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express his concern, that an account was going to be published of what had passed between the two doctors and himself, and his hope, "that they would keep "in generals, as the only way to renew the good design, if occasion should serve, and to prevent "themselves trouble from the reflexions of their ene"mies," on account (as the archbishop undoubtedly means) of the concessions they had made, which, though insufficient to satisfy true Protestants, were adapted to exasperate bigoted papists. The prelate adds, in the conclusion of this letter, "I shall be glad to know that your doctors still continue their good opinion of us; for, though we need not the "approbation of men on our own account, yet I can"not but wish it as a mean to bring them, if not to a perfect agreement in all things with us, (which is "not presently to be expected,) yet to such an union "as may put an end to the odious charges against, "and consequential aversion of us, as heretics and "schismatics, and in truth, make them cease to be " so."

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Dr. Du-Pin (whom the archbishop very sincerely lamented, as the only man, after Mr. Ravechet, on whom the hopes of a reformation in France seemed to depend) left behind him an account of this famous correspondence. Some time before he died, he shewed it to Mr. Beauvoir, and told him, that he intended to communicate it to a very great man (probably the regent). Mr. Beauvoir observed to the doctor, that one would be led to imagine, from the manner in which this account was drawn up, that the archbishop made the first overtures with respect to the correspondence, and was the first who intimated his desire of the union; whereas it was palpably evident that he (Dr. Du-Pin) had first solicited the one and the other. Du-Pin acknowleged this freely and candidly, and promised to rectify it, but was prevented by death. It does not, however, appear, that his death put a final stop to the correspondence; for we learn by a letter from the archbishop to Mr. Beauvoir,

dated August 27, 1719, that Dr. Piers Girardin frequently wrote to his grace. But the opportunity was past; the appellants from the bull Unigenitus, or the anti-constitutionists, were divided; the court did not smile at all upon the project, because the regent was afraid of the Spanish party and the Jesuits; and therefore the continuation of this correspondence after Du-Pin's death was without effect.

Let the reader now, after having perused this historical account, judge of the appearance which Dr. Wake makes in this transaction. An impartial reader will certainly draw from this whole correspondence the following conclusions: that archbishop Wake was invited to this correspondence by Dr. DuPin, the most moderate of all the Roman Catholic divines; that he entered into it with a view to improve one of the most favorable opportunities that could be offered, of withdrawing the church of France from the jurisdiction of the pope; a circumstance which must have immediately weakened the power of the court of Rome, and, in its consequences, offered a fair prospect of a farther reformation in doctrine and worship, as the case happened in the church of England, when it happily threw off the papal yoke;-that he did not give Du-Pin, or any of the doctors of the Sorbonne, the smallest reason to hope that the church of England would give up any one point of belief or practice to the church of France; but insisted, on the contrary, that the latter should make alterations and concessions, in order to be reconciled to the former;-that he never specified the particular alterations, which would be requisite to satisfy the rulers and doctors of the church of England, but only expressed a general desire of an union between the churches, if that were possible, or at least of a mutual toleration; that he never flattered himself that this union could be perfectly accomplished, or that the doctors of the Gallican church would be entirely brought over to the church of England; but thought that every advance made by

them, and every concession, must have proved really advantageous to the Protestant cause.

The pacific spirit of Dr. Wake did not only discover itself in his correspondence with the Romish doctors, but in several other transactions in which he was engaged by his constant desire of promoting union and concord among Christians; for it is well known, that he kept up a constant friendly correspondence with the most eminent ministers of the foreign Protestant churches, and shewed a fraternal regard to them, notwithstanding the difference of their discipline and government from that of the church of England. In a letter written to the learned le Clerc in 1716, he expresses, in the most cordial terms, his affection for them, and declares positively, that nothing can be farther from his thoughts, than the notions adopted by certain bigoted and furious writers who refuse to embrace the foreign Protestants as their brethren, will not allow to their religious assemblies the denomination of churches, and deny the validity of their sacraments. He declares, on the contrary, these churches to be true Christian churches, and expresses a warm desire of their union with the church of England. It will be, perhaps, difficult to find, in any epistolary composition, ancient or modern, a more elegant simplicity, a more amiable spirit of meekness, moderation, and charity, and a happier strain of that easy and unaffected politeness which draws its expressions from a natural habit of goodness and humanity, than we meet with in this letter. We see this active and benevolent prelate still continuing to interest himself in the welfare of the Protestant churches abroad. In several letters written in the years 1718 and 1719, to the pastors and professors of Geneva and Switzerland, who were then at variance about the doctrines of predestination and grace, and some other abstruse points of metaphysical theology, he recommends earnestly to them

a See an extract of it among the pieces subjoined, No. XIX.

a spirit of mutual toleration and forbearance, entreats them particularly to be moderate in their demands of subscription to articles of faith, and proposes to them the example of the church of England as worthy of imitation in this respect. In one of these letters, he exhorts the doctors of Geneva not to go too far in explaining the nature, determining the sense, and imposing the belief of doctrines, which the divine wisdom has not thought proper to reveal clearly in the Scriptures, and the ignorance of which is very consistent with a state of salvation; and he recommends the prudence of the church of England, which has expressed these doctrines in such general terms, in its articles, that persons who think very differently about the doctrines may subscribe the articles, without wounding their integrity b. His letters to professor Schurer of Bern, and to the excellent and learned John Alphonso Turretin of Geneva, are in the same strain of moderation and charity, and are here subjoined, as every way worthy of attentive perusal. But what is more peculiarly worthy of attention here, is a letter written May 22, 1719, to Mr. Jablonski of Poland, who, from a persuasion of Dr. Wake's great wisdom, discernment, and moderation, had proposed to him the following question, viz. "Whether it was lawful and expedient for the "Lutherans to treat of an union with the church of "Rome; or whether all negotiations of this kind

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ought not to be looked upon as dangerous and de"lusive?" The archbishop's answer to this question contains a happy mixture of Protestant zeal and Christian charity. He gives the strongest cautions to the Polish Lutherans against entering into any treaty of union with the Roman Catholics, except on a footing of perfect equality, and in consequence of a previous renunciation, on the part of the latter, of the tyranny, and even of the superiority and jurisSee the pieces here subjoined, No. XX. See these letters, No. XXI, XXII, XXIII. d No. XXV.

diction of the church of Rome and its pontiff; and as to what concerns points of doctrine, he exhorts them not to sacrifice truth to temporal advantages, or even to a desire of peace. It would carry us too far, were we to give a minute account of Dr. Wake's correspondence with the Protestants of Nismes, or of Lithuania and other countries: it may however be affirmed, that no prelate, since the Reformation, had so extensive a correspondence with the Protestants abroad, and none could have a more friendly one.

It does not appear, that the dissenters in England made to the archbishop any proposals relative to an union with the established church, or that he made any proposals to them on that head. The spirit of the times, and the situation of the contending parties, offered little prospect of success to any scheme of that nature. In queen Anne's time, he was only bishop of Lincoln; and the disposition of the house of commons, and of all the Tory part of the nation, was then so unfavorable to the dissenters, that it is not at all likely that any attempt toward re-uniting them to the established church would have passed into a law. And, in the next reign, the face of things was so greatly changed in favor of the dissenters, and their hopes of recovering the rights and privileges, of which they had been deprived, were so sanguine, that it may be well questioned whether they would have accepted the offer of an union, had it been made to them. Be that as it will, one thing is certain, and it is a proof of archbishop Wake's moderate and pacific spirit, that, in 1714, when the spirit of the court and of the triumphant part of the ministry was, with respect to the Whigs in general, and to dissenters in particular, a spirit of enmity and oppression, this worthy prelate had the courage to stand up in opposition to the schism-bill, and to protest against it as a hardship upon the dissenters. This step, which must have blasted his credit at court, and proved detrimental to his private interest, as matters then

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