Ca. No.

Eu. Can you buy or sell an Estate against your Parents Consent?

Ca. No, I can’t.

Eu. What Right have you then to give away yourself to I know not whom, against your Parents Consent?  Are you not their Child, the dearest and most appropriate Part of their Possession?

Ca. In the Business of Religion, the Laws of Nature give Place.

Eu. The great Point of our Religion lies in our Baptism:  But the Matter in Question here is, only the changing of a Habit, or of such a Course of Life, which in itself is neither Good nor Evil.  And now consider but this one Thing, how many valuable Privileges you lose, together with your Liberty.  Now, if you have a Mind to read, pray, or sing, you may go into your own Chamber, as much and as often as you please.  When you have enough of Retirement, you may go to Church, hear Anthems, Prayers and Sermons; and if you see any Matron or Virgin remarkable for Piety, in whose Company you may get good; if you see any Man that is endow’d with singular Probity, from whom you may learn what will make for your bettering, you may have their Conversation; and you may chuse that Preacher that preaches Christ most purely.  When once you come into a Cloyster, all these Things, that are the greatest Assistances in the Promotion of true Piety, you lose at once.

Ca. But in the mean Time I shall not be a Nun.

Eu. What signifies the Name?  Consider the Thing itself.  They make their boast of Obedience, and won’t you be praise-worthy, in being obedient to your Parents, your Bishop and your Pastor, whom God has commanded you to obey?  Do you profess Poverty?  And may not you too, when all is in your Parents Hands?  Although the Virgins of former Times were in an especial Manner commended by holy Men, for their Liberality towards the Poor; but they could never have given any Thing, if they had possessed nothing.  Nor will your Charity be ever the less for living with your Parents.  And what is there more in a Convent than these?  A Vail, a Linnen-Shift turned into a Stole, and certain Ceremonies, which of themselves signify nothing to the Advancement of Piety, and make no Body more acceptable in the Eyes of Christ, who only regards the Purity of the Mind.

Ca. This is News to me.

Eu. But it is true News.  When you, not being discharg’d from the Government of your Parents, can’t dispose of, or sell so much as a Rag, or an Inch of Ground, what Right can you pretend to for disposing of yourself into the Service of a Stranger?

Ca. They say, that the Authority of a Parent does not hinder a Child from entering into a religious Life.

Eu. Did you not make Profession of Religion in your Baptism?

Ca. Yes.

Eu. And are not they religious Persons that conform to the Precepts of Christ?

Ca. They are so.