DE PACE INTER EVANGELICOS

PROCURANDA;

SENTENTIA

A REV. JOSEPHO HALL, D. D.

DOM. EPISC. EXON.

CONSCRIPTA;

ET JOHANNI DUREO, SCOTO, TRADITA.

ON THE PROMOTION

OF PEACE AMONG PROTESTANTS;

THE JUDGMENT WRITTEN

BY THE RIGHT REV. JOSEPH HALL, D. D.

LORD BISHOP OF EXETER;

AND DELIVERED TO JOHN DURY, SCOTCHMAN.

NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH,

BY THE

REV. PETER HALL, M. A.

John Dury, or Durie, was a Scotch divine, of eminent piety and zeal, who spent a considerable part of his life in attempting to bring the Lutherans and Calvinists to agreement. His publications, chiefly bearing on the same proposal, are very numerous. The following (which has never before appeared, either in Latin or English, among the works of Bishop Hall) constitutes a portion of a volume, comprising "Four Judgments:" viz. those of Morton, Bp. of Durham; Davenant, Bp. of Salisbury; Hall, Bp. of Exeter; and the last, a compilation from some of the most eminent divines of France. The first edition (containing only the communications of the three Bishops) was published at Amst. 1634, 4to.; the second, with the addition of the French divines, in 1636; the fourth, (from which the present reprint is taken,) revised and enlarged, with a list of authors who had previously written on the reconciliation of the Church, Lond. 1638, 12mo. This publication of Dury (with other treatises of Bp. Hall) is referred to by Baxter, in his Reformed Pastor, in terms of great commendation.-H.

"In simplicitate, fides est; in fide, justitia est; in confessione, pietas est. Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vitam quæstiones vocat; non multiplici eloquentis facundiæ genere solicitat: in absoluto nobis ac facili est eternitas, Jesum suscitatum à mortuis per Deum credere, et ipsum esse Dominum fateri."-D. Ambrosius, de Trin. lib. 10.

"Faith stands in simplicity; justification rests on faith; and religion shews itself in confession. It is not through abstruse disquisitions that God calls us to a blessed life; it is not by the varieties of oratory and eloquence that he provokes us our prospect of eternity hangs on a sure and simple principle, that we believe Jesus to have been raised from the dead by God, and that we confess him to be the Lord.”—St. Ambrose, on the Trinity, book 10.

LECTORI, SALUTEM.

QUANDOQUIDEM (me prorsus inscio) evolârit in vulgus, inter gravissimas summorum Theologorum sententias, Schedula hæc; æquum fuerit, ut intelligat Lector tantillæ hujusce scriptiunculæ rationem.

Communicârat mecum D. Johannes Duræus, vir publico bono natus, neque nuperis modò amicitiæ nexibus, piisque officiis, mihi conjunctus, totum incœpti sui (ardui quidem illius, sed perquam sancti utilisque) de componendâ Evangelicorum lite consilium; felicemque itineris sui jam tum utriusque successum mihi, tanti laboris priùs conscio, et ore et calamo haud parcè exposuerat. Inter alia, (quod caput erat negotii,) dederat mihi in manus Colloquii illius Lipsiaci exemplar, quod inter primarios utriusque partis Theologos pridem habitum fuerat.

Scilicet (ne nesciat Lector) convenerant Lipsiæ, (non sine numine,) anno salutis 1631, arreptâ ex communi principum Evangelicorum consessu occasione, ex unâ parte, D. Matthias Hoeus, D. Polycarpus Leiserus, D. Henricus Hofnerus; ex alterâ verò, D. Johannes Bergius, D. Johannes Crocius, D. Theophilus Neubergerus; viri apud suos meritò percelebres, sed et scriptis plærique orbi Christiano notissimi. Et non sine Illustrissimorum Principum consensu et auspiciis, colloquium instituerant inibi de re religionis, familiare, ingenuum, verèque fraternum: in quo, miro sanè candore concordique studio percurrerunt sigillatim Augustanæ Confessionis articulos universos. Libratisque æquâ (ut oportuit) trutinâ utriusque partis sententiis, procul omni præjudicio ac affectu, tandem compertum est, omnes in unâ eâdemque communi veritate per omnia ejusdem Confessionis capita, tribus tantùm exceptis, unanimes conspirâsse: sed neque in tribus illis ita penitus dissensisse, ut nullus adhuc concordiæ locus superesse videretur.