gives them and of which a wife man hath said Chi non ha Paura non sente il malo he who hath no fear can feel no harm No Party should take an advantage of another and I believe that if we served God well and honoured the King we should all agree with so much sweetness that one might see faith truly universal justly Apostolical and truly Christian shine out clearely 30. If to produce unity wee must have the same thoughts let us all respect follow without wrangling the good will of our Soveraign let us not be obstinate in our private faith but let us be fixed in that which hath appeared at all times Catholique and which we have equally respect for and confiance in All of us have the Confession of Faith which is called the Apostolical Symbol we have almost in the same words as they recite them in the Mass the Confession of Faith of the Council of Nice such a collection of Faith signed by 318 Bishops was a conclusion of that worthy Assembly to whom Rome sent two Deputies the Articles of faith were received by the Church which was not Arian and since none of bur Churches are so let us be satisfied with that Confession truly Catholique and let us hold to it Let us Reason together with freindship The Confession of the Symbol of Nice touched without doubt all the Articles of the Christian Faith which the truly faithfull believe or ought to believe to satisfy their consciences so worthy an Assembly was the first that Christianity saw in its quiet after the dreadfull Persecutions It was under the Authority of Constantine the great who was converted from Idolatry to the Faith it was as the Resurrection of the Gospel which untill then was preached in hidden places in Caves and dark holes of the earth By the happy Miracle of a new Life Jesus Christ increased by his Divine Power the light of Faith and the sweetness of tranquillity it was necessary in so considerable a meeting to inform Christians very well what they were obliged to believe always in all parts of the World and in all Nations where Religion could be found It was absolutely necessary also to inform by a publique Act the Soul of the newly Converted Emperour of all the Mysteries which make Christian Religion Divine and True and the Emperor ought to Regulate his Faith by that general approved Confession signed by all the good Bishops In short this Confession of Faith so Authentique and so wisely Established was received by all Christianity as an abridgment of the Gospel with this assurance that those who believe these Propositions would have that true and entire Faith which Christ requires in his Faithfulones All these Circumstances witness that the Articles proposed since that time were not believed then since they could not forget to Record them and that this Council principally Assembled against the impious subtleties of Arius treated of all the Mysteries of Religion and by a common Agreement made a general Declaration of them that they put into it all that is necessary to Salvation not only to correct present Errors but to hinder new ones and if the blind obedience which Worshipped the Decrees of the Church and the Patriarch of Rome had been a difference necessary to Salvation the Roman Deputies would not have sail'd to present it The Emperour nor the Fathers of the Council would not have neglected to put in that Article which goeth at present for the most Fundamental Ground of Faith and instead of these Words One Holy and Apostolical Church we should read these the Roman Church only I wonder that if the Greeks complain of that which the Latines have added to the Articles of the Procession of the holy Spirit Filioque we should not complain of them that they have added And the Roman Church After having confirmed this Truth that the Confession of Faith published by the Council of Nice being received by all Christians establisheth them in a most Holy and Pious Unity let us agree according to the will of the King in the French Church in that manner which the first and principal Council of Christians regulated our common Faith since in the third Age it regulated the Faith of Constantine the great and all Christianity we may joine to these those who condemned the Heresy of Nestorius and Eutichus in short we are united if true Antiquity Governs us 20. Let us consider the difference of the first Council held at Nice which cements us all with the last held at Trent which divides us I am not willing to utter the least unbeseeming Word but I must say keeping the Truth which I love that there is a great difference between him whom the Spirit of the holy Scriptures Governs and him that takes his from the Valises or Clok-bag of Rome In the Council of Nice we have nothing which is not proposed in Holy Writ by the Ministry of Christ and his Apostles In that of Trent we see all is Proposed Resolved and Ordained according to the prescribed Order of the Romane Legates and according to the Popes interest The first which bindes us with the Truth of God unties us with Pleasure the other which makes all submit to the Vanities of the Pope divides us even to Fury But to make the Purity of that Faith appear the better which can give us that Admirable Peace I will employ this Page to set down Word for Word the Confession of Faith Writ at the Council of Nice so as it is sang in the Romane Mass from whence I took it with exact Faithfulness The Creed I Believe in One God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things Visible and Invisible and in One Lord Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God begotten of his Father before all Worlds God of God Light of Light very God of very God begotten not made being of one Substance with the Father by whom all things were made Who for us Men and for our Salvation came down from Heaven and was Incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made Man and was Crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate He suffered and was Buried and the third Day he Rose again according to the Scriptures and Ascended into Heaven and sitteth on the Right Hand of the Father And he shall come again with Glory to Judg both the Quick and the Dead whose Kingdom shall have no End And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of Life who procedeth from the Father and the Son who with the Father and the Son together is Worshipped and Glorified who spake by the Prophets And I Believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church I acknowledg one Baptisme for the Remission of Sins and I look for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Life of the World to come Amen We are Piously and Christianly United by this Creed and if any thing be omitted in it it is so clear
God and requite no more from the people but what God himself requireth then the people give to Caesar and to God that justice and obedience which is due to them by one and the same act because Caesar desires all and only that which GodS Wills 15. When the vulgar speak of the uniting of the two Religions in France they speak of a thing impossible because they consist of Propositions which are named Contradictories of which the first are necessarily false if the Opposites are true in this condition they can never be united as may be seen by these Examples one maintaining that the body of Christ in his very Flesh Blood and Bones is really present in the Sacrament the other saying that there is no reality of flesh though there be a real presence and spiritual grace Can these two Notions unite and be conjoyned one saith the souls separated from the bodies being in a state of grace burn in a fire under-ground to satisfie for their sins the other holds that souls justified by grace have no obstacle which can hinder them from possessing or injoying glory One affirmeth that the Pope is Monarch of all Kings and Bishops with the same power which Christ had when he was upon the Earth the other is perswaded that this Bishop hath not this power and that he can neither maintain it without error nor exercise it without Tyranny these propositions can never agree and if one would speak rightly of the design of his Majesty we must interpret it a unity of good Society which may be effected but not a unity of Conformity which can never be 16. I believe that according to the Kings will those of both Religions may agree in the same thoughts and make but one Religion both good and pious In the fourth Age all Christendom was divided upon the Propositions of the Divinity of Christ these two Propositions viz. Christ is God in substance and Christ is not God in substance but by resemblance are discourses and notions never to be reconciled In a word after many unjust Fends of the one and other Party all did agree after the Truth was justly known and sincerely sought after We might experiment the same unity if minds would cease to be prae-possess'd by Interest or Custome Let us search with sincerity the will of God and the reality of his thoughts and then we shall easily be of one mind piously following that which God bids us 17. This Union of Minds in the same apprehensions of things cannot be done with fatisfaction if as some pragmatically say the King should use his absolute Authority without suffering any disputes about it One I Will is not enough to perswade the profound Reason of the Soul One I Will not cannot root out the first Impressions all the effects that these commands can produce is terrour or dissembling one may study to hide one self for fear of anger for the respect one ought to have for his Majesty but every one will keep those thoughts which he thinks necessary for his Salvation What pleasure can the King have to see his Realm full of Dissemblers who fear his Anger or of miserable ones if he should use Violence 18. They rank that which you told me of the Embassage to Rome to obtain a permission for a Conference about Religion Amongst the ill news we hear His Majesty hath too much knowledg of the practices of the Romish Court to expect that the Pope should give him liberty to argue against him and his Universal Power Dare the Signiorle of Venice ask the King of Spain the power to debate whither the Dutchie of Milan and the Kingdome of Naples belong to him by a Ligitimate Right Can one believe that Romane Polity hath ever been so civil to praise Catholick Majesty to ordain a conference upon the posession of Sicily and that it hath ever asked the liberty to publish the Bull in canâ Domini in the Lords Supper by which that King is Excommunicated The King is not under Age let him govern his Subjects in the fear of God even from the bottom of our Souls we all desire it and those who would not have it so are neither Rational nor French-men Can we be in a better hand than that of a King who speaks our own Language whom Nature engageth to cherish his Country whose Inclinations are agreeable to our Climate which is his and whose Interests are necessarily tyed to ours Let the King freely take his own let no body dispute it in his Kingdome let no Stranger rule over us It is one of the most horrible punishments which God hath brought upon his people of which the Hebrews complain most bitterly and which may be compared to the crime of which the Lord himself complains in Jerem. 2.25 But thou sayest there is no hope no for I have loved Strangers and after them will I go and in Jerem. 5. You shall serve Strangers in Lament 2. Our Heritage hath been overturned by Strangers Is not the King a Christian and The most Christian King is he not a Sacred person is he not the Lords Anoynted ought he to ask the Pope leave to search the true Law of God and to offer it naked to his people Let the King speak as the generous Henry le Grand for his Marquisdome of Salus he answered to all the cunning devices of Pope Clement the 8th and the addresses of Cardinal Aldobrandin and the Artifices of the Duke of Savoy with these words I will have my Own It is the Kings right to propose the Law of God as t is his duty to search and meditate it hath not he as well as the Prince of Rome both Moses and the Prophets the Holy History the Doctrine of the Apostles and the Confession of Faith of the Council of Nice hath he not as much Ingenuity and as Penetrating a Wit as the Pope to discern Good from Evil Truth from Falshood and Sincerity from Interest hath he not more Zeal or more Natural Inclination for the good of his Subjects than a Stranger who appears to all reasonable men to make no Conscience of any thing if he can but raise never so little his glory and advantage by it Will he take measure from the Pope to oblige the French to give their Souls to God rendring their Respects to their King can any one believe that France hath no body in it who is enlivened with a Zeal by a sincere and unspotted Soul and by an inlightened Piety Can his Majesty expect Know ledge and Conscience from Italy to make us Famous and Conduct us 13. Believe Sr. that if the King hath designed that of which we discourse he hath too much Grandeur and Light in his Mind to commit it to the Pope or acquaint him with it 19. If the Pope should admit of this Conference he would never suffer that any thing should be concluded on to his disadvantage no one hates his own Flesh The Council of Trent was
loving force of that which is Good Fair and True 33. When his Majesty testifies his desire of the Agreement of his Subjects he wishes first the Glory of God and then the happiness and honour of that Church which bears the title of the French Church are we not all obliged by the Zeal of our Salvation and for the Interest of our most dear Country to carry our Affections highly towards his Majesties design let us procure the Glory of God and the happiness of the Church of France For the first let us not be so weak and erroneous to believe that the Honour of God is increased when that of Rome is the Authority of the King who is a Sacred Majesty is sufficient to make us Preach Understand and Observe the Will of God for the second are we so base to seek after with an unnatural Zeal the glory of the Roman Court to the prejudice of the French Church The Gentlemen of Sorbon making their Censures or judicious Observations on Odoricus Renaldus Continuer of Baronius have branded as notable faults that which is writ against the French Church and its Liberty These Liberties are not Licentiousness but as the Wise learnedly explain an exact Observation of the Ancient Rules of the Christian Faith Would to God that all the Kings Subjects upon this occasion had the love to hold themselves to the Rules of that Faith which is called Canons and ten or twelve Persons of each Religion had the Command to search them not in Modern Antiquity but Apostolique and in that of the first Councils they would easily find the French Liberty well established and the Dependence on Rome very ill-founded I ask if our French Church can be unjust if she takes the Reformation demanded by 5 Embassadours of France in several Reductions of the Council of Trent Would she not be as holy when she Regulates her Faith upon Divine words and her Manners upon the Sacred Laws of God as though she served the Statues of the Grandeur of Rome The Cardinal of Lorain did not he do a greater Service to the French Church when he endeavoured a Reformation in the Council of Trent than by that base Compliance which he had afterwards to the Will of the Pope Are not the Gentlemen of Sorbon generous and Christian when speaking of the works of Renaldus they say that the French-Church hath done nothing more profitable than the Pragmatick Sanction which Sanction was made at Burges in the year 1438. The King Assembled Bishops Princes and the great Lords of his Kingdom but because it bound the Authority of the Pope it was looked upon as a black attempt and that was it which rendred it praise-worthy His Majesty may if he please do somthing better he may apply the great Remedy to the Malady which hath broken our bones and eaten our flesh whereas others have ordered nothing but Lenitives and applyed them with a trembling hand Let us desire my dear Eutimius let us desire this holy Unity of one and the same Religion his Majesty who wisheth it desires our common good 't is an evil thing to hate as 't is an unhappiness to be hated The thoughts which I have newly explained to you shall end with this we should be happy if we had but one God in Heaven and one Monarch upon Earth I beseech the Almighty to inspire the King not to permit in his Kingdom a Companion with God and that he would propose ways to us which are only drawn from the Law and Truth of God to be the Rule of our Devotions his Majesty will acquire Glory in giving us Peace France will have all the Properties of being the One the True and the Good and we shall have Goodness of Soul Truth in Spirit and Unity of hearts FINIS