either Interest or Ignorance was the Cause of their Change: What the World will think of me for renouncing the Heresy of Calvin, and taking up with what I thought the soundest Doctrine; that is to say, for entering into the Bosom of that Church to which the Heterodoxy of my Ancestors had made me a Stranger, I know not: But be it what it will, I am ever ready to account to all Mankind for an Action, of which I revere the Remembrance; and which I am only sorry, I had not done sooner.
As to Interest, I don’t think it can possibly be said, that it had any Share in my Conversion: For the Light that I stood in with the King of Prussia, the Rank I bore at his Court, either upon the Score of my Family, or for the Employments I had there, and the Wealth and Fortune of which I was Possessor; all these Advantages, compar’d with the Situation I am in at present, must convince the World, that Interest was not the Motive which engag’d me to change my Religion.
As to Ignorance; I should be vain indeed if I thought myself a Man of Learning, or if I aim’d at the Character: However, I will venture to say, that I am not ignorant of any of the principal Articles of the Orthodox Religion which I profess: For this I appeal to your Lordship, as you are my Bishop, in Quality of Vicar General of Upper and Lower Saxony, with which his Holiness has dignify’d you: I intreat, that you will be pleas’d to give your Attention to the Confession of Faith which I have hereunto annex’d: Pray, my Lord, examine whether it be orthodox, since to your Judgment I intirely refer it; and if there unluckily happens to be any thing in it which is not conformable to the Sentiments of the Catholic
Religion, I absolutely submit myself to your Decision; the rather, because I shall always count it an Honour to be one of your Diocesans, and ever be desirous from the Bottom of my Soul to improve by your Lordship’s Instructions.
Upon reading that Passage of the Apostle to the Ephesians, Chap. iv. Ver. 5. Unus Dominus, una Fides, unum Baptisma; i. e. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism; I enquir’d, what was the true Faith: And when I had divested myself of all Opinions which I had imbib’d from my Education, the very first Reflection that I made led me to examine into the Origin of the pretended Reformed Religion, and after what manner it began. I found, that in all Countries Interest, Ambition, Licentiousness, Revenge were the Motives that gave Rise to the Establishment of that Religion: I scrutiniz’d the Lives and Morals of the Leaders of those Sects; and discover’d, that they were generally passionate Men, inclin’d to Choler, addicted to sensual Pleasures, Men that led irregular Lives, and made no Account of their Promises. Consequently I could not persuade myself, that God would have made Choice of such Persons for reforming his Church, supposing even that it stood in need of it: I carry’d my Reflections farther; I consider’d the Disagreement between the very Pretenders to Reformation, and perceiv’d, that their Body is a Body without a Head, where every Prince, and every Sovereign makes himself Arbiter of the Articles of Faith, and assumes to himself the Authority of the Pope: Every Parson is with them a Bishop, every one explains the Holy Scripture after his own way, and in the Sense that he himself understands it; and every one adopts to himself a particular System of religious
Principles and Opinions; they are Sheep without a Shepherd: In short, the Pretenders to Reformation are continually at Variance with each other; they reject and condemn one another’s Doctrines, and never agree, but when they act in Opposition to the Pope, or the Catholics. Moreover, their Religion is not now, what it was at the Time of its Establishment: The Calvinists were formerly unanimous in the Belief of Predestination: But now there’s hardly any of them of that Opinion, except the Swiss and Dutch: The others reject it, as to the Point of Salvation, and only allow of it with regard to the Hour of Death, and the Accidents of Life, which, according to them, are fix’d by inevitable Destiny. Heretofore also, both the Lutherans and Calvinists agreed universally, that Salvation was attainable in the Catholic Religion; but now they think otherwise; and for some Years past, they have thought fit to declare in their Writings, that the Catholics are damned.
I also reflected on the Number of different Sects that are sprung out of the Two Religions, and did not find one of them but what flatter’d themselves with a Conceit, that their’s was the true Religion, tho’ they were all of opposite Sentiments to each other: I could not imagine, how these Divisions could be the Mark of the true Church; it being impossible to conceive, that a Church under such Direction can be the true Church.
When I afterwards came to consider the Establishment and Ordination of their Ministers, I could not look upon them as such, being persuaded, as St. Paul says, That Bishops are of divine Institution; and that they alone have the Power of ordaining Priests.
Tradition, which is rejected by the Protestants in all Points where it makes against them, but espous’d by them when it seems in their Favour, was an Article which I thought requir’d my utmost Regard. For really when the Protestants say, they don’t believe Tradition, methinks they are inconsistent with themselves in receiving the Holy Scripture, and taking it for the Word of God, because this is a Truth, which they cannot know but by Tradition: And if they allow of Tradition with regard to the Scripture, Why don’t they admit of it when religious Tenets are the Points in Question? How can they know, unless it be by Tradition, that the Books of the Maccabees, Esther, Esdras and Ecclesiasticus are Apocryphal, and not Canonical? Who told them, that the rest of the Bible was dictated by the Holy Spirit? In short, Who gave them Authority to reject those other Books? What Motive could have induc’d them to it, unless it was, that those very Books prove Things to them, which they are not willing to believe? In short, I look’d into Calvinism for some Marks of the true Church, but could find none; because the true Church must be one, and united to Jesus Christ in the same manner as the Body is to the Head; and because ’tis Jesus Christ who founded the Church, who own’d it for his Spouse, for the Daughter of God the Father, and at the same time to be the only infallible Church.
Having discovered none of these Marks in the Protestant Religion, and finding them, on the other hand, in the Catholic Religion, I could not help thinking the latter to be the only one in which I might hope for my Salvation: This was what determin’d me to study the Doctrines of it, and these that follow are what I have conceiv’d