MONSIEUR,--Although I am personally unknown to you, still I believe
you will not think it strange that I make so bold as to write to
you, having been requested to do so by two persons who ought to
insure me free enough access,--I mean Monsieur de Saint-Martin and
your daughter. Wherefore, also, I shall forbear making further
excuses, and likewise because I have heard that my letters would
not be unwelcome to you, but that you would have the patience to
read and think over the contents, which gives me good hope that you
have the true seed of God in you, which only needs to be cultivated
in order to sprout and produce its fruit. Now, as that is the end
I propose to myself, that we may attain it, I beseech you above
all chiefly to consider, that it is the duty of every Christian,
not to consent to the abuses which reign in the world, but rather
to ascertain what is the pure truth of God, with the purpose of
adhering to it; further, that you would listen to me, touching the
doctrine which we hold,--not that I would make full and entire
declaration of it to you, but I shall merely state in few words the
summary of the whole, in such wise that it will be easy for you
to perceive what is our principal object. As to the first, there
are very many who settle down in their ignorance and superstition,
because they will not take the trouble to open their eyes when the
clear light is presented to them. Inasmuch as I do not hold you
to be of that number, without further exhortation, it suffices
me that I have warned you of the fact. There is much reason that
all Christians should take care how they live towards God, so as
not wilfully to deceive themselves, above all in a matter of such
importance as is the salvation of the soul. It is notorious that
Christianity has been much corrupted and depraved, as well by the
negligence of prelates, as by that of governors, and that by their
stupidity, or avarice and ambition. I do not consider that this
corruption is only in manners or morals, but what is worse, doctrine
and truth have been turned into a lie. The service of God has been
polluted by endless superstitions. The order of Church government
has been turned upside down, the signs and symbols of the sacraments
so jumbled together, that all is confusion. If everybody does not
perceive that, it is because they have not brought back all things
to the true standard; but if we compare the religion and doctrine
held under the Papacy, with the pure ordinance of God, we shall
therein discover more contradiction than between day and night.
Therefore, to form a right notion, we must not pause to lay stress
upon either the authority of princes, or an ancient custom, or on
one's own understanding, but rather look above all, to what God
has commanded or forbidden, for he has not spoken in secret, but
has desired that his will should be known both of great and small.
When you have once settled this point of submitting yourself to be
taught of God, to acquiesce in what his word contains, desiring to
know what is the right way of salvation, that will be already a good
step towards arriving at the full knowledge of what it is for our
advantage to know.
The second request that I have said I had to make, is that you
consider calmly the sum of our doctrine, when I shall have shortly
stated it to you; for there are many who at once reject and condemn
it, without having heard what it is, because they are prejudiced
against us, which warps their judgment. I pass over the imputations
and crimes which they lay against us, to make us odious to all the
world; but do what they will, they cannot reproach us with having
any other end than to gather in the people who have long been going
astray, and to bring them back to their standard, which is the pure
word of God. We demand, however, that all differences of opinion be
determined by an appeal to that, and that every one abide by what
we know to be the will of God. Our adversaries make themselves a
buckler of the name of the Church, which they falsely assume. And it
is the same conflict which in their time the prophets and apostles
had with those who usurped pre-eminence in the Church, belying in
all things the duties of their office. But we know that the Church
is founded on the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, and that
she ought to be united to Jesus Christ, her head, who is without
variableness. So therefore it is but a bastard church where God's
doctrine does not reign as the rule. Following that rule, we desire
that God may be served according to his commandments, and we reject
all new-fangled ways invented to suit the appetite of men; for it
is not lawful for men to impose law or statute upon conscience,
and God moreover has reserved to himself this privilege, to ordain
for us whatsoever seemeth good unto himself. Therefore it is, that
we are accused of having abolished and trampled under foot the
ordinances of our mother, holy Church, for example when we say
with Isaiah and Jesus Christ, that it is in vain we think to find
out God by means of human traditions; then, when we say with St.
James, that there is but one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to
destroy. Well, then, when you had searched to the very utmost, you
would find that all which is among them called the worship of God,
is nothing but pure invention forged at their own pleasure. In like
manner, because the Holy Scripture, treating of our salvation, and
wherein rests our whole trust and confidence in regard to it, sends
us back to the sole grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, declaring that
we are poor wretched sinners, utterly lost and useless for good,
we endeavour to bring all the world to partake of this grace; and
that it may be acknowledged and magnified as it behoves to be, and
which cannot be done without casting down the false belief that we
can do aught to merit paradise. They take occasion on this account
to accuse us of making no account of good works, whereby they do us
wrong; for we are far more careful to recommend holy living, than
are any of our adversaries. But in order that men may not deceive
themselves by an overweening confidence, we teach that we are able
to do nothing whatever in our own strength, unless God guides us
by his Holy Spirit, and that even when we had done all, this would
afford a far too feeble ground whereon to found our justification;
that we must therefore have continual recourse to the mercy of God,
and to the merit and passion of Jesus Christ; and that it is there
that we must rest our hope, making no account of all the rest.
Thence it comes, that we say likewise, that we ought to address God
in all our prayers, for he calls us to himself, and forasmuch as
we of ourselves are too vile and unworthy to draw near to him, he
hath given us his Son Jesus Christ for our Advocate. Therefore it
is, that they reproach us with our hostility to the saints of both
sexes, and that we forbid the honouring of them. But this is absurd,
for we render to the saints the honour which God assigns them. Only
we cannot bear that they should be made idols of, being set up
instead of God, or of his Son our Saviour, which besides they do not
ask, but on the contrary take to be a great wrong; for those things
which, under shadow of devotion, are done with the view of pleasing
them, they seek vengeance before God.
The sacraments, which ought to serve for our confirmation in the
truth of God and in his fear, have been strangely perverted. When
we set ourselves carefully to restore them to their true use and
first original, they would have it believed that we are going to
destroy them. But would they only look to the ordinance as it has
been instituted by the Master, it would then be quite evident that
the manner of observance which we practise, does not derogate in
anything from what he has prescribed. True it is, we have not the
mass as among them, but we have the Supper such as Jesus Christ has
left it to us, and our adversaries can say nothing to the contrary,
only they object their custom as a reason for everything, but we
have another kind of buckler altogether, which is the commandment
that must endure inviolable to the end of the world. _Do this_,
saith the text, _until I come_. Whereby it follows, that whosoever
attempt to change anything until the coming of our Lord Jesus, prove
themselves rebels against him. I should be over-tedious were I to
follow out the other details which I omit mentioning to you, because
it shall well suffice me, if it please God to lead you to concur in
what I have herein lightly handled, in the hope that by more ample
reading you may be yet more confirmed in the same purpose. And now,
therefore, Monsieur, having humbly commended me to your kind favour,
I beseech our good Lord to guide you by his Spirit, to make you
conformable in everything to his will, and to send what he knows to
be good and wholesome for you.--Your servant,