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    liosj who would be apt to think that a union , professedly on Christian grounds , between Protestants and Papists , would be to concede too much to the former : that it would be at least to acknowledge them as Christians , if It did not go far to countenance them as members of a true church . Accordingly , some individuals among the Roman Catholics blamed the conduct of those belonging to their church , who had thus associated themselves with members of other Christian communions . This induced M .

    Llorente , one of the council of administration , on his own account , and in behalf of other Roman Catholics who belonged to the Society of Christian Morality , to make a communication in their defence , a defence alike independent and conciliating . " Why is it , " he inquires , " that some individuals of the Roman Catholic Church speak in the manner they do of the conduct of their fellow-worshipers , merely because they have co-operated with members of other communions ? Charity to our neighbour , and the precepts which it imposes , have not been

    objects of controversy among different Christian communions , for more than three centuries . I know not the motive for censuring the union of a Roman Catholic Christian with Protestant Christians , for a common object , and one so worthy of all men who profess that evangelical morality which our divine Master , Jesus Christ , promulgated , in order that it might be practised by all Christians ; that is , by all who shall acknowledge the gospel as the fundamental law of morals , and who are not contented with a philosophical morality founded only in the laws of nature , and interpreted by philosophers instead of "Christians .

    After some remarks , in which he professes that he and his Catholic associates consider themselves justified in the course they have adopted by " the literal sense of the Sacred Scriptures , ' * M . Llorente proceeds to examine those texts which guard the true Christian against heretics , and to shew their inapplicability to Protestants as a body : citing also those passages which command mutual forbearance and brotherly love . All this is done with perfect deference to his own church ; and he concludes by saying ,

    " It is sufficient for me to know , that neither Jesus Christ , nor the Apostles , nor my church , forbid me to associate with religious , pious , and charitable Christians , although they follow , as to certain doctrines , an opinion opposite to mine ; since that difference does not hinder our co-operation in works of charity . Not onl y is it not forbidden , but , on the contrary , the first law of Christianity ( which is charity ) commands me to unite with such a Society , since it affords me occasion and means of doing good , that I could not enjoy by myself , or when united only with other Catholics , who had not the opportunities which the Society of Christian Morality possesses , to spread the good doctrine through the known world . "

    We have made these large extracts to shew what must be gratifying to every liberal and enlightened Christian ; namely , the truly evangelical spirit which inspires many distinguished men in France , belonging to the two great divisions of the church . Such a spirit , notwithstanding it is shewn by M . Llorente that its exercise in co-operation with Protestants is not inconsistent with fidelity to his own church , forms a new era in its history ? Never

    before was the same liberality shewn to any great extent ; and the partition wall must have become exceedingly weakened , when so many distinguished members of a once infallible church are allowed to vindicate their union with other Christians , for the highest Christian purposes . We lament the decease of M . Llorente , which took place not long after his communication was published in the Journal . He was a distinguished ecclesiastic during a

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    838 Revieiv . — Society de la Morale Chrttienne .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1827, page 838, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1802/page/54/