to the end our controversial works may be read as those of the fathers were, let us endeavor to fill them, as the fathers did, not only with exact and sound doctrine, but also with piety and charity; and let us, as much as we can, correct the dryness, not to say the sourness, which is too often found in such books.

CONFERENCE

WITH

M. CLAUDE,

Minister of Charenton,

CONCERNING THE

AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH.

SECTION I.

Preparation for the conference and particular instruction.

MADEMOISELLE DE DURAS, being in some doubt about her religion, caused me to be asked by several persons of rank whether I were willing to confer with M. Claude in her presence? I answered that I would most willingly do so if I saw that such a conference was necessary for her salvation. She afterwards, through the medium of the Duke of Richelieu, invited me to come to Paris on Tuesday, the last day of February, 1678, and to enter into conference the next day with this minister on the point that she would specify to me. It was for the purpose of specifying it that she wished to see me before the conference. Having called on her on the day appointed, she acquainted me that the point she desired to have discussed with her minister was that of Church Authority, which seemed to her to include the whole controversy. She appeared to me not likely to come to a resolution without this conference, so that I judged it absolutely necessary.

I told her she had indeed good reason to lay the principal, and indeed the whole stress on this article, which, in fact, involved the decision of all the rest, as she herself had observed; and I took occasion to impress her yet more deeply with the importance of the question. It is, I observed, an ordinary boast

14

IMPORT OF THE WORD CHURCH.

of your ministers that they cannot be denied to admit the fundamentals of belief. They say that we believe all they believe, but that they believe not all we believe. Their meaning in this is, that they have kept all the fundamentals of faith, and rejected only what we have added to them. They draw thence a great advantage, and pretend that their doctrine is secure and indisputable. Mademoiselle De Duras remembered very well having often heard them speak to this effect. I will make, proceeded I, but one remark upon this, which is,—that, far from conceding that they believe all the fundamentals of faith, we show that there is one article of the creed they do not believe, which is that of the universal Church. It is true they orally profess, "I believe the Catholic (or universal) Church," as Arians, Macedonians, and Socinians say with the mouth, "I believe in Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost." But as we are warranted in charging them with not believing these articles, because they believe them not as they ought, nor according to their true sense, so if we show the "Reformed" that they believe not as they ought the article of the Catholic Church, we may truly say that they, in fact, reject an important article of the creed.

Mademoiselle De Duras had read my treatise of the Exposition of Catholic Faith. She told me she remembered having seen something in it like to what I now said; but I answered that in that treatise my intention had been to treat matters very briefly, and that it was fit that they should be stated to her somewhat more amply.

It must be borne in mind then, said I to her, what is meant by this expression, "Catholic or universal Church:" and in explanation, I began to lay for my ground that in the creed, which had for its object a simple declaration of the faith, this term must be taken in its most proper and most natural signification, and such as is most usual among Christians. Now all Christians by the name of Church understand a society professing to believe the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and govern itself by his word. If this society makes this profession, it is consequently visible.

On the fact of this being the proper and natural signification of the word "Church," of its being the import known by every one and used in common discourse, I desired no other witnesses than the Reformed themselves. When they speak of their Church prayers, of Church discipline, of the faith of the Church, of the pastors and doctors of the Church, they mean not the prayers of the predestinate, nor their discipline, nor their faith, but the prayers, faith, and discipline of all the faithful assem

IMPORT ASSIGNED TO IT BY THE REFORMED.

15

bled in he external society of God's people. When they say that a man edifies the Church, or that he scandalizes the Church, that they receive one into the Church, or exclude one out of the Church, all this is undoubtedly understood of the external society of God's people. Thus they explain it in the form of baptism when they say they are going to receive the child "into the fellowship of the Christian Church," and when, accordingly, they oblige the godfathers and godmothers "to instruct the little one in the doctrine received by God's people as it is," say they, "summarily comprised in the confession of faith which we all have ;" and, again, when, in their Church prayers, they supplicate God "to deliver all his Churches from the jaws of ravening wolves." And yet more expressly in the confession of faith, article xxv., when they say that the order of the Church which was established by Jesus Christ must be sacred, and therefore that the Church cannot subsist if there be not therein pastors having the charge to teach." And, in article xxvi., "that none ought to draw aside, but that all together ought to keep and maintain the unity of the Church, submitting to the common instruction." And, in fine, in article xxvii., "that we must carefully discern which is the true Church; and that it is the company of the faithful which agree to follow the word of God, and the pure religion thereon depending." Whence they conclude, article xxviii., "that where God's word is not received, nor any profession made of subjection thereunto, and where there is no use of the sacraments, one cannot, properly speaking, judge there is a Church." It is evident by all these passages, and by the common practice of the "Reformed," that the proper, natural, and generally used signification of the word Church is this-the external society of God's people, amongst whom though there be found some hypocrites and reprobates, "their malice," say they, "cannot efface the title of the Church," article xxviii. That is, hypocrites mixed in the external society of God's people cannot take from it the title of the true Church, provided it be vested with these exterior marks, "the profession of God's word, and the use of the sacraments," as is said in article xxviii. This is the acceptation of the word Church, when we speak simply, naturally, and properly, without wrangle or cavil; and if this be the ordinary acceptation of the word, we have reason to say that it was in this sense the apostles made use of it in their creed, where the most ordinary and simple style was to be adopted, the object being to embrace in few words the confession of the fundamentals of belief.

In fact, it has become usual in the common discourse of all