malice Charity is not envious but envy raigns particularly in division where each party respects the obligation of their proper Interests Charity is not insolent nor puffed up with Glory whereas Division is fierce proud and insupportable It inspires those who possess it with a desire to abase and oppress others if it be possible that they may raise up themselves and Rule without Competitor Charity seeks not its own ends is not dispiteful and thinks no evil These ill qualities are the true Characters of Division in which it hath no other end than the advancement of its own party to the detriment of all others Charity rejoyces not in injustice but altogether in the truth Division oppresses the truth and is never pleased but with unrighteousness and violence Charity endures believes hopes and bears all things Division causes suspicions and jealousies to arise gives ill interpretations to actions and even to the most innocent words and drives us into passion and impatience into murmuring and extravagances And to draw the last Line to this parallel God grant that as Charity never fails but is maintained in the very ruine of all that which is most Glorious and most firm in Society so on the other side by the rule of contraries that we may quickly see this unhappy Division utterly decay and cease by a perfect uniting of all Christians CHAP. IV. The Third Effect of this Division That it makes Men Irreligious and causes Atheisme IN all Divisions which tear in pieces Kingdomes and Monarchies each side at the first does boast by their Manifestoes and Declarations that they took not up Armes but for the Publick Good and for maintaining the Crown and Authority of the Prince And although those Parties be so contrary and averse that their Swords are drawn and in a readiness to decide their quarrel yet both of them have the confidence to alledge in their Vindication the Justice of their cause and interest of their Soveraign whilst in the end all tend to the utter subversion of the State and total change of the Government And it will many times happen in these contests that the most mutinous and most sedicious do make themselves Masters of Soveraign Authority So is it ordinarily seen that in the division of Opinions in Religion every one protests that no other Argument or Interest perswades him to follow the Religion that he embraces but the real love of truth and desire of his Salvation All those who would be the promoters and spreaders of some new Opinion show an extraordinary Devotion and Zeal at the beginning But by little and little all that degenerates and all the overtures which Division makes serve but as so many doors by which at last Impiety Irreligion and Atheisme do slip in 'T is amidst these differences that we commonly see some new Religion thrust in it self among us which differs but very little from the disclaiming of all Religion Just so was it by means of the divers Sects which heretofore sprang up in the Church that the Doctrin of Mahomet has taken such footing in the World Every one knows how wide the Division of the Eastern and Western Churches was at that time And I do not believe but that the great diversity of Judgments and Religions which we see at present in Christianity hath been the cause of this coldness and want of Devotion amongst us in what we call Christian Society Insomuch that Piety and Religion seem only to be left in full Authority amongst Women and the Vulgar This Evil arises from hence that the greatest part of Men either cannot or will not give themselves the trouble of searching into these different Opinions to determine which they might close with so they choose rather to believe nothing absolutely than to be always in suspence about what they ought to believe As the great diversity of Medicines which are prescribed to a Patient do very often make him refuse all thinking it better to resign up all to venture at once rather than stand so long about making his choice of the Remedies which are proposed to him Some go towards it but with such a kind of negligence and natural sloath that makes them apprehend a great deal of trouble in it And these esteem it better to suspend all manner of action than undertake any thing that requires so much care and intensness of thought concerning it These are like lazy Souldiers who suffer themselves to be kill'd rather than they 'l couragiously take up their Armes and stand to their own defence Or those who out of a desperate Fury thrust a Dagger into their own Breasts for fear least their Enemy is pressing upon them to do it There are others who dare not venture upon this tryal through the distrust which they have of themselves and of their own power They do not feel themselves strong enough to sustain such a weight nor able to break through all those difficulties which they meet with This obliges some blindly to follow the first that is presented them and suffer themselves to be led by those who pretend to have skill herein Supposing they are in a good condition if they put themselves under the conduct of their Leaders And others stand Newters not daring to adhear to any Party out of a Distrust which they have of all such as offer themselves to them And this it is that causes Irreligion and Atheisme Yet are there some whose Fault is not neglect of examining these different Questions but the true Reason of it is because they are not indeed capable of it Such are all Pesants and Mechanicks and others who know nothing more than what belongs to their employments and who being taken out of that are as if they were in an unknown Country where they are ignorant both of the wayes and Language It puts them to a stand as though they had neither sense nor Motion They make all their Devotion and all the Service which they should pay to God to consist in the well observing these outward actions of Religion in which they have been trained up Witness the poor Christians of Muscovia all whose Religion is no more than just a showing to those who desire to be informed of their belief the Image of some Saint which they carry about with them And others also who think that if they know but how to make the sign of the Cross aright may pass for very good Christians Therefore if instead of puzelling our selves about so many questions and controversies we would study to bring back the Christian Doctrin to its true Principles which are but few in number and easy for all sorts of Persons to comprehend it would be the ready way to make true Christians who would know what is really essential in their Doctrine and so would quickly be brought to a true piety and to the fear of God which is the only design of Christian Religion Here it may also be added that this great diversity of
THE REUNITING OF Christianity OR The Manner how to rejoin all Christians under one sole Confession of Faith Written in French by a Learned Protestant Divine And now Englished by P. A. Gent. LONDON Printed by John Winter for William Gilbert at the Half Moon in Saint Pauls Church-yard 1673. THE AUTHORS PREFACE IF it be a great cause of grief to all true Christians to see the sacred Religion which the Son of God brought down from Heaven to the Earth miserably torn in pieces by so many several Sects which heretofore have and who still divide it at this present If all these different Confessions of Faith which dismember the spouse of Jesus Christ do extraordinarily afflict all pious Souls surely these pious Souls should conceive no less grief at this that hitherto there has never been any that has undertaken to apply a healing remedy to these wounds that has attempted with success the cure of so great an evil It seems no more to be thought of but as an evil to be deplored and absolutely incurable Every one thinks himself straightly bound to stick to his old principles and preconceived opinions every one flatters himself in his own thoughts and believes that he possesses the Truth and is in the right way after which he looks no more upon others but with some kind of aversion or at least with pity They in the judgment of him and his party are as so many unfortunate creatures ready to tumble down an unavoidable precipice they are considered as people that are only sit to be the subject of the prayers which are offer'd up for miserable wretches or of the complaints w ch are formed against their unhappiness Neither are those looked upon who would undertake to remedy this but as idle Projectors and fantastical persons like Mountebanks who promise the Cure of those Diseases that are given over by the most skilful Physicians I know very well that many have studyed to find out a means of according some of these Sects to reunite certain persons together who have been engag'd in them and who on this account have reciprocally entertained most implacable feuds against each other There have been divers Writings published for endeavouring an accommodation between the Roman Catholicks Protestants they have attempted to reconcile those of the Confession of Ausburg vulgarly stiled Lutherans with those other called Calvinists but there have commonly been other interests than those of the Glory of God intermixed in these enterprises It has rather been by a principle of Policy than by any motive of Conscience and desire of the salvation of Souls that these designs have been set on foot whence it has happened that God has turned his Blessing from them and made the success not to answer the greatness of the design Some likewise not aiming at any thing herein more than how they might make ane asier passage more plausible revolt from one Communion to another have only studied to weaken the foundation of their former opinions and strengthen that of their new ones which they have an intention to embrace There is also this in it that men do not ordinarily attempt but to remedy some effects without ascending up to the principal cause and only source of all this evil just like those ignorant Physicians who unskilfully labour to cure some of the Symptoms of Diseases without applying any thing to the grand original Cause on the curing whereof depends all its consequences There was a Preface of a Book printed some years since in the Low Countries which touched this matter and seemed to aim at a general reconciliation of all Christians by means of a charitable allowance and and a mutual toleration But besides that it was but by the by that the Author treated upon this important Subject It seems that not having ascended up to the spring head of all these Divisions he has not contrived any proper way for the Reconciliation which he proposes nor has rightly distinguished between what is fundamental in Christian Religion and what is not to let us see last of all in what things we should have this charity one towards another And we reject also the means which is most important towards the attaining to so good an end whilst we refuse to disingage our selves from whatsoever may render it unfruitful as I shall shew you in its proper place It was in the search of this that I have for some years since applyed my self to so diligent and serious meditation I utterly cast off at the instant all former opinions of my own and prejudices against others which might be any obstacle to me in so laudable a design I disingaged my self for a time of all things whatsoever of any Communion of Christians which was singular and which separated it self from others And I believed that in examining carefully the things wherein they all agreed I might discern with a more disinterested eye that which would be for the common good I then considered with the greatest exactness that I was able the Nature Greatness and lamentable Effects of this miserable Division of Christians I observed at the same time how inestimable would all those goods and all those advantages be which would arise from their reuniting into one the same Confession of Faith and reconciliation of their minds into the same Communion After that I diligently considered with an intire applying my mind what could be the causes of so deplorable a misfortune I have ascended the best I could to the very fountain head of this evil where I suppose I have made some discoveries which without question will be relished by those who shall look upon them without interest In short I am verily persuaded that after all my endeavours nay continual prayers have been heard by the Goodness and Bounty of the God of Peace I hope that through the Blessing of Heaven I have met with the true and only remedy of this evil that is to say the sole means of reconciling together all those who make profession of Christianity and who are perswaded that the Doctrine of the Gospel which is comprised in the Scriptures of the New Testament is delivered to us from God and that it contains what we should know believe and do for our salvation So that as soon as we shall religiously reunite in those matters which it prescribes to us we shall be in a ready way of attaining to the mark which it proposes to us At least I may with truth say that since that very time I have found for my own part a great calmness of Spirit I have not any more since that looked upon Christian Doctrine to be difficult knotty charged and encumbred with an infinite number of subtil questions critical and unprofitable notions These are the very things that have made it to pass unknown having utterly disfigured its natural Beauty This is it that has given it a face altogether new and strange and I dare say that if Saint Paul
Name of a Church and boasted to be the Spouse of the Son of God to the utter exclusion of all others They have also gone further for besides the Heavenly Doctrine contained in the Gospel where they have taken occasion of raising disputes They have forged such as have been meerly humane concerning which there hath also been miserable Divisions And as though these Men had climbed up to Heaven to consult the very Mouth of God himself they have Preached up their Doctrines as Oracles and Fundamental Truths After which they have had no great trouble to engage their Followers to suffer the most cruel Torments and even Death it self in defence of their Opinion and after that have confidently enrolled them in their own Legend as Martyrs of Jesus Christ though they suffered only to advance the glory and reputation of some Arch-Heretique So God to chastize the rashness and confound the vanity of their thoughts has permitted that Division should ruine their work as heretofore it defeated the insolent designs of those who would erect the Tower of Babel After that we have once forsaken the Royal Road which God has prescribed us we run into all by paths and separate our selves one from another each of us fancying to be in the most commodious and safest way Can you likewise believe that a separation is sometimes made about Subjects not only light and trivial but in some sort ridiculous and which do redound to the shame of those who made them serviceable to the ends of their Schisme and Division What contentions have there not been among Christians namely on what Day the Celebration of Easter should be observed If in the Communion Bread leavened or unleavened should be made use of If the Body of Jesus Christ was corruptible after its conception or not If we may say that one of the Trinity was Crucified If the Church can condemn and excommunicate one that is dead If the Hallelujah might be Sung in Lent and other Questions of the like nature Behold here what are ordinarily the subjects which cause these most real calamities Behold that which separates those who with one consent should advance the glory of their common Master But to come to our times and more neerly to touch upon the evil which troubles us at present and which has given me occasion of laying open my sence to contribute to a Remedy Is it not a lamentable thing and of sad Example to see Christians so miserably divided as they are at this Day For to let pass the divers Sects of Christians which are in the East and who have more cause to grieve for their lamentable Divisions than for their miserable state under the rigorous Yoke of the Mahometans such are the Greeks of Armenia and Circassia the Nestorians Jacobites Maronites Cophtes Christians of St. Thomas c. People who are looked upon as Hereticks or Schismaticks and who believe that out of their particular communion there is no Salvation to be expected Let us insist only upon this deplorable condition of the Christians of Europe in these Countreys wherein we live There is no heart so hard that does not sigh to behold so strange a dis-union There is no truly Christian Soul that does not grieve to see the effects of the implacable sudes and hatreds which are amongst those who are looked upon as Brethren Since they are thereby exposed to the continual insolencies of the sworn Enemies of Christianity Since this great breach which is made in the Western Church by the separation of the Protestants from the Communion of the Church of Rome what Bloody Wars How many Murders and Massacres What changes and subversions is in States has there not been seen insomuch that they have not stuck to have recourse to the common Enemy to draw in succour against those with whom they should have entertain'd a true Brotherly affection And that which is most deplorable is that this division hath been followed by an infinite company of others and as a fruitful Mother hath produced an incredible number of Monsters which resemble it These two great Branches growing out one from the other have also sprouting out of them a vast company of lesser Branches which although not equal in strength bring forth fruits altogether as dangerous as their Mother Among Protestants how many several Sects in Germany in England in France in the Low-Countreys c. There needs but some diversity in the habits of Preachers some difference in the Ceremonies or in the Ornaments of Churches or of the Government thereof to form a Sect. A simple dissenting in the Liberty which every one gives himself of expounding according to his Fancy the misteries which are above his reach is sufficient to cause a separation The manner of explaining the subject of Predestination and oâ— Reconciling God's Grace with the Motions of the Will of Man makes us look upon those who are of a different Opinion as such People as are in the high-way of Damnation and with whom we must not entertaâ—â— any Communion Nor may they who have lived in Communion with the Church of Rome insult at this Division of the Protestants and pretend that union and concord have continued amongst them without any division For although they all submit themselves in appearance to the Authority of one only Head and that they look upon him as the Center wherein all the Lines of their Society do meet and are reunited nevertheless we are not ignorant how great the number of their dissentions are and how little the union is amongst their Doctors 〈◊〉 that if the fear of a Superior Authority seems to retain them in one and the same Society their hatreds are but the more fermented within They do not less condemn one another of Heresie and of being out of the way of Salvation And the Exâ—mples of our Age have shown us that when oppertunities have been presented of making their aversions appear how far they have carried it being always desirous that their particular Opinions might prevail over all others Therefore it is not any particular interest that I here endeavour to advance But it is the general interest of all Christian Societies It is the good and the union of all those who march under the Standard of the Cross I design to reunite together all the Christians of the East and West Greeks and Romans Catholicks and Protestants and all the divers Branches whereinto these latter are subdivided CHAP. II. The first Effect of this Division Disquiet of Mind and Trouble of Conscience WEre there no other Evil in this Division than the very Division it self and that deformity which it causes in Christian Societies Were there no other harm done by it than the disfiguring the Face of Christianity and the blemishing its beauty that renders it so considerable it would be so great a cause of grief as to oblige us to endeavour with all our power to remedy so great a mischief But besides all this this unhappy
Division is very fruitful and produces infinite evils as much or more pernicious than it self 'T is like the Viper which by a strange self dilaceration makes a great Number of little Serpents come out of her which instantly make their Teeth and Venom appear There are some who set upon particular Persons and others who cause great disorders in Societies both secular and Ecclesiastical as I undertake to make evident to every one The first effect of this Division is disquiet and torment of mind wherin they ordinarily do plunge themselves who are engaged in this Laberinth of divers Opinions about matters of Religion And these Opinions do in time forme the different Sects and Societies which divide all Christians A Traveller Journeys with pleasure so long as his way seems good and plain and that he is assured it is the right that it lies direct and finds it is not divided into other different Paths But so soon as he perceives himself in a cross Road where he meets with several tracks without knowing which of them he should make choice of 'T is impossible but that being in this suspence he must have a great unquietness and grief of spirit If all Christians perfectly agreed in Opinion that Agreement would be a grand means wherby we might advance with pleasure towards our happiness But meeting with this great diversity of sentiments and professions wherein every one boasts of possessing the truth as by birth-right to the exclusion of all others we must needs be involved in great perplexity For to think that we can easily solve doubts by a careful and serious applying of our minds to meditation and by the force of reasoning and discourse is a Fallacy for besides that every one hath cause of distrusting himself amidst this great diversity of Opinions Seeing that the clearest Wits the most profound Doctors Men of the choicest Endowments and such as have the greatest Piety sweetness Moderation of Temper are oftentimes observ'd to be separated and divided the one from the other I am assured that many oft times in these applications how zealous soever nay even after the most fervent Prayers be overswayed by the probability of the Arguments which every Opinion hath produced in its own favour And I durst say that when one has so soon determin'd in this scrutiny there may be some reason to suspect so quick a resolution I am apt to fear that this may often respect other interests than those of the glory of God and our Salvation which could so quickly make us bend to them It many times happens that our Education our Customes our particular advantages and such other considerations do easily turn the Scales And that indeed which abuseth us herein is that these are slipt in so dexterously and mixed in such a manner in these disputations that we cannot discover them but by strong and frequent reflections But let us put the case that a Man who has an extraordinary light by the knowledge of Tongues and reading of Good Books may wade through these difficulties and sowe his doubts among these perplexities What shall we say of so many common Persons who have not had nor ever been in a Condition to have all these so profitable helps I mean so necessary for the penetrating into these profound misteries and carrying them through that Labyrinth Is it because that Christian Religion is not propos'd but only to the learned Is it not as well addressed to the Ignorant to Women to Children and to the poor unlearned Pesants Must we not rather say that it is towards such that it turns the most Favourable Aspect That whilst the Doctors are disputing with great earnestness together about the Mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven the most simple do forcibly take it by the ardour of their Zeal Therefore what can we point out more contrary to the Peace and Consolation of these good and simple Souls than this great diversity of Opinions of Sects and of Religions But if it should be objected that for want of reading and necessary study to search into the most sublime mysteries of Religion these ordinary People would be content with what is most plain and most clear in Christian Doctrine which will suffice to inspire them with the Love of Virtue and the fear of God and that will be capable to give them peace of Conscience and all inward Consolation that is necessary for them I shall readily answer that this is all I demand and to which I endeavour to reduce all Christians in general The Christians Religion is equally proposed to all and in the distribution of its Graces it makes no distinction between the Learned and the Ignorant The High-towering Wit and that which creeps among the Vulgar As the Remedies and Medicines which Nature offers us work in the same manner upon Persons of all conditions and degrees So that to be a Man suffices to qualify us for laying claim to the advantages which Grace presents to Us in the Doctrin of the Gospel and to lay hold of the Aids which it gives us to make Us partakers of it But should it be likewise objected for the clearing this difficult Point that those who have not the means and advantage of penetrating into these secrets by a deep meditation may consult the Learned to resolve them in the choice which they should make of a good and sure Opinion Who does not see in the first place that it is not the way to draw them out of the trouble wherin they are seeing they do not address themselves but to Men who are not infallible and who may be prepossessed with prejudices and have their particular Interests so that they shall be always in doubt whither or no the advice which was given them proceeded not from some other Principle than the Glory of God the Charity and desire of promoting the Salvation of Souls Moreover should this address be made to some of those Doctors who follow different Opinions upon colour they are obliged to examine all things and retain what is best Every one will alledg in his own favour all the most plausible Reasons and Considerations which he can and many times those that are least valid are most specious After this can a Man of mean parts find out in himself light enough and discerning to carry him through those difficulties which make a separation amongst Men of far greater parts and more refined Judgements than his Own But last of all what shall we say of the poor Labourer or simple Tradesman who has ever been bred in a Countrey where some one of these Sects prevails We know that such a Sect forces those of the Country perfectly to acquiesce in it That it requires every one to submit without any contradiction to all that it shall prescribe That there are some Sects who suffer not their Followers to enter into any discussion of what they lay down to follow and compel them to a blind obedience As for Example
into several branches they have put a stop to their conquests and had no further thought than to maintain themselvs both those whom they have forsaken and such as have forsaken them And it is not only from the ill example of this division that strangers to the Faith are driven from it They are led thereunto by the very intrigues and stratagems of the Christians who are so separated and divided among themselves Their Division creates such animosity one against the other that they do their utmost endeavour to hinder those who have an earnest desire to embrace Christianity from entring into any other Christian communion but their own There are others who go further for they hold it as a true Maxime That it is better for a Jew or Mahometan to persist in his old Errour than to thrust himself into some of the Christian Societies which they disapprove So that as it is impossible for Iron equally drawn between two Loadstones to move either towards the one or the other So these different solicitations which Christians make to draw Infidels to them leaves them in a neutral state not knowing which side they should take nor to which they should determine their Judgments CHAP. VI. The Fifth Effect of this Division Trouble in Church and State THe Evil of this Division is not limited only to particular persons but all Societies as well Ecclesiastical as Civil have too great a feeling of it For we dayly see strange Tempests happen in both which had no other cause for the forming of them than this sad disunion And has not the Church much reason to complain that those who are called her Children should tear out her Bowels That she can expect nothing but death even from those to whom she hath given life Since they to whom she continually administers the sacred Milk of her pure Doctrine and of her wholsome Instructions do give her so many grievous wounds as they form Sects in her In multiplying they dismember Her and each striving to draw her to their side at last nothing is seen to remain but her mangled and broken pieces And what is more these deplorable Reliques of the Church have likewise been so miserably handled that she is no longer to be known insomuch that they might rather be taken for the parts of some mishapen Monster than for the Members of the Divine Spouse of Jesus Christ washed in the Blood of her dear Lord and clothed with the Sacred Robe of his Righteousness But that I may not be thought to aggravate these things and raise them with an Hyperbole Let us but consider the present face of the Church Is it not true that we shall have much ado to meet any one of these Societies which call themselves a Church and attribute the truth solely to themselves where these ill Characters are not to be seen First a certain high conceited Opinion of the Principles they have embraced which creates in them a blind perswasion without examining it and whereof not any solid reason can be given Birth Education Worldly Interests and other engagements of this nature together with a kind of negligence and a fear of being accounted inconstant and unsetled if they should turn to another party These things I say have ordinarily a greater influence for the establishment of them in their Religion than Reason and Conscience have All which is followed by a certain obstinacy not to call it self-conceitedness in maintaining their belief at any rate whatsoever There are those who many times do hazard on this occasion all that they hold dearest in the World even to their very lives which passes in every One of these Societies for an exquisit Zeal and an examplary devotion Nor is there any one of these Sects which has not a Catalogue of its Confessors and that cannot produce its Roll of Martyrs But how many are there of these Martyrs who if they had been demanded to give a reason of the Doctrine for which they made so much constancy appear would have been gravelled and have little to answer to the least argument that might have been proposed to them Many times false Opinions are maintained with as much heat as the True Also Illusions and Impostures do make as strong Impression upon our Spirits as real Objâ—cts Now this obstinacy draws after it an extreme aversion to all other Religions and even to all other Christian Societies It either accuses them of blindness or of stupidity or of malice 'T is nothing else say they but fleshly interest that seems a Foundation of their Doctrine They reproach them that their Opinions are altogether destructive to true Piety that they hurry Men into Superstition and to Idolatry or else to Libertinisme or Atheisme And some there are who are pointed out by others as if they were frightful Monsters In a word any protestation or any declaration which they make that it is the Doctrine they loath and not the Persons who take it up That it is the Error they detest but that they have charity and compassion for such as are misled is enough with them Which yet shall never make me believe But that the precedent qualities are accompanied with a great Animosity of Spirit against those who are not of the same Opinion For how can we sincerely love those whom we look upon as Enemies to God and Disciples of Satan whose Lot and Portion is Hell where they shall be made a Prey to the Devils Are there not likewise very dreadful Examples in what manner they have reciprocally treated one another in those places where they are mingled together The weak employ such armes as are most convenient against their Adversaries which are injuries and reproaches the powerful straight pass to action there is no craft nor subtilty no violence nor cruelty which these People sâ—t not a work utterly to exterminate such as follow a different profession from theirs The Roman Catholick persecutes the Protestant in those places where he is strongest The Protestant he requites him where he has the Power and Authority in his own hands And amongst Protestants those who are of different Opinions are not treated more favourably Heretofore the Christians complained much that the Pagans would force them to sacrifice to their Gods and quit their Religion Tertul. Apolog. 28. They grounded not their complaint on any other Reason than this that Religion as they affirmed ought to be an act of a pure and free Mind But now a days Christians do the same thing towards Christians We have seen times where tortures and the cruelest punishments have been used by Christians for afflicting other Christians and for no other cause but their not being of the same judgments and perswasions And now after this who can take it ill that I have no more represented the Church as the Ship which the Son of God conveyeth safe amidst the stormes wherewith she is continually battered But to the lamentable wracks of a Vessel dasht in pieces not by