PROTESTANTISM. Manuscript, late 17th century; small 58ff. folio, paperback. Exhortations from a pastor to his persecuted brethren, in 10 chapters: Chapter I containing the afflictions that God's children must suffer in this world; II containing the chatimans with which the Lord visits us; III containing the way in which we must console ourselves; IV containing what we must do to oblige God to help us; V how we must behave towards God after He has delivered us: VI that God's church has always been persecuted; VI [bis] why the prayers we make to God are so often interrupted; VII why God allows us to be persecuted; VIII that God has always preserved some residue according to the selection of fatness, but it is he alone who knows those who are his; IX to oblige us to perseverance. The manuscript is in brown ink, with erasures and corrections, and numerous references in the margins (mainly to the Old Testament and Saint Paul). There are numerous allusions to the persecutions suffered by Protestants: "la fuitte de l'eglise de Dieu au desert" (f. 40); "si nous sommes privés de nous pouvoir assambler publiquemant avec nos freres, et que nous nayons pas de pasteur pour nous instruire, faisons de nos maisons les tamples du Dieu vivant, que chasque pere de famille fait le pasteur dans sa maison, Dieu se trouvera au milieu de nous" (f. 41v°); "La religion reformée que nous professons par la grasce de Dieu, est saincte et veritable, elle a été instituée par Jesus Christ notre Seigneur, prechee par ces apostres, et scellee du sang des martires" (f. 47); the "faithful pastors" charged with defending the faith (f. 58); violent attacks on the Pope, "this false prophet and antichrist" (f. 44), and reproaches against "those who have abandoned our religion to embrace that of Rome" (f. 48)...