mit the whole to his Judgment, and refign your felf entirely to what he will. Thefe two Conditions are abfolutely neceffary for you to fulfil: Now it is very difficult for you to do it, and to tell him fincerely these two Things. It is therefore very much to be feared left that the Difpenfation be not Valid, and your Salvation be in great Danger.

8thly, Don't fancy that, if you resume the Thought of being faithful to your dear Calling, you will be exposed to many Hardships in the Society, on account of what is paft. I give you my Word, fuch is the Character you have amongst us, as will make every one thank you for your Return; and no Body will question the Sincerity of it.

From all this I conclude that you ought to persevere in your holy State of Life. Ask Advice upon that from our good Mother the blessed Virgin. Examine from whence arife in your Mind these Unhappy Thoughts of Separation. Are not they owing to the Evil Spirit? I embrace you a Thousand Times, and proftrated at your Feet, I beseech you with Tears, not to create me fo great an Affliction. Affure your felf that I am with all my Heart,

Yours, &c. HERVÆUS GUIMOND.

I fhall be glad to hear of you from your felf,

SIR,

Father Malebranche's Second Letter.

I Have received the Letter which you did me the Honour to write, bearing Date the 6th of January. If it has on the one Hand given me Pleasure, because of the Self-love which is in me, and which I beg Leave to tell you, you have flattered exceffively; it has given me much Confufion on the other. You love Truth; abate then three Parts at least of the good Opinion you have of the Author of the Books, which you take fo much Delight in reading. For, Sir, you do not know me, nor do I know my felf very well neither. As for the Books, you can judge of them; for your Abilities make you capable of it. But, I am afraid, your Goodness to me puts a Veilo-. ver my Errors. I cannot fay that I have an ill Opinion of the Works which I have published; for I think I fhould never have published 'em, if I had efteemed them bad, or even useJefs. But I have great Reason to miftruft my felf, and to fear left, in those difficult Enquiries, I have taken that for Truth,

which

which hath only the Appearance of it. It belongs to those who have great Parts, and Leifure, as you have, to rectify my Failures. Another Caufe of Confufion for me, Sir, is the bad Picture*, which has been given to you, and which you have hung in view. I own neither the Picture, nor the Latin Motto, tho' I difown both less than the French Verses, which were ingraved at the bottom of it, and which have been ftruck out, because of the uneafiness I had about them. For I confefs, I am not humble enough, to be willing to pafs for the vaineft Man upon Earth; those who fhould happen to fee the Pictures and the Verfes, being likely to believe that the whole could not have been done without my Leave and Approbation. As for what concerns your new Condition of Life, I fhould be very much alarmed for you, if I knew not your good Difpofitions. For the Commerce of the World is very dangerous. I wish you a happy new Year. It will be happy both for you and for me, if it fits us for a bleffed Eternity. Prefent, I pray, my Respects to your Father; for I am, &c.

13th of January, 1708.

C. MALE BRANCHE
Priest of the Oratory?

Letter of Mr. Dumetz, Prefident of the Chamber of the

Royal Accounts.

Paris, the 27th of May, 1714

Have always esteemed the uprightness of Heart, and love of Truth, which I have feen in you. As long as I fee nothing contrary to this, I will never alter my Sentiments towards you. I will only compaffionate you the more, because I take you to be fincere, and because I think, that when you happen to be mistaken, it is rather out of Vi vacity and Precipitation, than out of any bad Principle. You are not the lefs inexcufable for that. For you are a great Mafter of fuch Principles, as render it impoffible for one to miftake, when they are exactly followed; and you know too well the Rules of Demonftration, to be caught by Paralogifms

* His own.

(Here

(Here follows a long Paffage borrowed from F.Malebranche's Treatife about Nature and Grace, in which the good Father comes near to Father Hardouin.).

Chrift (fays the Prefident) has promifed that the Gates of Hell fhould never prevail againft the CHURCH. He has entrufted St. Peter with the Government of it, and that Government belongs to his UNINTERRUPTED SUCCESSION Far from charging our Faults or Errors upon the CHURCH, it is our Intereft to defend it. We cannot depart from it, without departing from its true Head, of whom the Succeffor of S. Peter is only the Type.

(After that he offers me the help of enlightened Perfons to lead me back to the Bofom of the CHURCH.)

Worldly Advantages have never appeared to me to have any weight over your Mind, fays he. Let not the fear of fome little Disgrace make you put off a Return fo neceffary for your Soul. Renounce rather all manner of Study and Learning, than go on in making fuch an ill use of it. If you will follow my Advice, you will give up without delay, your Liberty and your Sentiments. For I am afraid that both will be very pernicious to you, in this World, and in the other. Your being fallen into Error, would not diminish the Efteem I have for you, but your perfifting in it. For you have Light and Knowledge enough, to recover from a Surprize. I pray God to give you Grace to do it. And I am, Sir, with much Sincerity,

Yours, &c. DUMETZ.

I answered him at large, and fent to him the Complaint of the Proteftants oppreffed in France, by Mr. Claude; and the lit tle Treatife of Mr. Bayle, about the Dragoonades of France, torn out from the beginning of his Philofophical Commentary; to fupport my Reply to the Abbot of Marbeuf, (whofe Letter follows) who had taxed me with Calumniating his Church, which I had called Bloody.

SIR,

Letter of the Abbot of Marbeuf.

Pray God that this Aufwer may find you in a more fedate Difpofition of Mind than you were in, when you wrote to me, that confidering in cold Blood what Difafters you pre

pare

and

pare for your felf, you may take without delay, the moft proper Meafures to avoid 'em. I do not queftion, Sir, but you have a fense of the Efteem and Love of your Friends here. Confider then what Sentiments will take room of the former in their Hearts Scorn and Abhorrence of your Obftinacy. And I do not believe that any of them, having more regard to Friendship, than to Honefty and Religion; which condemn you, will fo much as own that he has been your Friend. You must come to be in Want you have nothing to expect neither from your Acquaintance here, nor from your Father, who will no more trouble himfelf about you, as long as you give him no hopes of a return. He has pofitively affured me of it. Thofe amongft whom you live, being either deprived of their Eftates, or follicitous about their own Fortune, will care and concern themselves very little about yours You know, Mr. Bayle himself, with all his Reputation, that extended throughout all Europe, was forced to get his Livelihood by correcting the Prefs We are told, that you have been fo credulous as to hope that you might bring over to your Sentiments many of your Acquaintance here, who must have the greatest Contempt for your Perfon, till you are changed. I fee but one thing left for you, which is to refolve to live a Life full of Trou bles for the prefent, and of Fears for the future; which must be terrible to all thofe who die feparated from the CHURCH of CHRIST.

(He endeavours to fhow me at large, that his Church is * ONE, HOLY, CATHOLICK, and APOSTOLICK and fuppofing me all the while to be a ftrict CALVINIST, he tells me, that these Characters of the Church of Chrift cannot belong to the Calvinistical Church; and preffes me with many Arguments, fome of which are very weak in Themselves; and others have no Strength in them, but what they borrow from the Weaknefs of Proteftants.

*The Reafon he gives why the Calviniftical Church is not ONE, is indeed a Reafon very much to its Honour viz. because it has joined in France with the Lutherans; tho' they believe the Real Prefence of Chrift in the Eucharift. The UN INTERRUPTED SUCCESSION is the main Argul ment he makes use of for the Church of ROM E. The CHURCH of ENGLAND would quickly fall, if it bad no thing but that fandy Foundation to Support is.

Áre

Are the Crimes of fome a fufficient and juft Reafon for you to blacken our Church, and to feparate from it ? It becomes you very much indeed to call it BLOODY, ---- (for you ground your Motives of Separation chiefly upon its BLOODY SPIRIT) who defign to join with a SECT, which owes its rife to Blood and Maffacre, &c. t You are very quick-fighte! indeed you, who till laft Year defpifed all fort of Learning that depended merely upon Memory, to discover, in an Examination of ten Months, a fufficient number of Abufes in a Religious Society, for to bring your felf to fuch a Refolution as no Catholick Critick, after an Examination of 30 or 40 Years, ever took, and Grotius himself, with all his profound Learning, durft not take upon his Death-bed

(He fends me a Catalogue of about 30 Romish Controvertists.) You cannot, fays he, be throughly informed, till you have read all these Books at least ; your Conduct is fo amazing, that I could not bring my felf to believe what I fee, unless I knew that a Man, who is no more under the Direction of the Grace of God, is capable of any thing. Thus does he take delight in confounding human Pride. You have thought your felf ABLE to form a right Judgment upon every Arricle of our Belief, by the mere Force of your Genius; and God, in order to humble you, has not fo much as permitted you to take fuch Measures, as were abfolutely requifite in order to judge aright Do not lofe your Time in examining every particular Point. Acknowledge that this LABOUR is above your CAPACITY, as well as above THAT of the greatest Part of Mankind * -----.

(He exhorts me above all, to read the 13th Metaphyfical Difcourfe of F. Malebranche, about the Infallibility of the CHURCH, to this purpose. The Idea of Infallibility is included in the Idea of a Divine Society, as the Idea of Equality to two Right Angles is in the Idea of a Triangle. Now the CHURCH is a Divine Society; therefore, &c.) This, my Friend calls a perfect Demonftration to every one who is not blinded by Pride and Obftinacy. This Vice, fays he, is -often a greater Hindrance to the Discovery of Truth, than

This is a Calumny upon the Calvinifts, for their acting bravely, in oppofition to Tyranny, in their own ueceffary Defence. *This is exactly what Dr. Snape alfo faith; as indeed most of bis Arguments are to be found in thefe Letters of the Jefuits, tho' urged by them for their Caufe, with much more Confifiency

and fienour.

the