Punishments which make the People fear the effects of its violence judg consequently what is the Conclusion of the interested hypocritical Party who leave the Princes but a mean power of making themselves to be obeyed in taking away from them the care of Godliness which is the strongest and most sure power The fear of Punishment may hinder the riseing of rebels but true Religion will stifle the design and not admit a thought of it 11. When a Monarch understands that a good Conscience is the strongest and most assured Principle to hold the Subjects in a sweet obedience and when he is perswaded that minds which are Led or conducted by true Piety stifle all the motions of Rebellion by the fear of the judgments of God his own interest with the publique peace will engage him to take care to establish Religion which hinders them from committing actions of disobedience The well fare of his State and the quiet of his Person ought to make him act so judiciously as not to permit that pretence to Religion should imprint in the minds of his People a false Godlyness which inclines them to despise his Person and Ordinances under pretence of revengeing Gods quarrel and protecting the interest of the Church The Age in which we live as well as those which have gone before us have proved what dreadfull effects false interested Piety have produced against our Kings and on the contrarie the holy History and some Chronicles of State shew us how much a good Conscience and true Religion are respectfull to their King even in the hearts of those Subjects who are harshly treated by them David being unjustly persecuted by his prince Saul might have found an occasion to take away his life secretly in the darkness of a Cave but his good Conscience obliged him to respect an unjust enemy of whom he might have rid himself if he had not feared to offend against the justice of God after the mischance or rather the decree of the judgment of God that caused Saul to perish Conscience alone produced and governed by a true Religion obliged David to weep for it and to reveng the death of that wicked Prince whom God himself had rejected Religion truly Christian counsels such practices of patience and goodness with which he King ought to be satisfied but that Religion which perswades co contrary maximes is dangerous and the King may render himself judg of it at least he may believe himself master in his own house without being subject to those who would limit his power and who teach the common people to watch for an opportunity of revolting and disobedience Charles the 8th being at Rome in the time of Pope Alexander the 6th of the house of Borgir who became an odious hated wicked man was intreated by all the Cardinals except two to defend the holy Church against the violence of that Pope who was rather a successor of Judas then of St. Peter and given more to the Alcoran than to the Gospel There are no true and natural French men who will contest with the King the power of repressing the boldness of those pretended Devoto's who teach that Kings Excommunicated by the Pope are no more Kings and that they are no more any thing to their subjects being nothing to the Pope I dare not Speak the rest it being so full of horror see the Censure of Sorbonne against Vernant and Guimenaeus Can one believe that Lewis the 12th had no right to suppress the wicked doctrine and hector like piety off Julius 2d who committed so many wickednesses against the quiet of this excellent Prince that he caused to be stamped upon his coin I will destroy the whore of Babylon The King of Navar John 2d deposed by the same Pope ought he in his condition to detest or adore the Religious thoughts of this very Pope told him by a Spanird in these words I must aid the King of Spain and employ my two Swords both Spiritual and temporal against France and Navar who are enemies to all honest people Pope Sixtus the 5th was resolved to Excommunicate Henry King of Navar and Henry Prince Conde his Bull said that he would draw the sword of Vengeance against Henry late King of Navar and Henry Prince of Conde a Bastard and Detestable Generation that he did declare them and their Successors to be deprived of all their Lordships Lands and Dignities Had not these Princes some right to resist this violence and cause to be Preached one to his Subjects and the other to his Vassals that Religion and Conscience obliged them not to follow the Passions and Usurpations of this Roman Bishop Royal Dignity is of a larger extent than vulgar thoughts can apprehend and beyond the limits which the Ambitious and Covetuous men do prescribe it for their own advantage by an affected or ignorant malice This Royal greatness is joyned to the Pontifical by a kind of necessity from which it cannot be parted neither by Reason nor Conscience and though the King doth not execute actually the functions of it yet he ought to render them so really effected that true Judgment and Power should maintain them and put them in good order The animated heats against my Proposition opposeth the punishment of King Hozias when he offered Incense upon the Altar of perfumes but those who consider his crime will find that he offended by neglect or by Pride against an express order Established by Divine Authority which ordained that the Levites only should serve in the Ministry excluding every other Family and Person whether Royal or not If this Prince had commanded the Sacrifices and Incense to be performed as God had ordered him I do not believe that he had been reproved either by God or Man My notion proves it self by the words of the high Priest which attributes to the King only the sin of contradicting Gods order in these words 2 Chron. 26.18 It appertaineth not unto thee to burn Incense unto the Lord but to the Priests the Sons of Aaron that are Consecrated to burn Incense in the 4. Chap. of Numb you may see the Law expresly So Uzza not being of the Family of Levi was stricken by God because he stretched forth his hand to touch and bear up the Ark 1 Chron. 13.9 These examples cannot prove but that a Christian King may have the care of Religion and of the Law of God The Head and Finisher of our Faith Jesus Christ the Son of the living God hath not bound the exercises of Religion to some particular people conditions all those who have Authority do not sin if they imploy it in the Service of the all-powerful God if a Father oweth this justice to his Children a King certainly is ingaged to it for his Subjects Do you think that the King doth commit an Injustice against God when he causeth Justice to be Executed among men 12. Since all which I have shewed proveth that the King may and ought
see already you may conclude easily by the train of our Experiences that if his Majesty desires one only Religion in France he desires a very good thing 6. I cannot easily bear the Opinion of those who endeavour to maintain that it doth not belong to Kings to intermeddle with Religion as if Piety and Holiness were not used by great Ones This apprehension is False most Unjust and most Malicious it is the daughter of a wicked Politician of an interested Cabal or of down-right and crafty Tyrany Then Kings suffer themselves to be Cheated when they are perswaded that all that which has regard to Devotion is no part of their Empire nor subjected to their Government This Maxime appeares very sweet to those who would render themselves Monarchs over Kings by the pretences of Piety the least incroaching upon this matter stirs up and animates their jealousie The Cardinal of Perroun being yet but the Bishop of Everuse was in election to have publick conference with Du Plessis Mornay the Popes Nuntio Bishop of Modena went to King Henry the fourth and told him that this action of deputing Comissaries in the matters of Religion was of Ecclesiastique Authority and he beseeched his Majesty not to be surprised at the request which he made to him The King contented him with assuring him that no one should treat of the Fundamentals of Religion but of some little things only Popes have never been more stirred up against the Emperour Charles the fifth and consequently against Ferdinand his brother and Successor then by the cares which they had taken to reconcile the Estranged sentiments of Religion the Roman court maintained that these vertuous designs were ranked among wicked Enterprises and rebellious Rashness The shortness of a Letter will not suffer mee to write the Resolves of this Debate I will only tell you something of it to satisfy mine own mind as well as yours The first practises of the World let us see that the heads of Families were the Princes and Priests of them The two first sons of Adam who were Princes of the two great Families of the World were both Priests although by a secret of divine Providence that of Abel was extinguished in his person it was repaired by the birth of Seth continued by Enoch and by all those who were named the race or children of God After the ruine by the deluge Noah remained Prince of his Family did the office of a Preist and before that severe vengeance of the flood he is represented to us as a Herauld of justice who condemned the World by preaching against the wickedness of it Was not Abraham Father Prince and Priest of his Family he was found worthy to receive this praise in a strange Land by the principal men of the Countrey Thou art among us a Prince of God In the same Age the Prince of Salem bore the title Melchizedeck King of justice and he is signefied to us as a Priest of the most high God They say that God separated these two Governments after the going out of Egypt giving the politique to Moses and the care of holy things to Aaron This Objection is ill grounded for two Reasons the first is because Moses and Aaron were of the same Family and Brother-Germanes so these two Powers were in a manner in the same person and secondly Moses who according to this opinion was in the quality of King to govern the Politique did he not meddle with that of Religion He who censured Aaron vigorously after his sinfull compliance to the Golden-Calfe who caused the Idol to be broke to Pouder and made it be disesteemed by those who had adored it who received and gave all the orders for the building of the Tabernacle and for the regulating of the Sacrifices and who condemned and punished him who was found carrying wood on the holy day of Rest Moses took these cares and these Authorities In the process of time the Kings of Judah who have had the knowledg and zeal of Religion have they not medled with it Joash Ezekias Aza and Josias did they not break the Idols to pieces cause the Law of God to be searched for and re-establish the true service of the antient Religion appointed by the voice of God himself 7. But to come to the times of the Gospel Jesus head and finisher of our Faith did not take his birth according to the flesh in the Tribe of Levi but in that of Judah and in the house of David where is found the Royal Dignity of the Hebrews and he who ought to be eternal Priest according to the order of Melchizedeck hath willed that his Pontifique grandeur be in some manner ingrafted upon the Royal they published his Birth they took off the shame of his Death by the title of King himselfe taking the quality of it when he answered those who asked him Art thou King c. Yes I am It is then true that the care of Priests and Kings cannot be judged incompatible but it behooveth us to take singular notice of this splendid Alliance and of the miraculous conduct of God in it We find not that Priests have become Kings and presumptiously sought after Empires but we find that Princes by their Birth or by the Election of Divine Providence have been ordained Priests God hath not permitted that high Priests should be made Kings to increase their Vanity but that Princes or Sovereigns should take upon them the Pontifical care and title to enlarge and crown their Piety Paganisme it self never saw the Roman Priests raised to an Empire but the Emperours were bound with the Title and Authority of Priests we may see in ancient Medals they did Engrave Tib. Nero Pont. Max. Traj Imper. Pont. Max. Heliogabalus summus sacerdos in Rev. 5.10 he hath made us Kings and Priests 8. I do not pretend to maintain that all Kings ought to joyn to their soveraign Empire all the actual performances of the Ministry of God but I cannot but believe that they ought to have a most diligent care to maintain it with Purity or to re-establish it after any introduced Corruption Joshua was neither of the Family nor of the actual office of Priests nevertheless from that very time that the holy History represents to us his Employ which was to conduct the people in War it gives us also to know the commandment which God gave him to study the divine Law without ceasing and to turn neither to the left nor right Hand he performed consequently all the actions of a Prince who took care of Religion he said to the Peoples Sanctifie your selves he ordered all the preparation for the Ark and the Priests in going to Jordan he commanded them by order from God himself that they should raise up a heap of Stones for a Pious Memorial of Gods Goodness and he Ehxorted the People to to serve God with thankfulness After that Christianity had tasted the Pleasure of Quietude for some Years did not
Constantine the Great order the Bishops to assemble at Nice where he himself sate President in person the Bishops of those times made no Scruple of proposing Eclesiastiques to the Prince since they presented him with an Account of all their Disputes and though he would not judg of them but cast the Writings into the Fire yet his great Discretion was a prudent Management of his Grandeur either to Confound or Convert them Those that shall read that which passed in the Churches some Ages after will see that the Sovereign-Authority of Princes hath regulated the conduct of Synods after they had assembled them the Emperour Arcadius sent Count Candigian to Rule in his Name the Synod at Ephesus that of Chalcedon had for its Soveraign President the Emperour Mortian or the Commissaries whom he Deputed and that of Constantinople held in the Imperial Palace was governed by the order of Constantine Le-Barbu the Emperour The celebrated Author of the History of the Councel of Trent specified all these passages to draw this conclusion in the second Book that it was a custom very proper where they governed with Liberty which was when the world was without a Pope il che come e un uso molto proprio diove si Governa in Liberta quale era all hora quando il mondo era senza Papa When the Empire of the West was governed by the house of France Charlemaing the Emperour preserved his Power Gloriously which his Successors have lost by too much yielding The Acts of the Council of Mayence held in the Year 813 under the Authority of that Emperour began with these Words to Charles Augustus Governor of the true Religion and Frotector of the Holy Church of God Another Council held at the same Place gave the same Title to Lewis the Emperour surnamed the Debonair and in the Records of the Synod named Francisque we may read the procedings of Carloman under the title of Duke Prince of the French who spoke in this manner we have ordained Bishops in every City and have Established over them the Arch-Bishop Boniface All those who have any knowledg in History know that the Bishops of Rome whom they give out and believe at present to be so soveraignly Soveraign have written to the Emperours as to their Masters and asked Pardons or Favours intreated to have Synods in the stile of humble Suppliants We read that the Emperour Charlemaign took without contradiction the liberty of chusing the Bishops of Rome The Books of Stella Platin and of Sigonius testify that this right was preserved a long time after When the Empire passed into the house of Saxony Otho deposed Pope John the Thirteenth and put Leo the Eighth in his Place and another Otho caused the Eyes of John the Seventeeth to be put out because he resisted Bruno a Germane named Gregory the Fifth which the Emperour had chose Bishop of Rome Let the Wise and Prudent search over the Antiquities in the Hebrew and Christan Churches and they will find that Princes have never made any scruple to regulate Religion 9. If Authority upholds my thoughts reason either natural or politique will be advantagious to them since that Monarchs cannot as sure themselves of the wellfare of their Countrey the dignity of their condition nor the quiet of their minds if they take no care in the government of Religion Let us consider the condition of Sovereigns without having any respect to the practice of Religion we cannot deny that they are established in the conduct of two things which appears more important in the politique state the first is War against a forreign enemy the second is Justice against the wicked men in his own nation These two actions which ought to take up all royal Authority obliged the Hebrewes when they demanded a King to say that we also may be like all the nations and that our King may judg us and go out before us and fight our battels Sam. 1.8.20 But since one cannot reject the thoughts of St. Paul when he saith that righteousness is profitable for all things one ought to believe that war is an unhappiness and that justice cannot subsist without true Piety from whence it was that the generous and wise Joshua seeing himself ready to make war against the Infidels heard these Words Streng then thy self and be not dismaied the Lord is with thee whither thou goest And when he went to do justice to Hacon he said to the People Sanctify your selves for to morrow and say to the sinners give I pray you glory to the God of Israel Joshua 7.19 17 from whence I conclude that the King who will succeed well in both his politique Employs ought necessarily to take a special care to establish the true Religion and to rule his conduct he ought to remember that which God said to Joshua Fortify thy self more more to the end thou mayst take care to do according to all the law which Moses my servant hath commanded thee and turn neither to the right hand nor to the left that thou mayst prosper whither soever thou goest Josh 1.7 He ought to remember the command of God which orders that the King sitting upon the throne of his Kingdome should take a Copy of the written Law and read it every day that he might learn to Fear the Lord Let not his Heart be lifted up above his brethren let him not turn from this Law neither to the right nor left hand Let his dayes be long and let him reign him and his Posterity in the midst of Gods people I know not how one can maintain after this reason confirmed by Sacred Authority that the King doth an unjust Action if he takes care of Religion is it not the perfect Equity of the divine Law which conducts principally the orders of War and rules of Justice and cannot one easily prove that War is a tyrannick usurper or a savage beastliness if not bridled by Religion is it not true that without Piety which begets the fear of God the Authority of the Magistrate is barbarously Executed unprofitably Established for without Religion men would be as imaged Lions but Justice would destroy them all if she were strong enough but where she suffers all she is found weak if then the King is the first Captain and the first Magistrate of his Kingdome he may name himself and ought to appear the principal Bishop 10. The King may find a great advantage in the words of St. Paul who speakes very Christianly when he ordered that Subjects should be held under the Powers Authorized by God not only to shun the violence of anger but to acquit themselves also of the duties of conscience This Doctrine establisheth obedience in the Subject more strongly by Religion than by Force If then the King will preserve himself in a just and full Authority his care must be to endeavour to Establish true Religion which tyeth the Subjects more to his will than Force or
in Conscience to have the care of Religion since he may desire most Lawfully that there be but one Religion in his Government I believe that the first Idea which can open the way to effect it is to resolve that no stranger shall govern it and according to my thoughts all the French of either Religion wish or ought passionately to wish for it both in Reason and Conscience for when the King gives or permits to a Stranger the Government of Religion in his Kingdome he keeps to himself the least part of his Riches and puts into the hands of another power which it may be will War against him the Government of those affections which tye most effectually Subjects to Princes What should one say if the King should suffer himself to be perswaded to take a Polonian to Command all his Army in chief or a Spaniard for his Lord-Chancellour by what Reason can one oblige him to have a Patriarch of Greece Alexandria or Italy Must the King commit that which is most considerable for his quiet and safety to such an Authority as doth not care for his welfare or it may be are Enemies to it All France sighs at the remembrance of these Devotions rather promoted by Devils themselves than by Diabolical men which made Clement Jacobin John Chastel Ravillas and generally all the League act by a hellish zeal All this mystery of Iniquity took its birth progress and execution from a false principle of Conscience which the Out-landish Beast caused to be proposed to the people and which had at the bottom nothing but a fatal machin of Interest and Ambition I have read in Avila an Italian Author that Jacobin the Murderer of Hen. 3. was a false devote and a furious Zealot for the Orders of the Pope We read in lib. 95. of the History written by Mouns the President of Thou that Pope Sixtus the Fifth commended in a full Consistory this horrible action with large praises admiring the Vertue of this man the strength of his Courage and his ardent Love towards God Cum virtutem hominis animi robur ferventem erga Deum amorem suprà Eliazarem Juditham multis verbis extollit John Chastel was another devote and the decree of Parliament given against his wicked act is Excommunicated in Rome of whom the wise Cardinal of Ossat spake in this sort to the Cardinal Aldobrandin as he himself reported If the King had any cause to fear to be Murdered he should rather fear the Hugonots whom he had forsaken and who had cause to complain of him but they have attempted nothing like this neither against him nor against the five Kings his Predecessors whatever Butchery they have made of them Ravillac another devoto began his day by the Confession Mass or Communion and imploy'd the rest of it to follow the Kings Coach to find the occasion which he met with to the great dammage of the Kingdome after 6 months spent in his Devotions and his Indefatigable cares The Zeal of a desperate man which he witnessed in his torments and at the point of his death sheweth us what a dangerous thing it is for a Stranger to govern the Consciences when the Natural King hath nothing but the Political to govern 13. Can a State be happily Govern'd when two Monarchs are equally considered in it their Interests do undoubtedly divide and part their minds hearts and hands this division produceth Confusions without Remedy the wisest men commit the greatest errors in this Mist which permits not the right discerning of Justice or Injustice between these two parties But if one be perswaded that one of these two Monarchs is infallible and that one is obliged by Conscience to take his part all the people will take his Interest and look upon all that which opposeth his design as a Horror and a Curse If a Stranger or the Pope Establisheth his power in France by the principles of Conscience his Authority must infallibly triumph over that of the King who is the lawful Prince of it and this cannot be avoided for the Superstitious will fear to be Condemned and the Perfidious Interested ones make the weak capacities of others serve for their more bold designs and the besotted Worshippers will believe to gain as many Crowns in Heaven as they kill Protestants What Prince can be safe reading and believing the discourse of the Crowning of the Pope attributed to Innocent the 3d. and saying these great words I bear the Mitre because of my Priesthood the Crown because I am King Establishing my self next under him who writ upon his Thing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords What wonder is there that so many people did rise against Hen. 3d. and afterwards against the generous and good King Hen. 4th Few persons could resist those barking Hypocrites who being ingaged in the Popes party did publish through all the Kingdom That whosoever should serve the Prince could never escape Damnation that Kings lose their Power in losing the Friendship of the Pope and being in that condition they merit neither Respect nor Love Judg Sir if the King hath not a just Interest and a lawful Right to cause his Nation to love a Religion which hath but one God one Heaven and one Monarch upon Earth 14. If the King designs this Unity of which you tell me the true fear of God ought to possess his Soul he ought to think that he is a Soveraign over his People but yet that he is neither Master of nor Companion with God and then he will account it his greatest glory to appear a faithful Servant in the house of the Almighty this title was given to Moses when he governed the Hebrews David and Solomon were honoured with that quality Certainly to serve God is truly to Reign his Majesty ought to take this Resolution not to consider the Interests Flatteries the Threatnings Opinions or the Wills of Men but only the Truth of God which conducts to true Justice Princes are obliged to know that God alone is the Monarch of Consciences and his Law only ought to instruct and his Authority to engage When they say that the King permits Liberty of Consciences they understand the liberty of exercising it or the liberty of appearing what one is since the freedome of thoughts answers but to God only It is certain then that the King desiring to draw his Subjects into one Religion cannot succeed more nobly nor more usefully then in establishing the way and orders of God the common Father of all no body can exclaim against his Powers censure his Word nor condemn his Ordinances Excellent Kings are marked with the quality of Princes according to Gods own heart because they have care to order to be done not what mens hearts desire but what God loves Sovereigns who render themselves subject to the Wills of men whither to their own Subjects or Strangers divide Opinions and give birth to War but if they appear faithful Servants to
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