APPEND.ence by Dr Du Pin, the most moderate of all the III. Roman Catholic divines; that he entered into it with a view to improve one of the most favourable 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 two churches, if that were possible, or at least of a mutual toleration of each other-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 shewed a fraternal regard to them, notwithstand-Append. ing the difference of their discipline and govern- III. ment from that of the church of England. In a letter written to the learned Le Clerc in the year 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 their religi ous 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 [e]. 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, the Archbishop recommends earnestly to them a spirit of mutual toleration and forbearance, entreats them particularly to be moderate in their demands of subscription to articles of faith, and propose to them the examples of the church of England as worthy of imitation in this respect. In one of these letters, he exhorts the doctors [e] See an extract of it among the pieces subjoined, No XIX. APPEND.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 holy 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 [f]. His letters to Professor Schurer of Bern, and the excellent and learned John Alphonso Turretin of Geneva, are in the same strain of moderation and charity, and are here subjoined [g], as every way worthy of the reader's perufal. But what is more peculiarly worthy of attention here is a letter, written May 22. 1719 [b], 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 ought not to be looked upon as dangerous and delusive?" 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, than 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 jurisdiction of the church of Rome and its pontif; and as to what concerns points of doctrine, he exhorts [f] See the pieces here subjoined, No XX. horts them not to sacrifice truth to temporal ad-append. vantages, or even te a desire of peace. It would II. carry us too far, were we to give a minute account of Dr Wake's correspondence with the Protestants of Nismes, 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 unfavourable to the Dissenters, that it is not at all likely that any attempt towards 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 favour 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 the year 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 APPEND.private interest, as matters then stood, shewed III that his regard for the Dissenters was friendly and sincere. It is true, four years after this, when it was proposed to repeal the Schismbill and the Act against Occasional Conformity, both at once, he disapproved of this proposal. And this circumstance has been alleged as an objection to the encomiums that have been given to his tender regard for the Dissenters, or at least as a proof that he changed his mind; and that Wake, bishop of Lincoln, was more their friend than Wake, archbishop of Canterbury. I don't pretend to justify this change of conduct. It seems to have been, indeed, occasioned by a change of circumstances. The Dissenters, in their state of oppression during the ministry of Bolingbroke and his party, were objects of compassion; and those who had sagacity enough to perceive the ultimate object which that ministry had in view in oppressing them, must have interested themselves in their sufferings, and opposed their oppressors, from a regard to the united causes of Protestantism and liberty. In the following reign, the credit of the Dissenters rose; and, while this encouraged the wise and moderate men among them to plead with prudence and with justice their right to be delivered from several real grievances, it elated the violent (and violent men there are in all parties, nay even in the cause of moderation) to a high degree. This rendered them formidable to all those who were jealous of the power, privileges, and authority, of the established church; and Archbishop Wake was probably of this number. He had protested against the shackles that were imposed upon them when they lay under the frowns of government; but apprehending, perhaps, that the removing these shackles in the day of prosperity would render their motions towards power too rapid, he opposed the abrogation of the |