Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A64290
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The history of the negotiation of the ambassadors sent to the Duke of Savoy by the Protestant cantons of Switzerland concerning the Vaudois translated from the original copy printed in Switzerland.; Histoire l'ambassade envoyée en 1686 par les Suisses au duc de Savoye. English
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Teissier, Antoine, 1632-1715.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing T621; ESTC R10139
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48,318
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70
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Mr. Daniel Blanchis Syndicus of the Communalty of St. Jean to acquaint you by word of mouth of our true Sentiments And we humbly beseech you that you would be pleased to continue the effects of your inexprimable and Fatherly Charity and principally in regard of your powerful Intercessions by his Royal Highness about the above-mentioned Subject Beseeching the Lord to bless your Negotiation and to be your abundant Rewarder of all the Cares Pains and Troubles your Excellencies have the goodness to take for our poor Flocks in the Name of which we make it always our Glory to carry with all Respect and Submission imaginable the Title of your Excellencies most humble most obedient and much obliged Servants the Deputies of the following Churches Deputies of the Church of St. Jean Michael Purise Jean Muston Jean Putta for Angrogne Of the Church of Boby Marque de Daniel Negrin N. Syndicus Franc. Dane Counsellor Stephen Pertin Deputy Angrogne April the 4th 1686. The Sieur De la Bastie Minister at St. Jean touch'd by the Divisions of these poor Churches writ to the Ambassadours in these following Terms My Lords I Take the liberty to render your Excellencies my most humble Respects by the Deputies that go to Turin to make their Submission to his Royal Highness and to present him such a Petition as your Excellencies will think fit I and my Brethren are in the greatest consternation and affliction in the world to see our People so much divided about a Retreat apprehending their Divisions will spoil your Excellencies charitable Negotiation with his Royal Highness in our behalf and render their Cares and Troubles unsuccessful We have employed our utmost endeavours to make them sensible that considering the present Junctures of Affairs it was the best Resolution they could take but we have not been happy enough to have like success with all If we were not satisfied of your Excellencies incomperable Charity we should have reason to fear that this indiscreet Conduct would much change their goodness and zeal for our Interest We most humbly beseech your Excellencies to make use on this occasion of your Goodness and Clemency and to continue in your infatigable Cares for these poor Churches I most humbly beg your Excellencies Pardon for my boldness and beseech you to give me leave to render you my most humble Respects and to assure you that I am with all the Respect and Submission imaginable My Lords Your Excellencies most humble most obedient and most obliged Servant Sidrac Bastie Minister Angrogne April 4. 1686. This diversity of Opinion made the Ambassadours afraid that the Enemies of their Religion taking hold of the division of the Inhabitants of the Valleys might prevail with his Royal Highness to confound the Innocent with the Guilty and to refuse all a Retreat out of their Country Therefore they sent back into the Valleys the Deputy of Boby with a Letter to those that were resolved to take up Arms and they did conjure him to employ his utmost endeavours to make them agree with the other Churches The Letter was writ in this following manner GENTLEMEN IT is true that ones native Soil has great charms and that most Men have a natural desire to live and to die there Yet the Children of God ought not to set their hearts thereupon because they are Foreigners upon Earth and Heaven is their true native Country therefore you will be guilty of mistrust to God's providence if you fancy you cannot find any other Country where you may live conveniently and adore your heavenly Father In what part of the World soever we ourselves be transported we ought to think ourselves happy provided we have there freedom to serve God according to our consciences You ought to propose to yourselves the examples of the Patriarchs who have drawn upon them God's blessing by trusting to his promises and by abandoning their houses and fields to go to inhabite some remote Country A confidence of this nature cannot but be very acceptable to the Lord and it is without doubt more agreeable with the Spirit of the Gospel than to take up Arms against your Soveraign it is to Sufferings Christians are call'd too and not to a Resistance And we do not find that either the Apostles or the Primitive Church made use of any other Weapons against their Persecutors but Prayers and Patience These are the Considerations that have obliged our Soveraign Lords the Evangelical Cantons to give us order of procuring for you from his Royal Highness your lawful Prince a free Retreat with permission to dispose of your Goods in case he would no longer grant you the Exercise of your Religion and tho' you look upon this Retreat as an insupportable Unhappiness yet they do nevertheless consider it as a Favour reflecting according to their great wisdom upon the miserable condition you are reduced to and indeed they did think it would be very hard to obtain it from his Royal Highness and that in case he did grant it upon their request you ought not only to accept it with submission but to shew your great acknowledgement for it Whereafter you will not doubt that we have been surprized to hear that you make difficulty to resolve yourselves to it and that you have a design to resist two powerful Princes that are resolved to extirpate you in case you make the least opposition for by this behaviour you do not onely act against your Duty against Christian Prudence and against your true Interest but you give us also just reasons to complain of you that having engaged us into a Negotiation with your Prince you will not take hold of those advantages we are in a condition to procure you Open therefore your eyes and consider the misfortunes you draw upon yourselves and the fatal consequences of your design that must needs turn to the entire destruction of your Churches and Families Consider that what is offer'd you is so advantageous considering the present state of your Affairs that several persons of the greatest Quality would have accepted of it as the greatest Happiness in the late Persecutions of France and that they would have been exceedingly joyful to get stark naked out of their Country without hindrance If you do make Reflections upon all these things we are in hopes that the example of those that are of a better opinion will touch and perswade you to follow the same Conduct but if you refuse to imitate it and if you persist in your obstinacy you will be guilty before God not only of having thrown away your lives which you might have saved and of having exposed your Wives and your Children to the Massacre but also of having caused the ruine of these noble Remains of the Vaudois Churches which you might have transported into some other Country And do not flatter yourselves of being capable to prevent these Evils by the means of some Succours that some persons have promised you for we do assure you that