MONSIEUR JVRIEV'S Pastoral Letters, Directed to the PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE, Who Groan under the Babylonish Captivity.  
Translated out of the French.  
With Allowance.  
LONDON, Printed for Jo. Hindmarsh, at the Golden Ball in Cornhill. 1688.   

THE PREFACE.  
THe violent Persecution raised in France against the Protestants of that Kingdom, especially after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, having made so much noise in the World, and afforded matter of astonishment to all Christendom, I have wondered oftentimes, that none should take in hand the translating of Monsieur Jurieu's Pastoral Letters in this Tongue, to acquaint the World with the Methods made use of in the bringing the Protestants of that Country to the Church of Rome. They are so extraordinary, that future Ages will hardly give credit to the History of this present Persecution, especially when they shall consider, that those who profess themselves Christians, cast off all the Principles of Morality, degenerate into brute Beasts, devour reasonable Creatures, their Fellow-Subjects, Christians, for no other reason, but for not believing as they do.  
This you will see in Monsieur Jurieu's Letters, in which he gives a particular, and so faithful an Account of all the Matters of Fact, as they occur in the Series of the Persecution, that he leaves no room to question at all what he advances; for he takes a particular care to be well informed of the Truth, before he commits any thing to the Press; and most commonly he receives his Memories (as you shall see) either from those who made their escape out of the hands of their Enemies, or from them who are actually involved in the Persecution, which we may reasonably believe to be true, being not likely, that People who suffer for so an holy Profession as the truth of the Gospel of Christ is, would blemish it with Lies, and wrong their own Consciences with them; or from the Papists themselves, whose Letters fall sometimes into his hands. He gives at large the History of the Sufferings, Behaviour, and Death of our Martyrs and Confessors. He answers the Cavils, the Arguments and Sophistry of the Converters, especially the Bishop of Meaux, so much applauded now a-days; and thus he enables and instructs the ignorant, strengthens the weak, confirms the standing, exhorts those that are fallen, comforts the afflicted, and speaks suitably to all the Protestants, according to the Circumstances they may lie under. In a word, it is the Learned and Pious Monsieur Jurieu whose Letters I translate; the mention of whose name is sufficient to recommend them to the public. He begun to write them in September, 1686; and has ever since continued, and continues still. He gives one every Fortnight; but if one every Week should come out here, he might quickly be overtaken.   

The FIRST PASTORAL LETTER: WHICH Treats of the Methods of Conversion which are made use of at this day in France.  
Dear Beloved in the Lord, the Grace and Peace of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you all.  
BE assured, that we are Fellow-sufferers with you, and that from the Haven, into which, by Divine Providence we are cast, we cannot without Lamentation and Tears behold the mighty Storms and Tempests which toss you, and have occasioned the Wreck of the Ship in which we were embarked. We are very solicitous, as in duty we are obliged, considering both your and our Circumstances, what to do for your consolation, and to preserve you from the danger of being seduced. But we see little probability of this; so that till it please God to open the Doors, which are at this time shut, we are resolved to speak to you afar off, in hopes that God will not delay to give us an opportunity to entertain you nearer. But let us hasten to that which is of greater moment. We do not believe that the Cross of Christ Jesus which you bear, is the greatest of those Evils you are exposed unto, that is your Glory. And we perceive by Letters that come from those who are steadfast in the Faith, God is their Comforter, he has prevented our Desires, and given success to our Exhortations, though at a distance from you; nay, he is gone beyond our hopes, and hath wrought immediately upon your hearts without us, and he is in you a living Fountain of Blessings and Comforts, more abounding than we could hope. We receive from our Confessors who are in Fetters, in the Galleys, in Prisons a hundred feet deep, in Torments, in the dark and noisome Dungeons; we receive, I say, from them Letters, which strike us with admiration, which renew the time of the Primitive Christians, and revive the ancient Martyrs, which show us that the greater the Torments you are exposed unto are, the more God hath endued you with strength and courage, to overcome them.  
What we are most afraid of for you, is your being Seduced; the many Examples we have already before our Eyes give us some apprehensions for all the rest. Some persons which were accounted the Pillars of the Church, have proved broken Reeds. The Sophistry of the false Doctors, who set forth all their Cunning and Subtilty to Seduce, have Perverted the Understandings and the Hearts of many, from whom we expected an unshaken Constancy. They engage you in Disputes. They Confound you with matters of Controversy. They put Books into your Hands where Falsehoods are nourished with all the colours of the Truth. They take from you all that could preserve you from the Poison of those Venomous Serpents, who are continually Hissing in your Ears. Our Hands being tied, and our Mouths stopped, we have the grief to see the Sheep of our blessed Jesus torn and plucked out from the Sheepfold, to be Transported into the Regions of the Prince of Lies and Darkness. What is to be done in this Case? It is needless to write any more Books. There are thousands and thousands already made; and some are newly come to light, in answer to the pernicious subtleties of those false Doctors. They strictly guard all the Passages of the Kingdom, that honest Men and good Christians might not get out, and good Books might not enter in. If one should make new Books, the same Fate would attend them. The Public would be troubled with repetitions, and you be without the comfort of receiving any benefit by them. If we must repeat, at least it must be with some advantage to you. Wherefore we take in hand to write no more Books, but Letters. Perhaps God in his favour towards you, will make them fly over those Rampires, which the new Inquisition has raised upon all the Avenues of the Kingdom; at least there are some hopes they will more easily overcome the oppositions they make to the design we have to strengthen you against their temptation.  
We will give you these Letters every Month, or every Fortnight, sometimes oftener according as things shall occur, and your necessities require. We shall endeavour therein to scatter the illusions, which we know the Seducers make use of to deceive you. Among whom the Bishop of Condom (at present Bishop of Meaux) the Converter Pelisson, and Monsieur Nicole, are accounted the chief Champions. They oblige you to Read over and over continually, The Exposition of the Catholic Faith, of the said Bishop, to disguise the Romish Religion, and paint Popery to you. The same Bishop some Months ago Printed a Pastoral Letter, directed to the new Converts of his Diocese, to the very same end, as to seduce you, and hid the deformity of their false Religion from your view. They are not wanting in applauding the slender Arguments of Monsieur Nicole's Book, Entitled, The pretended Reform convinced of Schism. In that Book they pretend to prove that by way of examination, it is impossible to find out the Truth, and that you cannot meet with it but by submitting yourselves to the Authority of the Church. The Converter Pelisson has renewed the same Arguments in a new Book: and this is one of the Books, which, those who have been seduced, use to allege as a source from whence they have drawn their knowledges. These Books shall be the matter of these Letters, not to examine them throughly, but only to show you the falsehoods of these Doctors, the illusions of their Sophisms, and the fallacy of what they advance.  
We do not intent to confine ourselves within the bounds of a dispute, because we will take care to acquaint you with the most considerable transactions in this Persecution; and to inform you with the passages of the Life, Death, and behaviour of our Martyrs and Confessors, the most suitable to your Condition, and fittest for your Edification. Therefore we beseech those who know any thing of undoubted truth, to give us notice of it, that we may make it public, for the Edification, and the strengthening of those who want Constancy and Courage.  
We will begin by the Bishop of Meauxes Pastoral Letter to the new Converts of his Diocese. We pass by his preamble, to enter and come to that which is more to our purpose, that is, the Method, wherewith the Reformed are brought to their pretended Conversion in France. I do not wonder, says Monsieur de Meaux, My dear Brethren, if you are returned with so much forwardness, and in great Crowds to the Church where your Ancestors have worshipped God: the Principles of Christianity, as I have said already, and the Baptismal Vow did call you back inwardly to it. These Gentlemen boast themselves of the easy Victory they have obtained in bringing back those of the Reformed Religion to their Church, that is to say, in forcing a vast number of people to sign unwillingly an Abjuration, who are fallen away from the Faith, either by threaten, or by the fear of losing their Estates, or by Torments, and the Persecutions of Dragoons. It is true there had been in this occasion some examples of weakness that are unaccountable and unparallelled. We know, Brethren, these have been stumbling Blocks to you, and they endeavour to prepossess you with them. They tell you: if it was the true Religion, why do they not continue steadfast in it. Some of our Brethren have wrote already, to strengthen you against this scandal. They shown you that in the first Persecutions, things were carried on here after the same manner, and that Apostasy was near as general as at this present time. Since Men in those Ages crowded as fast to offer Incense to Idols, as in our days they have been seen to make an Abjuration. In all Ages there had been but few able to bear up against the Violences of Persecution. The Martyrs are chosen Vessels, into whom God pours an extraordinary measure of Grace, to strike an astonishment into the Enemies of his Truth, to confound the weakness of them that fall, and to confirm the Faith of the Weak. There are Miracles, but if they were frequent and ordinary, they should be no longer such. If the prospect of so many persons who have yielded to the Violence of Persecution or to the fear of it, prove a scandal to you; consider not that part of our History. But look upon the Courage and Constancy of your Ancestors, who have Established the Reformation in the last Century. Look upon the number of our Ancient Martyrs in those days. Consider their Constancy, their Christian Meekness, and Prayers even for their Persecutors. Consider with what Christian resolution they suffered the greatest Torments. They have been Burnt by degrees. They have seen their Bowels drop into the Flames before they gave up the Ghost. They kept them alive by Art, sometimes many days, sometimes several weeks, in those cruel Torments, and never a repining word was heard from their Mouths. They Prayed for their Executioners. They gave God thanks. They sung his praises. They called upon his Name to the last breath of their lives. When they tell you now a days; if your Religion was True, you would be more steadfast in it. You must answer, if our Religion was False, its followers would never have had such an invincible Constancy, and transcendent Love for it, as to suffer Death for its sake. If this had proceeded from a refractory and stubborn humour, their pains and their Death had never been attended with so profound an Humility, with such an exemplary Patience, with such an accomplished Meekness, with such a burning Zeal, with such a sincere Devotion, so an entire Submission, and such solid and apparent Joy as it was. The Spirit of Illusion cannot work these things. These are the Characters of the Spirit of God, these are the Fruits of Grace. Grace which was never given to Reprobates and Pseudomartyrs.  
Brethren, These objects are at a distance and remote from you, and perhaps you will hardly reflect upon them: but it will be easy for you to consider those that are before your Eyes. They are able to instruct and strengthen you against the scandal, which the forwardness of many in forsaking your Religion give occasion to your Enemies to reproach you with. To this you must oppose, first above an hundred thousand souls that departed the Kingdom within a year, not reckoning almost so many more that have come away these twenty years since the Persecution begun. There are some from among them who have abandoned all their Estates, Honours, Preferments, Dignities, Ease, and other Commodities of this life. These were evident proofs there was no such forwardness, and haste to re-enter into the Bosom of the Roman Church. You must oppose above forty thousand Prisoners, who lie either in the Prisons, or the Monasteries of the Kingdom, and who chose rather to suffer in them all manner of evils than to embrace the Roman Communion. You must oppose Persons of Quality, as Monsieur the Marquis of Bórdage Condemned to the Galleys, and then to a perpetual imprisonment, Monsieur the Marquis of , who expects daily the same Judgement, Monsieur the Marquis of Rochegude, and his Sons, Monsieur the Marquis of Cagny, Monsieur Beringhen, and all his Family, Monsieur the Marquis of Langé, Monsieur the Marquis of the Isle of Got, in the Fortress of Angers, and a vast number of other Gentlemen, who prefer either the Galleys, or the Prisons, to the Pleasure's Monsieur the Bishop of Meaux invites them to, that is, to join themselves with a Church wherein their Forefathers have not worshipped God. You must oppose a considerable number of Martyrs and Confessors, whereof some are in Dungeons that are the very pictures of Hell, so deep, so dark, so noisome, and so ghastly they are, some an hundred Feet deep in the Ground: such is the condition of some of our Brethren at Dieppe, at the Haure, in the Prisons of Humale, and other places; concerning which we may give you in time a more particular account. You must oppose above six hundred persons who are actually chained in the Galleys for their Religion. This is an account made up not by Hyperbolical exaggeration, but given by a Roman Catholic Officer, employed in Maritime affairs, and living at Marseilles. We have his Letter, and (without making mention of his name) in time we may produce it. Amongst others, this is one Article. Here are six hundred Slaves of the Reformed Religion, who by their patience move the most unmerciful Galleys Captains to compassion. The number of them must be very much increased since that time, for the Letter is dated from Marseillis, June 27. 1686. that is to say above two months since; and doubtless a great many more are gone thither; and indeed we hear that some say there are two thousand, some give out four thousand. The famous Monsieur Lewis de Maralles, Advocate of St. Menehoud, was not as yet gone there, for he departed from Paris in Fetters but the 20th. of July, and came at Dijon but the 30th. of the same month; from whence at last he was brought to Marseillis, laden with a Chain of fifty pound weight, and troubled with a violent Fever that never ceased during the whole Journey. He is a Confessor of Jesus Christ, whom the whole City of Paris has seen at the Tournelle (a Justice-Hall) over-laden with Fetters of an extraordinary weight, and Preaching from the midst thereof. All France has its Eyes fixed on him, as upon the greatest example of Courage, of Piety, and Nicety of Conscience our Age hath seen. We shall give you one day the History of his Confession, and lay open to your view the Sentiments of his Soul by his own Letters, in which you shall perceive the Spirit and the Character of the Ancient Martyrs. He is one of the most eminent Confessors; but not the only, and God raises some every day. The same Sea Officer who wrote from Marseillis, that there were six hundred Galley Protestant Slaves, adds, Fifteen days since Monsieur de Lezan, a Gentleman of Quality, was Condemned to the Galleys upon a very slight accusation, viz. for being present at some Religious Assembly. The next day they put several persons to the Rack, in order to draw an Accusation from them against persons of Quality. These unhappy wretches sustained the ordinary, and extraordinary Rack, with a Constancy that terrified the Judges, and made the Executioner tender hearted to such a degree, that the Provost was forced to be all the while in a threatening posture to make him turn the wheel of the Rack. There was among them a Student in Divinity, Native of Noyon in Picardy. These are matters of Fact, the truth of which ought not to be questioned, since they are attested by a person of a contrary persuasion, who is in the Country, and upon the places where these Cruelties are practised. These are Confessors who witness that the Romish Church doth not find that easiness which the Bishop of Meaux brags of, in making the Reformed re-enter into its Communion. These are examples of Constancy well worth a serious consideration; since it is far easier to suffer Death than the ordinary and extraordinary Rack: and these famous Confessors may justly be styled Martyrs. But will you oppose to the easy victory the Converters boast of, and which they set out with so much noise and ostentation to entice you into the Roman Church; will you I say oppose to these Seducers some Martyrs, who are without exception such? Oppose Monsieur Teissier Viguier, of Durford in the lower Languedoc, who was hanged some months ago in a place called Lasalle, only for having served God in some public Assembly. Gisot, who was Burnt alive at Nerac: this poor Gentleman through infirmity signed to an Abjuration, either out of fear, or by reason of the Dragoons Persecutions, or it may be through the feebleness of old Age; (for he was near fourscore years old,) being fallen sick, God restored him his former Zeal, to make him obtain the glorious Crown of Martyrdom; he denied to take the Communion in the Roman way, and declared he recanted the unhappy Abjuration drawn from him by force. The Priest to put in execution the sentence, that enjoins to to give the Communion to all sick persons, whatever it cost, forced him to receive the Host, and put it into his Mouth; the old Man spit it out according to his duty, and upon this he was Condemned to the Fire to be burnt alive: he went to this horrid torment with the like joy as did the Holy Martyrs; he was tied to the Stake without any disturbance of mind; he sung the praises of God in the midst of the flames to the very last breath; and this Constancy made so strong an impression upon the minds of all the Inhabitants of Nerac, and struck so great a terror into the Persecutors Breasts, that they durst not put in execution the like Sentence, given against one called Fabrieres, of the same Town and Country, Condemned also to be burnt alive, for having as the aforesaid Gisot spit out the Host put into his Mouth by force. We have not heard yet that the Sentence had been Executed; when it shall be so, we shall acquaint you with it. We have another Martyr of an higher order, viz. Monsieur Ray of Nismes, Student in Divinity, who after having Preached eight or nine months in the lower Languedoc, has been apprehended and Condemned to Death, and was Executed at Baucaire the 7th. of August. The Circumstances of his Martyrdom, his Courage, his Answers, his Piety are too eminent and extraordinary to be confined in this narrow compass. We will give you an account of them in the series of this History, when we shall have gathered from credible Hands, and faithful Memoires, all the parts of the History relating to this glorious Martyr.  
Here are already many things, Brethren, for you to oppose to this Sentence of Monsieur of Meaux, viz. I do not wonder you are come again thronging, and with so much forwardness to our Church. But this is not all: tell him for a certain truth, against his pretended forwardness, that for these four months passed in the Lower Languedoc, in a Country called Cevennes, and other neighbouring places, they continue to assemble almost every day, in the Woods, Caverns, and among the Rocks. The Dragoons, who commonly find them out, make a slaughter of them according to their order. They kill, they hang, and drag them into Prisons; but this avails nothing. Let what will be the consequence, they continue to assemble. In the Month of June last, towards the latter end, the Dragoons having found out a Congregation near Nismes, killed many upon the spot, and hung four upon the Trees. These Executioners withdrew, thinking these Servants of God durst not come again to the same place. But two hours after another Congregation was formed in the very same place, about the dead Bodies, and in sight of the Corpse hanging upon the top of the Rocks. There is no week but the like Congregations are made, and the like Massacres perpetrated. They give an account of about threescore persons who have been massacred in a Congregation made between the Towns of Uses and Bagnols in the beginning of July. It is reported some Women were ravished, and some others had their Bellies ripped open. But we keep the particulars of these matters of fact for another time. For you may be assured we shall write nothing but what is certain, and of an undoubted truth. Wherefore we have chosen rather to put off the edification you ought to receive from the steadfastness and constancy of our Martyrs and Confessors, than to set down some things as true, which may hereafter prove doubtful or false. It is enough at present to show the Bishop of Meaux and his Brethren, they have as yet no great reason to boast themselves, as if they had obtained an easy conquest and victory over us. Too soon they begin to triumph, not being as yet advanced so far as they imagine themselves to be; we see already the vanity of his prediction, Within four months no mention should be made of Huguenots in France. These fair Designs are brought to nought, and the difficulty will be found at the end.  
As for you, Brethren, the Discourse we have entertained you with, and the Objects we have laid before your eyes, aught to make you ashamed if you have been so weak as to fall, and excite you to redouble your steadfastness if you continue as yet standing. But let us see an Article more of the Bishop of Meaux Pastoral Letter.  
None of you, says he, has sustained violence, either in his person, or in his estate, let them not bring you those deceitful Letters, which Strangers, under the notion of Ministers direct, under the Title of Pastoral Letters to the Protestants in France, fallen by the violence of the Torments. Besides that they are written by some Men who could never prove their Mission, those Letters do not concern you at all; far from having suffered any Torments, you never heard a word of them. I hear say the same from the rest of the Bishops; but for you, Brethren, I speak nothing but what you acknowledge as well as I; you are come quietly to us, and you know it. There are some Objects, which Men can never make themselves familiar with. It is in vain to look upon them, they are always the same, and they ever appear like Prodigies; Maimbourg, Varillas, Brueys, and a great number of others have been so bold as to say, that the Conversions were made without any violence. They have been answered upon this matter, and put to their last shifts so far as to cover with shame impudence itself. But this is to wash a Blackmore white. These Gentlemen have put on a brazen Forehead, and are resolved never to blush at any thing. Judge yourselves by this pattern of the good faith and sincerity of your Converters. You, who have seen your Estates consumed and destroyed, your Bodies abused, your Neighbours dragged into Prisons, your poor Wives shaved, and clapped into Nunneries, the faithful Servants of God cast into Dungeons full of stench and corruption. Some others were carried into Prisons, where the Water run under feet; but to keep them from falling into the precipice, they set them upon small narrow Board's, upon which they were tossed night and day. Others have been burnt and roasted. Others have been put out of their Wits, and become mad, for being kept awake without any rest.  
All France has seen it: all Europe is witness of it: and yet they have the boldness to affirm the contrary of what yourselves are eye-witnesses. Do you think these Gentlemen dare not tell you lies upon the Centuries past, when they entertain you concerning the Tradition, and what has been said and done a thousand or twelve hundred years ago, since they have no manner of respect for present truths, and matters of fact, whereof there are almost as many Witnesses, as Men alive upon earth. In the name of God reflect upon these things, and consider, when they forbidden you an examination, when they tell you you must believe the Church, that is, these false Doctors who speak to you, you must give credit to what they say without knowledge: Consider, I say, if there is any safety to trust people who are devoted and given up to lying, and who have put off all manner of shame and bashfulness.  
Monsieur the Bishop of Meaux has heard from all the Bishops, there was no Violence practised in all their Dioceses. I would fain know what Definition these Gentlemen give of violence, and what they call Torments. Among these Bishops the Bishop of Aubun could give the lie to the Bishop of Meaux; for he could not say as he did, viz. That the Inhabitants of his Diocese never heard one word of torments. He went attended with some Executioners to the Lady S. Hadré Montbrun, Widow of an illustrious General, who had the honour to command in chief the King's and the Venetians Armies with so much Glory. This Bishop, I say, attended by some Missionaries and a Provost, who brought with him two or three Executioners, furnished with all the Instruments of the Rack and Torture, could not make good the Bishop of Meaux assertion. If this is false, why do they not convince the Servants and the Officers of that House of Falsehood, who have seen it, who told it, and who have written of it? But the Bishop of Meaux hath never done, nor seen any thing like it in his Diocese. Suppose this be true, it is not strange, and he hath no great reason to wish himself joy for it; since Paris, and the neighbouring places were the last that felt the smart of the Persecution. All France was stricken with terror, bathed in tears, and red with blood; Paris and Brie saw nothing round about, but sanguinary Troops, and Emissaries laden with the Spoils of the Reformed, and covered with their blood; what wonder is it then, if these dreadful Objects overcame them without approaching them? since the fear of an imminent danger doth as much terrify us as the immediate sense of a present evil inflicted upon us; nay, some who sunk under the apprehensions of punishment, with courage sustained it when it was inflicted. The Dragoons of Bearn, of Aquitain, of Poictou, of Languedoc, of Normandy made Conversions for the Bishop of Meaux. After this let him boast himself if he can of his easy Converts.  
But I am weary to confute such impudences by matters of fact, which our Persecutors deny, and by such Witnesses a they reject. But let us see, whether Monsieur Meaux will contradict himself. He wrote his Pastoral Letter in April last, a little while before Easter, to invite and prepare the new Converts to the next Communion; and exactly at the very same time he wrote to one of his Diocese the following Letter, which is come to hand.  
Meaux, April. 3. 1686. Monsieur,  
I Continue to write to you without being discouraged at the Answer you made to my first Letter; I did too well perceive a strange Character, and a Ministers Style in it to attribute it to you. In a word, I found that it proceeded not from a Judgement such as yours. But suppose it did, yet would I not cease to invite you to a return. I saw in a Letter you wrote to Madam V... that the true Church doth not persecute. What do you mean by that, Sir? Do you understand that the Church itself doth never make use of Force? It is very true, since the Church has but spiritual Arms. Do you mean that the Princes, who are the Sons of the Church, ought never to draw the Sword God has put into their hands, to destroy his Enemies? Will you dare say that against the Judgement of your own Doctors themselves, who have maintained by so many Books, that the Republic of Geneva could, and aught to condemn Servetus to the Fire, for having denied the Divinity of the Son of God? But without alleging any Examples, and the authority of your Doctors, tell me in what place of the Scriptures Heretics and Schismatics are excepted out of the number of those Malefactors against whom S. Paul says, God himself has armed the Princes? And if you would not allow Christian Princes the punishing of such heinous Crimes, because injurious to God, must not they punish them because they are the occasion of trouble and sedition in the Government? Do you not see clearly that you are grounded upon a false Principle? And if it was true, then were the Arrians, the Nestorians, the Pelagians in the right against the Church, since it were they who were persecuted and banished, and the Catholics those who then persecuted and banished them. And at this present time the Catholics who are punished with death in Sweedland, and in many other Kingdoms should be in the right against those that call themselves Evangelical, and each of them at his turn should be in the right and in the wrong, in the right in one place, and in the wrong in another, and Religion would depend upon uncertainties. But this is too much upon this Subject to convince as good a Wit as yours. Know only, that when it pleases God to leave us to our own thoughts, the best Judgements are biased with the least appearances. The fear of worshipping Bread stands (according to your prejudice) upon better grounds. Consider in the mean while (without beginning a Controversy, that must needs go beyond the bounds of a Letter) consider, I say, it was the like fear that caused the Arrians, and the Disciples of Paul of Samosatus, to say that they would not give the Divine Honours to a Man, to a Child, to a Creature what perfections and privileges soever she was endowed with. It was human reason, senses and prejudices that inspired them with those empty fears. Take care that your Religion (after their example) doth not too much depend upon the senses and human reason; in a like case, and that your noncompliance doth not proceed from an habit to follow their Dictates. However you see your Reformers have done nothing else but renewing the quarrels ended six hundred years ago, when Berengarius stirred them, and if you question the judgement given against him, the others with as much reason may question all the preceding Councils; and here we are to examine again, all that has been Decreed, as if we did but now become Christians, and if all thate our Fathers had Decreed was good for nothing: this shows in a word, that if Christians, when they cannot agree upon the sense of the Scripture, do not acknowledge a speaking and living Authority, to which they submit themselves, the Christian Church is certainly the weakest of all the Societies in the World, the most exposed to desperate and remediless divisions to the Novators, and factious Sectaries of all sorts. This is an Objection which your Ministers with all their subtlety could never Answer; they satisfy themselves when they allege some examples, wherewith they pretend to prove the Councils have not always well determined. All those examples are false or ill alleged; and in very little time you that are ingenious might be convinced of it. You receive things with too much credulity, without ever examining them: but without insisting longer upon these things, consider only, if it is likely that God, who has permitted there should be so many depths in the Scripture, and that many Schisms should spring from thence among those who make profession of it, consider, I say, if God has left no means to his Church to compound them, and if there is no other remedy to heal Divisions, but to let every one believe according to his fancy, and so lead Men by degrees to the indifferency of Religion, which is the greatest of all evils. Think, Sir, Think upon this, Consult your own thoughts, and not your Ministers subtleties, who, let what will come of it, are resolved to defend their prejudices, rather than be accounted false Teachers. Nay, this is not enough, ponderate these things; pass by the places where the Scripture appears a little intricated and difficult. It is better to see the simplicity of a Brother endeavouring to win his Brother, than the neatness of an elaborated do all for your person, which I esteem, which is dear to me, and that I am hearty  
Your, etc. Thus signed, J. Benign, Bishop of Meaux.  
Having imposed the necessity upon ourselves not to go beyond this Leaf: we put off our reflections upon this Letter, till our next, which we shall give you in a few days; because this is only as a Preface to the rest. In mean while we recommend you to the Grace of God, and to his Mercy. Amen.  
September, 1. 1686.  
FINIS.