1673.

1676.

raphical doctors! ye fons of the morning! Muft your vanity bow down to an illiterate paltry Greek pappa! Shall he have the glory of felling fyllogifms at fo much a score, and you the fhame of buying them! Why, this is a fanciful import of ivory, apes, and peacocks! (6)

Dr. Nicolle proceeded to harrass the reformed again by another work, entitled, Well grounded Prejudices against the Calvinifts. A base design of exciting a fpirit of perfecution, concealed under a crafty policy, and tending to ruin Christianity itfelf for the fake of involving the reformed in the catastrophe, diftinguishes this bitter book. The Romanists, however, gained nothing by it; on the contrary, they loft much by Mr. Claude's anfwer, entitled, A Defence of the Reformation, allowed by all to be a master-piece, the best defence of our feparation from Rome, that either he, or any other protestant minister had ever published.

Mr. Claude's next work is entitled The Parable of the Wedding-Feaft. It confifts of five Sermons on Mat. xxii. 1, &c. which he had preached with great acceptance at Charenton the year before the publication. This work at this time proved, that our paftor was not fo intent on defending the outworks of religion as to forget the interior glory of it, for the fake of which the outworks ftand.

About this time, Mr. Claude's only fon, Ifaac, returned from studying in the best academies in France, to his father, under whofe tuition he might be prepared for the pulpit. For this purpofe Mr. Claude drew up the following effay, of

which

(6) See Bayle, Arnaud, Rem. O, S.-Spankeim Strict, în Expof. Epifc. Condomens.

which I fhall fay no more in this place, than that it answered all his wifhes on his fon. The fynod at Sedan examined him in September 1678, and the following October, his father enjoyed the pleafure of ordaining him to the church of Clermont Beauvoifis about fourteen leagues from Paris.

Mr. Claude, in this year of fingular pleasure 1678. met with some mortifying circumftances. He faw the court apply every imaginable artifice to weaken the reformed churches. He found fome of his own flock either impofing on themselves the papal yoke, or fubmitting at a certain price to have it imposed on them by others. He was not furprized at their pretended converfions: but he was extremely affected at the impiety of conducting them under a fhew of argument and rational conviction. One day Mademoiselle de Duras, a member of the church of Charenton, paying a visit to Mr. Claude, informed him, that fhe was under fome fcruples on account of her religion, and taking a paper out of her pocket, in which were contained fome extracts from S. Auguftine concerning the Eucharift, begged her paftor's affiftance. Mr. Claude met this lady the next day at the Countess de Roye's, and was then informed, that fhe wifhed for a conference between her paftor and fome divine of the church of Rome. Great pains were taken by Mr. Claude, and by feveral persons of quality, and piety, to diffuade Mademoiselle de Duras from defiring fuch a conference. Nothing could divert her from it. She was forry to fay, fhe was deferted in her diftrefs-this was what fhe had often been upbraided with,-the catholicks had frequently told her, the reformed minifters durft not VOL. I. fhew

d

fhew their heads before the Roman doctors.-Her dear fifter the Countess knew, as did the Marquis of Miremont, and Marshal de Lorge, the diftrefs of her mind. She had no doubt of the ability of her paftor,--and she had always found him a gentleman of finished complaifance and affectionate fym. pathy with the forrows of his people.-Did he know what good a conference would do her, he would not deny her this great act of charity. Thus the young enchantrefs pleaded, fhedding all the time abundance of tears. Mr. Claude, who knew her converfion was predetermined, and that the whole was intended only to give an air of plaufibility to her return to popery, was cafe-hardened against all her compliments and all her tears. However, the tears of a young lady were irrefiftible arguments to the reft of the company, as they are to almost all mankind. Our paftor, therefore, was obliged to grant that to their joint opinions, which he had refused to the difcourfe of Mifs Duras, and to agree to a conference. Were the converfion of fouls to be effected by human power, juvenile female orators would be the proper miffionaries. A delicate negligence of air, the foft fuafion of a filver tongue bedewed with the carried eye, infinuating eloquence of a fluent all this circle against their own judgments, the grave paftor himself was forced along with the ftream.

away

Before we attend the conference between Claude and Boffuet (for the bishop of Condom was the papal champion.) it is abfolutely neceffary to inveftigate the then present state of religious liberty in four contending communions; Thus we shall come

clearly

clearly to the true fprings of action, and be enabled to reprobate the favourite project of re-union, adopted by Boffuet, the pride of popery, and discover the inefficacy of thofe means, which Claude, the glory of prefbyterian reformers, applied to deftroy it. I fhould not hesitate, were Mr. Claude alive, humbly to lay the following thoughts at his feet; for, as Monfieur de Deveze rightly obferves, this great man followed new discoveries, occafioned by new objections, which time enabled the chriftian world. to make. Duration would be ill beftowed on the world, were the laft of mankind to govern themfelves wholly by the reveries of the first.

The union of all chriftian congregations in one grand corporate body is a godlike defign. The author of Chriftianity profeffed to aim at making all his followers one fold under one fhepherd; and, had officious human folly let divine wisdom alone, union had been effected long ago. The idea has ftruck all mankind. Princes and prelates, civilians and divines have all attempted to produce union. Not a foul of them has fucceeded; and, we will venture to affirm, the man will never be born, who can fucceed on their principles. They have retained the end: but loft fight of the original means of effecting it. All other means foft or fanguinary, papal, epifcopal and fynodical, controverfial or pecuniary, all have divided chriftians more and more, and widened those breaches, which they pretended to heal. This rage of union was the foul of the feventeenth century; and it convulfed and diftorted the body, as fouls agitated by violent conflicting paffions transform

d 2

the

the features of an incarnate angel into the face of a fiend. (7)

The true original remedy for all thefe ills is the restoration of that PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, which the Saviour of the world beftowed on his first followers. It was equal and univerfal. Church power was vested in the people, and the exercife of it limited to each congregation. So many congregations, fo many little ftates, each governed by its own laws, and all independent on one another. Like confederate ftates they affembled by deputies in one large ecclefiaftical body, and deliberated about the common interefts of the whole. The whole was unconnected with fecular affairs, and all their opinions amounted to no more than advice devoid of coercion. Here was an union. Liberty was the object, and love was the bond. (8) It was an evil day, when princes hired the church for a ftanding army, and everlasting fhame must cover the faces of thofe ecclefiafticks, who, like Judas, made their master a marketable commodity. Princes affected to be wife as Solomon, and fet lions to guard the steps of their thrones: but they had not penetration equal to the Jewish monarch; his lions could not bite: but theirs have devoured the creators of their being, elevation and form.

As long as church power is vefted in any other hands than those, with whom our univerfal Lord Chrift entrusted it, fo long union of Chriftians is impoffible;

(7) See Mofheim, cent. xvii. fe&t. ii. part 1. 12. &c. This celebrated hiftorian has affembled here Roman, German, French, Dutch, and English peace-makers, and affirms the fubftance of what is faid above.

(8) Vid. Mofheim, cent. i. ii.—Buddei Eccles. Apoftolicacum multis aliis.