II.  Some account of the Attempts made at different times by the
    sovereigns of France for the conversion of their protestant subjects: 

    III.  The correspondence of Bossuet and Leibniz, under the auspices of
    Lewis the Fourteenth, for the reunion of the Lutheran Churches to the
    Church of Rome: 

    IV.  Some account of an attempt made in the reign of George the First,
    to reunite the Church of England to the Church of Rome: 

    V. And some general remarks on the Reunion of Christians.

I.

Attempts made to unite the Lutheran, and Calvinist Churches.

The great division of Protestant Churches is, into the Lutheran, and Calvinist communions.  The Abbe Tabaraud relates in the work, which we have just cited, not fewer than fifteen different attempts to effect a reunion of their churches.  In reading his account and that given by Mosheim of these attempts, the writer thinks that, on each side, there was something to commend and something to blame.  It seems to him, that the Lutherans deserve credit for the open and explicit manner, in which, on these occasions, they propounded the tenets of their creed to the Calvinists; that the conduct of the Calvinists was more liberal and conciliating; but that, on the other hand, the conduct of the Lutherans towards the Calvinists, was generally repulsive, and sometimes deserving a much harsher name; while the conduct of the Calvinists, was sometimes chargeable, with ambiguity.

“It was deplorable,” says Mosheim, (Cent. xvii. sect. 2. part 2. art. 3.) “to see two churches, which had discovered, an equal degree of pious zeal, and fortitude, in throwing off the despotic yoke of Rome, divided among themselves, and living in discords, that were highly detrimental, to the interests of religion, and the well-being of society.  Hence, several eminent divines, and leading men, both among the Lutherans, and Calvinists, sought anxiously, after some method, of uniting the two churches, though divided in their opinions, in the bonds of Christian charity, and ecclesiastical communion.  A competent knowledge, of human nature, and human passions, was sufficient, to persuade these wise, and pacific mediators, that a perfect uniformity in religious opinions, was not practicable, and that it would be entirely extravagant, to imagine that any of these communities, could ever be brought, to embrace universally, and without limitation, the doctrines of the other.  They made it, therefore, their principal business, to persuade those, whose spirits were inflamed with the heat of controversy, that the points in debate between the two churches, were not essential, to true religion;—­that the fundamental doctrines, of Christianity, were received, and professed, in both communions; and that the difference of opinion, between the contending parties, turned, either upon points of an abstruse, and incomprehensible