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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56100	The Protestants letter concerning the re-union of the two religions to the Assembly of the clergy of France, held at Paris, May, 1685 humbly offered to the consideration of all Protestants in England, as an expedient for reconciling the great differences in religion now among them.	Kidder, Richard, 1633-1703.; Catholic Church. Assemblée générale du clergé de France.	1690 (1690)	Wing P3851; Wing K409_CANCELLED; ESTC R882	28,330	38

happy and which do dispose us unto a perfect beatitude it is enough therefore for us to ask them of him alone We ought not to pray unto the Saints according unto you Sirs with any other Spirit or Affection than that wherewith we desire the Faithful here upon the Earth to pray unto God for us and is that such a great Piece of Business to leave it when it proves to be such a Rock of Offence unto so many Millions of Souls which according to your supposition do destroy themselves in the Schism You do agree that a Man who doth content himself with the succours of his Brethren's Prayers alone who are here on Earth and who should continually himself pray unto God should yet nevertheless be in a very fair way for Heaven and should not fail of obtaining that which he did ask for We desire you also Sirs to consider that supposing that the Saints do know our Wants and do intercede for us that the Church would lose nothing by it though they were not invoked here upon Earth You are sufficiently persuaded that the Charity of those Glorious Souls is no way in the World dependent upon the Homages which are paid unto them here below they are jealous only for God they do not require of any body to build them Chapels and to pray unto them And if a Cessation were put unto that Invocation not out of any Contempt of them but for fear of exciting the Jealousie of God they would never be displeased with the Church for that Cause they would pray nevertheless for the Church in general and for the Necessities of every one of the Faithful in particular You do also know that though they should be supposed to be capable of Resentment for the abandoning of their Oratories and their Chapels yet they would still pray unto God in the behalf of those who did nothing for them So that the Church would lose no Succours by retrenching this Invocation and she would gain an infinite of Souls by the Bargain This Invocation of Saints is founded upon that which they call their Intercession You do agree in that Point Sirs that the Intercession of Jesus Christ is only sufficient for to save us that although all the Saints should be silent provided that our Redeemer did but set his Bloud a speaking for us that our Affairs would go on never the less prosperously for all that You do also grant Sirs that he who doth rely upon the Intercession of Jesus Christ alone doth not do amiss What prejudice therefore could it be to the Church to lay aside the Intercession of the Saints If we should leave it out of a Principle of Scruple and of Fear to offend Jesus Christ we should not yet for all that lose it in case that there be any reality in such Intercession for as we have lately represented unto you you are sufficiently persuaded that the Saints if they know our Wants do pray for the Conversion of the Ungodly who do never at all invoke them as well as for the Perseverance of the Faithful who do Unto these Considerations we may subjoin another thing Sirs which you do very well know and which without making any Mystery of it you do openly avouch namely that this Invocation of the Saints is very subject unto great Abuses and that a great number of them are already crept thereinto The wisest Persons of your Body do publickly complain of those Abuses and do reprove them they do approve of The wholsome Advices of the Virgin unto her indiscreet Votaries The Defence of the Bishop of Tournal for those wholsome Advices The Catechism of the three Bishops of Anger 's of Rochel and of Luzon wherein there is an entire Lesson concerning the Abuses which ought to be avoided in the Invocation of Saints and in the Devotion of the holy Virgin That Lesson begins thus Is there no Abuse to be avoided in the Invocation of the Saints And the Catechumenos is made to answer Yes there are many of them which are but too too common among ill-instructed People You know Sirs that it is impossible in this Case to weed out the Abuse without extirpating the Thing which is abused for the People are not capable in religious Service to discern and separate the Bounds which distinguish the Honour which is due unto none but God alone from that which may be render'd unto the Saints We dare boldly say it is impossible but that they should be deceived herein by their Ignorance and by those Inclinations they have unto Superstition Whereupon I beseech you Sirs to consider that the Worshipping of Saints on the one hand being not absolutely necessary to the Perfection of the Christian Religion and on the other hand being subject unto so many Abuses it would become your Piety and your Charity to retrench a thing the privation of which would bring no prejudice to the Church and the removing whereof would restore her so many Souls which according unto you are wander'd from her Folds To conclude You are all of you fully persuaded that the Divine Service would be never the less pure though none but God alone should be invoked and therefore you are also persuaded that God and his Glory would suffer no prejudice by such Retrenchment The same things we say concerning Images and the Worship of them That kind of Worship will everlastingly beget an Horrour in the Protestants they believe that the Law of God doth forbid it they are persuaded that it is a pure piece of Paganism which the Devil hath brought into the Church they cannot beat it out of their Thoughts but that this Worship is an invincible Obstacle unto the Conversion of the Jews and Mahometans Suppose if you will that all this is but Pre-occupation yet however it is such a Pre-occupation as they can never recover from But on the contrary Sirs you are fully persuaded in the first place that Images are not essential unto the Christian Religion and that one may pass very well without them Secondly That the Church Apostolical was well enough contented without Images You will say that that was for fear lest it might prove a Snare unto the ill-instructed Pagans whom they desired to withdraw from the Worship of Idols But let that be how it will it doth thereby appear that one may be a very good Christian without prostrating himself before Images The most Learned and the most sincere among you do also agree that the Church was without Images for more than three hundred Years which doth still make it evident that even according unto you Images are not necessary Finally You do agree that the Abuse of that Worship is possible frequent great and dangerous Moreover it is impossible for the Simple to form unto themselves distinct Ideas of relative Worship and of absolute You cannot be ignorant how many thousands of People are mistaken therein and that a Peasant doth prostrate himself before an Image with more

THE Protestants Letter CONCERNING THE RE-UNION OF THE Two Religions TO THE ASSEMBLY OF THE Clergy of France Held at PARIS May 1685. Humbly offered to the Consideration of all Protestants in England as an Expedient for reconciling the great Differences in Religion now among them LONDON Printed for Nathanael Ranew at the King's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. Licensed Octob. 2. 1689. JAMES FRASER TO THE WORSHIPFUL AND HIS Honoured Friend JOHN JONES Esq SIR THE Vniting of Christians is so very desirable a thing that the bringing it to pass will deserve the utmost of our Care and Pains whoever offers any thing that tends this way deserves to be heard The Mischiefs of causeless Separation from one another are not easily to be reckon'd up On the other hand the Advantages of Vniting upon tolerable Terms are exceeding great Vpon these Considerations I think the following Papers well worthy to be made publick and no Man I hope will think it unseasonable to publish them at this time when there are on foot honest Designs and Endeavours of procuring a lasting Vnity among our selves This Opportunity which we have of effecting it I hope will not be lost and I shall much rejoice if these following Papers will any way contribute to so blessed an End Vpon that Score it is that I cannot but commend them to the Consideration of all that wish well to our common Christianity and considering the Authors and Occasion of this following Letter I cannot think it will be unacceptable to any that are Protestants I need not tell you why I prefix your Name 'T is but just that it should return to him from whom the Copy and the Opportunity of Printing it came I trust you will have no Cause to repent that you consented to this Publication It is high time in our several Places to do all we can to the putting an End as much as may be to our unhappy Differences God of his Mercy inspire us all with the Spirit of Peace and Charity of Meekness and Modesty and mutual Forbearance and grant that we may mind the Things that make for Peace and for the Edifying of one another I am in great Sincerity SIR Your most Affectionate Friend and Servant Richard Kidder October 21. 1689. Sirs THere is a Report runs abroad in the World that in your approaching Assembly under the auspicious Influences of His Most Christian Majesty you are to use your Endeavours about that which that great King doth call his great Work which is the Re-union of his Subjects into one and the same Religion The King hath very great reason to call this his great Work because that if he bring it about it will be the greatest Work that hath been effected these many Ages and the most glorious Work too and I may add to that the most pious Work also provided that it be done upon Principles conformable to Reason Religion and Piety You have perhaps thought Sirs that the Protestants of France were very far from the point to which they are designed to be brought When they have been talk'd to of a Re-union the greatest part of them have look'd upon it as a thing impossible and they have not seem'd so much as to desire it and probably it is that Disposition of Spirit wherein they were thought to be which hath induced you to so harsh a Course against them You were of opinion that after you had mortified them by the loss of their Temples of their Liberties and Privileges of their very Children and in many places of their Estates they would be the more easily brought to your Bent But Sirs I dare assure you that all this was needless and that they who have seem'd not to desire the Re-union did lie under that Indisposition only upon account of the apparent Impossibility which they saw in that Design for otherwise there is not one of us that hath not and doth not with a very ardent Passion desire to see an end of a Schism so scandalous and which doth put so great an obstacle to the accomplishment of those Prophecies which do promise unto us the Re-calling of the Jews and the Bringing in of all the People of the World unto the Christian Faith That Sirs which made us to believe this Re-union impossible was because we could not persuade our selves that we were sincerely invited thereunto but that Deceit did lie at the bottom of this fair Pretence and that it was nothing but a Snare laid to entrap us for otherwise we believe that there is nothing more easie than to bring such an Enterprise to good success provided Sirs that you would cloath your selves with that Spirit of Equity Reason Wisdom and Justice which ought to be inseparable from Persons of your Character called to the Conduct and Government of the Church We would very willingly Sirs be persuaded of your good Intentions and do gladly acknowledge that the Gallican Church is the purest part of all the Roman Churches that are at this day in the whole World The rest of the Churches which do still depend upon the See of Rome do pertinaciously continue in their ancient dissoluteness and in those Disorders wherewith they were reproached at the beginning of the last Age but the Gallican Church is at this day composed of learned understanding wise and moderate Bishops and such who for the most part have a great care of the Government of their Diocesses This doth incline us to believe that it is not the Spirit of Persecution which doth excite you but that in truth you do seriously desire the Peace of the Church and the Cessation of that grand Schism which hath divided the West for above these hundred and fifty Years You do well believe that if the Gallican Church had but once reunited her Children into one and the same Society of Christians her Example would be of great force and weight with all the rest of Europe and that all the Western Christians would be found to return in a short time to a Spirit of Peace and Concord And we are of the same Belief together with you For which Cause we do offer up our Vows with most sincere and ardent Prayers that it will please God to inspire you with reasonable Thoughts and put into your Hearts just Ways and Means for the enterprising and accomplishing of this great Work It is an Affair which is common to us as well as you for we are one of those Parties that are to be re-united It is therefore but reasonable that we should speak and that we should be heard in this matter and by consequence it would be but just that we should be permitted to assemble and to confer together Perhaps the Spirit of God would suggest unto us such Thoughts and Means as would not be displeasing unto you But in humble Expectation until his good Providence shall bring that Work unto its maturity and waiting until our whole Body can make their Remonstrances unto you permit

shall not mark out which those Articles are which might be abandoned to you because we are not sufficiently authorised thereunto a full Assembly would be requisite to discuss an Affair of such importance But that which we can assure you of is this that this Maxim would save you almost all the exterior part of your Religion so that you might make a Reformation of the Church without fearing the Revolt of those People who are concerned for nothing but the outside thereof But yet nevertheless Sirs you ought not to put into the number of those things to which we might accommodate our selves out of Complaisance those external Ceremonies which go to the rendring of a Religious Service to the Creature for we have told you that is a thing our Consciences can never endure Our Fifth and Sixth Principles do amount unto thus much That in the things which should by mutual agreement be retrenched for the edification of the Church or tolerated for the benefit of Peace and for a Re-union neither Party should be obliged either to abjure the Errors and the Worships which should be so retrenched or to subscribe to the Opinions which should be tolerated This is also Sirs an Article which would be entirely unto our advantage for if your Charity and your Complaisance did carry you to retrench for Example sake the Invocation of Saints the Adoration of Images and that of the Sacrament of the Eucharist as things which might be laid aside we should not press you to condemn as Criminals the Practices which you should have renounced but waiting until God should illuminate you to make you know the true Character of those Worships and their true Name we should suffer you to say that you had retrenched out of Complaisance Worships which in themselves were not evil and by which means you should not be obliged to condemn your Ancestors nor to impeach your Church But it would be just that we should also enjoy the privilege of this Maxim and that in the things which we did tolerate you should not oblige us to any abjuration of our Sentiments nor unto a Confession of yours If for Example sake we did agree to tolerate the Opinion of the Real Presence it would not be just to oblige us to the Abjuration of the Real Absence or to the Confession of the Real Presence for that alone would be an invincible Obstacle to a Re-union A Man may well enough tolerate an Error but he ought never to betray the Truth If it should be agreed upon to tolerate the Opinion of Purgatory you ought not to oblige us to subscribe to it nor yet to conceal our proper Sentiments and by the same Reason you might not retain all those Worships and all those Devotions which are founded upon that Opinion of Purgatory for if you do retain those Worships they will become our Worships and our Devotions by Virtue of that Union into which we are entred with your Church We should confess and establish that Purgatory which we did in the mean while renounce with our Hearts and which we did condemn by our Words which would be to put a Christian into a State of Contradiction and oblige him to establish and to destroy one and the same thing a Conduct entirely opposite unto Christian Sincerity Our Seventh and last Principle is That in an Accommodation of Re-union Truth ought to be interessed as little as possibly can be in such sort that the generality and particular Persons ought to be left to their own liberty to instruct themselves by the Word of God and by amicable Conferences upon those Points which should be released on both sides for it would not be convenient to make a Form of Confession of Faith which all should be obliged to subscribe and to hold unto It was not so that the Apostolical Church did persevere in their Union notwithstanding that great diversity of Sentiments which was between the converted Jews and the Pagans which were turned Christians you know Sirs that that diversity was very great all the converted Jews were Zealots for the Law as St. Luke doth expresly tell us in the 21 Chap. of the Acts they did believe that the observation of the Law was necessary unto those who did embrace the Gospel St. Paul and all the converted Pagans held that such observation of the Law was pernicious Now they did not patch up a Confession of Faith in general and ambigious Terms to content both the Parties but each of them kept their own Sentiments and yet for all that they did continue united You have Sirs in your own Church a great diversity of Opinions in Things of exceeding great importance wherein every Party hath a right to search out the Truth and to endeavour to make it known unto others without any prejudice to the Union The same course ought to be used in respect of Opinions which it shall be thought fit to tolerate in favour of a general Re-union There is good reason to believe that God will bless the endeavours of those who make search after Truth without Passion and in the Spirit of Peace and that both Parties being re-united they would quickly come to an universal agreement as well in respect of Doctrines as of Worship These several Principles which we have here established and applied unto divers Articles might be also applied unto a great many more There are Points of Faith and there are Points of Discpline there are Controversies purely speculative as those of Predestination Free-Will Grace Justification Merit by Works It is not this sort of things that can put any Obstacle to a Re-union because these do rarely come so far as the People who are the most interessed in this Affair and a Toleration might easily be granted in those very differences wherein Men of each Communion do already bear with one another There are other Controversies which respect the Worship and they will be easily terminated by applying unto them the precedent Principles Finally there are some Controversies which relate unto Government and Discipline wherein our fourth Principle will give you huge advantages It is not for us Sirs to take upon us to descend into a more particular retail of those things wherein we might give our selves a liberty but yet I dare assure you that there is scarcely any thing which we should not do for Peace the Glory of God and our Consciences in the first place being well secured We desire you moreover Sirs to consider that the Relaxations which we desire of you do no way interest your Honour nor your Glory those false Maxims of Worldly Glory ought to have no place or consideration in Religion They who make the greatest advances for Peace do get the greatest Glory You have begun those advances by the Pastoral Letter which your late Assembly did address unto all our Flocks we will gladly look upon it as an effect of you Charity but that same Charity which carries you to invite us to a