There is another Sect , called Eschrakites . P. 407. They who profess it , addict themselves very much to the contemplation of the Idea of the Divinity , and the numbers that are in God. For though they hold the Vnity of God , they nevertheless admit the Trinity also , as a number proceeding from Unity . They explain that thought by the example of three Pleats , or folds in an Handkerchief , which may be called three , though it be but one piece of cloth when it is unfolded . These are no great Admirers of the Alchoran , they only make use of that which they find agrees with their Principles , and reject the rest , as if it were abolisht . Believing , that the chief Good of man consists in the Contemplation of the Majesty of God ; they despise the dreams and gross imaginations of Mahomet , concerning the Pleasures of Paradise . All the Schecs , and the most able Preachers of the Royal Mosques , are of this Sect. They are very diligent in their devotions , and sober in their dyet , &c. They have also a great deal of Charity for their Neighbours , saying , they are the Creatures of God , &c. They instruct their Scholars to be moderate , wise and grave , in a word to abstain from all evil Actions , and to practise all Vertues . One step farther , and these People will be much better Christians than the Greeks , who have the name and Profession of Christians .

A general disposition in the world to despise and forsake Popery . 5. The sensible Fall and declension of the Papacy , is a fifth sign of that great work which God is making way for . It seems to be furious , to reign , and get ground ; nevertheless , in truth it is falling ; for as God discredited the Religion of the Pagan Idols , a little before the coming of our Lord Iesus Christ ; so he makes this renewed Paganism of Popery , to be in less credit and esteem than formerly . Men begin to disgust the popish superstitions . They speak of the Invocation of Saints with contempt ; and boldly condemn the excess of it , and call it Idolatry , when they speak of it in private . They wish Images were banisht from their Churches , that it might not be a scandal and an offence to us : They begin to confess , that there was no necessity for the taking away the Cup. They acknowledge , that a man may be saved without Indulgencies , by the sole merit of I. Christ . They would restore the reading of the Holy Scriptures to the People . They suppress the Authority of the Pope , and speak of it with scorn . They despise his Thunders ; and if he begin to murmur , they talk as loud , or louder than he : They indeavour to establish this Doctrine , that under pretence of Religion , or for the preservation of it , 't is not permitted to subjects to take up arms : They mollify and sweeten all the Doctrines of Popery . I have taken notice of this in another place , and again observe it , this cannot hold long , this state and posture of the Papacy is violent . Since it is freely confest , that the adoration of one God is sufficient without that of Saints and Images , they must shortly conclude , that for things unnecessary they ought not to scandalize one half of the Christian World , and shut the Gate against the Iews and the Mahometans . Never were there so many in the Church of Rome as now , who acknowledge the vanity & impurity of their Superstitions . Every man hath the liberty of his own thoughts ; but I profess , that to me these are great presages of the approach of the last work of God , for the establishment of his Kingdom , and the ruin of that of Antichrist .

My spirit was in this frame , when this last and great Persecution in France began . I therein took notice of several Characters , that confirmed me in the belief that we were in the last times of the Period of 1260 years , and that this is the last Persecution spoken of in the 11th Chap. Revel . Singular Characters in the present persecution , which presage that it shall be this last . And when they shall have finiht their Testimony , the Beast who ascendeth out of the bottomless Pit , shall make war against them , and shall overcome them , and kill them . And their dead Bodies shall lye in the street of the great City three days and a half . For there are so many things singular and irregular in this Persecution , that without prophaness and a denial of Divine Providence , we cannot but acknowledge the hand of God therein . 'T is singular and more than usual , whether we consider the Authors of this Persecution , and the manner of it ; or whether we consider the Subjects that suffer it , and in what manner they suffer .

As to the Persecutors themselves , There is First a Prince , who hath the chiefest obligation to us for the Crown he wears , which entred into his Family by the person of his Grand Father ; a Prince , to whom we have always paid obedience and submission , without the least shadow of Rebellion : a Prince for whom we preserved the Crown in his minority , and who hath not scrupled to testify that we did so : a Prince , who is wise and understanding , as to his own Interests , and those of the States of Europe , who yet in despite of his own Interest , hath done all that which the House of Austria would have dictated to him to do if she had imployed her Emissaries in his Council : who destroys his own Subjects , who makes innumerable Male-contents , who throws eternal seeds of rebellion and war in his own Dominions , who disobliges his Protestant Allies , and alienates them in such a manner almost as never to be reconciled . The Protestant States and Princes have been always the principal Allies of France , Swede , Denmark , England , the Low-Countries , the Switzers , and the Protestant Princes of Germany . These are they that have supported it , when the House of Austria threatned the liberty of all Europe . And these are they who assisted France , to humble the House of Austria so low as now it is , and consequently that have advanced France to that point of Grandeur she is now at . But Time will shew how great a wound France hath now made in the heart of all her ancient Allies .

We see already that this Persecution makes the discord and dissention cease that was between the Protestants , and brings them nearer an union and reconciliation than before . God will let us see something farther of that kind . However , it must be confest , that there is something therein , which is not to be understood by man , that so wise a Court should violate all the rules of good policy , which is the Soul of States , and the spring of all their motions .

If we look upon the Clergy , that seems to have been the Sollicitor of this Persecution , it will appear no less extraordinary . 'T is not an Ignorant and superstitious Clergy , as was that of the last Century . These are understanding and knowing persons , Men of learning and prudence , freed from the ridiculous affectation , and prejudice of a Monastic Spirit , who have little zeal for the Romish Ceremonies : who flight their worship , at least for the most part of it ; who have much knowledge of the Truth , and at the bottom but very little Religion . In a word , they are such , as know very well that we are not in the wrong , or at least , that altogether and in every thing we are not : Nevertheless , they persecute us more cruelly , than the most furious Monks , or inraged Inquisitors have ever done . They act therefore against their own light , which is so far very strange and surprizing . But what is more astonishing , they act against the most sacred Principles of their Religion . There is nothing among them more venerable than the Sacraments , and nothing esteemed more criminal than the violation of them . To administer the Sacrament of Pennance , to give absolution to a Sinner , to an Heretick who is not penitent , who saith and declares openly , without hiding or concealing it , that he perseveres from his very heart in his sin and Heresy , and never renounc't it , but by constraint and violence ; to give , I say , absolution to such a man , according to the definition of their loosest Casuists ; 'T is Sacriledge to give the Sacrament of the Altar to a man , that professeth he believes nothing of it , and acknowledgeth nothing there but meer Bread ; 't is a Sacrilegious Communion . Should it not affect the Hearts , and even the Imaginations of those persecuting Bishops and Priests , to think of the innumerable Sacriledges that by this means are every day committed ? They absolve a multitude of wretched People , who protest that by meer force and violence , they were constrained to sign the abjuration of their Religion , and to get out of the hands of a thousand Executioners , who devour'd and destroyed 'em , and gave them no rest day or night . The Priests and Bishops who absolved them , know well enough that they are Impenitent and Heretiques , and persevering in their Heresy ; nevertheless , they give them absolution . Moreover , they bring them to their Altars by force and violence ; they must be confest ; they must desire the Sacraments , and they are given them . In the mean time , they know , that they detest and abhor from their very hearts , as a meer Idol , that which is given them to eat and worship as a God. So that all these are Sacrilegious Communions , and in plain terms , the most abominable Sacriledge that can be imagined : what conscience can we suppose these men to have , who are guilty of such abominations , so directly contrary to their own Principles ?

But by what name shall we call the Oath , which they force men to take , and which they have publickly printed ; in which the new Converts swear by the name of God , and upon the H. Evangelists , that they have willingly abjured , and without constraint or force ? And yet the Bishops know , and all the World is acquainted with it , that they have been forc't to this abjuration , by armies of Butchers and Executioners , let loose upon them . Where are any principles of Morality , even those of the greatest latitude , that will permit this ? can there be any more horrible prophanation of an Oath ? than which nothing is more sacred and venerable .

In what a state must such mens Consciences needs be , who force these poor men to commit so execrable a perjury , and cause the name of God to be used , for the assuring the Truth of a Thing , which is most notoriously false ? I confess , I shall never comprehend this ; and will alway say , there is something in it more than humane , that Men should make profession of a Religion , and contradict the most inviolable rules of it , openly before all the World. But to what a pitch of Impudence must they be arrived , who Print and publish , that no violence at all hath been imployed to make these Conversions ? All France abounds with strangers , who are witnesses of it ; the Ministers of the Princes of Europe behold in ; forreign Merchants see and know it ; An hundred thousand witnesses , who have themselves escapt out of the hands of these Executioners , carry tidings of it to all the ends of the Earth ; and yet there are some who have the confidence to deny a matter of Fact , that was done in the sight of all Europe . We read the Arrests ; we see the Ordonnanees of the Intendants ; we see Woods cut down , and Houses rased ; we behold twelve or fifteen thousand Prisoners in all the Prisons of the Kingdom : and yet they tell us , there is no such thing as Persecution . This is one thing which is very singular in this Persecution , and which hath no example . I could not read without trembling , what Mr. de Brueys saith in his last piece , that the success there hath been of the Methods imployed for the Conversion of the Reformed , make it evident that they were altogether disposed to receive the Catholick Truth . I know not what those dispositions were as to himself : but I question not but by the same means to make him turn Turk , and afterwards Heathen , in a very little time .

What Judgement can one make of such men as Mr. Brueys , and Mr. Maimbourg , who in the Epistle Dedicatory to the Life of Gregory I. complements and congratulates the King to this purpose , that he sees the Period of Calvinism , without having made use of any means to bring it about , but those of Grace and sweetness , mild and gentle methods ? 'T is these kind and gracious proceedings that hath forc't persons of good birth and quality , accustomed to all the best accommodations of Life , to leave ten , twenty , thirty , forty thousand Livres per annum , to expose themselves to all sorts of suffering and disgrace . 'T is these sweet and obliging ways , that hath forc't women of every age & quality to come away , disguis'd in the habit of Peasants , some on foot , some on horseback , some by Post , some who were eight or nine moneths with child , in the night , through all the Fatigues of the winter . I say once more , that I cannot understand , how men that have any honour to lose , or at least , who believe they have , can declare that to be false , which is so evident and notorious , that nothing is more publickly known , or more undeniable . This is a sort of Lying that in my opinion is very perticular . But it the mean while , 't is an homage paid to Truth and Justice ; 't is a confession , that such Actions are most black and abominable , because though they are committed in the face of the Sun , they dare not own them ; they deny them before those who were eye-witnesses of them . No man of honour , after the reading of Mr. Maimbourg's Epistle to the King , prefixt to the Life of St. Gregory , but must judge him to be one of the most base and dishonest Writers in the world . It had been more pardonable , if he had only by the by dropt such a falsehood , without insisting on it . But to write a large Epistle Dedicatory on that subject , to complement the King for the Conversions he hath made , without using any other means than sweetness and Charity , this is to put the most patient Readers out of all patience .

If we consider the manner of this persecution , it is no less extraordinary ; 'T is new , 't is without example . 'T is no new thing to condemn people to dye , or , to offer incense to Idols , and to go to Mass , to banish Christians or massacre them , because they will not joyn in with the Religion that is uppermost ; this hath been seen an hundred times . But I maintain , there was never any thing seen like this Persecution , which we see at present . They tell People , they will not kill them ; on the contrary , we will , say they , that you live , but you shall go to Mass , or you shall be tortured ; you shall be confined within the Kingdom ; you shall not be suffered to go away ; if you attempt an escape , you shall be sent to the Gallies ; while you stay , you shall have fifty Soldiers , or rather Executioners to maintain ; if fifty be not sufficient , you shall have an hundred , with express orders , not to let you alone by day or night to omit no pillage , no blows , no punishments , no torments , till you have renounc't your Religion . This , I say , is what hath never been seen before .

The success hath made many believe , that this infernal method was the most happily invented by the Clergy , that could be , to promote the design of the Converters , and to ruin the Reformation . But I am quite of another opinion ; and 't is one of the most extraordinary things which I find in this persecution , that any persons of good sense , should believe this to be a likely method to abolish a Religion . The persecution was well enough begun , in order to the end and design of the Persecutors . And had they been contented by little and little to deprive us of our Temples , to banish our Ministers , to forbid all Assemblies , to leave us in ignorance , and deprive us of all the other advantages which others Subjects injoy ; the Reformed Religion would have been almost extinguisht before ten years were over : such being the coldness and declension of Piety , to which the Protestants were already come . But God , who would not that his Truth should perish , suffer'd not that things should remain in that posture . 'T is well known , that humane passions are a great help to Christian vertues ; The fury which these persons are now in , who feel this violence , the torment they suffer in their Consciences , the rage which they are in , for being forced ; do all concur to fortify the hatred they had of Idolatry , and their love and inclination for the Truth . So that by means of these violent Passions , the Truth makes the more indelible impressions on their hearts . He must be very ignorant in the History of the World , and of the Heart of man , who can think this to be a likely way to extinguish a Religion . The means to extirpate an Heresy , pretended , or real , is to cut off the Heads , to shed a great deal of blood , and to stifle the most zealous of them by a massacre : for if you suffer them to live , and are content only to draw from them a feigned abjuration , you thereby make them irreconcileable Hereticks . 'T was by fire and sword the Albigenses were destroyed . There is yet another very effectual way of extinguishing an Heresy , which is to take away from them all means of increase and growth by preaching and instruction : after this manner the Arrian Heresy was supprest by the Emperors . This way they began to take in France for these twenty years last past , and which could not have failed of success , as I observed , if it had been continued . But he must be very blind that can believe , that Persons , into whose Heads and Hearts you would force the Truth by blows and violence , will not recover themselves again assoon as possible , and by all manner of ways . But it will be said , there are other methods used , which you grant to be effectual ; The People are deprived of all the means of Instruction , and so in a little time the Truth must dye . This would prove so , if their Consciences were not under such a violence as they are ; and if that posture of things could last long , the Truth would then be extinguisht by little and little . But that state of things is too violent to continue long ; and within a few years you will see the Light of that fire , which is shut up , without being extinguisht .

There is another thing very extraordinary in this Persecution , and wherein the finger of God doth manifestly appear ; that is , the way they have taken in their dealing with the Pastors . These are the men that must be supprest , if you would extinguish a Religion : because they are capable of recovering it . Therefore in all former Ages the severest part of the storm hath fallen on them ; and even in this Age likewise , witness the History of the Persecutions in Hungary . But here is the quite contrary , the People ruined , and the Ministers suffered to go free . They must carry nothing away with them , but their Souls and Consciences are given them as a prey : which so many Laiks would desire and rejoyce to obtain . These banished Pastors carry the account of the miseries of their several Flocks into all parts of the World. They are in all the Protestant Courts of Europe , the unreproveable Witnesses of the violence of the Persecution : their miseries stir up compassion towards the afflicted , and Indignation against their Persecutors .

Besides this , they are always ready , and kept in reserve , to return into France , and bring back the Light of Truth again there , whenever God shall please to open the door . This is such a thing as speaks plainly , that God preserves them in safety , in order to his great work , and till then . This is not the effect of the Compassion of their Persecutors ; for they are destitute of any , and are cruel to the utmost degree . 'T is not a piece of policy neither ; for that would have made them secure the Pastors in such a place , wherein they should have been condemned to an eternal silence . 'T is then a secret Providence of God , which leads persons farther than they would go , and to do that which they would not have otherwise done : and 't is observable , that Bishop Vsher in his prophecy doth expresly take notice of this particular , that in this last persecution the Pastors shall be spared , God reserving them for the Great work he hath farther to do ; which makes me give the more heed to that prophecy .