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and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exod. xx, 12.) Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. (Psalm lv, 23.) If these passages be charged with obscurity, what part of the Holy Scriptures can be called plain or perspicuous? In them, the despising of parents, blood-thirstiness, breach of faith, and deceit, are not the INSTRUMENTS of the decree, but they constitute the OBJECT of the decree; which object, unless it were of this description, would not be comprehended under the decree.— Farewell, most noble man! Continue to pray to God for the restoration of peace, first to the empires of the earth, and afterwards to the churches!"

From these extracts it will be seen, that the French Church then wore the appearance of being peculiarly favourable to these schemes of christian pacification. As early as 1626, before the short visit of Grotius to his native country, he addressed the following observations to Du Maurier respecting the conduct of the Rochelle Calvinists, who were then approaching the crisis of their fate: "Though I consider it equitable that the authority of the king of France should be supreme in every part of his dominions, yet I am afraid that the hatred of some individuals against the Protestants will be bounded by no moderation, and that severity of punishment will fall with the greatest violence on those who are the least implicated in offence. A discourse, delivered by Bassincourt at Amsterdam, is circulated in this city: It is full of reproaches against the king and the members of his government. The book is suppressed in Paris, but the author triumphs.But there is something on account of which we may congra

prayers and tears by pious christians, and thus should we cease from the lamentable practice of destroying each other by our mutual enmities! The present Pope, who, according to the report of several persons, is exceedingly desirous of effecting the peace of the Church, might easily be induced to adopt this sentiment; especially if the Evangelicals would no longer bestow on him the invidious epithet of ANTICHRIST! I cannot perceive the reason why certain divines should so vehemently defend the position that the Pope is Antichrist, since it is no prime article of belief, and I can either believe it or not, without any injury to the faith of Christianity. The man who affirms, that the Pope is not Antichrist, does not on that account approve of all the Popish dogmas: And this concession might in the first place be granted to the Pope, provided he would abolish the Inquisition, that torture of consciences, and would neither account the dissenters from the Church of Rome as heretics, nor visit them with his execrations.-The Elector of Brandenburgh died suddenly and unexpectedly at seven o'clock in the evening, on the first of December, at Konigsberg. He was not far advanced in years, but his body was extremely feeble on account of his great excessess in drinking. For this reason a question might justly be raised among divines, Did he attain to the term of life which God had pre-ordained? or, did he anticipate that period by his disorderly course of living? This question, one of the most difficult, is not examined by many divines with that prudence which it demands, especially by those who are so exceedingly urgent about that absolute decree, and who ascribe nothing to the immoderate luxury of man or to other external causes."

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tulate France, whose Bishops have lately retrieved the offence which was formerly committed in the Convention at Roan. For they have openly defined the supreme power of the French monarch to be subject to no man living, not even to the Church itself;* they have condemned the taking up of arms against

*This was a seasonable sally of patriotism on the part of the Catholic clergy of France, to distinguish themselves from their Calvinistic fellow subjects by their expressions of superior loyalty. But Grotius was a honest chronicler; and frequently had occasion to record a contrary practice on the part of the Popish clergy. For instance, he wrote thus, thirteen years afterwards, to the Chancellor Oxenstern: "As the [Presbyterian] ecclesiastics in Scotland, who ought to be the authors and promoters of peace, are the active and strenuous exciters of disturbances, so in France the [Popish] ecclesiastics treat the rights of the King with contempt. For Cardinal Rochefaucaud, who is the violent manager of the affairs of the Pope, and some Bishops who inherit much of his disposition, have condemned as heretical and schismatical the book entitled The Liberties of the Gallican Church, which is composed from the public acts, and forms a faithful index of ancient manners: They have also addressed letters about this affair to other Bishops, advising them to prevent the people from reading that pernicious book!"

The history of this affair, which would be far too long for a note, proves the hopelessness of effecting any salutary change in communities that acknowledge the Pope for the Head of the Church, and derive from him the right of induction to ecclesiastical dignities. The following extract from BAYLE'S notice of Peter De Marca will place this subject in a just light: "The volume of the Liberties of the Gallican Church, published by Peter du Puy, alarmed the partisans of the Court of Rome; some of whom endeavoured to make it believed, that they were the preliminaries of a schism contrived by Cardinal Richelieu; as if his Eminency had it in his head to erect a Patriarchate in the kingdom, in order to render the Gallican Church independent of the Pope. A French divine, who took the name of Optatus Gallus, wrote on this subject; and insinuated, that the Cardinal had brought over to his party a great personage, who would apologize for that erection. This great personage was no other than our Peter de Marca. The King, perceiving that au accusation of this nature would render him odious by the counter-blow of hatred to which it exposed the Cardinal, laid his commands upon M. De Marca to refute this Optatus Gallus, and at the same time to observe a certain medium,-not to shake the liberties of the Gallican Church on the oue hand, and to make it appear on the other, that these liberties did not in the least diminish the reverence due to the Holy See. He accepted of this commission, and executed it by his book De Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, sive de Libertatibus Ecclesiæ Gallicana, which he published in 1641. He declared in his preface, that he did not enter upon discussing of right, but confined himself to the settling of facts; and that he had only marked out the bounds which, through all ages, had separated the two dominions, those of the temporal and those of the spiritual prince. But though he had collected an infinite number of testimonies in favour of the Pope's power, that circumstance did not hinder his book from giving offence to the Ultramontains, so tender are their ears! The Court of Rome made a great many difficulties in despatching the Bulls, which were demanded in favour of this author, who had lately [1642] been presented to the Bishopric of Conserans: She caused it to be understood, that, in the first place, it was necessary he should soften some parts of his, and she made his book pass a very strict examination." After narrating several of these delays, Bayle thus concludes his account: "De Marca, seeing how affairs were protracted, and despairing of success except he gave satisfaction to the Court of Rome, published a book, in which he explained himself to the liking of the Ultramontains, and wrote a very submissive letter to the Pope, with great promises of fidelity. He owned, that, in his book, he had performed the duties of a President of the Parliament, much better than those of a Bishop. The Court of Rome, according to her ordinary finesse, still continued dilatory,

kings, even when they are persecutors; and they have expressed their approbation of the treaties which have been concluded with those whom the custom of the age calls HERETICS." The letters of Grotius contain an immense number of allusions to the increasing liberality of the French Church, and to the reports which were invented, by some persons, against Cardinal Richelieu* for his bold projects of ecclesiastical union. In Appendix H, which will be subjoined to Bishop WOMACK'S Calvinists' Cabinet Unlocked, I shall again introduce the Cardinal and some of his measures. The following extract, from Bayle's account of Richelieu's proposal to Amyraut, will be sufficient for my present purpose: "The Jesuit, who conferred

after this ample satisfaction; but at last, in January 1647, M. De Marca obtained his Bulls. It is a very troublesome servitude to the French Court, to be obliged to have the Pope's Bulls, before they can establish any bishop; which is the occasion, that those who would be very capable of supporting the liberties of the Gallican Church, and the interest of the King in his dif ferences with Rome, dare not exert all their strength. They aspire to prelateships, and they see that they never can succeed in those views if they render themselves too odious to the Court of Rome, or, at least, that they must at length be obliged to make dishonourable satisfactions. It was a great misfortune to the Jansenists, that this great prelate met with such difficulties at Rome, when he had occasion for a Bull in order to his being made Bishop of Conserans. This made him sensible, that he ought to lose no opportunity of repairing the loss which he had sustained there by his Concord between the Royal Power and the Priesthood: And what more favourable opportunity could he expect, than this of seconding the Court of Rome in its procedures against the disciples of Jansenius? Add to this, that they had made him suspected of Jansenism beyond the mountains; and that this ill office had for a long time retarded the expedition of the Bull; which was necessary to establish him in the Archbishopric of Thoulouse, of which he took possession without any pomp in 1655. Whatever was the motive of Marca's zeal against the Jansenists, it is certain that they found in him a very formidable adversary.'

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Truth and instruction are combined in these judicius remarks. A different mode of proceeding, on the part of the Church of Rome, is contained in the following extract of a letter from Grotius in 1640: "The controversies between the Courts of Rome and France still continue; but it is believed, that Mazarine, who is sent on the part of France to negotiate a peace at Cologne, will compose the difference by his own elevation to the dignity of Cardinal. The disposition of the Court of Rome is such, that you may effect far more by terrifying it into compliance, than by soothing it with flattery." *The authors of these rumours were both Calvinists and Papists: The former circulated a report, which is thus related in one of the letters of Grotius in 1628, just after the surrender of Rochelle: "And Richelieu who, it was said, would fix the seat of his power in Rochelle, has by its capture cleared himself in the sight of all men from any such design; and has shewn that, by incurring these heavy expences, he has not been transacting his own private business but that of the public.'

Rumours were also invented about Dury, Ferri, and other Protestant peace-makers, as though those good men were as much under the Cardinal's patronage, as De Milletiere had been after deserting the ranks of the Rochellers. See pages 211 & 226. In the letters of the celebrated Guy Patin the following passage occurs: "Monsieur Ferri, minister of Metz, died a month ago. He was one of the most learned men amongst those of his religion. If Cardinal De Richelieu had lived some time longer, he would have reconciled the two religions. There were several ministers bribed for this purpose: Monsieur Ferri was one of them, and had a yearly pension of five hundred crowns. Thus the Hugunots speak of him here."

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with Amyraut upon this subject, was Father Audebert.* Mr. de Villeneuve, then Lord Lieutenant of Saumur, having invited them both to dinner, (and that with such an obliging carriage to the minister, that he placed him above the Jesuit, and caused grace to be omitted,) took care they should confer in private after dinner. It is true, Mr. Amyraut protested that he could not forbear imparting to his colleagues all that should pass between them. The Jesuit began by owning that he was sent by the King and his eminence to propose an agree'ment in point of Religion;' and afterwards, entering upon the matter in hand, he declared that the Roman Catholics were ready to sacrifice to the public tranquility the invocation of saints, purgatory, and the merit of good works; that they would 'set bounds to THE POPE'S POWER; and that, in case they should 'meet with opposition as to that from the court of Rome, they 'would lay hold on the occasion to create a Patriarch;† that the

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* Whenever I find the Jesuits employed in any affair, I immediately suspect the integrity and sincerity of their employers: But, from other circumstances in the history of Cardinal Richelieu, it is probable that in many of these experiments he was the person deceived rather than the deceiver. It was very unfortunate, that the members of this daring Order abounded in the Court of France when our Charles the First brought his Queen to England, and that her Majesty afterwards afforded them such ample encouragement. Whoever has observed the purpose to which Prynne has applied the term which a Jesuit employed respecting the potency of the "drug Arminianism," will not admire that litigious and intolerant barrister for any profundity of intellect displayed by him on that subject. Arminianism was understood by the English Puritans, generally, as something that was connected with the introduction of the new rites and ceremonies, more than in its doctrinal import of God's expansive compassion to all the ruined race of Adam. It was in the former acceptation in which the plotting Jesuits employed the term, as one of discord and separation to effect their own dis organizing purposes: In the latter meaning, it could not be applied by the Jesuits with the design which Prynne has intimated.

+ Those persons who know the history of Cardinal Richelieu and his negotiations with the Court of Rome, will entertain no doubt concerning his ambition in aspiring to the Patriarchate. Grotius seems not to have accounted it an improbable event, though he expresses himself with great caution about it, in a letter to the Chancellor Oxenstern in July 1638: "That passionate ebullition which was excited here against the Romish Bulls, is somewhat subsided. The space of six weeks has been granted to the Pope's Nuncio, in order to devise and try remedies; one among which, Father Joseph thinks, will be his obtaining the Cardinals' Purple, a favour which has hitherto been pertinaciously denied to him. I dare not indeed form in my mind such vast conceptions, but there are persons who suppose, that the Cardinal [Richelieu] will rise from these beginnings, and will claim for himself the Patriarchal authority, which is almost that of a Pope: And, since every thing in these cases is seized with avidity by such minds as are inclined to believe the report, some people have given this interpretation to the following verses, which were composed by Nostradamus, a noble and ancient astrologer, who, in the opinion of the vulgar, foretold many events that have been actually fulfilled :

Celui qui etoit bien avant dans le regne
Ayant chef range, proche hierarchie,
Aspre et cruel, et se fera tant craindre
Succedera a sacree Monarchie."

This quotation is illustrative of the note in page 624. Grotius briefly alludes to this report, in March, 1640, but does not express a decided opinion

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6

627

Laity should be allowed the communion in both kinds; and and union.'peace that they would give up several other points, provided they "found in the Protestants a sincere desire of But, when Mr. Amyraut touched upon the doctrines of the Eucharist, he protested, that, as to that tenet, no alteration would be admitted:' whereupon the other answered, that if 'so, they could come to no agreement.* Their conference about it: "A very libellous pamphlet is circulated here against the Cardinal, accusing him of a design to effect a schism from the Roman See. Among other matters, it is objected against him, that he allows christian truth to be taught by men who are not in the Church. The favourable judgment formed here by the most learned men, both Senators and others, concerning my treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion, and the sanction of the royal authority which it has obtained, will, I think, cause Voetius to feel ashamed of having represented it as a Mahometan or Socinian production."

*This proposition for concord between the two churches seems to have been broken off, on the part of Mr. Amyraut, on account of the real presence in the Eucharist,-a point on which a Lutheran and a Papist are at complete agreement by means of the Ubiquitarian doctrine. This was one of my reasons for asserting, in page 615, that "the ambassador of a Lutheran nation had, in the execution of such an excellent undertaking as the reconciliation "If terms as liberal as these had been of Protestants with Papists, fewer prejudices to renounce than a member of any other Protestant community." proposed to the early Protestants, and had been strictly observed by the Church of Rome, it is probable that Lutheranism would never had an existence in Germany. But as Mr. Amyraut's opinion on the real presence was very different from Luther's, he acted the part of an honourable man, to make that point a preliminary objection. Those who have read the notes of Grotius on Cassander will not require to be told, that between Cassander's terms of union, and those propounded to Amyraut, no great dissimilarity existed. On this subject the following letter, addressed by Grotius to Rosenhan, in March 1642, will be perused with interest:

The further I advance in years, and consequently the nearer my approach to the confines of the grave, the more sensibly I feel to owe God this service, to communicate to posterity those things which, in the course of my whole life, I have been learning as conducive to the peace of christians; and I am not without hope, that persons will hereafter arise who will use my admonitions, and those of others, to heal the dissensions which have afforded combustible materials to the flames of so many wars. I ascribe no more to the Roman Pontiff, than was formerly ascribed to him by Melancthon; nor have I hazarded any assertion which is not most apparent from the historical records even of the three earliest and best ages, as may be seen in a book which has lately been published on the Primacy in the Church, by David Blondel, a minister in these parts among those who in France call themselves THE Reformed. But I address my sincere prayers to God, to grant such a Pope as will properly discharge his duty, and will amend whatever may admit of amendment. But if, in composing those works which are in my opinion both true and useful, I do not please every one, this fact will excite little wonder in the mind of the man who knows, that Philip du Plessis Mornay wrote many things which were exceedingly prejudicial to the religion of the king of France, at the very time when he enjoyed from that monarch the highest honours, and yet he was never called to any public account about those matters.-In the mean time the Augsburgh Confession has been published at Paris under my superintendance; and I perceive that the French bishops and divines entertain favourable sentiments about it. If any one will transmit me the Swedish Liturgy translated into the Latin language, the present will be exceedingly agreeable."

In reference to Blondel's book, Grotius, under the date of July the 31st, 1638, gives the following account, which is very creditable to the memory of Archbishop Laud: "I highly praise the conduct of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has within these few days, by an honourable letter, ex

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