Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A36614
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A defence of the papers written by the late king of blessed memory, and Duchess of York, against the answer made to them
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Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing D2261; ESTC R22072
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76,147
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138
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therefore wish'd People in stead of floating uncertainly up and down in the Ocean of Disputes to take Port in that one Church which Christ has upon Earth and to which Power was given to govern us in Matters of Faith and a promise of perpetual assistance Which Church he says is vibsily the Roman Catholic The Answerer flatly denies the Roman Catholic to be the one Church of Christ for Reasons ever since St. Cyprians Days condemn'd by all Christians and never minds that he denies two terms the same with a third to be the same between themselves For Church of Christ and Catholic Church are the same both signifying all the particular Churches which believe the Doctrine of Christ. Again Roman Catholic is the same too with Catholic for both signifie likewise all the same Churches with the Roman for one of the number which the Answerer acknowledges she is Catholic says All and who says All says Roman if she be one And who says Roman Catholic says those very All neither more nor less And yet the Answerer can fancy a difference For the rest he gives no direct Answer that I remember to any one Question yet hovers so about it that one must keep his thoughts very attentive not to have them diverted quite another way As for Certainty or Uncertainty they are Matters which he seems not to mind Not but that he talks of a sure Compass and Infallible Rule but he never tells us whether or how a Man shall be sure that he do's indeed steer by that Compass or is guided by that Rule Those great sounds vanish into Conscience at last and that Conscience may be right or wrong for any care he takes as perhaps he thinks it equal whether the one or the other The King desired People should have sure hold and shews them where they may He is only solicitous to keep them from fastning there and leaves them to find another if they can of themselves or be content if they will without any If he have a Pique to the Roman Catholic he may shew them another Catholic Church or if a Church be needless on what they may rest securely without a Church If on Scripture he may shew them how they may safely stake their Souls that they do not mistake it If on Conscience how they may securely trust it Let People be but safe and I ask no more But as there is after all but one way to Heaven the King shews it and he imputes deceit to him for his pains and then sets up for the faithful Friend himself who will neither let them go that way nor shew them that there is any other And thus it stands between them It is for the Reader to consider which of the two gives him better Counsel and where he can find better Security than what His Majesty offers or whether Security be needless One would think is not like to take up much Consideration in our Country whether in a concern of infinite more value than all the Money which troubles so many Lawyers and Scriveners one should deal without looking after Security And yet by whatever charm it happens there needs a great deal of Grace to make People sensible in this Case of what in all others they are but too much their greatest concerns God of his Mercy grant it to all who ask it and to all who by not asking it shew they more need it A DEFENCE OF THE Third Paper I Dare appeal to all unprejudic'd Readers and especially to those who have any sense of Piety whether upon perusal of the Paper written by Her late Highness the Duchess they have not found in it somewhat which touch'd them to the very Soul whether they did not plainly and perfectly discern in it the Spirit of Meekness Devotion and Sincerity which animates the whole Discourse and whether the Reader be not satisfied that she who writ it has open'd her Heart without disguise so as not to leave a Scruple that she was not in earnest I am sure I can say for my own particular that when I read it first in Manuscript I could not but consider it as a Discourse extremely moving plain without Artifice and discovering the Piety of the Soul from which it flow'd Truth has a Language to it self which 't is impossible for Hypocrisie to imitate Dissimulation could never write so warmly nor with so much life What less than the Spirit of Primitive Christianity could have dictated her Words The loss of Friends of worldly Honours and Esteem the Defamation of ill Tongues and the Reproach of the Cross all these though not without the struglings of Flesh and Blood were surmounted by her as if the Saying of our Saviour were always sounding in her Ears What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his Soul I think I have amplified nothing in relation either to this Pious Lady or her Discourse I am sure I need not And now let any unbias'd and indifferent Reader compare the Spirit of the Answerer with hers Do's there not manifestly appear in him a quite different Character Need the Reader be inform'd that he is disingenuous soul-mouth'd and shuffling and that not being able to answer plain Matter of Fact he endeavours to evade it by Suppositions Circumstances and Conjectures like a cunning Barreter of Law who is to manage a sinking Cause the Dishonesty of which he cannot otherwise support than by defaming his Adversary Her only Business is to satisfie her Friends of the inward Workings of her Soul in order to her Conversion and by what Methods she quitted the Religion in which she was educated He on the contrary is not satisfied unless he question the Integrity of her Proceedings and the Truth of her plain Relation even so far as to blast what in him lies her Blessed Memory with the imputation of Forgery and Deceit as if she had given a false Account not only of the Passages in her Soul and the Agonies of a troubl'd Conscience only known to God and to her self but also of the Discourses which she had with others concerning those Disquiets Every where the Lie is to be cast upon her either directly in the Words of the Bishop of Winchester which he 〈◊〉 or indirectly in his own in which his spiteful Deligence is most remarkable In his Answer to the two former Papers there seems to have been some restraint upon the virulence of his Genius though even there he has manifestly past the Bounds of Decency and Respect But so soon as he has got loose from disputing with Crown'd Heads he shews himself in his pure Naturals and is as busie in raking up the Ashes of their next Relations as if they were no more of kin to the Crown than the New Church of England is to the Old Reformation of their Great-Grandfathers But God forbid that I should think the whole Episcopal Clergy of this Nation to be of his Latitudinarian Stamp many of them
the Word of Roman Catholic Next for want of a Quarrel he is falling on his late dear Friend the Bishop Was he says our Answerer so weak to mean the Word Catholic in the strictest sense he must then have contradicted himself there was an inconsistency in his Words and so forth From the inconsistency of the Bishop's Words in this and other Places our Answerer perhaps would make a secret Inference That he never said them and obliquely draw the Duchess into the Statute of Coining So that the two Spiritual Hectors may make a Sham-duel of it for ought we know For 't is a common trick with Robbers to clash their Swords together in the dark to draw Company together and then some third Person pays for it Take it in this manner and then the Argument against her Highness will stand thus The Sayings which she relates are inconsistent and therefore she must not be believ'd though she affirms she heard them Why do not as many as have Ears hear inconsistent things said every day and must every body needs lie who reports them again That Inconsistency of the Words is in truth an Argument that the things were said For what bids fairer for adding to the desire she had of being a Catholic and of giving her the terrible Agonies she felt But after all if the Answerer's Quarrel be in earnest with the Bishop 't is pity they should fall out for such a Trifle As weak as the Bishop was and as strong as our Answerer makes his Inconsistencies appear I dare answer for him he meant nothing less than to convert her You do ill therefore to play the Bully with a peaceable Old Gentleman who only desir'd to possess his Conscience and his Bishopric in peace without offence to any Man either of the Catholic Church or that of England But if he held that both Churches were so far Parts of the Catholic that there was no necessity of going from one Church to another to be sav'd if he asserted that you say he must overthrow the Necessity of your Reformation and then down go's his Belief of your Homilies and Articles Thirty nine at a Tip and consequently he could be no true Member of the Church of England And now what can I do more for the poor Bishop For most certainly he did imply thus much in saying That if he had been bred a Catholic he would not change his Religion Therefore Take him Topham there 's no help but he must be turn'd out of the Church of England even so long after he has been dead In the mean time let us a little examine this Proposition Our Answerer affirms That he cannot be a true Member of the Church of England who asserts both Churches to be so far Parts of the Catholic Church that there is no necessity of going from one Church to another to be sav'd If this be true then to be a Member of the Church of England one must assert That either both Churches are not Parts of the Catholic or That they are so Parts that there is a necessity of going from one to another Of these two the first is not for the Honour of one of the Churches and the second is direct Nonsence A Necessity of Change consists not with their being both Parts for Parts constitute one Whole and leave not one and another to go to or from There is no Church in France or Italy to which a Spanish Catholic can go but what he left in Spain nor can he leave his own by going to either of them He may be under other Governours in the same Church but let him go wheresoever he shall please he cannot be of another so long as he remains a Catholic In short Necessity of Change makes it absolutely impossible for both Churches to be Parts of the Catholic and forces the Church of England to maintain either that she is a Part and the Roman Catholic none or else that 't is no matter whether she be a Part or no to which I wish they may not with the Pretence of Zeal for her Honour desire to drive her who have nothing better to say in their own behalf But though our Answerer has laid one Bishop slat I warrant you he has another in reserve For now the Bishop of Winchester who as I said formerly was not commended so much for nothing is brought back in Triumph from his Palace of Farnham to make a short end of the Dispute At first he doubts whether ever there were any such Bishops who made such Answers and then affirms that he believes there never was in rerum naturâ such a Discourse as is pretended to have been betwixt this Great Person and two of the most Learned Bishops in England This is downright indeed for our Answerer to do him Justice has often collaterally accus'd the Duchess for her good Invention at making Stories but here is plain English upon the Point What pity is it in the mean time that my Lord of Winton gives not so much as one single Reason either for his Doubt or his contrary Belief So that having only his Lordship's Opinion and her Highness's Affirmation before me I might say with at least as much Good Manners as that Prelate That I believe as little of his pretended Letter sent to the Duchess so long after her Decease as he do's of her pretended Discourse with the two Bishops In the mean time what use would my Gentleman here make of his Lordships doubts his belief or his affirmation Are the Embers too hot for him that he uses the Bishops Foot to pull out the Chesnut Suppose our Prelate had believ'd there were no Antiphodes is this a time of Day to give him credit But I wonder the less why our Author attributes so much to his ipse dixit upon all occasions for the whole body of his Answer to this Paper is in effect a Transcript from the Bishops Preface He purloyns his Arguments without altering sometime so much as the property of his words He has quoted him five times only in the Margent and ought to have quoted him in almost every line of his Pamphlet In short if the Master had not eaten the Man saving Reverence could not have vomited But it is easie to be seen through all the grimaces of that Bishop that he found himself aggriev'd he has not thought on when her Highness spoke of the two best or most Learned Bishops of England and that his Opinion was not consulted when indeed he had offer'd it though unask'd I know his Defender will reply That his Lordship has modestly disclaim'd any such Pretence to Learning in his Preface where he says No I am not I know I am not I am sure I am not the most Learned Bishop See how he mounts in his Expressions at three several Bounds 'T is true all these Asseverations like his three Nolo's needed not for any reasonable Man who had read his Works would have taken his