an unmoveable Resolution to observe it would undoubtedly damn himself he would commit a Sin against his Conscience and in some sort against the Holy Ghost Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin and a Man who in doing an indifferent Action doth believe that he commits a mortal Sin doth sin mortally He acts by a Spirit of Revolt formally against the Ordinances of God or against that which he esteems to be the Law of God None therefore can nor ought to force any Party to concede any thing in such Points which they believe to be necessary but must first instruct convince and work them into a full Persuasion that they do needlesly startle at things which are not what they do believe them to be This is our second Principle which seems to us as indisputable as the former and to be built upon such solid Reason that it will be received by all Persons who are never so little disengaged from Prejudices 3. Our third Principle is this That when the Question is of any Article whether it be of Faith or of Practice which one of the Parties doth hold to be false and so false that the Belief or the Practice of that Article would essentially concern Religion and ruine the very Foundations thereof And the other Party holds it to be true but yet so as that the Practice or the Belief thereof is not according to his Opinion absolutely necessary unto the Essence of Religion In this case I say it is clear that Christian Charity and Prudence do require that the Party which holds that Article to be true but not necessary should yield and bear with the Weakness of him who looks upon it as false as intolerable and as ruinous unto the Fundamentals of Religion or as incompatible with Edification This Truth doth seem to me to carry so great an Evidence in it that I know not whether it be necessary to prove it Is it not clear by the precedent Principle that he who gives himself a Liberty in any Point which is really fundamental or which he believes to be so doth damn himself doth act against his Conscience and ruine his Salvation But on the contrary That he who takes a Liberty in any Point which he indeed doth believe to be true but doth not believe it to be of an absolute necessity doth do nothing against his Conscience In the first place he doth not betray the Truth for as we shall see in that which follows he is not to be obliged to subscribe the Rejection of that Belief as if it were false or of that Practice as if it were evil and criminal He may keep his own Opinion he may also declare that such a Belief is good though he tolerate that which is opposite thereunto and that such a Practice is innocent though he have renounced it for the benefit of Peace Secondly He doth not betray his Conscience nor Religion in suffering such a Practice to be abolished or in leaving every body free to such a Belief because he is persuaded that that Belief or that Practice are not of the Essence of Religion and that a Man may pass-well enough without them and never thereby run any hazard of his Salvation There is nothing that can be more evident than this That there are most innocent Practices yea such as are authorised by the Testimony of the whole Church which might yet notwithstanding be very well abandoned if any great Interest for the Glory of God or for the Good of the Church did depend thereupon As for Example The greatest part of the Christian Churches have in Baptism renounced Immersion or Dipping and do content themselves with the Baptism of Aspersion or Sprinkling But now if the Turks who were disposed otherwise to their Conversion should stumble hereat and say that it was of absolute necessity to plunge in the Water as many as are baptized that Jesus Christ did institute it after that manner that such was the practice of the Apostles and that it was the constant usage of the Primitive Church would not Christian Prudence be concerned now to abandon the Baptism of Sprinkling and to return again unto that of Dipping This would not be to impeach the Memory of our Fore-fathers for we should never say that the Baptism of simple Sprinkling is a Sacrilege Neither would this be the Betraying of the Truth for we should never subscribe that the Baptism of Sprinkling is insufficient It would only be a Sacrifizing unto a great Interest a Ceremony which we do not believe to be important Now let it be remembred that there can hardly be any greater Interest for the Glory of God and for the Good of the Church than the Re-union of those two Parties which do divide the Western Church If therefore there were on either Side any Articles of such a Character and Quality that the one Side did hold them to be entirely ruinous to Religion and that the other did not look upon them indeed as meerly indifferent but yet nevertheless as not necessary with an absolute necessity it is clear that that Party which regarded the Article in question as not being of exceeding great importance ought to yield in favour of the other who did look upon it as being absolutely incompatible with Religion And this is also another Principle which ought not as we conceive to be disputed 4. Our fourth Principle is this That when the Question is about Articles or Creeds whereof both Parties do agree that they are not of the utmost importance that if they be true yet they are not of the Essence of Religion and if they be false though they are believed to be true yet they do not destroy saving Faith In this case I say the ruling Party that which is the mightiest in Number in Credit and Authority ought to be tolerated by the Weaker who must accommodate themselves herein for the Benefit of Peace and to put a Cessation unto the Scandal of Schism As for Example If the Christians of both Communions could agree together that the Worshipping of Images and Praying unto Saints were not Practices ruinous to Religion and were no way prejudicial unto Piety It is clear that in those States where that Religion which invocates Saints doth bear the sway the others ought to accommodate themselves thereunto that is to say that they ought not to separate themselves from the Communion for that thing alone On the contrary in those States where the Religion which will not admit the Invocation of Saints doth rule they who are of a contrary Sentiment ought to accommodate themselves thereunto and not to seperate themselves from the publick Worship although the Saints were not there worshipped This is also a Rule of Sovereign Justice whose Equity seems unto us to be most manifestly evident the weaker Party would do nothing against his Conscience by adhering unto a Worship wherein he should see the Practice of Things which he doth not indeed believe to be either
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
that even according to your own Ideas this also is not any matter concerning which you cannot give a Relaxation for the benefit of Peace Of many other Points which some in your Communion would make to pass for Matters of absolute necessity we will touch but at one of them and that is adherence unto the Holy See for so you call that which we call the See of Rome But we beseech you Sirs that you will be pleased to consult your own Understanding and Judgments thereupon An Assembly of Faithful Persons situated at the other end of the World who had never heard talk of a Pope and who wanted nothing else but this might they not for all that be very good Christians still Consult the Ecclesiastical History Was that adherence to the See of Rome reputed to be always of the same necessity Had the Churches of Asia in the first Ages the same connexion and the same dependence upon the Roman See that the Churches of Europe at this day have When there was no Pope at all in the Western Church did it therefore cease to be a Church That time hath been seen wherein there was not any Pope During the space of forty years for so long did the great Schism of the West continue there were two Popes to be seen at one time and some times no less than three and all those Popes had their several intrigues to spin out that Schism and each of them to maintain himself in his particular grandeur which is as much as to say that there was not any lawful Pope during all that time for if they had been both of them true Popes the Church must have had two Heads if one of them had been the true Pope and the other a false then all the Latins which were subject and obedient to the Anti-Pope must have been damned in case that adherence unto the true Pope be necessary to Salvation But this is a thing which no Body will avouch but hold that each Party of that divided Church were in a way of Salvation and yet that could never be unless that adherence to the Holy See be not essential unto Christianity Therefore to conclude Sirs seeing that you have defined that the Pope is not infallible from whence should proceed the necessity of this adherence unto an Head which may lead Men into Error Seeing that the Council can depose Popes why can it not also remove this Burthen If the States of a Kingdom have the Power to depose a King they have also the Power to change the Form of Government they are Masters of the Laws and can change them too We could add divers other Considerations but these do seem unto us sufficient to make you comprehend that according unto your own Idea's adherence to the Holy See cannot be of the Essence of Christianity and that therefore you ought not to take it amiss that we do conjure you to give a Relaxation in that Point You will tell us undoubtedly just as we lately told you that whether it be Reason or Pre-occupation a Fanatical Conceit or solid Judgment whatsoever it be yet we do believe that the Sacrifice of the Mass the Adoration of the Eucharist an Adherence to the Holy See c. are of the Essence of Christianity and therefore according unto your Principle you have no right to sollicite us to give our selves any liberty therein It is not honest to require People to renounce things which are in their Opinion of a Sovereign Necessity Give us therefore leave Sirs to tell you that you are mistaken you say that you do judge this to be of absolute necessity perhaps you think that you do believe so and undoubtedly People of an ordinary discernment among you are of that Judgment but we are persuaded that you will plainly perceive and evidently see in your own Heart whenever you shall be pleased to consult it without Passion that the Idea of Christianity doth not formally include in it either the necessity of any other Sacrifice than that of the Cross nor of any other Adoration than that of Jesus Christ in the Heavens nor of any other adherence but unto the Supreme Head of the Church which is the Son of God There are a thousand things which we say out of Habit and Custom as if we did really believe them but whenever we come to give heed to it we find that those things are no way allyed unto the Original Idea's of our Spirits and do not at all flow from our Principles Our third Principle was this That when the Question is about a thing the Belief or the Practice whereof doth seem to be Mortal to one of the two Parties and doth not seem to be of Absolute Necessity unto the other Christian Charity and Prudence do require that the Party which doth not look upon that Doctrine or that Worship as being of Absolute Necessity should abondon it for the sake of Peace and sacrifice it unto the other Party which hath an invincible Horrour for it We do not believe that any wise Person can contest this Principle which if you will admit it will open you a Door to avoid the most part of those difficulties which put an obstacle to our Re-union Let us begin with the Invocation of Saints You know Sirs that that doth take up a great part of your Worship you do also know that it is one of the Stumbling-Stones to the Protestants and such a Stone that if it be not taken away it doth put an unsurmountable Obstacle to the Re-union for when all is done we are persuaded that we ought not in any fashion in the World to bring the Worship of the Creatures into the Divine Service If possibly we should be in the wrong and that you have all the Reason on your sides yet remember Sirs that some regard may and ought to be had unto the infirmities of our weak Brethren and all that possibly can must be retrenched in favour of them that they may not be frightned and scared away St. Paul doth say with a great deal of vehemency If Meat do make my Brother to offend I will eat no Flesh while the World standeth We are here absolutely in the case of our third Principle On the one side we do believe that the Worship of the Creatures is destructive to the fundamentals of the Christian Religion on the other side you do believe that the Worship of the Creatures is not of absolute necessity in Religion We do not know any Man among all your Doctors who saith that the Invocation of Saints is necessary unto Salvation according to all the Christians that there are of your Communion it is sufficient to invoke God alone there is found in that Being infinitely perfect all that is necessary to satisfie and fill up our Wants This Principle hath so great an Evidence that all the World is agreed in it It is only God from whom we receive those Graces which do make us
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
Re union doth also oblige you to open for us the ways unto it If we were in that Post which you possess if we were the ruling Religion it would be our parts to clear and to make plain the ways but in the place wherein you are it would be expected from you Sirs to do that by virtue of the Authority you have in your Hands which we in our weakness should but in vain attempt Let this be laid down for an unquestionable Principle That it is absolutely impossible to have any Re-union without some Reformation so that if you do seriously and heartily desire this Union you must Sirs grant some Reformation and do not take it amiss if we represent unto you that the Reformation ought to go before the Propositions of Re-union I mean an actual Reformation for it would be no way reasonable that you should oblige us to re-unite with you before you had reformed under the bare promise of a future Reformation For in the first place in expecting that this Reformation should be wrought we must certainly continue a long time among you How long were they forced to demand the Council of Trent and the Reformations there made before they could obtain them The Catholick Princes were near forty years in soliciting them without any success The same thing could not fail to happen here and in a tedious expectation our Consciences must groan in a Church where we should be obliged to participate in a Worship which we believe to be evil Secondly What assurance could we have that Promise should be kept with us We doubt not but you are sincere and well intentioned Sirs but on the other side we doubt not but that when you had resolved to reform the Church you would find thousands of People to traverse your Design and if among all those Obstacles any should frustrate this pious Purpose of Reformation we should find our selves in an un-reformed Church with which we should be forced to break a second time or to damn our selves in it abiding therein against our Consciences Forasmuch as that in all Treaties it is necessarily requisite that the Parties should act by way of accord It would be absolutely necessary Sirs that you should procure his Majesties full and entire consent for our free liberty to confer together and also that we may take advice of our Brethren the Protestants of Germany of England Switzerland and the Low-Countries for whatever respect we have for the Orders of his Majesty yet we cannot make a Schism with our Brethren neither can we act any thing herein without their advice and consent After we should have thus conferred together it would be necessary that we should also confer with you not to enter into Disputes and to treat of Controversies for that is a way which never had nor ever will have any good success In those kind of Controversies the ruling Party will alway have the Reason on their side they publish what they please and yet when all is done every Body believes of it as he shall find cause The Honour of Victory is more sought after than the Triumph of Truth The Conferences ought to run only upon this what things may be mutually tolerated and what cannot But to dispose Men's Spirits unto this Re-union it would be necessary Sirs that you should procure a Cessation of those Rigors and Severities which are exercised against us throughout all the Kingdom under your direction and by your sollicitation Whoever they were that persuaded you that this was a good means to make us return were very ill acquainted with the Heart of Man and the workings thereof It is true that these ways of rigour may gain you some base ignorant interessed Souls Souls void of Piety and without any Love of the Truth but it will endlesly drive away from you all that have any Zeal or so much as the least spark of Honour in the World When a People shall see their Temples pull'd down their Altars demolish'd their Children snatch'd out of their Arms their Estates plundered their Liberties violated when they shall see themselves bereaved of Sacraments their dying Friends without any Consolation the Living without Instruction when they shall see their Countreymen incited to their ruine and that they are continually threatned with Death Massacre and Pillage when they see themselves shut up in a Kingdom so that they cannot go any where else to seek their Means of Living which is denyed them in their own Country against the Law of Nations which doth permit Persons to seek Food for their Bodies and for their Souls wheresoever they can find it All this I say is apt to provoke and enflame to incense and set Men's Spirits on Fire to ruine their dispositions unto Re-union and to banish all thoughts of Peace And therefore it is a Preliminary of absolute necessity to reclaim Men's Spirits which are made hagard and exasperated by the hardships which they have suffered of late years to reduce them I say by opening the Prisons unto so many Innocents who are shut up for no Cause but for Religion by restoring unto so many Consciences which are now in Slavery the liberty to follow their own Motions by permitting so many scattered Flocks to re-assemble themselves to pray unto God and so many banished Ministers to return into the Kingdom there to join their Prayers with those of their Brethren that they may obtain the Blessing of God upon this great Design of a Re-union In the Name of God Sirs remember that the Ways of Rigour are not those which the Gospel doth command The Feet of a persecuting Converter which comes with thundering Arrests with Menaces and offensive Arms are not the Feet of the Evangelists of which the Holy Ghost says Oh how beautiful are the Feet of him that bringeth good Tidings of Peace that publisheth Salvation that saith unto Sion Thy God reigneth We do earnestly beseech you to have pity upon so many Thousands of Souls driven out of the Kingdom who have saved nothing but their Consciences and who are reduced unto very cruel Extremities We do heartily beg that you will suffer your selves to be moved by the Tears of so many Persons who weep for the Infants which are snatched out of their Bosoms and out of their very Bowels against the Laws of Nature who do miserably perish by the harshness of their Country-men who are violenced in their Consciences by the Laws which do lay a Yoke upon their Souls who are cruelly tormented with the Remorse wherewith their own Weakness doth upbraid them who do assist at your Mysteries without having any Faith or Respect for them who find themselves reduced to a Necessity either of losing their Goods and Liberty or of betraying their Sentiments I will add Sirs that you ought not to consider the great disproportion of Numbers Strength Credit and Authority which is between you and us Say not that we ought to yield all because we are the weakest