APPEND. III. P. S. I intreat you never to forget me to the two good doctors whom I love and honour: keep up the little interest I have with them. As soon as ever the present turn is over, I will write to Dr GIRARDIN. I hope my letters will not always be carried as criminals before the Secretary of State, though I am persuaded he bears no ill-will to me. No. XIV. Extract of a letter from Archbishop WAKE to I April 29. 1718. AM much concerned to hear that Dr DU PIN decays so fast I feared by his last letter that he was sinking apace. Pray, is there any good print of him taken these last years? for I have one that was made when he was a young man. I am sorry Dr PIERS grows faint-hearted: I never thought any thing could be done as to a reformation in France, without the authority of the court; but I was in hopes the regent and others might have found their account in such an attempt; and then the good disposition of the bishops, clergy, and Sorbonne, with the parliament of Paris, would have given a great deal of spirit and expedition to it. I have done what was proper for me in that matter: I can now go no farther, till the Abbot Du Bois is better disposed; yet I shall still be pleased to keep up a little esteem between those gentlemen, which will do us some good, if it does not do them any service. I am apt to think, the good old man (Du PIN) does not think us far from the kingdom of heaven. I have with this sent a letter of friendship to Dr PIERS, which you will be so kind as to send him, with my kind respects. No. XV. No. XV. Extract of a letter from Archbishop WAKE to N. B. DU PIN was dead before it arrived at Paris. PERAVERAM equidem tua auctoritate, constantia, eruditione, pietate, moderatione, quæ omnia adeò in te perfecta esse noscuntur, ut vix in aliis singula, præclari aliquid ad Dei gloriam. Ecclesiæque Gallicanæ utilitatem perfici potuisse. Crediderim advenisse tempus, in quo, excusso Romanæ tyrannidis jugo, unà nobiscum in eandem communionem coalesceretis. In dogmatibus, proùt a te çandite proponuntur, non admodùm dissentimus: in regimine Ecclesiastico minus: in fundamentalibus, sive doctrinam sive disciplinam spectemus, vix omninò. Quàm facilis erat ab his initiis ad concordiam progressus, modò animos haberemus ad pacem compositos! Sed hoc principibus seculi non arridet, unionis inimicis etiam plurimum displicet: neque nobis forte dabit Deus esse tam felicibus, ut ad hujusmodi unionem nostram qualemcunque opera conferamus. Relinquamus hoc illi, in cujus manu sunt rerum omnium tempora et occasiones. Sufficiat voluisse aliquid in tam insigni opere; fortè & semina in terram projecisse, quæ fructum tandem multiplicem proferant. Interim, quod nemo nobis denegare possit, nos invicem ut fratres, ut ejusdem mystici corporis membra, amplectamur. No. XVI. APPEND. III. No. XVI. Extract of a letter from Archbishop WAKE to Mr BEAUVOIR. Feb. 9. S. V. S. V. 1719-20. I Heartily wish there were either spirit or incli nation enough in the Sorbonne to go on with our friend the Abbé's project; but the fire decays, men's inclinations cool: the court will do nothing, and you are very sensible, that without the court nothing can be done in any such affair. Nevertheless, their good opinion of the church of England should be kept up as much as possible; we should encourage them all we can to account of us as of brethren, who have only thrown off, what they are weary of, the tyranny of the court of Rome, without any change in any fundamental article, either of the doctrine or government of the Catholic church. And upon this ground I shall be ready to continue a brotherly correspondence with any of their great men, provided it be done with such caution as may not expose my letters to be made prisoners to a Secretary of State, a thing which can never become my character, and may carry an ill aspect, even in our own court, till the thing be rightly understood. I No. XVII. Extract of a letter from the Archbishop to March 31. 1720. Thank you for your account of the present state of the French church. It is a very odd one indeed; but will settle into an agreement at last: When once the appellants begin to break, the court will drive all the obstinate (as they will call them; I should name them, the honest men, of courage and constancy) to a compliance. No. XVIII. I No. XVIII. Extract of a letter from the Archbishop to April 19. O. S. 1790. Perceive, by some late letters from him (PIERS GIRARDIN), that he begins to despair of the business of the constitution. He has reason: the Cardinal DE NOAILLES is ensnared, and has gone too far to retire. The new archbishop of Cambray will be a Cardinal, and this affair of the constitution must procure the Calot for him. The regent himself is afraid of the Spanish party, and the Jesuits; and he will gain, or at least appease them. For all these reasons, the doctrine of the church, and the Gallican liberties, must be abandoned; and on the slight pretence of a commt. of no esteem with the opposite party, an accommodation will certainly be made; and those who will not voluntarily go, shall be driven into it. If our poor friend be one of those who must hereby suffer, why may he not consider of a retreat hither? and since he cannot yet bring on an union with the two churches, unite himself with ours, from which I am sure his principles, and I believe his inclinations, are not greatly distant? But this must be managed very tenderly, and rather by a kind of rallying, than a direct proposal of it. If he inclines to it, he will easily understand your meaning; if not, 'tis best not to go on far with him in a matter in which you will have no good success. No. XIX. APPEND. APPEND. III. No. XIX. Extract of a letter from Archbishop WAKE to Mr LE CLErc. April, 1719. NOVUM Testamentum Gallicum, notis tuis felicitèr ornatum, totum, nec sine fructu, perlegi. Præfatione tua eidem præfixa mirificè affectus sum; legi, relegi, quin et sæpiùs deinceps repetam. Ita me in ipso præsertim ejus initio commovit, ut veræ pietatis in ea relucentem spiritum nunquam satis laudare possim, vel animo meo satis altè imprimere. Et quamvis in annotationibus tuis quædam liberiùs dicta occurrant, quæ non æque omnibus placeant, neque mihi ipsi ubique satisfaciant ; fero tamen, et vel in ipso tuo a communi sententia discessu aliquid mihi invenire videor, quod ignoscere magis quàm acerbiùs reprehendere debeam, multo minùs inclementiùs damnare. Libertatem prophetandi, modo pia ac sobria sit, cum charitate, ac mansuetudine conjuncta, nec contra analogiam fidei semel sanctis traditæ, adeò non vituperandam, ut etiam probandam cer.seam. De rebus adiaphoris cum nemine contemnendum puto. Ecclesias reformatis, etsi in aliquibus a nostra Anglicana dissentientes, libentèr amplector. Optarem equidem regimen Episcopale benè temperatum, et ab omni injusta dominatione sejunctum, quale apud nos obtinet, et, siquid ego in his rebus sapiam, ab ipso Apostolorum ævo in Ecclesia receptum fuerit, et ab iis omnibus fuisset retentum; nec despero quin aliquando restitutum, si non ipse videam, at posteri videbunt. Interim absit ut ego tam ferrei pectoris sim, ut ob ejusmodi defectum (sic mihi absque omni invidia appellare liceat) aliquas earum a communione nostra abscindendas credam; aut cum quibusdam furiosis inter nos scriptoribus, eas nulla vera ac |