A REPLY TO THE ANSWER OF THE Amicable Accommodation BEING A Fourth Vindication of the Papist Misrepresented and Represented IN Which are more particularly laid open some of the Principal Methods by which the Papists are Misrepresented by Protestants in their Books and Sermons Published with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. A REPLY TO THE ANSWER OF THE Amicable Accommodation THE Answerer in his last seems to take his leave of me And thus says he p. 30. I take a fair leave of the Representer But me-thinks if he be not gone too far I would fain have a word or two with him before we part And 't is chiefly in civility to ask him How he does For throughout his last Reply he seems sick of Answering having said but very little throughout the whole and yet assuring his Reader he has driven the matter as far as it will go p. ib. Well and is there no more then to be said to that manifold Charge summ'd up against the Church of England in my last Discourse Is that matter driven as far as it will go I there drew out a Character of the Church of England as lying under the same Charge of Scandals Innovation and Idolatry from a Dissenter as the Church of Rome does generally from Protestants And almost every Point urg'd with the same Proofs of Scripture and Reasons which Protestants produce against the Papists And all this he passes over with a light touch and the most artificial way of Answering with saying nothing as can possibly be met with And first tho' amongst the many Divisions of Dissenters there are several from whom the whole Charge might forcibly be urg'd as the Rigid Anabaptists the Quakers c. yet because this would oblige him to answer all the Arguments and to shew they are not of equal force against the Church of England as against the Papists he upon good consideration takes it as spoken from such a kind of Dissenter which agreeing in many of the Points with the Church of England cannot reasonably be thought to urge them against her And so instead of giving them any farther Answer he comes off with The Dissenters did never charge the Church of England with this The Dissenters do the same themselves There is no Dispute between the Dissenters and Vs about that Did ever the Dissenters charge us with this And so lets them drop without any farther Reply tho' still standing in their full force against the Church of England from most other Dissenters excepting those he has pick'd out for better Expedition Thus he gives the goe-by to the greatest part of the Instances And for such other Arguments as are there press'd against the Church of England and that equally from all sorts of Dissenters those he prudently says nothing to In observance I suppose of a Rule he had laid down before in a former Discourse viz. The Greatest Wits can do no more than the Cause will bear tho' a little Prudence would teach ME to say NOTHING in such a Cause as will admit of no better a Defence And therefore he says not one Word in Vindication of his Popish Prelates of their Mitres and Crosiers not a Word of praying to be defended by the Angels Nothing of their calling upon the Birds the Beasts and Fishes of their crying out to Dead Men in their most Solemn Devotions of inserting the Apocrypha into their Liturgy of their not wearing the Rochet the Albe and Tunicle of their prescribing Fasts and not keeping them of their formerly Praying for the Dead c. Not one word to all his own Reasons which in his Discourses against me he has formerly advanc'd to prove us Superstitious and Idolaters and yet there pressing with the same weight against himself and his own Church And yet he 's taking his leave on me because the matter is driven as far as it will go And is it possible then that the Disputing Humour is so soon off We have heard of nothing hitherto so much as of Disputing and Defending and Justifying your Reasonings of these repeated Challenges to the Representer We 'll Dispute it when you will And now as far as I see when the Answerer is put to defend his own Church and justifie his own Reasonings he 's as cool and as unwilling dispute as the Representer No We are not say he for pursuing every new Game but will keep to our old Scent Could any thing possibly be said more cooly than this Here 's not a word now of Disputing or Justifying if his Reasonings be shewn to fly in his own face as much as against his Adversary he 's well enough content to hear it with scarce a word of Reply because he 's resolv'd to keep to his old Scent And is not this something strange now that He that should draw me out to dispute over the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition and run over the whole body of Controversie as to matter of Right or de Jure when I undertook for no more than to declare what our Church holds as to Matter of Fact and would not take my waving it without many a Flurt and a Jeer Now when it comes to his own turn of Disputing and Defending his own Reasonings in a Case directly appertaining to our main Point of Representing le ts the matter fall very cautiously and will scarce touch at it forsooth because he 'll keep to his old Scent So that tho' he 's for beating up for me as many new Games as he can possibly find for my diversion for his part he 'll not follow the old one unless the scent be very agreeable which truly 't is not when it comes to press him to the standing his Ground and justifying his own Cause I must pardon him therefore it seems as to this But however tho' he will not offer any defence against a Character which seems to reflect upon his own Church yet he 'll endeavour to prevent all misunderstanding betwixt Her and the Dissenters that might possibly be occasion'd by such a Character And because he finds it much easier to work upon their Affections by Fawning than to convince their Judgments by Reasoning He first tells them how Wise they are and how Cautious nay how much Wiser they are grown now of late and he hopes they will grow wiser and wiser every day Especially so as not to suspect Them or their Church of any Inclinations to Popery For whatever they have formerly suspected I believe says he they will call it Popish and Antichristian no longer And here he gives them a Reason or two with which if they are not mov'd they are much to blame For he tells them in how many things the Church of England agrees with the Dissenters And first as for their calling their Churches by Saints Names that 's much the same with what the Dissenters did themselves and tho' they give them
against the Twelve Commandments together are not half so Foul and Damning with them as that one of Popery as they conceive it is by it self For these Means that have been taken to effect this are so well proportion'd to this end and do so naturally work People into this Aversion and Hatred that were Christianity it self treated and expos'd to the People for some years in the same manner and method only as Popery already has been I am confident 't would be the same crime within a while with them to become a Christian as now 't is to turn Papist But in the mean time this Method is so Vnjust and so unbecoming all true Christian Candor under which the Papists have been suffering these so many years that I cannot in Charity wish it to befal the Worst of Enemies And did Charity allow me to seek any expedient for the ruin of any ones Credit and Reputation and rendring him the Object of a Popular Hatred I would consult no farther but only desire he might take his portion with the Papists and be treated no worse than they have been all along by their adversaries After what manner this has been I hope the Considering Reader who has perus'd what has been already said in this Discourse do's by this time comprehend I gave some hint of it before in a former Answer call'd the Amicable Accommodation in which under the Person of a Dissenter arguing against and Defaming the Church of England I discover'd in what manner the Papists are handled by the Protestants But this is taken by some by the wrong handle and therefore can afford it no better a Title than of Light Scurrilous and Jesting and are willing to persuade their Readers that the Character of the Church of England as 't is there drawn is nothing better than a Controversial Lampoon and that since every Idle word is to be given account of what apprehensions ought the Author of it to be seiz'd with who instead of having any True Zeal for Truth has made a Droll of Religion widens the Divisions of the Church and finds a harmony in her groans This is a very severe Charge but the Comfort is I am in good Company for 't is not only the Amicable Accommodation stands thus endited but the Vindication of the Bishop of Meaux and the Defence of the Late Kings Papers which if any one will be so Civil as to take this Authors word for'r do's not Vindicate but Ridicule and is both void of Charity to his Adversaries and of respect to the Persons and Church He defends Besides this he has urg'd the charge against them all in the bitterest expressions imaginable Nothing is heard of in Two whole pages but of their art of Palliating want of Fairness and Civility laying aside Moderation falling into a vein of Lightness and Scurrility forgetting that Religion is the Subject and Christians and Scholars their Antagonists Their Mean Reflections and Trivial jestings their Ridiculing their want of Charity and Respect their Writings Accommodated to the Genius of Sceptics who divert themselves at the expence of all Religion and being not design'd to satisfie the Sober and Consciencious of either Side c. Now what This Author seems here at first sight to require being nothing but Moderation Candidness and Civility in Answerers of all sides I cannot but highly commend but then agen when I look farther into him and see him wishing for Moderation in the deepest Satyr condemning the want of Civility in Others with the most Exasperating Reflections of his One writing against the Passion of his Adversaries with his own Pen steept in Gall when I hear him desirous of laying down his Dearest Blood for the redressing the Evils of the Divided Church and at the same time most Uncharitably exposing Antagonists even such as nothing belong'd to his Province under the most Odious Characters imaginable I cannot tell how to take him in earnest he seems but to make a serious Droll and brings into my mind what I have heard of one who Preaching on Ship-board to correct the extravagant Swearing of the Mariners after many arguments to convince them of their Prophaness at length to press the matter home to them Swore Bloodily They would be all Damn'd if they did not leave off Swearing But however it be I le Answer for my self and do here assure this Zealous Author notwithstanding all his hard words that there 's no more of jesting in my last Papers than he may find in any Parable or Emblem in which tho' the Persons may be feign'd as in that of the Trees choosing a King yet the thing signified or intended is real and serious So that tho' it may be never any Dissenter press'd all those things against the Church of England in the manner I have there urg'd them yet that there is shewn the Exact Method how the Church of Rome is struck at by Protestants is what is intended most Seriously and without any drolling in the least And therefore if he finds any Ridiculing in the Arguments Mean Reflections or Trivial Jestings in the urging them I can only tell him that the Copy must be like the Original and that he that undertakes to shew how Protestants Ridicule the Church of Rome do's not Jest when he does it in something that looks Ridiculous And if he is sensible that this way of handling Controversies do's rather exasperate than heal our Divisions I am sincerely of his mind But then think that for the preventing it he ought rather spend his Zeal upon such of his Brethren who by thus Ridiculing play the Controvertists in good earnest with their Bibles in hand than upon Adversaries who only detect the Sophistry and by Emblem shew how 't is done If he has therefore so much esteem for the Salvation of Mens Souls and the Truth of Religion as he pretends let him shew himself so in a most Christian Action Let him but turn to such of his own Communion who have given this bad Example and win so far upon them as Publickly to make Restitution to such Innocent Persons of the Credit and Good Name which They have Publickly helpt to take away To remove that Uncharitable Opinion they have Imprinted in the very Souls of their Hearers against their Neihgbors by vain Rumors and groundless Surmises let him prevail upon them never more to Preach to Peoples Passion instead of their Reason never more to enflame the multitude by Preaching to them Dreams and Visions nor to advance every un-soul'd Informer to the Authority of an Evangelist Let him see that they play not with their Neighbors Reputation and Religion and run them both down with idle Stories such as are Authentick enough for a Plot-Catechism but not for a Pulpit Let him endeavor that their Arguments and Methods for the defeating of Popery be not such as any Jew may take up to strike aâ— Christianity and every Atheist to make a sham of all Religion Let him advise them with a late Preacher That their Zeal against Popery betray them not into some of the worst Principles that are charg'd upon that Church That while they are Zealous for their Church They continuâ— Loyal to their King That whilst they Preach up the principles and Loyalty of their Church they have a care of proving themselves no Members of it by their instilling Suspitions and Jealousies by their telling their Flock of a Cloud hanging over their Heads and at the same tiâ—â— Prognosticating its Dissipation Let him employ his best endeavors oâ— this side a while to redress these evils and I dare engage notwithstanding all the complaints he has against his Adversaries The Natioâ— will enjoy more Peace His Church will have less Divisions and the King better Subjects FINIS Answ to Pap. protest pag. 131. Answ to Am. Accom p. 16. Answ to Am. Accom p. 16. Ib. Pag. 17. Pag. 19. Pag. 21. Pag. 18. Pag. 21. Pag. 16. Pag. 17. Pag. 24. Pag. 24. Answ p. 4. 7. 8. 30. alib Amic Accom p. 6. Ans p. 5. Am. Accom p. 6. Pag. 10 11 13. Answ to Papist Pro. p. 17. Answ to Pap. protest pag. 11. A Catech truly representing the Doctrins of the Church of Rome Pag. 56. Pag. 17. Ib. Pag. 21. Last Edit 1686. Ep. 125. Escob trac 2. exam 1. c. 4. Pref. Pref. Deeay of Christian Piety Sermon at the Visitation of the Bishop of Norwich by Sam. Crisp 1686. p. 25 Sir Rich. Baker p. 475. Printed An. 1653. Jovian p. 96. Baker in the beginning of Queen Mary K. J. p. 36. In the Plates of Common-Prayer-Book Printed at Oxford An. 1680. Def. of the Expos of the Doct. of the Ch. of Eng p. 85 86. Crisp â—isit Ser. p. 23.
the Titles of Saints yet he hopes the Dissenters are not so silly as to think this to be any more than for Distinction Then as to the Power of Absolution there 's no dispute between Vs and the Dissenters They and We agree says he so that whatsoever the Common-Prayer-Book delivers of the Priest absolving the Sinner yet he assures them there 's nothing meant by this but only what the Dissenters teach themselves that is to give Relief to afflicted Consciences c. So again as to a vow of Chastity he and the Dissenters agree that 't is lawful to repent of it and marry 't is presently a rash Vow if the Temptation be but urging But then as to the business of Pictures in Bibles and Images of Moses and Aaron c. in Churches there he curries with them closely and assures them that however these Pictures are in their Bibles Printed by Authority Printed at the University tho' Moses and Aaron stand in most of the Churches have Place next to the Commandments are above the Communion-Table yet that all this is nothing but the Extravagancy of Painters and Printers a very late Invention and a secret design of Papists to reconcile the People by degrees to the use of Pictures and Images Now I defie any man to bid fairer for the good Opinion of the Dissenters than my Adversary has here done who for fear they should receive any ill impression in relation to his Church from my Character which is little more than in jest throws these scandals upon her in good earnest being resolv'd that if his Church be to be scandaliz'd he 'll have the doing it himself But for the winning of the Dissenters he goes on and tells them Altho' they have been Persecuted that still they are not to complain of his Church For that 't is not so much the Church has done this as the State to secure it self from their Restless Humour which has threatned the Publick Peace Now how far this will agree with them I can't tell But I am apt to believe that if the Dissenters once reflect how much more quiet they have enjoy'd since his Church's Power have been something check'd than before they 'l have some Reason to suspect that in their former Sufferings the Church has had the greatest share especially since at this present the State is as secure without those Persecutions as ever which is an Argument it does not stand much in need of ' em But I dispute not this matter let them agree as well as they can the business only is to put the Saddle upon the right Horse Another Reson he lays down before by way of Prevention And 't is that however the Church of England as it is represented in my Character may bear some resemblance with Antichrist yet he 's confident the Dissenters will hence receive no prejudice nor entertain any worse opinion of Her upon this score because They are too Wise and Cautious to take Characters from open and profess'd Enemies Now if this be true and sufficient reason for his presumption that the Dissenters are so Wise I would fain know how Wise he thinks his own Congregations to be that is such as go to Church who have been receiving Characters of Popery these hundred and Fifty years from the Open and Profess'd Enemies of the Papists 't is a Mercy they are not so Wise and Cautious as his Dissenters otherwise the Pulpits might e'en have been silent as to any thing touching Popery since holding forth against such as they have Protested against and own'd themselves Profess'd Enemies to they could have deserv'd no credit in their Characters But 't is well the Dissenters are so Wise and from henceforward 't is to be remembred that whosoever undertakes to give a Character of his declared and open Enemies and expects to be credited by his Flock must needs think them not so Wise as they shou'd be But here agen he comes over me with the Whip in hand and having assur'd his Dissenters that I have abus'd them in Fathering upon them so soul a Character of the Church of England he tells his Reader that the Run of the Character is exactly to the tune of the Quakers whose Cant the Author as he says is as well acquainted with as if he had been either their Master or Scholar And if this be so I must confess it a very strange Providence as having never heard twenty words from them in my Life as I can remember All the Harangues and Pulpits I have been ever acquainted with here in England excepting some few of the Catholicks of late have been those of the Church of England and if I have learn'd any Canting it must have been not from the Quakers but from them The truth of 't is in the drawing up that Character I took no other model but that of the Church of England against the Papists There is scarce an Argument in the Character but exactly Parallel to what the Church of England uses in her Defence against Popery the grounds of the Arguments are the same the manner of urging them the same the Maxims on which they stand the same and then then Reasons which press them home are they not the very same which the Answerer himself in his former Discourses urges against me I wonder then how this comes to be a Quakers Cant 'T is strange men should know their own Picture no better and that when they see a Copy of what they do and say themselves in the most serious concern it should appear to them so unlike the Original that what in themselves they deem Reasonable and Just being shewn them in a Reflection or Emblem should seem nothing but Spiteful and Silly as the Answerer says this do's p. 17. This is just as it happens with little Children who when they are shewn what Wry Faces they make and how Scowling looks will not easily believe they make so Vgly Well but now the Answerer had consider'd the whole Character and begins to think at last that in it I have ridicul'd the Church of England And thus says he this hopeful design of Representing and Misrepresenting ends only in ridiculing the Church of England a Liberty which if we needed it is not mannerly for us to use at THIS TIME But wherein have I ridicul'd the Church of England I have done no more in my Character against Her than what they have been doing these Hundred and Fifty Years against the Church of Rome only what I have done in a kind of Jest and without endeavouring to delude any body with such kind of Sophistry They have been doing in the greatest earnest and by it making good their Cause And as for the mannerly and at this time were there any ridiculing in my Case is it not still as little manners to ridicule at this time the Religion of the Prince as the Religion of the Subject But I leave to the Ingenious