Book XV. Variations in the Aiticlcs of the Creed: I believe the Holy Catholic Church.. The unshaken steadiness of tiie Church of Rome

A brief Summaiy. — An account of the Variations relating to the subject of the Church. — She is naturally owned to be Visible. — The difficulty of shewing where the Church was, forced men upon the device of an Invisible one. — The perpetual Visibility of it necessarily confessed. — Divers means of saving the Reformation under this supposition. — The state of the question, as, by the disputes of the Ministers Claude and Jurieu, it stands at present. — They are at length forced to own that salvation may be still had in the Church of Rome, as well as before the pretended Reformation.— Strange Variations, and the Confessions of Faith despised. — Advantages yielded to Catholics on the necessary foundation of Jesus Christ's promises in favour of perpetual Visibility. — The Church owned to be Infallible. — Her sentiments acknowledged to be an infallible rule of Faith. — Vain exceptions.— All the proofs against the infallible authority of the Church brought to nothing by the Ministers. — Evidence and simplicity of the Catholic doctrine with regard to the Church. — The Reformation forsakes her first ground-work, by owning that Faith is not formed on the Scriptures. — Consent of tlie Ministers Claude and Jurieu on this tenet. — Unheard-of absurdities of the new system concerning the Church, but necessary to defend themselves against the objections of the Catholics. — The uniformity and constancy of the Catholic Church opposed to the Variations of the Protestant Churches. — Abridgment of this lifteenth Book. — Conclusion of the whole Work.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 281

1. — The cause of Variations, in Protestant Churches, is their wajit of a true notion of what the Church is.

As, after observing the pernicious effects of a distemper on man's body, the cause of it is diligently inquired into, in order to apply specific remedies : in like manner, after seeing that perpetual instability of Protestant Churches, (the disastrous distemper of Christendom,) the prime source thereof ought to be traced out, to the end that a suitable relief, if possible, may be aftbrded. The cause of those variations, which we have observed in separate societies, is their not having known the authority of the Church, the promises she has received from heaven, nor, in short, so much as what the Church is. For that was the fixed point, in which all the steps they were to take ought to centre ; and by deviating from this, heretics, either curious or ignorant, have been bewildered in the mazes of human reasoning, abandoned to their resentments, to their particular passions ; the very reason they did but walk groping even in their confessions of faith, and could not shun falling under the two inconveniences specified by St. Paul concerning false teachers; one of which is " to be condemned by their own judgment¹;""' and the other, " to be ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth f."

2. — The Catholic Church ever knew herself, and nevei' varied in her Decisions.

This original cause of the instability of the pretended Reformation has appeared through the whole series of this work : but it is time to observe it with particular attention, by shewing, in the confused sentiments of our separated brethren, relating to the article of the Church, the variations which have caused all the rest : after that we shall finish this discourse, by shewing a quite contrary procedure in the Catholic Church, which, from well knowing what she was through the grace of Christ Jesus, has always so well delivered herself at the very first in all questions that arose, in order to ascertain the faith of Christians, that there never happened a necessity, I do not say of varying, but of deliberating anew, or of departing in the least tittle from the first plan.

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3. — Doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning the Article of the Church. — Four points essential and inseparable one from the other.

*rhe doctrine of the Catholic Church consists in four points, whose connexion is inviolable * : the first, that the Church is visible; the second, that she is perpetual; the third, that the truth of the Gospel is always professed therein by the whole society ; the fourth, that it is unlawful to depart from her doctrine: which is as much as to say, in other terms, that she is infallible.

The first point is grounded on a certain fact : which is, that the word Church always signifies in Scripture, and, therefore, in the common language of the faithful, a visible society : Catholics take this for granted, and it was necessary for Protestants to assent to it, as will appear hereafter.

The second point, that the Church is perpetual, is not less certain, it being grounded on Jesus Christ's promises agreed on by all parties.

Hence the third point is inferred most clearly, that the truth is professed always by the society of the Church ; for the Church being no otherwise visible than by the profession of the truth, it follows, that if she is always, and always is visible, she cannot but always teach and profess the truth of the Gospel : from whence the fourth point is as clearlydeduced, that it is not allowable to say the Church is in error, nor to forsake her doctrine ; and all this is founded on the promise allowed by all parties, since in fine the same promise, which makes the Church be always, makes her always be in that state which the word Church implies ; consequently always visible, and always teaching the truth. Nothing is more simple, more clear, nor more coherent than this doctrine.

4. — Sentiments of the Protestants touching the perpetual visibility of the Church.— The Confession of Augsburg.

So clear is this doctrine, that Protestants could not deny it ; so clearly does it condemn them, that they durst not own it: wherefore, their whole thoughts were bent on perplexing it, not were they able to avoid falling into the contradictions I am about to relate.

Let us, in the first place, look into their confessions of faith ; and to begin with that of Augsburg f, which is the

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 283 first, and as it were the foundation of all the rest, — the article concerning the Church was thus delivered by it : " We teach that there is a holy Churcli which must eternally subsist." What now is that Cliurch whose duration is eternal? The following words explain it: " The Church is the assembly of saints, wlierein the Gospel is rightly taught, and the sacraments rightly administered."

Here may be seen three fundamental truths. First, " that the Church subsists always :" there is then an inviolate succession. Second, that she is essentially compounded of pastors and people, the administration of the sacraments and preaching of the word entering into her very definition. Third, that the word and sacraments are not only therein administered, but rightly administered, recte, " as they ought to be:" which also enters into the essence of a Church, since it is placed, as we see, in her definition.

5. — This Doctrine owned by Protestants is the subversion of their Reformation, and the source of their ^lerplexities.

Now, this being admitted, the question is, how they can possibly accuse the Church of error, either in doctrine or in administration of the sacraments ; for, could that happen, the definition of the Church wherein is placed not only preaching, but true preaching of the Gospel, and not only administration, but the right administration of the sacraments, would be false ; and if that cannot happen, the Reformation, which accused the Church of error, carried in her very title her own condemnation.

Observe well the difficulty : for this was the first source, in the Protestant Churches, of those contradictions we shall discover in them ; but contradictions, which the remedies they thought to find for the defect of their original, made them but plunge the deeper into. In the mean while, till the series of facts lead us to these fruitless remedies, let us endeavour thoroughly to make known the evil.

6. — What it was precisely that the Protestants did oblige themselves to by this Doctrine.

On this foundation of the seventh article of the Confession of Augsburg, the Lutherans were asked, what it was they came to reform ? " The Church of Rome," said they. But have you any other Church wherein the doctrine you would establish is professed ? It was a fact incontestable that ftiey² could shew none. Where was then that Church, in which, by your sevent}i article, the true preaching of God's word, and the right administration of the sacraments, were always to subsist ? To name some doctors here and there, and from time to time, who, as you pretend^ have taught your doctrine, allowing the fact proved, yet would be nothing to the purpose : for it was a body of a Church you were to shew, a body wherein truth was preached, and wherein the sacraments were administered ; by consequence, a body com- 2:)ounded of pastors and of people ; a body, in this respect, always visible. This is what must be shewn, and, consequently, there must be shewn in this body a manifest succession both of doctrine and of ministry.

7. — Perpetual Visibility of the Church confirmed by the Apology of the Augsburg Confession.

At the recital of the seventh article of the Confession of Augsburg, the Catholics found fault with their defining the Church "the assembly of Saints;" and said, that sinners and hypocrites, Nvho are united to the Church by the external bands, ought not to be excluded from their unity. Melancthon accounted for this doctrine in the Apology *, and it is not impossible that might be a dispute as much about words as things ; but without stopping at this, let us but observe, they persisted to say f that the Church was always to last, and to last always visible, preaching and the sacraments being essential to her ; for let us hear how they speak |: " The Catholic Church is not an exterior society of certain nations, but it is men dispersed over all the universe, who have the same sentiments with regard to the Gospel, who have the same Christ, the same Holy Ghost, and the same Sacraments." And still more expressly a little after §, " We never have dreamed that the Church was a Platonic city not to be found on earth ; we say that the Church exists, that in it there are true believers, and men truly just spread over all the universe ; we add to this, its marks, the pure Gospel, and the Sacraments, and it is such a Church that is properly the pillar of truth." Here, then, at least, unquestionably is a Church very really existing ; very really visible, wherein sound doctrine is very really preached, and the Sacraments very really administei-ed as they ought to be ; for, as they subjoin, the kingdom of Jesus Christ cannot subsist but with

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC, 285 the word and sacraments, so that where they are not, there can be no Church *.

8. — How it was endeavoured to make this Doctrine cojisist with the necessity of a Reformation.

Notwithstanding, many human traditions, said they, had crept into the Church, whereby sound doctrine and the right administration of the sacraments was changed ; and tliis was what they would I'eform. But if tliese human traditions were turned in the Church into articles of faith, where could be that purity of the word and doctrine, without which she could not subsist ? Here the thing was to be palliated, and accordingly they said f, as has been seen, that tlieir design was not to combat against "the Catholic Church, nor even the Church of Rome, nor to maintain opinions which the Church had condemned ;" that the matter in debate was no more than some few abuses brought into the Church without any certain authority ; nor was that to be taken for the doctrine of the Church of Rome, which was approved of only by the Pope, some cardinals, some bishops, and some monks.

To hear the Lutherans speak thus, one might think they did not impugn the received dogmata, but some particular opinions only, and some few abuses lately crept in without authority. This but little suited with those outrageous invectives of sacrilege and idolatry, with which they filled the whole universe, much less with an open rupture. But tjie fact is certain, and by these smooth words they endeavoured to salve the inconsistency of owning corruption in the tenets of the Church, after having made a pure preaching of the truth essential to her.

9. — The perpetual Visibility confirmed in the Articles of Smalcald by the promises of Jesus Christ.

This immutability and perpetual duration of sound doctrine was confirmed in the articles of Smalcald |;, subscribed by the M'hole Lutheran party, explaining those words of our Saviour : " On this rock will I build my Church," namely, said they, " on this ministry of the profession made by Peter." Thereunto preaching, and true preaching, was therefore necessary, without which they owned the Church could not subsist.

% Art, filial. Concord, p. 345.

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10. — Thn Saxonic Confesnon^ in ivhich they begin to spy out the difficulty without departing from the precedent doctrine.

Now we are upon the subject of the doctrine of the Lutheran Churches, the Saxonic Confession, known to be Mehmcthon's, opportunely jjresents itself. In it is acknowledged that " tliere is always some true Church ; that the promises of God, who hath promised her duration, are immutable ; that they speak not of the Church as of a Platonic idea, but point out a Churcli whicli is seen and heard ; and that she is visible in this life, and is the assembly which embraces the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and which has the true use of the Sacraments, in which God operates efficaciously by the ministry of the Gospel, and wherein many are regenerated³."

They add, "she may be reduced to a small number ; yet, however, there is always a remnant of the faithful, whose voice makes itself be heard on earth, and of which (iod, from time to time, renews the ministry." They must mean that he continues it ; for the definition of the Church which, as just said, cannot subsist without the ministry, does not allow its interruption even for a moment; and innnediately after it is subjoined f , " tliat God will have the ministry of the Gospel be public ; he will not have preaching sliut up in darkness, but heard by all mankind ; and that there are assemblies where it may resound, and where his name may be ])raised and invoked,"

Here then you see the Church always visible. True it is, they begin to see the diiriculty, when saying, *' she may be reduced to a small number;" but after all, the Lutherans have not less difficulty in shewing, at Luther's first appearance, a small society of their sentiments than a great one, and yet without that there is neither ministry nor Chui-ch.

11. — Doctrine of the Confession of Wirtemburg, and the perpetual Visibility always fnaintained.

The Confession of Wirtemburg, which was penned by Brentius, does not degenerate from this doctrine, it being there acknowledged " that there is a Church so well governed by the Holy Ghost, thnt, although weak, she lasts for ever ; that she judges of doctrine ; and is where the Gospel is sincerely preached, and where the sacraments are administered

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 287 according to Christ's institution⁴." The difficulty still remained of shewing us a Church and a society of pastors and people wherein sound doctrine had always been preserved to Luther's days.

The next chapter relates how councils may err ; by reason that, although Jesus Christ has promised his church the perpetual presence of his Holy Spirit, nevertlielcss, " every assembly is not the Church ;" and it may happen in the Church, as in bodies politic, that the greater number of bad men may prevail over the good. This is what I shall not dispute at present ; but I still insist on their shewing me a Church, little or great, which, before Luther's coming, was of his sentiments.

12. — The Confession of Bohemia.

The Confession of Bohemia is approved by Luther. Therein is confessedf '⁵ a Holy and Catholic Cluirch, which comprehends all Christians dispersed throughout all the eartli, which are assembled by preaching of tlie gospel in the faith of the Trinity and of Jesus Christ : wheresoever Jesus Christ is preached and received, and wheresoever are the word and sacraments according to the rule by him prescribed, there is tile Church." These men at least were fully satisfied that when they were born there was no Church in the whole universe of their belief J; for the deputies dispatched by them everywhere on that errand, had well assured them of it. And yet they durst not say their assembly, such as it was, little or great, was the holy, universal Church ; but only tliat " she was a member and a part thereof fj;." But what then was become of all the other parts r⁶ They had surveyed all corners of the world, and no tidings of them : sad extremes indeed ! not to dare to say they were the Universal Church, and dare still less to say that they had met Avith brethren and partners of their faith in any part whatsoever of the whole universe.

Be that as it will, these are the first that seem to insinuate in a Confession of Faith, that true Christian Churches might be separated from one another, since they dare not exclude from Catholic unity, those Churches with whom they knew they had no communion ; which I beg may be remarked, by reason that this doctrine will at length be the last resource of Protestants, as shall appear hereafter.

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13.'— 'The Confession of Strasburg.

We have seen the Confession of the Lutherans I'egarding the Church : we shall now hear the other party. The Confession of Strasburg", presented, as above observed, to Charles V. at the same time with that of Augsburg, defines the Church⁷, " the society of those who have enlisted themselves soldiers of Jesus Christ, amongst whom are mixed many hypocrites." There is no doubt that such a society is visible — that she must always abide in this state of visibility, — it being added, " that Jesus Christ does never abandon her ; that those who do not hear her, ought to be held for heathens and publicans; that, indeed, there is no seeing what constitutes her a Church, namely, her faith ; yet she makes herself be seen by her fruits, amongst which confession of the truth is one."

The following chapter sets forth f how that " the Church being on earth in the flesh, God also will instruct her by the exterior word, and make her faithful members preserve an exterior society by means of the sacraments." There are tlien necessarily both pastors and people, nor can the Church subsist without this ministry.

14. — Two Confessions of Basil.

The Confession of Basil in 1536 says|, " that the Catholic Church is the holy congregation of all the saints ; and» although unknown to any but God, nevertheless is she seen, is she known, is she constituted by external rites of God's appointment ; to wit, by the sacraments, and by the public and lawful preaching of his word ;" v;herein is seen manifestly, that ministers lawfully called are comprehended, by whom it is also added, " God makes himself known to his faithful, and administers to them the remission of their sins."

In another Confession of Faith, made at Basil in 1532, " The Christian Church is likewise defined the society of the saints, whereof all those who confess Jesus Christ are the citizens ;" thus the profession of Christianity is essential to her.

15. — The Helvetic Confession of 1566, and the perpetual Visibility thoroughly established.

Whilst we are upon the Helvetic Confessions, that of 1566, which is the great and solemn one, defines also the Church,

:i; Ibid. Art, 14, 15.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 289

" which has been always, which is, and which shall ever be, the assembly of the faithful, and of the saints who know God, and serve him by the Word and the Holy Ghost⁸." Here, then, is not only the interior band, namely, the Holy Ghost, but the exterior also, which is the word and preaching ; and therefore they say afterwards, *' that lawful and true preaching is her chief mark, to which must be added the sacraments as God has instituted them f.'' Whence they conclude " that the Churches, wliich are deprived of these marks, although they boast the succession of their bishops, their unity, and their antiquity, do not belong to the triiie Church of Jesus Christ ; nor can salvation any more be had out of the Church than out of the ark : if you will have life, you must not separate yourself from the true Church of Jesus Christ."

I desire these words may be observed, which will be of main consequence when we shall come to the last answers of the ministers ; in the mean time, let us but remark, that it is impossible to teach more clearly that the Church is always visible, and that she is necessarily compounded of pastors and people, than is here done by this Helvetic Confession.

16. — They begin to vary. — The invisible Church begins to appear.

But as they were obliged, according to these ideas, always to find a ministry and a Church wherein the truth of Christianity was preserved : the difficulty was no small one, because, say what they would, they were very sensible that there was no Church, little or great, composed of pastors and people, wherein they could shew that faith, which they would make pass for the only true Christian faith. They are then forced to subjoin, " that God has had his friends out of the people of Israel ; that, during the captivity of Babylon, the people were deprived sixty years of the sacrifice ; that, through a just judgment of God, the truth of his word and worship, and the Catholic faith, are sometimes so obscured, that it seems almost as if they were extinct, and no Church at all subsisting, as happened in the time of Eli and at other times j so that the Church may be called invisible ; not that the men she is composed of are so, but because she is often hidden to our eyes, and being known to God alone, escapes from tlie sight of men." Here is the dogma of an invisible Church, as clearly established as the dogma of the visible Church had been before ; that is to say, the Reformation, struck at first

VOL. n. u

290 THE HISTORY OP [^OOK with the true notion of the Church, defined it so as that her visibility came into her very essence ; but afterwards fell into other notions through the impossibility of finding a Church always visible of her belief.

17. — Church invisible. — Why invented. — Confession of the Minister Jurieu.

That it was this inevitable perplexity which drove the Calvinian Churches upon this chimera of a Church invisible none can doubt, after hearing Mr. Jurieu. " That which moved (says he)* some reformed doctors (he should have said whole Churches of the reformation) in their own Confessions of Faith, to cast themselves into the perplexity they were entangled in upon their denying the perpetual visibility of the Church, was because they believed, by owning the Church always visible, they should find it difficult to answer the question which the Church of Rome so often makes us: — Where was our Church a hundred and fifty years ago 1 If the Church be always visible, your Calvinist and Lutheran Church is not the true Church, for that was not visible." This is fairly owning the cause of that perplexity which disturbed his Churches : he that pretends to have refined beyond them, will not extricate himself better, as we shall see ; but let us continue to observe the confusion of the Churches themselves.

18. — Belgic Confession^ and sequel of the perplexity .

The Belgic Confession manifestly copies after the Helvetic, since it says t, " that the Catholic or Universal Church is the assembly of all the faithful ; that she has been, is, and will be eternally, by reason that Jesus Christ, her eternal King, cannot be without subjects : although for some time she seem little, and as it were extinct to the eyes of men ; as in the time of Achab and of those seven thousand who had not bent their knees to Baal."

Nevertheless, they afterwards subjoin J, " That the Church is the assembly of the elect, out of which none can be saved ; that it is not lawful to withdraw from her, or abide apart : but all must unite themselves to the Church, and submit to her discipline⁹ ; that one may see and know her, by pure preaching, right administration of the sacraments, and a good discipline ; and it is thereby, say they, that we may

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 291 rightly distinguish this true Church, from ■which it is not allowable to depart."

It seems, then, on one side, as if they would say, one may easily and always know her, since she has such manifest tokens, and that it is never lawful to depart from her. And on the other side, if we press them to shew us a Church of their belief, though never so minute, always visible, they provide a subterfuge for themselves by flying to this Church which does not appear, although they dare not speak out boldly, nor say absolutely that she is extinct, but only that she seems as it were extinct.

19. — Church of England,

The Church of England speaks ambiguously. '' The visible Church (says she *) is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments are duly ministered, according to Christ's ordinance ;" that is, such is she when visible, but this is not saying that she is always visible. What follows is not more clear : " As the Churches of Hierusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred in matters of faith :" the question is, (they thus attainting these great, and as it were, mother Churches of all the rest,) whether the infection might have spread so universally, as that the profession of truth was extinguished over all the earth; but they chose rather to speak nothing of it, than to incur this terrible dilemma, which would oblige them, on one side, either to own there was no Church left on earth in which truth was confessed : or, allowing the impossibility of this, would oblige them, on the other side, to seek what they knew could not be found, to wit, a Church always subsisting and believing as they did.

20. — Confession of Scotland, and manifest contradiction.

In the Confession of Scotland, the Catholic Church is defined the Society of all the Elect : they say , " She is invisible, and known to God only, who alone knows his elect ;" and add, *' that the true Church hath for its mark, preaching and the sacraments :" and wherever these marks be, though there should be but two or three men, there is the Church of Jesus Christ, in the midst of which he is, according to his promise ; " Which is understood (say they) not of the universal Church just spoken of, but of the particular Chui'ch of Ephesus, of u2

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Corinth, and so forth, wherein the ministry had been planted by St. Paul." Prodigious! to make Jesus Christ say the ministry may be where two or three men can be found. But they were forced into these straits ; for to find one only Churcli of their belief, wherein was a regulated ministry, as at Ephesus or Corinth, always subsisting, was what they despaired of.

21. — Catechism of the pretended Reformed of France.

I have reserved the Confession of the pretended Reformed of France for the last, not only on account of the particular concern I ought to have for my own country, but also because in France especially the Protestants have for this long time sought most diligently for the solution of this difficulty.

Let us begin by the Catechism¹⁰, wherein on the fifteenth Sunday, upon this Article of the Creed, " I believe the Holy Catholic Church," they teach, that this name is given her, ^' to signify that as there is but one head of the faithful, so all are to be united in one body ; so that thei-e are not many Churches, but one only, which is diffused all the world over." How the Lutheran or Calvinlan Church was diftused all the world over, when scarce known in some corner of it ; and, how Churches of this belief are to be found, in all times and in all the world, is what constitutes the difficulty. They saw, and obviate it in the following Sunday y, where, after having asked, whether this Church may be otherwise known than by believing her, they answer thus : " There is indeed a visible Church of God conformable to the signs he hath given us to know her by ; but in this place (the Creed), properly speaking, is meant the society of those whom God hath elected for salvation, which cannot be discovered fully by the eye."

22. — Sequel in which the difficulty appears. — The Church in the Creed at length acknowledged visible.

They seem to say two things : the first, that no mention is made of the Church in the symbol of the Apostles; the second, that for want of such a Chui'ch which tliey might shew visibly of their belief, it is sufficient to have recourse to that invisible Church which cannot be seen fully by the eye. But what follows puts an obstacle to the two points of this doctrine, it being there taught, ^' that no man obtains pardon of his sins, unless he be first incorporated with God's

,¹¹ Catech, Dim. xv. t Dim, xvi.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 293 people, and persevere in unity and communion with the body of Christ, and so be a member of the Church :" whence they conclude, that *^ out of the Church there is nothing but death and damnation; and that all those who separate themselves from the company of the faithful to make a sect apart, ought not, whilst divided, to hope salvation." To make a sect apart, is, unquestionably, to break the exterior bonds of the Church's unity. They suppose, therefore, that the Church, wherewith it is necessary to be in communion in order to obtain pardon of our sins, has a two-fold union, the internal and external ; and that both of them are necessary, first to salvation, and secondly to the understanding the Article of the Creed touching the Catholic Church : so that this Church, confessed in the Creed, is visible and distinguishable in her extei'ior ; for which reason also they durst not venture to say that we could not see her, but, could not see her fully, to wit, as to that which is internal ; a thing no man disputes.

23. — Calvi7i's sentiment.

All these notions in the Catechism came from Calvin who composed it: for, explaining the Article, "I believe the Catholic Church*," he distinguishes the Church visible from the invisible known to God alone, which is the society of all the elect, and it seems as if he would say it is this the Creed speaksof: although, says hef, "this Article regards, in some measure, the external Church," as if they were two Churches, and it were not, on the contrary, most evident, that the same Church, which is invisible in her internal gifts, doth manifest herself by the sacraments and profession of her faith. But so it is, that the Reformation is always in a panic when the Church's visibility is to be acknowledged.

24. — Confession of Faith of the French Calvinists.

They act more naturally in their Confession of Faith, and elsewhere it hath been proved unanswerably, that they there own no other Church but that which is visible;}:. The fact stands incontestable, as will be seen hereafter. Nor was there, indeed, anything that could less bear a dispute; for, from the twenty-fifth Article, where this matter begins, to the thirty-second Article, where it ends, they all along evidently suppose the Church visible; and in the twenty-fifth Article, they lay it down as a fundamental point, that " the

♦ Instit. I. iv. c,l.n.2. t N. 3. ' + Conf.avec M.Cl. p._9,et seq.

Church cannot subsist, unless there be pastors in her that have the charge of teaching." It is, therefore, a thing absolutely necessary; and those who oppose this doctrine are detested as fantastical. Whence they conclude, in the twentysixth Article, " that no man ought to withdraw apart, nor rest on self-sufficiency ;" so that it is necessary to be united externally with some Church : a truth inculcated in every place, without the appearance of so much as one word of a Church invisible.

It ought, however, to be observed, that in the twenty-sixth Article, where it is said,^" No man ought to withdraw apart nor rest on self-sufficiency, but should join himself to some Church," they add, " and this in whatever place God shall have established a true form of a Church;" whereby it is left undecided whether or no they mean that such a form always does subsist.

25. — Sequel, wherein the perpetual Visibility is always manifestly supposed.

In the twenty- seventh Article caution is given to distinguish carefully which is the true Church ; words that plainly shew they suppose her visible : and after having decided that she is ^' the congregation of true, faithful men," they add, " amongst the faithful there be hypocrites and reprobate, whose wickedness cannot deface the title of a Church," wherein the Church's visibility is again clearly supposed.

26. — The Church of Rome excluded from the title of a true Church by the twenty -eighth Article of the French Confession.

By the principles laid down in the twenty-eighth Article, the Church of Rome stands excluded from the title of a true Church, forasmuch as, after laying this foundation, " that, where the word of God is not preached, and no profession is made of bringing one's self under subjection to it, and where there is no use of sacraments, properly speaking, we cannot judge that there is any Church :" they declare they " condemn the assemblies of the Papacy, considering that the pure truth of God is banished thence, and the sacraments are there corrupted, adulterated, falsified, or wholly annihilated ; and all superstitions and idolatries are in vogue amongst them :" whence they draw this consequence, — " We hold that all those who join in such deeds, and communicate in them, do

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 295 separate and cut themselves off from the body of Christ Jesus."

It is impossible to decide more clearly that there is no salvation in the Church of Rome. And what is subjoined by them, that there are still some " footsteps of a Church amongst us," so far from mitigating the precedent expressions, even strengthens them; inasmuch as this term implies rather some remains and traces of a Church that had formerly passed that way, tlian a token of her being there. Thus was it understood by Calvin, when he asserted¹² " that the essential doctrine of Christianity was entirely forgotten by us." But the difficulty of discovering a society in which God could be served, before the Reformation, has made them elude this article, as we shall see hereafter.

27. — The thirty-first Article, in which the interruption of the Ministry, and the cessation of the visible Church, is acknowledged.

The same reason obliged them also to elude the thirty-first, which regards the vocation of Ministers. However trite may have been this subject, it must nevertheless, of necessity, be resumed, and so much the more, as it has given occasion to notorious variations even in our days. It begins by these words : — " We believe (it is an article of faith, consequently revealed by God, and revealed clearly in his Scriptui'e according to the principles of the Reformation), we believe, then, that no man may intrude himself, of his own proper authority, into the government of the Church ;" allowed, the thing is certain : " but that this ought to be done by election ;" this part of the Article is not less certain than the other. You must be chosen, deputed, authorized, by somebody; otherwise you are an intruder, " and by your own particular authority," the thing just now prohibited. But here is what annoys the Reformation; they knew not who had chosen, deputed, authorised the Reformers, and it was necessary to find out here some cloak for so visible a defect. Wherefore, after having said you ought to be elected and deputed after some form or other, without specifying any, they add, " so far forth as is possible, and God permits it :" whereby an exception is manifestly prepared in behalf of the Reformers. And, accordingly, they immediately subjoin, "which exception we add expressly, because it hath been necessary sometimes, nay, in our days, when the state of the Church was inter-

296 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK rupted, that God should raise men in an extraordinary manner to set up the Church anew which was fallen into ruin and desolation." They could not denote in more clear and more general terms the interruption of the ordinary ministry established by God, nor carry it further than to be obliged to have recourse to an extraordinary mission which God himself dispatches, and accordingly furnishes with the particular proofs of his immediate will. For they acknowledge frankly in the present case, that they can neither produce pastors that did conseci'ate, nor people that could elect ; which implied necessarily the entire extinction of the Church in her visibility ; and remarkable it was that, from the interruption of the visibility and ministry, they came to own in plain terms that the Church was fallen into ruin, without distinguishing the visible from the invisible, because they had got into a train of simple notions by which the Scripture naturally leads us to own no Church but such as is visible.

28. — Perplexity in the Synods of Gap and Rochelle, on account that the invisible Church had been forgotten in the Confession.

This difficulty was at length perceived by the Reformation ; and in 1603, five and forty years after the Confession of Faith had been published, was proposed to the national synod of Gap in these terms¹³ : " The provinces are exhorted to examine thoroughly, in the provincial synods, in what terms the twenty-fifth Article of the Confession of Faith ought to be couched, so much the more as our belief, regarding the Church, whereof mention is made in the creed, being to be expressed, there is nothing in the said confession that can be understood of any other than the church militant and visible." A general command is subjoined, " that all come prepared on questions concerning the Church."

This is, therefore, a fact well avowed, that M'hen they were to expound the doctrine of the Church, an article so essential to Christianity as to have been expressed in the creed, the idea of a Church invisible did not so much as enter into the minds of the Reformers, so distant was it from good sense, and so unnatural. However, they bethink themselves afterwards that it is necessary for their turn, it being impossible for them to find out a Church which had always visibly persisted in the faith they profess, and a remedy is therefore sought for this omission. What shall they say.? That the

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 297

Church might Idg wholly invisible ? This were introducing into a Confession of Faith so crude a fancy, so repugnant to good sense, that it never entered into the heads of those that drew it up. It was therefore resolved, at last, to leave it as they found it ; and four years after, in 1607, at the national synod of Rochelle¹⁴, when all the provinces liad thoroughly examined what was wanting to the Confession of Faith, " they concluded not to add to or diminish anything from the tM'enty-fifth and twenty-ninth Articles," the very same in which the visibility of the Church was expressed the most fully, " nor to meddle anew with the subject of the Church."

29. — Vain suhtletij of the Minister Claude towards eludiJig these Synods.

Mr. Claude, of all men, was the most subtle to elude the decisions of his Church when they incommoded himf ; but, on this occasion, he jests but too openly, for he would make us believe that all the difficulty the Synod of Gap met with in the Confession of Faith, was, that she could have wished that, instead of specifying only " the militant and visible part of the univei'sal Church, her invisible parts, which are the Church triumphant and that which is still to come, had also been specified." Was not that, indeed, a very important, a very difficult question, to order the discussion of in all the synods and over all the provinces, towards bringing it to a decision in the next national synod ? Did they so much as dream of ever raising so frivolous a question ? And to believe they troubled their heads about it, must not he have forgotten the whole state of controversies ever since the beginning of the pretended Reformation ? But Mr. Claude was not for acknowledging that the synod's perplexity proceeded from her not finding, in their Confession of Faith, the invisible Church, whilst his brother, Mr. Jurieu, moresincere in that particular, agrees that they thought it was necessary in the party, in order to answer the query. Where was the Church ?

30. — Remarkable decision, which they stick not to, of the Synod of Gap, concerning extraordinary Vocatio?i.

The same Synod of Gap passed an important decision on the thirty-first article of the Confession of Faith, which spoke of the extraordinary vocation of pastors : for the question being proposed, *' Whether or no it were expedient, when they should treat on the vocation of pastors who reformed the Church, to ground the authority they had to reform and teach, on the vocation they had received from the Church of Rome ;" the Synod judged " they ought to refer it, according to the article, to the extraordinary vocation only whereby God interiorly stirred them up to this ministry, and not to the small remains amongst them of that corrupted ordinary vocation." Such was the decision of the Synod of Gap : but, as before frequently observed, the Reformation never hits right at first. Whereas, she enjoins here to have recourse to an extraordinary vocation only, the Synod of Rochelle says they must principally have recourse to it. But they will no more abide by the exposition of the Synod of Rochelle, than by the determination of the Synod of Gap ; and the whole sense of the article, so carefully explained by two Synods, shall be changed by two ministers.

31. — The Ministers elude the Decree concerning extraordinary Vocation.

The ministers Claude and Jurieu are no longer for an extraordinary vocation by which ministers are sent immediately from God; neither does a confession of faith, nor Synods, terrify them : for as the Reformed in the main neither care for confessions of faith nor synods, and answer objections from them only for form-sake, even the slightest evasions will serve their turn. For such, Mr. Claude was never at a loss ; ' ' the right to teach (says he) and to perform the pastoral functions, is one thing: the right to labour towards a reformation, is another¹⁵." As for the last, the vocation was extraordinary, on account of the extraordinary talents the Reformers were endowed with : but there was nothing extraordinary as for the vocation to the pastoral ministry, since these first pastors were appointed by the people, in whom the source of authority and vocation naturally resides f.

32. — Extraordinary Vocation, established in the Confession and two national Synods, is abandoned.

They could not shift off" the thirty-first Article in a more gross manner. For, it is manifest the question there re-

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 299 garded in no manner of way either the extraordinary labour towards a reformation, or the rare talents wherewith the Reformers were endowed ; but merely the vocation for governing the Church, into which it was not lawful " for any one to intrude himself of his own proper authority." Now it was in this regard that they had recourse to an extraordinary vocation ; consequently, it was in regard of the pastoral functions.

The Synod explains itself no less clearly : for without the least thought of distinguishing between the power of reforming and that of teaching, which in reality are so linked together, that the same power which authorizes to teach, authorizes likewise to reform abuses, — the question was, whether the power, as well of reforming as of teaching, ought to be founded on vocation derived from the Church of Rome, or on an extraordinary commission issuing immediately from God ; and the Synod concludes for the latter.

But no longer were there any means left of maintaining it, the}"- not having any one mark thei'eof: nay, two Synods could find no other warrant to authorize these extraordinary commissioned pastors, except what they said for themselves, that they had an " interior impulse to their ministry." The chiefs of the Anabaptists and Unitarians say the same, nor is there a more sure method of introducing into the pastoral charge all manner of fanatics.

33. — How important is the present state of the controversy about the Church.

Here was a fine field opened to Catholics. Nor have they been failing so to press the arguments regarding the Church and ministry, that intestine divisions began to disorder the camp of the enemy ; and the minister Claude, after subtilizing to a higher pitch than anyone had ever done before him, was not able to content tiie minister Jurieu. What they both have said on this subject, the steps they have taken towards the truth, the absurdities they fell into for not having sufficiently pursued their principle, have placed the question concerning the Church in such a state as not to be dissembled without omitting one of the most material occurrences of this history.

34. — They no longer contest with us the Church's Visibility.

These two ministers suppose the Church visible, and always visible, nor is it iu tliis point they are divided. In order to put it beyond all doubt that Mr. Claude persisted in this sentiment to the very last, I will produce the last work of his on this subject. He there declares *, that the question between Catholics and Protestants is not whether the Church be visible ; that it is not denied in his religion that the true Church of Jesus Christ, the Church which his promises relate to, is so ; he very clearly decides that the text of St. Paul, in which the Church is represented as without spot or wrinkle, *' regai'ds not only the Church in heaven, but also the visible Church that is on earth : insomuch, that the visible Church is the body of Christ Jesus, or, what comes to the same thing, the body of Chi'ist Jesus, which alone is the true Church, is visible : that this is the sentiment of Calvin and Mestresat, and that the Church of God is not to be sought out of the visible state of the ministry and world."

35, — The promises of Jesus Christ in behalf of the Visibility are allowed.

This is most clearly owning that she cannot subsist without her visibility and the perpetuity of her ministry: accordingly this author has acknowledged it in many places, and particularly in expounding these words : the " gates of hell shall not prevail against her ;" where he speaks thus f : " if in these words be understood a perpetual subsistence of the ministry in a state sufficient for the salvation of God's elect, in spite of all the efforts of hell, and in spite of all the disorders and confusions of the ministers themselves ; it is no more than what I own has been promised by Jesus Christ, and therein it is that we have a sensible and palpable token of his promise."

The perpetuity, therefore, of the ministry is not a thing which happens accidentally to the Church, or is only suitable to her for a time ; it is a thing which is promised her by Jesus Christ himself; and it is equally certain, that the Church will never be without a visible ministry, as it is certain that Jesus Christ is the eternal truth.

36. — Another promise equally confessed.

This Minister proceeds still further J, and expounding this promise of Jesus Christ, *' Go ye, baptize, teach, and lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world," he approves this comment thereon: " with you teaching, with

X Conf. avec. M. CI. p. 36. Rep. au Disc, de M. de Cond. pp. 106, 107.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 301 you baptizing," and concludes it with these words : " I acknowledge that Jesus Christ promises the Church to be with her, and to teach with her, without interruptio?}, to the world's end :" an acknowledgment from whence I shall, in due time, conclude the infallibility of the Church's doctrine, with whom Jesus Christ is always teaching : but I only employ it here to establish by his scriptures and his promises, with the consent of this Minister, the visible perpetuity of the Church-ministry.

37. — The Visibility enters into the definition which the Minister Claude has given of the Church.

Accoi'dingly, also, he proceeds thus to define the Church : " the Church is (says he) the true faithful who make profession of the truth, of Christian piety, of a true sanctity under a ministry which furnishes her with the food necessary for a spiritual life, without subtracting from her any part thereof¹⁶." Where the profession of the truth and the perpetuity of the visible ministi-y are seen manifestly to enter the definition of the Church: whence it clearly follows, that as much as he is assured that she will always exist, so much is he assured that she always will be visible, since visibility appertains to her essence, and comes into her vei'y definition,

38. — In what manner the Society of the faithful is visible^ in this Minister's ojnnion.

If it be asked this minister, how lie understands the Church to be visible, since he will have her be the assembly of the true faithful known to God alone, and that the profession of the truth, which might make her known, is common to her with wicked men and hypocrites, as well as the visible and exterior ministry ; he answers t? that it is sufficient to I'ender the assembly of the faithful visible, that we may point at the place where she abides, to wit, the body wherein she is nourished, and the visible ministry under which she is necessarily contained : by which means we may even say, " there she is," as, viewing the field in which grow good corn and tares, we say, " there is the good corn ;" and as, beholding the nets wherein are good and bad fish, " there are the good fish."¹⁷¹⁸

39. — Before the Reformation, the Elect of God saved in the Commu7iion, and under the Ministry of Rome.

But what was that public and visible ministry under which were contained, before the Reformation, the true faithful whom he will have alone to be the true Church ? this was the grand question. No ministry was to be found throughout the whole universe that had perpetually continued, except that of the Church of Rome, or of others, whose doctrine was equally disadvantageous to Protestants. Wherefore he was obliged at last to own, that " this body in which the true faithful were nourished, and this ministry whereby they I'eceived sufficient food without subtraction of any part, was the body of the Church of Rome, and the ministry of her prelates¹⁹."

40. — This Minister has not recourse to the Albigenses, 8^c.

This Minister is here to be praised for his penetration, exceeding that of many others, and for not having confined the Church to societies separate from Rome, as were the Vaudois and Albigenses, the Wickliffites and the Hussites : for though he considers them as the most " illustrious part of the Church, because they were the most pure, the most knowing, and the most generous -|- ;" he well saw it was ridiculous there to place the whole defence of his cause ; and in his last work, without minding these obscure sects, whose insufficiency is now made visible, he no where places the true Church and true faithful but in the Latin ministry.

41. — Inevitable perplexity and contradiction.

But here lies the dilemma, which it is imjjossible to evade ; for the Catholics return to their old query : if the true Church be always visible ; if the marks to know her by, according to all your catechisms and all your confessions of faith, be the pure preaching of the Gospel, and the right administration of the Sacraments, either the Church of Rome had these two marks, and you came in vain to reform her, or she had them not ; and you can no longer say, according to your principles, that she is the body in which is contained the true Church. For, in contradiction to this, Calvin has said ;|:, " that the doctrine essential to Christianity was there buried, f Def. dela Rep. p. iii. ch, v. p. 289. Rep. au Disc, de M.de Cond. j

± Inst.l.iv.c,ii, n.2. S, n.26.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 303 and she was nothing but a school of idolatry and impiety." His sentiments passed into the Confession of Faith, wherein we have seen²⁰, " that the pure truth of God was banished from this Church ; that the sacraments were there corrupted, falsified, and adulterated ; that all supei'stition and idolatry were there in vogue." Whence lie concluded, " that the Church was fallen into desolation and ruin, the state of the ministry interrupted, and her succession so annihilated, that there was no means of reviving it but by an extraordinary mission." And, in reality, if imputed justice was the foundation of Christianity ; if the merit of works, and so many other received doctrines, were mortally ruinous to piety ; if botli kinds were essential to the Eucharist, where was the truth and sacraments ? Calvin and the confession were in the right to say, according to these principles, that no Church at all was left amongst us.

42. — The aiiswers whereby they fall mlo a greater perplexity -y. On the other side, neither can it be said that the Church has ceased, nor ceased to be visible : the promises of Jesus Cln-ist are too perspicuous, and reconciled they must be, some way or other, with the doctrine of the Reformation. Hence commenced the distinction of additions and subtractions : if by subti*action you take away some fundamental truths, no longer stands the ministry: if you lay evil dogmata on these foundations ; nay, though they should destroy this foundation by consequence, the ministry subsists, impure indeed, yet sufficient: and by the discernment which the faithful make of the foundation, which is Jesus Christ, from that which is superadded, they shall find all necessary nourishment in the ministry. Here then ends that purity of doctrine, and of sacraments rightly administered, which had been set as marks of the true Church. Without having so much as preaching which you can approve of, or worship which you can join in, or an entire Eucharist, still you have all necessary food without subtraction of any part thereof, still you have the purity of the word, and the sacraments well administered : what is it to contradict one's self, if this be not ?

43. — According to the Mmister's principles all is entire in the Church of Rome that can be required for eternal

Salvation.

IBut here occurs another difficulty. If together with all these points of doctrine, all these practices, and all this worship of the Church of Rome, with the adoration and oblation of our Saviour's body, with the subtraction of one kind, and all the other dogmata, you have still " all necessary food without subtraction of any part," because one God is by her confessed, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and one only Jesus Christ as God and Saviour ; it is, therefore, to be had there still : still you have in her the marks of a true Church, namely, purity of doctrine, and the right administration of the sacraments to a sufficient degree : still then the true Church is there, and still therein may you save your soul.

44. — No difference between us and our fathers.

To this Mr. Claude would not agree ; the consequences of so considerable a concession made him tremble for the Reformation. But Mr. Jurieu did not mince the matter, sensible as he was that the differences which Mr. Claude alleged between us and our fathers were too frivolous to boggle at. And, indeed, no more than these two were mentioned : the first is, that at present there is a body whose communion we may embrace, viz. the body of the pretended Reformed : the second is, that the Church of Rome has made many dogmata articles of faith, which, in our fathers' time, were undecided²¹. But nothing can be more frivolous ; and to convince the Minister Claude, he needs only to remember what the Minister Claude has but just told us : viz. that the Berengarians, the Vaudois, the Albigenses, the Wickliffites, the Hussites, &c. had already appeared in the world as " the most illustrious part of the Church, because they were themost pure, the most knowing, the most generous f." Again,, he has but to remember that, even in his judgment, the Church of Rome " had already given cause sufficient of withdrawing from her communion by her anathematisms against Berengarius, against the Vaudois and Albigenses, against John Wickliff and John Huss, and by the persecutions she had exercised against them ;{:." Yet he owns, nevertheless^ in all these places, that, in order to salvation, it was not aeces-

XV.] THE VARI\TIONS, ETC. 305- sary to join wltli these sects, and that Rome did still contain the elect of God.

To say th:it the Lutherans and Calvinists outshone them in brightness and lustre, were only disputing about more or less, the substance of the thing still continuing the same. The decisions, passed against these sects, comprehended the principal part of vrhat afterwards was defined against Luther and Calvin ; and without speaking of decisions, the constant and universal practice of ottering the sacrifice of the Mass, and making the most essential part of the divine worship to consist in this oblation, was no new thing, nor was it possible to remain in the Church without consenting to this worship. We had, therefore, with this worship, and with all its dependencies, all necessary food, without subtraction of any part thereof : therefore we may still have it ; Mr. Claude could not have denied this without too gross an imposition, nor was the concession of it, lately made by Mr. Jurieu, otherwise than forced.

Add to this that Mr. Claude, who would make us believe so great a difference betwixt the times preceding and those subsequent to the Reformation, under pretext that doctrines before undecided, are since made articles of faith, has himself destroyed this answer, by saying²², " that it was not a more difficult thing to the people to abstain from believing and practising what had been made a dogma, than to abstain from believing and practising what was taught by the ministry, what was commanded by it, and what was become common ;" so that this mighty matter of making new Dogmata, which he sets up for such a scarecrow to his party, after all, is just nothing even in his own judgment.

45. — Falsehood asserted by the Minister Claude, that one might be in the Romish Communion icithout communicating in her Dogmata a?id Practice.

To those inconsistencies of Mr. Claude's doctrine, I add also a palpable falsehood which he was bound to maintain by this system, inz. that the true faithful, whom he owns in the Church of Rome before the Reformation, '²³ therein subsisted without communicating in her doctrines, or her corrupted practices! ;" that is to say, without coming to Mass, without confessing themselves, without communicating all their lives, or at death ; in a word, without ever performing any one action of a Roman Catholic.²⁴

He has been made to see, a hundred times, what a new prodigy this would be ; for v/ithout speaking of the great care that was taken through the entire Church to make inquiries after the Vaudois and Albigenses, the Wickliffites and Hussites, it is certain, in the first place, that even those, whose doctrine was unsuspected, were obliged, on a hundred occasions, to shew tokens of their belief, and particularly when the holy Viaticum was given them. We need but look into all the rituals antecedent to Luther's times, to be convinced of the care then taken to make those to whom they administered it, first confess their sins, and in giving it to them, to make them own therein the truth of the body of our Lord, and adore it with a profound respect. A second incontestable fact results from thence : which is, that the concealed Vaudois and others, who wished to shelter themselves from the censures of the Church, had no other means of compassing it, than by practising the same worship with the Catholics, even by receiving communion with them * : this has been most clearly shewn by all kinds of proofs that can be had in such a matter. But there is a third and still more certain fact, inasmuch as it is acknowledged even by the ministers, viz. that of all those who embraced either Lutheranism or Calvinism, not so much as one has been found to say, that in embracing such doctrines he did not change his belief, but only declared what he always had believed in his heart.

46. — A certain fact, that before the Reformation^ the Doctrine she taught was unknown. — RejUction on a book of Mr. Claude, after the conference of this Mi?iister.

To this fact distinctly stated, Mr. Claude is satisfied with answering insultingly, " Does M. de Meaux imagine that the disciples of Luther and Zuinglius ought to have made formal declarations of all they had thought before the Reformation, or that these declarations ought to appear publicly in print t?"

This is shuflEling in too weak and palpable a manner, for I did not pretend that all ought to be declared, or all printed; but that they never would have omitted to write that which decided one of the most material points of the whole cause, namely, the question, whether or no, before Luther and Zuinglius, there was any one person of their faith, or whe-

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 307 ther their faith then was absolutely unknown. This question was decisive, since none being able to conceive that the truth had been wholly extinguished, it followed manifestly that what doctrine soever was undiscoverable then on earth, could not be the truth. Examples would have cleared all kind of doubt on this matter, and if any had been, it is evident they would have made them public, but they produced none ; it is therefore because there were none, and the fact must stand as incontestable.

47. ^-Whether Luther's quick success be a proof, that before his disputes men thought as he did.

All that could be answered to this was, that had men been satisfied with the doctrines and worship of Rome, the Reformation would not have met with so speedy a success²⁵. But, not to repeat here what may be found elsewhere, with regard to this success, and even throughout this whole history, it is sufficient to reflect on that saying of St. Paul, " That the word of heretics will spread like to a gangrene f :" now the gangrene does not suppose a gangrene in the body it corrupts, nor by consequence do Heresiarchs find their error already settled in those minds which it depraves. It is true matters were disposed];, as Mr. Claude says, by ignorance and other above-mentioned causes, for the most part little to the credit of the Reformation : but to conclude from thence with this minister, that the disciples, whom novelty gained to Luther, were already of his sentiments, is, instead of a positive fact whei'eof proof is demanded, substituting a consequence that is not only doubtful, but even evidently false.

48. — Absurdity of Mr. Claude's supposition, with respect to those who, in his judgment, lived in the Communion of Rome.

Again, though it were granted Mr. Claude, that before the Reformation all men were asleep in the Church of Rome, even so far as to let every man act as he pleased ; those that were neither present at Mass nor Communion, that never confessed their sins, never partook of the sacraments, either living or dying, lived and died quite undisturbed : none ever dreamed of requiring from such people a confession of their faith, and reparation of the scandal they had given to their brethren : after all, what does he gain by advancing such

• Rep. au disc, de M. de Coiul. p. 303. Rep. Ti la Let. Past, de M. de Meaux. t 2 Tim. ii. 17. X Ibid.

x2 prodigies ? His drift tliereiii was to prove men might have saved their souls whilst remaining with sincerity in communion with tlie Church of Rome. In proof of this, the first thing he does, is to take from those he saves all the exterior bands of communion. The most essential part of the service was the Mass : they were to take no part in it. The most manifest token of communion, was communicating at Easter: they were to abstain from it ; otherwise they must have adored Jesus Christ as present, and partook but of one kind. All pulpits I'esounded with this worship, with this communion, and, in fine, with these doctrines deemed so corrupt. Great heed was to be taken not to give the least sign of approving them ; by this means, says Mr. Claude, salvation might be had in communion with the Church. He ought rather to have concluded, that by this means salvation would be had out of communion with the Church, since by this means such would have violated all the ties of communion ; for, in short, let them define to me what it is to be in communion Avith a Church. Is it to dwell in the country where this Church is owned, as Protestants did amongst us, and Catholics do now in England and Holland ? Surely it cannot be that ; but perhaps it is to appear in the churches, to hear the sermons, and be present at the assemblies without any token of approbation, and much in the same disposition with a curious traveller, without saying "amen" to their prayers, and especially without ever communicating ! This is bantering, you M'ill reply. Why, then, to communicate with a church, is at least to frequent her meetings with the marks of consent and approbation given thereto by others. To give these marks to a Church whose profession of faith is criminal, is giving consent to a crime ; and refusing them, is no longer being in that exterior communion, wherein, nevertheless, you would have them be.

But if you say, the marks of approbation to be given must only fall on the truths which this Church joreaches, and on the good she practises, by the same way of reasoning, one might be in communion with the Socinians, with the Deists could they make one society, with the Mahometans, with' the Jews, by receiving the several truths professed in each party, silent as to all the rest, and living withal in every respect a complete Socinian, a complete Deist: what extravagance can compare with this ?

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 309

49. — This Minuter varies in what he had said of the Church's

Visibility.

This is tlio state wherein Mr. Claude has left the controversy regardinf^ the Church ; a Avealc state, as is plain, and manifestly indefensible. And, indeed, he does not trust to it, nor will he deprive his party of the subterfuge, though never so pitiful, of an invisible Church, since he supposes God may make his Church entirely vanish out of the sight of men²⁶: and when he says he may, he does not mean that he can do this absolutely speaking, and it implies no contradiction, for that is not the question; nor are metaphysical abstractions here so much as thought of; but he may do it in the hypothesis, and allowing the present plan of Christianity. It is in this sense that Mr. Claude decides, " That God may, when he pleases, reduce the faithful to an entire external dispersion, and preserve them in this miserable state, and that there is great difference between saying, the Church ceases to be visible, and saying, the Church ceases to be." After a hundred times repeating, that he disputes not with us the Church's visibility f ; after making the visibility of her ministry enter into her very definition ; after grounding her perl^etuity on these promises of Jesus Christ, " Lo, I am with you alwaj^s, and the gates of hell shall not prevail," — to say what we have just heard, is to forget his own doctrine, and make void the promises Avhich are more durable than heaven and earth. But his case \vas this : after his utmost straining to reconcile them with his Reformation, and to maintain the Scripture doctrine of the visibility, he found it still requisite to leave himself a last refuge in the invisible Church, to fly to in case of need.

50. — The Minister Jurieu comes in to the assistance of the Minister Claude, uho had involved himself in an inextricable labyrinth.

In this posture was the question, wlien Mr. Jurieu published his new system of the Church J. No means were there of defending tlie difference which his brother would have placed between us and our forefathers, nor of saving one in damning the others. No less ridiculous was it, in owning that some elect are born to God, in the communion of the Church of Rome, to say, that these elect of her communion were such as took no part in her doctrine, nor in her worship, nor in her sacraments. Mr. Jurieu was very sensible that these pretended elect could be nothing but hypocrites or impious men ; and at length, though with much ado, he opened Heaven's gate to those who lived in the communion of the Church of Rome. But lest she might glory in this advantage, he communicated it, at the same time, to all other Churches wheresoever Christianity is spread, how much soever divided amongst themselves, though never so unmercifully excommunicating one another.

51. — He establishes Salvation in all Communions.

He carried this notion to such a height, that he did not hesitate to call the contrary opinion inhuman, cruel, barbarous²⁷, in a word, an executioner's opinion, that is pleased with damning mankind, and the most tyrannical that ever was. He will not allow a truly charitable Christian can have any other sentiment than that which places the elect in all communions where Jesus Christ is known ; and informs us that, *' if amongst his own people this doctrine has not been hitherto much insisted on, it was from the effect of a policy which he does not approve." Nay, he has found means to render his system so far plausible in his party, that they no longer oppose anything else to our instructions, and believe they have therein so strong a hold as not to be forced from it ; so that the last resource of the Protestant party is to give to Jesus Christ a kingdom like unto that of Satan ; a kingdom " divided against itself f, ready," by consequence, " to be brought to desolation, and whose houses are falling one upon the other."

52. — The history of this opiiiion, beginning from the Socinians. — Division in the Reformation between Mr. Claude and Mr. Pajon.

If now one should desire to know the history and progress of this opinion, the glory of the invention belongs to the Socinians. These men, indeed, agree not with the rest of Christians in fundamental articles, for they admit but two ; the unity of God and the mission of Jesus Christ. But, they say, all those who profess them with manners suitable to this profession, are true members of the Church universal, and that the dogmata superadded to this foundation hinder not

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. SH salvation ; nor is the world ignorant of the notions and indifferency oi De-Dominis on this head. After the Synod of Cha- I'enton, where the Calvinists received the Lutherans to communion, notwithstanding the separation of both societies, there resulted a necessity of acknowledging one and the same Church in different communions. The Lutherans were far from this sentiment ; but Calixtus *, one of the most renowned and learned of them, has, in our days, brought it into vogue in Germany, and admits into the communion of the universal Church all sects preserving the foundation, without even excepting the Church of Rome. It is nearly thirty years since Huisseau, minister of Saumur, pushed on the consequence of this doctrine to a great extent. This minister, already famous in his party for his publication of Ecclesiastical Discipline compared with the decrees of national Synods, made himself much spoken of by the plan of reuniting all Christians of all sects, which he proposed in 1670; and Mr. Jurieu acquaints us t, that he had many sticklers, notwithstanding the solemn condemnation which was passed on his books and person. A little while since, Mr. Fajon, the famous minister of Orleans, in his answer to the Pastoral Letter of the French clergy, did not think himself able to maintain the Church system defended by Mr. Claude. The catholicity or universality of the Church appeared to him much more extensive than his brother had made it ; and Mr. Jurieu gives notice to Mr. Nicole |, " that answering Mr. Claude's book will be doing nothing, unless he also answer that of Mr. Pajon, by reason that these two gentlemen having taken dilierent paths, one and the same answer cannot satisfy both."

53. — Sentiments of the Minister Jurieu.

In this division of the Reformation, driven to the utmost straits on the question regarding the Church, Mr. Jurieu § sided with Mr. Pajon ; and not affrighted with the separation of Churches, decides, " that all Christian societies which agree in some tenets, inasmuch as they agree, are united to the body of the Christian Church, though they be in schism one against another, even to daggers drawing."

Notwithstanding these so general expressions, he varies in regard of the Socinians ; for at first in his " allowable Prepossessions," where he spoke naturally what he thought, he²⁸²⁹³⁰ begins, by enrolling tliem *' amongst the members of the Christian Church *." He seems a little puzzled at the question, whether or no one may save his soul amongst them : for on one hand, he seems to allow none capable of salvation but those who live in sects wherein the divinity of Jesus Christ, with the other fundamental articles, are acknowledged ; and on the other f, after compounding " the body of the Church of all that great lieap of sects which make profession of Christianity in all provinces of the world put together," wherein the Socinians are visibly comprehended, he concludes in express terms, " that the saints and elect are spread in all parts of this vast body."

The Socinians gained their cause, and Mr. Jurieu was blamed, even in his own party, for having been too favourable to them ; which is the reason that he restrains in some measure his ideas in hiss3'stems: for whereas, in his " Prepossessions," he placed naturally in the body of the universal Church all sects whatsoever without exception : in the system, he commonly adds to it this corrective, " at least those who preserve the fundamental articles J ;" which he explains in behalf of the Trinity, and other points of like consequence. Thei'eby he seemed to limit his general propositions : but at last, led on by the force of his principle, he broke through all restraints laid on him by the policy of the party, and loudly owned that the true faithful may be found in the communion of a Socinian Church.

This is the history of that opinion which makes up the Catholic Church out of separate communions. In all probability, its authority among Protestants would be great, did not policy obstruct it. The disciples of Calixtus multiply in the Lutheran party. As for the Calvinists, it is plain the new system of the Church prevails among them ; and as Mr. Jurieu signalizes himself in that party, by defending it, and none has better laid down the principles, nor better foreseen the consequences of it, its irregularity cannot be shewn better, than by relating the disorder into which that minister has cast himself by this doctrine, and the advantage he at the same time affords the Catholics.

54. — Salvation may he had in the Church of Rome, according to this Minister.

To dive to the bottom of his notion, his distinction of the Church considered as to its body, and of the Church con-

XV.] THE VAUTATIONS, ETC. 313 sidered as to its soul, must be presupposed³¹. The profession of Christianity is sufficient to make part of the body of the Church, which he advances against Mr. Chiude, who compounds the body of the Church, of the true faithful only ; but to have part in the soul of the Church, it is necessary to be in the grace of God.

This distinction supposed, the question is, what sects are simply in the body of the Ciiurch ; and what are those in which one may attain to partake of her soul, namely, of charity and the grace of God ? which he explains sufficiently by an abridgment he makes of Church history. This he begins, by saying | " that she was corrupted after the third century :" this date must be observed. He passes over the fourth century without either approving or blaming it : " but, (continues he J,) in the fifth, the sixth, the seventh, and the eighth, the Church adopted divinities of a second rate, adored relics, made herself images, and prostrated herself before them even in the Churches ; and then grown sickly, deformed, ulcerous, she was alive nevertheless :" so that her soul was in her still, and what is worthy of observation, it was in her in the midst of idolatry.

He goes on saying §, " that the universal Church divides itself into two great parties, the Greek Churcli, and the Latin Church. The Greek Church, before this great schism, was already subdivided into Nestorians, Eutycheans, Melchites, and divers other sects : the Latin Church into Papists, Vaudois, Hussites, Taborites, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists ; and he pronounces, that it is an error to imagine all these different parties had absolutely broken off from Jesus Christ, by breaking one from the other."

55. — The Church of Rome comprehended amongst the living Societies, wherein the fundamentals of Salvation are retained.

Who breaks not with Jesus Christ, breaks not from salvation and life ; accordingly, he counts these societies among the living societies. The societies that are dead, according to this minister, are " those which ruin the foundation ; to wit, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the satisfaction of Jesus Christ, and other the like articles ; but this is not the case of the Greeks, the Armenians, the Cophts, the Abyssins, the Russians, the Papists, and Protestants; all these societies

• Prej.leg. ch.i, Syst. 1. i. ch. i. f Ibid. p. 5. J Ibid. § Ibid. p. 6.

(says he) have composed the Chui'ch, and therein does God preserve his fundamental truths³²."

It signifies nothing, to object that they subvert these truths by consequences drawn in good form from their principles ; because, as they disown these consequences, they ought not, says this minister f, to be imputed to them ; for which reason, he acknowledges God's elect even amongst the Eutychians, who confounded the two natures of Jesus Christ, and amongst the Nestorians, who divided his person. *^ There is no room to doubt (says he X) but God preserves a remnant in them according to the election of grace ;" and lest it should be imagined there is more difficulty with respect to the Church of Rome than for others, by reason that she is, according to him, the kingdom of Antichrist, he clears this doubt in express terms, asserting ^' that God's elect were preserved even in the kingdom of Antichrist, and in Babylon itself §."

56. — The Antichristianism of the Church of Rome no hindrance to Men's saving their souls in it.

The minister proves it by these words: — '^ Come out of Babylon, my people |1." Whence he concludes that the people of God, that is, his elect, must necessarily have been in it ; but, continues he, '^ they were not in it, as his elect are in some manner amongst the heathens, from whom they are withdrawn ; for God does not call those his people who are in a state of damnation ; consequently, the elect who are found in Babylon are absolutely out of this state, and in a state of grace. It is (says he) clearer than day, that God, in these words, ' come out of Babylon, my people,' alludes to the Jews of the Babylonian captivity," who certainly, " in this state, did not cease to be Jews and the people of God."

After this manner the spiritual Jews and the true Israel of God ^, that is, his true children, are to be found in the communion of Rome, and will be found there to the end, it being evident that this sentence, "■ come out of Babylon, my people³³," is pronounced even in the fall and desolation of that mystical Babylon, which he will have to be the Church of Rome.

57. — Men may be saved amongst us whilst retaini?ig our Faith and Worship.

In order to explain how men are saved in her, the minister

II Syst.p. 145. \ Gal. vi. 16. ** Rev. xviii. 4.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 315 distinguishes two ways : the first, which he has taken from Mr. Claude, is the way of separation and discernment, when one is in the communion of a Church without partaking of her erroi's, and of whatever may be evil in her practices : the second, added by him to that of Mr. Claude, is the way of toleration on God's side, when, in consideration of fundamental truths retained in a communion, God pai'dons errors superadded to them.

That he comprehends us in this last way, he clearly gives to undei'stand in his system, where he declares the conditions upon which one may hope from God some toleration " in the sects which sap the foundation by their additions, yet without taking it away*."" By what has been now said, it is plain he means us and those like to us ; and the condition under which he allows men may be saved in such a kind of sect is, " that they communicate with it in sincerity, believing that it has preserved the essence of the sacraments, and obliges to nothing against conscience," which shews (so far from obliging those who abide in these sects to reject their doctrine in order to be saved) that they who remain therein with the greatest sincerity, and are the most persuaded as well of the doctrine as of the practices in use amongst them, may be the soonest saved.

58. — One may be saved who is sincere in his conversion from Calvinism to the Church of Rome.

It is true he seems to add two other conditions also ; one, of having been engaged in these sects from one's birth ; and the other, of not having it in one's power to communicate with a more pure society, either because one knows none such, or " is not in a condition of breaking" with the society he happens to be inf. But afterwai'ds he passes beyond these bounds : for after having proposed the question, whether it be lawful " to be one while a Greek, another while a Latin; now a reformed, then a Papist; sometimes a Calvinist, somes a Lutheran," he answers t, " no, when you make profession of believing what you do not believe in fact. But if you pass from one sect to another by way of seduction, and because you cease to be persuaded of certain opinions which you had formerly looked upon as true," he declares that " one may proceed to different communions without liazard of salvation, as well as remain in them : because those who pass

} Ibid. pp. 174, 176, 195.

into sects, which neither ruin nor subvert the foundations, are not in a different state from those who are born in them ;" so that one may not only remain a Latin and Papist when born in this communion, but also come into it from Calvinism, without forsaking the way of salvation ; nor are they who save their souls amongst us, such only, as said Mr. Claude, who abide amongst us without approving our doctrine, but such even as are sincere in the profession of it.

59. — This Doctrine of the Minister destroys all he says againat us and our Idolatries.

Our brethren, the pretended Reformed, may thence be convinced, that all they are told of our idolatries is wretchedly extravagant. Never was it believed that an idolater might be saved under pretence of his sincerity : so gross an error, so manifest an impiety, is incompatible with an upright conscience. Wherefore the idolatry imputed to us is of a particular species ; it is an idolatry invented to excite against us the hatred of the weak and ignorant. But it is high time they should undeceive themselves ; for, to be converted is no such great misfortune, since he who cries out the loudest against our idolatries, and loads with most reproaches the converters and converted, is agreed that all of them may be true Christians.

60. — The Ethiopians saved adding Circumcision to the Sacraments of the Church.

Neither is the presumption imputed to us of having, on one side, augmented the number of the Sacraments, and on the other, mutilated the Supper by cutting off, as they say, a part from it, any longer to be exaggerated by them : for this minister declares it would be " a cruelty to turn out of the Church *" such as admit other sacraments than those two, which he pretends are only instituted by Jesus Christ, namely, Baptism and the Supper ; and so far from excluding us thence for having added to them Confirmation, Extreme Unction, and the rest, he does not even exclude from it the EthiojDic Christians, who, says he, " receive circumcision, not by a politic custom, but in quality of a sacrament, although St. Paul has declared, ' If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing f.' "

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 317

1. — Communion under o?w kind contains, according to the Ministers, the whole substance of the Eucharistic Sacrament.

As for what concerns communion under one kind, nothing is more common in the writings of the ministers, even of this author himself, than to say, that by so giving the Eucharistic sacrament we corrupt the foundation and essence thereof; which, in matter of sacraments, is saying " the same thing as if we no longer had them³⁴." But such propositions are not to be taken literally as they stand ; since Mr. Claude has already told us that, before the Reformation, " our Fathers receiving but in one kind, had nevertheless all necessary food without subtraction of any part thereof f ;" and Mr. Jurieu says still more clearly the same thing, forasmuch as, after having defined the Church " the aggregate pf all the communions which preach the same Jesus Christ, which declare the same salvation, which give the same sacraments in substance, and which teach the same doctrine I," he counts us expressly in this collection of communions, and in the Church ; which necessarily supposes that we give the substance of the Eucharist, and by consequence, that both kinds are not essential to it. Let our brethren, therefore, no longer defer coming over to us in sincerity and truth, since their ministers have removed for them the greatest obstacle, if not the only one, which they allege against it.

62. — The excesses of the Confession of Faith softened in our faiwur.

The truth is, there appears a manifest opposition betvvixt this system and the Confessions of Faith of the Protestant Churches ; for the confessions of faith, all of them, unanimously give two only marks of a true Church, " The pure preaching of God's word, and the administration of the Sacraments conformably to the institution of Jesus Christ § ;" for which reason, the confession of faith of our pretended Reformed has concluded ||, " That in the Roman Church, whence the pure truth of God was banished, and where the sacraments were corrupted, or wholly annihilated, properly speaking, there was no Church at all." But our minister assures us ^, these expressions are not to be understood in their strict sense ; as much as to say, there is a great deal of exaggeration and excess in what the Reformation lays to our charge.

!i Prej.legit.p.24. ; || Art. xxviLi. S. ii,2G. 1[ Ibid.

5l8 THE HISTORY OF [bOOK

63. — The two marks of a true Church given by Protestants are sufficiently to be seen amongst us.

However, it is something curious to behold how the minister will acquit himself as to these two marks of the true Church so solemn in the whole Protestant party. It is true, says he *, " We lay them down : we, that is to say, we Protestants : but for my part, I would give the thing (proceeds he) another turn, and would say, that to know the body of the Christian and univeral Church in general, there is but one mark requisite, viz. the confession of the name of Jesus Christ, the true Messias and Redeemer of mankind."

This is not all : for after having found the marks of the body of the universal Church, " It is necessary to find those of the soul, to the end you may know in what part of this Church God preserves his elect." Here it is, answers the minister f, " that we must return to our two marks, pure preaching, and pure administration of the sacraments." But beware you be not deceived ; " this is not to be taken in a strict sense J." To save the essence of a Church, the preaching is sufficiently pure when the fundamental truths are preserved, what error soever be superadded ; the sacraments are sufficiently pure, notwithstanding the additions : let us add, following the aforesaid principle, notwithstanding the subtractions which spoil them : forasmuch as, in the midst of all this, the foundation subsists, and "God applies to his elect what good there is, hindering whatsoever of human institution from turning to their prejudice and destruction." We conclude, therefore, with this minister, that nothing of what has been said on this subject in the Confession of Faith must be taken in a strict sense ; and moreover, that the Church of Rome, (Lutherans and Calvinists, calm your hatred!) the Church of Rome, I say, so much hated and so much condemned, in spite of all your confessions of faith and all your reproaches, may glory in having, in a very true sense, as far as is necessary to form the children of God, "the pure preaching of the Word, and the right administration of the Sacraments."

64. — The Confession of Faith hath ?io longer any authority amongst the Ministers.

If it be said, these favourable interpretations of the Confessions of Faith are quite opposite to, and destroy the text; that for instance, what is there said of the Church of Rome, that

XV. J - THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 319 truth is " banislied from her, the sacraments either falsified or wholly annihilated, and, properly speaking, that we liave no such thing as a Church amongst us³⁵ ;" are far different things from what we have just heard from our ministers. I own as much ; but the reason in short is, they have found by experience that there is no longer any possibility of maintaining their confessions of faith, to wit, the foundations of the Reformation. Nor indeed is it less truth that, in the main, little are the ministers concerned about them ; and it is only from a point of honour that they give themselves any pains to answer in their behalf; which was the cause of the minister Jurieu's inventing the aforesaid answers, more polite and better suited to his turn, than sincere and solid.

65. — This system changes the language of Christians, and confounds their ideas, even of those of the Reformation.

Now, to maintain this new system, a courage is requisite capable of withstanding any difficulty, and not to be startled at any novelty. Although men be animated against one another even to " daggers drawing," it must be said, they are but one body in Jesus Christ f. If any one rebel against the Church, and scandalize her, either by his crimes or his errors, one would think, by excommunicating him, he is cutoff from the body of the Church in general, and thus have Protestants spoken as well as we : it is a mistake ; this scandalous and this heretical person is cut off but from one particular flock, and do what you will, remains a member of the Catholic Church by the sole profession of the Christian name : notwithstanding that Jesus Christ has pronounced, " If any one neglect to hear the Church, look upon him ;{]," not as a man that is cut off from a particular flock, and who remains in the great one of the Church in general, but look upon him as " an heathen and a publican," as an alien from Christianity, as a man that has no longer any part with God's people.

66. — Manifest contrariety between the notions of the Minister in regard of Excommunication, and those of his own Church,

Further, wliat Mr. Jurieu here advances is a particular opinion wherein he evidently contradicts his own Church, A national Synod has defined excommunication in these terms : " to excommunicate (say they) is to cut a man oSf" from the body of the Church like a rotten member, and to deprive him of³⁶³⁷ her communion and all her benefits*." And in the proper form of excommunication, the people are thus addressed : " We remove this rotten member from the society of the faithful, that he may be to you as an heathen and a publican." Mr. Jurieu+ spares no pains to embroil this matter with his distinctions of sentence declaratory and sentence juridical; sentence which cuts off from the body of the Church, and sentence which cuts off onl})" from a particular confederation. He invents these distinctions only that the reader may lose himself in the maze of these subtleties, and not perceive he is fed with empty sound. For, after all, he never will be able to shew, in the pretended Reformed Churches, any other excommunication, separation, lopping off, than the abovementioned ; nor can one depart more expressly from it, than does Mr. Jurieu. He pronounces, and repeats in a hundred places and a hundred different ways, that " it is impossible to banish a man from the universal Church J;" and his Church says on the contrary, that the excommunicated person must be looked upon as a heathen, who no longer appertains to God's people. Mr. Jurieu proceeds § : " All excommunication whatsoever is made by a particular Church, and is nothing else but an expulsion from a particular Church ;" and we see, according to the rules of his religion, that a particular Church severs a man from the body of the Church as " one does a rotten member," which doubtless no longer cleaves to any part of the body after it is once divided from it.

67. — Confessions of Faith but arbitrary conventions.

Let us, nevertheless, consider again what are these particular Churches and these particular flocks, from which he supposes one is separated by excommunication. The Minister explains himself by this principle 1| : " All whatever different flocks have no other external link than that which is made by way of voluntary and arbitrary confederation, such as was that of the Christian Churches in the third age, on account that they found themselves united under the same temporal prince." So that, ever since the third age, when the Churcli was still found in her purity, the Churches, accoi'ding to the Minister, were no otherwise united than by an arbitrary confederacy, or, as he elsewhere styles it, " by accident ^.'"

« 2 Syn. of Par, 1565. Disci, cli. 5. Art. 17, p. 102. t Syst, 1. ii. ch, iii.

X Syst. p. 24, &c. § Ibid.

II Prej. p. 6. Syst. pp. 246, &c. 254; 262, 269, 305, 557. H Ibid. p. 265.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 321

Wliat ! Those Christians then who were not subject to the Roman Empire, those who were spread from the time of St. Irenteus, and even from the time of St. Justin, amidst the Barbarians and Scythians, were they under no external band with the other Churclies, and had they not a right to communicate with them ? This is not the notion they have formerly given us of Christian fraternity. All that are orthodox have a right to communicate with an orthodox Church ; all that are Catholic, to wit all members of the Church universal, with the whole Church. All those who bear the mark of the children of God have a right to be admitted wherever they find the table of their common Father, provided their manners be approved : but here comes one to disturb this fine order ; you are no longer in society, " but by accident ;" Christian fraternity is changed into arbitrary confederacies, which you may extend at will, more or less, according to the different confessions of faith agreed upon*. These confessions of faith are treaties in which you insert whatever you please. Some have put in them, " that they are to teach the verities of grace as expounded by St. Austin t>" ^nd these, we are told, are the pretended Reformed churches : far from truth; nobody is less, in their doctrine, than St. Austin; yet they are pleased to say so. These men are not allowed to be " Semipclagians, and the Swiss, no less than those of Geneva, would exclude them from their communions |." As for those who have not made the like convention, they shall be Semipclagians, if they please. What is still more, those who have entered into the confederacy of Geneva and that of the pretended Reformed, where one thinks he is obliged to maintain the grace of St. Austin, " may depart from the agreement §;" but then they must be contented to be separated from a confederation whose laws they have violated, and " what one would tolerate everywhere else," can be no longer tolerated in those flocks in which other conventions had been made.

8. — Indepejidentism established contrary to the Decree of Charenton.

But what will become of those men who break the agreement of the Calvinian Reformation, or of some such other like confederacy? Shall they be then obliged to enter into league with some other Church ? No such tiling : " It is

•Syst. p. 254. t Ibid. : IbiJ. p. 2-19. (j Ibid. p. 234.

VOL. II. Y nowise necessaiy, •when you separate yourself from one Church, to find out another to adhere to³⁸.'" I am aware he is forced to say so, because otherwise he could not excuse the Protestant Churches, which, on their separation from the Church of Rome, were not able to find on earth a Church they could embrace. But we must hear the reason which authorizes such a separation. *^ It is (continues Mr. Jurieu |) because all churches are naturally free and independent of one another ;" or, as he explains it in another place, " naturally and originally, all Churches are independent."

Here is exactly our doctrine, will say the Independents ; we are the true Christians that defend this primitive and natural liberty of Churches. Yet Charenton has nevertheless condemned them in 1644. Therefore by anticipation has also condemned Mr. Jurieu, who maintains them J; but let us hear the Decree. *' Whereas it has been represented, that many who call themselves Independents, because they teach that every church ought to govern herself by her own laws without any dependence on any body in Church-matters, and free from any obligation of acknowledging the authority of Conferences and Synods for the conduct and government ;" that is, without any confederation with any other Church whatsoever ; and this is exactly the case of Mr. Jurieu. But the Synod's answer is very different from his; for the Synod pronounces, " that it ought to be dreaded, lest this poison insensibly diffusing itself, should create (say they) disorder and confusion amongst us, should open a gate to all kind of irregularities and extravagances, and make void all means of applying a remedy ; which would be equally prejudicial to Church and State, and give room to form as many religions as there are parishes and particular assemblies." And Mr. Jurieu concludes, on the contrary, that by separating from one Church without adhering to another, you do nothing but retain " the liberty and independence, which naturally and originally belongs to Churches," namely, that liberty which Jesus Christ, at their formation, bestowed upon them.

69. — All authority and subordination of Churches depends on Princes.

Accordingly, there is no way of maintaining, conformably to the principles of this ministei', these Conferences and Synods.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 323

For he supposes, in case a Catholic kingdom should divide itself from Rome, and then subdivide itself into many sovereignties, that each Prince might make a Patriarch, and establish, in his state, a government absolutely independent of that of its neighbouring states " without appeal," without union, without correspondence *; for all that, in his notion, depends on the Prince; and it is for this reason that he makes the first confederation of Churches depend on the unity of the Roman Empire. But, if this be so, his uncle, Lewis du Moulin, gains his cause: for he pretends f, that all this subordination of Conferences and Synods (if you consider it as ecclesiastical and spiritual) is nothing else but Popery in disguise, and the ushering in of Antichrist ; consequently, that there is no power in this distribution of Churches but from the Sovereign's authority; and that excommunications and degradations made by Synods, whether provincial or national, have no authority but from thence. But by a little further extension of this argument, the excommunications of consistories will appear no more effectual than those of Synods : so that, either there will be no ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the Independents are in the right ; or, it will be lodged in the Prince's hand ; and, in fine, Lewis du Moulin must have converted his nephew, who so long opposed his errors.

10.— 'The true Christian Unity.

See what this system comes to, wherein the whole solution of this difficulty about the Church is placed ; it is matter of astonishment to hear these novelties. What an error to imagine there is no external Union between Christian Churches, butdependentlyon Princes, or by some other "arbitrary and voluntary confederation;" and not be sensible that Jesus Christ hath obliged his faithful to live in a Church, to wit, as is owned, in an exterior society, and to communicate with one another, not only in the same faith and the same sentiments, but also, when they meet, in the same sacraments and the same service ; insomuch that, however distant Churches be, yet are they but the same Church distributed into divers places, the diversity of places not hindering the unity of the holy table, at which all communicate one with another, as they do with Jesus Christ their common head.

71. — Rashness of the Alitiister, who owns that his System is contrary to the Faith of all ages.

Let us now consider the origin of this new system which we have just now taken a view of. Its author boasts *, perhaps, as he does in other tenets, of having- on his side the three first ages; and, it is likely, the opinion which concludes the whole Church in one and the same communion (it being pretended so tyrannical) will be born under the empire of Antichrist: no ; it was born in Asia, even in the third age : Firmilian, so great a man, and his colleagues, so great bishops, are the authors of it: it passed over into Africa, where St. Cyprian, so illustrious a mart)^', and the light of the Church, embraced it with the whole council of Africa ; and it was this cruel opinion which made them rebaptize all heretics, no other reason for it being alleged by them, but that heretics were not of the Catholic Church.

It must be owned St. Cyprian made use of this bad argument : Heretics and Schismatics are not of the body of the Catholic Church ; therefoi'e they ought to be rebaptized at their coming to it. But Mr. Jurieu would not have the assurance to say, that the principle of the Church's unity, abused by St. Cyprian, was as new as the consequence he drew from it, since this minister acknowledges f, " that the false idea of the Church's unity was formed on the history of the two first ages down to the midst, or end of the third. We must not wonder (continues he) that the Church accounted all the sects which existed during those times, as entirely separated from the body of the Church, for that was true ;" and he adds, " it was at that time, namely, in the two first ages down to the middle of the third J, that they got a habit of believing that heretics did not in any manner appertain to the Church :" so that the doctrine of St. Cyprian, which he accuses of novelty, nay, of tyranny, was a habit contracted ever since the first two ages of the Church ; that is, from the first beginning of Christianity.

It must no less be owned that this doctrine of St. Cyprian, concerning the unity of the Church, was not invented on the occasion of rebaptizing heretics, by reason that the book, " Concerning the Unity of the Church," wherein the doctrine excluding heretics and schismatics is so clearly laid down, did precede the dispute of rebaptization ; so that St. Cyprian entered naturally into this doctrine consequently to the tradition of the two foregoing ages.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 325

Nor is it less certain that the whole Church had embraced this doctrine equally with him, long before the dispute of rebaptizing. For this dispute began under St. Stephen, Pope. Now, before this, and not only in the time of St. Lucius, his predecessor, but also from the beginning of the pontificate of St. Cornelius, predecessor to St. Lucius, Novatian and his followers³⁹ had been looked upon as separated from the communion of all the Bishops and Churches of the Avorld, although they had not renounced the profession of Christianity, nor overthrown any fundamental article. From that time, therefore, even those that preserved the fundamentals, if under other pretexts they broke unity, were accounted separated from the universal Church.

Thus is it an unquestionable fact, that the doctrine impugned by Mr. Jurieu was received by the whole Church, not only before the quarrel about rebaptization, but even from the first origin of Christianity ; and was made use of by St. Cyprian, not as a new foundation which he gave to his error, but as a common principle agreed to all the world over,

72. — The Minister contradicts himself by asserting the Council of Nice to be of his sentiments.

The Minister had the presumption to say f , that his ideas of the Church are the same with those of the Nicene Council, and concludes, " that this holy council did not reject all heretics from the communion of the Church, because it did not command all of them to be rebaptized, neither requiring this in regard of the Novatians or Cathari, nor of the Donatists, nor of the rest that retained the foundation of faith, but only of the Paulianists, namely the followers of Paul of Samosata, who denied the Trinity and Licarnation." But, waiving other arguments, the Minister needs but hear himself, in order to be convicted. He speaks of the Council of Nice *' as of the most universal ever held J ;" but Avhich, nevertheless, was not altogether so, since "the great assemblies of the Novatians and Donatists were not called to it." I desire no more than this confession to conclude, that consequently they were not accounted, at that lime, as part of the universal Church, since there was not so much as the least thought of calling them to the Council expressly convened to represent her.

And, in fact, let us hear how this Council speaks of the

• * Epist, Cyp. .id Antoniaii., &c. t Syst, p. 61, + Ibitl. p. 234.

326 THE HISTORV OP [bOOK

Novatians or Cathari : those, says the council *, " when they shall come to the Catholic Church." Enough said ; the dispute is ended : in the Church, therefore, they could not be. Nor does it speak in other terms of the Paulianists whose baptism it condemns "t : as for the Paulianists, when they ask to be received into the Catholic Church, see again ; in it, therefore, they were not, according to the notions of these Fathers, and the minister agrees therein. But that he may no longer presume to say, that those whose baptism is received are in the Catholic Church, and not those whose baptism is rejected ; the council puts out of the Church no less those whose baptism it approves, as the Novatians, than those whom it makes be rebaptized, as the Paulianists; consequently, this difference did not at all depend on those being reputed members of the Catholic Church, and not these.

As much must be said of the Donatists, the council of Nice neither admitting of their communion nor their bishops ; on the contrary, receiving to its sessions Cecilian, bishop of Carthage, from whom the Donatists had separated. The council, therefore, looked upon the Donatists as separated from the universal Church.

Let the minister now come and tell us that the Fathers of the Nicene council are of his opinion, or that their doctrine was new, or that when they pronounced against the Avians this sentence — " The holy Catholic and Apostolic Church anathemizes them," — they left them fellow-members of this same Catholic Church, and did but banish them from a voluntary and arbitrary confederation, which they might extend, more or less, according to their fancy : such discourses ought to appear nothing less than prodigies.

73. — The Minister is condemned by the Creeds which he receives.

The Minister counts amongst the symbols received by the whole world, that of the Apostles, that of Nice, and that of Constantinople. We are agreed, indeed, that these three creeds make but one, and that the Apostles' creed is but explained by that of the two first (Ecumenical councils^. We have seen the sentiments of the council of Nice. The council of Constantinople proceeds on the same principles, in that it banishes all sects from its unity : whence it concludes, in its letter to all the bishops, that the body of the Church is not divided ; and it was conformably to this same spirit that

XV.3 THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 327 it said in its creed — '⁴⁰ I believe one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church," — adding this word one, to those, Holy and Catholic, which were in the Symbol of the Apostles, and strengthening it by that of Apostolic, in order to shew that the Church thus defined and perfectly one by the exclusion of all sects, was that which was founded by the Apostles.

74. — The Minister endeavours to weaken the authority of the Apostles' Creed.

The judicious reader expects here to know what this hardy minister will say in regard of the Apostles' Creed, and touching that article, ' I believe the Catholic Church." Until now it had been believed, and even in the Reformation, that this creed, so unanimously received by all Christians, was an abridgment, and as a summary of the docti'ine of the Apostles and the Scripture. But the minister tells us quite the contrary; for, after deciding that the Apostles were not the authors of it, he will not even grant, what none else denied till now, that, at least, it was made wholly according to their spirit. He says, therefore, " that we must look for the sense of the articles of the creed, not in the Scripture, but in the intention of those who composed it." But, proceeds he, " the creed was not made all at once : the article — ' I believe the Catholic Church' — was added in the fourth age." What does this reasoning tend to else, but to prepare liimself a refuge against the creed, and give it only the authority of the fourth age ? Whereas all Christians to this time have held it for a common Confession of Faith, of all ages, and of all Christian Churches, from the days of the Apostles.

75. — A new gloss of the Minister on the Apostles' Creed.

But let us see, nevertheless, in what manner he will define the Catholic Church conformably to the creed. He at once rejects the definition which he imputes to Catholics f ; nor does he approve more of that which he attributes to Protestants. For his part, who no less raises himself above his brethren, the Protestants, than above his adversaries, the Catholics, being to define the Church of all times, he does it thus : *' it is the body of those who make profession of believing Jesus Christ the true Messias ; a body divided into a great number of sects;" he must add besides, which excommunicate one another, to the end that all anathematized

» Prej. leg. ch. ii, pp. 27, 28. Syst. p. 217. f Prej. p. 29.

Heresies, nay, all Schismatics, tliongh divided from their brethren, *' even to daggers drawing," (to use the minister's expression,) may have the happiness of being in the Church expressed by the creed, and in the Christian unity which it teaches us. This is what men are bold enough to say in the Reformation, and the kingdom of Jesus Christ carries among them, in its proper definition, the character of the division *^ whereby every kingdom (as the Gospel says) is brought to desolation⁴¹."

76. — The Minister destroys the notion of a Catholic Church taught by himself when he explained the Catechism.

The minister should at least have called to mind the Catechism, which he himself taught at Sedan so many years ; wherein, after reciting " I believe the Catholic Church," it concludes, " that out of the Church there is nothing but damnation and death, and that all those who separate themselves from the community of the faithful to make a sect apart, ought not to hope salvation f. It is very certain, that the Church here spoken of, is the universal Church ; therefore, in respect to her, one may make a sect apart, one may separate himself from her unity. I ask, whether in this place to make "a sect apart," be a word that implies apostacy ? Is it necessary for him that makes a sect apart, to jjut on a turban, and publicly renounce his baptism ? Do men speak thus ? Should they speak thus, in a catechism, to an innocent child, on purpose to confound all his ideas, and that he may no longer know what to stick to ?

77. — The Schism of Jeroboam and the Twelve Tribes is justified.

Methinks I labour for the salvation of souls, by continuing the recital of this minister's errors, the most exorbitant and palpable that the defence of a bad cause has perhaps ever cast man into. What he was forced to invent in support of the new system, is still more strange, if possible, and more unheard of than the system itself It was necessary for him to perplex all the ideas with which the Scripture furnishes us. It speaks to us of the schism of Jeroboam | as of a detestable action, which began by a revolt, which maintained itself by a downright idolatry in adoring calves of gold, so far even as to forsake the ark of the covenant^; in fine, to

♦Lukexi. 17, f Catechism of the Prot.Ref. Dim. 17. .

X Rings jii. 12. 2 Par, ix.l3. ^ 2 Paralip. xi. 15.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 329 renounce the law of Moses, to cast off the priesthood of Aaron and the Avhole Levitical ministry, to consecrate false priests of the high places and of devils. Yet must it be said, nevertheless, that these Schismatics, these Heretics, these Apostates from the law, these Idolaters, made part of God's people⁴² ; that the seven thousand whom God had reserved to himself, and the remainder of the elect in Israel, adhered to the schism ; that the prophets of the Lord communicated with these Schismatics and Idolaters, and broke off from Judah, which was the place that God had chosen ; and a schism aggravated with such circumstances ought not, it seems, to be counted " amongst those sins which destroy grace f." If this be true, the whole Scripture must be nothing but delusion and the most excessive exaggeration that can be found in all human language. But then, Avhat must be said to the texts alleged by Mr. Jurieu ? Any thing, rather than to own so enormous a doctrine, and to place manifest idolaters in the communion of God's children, for this is no proper place for a deeper research into this subject.

78. — The Church in the Apostles' time is accused of Schism and Heresy.

No more does the Christian than the Jewish Church escape the hands of this minister J. He attacks her in her prime and vigour, even in those happy days when she was governed by the Apostles. For, if we believe him, the converted Jews, namely, the greatest part of the Church, there being " so many thousands of them§," according to St. James's testimony, and undoubtedly its most noble part, since it comprehended those on whom the rest " were grafted ;" tlie stock " and holy root whence the fatness of the good olive ||" v/as derived to the wild branches, were Heretics and Schismatics^, nay, guilty of a heresy of which St. Paul has said, " it destroyed grace, and rendered Christ of no effect to them**." The rest of the Church, to wit, those who came from heathenism, partook of the schism and heresy by consenting to it, and by acknowledging those as holy and brethren in Jesus Christ, who entertained in their minds so strange a heresy, and in their hearts so criminal a jealousy ; and the Apostles themselves were the most heretical and schismatical of all, for conniving at such crimes and errors. Such is the

§Actsxxi. II Kom. xi. 17, .'tc. H Syst. Ibid.ch, xx. p. 167.

idea he gives us of the Christian Church under the Apostles, when the blood of Jesus Christ was, as I. may say, still reeking, his doctrine fresh in their minds — the^spirit of Christianity in its full strength. What an opinion will the impious have of the Church in her progress, if these so much extolled beginnings be grounded on heresy and schism ; nay, if corruption even reach to those who had the first-fruits of the Spirit ?

79. — According to the Minister, one may save himself even in the Co7nmunion of Socinians.

It seemed as if our minister was for excluding the Socinians, at least, from the communion of God's people, he having so frequently said, that they impugn directly the fundamental truths, and that these being subverted, such societies are dead and can raise no children to Almighty God. But all this was nothing but sham ; and the minister would heartily despise whosoever should be deluded by it.

And, indeed, the principal foundation of his doctrine is *, " That the word of God is never preached in any country but God makes it effectual with regard to some people." As then, very certainly, the word of God is preached amongst the Socinians, the minister concludes aright, according to his principles f, " That if Socinianism had been as much diffused as is, for example. Popery, God would also have found means of feeding in it his elect, and of hindering their taking part in the mortal heresies of that sect, as he found means heretofore of preserving, in Arianism, a number of elect and virtuous souls untainted with the Arian heresy."

And if the Socinians, in the state they are in at present, cannot contain in their body the elect of God, it is not on account of their perverse doctrine, but |, " for that they being in small numbers, and dispersed up and down without making a figure in the world, and in most places having not so much as an assembly, it is not necessary to suppose that God saves any of them." Nevertheless, since it is certain the Socinians have had churches in Poland, and have at this day in Transylvania, one might ask of the minister, what is the number requisite to make a figure ? But be that as it will, according to him it depends only on princes to give children of God to all societies whatsoever, by giving them f Syst. pp. 147, 149, &c. Prej. leg. p. 16. Syst. 1. i. ch. xii. pp. 98, 102 j ch.xix.

p. 149, &c. j ch, XX. p. 153, &c. J Ibid.

3rv.] THE VAniATIONS, ETC. 33t assemblies ; and If the devil complete his work, if taking men on tliat side their senses bias to, and, by that means, multiplying Socinians in the world, he also finds means of pro-i curing them a more free and extensive exercise of their religion, he will compel Jesus Christ to form his elect amongst them.

80. — By the Minister's principles, one might be saved in the exterior Communion of the Mahometans and Jews.

The minister will answer doubtless, that if he says, you may be saved in the communion of Socinians, it is not by the way of toleration, but by that of discernment and separation ; that is to say, it is not by presupposing God tolerates Socinianism as he does other sects which have preserved the foundation, but, on the contrary, by presupposing that these the Socinian associates, discerning the good fi-om the evil in the doctrine of this sect, will reject in their hearts what is blasphemous therein, although they remain united therewith exteriorly.

But take his answer which way you will, it is equally full of impiety. For in the first place, this makes him inconsistent with himself in respect to the toleration of those who deny the divinity of the Son of God, since he extends this toleration even to the Arians : " To damn," says he⁴³, " all those numberless Christians who lived in the external communion of Arianism, some whereof detested its tenets, others were ignorant of them, some tolerated them in the spirit of peace^ others held their tongues through fear and authority : to damn, I say, all those people, is the opinion of an executioner, and becoming the cruelty of Popery." In this manner Mr. Jurieu extends his mercy, not to those only Avho remained in the communion of Arians, being ignorant of their sentiments, but to those also who knew them ; and not only to those who, knowing and detesting them in their hearts, did not blame them through fear, but also to those who " tolerated them in the spirit of peace," namely, to those who judged that denying the divinity of Jesus Christ was a tolerable doctrine. What, then, hinders his tolerating, in the spirit of peace, even the Socinians, as he tolerates the rest, and extending his charity so far even as to save them ?

But although the minister should I'epent himself of having carried his toleration to this excess, and would save but those only in the Socinian communion that should heartily detest⁴⁴ their sentiments, his doctrine would be never the better for that; since, in short, he must always save those who, conscious of the Socinian tenets, should, nevertheless, remain in their external communion, that is, frequent their assemblies, join in their prayers and worship, be present at their sermons with an exterior like to that of others who pass for men of that communion. If this dissimulation be lawful, no longer do we know what is hypocrisy, nor what this sentence means, *' Depart from the tents of the wicked⁴⁵."

Should now the minister reply, that those who frequent the Socinian assemblies in this manner, ought so to direct their intention as to partake only of that which is good amongst them, namely, of the unity of God and the mission of Jesus Christ ; this is a still greater absurdity, since, in this sense, there would be likewise no difficulty of living in the communion of Jews and Turks : for you need but persuade yourself, you partake only with them in the belief of God's unity, detesting in your heart, without uttering a word, all they speak impiously against Jesus Christ ; and should it be said, that it is enough to incur damnation to make your usual worship in an assembly where Jesus Christ is blasphemed, the Socinians, blasphemers of his divinity and so many others his sacred truths^ are no better than they.

81. — The successio7i which the Ministej' gives his Religion, is common to him with all Heresies.

Such are the absurdities of this new system : it was not the product of free choice, for no man takes pleasure in making himself ridiculous by advancing such paradoxes. But one false step draws on another ; nor would he have plunged into this excess, but for others he had fallen into before. The Reformation had fallen into the excess of separating herself not only from the Church in which she had received her baptism, but also from all other Christian Churches. In this state, urged to answer where the Church was before the time of these Reformers, she could not keep to one constant language, and iniquity gave herself the lie. At last, quite nonplussed, and little satisfied with all the answers hitherto made in our days, she thought to extricate herself by saying f , it is not of particular societies, of Lutherans, of Calvinists, you should ask for the visible succession of their doctrine and pastors ; it being true, " they were not as yet formed two hundred years ago ;"" granting this, yet the universal Church,

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 333 whereof these sects make a part, was visible in the communions of which Christianity was composed, viz. that of the Grecians, of the Abyssinians, of the Armenians, and Latins, which is all the succession there is occasion for. Here is the last refuge ; this their whole solution. But all kinds of sects, they must allow, may say the same. There is not any, nor ever was, to take in each of them no more than the common profession of Christianity, which does not find its particular succession as our minister has found his ; so that, to give a descent and an always visible perpetuity to his Church, he was forced to lavish the same favour on the most novel and impious societies.

82. — The Minister at the same time speaks pro and con loitk relation to the j)erpetual Visibility of the Church.

The greatest affront that can be done to truth is, to confess it, and, at the same time, to abandon or undermine it. Mr. Jurieu has owned great truths : in the first place, "that the Church is taken in Scripture for a society always visible ; nay, I go (says he) further on this head than Mr. Meaux *." With all my heart ; what I had said was sufficient : but since lie will allow us more, I receive it from him.

Secondly, he agrees that it cannot be denied '« that the Church, which the Creed obliges us to believe, is a truo Church t."

This was enough to demonstrate the perpetual visibility of the Church, because that, which is believed in the Creed, is eternally and unalterably true. But in order that there may be no doubt that this article of our faith is gi'ounded on the express promises of Jesus Christ, the minister grants us moreover, that the Church, to whicli Jesus Christ had promised that hell should not prevail against her, was|' " a confessing Church, a Church which published the faith with St. Peter, a Church, by consequence, always exterior and visible ;" which he carries on so far as to declare, without more ado §, " that he, who should have the faith without the profession of the faith, would not be of the Church."

It is this also that makes him say ||, " it is essential to the Christian Church to have a ministry." Equally with Mr. Claude, he approves ^ of our inferring from these words of our Saviour, "teach, baptize, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world⁴⁶; " that there will be

•Syst. p. 215. tlbid. p. 217. I Tbul. p.215. § Ibl.l. p. 2.

II L. iii.ch. XV. p. 5^9, &c. f Ibid. pp. 2:i8, 221). *• Matt.xxviii. 19,20.

334 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK teachers with whom Jesus Christ shall teach, and that true preaching never shall cease in the Church." He says as much of the sacraments, and is agreed *, " that the band of Christians, by means of the sacraments, is essential to the Church ; that there is no true Church without the saci⁴⁷aments ;" whence he concludes, that it is necessary to have the essence and foundation, to be ministers of the body of the Church.

From all these express passages, the minister concludes with us, that the Church is always visible, necessarily visible, and, what is more remarkable, visible not only as tojts body, but also as to its soul, as he tex'ms it, because, says hei', " when I see Christian societies, wherein doctrine confoi'mable to the word of God is preserved as much as is necessary for the essence of a Church, I know and see for certain, that there are elect in it, since, wherever are the fundamental truths, they are salutary to some people."

After this chain of doctrine, which the minister confirms by so many express passages, one might think nothing could be better settled in his mind, from Scripture, fi"om the promises of Jesus Christ, from the Creed of the Apostles, than the perpetual visibility of the Church ; and yet he says the contrary, not by consequence, but in formal terms ; for he says, at the same time J, " that this perpetual visibility of the Church is not to be found by those proofs which are called of right," that is, by Scripture, as he explains it, " otherwise than by supposing that God always preserves to himself a hidden number of the faithful, a Church, as one may say, subterraneous and unknown to the whole earth, which would be as well the body of Jesus Christ, his spouse and his kingdom, as a known Church ; and in fine, that the promises of Jesus Christ would remain inviolate, though the Church should have fallen into so great an obscurity, as that it were impossible to point out and say, there is the true Chui'ch, and there does God preserve the elect."

What, then, becomes of that express acknowledgment, that the Church in the Scripture is always visible ; that the promises she has received from Jesus Christ, for her perpetual duration, are addressed to a visible Church, to a Church that publishes her faith, to a Church which has the keys and a ministry, to whom the ministry is essential, and which no longer is a Church, if the profession of faith be wanting to her ? This we are a loss to know ; the minister

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. _ 335 thinks he salves all by telling us, that, for his part *, he truly believes the Church always visible, and that she hath been ever so, may be proved from history. Who does not see what he aims at ? Namely, in a word, that in case it happens a Protestant should be forced to own, according to his belief, that the Church had ceased to be visible, at most he would only have denied a fact, yet not overthrown the promises of Jesus Christ. But this is putting us on the wrong scent in too gross a manner. The question in hand is not whether the Church, by good luck, has always remained to this day in her visibility, but whether she has promises of continuing for ever in it ; nor, whether Mr. Jurieu believes it, but whether Mr. Jurieu has written that all Christians are obliged to believe it as a truth from God, and as a fundamental article couched in the Creed. Most certainly he has written it, as we have seen ; and he goes on demonstrating, that the question touching the Church involves the ministers in such a disorder, that they know not which way to turn themselves ; and if they can but meet with an evasion, it is all they aim at.

83. — Vain distinction between errors.

But not one is left them, pi'ovided they follow but never so little the principles which they have granted ; for, if the Church be visible and always visible by the confession of the truth ; if Jesus Christ has promised she would be so eternally, it is clearer than day that it is not allowable to depart one moment from her doctrine, which is saying, in other words, that she is infallible. The consequence is very plain ; since, departing from the doctrine of her who always teaches truth, would be too manifestly declaring enmity to truth itself; again, nothing can be more clear and distinct than this.

Let us consider, nevertheless, what method the ministers have used to ward off this stroke. Jesus Christ has promised, say they, a perpetual ministry, yet not a ministry always pure; the essence of the ministry shall subsist in the Church, because the foundations will be retained ; but what shall be added to these, will corrupt it, which makes Mr. Claude to sayf, that the ministry will never come to a subtraction of a fundamental truth, such as is seen, for example, in Socinianism, which rejects the divinity of Jesus Christ ; but that there is not a like inconvenience in corrupting, by

♦ Syst. p. 125. Prej. p. 22. t Rep. au disc, de M. de Cond, p. 383, et seq.

336 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK addition, wholesome truths, as the Church of Rome has done, because- the fundamentals of salvation still subsist.

Pursuant to the same principles, Mr. Jurieu is agreed *, *' that Jesus Christ has promised there always shall be teachers with whom he will teach, so far that true preachingshall never cease in his Church;" but he distinguishes: there always shall be teachers with whom Jesus Christ will teach the fundamental truths, he grants it ; but that there never shall be errors in this ministry, he denies it f '• so, *' true preaching shall never cease in tlie Church ; we own it (answers he), if by true preaching be understood a preaching which announces the essential and fundamental verities ; but we deny it, if by true preaching a doctrine be understood that contains no kind of errors."

84. — 0/ie only word destroys these subtilties.

To dispel all these mists, nothing more is necessary than to ask these men, where it is they have learnt to put a restriction on the promises of Jesus Christ ? He that is able to prevent subtractions, why must he not be able to prevent dangerous additions ? What certainty, therefore, have they, that preaching shall be more pure, the ministry more privileged with regard to subtraction, than to addition ? This word, " I am with you |," implies an universal protection to those with whom Jesus Christ does teach. If the duration of the external and visible ministry be the work of man, it may fail equally on all sides ; if on account of Jesus Christ's intervening, pursuant to his promises, we are assured that subtraction has never taken place therein, no longer do we comprehend how addition can find admittance.

85. — Strange way of securmg the promises of Jesus Christ.

And assuredly it is impossible, agreeing, as they do, that Jesus Christ has promised his Church that the truth should always be taught in her, and that he would eternally abide with the Ministers of this same Church, in order to teach with them ; it is, I say, impossible he should not have meant to say, that the truth he promised to preserve in her should be pure, and such as revealed by him ; there being nothing more ridiculous than to make him promise he woukl always teach the truth with such as, retaining a foundation of it, were to overv/helm this foundation, nay destroy it, as is sup-

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 337 posed, with their errors, by the inevitable consequence of their doctrine.

And, in reality, I leave the Protestants to judge whether these magnificent promises of rendering the Church immovable in the visible profession of the truth be fulfilled in the state, which the Minister has represented to us by these words⁴⁸ : — " We say that the Church is perpetually visible ; but the greatest part of the time, and almost always, she is more visible by the corruption of her manners, by the addition of many false te?ietSy by the decay of her ministry, bi/ he?' errors and her superstitions, than by the truths she does preserve." If such be the visibility which Christ has promised to his Church, if it be thus he promises f , that the truth shall always be taught in her, there is no sect, though never so impious, which may not glory that the promise of Jesus Christ is fulfilled in her : and if Jesus Christ only promises to teach with all those that shall teach some truth, whatever error may be interwoven with it, he promises nothing more to his Church than to the Socinians, to the Deists, to Atheists themselves, since none of them are gone so far astray as not to retain some remnant of the truth.

86. — The Minister says that the Universal Church teaches, a7id at the same time does not teach.

It is now easy to understand what we have inculcated so frequently, that the article of the creed, " I believe the Catholic and Universal Church," imports necessarily the belief of her infallibility, and that there is no difference between believing the Catholic Church and believing in the Catholic Church, to wit, by approving and assenting to her doctrine. The Minister rises up with contempt against this reasoning of Mr. de Meaux, and opposes it by two answers;}; : the first is, that the Universal Church teaches nothing ; the second, that, supposing she taught the truth, it would not follow that she taught it entirely pure. But he contradicts himself in these two answers : in the first, in express terms, as I am going to shew ; in the second, by the evident consequence of his principles, as will be shewn hereafter. Let us, then, observe how he speaks in his first answer. " The Universal Church (says he⁴⁹) mentioned ia the Creed cannot, properly

• Syst. 1. i. ch. xxvi. pp. 2l7, 218. § Ibid. p. 218.

VOL. II. Z speaking, either teach or preacji the truth :" and I prove to him the contrary by his own words, he having said, but two pao-es before, that the Church to which Jesus Christ promises an eternal subsistence, by saying " the gates of hell shall not prevail against her, is a confessing Church, a Church that publishes her faith⁵⁰ :" now this Church is, undoubtedl)'-, the Universal Church, and the same that the Creed speaks of; therefore the Church Universal, and mentioned in the Creed, confesses and publishes the truth ; nor can it any longer be denied by this Minister, without giving himself tlie lie, but that Church does confess, does preach the truth, unless publishing and confessing be different fi'om preaching to the whole universe.

87. — Sequel of the Minister's contradictions on this subject, that the Church Universal teaches and judges.

But let us dive further into this Minister's sentiments on this important subject. What he most repeats, what he most insists upon in his system is, " that the Church Universal teaches nothing, decides nothing, has never passed, nor will ever pass, nor will be able ever to pass, any judgment ; and that to teach, to decide, to judge, is the property of particular Churches." But this doctrine is so false, that, to see it convicted of ei'ror, no more is requisite than to continue on the reading of those places where it is asserted ; for there you will findf, that " the subsisting communions, and which make a figure, are the Greeks, the Latins, the Protestants, the Abyssinians, the Armenians, the Nestorians, the Russians. I say that the consent of all these communions in teaching certain verities, is a kind of judgment, nay, of infallible judgment.'" These communions, therefore, te^ach ; and seeing these communions, according to him, are the Universal Church, he cannot deny that the Universal Chui'ch does teach ; no more can he deny that she judges in a certain sense, since he attributes to her a kind of judgment, which can be nothing less than a sentiment declared. Here is, then, by the confession of the Minister, a declared sentiment, and, moreover, an infallible sentiment of the Church he calls universal.

XV.] TliE VARIATIONS, ETC. 339

88. — By the Minister's Confession^ the Church's sentiment is a certain rule of Faith in the most essential matters.

He proceeds : — " When the consent of the Universal Church is general in all ages as well as in all communions, then I maintain that this unanimous consent makes a demonstration." This is not enough ; this demonstration is grounded on the perpetual assistance which, according to him, God owes his Church : " God (says he⁵¹) cannot per7nit great Christian societies to be engaged in mortal errors, nor to persevere in them a long while." And, a little after, " is it likely that God should so far have abandoned the Universal Church, that all communions, in all ages, should have unanimously renounced the most important truths ? "

Thence it clearly follo\vs that the sentiment of the Universal Church is a certain rule of faith, and the Minister makes the application of it to two the most important disputes, which, in his own judgment, possibly can arise among Christians. The first is that of the Socinians, which comprehends so many essential points ; and, thereupon, *' the presumption of the Socinians (says hef) cannot be considered otherwise than as a prodigious temerity and a certain token of reprobation ; for that, in the articles of Jesus Christ's divinity, the trinity of persons, the redemption, satisfaction, original sin, the creation, grace, immortality of the soul, and eternity of torments, they have departed from the sentiment of the whole Universal Churchy," Again, therefore, this Universal Church has a sentiment : her sentiment carries along with it an infallible condemnation of the errors opposite thereunto, and serves as a rule for the decision of all the aforesaid articles.

89. — This rule, according to the Minister^ is sure, clear, sufficient, and the Faith it produces is not blind nor unreasonable.

Besides this, there is another subject wherein this sentiment stands for a rule : "I believe that it is here also the most sure rule of judging which points be fundamental, and of distinguishing them from such as are not ; so knotty, so difficult a question to resolve ! Thus, all that Christians have unanimously believed, and do still everywhere believe, is fundamental and necessary to salvation."

340 THE HISTORY OP [BOOK

. This rule is not only certain and clear, but very sufficient also ; since the Minister, after having said that the discussion of texts, of versions, of interpretations of Scripture, and even the reading of this divine book, is not necessary to the believer in order to form his faith, concludes at last⁵², that " a simple woman, who has learnt tlie Apostles' Creed, and understood it in the sense of the Universal Church (withal keeping God's commandments), shall be, perhaps, in a more sure way than the learned, who, with so much ability, contend about the diflference of versions,"

There must be, therefore, an easy method of discovering what is believed by the Universal Church, since this discovery is within the reach of a simple woman. There is a security in this knowledge so discovered, since this simple woman relies upon and trusts to it ; lastly, there is an entire sufficiency, since this woman has nothing to seek further, and, fully instructed in her faith, needs no otherwise to be concerned than how to live well. This belief is neither blind nor unreasonable, since it is founded on clear and sure principles ; and in reality, when one is weak, as we all are, it is the most excellent pitch of reason to know well whom you may rely upon.

90. — It can be no longer objected to us, that bi/ following the authority of the Church loe follow men.

But let us push on this argument still further. That which makes an absolute certainty in matter of faith, a certainty of demonstration, and the best rule to decide truths by, must be clearly grounded on the word of God. Now, this kind of infallibility, which the Minister attributes to the Universal Church, imports a certainty absolute, and a certainty of demonstration, and it is the most sure rule whereby to decide the most essential, and withal the most knottytruths : therefore, it is clearly grounded on the word of Goci. For the future, therefore, when we shall urge the Protestants with the authority of the Universal Church, should they object to us, that we follow the authority and traditions of men ; their Minister will confound them by saying, with us, that following the Church universal is not following men, but God himself, who assists her by his spirit.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 341

91. — The idea which the Minister forms to himself of the Universal Church as he conceives it, is not agreeable with the sentiments of the Universal Church.

If the Minister should answer, that we get nothing by this acknowledgment, because the Church, wherein he owns this infallibility, is not ours, and that all Christian comnnunions enter into the notion which he gives of the Church : he will be no less confounded by his own principles, since he has but just placed among the conditions of the true faith, that the Ci-eed be understood " in the sense of the Universal Church." We must therefore understand, in this sense, that article of the Creed, which speaks of the Universal Church herself. Now the Universal Church never has believed, that the Universal Church was the aggregate of all Christian sects : nor does the Minister find this notion in all places, or all times* ; on the contrary, he is agreed that the notion which reduces the Church to a perfect unity, by excluding all sects from her communion, is of all ages, even of the three first : he has seen it in the two councils whose creeds he receives, namely, in that of Nice, and in that of Constantinople. It is not, therefore, in his sense, but in ours, that the simple woman, whom he makes to walk so surely in the way of salvation, ought to understand these words in the Creed, " the Catholic or Universal Church;" and when this good woman says, she believes therein, she is obliged to fix upon one certain communion, which God shall have distinguished from all the rest, and which contains in her unity none but the orthodox: a communion which must be the true kingdom of Christ Jesus perfectly united in itself, and opposite to the kingdom of Satan t, whose character, as before observed, is disunion.

92. — The Minister condemns his Church by the characteristics ascribed by him to the Universal Church.

Should the Minister think to escape by answering that, supposing we had proved a communion of this nature, we had done nothing as yet, since it still remained to be proved that this is our communion ; I own, before we come to that, there are still some steps to be taken : but, in the meanwhile, and before we do this, and force the Minister, according to his principles, to take these steps with us ; we find already in his principles, whereby to reject his Church. For when he gave •us for a rule that which the Universal Church unanimously believes everywhere : lest he should compi'ehend the Soci- * See n, 71, of this Book, et seq. t Luke xi. 17.

nians in this Universal Church, whose authority he opposed against them, he reduced this Church to " communions which are ancient and extensive⁵³," exclusively of sects which have neither of these advantages, and which, " for this reason, could neither be called communions, nor Christian communions." Here are then two great characteristics, which, according to him, a communion ought to have to merit the denomination of Christian, antiquity and extent : now it is very certain, that the Churches of the Reformation were not, at the beginning, either ancient or extensive, no more than those of the Socinians and others which the Minister rejects ; therefore, they were neither " Churches nor communions :" but if they were not so then, they could not become so afterwards : therefore, they are not so now, nor can one, consistently with the Minister's rules, too speedily forsake them.

93. — All the Minister's means for defending his Churches are con^mon to them with those of the Socinians and of other Sectaries rejected by the Reformation.

It serves no purpose to answer, that these Churches had their predecessors in those great societies which were antecedent to them, and which preserved the fundamental verities ; for it suits only with the Socinians to say as much. The Minister urges them in vain with these words f, " Let these men name us a communion which has taught their dogma. To find out the succession of their doctrine, they begin by a Cerinthus ; they continue by an Artemon, by a Paul of Samosata, by a Photinus, and other such like men, who never had an assembly of four thousand people, who never had a communion, and who were the abomination of the whole Church." When the Minister urges them thus, he is right m the main, but he is not right according to his principles, because the Socinians will always tell him, that the only fundamental point of salvation is to believe one only God, and one only mediator, Christ ; that it is the unity of these tenets, which all the world agrees in, that makes the Church's unity; that the superadded tenets may, indeed, make particular confederations, but not another body of the Church universal; that their faith had subsisted, and does still subsist in all Christian societies ; that they can live amongst the Calvinists, as the pretended elect of the Calvinists lived, before Calvin, in the Church of Rome ; that they are no more obliged to shew, nor to reckon their predecessors,

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 343 than the Lutherans or Calvinists ; that it is not true, they were " the abomination of the whole Church;" since, besides their being a part thereof, tlie whole Church never had the power of assembling herself against them; the whole Church " teaches nothing, decides nothing," detests nothing j that all these functions appertain only to particular Churches ; that he is in the wi'ong to find fault with them for clandestinity, or rather for the nullity of their assemblies; that those of the Lutherans or Calvinists at the beginning were in no respect different; that, after their example, they meet together when able, and where they have the liberty : which if others have extorted by bloody wars, their cause is never the better for that ; and to annex salvation to such favour or toleration, howsoever obtained from prince or magistrate, whether by negotiation or force, is making Christianity to depend on policy.

94. — Abridgment of the foregoing arguments.

The Minister having taken these great steps, by never so little reflection upon his own principles, would soon join issue with us. The sentiment of the universal Church is a rule ; it is a cei'tain rule against the Socinians : therefore, an universal Church must be shewn in which the Socinians are not comprehended. What excludes them from it is the want of " extent or succession :" a succession, therefore, must be pointed out to them, which they cannot meet with amongst themselves : now they meet evidently with the same succession that Calvinists boast of; namely, a succession in the principles which are common to them with other sects ; it is necessary, therefore, they should find out another; it is necessary, I say, that you should find a succession in the tenets peculiar to that sect whose antiquity you would establish. Now this succession agrees not with Calvinists, who, in their peculiar tenets, have no more succession, nor antiquity, than the Socinians: you must, therefore, go forth from theirs as well as from the Socinian Church : you must, therefore, be able to find out a better antiquity and succession than either of theirs. Finding this antiquity and this succession, you will have found the certainty of faith : all, therefore, you will have to do is, to rely on the sentiments of the Church, and on her authority ; and wliat is all this else, I pray, but owning the Church infallible ? This Minister leads us then by a sure way to the infallibility of the Church.

344 THE HISTORY OP [boOK

95. — There is no restriction with respect to Dogmata in the ChurcKs Infallibility.

I am sensible he lays a resti'iction. '⁵⁴ The universal Church (says he) * is infallible to a certain degree, as far as those bounds which divide fundamental truths from those which are not so." But we have already made it plain that this restriction is arbitrary. God hath not declared to us that he ever confined within these bounds the assistance which he promised to his Church, nor that he designed to limit his promises at the will of ministers. He gives his Holy Ghost, not to teach some truth, but to teach " all truthf," because he has revealed none but such as is useful and necessary in certain cases. Never, therefore, will he permit any one of these truths to be extinguished in the body of the universal Church.

96. — What is once believed in the whole Church, was ahcays believed in it.

Wherefore, whatsoever doctrine I shall shew to have been once universally received, the minister must receive it according to his principles ; and should he think to escape by answering that this doctrine, for instance, ti'ansubstantiatlon, the sacrifice, invocation of saints, veneration of images, and such like points, are Indeed to be found in all the Oriental communions no less than in the Western Church, but yet were not always there, and that it Is in this perpetuity that he has placed the stress of his proof and the infallibility of the universal Church : he must have misunderstood himself, because he could not have believed in the Church universal, a perpetual assistance of the Holy Ghost, without comprehending, in this acknowledgment, not only all times together, but also each time in particular : this perpetuity including them all : from whence it follows that, throughout tlie whole duration of the Church, he will never be able to point out a time, when the error prevails which the Holy Ghost has bound himself to preserve her from. Now it has been seen, the Holy Ghost has equally bound himself to preserve her from all error, nor from one more than another ; therefore there never can be any.

97. — The Catholic alone believes in the promises. What makes our adversaries stop at this, is their having

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 345 nothing but a human and a wavering faith. But the Catholic, whose faith is divine and firm, will say without hesitating : if the Holy Ghost has promised his universal Church to assist her indefinitely against errors, therefore against all : and if against all, therefore always : and as often as one shall find, in any certain time, a doctrine established in the whole Catholic Church, such can never be impeached of novelty, but by error.

98. — The Minister can no longer deny the Infallibility which he has confessed.

We press him too home, will he say, and at last shall force him to forsake his principles of the universal Church's infallibility. God forbid he should forsake so true a principle, or that he should fall back into all the absurdities he sought to avoid by establishing it ; for then his case would be that mentioned by St. Paul, " If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a prevaricator⁵⁵." But since he has begun to take so wholesome a medicine, he must be made to follow it to the last drop, however bitter it may seem at present ; that is, he must be shewn all the necessary consequences of that truth which he has once acknowledged.

99. — The infallibility of general Councils a consequence from the infallibility of the Church. He puzzles himself about the infallibility of universal councils : but in the first place, supposing there were no councils, the minister is agreed that the Church's consent, even without being assembled, would serve for a certain rule. Her consent might be known, since he supposes it is so sufficiently at present, to condemn the Socinians, and to serve for an unalterable rule in the most knotty questions. Now, by the same means that the Socinians are condemned, the other sects may also be condemned. Nor, indeed, can it be denied that the whole Church, without assembling herself, has sufficiently condemned Novatian, Paul of Samosata, the Manicheans, the Pelagians, and an endless number of other sects. In like manner, what sect soever may arise, it may always be condemned like those, and the Church will be infallible in this condemnation, since her consent will be a rule. Secondly, by owning that the universal Church is infallible, how can the Councils not be so that represent her, which she receives, which she approves, wherein nothing else is proposed but to declare her sentiments in a lawful assembly 1

100. THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

101. — Cavils against Councils.

But this assembly is impossible, because there is no assembling all the pastors of the universe, and much less, so many opposite communions. What a chicanery ! Did ever man take it into his head to require, in order to form an (Ecumenical Council, that all pastors should be present at it ? Is it not sufficient that so many come to it, and from so many places, and the rest so evidently consent to their assembly, as to become manifest that the judgment passed in it is the judgment of the whole earth? Who, therefore, can refuse his consent to such a Council, unless he that will say, Jesus Christ, contrary to his promise, has abandoned the whole Church? And if the Church's sentiment was of much force whilst diffused, of how much more will it be, when reunited I

101. — Excessive and monstrous power given by the Minister to those who are rebels to the Church.

Concerning what the Minister says about opposite communions, I have but one word to tell him. If the Universal Church be infallible in opposite communions, she would be much more so, remaining in her primitive unity. Let us, then, take her in this state ; let us convene her pastors in the third century, before the Church was corrupted: before, if he pleases, that Novatian had separated from it : at such a time, he must allow the convention of such a council would have been a divine relief in order to prevent the progress of an error. Let us now suppose what came to pass : a proud Novatian makes himself bishoj) in a See already filled, and makes a sect that will reform the Church. He is expelled ; is excommunicated : what then ; because he continues to call himself a Christian, must he be of the Church in despite of her ? Because he carries his insolence to the utmost extremes, and will listen to no kind of reason, must the Church have lost her first unity, nor be able any longer to assemble, nor to form an universal Council unless his proud heart consent ? Must temerity have such a power ? And will there need no more than to lop off a branch, nay, a rotten branch, to say that the tree has lost its unity and root ?

102. — The Council of Nice formed contrary to the Minister's principles.

It is therefore a thing not to be questioned, that in spite of Novatian, in spite of Donatus, in spite of all other no less

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 347 contentious than unreasonable men, the Church will have power to convene an CEcumenical Council. Will have it, do I say ? Already has she exercised that power, and in despite of Novatian and Donatus held the Nicene Council. That it was necessary to call, and what is worse, to make the followers of those heresiarchs actually come to it, in order that the assembly might be lawfully held, is what was never so much as thought of To trump up such a shift at this time of day, and thirteen hundred years after the whole world (the impious part excepted) has looked on this holy Council as universal; to maintain it was not so, nay, that it was impossible for the Catholic Church to hold such a council, because she could not assemble in it those rebels who had unjustly broken unity, is obliging her to depend on her enemies, and punish their rebellion on herself.

103. — Remarkable words of a learned Englishman concerning the infallibility of the Nice?ie Council.

Here is, then, a Council justly called universal, by consequence infallible, if so be the minister do not forget all he has just granted; and pleased I am with the opportunity of quoting to him what a learned Englishman, a staunch Protestant, has said to this purpose. " The matter under question in this Council was a main article of the Christian religion. If, in a question of this importance, it be imagined, that all the pastors of the Church could have fallen into ■ error, and deceived all the faithful, how shall we be able to defend the word of Jesus Christ, who has promised his Apostles, and in their persons, his successors, to be always with them? A promise that would not be true, the Apostles not being to live so long a time, were it not that their successors are here comprehended in the persons of the Apostles themselves *;" which he confirms by a passage out of Socrates f, who says, " That the Fathers of this Council, although simple and not over-learned, could not fall into error, for that they were illuminated with the light of the Holy Ghost ;" whereby he siiews us all at once the infallibility of universal Councils by the Scripture and by the tradition of the ancient Church. May the blessing of God light on the learned Doctor Bull ! and in recompence of this sincere acknowledgment, and withal of that zeal he has shewn in defence of Jesus Christ's divinity, may he be delivered from the prejudices which prevent him from opening his eyes to the

^48 " THE HISTORY OP [boOK lights of the Catholic Church, and to the necessary consequences of that truth he has. confessed.

104. — One may judge of other Councils by the Council of

Nice.

I do neither undertake the history nor the defence of all general councils ; it suffices me to have remarked in one only, fi'om avowed principles, what the attentive reader will easily extend to all the rest ; and the least that can be concluded from this example is, that God having prepared in these assemblies so immediate an assistance to his troubled Church, it is renouncing faith in his providence to believe, that Schismatics may so alter the constitution of his Church, as that this remedy should become absolutely impossible to her.

105. — The Minister forced to take from Pastors the title of Judges in matters of Faith.

In order to enervate the authority of ecclesiastical judgments in matters of faith, Mr. Jurieu has ventured to say that they are not even judgments ; that the pastors assembled in these cases are not judges, "but wise and experienced men, and that they act not with authority ;" that the want of being let into this secret was the cause, that his brethren " have written with so little perspicuity on this subject ;" and the reason he alleges for taking from councils the title of judges is, because " not being infallible, it is impossible they should be judges in decisions of faith, because the word 'judge' imports a person you must necessarily submit to⁵⁶."

106. — This Doctrine is contrary to the sentiments of his

Churches.

That the pastors are not judges in questions relative to faith, is what never has been heard of among Christians, nay, not so much as in the Reformation, where ecclesiastical authority is brought to so low an ebb. On the contrary, Mr. Jurieu himself produces us the words of the Synod of JDort f, wherein that Synod declares herself judge, and even "lawful judge, in the cause of Arminius," which certainly regarded faith.

We read also in the book of Discipline J, ^* that all the differences of a province shall be definitively judged, and

XV.] THE VARIATIONS^ ETC. 349 without appeal, In its respective provincial Synod, except what regards suspensions and degradations. . . And likewise what concerns doctrine, the sacraments, and discipline in general ; all which cases may, step by step, be brought up to the national Synod to receive the definitive and last judgment," which, in another place, is called " the entire and final resolution'⁵⁷."

To say with Mr. Jurleu-j⁵⁸, that the word " judgment" Is here taken " in an extensive sense," for a report of experienced men, and not for a sentence " of judges having authority tO' bind men's consciences," is an insult on human language ; for what must be called acting with authority, and binding consciences, if It be not to push things so far as to oblige the particular condemned persons | " to acquiesce from point ta point, and with express disclaiming of their errors entered in a register, under penalt}'' of being cut off from the Church?"

Is this a judgment in an improper " and more extensive sense," and not rather a judgment in full rigour ? And that the Synods have exerted this power, we have seen in the affair of Piscator⁵⁹, they obliging him to subscribe a formulary which condemned his doctrine : we have seen in the affair of Arminius, and in the subscription required to the canons of the Synod of Dort ; and all the registers of our reformed are full of the like subscriptions.

107. — Subscriptions disapproved hy the Minister nolwithstanding the practice of his Churches.

No other remedy has Mr. Jurleu found out for this but to say II , ''that when a Synod decides controversies which are not important, it ought never to oblige the condemned parties to subscribe, and to believe her decisions ;" but this is contrary to the express terms of their Discipline, " which obliges to acquiesce from point to point, and with an express disclaiming of their errors entered in a register, under penalty of being severed from the Church ;" which Mr. Jurieu himself understands " of less important controversies, which neither destroy nor hurt the foundation^."

108. — The Minister's evasion.

It only remained to say, that " cutting off from tlie Church," in this place, was no more than cutting off from an arbitrary confederation⁶⁰, contrary to the express words of theia* Disci-

THE HISTORY OP [bOOK pline, which, explaining this cutting off in the same chapter, is acquainted with no othei* than -that which severs a rotten member from the body, and ranks it among heathens, as already seen.

109. — Infallibility proved by the principles of the Minister.

Wherefore it is but too manifest that this minister has changed the maxims of the sect. Let us now restore them, and joining them to the minister's own principles, we shall clearly find infallibility confessed. By the minister's principles, if councils were judges in matters of faith, they would be infallible*: now, by the principles of his Church, they are judges ; therefore, the minister either must condemn himself, or his Church, if he allow not the infallibility of councils, of those at least, wherein is the last and final resolution : but though he should have bereft the pastors assembled of the title of judges, so as to leave them nothing but that of experienced men, yet the councils would be but the better authorised by his doctrine, there being not a man of sound sense that would not hold himself for at least as rash, in resisting the sentiment of all experienced men, as in resisting the sentence of all judges.

1 10. — Strange expression of the Minister y who will have us sacrifice Truth to Peace.

He is not less perplexed about the letters of submission, which the deputies of all provincial Synods are to carry to the national one in good form, and in these terms'!" : — " We promise before God to submit ourselves to all that shall be concluded and resolved in your holy assembly, persuaded, as we are, that God will there preside, and will lead you into all truth and equity by the rule of his word." The last words demonstrate that the matter in hand was religion ; nor any longer can we learn what it is to be judges, nay, and sovereign judges, if men to whom such an oath is taken be not so. I have elsewhere shewn ^ that they exacted it in full rigour ; that many provinces were censured for having made a difficulty of submitting " to the clause of approbation, of submission and obedience f and that they wei'e obliged " to make it in specific terms to all that should be concluded and decreed, without condition or modification." These words are so pressing, that after so long torturing himself to ex-'

X Bxpos. chr&ix. Conference with Mr. Ckude, pp. 52.33r«

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 351 pound them, Mr. Jurieu at length comes to say*, *' that they promise this submission on regulations of discipline relating to things indifferent, or, at furthest, no less important controversies, which do not destroy nor hurt the foundation of faith ;" so that, concludes he, " it is not strange that in such sort of things we pay the Synod an entire submission, because, in controversies which are not of the utmost importance, we ought to sacrifice truths to the good of peace."

Sacrifice truths, and the revealed truths of God ! Either he knows not what he says, or he blasphemes. To sacrifice heavenly truths, if this be to renounce them, and subscribe the condemnation of them, it is a blasphemy. There is no truth revealed of God that does not deserve, so far fi'ora sacrificing it, that we should sacrifice ourselves for it. But perchance to sacrifice them, is to hold one's tongue. The expression is much too violent. Let it pass, however, provided this will satisfy : but the Synod will come upon you "after her last and final resolution,'"' and press you in virtue of their Discipline and your own solemn oath, "to acquiesce from point to point, and with an express disclaiming of your opinion authentically entered in a register," in order to prevent all equivocation, under penalty of being cut off from God's people, and accounted as a heathen. What will you do, if unable to make your judgment bend to that of the Church ? Certainly, either you will subscribe and betray your conscience, or speedily you alone will be your whole Church.

111. — The Confession of Faith always put to the questio?i in all Sy7iods.

Besides, when the minister tells us f , that the points of controversy which are submitted to the Synod, are not those which are contained in the " Confession of Faith," he does not reflect how many times they would have changed them in important articles out of complaisance to the Lutherans. Nay, more, he has forgotten the custom of all their Synods, wherein the first point put to debate always is, upon reading the Confession of Faith, to examine whether there be anything to be corrected in it. The fact was put to Mr. Claude J, nor was it denied by him, and besides this, it is manifest by the acts of all the Synods. Who will now wonder that nothing has escaped cnange in the new Refor-

X Conference with Mr. Claude, p, 37S.

mation, since, notwithstanding so many books written, and so many Synods held, they are every day still to seek and deliberate anew about their faith ?

112. — The weak constitution of the Reformation forces at length the Ministers to change their Capital Dogma, viz, the necessity of the Scripture.

But nothing will set in a plainer light the feeble constitution of their Church, than the change I am now about to relate. Nothing amongst them is more essential, nor more fundamental, than to oblige each one to form his faith on the reading of the Scripture. But one sole question proposed to them has, at length, withdrawn them from this principle. Now, they were asked, what could be those people's faith, who as yet had neither read the Scripture nor heard it read, but were just entering on the reading of it? There needed no more than this to put them manifestly to a stand. To say, that in this state, one has no faith, with what disposition, then, and in what spirit, will such a man read the holy Scripture ? But if you say, he has, whence has he received it ? All they had to answer was *, " that the Christian doctrine, taken in the whole, makes itself be felt; that to foi'm an act of faith on the divinity of Scripture, it is not necessary to have read it "f : that it suffices to have read a summary of Christian doctrine without descending to particulars; that those who wanted the Scripture, had it nevertheless in their power to become good Christians ; that the Gospel doctrine makes its divinity be felt by the simple, independently of the book where it is contained in ; that supposing this doctrine were mixed with things not divine but useless, the pure and celestial doctrine blended with it would nevertheless make itself be felt ; that conscience relishes truth, after which the faithful man believes such a book to be canonical, because he has found truths that sensibly affect him ; in a word, that one feels truth as he feels the light in seeing it ; heat, sitting near the fire ; sweet and bitter, in eating."

113. — Their Faith no longer formed on Scrifiure.

Heretofore it was an inextricable difficulty for the minlstei's to resolve this question ; whether or no it is requisite, if faith be to be formed on Scripture, to have read all the books thereof? And, if sufficient to have read some of them,

» Syst. p. 428. t Ibid. p. 453, et seq.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 353 which are tliose privileged ones we must read preferably to the rest, in order to form our faith ? But tliey have rid themselves of this perplexity by saying, there is not even a necessity of reading any one of them ; nay, they have carried it so far as to make a believer form his faith without so much as knowing which are the books inspired by God.

114. — The people have no further necessity of discerning Apocryphal from Canonical Books.

Their thoughts were too much busied about the Confession of Faith, when they said, speaking of the divine books *, " that they were known for canonical, not so much from the consent of the Church, as from the testimony and interior persuasion of the Holy Ghost." The ministers, it seems, are sensible at present that this was all illusion, and how little likelihood there is, that the foithful should be capable, by their interior relish, and without the assistance of tradition, to discern from a profane book, the Canticle of Canticles, or to feel the divinity of the first chapters of Genesis, and so forth; accordingly, it is decided at present, "that the examination of the question touching Apocryphal books, is not necessary for the people." Mr. Jurieu f has written a chapter expressly to prove it ; and so far is it from being requisite to torment one's self about books Canonical or Apocrypha], about text or version, or to be at the pains of discussing Scripture, or even reading it, that the Christian truths, provided you only put them together, will of themselves make you feel them as you feel cold and heat.

1 15. — The importance of this change.

Mr. Jurieu says all this; and what is more remarkable, sa)'s it but after Mr. Claude. And since tliese two ministers have concurred together in this point, which is as much as to say, that the party had but this sole refuge ; let us stop a while to consider whence they set out, and whither they are arrived. The ministers heretofore built faith on Scripture % ; now they form it without the Scripture. It was said in the Confession of Faith, speaking of Scripture §, that "all things ought to be examined, regulated, and reformed according to it ;" now, not,the sentiment, which men have of things, ought to be proved by Scripture, but Scripture itself is not known,

X Def. of the Ref. part ii. cli. ix. p. 2'JG. et seq. ^ Confession of Failli, Art. v. VOL. II. 2 A

354 THE HISTORY OP [boOK nor perceived to be Scripture, otherwise than by the sentiment you have of things before you know the divine books ; and religion is formed without them.

116. — Manifest Fanaticism

This testimony, imagined by men to px'oceed from the Holy Ghost, whereby to discern divine Scripture from not divine, was held deservedly for fanaticism and a means of deceit ; because this testimony, not being annexed to any positive proof, there was not a man that could not either boast of it without reason, or fancy it to himself without grounds. But the case is now much worse; whereas they said formerly, *' let us see what is written, and then we will believe ;" which was beginning at least by something positive and a certain fact : now, they begin by feeling things in themselves as you feel cold and heat, sweet and bitter ; and when afterwards they come to read the Scripture in this disposition, God knows with what facility they turn it to what they already hold for as certain as what they have seen with their eyes and touched with their hands.

117. — Neither Miracles, nor Prophecies, nor Scripture, nor Traditio7i necessary to authorize and declare Revelatio7i.

According to this presupposition ^ viz., truths necessary to salvation make themselves be felt by themselves, Jesus Christ needed not miracles, nor prophecies : Moses would have been believed, though the Red Sea had not divided itself, though the rock had not poured out torrents of water at the first touch of the wand ; they had nothing to do but to propose the Gospel or the law. No more had the fathers of Nice and Ephesus, than to propose the Trinity and Incarnation, provided they proposed it with all the other mysteries ; the researches into Scripture and tradition, which they made with so much care, were needless to them : on the bare exposition of truth, grace would have commanded the assent of all the faithful ; God inspires all he pleases into whom he pleases, and inspiration of itself alone can do all things.

1 18. — The Grace necessary to produce Faith, why annexed to certain exterior means and matters of fact.

This was not the thing doubted of, and the power of God was well known to Catholics, no less than the necessity men stood in, of his inspiration and grace. The business was to

XV.] THE VAftlATlOKg, ETC. 355 find out the external means it makes use of, and whereto God lias been pleased to annex it : one may feign or imagine that he is inspired of God without being really so ; but he cannot feign, nor imagine that the sea divides itself, that the earth opens, the dead arise, those born blind receive sight, that he reads such a thing in a book, and that such and such our predecessors in the faith have so understood it ; that the whole Church believes, and always has believed it so. The question, therefore, at issue is, not whether those external means be sufficient without grace and divine inspiration, for none pretends that : but, in order to hinder men from feigning or imagining an inspiration, whether it has not been God's economy, and his usual conduct to make his inspiration walk hand in hand with certain means of fact, which men can neither feign in the air without being convicted of falsehood, nor imagine without illusion. This is not the place to determine which are these facts, which these external means, which the znotives of belief, since it is already certain there are some such, for the minister hath agreed to it ; it is, I say, agreed, not only that there are such certain facts, but moreover that those certain facts may serve for an infallible rule. For instance, according to him, it is a certain fact that the Christian Church has always believed the divinity of Jesus Christ, the soul's immortality, and the eternity of pains, with such and such other articles : but this certain fact, according to him, is an infallible rule, and the best of all rules, not only to decide all these articles, but also to resolve the obscure and knotty question concerning fundamentals. We have seen the passages where tiie Minister teaches and proves this⁶¹; but when he teaches thus, and allows the universal consent to be "the most sure rule" of judging these important and knotty questions : yet, in proposing this external motive, which, according to him, implies demonstration, he did not aim at excluding grace and inward inspiration : the question, therefore, is, whether the authority of the Church, which joined to the grace of God is a sufficient motive and " most sure of all rules " in certain points, may not be so in all; and whether, setting up an inspiration exclusive of all these exterior means, and whereof you give yourself and your own sentiment for surety to yourself and others, be not the best plea that can possibly be put into the mouths of false teachers, the surest illusion to drive headstrong men to the utmost extremes.

♦ S. n, 38. et seq.

119. — The language of the Ministers loosens the reins to the People's licentiousness.

After having put it into the people's head that they are particularly inspired by God ; to complete the thing you need but also tell them that they may make themselves guides as they think fit, may depose all those that are appointed them, may set up others to act by such powers as they judge meet to communicate. It is what has been done in the Reformation. Mr. Claude and Mr. Jurieu do also agree together in this doctrine.

120. — The language of the Catholic Church concerning the settlement of Pastors.

The Catholic Church thus speaks to the Christian people. Ye are a people, a state, and a society: but Jesus Christ, who is your king, holds nothing of you, and his authority is derived from a higher source : naturally, you have no more right to give him ministers than you have to appoint him your

Srince ; thus his ministers, who are your pastors, derive their escent still higher as he himself does, and it is necessary they should come by an order of his appointment. The kingdom of Jesus Christ is not of this world, nor can a comparison be made between his kingdom and those of the earth, which is not defective ; in a word, nature affords us nothing that bears a conformity with Jesus Christ and his kingdom, nor have you any other right than that which you shall find in the laws or customs immemorial of your society. Now, these customs immemorial, to begin from the Apostolic times, are, that the pastors already constituted should constitute others: " Choose ye," say the Apostles, " and we shall appoint * ;" it was Titus's business to appoint the pastors of Crete ; and it was from Paul, appointed by Jesus Christ, that he received this power. " For this cause," says he, " left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest reform tlie things that are wanting, and ordain priests in everj^ city, as I had appointed thee⁶²{*." Besides, those who flatter you with the notion that your consent is absolutely necessary to constitute your pastors, do not believe what they tell you, since they acknowledge those of England for true pastors, though tlie people has had no share in their election. The example of St. Mathias, extraordinarily chosen by a divine lot, ought not to be made a precedent, nay, even then, all was not left

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 357 to the people, for Peter, already established pastor by Jesus Christ, held the assembly : neither was it election that constituted Mathias ; it was heaven which declared itself. Everywhere else, the authority of constituting is given to pastors already constituted : the power, which they have from above, is rendered sensible by the imposition of hands, a ceremony reserved to their order. It is thus that pastors follow successively one another : Jesus Christ, who appointed the first, has said that he would always be with those to whom they should transmit their power ; ye cannot have pastors anywhere but in this succession, nor any more ought ye to appi-ehend its failing, than that the Church herself, preaching, and the sacraments, should fail.

121. — Language of the Reformation.

Thus speaks the Church, nor do the people presume beyond what is given them : but the Reformation speaks to them quite the contrary. In you, says she, is the source of celestial power ; ye may not only present, but constitute your pastors. Should proofs of this power, in the people, be required from the Scriptures, she would be at a stand. To exempt herself from this task, she tells the people that it is a natural right of all societies ; so that, to enjoy it, there is no need of Scripture, it being sufficient that Scripture has not recalled this right allowed by nature. The turn is cunning, I must own ; but beware of it, ye people, who are fed with this delusion ! To make yourselves a lord on earth, it suffices to acknowledge him for such, and every man carries this power in his own will. But the case is not the same in making yourselves a Christ, a Saviour, a celestial King, and appointing him his ministers. And will ye then, indeed, ye people, impose your hands on them on being told it appertains to you to appoint them ? They dare not : but are again encouraged, when assured this ceremony of impotion of hands is not necessary. What ! is it not sufficient to judge it necessary, that you so often find it in Scripture, and do not find, either in Scripture or in all tradition, that ever pastor was made any other way, no, not one but was made by other pastors ? No matter, ao it nevertheless, O people ! believe ye that the power of loosing and binding, of appointing and rejecting, is in you, and that your pastors have no power but as your representatives; that the authority of their Synods flows from you, that they are no more than your delegates ; believe, I say, all these things, although you find not a word thereof in Scripture ; and believe, beyond everything else, that, when you shall think yourselves inspired by God to reform the Church, whensoever you shall be assembled in whatsoever way, you have power to do with your pastors just what you please, none having right to deprive you of this liberty, it being derived from nature. Thus is the Reformation preached ; thus is Christianity destroyed root and branch, and the way paved for Antichrist.

122. — The Sects issuing from the Reformation, proofs of her evil constitution. — Comparison of the Ancient Church ill alleged.

With such maxims and such a spirit (for although it shoots out more manifest in our days, the root was always the same in the Reformation), it is no longer to be wondered that we have seen it, from its first origin, run from change to change, productive of so many sects of so many kinds. Mr. Jurieu has had the face to answer, that herein, as in all other things, it resembles the primitive Church⁶³. In good truth, this is too notoriously abusing the people's credulity and the venerable name of the primitive Church. The sects which divided from her were not the consequence or natural effect of her constitution. Two kinds of sects did arise in primitive Christianity ; some purely heathen in their foundation, as that of the Valentinians, the Simonians, the Manicheans, and others of that stamp which entered themselves, in appearance, on the list of Christians, only to set themselves off with the great name of Jesus Christ ; nor have these sects anything in common with those of the latter ages. The other sectaries, for the most part, were Christians, which, unable to bear the loftiness, and, as I may say, the whole weight of faith, sought to ease reason now of o23<e article, then of another : thus, some deprived Christ of his divinity ; others, unable to unite the divinity and humanity, mutilated, as it were, in divers ways, both one and the other. Against the like rocks split the proud spirit of Martin Luther. He sunk in reconciling grace and free-will, which, in truth, is a grand mystery : he kept no compass in matter of predestination, and no longer saw anything for men but a fatal and inevitable necessity, wherein good and evil are equally comprehended. We have seen how these extravagant maxims produced those of the Calvinists, still more extravagant. When laying aside all temper, by carrying to extremes predestination and grace, men fell into such visible excesses as were * History of Calvin, part i. ch. iv.

JtV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 359 no longer to be supported : the horror they conceived thereof cast them into the opposite extreme ; and from Luther's excess, who went beyond bounds with grace (however incredible it may seem), they passed to the excess of the Demipelagians, who destroy it. Whence have we the Arminians, who, in our days, have produced the Pajonists, Pelagians complete, whose author was Mr. Pajon, the late minister of Orleans. On the other side, the same Luther, cast down by the force of these words, — " This is my body, this is my blood," could not find in his heart to reject the Real Presence ; but at the same time was resolved, in compliance with human sense, to rid it of the change of substance. Things stopped not there; and the Real Presence was soon assaulted. Human sense took a pleasure in its own inventions, and its exceptions being satisfied with regard to one mystery, stood up for the same concession in all the rest. As Zuinglius and his followers pretended that the Real Presence was a remnant of Popery still to be reformed in^Lutheranism, the Socinians now a days say the same of the Trinity and Incarnation ; and these great mysteries, which had stood free from all insult of heresy for twelve hundred years, are entered on the footing of disputable points in an age when all kind of novelties think they have a right to shew their heads.

123. — Socinians united with the Anabaptists, and both of them derivi?ig their origin from Luther and Calviji.

We have seen the illusions of the Anabaptists, and are sensible it was by following the principles of Luther and the j*est of the Reformers that they rejected baptism without immersion, and infant baptism ; for this reason, that they did not find them in the Scripture, where they were made believe all was contained. The Unitarians or Socinians united with them, yet not so as to keep within the limits of their maxims, because the principles they had borrowed from the Reformers led them much further.

Mr. Jurieu remarks that they came forth a long while since the Reformation, from the midst of the Church of Rome. Where is the wonder ! Luther and Calvin came forth from her as well as they. The question is, whether the constitution of the Church of Rome was the cause of these innovations, and not rather the new Church-frame set up by the Reformers. Now this question is easily decided by the history of Socinianism*. In 154.3, and in the years subsequent to tjiis date, twenty years after that Luther had removed the bounds set by our forefathers, when all minds were in a ferment, and the world, teeming with novelty from his disputes, was always ready to bring forth some strange offspring, Lelio Socini and his companions held their clandestine conventicles in Italy against the divinity of the Sou of God. George Bland rate and Fausto Socini, Lelio's nephew, maintained this doctrine in 1558 and in 1573, and formed the party. By the same method employed by Zuinglius to elude these words, " This is my body," the Socinians and their followers eluded those by which Christ is called God. If Zuinglius believed himself forced to the figurative interpretation by the impossibility of comprehending a human body whole and entire everywhere that the Eucharist was distributed, the Unitarians believed they had the same right over all the other mysteries equally incomprehensible ; and after it had been set them for a rule to understand figuratively those passages of Scripture which bore hard on human reasoning, they did but extend this rule to whatsoever the mind of man had to suffer the like violence from. To these evil dispositions introduced by the Reformation, let us join the general foundations it had laid, the authority of the Church despised, the succession of pastors held for nothing, precedent ages impeached of error, the Fathers themselves basely handled, all fences laid open, and human curiosity abandoned entirely to itself; what else could be the issue but what has been seen, namely, an unbridled licentiousness in all matters of religion ? But experience has proved that these hardy innovators saw not the least possibility of settling amongst us ; it was to the Churches of the Reformation they betook themselves ; those upstart Churches, which, set in motion, and still giddy with their own changes, were susceptible of all others. It was in the bosom of these Churches, at Geneva, amongst the Switzers and the Polish Protestants, that the Unitarians sought a sanctuary. Repulsed by some of these Churches, they raised themselves a sufficient number of disciples amongst the rest of them to make a separate body. This, beyond question, was their origin. You need but look into the Testament of George Schoman, one of the Unitarian chiefs, and the account given by Andrew Wissonats, ''in what manner the Unitarians separated themselves from the Reformed⁶⁴," to be convinced that this sect was nothing but a progress of,

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 361 and a sequel from the dogmata of Luther, of Calvin, of Zuinglius, of Menon, the last of whom was one of the heads of the Anabaptists. There you will find all those sects were but " the first draught, and, as it were, the dawn of the Reformation, and that Anabaptism, joined to Socinianism, is the mid-day⁶⁵."

124. — Constitution of the Reformation how unlike to that of the Primitive Church.

No longer, therefore, let them object to us the sects of the ancient Church, and no longer boast of resembling her. Never did the ancient Church vary in her doctrine ; never, in her confessions of faith, did she suppress the truths which she believed were revealed by God ; she never retouched her decisions, never deliberated anew on matters once determined ; never, no not once, proposed new expositions of faith, save when some new question arose. But the Reformation, quite on the contrary, never could content herself ; her creeds have nothing that is certain ; the decrees of her synods nothing fixed ; her confessions of faith are confederacies and arbitrary contracts ; what is an article of faith amongst them, is not so for all, nor always — they go apart by caprice, and meet again by policy. When, therefore, sects arose in the ancient Church, it was from the common and inveterate depravation of mankind ; and when they now arise in the Reformation, it is from the novel and particular constitution of the Churches she has modelled.

To make this truth the more apparent, I shall choose for an example the Protestant Church of Strasburg, as one of the most learned of the Reformation, and by her proposed, ever since the beginning, as a pattern of discipline to all the rest. This great city was one of the first that fell by Luther's preaching, and did not think, at that time, of disputing the Real Presence. All the complaints made against her senate were, that " it took away images, and made communion be given in both kinds |." It was in 1523 that, by the means of Bucer and Capito, she turned Zuinglian. After she had for some years heard their invectives against the Mass, with-

362 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK out wholly abolishing it, and without a full assurance of its being evil, the senate decreed " it should be suspended until it were proved a worship acceptable to God^." Here is a very new provision in matter of faith ; and though I had not mentioned that this decree came from the senate, it would easily have been understood, that the assembly where it was made was nothing less than ecclesiastical. The decree passed in 1529. The same year, those of Strasburg f , having never been able to agree with the Lutherans, joined in a league with the Swiss, who were Zuinglians like themselves. So far did they carry Zuinglius's notion and their hatred of the Real Presence, as to refuse to subscribe the Confession of Augsburg in 1530 J, and to make themselves a particular Confession, which we have seen under the name of the Confession of Strasburg, or of the four towns §. The very next year II, they shuffled so much, and with so much art on this subject, as to get themselves comprehended in the league of Smalcald, from which the rest of the Sacramentarians were excluded. But they went still further in 1536, inasmuch as they subscribed the Wittemberg agreement, wherein, as we have seen, was confessed the substantial presence and the communion of the true body and true blood in the unworthy, although void of faith ^. Thereby they passed over insensiblv to Luther's sentiment, and from that time were counted among the defenders of the Confession of Augsburg which they subscribed. They declared, nevertheless, in 1548⁶⁶, that this was without departing from their first Confession, which, although formerly it had made them reject that of Augsburg, was found conformable to it now. In the mean time, Strasburg was so wedded to the agreement of Wittemberg and the Confession of Augsburg ft? that Peter Martyr and Ranchius, the two greatest men at that time of the Sacramentarians, were forced at length to withdraAv from that city ; one for refusing to subscribe the agreement, and the other for having subscribed the Confession with a restriction ; so zealous were they become at Strasburg for the Real Presence. In 1598, this city subscribed the book of Concord ; and after having been for so long a time the chief, as it were, of those cities that opposed the Real Presence, she stretched her Confession, in spite of Sturmius, to the prodigious tenet of Ubiquity :|; J." The cities of Linden

^ S. lib. iii. n. 3. || Sleid. lib. viii. fol. 125.

f[ S, lib. iv. n, 23. Hosp. part ii. An. 1536. ** Hosp. An, 1548. fol. 203.

tt Ibid. An. 1556 et 1563. JJ Ibid. Cone, discors. c. Ivi. p. 278.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 363 and Memmingen, formerly lier associates in the hatred of the Real Presence, followed this example⁶⁷. At this time the ancient Agenda was changed, and Marbachius's book was printed at Strasburg, in which he maintained that " Jesus Christ, before his ascension, was in Heaven, as to his humanity ; that this visible ascension was nothing, in reality, but an appearance ; that the Heaven wherein Jesus Christ's humanity was received, contained not only God and all the saints, but moreover all the devils and all the damned ; and that Jesus Christ was, according to his human nature, not only in the bread and wine of the Supper, but also in all the pots and all the glasses." To these extremities were men driven, when, forsaking the sure guidance of Church authority, they gave themselves up to human opinions like to a changeable and impetuous wind.

126. — Constancy of the Catholic Church.

If now, to the variations and giddiness of these new Churches, you oppose the constancy and gravity of the Catholic Church, it will easily be judged where it is the Holy Ghost presides ; and because I neither can, nor ought to relate, in this work, all the judgments she has passed in mattei's of faith, that uniformity and steadiness I commend her for, shall be made appear in those very articles wherein we have seen the inconstancy of our Reformed.

127. — Example in the Question moved by Berengarius concerning the Real Presence.

The first who made a sect in the Church, and dared to condemn her, in regard to the Real Presence, was unquestionably Berengarius. What our adversaries say of Ratramnus f is nothing less than a certain fact, as above seen ; and, though it were granted that Ratramnus favoured them, (which is false,) an ambiguous author, by all of them made to speak in behalf of their several opinions, would be in nowise proper to make a sect. I say the same of John Scot, whose error was personal, and had no continued succession.

128. — The Church's behaviour in regard of Innovators.

The Church does not always anathematize rising errors ; nor does she censure them as long as there are hopes they will vanish of themselves ; nay, often fears rendering them famous⁶⁸ by her anathemas. Thus Artemon, and some others who had denied Jesus Christ's divinity before Paul of Samosata, drew not such signal condemnations on themselves as he did, they not being judged capable of raising a sect. As for Berengarius, certain it is he attacked openly the Church's faith, and had disciples of his own name like other heresiarchs, although his heresy was soon extinguished.

129. — Beginning of Berengarius'' s Sect, and his Condemna- tiGn.

It appeared about the year 1030 ; not but that we have already remarked, some years before, even from the year 1017, the Real Presence manifestly impugned by the heretics of Orleans, who were Manicheans⁶⁹. Such were the first authors of that doctrine, one article of which was maintained by Berengarius. But as that sect kept concealed, the Church was surprised at this novelty, yet not much disturbed with it at that time. It was against Berengarius that the first decision was made on this subject in 1052, in a council of a hundred and thirteen bishops called together at Rome from all sides by Nicholas II. f Berengarius submitted himself, and the first who made a sect of the Sacramentarian heresy, was the first also that condemned it.

No one is ignorant of that famous Confession of Faith, which begins " Ego Berengarius," where this Heresiarch acknowledges, " that the bread and the w'me which are placed on the altar after consecration are not only the sacrament, but also the true body and the true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are sensibly touched by the hands of the priest, broken and bruised between the teeth of the faithful, not only in sacrament, but in truth."

130. — First Confession of Faith required of Berengarius.

There M-^ere none but understood, that the body and blood of Jesus Christ was broken in the Eucharist, in the same sense that we say a man is torn, he is wet, when the clothes he actually wears are torn or wet. When his clothes are not on him, we use not the same way of speaking : so that the meaning was, that Jesus Christ was as truly under tlie sj^ecies, which are broken and eaten, as we are truly in the clothes we wear. It was said, moreover, that Jesus Christ is

I Coiicll. Rom. sub Nic. II. An. 1059. t. ix. Con. Lab. Guit. lib. iii. t. xviii. Bib. PP. Max. p.462,&c.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 36.0 sensibly received and touched, because he is in person and in substance under the sensible species which are touched and received ; and all this imported that Jesus Christ is received and eaten, not in his projoer species and under the exterior of man, but under a foreign species, and under the exterior of bread and wine. And if the Church said also, in a certain sense, that the body of Jesus Christ is broken, it was not from her being ignorant that, in another sense, it was not so : just as when saying, in a certain sense, we are torn and wet when our clothes are so ; we are still sensible, at the same time, that, in another sense, we are neither one nor the other, as to our persons. Thus the Fathers justly said to Berengarlus what we still say *, " that the body of Jesus Christ is all entire in the whole Sacrament, and all entire in every article thereof; everywhere the same Jesus Christ always entire, inviolable and indivisible, communicating himself without dividing himself, as the word to a whole audience, and as our soul to all our members." But what obliged the Church to say, after many Fathers, and after St. Chrysostom, that the body of Jesus Christ is broken, was, that Berengarlus, under pretext of doing honour to the Saviour of tiie world, was accustomed to say-}-, " God forbid that man may break with the tooth, or divide Jesus Christ, in the same manner as we put under the tooth, and divide these things," namely, the bread and wine. The Church, which always took care to combat in heretics the most precise and strongest words they made use of to explain their error, opposed against Berengarlus the contradictory of that proposition he had advanced, and placed in some manner the Keal Presence under the eyes of Christians, by saying to them what they received in tiie sacrament, after consecration, was as really the body and the blood, as before consecration it was really bread and wine.

131. — Berengarlus' s second Confession of Faith, where the change of Substance is more clearly explained, and why.

Besides, when tlie faithful were told that the bread and wine of the Eucharist were in truth the body and the blood, they were accustomed to understand, not that they were so by their nature, but became such by the consecration, so that the cliange of substance was contained in that expression, although what principally was aimed at by it, was to render

366 THE HTSTOIIY OP ' [tiobR the presence sensible, which likewise was principally impugned. Some wliile after it was perceptible that Berengarius and his disciples varied. For we learn from authors of those times⁷⁰ that, in the course of the dispute, they acknowledged in the Eucharist the substance of the body and blood, but with that of bread and wine, employing even the term of impanation and that of invination, and asserting that Jesus Christ was, as I may say, impanate in the Eucharist, as he became incarnate in the Virgin's womb. This, says Guitmondus t, was as a last intrenchment to Berengarius ; nor was it without difficulty that tiiis subtlety of the sect was discovered. But the Church, which always follows heretics step by step to condemn their errors as they disclose them, after haxHng so well established the Real Presence in Berengarius's first Confession of Faith, proposed also another to him, in which the change of substance was expressed more distinctly. He confessed, therefore, under Gregory VII., in a Council held at Rome |, which was the sixth held under that Pope in 1079, " That the bread and wine, which are placed on the altar, by the mystery of holy prayer and the words of Jesus Christ, are substantially changed into the true, life-giving, and proper flesh of Jesus Christ, &c." And the same is said of the blood. It is specified that the body here received " is the same that was born of the Virgin, that was nailed to the cross, that is seated at the right hand of the Father, and the blood is the same that flowed from his side;" and in order that no room might be left for equivocation, whereby heretics delude mankind, it is added, this is done " not in sign and in virtue by a simple sacrament, but in the propriety of nature and the truth of substance."

132. — The change of Substance ivas opposed to Berengarius from the beginning.

Berengarius again subscribed, and this second time condemned himself ; but he was now so hampered, that no room for equivocation was left him, no subterfuge for his error. And if the change of substance was here insisted on more precisely, it was not that the Church had before in the least doubted of it, since, from the beginning of the dispute against Beren-

XV.] THE VAWIAXrONS, ETC. 367 garius, Hugo of Langres had said⁷¹, "that the bread and wine did not remain in their first nature, but pass into another ; that they were changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ by the omnipotence of God, against which Berengarius opposed himself in vain." And as soon as ever this heretic had declared himself, Adelman, Bishop of Bresse, his schoolfellow, and the first discoverer of his error, warned himf, " that he stood in opposition to the sense of the whole Catholic Church, and that it was as easy for Jesus Christ to change the bread into his body, as to change water into wine, and create light by his word alone." It was, therefore, a constant doctrine of the universal Church, not that the bread and wine contained the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but that they became his body and blood by a change of substance.

133. — A certain fact, that the Faith opposed to Berengarius was that of the whole Church and of all Christians,

Nor was it Adelman only that reproached Berengarius with the novelty and singularity of his doctrine; all authors unahimously upbraid him as with a certain fact, that the faith he impugned was that of the whole universe ; that he scandalized the whole Church by the novelty of his doctrine ; that to come over to his faith, it was necessary to believe there was no such thing as a Church on earth ; that there was not so much as one town, no, not one village of his opinion ; that the Greeks, the Armenians, in a word, all Christians had, in this regard, the same faith with those of the west; so that nothing could be more ridiculous than to censure, as incredible, what was believed by the whole world. Nor did Berengarius deny this fact, but, like all heretics, answered disdainfully, that wise men ought not to follow " the sentiments, or rather the follies, of the vulgar." But Lanfranc and the rest of them remonstrated, that what he called the vulgar, was the whole clergy and all the people of the universe ; and upon the certainty of this fact, wherein he feared no contradiction, he concluded, that if Berengarius's doctrine were true, " the inheritance promised to Jesus Christ was made void, and his promises annihilated ;" lastly, that " the Catholic Church was no more, and, if she was no more, she never had been J."

i Ascel. Ep. ad Ber. Guit. Ibid. lib. iii. pp. 462, 463. Lanfranc de Corp. et Sang. Dom. Ibid, c. ii. iv. v. xxii. pp. 765, 766, 776. Ibid, c, iv. p. 765. Ibid. c. xxii. p. 776.

3G8 THE HISTORY OP [boOK

134. — All Innovators always find the Church i?i a full and constant possession of thai Doctrine they attack.

A remarkable fact likewise may be here observed ; namely, that Berengarius, like all other heretics, found the Church firm and universally united in the dogma which he impugned ; this is what has always happened in like cases. Of all the dogmata which we believe, not so much as one can be named, which was not found invincibly and universally established when the contrary dogma began to make a sect ; and wherein the Church has not remained, if possible, still more fixed from that very time, a thing alone sufficient to make palpable the perpetual succession and immutability of her faith.

135. — There was no need of an universal Council against Berengarius.

There was not more necessity for convening an universal council against Berengarius than against Pelagius ; the decisions of the holy See, and of the Councils then held, were unanimously received by the whole Church, and the hei-esy of Berengarius, quickly crushed, found no longer any sanctuaiy but with the Manicheans.

136. — Decision of the great Council of Later an. — The word Transubstantiation pitched upon, and why.

It has been seen in what manner these Manicheans began to spread themselves all over the west, filling it with their blasphemies against the Real Presence, and at the same time, with their equivocating language, on purpose to conceal themselves from the Church, whose assemblies they were determined to frequent⁷². In order, therefore, that she might defeat these equivocations, the Church thought herself obliged to employ some precise terms, as she had done formerly with so much advantage against the Arians and Nestorians, which she did in this manner under Innocent III., in the great council of Lateran in the year of our Lord 1215 f. *' There is one only universal Church of the faithful out of which there is no salvation, in which Jesus Christ is himself the sacrificer and the victim, whose body and blood are truly contained under the species of bread and wine in the Sacrament of the altar, the bread and wine being transubstantiated, one into the body, and the other into the blood of our Lord

• S. 1. xi. n. 31, 32, &c. f Cone. Lat. iv. t. xi. Cone. Lab. p. 143.

XV.3 THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 369 by the divine power, to the end that, for accomplishing the mystery of unity, we should take of his what he himselt' took of ours." There is no one who does not see, that this new word transubstantiation here employed, without adding any thing to the idea of a change of substance which we have seen already owned against Berengarius, did but declare it by an expression, the bare signification of which served for a mark to the faithful against the subtilties and equivocations of heretics, as did heretofore the Homoousion of Nice, and the Theotocos of Ephesus. Such was the decision of the council of Lateran, the greatest and the most numerous that ever had been held, its authority being so great, that posterity has called it, by excellence, the General Council.

137. — The plainness of the Church's Decisions.

By these decisions may be seen, with what brevity, with what precision, with what uniformity the Church explains herself. Heretics, always in search after their faith, walk groping in the dark, and vary. The Church, which always carries her faith entirely formed in her heart, seeks only to explain it without intricacy and ambiguity ; for which reason her decisions are never clogged with a multiplicity of words. Besides, as she beholds without surprise the most sublime difficulties, she proposes them without reserve, convinced that she shall always find in her children a mind ready to captivate itself, and a docility capable of the whole weight of the divip': mystery. Heretics, who seek to indulge human sense and the animal part unsusceptible of the divine secret, take great pains to bend the Scripture to their taste and fancy. On the contrary, the Church only thinks of taking it in its plain sense. She hears our Saviour say, *' This is my body," and cannot apprehend that what he calls " body" so absolutely, should be anything else than the body itself; wherefore she believes without difficulty, that it is the body in substance, because the body in substance is nothing else but the true and proper body : thus the word substance enters naturally into her expressions. But then Berengarius never thought of using that word ; and Calvin, who used it, though agreeing in the main with Berengarius, has thereby made it but manifest, that the figure which Berengarius admitted, did not answer the whole expectation, nor the whole idea of a Christian.

The same simplicity, which made the Church believe the body present in the Sacrament, has made her believe that it was the whole substance of it, Jesus Christ not having said,

VOL. II. 2 B

" My body is here," but " This is it ;" and as it is not so by its nature, it becomes, and is made so by the divine power. This is what imports a conversion, a transformation, a change ; a word so natural to this mystery, that it could not fail taking place in Berengarius's case, and the more so, as it was everywhere already found in the Liturgies and Fathers.

138. — Decision of the Council of Trent.

These reasons, so plain and natural, were opposed to Berengarius. We have no other, even at this day, to oppose against Calvin and Zuinghus: we have received them from Catholics that w^rote against Berengarius, as they had received them from those who preceded them ; nor has the Council of Trent added anything to the decisions of our forefathers, unless what was necessary for a further elucidation of what Protestants studied to perplex and darken, as will easily be perceived by those who have the least knowledge of the history of our controversies⁷³.

But it was necessaiy, for instance, to explain more distinctly, that Jesus Christ rendered himself present, not only in the actual use of the Sacrament, as is the Lutherans' opinion-f-, but immediately after the Consecration, because it is not there said " This shall be," but " This is ;" which, nevertheless, was, in the main, what had been formerly said against Berengarius when the presence was annexed, not to the manducation, or to the faith of him who received the Sacrament, but to the " sacred prayer and the word of our Saviour ;" whei'eby also did appear, not the adoration only, but likewise the truth of the oblation and sacrifice, as we have seen confessed by the Protestants : '^ so that, in the end, there remains no difficulty but in the Real Presence, wherein we have the advantage to discover, that those even who in fact depart from our doctrine, do always endeavour (so sacred is it !) to draw as near to it as they are able.

139. — Reason for the Couiicil of Constance'' s Decision touching Communion under one kind.

The decision of Constance, in approbation of and for retaining communion under one kind, is one of those, wherein our adversaries think they have the most advantage. But in order to be convinced of the gravity and constancy of the

^•j- S. n, 131. S.l. iii. n. 51, et seq. as far as 56; 1. vi. n. 26, 31, et seq.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 371

Churcli in this decree, we need but remember that the Council of Constance *, when they passed it, had found the custom of comnuxnicating under one kind established, beyond contradiction, many ages before. The case was much the same with that of Baptism by immersion, as clearly grounded on Scripture as communion under both kinds could be, and which, nevertheless, had been changed into infusion, with as much ease and as little contradiction, as communion under one kind was established ; so that the same reason stood for retaining one as the other.

140. — Reasons determining the maintenance of the ancient custom.

It is a fact most certainly avowed in the Reformation, although at present some will cavil at it, that Baptism was instituted by immersing the whole body into M^ater ; that Jesus Christ received it so, and caused it to be so given by his Apostles; that the Scripture knows no other Baptism than this ; that antiquity so understood and practised it ; that the word itself implies it, to baptize being the same as to dip: this fact, I say, is unanimously acknowledged by all the Divines of the Reformation, nay, by the Reformers themselves, and those even who best understood the Greek language and the ancient customs as well of the Jews as Christians ; by Luther, by Melancthon, by Calvin, by Casaubon, by Grotius, by all the rest, and lately even by Jurieu, the most contradicting of all ministers f- Nay, Luther has observed, that the German word signifying Baptism was derived from thence, and this Sacrament named Tauf, from profundity or depth, because the baptized were deeply plunged into water. If, then, any fact in the world can be deemed certain, it is this same : but it is not less certain, even by all these authors, that Baptism without immersion is valid, and that the Church is in the right to retain the custom. It is therefore plain, in a parallel fact, what ought to be our judgment as to the decree of communion under one kind, and that all which is opposed against it, is nothing but chicane.

And, indeed, if there was reason to maintain Baptism without immersion, because, in rejecting it, it would follow, there had been no such thing as Baptism for many ages, consequently, no such thing as a Church, it being impossible for

" Cone. Const. Sess. viii. t Luth. deSacr. Bapt. t. i. Mel. loc. com. c. de Baptist. Cal. Inst. iv. 15, 19, &c. Casau. not. in Matt. iii. 6. Grot. Kp.3;36. Jur, Syst. l.iii. ch. xx.p.583.

2 B 2⁷⁴ the Church to subsist without the substance of the Sacraments; no less impossible was it, without the substance of the Supper. The same reason, then, subsisted for maintaining communion under one kind, as for maintaining Baptism by infusion; and the Church, in maintaining these two practices which tradition shewed equally indifferent, did nothing else but, according to custom, maintain against contentious spirits that authority, whereon the faith of the people did repose.

Whoever desires to see more on this subject, may turn back to those places of this history where it is handled, and among others, to those where may be seen, that communion under one kind was settled with so little contradiction, that it was not impugned by the greatest enemies of the Church, not even by Luther, at the beginning *.

141. — Question about Justification. Next to the question of the Eucharist, the principal one of our controversies is that of justification, in relation to which the gravity of the Church's decisions may be easily understood, in that she did but repeat in the Council of Trent, what the Fathers and St. Austin had decided formerly, when this question was debated with the Pelagians.

142. — Inherent justice acknowledged on both sides. — Consequence of this Doctrine.

And, in the first place, it must be supposed there is no question between us, whether or no a sanctity and justice infused into the soul by the Holy Ghost should be acknowledged in man justified ; for the qualities and infused habits are, as above seen, confessed by the Synod of Dortf. The Lutherans are no less steady in defending them ; and, in a word, all Protestants are agreed, that by the regeneration and sanctification of the new man, a sanctity and justice is formed in him like a permanent habit: the question is, whether this sanctity and this justice be what justifies us in the sight of God. But where is the difficulty of this ? A sanctity which does not make us saints, a justice which does not make us just, were a subtlety quite unintelligible. But a sanctity and justice formed in us by Almighty God, and yet not pleasing to him; or, if agreeable to him, not making tfiat person in whom it is found agreeable to him, would be another nicety still more unworthy the sincerity of a Christian.

*S, I.ii. 10. iii.eo, 61, etseq.vii.67. xi.l06. xiv. 114, 115. S. n.43. 61. t S. 1. xiv. n. 43.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 373

143. — The Church in the Council of Trent does but repeat her anciejit Decisions touching the notion of justifying Grace.

But, after all, when the Church defined in the Council of Trent, that remission of sins was given us, not by a simple imputation of the justice of Jesus Christ outwardly, but by a regeneration which changes and renews us inwardly ; she did but repeat what formerly she had defined against the Pelagians in tlie Council of Carthage, " that children are truly baptized in the remission of sins, to the end that regeneration should purify in them the sin which they contracted by generation *."

Conformably to these principles, the same Council of Carthage y understands by " justifying grace, not only that which remits to us sins committed, but that also which assists us to commit them no more," not only by enlightening our minds, but also by inspiring charity into our hearts, to the end, that " we might fulfil God's commandments." Now,'^the grace which works these things is not a simple imputation, but is also an emanation of the justice of Jesus Christ : wherefore justifying grace is a different thing from such an imputation ; and what was said in the Council of Trent is nothing but a repetition of the Council of Carthage, whose decrees appeared by so much the more inviolable to the Fathers at Ti-ent, as the Fathers of Carthage were sensible, in proposing them, they proposed nothing else on this subject, but what *' had always been approved of in the Catholic Church spread over the entire earth %."

144. — Touching gratuity.

Our forefathers, therefore, did not believe, in order to destroy human glory and attribute all to Jesus Christ, that it was necessary, either to take from man that justice which was in him, or to diminish the value, or deny the effect thereof ; but believed they ought to acknowledge it as proceeding from God only by a gratuitous bounty, and this also was wliat the Trent Fathers acknowledged after them, as above seen in many places of this work §.

It is in this sense that the Catholic Church had always confessed after St. Paul, that " Jesus Christ is made unto us wisdom ||," not by simply imputing to us that wisdom⁷⁵⁷⁶ which is in him, but by infusing into our souls that wisdom which flows from his; that he is " unto us justice and sanctity," in the same sense that he is redemption, not by covering our crimes only, but by defacing them entirely by his Holy Spirit poured into our hearts : moreover, that we are *' made the justice of God in Jesus Christ⁷⁷," in a manner more intimate than Jesus Christ " had been made to be sin for us, since God had made him sin," to wit, the victim for sin, by treating him as a sinner though he were just; whereas, he " had made us the justice of God in him," not by leaving us our sins, and merely treating us as just men, but by taking from us our sins, and by rendering us just.

145. — Touching the preparations to Graces that they all proceed from Grace.

In order to make this grace inherent in us absolutely gratuitous, our forefathers did not believe that it was necessary to say, one cannot dispose himself for them by good desires, nor obtain them by prayers ; but they believed these good desires and prayers were themselves inspired of God ; and this is what the Council of Trent f has done after their example, when it said, that all our good dispositions came " from a preventing grace ;" that we could not " dispose and prepare ourselves" for grace, but as we are " excited and assisted by grace itself;" that God is the source of all justice, and in this quality ought to be beloved ; and that there was " no believing, hoping, loving, nor repenting as we ought, so that the grace of justification might be conferred upon us, without a preventing inspiration of the Holy Ghost %•" Wherein this Holy Council has done no more than repeat what we i⁷⁸ead in the Council of Orange §, viz. " that we can neither will, nor believe, nor think, nor love as we ought to do, and advantageously, but by the inspiration of preventing grace ;" that is to say, they would not dispute either against heretics, or against infidels, or even against heathens, or, in a word, against any others who imagine they love God, and who feel in effect inclinations so like to those of the faithful: but, without entering with them into an impossible discussion of the precise differences of their sentiments from those of the just, they were satisfied with defining, that what is performed without grace, is not " as it ought to be," nor agreeable to God, since " without faith it is impossible to please him ||."

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 375

146. — Touching the necessity of freserving Free-will together with Grace.

If the Council of Trent, In defending the grace of God, hath, at the same time, maintained Free-will, this also was a faithful repetition of our forefathers' sentiments, when they defined, against the Pelagians, " that grace destroyed not freewill, but set it at liberty, to the end that, of darkened it might become full of light ; of sick, healthy ; of depraved, upright; of imprudent, provident and wise⁷⁹:" for which reason the grace of God was called " an aid and a succour of the free-will;"" consequently, something which, far from destroying, conserved and perfected it.

147. — Touching the merit of good-works.

According to so pure a notion, far from fearing the word merit, which indeed naturally expressed the dignity of goodworks, our Fathers maintained it against the remnant of Pelagians in the same Council of Orange f , by these words repeated in that of Trent |, " the goodness of God is so great to all mankind, that what he gives us, he will even have to be our merit ;" from whence it follows, as likewise the same Fathers of the Council of Orange § have decided, " that all the works and merits of the saints ought to be referred to God's glory, because none can please him except by the things which he has given."

Lastly, if at Trent they did not fear to acknowledge, with a holy confidence, that eternal recompence is due to goodworks, it is still in conformity with, and on the same principles that our Fathers had said in tlie Council of Orange ||, " that merits do not prevent grace, and that recompence is only due to good-works on account that grace, which was not due, did not precede them."'

148. — Touching the fulfilling of God's commandments.

By this moans we find in the Christian a ti'ue justice, but which is given him by God together with his love, and which accordingly makes him accomplish his commandments, wherein the Council of Trent ^ likewise does not but follow that rule of the Fathers of Orange: viz., "after having received grace by baptism, all the baptized, with the grace and co-operation of f Conc.Ara. % Conc.Trid. Sess. vi. 16. ^S Cone. Ara. v.

II Ibid. c. xviii. f Cone. Trid. Sess. vi. can. II. can. 18. cap. xxv.

Jesiis Christ, can and ought to fulfil what appertains to salvation, if they Mill labour faithfully ;" where these Fathers have united Jesus Christ's co-operating grace with man's labour and faithful correspondence, agreeably to that saying of St. Paul, " Yet not I, but the grace of God with me⁸⁰."

149. — Touching the Truth, and, withal, the imperfection of our Justice.

Notwithstanding this opinion which we have of Christian justice, yet we do not believe that it is perfect and wholly irreprehensible, since we place the principal part thereof in continually demanding the forgiveness of sins : and if we believe these sins, whereof the most just are obliged daily to implore forgiveness, do not hinder them from being truly just, the Council of Trent has moreover taken this so necessary a decision from the Council of Carthage, which declaresj " that the saints are they who say humbly and truly at the same time, ' forgive us our trespasses ;' that the Apostle St. James, although holy and just, said, nevertheless, 'we all ofl'end in many things :' that Daniel also, though holy and just, yet did say, ' we have sinned.' " Whence it follows that such sins hinder not holiness and justice, because they hinder not the love of God from reigning in our hearts.

150. — God accepts our good works for the love of Jesus

Christ.

Now, if the Council of Carthage, on account of these sins, will have us continually say to God, " Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for that no man living shall be justified in thy sight ;|; ;" we understand this, as does that Council, of perfect justice, without excluding from the just man a true justice ; acknowledging, nevertheless, that it is also by an effect of a gratuitous bounty, and for the love of Jesus Christ, that God, who could have set at as high a pi'ice as he pleased, to condemned persons as we were, so great a good as life eternal, did not exact of us a righteousness without blemish, and, on the contrary, has consented to judge us, not with extremity of rigour,but witha rigour tempered and suited to our weakness, which obliged the Council of Trent⁸¹ to acknowledge " that man hath not wherewith to glorify himself, but all his glory is in Christ Jesus, in whom we live, in whom we meritj in whom we satisfy, doing worthy fruits of penance

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 377 which derive from him their virtue ; by him are offered to his Father, and for the love of him are accepted by his Father."

151. — That the Holy Fathers have detested no less than we^ as a blasphemy, the doctrine which makes God equally predestinate to good and evil.

The rock to be feared in celebrating the mystery of Predestination, was the admitting it equally in respect of good and evil; and if the Church abhorred the crime of the pretended Reformers guilty of this excess, she did but walk in the steps of the Council of Orange*, which pronounces an eternal " anathema, with utter detestation, against those who should dare to say that man is predestinated to evil by the divine power ;" and of the Council of Valentiaf, deciding, in like manner, "that God, by his fore-knowledge, doth impose on no man the necessity of sinning, but foresees only what man would be by his own will ; so that the wicked do not perish on account that they had not the power of being good, but because they would not become good, or because they would not remain in the gi-ace they had received/*

152. — The Church always found in the same situation.

Thus, when a question has been once judged in the Church, as she never fails to decide it according to the tradition of all past ages, so, should it happen to be moved again in succeeding times, you find the Church, after a thousand or twelve hundred years, always in the same situation, always ready to oppose against the enemies of truth the same decrees which the Holy Apostolic See and Catholic Unanimity had pronounced, without ever adding anything thereto, save what is necessary against new errors.

153. — Our Fathers have rejected, as well as we, the certainty of Salvation and Righteousness.

To conclude what remains on the subject of justifying grace, I find no decision touching the certainty of salvation, because as yet nothing had obliged the Church to pronounce on this point : yet none has contradicted St. Austin, who teaches " that this certainty is not beneficial in this state of temp- tation, in which assurance might produce pride⁸² ;" which also extends itself, as is plain, to the certainty one might have of present righteousness, so that the Catholic Church, whilst she inspires into her children so great a confidence as to exclude perturbation and trouble, yet leaves in them, after the example of the Apostles, the counterpoise of fear, and no less teaches man to distrust himself than to trust absolutely in God.

154. — Melancthon agrees that the article of Justification is easy to be reconciled.

In fine, if all that has been seen granted in this work by our adversaries, touching justification and the merits of the saints, be reviewed, it will entirely convince a man that there is not the least occasion to complain of the Church's doctrinef. Melancthon, so zealous for this article, owns nevertheless that " it is easy to come to an agreement on both sides :" what he seems most to insist upon is the certainty of justice ; but every humble Christian will easily rest contented with the same certainty with respect to justice as to eternal salvation : all the comfort man ought to have in this life is that of excluding by hope, not only despair, but also trouble and anguish ; nor is there anything to reproach a Christian with, who, assured on God's side, has no longer anything to fear or doubt but from himself.

155. — The clearness of the Church's decisions. — She cuts away the root of abuses i7i regard of Prayer to the Saints.

The decisions of the Catholic Church are not less clear and precise than they are firm and lasting, always obviating whatever might give occasion to the mind of man going astray|. Honouring the Saints in her assemblies, was honouring God, the author of their sanctity and bliss ; and demanding of them the partnership of their prayei's, was joining ourselves to the choirs of angels, to the spirits of the perfectly just, and to the Church of the first-born which are in heaven. So hol}^ a practice may be discovered ever since the first ages, nor is the beginning of it to be discovered there, since none can then be found who were noted for innovation in

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 379 that regard. The thing most to be feared with respect to the ignorant was, lest they should make the invocation of saints too like to that of God, and their intercession loo like that of Jesus Christ : but the Council of Trent⁸³ instructs us fully as to these two points, by warning us that the saints pray, — which places them at an infinite distance from him who gives; and that they pray through Jesus Christ, — which places them infinitely beneath him who is heard through himself.

156. — Regarding Images.

Setting up images is rendering sensible the mysteries and examples which sanctify us. The thing to be feared in respect of the ignorant is, lest they should believe that the divine nature might be represented, or rendered present in images, or, at all events, lest they should look upon them as filled with some virtue for which they are honoured ; these are the three characters of idolatry. But the Council has rejected them in plain terms -f- ; so that it is not lawful to atti-ibute to one image more virtue than to another, nor, by consequence, to frequent one more than another, unless in memory of some miracles, or some pious history which might excite devotion.^ The use of images being thus purified, Luther himself and the Lutherans will demonstrate that images of this kind are not what the Decalogue speaks of, and the honour rendei⁸⁴ed to them will be manifestly nothiuoelse than a sensible and exterior testimony of the pious remembrance they excite, and the simple and natural effect of that mute language which accompanies these pious representations, and whose usefulness is so much the greater, as it is capable of being understood by all mankind.

157. — Regarding Worship in general.

In general, worship is referred to the interior and exterior exercise of faith, of hope, and of charity, and principally to that of this last virtue, whose property it is to unite us M'ith God ; so that a worship in spirit and in truth exists everywhere, wherever there is to be found the exercise of charity towards God or towards our neighbour, conformably to that saving of St. James, " Pure religion, and undefiled before God is tliis, to visit the fatherless and widows, and to keep himself unspotted from the world⁸⁵ ;" and every act of piety not animated with this spirit is imperfect, carnal, or superstitious.

380 THE HISTORV OF [booK

158. — Against those who accuse the Council of Trent of having spoken ambiguously.

Under pretext that the Council of Trent declined entering into many difficulties, our adversaries, after Fra-Paolo, are continually blaming it as having explained the dogmata in general, obscure, and equivocal terms, with the design of pleasing in appearance the greatest number : but they would entertain more equitable sentiments, did they but consider, that God, who knows how far he designs to guide our understanding in revealing to us some truth, or some mystery, does not always reveal to us either the ways of explaining it, or the circumstances which accompany it, or even wherein it consists as to its utmost precision, or, as we speak in schools, as to its specific difference; so that, in Church decisions, it is often necessary to keep to general expressions, in order to retain that measure of faith so much commended by St. Paul *, and not to transgress his precept forbidding us to be more wise than we ought to be.

159. — The principles of Protestants prove the necessity of Purgatory.

For example, in the controversy concerning Purgatory, the Council of Trent has firmly believed as a truth revealed of God, that just souls may depart this life without being wholly purified. Grotius proves evidently f, that this truth is confessed by Protestants, by Mestresat, by Spanheim, by Calvin himself, on this common ground-work of the Reformation, viz. that in the whole course of this life the soul is never entirely pure, whence it follows that she is still defiled at her departure from the body. But the Holy Ghost hath pronounced, that " not anything that is polluted shall enter into the holy city J;" and the minister Spanheim § proves unanswerably, that the soul cannot be presented to God till she be " without spot or wrinkle, all holy, pure, unblameable," conformably to the doctrine of St. Paul||, which he allows she cannot be, during this mortal life.

160. — Protestants do not reject the purification of souls after this life.

After this still remains the question, whether or no this purification of the soul be wrought in this life at the last moment,

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 381 or after death ; and Spanheim leaves the thing undecided * : " The main point (says he) is uncertain, but the manner and circumstances are not so." But without further pressing this author with the principles of the sect, the Catholic Church advances beyond this : for the tradition of all ages having taught her to pray in behalf of the dead, for the comfort of their souls, for the forgiveness of their sins, and their relief, she has held it for a certain truth, that the perfect purification of souls was performed after death, and this by secret pains not alike explained by the holy doctors, but of which they said only, that they might be mitigated and wholly remitted by prayers and oblations, answerably to the Liturgies of all Churches.

161. — Moderation of the Church in not determining any^ thing but what is certain.

Without examining in this place whether this sentiment be good or bad, it were no longer equitable, or candid, to refuse granting us, that in this presupposition at least, the Council ought to have formed its decree in a general expression, and defined as it has done : -f⁸⁶ first, that there is a Purgatory after this life ; secondly, that the prayers of the living may atford relief to faithful souls departed, without descending to particulars, either of their pains or the manner in which they are purified, because tradition did not explain it ; but shewing only that they are purified by Jesus Christ alone, they being purified only by prayers and oblations made in his name.

162. — The difference of general terms, from indefinite, perplexed, or ambiguous terms.

The same judgment ought to be passed on other decisions, and care taken not to confound, as our reformed here do, general with indefinite, intricate, or ambiguous terms. Indefinite terms signify just nothing ; ambiguous terms signify equivocally, and leave in the mind no determinate sense ; intricate terms raise a mist of confused ideas; but although general terms carry not the evidence as far as the utmost precision, they are, however, to a certain degree perspicuous.

163. — General terms are clear in their way.

Our adversaries will not deny that the passages of Scripture, which say that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the

382 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

Father, denote clearly some truth, since they denote, beyond all doubt, that the third Person of the Trinity derives his origin from t!ie Father no less than the second, although they do not express specifically wherein his profession consists, nor wherein it is different from that of the Son. It is, therefore, plain, that general expressions cannot be blamed, without blaming at the same time Jesus Christ and the Gospel.

164. — In what consists the clearness of a decision.

It is in this that our adversaries always shew themselves unjust to the Council, sometimes blaming it for descending too much to particulars, and sometimes requiring it should have decided all the disputes of the Scotists and Thomists, under penalty of being convicted of affected obscurity : as if they were ignorant that, in decisions of faith, a free scope ought to be allowed to divines for proposing different means of explaining the Christian truths, and, consequently, that a Council, waiving their several and particular opinions, ought to keep itself within the compass of such essential points, as they all defend in common. This method of defining the articles of our faith is so far from speaking equivocally, that, on the contrarj^ it is an effect of clearness to define so plainly that which is certain, as not to involve in the decision what is doubtful ; nor is there anything more becoming the authority and majesty of a Council, than to repress the impetuosity of those who would advance beyond these bounds.

165. — That which is certain in regard of the Pope's authority^ acknowledged in the Council and by the Catholic Doctors.

Conformably to this rule, a form for explaining the Pope's authority having been proposed at Trent in such terms as that his superiority over the general Council might in some manner be inferred, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Bishops of France being opposed to it, Cardinal Pallavicini himself relates in his histor)', that the form was suppressed, and the Pope answered, that " Nothing ought to be defined but what all the Fathers should unanimously agree to * ;" an admirable rule in order to separate what is certain from what is doubtful ! Whence it also came to pass that the Cardinal du Perron, although a zealous defender of the interests of the Court of Rome, declared to the King of England, '⁸⁷ That

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 383 the dispute concerning the PojDe's authority, whether in its spiritual regard to (Ecumenical Councils, or in its temporal regard to secular jurisdictions, is not a dispute about tilings that are held for articles of faith, or are inserted and required in the Confession of Faith, or that could hinder his Majesty from entering into the Church, should he be satisfied in other points⁸⁸." And even in our days, the renowned Andrew du Val f , doctor of Sorbonne, to whom those on the other side of the Alps referred the defence of their cause, decided that the doctrine denying the Pope's infallibility is not absolutely against faith ; and that which places the Council above the Pope cannot be branded with any censure, either of heresy, or error, or even of temerity.

166. — With thismoderatioUf Melancthon would have owned the Pope''s authority.

Thereby it appears that doctrines, not supported by a certain and perpetual tradition, cannot strike root in the Church, since they make not a part of her confession of faith ; and that even those who teach them, teach them as their particular doctrine, and not as the doctrine of the Catholic Church %' To reject the supremacy and authority of the Holy See, with this wholesome moderation, is to reject the band of Christians, is to be at enmity with order and peace, and to envy the Church that good which Melancthon himself wished it might enjoy §.

167. — Abridgment of this last hook, and first, touching the perpetual Visibility of the Church.

After what has been seen, there is nothing left at present that can hinder our reformed from submitting to the Church ; the shelter of a Church invisible is abandoned : no longer is it allowable to allege in its defence the obscurities of the Jewish Church ; the ministers have freed us from the trouble of answei'ing on that head, by shewing clearly, that the true worship was never interrupted, not even under Achaz and Manasses || : the Christian society, more extensive than that of the Jews, according to the conditions of its covenant, has likewise stood more firm, and the perpetual visibility of the Catholic Church can be no longer doubted of.

•(• Du Vail. Elench. p. 9. it. tract.de Sup. Rom. Pont, potes. part ii.q. 1. p. 4. q. 7, 8.

X Vid. 1. iv. 39. V. 24, 23. ^ Mel. de pace, c. de pot. Pontif. p. 6.

II 4 Reg. xvi. 4, 15. xxi. Jur. Syst. pp. 222, 223.

384 THE HISTORY OP [bOOK

168. — A remark on the Confession of Augsburg.

Those of the Confession of Augsburg are yet more obliged • to acknowledge it than the Calvinists * : the Invisible Church has neither found place in their Confession of Faith, nor in their apology, wherein, on the contrary, we have seen the Church spoken of in the Creed vested with a jjerpetual visibility, and, according to these principles, they should be able to shew us an assembly made up of pastors and people, in which sound doctrine and the Sacraments have ever flourished.

169. — The arguments brought by them against the authority of the Church, are resolved by the Ministers.

All the arguments that were formed against the authority of the Church are given up. Yielding to the authority of the Universal Church, is now no longer acting unadvisedly nor submitting to men, since they own that her sentiments are the rule, nay, the most sure rule, for deciding the most important truths of religion f. They agree, if this rule had been followed, and men had proposed to themselves the understanding holy Scripture as it was understood by the Universal Church, that there never would have been Socinians ; never should we have heard the divinity of Jesus Christ called in question, the immortality of the soul, the eternity of pains, the creation, God⁸⁹'s foreknowledge, the spirituality of his essence : things so firmly believed among Christians, that they did not so much as think they could be ever doubted of, and which at present are impugned with such captious arguments, that very many weak minds are ensnared thereby. They agree that the authority of the Universal Church is an infallible remedy against this disorder ; so that the authority of the Church, far from being, what was said in the Reformation, a means of introducing all manner of new-fangled doctrines amongst Christians, is, on the contrary, a certain means of putting a stop to the licentiousness of men's minds, of preventing the abuse they make of the sublimity of Scripture, after a manner so dangerous to the salvation of souls.

The Reformation has discovered these truths at last ; and if the Lutherans will not receive them from the hands of a Calvinian minister, they have but to explain to us how they

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, BTC. 385 can resist the authority of the Church after having owned that the truth is always manifest in her⁹⁰.

170. — Salvation to be had in the Church of Rome.

None now, of whatever separate communions, should any longer hesitate to come and seek eternal life in the bosom of the Church of Rome, since it is confessed -f- that God's true people and his true elect are still in her, as it hath always been confessed that they were before the pretended Reformation. But it is perceived at length, that the difference put between the ages that preceded, and those which followed it, was vain, and that the difficulty which was made of acknowledging this truth, proceeded from evil policv.

Should the Lutherans here start new difficulties, and not suffer themselves to be persuaded by the sentiments of Calixtus, let them shew us what the Church of Rome has done since Luther's time to forfeit the title of a true Church, and so to lose her fecundity, that the elect can be no longer born in her womb.

171. — The Ministers are not to be believed when they make Salvation so difficult in the Church of Rome.

True it is, when the ministers acknowledge you may be saved in the Church of Rome, they would make you believe you may do it as in an infected air, and by a kind of miracle, by reason of her impieties and idolatries. But men should learn to distinguish, in the ministers, what hatred has made them add, from what truth has forced them to confess. If the Church of Rome made profession of impiet}' and idolatry, no salvation could have been had in her, either before or after the Reformation; and if, both before and after, salvation may be had in her body, the accusation of impiety and idolatry is unworthy and calumnious.

]72. — Excesses of the Ministers who prefer the Arian Sect to the Church of Rome.

And, indeed, the hatred they shew to her is but too visible, since they are so far transported as to say, that without doubt a man may save his soul in that communion, but with greater difficulty than " amongst the Arians;]:," who deny the divinity of the Son of God and of the Holy Ghost ; wno, by conse-

I Prcj. leg. part i. ch. i. Syst. p. 225. VOL. II. 2 0 quence, believe themselves devoted to creatures by baptism ; who, in the Eucharist, look on the flesh of a man, who is not God, as the source of life ; who believe that, without being God, a man has saved them, and was able to pay the price of their redemption ; who invoke him as the person to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth; who are consecrated to the Holy Ghost, namely, to a creature, to become his temples ; who believe that a creature, to wit, the same Holy Ghost, distributes grace to them as he pleases, regenerates them, and sanctifies them by his presence. This is the sect they prefer to the Church of Rome ; and is not this saying to all that are capable of understanding. Believe not one word we say ; when we speak of that Church, hatred possesses and sets us besides ourselves.

173. — The Protestants can no longer excuse themselves from

Schism.

Lastly, there is no longer any possibility for our reformed to avoid being reckoned amongst the number of those "who separate themselves, and M^ho make a sect apart," contrary to the precept of the Apostles, particularly St. Jude *, and contrai'y to the import of their own Catechism -j⁹¹. Here are its very words in the exposition of the Creed : " The article of forgiveness of sins is placed after that of the Catholic Church, because no one obtains pardon for his sins except beforehand he be incorporated with God's people, and persevere in unity and communion with the body of Christ, and so be a member of the Church ; insomuch that, out of the Church, there is nothing but death and damnation ; for all those who separate from the society of the faithful, to make a sect apart, ought not to hope for salvation whilst they are in division."

The article speaks clearly of the Universal Church, visible and always visible, and in this we have seen that they are agreed X '• they are agreed likewise, as to a fact certain and notorious, that the Churches, which call themselves reformed, at their renouncing the communion of the Church of Rome, did not find on earth one Church which they united with : they therefore made a sect apart from the whole body of Christians and Universal Church ; and, according to their own doctrine, renounce the grace of forgiveness of sins, which

• S. n. 21, 22, 34, 35, et seq. 68, 81, 82, 83.

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 387 is the fruit of the blood of Jesus Christ ; and death and damnation is their lot.

174. — Short repetition of the absurdities of the new System.

The absurdities, necessarily attending the answer to this argument, plainly discover how invincible it is; for after a thousand fruitless shifts, they were, in fine, driven into such straits as even to say *', that you remain in the Catholic and Universal Church, in renouncing the communion of all Churches in the world, and in making a Church apart; that you remain in the same Universal Church although driven from it by a just censure ; that you cannot go forth from it by any other crime than that of apostacy, by renouncing Christianity and your baptism ; that all the Christian sects, how divided soever they be, are one and the same body, and one and the same Church in Jesus Christ : that Christian Churches have no exterior band of union bv the appointment of Jesus Christ ; that their band is arbitrary ; that the Confessions of Faith whereby they unite themselves, are arbitrary likewise, and contracts susceptible of what terms you please, which yet may not be broken without incurring the guilt of Schism ; that the union of Churches depends on empires and the will of princes ; that all Christian Churches are naturally, and by their origin, independent one of another, whence it follows that the Independents, so grievously censured at Charenton, do nothing else but stand up for the natural liberty of Churches; that, provided you find means of assembling together either with consent or by violence so as " to make a figure in the world," you are a true member of the body of the Catholic Church ; that no heresy ever has, or can be, condemned by a judgment of the Universal Church ; nay, that there is not, nor can be, any ecclesiastical judgment in matters of faith ; that men have no right to exact subscriptions to the decrees of Synods respecting faith; that one may save his soul in the most perverse sects, even in that of the Socinians.

175. — The height of absurdities, viz. the kingdom of Jesus Christ confounded with the kingdom of Satan.

There would be no end were I to repeat all the absurdities it was necessary to vent in order to save the Reformation from the sentence pronounced against those " who make a sect apart." But, besides that it is needless to enter into a detail of them,

388 THE HISTORY, ETC. [bOOK XV.

they are all compi'ised in this one which has been always more or less maintained in the Reformation, and wherein the whole defence of the cause is placed now more than ever ; viz. " that the Catholic Church,'"' whereof the Creed speaks, is one heap of sects divided amongst one another, and which anathematize one another * ; insomuch that the character of Jesus Christ's kingdom is the same with that given by Jesus Christ to the kingdom of Satan, as above explained. 4

But nothing is more opposite to the doctrine of Christ himself. According to his doctrine, the kingdom of Satan is divided against itself f, and must fall, house upon house, to utter desolation. On the contrary, according to the promise of Jesus Christ, his Church, which is his kingdom built on the rock X, on the same Confession of Faith, and the same ecclesiastical government, is perfectly united : whence it follows that she is immovable, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her ; that is to say, division, the cause of weakness and the character of hell, shall not get the better of unity, the cause of strength, and the character of the Church. But all this order is changed in the Reformation; and the kingdom of Jesus Christ being divided like to that of Satan, no wonder men have said, conformably to such a principle, that it was fallen to ruin and desolation.

176. — The immovable .steadfastness of the Church. — Conclusion of this Work.

These maxims of division were the ground-work of the Reformation, inasmuch as it was established by an universal rupture, and a Church-unity has never been known therein : and therefore its Variations, whose history we have at length concluded, have shewed us what it was, to wit, a kingdom disunited, divided against itself, and which must fall sooner or later : whilst the Catholic Church, so unalterably attached to decrees once pronounced, that not the least variation since the origin of Christianity can be discovered in her, shews herself a Church built on the rock, always in full security from the promises she has received, firm in her principles, and guided by a Spirit which never contradicts himself.

May He who holds in his hand the hearts of men, and who alone knows the bounds he has set to rebellious sects, and to the afflictions of his Church, cause all his stray children quickly to return to her unity ; and may we have the joy to behold with our eyes Israel, so unfortunately divided, unite under one and the same head with Judah §.

A MATERIAL

APPENDIX

THE FOURTEENTH BOOK.

1 . — A 7iew Book writ by the Minister Jurieu concerning the union of the Calvinists with the Lutherans.

After this impression was finished, a Latin book fell into my hands, which the indefatigable Jurieu has just brought to light, and whereof it is requisite T should give the public some account. The title is, " An Amicable Consultation concerning Peace between the Protestants." Therein he treats of this subject with the Doctor Daniel Severin Scultet, who, on his side, proposes to himself to smooth the difficulties of this peace so frequently attempted and so unsuccessfully. The question chiefly in debate is that of predestination and grace. The Lutheran cannot digest what was defined at the Synod of Dort touching absolute decrees and grace irresistible : he judges still more insupportable what the same Synod teaches of the inamissibility of justice, and the certainty of salvation, there being nothing, in his notion, more impious than to give to man once justified, a certain assurance in the midst of the most heinous crimes, that they shall neither make him forfeit his salvation in eternity, nor in time even the Holy Ghost and the grace of adoption. I repeat not the explanation of these questions, which the reader must have understood from the account given of them in this history * ; but shall only sa)', that this is what is called, among the Lutherans, tha particularism of the Calvinists: so abominable a heresy that they charge it with nothing less than of making God the author of sin, and of subverting all Christian morality, by inspiring with a pernicious security those who are abandoned

L. ix, xiv.

390 THE HISTORY OP [aPP. TO to the most abominable enormities. Mr. Jurieu does not deny that the Synod of Dort taught these dogmata laid to its charge : he endeavours only to clear them from those evil conseqiiences which are thence drawn ; and he himself carries so far the certainty of salvation, the very dogma we have seen all centre in, as to say, that taking it from the faithful is making a Christian's life an insufferable torment⁹². He grants then, in the main, the sentiments imputed to the Calvinists : but, in order to bring about a peace, notwithstanding so great an opposition in such important articles, after proposing some mitigations consisting in words only, he concludes for a mutual toleration. The reasons he grounds himself on are reduced to two, one whereof is recrimination, and the other a compensation of dogmata.

2. — The Minister Jurieu' s recriminations agcdnst the Lutherans, concerning Luther's blasphemies.

As for recrimination, Mr. Jurieu's reasoning is as follows. You accuse us, says he to Doctor Scultet, of making God the author of sini^; it is Luther you must accuse of this, not us: and thereupon cites to him those passages we have above related, where Luther decides " that God's prescience renders freewill impossible; that Judas, for this reason, could not help betraying his master ; that all that passes in man, whether good or evil, happens by pure and inevitable necessity; that it is God who operates in man all the good and evil that is done bv him, and makes man guilty of damnation by necessity ; that David's adultery is no less the work of God than the vocation of St. Paul ; lastly, that it is no more unworthy of God to damn the innocent, than to forgive, as he does, the guilty.^'

The Calvinist then shews, that Luther does not speak here in a doubting manner, but with that terrible decision above specified, and which suffers no reply on this head : "You (says he 1^^ that hear me, never forget that 1 am the man who thus teaches, and without any new inquiry submit to this word."

The Lutheran thought to escape, by saying that Luther had recanted : but the Calvinist nonplusses him when he demands §, ''where is this recantation of Luther.'' It is true, (proceeds he,) he has begged we would excuse, in his first books, some remnants of Popery in regard to indul-

BOOK XIV.] THE VATIIATIONS, ETC. 391 gences : but as to what regards Free-will, he never changed a tittle of his doctrine." And, indeed, it is very certain that the above-said monstersof impiety were far from being derived from Popery, which, as Luther acknowledges in all these places, held them in execration.

Mr. Jurieu, in that respect, is of the same opinion with us, and declares⁹³, " he holds in abfiorrence these dogmata of Luther, as impious, horrible, frightful, deserving every anathema, introductive of Manicheism, and subversive of all religion." He is sorry to see himself obliged to speak thus of the head of the Reformation. " I speak it (says he) with grief, and favour, as much as I am able, the memory of this great man." This is, therefore, one of those confessions, which the evidence of truth extorts from men, how much soever against their will ; and, in fine, the author of the Reformation, by the very confession of the Reformed, is convicted of being an impious blasphemer against God : after this, a great man, as much as they please ; for to have sounded the alarm against Rome, is merit enough in the Reformation for any titles whatever. Melancthon is guilty of this wicked doctrine, which destroys all religion. Mr. Jurieu has convicted him of uttering the same blasphemies as his master f ; and instead of detesting them, as they deserved, of never having retracted them but too faintly and with diffidence. You see on what corner-stones the Reformation was built.

3. — Whether Calvin has less blasphemed than Luther.

But because Mr. Jurieu here seems willing to excuse Calvin, he need but cast his eyes on the passages of this author already quoted by me in this history: there will he findj " that Adam could not avoid his fall, and was nevertheless guilty, because he fell voluntarily ; that it was ordained by God, and comprised in his secret decrees." There will he find, " that a hidden counsel of God is the cause of hardness of heart ; that we must not deny that God willed and decreed the defection of Adam, since he does all he wills ; tliat this decree, he must confess, raises horror; yet, after all, it cannot be denied but God foresaw the fall of man, because he had ordained it by his own decree ; that we ought not to use the word permission, since it is an express order ; that the will of God makes the necessity of things ; and all he

{ S. 1. xiv. n. 4. Opusc, de pr«d, pp. 704, 705. Inst. iii. xxiii. i, pp. 1, 7, 8, 9.⁹⁴⁹⁵⁹⁶

hath willed happens necessarily ; that it was for this reason Adanfi fell by an order of God's providence, and because God had so judged it fitting, although he fell through his own fault ; that the reprobate are inexcusable, although they cannot shun the necessity of sinning ; and that this necessity befalls them by God's appointment⁹⁷; that God speaks to them, but on purpose to make them the more deaf; that he places light before their eyes, but on purpose to blind them ; that he applies sound doctrine to them, but on purpose to render them the more insensible ; that he sends them remedies, but to the end they may not be cured."

What is here wanting to make Calvin as complete a Manichean as Lutheri-.

What, therefore, does it avail Mr. Jurieu to have quoted us some passages of Calvin, where he seems to say that man was free in Adam, and fell in Adam by his own will ; since it is otherwise certain from Calvin himself, that this will of Adam was the necessary effect of a special decree of God .'' And, indeed, the truth is, this minister has not pretended absolutely to excuse his Calvin, but contents himself with saying only, " he was sober in comparison to LutherJ:" but we have just heard him speak not less extravagantly and impiously than Luther.

I have also produced Beza's words §, which manifestly refer all sins to the will of God as their first cause. Thus, beyond all dispute, the heads of both parties of the Reformation, Luther and Melancthon on one side, Calvin and Beza on the other, the masters and disciples, equally are convicted of Manicheism and impiety ; and Mr. Jurieu has had reason to confess candidly of the Reformers in general, that they taught that " God drove on wicked men to enormous crimesjl."

4. — Another recnmination of the Minister Jurieu. — The Lutherans convicted of Pelagianism.

The Calvinist returns to the charge, and here is another recrimination not less remarkable. You upbraid us, says he to the Lutherans, with our irresistible grace : but in order to make it resistible you run to the opposite extreme ; and, unlike to your master Luther, whereas in matter of grace, he so far outwent all bounds " as to make himself suspected of Manicheism," you do the like in Free-will, so as to turn Demi-

BOOK XIV.] THE VAHIATIONS, ETC. 393

Pelagians, since you attribute to it the beginning of salvation *. Which he makes evident by the same proofs we have made use of in this history, by shewing the Lutherans that, according to them, the grace of conversion depends on the care they themselves take to hear the word preached. I have clearly demonstrated this Demi-Pelagianism of the Lutherans from the book of Concord, and from other testimonies : but the minister strengthens my proofs with the testimony of his adversary, Scultet, who confesses in as many words f, " that God converts men, when men themselves receive the word preached witli respect and attention." Accordingly, it is in this manner the Lutherans explain the universal will of saving all mankind, and say with Scultet, " that God will infuse contrition and a lively faith into the hearts of all the adult, provided, nevertheless, they do beforehand the necessary duty for man's conversion.'" Thus, what they attribute to the divine power, is that grace which goes hand in hand with preaching ; and what they attribute to Free-will, is rendering itself beforehand, by its own strength, attentive to the word announced : which is saying, as clearly as ever the Demi-Pelagians have done, that the beginning of salvation comes purely from the Free-will ; and, that there may be no doubt that this is the error of the Lutherans, Mr. Jurieu produces moreover a passage from Calixtus, where he transcribes word for word the propositions condemned in the Demi-Pelagians ; for he says, in express terms|, " that there remains in all men some strength of the understanding, of the will, and of natural knowledge,⁹⁸" which, if they make right " use of, in labouring wliat they are able for their salvation, God \y\\ aflbrd them the necessary means to arrive at the perfection \vhich revelation leads us -to ;" which once more makes grace depend on what man precedently does by his own strength.

I was right, then, in affirming that the Lutherans are become true Demi-Pelagians, namely. Pelagians in the most dangerous part of this heresy, it being that by which human pride is the most flattered. For the greatest mischief of Pelagianism is placing man's salvation finally in his own hands, independently of grace. Now this it is they do, who, like the Lutherans, make the conversion and justification of a sinner dependent on a beginning introductive of all the rest, and which, nevertheless, the sinner gives to himself merely by his Free-will without grace, as I have pi'oved evi- dently, and as Mr. Jurieu has also but just made apparent from the Confession of the Luthei-ans.

They ought not, therefore, to flatter themselves, as if they had escaped the Anathema merited by the Pelagians, under pretext that they ai'e only such by halves ; since we see that this part swallowed by them of so mortal a poison, as that of Pelagianism, contains its own malignity: from whence one may perceive the deplorable condition of the whole Protestant l^arty ; since, on one side, the Calvinists know no way of maintaining Christian grace against the Pelagians, but by making it inamissible with all the other aforesaid inconveniences ; and on the other, the Lutherans believe there is no avoiding this detestable particularism of Dort and of the Calvinists, but by turning Pelagians, and abandoning man's salvation to his own Free-will.

5. — Sequel of Recriminations. — The Lutherans convicted of denying the necessity of good works.

The Calvinist pursues his point ; and, says he to the Lutherans, " it is impossible to dissemble" your doctrine against the necessity of good works. " I will not (proceeds he) go in quest of the harsh propositions of your Doctors, ancient and modern, on this subject⁹⁹." As I take it, he glances at the Decree of Worms, where we have observed that it was decided that good works are not necessary to salvation. But without insisting on this assembly, and other the like decrees of the Lutherans, I shall observe only (says he to Scultet) what you yourself have taught t : " That it is not lawful for us to give any alms to the poor, no, not a farthing, with the design of obtaining forgiveness of our sins," And, again, *' That the habit and exercise of virtue is not absolutely necessary for the justified in order to be saved : that the exercise of the love of God, neither in the course of life, nor even at the hour of death, is a necessary condition, without which we cannot be saved." Lastly, " That neither the habit nor exercise of virtue is necessary to a dying person, in order to obtain forgiveness of his sins ;" that is to say, " a man is saved (as this Minister concludes) without having done so much as one good work, either in his life or at his death."

6. — Another recrimination on the certainty of Salvation, — The Lutherans convicted of contradiction and blindness.

These are just and terrible recriminations, of which Dr. Scultet will never clear himself: again, here is another no less remarkable. You object to us as a crime (says Mr. Jurieu¹⁰⁰ to him), the certainty of salvation defined in the Synod of Dort ; but you, who object it to us, hold the same yourselves. Thereupon he produces the Theses, wherein Doctor John Gerard (the third man after Lutiier and Chemnicius of the Reformation, if we believe their testimony who approved his works) advances this propositionf- " We maintain against the Papists the certainty of salvation as a certainty of faith." And, again, " The predestinate has in. himself God's testimony, and says interiorly to himself, ' he that predestinated me from all eternity, calls me, and justifies me in time by his word.''' It is certain he wrote these things, and others every whit as strong, alleged by Mr. Jurieu| : they are usual with the Lutherans. But this Minister reproaches them, with reason, that they are not consistent with their doctrine of the amissibility of justice, which they account as a capital point ; accordingly, it is what I have remarked in this history, nor have 1 forgotten the solution proposed by the Lutherans, and even by Dr. Gerard : but I warrant not the contradictions the Minister Jurieu upbraids them with in these words § :■ — " It is a thing incredible that wise men, having eyes in their heads, should have fallen into so stupendous a blindness, as to believe one is assured of his salvation with a certainty of faith, and, at the same time, that the true believer may lose the faith and eternal salvation.'' From thence he takes occasion to reproach them, that their doctrine is self-contradictory, that their universalism, introduced contrary to Lutiier's principles, has brought such a confusion into their theology, " that there is none but is sensible that it has no longer any manner of coherence ; that it cannot be self-consistent ; that they have no excuse left themjl." Thus you see how these men treat one another when in peace ; what do not they do when at mortal war ?

• Jur. part i. c. viii. pp. 128, 129.

f Gerard, de elect, et rep. c. xiii. Thes. pp. 210, 211.

X Jur. parti, c. viii. p. 129. Sup. 1. iii. n. 39. viii. ii. GO, 61. § Ibid.

II Ibid. pp. 213, 129, 131, 135.

396 THE HISTORY OP [aPP. TO

7. — Another recrimination. — The monster of Ubiquity.

Besides what regards grace, the Minister also charges the Lutherans very home with their monstrous doctrine of Ubiquity, " worthy (says he¹⁰¹) of all the eulogiums you bestow on the decisions of Dort, a frightful, huge, and horrid monster, of a prodigious deformity in itself, and still more prodigious in its consequences ; since it brings back the confusion of natures in Jesus Christ, and not only that of the soul with the body, but also that of the divinity with the humanity, and, in a word, Eutychianism, so unanimously detested by the w^hole Church."

He shews them they have added to the Confession of Augsburg this monster of Ubiquity, and to Luther's doctrine their excessive Universalism, which has made them fall back into the error of the Pelagians. All these reproaches are very true, as we have made appearf ; and here you behold the Lutherans, the first of those that took up the title of Reformers, convicted by the Calvinists of being all at once Pelagians in formal terms, and Eutychians by consequences indeed :];, but such as the Avhole world is sensible of, and which are as clear as the noon-day.

8. — The com^pensation uf Dogmata 'proposed to the Lutherans by the Minister Jurieu.

After all these vigorous recriminations, one M'-ould think that the Minister Jurieu§ must conclude to detest, in the Lutherans, so many abominable excesses, so many visible contradictions, so manifest a blindness : no such thing. He accuses the Lutherans of so many enormous errors, only to conclude a peace by a mutual toleration on both sides, notwithstanding the gross errors both stand convicted of by the testimonies of each other.

Here, then, he proposes that marvellous compensation, that bartering of doctrine, where all terminates in concluding " if our particularism be an error, we offer you a toleration for much more strange errors." Let us strike up peace on this foundation, and mutually declare one another God's faithful servants, without any obligation on either side of correcting anything in our tenets. We allow you all the prodigies of your doctrine || : we allow you that monstrous

Ubiquity : we allow you your Demi-Pelagianism, whicli places the beginning of man's salvation purely in his own hands : we allow you that horrid dogma *, which denies that good works and the habit of charity, any more than the exei'cise thereof, are necessary to salvation, either in life or at death : we tolerate you, we receive you to the holy table, we own you for God's children, notwithstanding all these errors : overlook, then, in our behalf, and in behalf of the Synod of Dort, these absolute decrees with grace irresistible, the certainty of salvation with the inamissibility of justice, together with all the rest of our particular dogmata, how much soever you abhor them.

This is the bargain he proposes ; this what he negotiates in the face of the whole Christian world : a peace between Churches calling themselves not only Christian, but also Reformed ; not by agreeing in the doctrine which they believe expressly revealed by God, but by forgiving mutually each other the most unpardonable errors.

What shall be the issue of this ti'eaty ? I am loth to foresee it : but will be bold to say the Calvinists shall gain nothing else by it but an addition to their own errors of those of the Lutherans, which they make themselves accomplices in by admitting to the holy table those as the true children of God who professedly maintain them. As for the Lutherans, if it be true, as it is insinuated by Mr. Jurieuf, that they begin for the most part to become more tractable in regard to the Real Presence, and offer peace to the Calvinists, provided only they receive their Demi-Pelagian Universalism, the whole universe will be witness that they have made a peace by sacrificing to the Sacramentarians what Luther did most defend against them, even to iiis death, to wit, the reality ; and by making them profess what the same Luther most detested, namely, Pelagianism, to which he preferred the opposite extreme, even the hoi¹⁰²ror of making God the author of sin.

9. — The means proposed by Mr. Jurieu for advancing this agreejnent. — Princes sovereign Judges of Religion.

But let us also see the means which Mr. Jurieu proposes for attaining this wonderful agreement |. ." In the first place, (says he.) this pious work cannot be brought about without the concurrence of the princes of both parties, by reason that

X Part ii. c. xii. p. '260. n. 1.

(proceeds he) the whole Reformation was made by tlieir authority." Wherefore, in order to promote it, we must assemble— '^not Ecclesiastics, always too much wedded to their own sentiments — but politicians¹⁰³," who, in all appearance, will part with their religion at an easier rate. These, therefore, shall examine " the importance of each tenet, and weigh with equity, whether such and such a proposition, supposing it an error, be capable of being agreed to, or incapable of being tolerated f T' that is to say, what is most essential to religion must be debated in this assembly, it being to decide what is fundamental, and what not ; what may be, and what may not be tolerated. Here lies the grand difficulty : but in this difficulty, so essential to religion, " the divines are to speak as lawyers, the politicians are to hearken and judge under the authority of their princes;]:." Here, then, manifestly are princes become supreme arbiters of religion, and the substance of faith trusted absolutely in their hands. Whether this be religion, or a mere political agreement, I refer to the reader.

Nevertheless, it must be owned, the reason alleged by Mr. Jurieu for submitting the whole to princes, is convincing, since in reality, as he has just told us, " the whole Reformation was made by their authority §." It is what we have shewn through the whole series of this history : but now, at least, this fact, so ignominious to Protestants, can no longer be disputed. Mr. Jurieu confesses it in plain terms; nor must we wonder that princes have vested in themselves the supreme authority of judgment, in regard to a Reformation which they themselves have made.

For which reason, the Minister has laid it down for the groundwork of the agreement, " that previously to all conferences and disputes, the divines on both sides shall make oath to obey the judgment of their princes' delegates, and to do nothing contrary to the agreement ||." The princes and their delegates are now turned infallible: obedience is sworn to them beforehand, enjoin what they will : that must be believed essential or indifferent, tolerable or intolerable, in religion, which shall please them. And must the fundamental points of Christianity be decided by policy.?

X Ibid. ^ Ibid. II Ibid.

10. — The Calvinists ready to subscribe the Confession of Augsburg.

One no longer knows what country he is in, nor whether they are Christians he hears speak, when he sees the main of religion given up to temporal authority, and the sovereign disposal of it resigned to princes. But this is not all ; after this, a Confession of Faith must be agreed to, and hence should arise their main perplexity : but the expedient is easy¹⁰⁴. They are to make one in indefinite and general terms, which the whole world shall be satisfied with : each must dissemble what may be displeasing to his companion : silence is a remedy for all evils : every man shall believe in his heart just what he lists, — Pelagian, Eutychian, or Manichean ; provided he hold his tongue, all will go well, and Jesus Christ will not fail to look on both one and the other for Christians well united. What shall we say ? Let us deplore the blindness of our brethren, and beseech God that the enormity of their error may at length open their eyes, so as to become sensible thereof.

But here is the finishing stroke. We have seen what Zuinglius and the Zuinglians, Calvin and the Calvinists, judged of the Confession of Augsburg f : how from its first beginning they refused to subscribe it, and separated themselves from its defenders ; how those of France in all succeeding times, in receiving all the rest, have ever excepted the tenth article relating to the Supper. We have seen, among other things, what was said at the conference of Poissy :j: ; nor forgotten what Calvin then wrote " no less of the suppleness than of the obscure and defective brevity" of this Confession, which was the cause, said he, '' that it displeased people of good sense, and even that Melancthon, its author, repented he ever made it ;" but at present, great prevalency of that fond desire of uniting with the Lutherans f they are ready to subscribe this Confession ; for they are very sensible the Lutherans will never depart from it. Well then, says our minister §, "is no more required of us than to subscribe it ? The business is done : we are ready for this subscription, provided you will receive us." Thus you see this Confession, which had been so stoutly rejected these hundred and fifty years, all of a sudden, without any alteration in it, will become the common rule of Calvinists as it is of f S. 1. iii. n. 3. ix. n. 88, 89, 1000, et seq. X ^^'^^' "• 107.¹⁰⁵

Lutherans, upon condition each one shall have the liberty of interpreting and adapting it to his own notions. I leave the reader to decide which of the two ought most to be laniented, the Calvinists, who turn with every wind, or the Lutherans, whose Confession is subscribed only with a view of discovering in it a doctrine suitable to their notions, by the means of those equivocal expressions, of which it is accused. No man but sees how vain, to say no worse, would be this projected union ; what would ensue from it of some real consequence is, however, as says Mr. Jurieu¹⁰⁶, " that one might make thereof a good confederacy, and that the Protestant party would make the Papists tremble." These were the hopes of Mr. Jurieu, who would be well enough satisfied with the success of his negotiation, if, failing as to a sincere agreement of minds, it could at least unite them so as to set all Europe in a flame ; but, luckily for Christendom, leagues are not made as doctors wish.

IL — Wondrous motives for an u7iion proposed to the Lutherans.

In this marvellous negotiation nothing is more surprising than the artfulness Mr. Jurieu uses to mollify the hard-hearted Lutherans. What, says he -^j", will you always be sensible of the complaisance we have shewn, in allowing you your corporal presence? " Besides all these philosophical absurdities which we were forced to digest, how perilous are the consequences of this dogma ? " Those do experience it, proceeds he, who are obliged to endure, in France, this continual reproach : " Why do you reject the Catholics after having received the Lutherans ? Our people make answer. The Lutherans take not away the substance of the bread : they do not adore the Eucharist : they offer it not in sacrifice : they deprive not the people of one kind : so much the worse for them, we are told, it is in this they argue ill, nor follow their own principles. For, if the body of Jesus Christ be I'eally and carnally present, we ought to adore him : if he be present, we ought to offer him up to his Father : if he be present, Jesus Christ is whole and entire under each species. Do not say you deny these consequences ; for, after all, they flow better and more naturally from your dogma than those you impute to us. It is certain your doctrine regarding the Supper was the beginning of error : the change of substance was grounded thereupon : thereupon was adoration coni-

XV.] THE VARIATIONS, ETC. 401 manded ; nor is it easy to withstand it: human reason directs us to adore Jesus Christ wheresoever he is. Not that this reason is always good, for God is in a piece of wood and in a stone, yet we may not adore a stone or wood; but, after all, the mind is carried to it by its own propensity, and as natural as the elements tend to their centre : a great struggle is required to hinder our falling into this precipice — (this precipice is worshipping Jesus Christ where he is present;) and I nowise doubt (proceeds our Author) but that the simple amongst you would fall into it, were they not prevented by the continual contests with the Papists." Open your eyes, ye Lutherans, and suffer the Catholics to speak thus to you in their turn. We do not propose that you should worship wood or stone because God is in them : we propose to you to worship Jesus Christ where you acknowledge he is, by so special a presence, attested by so particular and divine a testimony : " reason directs you to it of course ; the mind is carried to it by its own propensity." Simple minds, void of contention, would follow so natural a bent, if continual disputes did not restrain them ; nor is it anything but the spirit of contention that can hinder the adoration of Jesus Christ whei'e he is believed so present.

12. — Both parties irrecoiicilable in the main, according to the Minister Juricu.

Such are the conditions of the agreement at this da}' in treaty between the Lutherans and Calvinists ; such are the means they are to Use for attaining it ; and such the reasons employed to persuade and move the Lutherans. And let not these people go away with the notion, that our speaking of it in this manner proceeds from some fear we may be in of their re-union, which, after all, will never be anything better than grimace and cabal; for in short, for them to convince one another is a thing judged impossible even by Mr. Jurieu. " Never (says he¹⁰⁷) will either of the parties suffer itself to be led in triumph ; and to propose an agreement between the Lutherans and Calvinists, on condition that one party shall renounce its doctrine, is the same as if you should propose to the Spaniards as a means of agreement, to give up all their provinces and fortresses into the hands of the French. That (says he) is neither just nor possible." Who does not see, on this foundation, that the Lutherans and Calvinists are in the main two nations as irreconcilable and incompatible as any ?

4:02 THE HISTORY OP THE VARIATIONS^ ETC.

They may join in confedei*acies, but that they ever will be able to arrive at a Christian agreement by the conformity of sentiments, were manifest folly to believe. Nevertheless, they will still continue to say, and one as much as the other, that the Scripture is clear, although conscious in their hearts that this alone can never terminate the least dispute ; and all they can do is to patch up agreements, and dissemble what they believe to be the truth clearly revealed by God, or, however, to disguise it, as they have endeavoured a thousand times to do, under equivocal expressions.

Let them, therefore, do what they think fit, and whatsoever God shall suffer them to do in respect to these vain projects of agreements ; they will be eternally the mutual punishment and grievance of each other : they will bear eternal testimony one against another, how unhapjaily they usurped the title of Reformers, and that the method they took for the correction of abuses, could tend to nothing but the subversion of Christianity.

13. — Query put to the Lutherans and Calvinists.

But here is something still worse for them. Supposing they were arrived to this mutual toleration, we should then ask them in what rank they would place Luther and Calvin, who make God, in express terms, the author of sin, and thereby stand convicted of a dogma which their disciples now abhor? Who does not see that of two things one will happen, either that they must place this blasphemy, this Manicheism, this *' impiety which subverts all religion," amongst the tenets that may be tolei-ated ; or in fine, to the eternal ignominy of the Reformation, Luther must become the horror of the Lutherans, and Calvin of the Calvinists ?

INDEX

VOLUME THE SECOND.

REFERRING TO WHATEVER OCCURS UNDER THE SAME TITLES IN THE FIRST VOLUME.

Ablution. What the ablution was which the Vaudois condemned in Baptism, 107.

Adam. The sin of Adam ordained by God, according to the Calvinists, 221.

Adnratio7i of .Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, rejected by the Brethren o Bohemia, 151 — alterations made by the Calvinists in respect to the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, 267 — they tolerate in the Lutherans the internal acts of this Adoration, and reject the external, which are but tokens thereof, 268 — Vide Yo. I.

Albigenses (The) well treated by the Calvinists, and why, 53 — those of Toulouse bore the name of Petrobusians, 71 — Council of Lombez against them. Famous examination of these Heretics, ib. — why they are called Arians, 7 2 — the Albigenses are Manicheans, and, by consequence, different from the Vaudois, 77, e? seq. — the Albigenses comprised byRenier in the list of the Manichean Churches, 79 — they came from tlie Manicheans of Bulgaria, 80 — the Pope of the Albigenses in " Bulgaria, 81 — their profound hypocrisy, 82 — the agreeableness of their propositions with those of Faustus the Manichean, ib. — their hypocrisy confounded by St. Bernard, ib. — their infamy, 83 — they teach that the eflPect of the Sacraments depends on the holiness of the Ministers, ib. — they condemn all oaths and punishment of crimes, 84 — proof of their being Manicheans, ib. — Protestants reap nothins; but shame by challenging the Albigenses for their ancestors, 88 — reilections on the history of the Albigenses and Vaudois ; artifice of the Ministers, 121 — the Albigenses unquestionably Manicheans, 122 — the Albigenses of Metz were Manicheans, 123 — sixteen Cliurches of the Manicheans comprehended the whole Sect, 126 — inevitable condemnation of these Heretics from their denying their religion, 131 — how the Vaudois sprung from the Manichean Albigenses, 162.

Amboiae. Conspiracy of Amboise, 16 — entered upon from a maxim of conscience, according to Beza, ib. — the riot of Amboise was the work of Protestants, and had religion for its motive, ib. — the Huguenots' discovering the conspiracy does not justify the party, 1 0 — the protestation of the conspirators does not justify them, ib. — what is said by Mr. Jurieu concerning the conspiracy of Amboise, 30.

INDEX.

Amissibility of justice received by the English under Elizabeth, 14— doctrine of the Arminians concerning the amissibility of justice, 232 — Vide Vol. I,

Antichrist. The SynocJ of Gap adds an article to the Confession of Faith on purpose to declare the Pope Antichrist, 191 — Daniel and St. Paul quoted in vain to prove the Pope is Antichrist, 192 — the Protestants discredit themselves by this doctrine, 193 — this doctrine concerning Antichrist was not in any act of the Reformation ; Luther inserts it in the article of Smalcald, 194 — but Melancthon opposes it, ib. — this

^ doctrine relating to Antichrist how despised even in the Reformation, 195 — it is refuted by the most learned Protestants, Grotius, Hammond, and Jurieu himself, 196 — examination of Joseph Mede's and the Minister Jurieu's doctrine on this point, 197, 198 — Jurieu sets a new date for the birth of Antichrist, 1 99 — he varies, and is for advancing the downfal of Antichrist, 201.

Arminians, or Remonstrants, upheld by Barneveld against the Prince of Orange, 228 — they are condemned in the Provincial Synods, ib. — the Synod of Dort is assembled against them, 229 — the dispute reduced to five heads ; declaration of the Arminians on these five heads, ib. — the purport of their declaration in respect to Predestination, and their doctrine touching the Baptism of Infants, 230 — their declaration concerning the universality of Redemption, 231 — their doctrine concerning Grace, ib. — and concerning the amissibility of Justice, 232 — their whole dispute concerning two essential words, 233 — their ground-work, viz., that there is no gratuitous preference in behalf of the elect, ib. — wherein the Catholics agreed with, and disagreed from, the Arminians, 234 —they require of the Synod of Dort a distinct decision, 235 — requests of the Arminians, who complain they are judged by their adverse parties, 250 — they insist on the same reasons that the whole Protestant party employed against the Church, ib. — their mouths are stopped by the authority of the States, 251 — they protest against the Synod, ib. — the Synod of Delph, in order to silence them, is forced to have recourse to the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised to Councils, 254 — they are put in hopes of an CEcumenical Council, 255 — the Arminians are deposed and excommunicated by the Synod of Dort, 257.

Arminius. Peter Du Moulin places Arminius's opinions amongst things indifferent, 187 — Arminius's dispute and excesses, 227 — the disputes end not with his death ; Barneveld upholds his disciples against the Prince of Orange, 228.

Aubertin. This Minister's gross evasion with respect to the belief of the Vaudois concerning the Eucharist, 101 — his frivolous objection in order to shew that these Heretics denied the Reality, 102 — he artfully confounds the Vaudois with the Albigenses, 122 — Aubertin's allusion on the same subject, 120. Ay. The Synod of Ay in 1615 approves the proposals of Peter du Moulin for a common Confession of Faith, 186 — reflection on this approbation of the Synod of Ay, 187.

Baptism believed useless by the Manicheans, 62 — ceremonies of baptism despised by the 'V'audois, 106 — the brethren of Bohemia re-baptized every body, 145 — Peter du Moulin, approved by the Synod of Ay, is against condemning the necessity of Baptism, 188 — doctrine of the Remonstrants, or Arminians, touching infant baptism, and what they would conclude from it, 230 — the Synod of Dort s decision on infant baptism, 236— Fiofe Vol. I.

INDEX. 405

Barneveld upholds the .Arminians ac:ainst the Prince of Orange, 228. Basil. What the Council of Basil allowed to the Calixtins, 142. Bererigarius impugns only the Real Presence, 52— he never separated from Rome, 53 — Berengarius attacked the Reality after theManicheans of Orleans, 3G4 — he is condemned and recants, ib. — his first Confession of Faith, «6. — he varies as well as his disciples, and makes a second Confession of Faith, 3G5 — they invent Impanation and Invination, 366 — their Doctrine opposite to that of the whole Church, 307 — Beren"-arius owns as much, ib. — no necessity of a General Council in order to condemn him, 368.

Bernard (St.) consulted about the Manicheans that dwelt near Cologne, 68 — account of the tenets of these Heretics, whom he had been well acquainted with at Toulouse, 69 — he confounds their hypocrisy, 82 — answer to the objection relating to the credulity of St. Bernard, 86 — he lays nothing to the charge of Peter de Bruis and Henry, the seducers of the Toulousians, but what he knows, 87 — what he says of the behaviour of the Toulousian Heretics, 127 — this Saint's memorable answer in regard to the false constancy of Heretics, 130.

Beza owns that the conspiracy of Amboise was undertaken through a maxim of conscience, 16 — he is for rising in arms, ib. — what he says concerning the motive of the Calvinian wars in France, 28 — how he authorizes tiie civil wars, ib. — what he says touching the assassination of the Duke of Guise by Poltrot, 35 — Beza"s ridiculous pretensions in favour of ti^e antiquity of the Vaudois, 53 — what he says of their Doctrine shews they were not Calvinists, 114 — in 1571 Beza presides in the national Synod of Rochelle, where those that were for changing the Supper article in the Confession of Faith are condemned, 167— by the Synod's orders, he answers the Swiss otfended at its decision, that it only regarded France, 171 — he is of the number of those that were deputed by the Frankfort assembly to draw up one common Confession of Faith, 175 — he makes God the author of sin, 221 — this doctrine of Beza taken from Calvin, 222 — the Dogmata he adds to those of Luther, ib. — what he says of the certainty of particular mens" salvation, 223 — he teaches, after Calvin, that justifying Faith is not lost in a criminal state, 225.

Blandrate. George Blandrate, one of the heads of the Socinians, 360.

Bishops. Constancy of the English Catholic Bishops, who are deposed for refusing to own Queen Elizabeth's supremacy, 9, 13 — decisions in matters of Faith reserved to the royal authority by the declaration of tlie English Protestant Bishops, 12.

Bohemia. The sect of the Bohemian Brethren falsely called Vaudois, 131 — why they disown those who call them Vaudois, 131, 132 — and Picards, 133 — they boast their descent from John Huss, ib. — they divide from the Calixtms, 141 — the bloody wars of the Calixtins trouble all Bohemia, ib. — they make to themselves an ignorant lay Pastor, 144 — weak beginning of this Sect, 145 — they only took the name of John Huss but did not follow his doctrine ; their extreme ignorance and assurance to re-baptize the whole world, ib. — their fruitless search throughout the universe after a Church of their belief, 147 — how they sought Ordination in the Catholic Church; reproaches made them by Luther, 148 — their Doctrine in respect to the seven Sacraments, 149 — they change it in their Reformed Confession of Faith, ib. — what they thought of the Eucharist, 149, 15U — the manner in which they refused to adore Jesus Christ, a proof that they beheved the Reality even out of the actual use of the Sacrament, 151 — their uncertainty and affected ambi-

406 INDEX.

guities, 152— the Calvinists and Lutherans each strive to bring them to their side ; they incline to the latter, 153 — Luther gives them his approbation ; their Festivals, their Temples, their Fasts, and the Celibacy of their Priests, 154 — they take shelter in Poland, 155 — there they unite with the Lutherans and Zuinglians, ib. — what disposition they were in for this agreement, 157 — reflections on this union, ib.

Breaking. Important article of the Conference of Cassel, concerning the breaking of the Eucharistic Bread, 271.

Bull, a learned English Protestant, maintains the Infallibility of the Council of Nice and that of the other general Councils, 347,

Burnet. His imposition in asserting that the Doctrine established under Edward VI. was not changed, 6— what Mr. Burnet says of the indifference of the English as to the Real Presence, 7 — a memorable passage of Mr. Burnet concerning the English Reformation, 13 — his illusion in regard to the wars of the Huguenots, 25 — his gross mistakes and prodigious ignorance relating to the affairs of France, 26 — sequel of his

. fallacies, ib. — Vide Vol. I.

Calixtins. The Sect of the Calixtins rises up in Bohemia, 141 — why called Calixtins, 142 — the Compactatum, or the four articles allowed to the Calixtins by the Council of Basil, ib.—i\& Calixtins disposed to acknowledge the Pope, 143 — the reason of their so great respect for WicklifTs memory ; their ambition hinders them from re-uniting with the Church, ib. — the Bohemian Brethren separate from them, 144.

Calixtus, a famous Lutheran, establishes in Germany the union of Sects, and is followed in France by the Minister d'Husseau, 311.

Calumny. The decree of the Synod of Charenton in 1631 convicts the Calvinists of calumny, 266.

Calvin. His connivance at the conspiracy of Amboise, 20 — his death, 41 — in what manner issued from the Vaudois and Albigenses, 163 — his evasions in regard to the vain predictions of Luther concerning the Papacy, ] 92 — he made God the author of Adam's sin, 222— the Dogmata by him added to those of Luther, ib. — his Doctrine of the Certainty of Salvation defined by the Synod of Dbrt, 244 — Vide Vol. I,

Calvinists (The) of France receive the English Doctrine, making the King head of the Church, 13 — change of their Doctrine, 15 — their conspiracy at Amboise, ib. — they take up arms by a maxim of Religion, ?'6.— the first civil wars which the whole Calvinist Party concurs to, 21 — decisions of their national Synods in approbation of their arming, 22 — what spirit actuated them m these wars, 24 — their false pretence that these wars did not concern Religion, 25 — perplexity of the French Calvinists to justify these wars, 27 — they are convicted by Beza, 28 — their other wars destitute of all pretext, 30 — whether the spirit of their Reformation were a spirit of meekness or violence, 31 — fatal consequences of their violent spirit, 32 — their vain excuses, 33 — their cruelties, ib. — why our Calvinists examine less into the question of Free-will than the Zuinglians, 46 — the reason of their keeping such a stir about the Albigenses and Vaudois, 53 — the present Vaudois are their Disciples, 115 — they have not one contemporary Author that favours their pretensions touching the Vaudois, 116 — all are welcome to the Calvinists, if they but exclaim against the Pope, 141 — in what manner they descended from the Albigenses and Vaudois, 163 — they seek in vain the succession of Persons in the precedent Sects, ib. — still less do they find amongst them the succession of Doctrine, 165 —

. many Calvinists of France are for changing the article of the Supper

INDEX. 407 in the Confession of Faith, but are condemned by a national Synod, 166, 167 — they assemble at St. Foy, and give the power to four Ministers of changing their Confession of Faith, 176 — a letter wherein the Calvinists own Luther and Melancthon for their fathers, 178 — they have continued to our days the project of a common Confession, but always to no purpose, ih. — they receive the Lutherans to their Communion, 180, 264 — the unsettled spirit of Calvinism, 180 — the Calvinists detest Piscators Doctrine, 181 — the Doctrine of the Calvinists against Piscator solves all the difficulties they object to us on the sacrifice of the Mass, 182 — tlie impiety of their Doctrin,e touching imputed justice, as it is proposed by the Synods which condemn Piscator, 184— reflection on their procedure against Piscator, 185 — they add an article to their Confession of Faith in order to declare the Pope Anti-

• Christ, 191 — intolerable excesses of Calvinism concerning Free-will, — 221 — they make God the author of sin, ib. — they believe as a funda mental point that every one of the faithful is sure of his perseverance and salvation, 223 — they are sensible of these excesses, so contrary to the fear and trembling prescribed by St. Paul, 224 — they maintain that justifying Faith is not lost in a criminal state, 225 — what texts of Scripture they ground themselves on, 226 — the perplexity they are under to answer this question, " What would become of a Believer should he die in his sin ?" ib. — these difficulties have reclaimed many Calvinists, 227 — they are contrary to the Lutherans and Remonstrants both, in the point of Grace, 232 — contradiction of their Doctrine, 238 — they promise the Arminians an Oecumenical Council, 255 — the illusion of this promise, ^6. — the Calvinists of France receive the Synod of Dort, 256 — their union with the Lutherans in 1631, 264 — they never before had advanced so far towards it, ib. — this conduct of theirs_ convicts them of calumny, 265 — they tolerate in the Lutherans the interior acts of Adoration, and reject the exterior, which are but tokens of the former, 268 — their perplexity concerning the distinction of fundamental points, 270 — they are forced to own that the Church of Rome is a true Church, wherein salvation may be had, ib. — the Calvinists of Marpurg agree with the Lutherans of Rintel in the Conference of Cassel, 270, 271 — what is said by the Calvinists of France concerning the visibility of the Church, 292 — they own that the Church of the Creed is visible, ib. — they always suppose the Church's perpetual visibility, 294 — they exclude the Church of Rome from the title of a true Church, ib. — they own the interruption of the Ministry, and the cessation of the visible Church, 295 — their perplexity, in that the invisible Church had been forgotten in their Confession, 296.

Camerarius writes the history of the Bohemian Brethren, 131 — he says, they disown those who called them Vaudois, 132.

Cameron's, and his Disciples', Doctrine concerning universal Grace, 272.

Catholics. The constancy of the Catholic Bishops in England in opposition to Queen Elizabeth's innovations, 9 — demonstration that the Catholics were neither ignorant of nor dissembled the Doctrine of the Vaudois, 108 — wherein the Catholics were different from the Remonstrants and Lutherans witli regard to justifying Grace, 234.

Celibacy of Priests retained by the Bohemian Brethren, 154.

Ceremonies retained by Queen Elizabeth, 2 — the Ceremonies of Baptism despised by the Vaudois, 106.

CertainUf of Salvation taught, 43 — this certainty of Salvation the chief foundation of the Calvinian Religion, 223 — certainty of Salvation as sure to Calvinists as if revealed to them by God himself, ib, — this cer-

INDEX.

tainty opposite to the fear and trembling prescribed by St. Paul, 234 — the Synod of Dort's decision on the certainty of Salvation, 233 — certainty of Salvation a false allurement, 243 — whether the certainty of Salvation confirmed by the Synod of Dort be different from trust, ib. — whether this certainty be a certainty of Faith, 245 — the sentiment of the Divines of Great Britain, 246 — Vide Vol. I.

Charenton. The Synod of Charenton in 1631 receives the Lutherans to Communion, 264 — memorable decree of this Synod, ib. — consequence of this decree, ib. — remarkable date of this decree, 265 — great turn in controversies by means of this decree ; it convicts the Calvinists of calumny, ib. — it makes void the chief subject of their rupture, 266 — novelties following from this decree, 267 — decree of the Synod of Charenton in ] 620 in approbation of that of Dort, 256.

Children. The Synod of Dort acknowledges the sanctification of all baptized children, 249.

Church. Elizabeth completes the work of church-plundering, 13 — difference between the conduct of the Church and that of Protestants, 31— eminent sanctity in the Catholic Church, 129 — the Reformation allows private people to take on themselves a greater ability for understanding sound Doctrine than it allows the whole Church besides, 260 — the Calvinists forced to own that the Church of Rome is a true Church, and that her Members may be saved, 270 — the cause of the Protestant Churches' Variations proceeded from their not knowing what the Church was, 281 — the Catholic Church always knew herself, and never varied in her decisions, ib. — the Doctrine of Catholics on the article- concerning the Church, 282 — notions of Protestants on the perpetual visibility of the Church, ib. — this Doctrine relating to the Church confessed by Protestants, is the ruin of their Reformation and the source of their perplexity, 283 — the perpetual visibility of the Church confirmed by the Apology for the Confession of Augsburg, 284 — this visibility confirmed in the Smalcaldic articles by the promises of Jesus Christ, 285 — in the Saxonic Confession of Faith, 286 — in the Wirtemberg Confession of Faith, ib. — in the Bohemian Confession of Faith, 287 — in the Confession of Strasburg, 288 — in both the Confessions of Basil, and in that of the Swiss in 1566, ^6. — the beginning of their Variation ; the Invisible Church begins to appear, 289 — the Invisible Church why invented, 290 — what the English say of her, 291 — what the pretended Reformed of France say of her in their Catechism, 292 —they own at length that the Church of the Creed is visible, ib. — the expressions of their Confessions of Faith suppose a perpetual visibility of the Church, 294 — there they take from the Church of Rome the title of a true Church, ib. — there they acknowledge the interruption of the Ministry, and the cessation of the visible Church, 295 — their perplexity in the Synods of Gap and Rochelle on account that the Invisible Church had been forgotten in their Confession, 296 — how important is the controversy relating to the Church, 299 — the Ministers no longer dispute the Church's Visibility, ib. — according to the principles cf the Minister, Claude, all that is necessary for Salvation is in the Church of Rome, 304.

Claude of Turin, an Arian, breaks Images, and is accounted amongst the predecessors of the Protestants, 52.

Claude (Mr.), his frivolous evasion with respect to the Synod of Sainte- Foy, where a design was in hand of making one common Confession for all Protestants, 179 — how much he disapproves the Church of Geneva for having added two articles of Faith to her Confession, 274

INDEX. 409

— this Minister's vain sTibtlety in order to elude what the Synods of Gap in l(j()3, and Rochellein 1 GO", had decided concernin<^ the Church, 297 — what is said by him with respect to the vocation of the Reformers, 298 — he very positively owns the Church's visibility, 299 — this visibility enters into the definition he makes of the Church, 301 — he saves the Elect before tlie Reformation under the Ministry of the Church of Rome, 302 — according to his principles, all things necessary for Salvation are in the Church of Rome, 304 — he owns, that before the Reformation their Doctrine was unknown, 300 — he varies with respect to the Church's visibility, 309.

Communion, under one or both kinds, held for indifferent in the ancient Clun-ch, 58 — Communion under one kind impugned by John Huss, 140 — and by the Calixtins, 142 — Communion under both kinds is firanted them, ib. — demonstration in favour of Communion under one kind, 271 — Communion under one kind is sufficient, 370.

Convpactalum, what it means, 142.

Confession. The Vaudois believed Confession of sins to a Priest, 104, 107 — sacramental Confession owned by John Huss, 140.

Confession of Futth. New Confession of Failh of the Helvetic or Swiss Churches, 41 — remarkable Confession of the Polonian Zuinglians, 48 — a spurious Confession of Faith of the Vaudois, 119 — a Confession of Faith falsely attributed to Wickliff, 138— Confession of Faith of the Bohemian Brethren in 1504, wherein they acknowledge seven Sacraments, 149 — this is altered by them, ib. — endeavours are used at Frankfort to make all the defenders of the figurative sense to agree in one common Confession of Faith, 173 — the Lutherans were to be comprised in this Confession, 174 — qualities of this new Confession of Faith, and deputies named to draw it up, 175 — consent of the Synod of vSainte-Foy to this new Confession, 17G — the project of a common Confession continued to our days and always unsviccessfully, 178 — the Synod of Dort declares tlieir Confessions of Faith may be retouched, yet, at the same time, obliges to subscribe them, 250 — the Church of Geneva adds two articles of Failh to her Confession, 274.

Confirmation. What was believed by the Vaudois concerning this Sacrament, 100.

Conspiracy of Amboise — Vide Amboise.

Constance, AVickliff's Dootrine was not calumniated at the Council of Constance, 130 — reasons of the Council of Constance for authorizing the already esfabhshed custom of Communion under one kind, 370.

Council. By the Doctrine of the Dort Synod, Protestants are obliged to submit to a Council of the Catholic Church, 253 — to stop the mouths of the Arminians, the Synod of Delph is forced to have recourse to the Holy Ghost's assistance promised to Councils, 254 — the Calvinists promise the Arminians an (Ecumenical Council, 255— the fallacy of this promise, ib.

Crosses. The new Manicheans' aversion to the Cross, 59.

Crucifix. Elizabeth, Queen of England, retains the Crucifix in her Chapel, 3.

Cruelties of the Calvinists, 33,

Cup, allowed to the Calixtins upon certain conditions, 142.

Decisions in matters of faith reserved to the royal authority by the declaration of the English Protestant Bishops, 12.

Declaration of the Enghsh Protestant Clergy in regard to Queen Elizabeth's supremacy, 9 — how Protestants palliate so great an evil, 10.

410 INDEX.

De Dominis. Anthony de Dominis one of the first authors of indifferency, 311,

Delph. The Synod of Delph is forced, in order to silence the Arminians, to fly to the Holy Ghost's assistance promised to Councils, 255.

Dort. Convocation of the Synod of Dort ; its opening, 228, 229 — the disputes there reduced to five heads, 229 — the Synod's decision on faith in the sole elect, and on the certainty of salvation, 235 — and on infant baptism, 236 — second decision on faith in the sole elect, ib. — on the certainty of the faithful, 237 — what is said by it concerning habits infused, 238 — monstrous doctrine of the Synod on the inamissibility of justice, ib. — it teaches into what crime the faithful do not fall, 239 — • what is the certainty of salvation it admits, 240 — it teaches that all uncertainty is a temptation, ib. — in what manner, according to this Synod, man justified is guilty of death, 241 — whether the sense of the Synod concerning inamissibility was taken right, and whether the certainty by it asserted be different from trust, 243 — the Synod expressly defines Calvin's doctrine on this point, 244 — it approves the sentiment of Peter Du Moulin, 245^-whether the certainty it establishes be a certainty of faith, ib. — the sentiment of the Divines of Great Britain, 246 — sentiment of those of Bremen, 248 — whether the Synod can be excused from all these excesses ; unanimous consent of all the votes, 249 — the Synod owns the sanctification of all baptized children ; consequence from this doctrine, ib. — procedure of the Synod, 250 — it silences the Arminians by authority of the States, 251 — the reasons used against them in the Synod condemn the whole Protestant party, ib. — there it is decided that the weakest and newest party ought to yield to the greatest and most ancient, 252 — perplexity of the Synod upon the protest of the Remonstrants, ib. — according to the Synod of Dort Protestants were obliged to submit to the Council of the Catholic Church, 253 — resolution of the Synod obliging to subscribe the Confession of Faith, which, at the same time, it owned might be mended and reviewed, 256 — the Synod of Dort is approved by the Calvinists of France, ib. — it deposes and excommunicates the Arminians, 257 — the decisions of Dort far from essential, according to Mr. Jurieu, ib. — the Minister Jurieu makes the Synod of Dort act rather by policy than truth, 259 — the Synod of Dort heals none of their evils, and, spite of its decrees, Mr. Jurieu is a Pelagian, 261 — connivance of the Dort Synod not only at the excesses of the Reformers, but at those of the Arminians, 263.

Du Moulin (Peter) proposes expedients for making one common Confession for all Protestants, 178, 179 — his memorial approved by the Synod of Ay in 1615, 186 — this Minister's remarkable words concerning the dissimulation he would have used in regard of this common Confession, 187 — reflections on these words of Du Moulin approved by the Synod of Ay, ib. — Du Moulin's inconstancy, 188 — he wili not have the Real Presence, Ubiquity, and the other Lutheran tenets, be condemned, ib. — Du Moulin's sentiment on Grace approved by the Synod of Dort, 245 — Du Moulin strenuously opposes Cameron and his disciples, 272. Du Perron (the Cardinal) grants that the Pope's superiority over General Council — and Secular Powers is not of faith, 383. Du Vol (Mr.) is consulted by the Ultramontanes concerning the Pope's infallibility and his sentiments thereon, 383.

Edward VI., King of England ; his Reformation changed by Elizabeth, 2 —the twenty-ninth article of his Confession concerning the Eucharist

INDEX. 411 is changed, 5 — material alterations in his Liturgy, 6 — in Edward's time, neither the word Substance, nor the miracles which Calvin admits in the Eucharist, are employed, 8. Elect, saved under the ministry and in the communion of the Church of Rome before the Reformation, by the confession of Mr. Claude, and since by that of Mr. Jurieu, 31-2,313.

Elizabeth, Queen of Enfjland ; her profound policy ; she oixlers a tender of her respects to Paul IV. at his accession to the Papal throne, 2 — she euirages in the new Reformation, ib. — her scruples in four points, that of the Ceremonies, that of Images, that of the Real Presence, and that of the regal Supremacy ; her judgment on the two first, 2, 3 — her judgment on the Eucharist, 4 — neither the word Substance, nor the miracles admitted by Calvin in the Eucharist, are used under Elizabeth, 8 — her Supremacy in Spirituals is set up in spite of her scruples, ib. — she completes what had been left undone in the pillaging of Churches, 13 — she secretly favours the inclination towards a revolt in the Calvinistsof France, 15.

Ejigland. Variation of the English on the Eucharist, 4 — the English are indifferent as to the Real Presence, 7 — the Supremacy in Spirituals is given by the English to Queen EHzabeth, 8 — the Parliament of England reserves to itself the decisions in matters of Faith, 10 — the Doctrine of the English, making their King Head of the Church, condemned by the Calvinists, 13 — remarkable passage of Mr. Burnet concerning the Reformation of England, ib. — the English reject the inamissibility of justice, 14 — the sentiment of the English Divines for the certainty of salvation, defined in the Synod of Dort, 246 — they believed that justice could never be lost: contradiction of their Doctrine, ib. — according to them, faith and charity abide in the worst of sinners, 247 — what it is, according to them, that the Holy Ghost does in such as abide in grievous crimes, 248 — the Test in England ; therein the English draw near to our sentiments, and condemn the Church of Rome only throuirh manifest error, 276 — the English speak ambiguously of the Church's visibility, 291 — Vide Vol. I.

Episcopius, Professor of Divinity at Leyden, appears at the head of the Armmians in the Synod of Dort, 229.

Eqiiivocaiions of the Manicheans in Germany in matters of faith, 67 — equivocations of the Bohemian brethren, 152.

Error. All error contradicts itself, 242.

Eucharist. ^\ hat is believed by the Swiss or Zuinglians relating to the Eucharist, 46, 47— the abominable Eucharist peculiar to the Manicheans, 6 1 — John Huss believed, as to the Eucharist, all that the Church of Rome believes, 139.

Faith. Decisions in point of faith reserved to the Royal authority by a declaration of Bishops, 12 — the Swiss attribute true faith to the elect alone, 43 — the faith of the Calvinists of France put in the hands of four Ministers, 177 — ^justifying faith not lost in the state of grievous sin, accordintr to the Calvinists, 225 — decision of the Synod of I)ort touching the faith of the elect, 236.

Fasta practised by the Bohemian Brethren, 154.

Fathers (Holy) ; how they answered the Manicheans in respect to their practices, 56 — all of them understood the words of St. Paul, 1 Tim. iv. 1, as meant of the Manichians, ib.

Festivals in honour of the Saints retained by the Bohemian brethren, 154.

Figure. The Zuinglians the most sincere of all the defenders of ths

412 INDEX.

figurative sense, 48 — it is endeavoured at Frankfort to brine; all the defenders of the figurative sense to agree in one common Confession of Faith, 173.

France, the disturbances of, began by means of Queen Elizabeth, 15.

Francis, Duke of Guise, is assassinated by Poltrot, and this murder accounted in the Reformation an act of Religion, 35.

Frankfort, Assembly of, in 1577 ; where means are used to bring all the defenders of the figurative sense to agree in one common Confession of Faith, 1 73 — this Assembly writes to the Lutherans in order to mollify them, 1 75 — it lessens, in their behalf, the difficulty of the Real Presence, 176 — difference between what was designed to be done in favour of the Lutherans at Frankfort, and what was since done at Charenton, 180.

Free-idll. Monstrous Doctrine of the Zuinglians or Swiss, touching freewill, 45— our Calvinists examine less into this subject, and vvhy, 46 — Free-will destroyed in Calvinism, 221- — how it acts according to the Synod of Dort, 230 — Calvin's and the Calvinists" error, endeavouring to make Free-will consist with Necessity, 222, 234 — the Council of Trent's decisions on Free-will conformably to those of antiquity, 375 — VideYol.l.

Gap, the national Synod of, detests Piscator's Doctrine, 181 — it adds an article to the Confession of Faith to declare the Pope Antichrist, 191 — decision of the Synod of Gap on this point ; its false foundation, 1 94 — occasion of this decree, 195 — this Synod's perplexity, for that the invisible Church liad been forgotten in the Confession of Faith, 296 — this Synod's memorable decision on extraordinary vocation, 297.

Geneva, strange answer of those of, to the Arminians' request at the Synod of Dort, 253 — decree passed at Geneva against universal Grace, and the question resolved by the Magistrate, 273 — the Church of Geneva adds two articles to her Confession of Faith, 274.

Germany, piesent state of controversies in, 272.

God. Wickliff's Theology concerning the liberty, the goodness, and the power of God, 133 — God author of sin, according to the Calvinists, 221 — Vide Vol. I.

Gog, and'Mao-oo", 162.

Gomar maintains Calvinism against Arminius ; his disciples take the name of Counter-Remonstrants, and the Prince of Orange upholds them, 228,

Gomarists, or Counter-Remonstrants, 228.

Grace, the inamissibility of, defined at Dort, 232 — Doctrine of the Arminians on Grace, ib. — Cameron's and his disciples' sentiments on universal Grace admitted by the Doctors of the Dort Synod, 272 — Sufficient Grace admitted by them, 273 — decree passed at Geneva against universal Grace, ib.

Grotius demonstrates that the Pope cannotbe Antichrist, 196 — he proves from the Protestants, that, by their own confession, souls may depart out of the body without being wholly purified, 380.

Hebrew. Decision of the Swiss, touching the Hebrew text, ridiculed by the learned of the sect, 274.

Henry, disciple of Peter de Bruis, in the eleventh ceijtury, 53 — secretly diftuses his master's errors in Dauphiny, Provence, and about Toulouse, 69 — his doctrine, 85.

Heretics. Catholics and Protestants agreed in the punishing of Heretics, 40 — memorable answer of St. Bernard on the false constancy of

INDEX. 413

Heretics, 130 — what is the succession of Heretics, 1G5— character of Heresy owned in the Reformation, J 87.

Huss (John), a disciple of Wickhif, 139— he imitates Wickhff in his hatred of the Pope, ib. — says I\Iass, 52 — and judges no otherwise concernino: the Eucharist than those of the Cliurch of Rome, 139 — why John Huss's doctrine was doubted of, 1-10 — he was a Cathohc in all the now controverted points, except Communion under botli kinds, and the Pope, ib. — the Bohemian Brethren account him a great martyr, althougli they follow not his doctrine, 145 — Luther accuses John Huss of his ignorance in the point of Justification, 148.

Hussites (The) divided amongst themselves, 145.

Images. Queen Elizabeth, at first, is for retaining images, 3 — she is persuaded by false reasons to condemn them, nevertheless retains the crucifix in her chapel, ib. — images broken by Claude of Turin, an Arian, 52 — they are honoured by Wickliff, 137 — and John Huss, 140.

/«a;«m26<7?7y of justice rejected by the Enghsh under Elizabeth, 14 — taught by the Swiss, 43 — the Dort Synod's prodigious doctrine on inamissibility of justice, 233 — whether it was right understood, 243.

Incarnation. This mystery an imposition, according to the Manicheans, 56 — and according to the Albigenses, 124.

Infallibility owned in the Church by the Minister Jurieu, 338 — this Infallibility admits of no restriction in dogmata, 344 — the Church is ever constant; is ever in possession of the truth when beginning to be attacked ; her decisions are plain, her steadiness not to be shaken, 363, 369, Z%S>—Fide Jurieu, vide Vol. I.

Innocent HI. (Pope). The Vaudois come to ask his approbation, 94 — he approves the Institute of the Minor Brethren, ib. — he holds the Council of Lateran, where he condemns the Vaudois, 95.

Invocation of Saints, received by Wickliff, 137 — and by John Huss, 140.

Jane, Queen of Navarre, exercises horrid cruelties on priests and religious persons, 33.

Jerome, of Prague, disciple of John Huss, follows him entirely, 140.

Joseph Mede, an English Protestant, renders himself famous by his extravagancies on the Revelations, 202 — he accuses St. Leo the Great, St. Basil, and the rest of the Saints, their contemporaries, of idolatry, 204 — Joseph Mede and l\Ir. Jurieu contradict one another, 213 — his prediction m behalf of the King of Swedeland no sooner uttered than proved false, 214 — what was discovered by him in the Revelations touching the Reformers, 2 IS.

Jurieu (Mr.), what was said by him concerning the civil wars excited by the Calvinists, 30 — wiiat concerning those who teach the distuiction betwixt Bishops and Priests, 189 — he maintains the Pope to be Antichrist, and an article of Faith for all true Christians, 197 — he varies on this point, 201 — exposition of Mr. Jurieu's doctrine on the llth„ 12th, and 13th chapters of the Revelations, 198— he is bent on shortening the time of the pretended prophecies, ib. — he owns his prepossession ; he forsakes his guides; and why, ib. — the impossiljility he is under of settling the epoch for the twelve hundred and sixty years which the Reformation is determined to allow for Antichrist's persecution, 199— he gives a new date to the birth of Antichrist, ib. — the time not suiting, because of the hohness of the then l*ope, 200 — Jurieu changes his mind, and is for advancing the downfal of Anti-

INDEX.

Christ, 201-:rhe makes Antichrist to be born in the person of St. Leo the Great, 202 — absurdity of this system, ib. — vain shift of this Minister, 203 — he imputes to St. Leo two evil characters, ib. — he accuses St. Leo, St. Basil, St. Ambrose, &c. of idolatry, 204 — why he does not make St. Basil the beginner of Antichristianism as well as St. Leo, 206 — his ridiculous calculation, 207 — he ill explains the seven Kings of the Revelations, 208 — explains as ill the ten Kings of the Revelations, 211 — frivolous answer of Mr. Jurieu on this head, 212 — the opposition of Jurieu and Joseph Mede to one another, 213 — his ridiculous notions concerning the Turk, 215 — he owns the Prophets of the Protestant party to be cheats; his idea of the Reformation, 216 — his sentiment on the decisions of Dort, 257 — Semi-Pelagianism does not damn according to this author, 258 — he makes the Synod of Dort act more by policy than truth, 259 — he declares they were ready to bear with Semi- Pelagianisra in the Arminians, ib. — he is a Pelagian, notwithstanding the decrees of Dort, 261 — he falls back into the excesses the Reformers were guilty of in respect to the cause of sin, 262 — according to this Minister, the disputes touching Predestination do not longer concern any essential point of religion, 269 — what he confesses of the Variation of Protestants in regard to the Church's perpetual visibility, 300, 309 — in his notion, you may save your soul in all communions, 310 — this he took from the Socinians, ib. — he comes into the sentiments of Mr. Pajon, i6. — is blamed for favouring the Socinians, 311 — grants that we may be saved in the Church of Rome, 312 — owns the excesses of his Confession of Faith, 317 — overthrows the ideas of the Reformation ; impugns the doctrine of his Church relating to excommunication, 319 — amongst his brethren, Confessions of Faith are nothing but arbitrary contracts, 320 — he establishes the independent principle, 321 — he makes the authority and subordination of Churches to depend on Princes, 322 — he confesses that this his system is contrary to the faith of all ages, 324 — he contradicts himself when he pretends the Council of Nice sides with him, 325 — he undermines the authority of the Apostolic Creed, 327 — he accuses the Church contemporary with the Apostles of schism and heresy, 329 — according to him, one may save himself among the Socinians, 330 — and, by the same principles, among Mahometans and Jews, 331 — and, at the same time, speaks pt'o and C071. touching the perpetual visibility of the Church, 333 — and touching the Universal Church's teaching and preaching, 337 — he will have the general consent of the Universal Church to be a demonstration, 339 — he condemns his own Church by the characters he gives to the Universal Church, 341 — confessing the infallibility of the Church, he must confess that of General Councils, 345 — he takes from pastors the title of judges, contrary to the sense of his own Churches, 348 — he is against all subscribing to Councils, 349 — he is for sacrificing truth to peace, 350.

Justice, inherent, acknowledged by Protestants, 372 — Vide Justification.

JustiJicatio7i. Luther reproaches John Huss with utter ignorance of Justitication, 148 — Piscator's doctrine on this head, 181 — detested by the Calvinists, z6.— decree of the National Synod of Privas touching Justification, 182 — impiety of the Calvinists' doctrine on Justification, as proposed by their Synods, 184 — perspicuity and plainness of the Catholic doctrine on the same subject, ^6. — the Arminians' doctrine on Justification, 232 — monstrous doctrine of the Dort Synod on the same point, 238 — the ancient Church's doctrine conformable to that of Trent, 372— Fzrfe Vol. L

INDEX. 415

Kelesiski, a shoemaker, puts himself at the head of the Bohemian Brethren, and compiles for them a body of doctrine, 144.

Kings. "VVickliff's pernicious doctrine concernins; Kings, 136 — system of the Ministers, concernins; the seven Kings in the Revelations, confounded by the terms of this prophecy, 208 — the ten Kings in the Revelations evidently as ill explicated, 211.

Leo (St.). Jurieu makes Antichrist be born in the person of St. Leo the Great, 202 — absurdity of this system, ib. — two evil characters attributed to St. Leo by this Minister, 203 — pretended idolatry of St. Leo, 204.

Liturgy of Edvfard VL changed in essential points, 6.

Lonibez. Council of Lombez against the Albigenses, 71 — history of this Council, 72.

London. Synod of London in 15C2, wherein Queen Elizabeth's supremacy is received, 9 — Council of London against Wickliff", 138.

Luther reproaches the Bohemian Brethren with their utter ignorance of Justification, 148 — Luther gives them his approbation, and how, 153 — • the Calvinists acknowledge Luther for their father, 178 — Luther's vain predictions concerning the downfal of the Papacy, 192 — he inserts in the Smalcaldic Articles that the Pope is Antichrist, 1 94 — Vide Vol. I.

Lutherans, ill treated by the Polish Zuinglians, 48 — who afterwards enter into an agreement with them, '>0 — the Lutherans unite with the Bohemians and Zuinglians in Poland, 155 — departure of the Lutherans from their principles in this union, and how they may vindicate themselves, 156 — reflections on this union, 157 — how the Lutherans are descended from the Albigenses and Vaudois, 1 63 — they seek in vain the succession of persons in these sects, ib. — they find still less amongst them the succession of doctrine, 164 — the Lutherans are detested by the Calvinists, as defenders of a monstrous opinion, 171 — Assembly of Frankfort is for comprehending the Lutherans in the common Confession of Faith it designed to make, 1 74 — letter written to the Lutherans by this Assembly, 1 75 — difference between what was designed to be done at Frankfort and at Sainte-Foy in favour of the Lutherans, from what was since done at Charenton, 180 — the Lutherans of Rintel agree with the Calvinists of Marpurg in the Conference of Cassel, 270 — the sentiments of the Lutherans, concerning universal grace, give occasion to those of Cameron and his disciples, 272 — sentiments of the Lutherans concerning the perpetual visibility of the Church, 282 — Vide Vol. L

Lucius in. (Pope) condemns the Vaudois, 90.

Lyons. The poor men of Lyons. — Vide Vaudois.

Manicheans. Errors of the Manicheans, progenitors of the Albigenses, 55 — consequence from the false principle of the Manicheans, 56 — they endeavoured to justify themselves by the usages of the Church, ib. — their spirit of seduction and hypocrisy, 57 — in order to conceal themselves, they mixed in Catholic assemblies, 58 — history of the Paulicians or Arminian Manicheans, ib. — their conformity with the Manicheans refuted by St. Austin, 60 — their design on the Bulgarians, and Peter of Sicily's instructions, in order to prevent the effect thereof, ib. — the Manicheans begin to appear in the West, after the year of our Lord 1000, 61 — Manicheans, that came from Italy, discovered at Orleans, under King Robert, ib. — their heresy spreads itself into Gascony and Toulouse, 02 — the Manicheans of Italy called Cathari, and why, 63

416 INDEX.

■ — origin of the Manicheans of Toulouse and Italy ; a proof that they came from Bulgaria, ib. — Councils of Tours and Toulouse against them, 65 — their conformity with the Manicheans known by St. Austin, ib. — the same heresy in Germany, ib. — senliments of the German Manicheans, 66 — it is discovered that they held two first principles, ib. — their variations, and care to conceal themselves, 67 — their equivocations when examined about their faith, ib. — these heretics examined in full audience of all the people ; their tenets related by St. Bernard, who had been thoroughly acquainted with them at Toulouse, 69— they .styled themselves Albigenses and Petrubusians, 71 — why called Arians, 72 — their notion of the Trinity the very same with that of the ancient Manicheans, ib. — Manicheans of Soissons, 73 — these heretics met with in Agenois and England, 74 — the heretics of Montpellier are Manicheans, 76 — in the list of the Manichean Churches, drawn by Renier, the Albisenses are comprehended, SO — demonstration that the heretics who denied the Real Presence, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were Manicheans ; notoriously false supposition of the Ministers, 122 — Manicheism at Metz, 123 — sixteen Churches of the Manicheans comprehend the whole sect, 126 — who were those amongst them called Cathari, ib. — why St. Paul calls the doctrine of two principles admitted by the Manicheans a doctrine of devils, 159 — why, of all heresies, the Holy Ghost hath especially characterized none but Manicheism ; character of this heresy ; hypocrisy, lying, and a seared conscience, 160.

Marriage, rejected by the Manicheans as bad, 56 — Variations of the Manicheans of Germany in relation to marriage, 67 — in what respect the Sacrament of Marriage was condemned by the Vaudois, 107 — the Albigenses rejected lawful Marriage, 122.

Mass. The Vaudois made no difficulty of coming to Mass, 132 — John Huss says Mass, 140 — the Mass offends the Bohemian Brethren, 144 — antiquity of the sacrifice of Mass, 278.

Maurice, Prince of Orange, upholds the Gomarists, 228.

Mauzzim, of Daniel, how interpreted by the Minister, 204, 205.

Mede — Vide Joseph Mede.

Melancthon. His bad opinion of WicklifF, 139 — acknowledged by the Calvinists for their Father, 178 — he allows that it is an easy matter to come to an agreement about the article of Justification, 378.

Menon, one of the Heads of the Anabaptists, 361.

Merit of good works rejected by the Swiss, 43 — the merits of Saints owned by Wicklitf, 137 — the merit of works owned by John Huss, 140 — the Trent Council's Doctrine concerning the merit of good works, 375 — Vide Vol. I.

Ministers (The) decide that the Calvinists may take up arras, 19, 22 — the first Huguenot war resolved on by the advice of all the Ministers, and peace made notwithstanding their opposition, 28 — proof against the Ministers that the Albigenses were Manicheans, 84 — artifices of the Ministers in respect to the history of the Vaudois and Albigenses, 121 — notoriously false suppositions of the Ministers, in order to confound the Vaudois with the Albigenses, 122 — two objections of the Ministers to the same purpose, refuted, 125— the Faith of the French Calvinists trusted in the hands of four Ministers, 17 7— the Ministers cannot believe what they say, 205 — vain shifts of the Ministers relating to the business of Sainte-Foy, 179— the System of the Ministers touching the seven Kings of the Revelations evidently confounded by the very terms of this prophecy, 208 — their fallacious answer, 210 — they

INDEX. 417 account as ill for the ten Kin<>;s of the llevelations, 21 1 — what it is the Ministers have discovered in the Revelations concernins; their Reformers, 217 — the Ministers declare that Semi-Pelagianism doth not damn, 258 — and that thoywere ready to bear with it in the Arminians, 259 — the Ministers themselves very much relaxed in the observance of the *Dort decrees, 260 — the Ministers elude the decree of the Gap Synod, and the thirty-first article of their Confession touching extraordinary vocation, 297, 298.

Ministrij. Interruption of the Church's IMinistry owned by the Calvinists of France, 29.3 — before the Reformation, the Elect saved in the Roman Ministry by Mr. Claude's confession, 302.

Miracle. Under Edward VI. and under Elizal:)eth, none of the Miracles admitted by Calvin in the Eucharist are employed, 8.

Montpellier, 'the Heretics of, were Manicheans, TG.

Mystery. What is that Mystery of Iniquity specified by St. Paul ? 161.

Nismes. The national Synod of Nismes in 1572; chansfes the decree of that of Rochelleconcei-ning the Substance of Jesus Christ's body in the Eucharist, 172.

Ordibarians, who they were, 123.

Ordination. Validity of Ordinations, whereon sfrounded in England, 11

— how the Bohemian Brethren seek their Ordinations in the Catholic

Church, 148.

Parliament. The Parliament of England assumes to itself the decision in points of Faith, 10.

Parker, Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, is the first that subscribes Elizabeth's supremacy, 9.

Patarians, who they were, 81 — their infamy, 83.

Paulicians, or Manicheans of Armenia, their history, 59 — their conformity with the Manicheans refuted by St. Austin, 60 — their desisrn on the Bulgarians, ib.

Pelagianism. Spite of the Doit decrees, iMr. Jurievi maintains that Pelagianism is not contrary to piety, 261.

Perrin (Paul) (juotes not so much as one contemporary Historian in his History of the Vaudois, 116 — the books of the Vaudois produced by him, 1 17 — their Confession of Faith which he produces is posterior to Calvinism, 1 19.

Peter de Bruis appears in the eleventh Century, 53 — he clandestinely dissfminates his errors in Daupliiny, Provence, and in the neighbourhood of Toulouse, 6!) — he is ciiief of the Albigenses, 71 — examination of his Doctrine, 84 — St. Bernard charges him with nothing but what is true, 87.

Peter du Moulin — Vide Du Moulin.

Peter of Sicily writes the History of the Paulicians and Manicheans of Armenia, 61 — endeavours to prevent the spreading of their Sect in Bulgaria, ib.

Petrobusiuns, who they were, 7 1 .

Picurds (The) di>owned by the Bohemian Brethren, 133,

Piscator, who he was, and his Doctrine on imputed Justice, 180, 181 — his Doctrine is detested by the national Synod of Gap, 181 — by that of Rochelle in 1607, ib.—hy that of Privas in 1612, 182— and by that of Tonins in 1614, 183 — reflection on the Calvinists' procedure against Piscator, 185 — Peter du Moulin puts Piscator's question amongst VOL. II. 2 E

418 INDEX.

those things which are of little importance to Salvation, 187 — the Synod oi'Ay approves what Du Moulin says, ib. Poland. The Bohemian Brethren fly thither, 155 — and there unite themselves with the Lutherans and Zuinijlians, ib. Poles. Remarkable Confession ot Faith of the Polish Zuinglians, wherein the Lutherans are ill handled, 4 8 — Ubiquity taught by the Polish Zuinglians, 49 — their agreement with the Lutherans and Vaudois, 50. Poltrot assassinates the Duke of Guise ; this murder looked on, in the

Reformation, as an act of Relij;ion, 35. Poor Men of Lyons — Vide Vaudois.

Pope. The Pope of the Albigenses in Bulgaria, 81 — hatred of Wickliff and John Huss against the Pope, 139 — all goes down with Protestants provided the Pope be exclaimed against, 141 — the Calixtins disposed to own the Pope, 143 — the Bohemian Brethren offended at the power of the Pope, 144 — the Synod ot Gap adds an article to the Confession of Faith on purpose to declare the Pope Antichrist, ISl — Luther's vain predictions of the Pope's downfal, 192 — Daniel and St. Paul extravagantly quoted for proof of the Pope's being Antichrist, ib. — Protestants disgrace themselves by this doctrine, 193 — the ablest Protestants refute this Doctrine, 196 — the Pope's authority over General Councils and the temporals of sovereigns is not of Faith, nor ought to hinder the re-union of Protestants, 383 — Jurieu maintains that it is a fundamental article of Faith to believe the Pope Antichrist, 197— the Pope's infallibility is not of Faith, and the contrary opinion cannot be condemned, either as heretical or erroneous, or even as temerarious, 3s3 — Vide Vol. L Poplicans, or Publicans, who they were, 75 — the Ministers make the

Vaudois Manicheans, by making them Poplicans, ib. Prayer tor the Dead rejected by the Bohemian Brethren, 144. Predestination. Doctrine of the Arminians, or remonstrance touching Predestination, 230 — the disputes about Predestination, according to Mr. Jurien, no longer intrench on the essentials of Religion, 269. Presence. Queen Elizabeth will not suffer her Divines to censure the Real Presence, 4 — the indifference of the English as to the Real Presence, 7 — the Real Presence impugned by Berengarius, 52 — by the Albigenses, S3, 85 — beheved by the Vaudois, 91, 98 — manifest proof that "the Heretics, who denied the Real Presence in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were Manicheans, 122 — Real Presence believed by John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, 139, 140 — and by the Bohemian Brethren, 149 — the assembly of Frankfort minces the difficulty of the Real Presence on purpose to gain the Lutherans, 176 — Peter Du Mouhn, approved by the Synod of Ay, is against condemning the Real Presence, as believed by the Lutherans, 188 — the Real Presence free from venom by the Confession of the Ministers, 264 — the Real Presence necessary, 166 — Vide Reality, vide Vol. I. Pride of the Vaudois, 96, 127, 130.

Primacy of Queen Elizabeth in spirituals established in England, 8 — the Catholic Bishops refuse to own it, 9 — declaration of the Protestant Clergy in favour of this Primacy, ib. — this Doctrine condemned by the Calvinists, 13, Principle. The Manicheans admitted two first Principles, 55 — the Albigenses did the same, 123 — why the Doctrine of two Principles is called by St. Paul a Doctrine of Devils, 159. Privas. The Synod of Pnvas, in 1612, condemns Piscator's Doctrine, mi.

INDEX. 419

Prophets. The Prophets of the Protestant Party are cheats, 216— their interpreters no better worth, 217.

Protestants. Difference t^etween Protestants' conduct and that of the Church, 31 — what is the succession of Protestants, 52 — they reap nothinof but shame in makinij the Albisjenses their proirenitors, 88 — their authority with respect to the original of the Vaudois, 97 — Doctrines which Protestan's reject in the Vaudois no less than CathoHcs, 109 — Protestants propose new Dogmata to the Vaudois, 110 — all pleases them, provided the Pope be exclaimed against, 141 — they seek in vain for the succession of Persons and of Doctrine in the Vaudois and Albififenses, 164 — they discredit themselves by saying the Pope is Antichrist, 193 — why those absurdities endured in the Protestant Party, 215 — the Prophets of the Protestant Party are impostors, 216 — the arguments employed against the Arminians in the Synod of Dort condemn the whole Protestant Party, 251 — according to this Svnod, tlie Protestants were obliged to own the Council of the Catholic Church, 253 — the cause of Protestants' Variations proceeding from their ignorance of what the Church is, 281 — their sentiments relating to the perpetual Visibility of the Church, ib. — this Doctrine the ruin of their Reformation, and the source of their perplexities, 283 — what precisely the Protestants are obliged to by this Doctrine, ib. — they vary on this head, 289 — and why, ib. — Vide Vol. I.

Purgatory believed by Wickliff, 137 — and John Huss, 140 — what precisely is to be believed concerning Purgatory agreeably to the Council of Trent, 380 — Protestants' principles prove the necessity of Purgatory, ib. — the Purification of souls after this life owned by them, ib. — they agree as to the main point, but leave the manner undecided, 381 — Vide Vol. I.

Reality. Queen Elizabeth will not suffer her Divines to censure the Reality, 4 — indifference of the English, in respect of the Reality, 7 — the Reality condemned by the Zuinglians of Poland, 48 — the Reality denied by the Albigenses, 85 — believed by the Vaudois, 91, 98 — manifest proof that the Heretics, who denied the Reality in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were Manicheans, 122 — Reality believed by John Huss, 140 — strong expressions of the Bohemian Brethren for the Reality, 149 — the Reality free from venom, 264 — VideYoX.l., vide Real Presence.

Rebaptization of the Bohemian Brethren, 145.

Redemption. The Doctrine of the Arminians concerning the universality of Redemption, 231.

Reformation. Queen Klizabeth approves not the Reformation of Edward VI. in all its points, 2 — whether the spirit of the Reformation was a spirit of meekness or violence, 31 — effects of that violent spirit which predominated in the Reformation, 32 — the Reformation allows private men to arrogate to themselves greater abilities for understanding sound Doctrine than all the rest of the Church, 26 u — Sects born in the Reformation, 358.

Relics. Vigilantius, in the fourth century, opposes honouring of Relics, 52 — St. Leo, St. Basil, and the rest of the Saints of that time, accused of Idolatry by the Ministers, on account of the veneration they shewed to Saints and Relics, 204.

Remonstrants — Vide Arminians.

Renaudie (La), chief of the Amboise conspiracy ; his character, 18.

Revelations. Illusions of the Protestants relating to the Revelations,

INDEX.

193 — exposition of the Minister Jurieu's Doctrine on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth chapters of the Revelations, 198 — the system of the Minister concerning the seven Kinsjs of the Revelations evidently confuted by the very terms of this prophecy, 208 — the ten Kings of the Revelations as evidently ill accounted tor, 211 — contrarieties of the new Interpreters of the Revelations, 213 — the Englishman finds England, and the Frenchman, France, in the Revelations, 214 — what it is that the Ministers have discovered in the Revelations touching their Reformers, 217.

Revenues of the Church plundered by Elizabeth, Queen of England, 13 — Vide Yo. I.

Revolt. Beginning of the Calvinists' revolt in France, 15 — open revolt of the whole party, 21.

Rochelle. The national Synod of Rochelle in 1571 condemns those of the party that were for changing the Supper-article in the Confession of Faiih, 166, 167 — decision of this Synod full of perplexity, 167 — vain efforts of this Synod to find the substance of the body in the Calvinian Doctrine, 168 — error of this Synod endeavouring to explain the mystery of the Eucharist without producing the institution, 169 — reason of the Synod for establishing the substance ; there it is concluded that the other opinion is contrary to the v»'ord of God, 169, 170 — it says more than it designed, 170 — the Swiss believe themselves condemned by this decision, but the Synod takes care they should be answered that this doctrine only concerns France, 171 — the decree of this Synod is changed in that of Nismes, 172 — the Synod of Rochelle in 1607 condemns Piscatoi's Doctrine, 180, 181 — it gives orders that the decree of the Synod of Gap, declaring the Pope Antichrist, be printed in all the copii^s of the Confession of Faith, 195 — this Synod declares that nothing ought fo be added or taken from the twenty-fifth and twentyninth articles of the Confession of Faith, where the Church is treated of, 297.

Rogue (Mr. de la). His want of sincerity touching the Vaudois, 97 — this Minister artfully confounds the Vaudois with the Albigenses, 122 — his false pretence that Wickhff's Doctrine was slandered at the Council of Constance, 136 — he proves that John Huss and Jerome of Prague died in the belief of the Church of Rome, especially in what regards the Eucharist, 139, 140.

Roque (Mr. de la), son of the Minister, produces a Confession of Faith of Wickliif s, where the Reality is clearly established, 137.

Roquesane, chief of the sect of the Cahxtins, 141 — he utterly destroys the Taijorites, ib. — his ambition prevents the Calixtins re-uniting with the Church, 143 — he makes himself Pope in Bohemia, 144 — he permits several Greek Priests to celebrate the holy mysteries according to their Church rites, 147.

Runcarians, who they were, 81,

Sacrament. The Albigenses taught that the effect of the Sacraments depends on the holiness of the Ministers, 83 — the Vaudois taught that the merit of persons acted in the Sacraments more than order and character, 95 — the Vaudois were in no error as to the nature of the Sacraments, 96 — what it is they believed of the seven Sacraments, 106 — Wickliff teaches that the eiiect of the Sacraments depends on the merit of persons, 136 — the seven Sacraments owned by John Huss, 140 — and by the Bohemian Brethren in their Confession, anno 1504, presented to King Ladislaus, 149— they reduce them to two, as Luther

INDEX 421 prescribes them, 149 — they make the Sacraments depend on the merit of the Minister, 150.

Sacrijice. The Calvinists' Doctrine against Piscator solves all the difficulties they propose to us relating to the Sacrifice of the Eucharist, 182.

Sainte-Foy. The Synod of Sainte-Foy, in 1578, consents to a new Confession of Faith, in view of unitino; all the Protostanls, 176 — it trusts its Faith in the hands of four Ministers and of Mr, de Turenne, 177 — vain evasions of the Ministers relating to this affair, 179 — difference betwixt what was designed to be done in favour of the T>utherans at Sainte-Foy, and what afterwards was done at Charenton, 180.

Salvation. The Calvinists believe that the faithful are sure of their Salvation, 223 — the Dort Synod's decision on the certainty of Salvation, 235, 240 — false allurement of the certainty of Salvation, 243.

Schoman. Georue Schoman, one of the chiefs of the Unitarians, 360.

Scotland. The Doctrine settled in England in behalf of the authority of Kings and Parliament as to matters of Faith, is also set up in Scotland, 12.

Scripture. Abuse made of the Scripture by the Vaudois and Albigenses, 1 28.

Semi-Pelagianism no damning error, according to Mr. .Jurieu, 258 — this Minister declares they were ready to tolerate Semi-Pelae;ianism in the Arminians, ib. — the other INIinisters in the same sentiment with him, 259.

Sendomir. Assembly of Sendomir, where the Lutherans, the Bohemians, and the Zuinglians unite, 155 — terms of the Sendomir agreement, 150.

Sin. God the Author of Sin accordine; to the Calvinists, 221 — Mr. Jurieu relapses into the excesses of the Reformers with respect to the cause of Sin, 262.

Siftcidenses ( ' he), a sect of the Vaudois that refused not to receive tlie Eucliarist from the hands of a Priest, 107.

Soci7ii. Fausto Socini and Lelio heads of the Socinians, 360.

Socinians. The Socinians and the Anabaptists sprung from Luther and Calvin, 359 — united together, ib.

Soissons. Manicheans at Soissons, 73 — their history, ib.

Strasburg. Variation of the Church of Strasburg, 361 — the senate of Strasburg destroys images, and enjoins the communion under both kinds, ib. — suspends the celebration of Mass, 362 — those of Strasburg turn Zuinglians, afterwards return to the Confession of Augsburg, ib.~ they fall into ubiquity, 362, 363.

Substance. Neither under Edward VL, nor under Elizabeth, is the word Substance employed, which Calvin admits in the Eucharist, 8 — the Zuinglians' Supper void of Substance, 46 — vain endeavours of the national Synod of Rochelle in 1571 to prove the Substance of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Doctrine of the pretended Reformed of France, 168 — the Substance reduced to nothing in the national Synod of Nismes, 172.

Succession. Protestants seek in vain for the Succession of Persons and Doctrine in the Vaudois and Albigenses, 1G3, 164 — what is the Succession of heretics, 165.

Supper. The Supper of the Swiss or Zuinglians without substance, and a presence in virtue only, 46 — difference which the Zuinglians of Poland place between their Supper and that of the Socinians, 49 — several pretended reformed Churches of France are for changing the Supperarticle in the Confession of Faith, 166.

Supremacy of the Kings of England is there established, notwithstanding Queen Elizabeth's qualms of conscience, 8 — the Catholic Bishops re-

422 INDEX.

fuse to sign it, 9 — declaration of the Protestant Clergy in England in favour of this Supremacy, ib. — this doctrine condemned by the Calvinists, 13. Swiss. New Confession of Faith of the Helvetic Chinches or Swiss, 41 — frivolous reasoning of the Ministers concerning this Confession, 42 — the Swiss begin but then to know anything of imputed justice, ?'6. — they reject the merit of good works, 43 — they attribute true Faith to the Elect alone, ib. — they teach the Certainty of Salvation, and the Inamissibility of Grace, and ill explain conversion, 43, 44 — their monstrous Doctrine on Free-will, 45 — according to them, the Supper is void of substance, and no presence but in virtue, 46 — they leave nothing peculiar to the Supper, 47 — they are the most sincere defenders of the tigvirative sense, 48 — the Swiss believe themselves condemned by the decision of the national Synod of Rochelle in 1571, 171 —they are not satisfied with Beza's answer, but still hold themselves condemned, ib. — they are specified by the explication of the Synod of Nismes, 172 — Swiss formulary against Universal Grace, 273 — another Swiss decision on the Hebrew Text laughed at by the learned of the party, 274 — another decision of the Swiss and Geneva reproved by Mr. Claude, ib.

Taborites. The sects of Taborites arises in Bohemia, 141— their rebellion and cruelties, ib. — their total destruction, 142.

Temples erected in honour of the Saints by the Bohemian Brethren, 154.

Test. Test Act in England, wherein the English draw near to our sentiments, and condemn us only by manifest mistakes, 276.

Testament. The Old Testament rejected by the Manicheans as fabulous, 56 — rejected by the Albigenses, 71 — received by the Vaudois, 122.

Tonins. The national Synod of Tonins in 1614 condemns Piscator, 183.

Toulouse. The Manicheans of Toulouse, 69 — are the same with the Albigenses, 72.

Transubstantiation. Manifest proof that the Vaudois did in no wise err as to that point, 99, 100 — this Doctrine impugned by Wickliff, 137 — retained by John Huss and Jerome of Prague, 139, 140 — and by the Calixtins, 143 — rejected by the Bohemian Brethren, 144 — the hatred of the Calvinist people turned against Transubstantiation ever since the Synod of Charenton in 1631, 267 — the word Transubstantiation chosen at the Council of Lateran, 36 B — and why — Vide Vol.1.

Trent. The Council of Trent hath added nothing to the decisions of the Ancients, 370 — it does but repeat the ancient decisions in respect to justifying Grace, 373 — in respect to its gratuity, ib.—'m respect to the preparations to Grace, 374 — to the inseparable union of liberty and Grace, 375 — to the merit of good works, ib. — in respect to the fulfilling of God's commandments, ib. — it has cut away the root of all abuses relating to the honour paid to Images, 379 — its moderation in determining nothing but what is certain, 381 — it speaks not with ambiguity, {})_ — itThas determined all that regards the true authority of the Pope, 382 — in it, those are opposed who were for making a foi'raulary whence the Pope's superiority over a general council might be inferred, ib. — this formulary suppressed with the Pope's consent, ib.

Trinity. The ancient Manicheans' sentiment as to the Trinity, 72 — is the same with that of the Toulouse Albigenses, 72, 73.

Turk. Juiieu's ridiculous conceit relating to the Turk, 215.

Turenne, (Mr.) Synod of Sainte Foy trusts its Faith in the hands of four ministers and of Mr. Turenne, 177 — why Mr. Turenne employed in this deputation concerning doctrine, ib.

INDEX.

Ubiquity tausrht by the Polish Zain^lians, 49— Peter Du Moulin, whose sentiment is approved by the Synod of Ay, is against condemning Ubiquity, 188 — Ubiquily tolerated hy the Calvinists, 268.

Unction. What was believed by the Vaudois concerning extreme Unction, 106.

Union of the three Protestant Sects of Poland, 155 — reflections on this Union, 157 — the assembly of Frankfort is for making an Union between all the defenders of the fifjurative sense by a common Confession of Faith, 173.

Unitarians — Vide Socinians.

Valdo, author of the Vaudois, 54 — who he was, 89 — whether a man of learning, 90 — his first design, ib. — what Paul Perrin says of Valdo, 117.

Variatio7is of the EnoJish on the Eucharist, 4 — their Variation as to the Adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, 6 — their Variation confessed hy Mr. Burnet. 14 — Variations of the Manicheans of Germany, 67 — Variations of the Vaudois since Luther and Calvin's time, 109 — Variation of the Reformed of France relating to the Eucharist, 166, 172 — Variations of the Swiss concerning the Vulgate, 274 — the cause of the Variations of Protestant Churches, 281.

Vaudois (The) agree with the Zuiiiglians and Lutherans of Poland, 50 — they are well treated by the Calvinists, and why, 53 — ridiculous pretensions of the Vaudois as to their antiquity ; false origin which they boast of, 53, 54 — the Ministers make the Vaudois Manicheans in making them Poplicans, 75 — many sorts of Heretics called Vaudois, ib. — the Vaudois are distinguished from the Manicheans, and, by consequence, from the Albigenses, 76 — the beginning of the Vaudois, or Poor Men of Lyons, 88 — the abridgment of their history, 89 — they are condemned by Pope Lucius III.; they come to Rome, 90 — they are accused of nothing relating to the Real Presence, ib. — their errors did not regard the Eucharist, 91 — they came to beg the approbation of Innocent III., 94 — they begin to be treated on the foot of obstinate Heretics, ib. — the Church's patience with respect to the Vaudois, 95 — their boldness increases by little and little, 96 — their doctrine in regard to Church revenues, ?6.— they were free from error as to the Sacra ments, ib. — want of sincerity in the Protestant Historians with respect to the Vaudois' original, 97 — the Vaudois did not change their doctrine concerning the Eucharist till Luther's time, 98 — list of their errors ; manifest proof tliat they were in no error relating to Transubstantiation, 100 — they believe the necessity of Confession, 104 — in the exterior they performed the duties of ('atholics, ib. — what it was they believed of the seven Sacraments, 106 — in what lespect they condemn the Sacrament of niarri:ige, 107 — demonstration that the Catholics were neither ignorant of, nor did dissemble the docinne of the Vaudois, 108 — division of the Vaudois" doctrine into three heads, 109 — doitrine which the Protestants reject in the Vaudois as well as the Cai holies, ?6. — doctrine whicli the Catholics approve in the Vaudois, but the Protestants reject, ib. — the Vaudois change their doctrine since Luther's and Calvin's time, ib. — new tenets proposed to the Vaudois by the Protestants, 110 — the Vaudois nowise Calvinists; proof of this troni Crespin, 113 — proof from Beza, 1 14 — change in the Vaudois of Calabria, and their entire extinction, jY'.— the Vaudois at present are not predecessors, but disciples of the Calvinists, 115 — Vaudois books produced by Pernn, ] 17 — their Confession produced by this author is posterior to Calvinism, 119 — manifest proof thai the Vaudois had no Confession of Faith antecedently to the pretended Reformation, ib, — the Vaudois, in making their Calvinist Conlession of Faith, reteuned something of theDogmatapeculiar

424 INDEX.

to them, 121 — reflections on the historyof the Vaudois and Albi2:enses; artifice of the Ministers' ib. — notorious false suppositions of the Ministers in order to confound the Vaudois with the Albigenses, 122 — whether the word believers signifies the Vaudois in the ancient authors ; Aubertin's fallacy, 126 — the Vaudois concur not in sentiment with the Calvinists; what we should believe concerning the lives of the Vaudois, 127 — their pride, ib. — sourness was their character; abuse they made of the Scripture, 128 — their presumption, 129 — whether one ought to be surprised at their false constancy, 130 — inevitable condemnation of these Heretics in that they denied their religion, 131 — the Vaudois disowned by the Bohemian brethren, and by the Picards, 132 — in what manner the Vaudois sprung from the Albigensian Manicheans, 162.

Vigikmtius, in the fourth century, opposes the veneration of relics, and is preferred to St. Jerome by the Protestants, 52.

Visibility of the Church — Fk/i? Church.

Vocatio7i. Memorable decision of the Synod of Gap concerning extraordinary Vocation, 297— the Ministers elude this extraordinary Vocation, 298 — they are obliged to give up extraordinary Vocation, ib.

War. The first civil Wars under Charles IX. which the whole Huguenot party concurs in, 2 1 — these Wars approved in their national Synod, 22 — what spirit actuated the Huguenots in these Wars, 24 — their vain pretences that these wars did not concern religion, 25— perplexity of the French Calvinists with respect to these AVars, 27 — the first War resolved on by the advice of all the Ministers, and peace concluded in spite of them, 2S — the other was destitute of all pretext, 30 — VideYoX. I.

Wickliff. His impious Doctrine, 52 — he never separated from Rome, 53 — his Trialogae tumultuates all Bohemia, 133 — what was his Theology, ib. — he imitates the false piety of the Vaudois, by attributing the effect of the Sacraments to personal merit, 136 — his Doctrine nowise slandered at the Council of Constance, ib. — his pernicious Doctrine concerning Kings, ib. — he consented to the invocation of saints, honoured their images, and beUeved in purgatory, 137 — WicklifiF's Confession of Faith produced by ]\Ir. de la Roque, jun., where the Real Presence is clearly laid down and .Transubstantiation rejected, ib. — this Confession attributed to the Council of London by Mr. de la Roque, 138 — (he contrary ])roved by Wickliff himself, ib. — Wickliff publicly renounces his Doctrine, and dies in the exterior communion of the Church, ib. — Melancthon's judgment concerning Wickliff, 139 — his memory respected by the Calixtins, and why, 143.

Wissonais. Andrew Wissonats 'shews how the Unitarians separated from the Reformed, 360.

Zisca, chief of the Taborites, his bloody feats, 141.

Zuinglians (The) make a new Confession of Faith, 41 — they go over to Calvin's notions concerning Grace, 43 — man's conversion ill explained 1)V them, 44 — their monstrous doctrine concerning Free-will, 46 — according to them, the Supper is void of Substance, and the Presence but in virtue, ib. — they leave nothing peculiar to the Supper, 47 — they are the most sincere defenders of the figurative sense, 48 — remarkable Confession of Faith of the Polish Zuinglians, ib. — they teach Ubiquity, ib. — their agreement with the Lutherans and Vaudois, 50 — their union with the Bohemians and Lutherans at Sendomir, 155 — the Zuinglians, most of them, recede from their particular principles in this union, 150~refiection on this union, 157.

END OF VOLUME THE SECOND.

Dublin: Printed by Richard Cotjje.

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Footnotes

1. Tit, iii. 11. t 2Tim, iii. 7. ↩

2. Conf. avec M. CI, p. 13, et seq. f Conf. Aug. Art. vii. ↩

3. Apol. Tit. de Ecc. p. M4. t Ibid, pp. 145, 14G. % Ibid. ↩

4. Ibid. p. 48. ↩

5. Apol. Tit. cle Ecc. p. l.')G. f S. lib. iii. n. 59. ↩

6. Cap. (le Kcc. Syn, Gen. part ii, p. 72. f Cap. dc Coen. p. 72. ↩

7. Cap. de Ecc. Ibid. p. 132. Ibid. c. de Cone. p. 134. t Syu. Geii. Art. viii, p. 186. % S, 1. xi. n, l/C. § Syii, Gen. p. 187. ↩

8. Conf. Argcut. c. xv. de Eccl. Synt. Geu. part i. p. 191. f Ibid, cap, xvi. ↩

9. Syn. Gen. cap. xvii, p. 31, t Ibid. pp. 33, 34. ↩

10. Syst. p. 226. I Syn. Gen. Art. 27, p. 140. % Ibid, Art. 28. § Ibid. Art. 29. ↩

11. Syn. Gen. Art, 19, p. 103. f Ibid. Art. 16, de Eccl. p. 118, Art. 18, p. 119. ↩

12. Instit, jv, c. xi. n. 2. ' ↩

13. Synod, de Gap. ch. de la Conf. de Foi. ↩

14. Syn.^^de la Roch. 1G07. , f Rep. au Disc, de M, de Cond, p. 220. ↩

15. Def. de la Rep. p. i, ch, iv. et p. iv. ch. iv. Rep. a M, de Cond. pp. 313, 333. t Ibid, pp.307, 313. ↩

16. Rep. au Disc, de M. de Cond. p. 73. lb. pp. 82, 83, et seq. ↩

17. Ibid. p. 105. Matt. xvi. 18. ↩

18. Rep. au Disc, de M. de Cond. p. 119. t Ibid. pp. 79, 95, 115, 121, 146, 243. ↩

19. Rep. au Disc, de M. de Cond, pp. 130, &c. 145, &c. 360, &c. 369, &c. 373, 378. ↩

20. Inst. 1. iv. c. ii. n.2. S. n. 26. t Rep. de M. CI. au Disc, de W. de Meaux, pp. 128, 149, 146, 247, 561, &c. ↩

21. Def, de la Ref. p. 265. Rep. an Disc. deM. de Cond. pp. 370, 358,, &e. ↩

22. Def. de la Ref. p. iii. ch. v. p. 289. ↩

23. Rep. au Disc, de Cond, p. 368, ↩

24. Rep. au Disc, de M. de Cond. p. 357. f IljiJ. pp. 3G0, 3G1, &c. 309, Sec. VOL. II. X ↩

25. Sup.l. xi. n. 106, 107, 117,149, &c." f Rep. au disc, de M. de Coiid. p. 460.- ↩

26. Def. cle la Rep. pp.47, 49, 314. Rep. audisc.de M. dcCond. pp. 89, 92, 245,247. t P. 63, et seq. J Syst. de I'Egl. I. i. ch. xx. xxi., &c. ↩

27. System. Proef, towards the end. -j- Luke xi, 17, 18. ↩

28. Calixt. de fid. et stud. Cone. Ecc. n. 1, 2,3, 4, &c. Ludg. Bat. 1651 ↩

29. Avert, aux. Prot. de I'Eur. at the beginning of the Preju. p, 19. ↩

30. Ibid. p. 12. ^ Prejug. p. 4. ↩

31. Prej. leg. p. 4. f Ibid. p. A, &c. p. 8. J Ibid. p. 133, &c. ↩

32. Syst.pp. 147, 149. f Ibid. p. 155. + Prej.ch.i. p. 16. § Ibid. ↩

33. Syst. pp. 173, 174. t Ibid. pp. 158, 164, 259. ↩

34. Syst. pp. 539, 548. f Gal. v. 2. ↩

35. Syst. p.548. f S. n. 37, 41. | Ibid. p. 21C. ↩

36. Prej. legit,p.25. Syst.p. 214. f Ibid. p. 25. J Ibid. ↩

37. Art. xxviii, f Ibid. S. n. 15. + MaU. xviii. 17. ↩

38. Lib. iii. ch. xv. p. 547. f Ibid. ↩

39. Syst. 1. i. ch. vii. viii. f H>i^' P- 55. % Ibid. p. 56. ↩

40. ConciNic. Can. viii. f Ibid. Can, xix. J Cone. c. p. Epist. ad Omn, Episc, ↩

41. Syst. 1. i. til. xiii. t Ibid. cli. xx. p. 153. J Ibiil. ch. xiv., xxi. p. 167. ↩

42. Gal. V. 2, 4. ↩

43. Prej. leg. pp. 4, 5, &c. ↩

44. Prej.p.22. ↩

45. Num. xvi. 26. f Syst. 1. i, ch. xxix. p. 226. ; 1. iii. ch, xvii. ↩

46. Syst. pp. 539, 548. t Prej. leg. ch. ii. pp. 21, 22, &c. Syst. p.'221. ↩

47. Prej, leg. pp. 21, 22, &c. Syst, p. 221. ↩

48. Syst, pp. 228j 229. f Ibid. f Matt, xxviii. 20. ↩

49. Prej. leg. p. 21. f Matl. xvi. 18. ↩

50. Syst. 1. i. ch. xxvi. p. 215. t Syst. pp. 6, 218, 233, 234,235, 236. ↩

51. Syst. p.237. t Il^id- X 1^>'J' ↩

52. Syst. 1. iii. ch. iv. p. 463. ↩

53. Syst, 1. ii. ch. i. p. 238. f Ibid. ↩

54. P. 236. t John xvi. 13, ↩

55. Gal.ii. 18. ↩

56. Dr. Bull, def. fid. Nic. proem, n. 2. p, 2. Ibid. n. 3. t Socra. I. i.e. 9. ↩

57. Syst. 1. iii, ch. ii. p. 243. ch. iii. p. 251 . ch. iv. p. 258. Ibid. 243. p. 255. t Ibid, p. 257. J,Disc, ch, viii, Art. X, ↩

58. Disc. cb. V. Art xxxii. p. 114. f Syst. p. 257. J Disc, Ibid. § S. 1. xii. II Syst. p, 306. f Ibid, p. 270. •* Ibid. p. 209. Ibid. Art. xvii. ↩

59. Sup. n. 105. S. 106, et seq. + Disc. p. 144. ↩

60. Syst. pp. 270, 271. + Ibid. p. 270. ↩

61. Confess. Art. iv. + Syst. 1. iii. lb. ch. ii. p. 3. ↩

62. Acts vi. 3, 6, 7. t Tit. i. 5. ↩

63. VicU Bibl. Aiiti-Trinit, ↩

64. Test. Georg. Sch. ct rc!at. Wissoii. in Biblioth. Auti-Tiin. Sand. pp. 191, 209. ↩

65. 25. — A memorable instance of Variation in the Protestant Church of Strasburg.
    ↩

66. Test. Gcorg. Scl). ct rehit. VVi.-son. in Diblinth. Anli-Trin.Saml. pp. 11)1^20!J. t Sleid. lib.iv. fol.CO. ↩

67. Sleid. lib. vi. fol. 93. f Ibid. fol. 100. J Ibid. lib. viii. fol. 104. ↩

68. Hosp. Cone, discors. c. hi. fol. 99. f S, lib. iv. n. 32. ↩

69. S.lib. xi. n. 17, et seq. ^ ↩

70. Guil. lib. i. adv. Beren. Bib. PP. t. xviii. pp. 443, 449. t Ber. apud Guit, Ibid. p. 441. ↩

71. Guit. ante pp. 441, 442, 462, 463, 464. Alg. de Sac. Corp. et Sang. Prasf. t. xxi. p. 251. t Ibid. { Cone. Rom. vi. sub Greg. VII. t, x. Cone. Lab. An. 1079. ↩

72. Bib. PP. Max. t. xviii. p. 417. f Ibid. pp. 438, 439. ↩

73. Dur. Troarn, t.xviii. Bib. pp. p.422. Guit. Ibid. 462, &c. ↩

74. S. 1, ix. n, 26, 27, 28, et seq. as far as n. 75. ↩

75. Cone. Cartli. cap. i. ■{• Ibid, cap. iii. iv. v. J Ibid, c, iv. ↩

76. S. 1. iii. n. 20, et seq. || 1 Cor. i. 29, 30, 31. ↩

77. 2 Cor. V. 21. i- Sess, vi. c. v. vi. \ Can. i. ↩

78. Con. Ara, ii. c. 6, 7j 25. j] Heb, Jii.6. ↩

79. Auct, sed. Apost. de grat. inter dec. Coclest. P P. ↩

80. 1 Cor. XV. 10. t Cap. vii. viii. J Ibid. § Sess, xiv. c. viii. ↩

81. Cone. Arau. c. xxv. f Cone. Valent. iii, c. ii. v. ↩

82. De correct, el grat. c. xiii. de Civ. Dei. xi. 12. •j- S. 1. iii. n.25, et seq., viii. 22, et seq. Sent. Pliil. Mel. de pace Ec, p. 10. Bern. Ser. i. do Sept. ↩

83. S. 1. xiii. xiv. ↩

84. Sess. x)kT. deer, de invoc. S. S. f Ibid. :J: S. 1. ii. n,28. § Jas. i. 27. ↩

85. Rom. xii. 3. f Grot. Ep. extraor. pp. 575, 578, 579. J Rev. xxi. 27. § Span, dub, Ev, Tem. iii, dub, 141, n, vi, vii, || Ephcs. v. 27. ↩

86. N. vii. -|- Sess. xxv. dec. tie Piirg. ↩

87. Hist. Cone, Trid. interp, Giattin, lib, xix, c. xi, xiii, xiv. xv, ↩

88. Reply, 1. vi. Praef. p. 838. ↩

89. S. n, 4. et seq. to n. 10, t S. n. 86, 87, etseq. ↩

90. S. n. 4, et seq. t S. n. 50, 51. et seq. as far as n. 59. ↩

91. Jud. xvii. 18. f Dim. xvi. ↩

92. S. n. 65, &c. ↩

93. S. 11.51, &c. t Luke xi. % Matt. xvi. § Hosea i. 11. ↩

94. p. i. c. viii. p. 2, c. vi. p. 191, &c. xi. 253, 254. f S. 1. ii. n. 17. Jur. part ii. c. viii. p. 210, et seq. \ S. 1. ii. n. 1* ↩

95. Jur. Ibid. pp. 217, 218. ↩

96. Jur. part ii. c. viii.pp. 211, 214, et scq. t Ibid. p. 24. ↩

97. S. 1. xxiv, 1), 13. f Jur. part ii. c. xiii. ibid. p. 214. \ Ibid. § S, l.xiv.n. 2;3. II Ibid. n. 4. ↩

98. Jur, part ii. c, viii, p. 117. S. 1. viii. n. 83, et seq. xiv, 116. t Jur.p, 117, \ Jur. p. 118. Calix.Ep. ↩

99. Jur. part ii. c. ii. p. 243. f S. 1. iii. n. 12. viii. n. 32. pp. 243, 244, ↩

100. Jur. parti, c.viii. 242. t S. 1. viii, n, 46. % Jur. ibid. ↩

101. Jur. part ii. c. iii. et seq. x, xi, p. 240. || Part i, c. viii, p. 123. ↩

102. Jur. part i. c. viii. 243. t Part ii, c. xii, p. 2G1. ↩

103. Jur, part ii. c. xii. p. 260. n. 4. f Ibid. p. 263, n. 8. ↩

104. Jur. c. xi. p. 245, et seq. c. xii. 2G8. ↩

105. Ibid, c. xiii, p. 171. ↩

106. p. 262. 1- p. 240. ↩

107. Jur. ii, p. cap. i. pp. 138, 141. VOL. II. 2 D ↩