re were no hopes of success at present,
ought we not to sow the seed, which may he useful to
posterity?[063] Even if we should only diminish the mutual hatred
among Christians, and render them more sociable, would not this be
worth purchasing at the price of some labour and reproaches?"[064]

Grotius expressed himself in similar terms to Baron Oxenstiern: Surely
it is the true language of the Gospel.

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII.]

In the first appendix to this work,--we shall insert, an account

"of the Formularies, Confessions of Faith, and Symbolic Books, of
the Roman Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant churches:"--

In the second appendix,--we shall insert an account of the principal
attempts made, since the Reformation, for the re-union of
Christians.--The former is abridged from the "Historical and Literary
Account of the Confessions of Faith," which was formerly published by
the present writer;--the second is an essay appended to that work:--both
have been before referred to in the present publication.

[Sidenote: XII. 3. His Project of Religious Pacification.]

Grotius[065] thought that the most compendious way to produce universal
religious peace among Christians, would be to frame, with the
concurrence of all the orthodox Eastern and Western churches, a
formulary which should express, briefly and explicitly, all the articles
of faith, the belief of which they agree in thinking essential to
salvation. In a letter addressed from Paris in 1625,[066] he mentions
that Gustavus Adolphus had entertained projects of religious
pacification, and had taken measures to effect it; that he had procured
a meeting of divines of the Lutheran and Reformed churches and that they
had separated amicably: Grotius says that the differences between them
were as slight as those between the Greek and Coptic churches.

For some time, Grotius flattered himself that he should succeed in his
project of pacification. In one of his letters to his brother, he
mentions distinguished Protestants, who approved and encouraged them

"I perceive," he says, "that by conversing with men of the most
learning among the reformed, and explaining my sentiments to them,
they are of my opinion; and that their number will increase, if my
treatises are dispersed. I can truly affirm, that I have said
nothing in them from party spirit, but followed truth as closely as
I could."[067]

[Sidenote: CHAP. XII