving Faith even in the hearts of the most simple : The First is , That they be sufficient for the Salvation of the most simple ; The Second , That they be fitted to their capacity ; The Third , That they should have a certainty great enough to form a true perswasion in their Souls ; and the Fourth , That they should form a pure faith and free'd from all Damnable Errors . But all these conditions may be found in the Object we are speaking of , which are clearly propounded in the Scripture . They are sufficient for Salvation ; For who will dare to deny that it is not sufficient for the Salvation of the most simple , to know the Father , the Son and the Holy-Ghost , one only Eternal God , wholly perfect , the Creator and Preserver of the World , the absolute Disposer of all events , the Soveraign Lord of all things , Author of all , Judge of men and Angels , and to form an Idea which inspires , in an infinite Degree , Respect , Love , Obedience , Trust , Invocation , and acknowledgment of what we owe to him , and which makes up the Sole Object of our Religion ? To know the profound misery of man , his natural corruption , his ignorance , his sin , his damnation , his impotency to get out of that misery wherein he is , and to form an Idea that excites humility , horrour at his own state , fear of Gods Judgments , and those holy inquietudes of Conscience which Jesus Christ calls hunger and thirst after Righteousness . To know that Jesus Christ the Son of God is our only Remedy , who out of love to us was made man , who dyed for our Salvation , who is risen again , who is ascended up into Heaven , who reigns there now over all things , who interceeds there before God for us , and who from his high Heaven sheds abroad his Holy Spirit into the Souls of his faithful ones ; and to have those thoughts which make us run to him , to place all our hope in him , to do nothing that may displease him ; to do on the contrary all that he commands us , to imitate him , and to glorify him as he deserves , as much as we are able . To know the mercy of God which pardons us our Sins through Jesus Christ , which gives us Heaven , with all necessary graces to carry us thither , and to have Sentiments that carry us out to Repentance , to Confession , to Prayer , to Thankfulness for the Favours which he communicates to us , to patience in afflictions , to Trust , to Charity as well towards God as toward our Neighbour , to Justice , to Goodness , to Compassion towards those who are in misery , to forgive those injuries that are done to us , and to hold a Religious and brotherly Society with those who have the same Sentiments with our own . Who can doubt , but that these things well known and well practised , as we have laid them down , are not sufficient to the Salvation of the most simple ? But , says the Author of the Prejudices , It is not enough that these things should be sufficient for the Salvation of the most simple , it is further necessary for the quiet of their Consciences , that they should know that they are sufficient . But they cannot know that , without scrupulously examining the Question of the Fundamental points and the not Fundamental , which requires a long and difficult discussion . This Objection is vain , For if those Articles which I have before set down in general , are alone sufficient for the Salvation of the most simple , it is impossible that a good Soul of that order , should not understand their sufficiency , since those Objects satisfy all the just and natural desires of the Conscience . In effect , They make the most simple know the God whom they ought only to serve , they discover to them their own misery , they mark out their Remedy , and the means of their delivery , they inspire into them Piety , Holiness , Justice , Charity , Repentance , Consolation in their Afflictions , and the hope of a life to come ; and they furnish them with necessary motives to the love of God and their Neighbour , which is the fulfilling of the Law or as Saint Paul speaks the end of the Commandment . It is not therefore necessary to the establishing the quiet of the Conscience of a man , for him to enter upon the Question of the Fundamental , and the not-Fundamental points , nor that he should engage himself in the difficulties and distinctions that study , and Meditation might furnish the Learned with on that Subject . That Peace is sufficiently established by the things themselves which I have mentioned ; and provided that one believes and practises them well , they will never fail to appease the troubles of a Soul , and of setling in it a firm hope of its Salvation . But , says the Author of the Prejudices yet further , The Roman Church and the Greek Church deny that all the Tenets necessary to Salvation should be restrained to the things that are clearly contained in the Scripture , so that of necessity they must enter upon , enter into the Examination of this Point ; for the Authority of the Church of Rome well deserves that we should not without Examination , prefer the rash affirmation of a Minister before it . I answer , That the Sentiment of a good Conscience , which contents it self with the things clearly contained in the Scripture , finding it self upheld by these two Reflexions , the one , That God has not any more made the Souls of the meer simple , then those of the most Learned to be deluded with the inventions of the humane understanding , under the pretence of Tradition , or of the decision of the Church ; and the other , That God has not made his Salvation inaccessible to them , well deserves to be prefered without any further Examination , before all the interested pretensions of the Roman Prelates , and all the Superstitious Reveries of the Greeks . And after this manner it will not be necessary to enter into any dispute upon that subject . They may dispute of it as much as they please in the Schools , the simpler sort need not do it , they are sufficiently contented to hold to all that which they find to be clearly expressed in the Scripture . We must therefore pass on to the second Condition , and see whether those things which I have noted are not clearly to be found in the Scripture , and that in a way fitted to the capacity of the most simple . But it is certain that they are to be found there , and that they are laid down with sufficient Evidence , not to surpass the reach of their understandings , and that they are few enough for number , not to exceed the force of their memories . But the Author of the Prejudices , demands of us what clearness we mean , when we say that all the things that are necessary to Salvation are clearly contained in the Scripture ? For , says he , if Mr. Claude means such a clearness , as will convince all well disposed and ill-disposed persons , and that no prejudice can darken it , so that he acknowledges nothing necessary to Salvation but what is expressed in the Scripture in that manner to be necessary to Salvation , I will maintain to him that his proposition is impious , that it manifestly tends to make Socinians and Arrians to be received into the Church , and almost all Hereticks , since it bannishes out of the number of the Articles of the Faith all the Tenets which those Hereticks dispute , and which they do not see in the Scripture . But it is not very difficult to satisfy that demand . I speak of such a clearness as will convince a sincere person , who does not blind himself either by passion , or malice , or interest , or prejudice , but lets his Reason and his Conscience act in good Earnest . This is well near the Answer that the Author of the Prejudices would make , if we asked him the same Question , touching the clearness which he pretends there is in Tradition , or in the infallible voice of the Church ; for his Justice is so great , that he does never propose any difficulties of our Principle to us , which are not common to the Principle of the Church of Rome , and which by consequence , he would not be bound to answer himself , as well as we . Notwithstanding I shall tell him that he grosly deceives himself , if he imagins that we will only acknowledge those things for Articles of Faith which are clearly contained in the Scripture . It is true , that we acknowledging them only for the Articles of Faith which are necessary to the Salvation of the most simple , does not hinder , but that other things which are contained in the Scripture with less evidence , may also be Articles of the Faith , although not absolutely necessary ; for all that which is in the Scripture , after what manner soever it be contained there , is of Faith. He does not less deceive himself , if he imagins that although the Articles which the Socinians and Arrians and other Hereticks dispute , were of the number of those which are not so clearly contained in the Scripture , and the knowledge of which is not absolutely necessary to the Salvation of the simple , yet that we ought to receive those Hereticks into the Church . There is a great difference between simple persons who do not conceive a Fundamental Truth otherwise then under a general notion , and indistinctly , without going any farther , and those going so far as a distinct Idea of the Truth , expresly deny it , and substitute a false and deceitful Idea in its place . The former may be in a State of Salvation , and ought to be received into the Church ; whereas the second sort ought to be banished , as persons infected with a pernitious Error . A Peasant may be made to believe in good earnest that Jesus Christ is God , and that the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are but one only God , without going any farther , because he will not understand the terms of , Nature , Essence , Person , Hypostatical Union , and others that are made use of upon that subject , and he will also be ignorant of the subtil and frivolous distinctions of the Hereticks . Who can deny that such a man holds the Truth under a General Idea ? And who will not yet place a very great difference between him and a Socinian , who very well knowing what these Propositions mean , Jesus Christ is God by his Essence , The Father , Son , and Holy-Ghost are Three Persons and one only Divine Nature , will deny them , and substitute in their places these other Propositions , Jesus Christ is God only by the dignity of his Office , and Glory of his Exaltation ; The Father , the Son , and the Holy-Ghost , being only so by Denomination . It would be a very hard case in my Judgment to exclude the former from the Church , but it would be a sin to admit the latter ; and this shews us , by the way , the falshood of the reasoning of the Author of the Prejudices . But we ought to resume our discourse . I say therefore the same thing of the Third condition as of the two Former , The things whereof we treat perswade themselves , and make themseves to be perceived as true and Divine , as well by the weakest as the strongest . For although the weaker are not in a condition to render a Reason exactly of their perswasion , as a Learned man would do , yet notwithstanding we must not doubt but they are rightly perswaded . A Tradesman , a Peasant , a Labourer , know not how to explain either the rules of right reasoning , or the mediums that Logick affords to discover the faults of Sophistry or false reasoning , and yet nevertheless , they do yet apprehend a just reasoning , and reject a bad . It is the same thing of a good Doctrine and a false , the weaker sort may receive the one and reject the other , when it shall be presented to them and they would make that discernment by the meer Judgment of their Consciences though they should not be capable of Explaining their Reasons well . For there are two ways of being perswaded of a Truth , and knowing a falshood , the one is , by a simple apprehension , and the other by reflection ; the first comes from a meer impression of the Objects , that make themselves to be discerned by their very nature ; and the other comes from Meditation and Study , through the application of certain Rules . I confess that there is more confusion in the first , but that has also sometimes more force and more certainty then the Second . As for that which regards the Fourth Condition , which is , That the Faith should be pure and free'd from every damnable Error ; besides that which I have said that the meer sentiment of Conscience is enough for the weaker sort to make them discern the good from the bad , and by Consequence , to reject the false Doctrines that shall concern their Salvation ; besides that , I say , it is certain , that damnable Errors , that is to say , those which are incompatible with a true and saving Faith , have a natural repugnancy with the Truths that are Essential to Religion , wherewith the simpler sort are endowed ; so that those Truths alone are sufficient for the rejection of Errors , without any absolute necessity that they should have a greater stock of Learning . For Example , The principle of the Adoration of one only God , in the Souls of the weakes sort in our Communion , is sufficient to make them reject a Religious worship paid to Creatures , without their lying under a necessity of entring further into the Controversy which we have with the Church of Rome upon that subject . The Principle of confidence in God alone , is sufficient to make them reject invocation of Saints , and Angels , and a confidence in their merits . The principle of the one only Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross for the Expiation of our sins , is sufficient to make them reject humane Satisfactions , Purgatory , and the Indulgences of the Pope . The Principle of the Mediation of one only Jesus Christ is sufficient to make them reject the Intercession of Saints and Angels . The Principle of the Truth of the humane nature of Jesus Christ like unto us in all things except sin , is sufficient to make them reject the Real Presence , Transubstantiation , the Sacrifice of the Mass , and the Adoration of the Host . And that which is yet further considerable is , That as the Essential Truths of Religion are so linked with one another , that there is not any one , that may not be , as I may so speak , the Center of all the rest , that is to say , which may not have references to all the rest , and immediate connexions , and which all the others may not serve to prove and uphold , which makes out divers ways or manners of establishing them in the minds of the most simple ; even so those Errors that are destructive , are so repugnant to those Truths , that there is not any one which may not be opposed not only by all in general , but even almost by each one in particular , which shews that there are divers ways of overthrowing them and destroying them in the minds of the weakest , and when they shall escape one of those ways , they will be sufficiently overthrown by another . For Example , Transubstantiation which is repugnant to the sincerity of God , is also repugnant to the Truth of the humane nature of Jesus Christ , to the formation of his Body of the substance of the B. Virgin , to the state of that Glory wherein he is at present , to the Article of his Ascension , and of his existence in Heaven , to the manner in which he dwells in us , which is by his Spirit , and by our Faith , to the nature of that hunger and thirst which we should have for his flesh and for his blood , which is Spiritual , to the Character of both the Sacraments , wherein there never is any Transubstantiation made , and to the perpetual Order that God observed when he wrought Miracles , which was to lay them open to mens Eyes and Sences ; so that when a man should not be capable of perceiving any of those repugnances , he would perceive the others which would produce the same effect , and which would be sufficient to make him reject those Errors . See here then all the Conditions , that are necessary for the forming of a True Faith even in the Souls of the most simple , behold them found in the Scripture , and by consequence behold the Scripture remaining the Rule of Faith , in spight of all the endeavours of the Author of the Prejudices . It is in vain that he so strongly opposes it , it will always be what God has made it , that is to say , the Fountain and only source of the Truth of Religion , or as St. Irenaeus speaks , the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith , which only can give us quiet of mind , and peace of Conscience . The Difficulties which the Author of the Prejudices forms against the Scripture , have these Three Characters ; The one , That they may be turned against himself , that is to say , that as he has made them upon the subject of the Scripture , We may also make them upon the subject of Tradition and the Church of Rome , to which he would send us back ; the other , That in regard of the Scripture they are null and to no purpose ; and the Third , That in regard of Tradition and the Roman Church , they are solid and unconquerable ; and this is what will appear , if what I have said in this and in the foregoing Chapter be well Examined . The End of the Second Part. An HISTORICAL DEFENCE OF THE Reformation ; Against a Book Intituled Just Prejudices against the CALVINISTS . THE THIRD PART : Of the Obligation and Necessity that lay upon our Fathers to separate themselves from the Church of Rome . CHAP. I. That our Fathers had just , sufficient and necessary Causes for their Separation , supposing that they had right at the bottom , in the controverted Points . WE should certainly be the most ungrateful persons in the World , if , after the favour that God has shewn us , in re-establishing the Purity of his Gospel in the midst of us , we should not think our selves bound to give him everlasting Thanks . So great and precious an advantage , highly calls for our resentments , and that in enjoying it with delight , we should pay our Acknowledgements to the Author of it . But what ground soever we should have to rejoyce in God , we must notwithstanding avow , that we should be very insensible in regard of others , if we could behold without an extream affliction , the misery of so many men who voluntarily deprive themselves of that good . Those who are at present engaged in those Errors and Superstitions , from which it has pleased the Divine Goodness to deliver us , are our Brethren , by the External Profession of the Christian Name , and by the Consecration of one and the same Baptism ; and how can we intirely rejoyce , while we see them in a state which we believe to be so bad and so contrary to our common Calling ? I know , that God only , who is the Lord of mens hearts and minds , can dissipate that gloomy darkness which they are involved in , and that it is our Duty , to pour out our ardent and continual Prayers to him for his Grace for them ; but we ought not to neglect humane methods , among which , that of justifying the Conduct of our Fathers in the subject of their Separation , is one of the most efficacious : and as it is by that especially that they labour to render us odious ; so is to that , that I shall allow the sequel of this Work. The Separation of our Fathers ought to be distinguish'd into three Degrees : the First consists in that which they have loudly pronounc'd against the Doctrines and Customs of the Church of Rome , which they judg'd to be contrary to Faith and Piety , and which they have formally renounced : the Second consists in this , that they have forsook the External Communion of that Church , and those of its party : and the Third , in that they have made other Assemblies than hers , and that they have rank't themselves under another Form of Ministry . We have treated of the First already , where we have shewn , the Justice and Necessity of the Reformation which our Fathers made ; the Third shall be spoken to in the Fourth Part , and this is designed to examine the Second . Our Inquiry therefore at present , will be to know , whether our Fathers in Reforming themselves , ought to have separated themselves from the other Party , who were not for a Reformation ; or whether , notwithstanding the Reformation , they ought yet to have abode with them in one and the same Communion , and to have liv'd in that respect as they did heretofore . This is that which I pretend to make clear in this Third Part of this Work. To enter upon this business , I confess , that if we could suppose it as a certainty , That all Separation in matters of Religion is odious and Criminal , we ought to be the first in condemning the Actions of our Fathers , and that whatever aversion we should have for the Errors and Abuses which we see reigning in the Church of Rome , we ought to labour to bear them as patiently as it could be possible for us to do , in waiting till it should please God to correct them , and notwithstanding to enter into its Communion , and to live under its Ministry . But so far are we from being able to make a supposition of this nature , that on the contrary , there is nothing more certain , than this Truth , That as there are Unjust , Rash and Schismatical Separations ; so there may be also not only Just and Lawful ones , but Necessary and Indispensable ones also . So the Primitive Christians withdrew themselves from the Jewish Church , after it had obstinately remained in its unbelief : and afterwards , the Orthodox in the first Centuries held no Communion with the Valentinians , nor with the Manichees ; nor in general , with those Hereticks who disturb'd the Purity of the Gospel with their Errors . Nay , when the Arians had even made themselves Masters of the Synods and Churches , there was an actual Separation made of a very great number of persons , as well of the Body of the Clergy , as that of the People , who would not have any Communion with them , and who endur'd upon that account all sorts of persecutions . Therefore also it was that S. Hilary Bishop of Poictiers earnestly exhorted the Bishops and the Orthodox people by a publick Letter that he address'd to them . The Name of Peace , sayes he to them , is indeed very specious , and the meer appearance of Vnity has something splendid in it : But who knows not , that the Church and the Gospel acknowledges no other Peace than that which comes from Jesus Christ , that which he gave to his Apostles before the glory of his Passion , and that which he left in Trust with them by his eternal Command when he was about to leave them . It is this peace which we have taken care to seek when it has been lost , and to re-establish , when it has been disturbed ; and to preserve , after we have found it again . But the sins of our Times , and the Ministers or Fore-runners of Antichrist , will not suffer us to be the Authors of so great a good ; nor that we should so much as partake of it . They have their Peace which they boast of , which is nothing else , but an Vnity of Impiety , while they carry themselves not as the Bishops of Jesus Christ , but as the Prelates of Anti-Christ . And about the end of his Letter , I exhort you , sayes he , that you take heed of Anti-Christ . Be not deceived by a foolish love of Walls , nor respect the Church more on Roofs and in Houses , nor strive no more , on such frivolous considerations for the Name of Peace . As for my self , I find more certainty in the Mountains , in the Forests , in the Lakes , in Prisons , in Gulphs ; for there it was that the Spirit of God animated the Prophets . Separate therefore your selves from Auxentius , who is an Angel of Satan , an Enemy to Christ , an open Persecutor , a Violator of the Faith , who made a deceitful Profession of the Faith before the Emperour , in which he joyn'd Blasphemy to that Deceit . Let him assemble as many Synods as he pleases against me , let him make me be declared a Heretick , as he has often already done , let him proscribe me by Publick Authority , let him stir up the wrath of the Great Men against me as much as he will , he can never be any other to me than a Devil , since he is an Arian . I shall never have peace , but with those who following the Decree of our Nicene Fathers , would anathematize the Arians , and acknowledge Jesus Christ to be truly God. S. Epiphanius also relates , that before the Synod of Seleucid , wherein Arianism was establish'd , many people who found themselves to be under the Jurisdiction of Arian Bishops remained firm in the confession of the True Faith , and set up other Bishops themselves . And the Histories of Socrates , Theodoret , and Sozomen may teach us , that while the Arians possess'd the Temples , and the Sees of the Churches , the Orthodox held their Assemblies apart , in the Fields as well as in private Houses . With the same Judgement S. Ambrose teaches , That Jesus Christ alone is he from whom we ought never to separate our selves , and to whom we ought to say , Lord , to whom shall we go , thou hast the words of eternal life . That above all things , the Faith of a Church ought to be regarded , that we ought to hold it there if Jesus Christ dwells there ; but if a people may be found to be there who are Violaters of the Faith , or that an Heretical Pastor has polluted that habitation , we ought to separate our selves from the Communion of Hereticks , and to avoid all commerce with that Synagogue . That we ought to separate our selves from every Church that rejects the true Faith , and does not preserve the fundamentals of the Apostles Preaching , without fear lest its Communion should brand us with some note of Perfidiousness . There could not therefore be a more unreasonable thing in the World , than to prepossess ones self in general against all manner of Separation : for it is manifest , that the communion of men is no otherwise desirable , than as it can consist with the communion of God ; and that when that of men shall be found to be directly opposite to the true service of God and our own salvation , which is the only End of a Religious Society , we ought no longer to hesitate about our Separation . But to make out this Truth yet a little more clear , we need but to set before their eyes what we have already said in the First Part , that the Church may be consider'd either in respect of its Internal State , in as much as it is the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ , the Society of the truly Faithful and the true Elect of God , without any mixture of Hypocrites and the worldly , pure throughout as she is in Gods sight ; or in respect of its External State , in as much as it is a Society , which in the profession of one and the same Religion , includes a sufficiently great number of the Hypocrites and worldly , who do not belong to the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ , nor are of the Church , but in appearance only . That Distinction is evident enough of it self , not to need any proof , and our Adversaries themselves will not oppose it . But altho' they do not oppose that Distinction , yet they never fail of confounding both those respects . For when they speak of the Promises that God has made concerning the perpetual subsistence of his Church , where it would be just to refer them to the Church only , as made up of the Truly Faithful : since to speak properly , God looks upon them alone as his true Church , they refer them to the Church , in as much as it is mixt with the worldly and hypocrites . And when the Contest is about establishing the Duties to which a Religious Society engages us , where it would be just to consider the Church as mingled with the good and the wicked , the faithful and the worldly , such as it appears to us ; they consider it , as it is pure and without any mixture of Hypocrites , such as it is in the eyes of God. We may say , that this confusion is the source of all their Errors , and the foundation of all their Fallacies which they make on this matter . We ought therefore , in order to our judging aright of a Separation , to represent this Distinction to our selves , and to form within our selves a just Idea of it . For in the first place , it is without all doubt , that we never ought to separate our selves from the Communion of the truly Faithful , who alone are the Spouse of Jesus Christ , and his Mystical Body . If such a Separation should go so far as to break the Internal Bond of that Communion , which consists in having the same Faith and Christian Holiness , we could not make it without separating our selves at the same time from Jesus Christ himself ; and by consequence depriving our selves of all hopes of salvation , since there is no Name under Heaven given by which men may be saved , but only that of Jesus Christ . If it should not go so far as to break the bond of Internal Communion , but only of the External , that is to say , no longer to acknowledge others for our Brethren and Members of the same Body , nor to frequent the same Assemblies with them , this is a True Schism , which offends against the Laws of Charity , and which the Authors shall especially answer for before the Judgement-seat of God. And such were the Schisms of the Novatians , the Donatists , the Luciferians and many others , which were founded meerly upon personal interests , or at least upon light and frivolous pretences . It is further beyond doubt , that we ought not to break that External Communion which it has with the worldly and profane that are mixt in a Religious Society , while they make a profession of the true Faith , practising a sincere Worship , and submitting themselves to that Rule of Manners which the Gospel layes down to us , although otherwise their Lives and Actions should very ill answer their Profession . I confess , that every Church well ordered , ought to have its Laws for the repressing of the Vicious , and leading them back to repentance ; and that when it cannot come to that end by the way of Exhortation and Censure , it has a right absolutely to cut them off from the body of that Society . But besides that those kinds of Excommunications ought never to fall upon a whole people , or upon a whole multitude , for fear of involving the innocent with the guilty ; they never ought to be used , but in respect of impenitent sinners only , obstinate in their crimes , and publickly maintaining them . For the rest we ought to agree , that an exact discerning of the good and the wicked , will not be made till the last day ; and that till then , God would have us suffer that mixture , without partaking with the sins of the wicked , and without approving them ; but yet without breaking under that pretence the bond of External Communion . The Reason of this conduct is , that it would not be possible for one to deprive ones self of the communion of the wicked , without depriving ones self at the same Time of that of many righteous , as St. Augustine has very well demonstrated against the Donatists . So that it would not be a sufficient reason for forsaking the communion of a Church , only to alledge a general depravation of manners , even when it should be true , that it did reign therein . But it is no less certain , that when it falls out , that one party of the Church considered in the second respect , that is to say , in as much as it is a mingled Body of good and bad , should confirm it self in Errors , and in practices contrary to the service of God and the salvation of men ; and that not only it rejects the instructions given it upon that occasion , but would even force all others to have the same sentiments , and to practise the same Worship , the Separation of the other Party is just , necessary and indispensable . It is just ; for every where , where there can be nothing else but an unjust Communion , there is Justice in a Separation from it . But there can be nothing else but an unjust Communion with a Party , which essentially destroyes the True Worship of God , which shuts up it self in Errors directly contrary to mens salvation , and which through an intolerable Tyranny would constrain all those who live in it , to make a Profession of the same Errors . It is then just for a man to separate himself from it . But I say further , that that Separation is necessary and indispensable for divers Reasons . The First of all is , because of the visible danger whereby a man would insensibly expose himself to let his Faith be corrupted , and his Worship be violated by the commerce which that same Communion would force him to . In effect , when a man is in those Assemblies , and sees himself under one and the same Ministry with persons infected with Errors , and engaged in a false Worship , and who would force all others to be there too , what caution soever he should use , it is impossible that he should preserve himself in Purity , or at least , that he should not be in continual danger of corrupting himself , or falling into hypocrisie in making a profession to believe that which he does not . He ought therefore to separate himself . Secondly , He ought to do so , by reason of the inevitable danger to which he would expose his children . For if it should be true , that Adult persons might live in communion with such a Party as I have suppos'd , without being infected with its poyson , or without being hypocrites , which it is no wayes possible for them to do , it would not be conceivable , that their children could be exempted from that danger by ordinary wayes , whatsoever care they should elsewhere take of their education . It would be therefore to prostitute and destroy them , and by consequence for a man to destroy himself ; for every one ought to answer before God for the salvation of his children as his own . But besides these two interests , which impose an indispensable necessity on him , it is ( 3. ) further certain , that a man could not without a crime , nor even without a manifest contradiction , own those for his brethren , whom he believes God does not own for his children , and who are not in a condition to become such . A Religious Society is a Mystical Family , into which , to judge of it according to its natural appointment , one ought to admit those only , who may be charitably and rationally judg'd to be in a state of Adoption towards God , and at the farthest , such as are apparently in a state of Conversion , or of Repentance : and in regard even of these latter , there ought to be some Time suspended , before the giving them external pledges of that Communion , till their Conversion , or their Repentance appear more fully . They suffer the wicked to be there , when their birth or their hypocrisie have externally introduc'd them , only by accident , to avoid troubles and scandals . And therefore it was that the Ancient Church acknowledg'd but three sorts of persons only to be in its Communion , the Faithful , the Catechumeni , and the Penitents ; but as for those who taught false Doctrine , or practis'd a false Worship , it never had any Union with them . Not only the Ancients had no Communion with them ; but to shew how necessary and indispensable they judg'd a separation from them to be , they went so far as to refuse their Communion with the Orthodox themselves , when either by surprise or weakness , or some other interest , they had receiv'd Hereticks into their Communion , altho' as to themselves they had kept their Faith in its Purity . We find in the Life of Gregory Nazianzen , that his Father , who was also called Gregory , and who was Bishop of Nazianzen before him , having been deceiv'd by a fallacious Writing , and having given his Communion to the Arians , all the Monks of his Diocess , with the greatest part of his Church separated themselves from him , altho' they well knew , that he had not changed his mind , nor embraced Heresie . And even the Orthodox of the Church of Rome refused to hold Communion with Pope Felix , as Theodoret tells us , altho' he intirely held the Creed of the Council of Nice , because he held Communion with the Arians . This I mention not absolutely to approve of that carriage , but only to shew , how far their aversion went heretofore , which they had for holding Communion with Hereticks . Those who are prepossess'd against all sorts of Separation in the Matters of Religion , ought to remember , that the obligation that lyes upon them to hold Communion with those with whom they are externally joyn'd , is not without its bounds and measures . We are joyn'd together under certain conditions , which are principally the profession of a pure faith , or at least such as is free from all damnable Errors , a Worship freed from all that which is opposite to the essence of Piety ; in a word , a Publick Ministry , under which we may work out our own salvation . While these conditions remain , they make the Communion subsist ; but when they fail , the Communion fails also , and there is a just ground for a Separation , provided we observe these necessary Cautions . They cannot say , in this case , that we separate our selves from the Church , nor that we forsake her Communion , or that we break her Unity . For the forsaken party being truly such as we suppose it , ought not to be any more looked on as the Church of Jesus Christ , but only as a party of the worldly who were before mingled with the Truly Faithful , and who through their obstinacy in their Errors and false Worship had discover'd themselves , and had themselves torn off the vail which as yet confounded them after a manner , with the others . The Orthodox in the first Ages did not in the least break the Unity of the Church , when they would not hold Communion with the Valentinians , the Marcionites , the Montanists , the Manichees , and the other Heterodox of those times , as I have noted already , no more than those , who with so much constancy and resolution refused to hold Communion with the Arrians . We ought not therefore presently to condemn all kind of Separation ; and since there are such kinds of it as are necessary , just and lawful , as there are such as are unjust and rash , it would be the extremity of folly to judge of all after the same manner without any difference or distinction . The Roman Church her self , which has sometimes cut off whole Nations , as France and Germany from her Communion , which may have been seen to have been so often divided into divers parties , whereof one has excommunicated the other , would not it may be freely suffer , that we should treat of matters with this confusion . So that disputing at present about our Separation with her , we shall demand no unjust or unreasonable thing , when we tell them that we ought to examine of what nature that Separation is , to consider the reasons , and wisely to weigh the circumstances ; for if our Fathers separated themselves upon light grounds , and without having any sufficient cause , if they were even under circumstances which ought to have bound them to have remained united with the other Party , which was not for a Reformation , we shall agree with all our hearts to condemn them : but if , on the contrary , the reasons which they had were just , sufficient and necessary , if there was nothing in the circumstances of times , places , persons that could hinder them from doing that which they did , it is certain , that instead of condemning them , we should bless them , we should think our selves happy in following their footsteps ; and as for the reproaches and venomous accusations of the Author of the Prejudices and such like , we should bear them with patience , looking on them as the effect of a blind passion . Let us therefore begin to make that Examination , by the Causes of our Separation . Every one knows what the matters that divide us are ; that they are not either Points of meer Discipline , such as that for which Victor Bishop of Rome separated his Church from those of Asia , who should keep the Feast of Easter on the fourteenth day of the Moon , nor meerly Questions of the School , which consist in nothing but terms remote from the knowledge of the Vulgar , as that which they call trium Capitulorum , which raised so many troubles in the Times of the Emperour Justinian and Pope Vigilius ; nor in meer personal interests , such as we may see in the Schisms of Anti-Popes ; nor purely in personal Crimes or Accusations , as in the Schism of the Donatists ; nor even in a general corruption of Manners , altho' that was extreamly great in the time of our Fathers . The Articles that separate us , are points that according to us , essentially disturb the Faith by which we are united to Jesus Christ , points which essentially alter the Worship that we owe to God , which essentially deprave the sources of our Justification , and which corrupt both the external and internal means of our obtaining Grace and Glory . In a word , they are such Points as we believe to be wholly incompatible with salvation , and which by consequence hinder us from being able to give it the Title or the Quality of a true Church of Jesus Christ to a Party which is obstinate in the profession and practice of them , and which would force us to be so too . I confess , that we cannot say , that our Controversies are all of that importance ; there are some undoubtedly , which are of lesser weight and force , which it was fitting for them to reform themselves in , but which notwithstanding would not have given alone a just cause of Separation . In this rank I place the Question of the Limbus of the Antient Fathers , that of the Local Descent of Jesus Christ into Hell , that of the distinction of Priests and Bishops to be of Divine Right , that of the keeping of Lent , and some others of that nature , where there might have been seen Error and Superstition enough to be corrected ; but which would not have gone so far , as to have caused a rupture of Communion . So that , it is not for these kinds of things , that our Fathers left the Church of Rome ; they had more sufficient , more urgent and indispensable reasons in the other controversies , among which , that of Justification by Meritorious Works , and by Indulgences , Transubstantiation , the Adoration of the Eucharist , the Sacrifice of the Mass , Invocation of Saints and Angels , religious worshipping of Images , Humane Satisfactions , the Lordship of the Pope and his Clergy over mens Consciences , held the chiefest place . These are the true Points which caused a Separation ; and if the others contributed any thing to it , it was only by the connexion which they had with these here ; or because they noted a general Spirit of Superstition contrary to true Piety ; or in fine , by reason of their number : for sometimes divers both less dangerous each to a part , all together make a mortal and incurable disease . However it be , it appears that our Fathers had besides but too just and necessary reasons of their Separation . But to come to set out this matter in its full evidence , it will be requisite to see what they can say in opposition to what I have said . It seems to me , that they can take but one of these Three sides . 1. Either to deny , that the Transubstantiation , Adoration of the Eucharist , the Sacrifice of the Mass , &c. which we call Errors , are so in effect : Or , 2. To say , That even when they should suppose that they were Errors , they would not nevertheless take away from the Church of Rome the quality of a true Church . Neither would they be incompatible with salvation , and by consequence they could not be a sufficient cause of Separation . 3. Or in fine , to maintain , that even when these Points should be a sufficient cause of Separation , they could not be so , at least in regard of our Fathers , because our Fathers were by right subject to their ordinary Pastors , dependent upon their Hierarchical Government , and chiefly upon that of the Church of Rome , which they pretend , is the Mother and Mistress of all others , and the Center of Christian Unity ; from whence it follows , that they could never separate themselves , but that on the contrary they were bound to receive all the conditions it required to be in its Communion . These are the only Three things in my judgement , which they can propose with any colour . I will examine the last in the following Chapter ; let us here consider these two others . The First necessarily engages the man who will make use of it , to enter into an Examination of the foundation of those matters , or which comes to the same things , solidly to establish the Infallibility of the Church of Rome , and of that Party that adheres to it ; which is a general Controversie , that includes all the others , as I have shewn in the First Part of this Work : And by consequence , he must renounce all that wrangling dispute which goes only upon prejudices . The justice or injustice of our Separation will depend on the Foundation . For how can they assure themselves , that those things which we call Errors and a false Worship are on the contrary , Evangelical Truths , and a right and lawful Worship , without going on to that Examination : which shews , as I have already frequently observed , that all those indirect attacks which they assault us with , are nothing else but vain amusings , and beatings of the Air , which serve only to make a noise . The second thing will not less engage them in the Examination of the foundation of those matters , than the First . For in supposing that those things which we call Errors , are such in effect , they must necessarily see , of what nature they are , and what opposition they have to true Piety , to judge aright , whether they are sufficient causes for a Separation , and whether our conscience cannot accommodate it self to them . I confess , that this is no very hard matter to be known ; for how small a knowledge soever they may have of Religion and the Worship of God , they may very easily perceive , that if Transubstantiation for example , is an Error , they cannot but adore the substance of Bread in the room of Jesus Christ ; they may easily perceive , that if the worshipping of Images is forbidden by the second Commandment of the Law , they draw upon themselves the jealousie of God , as he himself declares there ; they may easily perceive , that if the Sacrifice of the Mass is not in effect a propitiatory Sacrifice , by which they may apply to themselves the vertue of that on the Cross , they do an injury to the only Sacrifice of Jesus Christ , and that they vainly seek the vertue of it in an Act , where it is not applyed : They may easily perceive , that if the Lordship that the Church of Rome or its Councils , usurp over mens Consciences , is ill-grounded ; that they render unto men a kind of adoration which is only due to God alone , which cannot but be an unpardonable crime in regard of him who has said , Thou shalt have no other Gods before me . But whether it would be an easie or a difficult matter to be known , that is not the business about which we dispute at present . It is sufficient to shew , that the Separation of our Fathers had just ; sufficient , necessary and indisputable causes ; supposing that what they said of the Errors of the Church of Rome were true , and that they could not be accused either of rashness or of Schism , without contesting their supposition ; nor that they could contest their supposition , without coming to an inspection into the very things themselves . Whence it follows , that all that dispute which they raise against us about Forms , is but a meer vain wrangling , unworthy of any sound persons . If that which our Fathers have laid down concerning the Errors which the Church of Rome forces men to believe to be of her Communion , be not true , we do not any further pretend to defend their Separation ; but if it be true , God and men will bear them witness , that it was justly done , and according to the dictates of an upright conscience . They will say it may be , That we ought not upon such light grounds to suppose , that that which our Fathers said concerning the Errors of the Church of Rome , is true : since they are the Points in dispute , wherein the Church of Rome pretends that we are in an Error , as we pretend that she is . But there cannot be any thing said more frivolous ; for the supposition that we make , is in words of good sense and right reason , because we make it to force our adversaries to come to a discussion of the things themselves , upon which the judgement that ought to be made of our Separation depends , and to make them acknowledge , that all those Accusations which they form against our Fathers , that they have broken the Christian Unity , that they have forsook the Church , that they have made a criminal Schism , are rash accusations , unjust and precipitate , since they cannot rightly judge of their Action , either to condemn or absolve it , until first of all they have examined the Causes of their Separation , and the Reasons which they have alledged , which can never be done , but by a discussion of the Foundation . In effect , Every Accusation , which has no certain Foundation , and which one must be compell'd to retract , is precipitate and rash . But that which they form against our Fathers , before their having examined the foundation , is of that nature . It has no certain foundation ; for they cannot know , whether their action be just or unjust ; and they may be forced to retract it , when they shall have examined their reasons . It is therefore a condemnable rashness in them who have a right to repell , till they have made that examination ; and it is to oblige them to do it , that we suppose , that our Fathers had right at the Foundation . CHAP. II. That our Fathers were bound to separate themselves from the Body of those who possess'd the Ministry in the Church , and particularly in the See of Rome , supposing that they had a right at the Foundation . BUt they will say , Whatsoever we should pretend , we can never do otherwise than condemn the Separation of your Fathers , not for not having just grounds of Separation ; but because the right of separating ones self , does not belong to all sorts of persons , and the Church of Rome being , by a special priviledge , the Mother and Mistress of all others , we could never lawfully separate our selves from her ; and because it is on the contrary indispensably necessary to the salvation of men to obey , and to remain in her Communion . So that your Fathers being , on one side , subject to their ordinary Pastors , they ought never to have divided themselves from their Body , for what cause soever there should have been ; and on the other side , there being no True Church , and by consequence , no Salvation to be had , otherwise than in the Communion of the See of Rome , it is a crime for any to separate themselves from it , whatsoever pretence they can urge for that purpose . This Objection is founded upon these two Propositions : the one , That we never ought to separate our selves from the Body of her ordinary Pastors ; and the other , That we ought never to separate from the Church of Rome in particular . As to the first of these Propositions , I confess as I have said elsewhere , that the people owe a great respect and obedience to the Pastors that administer to them the nourishment of their souls , the words of eternal life ; according to the Precept of St. Paul , Obey them that have the rule over you , and submit your selves , for they watch for your souls . This obedience ought to be accompanyed with a real esteem , that should make us to presume well of them , which should give us a readiness to be instructed by their word , and be very remote from calumnies , murmurs and rash suspicions founded upon light appearances ; and that obedience , that esteem , that good opinion ought to be without doubt greater for all the Body in general , than for particular men in it ; for there is a greater probability , that a whole body should contain more light , and by consequence more authority , than each private man could have . I say , that when even Vices are generally spread over the whole body of the Pastors , the people ought to labour to bear them with patience , and cover them , as much as they can , with charity , in praying to God , that it would please him to cleanse his Sanctuary , and to send good Labourers into his harvest : and howsoever it should be , while they can work out their salvation under their Ministry , they ought not to separate themselves from them . But we ought not also to imagine , that the Duty of a people toward their ordinary Pastors , should be without all bounds , or that their dependance on them , should have no measure . That which we have said in the first Chapter touching the bonds of Church Communion , ought to be extended to the Pastors and to the people , their duties are mutual , and there is none but Jesus Christ alone , on whom they can depend without conditions . To flatter the Body of the Pastors with that priviledge , is to set up men upon the Throne of God ; to inspire them with pride , vanity , negligence , it is to set up a Lordship in the Church , that Jesus Christ has forbid , and to give Pastors the boldness to do and adventure upon all things . It is certain therefore , that the Tye which the Faithful have to their ordinary Pastors , is limited ; and that it ought to endure , but as far as the glory of God , the Fidelity that we owe to Jesus Christ , and the hope of our own salvation can subsist with their Government . If it fall out so , that their Government cannot be any further compatible with those things , in that case , they ought to separate ; and it would be to set up the most senseless , wicked and profane proposition in the world , to say the contrary . The Ministry of the Pastors is establish'd in the Church only as a meer external means , to preserve the True Faith and Worship there , and to lead men to salvation . But the Light of Nature teaches us , that when meer external means shall be remote from their end , and that instead of guiding us to their end , they turn us away from , and deprive us of it ; that then the love which we have for the end , ought to prevail over that which we may have for the means ; because the means are only desirable , in reference to their end ; and the regard which we have for them , is but an effect , or a production of that which we have for the end . So that when those who are wont to distribute to us aliments necessary to our lives , give us on the contrary , poysonous meat instead of aliments , and when they will force us to take them , we must no longer doubt , that the interest of our life ought to take us off from that Tye which we might have had to those persons . A Guide is a means to conduct us to the place whither we desire to go ; but when we know , that that Guide leads us in a false way , and that instead of helping us to go to that place , he makes us wander from it , it is no question , but that we ought to separate from him , and renounce his conduct . The ordinary Pastors are Guides , men that ought to shew us the way to Heaven ; if therefore instead of shewing us , they make us go a quite contrary way , who can doubt that we are bound to forsake them ? But they will say , How can they be forsaken , without resisting God himself , who has subjected them to them ? Is not their Ministry a Divine Institution , and is it not Jesus Christ , who by the testimony of St. Paul , has given some to be Apostles , some Pastors and Teachers , for the assembling of the Saints ? I answer , That we must distinguish that which there is of divine in a Ministry , from that which there is of humane in it . That there should be Ministers in the Church , is Gods Institution ; but that the Ministry should be committed to such or such persons , excepting the Apostles and Evangelists , who were the first Pastors of it , that is in the disposal of men . The Order of the Ministry therefore is inviolable , because it comes from God : it is not permitted to any Creature to abolish it . But it is not the same cf persons raised to the Office of the Ministry ; for as it is by the means of men that they receive their Call , it frequently happens , that their Call is corrupted by the Vices of those who give , and of those who receive it , in that respect it is corruptible . Intrigues , Ambition , Covetousness , and a Spirit of Pride and Dominion , Error , Superstition , Ignorance , Negligence often mingle themselves with it , and sully the holiness of the Ministry . When that corruption is only in some private men , the ordinary wayes of Discipline may be used against them ; they may cut them off , depose , excommunicate them according to the exigency of the case . But when it spreads over all the body in such a manner , and to that degree , that the safety of the Faithful can no longer subsist under the conduct of those persons ; and that there is no hope among them of any amendment , then the only remedy that remains , is to separate from them : and it would be so far from either violating the order of God , or opposing the Ministry that he had set up , that it would be on the contrary to deliver it , as much as in us lay , out of the hands of those who have invaded it ; and to draw it out of that oppression to which they have reduced it . This Separation therefore only regards those persons who were unlawfully called to the Ministry , and who abused it against God and his Church , and not that which it has of Divine , but that which it has in it of Humane and Corruptible ; or to say better , that which it had actually corrupted in that Call. The Choice of persons , and their Elevation to Ecclesiastical Functions , being a Humane thing , and by consequence exposed to all the accidents of mens weakness and corruption , we cannot imagine , without doing an injury to the Wisdom of God , that he would have so strictly and so severely ty'd his faithful to them , that they should not have had any power to separate in any case . For if it were so , it might happen , that the Truth might be forced to yield to Heresie , and Piety to Impiety ; it might happen , that the Children of God might be under the conduct of his declared enemies , without their being able to withdraw themselves ; it might happen , that the faithful might be engaged in an evident danger , or even in a necessity of losing the purity of their faith , through the contagion of their Guides , and have no means to draw themselves out of it ; all which is incompatible with the Divine Wisdom and Goodness . But is it not a very amazing thing , to see a people separate from the Body of those who possess the Offices of the Church ? It is without doubt ; and God will not also permit his Children to be often reduced to so great a necessity : Notwithstanding he permits it sometimes , to afflict his people , and to chastise them for the contempt they have had of his Word and his Favours . He permits it , to shew , that the subsistence of his Church and the salvation of his faithful does not absolutely depend upon humane means , since those means may be perverted , and fall out contrary to their appointment . He permits it in fine , by those sad examples , to keep the Pastors in humility , and in a care to acquit themselves faithfully of their Charges , and to hinder the people from neglecting to instruct themselves in the Mysteries of the Gospel , and that they should not rely with too much confidence upon their Pastors . But when God reduces the Faithful to that extraordinary necessity , besides that the scandal of a Separation , and the other inconveniences that follow , cannot of right , but be imputed to the Pastors who have degenerated from their Call , and abandoned the saving Truth which was committed to them , and the due care of their Flocks , to become oppressors of them . Besides that , I say , it is evident , that that scandal and those inconveniences , whatsoever they are , would never balance these two weighty interests , to wit , that of working out ones salvation , and that of preserving the Gospel , which are so great , that nothing in the world can over-rule them . On the contrary side , the higher the place of those is elevated , who bestow those Ecclesiastical Charges , and the more general the Corruption of those is who hold them , the stronger and more indispensable obligation lyes on the Faithful , to separate themselves from them : for then the evil is in publick channels , and death runs in the same places from whence they should receive their life . Just so as when the Air of a Town is infected , the necessity of withdrawing from it suddenly , is so much the greater , because the Air is of a more ordinary use , than any thing else . They who would not have us in any case have a right to separate our selves from the Body of those who possess the Ministry , have never considered well of what nature that Communion is , which the Faithful have with Jesus Christ , and of what nature that is , which they have with their Pastors . For if the people had a mediate Communion with Jesus Christ , and an immediate one with their Pastors ; that is to say , if they were only united to Jesus Christ , because they are so to their Pastors , and because the Pastors are so to Jesus Christ , as the hand is united to the head , only because that is so to the arm , and because the arm is so to the head , they would possibly have some reason to say , that there could be no case , wherein the people ought to separate themselves from their Pastors , because they could maintain , that the Pastors were a necessary medium for the people to be joyned to Jesus Christ , as the arm is a necessary medium for the hand to be joyned to the head . But it is quite otherwise . For the Faithful are united to Jesus Christ immediately , and with their Pastors mediately ; that is to say , they are united to their Pastors , only because they are united to Jesus Christ , and because Jesus Christ is united to the Pastors ; so far ▪ are the Pastors from being a necessary medium to the faithful to their being joyned to Jesus Christ , that on the contrary , Jesus Christ is a necessary medium for them to be joyned to their Pastors . Both People and Pastors are united immediately with Jesus Christ , and by Jesus Christ we are united together ; for Jesus Christ is the center and bond of our mutual Communion : Therefore the Apostle sharply censures the Corinthians for this , that they were divided among themselves , one saying , I am of Paul , and another , I am of Apollos , and another I am of Cephas , and another , I am of Christ , is Christ , sayes he , divided ? Was Paul crucified for you , or were you baptized in the name of Paul ? Which implyes this , that we are all immediately united to Jesus Christ , because it is he only who dyed for us , and in his name alone that we are baptized : and to pretend that the faithful are joyned to Jesus Christ by his Ministers , is to divide him into as many Parties , or into as many Sects , as there are Ministers . But it manifestly follows from thence , that the faithful ought to be no further united with their Pastors , than as it shall appear to them that their Pastors are to Jesus Christ ; and that they ought to separate from them , when it shall appear to them , that they themselves are separated from him , and that they would separate the Flocks which they had committed to them . This is what the light of common sense dictates without further reasoning ; for to what good would the Communion of those pretended Pastors tend , howsoever invested they should be in Titles and Dignities , without that of Jesus Christ ? That which I have said of their Communion with them , I must also say of their dependence on them . That which the Faithful have upon Jesus Christ is immediate and absolute , and that which they have on their Pastors , is mediate and conditional : our Souls and our Consciences do not belong to them to dispose of at their will and pleasure . In this respect we belong to Jesus Christ alone , who has purchased us at the price of his blood , and who governs us by his Spirit and his Word . The Pastors are only Ministers , Interpreters , or the Heralds who make us to understand his Voice , and all the dependence which we have on them is founded upon that , which both they and we have upon Jesus Christ our Soveraign Lord , of which it is both the cause , and the rule and measure . We ought therefore to be subject to them , while they shall act as his Ministers , and his Interpreters , while their Actions and their Government bear the characters of his Authority . But as those Ministers are men who may abuse their Offices , and act against their head , if it happen that the characters of the Divine Authority which subjects us to them , do not appear in their word , if there appear a contrary character there , if instead of leading us to Jesus Christ , they turn us from him , if they would govern as Lords , and not as Ministers , if they attribute that absolute obedience to themselves which we own to none besides our Saviour . In a word , if to depend on them we must violate the dependence which we have on Jesus Christ , can they then say that we cannot , and that we ought not to separate from them , and to renounce an unjust Government ? If they would decide this Question by the Scripture , St. Paul tells us , That if he himself or an Angel from Heaven should preach to us another Gospel than that which he has preached , he should be accursed . He sayes , that upon the occasion of some false Teachers that troubled the Churches of Galatia , and speaking only of them , one would think that he ought to have been contented to have let his Anathema fall upon those particular Teachers that might err , and who had not so great an Authority , but that one might very well separate himself from them , when they should happen to prevaricate . But to take away all pretence of distinction and wrangling disputes , he makes a most express choice of two of the greatest Authorities that were among creatures , of an Angel and an Apostle , the only two created Authorities to which God has communicated the favour of Infallibility , and he has enjoyn'd us to anathematize them , if it should happen that they should preach another Gospel , than that of Jesus Christ : we know very well , that the Angels of Heaven are uncapable of ever committing that sin ; we know very well , that he himself would never have committed it ; and yet notwithstanding , he turns his discourse upon himself and upon the Angels ; and is not this to give us to understand , that there is no created Authority either in the Heaven , or upon the Earth , upon which we ought absolutely to depend , and from which we ought not to separate , in case it should turn us from Jesus Christ ? Let them tell us whether the dependance that the people owe to the body of their ordinary Pastors , that is to say , of those who possess the Offices of the Church , who may have been very ill chosen , who may have intruded themselves by very bad wayes , who may be carried out therein to all the passions and disorders of humane nature : whether , I say , the dependence which they owe to them , be stronger and more inviolable , than that which they ought to have for an Apostle , and such an Apostle as St. Paul ; and even for an Angel from Heaven , if he should become a Preacher ? This latter dependence notwithstanding , is not absolute , it may be lawfully broken upon a certain case : who will take the boldness to say , after that , that it cannot and ought not to be done in a like case ? But if to the Scripture we would add experience , that would teach us , that there have been sometimes those seasons , in which good men have been forced to separate themselves from the Body of their Pastors : for not to speak of the seven thousand which in Elias's time preserved their purity against the Idolatry whereinto the Church of Israel had fallen , who according to all that appears , lived separated from the Body of their Idolatrous Pastors , at least in a negative Separation , we need but to turn our eyes to the Example of the Orthodox in the time of the Arians . For there are two actions evident in that History , one , that Arianism had invaded the body of the Ordinary Pastors ; and the other , that those among the Orthodox who were of any zeal and courage , separated themselves from that infected body , and would not own them for True Pastors , while they should remain in Heresie . The first of these Actions is justified by almost an infinite number of proofs taken out either from History , or the Testimony of the Ancients . For before the death of Constantine , the Arians who had been condemned in the Council of Nice , fell upon the person of St. Athanasius , and some time after they banish'd him as far as Treves . This was their first Victory ; but they did not stop there : they got over to their side , the Spirit of Constance after the death of Constantine , who remaining sole Emperour , employed all his Authority , and the Arians all their artifices to establish Arianism every where . The greatest part of the Bishops fell either under their violence , or seduction . Divers Councils were assembled , and many forms of faith laid down there , which all tended to set up the Dogm of Arius , some more openly and others more covertly . Those among the Bishops who made any opposition , were cruelly persecuted , deposed from their places , sent into exile , and treated as Hereticks , or the enemies of the Churches peace . Therefore it was , that Constance reproached Liberius , that he was alone , and that he opposed himself to all the world , in the defence of Athanasius . When so great a part of the world , said he to him , resides in thy person , that thou alone shouldst take the part of a wicked man , and dare to break the peace of the whole world . I would be alone , answered Liberius , the cause of the faith is nevertheless weakned . For heretofore there were but three found who resisted the Command of a King. Liberius himself was banished , from which he was not freed till after he subscribed to Arianism . And as the West was then less infected with this Heresie than the East , the Emperour caused a Council to assemble at Ariminum , in which , after specious beginnings , the end was very unhappy . For the Bishops renounced therein the Orthodox Doctrine , which made the Son of God of one and the same Essence with his Father : To this effect , they rejected the word consubstantial , which the Council of Nice had inserted into its Creed , as a word that was scandalous , sacrilegious and unworthy of God ; which was no where to be found in the Scripture , and they banished it from the Church . This appears by the Letter of that Synod it self to the Emperour Constance , set down by S. Hilary , in which they gave the Emperour thanks , that he had shewn them what they ought to do , to wit , to decree , that no body should speak any more either of substance or of consubstantial , which are names unknown to the Church of God ; and that they rejoyced , because they had acknowledged the very same thing that they had held before . They add , That the Truth , which cannot be overcome , has obtained the victory , so that that name unworthy of God which was not to be found wrote in the Sacred Laws , should not be for the future mentioned by any person ; and they declare , That they intirely hold the same Doctrine with the Oriental Churches , and that they have rendred unto them and him a full obedience . It was that reason for which Auxentius Bishop of Millan , an Arian , said in his Letter to Valentinian and Valens Emperours , That he ought not to endure , that the Vnity of six hundred Bishops should be broken by a small number of contentious persons . So that Vincentius Lirinensis makes no scruple to acknowledge , That the poyson of Arianism had infected , not some small parts only , but almost all the world : and it was to that sense , that Phaebadius a French Bishop , who lived in those times , said , That the subtilty and fraud of the Devil had almost wholly possessed mens minds , that it perswaded them to believe Heresie as the right Faith , and condemned the true Faith as an Heresie . And a little lower , having an eye to what had been done at the Council of Ariminum , The Bishops , saith he , made an Edict , that no one should mention one only substance , that is to say , that no one should preach in the Church , that the Father and the Son were but one only vertue . I might add to these testimonies that of Gregory Nazianzen in the Oration that he made in the praise of S. Athanasius : There , after having described the furies of George Patriarch of Alexandria and an Arian , and the impieties of the Council of Seleucia , he adds , We may see one sort unjustly banished from their Sees , and other put into their places , after their having subscribed to the impiety , which was required of them as a necessary condition . Plotting never ceased on one side , nor the Calumniator on the other . This is that which has made many among us fall into the snare , who were else invincible ; for although their error did not go so far , as to seduce their minds , yet they subscrib'd notwithstanding ; and by that means conspired with the most wicked men , and if they were not partakers in their flames , they were at least blackned with their smoak . This is that which has made me often pour forth rivers of tears , beholding wickedness spread abroad so wide and so much every where , and that those themselves that ought to have been the defenders of the Word there , have become the persecutors of the Orthodox Doctrine . For it is certain , that the Pastors have been carried away after an insensible manner , and to speak with the Scripture , divers Pastors have left my Vineyard desolate ; they have abused and loaded that desirable portion with shame ; that is to say , the Church of God , which the sweat and blood of so many Martyrs before and since the coming of jesus Christ , had besprinkled , and which was consecrated , by the sufferings of God himself , who dyed for our salvation . If you except some few , who have either been despised , by reason of the obscurity of their names , or who have resisted by their vertue ( for it is very requisite , that there should yet have some remained to be , as it were , a seed and a root to Israel , to make it flourish and revive again ) all were swayed by the Times . There was only this difference among them , that some were fallen deeper into the snare , and others more slowly ; that some were the chief in wickedness , and others held the second place . Cardinal Baronius could not avoid making this reflection in setting down this passage : So it was that Gregory deplored the ruine of the whole Eastern Church . But if we would add the ruine that befell the Western Church , which I have just before described , we shall easily judge , that there has not been any time since , wherein the whole Christian World has been more disturbed , than it was then , since almost all the Preachers of the Churches were fallen into the precipice , and that the face of the Catholick Church was never so dreadful . But the second Action which we have propounded , is not less certain than the former ; to wit , that those among the Orthodox who had any zeal or courage , separated themselves from the Body of their ordinary Pastors , and would not own them for their Pastors , while they remained in Heresie . In effect , that was the chief cause for which they suffered so many murders and banishments , the Arians no wayes tolerating those who refused their Communion . The perpetual Accusation wherewith they charged them , was , That they were the Schismaticks who had violated the Peace and Unity of the Church . This is that which Auxentius reproached S. Hilary with , and Eusebius of Verceille in the Letter which I have before cited . They are , said he , men condemned and deposed , who think of nothing but making of Schisms wheresoever they come ; for so it was , that that false Bishop called the just Separation to which S. Hilary exhorted the faithful , by his Writings , as we have seen in the preceding Chapter . Socrates the Ecclesiastical Historian , relates upon this subject , that the cruelty of the Arians proceeded to that height , that they forced by all sorts of unjust wayes , men and women to receive the Sacrament at their hands , even to the opening of their mouths by force ; and that those , to whom they offered that violence , look'd upon it as the most cruel of all punishments , that divers made so great a resistance to it , that they could not obtain their ends , and that in their rage , they tore their Breasts to revenge themselves of their refusals . He himself testifies that the Horror which the Orthodox had to be found in the same Assemblies with the Arians was so great , that having no Churches wherein they could publickly worship God , they assembled with the Novatians who had three Churches in that City ; because these latter were indeed Schismaticks , but not Hereticks as the Arians ; and that if the Novatians had been willing , the Catholicks would have made but one only Church with them . Sozomen relates also , that the Emperour Valens , who was an Arian , having gone to the City of Edessa , and having learned there , that the Orthodox , that is to say , those who persever'd in the faith of the Consubstantiality of the Son , made all their Assemblies in a Field near the City , because all the Churches were in the hands of the Arians ; he punished the Governour of the Province , who suffered those Assemblies , and commanded him to go thither the next day to hinder them with all his force from assembling themselves , and to punish those who should oppose themselves ; that the people having heard that Order , did not fail to meet there ; and the Governour having gone thither , and finding in the way a Woman who was running thither with her little Child , he asked her if she had not heard what the Emperour had commanded ? but that the Woman without being moved , answered him , that she was not ignorant of it ; and that it was for that very reason that she ran thither , to be there with others ; which made such an impression upon the Spirit of the Governour , that he went back to the Emperour , and acquainted him with that obstinate resolution , and caused him to revoke the Orders he had given . I confess , that there were many of the Orthodox , who had not courage enough to go so far as a Separation , and who contented themselves with only groaning under the Arian Tyranny , in waiting for better Times . But it is also certain , that those who had more zeal and courage withdrew themselves from the Communion of those Hereticks , and that they believed themselves bound to do it for the making sure of their salvation . Therefore it was that Faustinus in his Treatise against the Arians , said , That if any one did not believe that the Society of the Arians could be rendered culpable , under a pretence that he had the testimony of his own conscience , which did not accuse him of having violated or renounced the faith there , it belonged to such a one to take heed , and to examine himself . But as for me , adds he , the cause of God being concerned , I judge my self bound to be more pre-cautioned , and to have a greater fear than those persons have . For it is written , a man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition , reject ; knowing that he who is such , is perverted ; and that he sins , being condemned in himself . And as to the punishment of dissemblers , it is written , All flesh shall worship before my face , saith the Lord God , and the Saints shall come forth , and they shall see those who have transgressed against me ; for the worm of the Hypocrites shall not dye , and their fire shall not be quenched . The Apostle forbids us also to enter into fellowship with unbelievers . And elsewhere , after having given a description of sins , he condemns not only those who commit such things ; but those also who consent to those who commit them . There are divers other passages in the Scripture , which forbid our companying with Hereticks ; but I would only note these here briefly , to the end that you should not think , that it is out of a vain superstition , that we avoid the Communion of those whom the Divine Justice has condemned . Behold then two Actions that I have propounded , in my judgement sufficiently justified ; and by consequence , the right of separating our selves from the body of our ordinary Pastors , when they teach Doctrines contrary to the true faith , which they would constrain the faithful to profess , established by an example , against which I do not see any thing which they can rationally oppose , or hinder it from being like to that of our Fathers . For if they say , that there were in that party of the Orthodox that separated themselves , divers Bishops that authorized that Action ; besides that , we may say the same thing of the Party of the Reformation , in which they know that there was a very considerable number of Pious and Learned Prelates ; and even some , who had the courage to suffer death in the defence of that cause . Besides that , I say , it is certain , that it is not the Episcopal Dignity that makes the Reformation lawful , it is lawful as often as it has causes that are just , sufficient and necessary at the foundation ; and wheresoever those causes are to be found , the faithful people have as much right to separate themselves as the Bishops . If the people had no right to separate themselves from the Body of their Pastors , who should teach them false Doctrine , it could not be , by reason of the Authority which the Pastors have over the people , for the Body of the Pastors has at least as much authority over particular Pastors , as it has over the people ; so that if that reason were not sufficiently valid in regard of particular Bishops , they may very well see , that it would not be so in regard of the faithful people . In effect a Separation founded upon the fear of dishonouring God , and prejudicing ones own salvation , is a common right ; and the Laity are not less bound to it than the Bishops , since both the one and the other , ought , according to the precept of the Apostle , to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling . If they say , that the Separation which fell out in time of the Arians was founded upon the Authority of the Nicene Council , wherein Arius and his followers had been condemned ; whereas that of our Fathers is not established by the Authority of any Council , since there is not one that has condemned the Doctrines and Customs of the Church of Rome : I answer , that this difference is yet null and void . For not to mention , that the Arians of whom we speak , called themselves the Catholicks , and took it as a great injury when they were called Arians , or Followers of Arius , and that their Councils had pronounced nothing directly against that of Nice , their separation was founded upon the things themselves , that is to say , upon the necessity of acknowledging the Son of God to be consubstantial with the Father , in order to the acknowledging him to be truly God , and not upon the bare Authority of the Nicene Council , to which they might have opposed that of the Church then in her Councils of Ariminum , and of Constantinople , which included all the East and all the West ; and if they had had no more but that , they ought not to have separated from the body of their actually governing Pastors , that they might have cleaved to a Synod which was past and gone . It was therefore the importance of the Truth that was contested , and that of the Error that was opposite to it , which made the Separation , and not the meer Authority of the Nicene Fathers ; and therefore it is that S. Augustine disputing against Maximinus an Arian , would that they should set aside as well the Council of Nice , as that of Ariminum ; and that they should only contend about the things themselves . Not but that sometimes the Orthodox did set before them the Council of Nice , according to the manner of disputes , where one will neglect no advantage , for its being ever so small ; but it was as a little help , and not as the essential reason of their Separation , which was alwayes taken from the thing it self , and from the testimonies of the Scripture ; so that that difference is very frivolous . If they say lastly , that the point that was controverted then , was one of a far greater importance , than those upon which our Fathers separated themselves : I answer , that indeed the Article of the Consubstantiality of the Son , is one of the chief and most fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion ; but that does not hinder , that those that are controverted between the Church of Rome and us , should not also be of the greatest importance to salvation , and sufficient to cause a separation . And when they would make the justice or injustice of ours to depend on that , they must quit all that vain dispute of prejudices , and go on to the discussion of the foundation it self . The Author of the Prejudices must not take it ill , that in endeavouring to decide the Question concerning the right of the Separation of our Fathers , I make use here of his own proper testimony . For it is a matter surprising enough , that writing in his Eighth and Ninth Chapters , in which he would , he sayes , convince us of Schism , without entring upon a discussion either of our Doctrine or our Mission : that he should not have remembred what he himself had just before said in the Seventh . First of all , he there proposes this difficulty as on our side . If the visible Church were really fallen into Error , as we suppose that it is possible for it to do , if it drive away the truly faithful from its bosome , if it persecute them , must those truly faithful needs be deprived of all external worship in Religion , must they needs cleave to the Church to perish with them , since we suppose that it resides in them alone ? Is it not against the Divine Providence , that the true worshippers of God , the true heirs of Heaven , cannot form a Church in the World , and that God has not left any means to provide against so strange an inconvenience ? He answers plainly , That indeed , that inconvenience is exceeding great ; but that it is not necessary that God should have provided against it by remedies ; because he has resolved to hinder it from ever falling out , in alwayes preserving the True Ministry in his Church . So that it can never be in a necessity of being re-established ; and that very thing is a certain mark , that that inconvenience can never happen , in that God has not provided any remedy for it . He sayes , that so it is that our Ministers ought to conclude , and not to conclude as they do , in supposing that the visible Church may fall into ruine , that there is a necessity of having recourse to the establishment of a new Ministry . Since immediately after , he adds , But if the adhaesion which they have to their sentiments , hinders them from coming to agree to this consequence , they ought rather to conclude , that those pretended truly faithful must remain in that state , without Pastors , and without any external worship ; and that they should rather expect , that God should raise up some extraordinarily , and with visible marks of their mission , than to usurp to themselves a right of creating Ministers and Pastors , and giving them power to govern the Churches , and administer the Sacraments . We have already shewn him , and we shall yet further shew him in the end , that it is not without reason , that we suppose , that the Ministry may be corrupted in the Church . We shall shew him also , that the consequence which we draw from it concerning the re-establishing of the Ministry , is just and right ; and that a faithful people have a right in that case to create their Ministers and their Pastors , and to give them power to govern their Churches , and to administer the Sacraments . But as we are only disputing at present , about knowing whether we may separate our selves from the body of the ordinary Pastors , when they are fallen into errors incompatible with our salvation , and when they will force the people to profess the same Errors ; it shall suffice at present , to take notice , that the Author of the Prejudices comes to agree , that when persons are perswaded , that the body of those who possess the Ministry in the Church is fallen into Error , and when it drives away from its bosome , and persecutes those who maintain the Truth , they may remain separated , without acknowledging that Body for their Pastors , and without assisting in their external worship ; provided that they do not make other Ministers . But who sees not , that this is precisely to acknowledge the right of that Separation , about which the question at present is ? Who sees not , that it is , at least in that respect , a discharging our Fathers from the Accusation of Schism , and to declare them further innocent of that crime , which he would design to lay to their charge at last ? Our Fathers did not collect that consequence of the Author of the Prejudices , they did not conclude , that the Ministry must be incorruptible in the Church , in that which it had of humane in it . This is not a place to dispute , whether they adhered too much to their own opinions ; where because that in effect they judg'd well , that manner of reasoning is pernicious . Howsoever it were , they have concluded quite otherwise , they were perswaded , that the body of those who possessed the Ordinary Ministry in the Latin Church , were fallen not only into an Error , but into many , and into such as were contrary to mens salvation , that it was guilty of opinionativeness in maintaining them , that it did impose a necessity upon all to profess them , that it drove away from its bosome those who refused that obedience . It was upon this that they separated themselves from them , not acknowledging them any more for their Pastors , and assisting no further in their external worship . Thus far the Author of the Prejudices does not condemn them , he would only that they should have remained throughout without Pastors , and without external worship . We shall see in its place , whether there is reason for that or no ; it is sufficient , that he consents , that they should not any more have had those for their Pastors , which were so before , and that they should have withdrawn themselves from their communion and external worship ; we demand no more at present . We ought now to pass on to the second Proposition , upon which the Objection is grounded that I have propounded in the beginning of this Chapter , and to examine , whether the Priviledge of the Church of Rome is such , that one ought not upon any pretence whatsoever , to separate ones self from her communion . All the world knows , that this is the pretension of that Church ; and that it is for that , that she makes her self , the Mother , and the Mistress of all others , and that she has also made it to be defined in her Council of Trent . It is upon that account , that one of her Popes , Boniface the Eighth , formerly determined , That it was necessary to the Salvation of every creature , to be subject to the Bishop of Rome . But clearly to decide so weighty a Question , there seems to me to be only these two wayes : The first is , to enquire , whether that Church can , or cannot fall into Error , and cease to be the True Church of Jesus Christ ; for if it be true , that she can never fall into Errors , nor lose the quality of a true Church , we must conclude , that we ought alwayes to remain in her Communion . But if on the contrary , she may erre , and cease to be a true Church , we must also conclude , that we may and ought to separate our selves , when there shall be a just occasion there . The second way is , that , laying aside the Question , Whether she may err or not , we examine , whether it be true , that God has made her the Mistress of all other Churches as she pretends , whether he has established her to be the perpetual and inviolable Center of the Christian Unity , with a command to all the faithful not to fly off from her . For if it be an Order that God has made , we cannot resist it , without destroying our selves ; but if it be only an ill-grounded pretension of that Church , her communion is neither more necessary , nor more inviolable , than that of other particular Churches . But as to the first of these wayes , I have already shewn , that it engages those who will follow it in the examination of the foundation ; and in effect , the proofs that they set before us to establish the Infallibility of the Roman See , are neither so clear , nor so concluding , that it should not be necessary to see , whether the Doctrines that the Church of Rome teaches , answer that pretension which she makes to be infallible , and unable to fall away ; or to say better , those proofs are so weak , and so trivial , that they themselves bind us to have recourse to the examination of the Doctrines of that Church , to judge of her pretension by them . These two Arguments are equally good as to their form . The Church of Rome cannot err in the Faith ; therefore the things which she teaches us of Faith , are true . And the things which the Church of Rome teaches us are not true ; therefore the Church of Rome may err . I do not here examine the question , which of these two wayes of reasoning is the more natural . I yield if they will , that they should chuse the first ; but when they shall have chose it , good sense would also require , that if the things which they shall set before us , to prove this Proposition , The Church of Rome cannot err in the faith , do no wayes satisfie the mind , if instead of assuring us , they plunge us into the greatest uncertainties , we must pass over to the other way ; and by consequence we must enter into the examination of the foundation . But to judge of what nature those proofs are which they give for the infallibility of the Church of Rome , we need but a naked view of them . For they are not the express declarations of the will of God , although it should be very necessary that they should have such a one for the establishment of so great and peculiar a priviledge , the knowledge of which , is so very important to all Christians . They are not evident consequences drawn from some passages of Scripture , or some actions of the Apostles : they are neither clear and convincing reasonings , nor even strong presumptions , and such as have much likelihood . They are strained consequences , which they draw as they are able , from two or three passages of the Scripture , and which a man that should have never heard them speak of that Infallibility , with all his circumspection would not have gathered . They produce the Testimony that St. Paul gives to the Church of Rome in his dayes , That her faith was spoken of through all the world ; and they consider not , that he gives the same testimony to the Thessalonians , in far higher terms , than to the Romans ; for he tells them , That they were an example to the faithful , and that the word of the Lord sounded from them , not only in Macedonia and Achaia , but in every place also . Although they do not conclude the infallibility of the Church of Thessalonica from thence . They do not see that he renders well near the same testimony to the Philippians , in adding a clause that seems much more express ; to wit , That he is assured of this very thing , that he which had begun a good work in them , would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ . Although they cannot notwithstanding conclude infallibility from thence in the behalf of the Church of Philippi . In effect , these testimonies only regard the persons , who at that time composed those Churches , and not those who should come after them ; and do not found any priviledge on them . They produce the passages of the Gospel , that relate to S. Peter , as this , Thou art Peter , and upon this Rock I will build my Church , and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it : and this , I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven , &c. and this , I have prayed for thee , that thy faith fail not ; when therefore thou art converted , strengthen thy brethren : and this , Feed my sheep . But to perceive the weakness of the consequence which they draw from these passages , we need but to see that which is between two things , of which it is necessary that we should be assured , before we can conclude any thing . First of all , we must be assured , that S. Peter was at Rome , that he preached and fixed his See there ; for these actions are not so evident as they imagine ; they are inveloped with divers difficulties that appear unconquerable , and accompanied with many circumstances that have no appearance of truth , and which make at least that whole History to be doubted . I confess , that the Ancients did believe so ; but they have sometimes readily admitted Fables for truths ; and after all , these are matters of fact whereof we have not any Divine Revelation , about which , according to the very principle of our Adversaries , all the whole Church may be deceived ; and which by consequence are not of faith , nor can serve as a foundation for an Article so much concerning the faith as this is . That the Church of Rome cannot err , and that it is alwayes necessary to salvation to be in her communion . Secondly , We must be assured that the Bishops of Rome are the True and ordinary Successors of S. Peter in the Government of every Christian Church . For why should not they be his Successors in the Government of the particular Church of Rome , as well as the Bishops of Antioch in the particular Government of that of Antioch ? When the Apostles preached in those places , where they gathered Churches and setled Pastors , they did not intend that those Pastors after them should receive all the rights of their Apostleship , nor that they should be Universal Bishops . They say , that there must have been one , and that that could have been in no other Church , but that where S. Peter dy'd : But all this is said without any ground . The Church is a Kingdom that acknowledges none besides Jesus Christ for its Monarch ; he is our only Lord , and our Soveraign Teacher ; and after that the Apostles had formed Churches , and that the Christian Religion had been laid down in the Books of the New Testament , the Pastors had in those Divine Books , the exact Rule of their Preaching and their Government . Those who have applyed themselves only to that , have alwayes well governed their Flocks , without standing in need of that pretended Universal Episcopacy , which is a Chimerical Office , more proper to ruine Religion , than to preserve it . In the Third place , we must be assured , that S. Peter himself had received in those passages some peculiar dignity , that had raised him above the other Apostles , and some rights which were not common to all of them . But this is what they cannot conclude from those forecited passages : for granting that Jesus Christ has built his Church upon S. Peter , has he not also built it upon the other Apostles ? is it not elsewhere written , That we are built upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets , Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone ? Is it not written , That the New Jerusalem has twelve foundations , wherein the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb are written ? If Jesus Christ has prayed for the perseverance of the faith of S. Peter , has he not made the same Prayer for all the other , Keep them , sayes he , in thine own name , that they may be one , as we are ? If he said to him , Strengthen thy Brethren , is it not a common duty , not only to the Apostles , but to all the Faithful ? Let us consider one another , sayes S. Paul , to provoke unto love , and to good works . If he said to him , Feed my sheep , did he not say to all in common , Go , and teach all Nations ? If he said to him , I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven ; has he not said to all of them , I appcint unto you a Kingdom , as my Father hath appointed unto me ? Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth , shall be bound in Heaven , and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth , shall be loosed in Heaven . In the Fourth place , we must be assured , that when there should be in all those passages some peculiar priviledge for S. Peter exclusive from the rest of the Apostles , that it is a thing that could be transmitted down to his Successors , and not some personal priviledge that resided in him alone , and must have dyed with him . For can we not say , that the twelve Apostles , being the twelve foundations of the Church , the priviledge of S. Peter is to be first in order , because he was the first who laboured in the conversion of the Jews at the day of Pentecost , and in that of the Gentiles in the Sermon that he made to Cornelius ? May we not say , that Jesus Christ has particularly prayed for his perseverance in the faith , because that he alone had been winnowed by the Temptation that hapned to him in the Court of the High Priest ? That he said to him alone , When thou art converted , strengthen thy brethren , because that he alone had given a sad experience of humane weakness ? That he said to him thrice , Feed my sheep or my lambs , because that he only having thrice denyed his Master by words full of horror and ingratitude , our Lord would for his consolation and re-establishment , thrice pronounce words full of love and goodness ? In fine , when those Texts should contain a peculiar priviledge , that might be communicated to the Successors of S. Peter , we must be assured , that that priviledge must be the perpetual infallibility of the Church of Rome , and a certainty of never falling away from the quality of a True Church . And this is that which they know not how to conclude from those passages . for in respect of the first , The Church may have been built upon S. Peter and upon his first Successors and remain firm and unshaken upon those foundations , that is to say , upon their Doctrine and Example , although in the course of some Ages the Bishops of Rome have degenerated , and changed the faith of their Predecessors , and the words of Jesus Christ extended even to the Successors of S. Peter would not be less true , when they should not extend themselves unto all those who bear that name . S. Paul has called the Churches of Asia , in the midst of which , Timothy his Disciple was , when he wrote his first Epistle to him ; he has I say , called them the pillar and ground of Truth . For although those Titles belong in general to every Church , it is notwithstanding certain , that they regard more directly and more particularly that part of the Universal Church , I would say the Churches of Asia , where Timothy resided when S. Paul wrote to him . But the word of this Apostle does not fail to be true , although in the course of many Ages those Churches have degenerated from their first purity , and though the Successors of Timothy lost it very quickly after . And as to the Prayer that Jesus Christ made to God , that the faith of S. Peter might not fail , when they would extend it down to his Successors , they cannot conclude a greater Infallibility for them , than that of S. Peter himself , who preserving his faith concealed at the bottom of his heart , outwardly denyed his Master three times ; and who , according to the opinion of our Adversaries , lost entirely his love , and had fallen from a state of Grace , being no more either in the Communion of God , nor in that of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ . Let the Church of Rome therefore call her self infallible as much as she pleases , in vertue of the Prayer of Jesus Christ , that Infallibility will not hinder , but that she may externally deny the faith of Jesus Christ , but that she may intirely lose her love , and the communion of our Saviour , and the quality of the True Church , and by consequence , that we should not be bound to separate from her , while she should be in that state , and till it should please God to re-establish her . See here of what force those proofs are which they produce to ground this special priviledge of the Church of Rome upon . It is not hard to see , that a man of good understanding , who would satisfie his mind and his conscience upon so weighty a point , ought not to remain there ; but that he ought to pass on to the other way of clearing that doubt which I have noted , which is , to judge of the pretension of the Church of Rome , by the examination of her Doctrines and her Worship . For it is there principally that the characters of truth and infallibility ought to be found , and by consequence he must come to the foundation , and no further amuse himself with Prejudices . As to the second Way , by which I have said we might clear this Question , Whether it be necessary to the salvation of Christians , to be joyned to the Church of Rome ? it consists in examining , whether it be true , that God has made her the Mistress of all other Churches ? whether there is any particular order that binds us indispensably to her ? For if that be so , the Separation of our Fathers must be condemned ; but if it be not so , we must judge of that Church as of all other particular Churches , and say , that we cannot and ought not to separate our selves from her , but when we have just and lawful causes so to do . There is no person who does not judge , that we cannot pass over lightly a point of so great importance , which ought to serve for a general and perpetual Rule to all Christians ; and that if the Church of Rome would so set her self beyond a state of equality above other Churches , it is necessary that she should produce some very express and indisputable Order of God for it . But instead of that , she does nothing but reverberate the same passages which I have mentioned . She boasts her self to be the See of S. Peter ; and under that pretence , she applyes to her self all that she can find in the Scripture in favour of that Apostle ; and particularly the Order that Jesus Christ gave him to feed his sheep , as if the Office of the Apostleship , in which Jesus Christ re-established him by those words , could be communicated to his Successors ; or as if the foundation that Jesus Christ supposed , and upon which he re-established him , in saying to him feed my sheep , to wit , that he should love him more than the rest , was not a thing purely personal in S. Peter , and whereof it was not in his power to transmit any part to his Successors , nor by consequence , to invest them with his Office , which was restored to him only upon a supposition of that love ; or lastly , as if the office of feeding Christ's sheep , included an absolute and indispensable necessity for the sheep to receive their death , when they should give it them under the name of their food . It must be acknowledg'd , that there never was a higher pretension than this of the Church of Rome : for what more could she pretend to , then to make Heaven it self depend on her communion , and to leave no possibility of salvation to any but those who should be in her communion , and under her dependance ! But it must also be acknowledged , that there never was any thing worse established than that pretension . They alledge in its favour , nothing that is clear and distinct ; and even the consequences which they draw for it , are made after a very strange manner . This is , in my judgement , the Reason why our Adversaries when they treat of this matter do not insist much upon Scripture , but fly off presently to the Fathers , and the usage of the Ancient Church : For by this means , they hope to prolong the dispute to eternity , and that notwithstanding , the Church of Rome shall be alwayes in possession of that Despotical Authority which she exercises over the Churches that remain in her communion . In effect , the life of a man would scarce suffice to read well and throughly examine all the Volumes which have been composed on one side and on the other upon this Question of the place that the Church of Rome and its Bishops have held among the Christian Churches during the first six Centuries , and of the Authority which they had then . But to say the truth , there is too much artifice in that procedure ; for that the Church of Rome should be the Mistress of all others , and that no one could be saved but in her communion , that does not depend upon the order of men , but only on that of God : and when they should find among the Antients a thousand times more complaisance for the See of Rome than they had , that may very well establish an ancient possession , and make clear the fact ; but it can never establish the right of it . To establish a right of that nature , a word of God , an express declaration of his will is necessary ; for it is a right not only above nature , but even above the ordinary and common favour that God gives to other Churches , and which by consequence depends only upon God. And so it is but a wandring from the way , to go to search for the grounds of it in the Writings of Men. It is no hard matter to conceive , that those Bishops which were raised to Dignities in the Metropolis of the World , and engaged in the greatest affairs , might mannage matters so , as to ascribe to themselves those rights which no wayes belonged to them , nor to imagine that their flatterers and Courtiers might not have offered more incense to them than they ought , nor that those persecuted ones who had recourse to their protection , might not have helped the increase of their Authority , nor that the Princes and Emperors who had need of them , might not have given them those priviledges which they ought not to have had , that which renders to a just title , all that which they alledge in their favour suspected and to no purpose at all . Notwithstanding there are moreover , evident matters of fact , that let us clearly see , that the Ancient Church did not acknowledge that Universal Episcopacy , that the Bishops of Rome pretend to , nor that absolute and indispensable necessity to be joyned to their See to be saved , nor that their Church should be the Mistress of all the rest . 1. Every one knows , that the Bishops of Rome were anciently chosen by the suffrages of the people and of the Clergy of that Church , without any other Churches taking part in those Elections , which is a mark manifest enough , that they did not mean , that those Bishops should be Universal Bishops , nor that they should have a more peculiar interest in their creation , than in that of other Bishops . Since the Popes were raised to that high Dignity wherein we behold them at this day , each Nation has thought , that it ought in some manner to participate in their Nomination , because the business was about one common interest , they would have the Protectors of their Interests in the Colledge of Cardinals , and Princes themselves have interpos'd ; but they can see nothing like that in the Primitive Church . Rome alone made her Bishops without the participation of other Churches . 2. Victor Bishop of Rome having excommunicated the Churches of Asia , who celebrated the Feast of Easter after the manner of the Jews , S. Irenaeus with the Bishops of France opposed themselves to that Excommunication , and wrote as well to Victor as to the other Bishops , and in effect those Churches of Asia did not cease to remain in the Communion of the Catholick Church , notwithstanding that action of Victor , as it appears from the Testimony of Socrates , who formally sayes , that those who contended about the business of Easter , did not nevertheless refuse communion with one another . So that their Bishops were called and received in the Council of Nice , without any difficulty ; for Eusebius notes expresly , among those who were called by Constantine , the Syrians , the Cilicians , and the Mesopotamians , who were Quartodecumani , he sayes , that Constantine would conferr pleasantly and familiarly with the Bishops , about matters that were in question ; and that he would bring them all by that means to the same opinion , even about the matter of Easter : and S. Athanasius testifies , that it was to accord that difference , that all the World was assembled at the Council of Nice , and that the Syrians came to the same opinion with the rest , and that they earnestly contended against the Heresie of Arius , which shews us , that they assisted at the Council , without any notice being taken of Victor's Excommunication . From whence it is no very hard matter to conclude , what Aeneas Sylvius Cardinal of Sienna , and afterwards Pope , has acknowledged in one of his Letters , That before the Council of Nice every one lived according to his own wayes , and that men had but a very small regard to the Church of Rome . 3. In the sixth Century , a great trouble being raised in the Church , upon the occasion of three Writings ; the one of Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus , the other of Ibas Bishop of Edessa , and the third of Theodoret of Mopsuesta , which had been read and approved in the Council of Chalcedon , but whom the most judged to be Heretical , Pope Vigilius openly took up the desence of those three Writings , and vigorously oppos'd himself to the condemnation that the Emperour Justinian and the Eastern Patriarchs had made of them . But , in the end , being drawn to Constantinople , he changed his opinion , and consented to that condemnation , whither he was carried out to it by the complaisance which he had for the Emperour , who had a great affection for that business , or whether out of some other principle . Howsoever it were , that action appear'd so criminal in the eyes of a great number of Orthodox Bishops , that they separated themselves and their Churches from the Communion of Vigilius and his Party , and even the Church of Africa assembled in Council , as Victor of Tunis an African Bishop witnesses , who lived in those times , Synodically excommunicated that Pope , leaving him notwithstanding means to re-establish himself by repentance . These Actions prove in my judgement , very sufficiently , that the faithful then did not look upon the Church of Rome as the Mistress of all others , nor on the communion or dependance on its See , as a thing absolutely necessary to the salvation of Christians . There can nothing be said in effect more opposite to the Spirit of the Christian Religion , than that Imagination . God had heretofore fixed his Communion with that of the Israelites , and established in Jerusalem and in its High Priests , the center of Ecclesiastical Unity . But when Jesus Christ brought his Gospel into the world , he changed that order , not by transporting the rights of Jerusalem to Rome , nor those of the High Priests to the Popes ; but by abolishing wholly that necessity of Communion to a certain place , and that particular dependance on a certain See. This is what S. Paul clearly enough teaches in his third Chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians . In the new man , sayes he , there is neither Greek nor Jew , neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision , neither Barbarian or Scythian , bond or free , but Jesus Christ is all , and in all . He had had no reason to express himself after that manner , if that new man whereof he spoke , had necessarily been a Roman , and depending on the Communion of the Bishop of Rome . So also the same Apostle setting that Evangelical Church that Jesus Christ had assembled in opposition to the ancient and earthly Jerusalem , makes not that opposition to consist in this , that the one is Jerusalem , and the other Rome ; the one the head City of Judaea , and the other , that of the Empire ; but he makes it to consist in this , that one is earthly , and the other heavenly ; the one below , and the other on high ; the one ty'd to a certain place , from whence it cannot go ; and the other independent on all manner of particular places in the world , and having no necessary dependence on any but Heaven . For it is to this purpose that he calls , the Jerusalem that is above , the heavenly Jerusalem , the City of the living God , the Church of the first-born , whose names are written in heaven . It is in the view of that , that Jesus Christ said to the Samaritan Woman , believe me , the hour cometh , when ye shall neither in this mountain , nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father : But the hour cometh , and now is , when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth . The Samaritans would establish the center of Religion on the Mountain where Jacob and the twelve Patriarchs had built an Altar to God ; the Jews , on the contrary established it in the City of Jerusalem . To all that Jesus Christ opposes not the Capital City , as the new Mountain which he had chosen ; nor Rome as another Jerusalem , but the Spirit and the Truth ; that is to say , Faith and Piety alone , abstracted from all those relations to particular places , and independent on all Cities and Mountains . The same thing is justified by the censure that S. Paul passed on the Corinthians , in that one said , I am of Paul , another I am of Apollos , and another I am of Cephas , that is to say , of Peter . For we ought not to imagine , that those men meant , that they were so of Paul , or of Apollos , or of Peter , as to be no more of Jesus Christ ; or that they would take Paul , or Apollos , or Cephas for heads equal to Jesus Christ . They were Christians , and they were not ignorant of the difference they were to make between Jesus Christ and his Apostles . No , without doubt , they were not ignorant of it , but they would have subordinate heads , humane heads , on whom they might depend by an external dependance , and that was necessary for them to be , by that means linked to Jesus Christ , after the same manner that they would have us at this day to depend on the See of Rome . Wherefore did S. Paul say to them ; Is Christ divided ? Why did he not say to them , that as for Paul and Apollos , they had no reason to take them for their heads , but that it was far otherwise as to Peter , since God had set up him and his Successors for ever to be the heads of the Universal Church ? Why in stead of that , did he conclude after this manner , That no one should glory in men : for all things are yours , whether Paul , or Apollos , or Cephas , or the world ; or life or death ; or things present ; or things to come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christs , and Christ is Gods ? Is it not to let them understand , that Jesus Christ is the only head of the Church , that there is only his communion that is absolutely necessary ; and that as for other Ministers , whosoever they were , they were appointed for our use , as all other things , to serve us , in as much as they lead us to Jesus Christ ? If the Church under the New Testament , ought to be inviolably ty'd to the See of Rome , how should the Scripture have been silent in so weighty a truth , which could not be ignor'd without extream danger , nor contested without evident damnation ? Notwithstanding , we do not find any other head of the Church in those Sacred Books but Jesus Christ , nor any other High Priest but him . We do not find in the Scripture any Universal Bishop , nor Ministerial head , or subordinate , or any particular Church the Mistress of all others . We find there indeed that Jesus Christ being ascended up on high , gave some to be Apostles , others to be Prophets , some Evangelists , some Pastors and Teachers , for the assembling of the Saints , for the work of the Ministry , for the edifying of the body of Christ . How came the Apostle to forget in that Enumeration , the chief of all Offices , to wit , that of the Ministerial Head of the whole Church , and the Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ , in the Government and conduct of his flock ? If the Christian Church ought in that to resemble the Synagogue , and to have as that , a Soveraign High Priest upon earth , who should be the head of that Religion , and who should have his Successors as the ancient High Priest had : whence comes it , that the Scripture has alwayes regarded that Ancient High Priest as a Figure of Jesus Christ , that it alwayes referred it to him , and never to the Roman Bishops , nor even to S. Peter who was then alive , and who should by consequence have exercised that pretended charge which they would make to descend from him ? There is therefore no lawful foundation in all that pretension of Rome and her See. We ought to pass the same judgement on all other Sees and other particular Churches , with which it is just we should hold communion , while they teach good and sound Doctrine , and that we should even bear with them , when they should fall into some errors , provided they constrain no body to believe them : but from which it is also just to separate our selves , when they shall fall into errors contrary to the communion of Jesus Christ our only Saviour , and when they would violently force all others to believe the same . If in a long course of Ages , Rome has usurped by little and little the rights that do not belong to her , if she has found it very easie , through the ignorance , or complaisance of men , in the diverse intrigues of the World , to raise her Throne as high as our Fathers beheld it , and as we do yet at this day : If her flatterers have not failed alwayes to raise her pretensions as high as Heaven , and if she has been lull'd asleep with the sound of those sweet charms that enchant her , we do not believe , that that ought to prejudice our separation . We have no other aversion for her communion , than that which our conscience gives us ; and if it shall please God to re-establish her in her ancient purity , she would not have so great a joy to spread forth her arms to us , as we should have an impatience to demand her peace of her . But as long as we shall see her in that bad state wherein we are perswaded she is , we cannot but bewail and pray for her , and yet notwithstanding no body can blame us , for preferring our own salvation to her communion . CHAP. III. That the Conduct of the Court of Rome , and those of her party , in respect of the Protestants , has given them a just cause to separate themselves from them , supposing that they had had right at the foundation . BEfore we leave this matter of our Separation from the Church of Rome , there yet remains two Questions for us to examine ; the one , Whether our Fathers were not too precipitate in so great an affair , whether they did not act with too much haste , or Whether they had sufficient motives from the conduct of those from whom they separated , to forsake in the end their communion : The other , Whether with all that , they can say , that they separated themselves from the communion of the Catholick Church spread over the whole World , as the Donatists did heretofore , and whether they did not fall into the same crime with those ancient Schismaticks , against whom Optatus and S. Augustine so strongly disputed . I will treat of this second Question in the following Chapter , and this here shall be design'd to the clearing of the former . To effect this , methinks , we need but freely to set before their eyes all that I have said in the second Part , touching the necessity that lay upon our Fathers to reform themselves . For since it clearly results from those matters of fact which I have set down , that the Popes and those of their party were so far from applying themselves seriously to a Reformation , that they studied on the contrary , only how to stifle the truth from the very first moment they beheld it appear , and to defend their Errors and Superstitions by all manner of wayes , who sees not that that inflexible resolution which had not yielded either to the first or second admonition , rendred from that time the separation of our Fathers just , and exempted them from all reproach ? For when there are Errors capable of giving ground for a separation , it ought to be defer'd only upon a hope of amendment , and that hope seem'd to be sufficiently destroy'd , by those Historical actions which I have already set down . Notwithstanding , to shew them more and more , how the conduct of our Fathers was very prudent in that respect , and full of circumspection , it will not be besides our purpose , to resume here the close of their story , from the unjust condemnation of Luther and his Doctrine made by Pope Leo the Tenth , down to the Council of Trent , after which we may say , that their separation was full and entire . Luther therefore having been excommunicated by the Popes Bull , with all those who should follow his Doctrine , after the manner that we have seen , he appealed to a free Council , and proposed the Causes of his appeal in a publick Declaration that he caused afterwards to be Printed , wherein with great humility he demanded of the Emperour , the Electors , the Princes of the Empire , and in general of all the Powers of Germany , that they would joyn themselves with him in his appeal ; or at least , that they would defer the Execution of the Bull , until having been lawfully called , and heard by equitable Judges , he should be condemned . He protested , that in case his so just a demand should be refused , and that they should continue to obey the Pope rather than God , the consciences of his persecutors would remain chargeable before God's Tribunal . But those who had already condemn'd him for a like appeal to a Council , did not leave off their prosecuting him for all that . The Pope did not fail to cause his Bull to be publish'd with great Solemnity , he added even in that which they call Coena Domini , which is published every year , a new clause bearing excommunication against Luther , and those of his Sect. And because in his first condemnation , he had given him threescore dayes time to recant , that term being expired , he pronounced a new and peremptory Excommunication against him , by which he cursed him and his followers eternally , and declared them guilty of Treason and Heresie ; he spoil'd them of all their Honours and Goods , and injoyn'd all Arch-Bishops , Bishops , Prelates , Preachers , &c. to preach , or to stir up others to preach against them in all places . Notwithstanding , he earnestly solicited as well by his Letters as his Nuntio's , the Emperour Charles the Fifth and all the Princes of Germany , to employ all their Power and Authority against Luther and his followers . Those solicitations produced them the Citation of Luther to the Assembly of Wormes , of which I have spoke in the second Part and in the end , the Imperial Edict , called the Edict of Wormes , which banish'd him from all the Lands of the Empire as a mad-man , possess'd with the Devil , a Devil clothed in humane shape , an Heretick , a Schismatick : This Edict forbad him Fire and Water , and the commerce of all the World ; and ordain'd that after the term of twenty dayes , he should be taken and put into a strong Prison in order to be severely punished . But besides all this , it carried this further in it , that it extended to all his favourers , followers and complices , and that his Books should be publickly burn'd . Luther giving way to this furious storm , withdrew himself for some time into a safe place , under the protection of John Frederick Elector of Saxony ; and Leo after having excited all that Tragedy , dyed in the flower of his age , the first day of December in the year 1521. But the hatred of the Reformation did not dye with him , he had for his Successor as well in that hatred , as in his See , Adrian the Sixth , who was chosen the eighth of January 1522. After this new Pope had taken possession of his Papacy , he sent a Nuntio into Germany , and though as we have seen , in his instructions , he charged him in an express Article , seriously to acknowledge , before the Assembly of Nuremberg the disorders both in the Court of Rome and in the whole Body of the Prelates , and the rest of the Clergy ; he did not fail nevertheless to charge him also at the same time , to denounce terrible threatnings against Luther's followers : for so it was , that he called those who then embraced the Reformation . He wrote with the same Spirit , publick and private Letters to the Princes and other States of the Empire who were assembled together ; and he omitted nothing to stir them up to make use of Fire and Sword and the uttermost violence on that occasion . We may see those Letters in Bzovius and Raynaldus , and find in them all the characters of an extream passion . He uses there divers reasons to animate them , taken from their honour and their own interests . He sets before their eyes the example of the Council of Constance , wherein John Husse and Hierom of Prague were burn'd , that of S. Peter in inflicting death on Ananias and Sapphira , and that of God himself , who made the Earth swallow up Dathan and Abiram . He complains of them , and sharply censures them , in that they had not severely put the Edict of Wormes in Execution ; and to stir them up the more , he assures them , that the design of the Lutherans was to overthrow every Humane Order , to dethrone all the Princes , and to pillage all Germany , under a pretence of the Gospel . He repeated the same things in his instructions to his Nuntio ; and after having enjoyn'd him to represent to the Princes all that might move him to extirpate those pretended Hereticks , so far as to tell them , that they ought to imitate the generosity of their Ancestors , some of which had carried with their own hands John Husse to the Stake : he concludes with the words of Jeremiah when he prophesied the ruine of the Moabitish Infidels , and which this Pope applied against those Christians , Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently , and who keepeth back his sword from blood . He wrote also to John Frederick Elector of Saxony , Letters full of heat , wherein after having made a bloody invective against Luther and his Doctrine , and having exhorted that Prince to abandon him , he fiercely threatens him , that if he do not do it , he should feel the effects of his anger and that of the Emperours . I declare to thee , sayes he , in the authority of God Almighty , and our Lord Jesus Christ , whose Vicar I am upon Earth , that thou shalt not go away unpunished in this present world , and that everlasting fire shall attend thee in the world to come . For we live at the same time together , both I Adrian Pope , and the Emperour Charles , whose truly Christian Edict thou hast contemned , which he made against the Lutheran Perfidiousness . These Letters wrought but a small effect in the mind of Frederick , who was a pious Prince , and one that loved the Truth ; but they did not also work much upon those of the rest of the Princes assembled at Nurenberg ; and the answer which they made , deserves to be set down . It contained well near these Articles , That they could not execute the Sentence of the Apostolick See against Luther , nor the Edict of Wormes , without incurring themselves very great dangers . That the far greater part of the people had been for a long time perswaded , that Germany suffer'd a great many troubles on the side of the Court of Rome , by reason of its abuses , and that all the world was then fully instructed in it , by the Writings and Tenets of the Lutherans . That if they had rigorously executed the Popes Sentence and the Imperial Edict , the people would have believed , that it had been only made to overthrow the Truth of the Gospel , and to maintain and defend their evils , abuses and impieties . That it was very well done of Adrian , to acknowledge the disorders of the Court of Rome , and that they earnestly intreated him , for the glory of God , for the salvation of souls , and for the peace and tranquillity of the publick , seriously to put his hand to reform them . That they intreated him also to allow that the first fruits of Benefices which they had given to the Popes for them to employ against the Turks , and which his Predecessors had turned aside to other uses , should for the time to come be remitted into the publick Treasure of the Empire , to be made use of according to their natural appointment . And as for the remedies which he required of them to put a stop to the course of the Lutheran error , that they saw none more proper , than spedily to call a free and Christian Council in some Town of Germany , wherein it might be allowed to every one , as well of the Clergy as of the Laity , to speak freely , notwithstanding all Oaths and contrary Obligations , and to take counsel together for that which they should judge to be good for the glory of God , for the salvation of Souls , and the advantage of the Christian Commonwealth . That notwithstanding , they would hinder Luther and his followers from writing any more , and they would give order that the Preachers should teach nothing but the true , pure and sincere Gospel , according to the Doctrine and explication , received and approved in the Christian Church . This Answer extreamly displeased the Popes Nuntio , he would not that they should speak of a free Council ; for it seemed to him , he said , That by that proposition they would give Laws to the Pope . He approved yet less , that they should touch upon the troubles of Germany , and the abuses of the Court of Rome ; he required nothing but fire and sword against the Lutherans . Therefore he gave them his reply in writing , in which he insisted , that the Sentence of Pope Leo and the Imperial Edict of Wormes , which Ordained , that they should overthrow all the followers of Luther , should be executed according to their form and tenour , without any diminution . And as to the demand of a Council , he said , that they should have made it in terms more respectful , which should have given no grounds of jealousie to the Pope , and that by those clauses , that the Council should be free , and that men should be absolv'd from their Oaths , they seem'd to go about to bind the hands of his Holiness . The Princes would notwithstanding have nothing chang'd in their deliberation , which they caused to be drawn up in the form of an Imperial Edict , and sent their Grievances to the Pope , to the number of a hundred Articles , which they called Centum gravamina . Raynaldus reckons up only seventy seven upon the testimony of Dolgastus . However it were , those Griefs explained one part of the disorders that reigned then in the Government of the Church , and under which , not only Germany , but all the rest of the West groaned . Thus it came to pass , that the endeavours of the Court of Rome and its Partizans to raise a persecution against those who demanded a Reformation were to no purpose for that time But what they could not obtain at Nuremberg , they obtained elsewhere ; for in that same year , they caused two Augustin Monks accused of Lutheranism to be burn'd alive , who suffer'd that punishment with an admirable constancy ; and at Anvers they made a Covent of the Augustine Friars be pull'd down to the ground , the Prior of which , named Henry Suphanus had before suffer'd death in the preceding year for the same cause . Adrian enjoyed the Papacy but one year and eight months or thereabouts ; for he was raised to it , as I have said , the eighth of January 1522. and he dyed the thirteenth of September 1523. his Successor was Clement the Seventh : This man marching after the steps of his Predecessors , was not well setled in the Pontifical Chair , before he turned all his thoughts against those whom they called Lutherans ; and to that effect , having been advertis'd , that the Princes of Germany had bound themselves to meet again at Nuremberg , he sent thither Cardinal Campeius in the quality of his Legate . Notwithstanding he wrote to the Emperour , who was then in Spain , earnestly soliciting him to employ his Authority , to make the Edict of Wormes to be put in Execution in his Empire , and to dispose the Princes to it . His Legate being arrived at Nuremberg , vehemently insisted upon the Extirpation of the Lutherans ; and he made for that purpose , divers Orations in the Assembly . But the Princes would not follow his violent courses ; they on the contrary , obstinately demanded a free Council in Germany , and ordained , that each Prince and each State should , while they waited for that Council , call together within their Jurisdictions , their Learned , Wise and Pious men , to examine the new Tenets of the Lutherans , and to separate the good from the bad in them ; and to examine also the complaints of their Nation against the Court of Rome and its Clergy . They added nevertheless , that each one on his part , should do what he could to make the Edict of Wormes to be executed ; and that in fine , that to conclude something firm , the States of the Empire should meet together within a certain time at Spire . This Declaration which was afterwards drawn up and publish'd in the form of an Imperial Edict , extreamly provok'd the Pope and all his creatures . They complain'd of this , that in expectation of a Council , they would submit the matters of Religion to the judgement of a few Wise , Learned and Pious persons , saying , that it was the means to spread abroad every where the poyson of Heresie ; for thus Raynaldus relates it . They could not endure the proposition of a free Council ; but above all things , they loudly cry'd out of this , that under that pretence , they would defer the execution of the Popes Sentence and the Edict of Wormes against the Lutherans , whose blood and destruction they only demanded . Clement made great complaints to the Emperour , by the Letters which he sent him into Spain , wherein to animate him the more , he perswaded him , that that was a manifest breach of his Authority , and a formed design to withdraw themselves intirely from his obedience ; and as these solicitations were extreamly vehement and urgent ; they forced the Emperour to write into Germany to the Princes , and to all the States of the Empire , that it was his intention that they should punctually execute his Edict of Wormes , that they should make that of Nuremberg void , and forbad them to hold the Diet of Spire . But before his Letters came to Germany , the Legat Campeius had drawn off one part of the Roman Catholick Princes , for the most part Ecclesiasticks , and having made them to meet at Ratisbon , under a pretence of a shadow of Reformation that he had propounded , which consisted only in most trivial matters , he caused them to make a League among them for the defence of the Roman Religion , and the destruction of the Lutherans . Soon after , they saw the effects of this League appear ; for Ferdinand and the Legat being gone into Austria , they condemned to death some persons upon the account of Religion . Clement elsewhere took the same cares for all places , which they took in Germany , to hinder the progress of the Reformation . He wrote upon that subject into Switzerland , into Bohemia , France , Poland , Swedeland , Denmark ; and he stirr'd up every where the Princes , Magistrates and Prelates , to overthrow the Reformed . Wherefore they beheld soon after under his Pontificate , the Inquisitions taken up in that pursuit , the Prisons filled with Prisoners , and the Scaffolds and the Stakes filled almost generally in all places that owned his Authority . It was at this time that Antonius Pratensis Cardinal and Arch-Bishop of Sens , held a Provincial Synod at Paris , the ninety second Article of which was framed in these terms : We intreat the Most Christian King our Prince and Soveraign Lord , by the bowels of the mercies of God , that according to his singular zeal and incredible devotion for the Christian Religion , that he would suddenly banish from the Lands of his Jurisdiction all Hereticks , and that he would extirpate that deadly and horrible plague , which increases every day more and more . The ninety third was framed after this manner ; Therefore it is , that the Orthodox Princes , if they would have any care for the Christian Name , and would hinder the ruine of Religion , ought necessarily to use all their endeavours to extirpate and destroy Hereticks . That Arch-Bishop was very much interessed in the preservation of the ancient abuses : for we find in the Dialogue of the Two Parishioners of S. Hilary Montanus , that he was Cardinal , Arch-Bishop of Sens , Bishop of Alby , Bishop of Valence , Bishop of Gap , and Abbot of Fleury . We ought not to be astonished if he declaimed so much against the Reformation : He was in effect one of those who opposed themselves to it in France , with the greatest heat ; and if any would know his character , they need but look to that which the Authors of that same Dialogue say of him . This Du Prat , was he not as great a Prelate , as a S. Hilary of Poictiers , a S. Martin of Tours , a S. German of Auxerre , and as a S. Lupus of Troye ? He had alone full as many Bishopricks as all those admirable Saints had together , and moreover the Abby in which is the Body of S. Benorist ; but he has not done so many Miracles as all those Saints ; and he never resided in any of those Diocesses , nor ever performed any other office of a Bishop , than that only Ordinance against Martin Luther , Philip Melancthon , Oecolampadins , Zuinghus ; for as yet Calvin and Beza were not talked of . It is this good Prelate to whom they attribute the taking away of the Pragmatick Sanction , that is to say , the pure observation of the Ancient Canons of the Church of France , and the having made the agreement between King Francis the First and Leo the Tenth , which has destroyed all the Apostolical Discipline in France , and abolished the Canonical Elections , and subjected France to a deplorable servitude . The same Spirit that the Cardinal Du Prat had brought into France , reigned then in England , Scotland , Flanders , Austria , Poland , and universally in all places where the Power of the Pope extended it self ; for there was nothing talked of there , but the extream punishments , which they inflicted on those pretended Hereticks ; and their very Judges who touch'd with some compassion , did not readily do their duty , according to the humour of the Court of Rome , did not remain unpunished . For it was for this reason , that Pope Clement charged Cardinal Campeius his Legate , to remove those Inquisitors , who were in the Low-Countreys , and to put others in their places , who should better acquit themselves of so detestable a service as Raynaldus relates . But while they acted after this manner , the Light of the Reformation did yet spread it self abroad in divers places through an admirable blessing of God , who has alwayes made the ashes of his Martyrs , the seed of his Church . For not only Saxony had receiv'd it , but also a great part of Germany , a great part of Switzerland , Swedeland , Denmark , Prussia and Livonia also . In the month of April in the year 1529. an Assembly of the Princes and other States of Germany was held at Spire , whither Clement did not fail to send a Nuntio : The first thing they did there , was to reject the Assembly at the City of Strasburgh , under a pretence , that it had abolish'd the use of the Mass , without waiting for the Imperial Diet. This violent procedure was quickly after followed by a Decree , that Ferdinand Arch-Duke of Austria and some other Princes who took part with the Court of Rome made , and whom the Emperour had expresly chosen for his Deputy Commissioners . They ordain'd therefore in the first place , that those who till then had observ'd the Edict of Wormes , that is to say , who not only had not receiv'd the Reformation , but who had persecuted it with all their might , should for the future do the like , and force their Subjects to do the same ; and that as for those in whose Countreys that new Doctrine had been spread abroad , provided they could not extirpate it , without putting themselves into a manifest danger of stirring up troubles , it should be their part at least , to hinder any thing more from being innovated , till the calling of a Council . Secondly , They ordained , That above all things , the Doctrine which opposed the substantial presence of the body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist , should neither be received , nor propounded by any in all the compass of Germany , and that the Mass should not be abrogated . In the third place , they decreed , That they should not allow Preachers in any place to explain the Gospel , otherwise than by the interpretations of the Fathers . In fine , they ordained grievous penalties against the Printers and Booksellers who should Print or Vend for the future the Books that contained that new Doctrine . The other Princes and States of the Empire , beholding this manifest oppression , thought themselves bound to make an Act of Protestation to the contrary . They remonstrated therefore , That that new Decree contradicted that that had been passed in the preceding Assembly , where every one was to be free in respect of his Religion : That they did not pretend to hinder the other Princes and States from enjoying that liberty ; but that on the contrary , they pray'd God , that he would give them the knowledge of his Truth : That they could not with a good conscience approve of the reason for which they would allow them to retain the Evangelical Doctrine , to wit , lest they should fall into new troubles , for that would be to confess , that it would be good to renounce that Doctrine , if it could be done without Tumult , which would be a criminal and wicked confession , and a tacit denyal of the Word of God. That as to the Mass , those who had abolish'd it , and who had re-established in its place the lawful use of the Supper of our Lord , were led by the institution of our Lord Jesus Christ : That as for the Doctrine that opposed the real presence , they did not believe , that they ought lightly to condemn those who held it without hearing them ; and that that proceeding was against natural equity , especially in a matter of so great consequence . In fine , that they could not consent to that Decree , offering the reason of their carriage to the Emperour and all the world : That they did appeal to a free Council , and that in waiting for it , they would do nothing for which they should justly deserve any blame . The Princes who made this Act of Protestation , were John Elector of Saxony , George Marquess of Brandenburgh , Ernest and Francis Dukes of Lunenburg , Philip Lantgrave of Hesse , Wolfangus Prince of Anhalt , to whom the Cities of Strasburg , Nuremburg , Vlm , Constance , Rutelin , Vinsseme , Meminghen , Lindau , Campdun , Hailbrun , Issne , Wisleburg , Nodingue and St. Gall joyned themselves with a common consent . This Act of Protestation was made at Spire the nineteenth of April 1529. and from thence came the name of Protestants , which has been since given to all those who have embraced the Reformation . Those Princes and those Cities sent in the end their Embassadours to the Emperour , to give him an account of what they had done ; but after divers delayes , the answer was , that he would that they should obey the Decree of Spire , or else that they should undergo the utmost punishments , that their Emperour and the other Princes had not less care of the salvation of their souls , and peace of their consciences than they ; and that as for his own part , he desir'd a Council ▪ although it did not appear to him to be extreamly-necessary . This answer-oblig'd the Protestants to meet at Smalcalde , and some time after at Nuremberg , to provide for their own affairs ; but they took no other resolutions , than very general ones . About the end of that same year 1529. the Emperour came into Italy , to be crowned there by the hands of the Pope , which was done at Bologne , with a great deal of Magnificence and Ceremony . They had there divers Conferences together upon the matter of Religion . The sentiment of the Emperour was , that he ought to call a Council ; that of the Pope was on the contrary , that he ought not to call one ; but that the adversaries ought to be oppressed by force of Arms. He offered for that purpose , to furnish the Emperour with money , and strongly to solicite all Christian Princes to this War. Andreo Mauroceno the Venetian Historian relates , that he explain'd himself particularly not only to the Emperour , but even to the Venetian Embassadour . The Senate answered after a manner very opposite to the desires of that Pope ; and disswaded him from that War , by divers reasons : but all those reasons did not change the Popes mind , he had too much horror for that free Council that Germany required , and therefore it was , that he perswaded the Emperour , that it would be much better for him to make use of his Authority in that occasion , and that if his Authority would not be sufficient , he must proceed to open force . The Emperour therefore after this conven'd the Imperial Assembly at Ausburg , for the month of April in the year 1530. whither he went himself in person . The Pope also sent thither on his part his Legat Cardinal Campeius with Vincentius Pimpinella , and Paul Vergerius his Nuntio's . There , the Protestants presented their Confession of Faith to the Emperour , which was afterwards called The Confession of Ausburg , in which they set down in the first place , the chief heads of the Christian Doctrine which they believed ; and afterwards went on to the points of the Roman belief which they rejected . They oppos'd , through the advice of the Legat , to that Confession , a Refutation composed by Eccius and John Faber , who notwithstanding would not hold any discourse by writing with the Protestants , whatsoever intreaties they should make , to have liberty to defend themselves publickly , and to justifie their Doctrine . They made it to be only read in their presence ; but they refused to give them a copy of it , unless upon condition that it should be kept secret in their hands , which would render it wholly unuseful to them , and which was a very unjust condition , in treating of a business of that nature , in which all the world had an interest . The Author of the History of the Council of Trent relates , that Cardinal Matthew Lang , Arch-Bishop of Saltsburg , who was in that Assembly ▪ said publickly upon the occasion of that Confession ▪ That indeed , the Reformation of the Mass was reasonable , the liberty of meats fit to be granted , and that the demand to be discharged from so many commandments of men , was most just ; but that it was a thing not to be endured , that one paultry Monk should go about to reform all the world . He adds , that one of the Emperour's Secretaries said also , That if the Protestant Preachers had good store of money , they had easily purchased of the Italians the Religion that agreed most with them ; but that without Gold , they could never hope , that their Religion should ever shine forth in the world . There were many open Conferences between the two Parties , and they came so far , as to agree upon some matters of less importance , but they could not agree upon any of the principal ones ; and the Protestants saw soon after , to what those Conferences tended : to wit , to give ground to some secret practices , by which the Emperour and the Legate laboured to gain the Princes each one in particular , sometimes by promises , and sometimes by threatings , by which nevertheless they could not be turned . In fine , after many negotiations to no purpose , the Protestants seeing that there was no hope of obtaining peace , but upon conditions very destructive to the Reformation which they had embraced , were forced to withdraw themselves , after having declared , That they persisted in their appeal to a free and Christian Council . And the Emperour who had made all those steps , only to have a pretence of gratifying the Pope , by his carrying of things to extremities , made in the end his Decree , with the other Princes and States that remained , by which he established the Roman Religion in all the extent of his Empire , in respect of the controverted Articles , under pain of the Imperial Ban to all opposers , and to be pursued by Arms as Rebells and Criminals , promising notwithstanding , to solicite the Pope to the calling of a Council precisely within the space of a year . The rigour of this Decree , oblig'd the Princes and the other Protestant States to assemble yet again at Smalcalde , and to make there a kind of League among themselves for their common defence ; and yet notwithstanding they wrote to the Emperour with great submission , praying him to mitigate his Decree , and not to expose them as he had done , to the violence of their Enemies : They wrote also to the other Christian Princes , as well to inform them of what had pass'd at Ausburg , as to justifie themselves against the many false accusations wherewith they were charg'd , and to have them demand a General and free Council that should be held in Germany for the Reformation of the Church . The Execution of this Decree of Ausburg , fill'd for some time Germany with a thousand Persecutions against the Protestants , by the Authority of the Imperial Chamber . Behold here , what the Emperour did to satisfie the desires of the Court of Rome : it seems that he could have done nothing more vehemently ; and yet notwithstanding the Pope was not throughly contented . He very much rejoyced to see the Protestants subjected to the most rigorous punishments . But that Authority that Charles had taken upon him to appoint those Conferences , to labour to bring those differences to an agreement , the consent that he had given to the abolition of some Ceremonies , and above all , the promise of a Council within the prefixed term of a year , were things that he could not digest ; judging them to be too contrary to the Soveraignty of his See. And because the Emperour had press'd him about this last Article of a Council , and even his Legate wrote to him , that it was the general desire of all Germany , he returned this Answer : That having consulted the Cardinals about it , divers of them had not found , that a Council was a very fit means for the rooting out of the present Heresies , because that those things that had been decided by former Councils , or already established by the practice of many Ages , ought not to be again called in question . That this was a very bad precedent , and could not be done without very great scandal and a manifest violation of the Apostolick See. That nevertheless , if the Emperour judged a Council to be absolutely necessary , he might promise the Lutherans one , but with this condition , that they should presently depart from all their Errors , and be obedient to their Holy Mother Church ; that they should hold her Doctrines and her Rites , until it should be otherwise ordain'd by the Council , to the Decrees of which , they should wholly submit themselves . That besides that , the calling of a Council would be very scandalous , and of exceeding bad example to all posterity . That as to the place where it should be held , he judg'd it absolutely necessary , that it should be in Italy , and that he did not see any City more fit for it , than Rome it self , which was the Seat of the Christian Faith ; that if , notwithstanding Rome did not please him , he might chuse one either in Bolognia , or Placentia , or Mantua . The Pope went even so far , as to write to the Christian Princes a Circulary Letter , by which he advised them in the general , of that which had pass'd at Ausburg , and that for the intire rooting out of Heresie , he was resolved to call a Council . Notwithstanding , all these Declarations consisted only in words ; for at the bottom his mind was wholly remote from the holding of a Council ; in which , as Guicciardine sayes , he apprehended , that they might contest his Papacy with him , which he had purchased by canvasings and money , and that they would take cognizance of the affairs of the Florentines , whom he had subdu'd and subjected to the Family of the Medici by force of Arms ; or as the Author of the History of the Council of Trent sayes , he feared lest they should beat down that excessive Authority which the See of Rome had usurped over all other Bishops , and over all Churches . However it were , he would not have one ; but he would that they should make use of Fire and Sword. And it was for this , that he wrote about that same time to Ferdinand the Emperour's Brother , exhorting him to go himself in person to Bohemia , to root out Heresie there . He solicited also the Emperour and the Christian Kings to joyn their Arms with those of the Duke of Savoy , against the Switz Cantons who had embraced the Reformation ; and his Intrigues , or those of his creatures , were so powerful , that they enflamed a bloody War between the Reformed Cantons and the others , wherein the Reformed were beaten many times , which afforded great matter of joy to the Court of Rome . In the year 1532. the Emperour having called the Imperial Diet to Ratisbon , for the affairs of Hungary and Germany , threatned by the Arms of the Turks , the Princes and the other States assembled , seeing clearly already , that the Pope and his Court sought only to elude the Council , by divers pretences , solicited the Emperour , that he would be pleased to call one himself by his Authority ; and they represented to him , that it was his right in the quality of Roman Emperour ; that other Emperours had so used it , and that he was the Head and Protector of all Christianity , especially in case of the negligence and refusal of the Pope . The Emperour would not hearken to this Proposition , and yet nevertheless , being urged by the necessity of his affairs , and having a War to maintain with the Turk , he granted a Peace to the Protestants , who were already seven Princes , and four and twenty Imperial Cities . This Peace was made at the Mediation of Albert Cardinal and Arch-Bishop of Mayence , and Lewis Prince Palatine of the Rhine ; and the Emperour made his Decree publick , bearing in it express prohibitions to trouble or disquiet any person for matters of Religion only , till the holding of a General , Free and Christian Council , which he endeavoured to have called within the term of a year ; or in case that a Council could not be held , till a General Assembly of the States of the Empire , wherein they might provide for the affairs of Religion . This Decree displeas'd the Pope and all his Court extreamly , who would neither have a Peace , nor a Council , nor any Assembly of the States to treat of Religion , as it evidently appeared afterwards . For after that the Emperour had set the affairs of Hungary and Austria in order , and had been freed from the force of Solyman , he went into Italy ; and having urged the Pope many times upon that subject , the Pope alwayes eluded the Proposition , as well by the conditions which he required that the Protestants should submit themselves to , well knowing that they would not agree to them , as by the default of the consent of the Kings of France and England , without whom , he said , it was to be feared , that the calling of a Council would create a new Schism in the Church . Thus the Papacy of Clement pass'd away , who dyed the twenty fifth of September 1534. His Successor who was Paul III. followed the same path of Clement in regard of the Protestants . The first step that he made was to let his Nuntio Paulus Vergerius delcare , that he was resolved to call a Council ; but at the same time , he made these three things to be added , that he intended , it should be held at Mantua and not in Germany , that he did not pretend to have any of his rights released , and that he would not endure , that a National Council should be held in Germany ; upon which , he demanded the answer of the Protestants . A little after the Protestants answered to this substance , That having already appealed to a Council , they ardently wished for it ; but that as they had often declared , they demanded a free Council , that should provide against the disorders of the Church , and make a good Reformation according to the Word of God , and in the terms of Christian Equity , and it was a Council so qualified which they had appealed to . That the dispute being about matters wherein the See of Rome was visibly interested , and about others which the Pope defended , not in word only , but by those bloody Edicts and extream Cruelties which they exercised against those who did not agree with them , there was no colour of reason that the judgement ought to be in their hands , nor that the Council could be free , if the choice of the place and the persons who should compose it , and the form of procedure which they held , should depend upon their choice . That the Pope having already condemned them and their Doctrine , it was against all manner of reason , for him to pretend to be the Master of an Assembly who should judge both them and the See of Rome . In fine , that the business being a common cause , it was the right of the Emperour and the Princes in so important an affair , to make choice of the most fit persons , and those who were most capable of giving glory to God , and doing good to the Christian Common-wealth : and that as for themselves , as they could not abandon the interests of the Truth , they should do also all that should lye in their power for the re-establishing of peace and union . We may guess that this answer was not very agreeable to the Court of Rome , and yet notwithstanding the Pope did not fail to speak alwayes of a Council , and to exhort his Cardinals to begin the Reformation by themselves . He made divers Orations to them for that purpose ; and he went so far , as to give charge to some of them , to examine that which was most necessary to be reform'd in their Court , which had already alarm'd them all . But at the same time , he assur'd them by one of his actions by which they might very well judge of the little sincerity of his words , for he created two young men , his Base Sons , Cardinals , the one of fourteen years of age , and the other of sixteen : and when they represented to him their small age , he answered merrily , That he would supply that defect , by the number of his own , having years enough to spare them , if it was necessary . The Pope's Nuntio having received the Answer of the Protestants , departed from Germany , and returned to Rome ; where , after having made his relation , he concluded , that nothing more was to be thought on , than to oppress the Protestants by force of Arms. This Nuntio , who was Vergerius , had had divers private Conferences with them , and even with Luther himself , whom he had laboured to gain by threats and promises , but he could not obtain his design . This forced the Pope powerfully to solicite the Emperour , who at that time came to Rome , openly to declare War against the Protestants , and he had in this , two great interests , the one to busie the Emperour , whose power he feared in Italy ; and the other , to confound the Protestants with his greatest force , without the confusion of holding a Council . The Emperour consented to the desires of the Pope , and he was resolved only to give a greater colour to the War , that a Council should be first called , to let them see , that he had tryed fair means , before he came to violence : but that he should call it under such conditions , as that the Authority of the See of Rome should incurr any danger . A Bull therefore was drawn up dated June 12. 1536. the Convocation of it was at Mantua on the three and twentieth of May of the year following ; and the Emperour having solicited the Protestants to go thither , they made well near the same answers that they had already done : They remonstrated therefore in the first place , That the calling of a Council could not of right belong to the Pope alone , as well by reason that the disorders and corruptions of which they complain'd and desir'd a reformation , came for the most part from the See of Rome and its creatures , which for some Ages since had infected Religion with divers errors and superstitions , and which moreover had been wholly overthrown in the Government of the Church ; as because also , that that See was already the openly declared Enemy to the Reformation , and those who demanded it , having condemn'd them for Hereticks , and persecuted them in all places by Fire and Sword. So that being to give an account of all that to a Council , it was against all reason , to leave the calling of a Council to the Pope alone , which of right ought to belong to the Emperour and the Princes . Secondly , They noted , That the Pope by his Bull pretended to frame the Council out of his creatures , who were bound to him by an Oath , and to remain also himself the Judge and Master of all the difference , which was a manifest fallacy and injustice , the firmer to establish his Authority under the pretence of a Council , and those abuses , the defence of which he had undertaken . In the third place , they took notice , That the Pope in his Bull had said nothing of the manner of proceeding which they ought to use in the Council , from whence they concluded , that his intent was , to make those things which they should treat of there , to depend upon the determinations of his See , humane Traditions , and the Decrees of some later Councils , and not upon the Word of God alone . That by this means , that would be no more a free and Christian Council , but a Roman Conventicle ; which instead of tending to a holy Reformation , could on the contrary tend to nothing but the confirmation of those evils which had for so long a time infested the Church . As to the place where this pretended Council was called , they represented , That it was not just that it should be in Italy , where they could have no security for themselves , nor any liberty of opinion in a good conscience , and that the Imperial Assemblies who had demanded it , had alwayes demanded that it should be in Germany : That they therefore besought the Emperour , that he would be pleased to consider their reasons , and to endeavour that the Council should be lawful , to the end they might happily unite to the glory of God and the peace of Christendom , not forgetting what had hapned at the Council of Constance to the Emperour Sigismund , who saw his Authority trampled under their feet , and his Letters of Safe-conduct violated , in the person of John Husse and Jerom of Prague . They caused in the end a Writing to be Printed , containing all these reasons , and divers others too long to transcribe , to justifie themselves against the calumnies of their adversaries ; and they published it , not only in Germany , but in other foreign Countries also . Some time after , the Pope published another Bull , by which he prolonged the holding of the Council , under a pretence , that he could not agree with the Duke of Mantua , and a little after he assign'd it at Vicenza . Notwithstanding the prosecutions continued alwayes against the Protestants every where , where the Pope had any Authority . In Germany the Imperial Chamber committed a thousand injustices and outrages against them . In France , the flames were kindled in all the Provinces ; and although Henry the Eighth King of England had thrown off the Yoke of Rome , yet he did not fail ( to appear a good Catholick ) to put to death without mercy all those who had learned the New Religion . The same was done in Scotland , in Flanders , and in all the Countreys of the Duke of Savoy . In the year 1539. the Pope published a Bull , by which he suspended the Convocation of a Council indefinitely , until it should be his good pleasure to have one held . And moreover , there was held in this same year an Imperial Diet at Franckfort , whither the Emperour sent the Arch-Bishop of London as his Commissioner , and decreed with him , that to labour to put an end to the differences about Religion , he should make a friendly Conference between the most Learned and well meaning persons both on the one side and on the other , who without the intervention of the Pope , should have nothing before their eyes but the glory of God , and the good of the Church ; and that notwithstanding they should let the Protestants have peace for fifteen months , under conditions that were yet harsh enough to them . But this Resolution so highly offended the Pope , that as soon as he had received the news of it , he dispatch'd away a Nuntio to the Emperour , who was then in Spain , with orders to complain , and to hinder by all sorts of wayes , that he should not authorize it by his consent . The Protestants having sent thither on their parts , the Emperour would not for that time declare himself ; but dismiss'd that business to another season . After which , he went into the Low-Countreys to appease some popular Sedition there ; and having there put the matter into debate , because he was to give some answer , Cardinal Farnese who was Legate there before him , opposed him with all his might , remonstrating the inconveniencies that might arise from such a Conference , and that he had far better referr the cause of Religion to a Council , and notwithstanding , to sortifie the Catholick League , to make the Protestants submit by fair means or foul ; against whom he made a very long Invective . This counsel notwithstanding did not then please the Emperour , he appointed a Diet to be held in Germany for the Conference ; and he invited all the Princes to come in person thither , promising publick safety to all ; which oblig'd the Cardinal Legate to retire in great discontent . This Cardinal in his return , went into France , and obtain'd of Francis the First an Edict against those whom he call'd Hereticks and Lutherans , which was afterwards publish'd and executed through his whole Kingdom with extream rigour . The Conference was first assigned at Haguenaw , a little after at Wormes ; and the Pope who feared the success , thought good to send thither his Nuntio , Thomas Campeius with Paulus Vergerius , in whom he reposed a great deal of confidence . But the Policy of the Court of Rome was too averse to an accommodation , to suffer that Conference to proceed far : the Emperour therefore , at the urgent solicitation of the Pope , broke it off by express Letters , and referred it to a Diet , which he would have held some time after at Ratisbon . The Protestants saw clearly to what all these delayes tended , and yet nevertheless they did not fail to appear at Ratisbon , whither the Emperour came in person , and whither the Pope had also sent Cardinal Contarenus in the quality of his Legate . This was in the year 1541. Moreover , the Emperour caused a Book to be presented on his part to the Assembly , which chiefly treated of the Articles of Religion , and particularly of those which were in controversie ; and he declar'd , that it was his Will , that that Book should be examined , and that it should serve as the Theme or Subject of the Conference ; for which he himself named the Collocutors , by the consent of both parties , who deferr'd that nomination to him . In this Conference the Collocutors agreed upon some Articles , and could not agree upon some others ; as upon those of Transubstantiation , of the Adoration of the Eucharist , the Sacrifice of the Mass , the Celibacy of Priests , the Communion under one kind , the Sacrament of Penance . And the Emperour having consulted the Legate about this , to know of him what he should do on this occasion , the Legate gave him his answer in writing , That after having seen as well the Articles agreed upon between the Collocutors , as the others which they could not come to agree about , it was his judgement , that he ought to ordain nothing about the rest , but that he ought to refer all to the Holy See , which could in a General Council , or otherwise do that which it should judge necessary for the good of the Church , and in particular for that of Germany . The Emperour took this answer , as if the Legate had consented , that the Articles agreed upon between the Collocutors , should immediately be received by both the Parties ; and he related it to the Assembly after that manner . But there sprung up a kind of division between the Bishops of one side , and the Roman Catholick Princes on the other . For the Princes would that the Articles agreed upon , should be received , and that the rest should be referred either to a General or National Council , or at least , to a General Assembly of the States of the Empire ; and the Bishops on the contrary , who saw that this was the beginning of a Reformation , were of opinion , that they should reject those Articles agreed upon , wherein they said that the Catholick Collocutors had too much given way to the Protestants , and that they should change nothing either in Religion , or its Ceremonies , but that they should refer all to a General or a National Council . This dispute therefore having so hapned , the Legate feared , lest they should upon this meddle with the affairs of the Court of Rome , so that he openly declared , by another publick Writing , that he did not mean , that they should receive any Articles , but that they should absolutely refer all , as well the agreed on as the others , to his Holiness , for him to determine what he should think fit . He published yet farther another Writing , by which he very much condemned as well the Catholick Princes as the Bishops , for that they had referr'd that business to a National Council , in defect of a General one : and he maintained that the Authority of the See of Rome was very much wounded in that reference , and that a National Council could not deliberate about matters of Religion . In fine , after a great many disputes , which only serv'd more and more to discover the obstinate resolution that the Roman party had taken up not to suffer a Reformation : this Diet ended with a Decree of the Emperour , which referr'd the whole affair to a General Council , or a National one in Germany , or to an Imperial Assembly , if they could not obtain a Council , and that nevertheless the Execution of the Decree of Ausburg should remain suspended . All this pass'd in the year 1541. See here what the success of the Conference of Ratisbon was . The year following , which was 1542. the Pope assign'd the Council to be held at Trent in the Month of November , he sent a Bull to the Emperour in Spain , and after to the Kings , exhorting them to send their Embassadors thither , and he himself deputed thither three Cardinals in quality of Legates ; he sent thither some Bishops also . But this Convocation had not then any effect , by reason of the War that was carried on about the same time between King Francis the First and the Emperour . And this latter seeing himself to have two Wars upon his hands , that with France , and the other with the Turks , made a new Decree at Spire , by which he gave peace to the Protestants : but more than that , he ordain'd , that they should make choice of some Learned and well-meaning persons to draw up a Formulary of the Reformation ; that the Princes should do the same ; and that all those pieces being referred to the next Diet , they should there resolve with a common consent , that which they should judge fit to be kept about the matters of Religion , till the meeting of a Council . This Decree was made in the year 1544. But the Pope was so netled at this , that he wrote to the Emperour in a very threatning style , complaining above all things of this , that he had not referred that which concerned Religion , to the decision of the Church of Rome , and that he had favoured those who were Rebels to the Apostolick See. Some time after King Francis the First and the Emperour made a Peace ; and one of the Articles of their Agreement was , that they should defend the Ancient Religion , that they should employ their endeavours for the Union of the Church , and the Reformation of the Court of Rome , that they should jointly demand of the Pope the calling of a Council , and that they should labour to subdue the Protestants . This obliged the Pope to prevent them . He therefore again assigned the Council to be held at Trent the fifteenth day of March 1545. and dispatched away his Legates thither ; but at the same time he resolv'd to use all his endeavours to oblige the Emperour to turn his Arms against the Protestants , to oppose them at the same time with the Spiritual and Temporal Sword ; or to say better , to the end that the War might serve him for a pretence to elude the Council . For that purpose he made use of the Ministry of his Nuntio , and afterwards of that Cardinal Farnese whom he sent to the Emperour as his Legate , whose chief pretence was , the refusals which the Protestants had propounded anew against his pretended Council . He made therefore very powerful solicitations to the Emperour by his Legate , with offers to aid him with men and money , and even to cause him to be assisted by the Princes of Italy ; and the Emperour , who on his side was very glad to take this occasion to subdue Germany to himself , readily accepted of this proposition ; so that a War was concluded between them ; but the conclusion was kept very secret , till the time of Execution . Notwithstanding , the better to cover this design , the Emperour appointed a Conference of Learned Men to be held at Ratisbon , upon the subject of Religion , according to his last Decree , but he did not fail to cite the Arch-Bishop of Cologne to appear before him , who had embraced the Reformation , and afterwards excommunicated him , and deprived him of his Arch-bishoprick . And as for the Conference at Ratisbon , which gave some jealousie to the Bishops who were already assembled at Trent , it was quickly after broken by the unjust conditions that some Monks , who were there as the Commissioners of the Emperour , would impose on the Protestant Divines . The Council was opened the thirteenth of December of the same year 1545. But , in fine , after a great many artifices and dissimulations , able to have lull'd asleep the most vigilant , after a great many contrary assurances given to the Protestants , the Emperour sent the Cardinal of Trent in Post to Rome , to give the Pope notice , that he should make his Troops march with all diligence . The Treaty which they had made together was published the eight and twentieth of July 1546. bearing this among other things , That the Emperour should employ his Arms and open force to make those Germans who should reject the Council , return to the ancient Religion and to the obedience of the holy See : and the Emperour soon after , openly declared himself as well by the Letters which he wrote to divers Cities in Germany , to the Elector of Cologne and the Prince of Wirtemburg , as by the answers that his Ministers gave to the Embassadors of those Towns who were with him . The Pope on his side , presently published a Bull dated the fifteenth of July , by which he commanded , that they should make solemn Processions , exhorting all Christians to put up prayers to God for the happy success of the War , which the Emperour and himself had undertaken at their common charges , against the Germans who should either profess Heresie , or protect it . Before this , he had wrote to the Switzers Letters dated the third of June , by which he gave them notice of the Emperours design , praying them to send all the succours they could possibly . The Emperour would at the beginning cover this War with another pretence than that of Religion ; but the Pope would never suffer him to do it . So that the Emperour having no further way left to disguise himself , began with the proscribing of the Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave of Hessia ; and moreover , he sent his Army into the field . The Protestant Princes , on their parts , took up Arms also for their just defence . The success of this War was not so happy for the Protestants ; all Germany saw it self soon enslav'd under the Arms of the Emperour ; and according to all humane appearance , the Reformation also had been presently destroy'd , if God who never utterly forsakes his Church , had not provided for it by his Providence . It hapned that the Pope and the Emperour quarrell'd about those temporal interests , which were far more prevalent in their minds than that of Religion , which fell out because the Emperour would not readily subject Germany to the Council of the Pope , and because the Pope used also all his endeavours to stir up new affairs for the Emperour on the side of Italy . Moreover , a division fell out in the Council ; for the Pope having transferr'd it from Trent to Bolognia , to have it more at his ordering , the greatest part of the Bishops yielded to that transferring ; but many also held themselves firm to Trent , and would not obey it ; which made a great difficulty to arise , when the Emperour and the Princes of Germany came to demand , as they afterwards did , that the Council should be re-established at Trent ; because those of Bolognia stood upon it as a point of honour , not to go back to find those of Trent there . King Francis the First dyed in this time , and Henry the Eighth King of England being dead also , the Reformation was quickly after received in England , under the Reign of Edward the Sixth , which a little disturb'd the joyes of the Court of Rome . They were yet more disturb'd by the Acts of Protestation which the Emperour had made against the Assembly at Bolognia , that he had treated it as an unlawful Assembly and a Conventicle , insisting , that they should return to Trent , with threats , that if the Pope continued to neglect his duty , he would himself out of his own Authority provide for the disorders of the Church . They were troubled also at the Interim which the same Emperour published afterwards throughout all Germany . This Interim was a certain Formulary of Religion that the Emperour had made to be drawn up to be observed until the holding of a Lawful Council . He establish'd therein the whole Body of the Roman Doctrine , and allowed only the Marriage of Priests and Communion under both kinds . But although this Formulary was neither approved by the one sort , nor the other , that at Rome the Pope had censured it , and the Protestants look'd upon it as the greatest of all their oppressions , the Emperour did not fail to use violence to the Protestants to make them receive it . And this filled Germany with an infinite number of persecutions , such as those that Conquerours when they cruelly abuse their prosperity ( as Charles the Fifth did ) are wont to make the vanquished suffer . But while he thus satiated himself with these violences and indignities , Paul the Third dyed at Rome the tenth of November 1549. The Death of this Pope was follow'd with divers Writings which wounded his Memory in the most bloody manner in the world . But letting pass his Manners , and the rest of his Government , wherein we are not concerned , I shall only say , that the evils which our Fathers suffered in all places for the Cause of the Reformation during the fifteen years of his Papacy , cannot be express'd . For under the name of Hereticks or Lutherans , they imprisoned them , they banished them , they deprived them of their Estates , they massacred them , they burned them ; and not to speak of our France , England , Scotland , Flanders , Holland , Brabant , Haynalt , Artois , Spain , Savoy , Lorrain , Poland , were as so many Theatres , wherein there might be every day seen some of those Tragical Executions , and where they spoke of nothing but the extirpation and rooting out of these Hereticks . Julius the third succeeded Paul. This man freely transferr'd his Council back to Trent , to make all opposition between the Emperour and himself cease ; but in the Bull which he publish'd , he declar'd , that it belong'd to him to rule and guide the Council : that he remitted it to be followed and continued , in the same state in which it was when it was broken off ; and that he would send his Legates thither to preside in his place , in case he could not come thither himself in person . These clauses netled the Protestants , so that seeing themselves press'd by the Emperour , to submit themselves to the Council , they freely declared to him , that they could not do it , otherwise than upon these conditions , to wit , That they should begin to treat of matters all anew , without having regard to that which had been already done . That their Divines should be received , and have a deliberative voice : That the Pope should not pretend to preside , but that he should submit himself to it ; and in fine , that he should absolve the Bishops from the Oath by which they were ty'd to him ; and that without that , they could not hold that to be a free Council . Notwithstanding this Declaration , the Emperour made his Decree , by which he ordain'd , that they should submit themselves to the Council , promising on his part , that he would give Safe-Conduct to all the World to come thither , and to propose there all that they should judge necessary for the good of the Church , and salvation of Souls ; and that he would give order , that all things should be treated and determined holily and Christianly , according to the holy Scripture , and the Doctrine of the Fathers ; and that the state of the Church should be reformed there , and false Doctrines and Errours taken away . Thus the Council of Trent was continued , whither the Pope sent his Legate and two Nuntio's , to preside there in his Name , with orders to begin the first Session the first day of May 1555. which was yet nevertheless prorogued to the first of September following . The Elector of Saxony and the Duke of Wirtemberg both Protestants , with some Imperial Cities resolved to send their Deputies thither , and made them demand of the Emperours Embassadour a Letter of Safe-conduct in the same form that the Council of Basil had given it to the Bohemians , with an intermission till their Divines should be arrived . This demand was not without some difficulty , but the Question having been agitated at Rome , they thought good to agree , that they should have a Safe-conduct in general terms , without delaying upon that account the decision of the chief matters : and before the expediting of this Safe-conduct , they had determined the principal Points touching the Eucharist , to wit , Transubstantiation , the Real Presence , the Adoration of the Host , the Concomitance , the Custom of the Feste Dieu * , the reservation of the Sacrament , and the necessity of Auricular Confession before the Communion . They agreed only with the Embassadour of the Emperour , that they should delay the decision of these four Questions , Whether it was necessary to salvation , that all should receive the Sacrament in both kinds . Whether he that received in one , took less than he that received in both . Whether the Church was in an Error , when she ordained that the Priests only should receive in both . Whether the Eucharist ought also to be given to little children . Which was already a meer Fallacy , as if the Protestants had nothing to propose , but only about those four Questions . When the Protestant Deputies were arrived , they openly complained of the form of their Safe-conduct , and they demanded one in the form of that of Basil to the Bohemians , but they refused it . They demanded that they might be heard in full Council , but they would not ; and they obtained with great difficulty , to be heard in a Congregation in the house of the Legate . In this Congregation they demanded on the behalf of their Masters , 1. That the Article of the Superiority of the Council above the Pope , decided in the Councils of Constance and Basil might be laid down for a foundation . 2. That the Pope , since he was a party in this affair , should not preside in the Council , but that he should submit to it both himself and his See , to be judged there . 3. That he should for this effect absolve the Bishops of the Oaths that he had given them . 4. That the matters which had been already decided , should be judged of again after their Divines had been heard , since they could not till then have come to the Council , not having had Safe-conduct . 5. That they should deferr all judgement till they came . 6. That they should judge according to the Word of God , and the common belief of all Christian Nations . But the Prelates would not hear these Propositions , and the Legate , who consulted the Pope upon all matters , and more especially upon these , had already thus vehemently explained himself , That they had much rather lose their lives , than release any thing of the Authority of the Holy See. Some dayes after , the Divines of Wirtemberg , and those of Strasburg arrived at Trent , and presented their Confession , demanding that it should be examined , and offering themselves to explain and defend it ; but this was to no purpose : for the Pope had expresly forbad his Legate to permit , that they should enter upon any publick conference , neither vivâ voce , or by Writing in the matters of Religion . Thus things were carried on in this Council , But while affairs were manag'd after this manner , the Pope , who for some time before had been discontented at the Emperour , had made his Treaty with King Henry the Second ; and the King on his side had also very secretly treated with Maurice the Elector of Saxony for the Liberty of Germany ; so that matters were all on a sudden ready for a War ; and the news being come to Trent , the Pope presently separated the Assembly , giving order to his Nuntio's to give notice of it every where , and to suspend the Council till another time . This War freed Germany from its slavery under Charles ; he was forced to set all the Princes at liberty whom he kept Prisoners : and in fine , to make the Peace which was concluded at Passaw the last day of July 1552. By this Peace it was concluded , that the Emperour should call within six Months the General Assembly of the Empire , there to provide means for the accommodating of the differences of Religion , and that notwithstanding no person should be disquieted upon that occasion : and thus the Interim of the Emperour was abolished . But if Germany had then any Quiet , the Persecutions were enflamed elsewhere against the Reformed . Edward the Sixth being dead in England , and Mary having succeeded him , the Pope sent Cardinal Pool thither in quality of his Legate , who negotiated there the re-establishing of the Authority and Religion of the Pope . This made the flames to be kindled , and their punishments to be renewed after the most cruel manner in the world ; for in one only year they made an infinite number of the people to be burn'd for the sake of Religion , and one hundred seventy and six persons of great quality . Elizabeth the Daughter of Henry the Eighth , and Sister to Mary , was confin'd to a strait Prison . On the other side , Ferdinand King of Hungary and Bohemia and Arch-Duke of Austria , made a rigorous Edict upon the same occasion , for all the Lands of his obedience , and drove away from Bahemia alone , more than two hundred Ministers . The Emperour on his part , alwayes caused the Laws of the Inquisition to be most rigorously observed in the Low-Countreys . The Duke of Savoy did the same thing in his Countreys . France every day beheld nothing but these sad Executions ; and yet nevertheless , all these bloody pursuits did but increase in all places , the number of those who embraced the Reformation . Pope Julius the Third dyed the three and twentieth of March 1555. and Marcellus the Second was chosen in his place ; who not having held the See more than-two and twenty dayes , had for his Successour Paul the Fourth . In this same year , there was an Imperial Assembly held at Ausburg , where the Treaty of Peace made at Passaw was confirmed , and the freedom of Religion granted by the Emperour and the King of the Romans in Germany . The Decree was presently published . But notwithstanding , the people of Austria and Bavaria having demanded with very great urgency a Reformation of their Princes , it was refused them ; and they agreed only , that they should receive the Communion under both kinds , in waiting for a Council . This did not fail to give great displeasure to the Pope , beholding on one side , that all parts of the World were swallow'd up by the Superstitions and Errors of his Church ; and on the other , that even the Roman Catholick Princes , of whom he expected an entire obedience , undertook without his consent to change something in Religion . In this same time Charles the Fifth , weary of affairs , and having but a weak constitution , resolved to quit the World ; and for this effect , having made Philip his Son to come to Brussells , he demis'd to him the Soveraignty of the Low-Countreys in his favour ; and a Month after he yielded to him the Crown of Spain . He resigned the Empire to Ferdinand his Brother , and reserving to himself the Pension of an hundred thousand Crowns , he retired into a Monastery . This hapned in the year 1556. and he dyed two years after the one and twentieth of September 1558. Pope Paul the Fourth from the first beginning of his Papacy turn'd all his thoughts to avoid the Council , and to make the rigors of the Inquisition to rule in all places , saying , That this was the only means to destroy Heresie , and the only fort of the Apostolick See. For this effect he made an Ordinance which he caused all the Cardinals to sign , by which he renewed all the censures and punishments denounced by his Predecessors against the Hereticks , and declared , that all the Prelates , Princes , Kings and Emperours fallen into Herefie , ought to be held fallen from and deprived of all their Benefices , Estates , Kingdoms or Empires , without any other declaration , that they could not be re-established by any authority , not even by that of the Apostolick See , and that their goods should be given to the first possessor . He quarrell'd at the same time with Ferdinand , maintaining that the Resignation of Charles in his favour , could not be done but by his hands ; and that in that case it belonged to him to make whom he should please , Emperour . Notwithstanding , two things fell out , that gave him a great deal of grief ; the one , that Mary Queen of England being dead , Elizabeth succeeded her ; and that the Emperour Ferdinand having propounded to the Protestants in the Diet of Ausburg , which was held in the Month of February 1559. to 〈◊〉 to put an end to the differences of Religion by the way 〈◊〉 Council , the Protestants had declared to him , as they had 〈…〉 , that they could have no hopes of any accommodation 〈…〉 of a Council of the Popes . That they would submit 〈…〉 a free General and Christian Council , not called by 〈…〉 the Emperour , and Christian Kings , where the 〈…〉 his place not as President and Master , but as a Party , and submit himself to the judgement of the Council . That for that effect , it was necessary that the Pope should release them of the Oath by which he held all the Prelates bound to his See , to the end that the Prelates and Divines there might give their opinion freely , and that all should be judg'd there by the Word of God alone , and not by the Roman Constitutions and their pretended Traditions . That it was just , that their Divines should be heard , and that they might declare their opinion in the decision of those differences , and by consequence , all the Acts and all the Decrees made at Trent , remaining as not made , that they should treat the things anew . That with these conditions they consented with all their hearts , and submitted themselves to a Council ; but not otherwise . So that the Emperour seeing well that the Pope and his Court would never agree to those conditions , nor consent to any Council , at least , unless they should be Masters of it , further confirmed the Treaty of Passaw , and setled the peace of Germany about the matter of Religion , leaving to every one the liberty of his conscience . This mortally wounded the Pope ; but elsewhere , he comforted himself with hearing that his solicitations with the other Princes to continue the rooting out of the Hereticks by Fire and Sword , and every where all the rigours of punishments had a very great effect in France , in Spain and in the Low-Countreys . Henry the Second dyed the third of June of the same year 1559. The Pope dyed also quickly after , to wit , the eighteenth of August of the same year . His last words were to recommend to the Cardinals the holy Office of the Inquisition ; for so he called it : assuring them , that it was the only Pillar of the See of Rome . His Memory was very much detested by all the people , who immediately after his death burn'd the new Prison of the Inquisition which he had caused to be built , broke his Statues , and overthrew his Coat of Arms throughout all the City of Rome . Pius the Fourth succeeded him ; and it was under him that the Council of Trent was consummated . He followed intirely the Spirit of his Predecessor ; for he presently moved the Duke of Savoy to turn his Arms against his Subjects of the Valleys of Piedmont , to reduce them by force to the obedience of his See ; and because that in France , they had resolved to call a National Council , to labour by this means to put a stop to the course of the Reformation , against which the fires and punishments practised till that time had done nothing , he oppos'd himself vehemently to it , and sent to King Francis the Second an express Nuntio , to disswade him from that National Council , and to exhort him to follow the way of the punishments that he had before practis'd : and that of his Arms , if it were necessary , till it should be provided for by a General Council , offering him for that purpose to assist him with all his power , and to cause the King of Spain and the Princes of Italy , to assist him also . The Nuntio faithfully acquitted himself of his charge ; but the King did yet persist in the design of a National Council , and it was resolved in his Council , that they should seek for the means to call it , in case the Pope should not speedily call a General one . This was the resolution of an Assembly held at Fountainbleau , in the Month of August 1560. which no wayes pleased the Pope ; for he saw well , that this National Council was a very bad example for Germany , where till then his Predecessors had hindred it . So that seeing no very good means to ward off that blow , and apprehending that other Nations would do the same things , he suddenly took up a resolution to assemble his Council at Trent . But besides that reason of National Councils which he apprehended , he was further carried out to it by divers other motives ; for he saw that the Reformed Religion had spread it self abroad every where . In Spain the Inquisitions were taken up only with condemning and burning them ; and they had alwayes some new matter for the exercise of their cruelties . It was the same in the Low-Countreys . England had wholly thrown off the yoke of Rome , and embraced the Reformation : Scotland had done it as much . All Prussia and Livonia had done the same . In France the number of the Protestants was very much increased , and they had the liberty of their consciences granted them . The Duke of Savoy , could not compass his design with all his Forces , in the sole Valleys of Piedmont . Besides , that which remain'd fix'd to the interests of the Pope , was very much discontented with the conduct of his Court , the greatest part of his Catholicks had acknowledged the necessity of a Reformation , and they made Harangues about it in the publick assemblies . The Princes themselves , who the most supported the See of Rome , every day encroached upon his Authority , and gave him trouble enough . He resolv'd with himself therefore to assemble his Council ; but at the same time , also he made it his design to manage it so well , that the success should be advantageous for himself . To this effect , he published his Bull , bearing this with it , that he took off the suspension that had been made , and called it to Trent : on Easter day in the year 1563. He sent thither five Legates to preside in his place ; and after divers delayes , in fine , the Council was opened by his Order the eighteenth of January 1562. and matters were treated there afterwards after the same manner which they had been treated in before under Paul the Third , and under Julius ; that is to say , that the Pope reigned there absolutely , and nothing was done there but according to his will. His See was exalted there more than before , the disorders of the Government of the Church were rather confirmed than corrected there , and the Errors , and Superstitions , and Worship set up by men , instead of being reformed , were on the contrary established there , and passed in the force of a perpetual and indispensable Law. Such was the success of this Assembly . It would be too long here to relate exactly that which passed there . Any may read with pleasure and with profit all the particularities in some of the famous Historians of those times . It shall suffice me for the present to say , that after the manner that the Popes took there for the governing that Council , we ought not to think it strange if they obtain'd their ends , and if they alwayes turn'd things to which side they pleased . First of all , they took a particular care to fill it with Italian Prelates ; so that they alone almost alwayes were above half the number of all the other Nations joyned together . By this means the Court of Rome might very well assure it self of the Council ; for although all the Prelates that composed it , should not have been bound to the Popes by an Oath , yet the Italians were more particularly of their dependance , and they would not fail throughly to represent to them the interest that Italy had to preserve to it self the Ecclesiastical Government over other Nations ; and to maintain by consequence , the Authority of Rome . Secondly , They kept up a stock of money in the hands of the Legates , to help the poor Bishops , and to gain them more and more to them , and to make also Presents and Gratifications to persons who could render them most service . For they judged it to be the best means to draw the most to them , either by the acknowledgement of the good offices received from them , or by the hopes of receiving them for the time to come . In the Third place , the Pope was not contented with presiding in the Council by his Legates , he would farther , that the propositions should be made and carried by them only . And it was for this that the Legates of Pius the Fourth unjustly insinuated it into the Decree of the opening it on the eighteenth of January 1562. that they should treat of matters proponentibus Legatis ; and when some Spanish Prelates would have opposed that Clause , saying , that it was unusual in Councils , and that it wholly took away all liberty from the Assembly , where every one ought to have a right to propound , they derided them and let them alone without giving them any answer . The Pope himself having heard of that opposition , commanded his Legates , that they should remain obstinate in that Decree , and that they should not remit so much as one point : and the King of Spain having made some complaints , upon the advice that his Embassadour gave him , the Pope eluded them , and would change nothing . Behold therefore the Court of Rome well nigh already assured of two great points ; to wit , on the one side , of the greatest number of persons ; and on the other , of the propositions that should be made in the Council . There remained nothing but to make sure of their deliberations ; and for this they practised divers means . The two more General , were that of the Congregations at Trent it self in the house of the chief Legate , and that of the Congregations at Rome . The former consisted in this , that from the beginning of the Council under Paul the Third , they unjustly made this order to be establish'd , that in imitation of that which had been made in the last Council of Lateran , that there should be made divers particular Congregations to examine the matters there that the Legates should propound to them , that afterwards the same matters so digested , be brought to a General Congregation which should be held in the house of the Legate , where every one should tell his opinion ; and that after this , they should frame the Decrees to contain them , and make them to pass in Council . The second consisted in this , in that from the first beginning , the Pope had deputed some Cardinals at Rome to consult about the affairs of the Council , and to have as it were the overlooking of all that should pass there ; so that , before they came to make any Decree , the Legates at Trent had discover'd the bottom of the sentiments of the Prelates , and the reasons of every one , since before they concluded any thing , they sent all to Rome , from whence they received their orders and the deliberations of the Council wholly made to their hands ; and this is that which they call'd the Holy Ghost coming in a Cloak-bag . But besides these two wayes , they had yet others , which although they were not of that importance , did not fail to have their profit . We must place in this rank , the Order that they took to examine all the speeches and all the other actions that should be done before the Prelates , of the Council , before they should recite them , to the end that nothing should be advanced , which was not agreeable to the Time and Place , that is to say , to the designs and interests of Rome ; for by this means the Council thought to make the Pulpits ring with nothing but the praises of the Holy See , and imprecations against the Hereticks ; and that none should be so stupid , as to bring in any thing free or bold into his discourse , well knowing that the Censors would not suffer it , and that it would be to meddle with affairs to no purpose . We must here also place the Order that the Legates openly took , and which they alwayes observ'd afterwards , to reckon every head to an opinion ; whereas in the Councils of Constance and Basil they had counted their opinions by Nations , which divers would fain have had done yet at Trent ; but the Legates oppos'd themselves to it with all their might . But they drew this advantage from that Order , that Italy alone had twice as many Voices , as all the other Nations together ; and we may say , that they only made the decisions . We must further rank here another Order which they took to make in the first place the points of Doctrine to be agitated by particular Congregations of Monks and other Scholastick Divines , which treated of them after their usual manner ; and afterwards to carry some extracts or abridgements of their Disputes to the Congregations of the Prelates , who for the most part understood nothing of that Gibbrish of the School ; so that almost alwayes they made their Decrees without having examined the matters of them , or hearing the reasons of one side and of the other , without reading , without meditation , without study , and sometimes even without any understanding of the terms ; which having oblig'd Bruce Martel Bishop of Fesola to represent of what importance it was , that the General Congregation should be throughly informed of what they did , and that it should take cognizance of matters it self ; the Legates netled at this boldness , made a large field of a sharp censure upon it , and wrote to the Court of Rome to have him taken notice of . We ought also to place here , the recourse that the Pope had to the Embassadours of the Princes , to render the Bishops of their Nation favourable to the interests of the Court of Rome . This is what Pius the Fourth knew very well how to practise on the subject of the residence of the Bishops , when he heard that the greatest part of Voices went about to declare it of Divine Right ; for he spake earnestly of it to the Embassadours of Venice and Florence ; and he engaged them to make divers remonstrances of it to their Bishops . The same things were done divers times . We must add here yet farther , the ordinary direction of the Legates to put off to another time the decision of the points that they could not carry on their side at one time , and to pass over to other matters , to busie the Prelates with , and to have time notwithstanding , to advertise the Court of Rome , and to gain the chief to the contrary party . We ought to place here also the ordinary artifice of the same Legates to put off the Sessions , to make many difficulties arise about matters , and after divers circuits , to cause in the end the Articles to be sent to the Pope which they could not make an end of , by reason of the great insisting of the Nations . In one word , they used in the management of this Assembly all that was most refin'd , most forcible and profound in humane policy , promises , threats , secret negotiations , canvasings , diversions , delayes , Authority , and in General , nothing was forborn that could turn and corrupt mens minds there . The Pope and his Court had a great many difficulties to overcome , and oppositions to surmount , which often put them into great troubles , and inquietudes , and fears ; but in the end , they were so well served , and they remained Masters , and saw all things succeed according to their desires . See here after what manner things went at Trent , and by what degrees they tended to make an entire breach of Communion between the Roman and Reformed party . Let any now judge , if in all this conduct , our Fathers had not just and lawful causes for a Separation . 1. They saw in the contrary party an invincible resolution to defend and preserve the Errors and Superstitions , whose amendment they demanded . 2. They saw that resolution go so high , as to constrain them to fall back again into those errors against all their knowledge , and the motions of their own consciences . 3. They saw that this violence which they offered to them had no bounds ; for it went not only as far as disputes , not only so far as the Ordinances and Decrees , but even to Excommunications and Anathema's , that is to say , to a Separation , and Schism with a curse . 4. They saw , that they joyned to all this punishments , not in one or two places , but in all ; not by popular heat , but in cold blood , and in the usual wayes designed for the punishment of the greatest Villains . 5. They saw that those punishments came from the perpetual and general inspiration of the Court of Rome , which did not cease persecuting of them in all places ; and which proceeded so far , as to search for them in their most hidden retreats . 6. They saw that they refused the most equitable and necessary conditions , without which they could not proceed to a just examination of Religion , nor to a holy and Christian Reformation , and that in stead of that , the Court of Rome would alwayes remain sole Mistress and Arbitress . 7. They saw , lastly , that instead of returning to the purity of Christianity , by taking away out of the field of the Church so many corruptions that defaced it , so many false opinions that destroy'd it , so many kinds of Worship contrary to true Piety that dishonour'd it , and destroyed the salvation of souls , these Prelates on the contrary , would establish things that custom only , and the tradition of some Ages had for the most part introduc'd ; that they would establish them I say , for the future in force of a Law , to be incorporated into their Religion , as essential and indispensable parts of it , to which they would subject the minds and consciences of men , which they ordain'd the practice and belief of , under penalties of Anathema , cutting off and separating from the body of their Society all those who should hold a contrary opinion and practice . Let any judge , whether our Fathers could yet after that , preserve Church Communion with a Party in which they could see nothing either of the Spirit of Truth , and Christian Purity and Charity , resplendent , and whether all hope being taken away , of ever reducing them to the right way of the Gospel , or even of being able to live with them , without wounding their consciences by a detestable hypocrisie , in pretending to believe that which they did not believe , and to practising a worship which they held unlawful , there not remaining any further means for them to remain in that Communion , without partaking of their Errors , without exposing their Children , and without rendring themselves culpable before God ; let any I say judge , whether they did not do well to separate themselves . I confess , that when a man is joyned with others in one and the same Body , he ought not lightly to proceed to a rupture ; there are measures and behaviour to be observ'd , that Prudence and Christian Charity require of us , and as long as we have any hope of procuring the amendment and healing of our Brethren , or where there is at least any way for us to bewail , and to mourn for their sins , without losing our own innocency , and their constraining us to partake in their crimes , we ought not to forsake them . But when that hope is lost , and when that means of preserving our own purity is taken from us , when instead of being able to reduce them , we see , on the contrary , that their Communion does but make us to cast our selves into an unavoidable necessity of corrupting our selves , it is certain that we ought to withdraw our selves from them , lest in partaking with their sins , we should draw the just condemnation of God upon our selves . Be not partaker with other mens sins , sayes S. Paul , but keep thy self pure . CHAP. IV. An Examination of the Objection of the Author of the Prejudices , taken out of the Dispute of S. Augustine against the Schism of the Donatists . IT seems to me , that what I have laid down hitherto , le ts us clearly enough see , that the only way to decide the Question of our Separation , to know whether it is just or unjust ; is to enter into the discussion of the foundation of our Controversies , and that it would be the highest injustice to go about to condemn us without ever hearing us . Notwithstanding , whatsoever we may have to say , and how strong soever our Reasons should be , the Author of the Prejudices pretends to have found out a certain way to convince us of Schism , without entring upon any other examination ; and for this he employes the Eighth and Ninth Chapters of his Treatise . I would , sayes he , go farther , and convince them of Schism , without entring upon any discussion of either their Doctrine or their Mission , by their separation alone . All that he sayes upon that subject , may be well near reduc'd to this ; That there is a Church , from which one ought never to separate , under any pretence whatsoever , and from which all those who separate themselves are Schismaticks , and out of the state of salvation . That the infallible and perpetual mark to know this Church , according to S. Augustine and the other African Fathers is , visible extension throughout all Nations , because that visible extension according to them contains the Church at all times , and that it is a Negative mark , that is to say , that every Society which has not that extension , is not the Church ; so that this reasoning is alwayes sound , your Society is shut up in a little part of the world . Therefore it is not the Church ; and that it is by this Principle , that S. Augustine has disputed against the Donatists , and convinced them of Schism . This is the summ of his eighth Chapter . In the ninth , he labours to apply these general Maxims to our Separation : and 1. He sayes , That our Communion is not spread over all the world , any more than that of the Donatists ; and that not having that visible extension , which is the perpetual mark of the True Church , it follows , that it is not so , and by consequence , that we are all Schismaticks . 2. He sayes , We carry the principle of the Donatists much higher than those Schismaticks stretch'd it ; for as for them , they did not say , that there ever was a time in which the Church had wholly fell into Apostasic , and that they excepted the Communion of Donatus ; but as for us , we will have it , that there has been whole Ages in which all the world had generally apostatized , and lost the faith and treasure of salvation . 3. He labours to shew , that the Societies of the Berengarians , of the Waldenses and Albigenses , &c. in whom he sayes , we shut up the Church , could not be this Catholick Church of which S. Augustine speaks . And lastly , He concludes from thence , that we are Schismaticks , and by consequence , out of a state of salvation . Before we enter upon the particular Examination of the Propositions whereof this Objection is made up , it will be good to note , that there is nothing new in all that , and that it is nothing but that some mark of visible extension that the greatest part of the Controversial Writers of the Roman Communion have been wont to propound , when they would give the marks of the True Church . There is this only difference to be found in it , that the others labour to ground this upon what they produce out of the passages of the Scripture , whereas the Author of the Prejudices grounds his argument upon the sole Authority of S. Augustine and some Fathers . But when it should be true , that S. Augustine and the African Fathers disputing against the Donatists , should have prest this visible extension of the Church too much , and urged it further than they ought , will the Author of the Prejudices believe , that he ought to hold all those things that the Fathers have advanc'd in their disputes for infallible , and all their reasonings and hypotheses to have been so ? Does he not know what Theodoret himself who was a Father , has noted concerning some of those who were before him , That the vehemence of Disputation had made them fall into excesses , just as those who would rectifie a crooked Tree , turn it too much on the other side from that straightness which it ought to have ? And is he ignorant of what S. Athanasius said concerning Dionysius of Alexandria , whose Authority the Arians objected to him , That Dionysius had said so , not with design to make a simple exposition of his faith , but occasionally having a respect to the times , and persons . That a Gardiner is not to be found fault with , if he cultivate his Trees according to the quality of the soil , sowing one , planting another , pruning this , and plucking up that . We must , sayes S. Jerome , distinguish between the different kinds of writing , and especially of Polemical and Dogmatical . For in the Polemical , the dispute is vagous , and when they answer to an adversary , they propound sometimes one thing , and sometimes another ; they argue as they think fit ; they say one thing and do another : or as the Proverb sayes , they offer bread , and give one a stone . But in the Dogmatical , on the contrary , they speak openly and ingenuously . We may easily apprehend by that , that we ought not to hold for Canonical all that the Fathers may have wrote in the heat of their disputes , or to take what they have said according to the rigour of the Letter , since they themselves acknowledge , that having the Pen in their hands , they often advance things , that on other occasions ought not to be press'd . So that though it should be true , that S. Augustine and the African Fathers had made that visible extension an inseparable and perpetual mark of the True Church , yet we should not fear to say , in respect of them , what S. Augustine himself has said concerning S. Cyprian whom the Donatists objected to him . I do not hold the Writings of Cyprian for Canonical ; but I examine them by the Canonical Scriptures . That which I find in them conformable to the holy Scriptures , I receive with praising him , and I reject with the respect that I owe to his person , what I find in them disagreeing thereto . We should make no scruple to apply to them , what the same S. Augustine has said , on the subject of S. Hilary and some other Fathers whom they alledg'd to him . We must throughly distinguish these sorts of writings , from the Authority of the Canonical Books . For however we should read them , yet we cannot draw convincing testimonies from them , and it is allow'd us to depart from them , when we see that they themselves have departed from the truth . It is therefore certain , that the Author of the Prejudices has but weakned his proof , when instead of labouring to establish it on the Scripture , as the rest have done , he restrains it to the meer Authority of S. Augustine and some Fathers . We have thought that we ought to have freely represented this to the Author of the Prejudices , to oblige him a little to moderate his pretensions ; for he imagin'd that the sole Authority of S. Augustine and some Fathers was enough to convince us . I will , sayes he , convince them , we have frequently told him already , and shall tell him here again , That the Scripture is the only rule of our Faith , that , we do not acknowledge any other authority able to decide the disputed Points in Religion , than that of the Word of God ; and that if we sometimes dispute by the Fathers , it is but by way of condescention to those of the Church of Rome , to act upon their own principle , and not to submit our consciences to the word of men . But because that he may also imagine , under a pretence of this declaration , that we have no other way to answer his argument , I shall undertake to answer here , and shew him , if I can , that he has abused the Authority of S. Augustine , and that he has neither comprised , or had a mind to comprehend , either the true sentiments of that Father , or ours . This is that which I design to shew him in this Chapter and in the following . But before we enter upon this matter , it will be necessary to clear in a few words the History of the Donatists , and to represent what was the beginning of their quarrel , and what their Separation was . The Author of the Prejudices had some interest to leave his Readers in the ignorance of those particular matters of fact ; but since he and I have not the same view of things , he ought not to take it ill , that I supply his defect , and that I lay down that which he would not . In the year 306. God having given peace to the Church , after the cruel persecutions of Dioclesian , the people of Carthage being assembled by the direction of some neighbouring Bishops , chose Cecilianus for their Bishop in the place of Mensurius who had been dead some time before , and Cecilianus afterwards received his Ordination at the hands of Felix Bishop of Aprungis . This Election had displeased some of that Church through their private interests ; so that they formed a party against him ; and this party having called Secundus Primate of Numidia with a great many other Bishops to the number of Seventy , they made his Ordination void , and ordained one Majorinus in his place . Cecilianus was upheld by a great part of the Church , and kept himself in his Bishoprick . Majorinus was upheld also by those of his party , and the Bishops of Numidia ; which made them set up at Carthage Altar against Altar ; that is to say , that each Bishop set up his Assemblies apart ; and so the Church of Carthage was rent . But this Division did not stop at Carthage ; for the Bishops of Africa took part , some with Cecilianus , and the others with Majorinus ; one of these was called Donatus , from whose name all that Sect came in the end to be called Donatists . Each party laboured to fortifie themselves by reasons ; the Donatists , on their side , at first accus'd Felix the Ordainer of Cecilianus , and afterwards Cecilianus himself , of having been Traditors , that is to say , of having delivered their Bibles to the Pagans for them to burn them , during the persecutions . The others , on the contrary , maintained , that it was a false accusation , of which they had neither conviction nor proof , because that Cecilianus had not been heard before his condemnation ; and they also accused some of those who had condemn'd him , of having been themselves Traditors , and to have mutually absolv'd one another of that crime in a Synod which they had held . The quarrel growing high , the Donatists presented a Petition to the Emperour Constantine , to intreat of him some Judges ; because that in Africa they were all divided and parties ; and the Emperour commissioned for that purpose , Milciades Bishop of Rome , Merodes Bishop of Milan , Maternus Bishop of Cologne , Reticus Bishop of Autun , and Marinus Bishop of Arles . These Judges met together with some other Bishops of Italy , all in number to nineteen , and having taken an exact knowledge of that business , they justified Cecilianus , and confirmed him in his Bishoprick : nevertheless , without making void either the Ordination of Majorinus , or that of his Successors : but the Donatists would not acquiesce in this judgement . They said , that Milciades had himself been a Traditor , and that he defended the Traditors . They had recourse again to the Emperour , who ordain'd , that the cause should be search'd again , and determined in a Council at Arles , where the Donatists having been again condemn'd , they appealed to the Emperours own person ; and the Emperour having taken cognizance of it himself , condemned them . After all this , the Opinionativeness of the Donatists was so great , that instead of submitting themselves to so many judgements , they chose rather to separate themselves from the whole Church . They made therefore a General Schism with the whole Christian World ; and to colour it with some appearance of reason , they maintained , that all the world had fallen into Apostasy through the meer Communion which it had with the Traditor Cecilianus . They would no more own either any Church or Christianity in the world , but what was in their party ; and they rebaptized all those , who had been baptized in the Church since the business of Cecilianus . S. Augustine and the other Fathers of Africa , had fairly told them , that Cecilianus was innocent , that though he should not have been innocent , the Judges could have done no less , than to have absolved him , there having been no proofs against him , and that though even the Judges should have judg'd wrong , yet all the world could not have been guilty of that crime , since the greater part of the Churches , and of the persons that compos'd them , had had no knowledge of that affair , that though they should have had knowledge of it , they could have done no otherwise than referr'd it to Judges ; or lastly , not being willing to refer it to Judges , prudence and charity would have oblig'd them to have bore with the wicked in the external communion of the Church , rather than to have broken Peace and Christian Unity for personal crimes , which were not communicated to them who had no part in them . All these reasons did not hinder the Donatists from remaining obstinate in their conclusion , which was that , all the Church had lost its righteousness by the Communion which it had with Cecilianus ; and that there was no more any Christianity in the World , except in the party of Donatus . From hence it was , that the Question arose between them , which of the two Parties was the Church . Upon this History , we must make four Observations , which it may be , will not be impertinent in the end . The first is , That the Donatists would not own that Party for Orthodox which was contrary to them , whom they accused neither of any Error in the Faith , nor any depravation of Worship , and that the Church on its side did not accuse the Donatists of any Heresie in the Faith. For as for the Question of the Validity or Invalidity of the Baptism of Hereticks , neither the one nor the other , made that the occasion of their breach , and it was not upon that that the Donatists founded their Separation . We confess both one sort and the other , said Cresconius , one and the same Jesus Christ , born , dead and risen again . We have one and the same Religion , and the same Sacraments , and there is no difference between us about the practice of Christianity . S. Augustine said also , That their difference was not about the head , but about the body ; that is to say , that their dispute was not about Jesus Christ our Saviour , but about his Church , And elsewhere , That they agreed in Baptism , in the Creed , and in the other Sacraments of our Lord. All the pretence of this Rupture , was the personal faults of two or three Bishops , which were not proved on one side , nor owned on the other , and whereof the greatest part of the world had no knowledge . So that the Dispute concerning the Church , was not between two Communions that contested one with the other about the purity of Doctrine , but between two Communions , which mutually acknowledg'd one another to be Orthodox , yet disputed one with the other , the title of the quality of the Church of Jesus Christ . The second Observation that I shall make is , that the opposite Party to the Donatists , and which the Donatists acknowledg'd to be Orthodox , was then actually and in effect , spread over the whole Earth ; that is to say , that it had a great extent among the Nations of it : whereas that of the Donatists , was shut up within one small part of Africk . It was upon this , that they abused a passage of the Canticles , which they read after this manner , Tell me ( O thou whom my soul loveth ) where thou feedest , where thou makest thy flocks to rest in the South : explaining this in the South , as if he would have noted the place , and said in Africa , whereas it should be read at noon-day , meerly to note the hour of the day , when the Shepherd led his flock under some shade for their rest . This is that which makes S. Augustine also speak to them sometimes of the Apostolical Churches , and those to whom S. John wrote his Apocalypse , with whom they had no communion , and to reproach them so often for being separated from all the World. The third Observation is , That that Society which the Donatists acknowledged to be Orthodox , and which was in effect spread over many Nations , had not cut off the Donatists from its communion , nor had separated the former from it ; if they had not excommunicated them , nor pronounced Anathema's against those who should not hold Cecilianus to be innocent , or the Traditors to have been good men . When any one of them return'd to the Church , they did not seek to make them renounce any other thing than their Schism , nor to embrace any thing besides peace . And even in the judgement of the Synod of Rome , Milciades and his brethren , offered to hold communion with the Bishops that Majorinus had ordained ; and in the Conference at Carthage , they offered to the Donatist Bishops , to own them for Bishops , and to preserve their Sees to them , without requiring any other condition of them , than that of brotherly Unity . It was therefore the Donatists , who separated themselves wilfully out of a meer spirit of division , and the Church was in respect of them , in a passive Separation . Lastly , The fourth Observation is , That although the Donatists should have had any just occasion to separate , yet they had urged their Separation notwithstanding as far as it could go ; for they had carried it so far , as even to break that general bond which yet in some manner united all those who make an external profession of Christianity good and bad , Orthodox and Hereticks , which yet in some manner make but one body , in opposition to Pagans and other people absolutely Infidels . Their Principle was , That all the Christians in the World , except the party of Donatus , being sullied with the contagion of the Traditor Cecilianus , all that they had also done became sullied , by the uncleanness of their persons ; and upon this Principle , they condemned the Christianity of the Universal Church , they rejected her Baptism , and her Sacraments , although at the bottom , they had the same with hers , and they look'd upon that Society to be no otherwise than an Assembly of Pagans and Infidels , with whom they would have nothing common . This is what St. Augustine reproaches them with in divers places in his Writings . They say , sayes he , that they are Christians ; but they say also that they only are so . They make no scruple to say , that they know that out of their Sect there are no Christians . You hold , sayes he to them elsewhere , that all Christian Holiness has been abolish'd among the Nations where the Apostles had establish'd it , because they have communicated with those whom your Fathers condemned in their Council of Carthage . Therefore it was that they thought themselves grievously affronted , when the Catholicks called them their Brethren , they fled from their Communion , they would not so much as sit together with them , and they re-baptiz'd all those who had been baptiz'd in the Church , when they came over to their Communion , neither more or less than if they had come out of Paganism , because they maintained , that in effect the Church was absolutely perish'd , throughout all the Earth , except in their Party . These are the matters of fact that I have thought my self bound to explain . We must now return to the Objection of the Author of the Prejudices , and examine it in the meaning of S. Augustine and the African Fathers : the proposition of which it is composed . The first is , That there is a Church from which it is never allow'd any man to separate himself , under what pretence soever , and from which all those who do so separate themselves , are Schismaticks . This first Proposition is ambiguous , and so confused , that we can very hardly comprehend in what sense the Author of the Prejudices has meant it . Every one knows that there is in the World a Body of people , or of Nations , who profess themselves to be Christians , and to whom one may yet , in some manner , give the name of the Church , because that all such Christians are yet in some respect within the General Call of the Gospel . It is therefore this Church of which he means to speak ? But what likelihood is there , that to accuse us of Schism , he should have form'd so vagous an Idea of the Church , since he knows very well , that we are no more separated from this body , than the other communions that compose it are , or than the Church of Rome her self in particular is ? Every one knows that this body of Christians is divided into divers communions , or particular Societies , that bear the name of Churches , as the Greek , the Roman , the Protestant , the Coptick , the Jacobite , the Nestorian , the Armenian : Does he mean any one of these Churches ? But if that be so , why does he not distinctly and without any hesitation , tell us which it is , and if he would that it should be that of Rome , what ground is there to believe that he would have it so ? why did he not explain himself , why did he make an end , even to say , That it should be in our choice , whether that Church should be the Greek , or the Nestorian , or the Jacobites , and that he did not pretend to determine it ? To what purpose are all these goings about ? Every one knows yet that God alwayes preserves in the world his truly faithful and his Children , who are the true Church , which he has predestinated to eternal Salvation . But the Author of the Prejudices has formerly declared himself against this notion of the Church , and he is so very earnest to reject it , that we cannot impute it to him , without doing him wrong . We cannot even believe that he means , That we ought not to separate our selves from a Communion , when it is Orthodox , and when those who separate themselves from it are Schismaticks . For he has also declar'd himself against this Notion of the Church , because , sayes he , in taking this way , the examination of Schism would be remitted to that of the Opinions , and that we must alwayes know , whether the Communion that they forsake , is Orthodox , which is that which he would avoid . What therefore is this Church ? It is , sayes he , the Catholick Church wheresoever it be . We are now as wise as we were before ; for it alwayes remains to be enquir'd into , What is that Catholick Church . I freely confess , that it seems to me , that he would point it out to us , by a certain mark , which is the visible extension throughout all Nations ; but in effect , he does it not : for he sayes , in the end , that this is but a Negative mark , that is to say , that every Society which has not that mark , is not the Church : So that according to him , this is a mark only proper to shew what it is not , and not to shew what it is . Whence therefore shall we know what this Church is ? Moreover , his Proposition is not only ambiguous through the word Church , but it is further so , through that of Separation , for there is more than one sort of Separation . There are such as are unjust and criminal in their own nature , and there are others which are only so in causes and circumstances ; there are also such as are permitted , and those that deserve to be condemned ; there are necessary ones , and such as are rash ; so that one cannot make any general proposition upon this matter , which would not be captious , and proper to make a Fallacy . It is necessary therefore , in order to his acting with sincerity , that the Author of the Prejudices should openly explain his meaning , which he labours to establish by the Authority of S. Augustine and the other Fathers ; and after having so cleared and establish'd it , he should propound his conclusion , that he would pretend to draw from it ; for then , we should see whether we ought to yield or deny it . But to begin a convincing argument by a principle so vagous and so confused as this that we have seen , and even to affect that confusion , without being willing to explain himself , is in my judgement , a procedure very fit to be suspected , and which may justly make us doubt , that instead of a convincing argument , he gives us nothing but a Fallacy . To clear this doubt , it will be here necessary to give a clear and distinct Idea of the Doctrine of S. Augustine upon this subject about which we are disputing . First , Then we must know , that this Father acknowledg'd , that the truly Faithful only , and the truly Just , in opposition to the Wicked , the Wordly , Infidels and Hereticks , were the true Church properly so called ; and this is what may be proved by an infinite number of passages . It must not be imagin'd , sayes he , in his answer to Petilianus , that the wicked belong to the Body of Jesus Christ , which is the Church , under a pretence that they corporally partake of the Sacraments . The Sacraments are holy even in such persons ; but they serve only to increase their condemnation , because they give and receive them unworthily . And as for them , they are not in that assembly of the Church of Jesus Christ , which consisting in his members , increases by being compacted and fitly joyned with the increase of God. For this Church is built upon a Rock , according to what our Saviour said , Vpon this Rock I will build my Church , and the others are only built upon the sand , as the same Lord said , I will liken him who heareth my words , and doth not what they teach , to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand . And elsewhere , Both the good and the wicked may baptize ; but there is but one only God , alwayes good , who can wash the conscience . The wicked are therefore at present condemned by Jesus Christ , because they have a wicked and defiled conscience , and at present , they are not of his Body which is the Church , although the Church her self is ignorant that they are not ; for Jesus Christ cannot have any of his members condemned . So that they baptize , being themselves out of the Church . For God is not pleased that all these Monsters should be reckon'd among the members of that only Dove , nor that they should enter into his enclosed Garden , the keeper whereof can never be deceiv'd . And elsewhere , Whether they seem to be in the Church , or whether they be openly discover'd to be out of it , that which is flesh is alwayes flesh . That the chaff , as it is unfruitful , flyes in the air , whether it be blown thither by the occasion of some temptation , as by the wind , or no , it is alwayes chaff . Those who being hardned by carnality , are mingled in the Assembly of the Saints , cease not to be separated from the Vnity of that Church which is without spot or wrinkle . It is therefore certain , that S. Augustine acknowledg'd none to be properly the Church , but the truly Faithful and truly Righteous . But because that these faithful and these righteous are mix'd with the wicked , the worldly , and Hereticks , in the circle of the same External Call , as the chaff is with the good seed in the same Floor , or as the Tares are mingled with the good Wheat in the same Field : We must note , in the second place , that S. Augustine gives another notion of the Church , which he calls the mixed Church , and it is to explain this notion , that he sets before us all the comparisons that the Scripture makes use of to represent the mixture of the good with the bad in the same Call ; that of the field , where the Son of Man cast his seed , and where the Enemy arose in the night and sowed his Tares also , so that the Wheat and the Tares must grow there together till the time of harvest ; that of the Net that the Fisherman cast into the Sea , and which inclosed equally the good and bad Fish ; that of the Floor , where the good Grain is mixed with the Chaff ; and that of the House , in which there are Vessels of Gold and Silver , and others of Wood and Earth . It is for the same thing that he makes use of the distinction of the true body of Jesus Christ , and the mixed body of Jesus Christ ; meaning by true , the truly faithful and righteous only , and by mixed , the faithful and righteous joyned with those who are not so ; and that both together by reason of their mixture in one and the same external call , make in a manner but one and the same body . He makes use for the same purpose of the distinction , of being of the Church , and being in the Church , and he would that none but the truly faithful and righteous are of the Church ; but that the others are in the Church ; and by this means he forms two Idea's of the Church , the one distinct , and the other confused ; the distinct restrains the Church precisely to those in whom she properly consists , and who are her true members , and these are the truly righteous and faithful ; but the confused , includes all those who externally profess themselves to be Christians , the good Wheat and the Tares , the Chaff and the good Seed , the good and the bad Fish , the Vessels of Gold and Silver , and those of Wood and Earth ; and in this confus'd notion , the Church is the Field , the Floor , the Net , and the House that the holy Scripture speaks of . But as this mixture which I have spoken of , may be understood two wayes ; either in respect of Manners , or in regard of Doctrines ; we must note in the Third place , that this notion of the Mixed Church according to S. Augustine , is divided into two , for he would have us sometimes conceive of it , as a Body wherein the righteous are only mingled with the unrighteous , that is to say , with the wicked , whose manners are vitious and corrupted , and sometimes also , he would have us conceive it , as a Body where the Hereticks are mixed with the truly faithful , as well as the righteous with the unrighteous . In the former case the mixed Church is a pure communion in respect of Doctrine ; but corrupted in regard of manners : and in the second , it is a communion not only corrupted , in regard of manners ; but impure also and corrupted , in regard of its Tenets . These two sorts of mixture are without doubt in the Hypothesis of S. Augustine ; the first made all the ground of his dispute against the Donatists ; and as for the second , he often explains himself in his Books , and particularly in the Psalms against the Donatists , where he sayes , That after Jesus Christ had purged his floor by the preaching of the Cross , the righteous were as the new seed which he spread abroad over all the Earth , to the end they should make another harvest at the end of the world . But that this harvest grew up amidst the Tares , because there are Heresies every where . Haec messis crescit inter zizania quia sunt haereses ubique . In that same Psalm and elsewhere in divers places , he quotes the Example of the Jewish Church , in which he saies , that the Saints , the Prophets and the righteous were mixed not only with the wicked , whose manners were debauched and criminal , but also with the superstitious and Idolaters ; that which leaves no difficulty about it ; for Idolatry is the greatest of all Heresies . We must note in the Fourth place , that S. Augustine would have us consider the mixed Church in two different States . For as for that which respects mens manners , he sayes , that sometimes the wicked do not prevail over the righteous , either in number , or Authority ; but that sometimes also , they prevail in such a manner , that the good are often oppress'd under their multitude , and this is that which he treats particularly of in his Third Book against Parmenianus . And so in regard of Heresies , he means , that sometimes they grow so powerful , as to infect almost all the Body : and this is what he expresly shews in a Letter to Vincentius a Donatist Bishop , and in that which he wrote to Hesychius . Thus it is that S. Augustine has conceiv'd of the Church , and according to these different notions , and these different states , he has spoken differently of separations from it . As for that which regards the truly righteous and faithful , there is no question , but that he thought that we ought to have not only an internal communion of charity with them founded upon the Unity that is between all the members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ , who have all but one and the same faith , one and the same piety and the same righteousness ; but an external communion also , which consists in joyning with them in the same Assemblies , in partaking of the same Sacraments , in approving their faith , piety , good works ; and in one word , in accounting them their brethren , as far as it is possible for them to know them . But this is not that which makes the difficulty , all the Question is concerning the mixed Church , and all the dispute is to know how , according to S. Augustine , the Corn and the Tares , that is to say , the truly faithful and the Hereticks , ought to remain together in the same communion , and in what case they might separate themselves . We must therefore note in the Fifth place , that in the Doctrine of that Father , there is a certain separation that a man can never make , under any pretence whatsoever , without being a Schismatick ; and that there is another that he may lawfully make , and which it is sometimes necessary that he should . He has distinguish'd between two external bonds that should unite us to one another ; the first is , that of the External and General Call to Christianity , the second is that of the participation of the same Sacraments , and the same Assemblies . It is the first bond that S. Augustine would have to be inviolable , not only in regard of the faithful between themselves ; but also in regard of the wicked and Hereticks , and not only while we suffer them to be in the publick Assemblies ; but even then when we excommunicate them , and deprive them of the communion of the Sacraments . And thus it is that he understands that which Jesus Christ said in his Parable , That the Tares ought not to be pluck'd up which the Enemy had sown among the good Wheat in the same field ; but that he would leave both to grow together until the harvest : and it is this kind of Unity whereof he sayes , that there is no just necessity of ever breaking : praecidendae unitatis nulla est justa necessitas , it is the Unity of the same Net that enclos'd both good and bad Fish , the Unity of the same Floor that contain'd both the good Seed and the Chaff ; the Unity of the same Field where the Tares grew up with the Wheat , the Unity of the same House where there are Vessels of Wood and Earth , with those of Gold and Silver : and in a word , this Unity that we call the external and general call to Christianity . It is therefore first of all , in this sense that he means , that there is a Church from which we ought never to separate our selves , under any pretence whatsoever , and from which all those who separate themselves are Schismaticks ; for he understands it of that mixed Church , that Field , that Floor , that Net , that common House , out of which we must never go forth , nor drive out others , howsoever wicked and Heretical they may be , there being none but God who can make this separation , and who will in effect make it at the end of the world . And as it was thus that the Donatists had separated themselves , so it was chiefly upon this , that he convinced them of Schism ; for they own'd none for Christians , but those of their own Party ; they rejected the Baptism of all the rest ; they looked upon them as Pagans , who had no more any shadow of Christianity ; and when Proselytes came over to them , they made them pass through all the degrees of the Catechumeni , before they would receive them ; and they began to make them Christians anew , as if they had come out of a Society of absolute Infidels , as I have noted in my Fourth Observation on their Story . This Distinction that I have of these two sorts of separation , is clearly to be found in the Doctrine of S. Augustine . He notes both the one and the other in his third Book against Parmenio , where he treats of this matter very largely . When any brother , sayes he , that is to say , any Christian among those who are in the Society of the Church , falls into so great sins , that they judge worthy of an Anathema , I would have them proceed to his Excommunication , if that may be done without any danger of Schism ; but yet it ought to be done with that charity that S. Paul recommends to us , to wit , that we should not treat him as an Enemy , but as a Brother ; for you are not called to pluck up , but to correct . If he does not acknowledge nor correct his fault by repentance , he wilfully goes out of himself from the Church , and it will be his own will that separates him from the Christian Vnity . Our Lord himself said to his servants , when they would pluck up the Tares mixed with the Wheat , leave them to grow up together until harvest ; and he gives the reason , to wit , lest , sayes he , that in plucking up the Tares , you pluck up the Wheat also . See here precisely these two separations whereof I speak , the one that deprives one of the communion of the Sacraments , and the other which breaks of Christian Unity ; one which is but to correct , and the other which goes as far as to pluck up . This Father alledges , for the same thing , the Example of S. Paul , who in the Excommunication of the Incestuous person in Corinth , did indeed deliver that miserable person to Satan ; but only for the destruction of the flesh , that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus ; that is to say , that he depriv'd him of the communion of the Sacraments ; but that he did not wholly pluck him up out of the field of the Church . He alledges yet further , what the same Apostle wrote to the Thessalonians , If any man obey not our word by this Epistle , note that man , and have no company with him , that he may be ashamed , yet count him not as an enemy ; but admonish him as a brother . He alledges lastly , that which S. Paul wrote to the Corinthians touching the same incestuous penitent , that they ought to pardon him ; Lest Satan should get an advantage over us ; for we are not ignorant of his devices . What means the Apostle , sayes he , by these words , lest Satan should get an advantage over us , for we are not ignorant of his devices ? It is that under the appearance of a just severity , he sometimes perswades to a violent cruelty , desiring nothing more than to break the bond of peace and charity , well knowing that while that bond shall be preserved among Christians , he cannot hurt them , and that his devices and designs would vanish . There cannot be a more perfect example of that first separation given , than that of the Donatists in respect of the Church ; for as I have said already , they so absolutely separated themselves from it , that they did not own it to be any longer Christian in any manner , and therefore it was that they re-baptiz'd all those , who came over to their party . But we cannot also give a better example of the second , than that of the Church it self , in regard of the Donatists ; for although they would separate themselves from the Church , yet the Church did not fail to look upon them as Christians , and in some manner , as Brethren . The Donatists , sayes S. Augustine , are impious in going about to re-baptize all the world ; but as for us who have better sentiments , we dare not even disapprove of the Sacraments of God in a Schismatical Communion . In respect of the things about which we agree , they are yet with us ; and in respect of the things about which we differ , they are separated from us . This approach to us , and this separation , are not ordered by the motions of the body , but by those of the mind ; and as the union of bodies is made by the continuity of the places they fill up , so the union of spirits also is made by the consent of wills . If those who have forsaken the Vnity of the Church , do other things than those that are done in the Church , they are in that regard separated from her , but if they do that which is done in the Church they remain as yet in that regard in a common union . The Donatists are therefore with us in some things , and they are separated from us in some others . I cannot here avoid taking notice of the Error into which the Author of the Prejudices seems to have fallen , about the meaning of these words of S. Augustine in the second Book against Parmenianus , praecidendae unitatis nulla est justa necessitas . There is no just necessity to break off Vnion . For it seems that he thought that this Maxim regarded all manner of separation , not considering , that it only respects that of the Donatists , which consisted in the breaking the general bond of Christianity , and not that which consists in refusing our communion to those who corrupt Religion by their pernicious Superstitions and Errors . If he had taken the pains to have read ten or twelve lines higher , he had found that S. Augustine had strongly establish'd the necessity of separating our selves from Hereticks . S. Paul , sayes that Father , writing to the Galatians , manifestly forbids them to hear those who did not preach Iesus Christ , but a falshood and a lye . If any one should preach another Gospel to you than what you have received , let him be Anathema . He would that we should pronounce an Anathema against those who preach to us any thing beyond what we have received . He would elsewhere , that there can be no just necessity of breaking of unity : Who sees not that he must make a distinction , and that according to him , there is a separation that is good , just and necessary ; and another unjust , unlawful and schismatical ? Although this Distinction is unquestionable , yet I shall not fail to produce here a Canon that establishes it , out of the very Doctrine of S. Augustine , as clearly as we can desire it . It is in the Decree of Gratian under the name of Pope Vrban in these terms , Some men say , that when we excommunicate persons who have deserv'd to be excommunicated , we go against the Parable of the Gospel , where our Lord forbids us to pluck up the tares out of his field . They say also , that this contrary to S. Augustine , who assures us , that we ought not to divide its unity , and that we must tolerate the wicked and not reject them . But , first of all , we answer , that if we ought not to excommunicate the Hereticks and the wicked , S. Augustine would have done ill to have joyn'd himself to the Legates of the Holy Church of Rome , and to the other Holy Bishops to excommunicate Pelagius and Celestinus , and to separate them from the Church , because they brought in a new Heresie into it . But why also did the same S. Augustine , with the whole Church of God , hold the Donatists to be justly excommunicated , against whom these things are written ; and why did not they receive them into their communion , but only after signs of repentance , and the imposition of hands ? Jesus Christ who propounded the Parable of the Tares , did not he clearly ordain excommunication , elsewhere , saying , that if our brother would not obey the Church correcting him , we ought to reckon him as a Heathen and a Publican ? That which manifestly shews us , that it is one thing to excommunicate , and another to pluck up ; the Discipline of the Church excommunicates , but it does not pluck up . See here precisely that which S. Augustine himself said , non estis ad eradicandum , sed ad corrigendum . From whence the truth of that which I have said appears , that according to this Father , there is a bad separation , and that is schismatical in its own nature , and another that is not so ; and that although it is never permitted us to make the former ; yet it does not follow , that we may not make the latter , provided we do it upon just causes , and observe the rules of Prudence and Charity in it . We must therefore lay it down as a certain truth , that S. Augustine thought , that we might sometimes break the communion of the Sacraments and Assemblies , we are only concerned to know in what case he thought that that separation should be made . To make this point clear , I shall say , in the Sixth place , that when S. Augustine considered the Church in the meer mixture with the wicked ; that is to say , in the mixture with those whose manners are vicious and criminal , he taught , that those who are in office in the Church , may proceed to the excommunication of impenitent sinners , when those sinners are few in number , and when there is ground to believe , that they may disturb the peace of the Church ; but if the crime includes a whole multitude , and that the Body in general is infected , then he would that the good should content themselves to preserve their own righteousness , without partaking of the sins of the wicked , he would that they should groan under it , and pray to God ; but he would not that they should separate themselves . When the evil , sayes he , has seized the greater number , nothing remains for the good to do , but to groan and lament . And a little lower , If the contagion of sin has invaded the multitude , then it is necessary that Discipline should be used with mercy , for the counsels of Separation are vain , pernicious and sacrilegious . But when he considers the Church , not only as a mixture of good and wicked ; but also as a mixture of the truly faithful and Hereticks , I maintain that he has formally acknowledg'd the justice and necessity of a separation , not only in regard of some particular persons ; but in regard even of entire Societies , provided they go not so far as that which he calls Eradication . We have already noted that he would that we should according to S. Paul , pronounce an Anathema against those who preach another Gospel , than that which he has preached . But this very thing gives the faithful a right to reject the communion of Heretical Societies , and to separate themselves from their Assemblies . In his Book of the True Religion , he aggravates it as a very strange thing , and very much deserving to be condemn'd , that the Heathen Philosophers who had other sentiments concerning Divinity , than the people , should partake in the worship of the people . In their Schools , sayes he , they had sentiments differing from those of the people , and yet notwithstanding they had Temples common with the people . The people and their Priests were not ignorant that these Philosophers had opinions contrary to theirs touching the nature of the Gods , since every Philosopher was not afraid of publishing his opinions , and of labouring at the same time to perswade them and others , and yet nevertheless with that diversity of sentiments , they did not fail to assist at the publick worship without being hindred by any body . A man that speaks after this manner , would not think it ill , that any should separate themselves from Heretical communions . But he yet further explains himself more clearly afterwards . For he sayes , That if the Christian Religion should do nothing else but correct that vice , it would deserve infinite praises . And he adds immediately after , That it appears by the example of so many Heresies that have deviated from the rule of Christianity , that they would not admit to the communion of the Sacraments those who taught concerning God the Father , his Wisdom and his Grace , otherwise than the truth would allow them , and who would perswade men to receive their false Doctrine . — But that is not only to be found true in regard of the Manichees , and of some others who have other Sacraments than we , but also in regard of those who having the same Sacraments , have sentiments differing from us in other things , and errors which they obstinately defend ; for they are shut out from the Catholick communion , and the participation of those same Sacraments which they have common with us . From whence comes it to pass therefore , you will say , that S. Augustine seems sometimes to ascribe to the Orthodox the right only of a passive separation , in regard of Heretical Societies ? that is to say , that he would not that we should separate from them even then when they separate themselves . For he sayes in some place , that though the Traditors should have openly maintain'd in the Church , that their Action was good and holy , that is to say , that they ought to have delivered up their Bibles to the Pagans for them to burn them , and that though they should even have wrote on that subject , provided they had not set up their Assemblies apart , nor separated themselves , yet we ought not to have abandoned , for them , the good wheat : which signifies this to us , that we ought not to separate our selves from those , though their Doctrine whereof he had spoken was detestable , contrary to the faith , conscience and good manners . In effect , he speaks almost alwayes of the Heretical Societies of his time , as of those who were themselves cut off from the communion of the Church , and whom the Church had not rejected . I answer , that S. Augustine would have us suffer the communion of Hereticks in certain cases , but that he would have us also in other cases to separate our selves from them . While we are in no danger of partaking with their errors , neither in effect , nor in appearance ; but that we may preserve the profession of our faith pure , without consenting to impiety , or seeming to consent to it , and that there should not be on the part of the Hereticks that obstinacy of opinion , he would have us suffer their communion . For it is the manifest Doctrine of this Father , that in the Society of the Church , no one is responsible but for his own crimes , and not for those of others , at least if he take no part with them , or do not approve them , or consent to them . So that , while there is no obstinateness to maintain error , while there is no danger of being seduced , and while one is not bound to take any part in the evil , nor to hide ones faith and piety under the vail of hypocrisie , this Father yields , that we should have communion with Hereticks , as the ancient Prophets had communion with the Idolaters of their times , and as Jesus Christ and his Disciples had communion with the Pharisees and Sadducees , and were found among them in the same Assemblies . But when there is an invincible opinionativeness , and error is so deeply rooted , that there is no more hope of its being healed , S. Augustine would , in this case , that a man should separate himself from their communion . This is that which he teaches in the same Book of the True Religion , The Church , sayes he , suffers their error , while they have no accusers , or do not defend their false opinions with obstinacy ; but when they are accused , and defend themselves obstinately in their opinions , she separates them from her communion , which is formally to acknowledge the right of active separation in an Orthodox Church . And from the same we may evidently conclude , that this Father does not approve that we should remain in an Heretical Communion , when there is the least necessity of partaking in error , wickedness , or superstition , whether in effect or appearance ; and that he would on the contrary conclude , that in this case the good should separate themselves for the conservation of their own righteousness . But to give a yet greater light to this matter , we must note , that according to the Doctrine of this Father , every Society whatsoever it be , that determines a false Doctrine , and publishes Books of it , to teach it posterity , and who will have none receive its communion , but those who approve that Doctrine , in giving the Orthodox a just occasion to separate themselves , she her self first of all breaks the bond of Unity , and it is she that makes the active separation , and becomes schismatical . This is that which he teaches in his Treatise against Cresconius . This Donatist had said to him , that if he did not approve of the crime of the Traditors , if on the contrary it displeased him , he ought to fly from and abandon the Church of the Traditors . To answer to this , S. Augustine sayes , first of all , that though there should have been Traditors in his Church , yet he ought not to forsake it , while he did not communicate with their crime ; and that on the contrary , he condemned it , and laboured to correct it by preaching and discipline . He proves it by the example of S. Cyprian , who declaimed against the vices of the Church ; but who did not separate himself from it : and by that of David , of Samuel , of Isaiah , of Jeremiah , of Zachary , and other Saints , who cryed out against the Transgressors of the Law , yet without separating themselves notwithstanding . Since immediately after he adds , Is it that the Traditors have instituted some new Sacraments , or some new Baptism ? Is it that they have composed Books to teach others to do or imitate the action of the Traditors , or that they have recommended those Books to posterity , or that we hold and follow that Doctrine ? If they had done so , and suffered no person to have been in their communion , but those who would read their Books , and approve that Doctrine , I say , that they would have separated themselves from the Vnity of the Church , and if you saw me in their Schism , you would then have reason to say , that I were in the Church of the Traditors . These words note clearly what I have said , that when a Church teaches a false Doctrine , which it makes to enter into the use of the Sacraments , and that it would receive into its communion , none but those who approve it , it is not only just to separate from her , but it is she her self that breaks the bond of the Unity of the Church , and casts her self into Schism . But this is precisely that which the Church of Rome does in respect of us ; for she has not only decided as of faith , the Doctrines that we do not believe to be true ; she has not only set forth Books to teach those Tenets to Posterity , but she has cut off all those from her communion , who will not believe them after the manner that she teaches them . So that we have in this regard a just reason to say , that it is she that has made the active separation ; and if it be true , that we have reason in the foundation , it is she that has broken the Christian Unity , and to which the Schism ought to be imputed , and not to us , who are in a meer passive separation . From whence by the way , it further follows , that to the deciding the Question of the Schism that is between us , and to know which of the two parties is to blame , we must necessarily come to the discussion of the controverted Articles . For if the Church of Rome has decided nothing , that is not conformable to the Gospel , she has a right to reject all those from her communion , who refuse to believe her Doctrine ; we will grant this : But if she has decided Errors , it is certain also , that the necessity which she has imposed on others to believe and practise them in order to their being in her communion , renders her guilty of Schism . All depends therefore on the discussion of the foundation . For there is no ground left of doubting that according to the Doctrine of S. Augustine , it is not only permitted , but even necessary to the Orthodox in some certain cases , to be no longer joyned in the assemblies of those who teach those errors , and to live separated from their communion . We shall see in the close , whether that multitude and visible extension can take away that right from a small party restrain'd to a few persons and places ; for there remains nothing but this doubt to be taken away ; but to effect this , we must go on to the examination of the second Proposition of the Author of the Prejudices . The infallible and perpetual mark , sayes he , to know the Church by , according to S. Augustine and the other African Fathers , is a visible extension throughout all Nations ; because that visible extension according to them , agreed with the Church in all Ages , and that it is a negative mark ; that is to say , that every Society which has not that extension , is not the Church ; so that this arguing is alwayes just ; your Society is shut up in a small part of the world : therefore it is not the Church . It is , adds he , by this principle , that S. Augustine has disputed against the Donatists , and convinc'd them to be schismaticks . This Proposition is not less captious , nor less ambiguous than the former . For if the Author of the Prejudices means , that that visible extension is a perpetual mark of the Orthodox communion , that alwayes distinguishes it from impure or heretical communions , so that this Orthodox communion , as far as it is visible , can never be restrained to a few persons and places , it is certain that this was not the opinion of S. Augustine , nor that of the other Fathers ; and it is certain also , that the celebrated Authors of the Church of Rome reject the Proposition in this sense , as false and absurd ; and that in effect , it is manifestly contrary to experience . To set forth the truth of what I propound , I will begin with experience , and as that of our Age presents it self first to our view ; I say , that if we must act at this day according to the principle , That the true Orthodox Church ought to be visibly extended over all Nations , we must conclude , that there is no true Orthodox Church in the world . For it is most true , that of all the communions which at this day divide Christianity , there is not any one to whom this mark can agree . I will not say , that there are divers parties in the known world which have not so much as yet heard of Christianity , nor that there are others who after having received it , have absolutely rejected it to embrace the Mahometan Religion . I will not here speak of the Greek communion separated from the Roman , nor of the Coptick or Nestorian , or of the Jacobites , or Armenian , which evidently have not that visible extension throughout all Nations . I will only speak of the Roman and the Protestant as they are at present . He must , sayes the Author of the Prejudices , be wholly blind , that can dare to maintain , that the society of Calvinists , which is wholly shut out of Italy , Spain , Flanders , a great part of Germany , Swedeland , Denmark , Muscovy , Asia , Africa , of almost all America , is that which Jesus Christ has spread over all the world . But before he argues after this manner , he ought to take heed , that we cannot say the same thing of the Roman communion . For is it not true , that it is at this day excluded from Swedeland , Denmark , a great part of Germany , a part of Switzerland , a part of Greece , Muscovy , Africa , Aethiopia , Persia , Tartary , China , Japan , of the Indies , and from the greatest part of America ? And the Author of the Prejudices ought not to pretend the prevailing of some Colonies of Missionaries whom the Pope sends here and there to gain Proselytes . For since he will not have it , that we should gain any thing by the Colonies of English and Dutch , who have establish'd themselves in all the parts of the world , why would he help himself by the Missionaries and Pensionaries that the Congregations de fide propaganda maintain in foreign Countreys ? Why should they be more reckon'd for any thing , than those Colonies of English and Dutch , who have the exercises of their Religion , as free as those of the Roman Communion ? They are , sayes he , such Merchants as are in those Countreys , only for the sake of Trade . But do not those Merchants pray to God in the form of their Religion , in what Countreys , and with what design soever they are ? Is it that those Merchants being so much ty'd as they are to their Trading , make no open profession of their Religion , or that they have not in the greatest part of those places where they are , their ordinary Assemblies , with their Ministers , as well as the Missionaries ? He must yield in good earnest , that the Christians are now divided and separated from one another , about matters of faith and worship , in their different Societies , or communions , of which each one has its seat and bounds apart , beyond which we cannot say they are visibly extended , if we would speak with any reason ; and that there is no one that is throughout all Nations in the form of a communion of visible Society . From whence it follows , that all this dispute of the Author of the Prejudices , is but a beating the air , and which he can never apply to any real subject . The Experience of former Ages is not less contrary to the Proposition of the Author of the Prejudices , than that of our Age. For if we consult History , we shall find , that it has fallen out often , that an Heretical communion has spread it self every where , while the Orthodox communion was so limited , that it did not seem to take up any space . If in the time of the Arians , they had disputed by this principle , by which the Author of the Prejudices would decide our differences ; I mean if they would have treated that communion as Heretical , that was not visibly spread over all the Nations , and that as Orthodox which was , the Arians had easily overcome . The Heresie of the Arians and Eunomians , sayes S. Jerom , possess'd all the East , except Athanasius and Paulinus . S. Hilary sayes the same thing : The greatest part of the Ten Provinces of Asia , excepting Eleusius and some others , do not truly know God. In those time , sayes the Author of the Life of S. Gregory Nazianzen , the Church was oppressed by the Arian Heresie , many Bishops were banished and vexed by torments and calumnies a thousand wayes , many Presbyters , and many numerous Flocks were brought down to the utmost misery , exposed to the injuries of the weather , as no more having any house of prayer where they might meet . That Heresie had almost fill'd all the Earth , and it triumph'd , being upheld by the power of the Emperour ; so that good men had not so much as the justice of the Laws against the wicked . And because the Pastors , or to say better , the concealed Wolves , under the appearance of Pastors , had the liberty to drive the Orthodox Bishops out of the Churches , who alone were worthy to serve Jesus Christ the Soveraign Bishop , it hapned , that some overcome with fear , others deceived by fair words , others gained by money , others surprized through their own simplicity , embrac'd that Heresie , and opened their bosoms and gave their communion to their adversaries . This was that that oblig'd the Fathers to elevate the little number , and the little flock above extension and multitude . Where are those men , saith Gregory Nazianzen , who reproach us with our poverty , and insolently boast themselves of their riches , who would define the Church by multitude , and contemn the little flock ? They measure Divinity , they weigh the people in the ballance , they esteem the illiterate , and cover with injuries the lights of the world , they heap together the common stones , and despise the pretious , not remembring , that the more the thick darkness surpasses in number the Stars , the more the ordinary stones surpass the pretious in quantity , the more those Stars and pretious stones surpass the ordinary stones in purity and excellency . This Father , who had seen in his time the Hereticks masters of the whole Church , and their communion spread very wide and far in the East and in the West , while the Orthodox durst not appear , was so far from having the Faith and the True Orthodox Church to be regulated by that extension , that he made on the contrary , this extension a ground of reproach to the Arians , taking that for a mark of Heresie , which the Author of the Prejudices would have us take for a mark of Orthodoxy . Are you ignorant , sayes he , that the faith as miserable and forsaken as it is , is a thousand times more pretious , than impiety in splendor and abundance ? Is it so , that you prefer the multitude of the Canaanites , before one only Abraham , or all the inhabitants of Sodom , before one only Lot , or all the Midianites to one only Moses ? Notwithstanding you know , that these Saints were but strangers and foreigners among those people . I pray tell me , whether the three hundred that lapped the water with Gideon , were not more to be esteemed , than all those thousands , who cowardly forsook him ; whether the servants of Abraham who were few in number , were not to be preferr'd to all those Kings who with their innumerable Armies , were overcome ? But I pray yet farther tell me , how you understand that which is said , when the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea , a remnant only shall be saved ; and this other passage , I have reserv'd to my self seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal ? The matter will not go as you imagine ; no without doubt ; for God takes no pleasure in a multitude . As for you , you reckon your thousands ; but God reckons those who work out their salvation ; you heap up a great pile of dust ; but I assemble the vessels of election . There is nothing so great before God , as the pure Doctrine , and a soul that is filled and adorned with the Tenets of the Truth . S. Athanasius , or if you will Theodoret , is not less express about the subject of a small number , in opposition to that extension and multitude than S. Gregory Nazianzen . Shall we not , sayes he , hearken to Jesus Christ , who sayes , That many are called , and few chosen ; that straight is the gate , and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life , and few there be that find that gate , or this way ? What man of good understanding , will not rather chuse to be among this small number that enters into life , than to be joyned to this multitude that goes to perdition ? If we had lived in the age of S. Stephen , should we not have rather chose his party , though it should have been forsaken by all else , buried under stones , and exposed to all manner of reproaches , than the party of that multitude which thought that the faith ought to follow the greatest number ? One man alone who has the Truth on his side , is more to be esteemed , than ten thousand rash men , and this is what the Scriptures of the Old Testament confirm ; for when millions of men fell under Gods sword , one Phineas alone oppos'd himself in the breach , and put a stop to the anger of the Lord. If he had not resisted that torrent which bore down all the others ; if he had approved that which the multitude did , he had never himself been commended above all , he had never put a stop to the flood of divine vengeance , nor had saved that remnant , which was after that , the object of Gods mercy . It was therefore a thing worthy of praise , that one man alone should boldly maintain right and justice against the opinion of the multitude . Go if you will , and be drowned with the multitude that perished in the deluge , but give me leave to save my self in the Ark with that small number . Be consumed if you please with the inhabitants of Sodom , I shall not fail to go out of it with Lot alone . Thus these Fathers spoke concerning the state whereto the Orthodox communion might be sometimes reduced , and into which it had been in effect reduced ; which evidently shews us , that this visible extension is not a perpetual mark of the True Church , and that it is not so very necessary , that this arguing should be always just : Your society is not spread every where over the world ; therefore it is not the Church . This Vincentius Lirinensis has also acknowledg'd in his Admonition against Heresies ; for he acknowledges , that it may sometimes fall out , that Heresie invades the whole Church , and he makes a question what he ought to do in that case . What ought we to do , sayes he , when some new contagion endeavours to infect not one part only , but the whole Body of the Church in general ? Quid si novella aliqua contagio non jam portiunculam , sed totam pariter Ecclesiam commaculare conetur ? What visible extension could the Orthodox communion have throughout all Nations , in those unhappy times , in which the same Vincentius Lirinensis sayes , that the greatest part of the good were put to death , or imprisoned , or banish'd , or condemned to the Mines , or hid in Desarts and Caves , exposed to savage Beasts , to hunger , thirst and nakedness ? Horum pars maxima interdictis urbibus protrusi , atque extorres , inter deserta , speluncas , feras , saxa , nuditate , fame , siti , affecti , attriti , & tabefacti sunt . What visible extension could that same Orthodox communion have in the time wherein S. Athanasius cryed out after this manner , Who is there among the servants of Jesus Christ , that these rebells have not calumniated , or whom they have not lain snares for ? Who is there that the Emperour has not banished upon their false accusations , he who has alwayes so readily hearkned to them , who has alwayes so constantly refused to hear whatsoever should be said against them , and who never refused to believe all that they have said against others ? Where now a dayes shall we find a Church that worships Jesus Christ with liberty ? If Churches have any piety , they are in danger ; if they dissemble , they are alwayes in fear . The Emperour has fill'd all with wickedness and hypocrisie , as far as things depend on him . I know that there are every where many persons who have piety and a love of Jesus Christ ; but in what place so ever they are , they are forced either to conceal themselves , as the Prophets , and as the great Elias , till they find some faithful Abdias , who should hide them in a Cave , or to to go dwell in the Desarts . For it is most true , that these wicked men , make use of the same calumnies against the good , that Jezebell made use of against Naboth , and the Jews against Jesus Christ . And the Emperour , who stirs up himself to defend Heresie , and to overthrow the Truth , as Ahab overthrew Naboth 's Vineyard , refused nothing to the desires of these Hereticks , because these Hereticks also spake to him only according to his desires . The Fathers had then no regard to seek for the true Church either in that visible extension , or in that temporal glory or splendor ; or in a word , any where else , than in the True Faith , and there it is that they seek for it in effect . The Church , sayes the Author of the Commentary on the Psalms attributed to S. Jerom , does not consist in her Walls , but in the truth of her Tenets . She is where the true Faith is . For , as to the other , it is but fifteen or twenty years since the walls of these Churches were in the power of Hereticks . They possess'd all these Churches which you see . But the Church was , where the True Faith was . As the Author of the Prejudices has not scrupled sometimes to make use of the Testimonies of our own Authors , when he thought he could draw any advantage from them , he will not , it may be , take it ill , if I oppose to him also upon the subject about which we now dispute , the Testimony of two men famous in the Roman communion , and who well deserve to be heard ; the one is Driedo , whom Bellarmine calls a most learned man , and the other is Bellarmine himself , both very great defenders of the Church of Rome . See here therefore what Cardinal Bellarmine hath wrote in the name of both , in his Controversies of the Church . We must note , sayes he , according to the Doctrine of Driedo , that it is not necessary that the Catholick Church should have that extension in all places , all at once , or in the same time , that is to say , that there should be the faithful in all Provinces , and that it is enough if that be successively done . From whence it follows , that when there should remain but one Province alone that should retain the true Faith , this Province would not fail to be truly and properly called the Catholick Church , provided that we see clearly that it is the same Church , which sometimes or at divers times , is found spread over all the world . Could any one have more clearly contradicted the Author of the Prejudices ? He would that this visible extension through all Nations should be a perpetual mark of the True Church ; and these here say , that it is sufficient that it is sometimes , and even in divers times successively , he would that this extension should be the mark of the Church for all following Ages ; and these here maintain , that it is not necessary . He would that this reasoning should be alwayes just , your society is shut up in a small part of the world . Therefore it is not the Church ; and these here say , that when there should remain but one only Province that should retain the true faith , this Province would not cease to be properly and truly called the Catholick Church . But it may be that Bellarmine had not observed , that his opinion and Driedo's favoured the Donatists , and that it was contrary to the doctrine of S. Augustine . This may be so in effect ; not only because a man in writing may not have all things in view , but because also , at the bottom , the sentiment of these Doctors is very remote from that of the Donatists , and that it does not encounter that of S. Augustine . It is yet true , that Bellarmine saw that they could make that Objection , which he has prevented and answered ; this I say , to the end the Author of the Prejudices may see , that this which he has treated of as an Argument , and as a convincing Argument for which he has made two Chapters , Bellarmine has look'd on as a very trivial objection , which he proposes and resolves in a few words . They will say , sayes he , that this is to fall into the Error of Petilianus and the Donatists , who maintain'd that in truth the Church had been spread over all the world , but that it was afterwards lost in all the Provinces , and remain'd no where but in Africa , which S. Augustine disputes against . I answer , that the Error of the Donatists consisted in two things ; the first , that they would have it that the Church should be in Africa only in a time wherein it manifestly increased throughout all the world : the second , in that they could not connect their Church of Africa with that which had before been spread through all the world ; for in that Church there , they had alwayes good and bad , as S. Augustine proves , whereas they would compose theirs of the righteous only . This Answer of Bellarmine overthrows all the pretensions of the Author of the Prejudices ; for it establishes these following Propositions . 1. That Visible Extension is not a mark of the true Church , but in a certain time , that is to say , when we see it manifestly increase throughout all the world ; from whence it follows , that this mark is vain at other times . 2. That the Argument of S. Augustine concludes only for the time then being , by reason of that manifest fruitfulness ; from whence it follows , that it is very impertinent , that the Author of the Prejudices goes to apply it to these last Ages , wherein we maintain the field of the Church has been fruitful only in Errors and Superstitions . 3. That if the Donatists had accused all the world to have fallen into Heresie , and if they had said , by consequence , that it was not the time of fruitfulness for the Church , it had been in vain for S. Augustine to alledge to them the visible extension of his Church , to exempt himself from entring into the discussion of that accusation ; from whence it follows , that it is also in vain that the Author of the Prejudices propounds the visible extension of his , since we say that it is fallen into fundamental errors . 4. That the Argument of S. Augustine concluded , because the Donatists agreed , that his communion was Orthodox ; from whence it follows , that that of the Author of the Prejudices concludes nothing , since we question that Orthodoxy of his Church . 5. That by consequence visible extension is not a mark , that can make us know which is the True Church , when the dispute is between two Societies contesting that Orthodoxy between themselves , but at farthest only when the dispute is between two Societies that mutually own one another to be Orthodox ; from whence it follows , that the Author of the Prejudices makes use of this mark to no purpose , since our chief question is to know , whether the Church of Rome is Orthodox or no. All these consequences , which flow naturally from the answer of Bellarmine , contradict the Argument of the Author of the Prejudices ; and it concerns him to see after what manner he can decline the Authority of this Cardinal . But some will say , lastly , It may be Bellarmine was deceived , and that he had not well understood the state of the question , which was between S. Augustine and the Donatists , nor well comprehended the true Hypothesis of that Father . I confess that this may be ; but it may be also , that he did well understand it , and that the misconstruing should be on the side of the Author of the Prejudices . This is that which must be further cleared , and for this effect , we must note a thing that the Author of the Prejudices seems not to have comprized ; which is , that if the Donatists had accused the Society of S. Augustine of Heresie , S. Augustine had been very well able to have prov'd , that they were Schismaticks ; but that he had not notwithstanding been able to conclude from thence , that his Society was the True Church . The reason of this is , because they had broken the general bond of an External Call , that S. Augustine would have them obliged to keep , even in regard of Hereticks ; so that according to him , they might very well have been Schismaticks , although the Church which they had forsaken had not been the true Church . He prov'd therefore , that his Society was the true Church , only because they acknowledg'd it to be Orthodox , and did not lay to its charge either any Error in the Faith , or depravation in Worship . For in supposing that confession , it manifestly appears , that that time was a time of the increase of the Church , since it cannot be deny'd , that the Church does not then encrease , when the true Doctrine is spread abroad in all places , from whence would follow , that the Society that taught that true Doctrine throughout the world , was the true Church , rather than a small party that were shut up within one only Province . So that the Error of the Donatists consisted in this , in that they would have restrain'd the Church in their Africa in a time wherein it manifestly increased in all Nations ; and this increase was manifest , by the acknowledgement which they themselves made , that the Society that was spread over all the world was Orthodox . This is that precisely that Bellarmine would say : He would have S. Augustine reason after this manner ; in a time wherein it manifestly appears , that the Church encreases , it is an error not to acknowledge that Society that is spread over all the world , to be the true Church of Jesus Christ , in opposition to a small party . But in this time , it manifestly appears that the Church increases , since by your own confession , it is the true Doctrine , and not Heresie that multiplies it self . Therefore it is an error not to acknowledge at this time , the Society that is spread over the world , to be the true Church . This is in effect , the true reasoning of S. Augustine ; and Bellarmine is no wayes deceiv'd in it . But it clearly follows from thence , that according to S. Augustine , that visible extension may be sometimes a mark of the true Church in opposition to a small party ; to wit , then when the true and pure Doctrine is spread abroad every where , because that is the time of the increase of the Church : But it does not follow , that this mark is perpetual , since the time of that increase does not last alwayes . From whence it appears , that the arguing of S. Augustine can have no place in the question that is between the Church of Rome and us . In one word , then when we contest the title of the true Church with a Society that does otherwise own us to be Orthodox , then visible extension decides the question according to S. Augustine . But then when we contest that title with a Society that accuses us with false Doctrine , that visible extension decides nothing ; and the difference cannot be determined , but by the discussion of the foundation it self . S. Augustine alledg'd it in the former case , and the Author of the Prejudices alledges it in the latter . What need we to do more to set down this truth in its full evidence , and to give the Author of the Prejudices entire satisfaction ? Do we need to let him see that if they had accused the Society of S. Augustine of false Doctrine , that Father had not pretended in this case , that that visible extension should have decided the contest , but that he would have decided it at the foundation ? Need we to go yet farther , and to shew him that S. Augustine has formally acknowledg'd , that there have been in effect , times wherein the true Church has had no visible extension ? If we could shew him these two things , he would methinks have some reason to be contented , and to leave us in peace about this business of extension . Let us therefore endeavour to satisfie him about these two Articles . The first will be decided , if we here appeal to what I have related of that Father on the occasion of what Cresconius had said to him , that he ought to withdraw himself from the Church of the Traditors . Is it , sayes he , that the Traditors have composed Books , to shew , that we ought to do , or imitate their action ? Is it because they have recommended those Books to posterity ? Is it because we hold and follow that Doctrine ? If they had done that , and if they would have permitted none to remain in their communion , but such as would read those Books and approve that Doctrine ; I say that they would have separated themselves from the Unity of the Church , and if you saw me in their Schism , you would then have reason to say , that I am in the Church of the Traditors . We need no great learning , to understand by this discourse , 1. That S. Augustine had acknowledg'd , that if in effect his Society had determined a false Doctrine , if it had framed Books about it , and suffered no person its communion , who had not approved it , it had lost the title of the True Church , although that visible extension should have been secured to it . 2. That if the Donatists who were but a small party , had accused it , it would have admitted them to proof , without a wrangling with them about that extension . For he who sayes , Is it because we hold and follow that Doctrine ? makes us sufficiently see , that he would not have refused them liberty to come to a proof if his adversaries had said , that they held and followed it indeed . And it ought not to be said , that S. Augustine makes not that supposition only in regard of the whole of his Society , but only in regard of some Traditors ? For he makes that supposition in regard of that same Society that Cresconius had called the Church of the Traditors , and these words , Is it because we hold and follow this Doctrine ? leave no place for that evasion . See here the first Article ; the second is yet more formal in S. Augustine ; for no one can doubt , that he has not acknowledg'd , that there have been , in effect , times wherein the true Church has scarce had any visible extension . This is that which he has in his Letter to Hesychius , wherein he treats of the state of the Church in those miserable times , which Jesus Christ foretold in the four and twentieth of S. Matthew . Then the Sun , sayes he , shall be darkned , and the Moon shall not give her light , the Stars shall fall from heaven , and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken . The Church shall not appear , because the wicked becoming persecutors , shall no more observe any bounds in their cruelties . Temporal Prosperity shall accompany them every where ; so that seeing no occasion of fear , they shall say , peace and security to themselves . Then the Stars shall fall from heaven , and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken , because many in whom grace seem'd to be resplendent , shall yield to the persecutors , and some of the most firm among the faithful shall be troubled . The Church , sayes he , shall not appear , Ecclesia non apparebit . She will not therefore have then , that visible extension which the Author of the Prejudices would have to be her perpetual mark for all Ages . He further acknowledges the same thing in his Epistle to Vincentius , where he treats of the state of the Church under the Arians . There he teaches in express terms , That the Church is sometimes obscured and covered with clouds , through the great number of offences , that she is then only eminent in her most firm defenders , while the multitude of the weak and carnal is overwhelmed with the floods of temptation . That under the reign of the Arians the simple suffered themselves to be deceiv'd , that others yielding through fear , dissembled , and in appearance consented to Arianism . That indeed some of the most firm escaped the snares of those Hereticks , but that they were but few in number in comparison of the rest . That nevertheless some of them generously suffer'd banishment , and some others lay hid here and there throughout the Earth . I pray tell me , what visible extension could the Orthodox communion have then , which subsisted only in a small number of the firm , of whom even the greatest part had suffered exile , or lay hid here and there throughout all the Earth ? I confess , that History notes , that there were yet some small flocks in some places of the East and of the West , who set up their Assemblies apart as at Edessa , at Nazianzen , at Antioch , and in some Provinces of France and Germany ; but what was this in comparison of the Arian communion , which had fill'd the Churches , and held Councils , as we have so often proved . We must therefore seriously profess , that this visible extension is a vain and deceitful mark , when they would make it perpetual to the true Church , as the Author of the Prejudices would make it , and that no one could abuse with greater injustice the Authority of S. Augustine than he has done . We must profess also , that a small handful of the Faithful , a little party , have right to separate themselves from the whole multitude ; I mean , from a communion spread over all the world , which has on its side , the Ministry , the Pulpits , the Councils , the Schools , Titles , Dignities , and all that retinue of temporal splendour , when it has not the true Faith. For the rest , that which I have handled in this Chapter about the two former Propositions of the Author of the Prejudices , already sufficiently lets us see the falseness of his argument . For if he would take the pains to read this Chapter with never so little application , he will see all these following Propositions well establish'd there . 1. That in General , this Author has not compris'd the true Hypothesis of S. Augustine , nor the state of his dispute against the Donatists . 2. That he can draw no advantage from the divers wayes in which that Father conceived the word Church . 3. That the separation which that Father judg'd to be fit to be condemned and wicked , under what pretence soever it should be made , is wholly different from that which is between the Church of Rome and us . 4. That there is not any Christian Society from which one may not lawfully separate ones self , in a certain case and manner . 5. That that which is disputed between the Church of Rome and us being of this number , they must consider the causes and circumstances of it , rightly to judge of it , and not pretend to convince us of Schism , without entring upon any other discussion . 6. That according to the principles of S. Augustine , the Church of Rome is Schismatical , in respect of us , supposing that she is in error , because it is she that has broken Christian Unity , and that we are in respect of her , in a passive separation . 7. That it is absurd to make that visible extension , a perpetual mark of the true Church , which way soever they take it . 8. That this pretended mark is contrary to the experience of our Age , and does not properly agree to any one of these Societies , that at this day divide Christianity . 9. That it is contrary to the experience of the Ages past , and to the Doctrine of the Fathers . 10. That it is rejected in the sense of the Author of the Prejudices , by the famous Doctors of the Roman communion . 11. That it has no foundation in the dispute of S. Augustine against the Donatists . 12. That it is even directly opposite to the Doctrine of that Father . These are the just and natural consequences that are drawn from the things which I have handled in this Chapter ; I will examine in the following , the other Propositions of the Author of the Prejudices . CHAP. V. A further Examination of the Reasoning of the Author of the Prejudices , upon the subject of our Separation . THe Third Proposition of the Author of the Prejudices is already sufficiently confuted by what I have said . He sayes , that since our Society is not visibly extended throughout all Nations , therefore it cannot be the True Church . But we have shewn him , that we cannot at this day rationally attribute that visible extension throughout all Nations , to any of the Societies that divide Christianity , and by consequence , that it is a chimerical mark , by which we may conclude , that there is no true Church in the world , since there is none which is not visibly excluded from many Nations . We have shewn him also , that his pretended mark does not agree either with the experience of the Ages past , nor with the doctrine of the Fathers , nor even with that of the Doctors of the Roman Church ; and that instead of having any foundation in the Doctrine of S. Augustine , it is evidently contrary to him . So that we have nothing to do at present , but to go on to the Examination of the Fourth and Fifth Proposition . They bear this sense , That the Calvinists urge the principle of the Donatists far higher , than ever those Schismaticks did . For as for them , they did not say , that there was any time wherein the whole Church had fallen into Apostasy , and they excepted the Communion of Donatus ; whereas the Calvinists would have it , that there have been whole Ages , wherein all the Earth had generally apostatized , and lost the faith and treasure of salvation . That the Societies of the Berengarians , the Waldenses and Albigenses , &c. in which he sayes , that some of us include the Church , could not be that Catholick Church whereof S. Augustine speaks . To establish that which he layes to our Charge concerning the entire extinction of the Church , he first produces the testimony of Calvin . This is , sayes he , that which Calvin has distinctly declared in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans , where after having pretended , that the threatning that S. Paul uses against those who do not remain in the state of grace , where the goodness of God had sent the Gospel , in declaring to them , that they ought to fear being cut off , as the Jews , from the Covenant of God , he addresses himself to the whole body of the Gentiles converted to Jesus Christ . Ad totum Gentium corpus , adds he . And certainly , that horrible Apostasy of the whole world which has fallen out since , manifestly shews us , that this advice of S. Paul was not unprofitable . For God having diffused in so great an extension of Countreys , almost in a moment , the waters of his Grace , so that Religion flourished every where ; within a very little while after , the truth of the Gospel was vanished , and the treasure of salvation banished out of the Earth . But whence could that change come , unless from this , that the Gentiles were fallen away from their Call , and therefore it is that he clearly professes in a Letter to Melancthon , that they had separated from all the world . Plusquam enim absurdum est postquam discessionem à toto mundo facere coacti sumus alios ab aliis desilire . The Author of the Prejudices , yet further makes use of an Article of our Confession of Faith to prove the same thing , which sayes , That we believe , that no one ought of his own authority to thrust himself into the government of the Church ; but that that ought to be done by election while it is possible , and while God permits it . Which exception we emphatically add to it , because it has failed sometimes , and even in our time , in which the state of the Church was interrupted , till God had raised up men after an extraordinary manner , to order the Church a new , which was in ruine and desolation . Grounding himself on these two passages , he insults over Monsieur Vigerius , the Author of the Discourse in the Book of the Perpetuity of the Faith , because he had declared , That none of us had ever said , that it could be possible that the Church should no longer subsist , and that he defied Monsieur Arnaud to shew him one only Author among us who had thought so . Before he had expressed such desires , sayes the Author of the Prejudices , it would have been well to the purpose , that he had better informed himself about that which not only some Authors of his Sect have wrote , but the Master of all their Authors , which is Calvin , who sayes a great deal more than that which is contained in that Book of the Perpetuity of the Faith , since he looks upon the Church not only as possible to perish , but as having effectually done so for many Ages , so far as to say , that the threatning of S. Paul , which he pretends to be spoken to the whole body of the Gentiles , had its effect , that all the Gentiles had fell from their Call through a general Apostasy , that the light of the Gospel had vanished , in respect of them , and that they had lost the treasure of salvation . It is upon this foundation that he builds his Proposition , and pretends to make us pass for worse men than the Donatists . But all this is nothing else but an effect of the unjust and violent hatred that this Author has conceiv'd against us , and Monsieur Vigerius had reason to deny that which he has denyed . As the dispute here is only to know , what our Hypothesis is upon the point of the perpetual subsistence of the Church , it would be sufficient methinks to stop the mouth of the Author of the Prejudices , to tell him , that he troubles himself to no purpose , that we do not believe , that intire extinction of the Church throughout all the world , which he layes to our charge , and that he has mistaken the meaning of Calvin , and that of our Confession of Faith ; for there is no likelihood that he should better know what we believe , than our selves , nor that he should be a more faithful Interpreter of the sense of Calvin , and that of our Confession of Faith , than we our selves . Notwithstanding , to make the Character of the Author of the Prejudices more and more known , and what judgement we ought to make of that which he propounds , when he speaks with the greatest confidence , it will be good to relate here the testimony that Monsieur the Cardinal of Richelieu , has given to the Protestant Churches concerning that that they believe and teach upon the subject of the perpetual subsistence of the Church until the end of the world . For we might say , that he had the Author of the Prejudices in his view , and wrote about this matter only to confute him . There is not , sayes he , any point in controversie between our Adversaries and us , about which their Confessions of Faith speak so clearly , and agree so uniformly as this , which I may truly say ought not to be put into the number of the controverted points . The Confession of Ausburg , which may be said to be as ▪ well the Rule , as the source and origine of all the other Confessions of Faith of our Adversaries , sayes in express terms , that the Church ought perpetually to remain , one and holy . That of Saxony sayes , that the Article of the Creed which declares the Church Holy and Catholick , was inserted therein , only to confirm the faithful against the doubts that they might have of the stability of the Church . That of the Switzers , does not only affirm this truth , but sets down the same reason for it that I my self have made use of here above , since God , sayes it , would from all eternity that men should be saved , we must acknowledge this truth , that the Church has alwayes been for the time past , that she subsists for the present , and that she will do so till the end of the world . The Scotch holds this Article to be so undoubtedly true , that it compares the belief of it to that of the Mysterie of the Trinity , saying , That as the faithful believe the Father , the Son and the Holy Ghost , so they also constantly believe the perpetuity of the Church . The Flemish professes the same truth , and gives the reason , altogether founded upon the Regality of Jesus Christ , which being perpetual , supposes in all times some subjects , over whom he must reign . The French Confession alone sayes nothing upon this occasion ; but it is so far from saying nothing of it , through the difficulty that they found in this point , that on the contrary , the certainty which they had of it , was , in my opinion the cause of their silence . She does not therefore , it may be , speak any thing , because she did not think she could doubt of so evident a truth , of which her founders have spoke so clearly for her . Luther teaches it in terms so express , that he makes perpetuity to enter into the definition of the Church , as a quality that making a part of its essence , is altogether inseparable from it . He draws the duration of the Church from an Article of the Creed and the words of Jesus Christ , which bind us to believe it , saying that it is an Article of Faith taught in the Creed , and founded upon the promise of Jesus Christ , who ought alwayes to have a holy Christian Society in this world , that should subsist until the consummation of Ages . Calvin does not say less , and his words are not less express . We must , sayes he , hold it for certain , that from the beginning of the world , there never was a time wherein the Church of God was not , and there never will be , till the consummation of Ages , in which it shall not be . Vpon this foundation refuting Servetus , who maintained , that the Church had been banished from the world for a certain time , he sayes boldly , that to say , that God had not alwayes preserved some Church in this world , would be to accuse him of a lye , because he has promised , that it shall endure as long as the Sun and Moon shall . Beza speaks as the Flemish Confession , which acknowledging that the reign of Jesus Christ is perpetual , acknowledges also , that he ought alwayes to have subjects , upon whom to exercise that Kingly Office. Du Moulin and Mestresat , are not less ingenuous in this point , &c. Thus it is that Monsieur the Cardinal of Richelieu has justified us against the Author of the Prejudices . He could not , in my judgement , have spoken either more clearly or more strongly . In effect , they cannot without ignorance or calumny , ascribe that opinion of the intire extinction of the Church throughout all the world to us . We say indeed , and we say it with an extream grief , that the Church has been for some Ages in so great an obscurity , that we can very hardly see any traces of the natural beauty of Christianity shine forth there , Ignorance , Error , Superstition , as most thick Clouds have covered the face of Religion and the Government of the Church has fallen into so strange a disorder , that we can see nothing but confusion in all parts ; so that the Church could not but appear under a very deplorable condition under that Eclipse . This is that which Calvin means , by that intire defection of the world , whereof he speaks in the passage that the Author of the Prejudices has alledged , and that which is also represented in our Confession of Faith , by that ruine and desolation , whereinto we say the Church was fallen . But how great soever that ruine should have been , we do not believe as the Donatists do , that the Church had absolutely perished , or that it was intirely extinct through all the world . We do not so much as believe that it was restrained to those Societies which the passion of their enemies has laboured to cry down under the names of Sects , calling them Berengarians , Waldenses , Albigenses , Petro-busians , Henricians , Wicklefists , Hussites , &c. and over whom the Author of the Prejudices has insulted so fiercely after his usual manner . Those Societies were yet the most illustrious part of the Church , because they were the most pure , the most enlightned and the most generous ; but the Church did not wholly and entirely reside in them . For , not to speak of the little Children that dyed before the Age of discretion , and to whom we do not doubt that God was merciful , we are perswaded that while Errors and Superstitions might be seen to reign in their Pulpits , in their Books , in their Schools , and in the Councils , and that a great number were filled with them , that God preserv'd to himself amidst the people a considerable number of the truly faithful , who have kept their faith and their conscience pure , by reason of their simplicity , contenting themselves with the principles of the Christian Religion , adoring one only God , their Creator and Father , putting their confidence in one only Jesus Christ , dead and risen again for them : and as to the rest , living holily and Christianly with embarassing themselves either with the opinions of the School , which they did not know , or the Superstitions wherewith they beheld Christianity loaded , and which the sole instinct of their conscience could make them reject . We no wayes doubt , that even among the most enlightned persons , there has been a great number who have groaned under so many corruptions as they saw the Church afflicted with , and who in waiting for better times , have kept themselves , without bearing a part in them . But we say nothing upon this subject , but what the Fathers , and in particular S. Augustine , have said concerning the state of the Church under the domination of the Arians . For they have said two most remarkable things . First , That while the wicked and the Hereticks possessed the Pulpits , while they preached their blasphemies there , whilst they were Masters of the Councils , whilst they had the multitude and the powers of the Age on their side , while they persecuted the good to the utmost , and while all seemed to stoop under their yoak , God preserved in that corrupted Ministry , a considerable number of the truly faithful , who kept under the veil of their simplicity , their faith pure , receiving that which they preached of good to them , and not being infected with the bad . The second thing that they have said is , that there were those there , who being more enlightned and more strong in the faith than the others , opposed themselves to the Heresie of the Arians , and would not have any communion with them , suffering constantly their banishments , and the most cruel punishments for so just a cause . To justifie this truth , I shall only here set down that which S. Augustine has wrote upon this subject in his Epistle to Vincentius : but before I relate his words , we must note , that the Donatists precisely did that which the Author of the Prejudices has done , when he has abused some hyperbolical expressions that Calvin made use of , and the words of our Confession of Faith , to lay it to our charge , that we believe an entire extinction of the Church . For the Donatists after the same manner abused some passages of S. Hilary , in which that Saint had exaggerated the lamentable state of the Church in his dayes , under the domination of the Arians ; from whence they conclude , that S. Hilary had thought that the Church had entirely failed . It is therefore to refute this Objection that S. Augustine explains himself after this manner . The Church , sayes he , is sometimes obscured and covered as it were with clouds , by the great number of scandals , when the wicked take the advantage of the night to shoot against those who are true in heart . But even then , she is eminent in her most firm defenders : and if it be allowed to us to make some distinction in the words that God spake to Abraham , Thy posterity shall be as the Stars of Heaven , and as the Sand that lyes upon the Sea-shore . I mean , that we must understand by the Stars , some few persons more firm and illustrious than the others ; and by the Sand , the multitude of the weak and carnal , which in a time of a calm appears quiet and free ; but which is sometimes covered with the floods of tribulations and temptations . Such was the time whereof Hilary speaks in his Writings , which you artificially make use of to elude so many Divine Testimonies which I have set before you , as if the Church had perished throughout all the world . You may as well say , that there were no more Churches in Galatia , when the Apostle said , O foolish Galatians ! who hath bewitched you , that after having begun in the Spirit , you should end in the flesh ! for thus it is well nigh that you calumniate the learned Hilary , under a pretence that he censured the negligent and the fearful , for whom he has as it were so many birth-pangs till Iesus Christ should be formed in them . Who is there that knows not that in the time of Arianism , divers simple persons , deceived by obscure expressions , imagined , that the Arians believ'd the same thing with themselves ; that others yielded through fear and dissimulation , and consented in appearance to heresie , not walking in integrity in the way of the truth of the Gospel , you would see , you Donatists , that he had not pardoned those persons : for you are not ignorant of the doctrine of the Scripture upon this subject . Read what S. Paul has wrote concerning S. Peter : See afterwards , what S. Cyprian has thought was to be done on these occasions , and you will find , that it is to very ill purpose to blame the mildness of the Church , which gathers together the members of Iesus Christ , when they are dispersed , instead of dispersing them when they are gathered together . Howsoever it be , there have been yet some firm ones , who were sufficiently enlightned to know the snares of the Hereticks . They were indeed very few in number , in comparison of others ; but yet nevertheless , some of them generously suffered banishment for the cause of the faith , and others kept themselves concealed here and there throughout the earth . Thus it was that the Church , which increased in all Nations , preserved within her self the good Wheat of our Lord , and thus it is that she will preserve her self unto the end , till she extend her self over all people , and even over the Barbarians themselves . The Church therefore consists in the good seed that the Son of Man has sown , and of which it is said , that it should grow up , until the harvest , amidst the Tares . The field is the world , and the harvest is the end of the world . See here , after what manner S. Augustine declares his opinion concerning the state of the Church and its subsistence under the Arians ; since coming afterwards to speak of a passage of S. Hilary , which they had objected to him , he sayes , that we must understand that which he had said , not in regard of the good Wheat which was yet mingled with the Tares ; but only in regard of the Tares : or if his words had any relation to the good Wheat , we must take them as only designing to enflame the zeal of the fearful by such answers . And he adds that the holy Scripture it self frequently makes use of this way of expressing it self in general terms , which at first seem to belong to the whole body ; but which notwithstanding regard only a part . Habent etiam scripturae canonicae , hunc arguendi morem , ut tanquam omnibus dicatur , & ad quosdam verbum perveniat . We may now see very clearly , that we are so far from being like to the Donatists , as the Author of the Prejudices layes it to our charge , that we tread on the contrary , in the footsteps of St. Augustine . For first of all , our Hypothesis touching the subsistence and obscurity of the Church , is throughout conform to his . We say , as he does , that God has alwayes preserved his truly faithful in the very communion of the corrupted Church . We say , with him , that in the most violent entring in of Error and Superstition , God has not left himself without witness , since he has raised up , not only persons , but whole Societies , that have openly and couragiously maintained the truth , and withdrawn themselves from under the Roman Domination . And as to the passages that the Author of the Prejudices objects to us out of Calvin and our Confession of Faith , we give the same explication of it that S. Augustine gave to those of S. Hilary , which the Donatists objected to him : That is to say , that that defection of all the world , and that ruine and desolation whereinto the Church had fell , that Eclipse of the truth and treasure of salvation , are expressions that regard properly only the Tares that covered the Field of the Church , and not the good Seed which was mingled with those Tares . These expressions only regard the greater number of those who followed those Superstitions and Errors , and not those who in the midst of that confusion kept their Religion pure ; and much less those who had the courage to oppose themselves openly to Error , and to resist it even unto Persecutions and Martyrdom . I know that he has accustomed himself to form some difficulties and Objections against our Hypothesis ; but we have this satisfaction , to know , that he can make none that does not equally regard the Hypothesis of S. Augustine and ours , and to which , by consequence , the Author of the Prejudices himself would not be obliged to answer , if he would not act the Donatist . He confesses himself , that S. Augustine had acknowledged , that there might have been some Catholicks hid in Heretical communions ; and besides , he cannot deny , that the passage which I have set down , is express upon that subject . 1. If therefore he demands of us , who those faithful were , who before the Reformation , kept their faith pure , without infecting themselves with the publick errors ; and if he urges us to mark them out to him one after another , to tell him their names and their Genealogy , I will demand of him likewise , who were those good seed of S. Augustine , who under the Arian Ministry , preserved their faith , without being infected with Heresie ; and I will intreat him to mark them out to me by name , and to give me their history . 2. If he demands of us , how we understand those persons could with a good conscience live under a Ministry , where they taught Transubstantiation , the Adoration of the Eucharist , the Sacrifice of the Mass , the religious worshipping of Images , which we believe to be fundamental errors ; I will also demand of him , how he understands , that the good seed of S. Augustine could live under an Arian Ministry , where they taught , that the Son of God was not consubstantial with his Father ; and that the Father was not the Father eternally ; which are errors that the Author of the Prejudices himself judges abominable . 3. If he tells us , that our Fathers ought not therefore to have undertaken a Reformation ; but that they ought to have left things in the estate wherein they were ; since howsoever corrupted the Latin Church was , according to us , we could yet be saved in her communion : I shall tell him , that by the same reason , the Orthodox ought not to have taken care to have re-established the purity of the faith in the Church , nor to have extirpated Arianism ; since that however corrupted and infected the Church was with that Heresie , there was yet a way to work out their salvation in her communion , and under her Ministry . 4. If he sayes to us , that our Fathers ought not at least in reforming themselves , to have separated themselves from those who were not for a Reformation ; nor to have forsook their communion and assemblies , I will also say to him , that after this reckoning , the Orthodox in labouring to purge the Church from Arianism , ought not at least to have separated it self from those who would retain Arianism , but that they ought to have remained with them in one and the same communion , and in the same assemblies , which nevertheless they did not . 5. If he sayes to us , that the Berengarians , the Waldenses and Albigenses were Schismaticks , since they had withdrawn themselves from a communion , and a Ministry under which God yet preserves the truly faithful , I will likewise say to him , that those couragious men of S. Augustine were in this reckoning Schismaticks , since they had not less withdrawn themselves from that communion and publick Ministry , when that Ministry was in the hands of the Arians , as I have shewn by express testimonies . 6. If he tells us , lastly , that since we acknowledge , that they could have worked out their salvation under the Ministry of the Roman Church before the Reformation , we ought to confess , that we may yet at this day be saved in it , since things are in the same estate now , in which they were before ; I shall tell him , that the Arians could have raised the same objection against the Orthodox after their separation . For the Arians did not pretend to have changed any thing in the state of the Ministry under which S. Augustine acknowledged , that God had preserved the truly faithful . So that all the Objections which he shall make against our Hypothesis , will be common to those against that of S. Augustine ; and the Author of the Prejudices will himself be as much concerned as we to answer them . But not to refer our selves wholly to him , let us see whether those difficulties are of such a weight , as that there is no way left rationally to satisfie us . It seems to me therefore , that as to the first , S. Augustine has said , that it is great injustice to demand the names of those particular men , who kept themselves pure under an impure Ministry , since we do not keep a register of every particular man , nor of the state of their consciences ; and that it is sufficient to know in the general , that the promises that Jesus Christ has made , alwayes to preserve to himself a Church upon Earth , are inviolable , that we must not therefore doubt , that there has alwayes been good seed in the midst of the Arian tares . It is the same answer that we make , there needs nothing but to apply it . To the second , he has answered , that the simplicity of many among the people , who went not so far as to understand the bad sense of the Arian expressions , sheltred them under Heresie ; that many others of the more enlightned remained in silence , through the fear of persecutions , contenting themselves to keep their own faith pure , without partaking in the wickedness of the wicked , and without listing themselves up against it . In effect , it is a Maxim of Phoebadius , That it is sufficient to an humble conscience , to keep its own faith , without engaging it self to refute the belief of others : and it is one of S. Augustine himself , That no body can be culpable for the sins of another , nor by consequence , for the Heresies and Superstitions that infect a Ministry ; provided he take no part in them , and no wayes consent to them , either in effect or appearance . But this is yet the same answer that we make : for as I have already said , we do not doubt , that there was among the people a very great number of persons whose light went no further than the meer knowing of the chief Articles of Christianity , contained in the Creed , in the Decalogue and Lords Prayer , and who by consequence were hid under those capital Errors with which the publick Ministry was then loaded . We no wayes doubt , that in the midst of that darkness there were not a great many enlightned persons , who through the fear of persecutions , remained under the same corrupted Ministry , with the others , separating the good from the bad , discerning the Errors and Superstitions , taking no part in them , and living as to other things , in that hope that they should not be culpable for the sins of others . To the third , S. Augustine has answered , that it is an absurd Objection . For it is not more absurd to say , that we ought not to take care to heal a Disease , under a pretence that as great as the Disease is , life yet remains , than to say , that we ought not to take care to purge the Church and the Ministry from a Heresie that infects it , under a pretence , that there is yet a way to be saved in her communion and under her Ministry . That we must , on the contrary , labour as much as possibly we can , to re-establish Christianity in its whole frame , lest the evil should increase , and be made incurable through a too great negligence , and least that good which remains in the Church , should be wholly corrupted by the contagion of the evil . But this is also the very same answer that we make . Our Fathers ought to have employed all their endeavours to reform the Latin Church , by their Exhortations , by their Books , by their Sermons , by their Example , because that we ought alwayes as much as possibly we can , and as the time and our knowledge call us to it , to labour to settle Religion in a state of purity , lest in the end Errors and Superstitions render themselves universal , and the whole Church should perish through our negligence . For although Jesus Christ has promised us , that it shall never perish , yet notwithstanding this would be to tempt God , and to render our selves unworthy of his grace , to neglect the means that he gives us for its preservation , and that so much the more , as according to humane judgements , there was no other than that of the Reformation . To the fourth , S. Augustine has answered , That in labouring to purge the Church from Arianism , it was necessary that they should separate themselves from the communion of those who obstinately persisted in that Heresie ; and the fixed resolution that they testified to remain in it , was a sufficient cause to make them withdraw themselves from their Assemblies . But we answer with greater advantage , that our Fathers in labouring for a Reformation , ought to have forsaken the Assemblies of those , who not only were fixed in the opinion of having nothing reformed , and opposed themselves with all their might to hinder a Reformation ; but who went so far as to impose a new necessity on mens consciences to believe their Opinions , and even to excommunicate all those who would not believe them . As to the fifth , S. Augustine , did not intend to say , that those who had separated themselves from the Arians , when the Arians were the Masters of the Ministry , were Schismaticks , since he himself calls them the Stars of Heaven , the Couragious and Unshaken , firmissimi qui fortiter pro fide exulabant : he never meant to condemn their Assemblies which they made apart , to have nothing common with Heresie , since it was nothing else but the effect of that heroical courage which he ascribes to them , and of that ardent zeal which they had for the glory of God. In effect , S. Hilary praises some Bishops of France , Germany and Flanders , of whom he writes that they had separated themselves from the communion of those who held the Orthodox Bishops in Exile ; and in particular , he extolls those among them , who having appealed to a Synod of Bithynia remained firm and constant in the faith , and in gathering themselves into a communion among themselves , they separated themselves from the communion of the others . S. Augustine has therefore answered , that they were no wayes Schismaticks , for two reasons . The first is , because the causes for which they refused communion with the Arians , and withdrew themselves from their Ministry were just and lawful ; not frivolous and capricious , as those of the Donatists , but weighty and fundamental ; since they disputed about the Eternal Divinity of Jesus Christ , which the Arians would abolish . The second , because that although these couragious men of S. Augustine had renounced the communion of the Arians , and withdrawn themselves from their Ministry , yet they did not believe notwithstanding , that there was absolutely no more salvation to be had in the Society which they had forsaken . For , besides that receiving as they did , their Baptism from it , they could not doubt , that the Children who dyed before they were infected with that Heresie , were saved , they did not also condemn the simple and the weak , who remained unfeignedly in that communion , without taking part in the impieties which were taught there , so that their separation did not absolutely respect that Society ; but only the Hereticks that corrupted it . But this is that which we say concerning the Berengarians , the Waldenses , the Albigenses , &c. we need but only to apply the same answer to them . Lastly , as to that which regards the sixth Objection , S. Augustine has said , that there was a considerable difference between the time wherein the Arians made up almost the whole body of the Christian Church , and that wherein the true Doctrine was re-established in a great part of the Churches ; that the first was a time of oppression , and the other a time of liberty ; that in the former time there being scarce any more a visible communion on the Earth , under which the faithful might place themselves , they could remain under a corrupted Ministry , from which each one in particular had a right to separate the pure from the impure , in waiting till God should deliver his Church out of the hands of those bad Pastors . But in the second time , where the Orthodox and Arian communions were in a visible opposition , and such as was every where known , it was not possible for them to remain under the Arian Ministry , without having an Arian heart ; or at least , without falling into a detestable hypocrisie . For in the opposition of these two communions , this very thing that they should remain in the Arian , was a manifest condemnation of the Orthodox ; which they could not do , without being either Arians , or hypocrites . Moreover , in the former time those who remained out of necessity under the Ministry of the Arians , remained there in grief , and ardently desiring that God would procure them some means to get out of it , and to return to an Orthodox Ministry . But in the latter , God having given them the power to joyn themselves to a pure communion , they could not remain in the Arian , without loving and being pleased with it , through those worldly interests which they could never prefer before the Confession of a pure faith , without being injurious to God , without wounding their own consciences , without having a debauched and profane spirit ; and in a word , without binding over themselves to eternal damnation . Behold here , what S. Augustine has answered ; and it is no hard matter to judge , that we must answer them thus when they make the like Objections to us . We must distinguish between two Times , to wit , that which went before the Reformation , and that which followed it ; and by the same reasons which I have alledged , we will shew them , that although it was possible in the former time for some to work out their own salvation under the corrupted Ministry of the Latin Church , yet it does not follow , that we may do so at this day , under that of the Church of Rome , since those two communions are now found to be set in opposition . I shall not urge this matter further . We may now methinks , conclude from all that which I have handled in the foregoing Chapter and in this , that if there ever was a vain and ill-grounded Objection , that which the Author of the Prejudices has made against us , is certainly one of that nature . His Argument is founded upon nothing else but false or ill-understood Propositions . For it is not true , that S. Augustine believed that there was any particular Society among all those which make a profession of Christianity , from whose Assemblies one might not , in certain cases , depart and withdraw ones self from its communion . It is not true , that the Separation which is between the Church of Rome and us , is that which that Father has absolutely condemned , and for which he accuses the Donatists to be Schismaticks . It is not true , that he would accuse them of Schism without examining the foundation , by a meer passive Separation , as that is wherein we are , from the Church of Rome . It is not true , that he has taken that visible extension throughout all Nations , for a perpetual mark of the true Church . It is not true , that he would have that mark to decide the question of the true Church , when the Doctrine of it is disputed . It is not true , that we hold , that the Church before the Reformation , had perished throughout all the Earth . It is not true , that we reduce all to the Berengarians , Waldenses and Albigenses , &c. only . Lastly , It is not true , that the Doctrine of S. Augustine upon this subject , is any way contrary to us ; but it is true , that our Principles have all the conformity with his that any man can reasonably require . This is in my judgement , that which may be clearly collected from that which I have said . As the Interest that we have in the clearing of this matter , does not go much farther , I would here put an end to this Chapter and this Third Part , concerning our Separation , if the interest of Truth and Charity did not bind me to make a reflection upon a Proposition that the Author of the Prejudices has set before us , which is , that Schismaticks are out of a state of Salvation . For I hold , that this Proposition cannot be maintain'd after the manner that the Author of the Prejudices has propounded it , that is to say , absolutely , and without any distinction . I am not ignorant that to establish this rigorous sentiment , they produce some passages of the Fathers , who have in effect spoke of Schism in extreamly vehement terms , as if they had a design to exclude from the communion of God , and all hopes of salvation , all those in general who should be found engaged in it . But that very thing , ought to be an example to let us see , that we must not alwayes take according to the rigour of the Letter , all that the Fathers have said in the heat of their disputes . For unless we should be altogether unreasonable , we must place a difference between three sorts of persons who are to be found in a Schismatical communion . 1. The Authors of Schism , who usually are the Pastors and Guides of the flock . 2. Understanding persons , who take part in the affairs , and who very well knowing what they do , give their consent to Schism , and defend the Authors of it . 3. The people , that is to say , the ignorant persons who scarce know any thing that passes , or who know but very confusedly . And for that which regards the Authors and other intelligent persons , as it is most frequently , passion , interest , pride and ambition , that make them separate , and that all those passions turn them in the end , into an implacable hatred against their brethren , they deserve our condemnation ; for those crimes are incompatible with the Spirit of Jesus Christ ; and it is a manifest demonstration , that the world and its corruption reigns in the souls of those who are guilty of it ; we must therefore say of such Schismaticks as these , that while they remain in this condition , there is no hope of salvation for them , because that the true faith , the Covenant of God , and the communion of Jesus Christ cannot subsist under the reign of those brutal passions . But to imagine , that the whole body of a people , who are to be found engaged in a Schism , either through the faction of the more powerful , or a conscience prepossess'd by a zeal without knowledge , by a Piety too scrupulous , should be depriv'd of all hope of salvation ; this would be without doubt to fall into a very rigid Opinion . To make this clear by Examples , I have already mentioned elsewhere , that Victor Bishop of Rome excommunicated the Churches of Asia , upon the difference about the day of Easter , from whence there followed a Schism between those Churches and this of Rome . I do not now enquire to which of the two parties the crime of the Separation , ought to be imputed , either to the Asiaticks , who adhered too strictly to the custom of their Ancestors and the Authority of Polycarp ; or to Victor , who without Prudence and Charity , separated him from divers great and flourishing Churches , about a matter that was left self-free and indifferent in Religion . I only say , that this would be an horrible injustice , to condemn those people to eternal flames , who should be found to be engaged in that ridiculous quarrel , only through the capricious humours of their Bishops . In effect , we have seen , that notwithstanding this Schism , they did not fail both the one and the other to sit together in the Council of Nice . We must pass the same judgement of a Schism that fell out in the fourth Century , at Antioch , between the Meletians and the Eustatians , both the one and the other Orthodox and separated from the Arrians , but who nevertheless would not communicate together , because that although Meletius had preached and defended the Council of Nice , and suffered persecution for it , yet he had been created Bishop by the Arians , by reason of which , the other Orthodox would no more communicate with those of his party , which obliged them to hold their Assemblies apart . It was therefore a true Schism on one side and on the other ; but as it proceeded only from an excess of zeal on the side of the Eustatians , we ought not to pass a sentence of damnation so lightly against them . I say the same thing of the Schism that fell out about the end of the Fifth Century , between Acatius Bishop of Constantinople and Felix the Third Bishop of Rome , who mutually excommunicated one another , for the interests of John Talaia and Peter Mongus competitors for the Patriarchate of Alexandria . Acacius defended the side of Peter , whom Felix accused to be a Heretick , and an enemy to the Council of Chalcedon ; and Felix , on the contrary , upheld Talaia , whom Acacius had accused of Perjury , and to be unworthy of a Bishoprick ; and this Schism also lasted down to their Successors , thirty and five years between the East and West . But although Acacius , drawn in by intrigues to the side of an hypocrite , had wrong at the foundation , yet we ought not notwithstanding to believe that all those great Churches who kept communion with him , and defended his memory , after his death , were absolutely cut off from the hope of Paradise . In the Sixth Century , there was another Schism , whereof I have already spoken , which was very contentious , and embroiled , under the Emperour Justinian , Vigilius being Bishop of Rome , and Mennas Patriarch of Constantinople . The ground of the quarrell , was taken from the Writings that had been approved in the Council of Chalcedon , and which afterwards were condemned as heretical by the Emperour Justinian , and the condemnation was subscribed by Mennas and the other Patriarchs and their Bishops , Vigilius who was of another opinion , undertook the defence of those Writings , and excommunicated Mennas and the rest who had condemned them . But some Months after , he took off his Excommunication , at the solicitation of the Empress Theodora , to whom he owed his Bishoprick ; and which was more , in the following year , he himself pronounced an Anathema against those three Writings . But the Bishops of Africa , Illyria and Dalmatia persisted to defend them ; and those in Africa assembled in Council , excommunicated Vigilius , as a dissembler . Some time after Vigilius repenting himself of that which he had done , undertook a second time the defence of those Writings . Justinian , on the contrary , made an Edict , by which he renewed their condemnation ; and Vigilius , on his side , excommunicated all those who should consent to this Edict . In fine , the Fifth General Council assembled at Constantinople , where in spight of all the Decrees of the Bishop of Rome , the three Writings were condemned , and all those who should approve them were excommunicated . Vigilius persisting in his opinion was banished , and dyed some years after . But his Successors , Pelagius and Gregory approved the Council , and subscribed to what had been done there ; and it was in fine , generally received by all , and reckoned for a Fifth General Council . We must acknowledge , that if the people were to be saved or damned according to the good or bad conduct of their Pastors , Heaven and Hell would be very miserably dispensed , while the time of those disorders lasted . For our adversaries themselves are constrained to confess , that this quarrell that made so great a noise , that produced so many Excommunications , so many Separations , so many acts of violence , and so many banishments , and which ended by the dishonour of the Council of Chalcedon , was founded upon nothing but a personal animosity , sayes Baronius , or as Sirmundus sayes , upon an indifferent controversie , which concerned nothing the doctrine of the faith , on which side soever it had been decided . If we must therefore judge according to the relation of these two Authors , all that we can say is , that both the parties were equally Schismatical , who violated the peace and unity of the Church without any just reason : and who mutually excommunicated one another for nothing : and if we add that rigorous judgement against the Schifmatical Societies , without any exception or distinction , we must say , that there was then no longer a true Church upon the Earth , nor any hope of salvation . But to go yet further ; If all those who live in the communion of Schismaticks , are out of the Church , in a state of Damnation , I would fain have them satisfie me about some difficulties that I find in the History of the same Vigilius . For the two first years of his Papacy , it was he that was called , a false Pope , a Schismatick , an Usurper of the Bishoprick of Sylverius , whom the Hereticks had banished , to set up this man , who had promised them to communicate with them . And in effect , Liberatus and Victor of Tunis relate , that after he was in possession of the Papacy , he wrote to the Hereticks , as having the same faith with them ; and Bellarmine declares , that at this time , Vigilius was an Anti-Pope and a Schismatick ; because that Sylverius the lawful Pope , was yet living , and there could not be two lawful Popes at the same time . Baronius and Petavius say the same thing . Notwithstanding it is true , that during these two years of Schism Vigilius was peaceably acknowledged to be the Bishop of Rome , both by the Church of Rome and by all Christendom . No Church refused to live in his communion , no Bishop withdrew himself from him as a Schismatick . He performed without any opposition all the Functions of his Bishoprick , he received the honours , and had the profits of it . All the Earth was then Schismatical with him , and by consequence , there was no further either a Church or Salvation in the World , if it was only in the person of Sylverius and some Bishops who had subscribed to the Sentence of the Deposition and Anathema that Sylverius being in Exile pronounced against Vigilius , and against all those who should adhere to him . After this I would fain have them tell me , how Vigilius could pass from the state of a Schismatick , to that of a true Pope . It was , say Baronius and Bellarmine , by the consent of the Clergy and People of Rome , who assembled together and chose him lawfully after the death of Silverius . But besides that , this new Ordination of Vigilius , and this Assembly of the People and Clergy , is an effect of the invention of Baronius , which is grounded upon nothing but one word of Anastasius the Popes Library-keeper , who lived above three hundred years after ; besides this , I say , that the People of Rome and that Clergy , had not they themselves lost through Schism , the form of the true Church ? how was it restored to them ? how could they re-establish themselves ? Who gave that right to a company of Schismaticks cut off from the communion , and the covenant of Jesus Christ , to make a Rebell , a Schismatick , an excommunicated person , a man that by the sentence of Sylverius could not perform any Sacerdotal Function , to make such a one , I say , a lawful Pope ? See here already some inconveniencies considerable enough , that flow from that rigorous sentiment ; but if we would go yet further , we may find it may be others that are not less severe . For what will they say to the Schisms that fell out so frequently in the Latin Church through the concurrence of Anti-Popes ? Will they dare roundly to pronounce , all those people who have lived and dyed , under the obedience of those false Popes , and who by consequence having been engaged in a true Schism , have been totally cut off from the Christian Communion , and deprived of salvation ? Let the Author of the Prejudices , who has taken such pains to damn the World without any mercy , take the pains if he pleases to examine one matter of fact , that I will set before him , and which should be enough , methinks , to decide this Question , at least in regard of him . It is this , that during the great Schism of two Anti-Popes , which was ended at the Council of Constance , there were Saints that the Church of Rome has canonized , and whom it prayes to , who lived and dyed under two contrary obediences , and who by consequence dyed , both the one sort and the others , in a true Schism . For in the year 1380. S. Catherine of Siena dyed under the obedience of Vrban the Sixth , in the year 1381. S. Catharine of Swedeland , the Daughter of S. Bridget dyed under the same obedience . In the year 1395. S. Margaret of Pisa dyed under the obedience of Boniface the Ninth , in the year 1399. S. Dorothy of Prussia dyed under the obedience of the same Pope ; and in the year 1405. S. William the Hermite of Sicily dyed under the obedience of Innocent the Seventh . On the other side , in the year 1382. S. Peter of Luxemburg dyed under the obedience of Clement who was the Anti-Pope of Vrban ; and some time after S. Vincent of Ferrara lived , and wrought Miracles in the party of Benoist the Anti-Pope of Gregory the Twelfth . Behold here Saints of both sides , and yet one or the others must of necessity have been Schismaticks . From whence it appears , that the Church of Rome her self is concerned to oblige the Author of the Prejudices to moderate his style , and not to take as it seems he has done , that which the Fathers have said in disputing against the Schismaticks , in its utmost latitude . But although all that I have said , should have no place , the holy Scripture distinctly decides this difficulty . For if he would but read the History of the Ten Tribes of Israel , after they were separated from that of Judah , at the instigation of Jeroboam , he will find that they were in a real Schism , since they had forsaken the Worship at Jerusalem , and had built new Altars , against the express commandment of God ; and yet nevertheless that did not hinder God from preserving his truly faithful and elect , even in the midst of them . For there were those seven thousand who in the time of Elias had not bowed the knee to Baal , and whom S. Paul calls the remnant of the Election of Grace , were not these Israelites engaged in a bad party ? Had not God his Prophets and his Altars yet among them ? Lord , said Elias , they have killed thy Prophets , and thrown down thy Altars . And the hundred Prophets of God that Obadiah hid in two Caves , to withdraw them from the persecution of the Idolatress Jezabel : the Altar of God that Elias repaired in Carmel , to sacrifice there by the miraculous fire that fell down from Heaven to consume the victim , the calling of Elisha and Micaiah ; and in a word , the whole History of those schismatical Ten Tribes , does it not evidently note , that God looked on them as his true Church , in which there was yet a means to be saved ? We must not therefore abuse that which the Fathers have wrote against Schismaticks , in intending to aggravate their crime , and to draw them from it ; nor must we take their expressions in the whole rigour of the letter . Their meaning is not , that all those generally who are found engaged in a Schismatical Communion , even down to Tradesmen and Labourers , who remain there with an upright heart , and through the prejudice of their consciences , are out of the Church , and eternally damned ; but that the Authors and Defenders of Schism , who run into it , through their personal interests , or out of a spirit of fierceness , pride , and an hatred incompatible with the Spirit of Jesus Christ , commit a horrible crime ; and that while they are in that state , they remain deprived of all hopes of salvation . That if the Fathers have said any thing more generally , and which cannot be thus restrained , it is just to understand it in a comparative sense ; that is to say , that setting that Schismatical party of the Church , in opposition to that which is not so , the hope of salvation appears evidently in this , which it does not in the other , where it is obscured by that Schism . The End of the Third Part. An HISTORICAL DEFENCE OF THE Reformation ; Against a Book Intituled . Just Prejudices against the CALVINISTS . THE FOURTH PART : Of the Right that our Fathers had to hold a Christian Society among themselves , by Publick Assemblies , and the Exercise of the Ministry . CHAP. I. That our Fathers had a Right to have their Church-Assemblies separate from those of the Church of Rome , on the supposition that they were right in the Foundation . THE Order of the Matters of this Treatise requires , that we now go on to that Separation which the Author of the Prejudices calls Positive ; and that after having confirmed the Right that our Fathers had to Examine the State of Religion and the Church in their days , after our having shewed the indispensable necessity that lay upon them to forsake the Assemblies of the Church of Rome , and to live apart from her Communion , that we also establish the Right that they had to set up a Christian Society among themselves , notwithstanding their going off from the other Party , who were not for a Reformation ; and to make up alone , and apart , a Body of the Church , or an External and visible Communion . This is that which I pretend to establish in this Fourth and last Part , and to that end I shall here Treat of two things : The first shall respect the Right of those Publick Assemblies , and the Second shall be , concerning that of the Gospel Ministry wherein our Function lies . Howsoever these two things have a dependance one upon another , it will yet be well to Treat of them with some distinction . To make the First clear , I shall first lay it down as an indisputable Truth , That the Right of Religious Assemblies naturally follows that of Societies ; I mean , That as far as a Religious Society is Just and Lawful , so far the Assemblies that are therein made are Just and Lawful ; and that on the contrary , as far as a Society is unjust and wicked , so far its Assemblies are so too . This Principle is evident to common sence , and it is for that Reason that we condemn the Assemblies of the Heathens , Jews , and Mahometans , as Unlawful and Criminal , because their Societies are impious and wicked ; and that having no right to be united , to believe and practice those Errors which they believe and practice , they have also no right to Assemble themselves together in order to make a Publick Profession . It is for the same Reason that we hold on the contrary , the Christian Assemblies to be not only Just and Allowable , but to be necessary and commanded by Divine Right , because the Christian Society , that is to say the Church , is it self also of Divine Right . It is then True , that the Right of Assemblies follows that of Societies . But we must further suppose , as another evident and certain Truth , That our Fathers before the Reformation were Latin Christians , living in the Communion of the Latin Church , in which they made as considerable a party , as the rest of the Latins ; and that from Father to Son , throughout a long succession , Time out of mind , they enjoyed with the others the rights of that Society . That they were equally in possession of it with the other common Assemblies of that Religion , having a part in the Ministry , in the Churches , in the Sacraments , in the publick Prayers , in the Reading and Preaching of the Word ; and that as far as the communion of the Latin Church was lawful , so far the part that our Fathers had in it was lawful also . That it was not a company of Strangers , or unknown persons come from the utmost parts of America or the Southern Lands , nor a sort of People dropt down from the Clouds , who were newly joyned together with them in the same Society , but Persons , and whole Families setled a long time ago , who were joyned together with them in the Profession of the Christian Religion many Ages before , and who by consequence were in possession of the Rights of that Society . Although had they been Strangers , Americans , and Barbarians , on whom God should have suddenly bestowed the Favour of Calling them to the True Faith and the True Holiness of Christanity , yet we could believe that by that thing alone they would have been invested in all the Rights of that Society , as much as if they had had it by a long possession , time out of mind . But howsoever it be , they were Christians from Father to Son , and neither their blood nor their birth did distinguish them from the others . We are now concerned only to search out whether that which hapned to our Fathers , that is to say their Reformation , their Condemnation by the Popes and by their Council of Trent , and their Separation from the Church of Rome , can be able to spoil them of all their Rights . For if it be True , that they were fallen off , either by their own ill Carriage , or by the meer Authority of the Church of Rome , we must yield that our Assemblies are Unlawful and Criminal ; but if on the contrary , they were not so fallen off , if that which hapned to them , did nothing else but confirm their Right and render it more pure , more just and more indisputable , they ought also to come to an agreement with us that our Assemblies are Holy and Lawful , even in a far greater degree then they were before . To begin that Disquisition with the Condemnation of the Popes and their Council : I confess , that if it were the Court of Rome , that out of its pure Liberality should Communicate Christianity to those only whom it should please , and that none could either have or preserve it but by the continual influence of its Favour , after the same manner as we have the Day by the influence of the Sun , it would depend on her and her Councils , to take it from us whensoever she should see good with all its Rights and Priviledges . We might very well say that it would be too injurious to take it away from us , that we did not deserve so hard a Treatment , yet we should be deprived for that very Reason , when she should have taken them from us , whether it should have been with Justice or against it , with or without any reason . But we do not believe that either the Court of Rome , or its Council , or that all that party who have followed them , though it should have a thousand times greater strength and Authority then it has , would carry their pretensions so high as to imagine that it depends on their meer good pleasure to bestow on , or to take away Christianity and its Rights , I do not say from an innumerable multitude of Men , as that is which makes up the Body of the Protestants , but even not so much as from two or three persons who should be assembled in the Name of Jesus Christ . Saint Paul has said indeed , Who art thou O man that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed , say to him that formed it , Why hast thou made me thus ? Has not the Potter of the Earth power out of one and the same clay to make one Vessel to honour , and another to dishonour ? And by these words he gives us to understand the absolute Power that God has to make us whatsoever it shall seem good to him . But he has Taught us nothing of the like Power concerning the Pope and his Councils , he has not said , Who are you that contend against Rome ? Nor has he ascribed to him the power to make and destroy us as it shall please him . In effect , There is none but God alone on whom our Christianity depends , it is his Favour that has given it to us , his Spirit and his word have formed it in us , and his Apostle has Taught us to say with a Holy boldness , That there is no Creature either in Heaven , or upon the Earth that can be able to Separate us from his Love. We ought then to lay aside that Soveraign and absolute Authority , and to come to the causes or reasons that could have been able to move the Court of Rome , and its Council to condemn the Protestants , and to deprive them of their Rights ; for if those causes are not only vain and frivolous , but unjust , and contrary to the Christian Faith and Piety , as we maintain them to be , a Condemnation of that Nature cannot but fall back upon those who have thrown it , since they themselves have broken the Christian Unity ; so that their ill Carriage has made them justly lose that of which they would unjustly deprive the others . And because in those kinds of Contests , That which one Party loses by its injustice and its obstinacy in Error , is recollected and restored in the other Party , which does its Duty , The Condemnation of the Council of Trent being ill done as we suppose , cannot but have heightned and strengthned the Rights of the Protestants . As to the Reformation , it is not less True , that if that should be found to be indeed Conformable to the Word of God , and the inviolable Laws of Christianity , as we suppose that it is ; I mean , if the Things that our Fathers rejected were indeed Errors and Superstitions contrary to the ▪ True Faith and Piety , as we maintain them to be , so Holy an Action would be so far from depriving our Fathers of the Right of that Christian Society , that on the contrary it could not but fortify that Right , and render it more lawful then it was before . For before the Reformation , That Society was , as I may so say , a Composition of good and evil , of Justice and Injustice , by reason of those Errors which were mixed with the true Doctrine , and those Superstitions which were to be found in conjunction with that Religion ; whereas the Reformation having freed it of that which it had of impurity and dross , has without doubt put it into a far more Holy State , and much more agreeable to God. How prejudiced soever they may be , they can never maintain it , That Error and Superstition should establish any right of Society , nor deny , that , as they are in their own nature more worthy of the Aversion of God and men , then their Approbation , they render those Societies unlawful and criminal . For although all the World by a Universal Consent should be united in believing a Heresy , or practising an Idolatrous Worship , That consent how General soever it should be , would not change the natures of things ; Heresy would be always Heresy , and Idolatry Idolatry , and in that respect the Agreement of all mankind would make up a wicked and unjust Society . Whence it follows , That a mixt Communion is only lawful in proportion to that which it has of good , and that as its Justice is lessened when its Corruptions increase , so its Justice also increases when its Corruptions are lessened . We ought not then to imagine that the Reformation of the Protestants has deprived them of the Right of that Christian Society , but we ought to assert on the contrary , That it has put them in that respect into a far more advantageous condition then they were in before . There is nothing further remaining but that Separation , which was but by accident , as they speak , the Consequence of the Reformation : if the whole Latin Church had done her Duty , she would have reformed her self as well as our Fathers . But the Court of Rome and its Clergy would not , and that Refusal has caused that breach of Communion which is fallen out between the two Parties . It concerns us to inquire , Whether even upon supposition that that Reformation was Just , and by consequence that that Refusal of it which they made was unjust , That Separation could lawfully hinder our Fathers from holding a Christian Society among themselves . But this is what they cannot maintain with the least colour of Reason . For if the Reformation was Just , and if the Refusal which they made was unjust , how can the injustice of that Party which should have forgot its duty , and which would have constrained the other Party to have forgot it too , deprive the other Party of those Rights that Faith , Holiness , The Fear of God , and the Communion of Jesus Christ , have naturally given it ? Must Injustice needs Triumph over Justice , and Error over Truth ? Is it that the Rights of that Society were so inseparably joyned to those who opposed the Reformation , that that Society could not subsist without them , and that separating themselves out of the motives of an ill-grounded Prejudice , or in giving a Just ground to others to separate themselves from them , they should have carried away all that Society with them ? This cannot be said , For among all those persons who compose the Body of the Visible Church , it is certain that there are none , to how high Dignities soever they may be raised , and whatsoever number of them there may be , that are such Essential Parts , as without which the Church cannot subsist , while there are two or three remaining who may assemble together in the Name of Jesus Christ . For Jesus Christ himself restrained himself to that Number , When two or three of you are gathered together in my Name , I will be in the midst of you . Jesus Christ himself alone , his Truth , his Gospel , his Providence and his Spirit are essential to the Church , without which she can never subsist , but she may without the Pope , without the Court of Rome , without the Council of Trent , without the Bishops , and without the people who follow Rome , and in a word , without that whole Party which refused the Reformation . The Christian Society does not depend on their capricious humours , nor on their Temporal Interests . They are not the Soul of that Body , They will be Members of it while they make profession of the True Faith , or at the furthest while they do not oppose it , but when they shall obstinately remain in Errors incompatible with the Communion of Jesus Christ , and when they shall break by unjust Anathema's the bond of that Society , We may very well say that the Body of the Visible Church is Lessened , but we can never say that their withdrawing leaves the Faithful under a Dispersion . The better to understand this Truth , we must know , That although that External Society be common to the good and the bad , to the truly Faithful , to Hereticks , and the men of the World , in a word to all those who are found to be externally mingled in the Body of the Church , yet in effect , the Right of that Society will not , to speak properly , belong to any but the truly Faithful . For the wicked , the Hereticks and those Worldly men who fill up their Assemblies , are only associated here while they remain such , in dishonouring God , by the Contempt they have of his word , and the Indignities they offer in receiving his Sacraments . Therefore God said to the wicked in Isaiah , When you come to appear-before me , who has required this at your hands to tread my Courts ? And in the Fiftieth Psalm David assures us , that God has said to the wicked , What hast thou to do to Read my Laws , and to take my Covenant into thy Mouth ? Since thou hast hated instruction , and hast cast my Words behind thee . It is certain then that the right of the External Society resides in the Faithful only , who only are the Church of Jesus Christ , his Mystical body for which he dyed , the Seed which he sowed with his own hand against his harvest . As to the rest , they are in that Communion only by Accident , and are the seed of Tares which the Enemy rising at night has thrown into the Field of the Son of God , and which grows with the Wheat until the Time of the Harvest , and it is also only by Accident that they are suffered there , to wit , because most commonly their wickedness is not known , or if it be , their Conversion may yet be Charitably hoped for , or in fine , it may fall out that in going about to pull up the Tares , one must also pluck up the Wheat with it . But being what they are , they have not any part in the rights of that Society and of those Assemblies . Therefore Jesus Christ has promised his presence to none but such as shall be assembled together in his Name , And Saint Austin expresly Teaches that the Power of the Keys , and that of binding and loosing was given to the Church of the Just and true Believers , in opposition to the wicked , to Hereticks , and to the men of the World that are mixt with them . And it is said of that Church only so considered in that same opposition , what Jesus Christ has said in the Gospel , If thy Brother sin against thee , tell it to the Church ; and if he refuse to hear the Church , let him be unto thee as a Heathen man and a Publican . Which lets us see that he gave only the truly Faithful the Right to be in a Society , for there those only have a Right to be in a Religious Society , who have the power of binding and loosing , and of hearing those private complaints to Judge concerning them . But according to him , the truly Faithful have only that power , and it is only to those that Jesus Christ has given it . They are then none but those , to speak properly , in whom the Right of being in an External Society , and of making those Assemblies , resides . That being so laid down , who sees not , that when it falls out that the Body of that mixed Church is divided into divers parties , about those important matters that respect either Faith , or Worship , or the General Rules of Manners , all the Rights of that Christian Society remain in that Party which retains true Doctrine and Piety , because it is on that side that the truly Just and Faithful place themselves . There it is that the true Church of Jesus Christ is assembled in his Name , to which he has promised his presence : for as I have before said , Error , Superstition and Injustice , give none a Right to be in a Society , nor by consequence any to make those Assemblies . But , they will say , if the Body of the Pastors be found in the other Party , if External Splendor , Multitude , Extent , Succession , Authority of Councils are found there , can any one forbear acknowledging it to be the Body of the Church ? There are seen amongst them the Pulpits , Schools , Churches , Bishopricks , Benefices , Revenues , Dignities , and in a word , all those advantages that mark out the Body of the Visible Church . A Party that is in that condition , cannot suffer that any should put its Rights in Question , its Assemblies pass for lawful throughout all the World , and the Assemblies only of the other Party are here Treated of , who finding themselves spoiled of those advantages , cannot be considered otherwise then as a Sect divided from the Body , as a Branch separated from the Tree , or as a Ray divided from the Sun , according to the comparison of the Fathers . I answer , That those Divisions that fall out in a mixed Church may be of two sorts , for sometimes they are founded only upon personal accusations , or points of Discipline , or light and less important Questions , the Foundation of the Orthodox Doctrine , and true Worship remaining intire in both Parties . Of this sort were the Divisions of the Novatians , the Donatists , the Luciferians , as it has been noted in the Third Part. But sometimes the ground of those Divisions is taken from Doctrine , or Worship , or the general Rules of Manners , and consists in those things that are acknowledged by both sides to be weighty and essential , and in this Rank we may place those Divisions which arose in the Antient Church , by reason of the Samosatenians , the Arrians , the Macedonians , Nestorians and Eutychians . I acknowledge , that when the Question is only about Divisions of the former sort , we cannot rationally hinder our selves from acknowledging that Party to be the Body of the Church which has the advantages before spoken of , and looking by consequence on the other Party as a Sect cut from it . The one is the Tree , and the other the cut-off Branch , the one is the Sun , and the other a separated Ray. And the Reason that makes that Prejudice Just , is not that the greater party cannot have done wrong at the bottom , or that it cannot erre . For it frequently happens that Prejudice , Passion , Interest , Cabals , prevail among those who have the Ecclesiastical Authority in their hands , which makes them give unjust Judgments , and it may be the Author of the Prejudices would not maintain all the decisions and Excommunications of the Church of Rome to be Just . But the Reason of that Prejudice is , that though even the greater Part should have done wrong in the Foundation , yet the matter treated on is not of such importance , as that it can take away from a Society the Quality of the true Church of Jesus Christ , while sound Doctrine intirely subsists there , and Worship remains pure . From whence it follows , that there being there no sufficient cause of Separation , the lesser Party can't be looked upon otherwise then as Schismatical , because it is cut off from the Greater without necessity ; and supposing at the same time that it should have Reason in the Foundation , yet its Separation would not cease to be criminal . It is in this Case that Saint Augustin would have those whom violence , or as he says , carnal Sedition , has driven from the Christian Assemblies , to suffer patiently the injury done to them without throwing themselves either into Heresy or Schism , and without setting up of Assemblies apart , but that they should maintain and defend even to the death , the Faith which they know Preached in the Church . Sine ulla , says he , Conventiculorum segregatione usque ad mortem defendentes & Testimonio juvantes eam fidem quam in Ecclesia Catholica praedicari sciunt . But it is otherwise when the Division is about matters of the Second sort , those I mean that are founded upon the weighty points of Doctrine or Worship . For then the true Church ought alone to be sought for , where the true Faith is , where it is goes neither by extent of places , nor by number , nor by the Body of Pastors , or Prelates , nor by the Walls of Temples , nor by Councils that we ought to Judge of it , but by the true Doctrine , and where that is to be found , there without doubt is a Right to be in a Society and to gather Assemblies . The Reason is evident , because we cannot say in that Case , that although the more numerous Party , more extended , and which has the Body of Pastors of its side , should be wrong in the Foundation , yet that it would not always keep the quality of a true Church , as it may be said in the former Case . For a Society that Teaches Error and practises a false Worship , and that will receive none into its Communion but those who believe all that it believes , and practise all that it practises , cannot be a True Church , whatsoever advantages it have otherwise ; so that finding it opposite to another pure Society , there is no need to hesitate in ones Choice . In the first Case , the lesser Party cannot be other then Schismatical , because whatsoever Reason it may have at the bottom , it would be better to yield then to Separate ones self , but it is not so in the Second , for it would be better to separate ones self then to yield , since in yielding one should fall into Fundamental Errors and Superstitions contrary to true Piety . In a word , in the former Case , the Number , Dignity , Extent of place , the Body of the Pastors , Multitude , ought to prevail over Reason in a particular Injustice , because a Church may be in some respect unjust , without hazarding the Salvation of its Children ; but in the Second , Reason drawn from Injustice , Error , false Doctrine , false Worship , is a thousand times more considerable then all those advantages which I have noted , because we cannot renounce the true Doctrine , and the true Worship of God in things of great moment , in which our Salvation would not be absolutely concerned . It is this difference that causes us to take notice of two different ways in the Fathers , which appear so opposite and contrary one to another , that at first sight trouble our minds . For when they wrote against the Novatians or against the Donatists , or against the Luciferians , who separated themselves out of frivolous Reasons , that is to say , upon points of Discipline and personal accusations , but who otherwise acknowledged the Church they had quitted , to be Orthodox , they set before the people , that Multitude , Extension , the Body of the Pastors , Succession and other advantages of that Nature , as things that shewed of what side the Church was , and then they held that the lesser Party cut off from the greater was as a Member divided from the Body , a Branch cut off from the Tree , or as a Ray Separated from the Sun. But when they were engag'd against the Arrians , who taught false Doctrine , they did not care to make use of those sorts of Arguments ; on the contrary they restrain'd themselves to look for the Church where the True Doctrine and Faith was , and they had no Consideration either of the Body of the Pastors , or of the Multitude , or Pulpits , or Councils , when the Arrians made use of them to the Prejudice of the true Doctrine , as I have shewn in the Third Part. But that very thing evidently discovers the Ordinary Cheat that their Missionaries are guilty of , and the other petty Writers of Controversy of the Church of Rome , and into which the Author of the Prejudices himself falls . Which is , that in stead of following with respect to us the way of Writing that the Fathers took , when they wrote against the Arrians , from whom they differed in points of Doctrine , since the Cause is like , they follow on the contrary that that the same Fathers took against the Novations , the Donatists , and Luciferians , with whom they did not quarrel about matters of Doctrine ; which is a meer Sophism , where they confound two altogether different Questions , in referring to one Case that which cannot have any place but in the other . But they will say , Are not you your self guilty of Fallacy , in perpetually supposing , as you do in this dispute , that you have Right at the Bottom ? For that is the thing that is most Contested , and when we alleadge to you the Body of the Pastors , Extension , Multitude , and the other advantages of the Church of Rome , we do not pretend to own , that the Doctrine of that Church is false , or that its Worship is corrupted , or to conclude that those Advantages alone would give it the Quality of a True Church , though it should not be Orthodox ; but we pretend only , that setting aside the Discussion of Doctrines , we can Convince you of Schism by those Prejudices alone , which without any further Examination , mark out which of the two Communions is the True Church , and by Consequence which is false and Schismatical . I have already answered Divers Times this Objection ; but that it may be reviv'd here further in the Minds of the Readers , I shall not fail to shew yet farther the Vanity of it , and to discover more and more on which side the Fallacy lies . I say then , that when I suppose in this Dispute that we have Right at the Bottom , my Supposition is just and within the Rules of good Reason , for I do not Suppose it either as a thing that I have already proved , nor as a thing granted to me , but as a Matter which ought to be Examin'd , and on the Examination of which that Question of Schism , and the True Church , ought necessarily to depend . We would , say they , shew you , without entring into the Discussion of the Doctrine , by meer Prejudices that you are guilty of Schism , and that you have no Right to be in a Society , nor to gather Assemblies . And as for me I pretend to shew , that that way is Illusory and Sophistical , and that one ought to examine the Doctrines in order , to know which of the two Communions is Schismatical , and which is the True Church . To this effect , I prove that though the Protestant Party should be despoiled of all those Advantages treated on , Provided it have on its side the True Doctrine and Worship , and the Church of Rome have it not , it has all the Rights of a Christian Society , that its Assemblies are Lawful , and that its Separation from the Church of Rome is just , from whence it evidently follows , that all those Prejudices are to no purpose in the deciding of our Question , and that all depends on the Discussion of those Points that are in Controversy between us . See here the use of my Supposition , The Business at present is not to know whether we have Right in the Foundation or not ; if that were all the Business , I would not suppose it at all , I would prove it ; but the Business is to know whether they can by those meer Prejudices prove that our Separate Assemblies from those of the Church of Rome are unlawful . But I shew that they cannot , because if we have Reason on our side in the Matters that are Controverted , our Assemblies are Lawfull , notwithstanding those Prejudices . In a word , we pretend to maintain our Assemblies no otherwise then by the Right that the Foundation gives us , but by that Right alone , we pretend to maintain them ; so that when they Contest it with us we run back to the Foundation , and we shew them that the Foundation is sufficient to render our Assemblies Lawfull , from whence it necessarily follows that they can't treat us as unjust and Schismaticks otherwise then in coming to the Discussion of the Foundation it self . When therefore they tell us , that to Convince us of Schism they need but to set aside the Discussion of Doctrines , it is as much as if they should say , that to shew us that we have no Reason , they need but to lay aside that Reason upon which we ground our selves . The Author of the Prejudices has found this shift to be so Fine and Ingenuous , that he has Judged it worthy to be Consecrated to Posterity by one of his Books . In Fine , if we were to clear this Truth by Examples , we need but to repeat here two things which we have justified in the Third Part , and which are clear and certain out of the History of the Antient Church . The one , That in the Time of the Arrians the Body of the Pastors followed Heresy ; and the other , That a small Number of the Orthodox , a small Party separated from the Body of its Pastors , and spoiled of all those kinds of Advantages , did not fail to set up its Assemblies apart , and to hold the best Christian Society that it was possible for them to do . Those that were Hereticks filled the Churches , and as for the Orthodox they met as they could , sometimes in the Fields , and sometimes even in the Churches of the Novatians . As these Matters of Fact are Indisputable and Justified by History , we have nothing else to do but to demand of the Author of the Prejudices , Whether he believes that those Orthodox were Schismaticks for having so Separated themselves from the Body of their Pastors , not only by a Negative Separation , but even by a Positive one ? Whether he believes that their Assemblies were Unlawfull ? Whether he believes that they had done better to have remained in the same Communion with Hereticks , then in withdrawing from them ? Whether he thinks that the Arrians could have said to them with any Reason , That without Entring upon any Examination of their Doctrine they could Convince them of Schism by that Separation alone ? Whether he believes that those Orthodox had given a very ill answer in saying , That since their Separation was only founded on their Doctrine , it was by that that they ought to judge , and not by those vain and deceitfull Advantages which sometimes follow the Church , but which oftentimes Abandon it also , and upon which nothing of Certainty can be established ? The Author of the Prejudices may answer what he pleases , but we are at least assured that he can neither condemn the Arrians without Justifying us , nor justify the Orthodox without Condemning himself . It is Necessary then that we come to agree in this Truth , That the Right to be in an External Society , and by Consequence to raise Assemblies , belong to the truly Faithful only ; and that if it falls out , that the Body of the Pastors teaches false Doctrine , and corrupts the Ministry to that degree that it cannot be allowed to the Faithfull to live in Communion with them , The True Faithfull remain yet united among themselves by that External Union out of which their Assemblies proceed , and that by Consequence they have a Right to meet together and to make up a Body in a visible Communion . But they will say , If it falls out that generally all the Pastors forsake those pretended True Faithfull whereof you speak , Who is there that shall Assemble them ? they are all but so many meer private men , and what Right have those private men to gather Assemblies ? besides , Religious Assemblies are chiefly Instituted for the Preaching of the Word , and Administration of the Sarraments , and can any ascribe the Right of Preaching , and Administring the Sacraments to meer private men Separated from their Pastors ? When therefore it should be True that the Right of being in an External Society , That of making Assemblies , that of Preaching , That of Administring the Sacraments , that of Binding and Loosing , and the whole Ministerial Power should reside in the Faithfull only , yet it must be Confess'd notwithstanding , That all those Rights are to no purpose while they are Separated from their Pastors , because that each person among them being but a meer private man , they could not reduce those Rights into Act , as they say , that is to say , They could not tell how to make any Actual Function . They have none who could join them together into a visible Body , none among them can Lawfully Assemble them , none can Exercise the Functions of the Ministry among them , none can either Preach or Administer the Sacraments , or Exercise the Power of the Keys . Whence it follows that whatsoever Right they have ascribed to them , yet they do not cease to be in that Condition in a True Dispersion , according to what is said in the Scripture , I will smite the Shepherd , and the Sheep shall be scattered abroad . And therefore Saint Paul says , That God has given some to be Apostles , others to be Prophets , others Evangelists , and others Pastors and Teachers , for the Assembling of the Saints , for the work of the Ministry , for the Edifying of the Body of Christ . The Church in as much as she is an External Society , is as an Organical Body , which has its noble parts necessary for Life , without which it could not subsist for a moment , and those parts are her Pastors , who are not it may be absolutely necessary for the Subsistence of Faith and Piety in the Souls of particular men , but who are at least absolutely so for the Subsistance of that External Society , and the Publick Exercise of Religion . If they overthrow this Order , they change the Church into a rash Assembly , made by Chance , and Licentiousness , and of whose Convocation there can be no Reason given . Even the very name alone of the Church , which signifies a called Assembly , denotes , that to assemble in a Body there ought to be a Lawful Call , which can be in none but the Pastors . The Pastors are then necessary to Bind an External Society ; but they are yet further so , for the setting it in any Order , for otherwise it will depend on the Capricious humour of each private man to usurp the Publick Functions , each man will Imagine himself to have a Right to Preach the word of the Gospell , to Administer the Sacraments , and to do the other Functions of the Ministry , which would turn the Church into an Anarchy . These are to me the most specious Objections that they can make against what I have said concerning the Right that the Faithfull have to be in a Society , even then when they are Separated from the Body of their Pastors , and they cannot Complain that I have weakned them , for they will not find any thing , either in that Book of the Prejudices , or it may be in all their other Controversial Writings , that will appear to have as much Force and Likelihood of Truth , as that which I have gathered together in these few words . To Answer in some Order , I shall in the first place affirm , That that Objection does not any way touch the Body of the Protestants , since it is evident not only that all their Pastors were not contrary to the Reformation , but also that in the greatest part of those places wherein it was made , those who were most ardently engaged in it were persons high in Office and Dignity in the Latin Church , Who had as much a Call as they can reasonably desire to preserve the Bond of Society intire , and to call Assemblies together . It is as certain that in divers places the Reformation was made by the consent of the greatest part of their Pastors , as in England , in Scotland , in Swedland , in Denmark , in Saxony , in the Palatinate , in Hessia in Switzerland , and in many more Cities and Countrys in Germany . So that we may say with certainty , That the Reformed People Separated from the Roman Communion did not assemble of themselves , but that they kept up an External Society under the lawful Ministry of a Considerable number of their Pastors who called them together into a Body , or to speak better , who hindred their dispersion and preserved the Bond of their Unity . They had in that Number their Monks , their Preachers , Priests , Curates , Canons , Doctors , Professours in Divinity , whole Universities , and Abbies , Bishops , Arch-Bishops , Cardinals , and if the light of the Gospel had not been then inaccessible to the See of Rome , they had had it may be Popes themselves , for some of them were sensible enough of the Necessity of a Reformation . Howsoever it be , we may say , That there was yet in the Body of the Pastors , a Remnant according to the Election of Grace , as there was in the Time of the Arrians according to the Remark of St. Gregory Nazianzen . I confess that in some places the People of themselves Assembled to Chuse their Pastors , but when they should have been guilty of any irregularity in that , besides that they cannot impute it to all the Body , it would have been rectified by the approbation that all the other Pastors made of that Election , and by the right hand of Fellowship which they gave them , finding themselves to be in the same Ecclesiastical Assemblies with them , and acknowledging them for their Brethren and Companions in the Work of Jesus Christ . And by so much the more as the Times of Persecution wherein the Faithful were then , often forced them to pass over those Formalities which it was impossible for them to observe , and as God himself seemed to have ratified the choice of those persons by the blessing which he spread upon their Labours , as he did particularly upon the Ministry of John le Mason la Riviere , whom the people chose at Paris in the Year 1555. But howsoever we are but a very little concerned in the Principles upon which that Objection is grounded , yet we shall not fail notwithstanding to Examine them , to know a little more distinctly of what necessity Pastors are for the subsistence of the Society or External Communion of the Church . I say then in the first place , it must not be thought that the Bond of the External Society of the Faithful absolutely depend on their Union , or as Cardinal du Perron speaks , on their Adherence to the Body of their Pastors . It may fall out sometimes that the Body of the Pastors , that is to say , the greater number of them , fall into Heresy , and corrupt the Ministry in such a manner as the Faithful would be bound to Separate themselves from them . If there yet remain some few Pastors who maintain the True Doctrine , and oppose Error , in that Case I say that the Faithful may most lawfully hold a Christian Society with them in the using of all their Functions , assemble themselves under their Ministry , hear the word of the Gospel from their Mouths , and receive the Sacraments from their hands . They cannot say that the Church would then be dispersed , nor that the greater number of the Pastors had carried away with them all the Rights of the Society , but they ought on the contrary to say that being obstinate in Error , and abandoning the Purity of the Faith , they themselves in that respect lost the Right of being in the Society , and making up a Body of an External Communion . For that Principle remains always unshaken , that Error , Superstition , and falshood do not give the least Right to any men to Assemble , and that a Society is Just only in proportion to that that it has of true Doctrine and Evangelical Worship . So that the greater number of the Pastors is not a Party absolutely necessary to the Body of the Church for its subsistence , and this appears evidently from the Example of the Orthodox in the Time of the Arrians ; for as I have said before , their External Communion did not cease to subsist in divers places separated from the Body of the Pastors , they met together , they prayed to God in Common , they heard his word , they received his Sacraments ; in a word , they performed all the actions of Religion under the Ministry of those few persons that remained . This is precisely the Case wherein our Fore-Fathers found themselves in the Time of the Reformation , as I have before shewn , and it will not signify any thing to say that that small number of Pastors that our Fathers followed had themselves according to us corrupted their Ministry by the Errors and Superstitions of the other Pastors , and that they received their Call from their hands , for I affirm that their return to the true Doctrine rectified their Call , and freed it from all the impurity or ill it could have had , after the same manner that Felix Bishop of Rome , and Meletius Bishop of Antioch , who being ordained by the Arrians , rectified their Ministry by Preaching the Truth and opposing of Heresy , and as Liberius and a great number of the other Bishops who had subscribed to Arrianism , purified their Call in returning to the True Faith which they had forsaken . It is certain therefore that the greater number of the Pastors is not a party of the Body of the Church absolutely necessary for the subsistence of the External Communion , and that it is an Error to imagine that the bond of the Society depends on them , or that there can be no Assemblies made of those who shall be separated from them , but such as are Unlawful and Schismatical . But in the Second place , I affirm that it is not even absolutely necessary , and in all respects , to the making that External Society to subsist among the Faithful , that it should have Pastors . For as it is nature alone that makes man a Sociable living Creature , that is to say , that renders him capable of Civil Society , and gives him also a right to it , so also it is Grace which makes a Christian a sociable man , which renders him , I would say , capable of a Religious Society , and gives him a right to it . Ten Men that should meet one another hy Chance in an uninhabited Desart , would they not have a Right to joyn themselves actually together , to assemble and to take all the joynt deliberations in publick that they should Judge necessary for their own preservation ? And would it not be an extravagance to demand of them what Magistrate had assembled them , what publick Authority had called them together , who had given them a right to speak among themselves and to consult for their common interests ? Then when there are lawful Magistrates , their intervention is necessary for the calling and Authorising of Civil Assemblies , and if any undertake to assemble together without their Authority , or without their consent , their Assemblies are rash and unlawful , but it does not follow from thence that Magistrates should be so absolutely necessary to a Society , that when there should be none , men could not any more speak or act together , nor assemble themselves , nor take common Consultations . It is the same thing in Religion , if Ten Laymen of the Faithful should meet together casually , or to speak better , if the sole Providence of God should make them meet one another in a Desart Island , or in the farthest part of America , and engage them all their days in a strange Land , and if they should come to acknowledge each other for true Faithful Christians , can any believe that 〈◊〉 ought to remain so dispersed that they could never law●●●●● commune together concerning the Christian Faith and Pie●● nor meet together to provide for the preservation of their Religion . This is that which I hold , to be , not only unable to be maintained , but impious . For as Nature alone assembles men , when they have no Magistrates , and cannot have any ; so Grace alone assembles Christians when they have no Pastors , and cannot have any . She will not suffer them to remain in an intire dispersion while there remains yet any means to assemble them , it is she alone that convokes or calls them together , and her instinct forms an unanimous consent in them , that consent alone renders their Assembly as lawful as it can be made by the Convocation of Pastors . Thus also divers Parties who divided the Latin Church in the Time of the Great Schism of the Anti - Popes , protested , That they met together at the Council of Constance when they no more acknowledged the Pope , nor by consequence , held any more a Head that could lawfully call them together , for they declared that they called one another together , and that they assembled themselves sub Capite Christo , under Jesus Christ their common Head , that is to say , by his instinct , and under his Authority , which suplied the want of a Pope . Quatenus , say they , in illo quiest verus Ecclesiae sponsus , congregati in unum simul , matrem Ecclesiam divisam uniamus . In respect of an Assembly in the Body of a Council , each Bishop , each Prelate was but a meer private man , as much as every Believer is in respect of an Assembly in the Body of the Church ; and yet notwithstanding they assembled , they reunited themselves , they deposed a false Pope who troubled them even then , and they created another . A mutual Convocation then , which is nothing else but an unanimous consent , is sufficient to make an Assembly lawful , when there is no Publick Authority that can call them together . This is that which justifies the Conduct of our Fathers in some places of this Kingdom at the beginning of the Reformation , for they Assembled sometimes without any Pastors , to pray to God together and to Read the Holy Scriptures , their Consciences could not any more allow them to be present at the Assemblies of the Roman Communion , and not having further any Pastor who might Assemble them after the Ordinary manner , the Spirit of Christianity Assembled them under the Soveraign Pastor and Bishop of Souls which is Jesus Christ , and their mutual consent without doubt made their Society and their Assemblies most lawful . For as to that which is said in the Scripture , I will smite the Shepheard , and the Sheep shall be scattered abroad ; it would be manifestly to abuse that passage , if they would conclude from it an absolute necessity of the Pastors for the subsistence of that Society . For that is a Prophecy which notes , not that which the Faithful ought to do when they have no Pastors , but that which should befal the Disciples of Jesus Christ in the Time of his Passion , when the fury of the Jews , and the sad Condition wherein they should behold their Divine Master , should force them to be scattered , which has nothing common to the Question we are now Treating of . In the Third place I say , that to understand well the true use , and the Necessity of the Actions of the Ministry , the Church must be considered in two Seasons , in her first formation and in her subsistence . For in her first formation it is certain that the Actions of the Ministry were necessary for the calling of men to the light of the Gospel , whereof as yet they had no knowledge , and by Consequence they were necessary to the Establishment of the Christian Communion or Society amongst them , which could not be without that knowledge . To this end Jesus Christ employed his Apostles and Evangelists , Go , says he , and Teach all Nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father , of the Son , and of the Holy Ghost ; and it is that to which Saint Paul has a chief regard when he says , That Christ has given some Apostles , and some Prophets , and some Exangelists , and some Pastors , and Teachers , for the gathering together of the Saints , for the work of the Ministry , for the edifying of the Body of Christ . Those glorious Heralds by the efficacy of their word , accompanied with the power of Jesus Christ , called together the Church , if we must so say , as the Holy Assembly of God ; they Established the Christian Religion in the World , and so united men among themselves in an External Society by the profession of one and the same Faith , of one and the same Hope and Charity which inspired them , so that the Acts of their Ministry were absolutely necessary for that first Establishment , because their Preaching was the only means that God would make use of to draw men from the Pagan Idolatry or the Jewish Obstinacy , and to give them that Faith without which they could never have had a Christian Society . In this respect , there is Reason to urge the force of the word Church , which signifies not a rash and tumultuary Assembly made by chance or Sedition , but an Assembly lawfully called , for it was God himself who called it by the voice of his Apostle according to the Prophecy of David . The mighty Lord , the Eternal God hath spoken , and called to all the Earth , from the rising up of the Son to the going down of the same . He has called the Heavens from on high , and the Earth to Judge his People ; saying , Gather ye my Saints together . In this first Establishment the Apostles and Evangelists did three things : On one hand they spread abroad the Faith every where , and by this means bound men in an External Communion or Society ; on the other hand , they set together the Christian Truths which are the Objects of Faith in the Cannon of the Scriptures ; and in fine they established Ordinary Pastors for the upholding and Government of the Church . By the first of those things , in Establishing the Faith in mens hearts , they assembled , called them together , and put them into a Society , by the second , they laid , as I may so speak , the Fountain ; or the External and perpetual Magazine of the Evangelical Doctrine . By the Third , they provided for the Ordinary Dispensation of that Fountain , setling of Ministers to distribute it by their Preaching , the Sacraments , and the Exercise of Discipline . Of these three things , there is none but the first only to which we ought to refer the Convocation of the Church and Establishment of the Christian Society . But we must say that all Three serve for its preservation and increase , for they are so many ways and means which the Apostles left for the preservation of the Faith , and strengthning of it in those who had before received it , and to propagate it to their Children , and in those who had not as yet received it , in which the preservation of a Society consists . The first contributes much , for as Lights or Torches lighted all together preserve and mutually strengthen their fire , and are capable of lighting others ; So many faithful Christians united together , confirm one another in the Faith and Piety , and are fit to Communicate that Faith and Piety to those who have not yet received it . The Second does not contribute less , for the Faithful preserve and increase their light , their Faith , Piety , Sanctity , by the immediate Reading of the Holy Scriptures ; Infidels themselves may be converted this way , and those that go astray be brought back to the purity of the Gospel . The Third is also of exceeding great Use , for the Pastors by their Preaching , their Direction , and their Writings , by their Examples , by the Sacraments they Administer , and in a word by all the Actions of their Ministry , confirm the Faith where it is , and propagate it where it is not . The Divine Wisdom has so prepared its divers means for the preservation of that Society , and the Propagation of his Church , That if the Actions ▪ of the Ministry do not produce that effect for which they are appointed , the other means shall , and supply that defect . In Effect when the publick Preaching and presence of the Pastors fail , the Reading of the Scripture , private Exhortation of the simple Christians , the writings of their Pastors , either dead or absent , may come to succour , and make the Faith and Charity and Piety subsist , and by consequence the External Society of the Church and its Assemblies . How then are the Actions of the Ministry necessary ? They are so first , By Necessity of Precept , as they speak ; I mean as it is a means that Jesus Christ has ordained , the Use whereof we cannot neglect without sin . Those who contemn it , resist the Order that God himself has established , and make themselves unworthy of his Grace ; and to this those passages in the Scripture refer , which recommend the Pastors to the Faithful . He that heareth you heareth me , and he that rejecteth you , rejecteth me . Obey them that have the Rule over you , and submit your selves , for they watch for your Souls . 2. The Actions of the Ministry are necessary to the Churches well being , though not absolutely necessary to its being . It is not absolutely impossible for a Church to subsist without having actually any Pastors , not only because sometimes Faith and Piety may subsist without their heavenly food , which is the Word and Sacraments , as a Body may subsist sometimes without its nourishments , but also because one part of that food may come to us otherwise then from the mouth of the Pastors , as I have shewn . But they are necessary to the well being of a Church , but it is the hand of the Pastors alone that dispences the Sacraments to us , and their Preaching is a publick instruction that more strongly sets before our Eyes the Truths of the Gospel , that livelily applies its Precepts , its Promises , its Threatnings , and its Exhortations to us , and frequently forces us to make those Reflections on our selves which we should not do without their Aid . Their Authority restrains us , their light inlightens us , their Direction guides us , their Example excites us , and their Labours case ours . It is certain that a Flock without a Pastor cannot but be in a very bad condition , for howsoever each of the Mystical Sheep who compose it may defend themselves against the assaults of the Wolves , yet it is not ordinarily done either with such force , or such success as when the defending of them lies in the hands of Faithful Pastors to whom God communicates a greater measure of his Light and Grace ; and although the External Society among the simple Faithful may not cease to subsist though they have not actually any Pastor , since they may be joyned together in Jesus Christ by the profession of one same Faith , and the same Piety which assembles them , by vertue of the first Convocation that the Apostles made , yet that Society , as far as it is External , would be far better maintained by the Actions of the Ministry of the Pastors , then it would be otherwise . 3. I shall not fear to say that even the Actions of the Ministry are necessary for the perpetual subsistence of that External Society , for however the meer Reading of the Word of God , Publick Prayers in Common , the mutual Exhortations of the Faithful , and the Writings of the Doctors of the Church , are without doubt sufficient to preserve the Faith and Piety in the Souls of men , not only during some time , but even always , if they do not neglect their duty , yet notwithstanding it must be acknowledged that according to the way that we are made , and to speak as they say after the manner of men , a Flock cannot abide a long Time without a Shepherd , so as not to fall into Negligence , and by that Negligence into an Oblivion of its duty , and in fine , so as the Sheep should not be in a great danger of dispersion . See here after what manner Pastors are necessary to the Church , but to imagine that it cannot absolutely have any more a Christian Society , or lawful Assemblies among the Faithful , when their Ordinary Pastors forsake them , is that which they can never maintain with any Reason , For the Faithful are the Sheep of Jesus Christ , and when their Pastors scatter them , the Grace and Name of Jesus Christ calls them together , They are in a Society by the right of the first Convocation of the Church , which is a perpetual right , which subsists every where , where the True Faith and true Christian Piety are found Common among many persons , and it is from that perpetual and immovable Right that that of the actual Assemblies Flowes . But what Order can they hold in their Assemblies , since they have none to direct them Externally ? I answer , That the same Spirit of Grace which inspired them with Piety and Charity , would it self suggest an Order and subject them one to another by a mutual consent ; for God does not forsake his own Children , though men and the Church may always say in the Languague of the Prophet , When my Father and Mother forsake me , the Lord shall take me up . If there be any Magistrate to be found among the Faithful , it belongs to him to settle an Order among them , for the Civil Society comes in Naturally to the succour of the Religious , when the Religious is cast into any Extremity . If there be no Magistrate they ought to agree about an Order in private Conferences , before they come to Assemble together in a Body , to avoid Confusion , and every one has a Right to make those private Conferences . But what can they do in those Assemblies ? They may pray to God there , they may implore the succours of his Providence , and put their Trust in his Promises . They must begin by that Afterwards they will search out all possible means to have Pastors called to that Office by the Ordinary ways , to receive the Sacraments and Preaching of the Gospel from them ; but if that is impossible , or if they see that that would be evidently to Tempt God , and put the Flock in danger of dissipation , it is Necessary in that case that the Flock should chuse a Pastor for it self , and Consecrate him to God by ardent Prayers , in committing to his Trust the Rights of the Ministry that reside in the Body of the Faithful , to whom Jesus Christ , according to Saint Augustine , has given the Power of the Keys . For we ought not to imagine that the Body of the Faithful should be stripped of the Right of the Ministry as often as they should be actually without Pastors . That Right is inviolable , it cannot be either lost or separated from the Body of the Faithful . We will in the Close examine whether an Election made after that manner gives a sufficient Call ; it is sufficient at present to know that neither the Right of a Christian Society , nor that of Christian Assemblies , is so necessarily tied to the Pastors , That when there should be none of them , the Faithful could not remain united together externally in a Body of a Visible Church , or make those Assemblies lawful . The Author of the Prejudices Treating about this matter , distinguishes between two sorts of Separations , the one Negative , the other Positive . There is , says he , a meer Negative Separation which consists more in the denyal of certain Acts of Communion , then in positive Actions against that Society from which one separates . And there is another Positive Separation which includes the erecting of a Separate Society , the Establishment of a new Ministry , and the positive Condemnation of the former Society to which he was united . He says afterwards , That we did not content our selves with the first kind of Separation , that we have gone further , that we have formed a new Society , a new Church , that we have set up new Pastors ; That it is that kind of Separation whereof he accuses us , and that it is this also that we ought to Justify our selves about . He repeats the same things in the end , and concludes , That when the Faithful should believe themselves obliged out of a good Conscience to separate themselves Negatively , they ought not to form a Society , nor have any Pastors ; But , that they ought to remain in that State without any Pastors , and without any External Worship , in waiting until God extraordinarily raise up some with visible Characters of their Mission . I acknowledge that that Distinction of two kinds of Separation , is of some Use , and I have my self made use of it for the putting of the matters of this Treatise into a more natural Order ; but I deny that the Consequences which the Author of the Prejudices pretends to draw from them , are True. We shall see in the sequel , whether the Society of the Protestants separated from those of the Church of Rome , may with any reason be called a new Church : We shall see also what Right they had to a Gospel-Ministry , and whether they can say that their Ministry is new , I consider only that Principle which he propounds , which is , That when the Faithful separate themselves Negatively from those with whom they were before united , they ought not to set up a Society apart . For he knows not how to say any thing that is more contrary to Piety and the Spirit of Christianity . I hold then that if that Negative Separation of the Faithful be Just , if it be necessary , if they made it out of a good Conscience , not only they can , but they ought to hold a Christian Society among themselves , to make a Visible Body , to Assemble , to pray to God together , to Read his Word , to consult and deliberate for their common Interests , even while they should be separated from the greater number of the Ordinary Pastors , or even when they should have no Pastors among them . I mean that that is not only a Right but a Duty , an Obligation , and such an Obligation that there is nothing can dispence with but an absolute and invincible impossibility . The Reason upon which I found this Proposition is taken from the very Nature of the Christian Faith , Piety and Charity . For when God has given us these vertues , he has by that very thing indispensably bound us to keep and strengthen them , and by consequence he has bound us to practise those means which he himself has established for that purpose . But among those means , That of External Communion with our Brethren to whom he has given the same grace , is one of the most considerable , as I have said before . Therefore Saint Paul told the believing Hebrews , Let us take heed to stir up one another to Charity and good works , not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together , but admonishing one another . And to the Colossians , Let the word of Jesus Christ dwell richly in you in all wisdom , Teaching and admonishing one another , in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs . And to the Thessalonians , We entreat that you would admonish the disorderly , that you comfort those that are in affliction , that you uphold the weak . And to the Ephesians , Speake ye one to another in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs , Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Moreover , according as our Brethren labour on their part in the preservation and confirmation of our Faith , Piety , Hope , and Charity , by the Society that we hold with them , so we produce the same effect in respect of them , for we mutually edify one another . But it is further a Duty to which Christianity engages us . God would not that we should only labour for our own preservation , he would have us also take care of that of our neighbours , and it would be a detestable word in the mouth of a Christian , if he should say with Cain , Am I my Brothers keeper ? We are further bound to propagate our Faith and Piety in the Souls of our Children , and to labour even to the utmost of our power to make it spring up in the Souls of Infidels , as one lighted candle may light another ; which evidently notes that the Instinct of Christianity , is an instinct of Society that carries us out not only to own our Brethren , when they are so , but to gain more then we had before , and even those which we cannot have . In fine , Piety would have us give God the highest honour and Worship that it is possible for us to give him . But it is certain that God is more honoured in a Society , when all in one Body offer up their Prayers to him , their vows and their praises , then when each does it apart , more hearts united together pay God a homage more worthy of his Majesty . They cannot then imagine a State more contrary to the nature of the true Faith , of Christian Piety and Charity , than that of Dispersion , nor by consequence any thing that the Faithful ought to have more horror for , and when the misery of the Age shall cast them into it by an unavoidable necessity , they ought always to preserve a Spirit of Society , and to pant after the company of their Brethren . My Soul , said David , then when he was in that Condition , Thirsteth after God , after the living and true God , O when shall I come and appear before the presence of God! My Tears have been my meat Day and Night , while they say unto me , Where is now thy God ? I remember the Time wherein I went with the multitude , and when I went sweetly in company with others , with the voice of Triumph , and praise , unto the House of God. It is so certain , that the Actual dispersion of the Faithful does not break the natural bond of their Society , for they are always Brethren , Children of the same Family , it can only suspend the Acts of it , and when that absolute necessity which forced them into dispersion is gone , they return of themselves naturally into an actual Society , by the force of that Unity of Faith and Religion that is among them , without any necessity of a new Convocation . It will signify nothing to say that the Duties which I have noted respect the Faithful only then when they are already in an Actual Society , but that they are not bound to remain there , nor to enter into it , when they have no Pastors to Assemble them . For I say that those Duties arise not from the nature of that Society , but from that of Faith , Piety , and Charity , and by consequence they bind them to preserve an actual Society , where-ever it is , and even to make one where it is not yet ; that is to say , they oblige us to United all those to us in whom we see the same Faith , Piety , and Charity shine forth , that we perceive in our selves . In a word , since Faith , Piety , Charity , and the other Christian Vertues , bind us to those Duties , they bind us also to an External Society , without which they cannot be performed , whence it comes to pass , that the Faithful are called in the Scripture Sheep , not in respect of their Ordinary Pastors , but in respect of their Faith in Jesus Christ ; to note , That it is the Faith and not the Ministry which makes the Society , and which renders by consequence their Assemblies lawful and necessary . CHAP. II. That the Society of the Protestants , is not a New Church . ONe of the most Ordinary and powerful means that they make use of to render us odious to the People , and to drive them from our Communion , is to represent us to them as Innovators , and full of Confusions , who have overthrown all , and made a new Religion , and a new Church ; and it is very true that the greatest part of the World Judges of things no otherwise then by what they tell them , and by some light appearances , without informing themselves any further . Nevertheless it is certain that there never was a more unjust Accusation then that , nor whose injustice could be more easily seen , if they would but open their Eyes a little . For as to that which respects that pretended Novelty of Religion which they say that we have introduced , I would fain have them mark out some positive Articles of our Faith , that were not always believed in the Christian Church , and which they ▪ themselves to this day do not believe in the Church of Rome , without any ways scrupling them . I confess that they may have among them some Questions of the School about which our positive Doctrine is different from that of the Church of Rome , as the Question of the Nature of Concupiscence , that of the dolors of the Soul of Jesus Christ , and that of the Definition of the Faith. But besides that those Questions are very few in Number , and that they are scarce known by the People , we have the Holy Scriptures so clearly on our side upon all those points , that they cannot lay any Novelty to our Charge , and for the rest all our great Differences consist in respect of us , in Negative Articles , that is to say , in those points which the Church of Rome believes , and which we do not believe , as the Sacrifice of the Mass , Transubstantiation , Oral Manducation , Adoration of the Host , Purgatory , Invocation of Saints and Angels , Religious Worship of Images , that of Relicks , the Divine Service in an unknown Tongue , the Necessity of the Caelibacy of the Clergy , the merit of good works , the Authority of Traditions , the Monarchy of the Pope , the Infallibility of the Church of Rome , her Soveraign power over mens Consciences , and other such like Doctrines . It is True that we have rejected those Doctrines , but since it is also true that we have rejected them only because they are Novelties that men have added to God's Revelation , beyond which there can be nothing in Religion that should not be new , what ground have any of them to accuse us as Innovators ? They would have far more ground to say that we are too rigid Followers of Antiquity , and that we urge our Scruples and our Aversions for these Novelties further then we ought , or at least that we deceive our selves , and take that for new , which indeed is not so , If they said no more but that , we should labour to justify our selves ; but to charge us under that pretence with a Spirit of Novelty , is the most unreasonable and groundless thing in the World. That which makes the Fallacy is , That the people , whose sight is extream short , and who Judge of the Novelty and Antiquity of things only by that which appears open to them , imagine that all that which they received from their Fathers , and which they found setled when they came into the World , is Antient throughout ; so that a false Antiquity which shall be only of two or three Ages past , passes in their Judgments for as good and true a one as if it had been always so . Notwithstanding which , it is certain , that in matters of Religion , nothing can be truly Antient but that which was from the beginning , and nothing can be Divine but that which is from Jesus Christ and his Apostles ; for it is a thing very evident and acknowledged on both sides , that from the Time of Jesus Christ and his Apostles , There has been no immediate Revelation ; whence it follows , That all that which is sprung up since , is humane , and by consequence New. This is the True Idea that we ought to form of Old and New , and not that popular Idea , which cannot but be false and deceitful , and yet notwithstanding it is upon this latter that they ground themselves when they accuse us to have been Innovators , and to have made a new Religion : as if Jesus Christ had been an Innovator then , when he would correct the abuses that the Jews committed in their Divorces , by telling them , In the beginning it was not so . It is after the same manner that they charge us with having made a new Church , for they play upon the Equivocalness of the word , New. The People who imagine that all that which appears to them in another form then that which they have been wont to see , is new , believe that our Society is new , because they see that we do not Assemble our selves any more with them as we did before , that we have other places then the usual , that we do not any more say Mass in our Assemblies , that we hold another Order , and that we have other Ministers . But there needs here only a Distinction : For a thing is called New either with respect to its being and its Essence , in respect of its External State , and its changeable Accidents . When an Infant comes into the World , they say a new man is born , when a new House or Town is built where there none before , they say it is a new Town , or a new House ; and the same may be said when one thing is essentially changed into another thing , as when God changed Moses's Rod into a Serpent , or when Jesus Christ changed the water of Cana into Wine , it might be said that it was a new thing , because in effect it was not essentially the same thing that it was before . But when it is only changed in its State or External Form , as when a Man changes his countenance , his Stature or his Inclination , manner of acting , or Cloaths , or when he repairs a House or a Town , if then any should say this were a new thing , without doubt he would speak improperly . It is not less manifest , that it is no more then a sigurative Expression , which ought not to be taken litterally , nor in a rigorous sence . So when Saint Paul calls a converted man a new Man , a new Creature , and the Church a new Heaven , a new Earth , a new World , every one sees that these are ways of speaking that ought not to be taken literally , but figuratively ; for a Believer is essentially the same man , and the same Creature of God that he was before his Conversion , and Heaven , Earth , and the World are not changed in their Essence by the manifestation of the Gospel . Besides a thing that is changed in its external Form may be called new , either with respect to the State wherein it was immediately before its change , or with respect to the Just and lawful State wherein it should be according to its first Establishment ; so when one repairs a ruined House , if it keeps its first proportion , We may say that it is made new in respect of what it was before its Reparation , but if its first and natural Fashion should be changed , it would be new , even in respect of what it should have been according to the Model by which it was made at first . These Distinctions clear this whole Dispute , and it is not difficult to apply them to the subject we are upon . For if they mean , That the Society or Church of the Protestants is new in respect of the State wherein it was , or of that external form which it had , immediately before the Reformation ; we shall voluntarily agree that it is made new in that sence , after the same manner that the Scripture calls the Regenerate a new Man , or as God promises to give us a new heart , or as they call a House repaired , and put into its natural State , a new House . That would speak the Favour God shew'd to our Fathers , in re-establishing the Christian Society in that Just and lawful State , wherein it ought to be according to its first Establishment , and that that State is very much different from that wherein it was immediately before the Reformation : This is that which we do not deny , and are so far from it , that on the contrary we praise and glorify God for it . But if they mean that we have made a new Church , that is to say , one essentially differing from that which Jesus Christ and his Apostles would establish in the World , and which has always subsisted even to our days , or that , in all that , which depends on us , we have not re-established it in its first and lawful State , this is what we deny ; and in this sence , which is the only one that can render the Accusations of our Adversaries just , we maintain , that we have not in the least made a new Church . In a word , we say , that the Church of Jesus Christ has subsisted down from the Apostles to us inclusively , in all that which it has Essentially , and that she yet subsists at this day among us , but that having changed her State or External Form in the Ages that preceeded the Reformation , she was re-established in her just and lawful State by the Reformation of our Fathers , which no ways hinders but that she was , and might always be the same Church . To make this Truth to be the better understood , we need only to clear on the one side what that Essence of the Church is , that ought always to remain immovable , to shew that it may be but one and the same Church by descent and uninturrepted Succession , and on the other side what State it is that she has suffered change in , and how it could be altered and repaired . The Essence of the Church consists in this , That it is a Body of divers persons united together in the Commnion of one only True God , under one only Jesus Christ their Head and Mediatour ; and it is Jesus Christ himself that has given us this Idea of it , when he says that , This is life Eternal to know the only True God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent , That Definition which we give of the Church supposes , 1. The subject , or matter whereof the Church is composed , which are divers men , divers persons united among themselves , and with God. 2. It supposes the Necessary means , without which that Communion cannot be , which are the word of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit . 3. It contains not only the True Faith , Charity , Hope , which are the natural bonds of that Communion , but all the other Christian Vertues also , as Worship , Adoration , Truth , Obedience , Thanksgiving , Justice , Temperance , &c. which are the the duties to which that Communion engages us . 4. It comprehends in it further , all the fruits that we gather from that Communion , as Remission of Sins , Peace and Tranquillity of Soul , Consolation in Afflictions , Succours in Temptations , &c. 5. In fine , it includes all the Rights that necessarily follow that Communion , as that of being joyned together in an External Society , that of Publick Assemblies , that of the Ministry , that of the Sacraments , and that of External Government and Discipline . See here that which is Essential to the Church , for I call that Essential , without which the Church cannot subsist , and which yet is sufficient to make it subsist ; that which cannot subsist if that Church fail to subsist , and that which cannot be wanting if there be a Church . As to the State in respect of which it suffers changes , it consists in all that that depends on the different disposition of Times , Places , and Persons . For Example , To have the Bodily presence of Jesus Christ , to have Apostles and Evangelists for its Pastors , to have the Miraculous gifts of healing , that of Tongues , that of the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Faithful by Visible Symbols , that of Prophecy , and that of an external and infallible direction and instruction , is a State wherein the Church was in the Time of its Birth , but which was changed in the other Times that followed . To have Pastors illustrious for Zeal , Learning and Piety , as a Saint Augustine , a Saint Basil , a Saint Chrysostom , is a State wherein it was not always , nor every where , but in some Times and Places only . To be flourishing and in Peace , without Persecution , without Schism , without Error , is a State wherein it has neither been always , nor in all Places , nor in respect of all those persons who have composed it , but which it has been in , in some Times and Places only , and with respect to some Persons . We ought then to set down in their proper Order those things which belong to the State of the Church , and to its Essence , and which by Consequence are liable to change , as to be extended every where , or in the greatest part of the World , to have a multitude , or the greatest number , Temporal Splendor or outward Glory , Peace , whether in regard of those without , or in respect of those within , Liberty in External Profession , Visibility of Assemblies , Purity of the Ministry , Holiness of External Worship , Form of Government , that of Discipline , and that of Liturgies , an Actual Bond of the Parts of the Church in one Body of External Communion , and the Actual Exercise of the Ministry , or if you will , the Actual Presence of the Pastors . All those are things that do not absolutely belong to the Essence of the Church , but only to its State or Condition , and of which it may be sometimes spoyled either wholly or in Part , without being absolutely destroyed . It may be restrained to a few places , and a few persons , and therefore it is called in some places of Scripture a little Flock , she may be so , in her low State. We are , says Saint Paul , not many wise , not many mighty , not many noble , but God has chosen the weak things of this World to confound the strong . She may be in Trouble and in Affliction through the Persecution of Infidels , as she was under the Heathen Emperours , or in Fighting against Hereticks , as she has been almost always ; she may lose the Visibility of her Assemblies , as she did in most places in the Time of Decius , and Dioclesian ; she may find her Ministry corrupted , as it hapned in the Time of the Arrians ; she may see her external Worship sullied by Actions of superstition and Idolatry , as it fell out in Judah and Israel in the days of the Prophets . As to the Form of her Government , we cannot deny that in that respect she has not under-went divers changes ; I do not mention the Introduction of the Episcopal Order , for that is a Question , but I speak of those changes that have befel her , through the Usurpations and Contests of the first See's , and chiefly by the Usurpations of that of Rome , which the greatest part of the World will own to have been very considerable . Her Discipline and her Liturgies have also undergone many Changes , and they cannot in that regard ascribe any Uniformity to the Church , either in respect of Times or Places . In fine , she has sometimes beheld the Body of her Ordinary Pastors turned against her self , she has seen a great part of her true Children scattered , and dispersed here and there , without being able to perform any Acts of an External Society ; and she has seen some of her Flocks deprived of their Pastors , and forced to set up some among themselves in the room of those who had abandoned them . For all that fell out in the days of the Arrians , the Councils determined Heresy ; the greatest part of the Orthodox , who opposed themselves to their Impiety , were either banished or forced to fly into the Desarts , and according to the Testimony of St. Epiphanius , divers People who saw that their Bishops were turned Arrians in the Council of Seleucia , looked on them as the miserable Desertors of their Ministry , and set up themselves other Bishops . The greatest part of those Changes that fall out in the Church come from two sources ; the one , That she is mixed with the Worldly and Profane in the band of the same External Profession ; and the other , That the Truly Faithful themselves , who only are the Church of Jesus Christ , as truly Faithful as they are , fail not to have a great many other imperfections , their knowledge is obscure , their Righteousness is accompanied with its faults , their Inclinations are not all right , and even their most just Inclinations do not fail to have some farther irregularity . These two Fountains produce an heap of evils and disorders , the Worldly on their part bring thither Covetousness , Ambition , Pride , Opinionativeness , contempt of God , his Mysteries , and Worship , Politick Designs , Worldly Interests , a Spirit of Grandeur , Luxury , Superstitions , Heresies , Love of Dominion , Presumption , Opinion of Infallibility , Forgeries , and all other Perversities of the heart of Man. The Faithful they bring thither on their side , their Ignorance , their Negligence , their Fearfulness , their Simplicity , and sometimes their Passions , their Personal Interests and Vices . From all which a Chaos is made up of darkness and Confusion , a Mystery of Iniquity , a Spiritual Babylon , that perpetually makes war against the Church , which reduces her sometimes into very strange Extreamities , and which would without doubt destroy her , if her Eternal Head did not keep her up above all . I acknowledge that the Spirit of God fights against that Babylon on the Churches side , and that he presides over that Chaos , to expel those Confusions , and to hinder the Churches Perishing . But it must not be imagined under a pretence of that presence of the Spirit of God , that there never happens any disorder in it . He indeed always preserves the Essence of the Church , but he frequently permits her State to be altered . This is the Effect that that heap of Crimes , Vices , and Imperfections may produce which I have mentioned as well on the side of the Truly Faithful , as on that of the Worldly . They never go so far as to destroy her intirely , but they go so far sometimes as to spoil her of her Ornaments , of her External Advantages , and even of her very Health , if I may so speak ; and therefore Jesus Christ told his Disciples , In the World you shall have Tribulation , but be of good cheer I have overcome the World. God has always preserved , and he will preserve to the end of all Ages , a Body of many persons united together in the Communion of his Son Jesus Christ . This Body can never perish , it can never cease to be , nor lose any thing that is absolutely necessary to its subsistence ; but it may be deprived of its large Extent , Temporal Splendor , Worldly Glory , Peace , Rest , and Visibility . It may see its Ministry Corrupted , in as much as it is in the hands of men , it may see its External Worship dishonoured , and Error and Superstition fill its Pulpits , Possess its Schooles , and diffuse it self over its Councils ; its true Members may be hindred from making external Assemblies , and a Body of a Visible Communion , and it may be abandoned by its Pastors , and reduced to a Necessity of Creating others . See here what the State of the Church is . Upon all these Illustrations , it will be no difficult matter to decide the Question concerning the Novelty and Antiquity of our Church . For if we have made a Society essentially different from that which Jesus Christ and his Apostles formed at the first , and which has all a long subsisted down from his Birth to this present , if we cannot justly say , That we are a Body of many Persons united together in the Communion of one only true God , under one only Jesus Christ our Head and Mediatour , if they can with any ground contest with us the Unity of the True Christian Faith , Piety and Holiness ; in one word , if we want any thing that is necessary to the Constitution of the Church and its subsistence , or if there be any thing in us that hinders that that good which we have does not produce its effect , to give us the Form and Nature of a True Church , it is certain , that we have made a new Church , and by a Consequence a false and an Adulterous Church . But if we can truly and justly glorify God for all that which makes up the Essence of a True Church , if our Faith is sound , if our Piety is pure , if our Charity is sincere , if we can upon good grounds maintain that God preserves and upholds in the External Communion of that Body which we compose , the Truly Faithful and Just persons , who only , as I have said often , are the Church , it is certain also that there is nothing more unjust then that Accusation of a New Church which they charge us with . There never was in the World any other Church of God then that of his truly just and Faithful Ones , that Body only is in the Communion of the Father and of his Son Jesus Christ , that alone is intrusted with the Truth , that alone is animated by the Holy Spirit , that alone is God's Inheritance , his People , his Vine , his enclosed Garden , his House and Mystical Family , as the Scripture calls it , that alone in fine has all the Rights of the Ecclesiastical Society , the Right of External Assemblies , that of the Ministry , Sacraments , Government , and Discipline . Let the Author of the Prejudices and his Brethren stir themselves as much as they please , let them animate one another , let them cry out , write Prejudices and invectives never so much against us , let them do all that they please , we are firm and fixed upon two Principles against which we are sure they cannot do any thing . The one , That if our Communion Teaches the True Doctrine , if it has the True Worship , and the True Rules of Christian Sanctity , to a degree sufficient for Salvation , and if the Causes for which we separated our selves from the Church of Rome were Just , God nourishes and preserves his True Faithful Ones in our Communion , whatsoever mixture there may be of Worldly , Wicked , and Hypocrites in it . The other , That if God nourishes and preserves his truly Faithful in our Communion , we are the True Church of God , that which has a Right to be in a Society , and to which all the other Rights that follow that of a Society belong , of Assemblies , Ministry , Sacraments , Government , Discipline , and by Consequence we are the Church which succeeds not only de Jure , but de Facto , the Church of the Apostles , that of the Ages following , and even that which was immediately before the Reformation . These two Propositions are framed in clear and distinct Terms , they have neither Ambiguity , nor Equivocation , but I hold also that they are of a certain and indisputable Truth . For there neither is , nor ever was there any other True Church then that of the Truly Faithful , and there never will be any other . The Holy Scripture sets down no other , Reason will not suffer us to acknowledge any other . The Fathers never owned any other . This is the constant and evident Principle of Saint Augustine , as may be seen in the Fourth Chapter of the Third Part , and it is also the Principle of the other Fathers , as may be Justified by almost an infinite Number of passages . The Antient Catholick Church , says Clemens of Alexandria , is but one only Church , which assembles in the Vnity of one only Faith , by the will ▪ of one only God , and the Ministry of one only Lord , all those who are before Ordained , that is to say , whom God has predestinated to be Just , having known them before the Foundation of the World. Where is the place where Jesus Christ should dwell ? says Origen ; It is the Mountain of Ephraim , which signifies a fruitful Mountain ; but where are those fruitful Mountains among us where Jesus Christ dwels ? They are those on whom the fruits of the Spirit , Joy , Peace , Patience , Charity , and other vertues may be found . They are those fruitful Mountains which bring forth fruit to Jesus Christ , and which are eminent for knowledge and hope . And a little after , The Grace of the Holy Spirit has gone over to the People of the Gentile : , and their Antient Solemnities are come to us , because we have with us the True High-Priest after the Order of Melchizedec , True Sacrifices are offered up amongst us , that is to say , the Spiritual Sacrifices ; and it is among us that he builds with living Stones the Temple of God , which is the Church of the living God. And elsewhere , The Church desires to be united to Jesus Christ , but note , that the Church is a Society of the Saints . And further elsewhere explaining those words , Thou art Peter , and upon this Rock I will build my Church ; The Church , says he , that God builds , consists in all those who are perfect , and are full of those words , thoughts , and actions that lead to blessedness ; and a little lower , How ought we to understand those words , The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it ? For that expression is ambiguous , is it the Rock that he speaks of , or if it be of the Church , is it that the Rock and the Church are but one and the same thing ? This latter I believe to be True , for the Gates of Hell prevail neither against the Rock upon which Jesus Christ has built his Church , nor against the Church , according to that which is said in the Proverbs , That the way of the Serpent is not found upon the Rock . If the Gates of Hell do prevail against any , there is neither that Rock upon which Jesus Christ builds the Church , nor the Church that Jesus Christ builds upon the Rock . For that Rock is inaccessible to the Serpent , and stronger then the Gates of Hell. And as to the Church as it is the Building of Jesus Christ , she can never let in the Gates of Hell against her , those Gates may very well prevail against every man that is without the Church , and separated from that Rock , but never against the Church . Jesus Christ , says Saint Ambrose , knows those that are his , and as to those who do not belong to him , he does not vouschafe even to know them . And elsewhere , God called his Tabernacle Bethlehem , because the Church of the Righteous is his Tabernacle , and there is a Mystery in it , for Bethlehem is Situate upon the Sea of Galilee on the East side , which signifies to us that every Soul that is worthy to be called the Temple of God , or the Church , may be built upon the waves of this World , but can never be drowned , it may be encountred , but can never be overthrown , because it represses and calms the wild impetuousness of sufferings . It looks upon the Shipwraecks of others while it self is safe from danger , always ready to receive the illumination of Jesus Christ , and to rejoyce under his Rays . And further elsewhere , he says Expresly , That as the Saints are the Members of Jesus Christ , so the wicked are the Members of the Devil . Saint Hierome Teaches the same thing . The Church , says he , which is the Assembly of all the Saints , is called in the Scripture , the Pillar and ground of Truth , because she has in Jesus Christ an eternal firmness . And in the Exposition of the Song of Songs , he lays down this Maxim , That the Church is the Assembly of all the Saints , and that she is brought in speaking in the Canticles , as if all the Saints were but one person . And even the Author of the Commentary on the Psalms , ascribed to Saint Hierome , Explaining these words of the Prophet , I will drive away from the City of the Lord all the workers of Iniquity ; The City of the Lord , says he , is the Church of the Saints , the Congregation of the Just . I do not deny , that the Fathers sometimes give a very large extent to the Church , when they consider it as mingled with almost an infinite number of the wicked , and the Worldly , as we have frequently explained it already , and it is to this Idea that they refer their comparisons of a Field , of the Air , and the rest , which we have often mentioned . But it is certain , That when the Question is to be decided , which of the two Parties that make up that mixed Body , is the Church , that they unanimously agree to give that Title to the truly Faithful , and to the Righteous only , and that they deprive the wicked and the worldly of it ; and it is for this Reason that Saint Augustine always distinguishes in that extent of the mixt Church , two People , or two Nations , Jerusalem and Babylon , which although they be mixed together , do not fail to be really separated ; and he would have the Head of the one to be Jesus Christ , but the Devil the head of the other . It is for the same Reason that he distinguishes between being in the Church , and being of the Church , for he would , that although the wicked might be in the Church yet that nevertheless they were not of the Church ; that they doe not belong to its Body , but that they are in its Body as ill humours that oppressed and disturbed it ; and it is to the Faithful alone , Exclusively to all others , that he ascribes all the Rights of the Church , although the wicked may sometimes have the dispensing them in quality of Ministers and Pastors ; for he would in that Case , that those might be inhabitants of Babylon , who distributed that good which did not belong to them , but to the Truly Faithful only , the only Inhabitants of Jerusalem . It is then a certain and manifest Truth , That the Truly Faithful only are the Church , and that to them alone belong all the Rights of the Church ; but if we would here add another to it , which is not less certain , since it is founded upon the promises of Jesus Christ , to wit , That there always has been a Church in the World ; it would evidently follow , That if our Communion has the advantage of the True Faith and Worship over the Roman Communion , in a word , if we have Reason at the Foundation , we are not only the True Church , but that we are so by a Just Succession de jure and de facto to that Church which preceded us , and which even preceded us immediately before the Reformation . It is no more to be inquired after where it was , or which it was , for the promise of Jesus Christ assures us , that he had one ; his Scripture , Reason , the Fathers declare to us that it consisted wholly in the Truly Faithful . Put then these truly Faithful where you please , in France , in Spain , in Italy , in the West , in the East , or in the Indies if you will , it is nothing to our Question . If we are truly Faithful as they , we are their lawful Successours in all the Rights of the Christian Society . Whether we received the Faith from their hands , or whether we received it elsewhere , it matters not , we do not fail to be their true Heirs ; for God , as Saint John Baptist said , may even of these Stones raise up Children unto Abraham . They are our Fathers by the Right of Age , but they are our Brethren also by the Unity of the same Faith , and one and the same Spirit that animates us , and makes us to be one Body with them : When they were in the World , in what condition soever they were , the Ministry was theirs , the Sacraments were theirs , the Right of Assemblies belonged to them , since those things can only belong to the Faithful , and when God has sent them to their rest , that Mystical Heritage could be raised by none but other true Believers , for such is the Law of the Family of God , that it is neither flesh , nor blood , nor Transmission of Pulpits and Benefices , that make a Succession , but the Spirit of Jesus Christ ; or as Tertallian speaks , the Consanguinity of the Faith and Doctrine : If then we have that Spiritual Consanguinity , we are their true Successours , and we make but one only body , one Church with them . But they will say , How can it be that you should make but one only Body with the Church which was before the Reformation , since that Church lived then in Communion with those from whom you are now Separated ? She had an Exterual Worship quite differing from yours , she was under quite another Ministry then yours , for she was under a Ministry that professed to invocate Saints , religiously to Worship their Images and their Reliques , to Sacrifice really the Body of Jesus Christ , to believe Transubstantiation , the Real Presence and all the other Articles that you at this day profess to reject . How can you be the same Church ? How can your Ministers be Successours to those who were at that time Bishops , Arch-Bishops , Cardinals , Patriarchs , and Popes ? Your Liturgies are different , your Discipline is not less , you have neither Feasts , nor Processions , nor any of the Solemnities practised openly among us ; how can it be otherwise then that you should be a new Church ? I answer , First , That if that Reasoning were Just , it would conclude that the Church before the Reformation , was not the same Church with that which the Apostles established at first , for according to the Idea that the Holy Scripture gives us of the Apostolick Church , we cannot see there any thing like to that which was done immediately before the Reformation . We find there neither the same Tenets , nor the same Worship , nor the same Solemnities , nor the same form of Ministry , nor the same Government , nor the same Discipline , nor the same Sacraments , nor the same Liturgies , nor in fine any thing of that which our Fathers reformed : Let them tell us then after what manner they mean that the Church before the Reformation was not the one and the same Church with that of the Apostles . For if they were in effect two different Churches , and that we were obliged to chuse one to have Communion with , or an Identity with , as they speak , we should not hesitate upon the choice . We should have a thousand times more Consolation and Assurance to find our selves conformed to the Apostolick Church , then to be in nothing different from that which immediately preceded the Reformation ; since the Apostolick ought to be lookt on as the Mother Church the Original , Exemplar , or Pattern to all the Ages following , from which it is not allowable to recede . Let the Author of the Prejudices then if he pleases do one of these two things , either shew us in the Church of the Apostles all those things which we have not in Conformity with the Church that was immediately before the Reformation , and upon which ground he would have us be a new Church , let him shew us that there was Transubstantiation there , the Real presence , the Sacrifice of the Mass , the Adoration of the Eucharist , the Worshipping of Images , the Invocation of Saints , the Worshipping of Reliques , the Orders and vows of their Religious , the Caelibacy of Church-men , Worship in an unknown Tongue , Their Feasts , Processions , and in general all that , that according to him made us a new Church , differing from that which preceded the Reformation , or if he will not engage himself so far , let him at least tell us after what manner he understands that the Church before the Reformation was not it self a new Church differing from that which the Apostles established . He cannot tell how to do the first of those things because it is absolutely impossible , and he can never do the second , because his principles wholly oppose it , and in effect it is true , that those who believed and practised all that which I have noted were not one and the same Church with that of the Apostles . If then he can do neither the one nor the other , he ought to look to it , how he means that his Church should be the True Church of Jesus Christ , for it is enough as to us , to find our selves conformable to the Church of the Apostles , since that being , as we are certain that it is , the same Body that God has Established upon Earth , to which Jesus Christ has promised a perpetual subsistence , and without which we should very difficultly know precisely how he has Executed his promise , we should no ways doubt that we were the same Church which has subsisted even down to the Time of the Reformation . For when we should be ignorant of the manner how it has subsisted , when we should not be able to understand that , we should be notwithstanding certain , that it has subsisted , since the word of Jesus Christ is inviolable , and none can call it in question without impiety , whence it follows that we are not a new Church , but the same which has always abode , and which was immediately before the Reformation . That way which we hold to assure our selves of this Truth is not only good , solid , and certain , but it is yet further the only one that any Communion can or ought to hold , if it would be certain with a good Conscience that it was the true Church of Jesus Christ which has always subsisted , and which will always subsist , I would say , it ought to compare it self with the Church of the Apostles to know whether it be conformable to that , and as to what respects the following Ages , it ought to rest assured upon the word of Jesus Christ who has said that he will be with his until the end of the World , for that certainty arises from thence , that being one with the Church of the Apostles , it is also one with that of all the Ages following . But if he will take another way , and say that Communion is the same with the Church of the fifteenth or sixteenth Age , therefore it is the same with that of the Apostles , because that Jesus Christ has promised that his Church shall always subsist , it is evidently to expose himself to Error and Illusion , and to follow a very false and deceitful way of Reasoning ; The Reason is evident , because by this means one is liable to take that for the Church in the 15 or 16 Age which it may be is not so . For in that visible Body which they call the Church mixed , there are two Parties , the one which is properly the Church , and the other which is not , the one which is the Wheat that the Son of God has sown , and the other which is the Tares sown by the hand of the Enemy , the one which is the good seed , and the other which is the chaff . But it may so fall out that the Tares should exceed the Wheat , and that a heap of chaff should cover the good seed , and by consequence the conformity which they pretend to have with that Church , might be nothing else but a conformity with the Chaff and the Tares , and not with the Wheat which would be the greatest of all Illusions . But if they took the former way , they would be in no danger of falling into that Error , because we know that in the Church of the Apostles the Wheat surmounted the Tares , the good grain the Chaff , and that that which appeared to their Eyes was of Jesus Christ , and not of the wicked one , whence it follows that they could not be deceived in taking one Unity for another . This then is the way that we hold , and which by the Grace of God gives us great peace of Conscience , those who follow the other ought to take heed that they go not from it . See here my first Answer , the second is , That that which regards the Essence of the Church , never ought to be confounded with that which regards only its Condition . The Church as I have so often already said consists only in the truly Just and Faithful , and not in that confused heap of the worldly who Assemble with them under the same Ministry , and who partake of the same Sacraments . That therefore which makes the Essence of the Church , is the True Faith , Piety , and Charity , and it is most true that those Vertues cannot be without the true Doctrine , disintangled from all those Errors which separate us from the Communion of one only God , and the Mediation of one only Jesus Christ . Whence it follows , That the True and pure Doctrine is the Essence of the Church . But it is also true , that while the Foundation of the True Doctrine remains in a Communion , and there is yet left there some liberty to the Minds and Consciences of men , for the choice of the Objects of the Faith , and Practice of the Actions of Religion , how impure soever that Communion may be , whatsoever Errors may be Taught there , whatsoever false Worship they may practise there , how corrupted soever the Publick Ministry may be , there is always a means there to separate the good from the bad , and to secure one's self from this in holding to the other , without falling into Hypocrisy , or acting against the Dictates of ones Conscience by false shews . But I affirm this to be the Condition of that Visible Communion that we call the Latin Church immediately before the Reformation . I acknowledge that Transubstantiation was believed there , the Real presence , the Sacrifice of the Mass , the merit of good Works , Purgatory , human Satisfactions , Indulgences , the Monarchy of the Pope , that they religiously Worshipped the Images of God there , and those of the Saints , that in those days they gave a Religious Worship to Reliques , that they adored the Eucharist there as being the very person of Jesus Christ , that they then Invocated the Saints , and in a Word that they then believed and practised all that which they now believe and practise in the Church of Rome . But the foundation of Christianity was as yet there , and we may truly say , that in that good which there was there , they had light enough to reject that which was bad . That Commandment alone , Thou shalt Worship one only God was enough to let a good Soul know that he ought not to adore either Saints or Angels , or to call upon them , or render any Religious Worship to their Images and Reliques , nor to take any Creature for the Object of this Devotion . The Doctrine of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross , and that of his sitting on the Right hand of God was sufficient to make them reject those of the Sacrifice of the Mass , the Real presence , Transubstantiation , the Adoration of the Host , Haman Satisfactions , Indulgences and Purgatory . For it is true that the Religion then was composed of two contradictory Parties that overthrew one another , those who took things on the wrong side destroyed the good by the bad , for in adoring , for Example , the Saints and Angels they overthrew that good Doctrine , Thou shalt worship one only God : in believing the Sacrifice of the Mass , and Transubstantiation , they annihilated in effect , the Sacrifice of the Cross , and they removed as much as in them lay Jesus Christ from the Right hand of his Father . But those who took things in a good sence destroyed on the contrary the evil by the good : for in adoring one only God , they taught others not to pay any Religious Worship to Creatures ; in placing their confidence in the Death of Jesus Christ for their sakes , they taught Learned to reject the Sacrifice of the Mass , all humane Satisfactions ; and in seriously believing that Jesus Christ was in Heaven , they were dis-abused about his corporal presence on the Altars . In fine , they could each in particular very well do , what our Fathers did altogether when they Reformed themselves , for their Reformation wrought nothing but what the same Doctrine , which they had , Taught them . One only God and one only Jesus Christ made them reject all that they rejected . Besides it is certain that the greatest part of those things which we believe contrary to the true Faith , were then Taught and received and practised in the Latin Church more by force of Custom , then any publick Authority , that could impose any necessity on mens Consciences even according to the principles of the Church of Rome at this day which leaves private men liberty enough to reject them . And when they should come to be even publickly determined with all the necessary formalities , which they have not been yet , there would always remain to every private man a natural right to examine and reject them , since the Authority of Men , how great soever it be , can never bind the Consciences of the Faithful . We do not therefore Question but that God has always preserved under that Ministry , a great number of persons who have made that Separation of the good from the ill , and it is in those that the Church may subsist . But besides those , how many simple people were there , whose own simplicity and ignorance hid them from those Errors that then reigned in the Ministry . They knew enough to believe in one only God the Father Son and Holy Ghost , their Creator and Father , and in one only Jesus Christ their Redeemer , Born Crucified , and raised again for them , and to practice without Superstition all the Actions of Christian Piety that those Doctrines inspired into them ; but they did not know enough to believe the Sacrifice of the Mass , Transubstantiation , the real presence , humane Satisfactions , the merit of good Works , and a multitude of other things that did not enter into them . Their knowledge was bounded with the Articles of the Creed , the Lords Prayer , and the Ten Commandments , which they received with all the submission of their hearts , and which they laboured to practise the best that they could , and we ought not to doubt that that knowledge alone , plain and disintangled from all Error , which they had , furnished them with a sufficient direction for their Salvation without their being bound to make a more express rejecting of those Doctrines they did not understand . But supposing that they had a knowledge of them , I say that we ought carefully to distinguish two sorts of Times , the one in which the falseness of a Doctrine or Worship is not so palpable discovered , and open to mens Eyes , that their should be only a voluntary blindness or an ill Prejudice that should hinder us from acknowledging and understanding how that Doctrine , and that Worship are contrary to the True Faith and Piety , and the other in which that falseness and contrariety are so openly or publickly manifested , that one cannot be ignorant of them or not see them without shutting voluntarily ones Eyes . For in the second of those Times , every one is bound , for the integrity of his Faith and Religion and the preservation of his Soul , earnestly and publickly to reject those Errors , to avoid them with an aversion , to withdraw from those Assemblies where they are either taught or practised , and not to take part , how little soever , or if any do they have no excuse for their crime , and this is the Time wherein we are at this day . But as to the former , it is enough not to be corrupted with them , without any absolute necessity of testifying publickly that strong aversion . In the second Time , they ought to look on those kinds of things as they are in Effect , because they are fully discovered , and they may be seen in all that have them to be opposite to the glory of God and Salvation of men . But that Obligation can never be so strong in the first Time because there ▪ one has neither the same light , nor the same helps , nor the same easiness to own them to be such as they are : not only meer natural Light dictates this Distinction , but Jesus Christ himself has very well established it in the Gospel , If I had not come , says he , and spoken unto them , they had not had Sin , but now they have no Cloak for their Sin , which evidently establishes those two seasons , I spoke of , the one wherein the Manifestation of good and evil is not yet so throughly made , that one can acknowledge them in their greatest Latitude , and the other wherein it is so that one cannot without a crime know it confusedly . But I say that before the Reformation they were in that first Time in regard of that which we call the Errors and Superstitions of the Church of Rome , they were neither so well Examined , nor so clearly discovered , as they have been since , the Faithful then could not openly believe and practise them , for that could not be done according to us in any Time without destroying the true Faith and Piety , but they could look upon them with a greater indifference , bear them with far less Pain , nor cease for all that from frequenting their Assemblies , from holding their peace , and contenting themselves with keeping their own Righteousness . See here after what manner we believe that the Essence of the Church was preserved before the Reformation . How corrupted soever the Ministry was , the Foundation of Christianity remained there , and God had yet his remnant there according to the Election of Grace , that is to say his Truly Faithful . It was those alone in all that great mixt body , who were the Church , for they only were in Communion with God and his Son , they alone enjoyed the benefits of the Gospel Covenant ; to them only , how small a number soever they were pertained all the Rights and advantages of the Church of the External Society , of Assemblies , of the Ministry , of the Holy Scriptures , of the Sacraments , Government and Discipline according to the inviolable Maxim of Saint Paul , All things are yours , whether Paul , or Apollos , or Cephas , or the World , or Life or Death , or things present or things to come , all are yours , and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods. All the rest then which were without in that mixed Body which they Call the Latin Church and which had any Relation to that Religion , was not of the Essence of the Church , but its State , the mixture of Errors and Abuses with the sound Doctrine , the Corruptions of Worship , the Vices of the Ministry , the Superstitious Ceremonies , the form of Government , the Religious as they speak , that is to say , the divers Orders of Monks , the different degrees of the Hierarchy , Feasts , Processions , Fasts ; and in a Word all that which has been noted in the Objection , and in which that Church was then different from the Protestant , All that I say belonged to the condition of the Church then , and could by consequence be changed without making either the one or the other a new Church . That the Faithful found themselves insensibly overpowred by almost an infinite number of the Worldly who mingled themselves with them , as Tares with the Wheat , That those worldly made themselves Masters of the Pulpits , the Ministry , the Councils , that they brought in Errors , Superstitions , and Abuses , that they changed the form of the Government of the Church , and that of the Publick Worship , all that does not respect the Essence of the Church , which consists only in the True Faith , but its Condition , so that when our Fathers Reformed those things , we may well say they Changed the State of the Church in their days , but not that they changed the Church , nor that they made a new one , and their Church will not cease notwithstanding that Change to be joyned by a true Succession of Times and Persons to that which was before . A Town full of Strangers who make themselves more powerful there , left desolate by those popular diseases which those Strangers brought thither , and filled with those disorders which they caused does not cease to be the same Town by a True Succession of Times and Persons , when those Strangers should quit it , and its good Citizens be established in their Just and Lawful State , as heretofore Rome sackt by the Goths , did not cease to be the same Rome , when it was freed from them , and a River swelling with the Waters of the neighbouring Brooks , that make it overflow the Fields and break over its Banks , is yet the same River when those Waters go back , and retire into their Ordinary Channel . CHAP. III. That the Ministry Exercised in the Communion of the Protestants is Lawful , and that the Call of their Ministers is so also . WE come now to Justify the Right that we have to the Gospel-Ministry , and to defend our Call not only against the Ordinary Objections of those of the Church of Rome ; but also against the Accusations of the Author of the Prejudices in Particular . For that Author who thinks it meritorious to go beyond others especially in his Passions , is not contented meerly to say , that we are Pastors without Mission and Ministers without a Call , but by a heat of Zeal obstinately adhering to him , he call us Thieves and Robbers , Tyrants , Rebells , false Pastors , and Sacrilegious Vsurpers of the Authority of Jesus Christ . Nevertheless , as those injuries are nothing else but the Effect of his ill humour , it will be no hard matter to shew him , that all the Conditions that we can rationally require to make a Ministry Just and Lawful , are to be found in that of the Protestant Ministers , and that Thanks be to God they can reproach them with nothing on that occasion . This is that which I design to shew in this Chapter , and to this Effect I shall first propound some Observations which I Judge necessary for the unfolding of that Question . I say then in the First place , That we do not here dispute about the Call that our Fathers had for a Reformation , but only of that which they had , and which we have after them for the Ordinary Ministry of the Gospel . For we ought to take great heed least we confound as the Author of the Prejudices has done , those two sorts of Calls that we acknowledge our Fathers to have had , and which the Church of Rome disputes with them . For , That which they had to Reform themselves , that is to say , to reject that which we call their Errors and Superstitions that were brought into the Latin Church , and that which regards the Ordinary Preaching of the word of the Gospel , the Administration of the Sacraments , and the Exercise of Discipline . These two Calls are wholly different . The one , which is that of the Reformation , is of Right common to all Christians , there being no one who is not Lawfully called by his Baptism , to destroy Errors contrary to the Nature or Purity of the true Faith , and to exhort his Neighbours to do the same thing , for the Interest of his own Salvation , and that of the Glory of God , as I have already shewn in my Second part . From whence it follows , That in that Respect they can have nothing to say against our Fathers , and much less against those whom they call the first Reformers , since being as they were , in publick Offices , they had more of a Call for that then was necessary . The other , which is that which respects the Ordinary Preaching of the Word of the Gospel , the Administration of the Sacraments , and the exercise of Discipline , is not common to every private man. On the contrary , no one ought on his own head to thrust himself in without being otherwise Lawfully called . The Reason of this Difference is , that the Reformation consisted in the meer Acts of Faith and Charity , which are those Particular Acts that none can dispence with , because no one can say that it does not belong to him to be of the true Faith , or to be Charitable ; but the Preaching of the Word , the Administration of the Sacraments , and the exercise of Discipline , are those Acts of Authority that no one can do in his own name , but in the name of another , that is to say , in the Name of God , or in the Name of the whole Church , so that he ought to be Lawfully Authoriz'd to do them . It is then this latter Call that we are concerned about in this Question . 2. In the Second place we must note , that we do not here any more dispute about that Extraordinary Ministry which Jesus Christ himself immediately Communicated to his Apostles to give men the first Call to the Christian Faith , and to Assemble them in a Society . For our Fathers did not make any new Convocation , nor any new Society , nor any new Church , as I have shewn in the Two Foregoing Chapters . They did not preach a new Testament or a new Covenant differing from that which the Apostles preached . They were not qualified either as new Apostles , or new Prophets , or new Evangelists ; they did not bring with them any new Revelation to the World , but they Purged and Reformed the Corrupted State of Religion and the Church , by the same Scriptures that the Apostles left us ; they laboured to Reduce things into their Antient and Natural State , and for the rest , they Preached the same Gopel and Administred the same Sacraments that the Apostles left , and which had alwayes Subsisted , notwithstanding the Corruptions wherein they were plunged . In a word , they did not set up any thing new , for which they can with any Colour of Reason require an immediate Mission either from God , or Jesus Christ his Son. We speak therefore here only of the same Ordinary Ministry that the Apostles established in the Christian Church , as they called or formed it , and which was there appointed , to help its Preservation and Purgation . This is that Ministry which we do not pretend to have a new , but that Antient and perpetual one which Jesus Christ and his Apostles left to the Church when they were Converted to the Christian Faith. 3. In the Third Place , we must know that to Judge well of the Validity or Invalidity of a Ministry , we ought to Consider it in three Respects : 1. In Respect of the things themselves that are taught and practised in it . 2. In Respect of the Body , that is to say , the Society where it is exercised . 3. In Respect of the Persons who exercise it in that Society . In Regard of the first , the Ministry of the Jews , the Pagans , the Mahometans is Wicked and Sacrilegious , because the things that are taught there are Impious . In the Second , the Ministry of the Donatists and Luciferians , which was good and Christian in it self , because there was taught and practised nothing ill in it , yet it was notwithstanding Vitious , because it was exercised in Schismatical Societies , which had no right to have a Ministry apart , and to live in aState of Separation . For the Third , the Ministry of an Intruder , an Usurper , a Simoniack , howsoever good it be in it self , however it be set up in a Lawfull Society , that is to say , in the true Church , yet it is notwithstanding bad and Unlawfull , through the Defect of his Personal Call. 4. In the Fourth Place , we must here before we go any further , make Use of the same Distinction , upon this Subject of the Ministry , that we have used in the Preceding Chapter upon the Subject of the Church , I mean , that we ought to place a great Difference between that which makes the Essence of the Ministry , and that which belongs only to its State. For that which is Essential to the Gospel Ministry cannot be changed so as to make another Ministry , and by Consequence a False , Sacrilegious , and Criminal Ministry , since there can be but one alone , good and Lawful ; and on the contrary , the Essence of a Ministry remaining the same and Intire , it must needs be said that it is the same Ministry , though as to what Respects its State it should have received a Change. The Essence of the Gospel Ministry Consists in the teaching the saving Christian Truth , without excluding any Article that is necessary to the Subsistance of the True Faith , Piety and Holiness , in dispensing the true Sacraments that Jesus Christ has Established in his Church , and in guiding the People in such a manner as helps to preserve the Religious Society , or which at least does not absolutely destroy it . It s State is either good or bad ; the Good State is then when there is such a Purity in the Ministry that only Christian Truths are taught there , and wherein those are taught in all their Force and Natural Beauty with all the Diligence and Care that men assisted by the Grace of God are capable of , and when the Sacraments also are purely administred according to the Institution of Jesus Christ without Addition or Diminution , and with all the Decency , Modesty , Simplicity , Gravity , Circumspection , that those Mysteries of the Christian Religion require , so that God may be Glorified , and his Kingdom more and more established in the Hearts of men , and when further the Church is Governed by Just , Wise , Prudent , Charitable and well Executed Laws , after a way that does not destroy but Edify . In Fine , that Good Consists also in this , that those who Exercise this Ministry receive it by Just and Lawful waies , that are proper to draw the Blessing of God upon them and their Labours , and that they behave themselves worthily , quitting themselves with a good Conscience in the Charge Committed to them . The bad Estate of the Church , on the contrary , is then when that Ministry is found to be mingled with Errours and Superstitions , when the Sacraments are Altered and Corrupted , when the Government of it is worldly , or unjust , or Tyrannical , or Confused , when those who fill up that Ministry , take it by ill , scandalous , and unlawfull wayes , and behave themselves unworthily in it . The Good State of the Ministry is a thing that is the most to be wished for in the World , and most proper to preserve the Faith , Piety , Holiness , Peace , Comfort , and Publick Rejoicing in the Church ; and the bad State is the most to be feared of any thing in the World , and that which we ought to Labour the most to Remedy . Nevertheless we are not to think that the Ministry may not yet Subsist in that bad State , as our Bodily Life does not cease to Subsist in the midst of Languishing , and heaps of Diseases . 5. In the fifth place , we ought Carefully to distinguish the Ministry considered precisely in it self , and the same Ministry in as much as it is Occupied or possessed by persons who are Invested in it , or if you will , we ought to distinguish the Ministry and the Ministers , for there is a very great Difference between the one and the other ; as in a civil Society there is a great difference between the Magistracy and the Magistrate ; The Magistracy is an Office , the Magistrate is a Person who possesses that Office , the Office remains allwayes , the persons are changed by Death or otherwise . This Distinction is not hard to be conceived , but it is nevertheless of very great Use in the Matter we are upon . For the Ministry Considered in its self is of an immediatly Divine Establishment ; Whereas the Persons that are raised to it , are raised thither by means of men , and if their Call be divine , as it is in Effect , it is no otherwise then mediately so ; for they are men who call them to it , although they do it by the Authority of God. It is then certain that when God has established the Ministry , he has not only established all that which it ought to have Essential to it , but he has also Established it , de Jure and de facto in a good State ; I mean , he has not only laid an Obligation upon Ministers faithfully to discharge all the Functions of so great a Charge , but that he has even chosen Persons who have most faithfully acquitted themselves of it . But it has not been alwayes the same in those who have been called by men , for as humane Judgments are so short-sighted , that they cannot pierce through the Hearts of men , and as they are mixed with a great many Imperfections , the Ministry may be Committed to persons who are Insensibly Corrupted , either through their Ignorance or through other Inclinations yet more Criminal then Ignorance , and it is from that humane Intervention that the bad State of the Ministry proceeds . If God would alwayes send them immediately , as he did his Apostles and Evangelists , there would be some ground to believe , that it would never be remote from its first Institution ; but since they are men that send them , no one can deny , that it cannot be Corrupted through that Channel , for God has never promised any thing to the contrary in that matter . God has not promised that he would accompany those Elections and Humane Calls with an Infallible Spirit , that should give them all a happy Success ; and besides that the experience of all the Ages past Contradicts it , Jesus Christ himself seems purposely to have forbidden such a rash Imagination ; for although he knew the Heart , and the thoughts of it , yet nevertheless he would have a Judas added to the Number of his first Disciples , and he permitted that a Nicholas , who was afterwards the Head of the Sect of the Nicolaitans , should have a part in the Election that the Church made of her first Deacons , to give us to understand that it was not his intention actually to hinder the Ministry from ever falling into very bad hands . 6. We must note in the sixth place , That although the Church and the Ordinary Ministry which we speak of , are two things naturally joyned together , — yet it is not the Church that depend ▪ s upon the Ministry , but it is the Ministry on the contrary that depends upon the Church . For the Ordinary Pastors were not Established but when the Church was first formed , and when care was taken for its Preservation and Propagation , so that naturally it preceded Pastors . The Church was produc'd at first by the Extraordinary Ministry of the Apostles ; the first thing which they propounded was not to make Ordinary Pastors , but true Beleivers . They called men to the Knowledge of Jesus Christ , they assembled them together , they united them in a Society , before they provided for the upholding of that Society in setting up an Ordinary Ministry in the midst of it . They first took care for the birth of the New Creature , and after they procured it Breasts to nourish it : Therefore it is that the Ordinary Ministers were called Pastors , in reference to Shepheards who fed and led their Flocks . They were called Presbyters or Elders , with reference to the Senators among the Jews ; they were called Bishops , that is Overseers , or Super-Intendants , by an Allusion to the Super-Intendants of Victuals among the Greeks , who were called Bishops also . But the Shepheards suppose their Flocks , the Chosen Senators among the people suppose the people , the Super-Intendants or Overseers suppose those over whom they gave a right of Super-Intendance and Inspection . The Ordinary Ministers therefore suppose the Church , and not the Church the Ministers ; she is not , because they are , but they on the contrary because she is ; she does not own her being to them , but they theirs to her . This Truth will yet appear more clearly , if we set before their eyes , what I have already said in the first Chapter of this Fourth Part , That the Ordinary Ministry is not absolutely necessary to the being of a Church , but that it is only necessary to its well being , and to hinder it from falling into Ruine . For when the Faithful should have no Pastors , they would yet be joyned together in a Society , since it is Grace and Faith that unite ▪ s them , and not the Ministry . And as in the Civil Society it is the Nature and not the Magistrate that unites men , and that after men are united in a Society , the Magistrate is made , by reason of Order , and by the necessity of the preservation of that Society ; so that it is the Society that makes the Magistrate , and not the Magistrate the Society : So here it is the same ; The Faith and Grace Assemble men into a Religous Society , they are those things that make the Church , and afterward the Ministry arises by reason of Order , and to help the preservation of the Church , and so naturally it is the Church that produces the Ordinary Ministry , and not the Ordinary Ministry that produces the Church . The Church was the Fruit of the Extraordinary Ministry of the Apostles and Evangelists , that Ministry produc'd it at first , and not only produc'd it , but it has always since made use of that means or that source for its subsistence ; and we may truly say that it yet produces it , and that it will produce it unto the end of the World , for it is the Faith that makes and alwayes will make the Church ; and it is the Ministry of the Apostles which makes and will always make the Faith. It is their voice that calls Christians together at this day , it is their word that Assembles them , and their Teaching that unites them . It is certain that the Ministry of the Apostles was singular , that is to say , only tyed to their persons without succession , without Communication , without Propagation ; but it ought not to be thought that it was also as Transitory a Ministry as that of other men , for it is perpetual in the Church ; Death has not shut their Mouths as it has the others , they speak , they instruct , they incessantly spread abroad the Faith , Piety and Holiness among the Souls of Christians ; and there is not another Fountain from whence those Vertues can descend , but from them . If any demand of us what is that perpetual Voice that we ascribe to them ? We answer , That it is the Doctrine of the New Testament , where they have set down all the Efficacy of their Ministry , and the whole vertue of that Word which gave a Being to the Church . There it is that their True Chair and their Apostolick See is , there is the Center of the Christian Unity , there it is that they incessantly call men , and join them into a Society ; every other Voice besides theirs is false and supposititious , it is from theirs alone that the Church proceeds ; and because to Assemble with those is to Assemble with Jesus Christ , we may very well say , that not to Assemble with them , is to disperse instead of Assembling . But as to the Ordinary Ministry of the Pastors , we cannot say the same thing , it is not their Voice , as it is distinct from that of the Apostles , that begets the Faith , that Assembles Christians into a Society , or that produces the Church ; they are no more but meer dispensers of the Word of the Apostles , or if you will , External Instruments to make us the better understand their Voice . They are not , not only , the Ordinary Pastors who gave a Being to the Church at first , but yet further at this day to speak properly , it is not their word that produces the Faith in those who had it not before ; for that which confirms it in those who have it , and that which produces it in those who have it not , is the word of the Apostles themselves , to whom we must go for conduct , if we would have good success . They are then to speak properly no more than those External Guides that God has Established in the Church to lead men to the Scripture , and even such Guides as cannot hinder us from going thither of our selves if we will , and it is the Scripture , the voice of the Apostles , or to say better the voice of Jesus Christ , that speaks by the Apostles , that does all . There is therefore a great difference between those two sorts of Ministers , the one preceded the Church , the other follows it ; the one is immediately Communicated by God , and the other is Communicated by means of men ; the one has an Independent and Soveraign Authority and Infallibility on its side , and the other is exposed to Vices , Disorders , Errours and humane weaknesses ; Inferior , and depending on the Church ; the one is every way Divine , and the other is partly Divine and partly Humane . 7. From that sixth Observation there arises another not less important , and that which I have already touched upon in divers places of this Treatise , that is , That the Ordinary Ministry is a Right that belongs to the True Church , and of which it can never be spoiled . The Reason of this Truth is taken from the very Nature of the Church . For the Church being a Society that God has call'd together by the Ministry of his Apostles , and which he yet every day calls together and upholds by the word of his Scriptures , and the use of his Sacraments , we must necessarily say that in forming it , he has given it in that very thing that he has formed it a sufficient , full and entire Right to make use of all the means that may help its preservation and upholding , amongst which that of the Ministry is without doubt most considerable . That same Providence that gives men a Natural Life , and appoints them to preserve their life by that Food it furnishes them with , gives them by that very thing a right to employ persons to gather that food together and to prepare it , to the end they may make use of it according to what it is designed for ; and it would be a great Extravagance to demand of a man what Right he has to prepare himself to eat and drink , for he could have nothing more to say but that the Nature that gave him life , gave him at the same time all the Right that was necessary , to provide for the upholding of that life . And , to make use of another Example , The same Nature , or to say better the same Providence , that Assembles men together in a Civil Society , and ordains them in their so uniting together to uphold that Society by a rational Order , does it not give them at the very same time and by the same Right that Assembles them , a Right to have Magistrates , to Govern them by , and to make the Laws of that Society to be Executed , to have Judges to decide their differences , to have Remedies for the Healing of Diseases , and Tradesmen for the publick good : And would it not be an absurdity to demand of a people what Right they had to have Magistrates , Judges , Physicians , Tradesmen , Teachers of Commerce , Lawyers , since they could not have a fuller and juster Right than that which is founded upon the reason of Order and the Society it self ? We need but to apply these Examples to the Subject we are upon . The Church is a Body to which God has given a Spiritual Life , and he has ordained it to be preserved and upheld in the use of Mystical Aliments , of which he himself has made a publick Magazine in his Holy Scriptures ; it is therefore evident that he has given it by that very thing , a Right to have Ministers or Pastors who should prepare those Sacred Aliments , and season them for its Spiritual Nourishment . The Church is a Religious Society composed of divers persons that God himself has Assembled to live together , not in Confusion but in Order , he would have that Society subsist , he has appointed it to uphold and preserve it self , he himself has suggested the means ; he has then without doubt by that very thing given a Right to have Guides to Govern her , Pastors to lead them forth into the Heavenly Pastures of the Scriptures , Ministers to dispense the Divine Sacraments that he has instituted for her , Watch-men and Guides to be careful of her , and to go before her . In a word he who has given Faith , Piety and Christian Holiness to the Church , has at the same time indispensably obliged them to these four Duties ; one is , to persevere in the Exercise of those Vertues unto the end . The other is , to defend themselves against the Assaults and wiles of the Enemy of their Salvation ; the third is , to increase and strengthen themselves more and more ; and lastly , to propagate them as much as in them lyes from us down to our Children , and even amongst Strangers , that is to say , among those who are not as yet in that Relation . It follows therefore necessarily that that has given the Church a sufficient full and entire Right for the Ministry , since the Ministry is but a fit and lawful means for all that . It could not have a Right more lawful than that which is founded upon those indispensable Duties , for in that case , it is not only a Right that makes the thing just , but it is an obligation that imposes a necessity of it ; as in the State , the Right that every one has to learn the Will of the Prince is indisputable , because it is built upon the obligation that lies upon every one to conform himself to it . It is clear then that there could not have been a Right to have Ministers more lawful than that of a Faithful People , a True Church , since it is founded upon those four Duties which I have noted , that are indispensable , and that give not only a Right but an Obligation to have a Ministry . But we ought here to take notice of the Fallacy that their Missionaries are wont to make , and that the Authour of the Prejudices who has Adopted their Method would have us make with them . For see after what manner they argue . Where there is no lawful Ministry , there is no True Church : But among the Protestants there is no True Church . I set aside the Question , Whether we have or whether we have not a lawful Ministry in the same sence that he intends , I will only at present consider his way of Reasoning , that makes the True Church depend upon a lawful Ministry . Admitting that to be a True Church where the Ministry is , and denying that to be a True Church where the Ministry is not . I say that this is a vain , deceitful and illusory way of Reasoning ; to which I oppose this other Argument : Where there is the True Church , there is a Right to a Lawful Ministry ; But the True Church is among the Protestants ; Therefore the Right to a Lawful Ministry is among the Protestants . Of those two ways of arguing it is certain that this latter is the justest and almost only just , right and natural . For the True Church naturally goes before the Ministry ; it does not depend upon the Ministry , but the Ministry on the contrary depends upon it : as in the Civil Society , the Magistracy depends upon the Society , and not the Society upon the Magistracy : In the Civil Society the first thing that must be thought on , is , that Nature made men ; afterwards we conceive that she Assembled and United them together ; and lastly that from that Union that could not subsist without Order , Mastistracy proceeded . It is the same thing in a Religious Society ; the first thing that Grace did , was to produce Faith in the Hearts of men ; after having made them believe , she United them , and form'd a mutual Communion between them ; and because their Communion ought not to be without Order and without Government , from thence the Ministry arose . So that a Lawful Ministry is after the True Church , and depending upon it . It is not a Lawful Ministry that makes it to be the True Church , for it is so by the Truth of its Faith , and it would yet be so , when it actually had not any Ministers ; but it is the True Church that makes the Ministry to be Lawful , since it is from the Truth of a Church , that the Justice of its Ministry proceeds . The Argument therefore of the Author of the Prejudices involves the Dispute in a ridiculous Circle , for when he would prove that we are not the True Church because we have not a Lawful Ministry , we maintain on the contrary , That we have a Lawful Ministry , because we are the True Church . And he cannot say that we are the cause of the ridiculous Circle , because our way of Reasoning follows the Order of Nature , and his does not follow it . I omit that his first Proposition , which is , Where there is no Lawful Ministry there is no True Church , is Equivocal . For either he understands by that Lawful Ministry , Ministers actually Established , or else he means a Right to Establish them . If the former , his Proposition is false , for the True Church may be without having actually any Ministers , that is no ways impossible , as I have already shewn . And if he means the latter , his Proposition is not to his purpose , for it would maintain that the Society of the Protestants has a full and entire Right to set up Ministers for its Government , supposing that it had the True Faith , as it may appear by what I have said , and as it will appear yet more clearly by the following Observation . 8. I say then in the eighth place , That the Body of the Church , that is to say , Properly and Chiefly the Society of the truly Faithful , not only has the Right of the Ministry , but that it is also that Body that makes a Call Lawful of persons to that Office. This Truth will be confirmed by what I have already shewn , without any further need of new Proofs . But as the Question concerning the true Fountain whence that Call proceeds , is it self alone almost all the difference that is between the Church of Rome , and us about this matter , and that moreover it is extreamly Important to the Subject we are upon , It is necessary for us to examine it a little more carefully . They cannot then take it ill that I insist a little more largely upon this Observation then I have done upon the rest . To make it as clear as I can possibly , I propose to Treat of three Questions ; The first shall be , To know whether naturally a Call belongs to the Pastors only , excluding the Laity , or whether it belongs to the whole Body of the Church . The Second , Whether in case it belongs to the whole Body of the Church , it can be said that the Church can of it self spoil it self of its right , or whether it has lost it any way that it could be supposed to have . And the Third , Whether the Body of the Church may confer Calls immediately by it self , or whether the Church is alwayes bound to confer them by means of its Pastors ? As to the first of these Questions , All the Difficulty it can have , comes only from the false Idea of a Call that is ordinarily formed in the Church of Rome . For first , They make it a Sacrament properly so called , and they name it the Sacrament of Orders . From whence the thought readily arises that the Body of the People cannot confer a Sacrament . They Imagine next , That that Sacrament impresses a certain Character , which they call an Indelible Character , and which they conceive of as a Physical Quality , or an Absolute Accident , as they speak in the School , and as an Inherent Accident in the Soul of the Minister . They perswade themselves further that Jesus Christ and his Apostles left that Sacrament and that Physical Quality in trust in the hands of the Bishops to be communicated by none but them . With that they mix a great many Ceremonies , and External Marks , as Unction , and the Shaving which they call the Priesty Crown . They add to all that , Priestly Habits , the Stole , the Alb , the Cope , the Cross , the Miter , the Rochet , Hood , Pall , &c. They make Mysterious Allegories upon these Ceremonies and those Ornaments , they distinguish those Dignities into divers Orders , they frame a Hierarchy set out by the Pompous Titles of Prelats , Primates , Arch-Bishops , Patriarchs , Cardinals , &c. They write great Books upon all these things , and the half of their Divinity is taken up in explaining their Rights , Authority , Priviledges , Immunities , Apostolick Grants , Exceptions , &c. What ground is here that all good men should not believe that the Church-men , are at least men of another kind from all others , and that they are no wayes made of the same blood , of which Saint Paul says , that God has made all Mankind ? Notwithstanding when we examine well that Call , what it is , to form a just Idea of it , we shall find that properly it is but a Relation that results from the Agreement of three Wills , to wit , that of God , that of the Church , and that of the Person called ; for the consent of these three make all the Essence of that Call , and the other things that may be added to it , as Examination , Election , Ordination , are Preambulatory Conditions , or Signs , and External Ceremonies , which more respect the Manner of that Call then the Call it self . In Effect , in a Call we can remark but three Interests that can engage one to it , that of God , since he that is called ought to speak and Act in his Name , that of the Church , that ought to be Instructed , Served , and Governed ; and that of him who is called , who ought to fulfil the Functions of his Charge , and to Consecrate his Watchful Diligence , Cares , and Labours to it ; from whence it follows , That that Call is sufficiently formed , when God , the Church , and the Person called , come to agree , and we cannot rationally conceive any thing else in it . But as to the Will of the called , it does not fall into the Question , for we all acknowledge that no one can be forced to receive the Office of the Ministry ; and therefore Saint Paul describing the qualities of a Bishop , begins with the desire to be a Bishop ; If any man , says he , Desire the Office of a Bishop , he Desireth a good Work. We are only then concerned about the two others , to wit , that of God , and that of the Church . As for the Will of the Church , they cannot methinks deny , that naturally it should not be that of the whole Body , and not meerly that of the Pastors that ought to be required to it . For they are not the Pastors alone who have an Interest in the call of a man , it is generally the whole Body of the Church , it is that which ought to be as I have said , Instructed , Served and Governed , it is that that ought to receive the Sacraments from his hands who is called , and that ought to be Comforted and Edified by his Word . It s consent therefore is necessary there , and it is of the Essence of the Call that it should intervene . As to the Will of God , both the one and the other of us agree , that it is not any more not made known to men immediately and expresly , for howsoever we may without doubt referr it to a particular Dispensation of his Providence , the qualities , or as they speak , the Extraordinary Talents that some persons have for the exercise of that Office , and especially when those Talents are joyned with internal Dispositions , secret motions or desires to employ them in God's Work , and the advancement of his Glory , we affirm that that cannot be enough absolutely to conclude a Divine Revelation . God has therefore on this occasion put his Will as a Trust into mens hands , and that very thing , that he has Instituted the Ordinary Ministry in the Church , contains a Promise to Authorise those lawful Calls that they shall give to persons for that Office. We are agreed upon that Point , it concerns us only to know who are left in Trust with that Will , the Pastors alone , or the whole Body of the Church . Those of the Roman Communion pretend the former , and we pretend the latter . To decide this difference , I say , That we cannot rationally own any other to be left in trust with the Will of God in that Respect , then the Body to which he himself has naturally given the Right of the Ministry , for whose sake he has Instituted the Ministry , and which he has even bound by an indispensable Duty to have Ministers . That Body I say , which has as great an Interest in it as that of the Preservation of its Faith , Piety , and Justice , and whose consent ought moreover necessarily to Intervene . But that Body is that of the whole Church , and not of the Pastors only , it is to that , as I have shewn before , that the Ministry belongs , it is for the sake of that that God has established it , it is Indispensably bound to have Ministers , it has the greatest Interests in it , and it ought even naturally to concur . It is that therefore that God has left his Will in Trust with , as to those Calls , and by Consequence it is from that that those Calls ought to proceed , and it would be Absurd to make them flow from any thing else . We have already frequently said , That the Body of the Visible Church , as it is upon Earth , is alwayes mingled with the good and bad , with the true Believers , and the Wicked , and that when these two Orders of persons are set in Opposition , they are the truly Faithful only , that are properly the Church of Jesus Christ ; That Church I say , which he has appointed to Assemble in his Name , to which he has promised his Presence , to which he has given the Keys of his Kingdom , the Power of Binding and Loosing , and in a word , to which he has given the Ministry and all the Rights that follow upon it , or go before it ; so that to be of that Church , it is necessary to be a True Believer , and no Body without True Faith can have that Advantage , the Prophane and the Wicked , as just , being all naturally Excluded . But it is Evident that the Pastors may not be of the Number of those true Believers ; Experience justifies that the greatest Number may forsake the true Faith ; and there is no promise of God that that shall never happen in Respect of all of them . It would then be a great Rashness to make those Pastors alone Depositaries of that Will of God whereof we speak , and which is essentially necessary to the Call of Persons , since not having any Revelation that promises that he will alwayes preserve the Faithful in their Body , none can be assured that since the first rise of the Gospel till this present time they have alwayes been , none can be assured that it never hapned or that it will never fall out , that that Order may not be wholly fill'd up with , and possess'd by the worldly and Hypocrites . It would be to deposite the Will of God in a Body that might sometimes not be the true Church , and not have the least part in its Interests , it would be to derive that Call from a Source that might be wholly cut off from the Church . It would be to make the Validity of the Sacraments , that are a chief means of the Preservation and Propagation of the City of God to depend on the Inhabitants of Babylon , which Saint Augustine says , is alwayes mixed with the Inhabitants of Jerusalem , which would be manifestly contrary to the Order of Gods Wisdom . It is therefore without doubt more conformable to that Wisdom , to make his Will known , and by Consequence the Lawful Call of a man , throughout the whole Body of the Church , since that howsoever mixed the wicked may be there with the righteous in the same External Profession we are notwithstanding assured by the promises of God that there will be alwayes some true Believers in that External Profession , even until the end of the World , and by Consequence there will be alwayes the True Church , that very same that Jesus Christ has Assembled , and to which he has properly given as well the Right of the Ministry as all the other Rights of a Religious Society . It is far more just , that since God has not more immediately by himself declared his Will , upon the occasion of those personal Calls , that we should regard that Body which we are certain of that God loves and looks upon as his Family , and as the Spouse of Jesus Christ his Son , that we look upon it , I say , as his Interpreter in that Regard , then to go to seek for his Voice , and as I may so say his Oracle , in a Body whereof we cannot have the same certainty that it cannot be , or that it has not even sometimes been wholly made up of the unjust and worldly . They will say it may be , that it would not be better if those Calls should proceed from the Body of the Church , although they might be certain that God alwayes preserves the truly Faithful there ; since the wicked most frequently prevail there over the Good , that they would make themselves Masters of those Calls , and that they could neither more nor less Communicate them to the wicked and the worldly , then if there were no Believers in the Church . I Answer , That it is true , that whether those Calls come from the Pastors only , or whether they proceed from the Body of the Church , we could have no certainty that they should be well made as to the choice of Persons , for God has not promised his Faithful Ones even when they shall be a greater number then the worldly , that they shall alwayes make good Elections , they may without doubt be deceived in that respect , although there may be a greater Likely hood that those Elections should be more just , when they should be made by a Body in which one is assured that there are allwayes True Believers , then when they should be made by a more particular Body whereof one cannot have the same Assurance . But not to stay upon that , I say that my Argument Respects not the goodness of that Election , but the Validity of the Call in it self whether it be conferred upon a good man , or whether on a wicked , for the Call of a wicked man ought not to cease to be good , although the Choice should be illmade . My meaning then is , that if the Call proceed only from the Body of the Pastors , without the consent of the whole Church Intervening , after whatsoever manner , it may be so brought about , as that it may proceed from a Body of impious and Prophane Persons , who should all be really Separated from the Church , and who would have no part in its Interests ; so that it would be to make the Divine Authority that ought to accompany that Call , and the Validity of the Actions of the Ministry , to depend on a Body of wicked men , and to make the Enemies of God the fit Depositaries of his Will , which to me seems no wayes conformable to the Order of his Wisdom , especially when there is another Body where we know that he alwayes preserves and upholds his Faithful . But they will say yet further , If your arguing took place , it would take away from the Pastors all the Functions of their Ministry to give them to the Body of the Church . The Pastors would have no more any Right , either to Preach , or to Administer the Sacraments , or to Govern the Church , or to censure , or to suspend , or to Excommunicate . For it we say that that Call would not depend upon them , under a pretence that we have not any Certainty that God preserves and will alwayes Preserve True Believers amongst them , we must say the same , that the Government of the Church , Preaching , the Administration of the Sacraments , and the Exercise of Discipline could not be committed to them , since we have not any more Certainty for those things , that there should be any truly Faithful among them , then we have upon the matter of that Call ; so that all must be overthrown if that Reason take place . I answer , That the Donatists heretofore fell into that Extravagance to imagine that the Preaching of the Gospel , the Sacraments , and the other Actual Functions of the Ministry ought to be performed by Holy Pastors , to become good and valid , and not by the Wicked ; so that being moreover Prejudiced with this thought , that the whole Body of those Pastors who retained Communion with Caecilianus were fallen off from their Righteousness and become Wicked , they held that there was not any more a Church in the World besides the Party of Donatus . But Saint Augustine shew'd them that their Principle was false ; and it is worthy the noting by what Way he made them see the falsness of their Opinion , for it was neither by telling them that the Body of the Pastors when they all became Wicked failed not to be the Church of Jesus Christ , nor in holding that Jesus Christ having at first put the Ministry into the hands of the Pastors , it must necessarily follow by that very thing , that he was bound to preserve their Righteousness , or at least alwayes to preserve the truly just and Faithful Persons in their Body , and those who should make the Sacraments to all the rest . He says nothing of all that , but he had recourse to the Body of the Church , and he says , that the Sacraments are not the Pastors , nor the Power of the Keys , nor that of Binding and Loosing , nor any of the Functions of their Ministry , but that all that belongs to the Church ; that it is that that Baptises when the Pastors Baptise , that it is that that binds when the Pastors bind , and that looses when they loose ; and that it is to her that Jesus Christ has given all those Rights . But what will you say he understands by that Church ? The Truly Faithful , whatsoever they be , the Wheat of God , the good Seed , the good Fish , as they are called ; in a word , the Just , the Children of God , in Exclusion of the Worldly . It is from that Fountain that the Validity of the Sacraments is drawn , and the other Functions of the Ministry , and not from the Body of the Pastors . I say then , the same thing . All that which the Body of the Pastors does , it does in the name of the Church , and by Consequence in the name of Jesus Christ , for the Name of Jesus Christ is in the Name of the Church , it is the Church that preaches by them , that administer the Sacraments by them , that governs by them , that censures , that suspends , that absolves , that Excommunicates by them , they are only its Ministers and the Dispensers of its rights . Whether then they be wicked , whether they be Prophane or Impious , that hurts their own Persons , but it does not hurt their Functions , because their Functions are not their own , but the Churches . Furthermore , that Hypothesis of St. Augustine concerning the source from whence the Validity of the Action of the Ministry proceeds , furnishes us with another Argument which to me seems Demonstrative not only from the Authority of that Father , but from the Nature of the thing it self . For it is evident that we ought to refer that Call to the same Body to which God originally gave the Power of the Keys , and which is exercised by the Pastors , so that the Pastors are no more but the Dispensers of its Rights . As that which makes Baptism , the Communion , the Government , and the Acts of Discipline good and valid , is not because they proceed from the Pastors only , but because they proceed from the Body of the Church . So the same must be said , that , that which makes a Call good , valid , and lawful , is , because it comes from the Church , that is to say , from the truly Faithful . But it is certain that it is properly the Body of the Faithful that has received Originally the Power of the Keys , that is exercised by the Pastors , and upon which the Validity of all the Actions of the Ministry depends , as being done in the Name and Authority of the whole Body , and by Consequence it is to that we must refer that Call. If I had a mind here to set down all the passages of St. Augustine when he establishes this Truth , I should engage my self in an excessive Tediousness . It shall suffice to set down some few that may clearly let us see what his Doctrine was upon this matter . Judas says he , Represented the Body of the wicked , and Saint Peter represented the Body of the good , the Body of the Church ; I say The Body of the Church , but the Church which consists in the good : For if St. Peter had not represented that Church , our Lord would not have said to him , I give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven . For if that had been said but to St. Peter only , the Church does not do it . But if it be done in the Church , to wit , that the things that are bound on Earth are bound in Heaven , and that those which are loosed on Earth are loosed in Heaven , in as much as he which the Church Excommunicates , is Excommunicated in Heaven , and he to whom the Church is Reconciled is Reconciled in Heaven , since that I say is done in the Church , it follows that St. Peter receiving the Keys represented the Holy Chvrch. And as the good who are in the Church , were represented in the person of St Peter , so the wicked who are in the Church , were represented in the person of Judas , and it is to those that Jesus Christ said , Me you have not always . And further , after having described the Church of the Truly Faithful , in these Terms , God has sent his Son into the World to the end that those who believe in him should by the laver of Regeneration be loosed from their Sins , as well Original as Actual , and that being delivered from Everlasting Damnation they should live in Faith , Hope and Charity , as Pilgrims in this World , amidst Temptations , and Labours , and amidst the Corporal and Spiritual Consolations of God , walking in Christ Jesus , who is their way . But because in that very way in which they walk they are not free from those Sins that arise through the Infirmity of this Life , he has appointed them the saving Remedy of Alms , to help their prayers which he has commanded them to make ; Forgive our Trespasses , as we forgive them that Trespass against us . After , I say , having described the Church of the Just in that manner , he adds , This is that which makes the Church blessed in Hope in this miserable life , and it is this Church that Saint Peter represented by the primacy of his Apostleship , Nam Ecclesiae gerebat figurata generalitate personam . If you look upon Saint Peter in himself , he was but a man by Nature , a Christian by Grace , and the first of the Apostles by the super-abundance of Grace . But when Jesus Christ said to him , I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven , and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven , he Represented the whole Body of the Church , that Church I say which in that Age was moved with divers Temptations , as by so many Storms , Torrents and Tempests , and which yet does not fall into ruine , because it is founded upon the Rock , from which Saint Peter took his Name . I say that Saint Peter took his Name from it , for as the Name of Christian is derived from Christ , and not that of Christ from that of Christian , so that of Saint Peter , is derived from the Rock , and not that of the Rock from the Name of St. Peter , and therefore Jesus Christ said to him , Thou art Peter , and upon this Rock I will build my Church . For Saint Peter having made this Confession , Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God , our Lord told him that he would build his Church upon that Rock which he had confessed . For that Rock was Jesus Christ , upon which Saint Peter himself is built , according to what is said , No man can lay other Foundation then what is already laid , which is Jesus Christ . It is that Church therefore that was founded upon Jesus Christ which received from him in the Person of Saint Peter , the Keys of that Kingdom , that is to say , the Power of binding and loosing . In the same sense he says elsewhere , That there are some things said to Saint Peter that plainly seem properly to belong to him , and which nevertheless cannot be so well understood , if they are not referred to the Church that Saint Peter represented , and of which he was the Figure by that Primacy which he had among the Disciples , as are , adds he , these words , I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven ; Yet elsewhere , Jesus Christ has given the Keys to his Church , to the end that that which it should bind on Earth should be bound in Heaven , and that whatsoever it should loose should be loosed ; that is to say , to the end that he that should not believe that his Sins are pardoned in the Church , to him they should not be pardoned , and that on the contrary he who being in the bosom of the Church should beleive that his Sins were pardoned , and who should be reduced by a holy correction , should obtain pardon . It is not rashly , says he in another place , that I make two Orders of men . One sort are so much in the House of God , that they are themselves that House that is built upon a Rock , and that which is called the only Dove , the Spouse without Spot and Wrinkle , the Inclosed Garden , the hidden Fountain , the Wells of Living Water , the Paradise where the Fruit of Apples is . It is this House which has received the Keys and the Power to bind and loose , and it is this to which he said , That if any would not hearken to it when it Reproved and Corrected , that he should be esteemed as a Heathen man and a Publican — That House consists in Vessels of Gold and Silver , in Precious Stones and Incorruptible Wood , and it is to that that Saint Paul says , Bear with one another in love , keeping the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace ; and again , The Temple of God is Holy , which Temple ye are . It Consists in the good , in the Faithful , in the Holy Servants of God spread abroad every where , joyned together in a spiritual Vnity by the Communion of the same Sacraments , whether they know one another by sight , or whether they do not . But as for the others , they are so in the House as not at all to belong to the Structure of the House , and they are not in that Society that is Fruitful in Peace and Righteousness . They are as the Chaff amidst the good Corn , and we cannot deny that they are in the House , since the Apostle says that there are in the House not only Vessels of Gold and Silver , but Vessels also of Wood and Earth , the one to Honour and the others to Dishonour . They must wilfully shut their Eyes that will not acknowledge by these Passages that it is only to the Church of the Faithful , and not to the Body of the Prelates that that Father refers all the Efficacy and Force of the Actions of the Ministry , and all the Power of the Keys . But further if you will , he explains himself yet more expresly in the same Book out of which I have taken these last Words . Hitherto , says he , I have methinks clearly enough demonstrated by the Holy Scriptures and by the Testimony of Saint Cyprian , that the Wicked who have undergone no change in their Natural Estate , may both give and receive Baptism . Notwithstanding it is manifest that those men do not belong to the Church of God , since they are Covetous , Extortioners , Vsurers , Envious , Malicious , and Enslaved by such like Vices , for the Church is the only Dove that is modest and Chast ; the Spouse without Spot and Wrinkle , the Inclosed Garden , the Sealed Fountain , the Paradice full of Fruits , and such other Titles that are given it can be understood of none but the Good , the Saints , and the Righteous ; that is to say , those in whom not only the Operations of the Gifts of God are found , that are common to the good and bad , but who have also the inward and Supernatural Grace of the Holy Spirit . It is to those that it is said , Whosoevers Sins you shall remit , they shall be remitted ; and whosoever Sins you retain they shall be retained . I do not then see why we may not say that a wicked man may Administer Baptism , since he may have it , and as he has it to his ruine , he may give it to others also to their ruine , not because that that which he gives may be a Pernicious thing , but because that he himself who receives it is a wicked man. For when a wicked man gives Baptism to a good man who dwelling in the bond of Vnity is truly Converted , the wickedness of him who gives it is overcome by the goodness of the Sacrament and the Faith of him who receives it , and when his Sins are pardoned who is truly Converted to God , they are pardoned to him by those with whom he is joyned by a true Conversion . For the same Holy Spirit which was given to the Saints with whom he is united by the bond of Love , is he who pardons them , whether he knows that Body , or whether he knows it not . And so when the Sins of any are retained , they are retained by those from whom they are separated by the Difference of their Lives and the Malice of their Hearts , whether they know that Body or whether they do not . It could not methinks be said either with greater strength or Clearness , that all the Efficacy of the Actions of the Ministry that the Pastors Exercise , depends not on the Body of the Pastors , but on the Body of the truly Faithful , and that in Effect they are those who pardon and retain Sins when the Ministers pardon or retain them . From whence it necessarily follows , That if the same Actions of the Ministry belong to the Society of the Faithful , the Call of the Ministry , does so also with a far greater Reason ; for if the Power of the Keys , the right of Remitting and Retaining Sins , belongs to the body of the Faithful only , it must be every way necessary that the Pastors should hold the exercise of that Power , from the body of the Faithful ; for if they should not hold it from thence , they would have no Right to exercise it , nor could have it elsewhere . And if they should have it elsewhere or that it should belong properly to the body of the Pastors exclusively from the Simple Faithful , it would be not only not true , but it would be further absurd to say that the body of the Faithful exercised that Power by the Pastors , or that they pardoned and retained Sins , as Saint Augustine teaches . I cannot avoid taking notice here , by the by , of that Ordinary Error whereinto those of the Church of Rome fall , who do not believe that immediate , absolute and Independent Authority that the Pope ascribes to himself over the whole Church , but who would that the Power of the Keys is given to the whole Body of the Hierarchy , that is to say , to those Pastors who are Priests and Bishops . For to prove their Opinion they do not fail to set the Sentiment of St. Augustine before us , which plainly , as we have seen , shews us that the Keys were given to the whole Church ; from whence they draw two Conclusions , The one against that great Authority that the Pope pretends to , and the other for the Authority of the Bishops , which they would have to flow immediately from Jesus Christ . But of these two Conclusions it is certain that the First is just and wholly conforming with the thoughts of that Father , but it is not less certain that the second is not ; and that , at least without going about to deceive our selves willingly , or to cheat the World , we could not say , that That Church figured by St. Peter , to which God gave the Power of the Keys , which is exercised by the Ministry of the Pastors , should be any other according to Saint Augustine , then the Body of the Truly Faithful and Righteous , in opposition to the Worldly and the wicked who are mixed with them in the same External Profession ; and this is in my Judgment so clear and evident in the Doctrine of that Father , that they must needs be ignorant of it who deny it . It is therefore a manifest Illusion to go about to make use of those Passages in favour of the Bishops , for that Church is not the Body of the Hierarchy , but that of the Truly Faithful , whether they be Laymen , or Pastors , and it is to those only that Saint Augustine ascribes all the Rights and all the Actions of the Ministry , as it may appear by what I have related , and by consequence it is to those that the lawful Call of the Pastors belongs , and not to the Body or Order of the Hierarchy . For it would be absurd to derive that Call from any thing else , then from that very Church which has received the Power of the Keys , and which is exercised in her Name and her Authority by her Ministers . Tosta us Bishop of Abyla , seems to have acknowledged this Truth conformably to the Principles of Saint Augustine , for see after what manner he explains himself in his Commentaries upon Numbers , upon the story of the man who was brought before the whole Assembly of Israel , because some had found him gathering of Sticks upon the Sabbath Day and put him in Prison for it . First of all he says , That although the Acts of Jurisdiction cannot be exercised by the whole Community , yet that Jurisdiction belongs to the whole Community in regard of its Origine and Efficacy , because the Magistrates receive their Jurisdiction from it . He adds afterwards , That it is the same in the Keys of the Church , that Jesus Christ gave them to the whole Church in the person of Saint Peter . And that it is the Church that Communicates them to the Prelats , but which notwithstanding Communicates them without depriving it self of them , so that says he , the Church has them and the Prelats have them , but in a different manner ; for the Church has them in respect of Origine and Vertue , and the Prelats have them only in respect of Vse ; The Church has them vertually , because she can give them to a Prelate by Election , and she has them Originally also . For the Power of a Prelate does not take its origine from it self , but from the Church , by means of the Eelction that it makes of him . The Church that chose him gives him that Jurisdiction , but as for the Church it receives it from no Body after its having once received it from Jesus Christ . The Church therefore has the Keys Originally and Virtually , and whenever she gives them to a Prelate , she does not give them to him after the manner that she has them , to wit Originally and Virtually , but she gives them him only as to Vse . To this we may add , that some Councils of these latter Ages , as those of Constance and Basil , seem to have acted themselves upon this Principle when they gave themselves the Title of Representing the whole Universal Church . Vniversalem Ecclesiam Representans . For to what end did they take that specious Title , if they would not acknowledge that the Origine of the Authority of the Prelats or the Pastors , is in the Body of the whole Society , and that it is from thence that it is transmitted to them to exercise it in the name of the whole Body ? But that which is most considerable is , That it appears from the Testimony of the Holy Scripture , that the Body of the Church , that is to say , the faithful people , in opposition to the Pastors , has taken part from the beginning in the Acts of its proper Government , and particularly in the Calls of Ministers ; which evidently notes , that it is a natural Right that belongs to it . For that when after the Apostacy and Tragical Death of Judas , they were to substitute another Apostle in his place , Jesus Christ not having done it immediately by himself before his Ascention , the History of the Acts relates , that the whole Church , which then only Consisted in an hundred and twenty Persons , was Assembled , and that upon the Proposal that Saint Peter made to them , they appointed two , upon whom the Lot having been cast , and falling upon Matthias , with a common consent he was put into the number of the Apostles . They were there about the Call of an Apostle , that is to say of a Minister who ought to come immediately from God , and therefore it was that they cast the Lot ; but because the Church was then formed , and that Jesus Christ being no more corporally present upon Earth , those Calls could not be made wholly and immediately by him , men took some part in them , for by their Election they limited the Lot to two persons , and in the end declared by their acquiesence that they look'd upon the Declaration of the Lot , as if it had been the very voice of Jesus Christ . This is all the part that men could take there , but it was not only the Apostles who did those two things , it was the whole Body of the Church . The History notes that the Assembly was about an hundred and twenty persons , that Saint Peter made a Proposal to them , that upon that Proposal of Saint Peter they presented Two , Joseph and Matthias , and that the Lot falling upon Matthias , he was numbred with the Eleven Apostles by common Agreement , that is to say , by the common consent of all . That evidently shews us , that the Body of the Faithful , and not meerly the Body of the Pastors , is the Right source of Calls . The same things appear in the Call of the Seven Deacons , for the Story expresly notes , that the murmuring of the Greeks against the Hebrews , falling out , and giving occasion to the Apostles to think of that Call , they called the multitude of the Disciples , and that when they had made a Proposal to them , the Assembly approved of it , and that in the end they chose seven persons , whom they presented to the Apostles , who after having prayed to God , laid their hands on them . But that further le ts us see from whence a Lawful Call proceeds , to wit , from the Body of the Faithful , and not meerly from the Body of the Pastors , for it was the whole Assembly that approved of the Proposal of the Apostles , and that chose , and not the Apostles alone , who did nothing else but propose and lay their hands on them . This is further justified by the Practice of the Apostles , which would readily admit the people in the most weighty Affairs that respected the Government of the Church into their deliberations and Acts , when that might be done without Confusion . So in the First Council of Jerusalem , the Question being ventilated whether the Observation of the Ceremonies of the Law was necessary to the Gentiles , it is said that it pleased the Apostles and Elders or Presbyters ( for it is the same thing ) with the whole Church , to send to Antioch and write to the Church there . That Letter was in effect written in the name of all , and sent to all indifferently , The Apostles and Elders and Brethren unto the Brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch , and Cyria and Cilicia , and it is expreslynoted that when Jude and Silas , who were the bearers of that Letter , were arrived at Antioch , they Assembled the multitude , that is to say the people , and there acquitted themselves of their Commission ; which distinctly shews that the people then took cognizance of the matters of Religion , and that they interven'd in publick Deliberations . So when Saint Paul would Excommunicate the Incestuous person of Corinth , he calls the Church to that Action , In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ , when ye are gathered together , and my Spirit , let such a man be delivered unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh , that the Body may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus , which notes the same thing . Those who have read the writings of Saint Cyprian Bishop of Carthage , cannot be ignorant that that great Saint governed his Church by the common Suffrages not only of his whole Clergy , but of all his people also , and that he consulted with them in the most weighty Affairs , since he has declared it himself in divers places of his writings . I could not , saies he , in one of his Epistles to his Clergy , answer to that which our Brethren Donatus , Fortunatus , Novatus , and Gordius have wrote to me , because I am alone , for from the first entrance into my Bishoprick , I purposed to do nothing of my self without your Counsel and the Consent of my people . So that when the Favour of God shall have joyned me again to you , we shall treat of all things in common according to what our mutual honour requires of us . In his Tenth Epistle , he complains of some Priests who without ever consulting others had received those into Communion who in time of Persecution had abjured Christianity , and he order'd that they should be deprived of their Functons , for says he , they must give an account of their Actions before us and before the Confessors , and before all the people , when God shall give us the Favour to let us meet together again . In the Twelfth he writes to the People of his Church , Fratribus in plebe consistentibus , he notes concerning those who had fell in time of Persecution , and who desired ro be restored to the peace of the Church , That when God should have sent Peace again to his Flock , and that they should again recover their Assemblies , that Affair should be examined in the presence of the people , and that they should judge of it among themselves ; Tunc , says he , Examinabuntur singula presentibus & judicantibus vobis . In the 28th Epistle , answering his Clergy who had consulted together concerning some Priests who had abandoned their Flocks , I could not saies he , make my self the sole Judge of business . Which ought to be exactly managed , not only with my Collegues but with the whole Body of the people also , non tantum cum Collegis meis , sed et cum plebe universa . In the 68th Epistle , answering as well in his own name , as in the name of divers other Bishops of Affrica Assembled in Council to the Churches of Leon and Astorga , on the matter of Basilides and Martial , Bishops who had been deposed for their Crimes : The People , says he , who obey the Commandments of the Lord , and who fear God , ought to separate themselves from a wicked Pastor , and not to take any part in the Sacrifices of a Sacrilegious Priest . Since it is the people who have chiefly the power to Elect those who are worthy , and to reject those who are unworthy . The Divine Authority it self has established this Law , that the Priest should be chosen in the Presence of the People , before the eyes of all , to the end he should be approved as worthy of the Ministry by a publick Judgment and Testimony . Therefore it is that God said to Moses in the Book of Numbers , Thou shalt take Aaron thy Brother and his Son Eleazar , and thou shalt make them come upon the Mountain in the presence of all the Assembly , thou shalt take off Aarons Vestment and put it upon Eleazar , for Aaron shall dye there . He ordained that the Priest should be established in the presence of the whole Assembly , to teach us that the Ordination of Priests ought not to be performed without the Knowledge of the people assisting , to the end that in their presence the Crimes of the wicked and the Deserts of the good should be discovered , and that so the Ordination should be good and lawful when it should be examined by the Suffrages and Judgments of all . We find in the Book of the Acts that the same thing was practiced when they were to ordain another Bishop in the place of Judas . Peter stood up in the midst of the Disciples , and all the Multitude Assembled together into one place . And that was observ'd not only in the Ordination of the Bishops and Priests , but it was observ'd also in that of the Deacons , as it appears from the same Book of the Acts , where it is said that the Twelve Apostles called together the whole multitude of the Disciples . Therefore according to Divine Tradition , and the observation of the Apostles , that Order ought to be diligently preserved and held , which is also observ'd among us , and almost in all Provinces , that in Order to the making of lawful Ordinations , the nearest Bishops of a Province should Assemble with the people , who ought to ordain a Prelate , and the Bishop should be chosen in the presence of the people , who may perfectly know the Life and Conversation of every one . And this is what was done amongst you in the Ordination of Sabinus our Colleague , for by the Suffrages of all the Brethren , and by the Judgment of the Bishops who came themselves to you , after you had wrote , they conferred the Order of Episcopacy on him and laid their hands on him in the Room of Basilides . See here the first Question decided . The second consists in knowing whether we can say with any Reason that altho' those Calls ought naturally to proceed from the whole Body of the Church , as we have just before shewn , yet that the Church has lost that Right , and that it is now lawfully deprived of it . That which gives ground for this Difficulty is , that although in the Civil Society the Right of Creating of Magistrates seems naturally to belong to the whole Body of the Society ; yet it fell out that the Order of Nature has been interrupted , for in Monarchical States it is not the people , but the Prince only that confers Offices , and that Right is so lawfully in him , that there is no Office that does not depend upon his Nomination . They may therefore pretend that the same thing falls out in the Religious Society ; from whence it will follow , That it is no more the whole Body of the Church that ought to confer those Calls , but the Body of the Prelates , or if you will the Soveraign Monarch of the Church , who is as they pretend the Pope . But I maintain that that cannot be any ways said . It is not so in respect of the Religious Society , as it is in that of the Civil . In the Civil , the people may be lawfully deprived of the Right that Nature has given them to Create their Magistrates , and to provide for its Government , whether they be done by a voluntary Transmission which they themselves have made to a certain Family , or to a certain Person to whose Rule they submit themselves , or whether it come to pass by a just Conquest . But these ways have no place in the Church , she can neither create nor acknowledge a Soveraign Monarch , in whose favour she should deprive her self of her Rights in that regard , to make him an Absolute Master . For being concerned for her own Salvation , which she finds interested in the Functions of the Ministry , and moreover having no assurance , as I have already noted , that he or those in whose Favour she should strip her self of her Rights , should themselves be faithful , it would be visibly to expose her self , to give her self over into the hands of the Palpably Prophane , the Unbelievers , or Hypocrites , to make her Enemies her Lords , and it would be palpably to hazard her Faith and Conscience , which she could never do without a Criminal negligence , of which she never ought to incur the Guilt . In the Civil Society , where the matter is only about Interests , and not about those that concern ones Salvation , nothing hinders but that a people may wholly resign themselves to the Cares of a Soveraign Power to Govern them , and it may be most frequently advantageous for them to do so also , to avoid the Evils that arise from the thwarting of divers private Interests , which may do a prejudice on the publick . But in the Church , or where ones Salvation is concern'd , the Faithful can never without a Crime deprive themselves , to give it into the hands of another , of that Care that God has Commanded them to have over all the external means they may make use of for the procuring of that Salvation , for howsoever their Faith and Piety does not absolutely depend upon their Pastors , yet the Functions of the Ministry , when they are pure and Holy , are a great help to them for that , and the preservation of their Faith becomes most difficult when the Ministry is corrupted . The Church therefore in that respect can never be lawfully spoiled of its Rights , and he who has given them to it , has not given it the power to quit them , nor to transport them to another . As to the way of Conquest , every one may see that has less place in the Church then that of Transmission . For that which in the Civil Society makes the Dominion of a Conquerer to be just , is , that when he enters into a Society with the people which he has Conquerr'd , he is not bound to repent that he made War with them , nor to seek their Favour , or ask their Pardon ; so that the Fruit of his Conquest remains with him , and without renouncing it , he may become the Friend of that People , that is to say , be their Lord and their Friend together . But it is otherwise in the Church , he who makes War against it , cannot enter into its Society to govern it , unless he repent of his having treated it as an Enemy , unless he Humble himself before it , unless he beg pardon of God for what he has done , & by consequence unless he renounce all the advantages which he could pretend to by the Right of Arms. If he does not do that , he can never enter into the Church , nor by Consequence have any part in its Government ; and if he does , he has no more Ground to say that the Church should belong to him by Conquest . It is Evident therefore that the Body of the Faithful can never Lawfully either deprive it self , or be deprived by another , of the Right that naturally belongs to it to provide for its Support , and its own Government , in calling Persons to the Ministry : From whence it follows , That that Call , in order to its being just , ought to proceed from the Body of the Church , and that it ought not to proceed from any else . There remains therefore now , nothing but the third Question which is this , viz. Whether the Body of the Church be always bound to confer Calls by means of its Pastors , or whether in some Case the Body of the Faithful Laity may not confer them immediately ? To clear this point , we must plainly distinguish that Call in it self , I would say into that which it has of Essential , and the way of its being Conferred , that is to say the Formalities practised in it . That which is Essential to it consists in these three Consents which I have noted , that of God , that of the Church , and that of the Person called . The way or manner of Conferring consists on one side in some preambulatory Acts , without which that Call would be very Confused and Rash , and these Acts are Instruction , Examination , Proof of Doctrine , the Testimony , of a good Life and a good Conversation in regard of manners , and on the other side in some Solemnities or External Ceremonies that serve to render that Call more Publick , Majestick and more Authentical , as Fasting , Prayer , Exhortation , Benediction , and Imposition of hands . As to the Essence of a Call , since as I have shewn , that in supposing the consent of the person called , the will of God is found included in that of the whole Body of the Church , and that moreover it appears that the simple Faithful , whom they Term Lay-men , do not cease to be joyned in a lawful Society , and to make a Body of the Church although they should have no Pastors , it is evident that those Faithful people are alone sufficient to make Calls Lawful . When they have Pastors , they ought immediately to concur with them , and to make Elections in Common , if it may be done without Confusion , and if it cannot , they ought at least to ratify by their Approbation the Elections that the Pastors shall have made , and when they cannot have any without a visible danger of dispersion , it is certain that they may alone and immediately by themselves confer that Call. For the Call proceeds from the Society , not in as much as it has Pastors , but in as much as it is a Society , I would say , in as much as it is a Body of the Faithful United together in the Communion of Faith , Piety , and Justice . It is that Society that naturally makes its Order , it is naturally in as much as it is a Society , put in trust with the will of God in that respect , and the Mistress of its own Consent . When then it shall have no Pastors the Call it shall Communicate will not fail to be full , lawful and sufficient , and to have all that which is essential to it . It is as certain also that the Pastors in the True Church have not naturally any Right to concur to Calls , if they are not Faithful , since that if they are not Faithful they are really without that Society , and that the Right of Calls in the True Church can belong only to the Truly Faithful , and not to others . It ought not then to be doubted that a Faithful People alone , and abandoned of all its Ministers , may make a Call. But they will say , How can it be that Lay-men should make Ecclesiastical persons , and confer a power and an Authority which they have not themselves ? I answer , That this Difficulty is null , for it is true , That no one can lawfully give away that which does not belong to him either de jure , or de facto ; and it is further true that the Office of the Ministry belongs neither de facto , nor de jure , to any private man , nor even to divers private men taken out from the Body . And therefore it is , that not only no private man can thrust himself into the Ministry of his own head , but even that a part it self of the Society cannot Lawfully confer a Call , without the consent of the other , though it have the greatest number of its side . So that we may say with Reason that there is the Body , in comparison of the other party . But I say that the Ministry belongs to the whole Society , not that all the whole Body can Exercise immediately all the Acts of it , of it self , but that no one Body can either Preach or Administer the Sacraments , but only because it is its Authority and its consent which renders those Acts valid , in vertue of the institution that Jesus Christ has made of that Religious Society with all its Rights . From whence it follows , that the Body of the Faithful , howsoever it be composed all of Lay-men , does not cease to have the power Lawfully to confer the Ministry on a Man , without its being liable to be said , that it confers that on others which it has not it felf ; for it is certain that the Ministry belongs to it , and that a Call consists but in depositing the publick Right into the hands of him who is called , to the end it may be reduced into Act in the Name of the whole Society . But I say , that the Faithful people themselves have a Just and lawful Call , to give up that Trust : For as I have noted already , there is no Call more Lawful then that which is founded not only upon a sufficient Right , but upon a Duty also , and an indispensable Obligation . When the matter is about Societies , there is nothing more absurd then to imagin , that a whole Body cannot Communicate that which all the parts that compose it have not . For if it were so , a People could never make a King , which is yet notwithstanding done in all Elective Kingdoms , and the Church of Rome her self cannot give a reason why she makes her Popes , since there is not any Pope present who should make his Successours . They are all Created by the Colledge of Cardinals , who are not Popes themselves , so that they give that which they have not . They must therefore needs say , That the Papacy is virtually in the Colledge of the Cardinals , and that that which each one among them has not , they have all together in a Body , otherwise they could not Create a Pope with that fulness of Power , and that extent of Jurisdiction , which is not in meer Bishops . As to what regards the manner of conferring those Calls , they will agree with me that there are things there , that the Body of the People may and ought immediately to do by themselves , as proof of the purity of Doctrine , Information of manners , Fasting and Prayer ; and I will acknowledge that there are others there that ought not to be done but by the Pastors only , when they have them , as Examination in respect of Knowledge , Exhortation , Publick Prayer , Benediction , and laying on of Hands . But in Cases Extraordinary and of absolute Necessity , the Church not having any Pastors , and notbeing able to have any without a visible danger of dispersion , I say that they may and ought to appoint some persons to do those things in their Names . And those of the Church of Rome ought not to think that which I propound strange , seeing that they would readily in a Case of absolute Necessity , have any simple Lay-men , or a simple Woman , have the power of Administring of Baptism : Baptism is a Sacrament , it is the publick introduction of a man into the Church of God , if therefore according to them , a Sacrament so great and august , does not fail of being good and valid , though Administred by a Lay-man who has no particular Commission from the Church , if the Church is esteemed to Baptize by that Lay-man , how much more good and available should the Prayer , Benediction , and laying on of hands , conferred in a Case of absolute necessity by a Lay-man , be , since that not only it is not a Sacrament properly so called , but that further that Lay-man does not Act in that Solemnity in the quality of a meer private man , but as having received the Office and Commission from the whole Body of the Faithful , the whole Body doing it by him , and Authorising it by its prefence . Tertullian has gone much further then we go upon this matter , For he would , that , where there there should be no Pastors , every Lay-man should have the power , not only to Baptize , but also to Consecrate the Eucharist , and to Administer it ; and his words seem to be grounded upon the very ordinary practice of his Time. Where says he , there is no company of Church-men , you offer and Baptize , ( he speaks to the Lay-men ) and you your selves are alone Priests to your selves . Where there are three persons , if they should be Lay-men , there is a Church there , for each man lives by his Faith , and God has no respect of persons . I do not pretend to approve of that which he says concerning the Eucharist , that he would have a simple Lay-men have the power of Celebrating when there should be no Minister , and I acknowledge there is an excess in that Proposition . But it may appear from thence at least that the Right of Consecrating a Pastor in a Case of absolute Necessity was not then denyed to the whole Body of the Church . These are the General Observations that I had to make upon this matter . It will be now no hard thing to apply them to the Ministry of the Protestants , and the Personal Call of their Ministers , to make a solid Judgment of it . First , then , I say , that our Ministry considered in it self , that is to say , with respect to the things which we Teach and Practise , cannot but be most Lawful . For we suppose here that our Doctrine is the very same that Jesus Christ and his Apostles Taught , we add nothing to it , we diminish nothing from it ; the Sacraments that we dispence are the very same that Jesus Christ has instituted ; and the Government that he has set up in the midst of us , is not remote from that of the Primitive Church according to what it is represented to us in the Scripture . If the Author of the Prejudices has any thing to say to us upon that Subject , he ought to come to it by way of discussion , and not by that of Prescription . But before he forces us to give a Reason of our Ministry , he would do Justly if he would give us Satisfaction concerning his own , which he well knows we desire ; I would say , he would do Justly , if he would shew us what Call he himself had at first , by the Justification of the things that he Teaches : What Right he had to Teach Transubstantiation , the Real Presence , the Adoration of the Host , the Worshipping of Creatures , Humane Satisfactions , &c. and Really to Sacrifice the Body of Jesus Christ . If he cannot make it appear that all those things that are in Dispute between the Church of Rome , and us , are Gospel-Truths , he can neither prove his Call , nor hinder us from holding it null and unlawfull . For he cannot have any Lawful Call to Teach Errors , nor to perform those Actions of Religion that Jesus Christ never instituted , and by consequence it is from that that he ought to begin , when he would inform us of the Truth of a Call. In Effect all other Inquiries will signify nothing , if that does not go before ; since Piety , Truth , Sound Doctrine , are the necessary Foundations to every Lawful Call ; and that on the contrary , no Creature can have any Right either to Teach a Lye , or make the People practise , or to practise it self , a Worship contrary to the true service of God , or to celebrate the Sacraments that Jesus Christ has not instituted . It belongs therefore to the Author of the Prejudices to tell us how he pretends to avoid that Discussion , for it is certain that the first Question that must be decided to make the Validity of a Call clear , is that of the Justice of the Ministry in it self , that is to say , in regard of those things that are taught and practised in it , when that Justice is in dispute , as it is between the Church of Rome and us ; after which , when that point is once decided , we must pass over to two other Questions ; the one , whether the body , that is to say the Society wherein one is , has it self the Right to have Ministers , and the other whether the Persons who exercise the Ministry therein are well and duly called , as I have shewn in my third Observation . That first Point then being supposed , to wit , that the things that are taught and practised among the Protestants are good and Christian , I say , that they cannot dispute with them the Right of their Ministry but by accusing them of a Schism like that of the Luciferians or the Donatists . But we have so clearly shewn that if we have Reason at the bottom , our Separation from the Church of Rome is just , and that she her self is guilty of chism , that there is no further ground for that unjust Accusation . They cannot therefore any further contest our Ministry with us , and in effect if we are true Believers , and if we are justly Separated from the Church of Rome , it is Evident that we are Lawfully United among our selves in a Religious Society , as I have shewn in the first Chapter of the Fourth Part. And if we are Lawfully United in a Religious Society , it is not less Evident that all the Rights of the Christian Society belong to us , and that in all those Rights that of the Ministry is Comprised , as it appears from my Sixth and Seventh Observation . So that our Right to a Ministry is indisputable , supposing that we have Reason in the Foundation , and all that which they propound against us will remain null and Fallacious . If we have Reason at the bottom , we are the true Church of Jesus Christ ; but the true Church of Jesus Christ can never lose its Rights , she is never deprived of them , and she cannot so much as deprive her of them , none can ravish them from her ; they are Rights that cannot be Alienated , they can neither be lost by the Inundations or Concussions of the World , with and by Interruption of Possession , or Invasion of Enemies , as the Inheritances of the World are ; and in one word , there where the true Faith and Charity is , there is the true Church , and where there is a true Church , there is the Right to a Ministry . But say they , Is the Ministry which you have that Antient and perpetual Ministry , that Jesus Christ has established in his Church , or is it a new one ? For if it be a new one , it is a false and Unlawful Ministry , and if it be the Antient and perpetual Ministry of the Church , whence comes it to pass that we do not see among you any of the degrees of that Hierarchy which was established in the Church before your Reformation ? I answer that our Ministry is that Antient and perpetual one that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have set up in the Church , and if it were a new one we must needs have set up a new Gospel , which is a thing so remote from the Truth that our most passionate Adversaries , except the Author of the Prejudices , would never in my Judgment have us charged with it . But I say that we must distinguish of the Essence of a Ministry from its State , as I have shewn in my Fourth Observation . Before the Reformation , we grant that the Ministry was preserved in the Latin Church in regard of all that which was Essential to it , and it is in that that our Church has Succeeded it , so that in that Respect they are not two Ministries , but only one and the same , which we have retained . We preach the same Truth that they teach yet , we Adore one and the same God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost . There is among us a Baptism , an Eucharist , a Government , a Discipline , as there was then , but we have not succeeded it in that bad and Corrupted State whereinto the Ministry was then fallen , we have no more either any Sacrificers of the Body of Jesus Christ , or a Soveraign Monarch of the Church , or Patriarchs , or Cardinals , or Preachers of Indulgences , or Framers of Legends , all that was not any thing of the Essence of the Ministry , and in having retrenched those kinds of things we have it no more abolish'd then a Town is abolished when its excesses are retrenched , or then a House is abolished when it is cleansed , and its ruines repaired . As to a Personal Call , I say that we have that Body of the Church which only upon Earth has a Lawful Right to confer it on us . That which our Reformers had , they had from the Church in their days , which did not consist in that Multitude of Prophane Worldly and Superstitious Persons which swell'd their Assemblies then , but in those truly Faithful Persons who as yet preserved themselves pure in the midst of that Corruption , in that good Corn which as yet grew amidst the Tares , although it was almost Swallowed up by them . It was in those that the Right of the Ministry properly and truly resided , it was those who made as yet that Society any wayes Lawful , and it was from those that the Justice of a Call proceeded . I confess , that they Communicated it then in a very corrupted State , and after a very impure manner , but God gave our first Reformers the Grace to purify theirs by the sound Doctrine , and to rectify it by a Holy and Lawful Use . It is therefore with and by those , that the Body of that Society which is Reformed has conferred that Call upon others , and that the Propagation of the Ministry has come down even to us , after the most Evangelical manner in the World , on one side with Instruction , Examination , Proof , Inquiry , and Testimony of good manners , as exact as could possibly be made , and on the other with publick Prayers , Exhortation , Benediction , laying on of hands , Mission , and a particular Tye to a Flock . Behold here what our Call is in Regard of the Body of the Protestants . I do not deny that in some places of this Kingdom at the beginning of the Reformation there was not some Calls which were conferred by the People without a Pastor , as that of La Riviere was at Paris in the year 1555. Which the Author of the Prejudices has not been wanting to reproach us with . But besides that these are particular Cases of a very small number , which hath not followed , nor produced any setled Custom , and by Consequence cannot be imputed to the whole Body of the Protestants , which has all along elsewhere had Pastors called by the Ordinary wayes , besides all that I say , I have shewn that in a Case of Absolute necessity , such as those Flocks were in then , the People may Lawfully make use of that Right which God and the Nature of a Christian Society have put into their hands . CHAP. IV. An Answer to the Objections of the Author of the Prejudices about the Call of the First Reformers , and the Validity of our Baptism . THere Remains nothing at present but to give a Satisfactory Answer to some Objections that the Author of the Prejudices has made against the Call of the first Reformers , which may all be reduced to this , to wit , Whether it was Ordinary or Extraordinary , or whether it was neither the one nor the other . Their Ministers , says he , are divided upon this point into two different Judgments , which some have Vnited together , to make up a Third Composed of those two . Some distinctly say that the mission of their Ministers is Extraordinary , others that it is Ordinary , and others that it is Extraordinary and Ordinary both together . But as this last Opinion includes the two others , so it destroys it self in destroying them . So that properly it will be only necessary to examine in particular the two first Opinions . It is in the first place very remarkable , that the Author of the Prejudices , after having raised the Question , as he has done , whether the first Reformers were Thieves and Robbers , Tyrants , Rebels , False Pastors and Sacrilegious Vsurpers of the Authority of Jesus Christ ; he has reduced all his proof of it to wrangling about those Qualities , of Ordinary or Extraordinary , that be given to their Call. From those high words it seemed to have lain upon him to have shewn us that that Call was destroyed and annihilated without any Return , and that he should at least have brought us what would have wholly overthrown the first and Natural Foundations upon which we establish it . But , Thanks be to God , that is not done , and the choller of the Author of the Prejudices is turned upon those Titles that we give to the Call of the first Reformers he does not further concern himself to know directly whether it is good and Lawful , but meerly to know whether it is Ordinary or Extraordinary , or whether it be neither the one nor the other . Moreover it is certain that to decide even this last Question , it is very ill done to begin with the setting aside the Sentiment of those who hold that it is Ordinary and Extraordinary both together . For as those Terms of Ordinary and Extraordinary are Ambiguous , and that by reason of their Ambiguity , it may be so that a Call that is Ordinary in one respect , shall be Extraordinary in another , so to set aside those who would have that of the first Reformers to be Ordinary and Extraordinary both together , is to set aside those who would clear that Ambiguity ; it is designedly to shut up the dispute in Equivocal Propositions , to give way to the making a long discourse to no purpose , it is in a word to imitate those who propose nothing else to themselves but how to cast dust in the Eyes , and to suspend the Judgments of their Readers , in removing far from them the clear Knowledge of things . It is therefore necessary for the Author of the Prejudices to redress that , and because that those two Sentiments , one of which carries this with it , that that Call is Extraordinary , and the other that it was Ordinary , do not encounter one another at the bottom , it is necessary to shew in what respects both the one and the other may be said . To this Effect , I shall first say a Word of the Ministry of the first Reformers , and then afterwards I shall speak of their Call. As to their Ministry , it is true that it is not Extraordinary nor newly Instituted , but the same that the Apostles established at first for the Preservation and Propagation of the Church , which was preserved in the Latin Church down to the Age of our Fathers in respect of all that was absolutely Essential to it , and which shall also subsist unto the end of the World , as I have explained in the foregoing Chapter . We may say notwithstanding , that the Reformation in which they were employed was an Extraordinary Function of their Office. For however they did not need either a new Right or a new Ministry for that , since every Pastor is bound to labour to Reform that which regards his Flock , when it is necessary that he should do it , yet such a Reformation as they made , is not a thing that should be done alwayes . So that in that Respect their Ministry had something Extraordinary , to wit , in as much as their Flocks had an Extraordinary need of their help to drive back those Errors and Superstitions which had got ground , as a vessel that is ready to be Shipwrackt has an Extraordinary need of the Assistance of those who Steer it , to avoid that intire destruction wherewith it is threatned . But besides this we may say also that it had this of Extraordinary in it , that though it was yet the same Gospel Ministry which had till then subsisted in the Latin Church , in respect of all its Essentials , yet they put it into another State then that wherein it was for many Ages before , as having purged and freed it from all the Corruptions that disgraced it , and as those things are called Extraordinary that are not wont to be seen , and which are not so often done , that Change of the Form or State that happened to the Ministry , after its having for so long a time appeared to the eyes of the people quite otherwise then they saw it then , may very well be called Extraordinary . As for that which regards their Call , it was not Extraordinary , if by that Term they mean that it should have come immediately from God , as that of Moses and the Antient Prophets , or immediately from Jesus Christ , as that of the Apostles , but it was Ordinary , that is to say , they received it from God mediately by means of men . It is also certain that the manner of receiving their Call , as to the greater part , was the very same with that that is most Common and usual in the Church , which is , that they received their Ordination from the hand of those Pastors who were themselves in that Office. All that therefore which there was of Extraordinary in their Call , in that respect , was , that they rectified it by freeing it from all the Impurity it had , and which came from the Corruption of the men of that Age , and in referring it to its true End , which should be the Purity of Gods Worship , and the Salvation of Souls . I acknowledg that in their Administration they went beyond the intention of those who had conferred their Offices on them , but they did no more in that then they ought ; for the Ministry which they had received being Gods and the Churches , and not those private mens who Communicated it , they were bound to refer theirs to the greatest Glory of God and the Edification of his Church , and not to the Wills and Interests of the Court of Rome and its Prelates , altho' ir was through their Channel that they had received it . They did well therefore to make use of that which they had of good in their Call , to purify that which was bad in it , and they also did well to make use of it against the ill intention of those who had given it them for an ill end , even as those who have received Baptism from an Heretical or Schismatical Society , are bound by that same Baptism which they have received from them , to oppose themselves as much as possibly they can to that Heresy or Schism , and to make use of their very Baptism for it , altho' it should be against the intention of those who gave it to them . I acknowledge also that there were some few who received their Call immediately from the Churches hand , I would say , the Body of the faithful people ; and we may say of those , that their Call was extraordinary , in the sense that we call unusual things Extraordinary , which happen very rarely , and which are done against Custom and ordinary practice . For howsoever that those Calls were not unlawfully made , and without Right , as I have proved in the foregoing Chapter , it is notwithstanding True that it is not , nor ought to be the Common Practice , and that it has no place but in a case of absolute Necessity . So also in the Church of Rome the Call of Martin V. may be said to be Extraordinary , who was called to the Papacy immediately by the whole Body of the Latin Prelates assembled in the Council of Constance , and not by the Colledge of Cardinals , as it is ordinarily done . As to those Ministers who succeeded them , and who received their Ordination from the hands of the first Reformers , their Call was without doubt Ordinary , and conformable to the practice of the Antient Church , according to the Idea that the Scripture gives us of it , and all that it can have of Extraordinary consists in this , that in the distinction of Bishops and Presbyters they have not followed them , and it is the Presbytery and not the Bishop who gives the Ordination , but in that very thing they did nothing remote from that which was practised in the Apostolick Church , acording to the Idea of it that the Scripture furnishes us with , since Saint Paul saith in express terms concerning Timothy , That he had received it by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery . I do not here enter upon the Question , whether that Distinction is of Divine or only of Humane Right , I will say something to that in the close . I do not so much as blame those who observe it , as a thing very Antient , and I would not have it made a matter of difference in those places , wherein it is established , but I say where that Distinction is not observed , as it is not , nor can be amongst the Protestants of this Kingdom , their Call will not cease to be lawful , since besides the Case of absolute necessity , which sufficiently dispences with that Form , besides that neither the Bishop nor the Presbyter are of themselves any more than Executors of the Will of the Church in that Regard , and not the Masters of that Call , besides that I say , there is a Formal Text of the Apostle that justifies the Right that the Church has to give the Imposition of hands by the Presbytery , which alone is sufficient to stop the mouth of all Contradiction whatsoever . That being so explained , we may easily see what we ought to answer to all those petty Objections of which the Author of the Prejudices has composed his fourth and fifth Chapters . Some says he , were called to the Ministry and made Pastors only by Lay-men , others were ordained by Priests only , and those who had been Ordained by Bishops lifted themselves up against their Ordainers , and that Church which had given them their Mission . I have shewn in the foregoing Chapter , that those who were called by Lay-men , that is to say , by the whole Body of the Church , had a sufficient Call. That which I have also said concerning those who received their Ordination from the Presbytery , does not leave any more difficulty , and as to those who resisted their own Ordainers , I have shewn that they did nothing in all that whereunto their very Office did not bind them . We may see , saith he , yet further , by the thirty first Article of their Confession of Faith , that it was upon this supposition of a power given immediately by God to these men Extraordinarily sent to Order the Church a new , that all their pretended Reformation is founded . That Article of our Confession of Faith says not , that the Church had absolutely perished , nor that the Ministry was intirely extinguished , but that the Church was fallen into Ruine and Desolation , and that its State was interrupted , which only shews that she as well as the Ministry under which she was , were both in the greatest Corruption , and this is that which we also hold . It says not that God had given an immediate Mission to the Reformers , but that God had raised them up after an extraordinary manner to order the Church a new . That signifies that God by his Providence gave them Extaordinary Gifts to undertake so great a Work as that of the Reformation was , and that he accompanied them with his Blessing . All that includes neither a new Revelation , nor a new immediate Mission , and hinders not , that the Right which they had to employ themselves in it should not be annexed to their Charge , and that it should not be common not only to all the Pastors , but even to all Christians , as I have shewn in my Second part . Their Discipline , adds he , Ordains ▪ that the Priests of the Roman Church who upon turning of Calvinists , should be Elected to the Office of Ministers should receive a new Imposition of hands , which shews that they suppose their precedent Mission to be Null , and so that that which Luther and Zuinglius Received from the Church of Rome signify'd nothing , whence it follows , that that which they ascribe to them can be no other than Extraordinary . There is a great Difference between the Call which was given before the Reformation , and that which is at this day given in the Roman Church since those Two Communions are separated . The Former was indeed very much corrupted , but yet nevertheless it supposes the consent of the whole Latin Church , and it was not given by a Party so confirmed in Errour ; where the second supposes no other than the consent of a Party so confirmed in those Errours which we believe to be most contrary to the Purity of the Gospel , which makes the matter so that our Society can no more look upon it as a Lawfull Call , in regard of it and its Service . Besides that when we see the Conditions that are necessary to a Lawful Call , as Examination , Information of manners , and the like , so ill observed in the Church of Rome , that Christian Prudence will not suffer us to Trust to her and her Elections , which for the most part would be Null , if they were Examin'd according to their own Canons . Calvin has wrote that God set up Apostles in his time , or at least , Evangelists to draw men from the Party of Antichrist . I answer , that Calvin only called the Reformers Apostles and Evangelists , by some kind of resemblance which they had with the first Evangelists , in some respect , not that they brought a new Revelation with them into the World , as the Apostles and Evangelists did , but because God made use of them , to make the light of his Gospel which was much darkened strike upon the eyes of Men with splendor , and they honour those to this day with the Title of Apostles who now employ themselves in making Christianity known to the Nations that are Strangers to it , although they are not immediately sent from God , and though they have not any new Revelation . He alleadges in the end , the Dispute that was between a Protetestant named Adrian Saravias and Beza , where Beza seems to admit of only an Extraordinary Call in the Reformers , I answer , That as well Saravias as Beza are particular Authors , who may have had both the one and the other thoughts a little excessive about this matter , and it may be may have even disputed the one against the other , without well understanding one another . This is that which falls out every day between persons otherwise very learned . Beza rejected the Ordinations of the Church of Rome , not , that he thought the Ministry was absolutely extinct there , nor that they had not there any Right to a Call , but because the Calls of persons there were made after a very confused and corrupted manner without Examination either of Doctrine or manners , by reason of which they were most frequently given to unworthy persons , and that instead of ordaining them to Preach the Gospel , they ordain them only to Sacrifice . That concludes that the Ordinary Call which the first Reformers received was not purer than that of others , if God had not given them the Grace to rectify it as they did by a just and lawful use of it , but that does not conclude that such as it was it did not put them into a Right and Obligation to cleanse it from that ill which it had by that good which remained in it . The Author of the Prejudices opposes further an Article of a National Synod held at Gap , Anno 1603. which he sets down in these words , Vpon the 31 Article of the Confession of Faith , it having been put to the question whether when they came to Treat of the Call of our Pastors , they should found the Authority which they had to Reform the Church and to Teach , upon the Call which they had received from the Roman Church : The Assembly determined that they ought meerly to referr it to the Article of the Extraordinary Call , by which God extraordinarily and inwardly stirr'd them up to their Ministry , and not in the least to any thing that remained of that Ordinary Corrupted Call. But since he would give himself the trouble to look into our National Synods , he ought not to stop there , he ought to go on even to that of Rochel , which was held immediately after that of Gap in the year 1607 , and there he would have found that that Article having been set down differently in several Copies , and having been altered by the negligence of the Copiers , it was re-established in that Synod , which was drawn into an Act in these words : In the 31 Article of the Confession of Faith of the Synod of Gap , wherein mention is made of the first Pastors of the Reformed Churches , these words and to [ Teach ] which are found in some Copies , should be raised out , and in the place of meerly there should be put , chiefly ; and that last Clause , [ And not in the least to any thing that remained of that Ordinary Corrupted Call ] should be also mended , Rather than to that little which remained of their Ordinary Call. To have made use of that Article seriously , he ought to have done it not in the State wherein the ignorance of the Copiers had put it , but in that wherein a whole Synod had re-established it . At the bottom it will appear that they there treated only about a Call for the Reformation , and not for the exercise of the Ordinary Ministry , and the Synod does not , but in some respects only , deny that that Call for a Reformation , was not founded upon that that the first Reformers had received from the Church of Rome , howsoever corrupted it was , but it would that it should be chiefly referred to a particular Providence of God , which by Extraordinary Gifts and Talents had raised men up for so great a work . In effect , although we should acknowledge that in the Church , the rejecting or Reformation of Errours should be the common Right of all Christians , and that that Right would yet more especially belong to the Ordinary Pastors then to others , by the Obligation of their Charge joyned to that of their Baptism , yet we do not fail to acknowledge also , that there was something extraordinary in the persons of the Reformers , to wit , the Gifts , or the admirable Talents which made them fit for that work , and capable of reducing their Right into Act , without which their Right would have been to no purpose , as it did remain in divers others unprofitable , who had not the same Gifts . But that very thing might gain them the greatest Authority , and this is that which the Synod would say , and which we say also with it . For we distinguish three things in the Reformers , from whence there results as full and intire a Call to Reform the Church as they can desire : the one is , The general and common Right that all Christians have to Combat Errours , since they are all called to defend the Truth ; the other is , a more peculiar Right which they had for the same thing in quality of Pastors , for how impure soever their Call was , it would alwayes bind them to have a Care of their Flocks , and to procure Gods Glory ; and the third is , the Extraordinary Graces and Light that God had communicated to them , and rendred them thereby fit for that work . But it is this last that reduc'd the two others into Act , and therefore they look'd on it there principally when they treated of the Reformation , because if they had never met with this , the two others would have been useless Rights , and ineffectual Obligations . After that , it is easy to comprehend how the Author of the Prejudices was mistaken , when under a pretence of that Extraordinary Call , that we Attribute to the first Reformers , in respect of their Gifts or Talents , he imagines that he can lay it to our charge that we believe that the ordinary Ministry was intirely lost , and that it was renewed by an extraordinary and immediate Call of God. For it is upon that , that with great heat , to very ill purpose , he spends his reasonings throughout his whole fifth Chapter , in Allegations of Fathers , and Observations to no purpose upon the Rights of that pretended immediate Ministry . We Answer him in a Word , that he only Combats his own Shadow , for we do not hold that the Ordinary Ministry established by the Apostles was absolutely extinct . It is a Good that belongs to the Church , and as the Church has alwayes subsisted by the special Providence of God , though in a different State , that same Providence has also made that Good to subsist alwayes . It is True that it was very ill dispens'd while it was in the hands of bad Stewards , and that where the Inheritage should have been cultivated , and have brought forth without doubt much fruit , it produced on the contrary abundance of Thorns and Briars . But notwithstanding the Inheritance was not lost . The Ministry was alwayes preserved , not only de Jure , in as much as the Church is never lost , but de facto also , for it alwayes had Ministers , ill chosen indeed , ill called , designed to bad uses , called by very confused Calls , but called notwithstanding , and having a Right sufficient to make them do their Duty if they would , and if they were capable . So that the good State of the Ministry might be very well altered , Corrupted , Interrupted , overthrown , but the Ministry was not absolutely lost I will not be afraid even to go further , and to say that when it should be true that the Ministry should be wholly annihilated , that which notwithstanding has never hapned , and it may please God that it never shall , it would not be necessary that God should renew it by an immediate and every-way Supernatural Mission , while there should be two or three of the Faithful in the World , who would be able to Assemble together in the Name of Jesus Christ . For the Right of the Ministry would alwayes remain in those two or three , and they might confer a Lawful Call upon one of themselves . If it could even happen that there should not be absolutely any more Faith upon the Earth , and that Heresy or Paganism or Judaism , or Mahumetanism should generally overspread the whole World , without leaving any Truly Faithful in it , which certainly will never come to pass since we have the promise of Jesus Christ to the contrary , I say in that case , Provided , that the Book of the Holy Scripture remained , the * young Buds of the Church , and that of the Ministry , would subsist even there . The Apostles who left it to the world , would yet further call men from thence a second Time to the true Faith , and by that true Faith to the Re-establishing of a Christian Society , and by the Re-establishing of that Christian Society to that of the Ministry , without any absolute necessity of Gods immediately sending new Apostles . One man only who should learn the heavenly Truths contained in that Book , might teach them to others and reduce Christianity to its first State , if God would Accompany the word of that man with his Ordinary Blessing . Those who are acquainted with History are not Ignorant that in the Fourth Century , two young men named the one Edesius , and the other Frumanius , having been taken on the Sea and carried Captive to the King of the Indies , converted many persons to the Christian-Faith in that Country , and that they might make Assemblies there , where they might celebrate the Worship of God. This is that which manifestly discovers the Injustice of the Author of the Prejudices , and other Writers of Controversy of the Church of Rome , when they demanded Miracles to prove the Call of the first Reformers . For while the Scripture remains in the midst of men , it is not necessary to make new miracles to Authorize Ministers ; that Scripture sufficiently Authorises the Church immediately by it self to confer a Call , when its Pastors forsake it . It would sufficiently Authorise one man alone , whoever he should be , a Lay-man or Clergy-man , to communicate the light of his Faith to others , if he were the only Faithful Person that was in the World : it would Authorise two or three Faithful , who should find themselves alone , to Assemble together and to provide for the Preservation and Propagation of their Society , and Miracles would not be necessary for all that , because in all that there would be nothing new there , nothing that might not be included in the Revelation of the Scripture , or drawn from thence by a just Consequence , as it may appear from what I have handled in the foregoing Chapter . Miracles are necessary to those who preach new Doctrines , and those which are not of antient Revelation , and which besides have not in themselves any Character of Truth such as the Sacrifice of the Mass , the Corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament , Transubstantiation , Purgatory , Invocation of Saints , Merit of good Works , Adoration of the Host , &c. are . It belongs to those who teach those things to tell us whence they hold them , and since they give us them as holding them from Gods hand , it belongs to them to prove them by Miracles , for they cannot prove them otherwise , and when they should even have wrought Miracles , or things that should pass for such , it would belong to us to examine them , since Jesus Christ has given us warnings upon that point , which we ought not to neglect . See here what I had to say upon the Fifth Chapter of the Author of the Prejudices . The sixth wherein he treats further of the same matter contains nothing which I have not already satisfied . It pretends that the Call of our First Reformers was not Ordinary , under a pretence that some few received their Ministry from the people , that others were ordain'd by meer Priests , and that those who had been Ordained by Bishops , have , says he , Anathematiz'd that Church from which they received their Ordination . But as to the first , we have shewn him that the Calls that are made by a Faithful People , are Just and Lawful in a case of absolute necessity , that naturally dispences with Formalities . Besides that those Calls were very few in number , that they were not followed , that they do not infer any Consequence against the Body of the Pastors and that even when it should have had any Irregularity , that Irregularity would have been sufficiently repaired by the hand of Fellowship , which the other Pastors have given those who were so called , and by the consent that the whole Body of that Society gave to their Calls . We ought not for that to leave off holding them for Ordinary , although in that Respect they should be remote from the Common Practice , no more or less then they in the Church of Rome to leave off holding the Call of Pope Martin V. and that of divers other Popes for Ordinary , although they were not made according to the accustomed Forms . I demand of their Ministers , says the Author of the Prejudices , some Passages of Scripture that clearly give Lay-men a Right to ordain Ministers in any case . That demand is but a vain wrangling , for when the Scripture recommends to the Faithful the taking diligent heed to the Preservation and Confirmation of their Faith , and to propagate it to their Children , it gives them clearly enough by that very thing a sufficient Right , to make use of all the means that are proper for that , and that are naturally appointed to it . But every one knows that the Ministry is one of those means , whence it follows that the Obligation that the Scripture layes upon the Faithful people in that respect , includes that of creating it self its Pastors , when it is not possible that they should have them otherwise ; for that he that ordains the end , ordains also by consequence the means that are naturally appointed for that end . When the Scripture commands that all things be done with Order in the Church , it gives by that very thing clearly enough a sufficient Right to the Church to make its Pastors , when it has none , and when it can have none but by that way , since it is clear that Pastors belong to that Order . In fine , when the Scripture teaches that the Faithful people have a Right to chuse their Pastors , it teaches clearly enough by that very thing , that they have also a Right themselves to instal them in their Office in a case of necessity , for that Call consisting much more Essentially in Election than in Installation , which is but a Formality , there is no reason to believe that God would have given the people a Right to have chosen their Pastors , and to have made them be install'd by other Pastors , and that he has not given them at the same time that of installing them themselves , when it cannot be done otherwise , since naturally that which we have a Right to do by another , we have a Right to do by our selves . As to those who were ordained by meer Priests , can the Author of the Prejudices be ignorant that the Distinction of a Bishop and a Priest or Minister , as if they had two differing Offices , is not only a thing that they cannot prove out of the Scripture , but that even contradicts the express words of the Scripture , where Bishops and Priests are the names of one and the same Office , from whence it follows that the Priests having by their first Institution a Right to confer Ordination , that Right cannot be taken from them by meerly humane Rules . Can the Author of the Prejudices be ignorant that Saint Jerome , Hilary the Deacon , and after them Hincmar , wrote formarly touching the Unity , or as they speak the Identity of a Priest and a Bishop in the beginning of the Church , and about the first rise of that distinction which was afterwards made of them into two different charges ? Can he be ignorant that Saint Augustine himself , writing to Saint Jerome , refers that difference not to the first Institution of the Ministry , but meerly to an Ecclesiastical use . Although , says he , that by different Terms of honour the custom of the Church has now brought in the Episcopacy to be above the Priesthood , yet Augustine is in many things beneath Jerome ? Can he be ignorant that some Fathers Teach us that the Ordination of a Priest and a Bishop are but one and the same Ordination , and not two , which distinctly shews that they are but one and the same Office ? And as to the right of making Ordinations , can the Author of the Prejudices deny that Saint Paul speaks of the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery ? Can he deny that the Priests did not heretofore ordain , as well as the Bishops ? Does not Eutychius Patriarch of Alexandria relate that Saint Mark setting up Ananias to be Patriarch of that same Church of Alexandria , established also twelve Priests with him , to the end says he , that when the See should be vacant , it should be filled by one of them , and that the Eleven that remain'd should lay their hands on him and bless and create the Patriarch ; and that afterwards they should chuse another man and make him a Priest in the place of him who should be chosen Patriarch , and that by that means the number of Twelve might remain always compleat ? And does not Saint Jerome , more Antient then Eutychius say to the same sence , that at Alexandria down from Saint Mark the Evangelist unto Heraclius and Dionysius Bishops , the Priests alwayes took out one from among themselves whom they set in the highest Seat and called him Bishop , after the same manner , says he as an Army makes an Emperour , or as if the Deacons should chuse one out of themselves and call him their Arch-Deacon ? Does not Cassian relate the story of a certain young man named Daniel , who liv'd among the Monks of Egypt about the year 420. and who was first made Deacon , and in the end Priest by his Abbot called Paphnutius , who was himself but a Priest ? Does not Baronius himself say after Anastasius , that after the Death of Pope Vigilius in the year 555. Pelagius his Successor received his Ordination at the hands of two Bishops and a Priest of Ostia named Andrew ? Which shews that even then the Priests were not wholly excluded the Right of Ordination . They were not yet absolutely so in the seventh Century , since we learn from Bede's History , That the Monks and Priests of the Isle of Jovan in Scotland not only ordained Priests among them , but even Bishops also , and that they sent them into England , and that those Bishops were under their Abbot , who was himself but a meer Priest . It is therefore a Right that is naturally belonging to the Priests and of which they cannot be deprived by humane Constitution , and Orders , which cannot hinder that Right from alwayes remaining annexed to their Office , and that they may not reducs it into Act when the necessity of the Church requires it . In effect , William Bishop of Paris has made no scruple to say according to his Hypothesis , That if there were no more but three meer Priests in the World , one of them must needs consecrate the other to be a Bishop and the other to be an Arch-Bishop . And to speak my own Thoughts freely , it seems to me , that that firm opinion of the absolute necessity of Episcopacy , that goes so high as to own no Church , or Call , or Ministry , or Sacraments , or Salvation in the World , where there are no Episcopal Ordinations , although there should be the True Faith , the True Doctrine and Piety there , and which would that all Religion should depend on a Formality , and even on a Formality that we have shewn to be of no other than Humane Institution , that Opinion I say cannot be lookt on otherwise then as the very worst character and mark of the highest Hypocricy , a piece of Pharisaism throughout , that strains at a Gnat when it swallows a Camel , and I cannot avoid having at least a contempt of those kind of thoughts , and a compassion for those who fill their heads with them . I come now to that which the Author of the Prejudices propounds , That if the Church of Rome were so corrupted as we hold , its Calls could not be lawful , from whence it follows that our First Reformers , who had received their Ordination from the Hands of the Bishops of that Church , had received no other Call than what was Null , and Unlawful . But we have answered him already , that although the Latin Church before the Reformation was very much corrupted , the Essence of the Ministry did not fail to be preserved in it , and that though its Calls were very [ rude ] and confused , yet they did not cease to be Calls and to be lawful ones , in proportion to that Good which remain'd in that Society wherein God yet kept the Truly Faithful . The Foundation of the Christian Doctrine yet remaining there with its Efficacy , which was found in some persons , the Ministry , and by consequence their Calls , were yet lawful in that respect , and the first Reformers , who referred those which they received to their right and lawful use , in freeing them from that impurity which they had they were by that means rectifyed , purifyed , and freed from that ill which they had . It is to no purpose that he alleadges the Authority of some Antients who seem to have held Ordinations made by Hereticks Null , for he cannot deny that the common Opinion of the Church was not contrary to it , that all that ought to be held for good and lawful , that was good and lawful in it self , vvhich the Heretical or Schismatical Society held , and to be approved rather than denyed . This is vvhat Saint Augustine expresly teaches . Not only , says he , our Fathers vvho lived before Cyprian and Agrippin , but those also vvho lived since , have observed that vvholsome Custom of approving and not denying all that vvhich they have found to be Divine and Lavvful that Hereticks and Schismaticks preserv'd intire , and of rejecting that vvhich they beheld to be forreign and erroneous among them . Let the Author of the Prejudices read what that Father has vvrote not only in his ovvn name , but in the Name of the vvhole Church , against Parmenio and the other Donatists , vvho said that Baptism truly remained among Hereticks , but not the Right to Administer Baptism , and he will find that Saint Augustine strongly maintains that the Right of Ordination , upon which that of administring Baptism depends , remains even among Hereticks and Schismaticks , in respect of all that good that remains there . I have said elsewhere , that in the Confusions of Arianism divers Ordinations made by Arian Bishops were not held to be Null . In effect that of Meletius ordained by the Eudoxians , who had it disputed for some time , by some few , vvas at last generally acknovvledged to be lavvful , and that of Faelix Bishops of Rome , vvhich vvas also made by the Arians vvas never called in question , both the one and the other purifying their Ministry by returning to the Orthodox Faith. I should have shut up this Chapter , and vvith it this vvork , if I did not further think my self bound to ansvver that great and solemn defiance of the Author of the Prejudices about the validity of my Baptism , not that I pretend to vie vvith him in his manner of disputing , but meerly because I believe that I have been very vvell baptised . I do not fear , says he , openly to maintain to Monsieur Claude , That remaining in the Principles of his sect , he neither has nor can have any rational assurance of the validity of the Baptism which is administred and approved in their Communion . That by consequence he does not know whether he is Baptised , or whether any Calvinist ever was . That all the certainty he can pretend to have is rash and ill grounded : That it can be no other than a certainty of Fancy and Humour and not of Knowledge and Truth , and that he can never have a rational one but in sincerely acknowledging the falseness of the Principles of his Religion , and in rendring that deference and submission to the Catholick Church which he ows it . I speak to him purposely after this manner to engage him the more to clear out this matter to us . It was not necessary for that to speak to me after that manner , for he very well knows that I have all the readiness in the World to content him . A word is enough without any heat and Elevation of voice to make me obey . What does he then desire I should do ? To shew him , he adds , what he has to do , and what that proof ought necessarily to include , I beseech him to note that the validity of the Baptism of the Calvinists depends upon four Principles . Let him blot out the word Beseech , which agrees neither with the manner in which he speaks to me , nor with that wherewith I desire to obey him . First , as they were all Baptised in their Infancy , they must , to the end they may be certain that their Baptism was good , be assured , that the Baptism of Infants be good , and that the Anabaptists who deny it are in an Errour . Secondly , as they were all Baptised by Sprinkling & not by Immersion , they cannot further be assured of the validity of their Baptism , unless they know certainly that Baptism by sprinkling is good , and that Immersion is not necessary , In the third place , as they all proceeded either mediately or immediately from the Catholick Church , which they so loudly accuse of Heresy and Idolatry , it necessarily follows , that they were all Baptised either mediately or immediately by Hereticks . They cannot therefore have rational Certainty of their being Baptised , unless at least they are assured , That the Baptism which they received in an Heretical Communion is good , or that that which is administred by a man not Baptised , does not fail to be good . In fine , the Calvenists being perswaded on one side that Baptism administred by Lay-men is Null and of no effect , and on the other , that the Catholick Priests and Bishops are false Priests and false Bishops , yet notwithstanding as they derive their Baptism from those false Priests and false Bishops , they must needs shew us by the Scripture the agreement of these opinions , and that they can prove by clear and express passages out of it , that although the Call of the Catholick Priests should be Null and Vnlawful , they have yet nevertheless that Power of Baptising which the Laity has not . See here therefore what I have to do ; but I need to say but a word to each point . I say then as to the first , That when the Scripture has said , Be Baptised every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ , for the Promise is to you , and to your Children , and to all that are a far off , even as many as the Lord our God shall call , it has clearly established Infant Baptism . For since Baptism ought to be given to them to whom the promise is made , and that that is made to our Children as well as to us , it ought to be given not only to us , but to our Children . So that without going any further , I have in that respect all the Certainty that I can reasonably desire . As to the second , I say that the Word Baptise , equally signifying in the Original Tongue to plunge and to wash , and being used divers times in this latter sence , as it may appear in the Translation of Mons in the seventh of Saint Mark , and eleventh of Saint Luke , and there being moreover nothing in the Scripture that precisely enjoins Immersion or forbids Aspersion , it is my part to believe that in the Thoughts of Jesus Christ those two wayes of Baptizing are indifferent , and that so much the more as I know the Spirit of the Gospel is not so nice and punctual about forms , or the manners of External Actions , which is proper to Superstition . So that I have further for that all the Assurance that I ought to have . For the third , being certain as I am by the Promises of Jesus Christ , that God has alwayes Preserved a True Church in the World , that is to say , the Truly Faithful howsoever mixt they may have been with the Worldly , I am assured also that the Baptism which was Administred not only before the Reformation , but since , in the Latin Church , and in other Christian-Societies where the Essence of Baptism remains , is good because that being made in the Name of the Father , the Son and the Holy Ghost , it is the Baptism of the True Church , although it be administred by Persons filled with Errors and Superstitions . Baptism is not theirs , they are only the Ministers of it . That Sacrament belongs to God and his Truly Faithful ones , in what Quarter of the World soever they be . That same Scripture that sayes , That the Promise is made to us and to our Children , and to all that are a far of , even as many as the Lord shall call , says by a necessary Consequence , that the Seal of that Promise , which is Baptism , and all the other Rights of the Covenant of Jesus Christ , belongs to us and to our Children , that is to say , to the Truly Faithful . The Hereticks who Administer it , do not do it , as a good that belongs to them under that Quality , for in that respect nothing belongs to them , but as a good that belongs to the True Church , the Dispensation whereof they have , by the part which they have yet with her . For they Baptise not by that which divides them from the truly Faithful , but by that which after some manner Associates and unites them with them . It is therefore the Baptism of the True Church which they give and not that of Heresy , it is the Church that Baptises by them , and in that respect they are yet , as I have said , the Dispensers of its goods . If the Author of the Prejudices desires yet further to see a greater Number ot proofs drawn from the same Scripture that should Establish this Truth , he needs but to read what Saint Augustine has wrote in his Treatise against the Epistle of Parmenio , and that of Baptism against the Donatists , and he will learn there not to make any more Questions of that Nature . I know not for the rest , whether he as well as the others of his Communion who shall take the pains to read this work , will be satisfied . But I dare say at least that I have done all that was possible for me to do , to set before them , without Offence , the Truths that are most Important for them to know . It belongs to them to make a serious Reflection upon that which I have represented to them , and upon the present State of Christianity , which the prophaneness , Impiety , and Debauchery of mens Minds do every day reduce into an Evident danger of ruine , if we do not bring a Remedy , both on the one and the other side . Nevertheless instead of having in view that grand Interest upon which the Glory of God wholly depends , and the Salvation of men , they apply themselves only to destroy us , and their Passion prevails to that height , that they do not take heed of making irreparable Breaches in Religion , as that is , of bringing the Use and Authority of the Holy Scripture to nothing , provided they can but do us any Mischief . But although they should do whatsoever they pleas'd , God would alwayes be a Witness on our Side that in the Foundation of the Cause , that upon which we have Separated from them , is the Love which we have for the Truth , and the Desire that we have to Work out our own Salvation . And to let them see that it is not a false Prejudice that Corrupts us , let them go through all the Christian Communions that are in the world , Let them Judg in cold blood , and I am assured that they will come to a serious Agreement that ours is the purest Church , nd the most approaching to the Primitive one . Our Opinions are the Fundamental Opinions of Religion , which are great , Solid and Convincing ; our Worship has nothing that is not Evangelical , for it consists in Prayers to God , in Thanksgivings , in Singing of Psalms , in Celebration of Fasts , in Humiliation , in Acts of Repentance , in tears and groans , when we are prest with the thoughts of our Sins and the Wrath of God ; our Morals consist more in Exhortations , in Censures , in Corrections , in Threatnings on Gods side , in Representations of the Motives that bind us to do good Works , then in unprofitable decisions of Cases of Conscience . Our Government is plain , remote from the Formalities of the * Bar , founded as much as can be upon good Reason , Justice and Charity , but very opposite to the Maximes of Humane Policy , and especially to Ambition , Covetousness , and Vanity , which we believe to be the Mortal Enemies of Religion . Every one in the World knows that , and yet notwithstanding the Author of the Prejudices , and all those who with him take false lights , have not fail'd to cry out against us not only after a very uncharitable but an unchristian manner . As for us , we shall alwayes pray to God for those who will not Love us , we shall bless them that Curse us , but we shall also with Gamaliel give them this Advice , Take heed that in Tormenting us , you do not fight against God , instead of fighting with him . Let us pray on both sides that he would give us his Blessing and his Peace , and that he would make us to do his Will. FINIS . A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS . The First Part. Wherein it is shewn that our Ancestors were obliged to Examine by themselves the State of Religion and of the Church , in their Days CHap. I. General Considerations upon this Controversy . The Division of this Treatise Page 1. Chap. II. That the State of the Government of the Latin Church some Ages ago , gave to our Fathers Prejudices of its Corruption in Doctrine and Worship , sufficient to drive them more nearly to Examine their Religion . Page 8. Chap. III. That the External State of that Religion it self , had in the times of our Fathers Signs of its Corruption sufficient to afford them just Motives to Examine it , Page 23. Chap. IV. That such a Corruption of the Latin Church as our Fathers had conceived , was no ways an Impossible thing . Page 37. Chap. V. More particular Reflections upon that priviledge of Infallibility which they ascribe to the Church , and of its Authority . Page 45. Chap. VI. An Examination of the Proofs which they produce to Establish the Infallibility of the Church-of Rome . Page 54. Chap. VII . That the Authority of the Prelates of the Latin Church had not any Right to bind our Fathers to yield a blind Obedience to them , or to hinder them from Examining their Doctrines . Page 75. Chap. VIII . A further Examination of that Authority of the Prelates , and that Absolute Obedience which they pretend ought to be given them . Page 85. Chap. IX . An Examen of those Reasons they Alledge to Establish that Soveraign Authority of the Prelates in the Latin Church . Page 109. The Second Part. Of the Justice of the REFORMATION . CHap. I. That our Fathers could not expect a Reformation either from the hands of the Popes , or from those of the Prelates . Page 125. Chap. II. A Confirmation of the same thing , from the History of that which passed in the first Quarrels of Luther with the Conrt of Rome concerning Indulgences . Page 142. Chap. III. That our Fathers , not being able any more to hope for a Reformation on the part of the Pope or his Prelates , were indispensably bound to provide for their own Salvation , and to Reform themselves . Page 156. Chap. IV. That our Fathers had a Lawful and sufficient Call to Reform themselves , and to labour to Reform others . Page 166. Chap. V. An Answer to the Objections that are made against the Persons of the Reformers . Page 177. Chap. VI. A further Justification of the first Reformers against the Objections of the Author of the Prejudices contained in his Tenth and Eleventh Chapters . Page 196. Chap. VII . An Answer to the Twelfth and Thirteenth Chapters of the Prejudices . Page 222. Chap. VIII . That our Fathers in their Design of Reforming themselves , were bound to take the Holy Scriptures alone for the Rule of their Faith. Page 241 Chap. IX . An Examination of the Objections which the Author of the Prejudices makes against the Scripture . Page 260. The Third Part. Of the Obligation and Necessity that lay-upon our Fathers to separate themselves from the Church of Rome . CHap. I. That our Fathers had just , sufficient , and necessary Causes for their Separation , supposing that they had Right at the Bottom , in the Controverted Points . Page 1. Chap. II. That our Fathers were bound to Separate themselves from the Body of those who possess'd the Ministry in the Church , and particularly in the See of Rome , supposing that they had a Right at the Foundation . Page 15. Chap. III. That the Conduct of the Court of Rome , and those of her Party , in respect of the Protestants , has given them a just cause to separate themselves from them , supposing that they had Right at the Foundation . Page 53. Chap. IV. An Examination of the Objection of the Author of the Prejudices taken out of the Dispute of Saint Augustine against the Schism of the Donatists . Page 79. Chap. V. A further Examination of the Reasoning of the Author of the Prejudices upon the Subject of our Separation . Page 113. The Fourth Part. Of the Right that our Fathers had to hold a Christian Society among themselves , by Publick Assemblies , and the Exercise of the Ministry . CHap. 1. That our Fathers had a Right to have their Church-Assemblies separate from those of the Church of Rome , on the Supposition that they were right in the Foundation . Page 1. Chap. II. That the Society of the Protestants is not a new Cburch . Page 28. Chap. III. That the Ministry Exercised in the Communion of the Protestants , is Lawful ; and that the Call of their Ministers is so also . Page 48. Chap. IV. An Answer to the Objections of the Author of the Prejudices about the Call of the first Reformers , and the Validity of our Baptism . P. 84 , The End of the CONTENTS of the CHAPTERS . Advertisement . THere is newly Published a Book Entituled , ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or , a Treatise , wherein you have , 1. The Divine Auhtority of the Holy Scriptures proved by undeniable Demonstrations , and the Cavils of Objectors confuted . 2. A Continuation of the Metaphors , Allegories , and Express Similitudes of the Old and New Testament gradually expounded , Parallel wise , with short Inferences from each . 3. Sacred Phylologie , viz. the Schemes and Figures in Sriipture reduced under their proper Heads , with a brief Explication of the most obscure . 4. A Treatise of the Types , Parables , and Allegories in the Old and New Testament . 5. Plain and Evident Demonstrations , that by the Great Whore ( Mystery Babylon ) is meant the Papal Hierarchy , or present Church of Rome . The whole VVork being partly Compiled , and partly Translated from the VVorks of many Learned and Orthodox VVriters , Ancient and Modern ; compleating what was intended by the Undertakers , in order to explain that difficult part of the Word of God : It being encouraged and recommended by divers Worthy Ministers of London , as useful for all Students in Sacred Writ . Sold by John Hancock at the Three Bibles over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil , and Benj. Alsop at the Angel and Bible in the Poultrey , over-against the Compter . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A33380-e360 Cassander Consult . art . de Eccles . Notes for div A33380-e850 Luke 22. 25 , 26. 1 Pet. 5. Bernard in Cant. Serm. 77. Item , Serm. 33. Nicol . Cusan . lib. 3. de Concord . Cath. c. 29. 1 Tim. 6. 10 , 3. Col. 5. Nicolaus de Clemangis de corrupto Statit . Ecclesiae . Bernard de verbis Evangel Dixit Simon , &c. pag. 1000. Marsil . de Pad . Defens . pacis . Part 2. cap. 20. History of the Council of Trent , Book 6. In the Instructions and Missives of the most Christian King , for the Council of Trent . In the same Instructions and Missives . Distinct. 96. Canon . 7. Aug. Steuchus De fals . Donat. Constantini . Froissard . Tom. 3. Fol. 147. Angel. Politian . Orat. pro Sen. ad Alexand . Sextum . Raynald ad Ann. 1492. ss . 27. Decretal . Greg. lib. 1. tit . 7. Can. Quanto , in Glossa . Itinerar . Ital. Part , 2. de coron . Rom. Pontif. Raynald . ad Ann. 1162. Baron . ad Ann. 1162. Concil . Lateran . Sess . 7. & 9. in Orat. Paulus Jovius in Philippo 3. † Renvoy , signifies properly a simple dismission granted to one , that being appealed or called before a superiour Judg , requires to be dismissed to the prosecuting of his suit already begun before the inferiour ( his Ordinary ) Judge . Platina in vit . Sexto Decret . tit . 2. cap. 1. Sext. Decret . Extravag . lib. 1. De major . & obed . cap. 1. Baron . ad Ann. 1076. Platin. in vit . Bonif. 8. Joan. Gerson . de Eccles. potest . Consid . 10. Decretal . Gregor . lib. 3. tit . 8. cap. 4. Decret . part . 2. Caus . 25. Quest . 1. Canon . 6. ad Gloss . Bernard . Epist . 42. Nicol. Cleman . de Corr. Stat. Eccles . Aeneas Sylv. Epist . lib. 1. Ep. 66. Nicol. Cleman . de praesul . † Chancellerie Galat. 4. Colos . 2. Act. 15. John 4. 23. Tertul. de Baptismo . Mar. 15. 9. Concil . Constant . Sess . 19. Aeneas Sylv. Hist . Bohem. cap. 36. † Latins . Baron , ad Ann. 899. Baron . ad . Ann. 1001. 1 Tim. 1. Chrisost , in 1 Tim. 1. hom . 5. Coloss . 2. 1 Cor. 5. Concil . Constan. Sess . 13. 2 Thes . 2. Apocal. 18. Vide Baronium in Justiniano & Vigilio , Tom. 7 , & sirmundum praefat . in saecund . Hilar. In fragment . Apud Hilar. ibid. Hilar. ubi supra . Hieron . in Chron. John 17. John 6. Eph. 1. Eph. 4. Eph. 5. Hos . 2. Mat. 16. Mat. 28. John 14. John 16. Mat. 28. Mat. 28. Ezek. 33. Malach. 2. Isa . 62. Eph. 4. Luke . 10. Heb. 13. Mat. 23. 1 Tim. 3. 4 , 5. M. le Card. de Richelieu . liv . 1. ch . 13. Exod. 19. Bellarm. de Eccles . milit . lib. 3. cap. 14. Hilar. in Fragm . Galat. 1. Monsieur le Card. de Richelieu . liv . 1. ch . 13. & liv . 1. ch . 4. Hos . 2. Jer. 3. Ezek ' 16. 2 Kings 3. 8. Possevin in Muscov . 2 Kings 21. Chap. 13. de la Metbode . Conc. Trid ▪ Sess . 25. Monfeiur le Card. de Richel livr . 1. ch . 6. Revel . 2. Revel . 18. Luke 22. John 21. Matth. 16. Mat. 18. Mat. 5● John 7. Mat. 13. Luke 22. 1 Pet. 5. 2 Cor. 1. Matth. 23. 1 Pet. 5. Heb. 13. 1 Cor. 3. & 4. 2 Cor. 5. Malach. 2. 2 Cor. 4. Job 33. Col. 1. Bell. de Rom. Pont. lib. 1. c. 9. Du Perron . Repl. Liv. 1. ch . 56. Matth. 23. Matth. 16. 1 John 4. 〈…〉 1 Cor. 3. 2 Cor. 4. 1 Thess . 2. Galat , 1. Deut. 4. Ibid. Deut. 5. Dent. 6. Psalm 1. Psalm 119. 2 Tim. 3. John 1. Acts 17. 1. Kings 14. 2. Kings 16. Jerem. 2. Isaiah 1. In the Preface . In the Preface . Mat. 11. In the Preface of that prejudices . Mark 3. Le P. Annae dans un Ecrit centre le pretendu miracle du Port. Royal. Vincent Lirinens . Com. 1. cap. 6. Phaebad . contra Arrianos Statim ab enitio . Hilar. adv . Arrianos . 1. Cor. 11. 2 Thes . 2. * Imputation , by laying things to our charge . Ephes . 4. Phil. 1. Ephes . 4. Joel . 2. Ezek. 36. 1 Cor. 12. Gal. 4. Eph. 1. Ibid. 1 Pet. 4. 1 John 2. In his Preface . Des Prejugez Chap. 1. James 1. John 7. Psal . 19. Psal . 119. 〈◊〉 Luke . ● . John. 6. Notes for div A33380-e16290 Onus Eccles . Cap. 20. Sect. 2. Sect. 3. Sect. 6. Sect. 9. Sect. 13. Idem . Cap. 21. Ibid ▪ Idem , Cap. 6. Sect. 6. Sect. 8. Sect. 12. Roynald ad Anna , 1522. Motifs de Re-union , premeir Motif . Pag. 6. See his Oration set down by Thuanus , lib. 35. Bernard , Serm. 6. in Psal . Qui habitat . Hugo Card. in Psal . 72. Platin , in vit . Martin 5. Jacob. de Paradiso de Septem Statib . Eccles . Raynald ad Ann. 1492. Vide Raynalud in Jul. Raynald . in Adrian . 6. History of the Council of Trent . Book 1. Vide Raynald . in Adrian . History of the Council of Trent . Book 1. Raynald . ad ann . 1918. Raynald . ubi supra . Idem . ibid. Idem . ibid. See Sleidan , and the History of the Council of Trent . See those pieces in the first Tome of Luthers Works . See Sleidan the History of the Council of Trent , by Father Paul , the first Tom , of the Works of Luther and Raynald . Luther Tome . 1. Raynald . ad Ann. 1518. See both his Letter , and his Writings in the 1 Tome of the Works of Luther . Preface to Tome . 1. Ses Sleidan and Reynaldus . Luther . Tom. 1. Luther . Tom. 2. Extat apud Luther tom . 2. & apud Raynald ad an . 1520. Extat apud Rayna'd . ad ann . 1521. Decret . 1. Part. Dist . 40. Can. 6. in not is . In Chap. 7. Des-abuser . Acts. 14. Acts. 17. Prejugez . Chap. 3. p. 64. Chap. 3. p. 65. Chap. 2. p. 51. & 52. 1 Cor. 7. Chap. 3. p. 64 . Athanas . Orat. 1. contra Arian . Sozomen . Hist . lib. 5. cap. 11. Hist . trip artit . lib. 6. cap. 14. Cyprian . Epist . 49. Chrysost . Hom. 2. in Ep. ad Tit. Cap. 2. Rosius Confess . Cap. 56. Pighius . Costerus & alii . 1 Cor. 7. Heb. 13. Chap. 2. Pag. 57. 58. 3. Pet. ch . 5. Antonius . Chron. 3. Parte tit . 23. Cap. 4. 6. The second Letter of Monsieur Arnaud . 2. Part Pag. 110. 111. Second Letter of Mons . Arnaud . First part . Page 105. The same Pag. 103. Prejug . legit . Chap. 10. Pag. 234. Coll. Carth. 3. cum Donat. Prejug . Chap. 10. pag. 238. † Chair . Hospin . Hist . Sacr. Part. Alt. Fol. 22. Hospin . Hist . Sacra , Part. Alt. Fol. 22. 2 Kings 23. John 7. Luke 10. 21. Pag. 243. Pag. 244. Pag. 244. Pag. 248. Pag. 255. Pag. 257. Prejug . Ch. II. Pag. 272. Mat. 7. 5. Carionel la sua . Hist . di Milan . p. 203. Pag. 273. Calvin . Instit . lib. 4. cap. 10. Ss . 10. Pag. 276. Concil . Trid. Sess . 4. de Canon . Scrip. & decret . de edit . Bellarm. de Cler. lib. 1. c. 28. Council . Lateran . sub . Leon. X. Sess . 9. in Bull. reform . Andr. frust . in fine lib. Epigr. in haeret . Extravag . Commun . lib. 1. cap. 1. De Major . & Obed. Decret . 1. Part. dist . 19. cap. 1. Ibid. cap. 2. Decretal . Gregor . lib. 3. tit . 42. cap. 3. Baron . ad Ann. 1076. Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. lib. 4. cap. 2. See the Doctrine Ancienedes Theologde la Faculte de Paris , par Jacques de Vernaut . And the Testimonies that he Relates . Concil . Trid. Sess . 7. De Baptis . can . 3. & Sess . 14. cap. 3. & Sess . 22. cap. 8. Raynald . ad Ann. 1479. Concil . later . Sess . 11. in Bull. abrogat . Pragmat . Sanct. Bullaleon . X. contr . Luther . apud Raynald ad Ann. 1520. Concil . Trid. Sess . 25. Clementin . lib. 2. tit . 11. cap. 2. Raynald . ad Ann. 1493. Baron . ad Ann. 1076. Concil . Lateran . 3. Sub Innocent . 3. Bulla Leon. ubi supra . Prejug . Pag. 281. Concil . Trid. Sess . 14. Can. 9. Prejug . Chap. 12. 2. Cor. 4. 7. 2. Kings 1 ▪ 2 Cron. 16. 2 Cron. 20. 2 Cron. 24. 2 Cor. 11. 13 , 15. Vers . 23. Socrat. Hist . Eccles. lib. 1. Cap. 5. Vide Baronium . † Radourcissemens . Baron . ad Ann. 908. Baron . ad Ann. 904. Raynald . ad Ann. 1378. Raynald . in Vrban . 6. Repons . a Mess . Adam . & Cott. Part 2. Chap. 14. Prejug Ch. 12. Pag. 311. Pag. 312. Aug. contr . Crescon . lib. 1. chap. 7. Chap. 14. Pamel ex Quintino annot . 237. in prescript-Tertul . Pighius contr . 3. Franchisi . Cordub . de . Eccles. cap 82. Charon verit . 3. cap. 2. art . 8. The same Preface of the N. T. of Mons. Dialog . of the two Parish . of S. Hilary Montanus Dial. 1. pag. 23. Dial. 1. pag 2. pag 3. pag. 25. Dial. 2. pag 9. Dial. 2. pag 17. Dial. 1. pag. 30. Dial. 2. pag. 23. Tertull. advers . Prax. Cap. 1. Chrysost . hom . 13. in 2. Cor. Athanas , in Synops. Optat. lib. 5. Cyril . Hieros . illnm . cat . 4. Clem. Alex. Serom. lib. 7. Rom. 10. Mat. 15. Duvollius de Supr . fummi . Pontif. pot . Part. 2. Quest . 5. Iren. lib. 3. cap. 2. 3. Euseb . lib. 3. cap. 33. Iren. lib. 2. cap. 39. In his Preface , Chap. 14. pag. 341. Iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. In his Preface . Page 11. Iren. lib. 3. cap. 1. Notes for div A33380-e40490 Hilar. adv . Arianos . Epiph. haeres 73 Ambros . Comm. in Luc. lib. 6. cap. 9. Heb : 13. Eph. 4. 1 Cor. 1. Gal. 1. Dialog . inter Constant . & Liber . apud Baron . ad an . 355. Apud Hilar. in fragment . Apud Hilar. Post . Epist . advers . Arian . Vincent . Lirinens . Commonit . 1. chap. 6. Phaebad . lib. contr Arian . p. 219. Greg. Naz. Orat. 21. Baron . ad ann . 359. Socrat. hist . Eccles . lib. 1 ▪ cap. 30. Ibid. Sozominus hist ▪ Eccles . lib. 6. cap. 18. Isa 66. 23,24 . Chap. 8. p. 162. Chap. 7. p. 153. Rom. 1. 1 Thess . 1. Phil. 1. Matth. 16. Luke 22. John 21. Eph. 2. Rev. 21. 14. John 17. 11. Heb. 10. 24. Matth. 28 19. Luke 22. 29. Matth. 18. 18. 1 Tim. 5. Euseb . lib. 5. cap. 24. Socrat. hist . Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 5. Euseb . de vita Const . lib. 1. cap. 7. & lib. 3. cap. 13. Athan. Epist . de Synod . Arim. & Sel. Epist . lib. 1. Epist . 288. Victor . Tunun . in Chron. Gal. 4. Heb. 12. John 4. 1. 21 , 23. 1 Cor. 1. 1 Cor. 3. v. 21 , 22 , 23. Ephes . 4. All that History contained in this Chapter , has been faithfully taken out of four Authors , to wit , Sleidan , The History of the Council of Trent , of Father Paul , Th●anus and Raynaldus . Jer. 48. v. 10. 1523. Dial. 1. li 247. * When they solemnly 〈…〉 . Prejug . ch . 8. p. 161. Theod. Dial. 3. 〈◊〉 . Epist . 〈◊〉 Dion . Alex. 〈◊〉 . Epist . 〈◊〉 Pammach . Aug. contr . Crescon . lib. 2. cap. 32. Aug. Epist . 48. Aug. cont . Crescon . lib. 2. cap. 3. Aug. lib. de unit . Eccles . cap. 4. Aug. Ep. 48. Cant. 1. v. 7. Aug. lib. de unitat . Eccles . cap. 14. Aug. Epist . 162 Collat. Cart. 1. art . 16. Aug. contr . Epistol . Parmen l. 1. ● . 2. Ibid. lib. 2. cap 2. & ali●i passim . Aug. lib. de Eccl. unit . cap. 16. Aug. contr . Gaud. lib. 3. Prejug . ch . 2. pag. 102. Chap. 3. p. 177. Pag. 174. Pag. 177. Pag. 184. Aug. advers . litt . Petil. l. 2. cap. 8. Aug. contr . Crescon . lib. 2. cap. 2. Aug. de Bapt. contr . Donat. l. 2. c. 17. Aug. passim . Aug. de Doctr. Chr. l. 3. c. 32. Aug. de Bapt. contr . Donat. l. 7. c. 51. Aug. Ps . contr . Donat. Aug. Ep. 48. & Ep. 80. Matth. 13. v. 29 , 30. Aug. contr . Ep. Parmen . lib. 2. cap. 11. Aug. contr . Ep. Parmen . l. 3. cap. 2. Ibid. cap. 1. Ibid. 2 Thess . 3. v. 14 , 15. Ibid. Aug. de Bapt. contr . Donat. l. 1. c. 1. Aug. contr Ep. Parmen . lib 2. cap. 11. Aug. contr . Fp. Parmen . lib. 3. cap. 2. Aug. de ver . Relig. cap. 1. Ibid. cap. 5. Contr. Crescor . lib. 3. cap. 38 ▪ Aug. de ver . Relig. cap. 6. Contr. Crescon . lib. 3. cap. 38. Chap. 2. p. 198. Pag. 199. Hieron . contr . error . Joan. 〈◊〉 . Hi●ar . de Syn. In vitâ Greg. Naz. Greg. Naz. Grat. 25. Gregor . Nazianzen . Orat. 32. Athanas . tom . 2. tract . Quod veritas non multitud . Judic . Vinc. Lirin . Common . 1. cap. 4. Ibid. cap. 6. Athanas . Ep. ad vitan solitar . ag . Hierom. Comment . in Psal . 133. Bellarm. de notis Eccl. l. 4 ▪ cap. 7. Aug Ep. 80. Aug. Ep. 48. Prejug . ch . 9. p. 200 , &c. P. 287. Monsieur le Cardinal de Richelieu , liv . 1. c. 4. Aug. Ep. 48. Pag. 290. Phoebad . contr . Arian . Aug. passim . Socrat. Hist . Eccles . l. 2. cap. 34. Baron . ad ann . 484. Baron . in Vigil . Victor . Tunun . in Chron. Sirmond . prae● . in facund . Vide Baron . in Vigil . Liberat. Breviar . cap. 22. Victor . Tunun . in Chron. Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 10. Baron . ad ann . 539. Baron . ad 540. Bellar. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 10. Vide Raynald . ad ann . citatos . Notes for div A33380-e62710 Rom. 9. Rom. 8. Mat. 18. Isa . 1. St. Augustine de Bapt. contra . Don. lib. 7. cap. 51. August . de vera . Relig. cap. 6. Mark. 14. Eph. 4. Mat. 28. Ephes . 4. Psalm 50. Psal . 27. Prejug . Chap. 7. Pag. 147. Heb. 10. Col. 3. 1 Thess . 5. Eph. 5. This passage yet cleared in the Orig. Pag. 321. Psal . 42. John 17. Epiphan . Haer. 73. comm . 28. John 16. Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 7. Origen . in Jos . Hom. 26. Orig. in Cant. Hom. 1. Idem . in Mat. 16. Ambros de Abrab . patr . lib. 1. cap. 3. Ibid. 1. 2. cap. 3. In Psal . 35. Hieron . in Job . cap. 26. Idem . Cant. Hom. 1. In Psal . 101. Aug. de Bapt. cont . Don. l. 7. cap. 51. Aug. in Psal . 61. Tertul. de praescript . advers . Haeret. cap. 32. John ▪ 15. Chap. 4. Aug. Tract 5● in Joan. Tract 124. in Joann . Aug. in Psal . 108. Nec Tamen habent Illustrem Intellectum nisi cum referuntur ad Ecclesiam . August . de Doctr. Chr. l. b. 1 cap. 18. August . de Baptis . Contra Donat lib. 7. cap. 51. Aug. de Bap. contr . Donat lib. 6. cap. 3 , & 4. * Raviseurs Tostat Abulens in Numer cap. 15. quest . 48. & 49. Acts 1. v. 15 ▪ Acts 6. Acts. 16. 1. Cor. 5. Epist 6. Quest . 2. Quest . 3. Prejud . Chap. 4. pag. 87. Resource . Prejud . chap. 4. page 78. Prejud . chap. 5. page 91. Prejud . chap. 5. page 92. Prejug . chap. 5. pag. 92. Prejug . chap. 5. pag. 94. Prejug . chap. 5. pag. 100. * Germe . Theodoret. hist lib. 1. cap. 23. 〈…〉 Prejug . chap. 6. pag. 129. August . de Bapt. contr . Donat. lib. 3 sub finem . Prejug . chap. 17. pag. 422. Page 4 24. Acts 2. 38 , 39. * Barreau .