THESE words are spoken by S. Paul, not of the Christians in general, but of the Apostles; who above all other Christians, were so ob­noxious to sufferings, because they preached the new Doctrine of the Gospel; which was the de­struction of all other Religions, throughout the Jewish and Gentile world.

But because the Disciples, or Lay-professors of Christianity have in all Ages and Governments suffer­ed in proportion with the Preachers of it, I shall consi­der the words in general, as they regard the whole body of any Christian Communion, that suffer in any common Persecution; The Pastors with their Flocks, the Teachers with their Hearers, the Clergy with the Laity. For it often so happens, that all that will live Godly shall suffer Persecution, and that the professors of Christianity, be they Ministers, or People, must [Page 2] through many Tribulations and Afflictions, enter into the Kingdom of God.

For Christianity is a suffering Religion, and above all others exposeth its professors to persecution, because when the Supream Power happens to be Infidel, Ido­later, or Heretick, and so sets it self against the Gospel in general, or any particular truth of it, it becomes the duty of all Christian Subjects to suffer, if they will not fly. There's no mean in the Gospel betwixt these two extreams, denying the Faith, or Just. Mart. Apol. 2. p. 64. edit. par. 1615. dial. cum Tryph. p. 236, 323, 363. fighting in the defence of it, being equally damning sins; for as it is written, Whosoever denieth me before men, him will I de­ny before my Father which is in Heaven: So it is as plain­ly written, Whosoever resisteth the Power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to them­selves damnation. And that we should in no exigence do the one, nor the other, but [...] — Just. Mart. dial. cum Tryph. p. 323. chearfully suffer, or save our selves by flight, it is also written, That every one, who shall forsake Houses, or Brethren, or Sisters, or Father, or Mother, or Wife, or Children, or Lands, or lose his Life for Christ's sake, and the Gospels, shall receive an hundred fold, and inherit Everlasting Life; and that they are blessed, who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.

Accordingly hath it been the practice of all good Christians to suffer or fly; for so we are used to speak, not that flight is not one sort of suffering (for it implies forsaking of House, Relations, Lands, and Country) but that it is the custom of all Languages, to speak of the lesser evil, as of a good, and so flight is if it be com­pared with Death, Slavery, or bodily Torments, which are more emphatically called sufferings; though really in it self it is also a great degree of suffering, for [Page 3] which the person so flying from persecution shall be re­warded with Everlasting Life.

I say it hath been the inviolable practice of all good Christians to suffer, or fly, and never to resist; so the Primitive Christians did under Pagan, Arrian, and Apostate Emperors; the Waldenses under Pagano-Chri­stian, or Popish Powers, our own Ancestors in the days of Queen Mary; and now our poor Brethren of the Re­formed French Communion, who are fled hither in as­surance of his Majestie's protection, and his Protestant Subjects Charity, to whom he, as it becomes so great a Patron of the Protestant Cause, hath most affecti­onately recommended them, commanding us to stir you up to so good a work, which I have chosen to do in a Discourse upon these words, upon which I shall proceed in the following method.

• First, I shall shew what Persecution is, or when Christians are truly said to be Persecuted.
• Secondly, I shall shew, that our Brethren of the French Church are under a true Persecution, or truly Persecuted.
• Thirdly, I shall shew you to what a degree they are Persecuted.
• And Lastly, I shall shew you, that it is our indispen­sable duty to help, and assist them, that now they are Persecuted, they may not be destitute; nor quite de­stroyed, though they be cast down. Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

I. First, I shall shew, what Persecution is, which is very necessary for me to do, because the true notion of Persecution is generally mistaken, men often mis­calling that by the odious name of Persecution, which is nothing, but the Execution of just, and sometimes of necessary, and wholesom Laws. Thus the Modern [Page 4] Jews in their writings speak of themselves as of a People, that are Persecuted by the seed of Esau throughout the whole world. The Papists, those in the British Dominions especially, complain, that they are persecuted by the Hereticks; and besides them, there are yet many other sorts among us, who make bitter out-cries against Persecution, when their suffer­ings, if tried by the true test of Persecution, would not, I am confident, appear to be such.

Therefore, that I may lay down the true notion of it, I must desire you to observe, that the Original words in the Old and New Testament, as likewise the Latin word for Persecution, and to Persecute properly signifie to pursue, or run after another to stop him, or get before him; and from this Agonistical acceptation of the words, they are translated into a Tropical sence, to signifie to prosecute, pursue, or attach by Law. I confess sometimes they signifie to pursue after another to kill him, and so come to be taken in a Military sence, to prosecute by the Sword; but because I am resolved to confine my Discourse to Legal, or pretended Legal Persecution, I shall take no notice of Sword-persecution further, than it happens to the Subjects from the Ma­gistrate, by virtue of the Law. To make this which is the first step of my Discourse, as plain as I can, I tell you again, that the Scripture-words for to Perse­cute, signifie to prosecute, or pursue by Law; And by Law I here understand, Law in the largest sence for the Will and Pleasure of the Supream Authority, whereby the People, that live under it, are comman­ded to do, or not to do, otherwise to do, or forbear doing such and such things.

Now because in the several times wherein the seve­ral Books of the Old and New Testament were writ­ten, as well as in the Ages since, good men were often prosecuted and pursued by Authoritative orders, for do­ing [Page 5] of those things, which God had some way Com­manded, or for not doing of some things which he had some way or other forbid; therefore the Law-terms for prosecution came in an especial manner to signifie Per­secution; which indeed is very seldom any thing else, but a Postremò le­gum obstruitur authoritas — Tert. Apol. Legal, or in case of usurpation, or wresting the Laws, a pretended Legal prosecution under Authori­ty, for not obeying where God prohibits; for doing of any thing, which God hath any way commanded, or not doing any thing, which he hath any way forbid: as Peter and John said unto the Sanhedrim, Tuis etiam obtemperare­mus praeceptis nisi instituti le­gibus Christia­nis daemonum cultus, & aras semper pollutas sanguine vitaremus. Martyres Thebaeae Leg. ex Eu­cher. [...]. Polycarp. ad Proconsul. in Smyrn. Eccles. Epist. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto him, judge ye.

I have a mind to make sure-work, as I go, and therefore I must repeat it once more, and tell you, that Persecution Actively taken consists in Legally prosecu­ting, and Passively taken in being Legally prosecuted for not obeying Authority in those things which God pro­hibits: otherwise for prosecuting, or being prosecuted unto any penalty for doing of those things, which he hath any way commanded; or forbearing, or refusing to do those things, which he hath any way forbid. I have put in the words any way, because there are two ways by which God the King of Kings makes his plea­sure known unto men, by right Reason, or the light of Nature, and by Revelation, which we commonly call the light of Grace.

Right Reason consists in the common principles, which God hath implanted in all mens understandings, and the conclusions which issue from them; for as So­lomon saith, The Ʋnderstanding of a man is the Candle of the Lord; and the light of Natural Reason is his Light, [Page 6] who, as Cicero calls him in his First Book of Laws, is infinita mens, & ratio, infinite Understanding and Rea­son; or as the Platonists Allegorically stile him, [...], Original Reason or Light.

As for the light of Grace, or Revelation, there are many sorts of it; for God, as the Apostle speaks, who at sundry times, and divers manners spake in the Pa­triarchal and Jewish times by Prophets, Oracular re­sponses, and voices from Heaven, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, who was the Antitype of Moses, and by his Apostles, who were the Pro­phets of the New Testament; and these two ways the light of Nature, and Scriptural Revelation are the ge­neral and ordinary means, by which we come to know what is the will of God.

Persecution therefore ordinarily speaking consists with respect to the Persecutors in Judicially prosecu­ting, and with respect to the Persecuted in being Judi­cially prosecuted unto any penalty for doing those things which God hath commanded by the light of Na­ture, or Scriptural Revelation; or for not doing of those things, which he hath forbidden by either, or both of those two ways. This is the true notion of Persecution, which consists not in the greatness of any mans sufferings, which inconsiderate people chiefly look at, but in the righteousness of the cause for which he suffers: For if he be pursued for doing any thing against the Law, or Government, under which he lives, that God hath not commanded, or for not do­ing of those things, which God hath not forbid, he is not persecuted, but justly prosecuted for disobeying the Powers, which God hath bound him to obey.

This is most agreeable to our Saviours notion of Persecution, Matth. 5.10. Blessed are they, who are Per­secuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. To the understanding of which words, I de­sire [Page 7] you to take notice, that righteousness in the Scrip­ture-stile, when it doth not signifie just dealing, or (as it sometimes doth by an Hebraism) Psal. 112.9. Prov. 11.18. Psa. 37.21, 25. Matth. 1.19. mercifulness, it is taken for Virtue, or Religion in its full latitude, or obedience unto God. In this sence righteousness, and the righteous man, are opposed to wickedness, and the wicked man, Ezek. 3.19, 20. If thou warn the wicked man (saith God unto the Prophet) and he turn not from his wickedness — Again, when a righteous man doth not turn from his righteousness; &c. And in this sence of righteousness saith our Saviour to his Disciples, Except your righteousness, i. e. except your Religion and obe­dience to God exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. So saith he, Matth. 6.33. First seek the Kingdom of God, i. e. the Gospel, and its righteousness, that is, the Reli­gion, and Obedience, which the Gospel prescribes, and all these things shall be added unto you. According to this sence of the word righteousness S. Luke saith of Zacharias and Elizabeth, that they were righteous before God, walking in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless. And as righteousness signifies Obe­dience, and Religion in general: so it signifies also any particular Divine Institution, or the performance of any particular duty under any Divine Institution, as God is pleased to order and command. Thus the righ­teousness of the Law, Phil. 3.6. signifies the performance of all those Commands and Ordinances, which God required of the Jews and Proselytes under the Old Te­stament; and the righteousness of Faith, Rom. 4.13. signifies the performance of all those duties, which God requires of Christians under the New. The one signifies the Jewish Religion, which consisted in obey­ing of Moses, the other the Christian, which consists in obeying of Christ; that consisted in keeping the old Law, and this in observing the Gospel, which the [Page 8] Primitive Neomenias vestras, & dies festos — haec ergo vacua fecit Nova Lex Domini nostri Je­su Christi, Epist. Barnab. — [...]. Just. Mart. dial. cum Tryph. writers in their Dis­courses with the Jews, usually called the New; nay, as general words are frequently taken in particular significations: so this word is taken for any particular act, or object of obedience to God, as Matth. 3.15. when John forbad Jesus to be baptized of him, Jesus who knew that God required it of him, saith unto John, Suffer it to be so, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness, i. e. thus it is our duty for me to confirm, and approve thy imperfect Mi­nistry, and for thee to let it be so confirmed, because it is the pleasure of God.

From all this it is plain, that to be Persecuted for righteousness-sake, signifies to be persecuted for obedi­ence unto God, and therefore 'tis neither the person, nor the sufferings, but the cause which makes Persecuti­on: so that when men are prosecuted by Authority for any other cause, but for righteousness, i. e. for Religi­on as Religion is taken for obedience to God's Laws, let them complain, and pretend as much as they please, they are not persecuted, but justly punished for disobedience to the Supream Power. They suffer not for God's sake, but their own; they suffer not as Martyrs, and Confessors, but as Malefactors. This consideration made S. Peter in his First Epistle general — distinguish so carefully between suffering as a Malefactor, and suf­fering as a Christian, Chap. 4. 14, 15. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you — But let none of you suffer as Oraet Lucii Mart. ad Ʋr­bicium Prae­fect. Just. M. Apol. 1. a Murderer, or as a Thief, or as an evil-do­er, or as a busie-body in things that belong not unto him; yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorifie God on this behalf. In the 2d. Chap. 13. ver. he charged them to submit themselves to every Ordi­nance of man, whether it were to the Emperor, or his [Page 9] subordinate Magistrates for the Lords sake, as free in­deed in a spiritual sence from many yokes, but not to use their Christian freedom, as a cloak for their ma­lignity, but as the servants of God. Then from Sub­jects he proceeds to the Servants or Slaves, who you may be sure suffered much from Jewish, and Heathen Masters upon the account of the Christian Religion; and he tells them that it was [...]. Cod. Alex. acceptable to God, if a man for conscience towards God endured grief suffer­ing wrongfully. And in the 3d. Chap. after he had charged all Christians, as being the best way to avoid sufferings, to refrain their tongues, to eschew evil, to do good, and seek peace, Who is he (saith he) that will harm you, if you be followers of that which is good; but if notwithstanding all this, you chance to suffer for righteous­ness-sake happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled: and lastly, in the 4th. Chap. he resumes the argument again, in the words which I cited above, concluding that they that so suffered according to the will of God, should commit the keeping of their Souls unto him, as unto a faithful Creator.

Accordingly, there's scarce any one place of the New Testament, where sufferings or persecution are mentioned, but it is with respect to the Christian Re­ligion: as, Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil of you falsely for my sake: Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, and the Gospels, the same shall save it: Verily, verily, I say unto you, that there is no man that hath left Houses, or Bre­thren, or Sisters, or Father, or, &c. for my sake and the Gospels, but he shall receive an hundred fold, now in this time with persecutions, and in the world to come Eternal Life.

From which places it is evident, that Persecution consists in suffering for Christ's sake, or for the sake of the Christian Religion, or any truth of it, or for obey­ing [Page 10] God in any particular of it, after the same manner that the Prophets, or holy men of old used to suffer un­der the Law, or Jewish Oeconomy; as our Saviour said, Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and perse­cute you, &c. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the Prophets, which were before you. Accordingly Acts 5.41. 'tis said, that the Apostles departed from the presence of the Coun­sel, where they were beaten, rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his Name.

To put all this together, Persecution from the Civil Magistrate (for to that I chiefly restrain my Dis­course) consists in inflicting, or suffering any sort of evil, or to any degree, for righteousness-sake; for Re­ligions sake; for Christ's sake; for the Gospels sake; for Christ's Name sake; for Christianities sake; in a word, to suffer as the Prophets and Apostles did of old, who in all their sufferings were reduced to this sad necessity, of disobeying God, or the Civil Authority, as Peter and the other Apostles answered, and said to the Sanhedrim, the second time, when they comman­ded them to preach no more in the Name of Jesus, We ought to obey God, rather than man.

The general notion of Persecution, and of Christian persecution withal being thus stated, we may easily perceive, that a man can be persecuted but upon two accounts, for matters of professed Faith, or principles, or matters of practice.

Upon the former account a man is truly Persecuted, when he is prosecuted for teaching, or professing any Truth, or true Doctrine, which he is bound by God to teach or profess; or for disowning or denying any Error, or false Doctrine, which he is bound by God to disown or deny. I have made this distinction be­tween owning of true, and disowning of false Do­ctrines, with respect to the several ways in which men [Page 11] are wont to express their minds in affirmative or nega­tive propositions; although both ways of speaking vir­tually and really are the same thing: As he that asserts Jesus to be Christ, doth virtually deny this blasphe­mous proposition, Jesus is not Christ; and he that de­nieth this blasphemous proposition, Jesus is not Christ, doth virtually assert that Jesus is Christ. Thus in all things the affirming of Truth is a virtual denying of the opposite Error, and the denying of the opposite Error, an affirming of the contrary Truth; and great is the number of Martyrs, who have been truly Perse­cuted upon these accounts.

So Socrates was persecuted to death by the Laws and Magistrates of Athens, for asserting the true God, or denying the false. He asserted that there was but one God and Father of all, who made Heaven and Earth; & that the Gods whom the Athenians worshipped were dumb Idols, the work of mens hands. For this reason Justin Martyr represents him in part as a Apol. 1. p. 48. Christian, and among those whom Apol. 2. p. 55. wicked men, by the instinct of the Devil, persecuted for righteousness-sake.

He died a Martyr for Natural Religion; in the de­fence of a Doctrine, which God had taught him by the Light of Nature, was not only true, but such a truth as was his duty to propagate and maintain.

So likewise the Primitive Christian professors were persecuted both by the Jews and Gentiles, for teaching and professing the Doctrines of the Christian Religion, and for denying the obligation or validity of the Law of Moses, and the Pagan Idols to be true Gods.

So much for Persecution upon matters of Faith, or Principles; and Persecution for matters of Practice is likewise twofold, for matters of Divine worship, which concern the First Table, or for matters of Justice and Charity, which concern the Second.

With respect to the former, a man is Persecuted ei­ther upon a negative account, for not denying of God, or, secondly, for not worshipping a false God in op­position to him; as the three Children in Daniel were persecuted for not worshipping the Golden Image of Nebuchadnezzar; the Primitive Christians for not Eccl. Smyrn. Epist. de Poly­carp. Mart. swearing by the Emperor, and his Genius, for not Omnes Dei cultores sacrifi­care, vel mori cogebat. Mar­tyrium Ignat. sacrificing to Idols, and the Emperors Epist ad Tra­jan. l. 10. 97. Statue; And the Albigenses for not worshipping of Saints and Angels, and the Host, as the Papists call their Breaden God: or, thirdly, For worshipping of him in an un­due manner; whether it be positively so, as the Primi­tive Christians were persecuted by the Jews, for not worshipping of God according to their manner, after it was abrogated, or naturally so as the Protestants are persecuted for not worshipping of him according to the corrupt manner of the Papists, which is polluted with the worship of Creatures, and with many Sacrilegi­ous, Idolatrous, and truly superstitious Rites and Ceremonies, which utterly deprave and defile the Re­ligious offices to which they belong.

Or secondly, upon a positive account, for worship­ping the true God, as Daniel was persecuted for wor­shipping of God as afore-time, after the decree of Dari­us was made, not to ask any petition of God or man for thirty days, except of the King.

So likewise with respect to matters of Justice and Charity, a man is also persecuted upon two accounts, either for not doing of something, which is unjust or uncharitable, as the Egyptian Midwives were in dan­ger of being persecuted by Pharaoh, for not murdering the Hebrew Infants; and many of the Primitive Clem. ad Cor. Epist. c. 54. p. 114 Edit. Ox­on. 1677. Rom. 16.4. Chri­stians for not betraying or delivering up their Brethren into the hands of the persecutors, or for doing some just or charitable action, which ought to have been done: as many of the Primitive Christians, and Pro­testants [Page 13] have been persecuted for harbouring and re­lieving their distressed Brethren, and many of his Ma­jestie's loyal Subjects for harbouring, relieving, and assisting of him.

These are all the cases, for which a man ordinarily speaking can be persecuted: it must be for matters of Faith, or matters of Practice, for matters of Divine worship, which belong to the first, or matters of Ju­stice and Charity, which belong to the second Table of the Law. All righteousness, or matters of Religion, for which a man can be truly persecuted, are reducible I say to Faith or Practice; and all matters of Faith are either such as are necessary to be known, that they are re­vealed, and they are but few, or that are necessary to be be­lieved when they are known, and they may be very ma­ny; and all matters of practice in short are such, as God hath made it either absolutely necessary, or in such circumstances for man to do, or not to do. But if men will believe things to be Articles of Faith, which God never made so; and also make rules for matters of Christian practice, and Communion which God never made; if they will believe false, or impious, or uncertain Doctrines to be certain and true, and set up new notions, which Primitive and Virgin Christiani­ty never understood or professed, and revive old Errors and Heresies, which were condemned by the Catho­lick Church: In a word, if they will impose upon their own, and other mens Consciences, and teach for Doctrines of God the Traditions or Inventions of private men, let them suffer never so much, or be ne­ver so much perswaded in their own Consciences of the truth of them, yet they cannot be persecuted for them, though when they are honestly minded with their erroneous Consciences, and their errors do not tend to the publick disturbance, nor thwart the com­mon fundamentals of Christianity, they may be too se­verely used.

I say men that coine new Doctrines, and Rules, and Precepts for Christian Practice and Communion which God never made, let them suffer never so much from Authority in the defence of them, yet they are not persecuted, but rightfully punished, and suffer not as Christians, but as Criminals; and though God will be merciful to their mistakes, when they proceed not from an ill mind, and pardon their ignorance, when it is not wilful and affected, yet they can neither suffer as Confessors nor Martyrs, nor shall they receive the promised reward for their sufferings in the world to come.

No! whosoever is truly persecuted must suffer for Do­ctrines and Laws, which God hath given us, for the com­mon principles of Christianity, & not for private fancies and inventions; and therefore when you hear men cry out of persecution, consider for what Scriptural Truth, for what Article of the Creed, for what Because I have here made mention of the common principles of Christianity, which I call Catholick principles, I shall here explain my self in the words of the most Learned Dr. Beverege, who hath deserved so well of the Church Catholick, in his Prooemium before his Codex Canonum Vindicatus. Si praegrande hoc omnium cujusque seculi Christianorum corpus, quod Catholica sive universa Ecclesia vulgo appellatur, ut ubique, & semper constitutum attenti perlustremus, certa quaedam quasi communia in eo deprehendemus principia, quae totum percurrunt, omnesque illius partes & sibi invicem, & capiti connectunt. Equibus primum, illudque è quo ca­tera oriuntur, est, Sacram Scripturam sive vetus novúmque Testamentum, Divinitùs esse inspi­ratam — Verum enimvero haec sacra Scriptura, etiamsi in iis, quae ad cujusque salutem abso­lutè sunt necessaria, praeceptis clarissima sit & omnibus manifesta; quantum tamen ad doctrinam spe­ctat, & externam Ecclesiae disciplinam, ea pro ipsâ suâ altitudine non uno codémque sensu ab omni­bus accipitur — ut observavit olim Vincent. Lirinensis, & ex haereticis, & schismaticis satis supérque constat, qui nempe singuli pravas suas opiniones, praxésque è sacris Scripturis suo modo in­terpretatis, cliciunt. In hujusmodi itaque rebus si non errandi, nec offendendi certi esse velimus, imprimis procul omni dubio cavendum est, nè privatis nostris aliorum opinionibus, aut conjecturis, pertinaces nimis adhaereamus, sed nobiscum potiùs recolamus, quid universa Ecclesia, vel maxima saltem pars Christianorum de istis senserint, & in cá acquiescamus sententiá, in quam Christiani per omnia secula consenserunt: quemadmodum enim omni in re consensus omnium vox naeturae est, ut ait Cicero, sic etiam in hujusmodi rebus consensus omnium Christianorum vox Evangelii meritò ha­beatur. Multa autem sunt, quae licet in sacris Scripturis expresse, ac definitè non legantur, com­muni tamen omnium Christianorum consensione ex iis eruantur. Ex. gr. Tres distinctas in sa­crosanctá Trinitate Personas venerandas esse, Patrem, Filium & Spiritum Sanctum, hósque sin­gulos verum esse Deum, & tamen unum tantummodo esse Deum: Christum [...] esse, verè Deum, ac verè hominem in unâ eâdemque personâ. Hac & similia, quamvis totidem verbis ac syllabis nec in veteri, nec in novo instrumento tradantur, de iis tamen, ut utroque fundatis inter omnes semper convenit Christianos, demptis tantummodo paucis quibusdam haereticis, quorum in religione haud major habenda est ratio, quam monstrorum in naturâ. Sic etiam Infantes sacro Baptismate abluendos esse, & sponsores ad illud Sacramentum adhibendos: dominicum sive pri­mam per singulas septimanas feriam religiosè observandam esse: Passionis, Resurrectionis & As­censionis Domini ad Coelum, nec non Spiritûs Sancti adventûs commemorationem per singulos annos peragendam: Ecclesiam ubique per Episcopos à Presbyteris distinctos, iisque Praelatos administrandam esse. Haec — per mille & quadringentos ab Apostolis annos in publicum Ec­clesiae usum ubique recepta fuerunt, nec ullam intra illud tempus invenire est Ecclesiam in ea non con­sentientem, adeò ut quasi communes sint notiones omnium ab origine Christianorum animis insitae, non tam ex ullis particularibus Scripturae locis, quam ex omnibus: ex generali totius Evangelii sco­po, & tenore, ex ipsâ religionis in eo stabilitae natura & proposito, atque ex constanti denique Apo­stolorum traditione, qui Ecclesiasticos hujusmodi ritus, & generales, ut ita loquar, Evangelii in­terpretationes per universum terrarum orbem unà cum fide propagarunt. Alioquin enim non credi­bile, imò vero impossibile prorsus esset, ut tam unanimi consensione ubique & semper ab omnibus re­ciperentur. Vid. etiam Cassandri defensionem officii pii viri, adversus Calvinum. Catholick principle, for what part of Christianity, for what Gospel Doctrine they suffer, or in obedience to what Gospel [Page 15] Law; for 'tis no matter how much they are perswaded in their own Consciences, and to what degree they suf­fer; but do you enquire after their opinions, and then try if they are any part of Christianity, and if upon trial they be not found to be so, their clamour and noise about persecution must be unjust and vain. As for ex­ample, there is now a loud cry among the Papists of the persecution of the Catholicks (as they mis-call themselves) and of the persecuting Laws against the Catholicks in England; but suppose all our Laws were executed against them, for what Article of the Creed, for what Gospel-doctrine, or Precept, for what Ca­tholick principle, or for what part of Christianity would these Pseudocatholicks suffer? are these Gospel-truths or Catholick principles, that the Bishop of Rome is Christ's Vicar General, and that he is Supream above all other Bishops of the Catholick Church? Can they prove either by the Scriptures, or by universal Tradition, that he is infallible either in the Chair or out of it, and that there is no Salvation to be had with­out the Pale and Communion of his Church? Are these, not to mention Transubstantiation, Image-wor­ship, the Invocation of Saints and Angels, Praying in [Page 16] an unknown Tongue, &c. any parts of the Christian system; or did the Primitive Christians, or so much as one Church of Primitive Christians know or profess these things? No! they are not Articles of Faith, nor Gospel-doctrines, nor common notions of Christi­anity, but contradictions to all these, and the Do­ctrines, and Traditions of men.

In like manner, not to mention the late Mitckel King, Kid, Hackston, &c. Malefactors in Scotland, our dissenting Brethren here have made grie­vous cries about Persecution, and their writings are full of reflections upon the persecuting Laws, & of invectives against the makers of the Law for Uniformity; but for what Gospel-truth or Precept? for what Catholick principle, or for obedience to what Law of Jesus Christ did they ever yet suffer, or can they suffer by those Laws? Is this a Gospel-doctrine, or Catholick principle, that the original Government of the Church was Presbyte­rian, and that the Government of it by Bishops above Presbyters, and distinct from them, is an alteration of the original Government, and an usurpation over the Church of God? If it be, let them shew us when this disparity of Bishops from Presbyters began? Let them assign the time of this universal Aberration and Apo­stasie from the Primitive platform; whether it was done in the time of the Apostles, or in the times next unto them. If it was done in their time, let them tell us whether it was done with their consent, or with­out it; or if in the times next unto them, let them tell us the names of those Diotrepheses, who did first at­tempt or atchieve it; let them shew us so much as one Record, that doth make mention of it; or let them tell us how so great an alteration was made both over the Presbyters, and over the Church, and yet not one Church or Presbyter assert its right? Or how it came to pass for example, that Ignatius an holy Martyr, Presbyter of Antioch, should so early usurp the Eccle­siastical [Page 17] Government of Ad Rom. [...] — Sy­ria at a time when there were such vast multitudes of Christi­ans in it, and elsewhere, that Epist. ad Trajan. [...] — Tyberianus President of Palestine told the Emperor Trajan, under whom he suffered, that he was wearied with punishing, and killing the Galileans; and Neque enim civitates tantum sed vicos atque etiam agros superstitionis istius contagio porvagata est — satis constat propè jam desolata templa — Pli­ny Propraetor of Bithynia, told the same Emperor, that the Christian Religion had so in­fected the Cities, Towns, and Villages in his Pro­vince, that the Heathen Temples were become deso­late, and unfrequented; or if Bishops then had not many particular Congregations under their inspection, how should the same holy Martyr in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna distinguish between personal Com­munion with the Bishop, [...]. and with another Minister licensed by him, and disallow all other Commu­nions but such? In like manner is it a Gospel doctrine, or Catholick principle, that Book-forms of prayer are unlawful; or that God cannot be so wor­thily worshipped by them, or in so spiritual a manner, as by extemporary prayers? Is there one place in the Bible that prefers extemporary before prescribed Forms of Prayer? Doth the practice of the Catholick Church prefer those before these? Or is there any thing in Scripture or Antiquity to shew, that it is a sin for a Minister to wear a Linen garment, when he officiates in the Church. Are National Churches unlawful, or inconsistent with the progress of the Christian Religi­on, or the notion of Christian Union and Communi­on? Doth either the Gospel, or any thing in Christi­anity teach us, that the use of Ceremonies is unlawful in Divine worship? or that the Sign of the Clem. Alex. Strom. l 2. [...]. Ter­tul. de resur. Caro abluitur — caro signatur. De corona. Ad omnem — frontem Crucis signaculo terimus. Cross is [Page 18] now become unlawful in the Office of Baptism? Are these Christian Doctrines or Precepts, that the People have a right to chuse their own Ministers; that no Power upon Earth, at least no Secular Power, can si­lence or suspend a Minister; that Infant-Baptism is un­lawful; or that the Scripture is the Adequate Rule of Conscience and Practice; or that nothing ought to be instituted in the Service and Worship of God, which he hath not commanded or approved in his Word?

Are any of these, not to mention others, Articles of Faith, or Gospel-doctrines, or Catholick principles? If they be, how came they to lye so long undiscovered, and never to be found out, but by a few particular men among us, some about an hundred, and some about thirty and forty years ago? What, were all Christian Doctors before Popery, and all since the Reformation from it, but a few Dissenters of these Countries, blind, that they could never yet discern these Doctrines in the Scriptures, neither in express terms, nor in the scope and tenor of them? these Doctrines which would make, the professors of them now separate from all Na­tional establishments of the Protestant Religion, as well as ours, and which must have obliged them, had they lived in the first and best Ages of Christianity, to have separated from all the Churches in the world?

For there were As Jaemes at Jerusalem, and S. John the Apostle at Ephesus, both which as a sign of the High-Priesthood (for S. Clemens com­pares the Bishop to the High-Priest, c. 40. ep. ad Cor.) wore the [...], the Ponti­fical Crown, or Frontlet, wherein was writ­ten holiness to the Lord. Euseb. lib. 5. c. 24. Epiphan. in haer. Nazar. & in haer. 78. Marc at Alexandria, who also is said to have wore the Pontifical Frontlet. Vales. not. ad b. 5. c. 24. Eus. not to mention Clemens, Caius, Archippus, Onesimus, Euodias, Timo­thy, Titus, Ignatius, &c. who were all such Bishops according to Catholick Antiquity. Bishops over several Congregations superior to, and distinct from Presbyters in the Apostles times; and the Christian writers of the next Age to them, upon whose Au­thority we take the Books of the New Testament to be their wri­tings, did teach and believe the office of such a Bishop to be the Ordinance of God. And in [Page 19] those pure and Virgin-times of Christianity, they wor­shipped God by Forms of Prayer, used Ceremonies in his worship, united into Euseb. l. 3. c. 23. Can Ap. 34. Conc. Antioch. c. 9. Metropolitan, which answer to our National Churches, used the Sign of the Cross at all sorts of Devotion, received their Ministers from their Bishops, at whose Election, it is true, they used to signifie their approbation, as the People were wont to do at our King's Coronation: but they ne­ver poll'd at them, nor properly speaking gave any vote. In those days also, in the pure and Virgin Ages of Christianity, while the Disciples of the Apostles governed the Church, the Bishops silenced and depo­sed Presbyters, who were not so much as to Ignat. ad Smyrn. Phila­delp. Trull Can. Apost. 39. Tert. de baptismo, c. 17. Concil. An­cyr. c. 13. Con­cil. Laod. c. 56. Hier. advers. Lucifer. preach, or administer any Sacrament, without their leave and consent. They then also used and instituted many Ceremonies, of which we have no account, neither Precept nor Example in the Word of God. Shall I mention some? They always mixed Just. Mart. Apol. 2. Conc. sext. in Trull. c. 32. Conc. Carth. Can. 40. water with the Sacramental Wine, to signifie, that the Bloud of Christ had a cleansing virtue in it, which mystery was also, as they believed, represented by the water which flow'd with the bloud from our Saviour's side. They sent Just. Mart. loc. cit. portions of the Sacramental Bread to the sick and ab­sent, to signifie, that they were partakers of the same Sacrifice, and belonged to the same Altar; and they worshipped God towards the Resp. ad quaest. 118. ad Or­thodox. East. They gave Tertull. Cle­mens Alexand. & forsan Bar­nab. Epist. p. 223. Edit. Isaac. Voss. Milk and Hony to drink unto Baptized persons, to signifie, that they were like new-born Babes, who ought to desire the sweet and sincere milk of the Word. They sung Psalms Plin. cit. Epist. alternately at the holy Eucharist: They stood up in all their Devotions from Resp. ad quaest. ad Orthod. 115. Easter till Whitsuntide, to signifie, that Christ was risen from the dead. They observed the four Apostolical Holidays, the Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord, and the descent of the Holy Ghost. Nay, even in the [Page 20] Apostles days they Rom. 6.4. dipt baptized persons over the head, and let them remain a little space under water, to signifie, that they were buried with Christ in Bap­tism. They also then had 1 Cor. 11. Love-feasts joyned with the holy Eucharist; the 1 Cor. 16.20. 1 Thess. 5.26. Just. Mart. A­pol. 11. salutation of the holy Kiss; and observed the Jewish custom of saying the Hebrew word 1 Cor. 14.16. Just. Mart. Apol. 11. Amen at the conclusion of every Prayer.

These were the general, besides the particular Ce­remonies of particular Churches; and in one word, there was never any separation made or thought of in any of the Primitive Ages of Christianity, upon the account of Ceremonies; and therefore since the belief and practice of God's universal Church in the first and best Ages, are contrary to the Doctrines and Pre­cepts, by which our dissenting Brethren in vain at­tempt to justifie their separation, How can they be Doctrines and Precepts of the Gospel? How can they be Catholick principles, or parts of Christianity? and how can they be persecuted in the defence thereof? No! they are no parts of Christianity, no Laws nor Doctrines of the Gospel, but meer humane inventi­ons, meer humane fancies and opinions, and most of them modern opinions too. Primitive Christianity never heard nor thought of such things, and notions, but they have been invented and advanced to justifie the Schismatical practices of some Men, who have not brought their Works to the Rule, but the Rule, I mean the Gospel, to their Works. In a word, they are all Novelties, or renewed Errors; all Impious, False, or most uncertain Notions; and those that Teach them, be who they will, Teach for Doctrines of God the Traditions and Opinions of Men.

II. But this is not the case of our poor Brethren of the French Church; 'tis not for these, nor any such Opinions as these, that they suffer, but for professing [Page 21] such true, and denying such false Doctrines, as God hath obliged them to profess, and deny; and for dis­obeying their King, in doing or not doing of those things which God hath commanded them to do, or not to do. This is the second part of my Discourse, wherein, after having stated the true Notion of Perse­cution, I told you I would prove they are truly perse­cuted; which you may perceive I can do no other way, but by shewing, that they suffer for Righteousness-sake, for Religions sake, for the Truths of the Gospel, and in defence of the Gospel-Laws. The case is really with them, as it was with the Apostles and Primitive Chri­stians; they are under a necessity of disobeying the Supream Authority, in not conforming to the Gallican Church, because the Doctrine and Worship of it are plainly inconsistent with the Doctrines of the Gospel, and the Evangelical Worship of God. As for example, the Gospel hath commanded us not to worship Angels, as in Coloss. 2.18. Let no man (saith the Apostle) de­ceive you of your reward, in a voluntary humility, and worshipping of Angels: And Rev. 19.20. when S. John fell at the Angel's feet to worship him, See (saith the blessed Spirit) thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant. But the Gallican Church, like all the rest of the Papal Communion, Teacheth and Practiseth the worship­ping of Angels, and maketh solemn Invocations, not only of the Angels and Archangels in general, but of this and that Angel by their proper Names.

The Gospel plainly forbiddeth praying in an un­known Tongue, because he that speaketh in a Tongue unknown to the People, speaketh not unto man (as the Apostle argues) but unto God and the Air; and he that so speaketh is a Barbarian unto the People, be­cause they know not the meaning of his voice; yet not­withstanding all that is so expresly written upon this matter, 1 Cor. 14. the Gallican Church useth Latin-offi­ces, [Page 22] and their publick Worship is all in Latin, which the People do not understand.

The Gospel teacheth, that as there is but one God; so there is but one Mediator betwixt God and Man, the man Christ Jesus, to whom alone we must pray to make intercession for us to God: but the Gallican Church prays to Dom. quintâ post Epiph. ad poscenda suf­fragia Sancto­rum. Oratio in octavâ Sancti Steph. ut pro nobis Interces­sor existat. Saints and Angels, and above all, to the De Sanctâ Mariâ oratio in all their Masses, — ut qui verè eam genitricem Dei credimus, ejus apud te inter­cessionibus adjuvemur. Oratio in circumcisione Domini, — ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere senti­amus — blessed Virgin to make intercession for them: So that if her prayers were in the Mother-tongue, the People could not joyn in Her worship, without committing Idolatry against God, and Blasphemy against Jesus Christ.

The Gospel assureth us, that Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us, and that he was once offered up for all, and by one offering of himself, per­fected for ever, them that are Sanctified: but the Galli­can, like all other Popish Churches, teacheth, that he is bodily present, and bodily offered up in the Sacrifice of the Masse, and that his real flesh and bones are eaten, when the consecrate Wafer is eaten, and that the Ho­stie, as they call the great Wafer, which they expose, and carry about, is the Urbanus VIII. in his Preface before the Missal, begins thus. Si quid est in rebus humanis planè divinum, quod nobis superni ci­ves (si in eos invidia caderet) invidere possent, id certè est SS. Missae Sacrificium, cujus be­neficio sit, ut homines quâdam anticipatione possideant in terris coelum. dum ante oculos habent, & manibus contrectent coeli terrae­que conditorem. very Christ. This they keep in a Box on purpose, and on Especially the two Corpus Christi days, called by the Gallican Church, Festes de Dieu, the Feasts of God. solemn days carry it in Procession, as the Pa­gans did their Idols, to be ado­red; and where ever it is met, there the People must fall down, and worship; and wheresoever the Priest makes a stand, there must prayers be offered up unto it, as unto the very Christ. The [Page 23] Heathens were never guilty of more gross, and absurd Idolatry, than this. The worshipping of a Leek, or an Onion, or an head of Garlick, as the Egyptians did, is not more against common Sense and Reason, than the worshipping of a Wafer, the work of a Baker, or Con­fectioners hand. And then as to the Elements to be received in the holy Eucharist, the Gospel saith ex­presly, that at the Institution of it our Lord took bread, and brake it, and gave it to his Disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is my body — likewise that he took the Cup, say­ing, Drink ye all of this; for — This is related in the same manner by S. Paul, 1 Cor. 11. where he also saith, Whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Accordingly the Pri­mitive universal Church administred it exactly after Christ's Institution, as is evident out of Ad Phila­delph. [...]. Ignatius, Apol. 2. Ju­stin Martyr, &c. And all succeeding Ages followed this Primitive practice, and still doth follow it through­out the Cassand. do Sacra. Com. universal Church, except the Church of Rome, which began above Five Hundred years since to take away the Cup from the People, for fear (O su­perstitious Souls!) that they should spill the Bloud. Yet the Gallican Church, for all her fine pretences to Liberty, still continues so strictly Popish, that she de­prives her People of the Cup, although the Saviour she pretends to worship, Proleptically speaking of this holy Sacrament, saith, Whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my bloud, hath Eternal Life.

What shall I say of the abominable Doctrines of Su­premacy, Infallibility, and Purgatory, which she alloweth with all the practices that follow thereupon, and of her Image-worship, and Cross-worship, & Crucifix worship? not to mention her Ceremonies, which for their number are in­tolerable, and for their nature such as vilifie, pollute, and deprave the worship of God. These are the things which make our French Brethren dissent from the publick esta­blishment. [Page 24] There is a plain opposition betwixt the Do­ctrines and Worship set forth in the Gospel, and the Doctrines and worship of the Gallican Church. They cannot conform unto it, nor live in the Communion of it, and be true to the Gospel, nor obey their Prince in this particular, because Obedience unto him would be Disobedience unto God.

They have no quarrel at the Church, because it is Episcopal, but because it is Po­pish; for Calv. ad Sadol. If the Bishops would so rule, as to submit themselves to Christ, then if there shall be any that shall not sub­mit themselves to that Hierarchy, reverent­ly, and with the greatest obedience that may be, there is no kind of Anathema, whereof they are not worthy, id. instit. l. 4. c. 4. ss 4. Beza de divers. grad. contr. Sarav. c. 21. Melancthon ad camer. an. 1530. Con­fess. Aug. de Eccles. potest. Apol. Confess. Aug. ad art. 14. Princeps Anbalt. in concion. super Matth. 7. Bogerman. President of the Synod of Dort. Nay Blondel himself in Con­clus. Apol. pro Hieronymo, which by the importunity of the Agents of the general As­sembly he was prevailed with to leave out, with great numbers more to be seen in Dr. Fern against Champney, Bancrofts Survey, ch. 8. Mason's defence of the Ordination, &c. Dr. Durell of the Reformed Churches — and the posthumous piece of Bishop Morton published by Sir Hen. Yelverton. Lastly, see Mr. de Langle, and Mr. Claude's Letters at the end of the most worthy and most learned Dean of Pauls his Ʋnreasonableness of Se­paration, which the late Agent at Charenton did in vain endeavour to make them re­tract. though they have not Bishops, yet their and other Re­formed Writers have approved the Office, and protested that they would, if they could have retained them, and desired that their rejecting of them might be imputed to necessity, and not to their choice. They have gene­rally declared, that they will submit to their own Bishops, if they will Reform; and some of them for want of Episcopal Go­vernment, which they believe to be of Apostolical Institution, have thought their own Churches de­ficient, and in that respect not so perfect as ours. They are for­med into a National Church, and are for National Churches, & de­test Sovereign Independent Com­munions, and their Ministers officiate in a distinct habit, and are so far from disliking or undervaluing Liturgies, that they Pray, Baptize, and Administer the holy Communion in Liturgical Forms. They silence and suspend Ministers in their Consistories and Synods: They would have had Church-Musick, Organs I [Page 25] mean, if they might, and would condemn all those as guilty of Schism, who only under the infinite pre­tence of purer Ordinances, and purer Worship, would set up private Congregations, and erect private Altars in opposition to the publick, and then teach the People, that the Magistrate hath nothing to do in Ecclesiasti­cal matters; but that they ought to repair to those Congregations, where they find they can profit most. No! they dissent not upon such thin and absurd pre­tences as these, but for the same reasons, that their noble Ancestors the Albigenses, and our Ancestors since them, dissented from the Church of Rome. They do not only pretend Conscience, and say their Conscien­ces tell them, that such and such things are unlawful; but they produce the Rules, and Precepts, and Do­ctrines of the Gospel, which those Doctrines, which they cannot profess, and those things which they can­not practise, plainly contradict. The reasons of their Non-conformity do not vary, as time serves, but they are the same that they were from the beginning; and they are not such as would overthrow all Communi­ons, and destroy all the Churches that are, or can be in the world. In a word, they dissent and disobey in the defence of the Gospel, and of the plain and un­doubted Gospel-truths. They are the most noble, essential, and integral parts of Christianity, which they adhere to; and it is not so much a Christian, as a Pagano-Christian, a most corrupt, tyrannical, and Ido­latrous Church, to which they refuse to conform. As Rome is mystical Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and abominations of the Earth: So the Galli­can-Church is a Province belonging to the mystical Ba­bylon, a Daughter of that Mother of Harlots, full of Fornication, and also drunk with the bloud of the Saints. Her Kings have all committed Fornication with her; but these are come out of her, that they [Page 26] might not be partaker of her Sins. This is their hard case, they are reduced to a necessity of sinning or suf­fering; and therefore their sufferings are truly, and properly Persecutions; for they suffer for Righteous­ness-sake, and the Gospels-sake, and according to the will of God. 'Tis for Conscience towards God, that they endure grief; for a good Conscience, as the Apostle speaks, which is opposed to an evil Consci­ence defiled with sinful principles and sin. A good Conscience in the Scriptures is otherwise called a pure Conscience [1 Tim. 3.9. 2 Tim. 1.3.] and it is compa­red to a body washed with water [ Hebr. 10.22. 1 Pet. 3.21.] because it is devoid of all sinful prejudice and corrupt affections, which pervert men's understan­dings, and render them indocile, and are able to make them call black white, and white black. The same is called in the Parable of the Sower, an honest and good heart, because it receives the Truth with all readiness, and impartially searcheth the Scriptures, whether things be so or no; and in what person soever this sort of Conscience is, he would be glad to obey his Sove­reign, and be of the established Communion, because he knows these are indispensable duties, when they can be done without denying Gospel-doctrines, or break­ing Gospel-Laws.

Such ingenuous Souls will be ready to hear, and rea­dy to give an answer to every man that shall ask them a reason of their doings, with meekness, and fear; and when they suffer for doing good, as our French Brethren, and fellow-members now do; they are made partakers of Christ's suffering in this world, and shall be made partakers with him in everlasting Glory, among Martyrs and Confessors, in the world to come.

[Page 27]III. Having now shewn first what Persecution is, and secondly, That our French Brethren are Persecu­ted; I proceed in the Third place to shew, to what a degree they are Persecuted, and how deplorable their sufferings are, and how uneasie and dangerous it is for them to continue in their Native Country, where they are treated more like Slaves than Subjects, and daily vexed with Julian Edicts and Decrees.

For they are deprived of the ancient Liberties, which were granted unto them by former Princes, the Father and Grandfather of this present King. Many of their Sedan, the Colledge of Roche-foucaut, and that of Châtilion. Universities are dissolved, and more than half their Temples razed, contrary to the Faith of Oaths and Edicts, and against the common right of Prescription of Three and Fourscore years. They are not allowed to erect Free-Schools for the Education of their own Children, nor Hospitals for the mainte­nance of their own Poor, nor can they have the bene­fit of any already Erected, without turning to the Po­pish Religion. The Lords of Mannors among them, who formerly had right to keep Ministers, and set up the Reformed Worship in their own Houses, and call their Neighbours and Tenants unto it by the sound of a Bell, are now in a most Arbitrary manner, deprived of that priviledge: And in the Cities where they are, most numerous Colledges of Jesuits, or Houses of Mission for propagating the Faith are erected, into which undu­tiful Children or Servants, under a pretence of turn­ing Catholicks, may retreat when they please; and in the greatest of those Cities, where perhaps Ten School-Masters could hardly teach all their Children, the late Laws allow them but one, and their unjust Magistrates commonly none.

They are forbidden to set up the Fleurs de Luces in their Churches, because they must not bear any marks [Page 28] of Royal favour; and as a further token of Royal dis­pleasure and contempt, their chief Seats, and more costly Pews are ordered to be pulled down.

Formerly Papists were allowed solemnly to renounce their Religion in the Protestant Temples; and scarce a Lords-day passed in the places where they were As at Cha­renton, La-Rochelle, Montpellier, Nismes. nu­merous, but some Converts might be seen so to re­nounce; but now all Papists are forbidden to turn Pro­testants under pain of death, or the penalty of an infa­mous sort of Penance, called L' amando honorable, in which the recanting person only in his Shirt, with a Torch in his hand, and a Rope about his neck, and the Hangman standing behind him, begs pardon of God and man, for having renounced the Catholick (as they mis-call the Romish) Religion, and is after­wards punished with Banishment, if not with confisca­tion of Goods.

On the contrary, Protestants have all imaginable encouragement to turn Papists; Pensions, Honours, Offices, and Preferments; and to secure them after they have once declared, the forementioned severity (as I have been informed) is the punishment of a re­lapse.

The Magistrates of the place have Authority to go with the Priest, and what other company they please, to visit sick Protestants, and turn their Friends and Attendants out of the Room, and discourse with them about their Religion; and if either hopes of reward, or a delirous condition, or impatience, or any other cause make them speak any thing in favour of the Ro­mish Religion, then they presently take witness that they turned Papists: After which, if the sick per­sons die, they are to be buried as Papists, and if they left Children behind them, they also are to be bred Papists; but if they recover, they are obnoxious to the Law against a relapse.

Their Ministers cannot without great danger and difficulty visit Protestants, which lye sick in Popish Houses, but every pitiful Sacrificulus, every ignorant busie Priest hath Authority to go into Protestant Hou­ses, and visit the sick as often as they please; and when their Women are in travail, like the Hebrew-women in the time of hardned Pharaoh, they must have Popish Egyptian Midwives, which is a far greater terror to ma­ny of them, than the pains of Childbirth it self.

Formerly they were capable of the Magistracy in Ci­ties and Burghs, where they lived, but now they are incapacitated: Formerly they were to sit in their Courts of Justice, as the Chambers of the Edict, (so called from the Edict of Nantes, by which they were erected in favour of Protestants) and the Party-Cham­bers of the Provinces, where half the Judges are Pro­testants, and half Papists; but now they are deprived of that priviledge: So that for want of Judges of their own Religion, they have little or no benefit of the Law, when a Catholick is their Antagonist; but when both parties are Protestants, if one change, or promise to change his Religion, he is usually sure to gain the Cause.

And as they are banished from the Bench; so are they banished from the Bar and Faculties: For no Pro­testant can be Councellor, Atturney, Notary, Chi­rurgeon, Apothecary, Midwife, &c. In one word, they are made utterly uncapable of all employments Civil or Military; and by that means are deprived of all Honours and better conveniences of life, of all the comfortable means of subsistence and well-being, which the Papists enjoy in their Offices at Court, and in the Country; in Peace, and in War, and in the Armies, both by Sea and Land.

This is their miserable condition, and what is yet worse, their Children have liberty at Seven years of [Page 30] Age to chuse their own Religion; and if to prevent the mischief that may follow upon this, they send them away, they must forfeit a years revenue of their Estates, if they do not produce them within a year; but if they do not produce them within two, then they must for­feit the whole. But in case they have no visible Estates, then they are subject to Arbitrary valuations, and to Arbitrary Fines imposed thereupon.

If their Children upon this liberty happen to change their Religion, as many will do rather than endure wholsom Discipline, their Parents are bound to main­tain them, as they do their other Children, or else to allow them a Pension for their maintenance, and their Daughters so changing, may leave their Parents, and go into Nunneries when they please.

This is the complement of all their other miseries, and to avoid so great a mischief, it is, that they fly in flocks to Protestant Countries, that they may save the Souls of their own bowels, and not have them bred up in Popish darkness, and the regions of the shadow of death. Some have slipt away by night with their Fa­milies, and driven without intermission, till they have got out of their imperious Princes Dominions; and others, as is credibly reported, have shipt off their little Ones, pack'd up in Bales of Merchantable Goods.

As for their Ministers, they upon any pretended crimes are banished, fined, or imprisoned, on purpose to make them forsake their Flocks, and discourage the People from putting their Children to the study of Di­vinity: Nay, they are in an especial manner obnoxi­ous to the barbarous cruelties and insults of the Soul­diery, who have free Quarter upon the poor Prote­stants, whom they abuse to what degree they please.

In some As Poictou, Xaintonge, and about Ro­chelle. Provinces they trail them, like dogs, by the neck to Masse, torture them till they renounce their Religion, and most inhumanely misuse, or murder [Page 31] those, whom God enables to resist unto bloud: and though these tyrannical and arbitrary outrages be not done by open order, yet it may be presumed they are done upon connivance, and according to the secret will of the Supream Authority, since those that do them are neither punished nor restrained, notwithstan­ding the complaints which the sufferers daily make at Court. These barbarous insolencies added to the se­verity of the Royal Edicts, you may be sure adds wings to their haste, and makes them fly in great hur­ry and confusion into foreign Countries; and the pro­vidence of God hath cast many of them, like ship-wracked men, on our Coasts, and expects that we should shew them no little kindness, but receive them cour­teously, and do good unto them in an especial manner, as unto them that are of the houshold of Faith. They are Persecuted, but we must not forsake them, they are grievously cast down, but in such an exigence as this, we must not let them be destroyed.

IV. And therefore I proceed in the last place to shew, that it is our duty to help and assist them, to en­courage and support them in this time of calamity, to refresh their bowels, and minister unto their pressing wants. For there are but three ways by which the spirits of persecuted men can be supported; by the te­stimony of a good Conscience; the comforts and joys of the Holy Ghost, and the charitable assistance of their Brethren, when (as the Apostle speaks) the members have the same care one for another; and if one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; and when from this diffusive spirit of charity which actuates all the parts of the truly Catholick Church, those that have riches, and live at ease, will contribute to those that are poor, and in distress.

The testimony of a good Conscience is a great cor­dial, because it results from considering, that we suf­fer for Righteousness-sake, and so are conformed unto Christ in his sufferings, and thereby have a comfortable title to all those mighty promises, which he hath made unto them, that forsake Father, and Mother, and Wife, and Children, and Lands, and Country, nay, and lay down their lives for his and the Gospels-sake. This consideration made the Apostle glory, and rejoyce, and take pleasure in his infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distres­ses for Christ's sake. And I question not, but our suf­fering Brethren, the Confessors of the French Commu­nion, are supported in their present miseries, by these comfortable reflections, and rejoyce in spirit, that they are counted worthy to suffer for his holy Name.

The comforts and joys of the Holy Spirit consist in those gracious irradiations, by which God is wont in an extraordinary manner to affect the Souls of true sufferers, in such measures, as their condition requires. From this principle, I conceive, it was, that Paul and Silas, after they had received many stripes, sang at midnight in the innermost Prison, with their feet fast in the Stocks; and that so many Martyrs have smiled upon their Tormentors, and broiled in the Flames, with little, or without any sense of pain. In such ca­ses it seems reasonable to conclude, that their natural is strengthned with infused courage; and that they are also rendred more or less senseless, because they are ren­dred Ecsttatick with the secret assurance of Gods fa­vour, which in 1 Thess. 1.6. is called joy in the Holy Ghost. I cannot say, that our suffering Brethren, ge­nerally speaking, are yet in such a condition, as to stand in need of supernatural assistance; but when ever it shall please God to call them, or us, to such a degree of Persecution, that we shall be killed all the day long, [Page 33] and be counted as sheep for the slaughter; I question not but he will assist us in it; and in all these things make us more than conquerors, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But besides the comforts, which the suffering mem­bers of Christ receive from their own Consciences, and the Spirit of God, they are to receive support and com­fort from the Brotherhood, from their fellow-mem­bers in Jesus Christ. Thus, 2 Cor. chap. 8, 9. we find the Apostle exhorting the Corinthians, after the ex­ample of the Churches in Macedonia, to a liberal con­tribution for the poor distressed Saints at Jerusalem. Thus also, Acts 11. the Disciples of Antioch, as soon as they understood by the Prophet Agabus, that there would be a Dearth throughout all the World (which is the Scripture-phrase for all Judaea) they determined to send relief unto the Brethren of Judaea, by the hands of Barnabas and Paul. For the Universal Church is but one Body, whereof Christ is the Head; one Family, whereof he is the Master; one Temple, or Spiritual-building, whereof he is the chief Corner-stone; and this strict relation we have to one another, as members of the universal Church, is such, that if one member of it suffer, all the members ought to suffer with it; and therefore a Soul void of pity and compassion, a Soul that cannot sympathize with his suffering Brethren, though, as to outward appearance, he may be a Chri­stian, yet he hath not the Spirit of Christ, that Spirit of Love, which informs all his members, as the Soul doth all the parts of the Body, and makes them sensible of one anothers harms. By this (saith Christ) shall all men know, that you are my Disciples, if ye love one ano­ther. And if we love one another (saith S. John) God dwelleth in us; and this Commandment have we from him, that he that loveth God, love his Brother also. Therefore (my Brethren) God by his Providence hath [Page 34] now brought you to the Test, to try every one of you, whether you are true member of Christ, or no? It is Christ that hath sent these his poor members to beg re­lief of you, and in as much as you do it, or not do it, to one of these little ones, remember, that you do it, or not do it to him.

But besides the obligation you have from Christian charity, Christian equity also obligeth you to do it; For whatsoever you would that men should do unto you in any condition, that you are bound by the Gospel to do unto them; and therefore as you would desire or expect to be dealt with in a time of Persecution, so it is your duty now to deal with them. The times of perform­ing some Gospel-duties seldom occur, but when they happen (and they always happen by God's special Pro­vidence) we ought to look upon such accidents as pro­vidential calls to the vigorous and exemplary perfor­mance of them; and who knows, whether God hath brought this evil upon our Brethren, not only for the trial of their Faith and Patience, but of our Love, Pi­ty and Compassion, and of our willingness to minister unto the Saints. Therefore let us now acquit our selves like loving Brethren towards them, who are true Sons of that Mother Church to which they belong, and from which they never yet departed, from the be­ginning of the Reformation under the endless pretence of setting up purer Congregations, and enjoying purer Ordinances, and purer Worship; but from the be­ginning have kept the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace. Let us not be backward to Good, and distri­bute among them, for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased. Let your abundance, as the Apostle speaks, be a supply for their want; and who knows, but that God seeing our readiness to relieve them in Persecution, may be so well pleased, as to deliver us from Persecu­tion, and all the Judgments which we fear. If they [Page 35] have the benefit of our Money, our Church shall have the benefit of their Prayers; they will be obliged by our Charity to beseech God to make up our Breaches, and heal our Divisions; to unite us into the Primitive Apo­stolical Government and Communion; that our Jerusa­lem may be as a City that is compact together, and once more become, as she formerly hath been, the glory of all Reformed Churches, and terrible as an Army with Banners to her Enemies of Rome.

Therefore let every one of you be merciful unto them after his power; if thou hast much, give plenteously; if thou hast little, do thy diligence to give of that little; for if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted by God, according to what a man hath, and not accor­ding to what he hath not. Only I charge you, who are rich in this world, that you be ready to give, and glad to distribute unto them, laying up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come, that you may attain Eternal Life, which God of his infi­nite mercy grant us all, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.