Excerpt from D'aubigne, and His Writings: With a Sketch of the Life of the Author But 18 there not reason to fear, that the history of the Church, and of the Reformation 1n particular, may revive polemics, above all against the Roman Catholics, and may re -open the wounds of the Western Church, as yet but imperfectly healed? I believe the reverse. History will doubtless show us, in a general way, truth on one side and error on the other. But she will also show us good and evil mixed here and there; she will show us, on the side of the Catholics, many a true Christian, although in some respects certainly but little enlightened; and on the side Of the Protestants, many a man unworthy of that name. She will Show us Catholicism, adding without doubt many things to the Word of God, and preserving nevertheless most of the fundamental doc trines of Christianism, the depravity of man, salvation through the atonement, the essential divinity of the Redeemer, the indispen sable work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. And to pass thence to the history of the Reformation - I shall be a Protestant - I pro claim beforehand - Yet not as a sectarian, but as a Christian. I desire not to be unmindful Of the respect which is due to men, in whose ranks have shone the names Of Laurence de Bibra, Sado let, Borromeo, Vincent de Paul Pascal, Fenelon. It shall not be my province to strike Catholicism w ith redoubled blows. That was the affair of Luther's age it was done then, and 1s not the business of our age: but it shall be alone my object, if I can ac complish it, to invest with a touching influence the living princi ple, which produced in the sixteenth century a great religious regeneration, and which must produce the same in our day. I shall notice the evil deeds of Protestants when I meet with them. I shall notice the good actions of Catholics whenever I see them and perhaps a favorable trait incidentally mentioned by a narra tor (i cannot say by a historian) Of the Reformation, will soothe the mind more readily than apologies for Catholicism, In the mouth of one Of its priests. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.