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
Consider that it is not only us with whom you treat it is with the whole Body of the Protestants you shall act for all Europe for it is as certain as any thing in the World can be that if the Re-union be made in France by the way of a just Reformation all Europe will imitate you and all the Protestants would follow us And so you should acquire the greatest Honour that the Ministers of Jesus Christ can ever arrive unto that is to close up the affrightful Wound of the Church which hath layen a bleeding for so many Ages Ever since the Establishment of Christianity among the Galls the Gallican Church hath ever been one of the most glorious Parts of the Universal Church It is she which hath in all Times exposed her self with the greatest Courage and Success against Tyranny She hath preserved her self in greater Purity than any other in the general Corruption There is nothing more to be done to crown the Glory of your Church but only to make her the Reformatrix of the universal World That is a thing which you may do and it is beyond all doubt that your Example would have such Influences in it as would be extended unto the uttermost parts of the Earth You would draw those who would not follow you and all the World would yield to your Authority By this Means the Kingdom of that great Prince under whose Orders you act would become the most glorious that ever any was since first there were Kings upon the Face of the Earth All the World would bless him and he would thereby open himself a Way to the universal Empire All the People of Europe would make it their Delight and take it for an Honour to be united under the Domination of him who should have re-united them into one and the same Religion You would have the Honour Sirs to live in the Memory of Posterity as the second Fathers of the Church and her great Restaurators You would have the Pleasure to restore the Service of God to its primitive Lustre and Apostolical Purity You might take for your Model the Churches unto which the Saints Ireneus Ignatius Policarp Cyprian and all the holy Bishops of the three first Ages did preach Reform Christianity upon that Foundation and you will not only restore Peace unto the Church but also open the Gates thereof unto all Infidel Nations The Jews and the Mahometans will make no difficulty to adore our God when you shall have taken out of their sight those Images which they call Idols that religious Adoration of Saints and Angels which they do call the Vice-Deities and Secondary Gods of the Christians when you shall permit them to serve none but one God invisible and not command them to adore an Object which they eat As long as these Stumbling-stones do lie at the Church-door the Infidels will never enter into it Restore the Worship to that degree of Spirituality which is essential unto Christianity Purifie the Temple and the Spirit of God will fill it and that Spirit will make your Word and your Examples efficacious for the Conversion of those Countries which are separated from the Church This is that Sirs which we should have answered if we had been authorized by the whole Body whereof we are Members by way of Return unto the Pastoral Letter which you did us the Honour to write unto us in your late Assembly We do earnestly beseech you Sirs that you will awaken the Bowels of your Compassions towards your Brethren whom you do suppose to be in a State of Wandring and Error but who are nevertheless your Brethren as great Strays and deceived as you suppose them to be Deal therefore with them as with Brethren and not as with Enemies That your Exhortations may have the more Efficacy open unto them the Way of Grace Draw them with the Cords of Humanity that so you may bring them back again into the Bosom of that Mother from whom you pretend they have separated themselves They will undoubtedly answer your Invitations with Joy as soon as ever they shall be able to do it without resisting the Voice of their Conscience FINIS
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
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
Devotion than he doth before God himself Give us leave yet once again to make Application of our Principle here and to say unto you For God's sake Sirs do not put an Obstacle to the Re-union of the Church which is the greatest of all the Works which God hath now on foot for a thing which the Christian Church can very well be without and which we believe to be absolutely insupportable Take away the Occasion of so many Abuses in taking away a Worship the Foundation whereof is in no wise of the Essence of Christianity A Relaxation ought to be made for Peace sake of unnecessary Dogma's and Worships which beget Horrour in the Parties you would draw to them This same Principle will shew you what you may also do in regard of the Retrenchment which is made of the Cup in the Sacrament of the Eucharist It seems to us to be essential we believe that we do lose the whole Sacrament in losing one part of it Now let it be supposed yet once again that there may be something of a phanatical Conceit in this But yet will not your Charity have some regard to the Infirmity of your weak Brethren in a thing wherein you acknowledge that the Glory of God is not interessed nor Religion concerned It is no Sacrilege according to you for the People to communicate under both the Species you acknowledge they did receive it so for many hundred Years together On the other side according unto us it is a Sacrilege to communicate under one Species It is clear therefore that you may accord the Favour we desire of you in that Point without any Injury done to your Religion Divine Service in a Language which the People do not understand is also one of those Articles unto which we may apply our third Principle You do acknowledge that the Apostolical Church did understand the Language wherein the Divine Service was performed you are persuaded that there is neither any Evil nor Scandal in it to pray unto God in the Church in a Language which the People do understand This therefore can be no great business for you to grant for let all your Prayers be turned into French when all is done your Religion doth abide still in its Integrity but it is such an unspeakable Torment unto us that we cannot communicate at a Worship in a Language which we do not understand There can be nothing therefore more conformable to the Rules of Charity and of Christian Prudence than a Relaxation in this Particular the Church would lose nothing at all by the bargain and the World would be a great Gainer The Liberty of Marriage for the Priests cannot concern the Fundamentals of Religion any more than the other Things aforesaid because it is only a Point of Discipline There have been in the Latine Church Priests married since the Tenth Age the Greek Church hath abundance of them that are so now and you Sirs do not hold that the Sacraments which are administred by those married Priests are unlawful you cannot therefore look upon this as a matter of the highest importance to Religion and as for our parts we cannot possibly consider it as a thing indifferent because we look on this Direction of the Discipline as a Sourse of ten thousand Disorders which we believe cannot be any other way remedied but by taking away that Yoke which imposeth a necessity of an unmarried Life upon so many People to whom God hath not given the Continency necessary for so holy an Estate You know Sirs that these are not the only things which you do not believe to be of sovereign necessity and which we believe to be very evil These Articles which we have touch'd at are only Examples to fortifie our Rule which might be extended to a great many other things Might not your Charity and Christian Wisdom induce you to make a view of all these things that so you might retrench a good part of them You should undoubtedly thereby offer a Sacrifice which would be most acceptable unto him who calleth himself the God of Peace and who doth command that Peace be maintained among the Brethren It would not be enough for you to retrench the Abuses and that which you do call so in the Invocation of Saints in the Worship of Images in Pilgrimages in the Adoration of Relicks in Fraternities c. For in these things we cannot distinguish the Use from the Abuse but do esteem the whole of it to be Abuse And though that should be an Error in us yet it would commend your Charity to bear with us in a thing the Retrenchment whereof would infer no Wrong unto Christianity Neither would it be enough for you to permit us not to invocate the Saints not to adore Images and not to take any part in the Devotions which respect the Creatures for we cannot communicate with any Church where all this should be practised It would be in our Opinion all one as if we did it our selves The publick Service is for all the whole Company we could not hinder our selves if we would never so fain from participating therein It would be our Worship as well as yours if we were re-united or if we should formally oppose our selves to it as we should be obliged so to do we must then fall back again into the Mischief of that Schism from which you would draw us To conclude Sirs What we demand here the like we are willing to grant If you have any Articles which you believe to be of a sovereign Necessity and which we hold to be almost indifferent or at least tolerable because they do not destroy the Fundamentals of Religion we are ready to tolerate them in our Brethren and to re-unite our selves though they do not abandon them It doth lie upon you Sirs to mark out which they are But we beseech you have the goodness here to remember that those ought not to he propounded as almost indifferent Dogmas and consequently such as we ought to suffer about which it is notorious we have declared that we do look upon them as altogether intolerable Our fourth Principle is That in the Articles wherein it is agreed on both sides that they are not essential there the weakest Side ought to comply with the Practice of the ruling Party And here Sirs you will find all kind of Advantage on your side You are the ruling Party in France you have in the Head of you that great Prince for whom we have so much Respect and Veneration that to satisfie him we will carry our Complaisance as far as ever it can be carried with a safe Conscience This Maxim would make you gain more things than you could lose by the Precedent for there would undoubtedly be found a great many of those Articles both of Dogmas and of Worships which although we do indeed condemn yet we do not believe them important enough to oblige us to keep our selves in a State of Separation We