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Defence of the Duchess's Paper 291 Contribution to A Defence of the Papers: A Defence of the Third [Duchess's] 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 10 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 'tis 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 20 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 unbiass'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, foul-mouth'd, and shuffling; and that, not being able to answer plain Matter of Fact, he so endeavours to evade it, by Suppositions, Circumstances, and Conjectures; like a cunning Barreter of Law, who is to manage 292 Prose 1668—1691 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 Ac10 count, 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 quotes; or indirectly, in his own, in which his spiteful Diligence 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 20 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, as Learn'd as himself, are much more Moderate: And such, I am confident, will be as far from abetting his Irreverence to the Royal Family, as they are from the jugling so Designs of his Faction, to draw in the Nonconformists to their Party, by assuring them they shall not be prosecuted (as indeed , upon their Principles, they cannot be by them); but in the mean time this is to wrest the Favour out of the King's Hands, and take the Bestowing it into their own...

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