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-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
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
Abatements c. This he says § 8. But then within Two or Three Lines After in § 9. He Qualifies the Matter and Vnsays it again Though he 's at Variance with Himself too in That very Section He pronounces Peremptorily that All the Condescentions and Abatements or All the Christian Charity in the World will do no Good in Many Cases But then he brings himself off with an VNLESS 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 to Discern it that they come fully over to us That is to say Those Points can Not be Accommodated unless it pleases God that they May be Accommodated And I could Wish now that Those Points had been Nam'd which he says We Hold and They Deny But to speak more Expressly to his Ninth Section I wou'd fain know if the very Words of the Observator Vol. 3. Num. 10. do not Import the Self Same Conception and Vnderstanding of the Matter with what He Delivers i.e. It is not Expos'd as the Project of a Thing Probable but in a Charitable Contemplation of the Possibility of it by a Providential Removal of Those Passions and Prejudices that Hinder the Agreement He goes now forward to Deny in the Next Paragraph what he has Admitted in This. 10. This is truly the Matter in question It is not whether there be not Truth as well as Error in the case and the one may not then be separated from the other as this Gentleman mistakes but whether there be not in the Doctrine of that Church which we oppose Error without Truth and whether the main matters in dispute betwixt Church and Church which the one faith is Truth and the other saith is Error be capable of such condescentions and abatements as both sides might well close upon c. And that for example the Church of Rome which requires Purgatory to be believed under an Anathema and the Church of England which saith it 's a fond thing vainly invented c. can be reconciled without those that hold it is a fond thing vainly invented do make it an Article of their Faith or those that hold it an Article of their Faith do declare it 's a fond a vain and a false thing 10. This Paragraph I must Confess is too Hard for me For I cannot Conceive why the Superstructure of Error upon Truth may not as well be Taken off as it was Laid on For it is not be Imagin'd that Error and Truth can be so Incorporated as to become Inseparable When I speak of Error and Truth in the Case it is to be Understood with a Respect to the Points in Difference betwixt the Two Churches And whether it be Error Without Truth or Error Accompany'd With Truth 't is as Broad as 't is Long. That indeed which the One says is Truth and the Other says is Error can never be Reconcil'd so long as Both Parties Adhere to That Opposition for that were to suppose Error and Truth to be all One But His VNLESS and My PROVIDENTIAL REMOVAL takes That Rubb out of the Way 11. An Accommodation in such a case is Impracticable For as our Author well observes upon another occasion it imports an agreement of two divided Chuches in the very state of their disagreement where not the passions and prejudices of men but the Nature of the things hinder the Agreement and so spoils the Philosophy of a charitable contemplation about the possibility of it 11. 'T is very True that an Accomodation as he says is Impracticable where it is Impossible And it is no less True that it is Impossible so long as People that are of Differing Persuasions Continue in That Hostile State of Disagreement But Change of Mind removes That Obstacle And the Grace of Almighty God as He Himself Confesses in the Former Page may work that Change of Mind Now here 's no Change all this while in the Nature of the Thing but in the Opinion of it Truth and Error are the Same still that they were before And I know very well that 't is Impossible to make Truth to be Error or Error to be Truth But what 's This to the Passions and Prejudices of Men that may be Taken-up or Lay'd-down allmost at Pleasure The Inconciliable Opposition of Vice and Virtue does not at all hinder but that Men of Profligate Lives and Vicious Habits may yet Reclaim and become Virtuous Ambition Avarice Cruelty and Oppression can never be Transform'd into the Opposite Uirtues But Men that are Addicted to Those Vices may Cast their Skins Pass-over into the Love and Practice of Humility Moderation Tenderness Compassion without a Miracle And it were Hard Otherwise If according to the Sense of my Expositors the most Necessary Duties of a Christian That is to say Repentance and a New Life should be Render'd only the Charitable Contemplation of a thing Impossible This is a Doctrine that seems to Me with Submission to be better Enform'd to Block-up the way and to Preclude the Means even of Salvation it self For if All men Living have their Errours and their Failings And when they are once Out of the Way if there be no getting Back How miserable is the Condition of Mankind that stands Condemn'd at the same Time to Inevitable Frailties and to Vnpardonable Mistakes I will Allow all the Stress that can be lay'd upon the most Potent Obstructions to This Blessed End As the Affectation of Power and Dominion The Charms of Glory and of Secular Interest Or the Prepossessions of Education These Impressions make the Matter Difficult But not Insuperable and Vtterly Impossible Especially As the Considerer says If Allmighty God shall Vouchsafe to Open the Eyes of the Deceived so as to make them Discern Truth and Reason Or in the Words of the Observaor in case of A Providential Removal of Those Passions and Prejudices that Hinder the Agreement This is the Possibility that I Contemplate And I take the Considerers ALLMIGHTY GOD and the Observators PROVIDENCE to Intend One and the Same Power 12. This is the Case we except against and which we shall now proceed to the consideration of not that we declare to lessen the esteem of this Author whom we do honour for his Ingenuity and Industry and his other Accomplishments worthy of a Gentleman and a Scholar but to Vindicate our Church and to preserve our People from the Infection of such Doctrine which how good-natured soever it may be in the design cannot but be mischievous and pernicious in the consequents 12 I must needs put the same Complement in this case upon the Considerer that an Italian Prince put upon a Gentleman that gave him a Lift to Help him into the Saddle He was a Light Person of a Man And the Other Threw him quite over his Horse The Prince got up again And with his Cap in his hand Sr says he
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
Common People are so far Impos'd upon as to take Every man for a Papist that will not Subscribe to This Protestant This Reformed This Our Religion at Large c. Obs. Vol. 3. Num. 7. Here 's a Debate upon Liberty of Conscience The Danger of an Vnbounded Schism The Tricks the Schismatiques have got of Cozening the Multitude under Generalities at Large c. Now do I Defy any man living either to make This an Affront to the Canonical Addressers or to Clear Him of an Affront Himself that takes upon him to Pronounce it One And again by way of Explanation upon the Word PROTESTANT If you Speak of the Church-of-England under the Care of Episcopal Governours And as it is by Law Establish'd in Doctrine and Discipline Give That Religion what Denomination you please I 'm for it But if you have a Secret Reserve to your self of Comprehending Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists and All the Other Sects that call Themselves Protestants for Protesting against Popery I am not of That Protestant Religion Ibid. Neither do I take it to be Any Proof of a True Religion barely to Protest against a False One For That may be the Case of only Combating the Errors of One Religion with the more Enormous Impieties of a Thousand Worse Ibid. And yet once again There 's the Same Snare under the Word Reform'd as under Protestant and as much need of Explaining it Least when a man thinks to Declare for the Constitution he be Drawn-in as it was in the One-and-Forty-Protestation by an Exposition Ex post facto to an Engagement for the Schism But then comes OUR Religion that without some Explicit Limitation or Restriction raises a very Hubub Fires the Beacons and takes in Turks Jews and Gentiles into the Comprehension Why Our Religion is Any Religion All Religions or No Religion at all Especially out of so many Mouths of as many Several Minds And therefore Religion is not a Thing to be Tristed with at This Dark Dubious and Unintelligible Rate without Fixing some Mark Name or Appellation upon it And therefore let 'em either say Our Popish Religion or Our Phanatical Religion or Our Religion Establish'd by Law and a body knows where to have 'em But to Set-up a Hundred False Religions in a Protestation to Oppose One And then to make One True Religion out of a Hundred Contradictions is to Erect a Multitude of Gods and to set-up Altar against Altar And on the Other hand to Extract a Compound of TRUTH out of a Confusion of Errors Ibid. I shall now Compare the Text with the Comment And leave it fairly to the Reader to Try if he can Reconcile them Here 's First Liberty of Conscience 2ly An Vnbounded Schism 3ly The Imposture of Generalities 4ly So many Mouths so many Minds 5ly Secret Reserves for a Cover to All the Phanatical Sects 6ly A Hundred False Religions and Contradictions Here 's the Text And All This says the Considerers Comment is Intended for a Lash at Unity Uniformity Express Articles Orders and Constitutions Apostolical Agreement Orthodox Ministers and Canonical Obedience Harmony of Confession c. In fine Heaven and Earth may be as soon brought together as These Oppositions Nor could These Illusions ever have Pass'd upon Any Other Age then This. Nay And it is not all that the Edge Cuts only upon the Schism but to put the Matter past the very Possibility as a body would think of a Misconstruction there are I know not how many Savings of Honour and Respect to the very Case in Question wherein I Declare my self Abundantly Satisfy'd with as it falls out the very Terms and Qualifications of the Address i.e. Establish'd by Law 4. But let that Phrase fare as it will and our Reverences also be despised with it tho' we did as little deserve as expect it from him yet we think our worthy Diocesan that for the Loyalty as well as the Nobility of his Family deserves so well of the publick and for his Zeal for and constancy in our Religion for we shall still make bold to use that Phrase especially since we have no less than the Parliament of our Neighbour Nation to justify us in it deserves so well at Our at His and at all Church of England mens hands might have been spared and that his Lordship might have been used with other than a Comical Respect A contempt so intolerable to us who have for ten years felt the happy effects of his prudent Government that our otherwise respected Author must pardon us if we cannot so easily forgive the publick wrong done to that ever to be honoured Person or suffer it with the same patience we bear our own 4. The Considerer in This Tragi-Comical Paragraph has done Our Otherwise Respected Author a kindness that a man would have done a Dog First to give him a Flap over the Mouth with a Fox-Tayle And then in the Same Breath to Arraign him for Libelling so Reverend and so Eminent a Prelate When the very Calling of That Observator a Libell as I have shew'd already is a most Intolerable Libell it self For it Touches not the Least Hair of any man's Head that is not a Schismatique But I am to be made a Papist and This must be done by Preparing the way to One Calumny by Another The Contempt of the Clergy is a Step to the Forsaking of the Church I would not Believe Worse of This or These Man or Men of Consideration then He or They Deserve for their Own Sakes nor Better for the Churches sake because it is not Generous to Murder a man in an Embrace So that I 'le e'en Stop Short without so much as Guessing out of what Quiver This Arrow comes There are Some Strokes here I must Confess that have much of the Air in 'em of the Epistle Dedicatory to The Obserbator Prov'd a Trimmer where the Church it Self was Notably Topt upon as well as the Observator and I cannot Look upon the One without Thinking of the Other It is a Figure much us'd of late to Cover a Scandal or an Invective under the Masque of a Panegyrique As for Instance To the Most Reverend Right Reverend and Reverend Clergy of the Church of England By Law Establisht My Lords And Venerable Sirs AS these Animadversions are made Publick without the least Malice to the Person of the Observator or design to gratifie any Faction or undervalue any Services his Papers may have heretofore done the Church or State But to Rectifie certain things which he has lately advanced that may if they pass uncontrouled prove injurious to the Honour and Interest of both so they address not to you for Protection any further than your Justice and Piety is always wont to favour Truth And therefore humbly cast at your feet are submitted to your grave and impartial Considerations and Censure as being under God and His Majesty the Watchful Overseers whose especial Concern it is in your
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
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
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
Unwarrantable on the Other Insomuch that Liberty of Conscience makes against ye All the ways you can put it For it is against Law Against Right Against Truth Nature and Religion And like a Bottomless Quick-Sand it Sucks-in the very Frame of All Political Constitutions Never to be Retriv'd It is Your Liberty of Conscience that I speak of But the Magistrate's Right and Obligation of Conscience stands as Firm as the Foundations of the Earth And prethee wilt thou go now and Consult all the Rabbi's of the Separation Casuistically upon This Point What Dispensation from Almighty God has a King more then a Subject to Act Contrary to his Conscience Or what Answer shall That Prince make at the Day of Iudgment That when his Conscience Charges him as he hopes for Salvation to Provide according to the Best of his Skill for the Welfare of his People shall yet Suffer his Subjects to Exercise That License which He in his Conscience Thinks Iudges and Believes will be for their Destruction The Question is First Whether or No shall This Prince Govern according to his Conscience 2ly How is it possible to Reconcile This Popular Liberty to a Consistency with the Conscience of the Supreme Magistrate and the Necessary Regulations of Sovereign Power 3ly Which shall have the Preference in This Case the Kings Conscience or the Peoples That is to say in Few Words where 's the Sovereignty In the King or in the Multitude And again The Supream Magistrate has a Double Conscience One with a Respect to his Personal Persuasion about Matters that Immediately concern his Soul The Other with a Regard to his Political Administration The Subject likewise has a Conscience that purely Respects Matters betwixt God and his Own Soul And a Conscience likewise that Superinduces another Obligation upon him with Relation to the Publick as he is a Member of the Community In the Former he is at LIBERTY but in the Other he 's under GOVERNMENT and COMMAND Obs. Num. 36 Vol. 3. What is this to say now but that his Religious Conscience is Free as he is a Christian But his Practical Conscience is Limited as he is a Subject What is there more now in All This then that Kings are Bound in Conscience to keep their People from Cutting one anothers Throats which they will most Certainly do and Destroy their Sovereign over and above when ever he Yields to them the Point of Popular Liberty of Conscience So that here are Reasons of State Sublimated into Articles of Faith and a Man is to be presently made a Papist that will not Swear Secrecy and Allegiance to the Practices and Positions of Rebellion I could Muster up a Hundred other Instances of the same Batch and Leaven as my Threatning of a Bookseller if he presumed to Print any thing against Popery which was Prov'd upon Oath to be an Arrant Lie And yet the Cry ran so Strong that there was hardly any beating of it down They had another Story too of my Stopping the Book of a Reverend Divine purely for Asserting the Doctrine of the Church of England which was so False that the Gentleman Himself Acquitted me to all Purposes upon the whole matter But however the Rumour was Supported as long as they could keep Life in 't and it was Impossible for any Man to Believe that Flam without making me an Insolent Fool for my Pains There was then Another Malicious Whimsie set a Foot too what a Bussle I had made in I know not how many Tavern-Clubbs with Projects and Proposals about Publique Business Which in One Word was All False And I Defy Any man living to say the Contrary Which Somebody or Other Must be Able to do unless they 'l Suppose the Matter Debated at a Committee of Chairs and Stools To Conclude There was Great Pains taken before the Opening of the Parliament to make Work on 't for a Formal Complaint But the Pretence would not hold Water It will be said at last that the Book was not Publish'd And the First Sheet of it Countermanded To which I must Answer That it was Design'd to Come out while the Press was at Liberty which would have put me upon an After-Game never to be Recover'd As to the Recalling of the First Sheet I shall referr the Reader for the Reasons of it to my Defence THE END Title Notes Considerations Obs. Vol. 3. Num. 1. Notes Consid. Observator Num. 7. Notes Obs. Num. 7. Vol. 3. Obs. 7. V. 3. Ibid. Consid. Parliament of Scot. Answ. to the Kings Letter April 28. Notes Notes Consid. Observa Num. 10. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Observa 6. 10. Num. 6. Consid. Notes Obs. 6. V. 3. Obs. 6. V. 3. Consid. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Observa Num. 3. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Ecclesiae Ang. Basis Impostura Luxem 1619. Consid. Notes Consid. Apology for the Protestants done out of French into English by R. L. 1681. Part. 4. Cap. 3. pag. 133. 150. Consid. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Notes Consid. Notes Obs. 35. Vol. 3. Obs. Num. 36. Vol. 3. Obs. Num. 42. Vol. 3.