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
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
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
necessary or so much as good but yet such as he should not on the other side believe to be either contrary or pernicious unto Religion it would only be a most sweet smelling Sacrifice which he would offer unto God for the Conservation of Peace And this we call another of our uncontestable Principles 5. Our fifth Principle is this that in regard of certain Articles of Belief or of Practice which the one side doth look upon as important in Religion and the other doth consider as less important these last ought to yield in favour of the former in not obliging them formally to renounce things which they should believe to be true they ought I say not to oblige them to the Abjuration or to the condemning of those Practices as pernicious or of those Beliefs as false I will explain my self by an Example The Roman Catholicks do believe that the Opinion of the Real Presence is a thing of importance the Reformed on the contrary do believe that it is a great Errour but yet they do not believe that this Errour doth ruine the Fundamentals for which cause they will tolerate it in the Protestants of the Confession of Ausbourg If therefore they should enter into a Treaty of Re-union with the Christians of the Roman Communion it would not be just to oblige them to the Abjuration of the Real Presence unless they could find means to persuade them that it was false Now this is a thing which no means can be found to do in a Treaty and which would also be no way convenient to attempt for there is no endeavouring to persuade them that the Real Presence is false but by a Dispute but in a Treaty of Re union all controversal Disputes ought to be avoided like a most dangerous Rock In the Re-union therefore none ought to be obliged to the abjuring of Articles of the falsity of which one of the two Parties cannot be so quickly persuaded The Reason of this Rule of Equity is evident for no Man ought to be persuaded to do any thing against his Conscience To abjure an Errour which a Man doth think to be a Truth is a base and fearful Cowardice for which if it be persevered in I do not believe that there is any Place for Mercy in so doing he is an Heretick for he doth still retain the Heresie inwardly and he is an Hypocrite to boot for he confesseth the Truth with his Mouth but doth renounce it with his Heart No Man ought ever to oblige any one to commit so great a Crime Moreover whosoever doth yield in this respect without obliging the other to abjure he himself doth nothing against his Conscience for in suffering another to believe as a Truth that which he doth look upon as a non-fundamental Error he doth not oblige himself to speak of that Errour as of a Truth or to make any profession thereof nay he doth reserve unto himself a Liberty of resisting that Errour as long as he shall believe it to be false Neither doth he do any thing against his Conscience in not obliging others to the abjuration of such an Opinion for not believing it to be destructive of Religion he doth not believe that they who retain it do run any hazard of their Salvation We do never sin against our Consciences in tolerating that in another which we judge to be an Error but when we do at the same time judge that Error to be Fundamental and Mortal in respect of Salvation If then we do tolerate our Neighbour in such Errors we do suffer him to destroy himself without ever opposing his ruine which is an unconscionable Proceeding One of the Communions which doth divide the West doth hold the Real Presence as an important Truth the other looks on it as a tolerable Error It is clear that whosoever doth esteem it to be a tolerable Error ought not to oblige the Party who holds it to be an important Truth unto the abjuration of that Opinion which observation doth amount to this in one Word that Men ought to bear with one another and to unite themselves by the way of Toleration in those things that are tolerable as the Theologues Thomists and Scotists do bear with one another in most considerable differences about matter of Grace without making any separate Communion 6. Our Sixth Principle is this That there is an infinite difference between tolerating an Error and making profession that we do believe it the first is an Action of Christian Wisdom and Prudence the second is a Cowardice infinitely Criminal and a base Action to which we ought never to solicite or tempt any Person Truth is a thing so venerable that respect is also due unto its very shadow for so I call those false Opinions which by the favour of prejudices have established themselves in the Minds of Men as if they were unquestionable Truths and so much respect is owing even to them that none ought to exact from any Person the renunciation of them as long as that Person doth account them to be Truths When those Errors are capital and fundamental after we have endeavoured to deliver them who are prepossessed by them if we cannot effect that we must abandon the infected and renounce all Communion but we must in no wise force them to profess the Truths which they do not believe While Errors are tolerable we may use our best Efforts to dispossess Men's Minds of them but if we are not able to bring that about we ought never to force their Mouth to a Confession of that which would be contradicted by their Hearts We must tolerate such Errors and endeavour to instruct the Persons with the Spirit of Meekness and of Gentleness This Observation is of absolute necessity in this present subject The Question is of re-uniting the Protestants to the Roman Church It must be conceived that they would be capable of tolerating many false Opinions the belief of which they were not able to profess and it would be unreasonable to tell them You do not hold that this Belief or that that Practice is mortal therefore you ought to subscribe and be conformable thereunto This is also an undisputable Principle and one that needs no proving that a Man may safely tolerate divers things which he ought not to adopt nor practice 7. Our seventh and last Principle is this That no Treaty ought to be made to the prejudice of Truth and most especially of important Truths Truth must have her Rights secured and made good unto her and it is a Right belonging to Truth to produce it self and to prove it self And therefore in a Treaty of Re-union by which there should be an agreement of Toleration in many Opinions upon the Substance and Matter whereof they could not agree each Party ought to be left to its liberty to examine those Truths about which they were not come to any particular determination and also there ought to be a free permission to examine
them publickly so far as the safety of Peace can allow There are some Truths that be not of such grand importance as that the Peace of the Church should be troubled to establish them as on the contrary there are others which are so important that one ought to have no regard for the Infirmities of Men nor for the Prejudices which do possess them This is also a Principle which seems to us to be uncontestable I know not whether we have been so happy as to bring so clear a Light of Evidence unto these Principles as that wherein we our selves do see them but supposing that these Principles are certain clear and evident as we do conceive them to be we do not judge that the Re-union should be so very impossible And this is that Sirs which we desire you will be pleased that we may lay before you in this place by applying these general Principles unto the particular Matters of Fact now in question Our first Principle was That they who will endeavour an happy Re-union must search out the Means which are proper to satisfie both the Parties and that both Sides must sacrifice unto the Blessing of Peace all that can be abandoned without doing any Injury to Religion We cannot doubt Sirs but that you look upon this as a Maxim of most sovereign Equity We do for the present consent that you should consider us as Schismaticks who have unjustly separated our selves from the Church because the Causes of our Separation have not been sufficient But however that be you have too much Understanding and Sincerity not to see and not to acknowledge that if those Causes of Separation have not been sufficient yet they have not been altogether null or frivolous It was a long time that a Reformation was demanded to be made both in the Head and in the Members The whole World did universally complain of the Disorders and of the Corruptions which were crept into all the parts of Religion Now do you believe that all that Reformation which might then have been justly demanded hath been so fully made as that there remains nothing more to be added thereunto Were all those Proposals which your Predecessors made in the Ages last past unto the Council of Trent unjust or idle Might they not have been granted to them without doing any prejudice to the Church There were no less than four and thirty Articles the greatest part of which were of very grand importance The Seventeeth and the Nineteenth tended to re-establish the Vulgar Tongue in the Divine Service the Eighteenth made a Demand of the Cup for the People in the Sacrament the Twentyninth demanded the Retrenchment of that Abuse which was sliden into the Worshipping of Images into that of Relicks into the Pilgrimages into the Fraternities c. Now is there any one among you Sirs who can believe that all that which was fit for Reformation was reformed thereupon We are persuaded that you are the major part of you at least of his Opinion who composed The wholsome Advice of the Virgin to her indiscreet Votaries that is to say that you will confess that there are very many Abuses which have insinuated themselves into the popular Devotions Besides all this Do not you own that among those things which divide the Catholick and the Protestant all of them are not of the same importance some of them might be foregone for the benefit of Peace We do not now mark which they are but in the general we are persuaded that you have so great a Love to the Peace of the Church and for the Salvation of those People unto whom you still do that honour as to call them your Brethren that you will freely abandon something to facilitate their Return unto the Church provided that the Fundamentals of Religion may suffer no Wrong thereby The Aim of these Reflexions is to shew you that you are not in such Terms as that you cannot give a Relaxation in any thing for as much as that on the one side you are sufficiently convinced that divers Reformations might be granted unto us which would be very convenient for the Church and on the other side your Charity might very well extend it self so far as to leave some Practices of small importance to re-unite a divided Church and to join it together again in one and the same Place and Communion If you are resolved to release nothing and that you will make no Reformation it is in vain that you invite us to return unto the Roman Church While you do remain in the same Terms wherein you were before the Council of Trent we shall be forced to keep in the same Terms wherein we are at present otherwise we should condemn our former Conduct and impeach the Memory of our Fore-Fathers and that is a thing which we will never do We ought at least to have some pretext and that we may be able to say that the Gallican Church is not the same thing that it was when we did separate our selves from it and therefore that as we had then reason to depart from it so now we have reason to re-return unto it again Now when we do thus demand a Relaxation we are not so unreasonable as not to offer the like By the Establishment of our Maxim the Toleration ought to be mutual on both sides We are fully persuaded that our Doctrines are true and that our Worship is most pure but we do not believe that all the Truths which we defend are of an equal Importance We could tolerate some Errors opposite to some of our Truths waiting until God should be pleased to illuminate all of us We could well enough be assistent at a Worship which for the Ceremonies of it was different enough from our own provided that there be nothing therein contrary to that which doth make up the essential part of our Duties and of those Adorations which we do owe unto God So then in regard of a Re-union in this first Principle viz. that there ought to be a Relaxation on both sides for the mutual benefit of Peace there is nothing that is impossible Our second Principle is That when Men will endeavour a Re-union of two Religions by way of Accommodation and of mutual Relaxation neither of the Parties can honestly demand of the other any Relaxation in those things which his Opposite doth believe to be of the highest Importance and of sovereign necessity for the Salvation of Souls We have already proved this Maxim and though we had not done so yet it carries so great an Evidence along with it that it is proved by it self According to this Principle it would not be honest in you Sirs to demand that we should give our selves a Liberty for Example sake in the matter of Adoring the Sacrament of the Altar of the Invocation of Saints of the Adoration of Images and of many other such like things which we believe to be of the highest importance For