but their Obligation is forthwith dispens'd with they are allow'd to take a Wife and wholly releas'd from their Vow And heark ye now my Chosen of the Lord if they can thus dispense with a Vow made to God what trust can be placed in them how can we rely on them since after this there 's no difficulty in pretending to a Power of releasing the Obligation to Veracity amongst Men 11. They are a Cruel Bloody and Persecuting Church and think nothing unjust which is for the Interest of their Cause for the Security and Propagation of their Doctrine You know how they help'd on this score the Low Countries to Rebell against their Lawful Sovereign and were the occasion of much Innocent Blood being Spilt and how they profer'd to assist the French in their Rebellion against their Prince What they did to that unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots you know likewise full well She took Sanctuary here and being Heiress of the Crown was made a Sacrifice upon the Scaffold for pretended Crimes but in good truth for nothing else but the Security of the Church of England Charles I. fell too upon the same account They lay this you know at Dissenters doors but how far that War was an Episcopal War the Lord knows For besides the engaging him to take up Arms on their account you know one Archbishop changed his Rochet for a Coat of Mail and the greatest number of the Convocation-House of what Church were they 12. They practice Cruelty again in persecuting us for not obeying their Church when they at the same time are as great Dissenters as we For look you now Beloved are not their Ministers commanded by their Church to enjoy but one Benefice And yet how many of them possess two or three They find no difficulty of being dispens'd in this Duty if they can but make a Friend to speak for them and Forty pound for the Fees Are not their Prelates commanded by their Rubrick to wear a Scarlet Robe a White Rochet and Corner'd Cap their Ministers an Albe and Tunicle and who is there complies with this Order Do's not their Church command all of their Communion to Fast all Lent the Ember-days Rogation-days and all Fridays in the Year and yet who of them satisfies this Precept Do we not find the contrary every where practis'd And not only in this but in a thousand other Instances of the like nature And yet while they themselves thus frankly trample the Commands of their Church under feet is it not a most malicious Cruelty that we should be persecuted for not satisfying her Precepts So that tho' we are Members of their Church we can by their good will enjoy no Peace amongst them They spare us our Lives indeed but without Liberty or Property the only Comforts of Life 13. They teach Absurdities and Contradictions First in requiring us to submit to the Authority of their Church and punishing us for refusal and then charging such as follow them from all such Submission and giving them liberty of embracing nothing that is propos'd to them but what they themselves shall judge consonant to the Word of God And thus we must be oblig'd to go to Church and yet when we come there the Appeal is made from the Pulpit to the People and we need not believe what we hear unless we think fit our selves Then the Authority of Councils we must like wise allow and submit to and yet after all their Examinations and Determinations we need not receive what they Decree unless in our own private Judgments we think it conform to Reason and the Law So that we must not be allow'd to do what we think best and guide our selves and yet when we follow them we need believe or do no more than we think fitting Which is to take them for Governors and Directors and then afterwards go alone by our selves 14. After all this Liberty left to their Followers 't is yet the Belief of their Church That whosoever will follow her must shut his Eyes stifle his Sense and Reason and be led only by the Nose And therefore we poor Schismaticks must not reform any Abuse or Superstition which our Reason assures us to be contrary to the Word of God without the Thunder of Excommunication forthwith breaking upon our Heads but if their Church in Parliament and Convocation makes any Reformation there 's no Appeal to be made to Sense or Reason but 't is immediately to be receiv'd as the Sense of the Word of God by all her Members And therefore says one of their Divines let them in the Name of God Reform on if they proceed according to due Course of Law and Act with Authority For as to What and How and How far things are to be Reform'd such as you and I are must leave it to the Wisdom and Pleasure of Governors So that we must lay aside our Reason if we intend to enter their Congregation 't is only going on blindly without fear or care and relying confidently on their Infallible Governors and we shall be forthwith True and Substantial Churchmen And what think you my Brethren do's not this smell of the Infallible Chair 'T is e'en so But such is the Church from which you are happily gone out Thus teach her Divines and thus are her Members allow'd to believe For you cannot doubt but that all of them are allow'd to believe that which any Man among them is allow'd to teach 15. By this means they are a wavering and unsetled Church subject to continual Variations and turning as many ways as their Governors please to wind them and yet still all is according to the Word of God In the first Common-Prayer-Book of Edward the Sixth 't was requir'd that Water should be mingled with the Communion-Wine and that in the Consecration of the Elements the Minister should sign them twice with the Sign of the Cross And that the Communion-Bread should be unleaven'd and round Baptismal Water was likewise appointed to be bless'd with the Sign of the Cross The Minister was commanded to Exorcise and Conjure out the unclean Spirit from the Infant to dip him thrice in the Water to Anoynt him with Ovl upon the Head and put on him the White Vesture call'd the Crysome and make the Cross on his Breast and Forehead In Consirmation the Bishops were order'd to Cross the Children on the Forehead In the Visitation of the Sick the Minister was to Anoint the Sick Person on his Forehead or Breast making the Sign of the Cross And there was no Command to receive the Sacrament Kneeling This was their Church then as Establish'd by Law and the Pleasure of Governors and conform to the Scripture but now their Scripture and Governors say otherwise and condemn what they then approv'd 'T was then according to Scripture to Pray for the Dead as in the same Book of Edward VI. Now the Scripture forbids it The Form of Ordination was then and many years after
one thing and now of late 't is become another and if right then I wonder how it can be right now Thus you see their Church alter and change according to the Complexion of the Times And not only in these things but in a thousand others nay in the very Articles of their Belief The Apostles Creed had never more than Twelve Articles and the assenting to these were enough to make a Christian but to make a Church of England Christian at first 't was requir'd to Subscribe to Forty two Articles and then a little after something was bated and 't was enough to subscribe to Thirty nine and in these there was so much chopping and changing both in Words Expressions and Sentences that even the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition never had more before it came to perfection These are the Marks my Dearest ones of that Congregation to which you are so earnestly invited to joyn but let those joyn with her that can those that can find a way to dispense with all their Sense and Reason and admit of Prophanation and Superstition and Idolatry for the Word of God But for us We have the Scripture and our Reason for our Guides and we need no better and we have no surer way of avoiding the Teeth of the Dragon than to keep out of the reach of his Tail If a Zealous Brother I say should in this manner paint out the Church of England to his Flock and endeavour to imprint in their Minds an Idea thus Foul and Monstrous of her teaching and maintaining abominable Superstitions and Idolatries I would fain know of the Answerer Whether this would be Representing or Misrepresenting the Church of England whether 't would be a shewing her as she is or as she is not I know according to his Principles the Charges being not false as to matter of Fact and none being urg'd without some Reason this Character ought not to be Entitled The Church of England Misrepresented And yet methinks I cannot fancy 't will be thought like her But however it be I am resolv'd to compound and not quarrel upon this score If he will not have this to be Misrepresenting in its strict and proper sense I am ready to allow that the word Misrepresented as it stands in the Title of my Book is not to be taken in its strict and proper sense as it signifies Calumniating by Perjury only and Lies such as was the Story of the Pilgrims Screw'd Guns and Black Bills for the hanging of the Jesuits and that of Stifling Sir Edm. Godfrey with a Pillow in the upper Court of Somerset-House and Strangling him in the lower Court before the Stables with a twisted Handkerchief and laying it on the Papists But in a less rigorous Signification as it implies the Representing a thing otherwise than it is and putting on false Colours whether by Wry Interpretations False Inferences Malicious Applications Weak Reasonings or any such like Topick For by whatsoever Method the thing is made to appear otherwise than it is 't is all the Misrepresenting I desire and equally fit for my purpose And now I have so far comply'd with the Answerer I hope the Talk of Misrepresenting as he says will be over And yet if he has a mind to prove once more in other ten Sheets That Misrepresenting is not to be taken in its strict and proper sense let him do it 't is only Twelve-pence apiece more for the Curious The Judicious will think it only worth a Smile if so much But I am yet in Arrears and must not part thus For it seems the Answerer has a Complaint against me and 't is this pag 3. That in my last Reply instead of defending my own Misrepresentations which I so unjustly father'd upon them I have pick'd up new Misrepresentations for him to Answer And really I was much to blame to look out for new Misrepresentations when he had little to say against the former except that they were not to be call'd Misresentations in a strict sense But where did I father 'em upon any body I laid them at no bodys door and if some appear'd so solicitous in clearing themselves that they were suspected to be Fathers they may thank themselves I pointed at none 'T is true for the shewing they were none of my own Childish Conceits I at length produc'd some eminent Protestants describing Popery with the same ill Features and worse than I had drawn it in my Character of a Papist Misrepresented and first the Archbishop of York And here the Quarrel is because I left out the Authorities mention'd by that Prelate And now the Answerer has inserted those Authorities what do they make to his purpose or against me Were they all exact and true which yet no Man will be able to make good is every thing to be set forth for the Faith of a Church which can be found in one Author as it is by him when he prefixes to them a He that is the Papist must believe Can the Church of England stand this Test Would it not be Misrepresenting her to Preface every extravagant Saying of her Members with She believes and She teaches What signifie therefore the mentioning those Authors when the Question is not What some Private Authors say but what the Church believes When the Archbishop therefore brings in the Papist professing his Faith with this solemn Protestation We must believe and then supports the Paradox with a single Authority or two as this was in him a piece of Artifice not justifiable amongst Friends so the omission of such Testimonies was beyond the possibility of being a Design unless it were of Consulting the Credit of the Prelate And tho' the Books mention'd were publish'd by Authority of Superiors yet from such Books cannot be fairly Represented the Faith of the Church and whosoever pretends to do it is nothing less than a Misrepresenter Nor will a Church of England-Man I fancy much question this Truth who I believe upon consideration will allow that his Church may be easily Misrepresented if every idle Opinion to be pick'd out of Books which come forth with an Imprimatur were to be inserted into the Character of her Faith And I cannot but wonder the Answerer should urge this Dispute now at this time when we have seen a Book Publish'd by Authority of Pope Cardinals and other Dignitaries and in a particular manner approv'd by them and yet question'd by some as not Representing the Faith of the Church aright Methinks when a Book of this Authority comes to be disputed as not truly Representing I cannot understand how every other Author with a petty Licence is a sufficient ground for a Representer But it must be so to drive the Business on When a Protestant shews forth the Church of Rome every thing that can be rak'd out of Books is authentick enough for him to put into the Character but when a Catholick Prelate Expounds the Doctrine of his Church all the Authority of Pope
and Cardinals is not enough to set him up for a Representer Besides the Archbishop I produc'd Sutcliff's Survey of Popery in which he had laid to the Papists charge such Tenets as are offensive to every Christian Ear and as much detested by Papists as any other Society whatsoever But I did not it seems set down his Reasons and his Authorities And this discovery puts the Answerer upon an outcry against the Representer's Honesty And yet where the Scandal is I cannot find For I undertook for no more than to shew the Doctrines laid by Mr. Sutcliff at the Papists door and this I did sincerely in his own words and sense and for his Reasons they were no Concern of mine neither will the Answerer after all his noise put his approbation to them as far as I see for having summ'd them up he concludes with this open hint p. 14. If some Protestants have charg'd the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome with such Consequences as they cannot justifie Wiser Protestants disown it He must be a very fooolish Representer therefore who should go about to confute such Reasons which nothing belong to Representing and are such as Wiser Protestants are asham'd of But now we are come to the Point of Honesty I cannot but admire a rare Knack the Answerer has especially in Translating honestly one Instance he gives us in his former Reply and another in this p. 76. where reciting a Prayer out of the Pontifical he has these words in the Latin Vt orantes inclinantesque se propter Deum ante istam Crucem but rendring it into English he leaves out those two little words propter Deum and puts it thus That those who Pray and Bow themselves before this Cross without mentioning for Gods sake or for the honor God as not fit for his purpose When I have learn'd this Artifice of him he may then with reason cry out of curtailing and dishonesty But at present I think he has something to mend at home in this Point And for my part I 'le endeavour not to follow so ill an Example And now at length we are arriv'd to the Question concerning the Bishop of Condom and some Points Treated of by him The Answerer has Debated the Matter in about One hundred Pages and fairly invites the Representer to dispute it out and two powerful Arguments he uses to provoke him to it The first is p. 26 That there is no reason to dispute it at all But the truth is says he I know no reason there is for all this dispute So that the Representer if he will be advis'd must leave off Character-making and dispute over an hundred Pages because there is no reason to dispute The second Reason ib. is because I was not satisfi'd with his bare telling me he did not like my Religion now he will give me some Reasons for 't And this is a Reason like the former For I never was concern'd with his not liking my Religion I never told him I was not satisfi'd with his bare telling me he did not like it that now he should pretend for this Reason to give me some Reasons for it All the business is dispute he 's resolv'd and in it must tho' by head and shoulders the Representing Humour do's not please him and Character-making is an aggrievance 't is too fair a way of dealing for him and lays too open the Mystery of Iniquity and therefore he has no better way to quit himself of this trouble than to draw me into an Ocean of Disputes that so Representing may be at an end Thus he labours to change the Scene and to tempt me out of the way but his weighty Reasons do not work so powerfully as to render me uncapable of resisting And therefore till we have other two Reasons given I 'le be no other than Representer still My business is matter of Fact and not of Right or de jure and since he has bulkt out his Answer with Nine Sheets of the Fifteen fill'd up with an occasional Discourse I 'le take the freedom gravely to turn over those his hundred occasional Pages tho' I fear he 'll take it ill but I cannot help him We Wise Converts do not love to go out of our way but upon very good grounds and therefore if the two Reasons he has given for this at present do not move us 't is because they are too sublime and not suited to our Capacity But however he requires satisfaction as to the Points he has there handled and I shall remit him to such Books in which these Controversies have been discuss'd at large And for my self shall sit down contented with the Title he often allows me of a Representer And as to the Bishop of Condom to whom I appeal'd for the justifying the Character of the Papist Represented he has undertaken his own Vindication and needs not the assistance of another Hand All the Concern I have is to declare that to assent to the Catholick Faith as Expounded by this Prelate is sufficient for any to be receiv'd into the Communion of our Church we require no other Terms And if the Answerer finds different Explications given by Bellarmine and others tho' the Books are approv'd yet there 's no obligation of being of their mind in things that are disputed amongst Divines 'T is in vain therefore to clamour against the Opinions of Bellarmine or Suarez Scotus c. as loose extravagant harsh or unsavoury c. since it suffices for Catholick Communion to subscribe to the Points treated by M. Condom in the sense he has expounded them if they are more soft or sweet than has hitherto be apprehended or deliver'd formerly by others let them but be receiv'd in that soft and sweet manner and no more is requir'd 'T is therefore nothing more than a Cavil to question whether Bellarmine and other eminent approv'd Authors are not as authentic a Rule for the Exposition of the Council of Trent and the Catholick Faith as the Bishop of Condom We have no concern in these Comparisons our whole business is only this Whether the embracing the Catholick Faith as expounded by the Bishop of Condom be sufficient for a Person to be receiv'd into the Communion of our Church And since this is evidently so and that all those that believe thus are actually acknowledg'd Members of this Church upon this Assent what needs the Representer who follows his Explication any farther Apology If any Person therefore may be thus receiv'd a Member of our Church upon the Terms I have propos'd in the Matters there handled I have Represented the Papist aright And amongst all the Arguments that have been publish'd only those have belong'd to me which endeavour to shew the falsity of this 'T is no wonder therefore I have wav'd the Consideration of many things that have been publish'd against me under the Title of an Answer since of the Forty Sheets that have come upon this Errand into the World there has not been three but what have forgot their Business they were sent upon If it be an Omission therefore not to return an Answer to such things as are not spoken to me 't is easily making a List of Omissions But let me see where it has been prov'd that 't is not sufficient for a Catholick to believe as I have propos'd as to those Particulars And if it has had no Answer it shall have one FINIS Pag. 2. 4. pag. 21 pag. 4. pag. 18. p. 2. alib Josh 22. 1 King 1. 13. Pap. not Misrep by Prot. p. 65. Disc against Invocation of Saints in the beginning Papist not Misrep by Prot. Revision revis in vindic of the Bish of Winton p. 23. Ans to Pap. Protest p. 9.