Catholick of the Church of England or a Church of England Protestant We allow him not to forget the Christian the Generous and the Friendly Obligations that many of the Roman Catholiques have laid upon him Lastly Let us allow that there are some points in the Church of Rome wherein tho we differ in Modalities and Terms we agree yet in the same meaning And that there are some other points wherein the matter is capable of such Condescentions and Abatements as both sides might very well close upon with a just deference to Christâ—â—â— Charity and without offence to the Catholique Faith Yet after all these Concessions we do most certainly believe and seriously affirm that there are many other points in which neither Modalities and Terms do make the difference nor is the matter capable of such Condescentions and Abatements as both sides might well close upon without offence to the Catholique Faith 9. That is there are many things they hold and we do deny such again as we hold and they do deny that with all the Condesentions and Abatements can never be Accomodated nor we with all the Christian Charity be reconciled unless we are so base as against Truth and Reason to go over in those points wholly to them or Almighty God shall open their Eyes so to discern it that they come fully over to us 8. 9. I must be very Copious now upon This Subject to be very Clear And it is Certainly worth my while too when the Stress that 's laid upon the Cause in hand is made not only Matter of Life and Death but of Heaven and Hell too For if ever we live to see the second Part of Otes'es Plot there will be both Hanging aud Damning too in the Case In the First Place he Allows me to be a Catholique of the Church-of-England or a Church-of-England Protestant which will hardly Consist with his making me afterward more then Half a Papist Now if he had Intended Candidly and an Impartial Iustice upon the Question about My Religion there was enough in the Paragraph of Obs. 6. Vol. 3. whence he took This to have Answer'd That Point beyond All Controversy But his Bus'ness was to Bring me On not to Bring me Off And so I must e'en do That Right for My self which He would not do for me The Words of the Citation in Connexion are These Trim. 'T would be a great deal more Generous to Own and to Declare your self a Papist to the Whole World then to lye Wriggling In and Out thus betwixt Two Religions Obs. Why then once for all Trimmer I am a CATHOLIQVE and the very Same Catholique that I have Ever been and ever Profess'd my self to Be That is to say a Catholique of the Church of England Though I am well enough Content to Own my self a Protestant too according to the Best Acceptation of the Word Improperly Speaking and no Otherwise That Religion which I Own'd and Process'd upon the Sacrament to the Reverend Dr Ken at the Hague Now Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells when I was forc'd to run away from a Pack of Forsworn Miscreants here that would have made a Papist of me That very Religion do I Declare my self to be of at This Day and that I never put Pen to Paper throughout the Whole Course of this Pretended Plot in Justification of the Papists with any Regard to their Religion but out of the very Indignation of my Soul to see an Outcry against Popery on the One Hand made a Cover for a Republican and Phanatical Rebellion on the Other To see the Church of England Struck-at in That Popery and Every man that did but Talk like a Christian a Good Subject or an Honest Man to be presently Stigmatiz'd for a Papist to see Common Malefactors and Prostitute Hirelings set-up for the Saviours of a Church and a State and Gain Credit by Kissing the Outside of a Bible without Believing One Syllable of the Contents To see Three Kingdoms half-Eaten-up by Catch-Poles the Lives and Estates of Men of Honour Sacrific'd to the Rabble and what with Starving Projects and Bills of Exclusion the Late King and the Royal Family Treated Little Better then the Meanest Subjects Neither in the Presence of God was I ever Transported by any Partialities of Prepossession into so much as One Thought of Bitterness against the Dissenters any further then as upon Knowledge and Sure Experience I was Convinc'd as I am at This Instant that the Schism is only a Conspiracy and a League against the Government under the Masque of Religion If you Doubt of This I can Summon ye above a Hundred and Fifty of their Own Doctors to Verify this Opinion I have no Interest in this Declaration but to Deliver the Truth and Simplicity of my very Heart and to Confound the Malice of All Slanderers Impostors and Gain-sayers The Question upon the Matter here before us is Briefly This Not whether the Ingenious Worthy Man of Parts be a Protestant or a Papist but whether he be a Christian or no Nay a Pagan would not have made so Bold with his Idol as I have upon This Occasion with my Maker if I have not here Deliver'd the Truth without Guile or Reserve And I am Mistaken too if the Charity of Believing me be not as much a Christian Duty on the One Hand as the Sincerity of the Protestations I have here made is on the Other In his Next Citation out of Obs. 10. He passes over These Words at the Beginning of the Same Period Though I am not of the Religion of the Roman Catholiques I can never forget c. The Considerer I perceive had much rather make the world believe that I am a Papist then Cite Any Declarations or Oaths of Mine to the Contrary And yet now All o' th Sudden he comes Over to me and we Agree like Two Tallys Unless it be that He Out-does me even in my Own Proposition For he speaks Positively both to the Some Points and to the Some Other Points To which I only put my Naked Belief But the Surest way is to Referr to the Text it self There are Some Points in the Church of Rome wherein I veryly Believe though we Differ in Modalities and Terms we Agree yet in the Same Meaning There are some Other Points wherein I do As veryly Believe the Matter Capable of Such Condescentions and Abatements as Both sides might very well Close upon with a Just Deference to Christian Charity and without Offence to the Catholique Faith Obs. Num. 6. Vol. 3. Let Any man Compare the Considerer now upon This Point with the Observator and he shall find them to be Both so perfectly of a Mind upon the Desperate Doctrine of Modalities and Accommodable Differences in Some Points and in Some Other Points that they Agree in the very Same Words and Syllables But there are Many Other Points he says wherein the Matter is Not Capable of such Condescentions and
question now and then in an Observator But still so fast as One Sham went-off Another came on and finding the Work to be Endless I made a Virtue of my Misfortune and took up a Philosophical Resolution of Troubling my Head no further with what I could not help So long as the Fame of my Levity and Hypocrisy Pass'd only from hand to hand in a News-Letter by Word of Mouth or upon Common Hearsay I stood the Shock without being much Concern'd whether the World were Angry or Pleas'd Notwithstanding that Great Names and Authoritys were laid hold of to Bolster-up the Credit of the Report But when I came afterward to find Ten Sheets of a Book Printed under the Title of The Difference between the CHURCH of ENGLAND and the CHURCH of ROME Considered and Stated according to such Measures as both do Allow The Subject of it lyable enough to stirr up Vnseasonable Heats And My Self at what Hazzard soever render'd the Occasion of the Controversy As if the Treatise had been only a Defence of the Church of England in Reply to the Observator that had Written against it This Insinuation was the most Artificial Essay of Proving me a Papist that has as yet been Offer'd at And left only This Choice before me Either to put Pen to Paper in Denial of the Charge or to Stand Mute and Confess it You will I hope My Lord Easily Excuse my Writing under These Circumstances and as Generously Pardon the Adventure of This Dedication when you shall find how Injuriously my Adversaries have Apply'd the Countenance of your Lordships Power and Character toward the Oppressing of an Innocent Person Neither have I proceeded thus far without Consulting All the Terms of Discretion Decency and Respect Even to the Degree of Reasoning my self into a Full Conviction that I could not have done Less then now I do without being Wanting both to your Lordship and to my self That is to say without Appearing less Sollicitous for the Blessing of your Good Opinion then I ought to be It is not yet My Lord that I presume to Beg your Patronage the Breadth of a Single-Hair beyond the Merits of the Cause and the Exact Truth and Rigour of an Impartial Iustice So that my Petition within Those Bounds is as Good as Granted Before-Hand But the Sum of my Humble Request with Submission is only This That I may have leave to Deposite These Sheets in your Lordships Hand To the End that in case of Any Misrepresentation of the Matters here in Question my Accusation and my Defence may Appear Together I have now My Lord only to Crave your Benediction upon Your Lordships most Dutifull and Obedient Servant Roger L'Estrange To the Reader THis is only to shew the Reader in a Few Words how Matters stand betwixt the Peevish Part of the World and the Observator and it is a Defence that I am forc'd upon by a Certain Printed Paper that lays me under the Absolute Necessity of a Reply And at the same time gives me as Fair an Opportunity as I could Wish of Clearing several Other Scores all under One. My Work will be the Easier in regard that the most Popular Stress of the Calumny against me is Discharg'd out of the Mouths of my very Opposers and not without Manifest Contradictions upon Themselves too Beside the False Countenances that are put upon my Writings Meanings in Despite of Grammar-Rules and of Common Reason which the Reader would have taken Notice of without Telling For the Better Colour of the Bus'ness the Title bears the Face only of a Consideration of the Difference betwixt the Two Churches But the First Sheet of the Text looks quite Another way and turns the Pretended State of the Controversy into a Stabbing Reflexion upon the Observator As who should say let the Author of the Observators talk what he will of Re-Unions and Accommodations as if there were no Difference at all but in Terms and Modalities betwixt the Church-of England and the Church of Rome Here 's a Brief Confutation of his Mistake let him Deny it if he can Upon the Authority of This Insinuation I am presently to be run-down for a Papist without any Ground for the Suggestion Nay upon Those Points wherein the Plaintiff and the Defendent Agree in Opinion to a Single Syllable So that Write I must and my Method shall be to Take and to Answer That which Concerns my self in Fact For I have nothing to do with matter of Doctrine Paragraph by Paragraph under the Heads of CONSIDERATIONS and NOTES to Distinguish the One from the Other The Observator Defended c. 1. The Difference between the Church of ENGLAND and the Church of ROME CONSIDER'D and Stated according to such Measures as both do Allow 1. THese are the Words of the Title But we must look for the Drift Meaning of it in the following Text Where it will Appear that the Pretended State of the Difference betwixt the Two Churches is the Least Part of the Bus'ness of This Treatise Though Nine Parts in Ten of the Bulk of it be Employ'd upon That Subject So that I shall now Proceed to the Matter 2. After the Ingenious Author of the Observators had declared that he was resolved not to intermeddle in past Controversies without fresh and publick Provocation to 't and to bury Forty One and his Dissenters Sayings both together And that if they will be quiet he has as large a Field before him t'other way It was no little surprize to the Honest and Loyal Church-of England men to observe their Religion and to the Clergy of London to find themselves brought into the Field and to be concern'd in the t'other way 2. The First Note I shall make upon This Paragraph after my Thanks for the Ingenious Author must be This That it is a Paper Representative of the Honest and Loyal Church-of-England-men and the Clergy of London at least if we may take the Printers Word for 't in the First Page which Imports a Complaint in Their Names of Injurys done to Them and Their Religion by the Ingenious Observator It is now to be Hop'd that we shall have Fair Dealing in the rest of the Clause For Otherwise the Church of England will have Juster Cause of Exception to her Advocate for his Vindication then to the Observator for his Calumny In the Second Place we shall Confront the References with the Originalls and see how the Observators Words and the Considerers Inferences will Hang together I am Resolv'd says the Observator not to Intermeddle in Past Controversies without Fresh and Publique Provocation to 't Or where the Uindication of the Government shall Naturally Require it I shall Bury Forty One and my Dissenters Sayings Both together And That Story shall never see the Light more 'till the Republicans or the Dissenters Themselves shall by some Future Act of Open Disobedience force Some of Those Instances out of their Graves again
the One Halfe of This Courtesy would have done My Bus'ness In like manner I would have Compounded with the Considerer with all my heart for his Civilities to the Gentleman and the Scholar if he would but have Excus'd me from the Infamy of a Defamer of the Charch and a Spreader of Infectious Doctrines I do not speak This to Lessen the Esteem of the Author but purely to Preserve my Self from the Consequences of so Infectious a Calumny And a Calumny for ought yet appears without Any Foundation The Clause runs in the Style of WE Except against WE Declare WE do Honour OVR Church and OVR People So that the Censure falls little short of an Anathema for it appears here to be Publish'd as out of the Mouth of the Church it Self And what 's my Crime at last now but the Poor Innocent Observator of Feb. 23. Last Past For my Modalities All that Train of True-Protestant Clamours and Scruples are Approv'd and Allow'd of by Himself to a Single Tittle We shake hands too in the Possibilities of Things And I do not hear of so much as One Syllable added to my Charge upon this Subject So that upon the Main the Whole Mystery of My Iniquity is Wrapt up in the Gall and Venom of Those Two Words OVR RELIGION There 's Popery there 's Heresy there 's Scandal There 's Insolence and In Manners in 'em For till That Malevolent Minute All was Well And the Lashing of the Schismatiques for the Scandal and the Ruine that they have brought both upon the Church and the State by the Equivocal and Squinting Use they have made of Those Two General Words is the Only Sin for ought I can see that I have here to Answer for The Considerer Himself Dates the Quarrel from that Moment He Founds it upon That Bottom And when All is done he has given me a Discharge under his Own Hand 13. Our Author is pleased to affirm That the Principles of the Papists are known and certain A proposition which cannot be universally true since they are far from an agreement even in such points as are of the greatest importance for them to agree in Such is that of Infallibility which whether it be in the Pope without a Council or a Council without the Pope or Pope and Council or the Church Diffusive they cannot agree nor determine But supposing that their Principles are known and certain where may we expect to find them if not in their Councils General and Provincial in their Canons and Decrees in their allow'd Catechisms and solemn Professions of Faith in their publique Offices and approved Comments on Scripture but if these be not admitted we must despair of satisfaction and have reason to conclude their Principles are neither known nor certain 13. He referrs Himself here to an Affirmation of mine out of Observator Vol. 3. Num. 9. Where according to his Custom he Draws a Citation out of the Middle of the Period My words are These Such an Union with Papists as you seem to Propose with Protestants holds no Proportion at all with the Question in hand First as Their Principles are Known and Certain The Other Unnaccountable and Uagabond And so afterward The One Supposes a Doctrinal Union And the Other Demands a Political c. Now there is a Great Difference betwixt a Positive and a Comparative Affirmation So that he puts the Case upon the Stretch to make it the Former Though 't is the Same thing to Me whether it be the One or the Other for I 'm Right Both ways as to My Purpose If their Principles be Not Known and Certain there 's One Stabbing Argument against the Papists fall'n to the Ground That is to say the Involving of the People of That Persuasion to the Last Man of 'em in the Common Principle of Destroying as they call them Heretical Princes For the Recaptacle of Infallibility is a Point as he says p. 6. that is not as yet Agreed or Determin'd among Themselves But if they Bee Known and Certain I have nothing more to say Neither is it One Jot to the Bus'ness of That Observator which Respects only the Disparity betwixt Vniting in Matters of Doctrine with men of Another Religion and Vniting with men that pretend to be of Our Own Religion in Political Maxims and Positions which are Subversive of the Civil State 14. As for the Doctrine of the Church of England we can freely declare it to be known and certain The sum of what we hold is drawn up in Nine and Thirty Articles explained in one and Twenty Homilies the way of our Worship exhibited in our Liturgy From hence we shall therefore collect our Materials and according to the method of our Articles compare Doctrine with Doctrine Church with Church by which we doubt not but to make the Opposition between them so evident that both sides will agree that the Church of England is one thing and the Church of Rome another and as they are at present no more capable of being one than Truth and Error can be the same In order to which we shall premise 14. This looks as if the Observator had stood-up For the Principles of the Papists Against the Doctrine of the Church-of England and Consequently Extorted from the Vnwilling Author These Papers in Vindication of the Protestant Religion when yet the Observator has not Presum'd in Any sort or upon Any Occasion to Touch the Ark but Kept himself within the Bounds of Political Remarques and Disquisitions in Order to the Service of the State without Breaking-in upon the Offices and Duties of the Reverend Clergy in Any Degree Whatsoever Now I shall Easily Joyn with him that the Church-of-England is One Thing and the Church of Rome Another But it is yet as Possible that they may come to be One Again as it was before the Separation that they should come to be Divided I 'le break No Squares with him neither upon This Point that as they are at present they are no more Capable of being One then Truth and Error can be the Same which is no more then to say that White can never be Black so long as 't is White nor Black White so long as 't is Black But now though the Error or the Vice can never Change Colour the Offender may Quit an Ill Habit and leave his Wickedness behind him And the most Mistaken Creature in the world may be brought out of Darkness into Light So that the Considerer might have sav'd himself the Labour of Iumbling Doctrines together and Conferring Articles upon Any Account That is to say of the Observators For the Virtues of the Load-stone or the Squaring of a Circle would have been a Subject Every jot as much to the Question in hand for any thing that I have to do in the Case as the Stating and Ballancing the Doctrine of the Two Churches 15. First That there are some Articles which both Churches do
THE Observator Defended BY The AUTHOR of the OBSERVATORS IN A Full ANSWER to Several Scandalls Cast upon him in Matters of Religion Government and Good Manners LONDON Printed for Charles Brome at the Sign of the Gun in St. Paul's Church-yard 1685. To the Right Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London My LORD YOu have here before your Lordship an Appeal from Clamour Calumny to your Honour and Iustice And to whom but to my Right Reverend Diocesan should I fly for Protection and Relief when Religion and Good Manners though brought in by Head and Shoulders are made the Question I am Arraigned as a Stickler for Popery An Enemy to the Establish'd Church of England a Slanderer of the London-Clergy and a Sower of Dissention among his Majesties Subjects All which Reproches I Valu'd as my Glory so long as I was Wounded for the Churches sake and by the Common and Profess'd Enemies of the True Sons of That Church and of All Loyal Subjects But I must Confess it has given me some Trouble as well as matter of Admiration to see so Unaccountable a Change of Humour now of Late from what it was some Few Years agon And that the Same Zeal under the Same Method of Manage and Direction and for the very Same Cause too Nay and the Self-same Publique Offices and Applications that were Acknowledg'd and Declar'd to be Meritorious Services from the Year 1680. to February 1684 5 should now all on the Sudden be Pronounc'd so Scandalous and Offensive to the Same Protestant Church which Before they were thought to have Defended And All these Contradictions at Last from many of the very Same Hands Where the Fault lyes is Submitted to your Lordship to Determine and whether the Same Principles the Same Iudgment the Same Practices and the Same Doctrine of CIVIL OBEDIENCE for I have gone no further be not as Warrantable under the Reign of our Present King whom God Preserve as they were in the time of his Late Blessed Majesty If it shall be said that I have Departed from my Self I do Freely Offer-up Seaven or Eight and Forty Years of my Life to the Scrutiny And if upon the Strictest Examination of my Papers and Actions It shall be made Appear that I am not the very same Person at This Day that I was in the First Scottish Rebellion of 38 and 9. with a respect to the Religion and Government both of Church and State and without any Shifting either of Opinion or so much as Outward Pretence in the Interval I 'le Submit to be Concluded by That Instance Though I am persuaded My Lord that the Clearest of my Accusers would be Loth to stand That Test And This under favour is not All neither For there Occurs yet Another Difficulty that 's as much a Riddle as any of the Rest which is how the Same Person should be so Deadly an Eye-Sore to the Orthodox Clergy of the Church of England and yet at the Same Time if not in the same Cause be so Galling a Thorn in the Sides of the Schismatiques With your Lordships Favour and Patience for a word or Two upon This Part of my Case If I am an Enemy to the Church I 'me a Friend to the Faction And yet I find no Abatement of Malicious Forgeries and Scandals against me from That Quarter If I 'me an Enemy to the Schism purely for the Churches sake I am so far a Friend to the Church And it is yet my Fortune to meet with as Hard Measure under Colour of That Interest as of the Other Now my Lord If my Writings and my Life be All of a piece as after all This Noise there 's not the Least Shadow of a Proof to the Contrary If both the One and the Other have had the Honour 'till now of late of a Fair Interpretation both as to my Religion and my Allegeance If I do at This Moment stand upon the Same Ground and Assert the Same Principles that ever I did there must be either some Secret Practice or some Dangerous Misunderstanding in the Bus'ness And the Intrigue is no more then This The Common Enemies of the Government Invent and Spread Scandals against the Friends of it They throw out the Bait and here and there an Easy Honest man Swallows it while under That Pretext the Designs of the Faction are Expos'd as the Sense of the Church as will be set forth more at large in This Following Tract Your Lordship has not taken Notice perhaps that the Author of Iulian the Apostate is of late become a Famous Stickler for the Protestant Religion and the Church-of England as by Law Establish'd against Popery and Papists And that he has Compos'd and Publish'd Three Famous Papers upon That Subject But withall That as These Three Papers were Intended for Libells so they were Manag'd in the Dark and Privately Thrown about the Streets as the most Pernicious of Libells And in fine to Consummate the Boldness and the Wickedness of the Hypocrisy These Papers were Written Design'd and Calculated for the Service of the Rebellion it self To say nothing of Other Affronts put upon the Dignity of the Holy Order and the Protestant Profession under the Same Disguise It is Briefly my Lord the very Train and Master-piece of the Faction by a Certain Sleight of hand to get the Protestant Religion turn'd up Trump and Then to Play their Own Game under it With Permission my Lord This is the Iust State and True Measure of the Case both Publique and Private I had it T'other day from a Person of Great and Vnquestionable Honour That the very Morning after the Rebells Landed at Lime as they were Discoursing of the Danger of their Vndertaking Well! says a Head-Man among 'em If we can but make a Breakfast of Those Rogues Jeffreys and L'Estrange we 'le never Repent the Hazzards we are to run I take it for an Obligation that they Design'd the Eating of me in so Good Company But with pardon it seems somewhat with the most yet to be Baited by CHRISTIANs on the One Hand and Worry'd by CANNIBALS on the Other It will become me now to Enform your Lordship in Excuse of This Confidence how Unwillingly I came to it The Western Rebellion has hardly made more Noise then my Apostacy to the Church of Rome and it has given no small Reputation to the Imposture that my Enemies have taken Sanctuary in the Church and Stabb'd me even from behind the Altar So that I could not so much as Defend my self without some sort of Irreverence And to go further would have been little less then Sacrilege It was a Dangerous and an Vnkind Dilemma that I was now put upon Either to Sink for want of a Vindication or to run the Risque of Hurting my Mother in the Attempt of Righting my self upon some of her Froward Children Upon This Consideration I contented my self with the Middle Course of only Touching upon the Point in
Compare the Citation now with the Text and you will finde the Periods Maim'd and the Omissions Totally in favour of the Dissenters Nay the Conditions of my Forbearance Broken by an Open Rebellion and the very Violation of Those Conditions Smother'd and Suppress'd Here are Three Divided Sentences Tack'd into One and when he has Disjoynted My Connexion he mightily mistakes my Meaning After the Words Both together he takes a Leap of allmost Fifty Lines to That Passage If they will be Quiet c. Which in the Observator runs Thus. Obs. Prethee hold thy self Contented Trimmer Either the People I have had to do withall Will be Quiet or they will Not be Quiet If they will Not there 's work enough That way Cut out Ready to my hand But if they Will be Quiet I have as Large a Field before me T'OTHER WAY And I shall be as Ready to Celebrate the Miracle of their Loyalty and Conversion as ever I was to set forth the History of their Ingratitude and Disobedience I must here Observe that he has First left out One Point of the Dilemma and 2ly Cut off Short of the Explication of the Other Point Under which Ambiguity and Imperfection he turns 'TOTHER WAY upon the Church-of-England-men and the London-Clergy when the Words were most Explicitely Spoken and Intended of the Republicans and Phanatiques And the Short English of them no more then This If they will Not be Quiet I 'le Expose them but if they Will be Quiet I 'le Commend them 3. When the Clergy of the City under the Conduct of their Right Reverend Diocesan had presented an Humble Address in the Sincerity of their Hearts to His Sacred Majesty with their humble thanks for his Gracious assurance to defend Our Religion As they could not think the Phrase Our Religion liable in it self to any just exceptions so of all men living could not they have supposed that this Author who had before treated them with Respect and had been so treated by them should all o' th' suddain without any provocation or observing the Law he had before offer'd even to the Dissenters fall unmercifully upon that little Phrase and those that innocently used it as if there had been a secret reserve in it and that under the Cant as he is pleased to term it of the Protestant Religion the Reformed Religion and Our Religion there was intended a Cover for All Religions but Popery An inference very wide and extravagant since tho Our Religion had not been followed as it was with Established by Law yet the Address being presented by such a Body of men as the City Clergy and referring to His Majesties Declaration where he was pleased Graciously to assure us of the care he would take to defend the Church so Established all mistake in that matter was sufficiently prevented 3. There are a Great many Hard Words given to the Observator in This Clause Principalities and Powers Call'd into the Party and upon the Whole Matter a Body can hardly fancy the Character of a Worse Man But yet for the sake of Two or Three Lines there I have Good Nature enough to Forgive All the Rest. Of All men Living says the Considerer they could not have Supposed that This Author who had before Treated them with Respect and had been so Treated by them should all o' th' SUDDEN c. Now This Passage has in a Great Measure Unveil'd the Mystery and laid Open the very Root of All the Following Misunderstandings Alas I was a Protestant a Person in Credit and Treated with Respect 'till This Unlucky All o' th' Sudden Spoil'd my Market and Shipwrackt my Religion and my Reputation both at a Gust I was in One Word a Very Honest Man and a Good Protestant a True Son of the Church and a Loyal Subject to his Majesty 'till the Three and Twentieth of February Last past which was the Precise Date of the Bloudy Observator that has wrought me all this Woe There was No Notice taken as yet of the Story of my Massing-it at Somerset-House 1680. Not a Word said of my Siding with the Loyal Papists at Worcester against the Rebellious Pretended Protestants there in my Observators of May 1683. No Talk as yet of Modalities and Accommodations though I gave the World more Pretence for it in Eighty One then ever I did since But now All o' th' Sudden I 'm a Papist a Renegade c. And All long of That Vnpardonable Observator Vol. 3. Num. 7. Wherefore I cannot do better then Remit my self to That very Paper and leave the World to Iudge upon an Equal Hearing whether of the Two is the more to Blame the Considerer or the Observator Only One Word by the way to the Articles of my Charge First I am made a Ridiculer of the Address of the London-Clergy for the Phrase of Our Religion Notwithstanding 2ly His Majesties Gracious Assurance to Defend Our Religion And 3ly Notwithstanding the Dignity of the Presenters and the Solemnity of Presenting it I make it no better then a Cant and as if there were some Secret Reserve in 't To this I say First that the Considerer Cannot Apply the Descant upon Our Religion to the London-Clergy without making them Schismatiques Neither does the Address run in the Style of Our Religion but Our Religion Establisht by Law 2ly Neither is it the Phrase of his Majesties Declaration it self The Words being These I shall make it my Endeavour to Preserve This Government both in Church and State as it is now by Law Establish'd 3ly The Words Cant and Secret Reserve are Appropriated and Restrain'd so Inseparably to the Schismatiques that All the Force in the World cannot draw from them Any Other Meaning So that Either the Whole Charge falls to the Ground or he Confounds the Church with the Schism Beside that the Cavil Amounts to no more then a Bare Supposition or the Fiction of a Case where the Observator is made to Condemn a Thing that was Not but might possibly have been which Casts the Pretended Censure quite out of doors These Calumnys however are Inculcated Over and Over to make the Impression Sink the Deeper But the Merits of the Cause will be Best Try'd by the Observator it self As for Example The Winds from All the Points of the Compass never wrought so much Mischief to This Island in bringing the Sea upon us as Liberty of Conscience has done in the More Destructive Inundations of an Unbounded Schism And they have gotten a Trick too of Covering All Religions but Popery under the Cant of the Protestant Religion the Reformed Religion and Our Religion which is a Mighty Bus'ness I warrant ye Now let Ten Thousand Millions of Mouths Open as many Several Ways to the Tune of Our Religion and That same Our Religion looks East West North and South Answers the Whole Cry and Stops Every Mouth of ' em Pray Observe now that under This Generality and Blind the
several Stations to take Care Ne quid detrimenti Capiat Ecclesia Here 's No Malice now to the Person of the Observator or Design to Vndervalue Any Services his Papers may have heretofore done the Church or State c. This is the Civility of the Epistle and the Considerer at the Bottom of Page 3. comes not an Ace behind him in the Point of Courtesy We will Allow says he This Worthy Gentleman All the Deference his Parts and Pen do Deserve c. I must not Slip One Note here that All the Adversaries of the Observator were Friends to That Pamphlet and Forgave it All the Reproches it cast upon the Church for the Good Will it had towards Me Beside a Hundred Shams and Forgeries over and above that were Cast-In to the Composition There were no Complaints Advanc'd in That Case for Abusing of Diocesans though the whole Hierarchy was Trickt upon and Ridicul'd Anabaptists Millenaries Presbyterians Independents All Engag'd in the Compiling of it And Care the Ammanuensis to Hand it over to the Press But to Proceed 5. And yet its likely for the seaven or eight and forty years Service done by this Author as he professeth to a Protestant Church and for a better reason which our Religion teacheth us all this would have been buried in Silence and the World had never heard more of it from us were there not a farther reason behind that requires our appearance in this way and which we cannot dissemble and neglect without being false to Our Religion that we solemnly profess'd to His Majesty to be dearer to us than our Lives 5. At the End of the Foregoing Clause the Representative-Considerer Flatters me in the Name of the London-Clergy that They might have Forgiven me perhaps if it had not been for the Publique Wrong done c. And now in This Clause I might have been Forgiven even That it seems too if they could but have done it without being False to their Religion We shall come by and by to Examine This Vnpardonable Wickedness But in the Mean Time by the Considerers leave It was not Our Religion as he renders it but Our Religion Establish'd by Law which They Represented to his Majesty to be Dearer to them then their Lives I must not here Pass over the Unfairness of his Citation out of Observator 10. Where the Point in Question was the Charitable Contemplation of the Possibility of a Re-union betwixt the Two Churches without any Proposals towards it Nay says the Observator We 'le Suppose an Inadvertency and that my Pen had Slipt Faith betwixt Christian Charity on the One hand and Flesh and Bloud on the Other Methinks Seaven or Eight and Forty Years Constant Service of a Protestant Church might have Compounded for so humane and so Good-Natur'd an Error Obs. Vol. 3. No. 10. Would Any man have Thought now that the Modesty and Resignation of This Passage could have been Emprov'd into the Semblance of Vanity and Ostentation 6. That Religion we say now Established by Law in opposition both to Fanatacism and Popery and from the Opposition it bears to the last of which is called more especially the Protestant and Reformed 6. If the Protestant Religion Established by Law stands in Opposition to Phanaticism as the Considerer says it does the Phanatiques are No Protestants Neither are They properly of the English Reformed Religion if they be not Lawfull Members of the English Communion Now the Distinction of Protestant and Reformed does only Denote that we are Not Papists without Any Particular Account of what we Are or under What Protestant or Reformed Classis we Range our selves And therefore I am against the Generality of the Appellation because of the Infinite Diversities of Errors and Contradictions that Shelter Themselves under That Cover The Rebellious Sohismatiques of Forty One Appeal'd to the Protestants Abroad and to the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas The Traytors that have Suffer'd Death in Our Late Conspiracies and Rebellions Usurped upon the same Denomination and Profession And in a Word The Common Application and the Promiscuous Vse of the same Terms Indifferently by Both Parties Cuts the Throat of One Protestant Religion with Another I do not Insist upon Strictnesses and Criticisms But I reckon it a Thing much to be Wish'd since the Confounding of the Church Protestants and the True Protestants so Call'd is of so Pernicious a Consequence to the Government that they may be Differenc'd One from Another in the very Style by some Note of Discrimination As for the Purpose I am of the Protestant of the Reformed Religion says a Canonical Church-man And so am I too says Every Mouth of the Schism and so it holds T'other way Vice Versâ which looks as if Those Within the Pale and Those Without were All One. To Conclude Establish'd by Law Sets All Right and Solves All Difficulties 7. But if the Case betwixt the Church of England and Rome betwixt Popery and those that have Reformed from it be as this Ingenious Person has unwittingly we hope represented it Our Lives may well be dearer to us than our Religion And if we will yet profess Our Religion to be dearer to us than our Lives it must either be perverse Obstinacy or gross Delusion egregious Folly or lewd Hypocrisy 7. Here 's more Holy-water yet This Ingenious Person has Unwittingly we hope c. so Desperately Mis-Stated the Case betwixt the Two Churches that it has Turn'd the Preference T'other way and made our Lives Dearer to us then Our Religion I wish he had Omitted the Perverse Obstinacy Egregious Folly and Lewd Hypocrisy For I am persuaded if we look'd well about us we might find Some Persons of That Iudgment that Think Themselves in the Right in 't And Others that are neither Fools nor Hypocrites nor to be Expos'd to the World under That Character But he has now laid his Finger upon the Sore and upon the Sin that is never to be Forgiven And yet after All These Mortal Errors Transgressions and Pompous Aggravations he does Himself Clear me in the very Next Paragraph and in the Name of the Church-of-England still of Every Article of my Charge And in That and the Following Clause he comes-up to the Uttermost Syllable of what I ever said Insomuch that He who but Just now made me such an Apostate that he could not Forbear Writing against me without being False to his Religion is now Iudicially Wrought upon by an Over-Ruling Impulse to do me Iustice in an Express Confirmation of the Truth of My Opinions and in as Point-Blanck a Contradiction to the Profession of his Own So that the Next Two Clauses are Kind in Several Respects And in regard of the Connexion and Dependence One upon Another we 'le take 'em Both together 8. We will allow to this worthy Gentleman all the deference his Parts and his Pen do deserve We allow him to be what he professeth A
in express Terms agree in viz Art 1. of the Holy Trinity Art 2. of the Word or Son of God Art 3. of the going down of Christ into Hell Art 4. of the Resurrection of Christ Art 5. of the Holy Ghost Art 7. of the Old Testament Art 8. of the Three Creeds Art 12. of good works Art 16. of sin after Baptism Art 18. of obtaining eternal salvation only by the Name of Christ Art 23. of ministring in the Congregation Art 26. of the unworthiness of Ministers Art 27. of Baptism Art 33. of Excommunicate persons Art 38. of Christian mens goods Art 39. of a Christian mans Oath Against these the Jesuit Iohan Roberti hath little or nothing to object in his small Tract purposely written in opposition to our Articles 16. But of these Articles it is to be observed there are some which each party differs as much from the other in when they come to explain themselves as if there had been no agreement in Terms Thus it happens in Articles 3d 7th and 15 as shall afterwards be shewed 15. 16. This Enumeration of Articles is Nothing at all to Me unless it can be made appear that I have either Intermeddled in the Question or Given Any Colourable Occasion for the Animadversion in Any Manner Whatsoever 17. 2ly There are other Articles wherein both Churches do agree in the sence tho they differ in Terms or that are not so much Controversies between Church and Church as between private Docters in each Church Of this Opinion is a Learned Forreigner of the Reformed Religion about the matter contained in Articles the 10th and 17th of Free-will and of Predestination and Election Of the former he saith The difference that our Adversaries will object between them and us upon this point of Free-will is only imaginary and a meer cavil Of the latter he concludes Since we agree in the Fundamentalls of this Doctrine as we have already set forth and that our dissent is but with a few of their Doctors it would not be very hard I should think to find out such a biass of Temperament drawn from the Word of God in proposing of these Opinions and in Terms so proportioned to their sublimity as all humble and moderate Spirits would find sufficient for their satisfaction 17. The Apology here-cited was Translated by my self and Published with my Name at length to 't in 1681. The Considerer is pleas'd to give the Author of it the Character of A Learned Forreigner of the Reformed Religion How comes This Learned Forreigner and so Call'd with a Respect to This very Piece to keep up His Reputation still as a Professor of the Reformed Religion and the Observator to be a Lost Man to the Church of England past all Remission for not the Fiftieth part of the Liberty that the Other has taken Or rather How comes a Protestant of Eighty-One upon the very Same Foundation to be made a Papist in Eighty-Five But the Partiality will be yet more Obvious from the Project and the Title of That Apology An Instance which perhaps I might have forgotten if the Quotation had not brought it into my Mind The Title in French and English is as follows Apologie pour les Protestans Où l'Auteur justifie pleinement leur Conduite leur separation de la Communion de Rome PROPOSE des Moyens FACILES RAISONABLES pour vne SAINTE Bien-heureuse REUNION i.e. An Apology for Portestants wherein the Author fully Justifies their Proceedings and Departure from the Church of Rome With a Proposal of Means EASY and REASONABLE for a Holy and a Blessed REUNION All that I did was barely to Contemplate a PROVIDENTIAL POSSIBILITY of it Whereas Here 's a Point-Blank PROPOSAL of the very Ways and Methods for the Attaining of that Happy End In Fine The Author of the Apology tho' an Open and a Profest Advocate for a Reunion is highly Recommended and Approv'd While at the same time the Charitable Speculation but of the Possibility of it is made a Mortal Sin in the Observator The Three next Clauses run altogether upon the Topick of Rebus sic Stantibus We do not Pray says the Considerer for Charities sake to Err with those that Err and to be Deceived with those that are Deceived P. 10. But that it may please God to bring into the way of truth all such as have Erred and are Deceived and to strengthen such as do stand And for This We Beseech thee to Hear us Good Lord. Ibid. This is very well now And no otherwise than just thus do I understand the matter nay I must have been a Stark fool or a Mad-man to have laid my self open to any other Construction For I might as well pretend to Reconcile Heaven and Hell as Truth and Error Sound Doctrine and Heresie And I am Afraid there has been more care taken to Puzzle my Meaning than to Understand it though I Hope that the Considerer has been rather Misled himself than a Willing Misleader of others For he is pleas'd to say in Another Place The Project we Approve the Benefit of it is Apparent But without this Renunciation of these Abovementioned as well as many other Principles Destructive to such Vnion and Society we fear it is not Practicable and that the Government Our Religion not to say our selves may as well be Ruin'd by Credulity as Distrust If it be a Laudable Project 't is Well meant and no hurt done in the Wish though Accompanied with almost the Despair of seeing it put in practice And I am as much for the Renunciation of Destructive Principles as the Considerer Himself And for making that Disclaimer the Condition of the Agreement As to the Hazard that may Befall the Government our Religion and our Selves as well by Credulity as by Distrust the Danger is not so much in Each of them Singly as in Both Together where Credulity towards a Faction begets Fears and Iealousies of the Magistrate But the Considerer follows This too by Falling in with the Author of the Apology before Cited upon this very Text. We shall Conclude the Whole says he With what is said by a Moderate French Writer Quoted before viz. I would to God that Those of the Church of Rome had the same Tenderness for Vs that we have for Them And that they would but Treat Vs with the like Openness and Candor They would be then Easily satisfi'd that we are no Enemies of a Reconciliation if they would but take a step or two on their side to Meet us upon the way But this can never be so long as the Pope of Rome pretends not only to be the Chief of the Order but to Exercise an Arbitrary and Absolute Power as a Monarch in the Church c. And so he goes on Reckoning up a great many Errors in the Church of Rome as Obstructions to a Reconciliation coming to this Result at Last So