Frankness of your Style it being in the pursuite of truth It s very well known your Zeal for that makes you no more spare any one guilty than you did the Author when you called him Rogue which he agrees you did well in as your apprehended him Then he tells you This Epistle had been monstrous in any other age but why not in this when its twice the length of the rest of his Pamphlet is not Discernable by any body but himself then he tells you Knavery and Hipocrisie were in Fashion Thirty or Forty years ago but spares the telling with whom therefore I cannot give it any particular answer but must leave it with him and his Acquaintance in those times he says now the present Humour of France runs upon Poysoning the Enemies of our Government altogether upon the Vein of Plotting Indeed that 's too true and the Plotters as the Case is are of several sorts some have the Hellish and audacious Impudence to contrive his Majesties death by violence his Magistrates his Witnesses the overthrow of our Government the extirpating of the Protestant and Introducing the Romish Religion so called and there are another sort which I apprehend little inferior to the other in the Consequence of it who by their Poysonous Principles and frothy Strains of wit with their Paper-Squibs audaciously traduce and fly in the Faces of the Governors and Government and make nothing of turning the Justice of the Nation into Ridicule both at home and abroad and instead of healings broach divisions amongst the dissenters from the Church of Rome thereby to give all advantage imaginable according to your Evidence to weaken the Parties to our professed Enemies without the least just occasion or any other Rationally than to do that for our Adversaries they themselves could not effect but by making us Fools or Knaves to one another Then this Author takes it Positively upon him to tell you Doctor that he hath acquitted himself That he is no Papist and now he resolvedly undertakes so to acquit himself of the charge upon him by you and your Father of his Reporting you for a Fanatick In my Opinion if he doth the one no more than he hath done the other he might have spared his Labour I fear if the matter had been true he will not give you any cause to thank him for I do not remember one authentick Proof nor any other rational Argument yet produced by him that he is not a Papist unless such an Argument which he used that took upon him to confute Bellermine by telling him it was not so Is it out of pure kindness or at your request he takes this pains for you Truly I think both alike for I verily believe if the thing be true that he said you do not esteem it such a Scandal as you need to be vindicated from it either by him or any one else but he says your exhortation to Indulgence opened the mouths of some ignorant people to that effect I doubt not in this but you may take Mr. L'Estrange at his Word and keeping to Solomon's Rule not to answer him in his own way let it pass as it is and although you went no further than as an exhortation Mr. Roger hath the Confidence to take upon him to instruct and to give Judgment too Then he exclaims against a persecuting Spirit how this Coheres with the precedent matter it 's a Riddle to me and seriously I cannot fancy who or what he means by it certainly he dares not be guilty of so much Confidence as rather than he would not bespatter and traduce you he will arraign the whole Justice of the Nation for if that should be his meaning which to me seems very obvious I believe not ignorant but wise people would think he did not lie under any aspersion but rather take that Character already given him to be far short of his true demerit but I am sure the whole drift of his Pamphlet is for causeless persecution but blessed be God our Governours are of a more healing spirit Now he tells you that by this time you see what a Church of England man is to trust to when he the true Son of the Church is boxed on both sides and then he concludes that Paragraph with this Question With what face shall any man dare to charge him for a Papist that hath done so much for the Protestant Religion or a Fanatick that hath done so much for the Church of England I think it may be thus resolved that if it be without cause it must be with a brazen face but if the Party he means be one that can tell what the Church-yard Wall is made of and not the Church he may then lie open to all sorts of Censures especially when he hath acted on all sides as he puts the Case The Plot indeed is represented to be triplicite viz. against the King Government and Religion but what question or distinction this Author will make we shall see anon for there is his Diana but that you Doctor or any other of the King's Witnesses in this case have in the least occasioned such a question is not in my apprehension to be deduced from any of your Evidences and I believe that no man that hath ever heard read of or seen the Arts of those Persons charged with that horrid Plot in any of their Massacres either at home or abroad that ever they made any distinction of Persons that were Dissenters from themselves in Doctrine or Practice From what can it be imagined they would have done it by or in this Plot or that they did so intend by it only to cut off the Members of the Church of England and leave the Dissenters from them or only cut off the Dissenters and leave the Members of the Church of England there is no shadow of colour for it and it 's fully proved by you to be intended general to all Dissentets from the Church of Rome Now like a knowing Son of the Church of England Mr. L'Estrange acquaints you how far he understands and what is Religion he fixes it in the Word Government in which says he is comprehended Regiment Ecclesiastical and Civil and inclusively the Order of Bishops and Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and then concludes positively that that and no other is the Protestant Religion designed in the Plot and he thinks in his second Position he makes it good for he says they meaning the Dissenters from the Church of England are Religious and their name is Legion and his third is as good as that for therein this Author affirms they the said Dissenters are Christian Arbbs but the fourth goes beyond all That it stands not with Common Sense for Papists to plot the ruine of their own Auxiliaries and this he lays at your door that it 's against the Reason of your Depositions that they should contrive their Destruction when at that time they are making use of them to destroy us
and then most abhominably Christian-like he briskly lets fly at the Dissenters from the Church of England with a most Dismal Judgment that Heaven and Hell is as easie to be brought together as to reconcile those People to any terms of Piety or Civil Order that corruptly style themselves Protestants I must confess here perchance the Author may apprehend he hath the whip hand of any one that will undertake to answer in respect of the Law but I think without offence I may put you in mind of the Words of the Bishop of Donn in his Preface to his Grand Exemplar which are That when it appears a Kingdom is converted to Christianity the Common-wealth is made a Church Gentile Priests are Christian Bishops the Subjects Servants of Christ the Religion turned Christian and the Laws of the Nation made part of the Religion there is no change of Government but Christ is King and the Temporal Power his Substitute and is to promote obedience to him Now I must confess I am and I doubt not but every really true Son of the Church of England will be much more inclinable to take Doctor Tayler for an Authentick Author in this Point of Religion than Mr. L'Estrange though he does not use the word Protestant and without all peradventure his Judgment is upon Truth I mean the word of God which Mr. Roger altogether omits to the great proof of his Sonship and only grounds himself in that case in my apprehension upon several and Vulgar Errors as first I take it to be an undeniable Truth from our Saviour and his Apostles that there is but one Religion and not Legions and that under two Heads 1. Loving God with all your heart 2. Love our Neighbours as our selves unless it may be said that every Chimera of mens brains or every Notion as the Author calls Religion or every Form is a Religion I am of opinion it's Nonsence and I cannot but concur with Dr. Tayler that the Antiochian or Christian Religion is the Religion Catexochene and what ever Forms in true and due order to that are framed doubtless they are praise-worthy and ought to be observed by all that Love the Kingdom of Christ but yet I take it the Form is improperly called a Religion but for this Author that hath the Confidence to style himself the true Son and would fain be esteemed the Champion of the Church of England to leave out the only Essential part of a true Church whose Foundation ought to be upon the Rock of Ages and to place it only in humane Laws which as Dr. Tayler says are but part and only in Substitution to that which is really true is as I said before to take the Church-Yard and all for the Church or instead of commending the Vine to praise the Hedge or Fence about it for as Dr Tayler's opinion is the Temporal Power is to be used primarily and principally to promote obedience to Christ not to its self or any thing contrary to Christ's Doctrine Practices or Precepts therefore to me it seems apparent that the Author hath not done right to his Mother the Church of England which makes me fear in regard the Fathers of the Church seem to be of opinion against him in discription of a Church I conceive it may without straining be rationally conjectured he was not suckled by his Mothers milk but by a Foster Nurse otherwise certainly he would not have omitted so Essentiala Worth of the Church of England and the rather for that he might with ease have proved That when the Body of this Kingdom began to shake off that Spiritual Slavery imposed on our Ancestors by the Romish Yoke they then lay under the alteration that then was made by the Governours and Government of this Nation was the nearest and most agreeable by the Articles Cannons and Injunctions then agreed and established to the Apostolical Rule and pursuant to Dr. Tayler's Judgment therein as they could For that our Religion should solely depend upon humane Law it must be and may be as changeable as that of which I am sure we and our Ancestors have had woful Experience as by Repeals of Statutes for that purpose in the Reign of Queen Mary witness Another Vulgar Errour I conceive him with some clearness gullty of is in calling the Church of England the only Protestant Religion aimed at in this Case by the Papists Indeed I have heard once the Question was debated amongst Persons of an higher Sphere than Mr. L'Estrange what the Protestant Religion was and it was thought fit to be left undetermined and doubtless not imprudently for if we should make that the Basis of the Religion of the Church of England it would give our Adversaries the Papists a vast and inevitable Advantage for if History be in that Case to be depended upon the Lutherans the Calvinists c. were before the Church of England under the denomination of Protestants and I do doubt it will appear if it should be brought into dispute they differ in many and main Points but then the Consequence would inevitably follow that we must be put to prove which is the true one another advantage the Papists would have and which I have heard often made use of That they I mean the Church of Rome are the Mother Church and of many hundreds of years before the Church of England and doubtless they may be too hard for us in that Point if our Foundation begun only in Protestantism but in truth the Foundation of our Apostolical British Church which is fully clearly and elegantly proved and made out by the Learned and Judicious Author of the Book intituled of the Heart and its right Sovereign to be ancienter than Rome's especially here in this Nation by many Centuries of Years and for his saying by your Evidence it appears the Fanaticks as he calls them are to be Papists Auxiliaries and therefore it s not rational they the Papists would work their Ruine It 's true according to the Common and Vulgar term you in your Depositions call it the Protestant Religion indefinitely but why this must not concern all manner of Dissenters from the Romish Church I am sure does not in the least appear nor can any other thing rationally be expected but the extirpation of all Dissenters from them of Rome without distinction nor is it proved by you Doctor the Jesuitical Party endeavoured to make any other use of them but as all Conquerors do to divide their Dissenters to facilitate their intended Enterprize if so then his unchristian like Censure must of necessity be unwarrantable and groundless Dear Doctor I must beg your pardon for my prolixity upon this Paragraph but finding this the Author's Corner-Stone I could not pass it over slightly being so really zealous for the ancient British Apostolical Religion that as God was heretofore pleased to honour this Island to have the first Christian King and a British Woman to be Mother of the first Christian
AN Additional Discovery OF Mr. â—OGER L'ESTRANGE HIS FURTHER DISCOVERY OF THE Popish Plot WHEREIN Dr. TITUS OATES And the rest of the King's Evidences ARE VINDICATED From the Aspersions cast upon them in that PAMPHLET TOGETHER With some New Observations upon the said Discovery not heretofore Publisht In a Letter to Dr. Titus Oates By B. W. LONDON Printed in the Year 1680. SIR I Having been lately presented by a Friend with a Pamphlet entituled A further Discovery of the Plot Dedicated to your self Doctor by Roger L'Estrange and called the Second Edition I have perused the same and weighed it seriously and considering the Consequences thereof as it is full of gross Mistakes Fallacies Equivocations and Ironies both in the Title Page and Body of it I have spent a few leisure hours to make my Observations upon it which I recommend to your better Judgment In the Title Page is imployed new Fact to deceive the Reader but the said Author's Subject is only his own fallacious inferences of part of your Fact as the Devil did by the Scriptures with our Saviour for his own Ends. In the beginning of his Epistle to your self as a Theam to work upon he sets up a man of straw a spawn of his own brain by charging you with saying That you told him he was a Papist and that he reported you were a Fanatick and upon this Foundation he frames his whole discourse good Gentleman as he says to discharge himself and you from those two Calumnies as he calls them and as a proof of this assertion if you will believe him he tells you It was improved by a couple of Nonsensical and Seditious Libels which he names in his Pamphlet as also give you the style and character of the Author by hearsay a small thread-bare Sollicitor in the Old Bayly which as he says often uses your name and makes bolder with it than stands with the Dignity of your Figure in the Government It seems he would monopolize the abusing of you but this I take to be a much more unequal coupling than was by Doctor Wilde between Monsueir L'Estrange and Strange Lee For whether or no there be any such Sollicitor there or if there be that he was Author of such things or if he was that it was with your privity or knowledge which is thereby plainly and strongly implied but aspersedly and groundlesly insinuated is altogether uncertain and I am satisfied will hardly be found true by a packt Jury to use his own Phrase upon that Evidence of his and for the truth of it I doubt he cannot find a Second Then the Author proceeds to tell you he is reviled by being called a Papist a Lessener of the Plot a Disparager of the King's Evidence which he cannot bear but resolves either frankly to acquit himself or sinke under it and I appeal to your self and every impartial man if by that Book he merits not the latter and also the same reward he allows due to his fellow Scribler though upon several Foundations and I am sure the unerring Rule is he that is not with is against I think the Author conceives he hath done you Doctor no small honour to make you his Ghostly Father and indeed it 's enforced very vigorously by an imprecation of his hopes of Heaven and therefore he thinks you cannot without breach of the Rules of Charity but believe he is a true Son of the Church of England Indeed Doctor I cannot foresee why you should doubt of the Veracity of this Assertion seeing you have it from the mouth of one that never brake Faith with Man or Woman nor ever betrayed any unless you mean to have further and more demonstrable Evidence before you lend him your belief for in these Cases I know you generally direct your Judgment by the infallible Rule of our blessed Saviour that Trees must be known best by their Fruit not their Leaves if so then give me your patience further to acquaint you with my Sentiments of this his second Elaborate Work and see what I can find how he hath made good his Title Page or his Assertion and how good a Son Mr. L'Estrange hath proved himself thereby to his Mother the Church of England He says he is not without Bowels of humanity to men of other perswasions but I am perswaded one that dares not take upon himself to affirm he deserves such a Title with that Epithite he challenges yet would à lso allow them Bowels of Christianity but I know there are various degrees of Members in a true Church as Babes and others of a stronger constitution but I shall not determine by his expressions which of them I take the Author but leave that to more discerning Judgments He pretends to be mighty plain and open hearted to you for he tells you as a Friend as he saith he hath moxe Charity for a Moral Pagan than twenty Hypocritical Christians I shall not give you any trouble of my thoughts who this worthy Author means either by Pagan or Christian but only assure you if it were true this is one of the main parts of his Discovery in that Pamphlet especially as to me for indeed I have not learned that distinction of a Christian afore but always from the Woes pronounced in Scripture against Hypocrites I took them not to be Christians This kind Author says he hath a natural Veneration for the Government and all that love it the King 's Loyal Witnesses and Preservers of his Life he believes the Plot as much of it as every good Subject ought nay and pawns his Conscience which doubtless is large you do not believe more of it for all this give me leave to tell you Doctor I am of a quite contrary opinion for I know you are of a sharper sight than to have your Judgment eclipsed with a Fogg yet truly upon the whole Scope and Matter of his Discourse in that Pamphlet I am satisfied he could not though I know others do and would and know they ought have afforded more than a natural veneration for all those things but I may tell you Doctor though not the Author lest I should be offensive to hiâ— natural Judgment That things of God as I take this in a great measure to be are not to be rightly understood by meer natural men and in that capacity only he must herein be certainly apprehended as may more fully be deduced from his following Words that he cannot believe what he does not nor cannot as that Bedingfield is alive again and what is this to you and what can rationally be deduced from it but that a Crack-fart of the Nation having stuffed it into his Fardel without any privity of yours for ought appears it must be made use of as a Reflection upon you and truly this as strongly Seconded by a Learned Instance of buttered Turnips but it 's a very slippery one and indeed as saucy as all the rest and of as little moment with men of sound
in a popular Out-cry in the matter of Religion to have a State-Faction in the belly of it and then again compares it with the late times and so Concludes that Paragraph What an Hotch-Potch Chimera is this and as Forreign to the Case in hand as the East is from the West What is the Scribling of Pamphleteers now there is no Licenser when it was altogether as bad when there was one or what is the babling at Coffe-houses to be regarded or be thought to have any share in the Prosecution of this Discovery It 's bare matter of Fact and not at all Mysterious to men of understanding and although as the truth of the Evidence is It doth solely and Principally Centre in the Roman Catholique Party yet I cannot with all the skill I have with this learned Authors Assistance to boot understand wherein Religion is concerned in the least especially the differences between the Church of England and the Dissenters from it as he aims to inforce it Nor is the question the same as to the Plot you have Discovered nor the Transactions thereupon nor in any Possibility can be Paralelled with those of the late times Nay I know some of the Roman Catholick Religion take it quite otherwise for a person of Honour of that perswasion lately told me That he believed neither the King nor the Nation would be happy or safe until they were well rid of the Jesuites and their King-killing Doctrine and I think with Mr. Strange his favour it was not mannerly done of him to arraign the Judgments of the Representatives of the Nation in Parliament to say nothing was more narrowly Sifted nor more Vigorously discouraged I conceive that was intended incouraged but mistaken by the Printer than this Conspiracy for certainly had it been so they would never have made the neglect of it a Considerable part of their Impeachment against the Earl of Danby and doubtless they did not make that without due Consideration of such authentick proofs as they had before them to make it good And the Author of that Pamphlet having thus by stating a Case that is not in the least the Case you Doctor have in hand he draws a Conclusion Suitable to it That it might be useful and find Credit upon its own Account and then giving an Encomium of himself he casts off the Reader and enters into the Lists with you again In the beginning of his Book the Author gave you the allowance of a Figure in the Government But now he 'l make you as little as a Cipher he thinks you of so little understanding that you by his Incoherent Arguments are now perswaded out of your Senses and of the reallity and truth of that Case you have with so much danger avowed and justifed by and with a fictitious Case of his own making and proved it by Fallacious Arguments and it is so far unlike yours Doctor as instead of four feet it doth not go upon one of them and upon the Credence the Author hath of this supposed Conquest over you in a great part he proceeds to make it compleat and is resolved in another Point right or wrong to stand fair in your Opinion and that is That he is free from the Itch of Scribling unless where his Genius tells him his Pen may be of Publique use and where he is Prompted on by such an Incontinence of a publick Spirit as you find in your self and he Injured Gentleman never was but upon the Defensive part and received no reply but reproaches as he terms them of Popishly affected or a Villifier of the Kings Evidence Indeed this Comparison of his is of the same Stamp with the other but Doctor you may well pardon him because he Pardoned you for calling him Rogue and this is only out of a great desire he hath to be esteemed like you in publick Spiritedness but I am afraid his temper is more like Baals that was only Sollicitous to die the death of the Righteous but I do not remember one Word of his living their life I think as to the matter in hand I have had as much Experience of your Actions and as Seriously and Impartially and Duely weighed them as another but it s very Probable the Eyes of Mr. L' Estrange and my Understanding differ which may occasion from us Various Inferences and Conclusions It s true I have observed you often to be earnestly Zealous for truth in the Fact that you have Discovered and against all Opposers of it under what Circumstances soever but that you have in the least Promoted it either for this or the other Party or against this or that Party but only against particular Persons guilty Sparing none of what perswasion soever that are within your knowledge not in the least by any overt Act yet occurrs to my knowledge that you have any wayes made it your business either to set up or pull down or to make division amongst Parties of differing Perswasions I am sure it hath not yet appeared to be your business but rather of an healing Temper but how much it is that learned Authors is Manifestly apparent and he that runs may read it besides do but observe the different Foundations between you and him For Doctor you go upon occular and auricular Experiences and he upon Coffee-houses discourses only seconded by a Report of the strenuous affirmation of a Lady and that by hearsay too and then how naturally it follows that these malicious Rumors as he calls them put upon himself must needs promote and stir up him to Vindicate you that was not in the least concerned or named in it nor either wanted or craved his aid to defend you however with Cause or without Cause he hath no mind to part with you yet not out of love to prove you no Fanatick but to other more Sinister Ends and Purposes That is to get a small reward for his Pamphlet and Vindicate the Papists and crush the Phanaticks as he calls them as I hope I shall plainly and Evidently demonstrate But now warmly clad with these wonderfully Erroneous Considerations that incumbred his disturbed Brains with the help of taking your Works to pieces he had now fallen under such a Conception from which the World might expectsuch a product as was expected from the Mountain But you know that proved a Mouse Now the Author Glories in his Acquisition of Materials to defend you and now Magnifies his thoughts of his being armed to Suppress Popery and is as sure of his way as any blind man in Town for he will as certainly hit it as he that takes the way to Oxford to be the right and strait way to go to Canterbury When this Author hath pleased himself with these Incomprehensible thoughts by your Clue as he says he enters into the almost Inextricable Labyrinth of the Plot till he found out some Priests you pointed at lurking in Holes like Foxs and then he could not forbear Publishing it to the Nation
in his first Edition of this Pamphlet and all this upon your Credit as he tells you But if this Author should fall under this misfortune that neither you Doctor nor any sober Wise man should approve of his abortive births from his false Conceptions how can he make the Nation a Compensation for these abuses as without all Peradventure the Case will appear to every one that considers impartially the Plot it self that it is not an Inextricable Labyrinth but in truth is pure and easie Matter of Fact and the Essence thereof lies not at all in any of those by-Circumstantials Mr. Roger hath made use of and as he says For his own ends which is certainly true for they are not in the least to the Advantage of the Nation the Governors or Government the Protestant Religion nor the Kings witnesses but in apparent and great dishonour to all In his next Paragraph he cries out what Innocence can Warrant against Envy or Authority protect when Le Strange comes to be arraigned as a Papist for shewing the likeliest was to Extirpate Popery and yourname cannot Protect him in it nay he tells you it is well if you can uphold your self if this goes on and concludes that none can fall foul upon that Discovery without Wounding your Evidence Now certainly had this Author as well believed the truth of this reason as he cannot but imagine others do he would never under this Disguise of Friendship to you Doctor have undertaken thus publickly to Villifie you Alas he talks of Innocence that is begging the question I know not of any that can be allowed him by any one in his right Wits nor do I know nor never heard but from himself that ever he did or could shew any way that is likely to extirpate Popery I admire at his Confidence to adventure upon such a subject to the people which only and singly appertains to the Magistracy and I think he hath cause to rejoyce that he is not questioned for a Seditious Pamphletteer for that his Work in such a time as this is which calls for our Union not division He says some call his book Jesuitical for my part I think there is no man in his right Wits that can Judge less of his Book than call the Scope and Drift of it of a Jesuitical Stamp but what is that to you Doctor does it therefore follow that because he hath written a book deserves that Censure you must be accounted a Papist that was no way Privy to it but this Consequence is like the rest but upon hard Pumping he has indeavoured to bring you in by Head and Shoulders for he says he hath your Word and Oath for it for you swear the Priests and Jesuites herd themselves amongst the Non-Conformists they denie it and yet prove themselves in the Plot and discredit the Kings Evidence What Hocus Pocus is here I am sure in no part of your Evidence is it Sworn they herd with Non-Conformists nor have I yet ever seen or heard any proof that any Non-Conformists have proved themselves to be in the Plot or that any of them whatsoever discredited any of the Kings Evidence but this must be accepted upon his Veracity or else his strain of Wit by his Subsequent Querie for thus the Author argues if they Shelter not themselves in Conventicles and field-Meetings to stir up Broyls in the Government What becomes of your Testimony and none but Papists would oppose the Ferretting them out What he means or what he would be at If you know Doctor it s well but for my part I understand not the Sence of it but because you have proved there were some Jesuites or their Agents sent into Scotland to Facilitate their design amongst the discontented Scots if they could therefore all the Dessenters from the Church of England in England are guilty of the Plot I am very Confident the meanest of Grammarian School-Masters in England would have whipped the dullest Boy he had under his tuition for using such a Nonsensical Argument In Confirmation of this the Author further tells you nothing can be clearer according to your Evidence of Wright and others sent amongst the Scots with other Evidence to that Purpose and then says all this will not serve to Convince some of the Priests mingled with Fanaticks till the Pilgrims and the Forty Thousand black Bills come to open their Eyes This Author is in much wrath that every body does not wear his Spectacles for I am fully assured there is not a sober English Christian of what perswasion soever except such Sons of the Church of England as he and God-dam-me Sons that see no further than the Church-yard but do believe your Evidence in that particular as fully as your Words or intention thereby extended Then he concludes that Paragraph with a Clamorous acclamation If these Infidels I presume he means the Dessenters from the Church of England Have any Priviledg for the Defaming publick Justice and blasting the Kings Evidence above other People they should do well to produce it But I am sure it would have been better done of him to have produced some Proof of the Slander before he had aspersed the Parties with it I never heard of their guilt of the one nor the other but from his Pen which I take to be as little Slander as his mouth Then he proceeds to tell you he hath read considered and studied you and what wonderfull things you have done for him in the Dark and at length brought him into the light and when he hathlent you these Ironical Expressions he comends you in the same Dialect and further tells you of his Sensibility of the roundness of your Periods the Luxuriancy of your Invention where there is Scope for it the Frankness of your Stile and the Harmony of your Câ—â—ceptions Indeed had it been your design Doctor to have made your trade of Living and getting Dinners by Scribling or had those things which you have published in Print been otherwise than pure matter of Fact to satisfie the Governors Government and People of the Nation and limitted and bounded to the nature and quality of the thing in question and in a great part in the nature of a report It s morally Possible you might as well have observed your Periods as the Fault-finder nay I can say it with some Assurrance It is so in all Impartial mens Judgments all things duely considered which answers may also serve you for your Inventions and Conceptions for I know not of any such in all your works and doubtless those that do as well know you Doctor and understand you as Mr. Le Strange are clearly of opinion that had you Imployed your Genius that way if it had been but in making a Play against your own Mother you might and would have come off with as much Reputation made as good Syllogismes and had as pertinent Coherences as any that have undertaken or performed the like and for the
Emperour in the World so to me the finger of God seems plainly to point at and shew that in this latter Age he intends further to honour this Nation with a King and Government that will be his true and real Substitutes to promote sincere obedience to his Son and to bring us with healing under one Shepherd and all to be of one Sheepfold Then taking that forgranted which is denied him That the Protestant Religion aymed at in the Plot is the Established Religion of the Church of England the Author tells you that you cannot be a Friend to the State without being one to the Church too This as I have said before is but a begging of the Question and then he concludes from thence that he that phancies you Doctor not Canonical and Orthodox supposes you build with one hand and pluck down with the other here is begging Question upon Question to bring something out that is no way applicable to you for your business Doctor hath been solely and only to acquaint the King and his Councils with matters of Fact and leave the building and pulling down to their Wisdoms and not therein in the least to concern your self as the Author hath done in that Pamphlet too much Then he puts the Case the general way and says the Dissenters from the Church of England cannot any way be ayding in a Reformation but by their Prayers and good Wishes upon pain of Sedition It 's much such a man as Mr. L'Estrange who takes himself to be of such profound Parts and Knowledge should so much mistake himself for certainly as men and Subjects under his Majestie 's Obeysance they are as capable and legally of serving his Majesty in any such Commands as any other men or Subjects whatsoever I think his Case put whether or no and how far Protestants may unite is fully answered in the Solution to the last Paragraph but what the Dissenters to the Church of England meeting and assembling as to Religious Worships is any way material to the Defence of his Majestie 's Person or Government or what it signifies to the Plot I am to seek for and what offence it is against Law I shall not presume to meddle with it and I am assuredly satisfied in all sober mens Judgments he would not have lost Reputation if he had not shot his bolt thereat so suddenly but indeed much better fruit cannot well be expected from one that hath sucked in an Opinion that he dares tell you Doctor that Religion is a Spiritual Notion I think no man in his right wits will conceive he knows what he says and certainly Doctor this Author will be extreamly Fortunate if such Notions as he hath uttered in that Pamphlet make not him reputed and legally judged Seditious In the Conclusion of this large Epistle in a Jeer and Scoff he tells you They are Wonderful things you have done and would fain have you condescend to believe that he is perswaded you are yet reserved for more Wonderful things but on the other hand I am perswaded he did not believe himself when he wrote it nor designed any body else should if he could prevent it but to his shame if he had any his betters have done it and notwithstanding his flurts of your Name being as famous to Posterity as your Vertue hath rendred you to the present Generation It may be true that you have not that Stock of Confidence he hath and to conceit your self without Personal Infirmities and I dare say that in Justification of his Innocence in that particular he will not be so hardy or bold as to adventure to throw the first stone at you But he tells you Doctor again that none in his right Wits should take you for no Friend to the Church of England I concur with him in it and certainly had he been in his he durst not have taken the Confidence to have reflected so much upon you in regard by so doing he hath much wounded and unworthily traduced the Wisdom and Justice of the Governours and Government of this Nation for which he says he hath a Natural Veneration by turning all their Transactions in this Affair to mere Sophistical ridicule then he tells you of the Evidence you have made of the Intrigues in the late times and now by the Priests and Jesuits with Schismaticks and that you have given the Sectaries a great blow so that they have nothing to say why they should not be sifted with all exactness imaginable Doubtless it 's as great a mistake of and as forreign and remote from the Scope and Drift of your Evidence as is possible to be supposed For although the Jesuits and their Legates are for leaving no stone unturned that may advance their Design in every or any particular of it and to that purpose as much as in them lies do endeavour to creep into Societies and all sorts of men Yet must it therefore needs follow that such Societies or men are Confederate It 's a remote and forreign Supposition it 's a meer non-sequitur Nevertheless though I have not asked any of them the Question nor shall make it my business to open my lips to them further or other than truth will clearly warrant me I dare be bold to say so much for them that there is not one Society or Sect whatsoever called Dissenters from the Church of England but will with all true Zeal earnestly lend their helping hands to find out and be purged from any such corrupt Member that may lurk amongst them and if that Author or any other can further them will well reward them Then Mr. Roger in his jeering and flouting manner says that after gleaning up about 35 Priests in the whole it was you that informed the Government where they were to be had by Sholes It seems he is very exact in keeping the Account of their suffering Members but whether out of pity or friendship to them or for Publick Service I leave the Doctor upon the whole matter to judge but he was too exact in charging you with that Information for I am sure he neither hath or can prove to whom nor when given unless it must be taken for granted because he hath said it which really I cannot do nor have any grounds to perswade you or any other to it Then he asks some Questions if it be not true that the Plot goes on still I am justified by the opinion of the Governours and and Magistrates in the Nation to answer the Question in the affirmative his next is if it be not true that we are all undone if it be not disappointed I must answer that affirmatively in part and negatively in the rest That is all honest and loyal men and true Dissenting Christians from the Church of Rome are but Papists and popishly affected are not but he making the Answer and Construction of the Questions otherwise and without colour of a true cause upon them he draws this Inference That it 's a
matter of absolute necessity to fetch these Plotters out of their Holds That is to use his own expression he that winks may perceive Mr. L'Estrange his meaning and of what spirit he is of That all such guilty or not guilty that are under the notion of Dissenters from the Church of England must be destroyed as Plotters but not one word in all that his Pamphlet against any one Papist Priest or Jesuit elsewhere for he seems to be satisfied their Number as to Sufferers is full Then his last Question is If it be not true that whoever doubts of the truth of this matter of Fact or of the necessity of this way of proceeding is undeniably a Blaster of the King's Evidence and a favourer of the Conspiracy I think I have fully demonstrated to you Doctor why the Fact as he states it and would have it taken for granted is not true but altogether fallacious and shored up with untrue Glosses and Inferences for the by-end he drives at and therefore cannot in the least be apprehended to be any ground to judge him that doubts it a Blaster of the King's Evidence a Favourer of the Conspiracy but if Doctor you will take my opinion and that with some clearness I rather judge the Author of that Pamphlet to be such an one by wresting the construction of your Evidence contrary to the words and meaning thereof Then he closes his long Epistle with desiring you Doctor to lay to heart what he hath writ but I am glad to see you do not concern your self thereat so far as it concerns you alone then he desires you to cast your eye upon what follows which indeed is the Second Part to the same Tune and then prays Heaven and Earth to reward you and that you may be as happy as he wishes you I doubt not but that you are happier already and if you expect any further happiness by others prayers it must not be by such sort of people of whom it 's said their prayers will not prevail He stiles what follows A further Discovery of the Plot drawn he says from your Narrative and Depositions It is certainly drawn out but it 's by violence enough and that by Forreign and remote Inferences and Conclusions But what ever there is further in that Pamphlet but in truth it 's no further Discovery of your Discovered Plot but of his own it is and what that is what I have by my observations already made to that of which part of this is in matter but repetition and of that of which I shall make to that which is new I doubt not Doctor but will give you full and Evident satisfaction The Author tells you It must not be denied the Kings Witnesses have done as much as men could do to make out the truth of this Plot so must it not be denied that the Justice and Wisdom of this Nation hath improved all the Discoveries by the strictest Inquisition and Scrutinie imaginable and done all Possible to suppress it yet it goes on with Confidence and vigour as we have it from those that wrought in the same Myre till better light brought them to other Measures but to lay a Foundation for his next Fallacie he tells you the Fact lies in the Dark and truly Doctor in my opinion it must and will do so unless we have better light to see it by than a Meteor I do not Doctor at all doubt of what the Witnesses have done and as little of what hath been done by the Justice and Wisdom of this Nation for the finding out and suppressing this hellish Plot. But I have before told you as in the case of the Earl of Danby all was not done that might and ought to have been done or else the Commons House of Parliament did mistake in their Charge against him which I think becomes no man to presume But Doctor Mr. L'Estrange tells you that after all this Havock made of the Papists the Coffee-House Discourse is the Plot goes on as they that must be presumed that know best say but those on the Negative ask if it will work without hands where are the Papists in the Air or under ground or are they Invisible for as they aâ—e dispersed besides the Terrour that over awes them there are three Thousand Protestants to one Papist Indeed Doctor I am in admiration of his Confidence to call the just Proceedings of the Authority of the Nation an Havock he shews much of his natural Veneration to the Government and his true Sonship to the Church of England by it and then he lays a mighty stress upon the tatling at Coffee-houses and indeed he hath some reason for I perceive he hath been much beholden to them for matter and Evidence or otherwise he had been exceeding barren in both and in all Probability I am apt to conjecture and not without ground either he hath lost some Intimate in the Havock as he Scandalously terms it or his Bowels of Compassion are strongly towards that Party because he always expresses their suffering with great reluctancy and his Negative Arguments which are for them are the strongest But now the Author again begins to lay his meaning more open for he says they meaning the Popish party may be any where and his reason is he says Persons of great quality have told him they will indure all shapes exercise all Prosessions they speak of one Jesuit cried work for a Cooper another a Shoe-maker others Read Coats ' Its observed upon bringing the Plot to light all the little French men with their Marionetts and Puppit-Showes vanished which gave Suspicion they were Agents for the Faction I do now Doctor plainly preceive why he is so angry with you for now it appears much of his loss this Discovery of this Hellish Plot hath brought upon him for it seems these Persons were of his acquaintance otherwise he could not have been so well knowing of their hard Condition and truly I think he may cry work for a Tinker for instead of stopping one Hole he hath made many but for the matter he not charging it upon you I need not give you the trouble of answering it only let me observe this to you that although at most the Author can and does make no more of these Assertions but hear-says and no body knows from whom nor can well guess for it s not to be presumed that any Persons of quality but such as are in Prison for the Plot use such Company yet he takes it for a granted truth and makes use of it to be a ground-Work for what follows which he tells you Doctor Shall be supported upon your Authority for you still must come in to help the Lame Dog over the Stile With respect to the validity of your Testimony and weight of your Observations you having dived Deeper into it than any other Alas poor Gentleman he is forced to speak truth sometimes against his will but his truths and Fallacies do not
make good Musick in wise mens Eares no more than his Musick did in Olivers and I am sure he hath not and believe he cannot make any further Discovery of this Plot by any thing by you published nay it s without all Contradiction absolute Nonsense that a Discovery can be made out of a Discovery for without all Peradventure a Discovery must and doth imply new Fact otherwise it s no Discovery Then the Author tells you That that part of the Design against his Majesties life broke to all Intents and Purposes but we are beholden to you for the Discovery of other and further Plots in defaming the King and Government Subversion of our Established Religion and Disturbance of the Peace so that our Deliverance is but half done I stand amazed with what considence he dares write such things but as the Proverb there is is none so bold as blind Bayard for his so that our Deliverance is but half done is his and none of your's and what you have done is meerly making known matter of Fact and that long since and only as to one Plot. And besides Doctor had he considered the whole truth of the Fact as to that part of this Hellish Plot That the same hands attempted his Sacred Majesties life Beyond-Sea That 's its strongly to be presumed Mr. Killigrues man that was Murthered at Windsor on his Majesties Couch was by the same hands and intended his Majesty That although the Gun is taken that Pickering should have made use of for that purpose yet neither Coniers nor his Dagger nor the Ruffians nor many others you have in your Depositions charged are that the Contrivance was as well Beyond-Sea as at home and that since your Discovery of Mr. Dugdale Mr. Balldron Mr. Jennison Mr. Danger-field and others which daily come in have severally deposed that at several places and times and by divers Persons they have been accosted to be hired to undertake to attempt it Methinks the Consideration of these things which have undeniable truths should make him Blush for that by broaching such Falsities amongst the Subjects to delude them he may make them neglectful and careless in the Preservation of his Majesties life in which they have so much and great an Interest but I only mention this Doctor as it is to me a clear Demonstration of the Contrivance and often repetition of the Jesuites and their Parties indeavouring to put in Execution their hellish Design against his Majesties person whom God preserve Then he repeats part of your Narrative wherein you Doctor as he says mention some Circumstantial Actions the Jeuites do in order to the Facilitating this their impious Design which is by making and Promoting differences between the King and his People and the King and Forraign Princes and the like and amongst the people in case their Design as to his Majesties life took effect that they might be ready to rise up in Arms against one another and then in a glorying manner the Author tells you We have found your Observations in these Particulars so Punctually true that every Syllable is the matter now in Agitation as thus not a Day without a Libel upon his Majesties Authority belieing the Condition of his Affairs Indeavouring to create Distrusts and Jealousies amongst Forraign Princes and States by false Intelligence Animating and exciting turbulent Factions Anticipating Confederacies Involving us in Blood upon a remote and Vndutiful supposition of the Kings Death Sedition preached as well as Written our Conventicles both Instructed themselves and Instructing others in the Methods and Principles of Rebellion this he says may Suffice for your Judgment upon these things which look liker a Revelation than a Conjecture I know not Doctor who the Author means by we for my part I think no man in his right Senses can close with him in his finding for as I said before yours are not observations but only matters of Fact and those charged upon the Jesuites and their Party But if there are any such Libells holding forth those particulars he mentions but as much as his own from any man or from any Society of men I am very clear in my opinion with all humble Submission to the Governors and Government the Authors may well be suspected to promote the Design and may deserve to be called in question and punished for them according to their Demerits And the rather as to him because he hath the boldness in Capital Letters and of remark to call it A REMOTE AND UNDUTIFUL SUPPOSITION OF HIS MAJESTIES DEATH If this be not a giving the lie to the Representatives of the Commons of the Nation affirming their Credit of your's and other's Evidence in that particular by their Vote That if his Majesty which God forbid should dye a violent Death they would revenge it on the Papists and this Concurred with by the House of Peers but these are such small and minute things in Mr. Le Strange's Consideration he can easily pass them by as an Evident and undeniable proof of his natural Veneration of the Government and his true Son-ship to the Church of England But as to the Preachings he talkes of if amongst those he means under the term Fanaticks when he can name the Persons I hope I may without offence say the Persons charged or some body for them will give an answer Satisfactory to the Governours Government and the world in the mean time I believe no man of understanding will Credit it upon his bare and general Assertion And because Mr. L'Estrange as may be supposed did apprehend these things had not been sufficient to finish his intended Fabrick and that his Pamphlet he makes some further repetition of part of your Preface to your Narrative in reference to the late Troubles as That the Jesuitical Party were the Contrivers of the last War by their known Diabolical Art of inslaming Parties and Passions against each other and addressing to the King of his Majesties Royal Fathers unspeakable Sufferings and barbarous usage it was those brought him to his end stourished Swords and Trumpets over his dead Body the Putney Projectors were in most if not all the Councils that contrived his ruine What broke the Uxbridge Treaty but the Romish Interest and Policy who contrived to baffle all designs of Peace and Settlement to this Nation Prosperity to his Majesties Family but them Milton was a known Frequenter of a Popish Club. Who more forward to set up Cromwel and crown him with the King's Crown than Papists his Government was contrived by a Priest and Lambert a Papist for above thirty years From whence he concludes in this Point he says a man may without loss of Honour believe you to be in a mistake I could wish he Would have given some reason for it that he might have received a more full Answer than otherwise can be given to it for although this is not nor cannot be said or deposed by you as an immediate part of your Discovery of the
present damnable Plot nor as any thing of your own knowledge because all or most of it was done before you were born or at least able to judge of things yet by the access you had to the Jesuits Memoirs when admitted amongst them you found those things except the Addresses to the King which made good those Assertions and you report it only as such and yet with such demonstrable Circumstances as might easily gain a credit as to the truth of them with any man that is a Dissenter from the Church of Rome and is not such a Son of the Church as Dives and his Brethren were as they were lately proved by a Learned and Reverend Doctor who were not to be convinced but by an Angel or some immediate Revelation from Heaven but as that was denied them so I believe it will be these since they will not believe that which in my apprehension comes very near it but in truth to me it seems obvious and plain that the Author hath made a very ample and full Discovery of himself in his said Pamphlet but not of you Doctor nor of any further Discovery of your revealed Plot for by his own shewing and as the truth is you charge all our miseries mediately or immediately upon the Papists and he affirms you are mistaken Now on which side can it rationally be judged he is The next thing he chargeth in Fact is in your Page 8. touching Blundel 's teaching of Youth Treasonable Doctrines against His Majesty Page 25. Ashby 's sending new Messengers into Scotland to promote Commotions there and inform them of the Tyranny they lay under by being denied Liberty of Conscience not to be procured without the Sword by which means they should Weaken the Presbyterian and Episcopal Faction and you heard the Words and two Messengers were sent into Scotland with Instructions to carry themselves like Nonconformist Ministers to preach necessity of taking up the Sword which you saw dispatched Now observe his several Inferences from hence first says he take notice here is a Design for the Destruction of the King and Embroyling of the Government I admit it him in terms and literally but if he hath any equivocal or fallacious meaning I cannot Secondly he says the pretence of the Quarrel is matter of Liberty and Conscience That is an absolute mistake for it 's but a circumstantial Engine so prepared and wrought by the Jesuits to carry on their grand Design by dividing and weakning their opposing Party Thirdly he says it 's to be promoted by Popish Emissaries in the Councils of the Non-Conformists It is the first time and I believe cannot be seconded that ever the Non-Conformists had any Councils and as to their being in the Conventicles as to the charge it 's only by you said to be in Scotland but admit it in England too It is not nor cannot be charged originally upon them but meerly accidentally and contingently as the Jesuites and their Agents could prevail whereof I am satisfied if the Author could have found but half an instance to make it good it 's not to be doubted with his Ingenuity he would have stretched it to an whole one if not more for the good of the Cause he hath so visibly by his Pamphlet espoused Fourthly he says by making Interests with the Separatists under Disguise of Teachers This is answered in the last But fifthly lastly and remarkably he says That you charge none of the Church of England What yet more blindness Was it possible for the Jesuits and their party to carry on their several Designs in the late times without some of the Church of England-Members being concerned in it he nor any man can say that there was not Members of the Church of England on both sides in those unhappy Wars But by this you may plainly see what he drove at by saying You were mistaken as to those times for he could not have otherwise come off from his Assertion that you charged not the Members of the Church of England though he assumes to say He hath perused and considered all your Works as to that particular yet he hath not rightly judged of them and although it be apparently the design of the Author to put a variance and division between those that are Dissenters from and those who are Members of the Church of England I know it s none of yours nor shall be mine for I take the healing way in that case best and therefore shall not give any further Instances therein than may serve to disprove him But Mr. Roger taking his mistaken Inference from thence for granted he draws as erroneous a Conclusion yet very positively That you have altogether cleared the Church of England and her Sons from the Calumny of being either mediately or immediately guilty of this horrid Plot. But as I said before Doctor you have not in the least in the whole scope of your Discovery shewed your self partial by charging or sparing this or that man that is within your knowledge guilty because he is of this or that Party or Faction as may plainly appear by what is aforesaid Then Mr. L'Estrange says It must not be any longer a supposition which you have given Oath for So that saith he taking it for granted there is such a project on foot the Papists are in the bottom of it and it s promoted by the Sectaries the question is how the Government may discriminate the Protestants from the Papists being blended in their Interests as well as in their Councils and not easily distinguished but the legal Expedient is the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy yet that will not do for many Papists will take them and many that call themselves Protestants will absolutely refuse them I agree it to be true that what is judicially proved ought not nor cannot be esteemed a Supposition but then it must and ought to be taken litterally and not with a strained or remote construction contrary to the Deponents words intent or meaning for though it may be taken for granted there is such a project on foot and the Papists in the bottom of it yet is it not to be so that the Sectaries promote it from any thing you have sworn but that the Jesuitical Party have endeavoured to blow up Sectaries so called into a division amongst themselves and with others the dissenting Party from the Church of Rome thereby to lessen and abate the strength of them is litterally agreeable with the words of your Depositions afore-cited by him that thereby they might weaken both the Presbyterian and Episcopal Faction it 's not in the least to be questioned or doubted but that the Jesuites or their Party are knowingly and willingly the Contrivers and Carriers on of this horrid Plot. But that the Dissenters from the Church of England are in any part of it is both to be questioned and doubted and the rather for that neither by yours nor any others Testimonies is it so proved nor
from thence can be inferred without a violent or at least strange Construction and for my part I do not at all know or suspect that any one true Member of the Church of England is or will in the least joyn with the Jesuitical Party in it but do hope both they and the Dissenters from them will unite to defend his Sacred Majesty and the Government from it Then he tells you The Law is general in that case there is no relaxation the Law takes not notice of Honesty but Obedience and this Rule he says holds in common as well to the Papists as to the Protestant Recusants With something more to the same purpose but truly I think to very little purpose for as I take it those Statutes he cites are by their Title Preamble and Body only and litterally against the Popish Recusants For the Dissenters he talks of or the greater part of them were not then publickly in being nor in the least mentioned in any of them and if so I think they cannot be concerned But that being under the construction of a power above me I shall not be positive in it or determine it Then he rivets this he thinks by saying But what if it be said that it is not the thing sworn but the Oath it self that is scrupled at This he tells you Doctor is nice and unhappy to those that are so strait-laced and from thence he infers its dangerous to the Government for it lets in all the Priests and Jesuits in nature under that colour for they will all flow in thither that is amongst the Dissenters from the Church of England for shelter and carry on their Designs without trial or danger Is not this most incomparable Jugling he can blow hot and cold at his pleasure an excellent Artist for observe when he had some trouble of Spirit upon him for the Papists Sufferings upon this Hellish Plot and to take off the edge of the Magistrate and the opinion of the People as to the further and severe prosecuting of it that there might not be any more havock made with them then there was not a Papist to be seen they were invisible but now when the Tables must be turned upon the Dissenters to the Church of England then because of some of the Dissenters scruplesomeness in Swearing his Opinion is changed for now there is a great deal of danger he says but if you will believe the Author before it must be of no body or at least so few that they are not worth the looking after but one to three thousand if so much so here is Mr. Roger against Mr. L' Estrange and indeed I take the Author's Inference from hence to be altogether foreign and remote from your words or meaning in your Deposition or the truth of the case for though your Deposition in fact is true and common experience joyns with you in it that the Jesuits and their Party are so active that they will if possible thrust themselves into any Society of Men to try their skill in disturbance of Governments and carry on their Design yea even as well where there are Dissenters from the Church of England as where there are none and according to what he said equally safe to themselves Now to conclude all he tells you Doctor It must be granted that either the Papists have a design upon the King Religion and Government and advance it by acting the parts of Quakers Anabaptists Presbyterians and other Sectaries or not and admitting your Deposition to be true there can be no security to this Government without either dissolving all seperate meetings or bringing in all Dissenters to this Legal Test otherwise the Papists have all sorts of liberty and security in herding themselves amongst Conventiclers where upon the beating of a Bush it will be an even wager whether you start a Jesuit or a Fanatick and in this case there is not much difference between them where the Jesuit plays the Fanatick or the Fanatick the Jesuit and then says if this main Assertion be true there is no way of finding out the Papists but by this Test and Dissenters cannot chuse but incourage the Proposition either they have Priests amongst them or not if they have why do they not the best they can to find them out if not why do they say they have Either they are influenced by the Jesuits or not if they be why do not they purge their Congregations If not why do they pretend they are and so set the Saddle on the wrong Horse Either its possible to clear their Conventicles of this dangerous mixture or not If so why do they still complain and do nothing in it If not then there is no way to extirpate Popery but by rooting out Fanaticism and then he calls to the world to judge with what injustice the Orders and Rituals of the Church of England are charged with a tincture of Superstition and Popery when the Calumniators are tainted with this Leaven and then concludes he is come to the bottom of the Popish Plot. I am sure a blind man would be glad to see it for I that have both my eyes can neither see top middle nor bottom of what he promised of a further Discovery of your discovered Plot and all he hath said I take to be but a meer groundless Phantasm for in the beginning of his Pamphlet he undertook a further Discovery of the Plot than you discovered and could you or any other rational man have from thence expected or looked for any thing else but some new matter and clearly made out and evinced either by authentick Testimony or undeniable Arguments but instead thereof he hath spoiled three or four Sheets of Paper by stuffing them full of strained and wrested Constructions of and inferences from some part of your Depositions and Observations many manifest contradictions and apparent mistaken Conclusions thereupon Nevertheless to do him what right I can perchance if you take not his litteral expression but his mystical meaning I am perswaded you will go nigh to judge he hath made or really intended to make a further Discovery of a Plot but not the Plot you have discovered for if you well and seriously observe the subject matter of his Discourse and Arguments and to what they tend and add to it the time when this Learned Piece came forth and compare it with the invented Plots of the Earl of Castlemain Countess of Powis John Gadbury Mrs. Celier c. I may easily suppose Doctor you may without any great stress readlly conjecture with whom he conversed for what Meridian this elaborate Piece of his was calculated and for whose use by its Image and Superscription but the All-mighty Providence having taken them in their own Snares both in those and other things hath thereby plainly proved to the world the manifest untruth of his Assertions for although is be undeniably true what you have deposed that the Jesuits and their Agents endeavoured to Work
amongst all Parties whatsoever nay and by his own shewing as he puts the case they may be as secure amongst the members of the Church of England nay and more than the Dissenters from the Church of England for although he says because many of the Dissenters will not take Oaths therefore there the Jesuites c. may hide themselves so also he says many of the Jesuites and Papists will take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and so will the members of the Church of England if so then what can hinder the Jesuites c. to herd and hide there Into what Confusion hath this Author brought us if all his Suppositions be true but certainly had the Earl of Castlemain the Countess of Powis John Gadbury Mris. Celier and their accomplices been of Opinion that their Security had lain amongst the Dissenters to the Church of England they would not have been so injurious to them as to have endeavoured to have turned the Plot upon them and besides its to all rational men a strange Proof against this Authors Assertion in that particular for if the Jesuites c. herd only amongst Dissenters from the Church of England and they had been their fellow-Conspirators or Agents in the Plot It could not be unknown to them and then certainly there had not been such necessity as they conceived to go about by desperate and false Oaths to make them either Authors Abetters or Contrivers of the Plot and doth it not evidently and plainly Demonstrate the Contrary for had those Assertions been true this Author would have you Doctor and the world believe in that particular surely there had not needed a Sham-Plot to bring the Dissenters from the Church of England into the real Plot for had it been true it might have been proved by other means but yet to this day there is not one man of the dissenters from the Church of England come to my knowledge that is either charged with or detected of any such thing unless the Authors bare word be to be taken for granted so that though the Jesuites and Priests have according to your Depositions endeavoured to draw them in yet have they not prevailed for what appears so that for ought I can preceive its undeniable that the Saddle was and is upon the right Horse and then all his Queries of if's or not's fall to the ground and needs not any answer but what is before upon the like questions But that the Dissenters from the Church of England have Jesuites and Priests actually amongst them doth not by your's or any other deposition proof or experience whatsoever appear there is any or if there be that they have not wrought any Influence at all upon them or at least such an one as may from the Government merit a total Extirpation which the Author strongly presses for but I presume an healing Plaister is better But he having been heretofore accustomed to Write new's-Books thought his book would not appear authentick or at least would not be vendable without an advertisment annexed to it which Advertisment is indeed as much to the purpose and Coherent to the Subsequent matter of his Pamphlet as comes just to nothing and truly he is so Ingenious as to tell you so for he says in the close of it that its Forraign to the Subject of his Pamphlet but more Accomodate to the Season But for my part I think its Forraign to both for it is that the Subjects right of Petitioning hath been of late in such manner asserted as if his Majesty had no right of refusing and then answers it with some Instances from Edward the Third to Henry the Eight of Granting and Refusing I know not his Author nor I believe he did not for that Assertion for if he had certainly he would have named him But if any one did so he was to blame and was I suppose as much under a mistake as the Author is in his Pamphlet and the Subject matter of it for I take it to be undoubred that the person or Power that may be petitioned to hath a power of granting and denying as for instance if a Party of his friends should in a petition to his Majesty set forth according to their apprehension his merits by his Pamphlet and pray a reward for him his Majesty might refuse it and on the other hand if you Doctor and others by petition to his Majesty should set forth how he hath traduced his Majesty the Government and the Kings Witnesses in his said Pamphlet and pray that the same and he might be left to the Law to be punished according to their demerits the same might and would be granted but in regard he could not or at least would not make a further Discovery of that Damnable and hellish Plot Discovered by you give me leave to tell you if he could have been convinced by any other Evidence or Testimony than Dives and his brethren how he might have done it by publishing to the world as the truth is that the singer of God hath been in this Discovery of your's throughout for it cannot proved be that you Doctor had the least advice or assistance of any one man to guide or help you to contrive the way you took and was to take and that with eminent danger and vast hazard and great difficulty for the making your self Master of this Discovery in less than a year That you had not the least advice or assistance of any one man to help you to contrive the time the way and method how to publish this Discovery to Authority but came barely and nakedly to it yea and with a proof in your mouth from those you were to discover you nor any one else should be credited That when many of the material measures you had proposed to your self and depended upon to make good and for the manifestation of your Discovery as Coleman's latter Papers Langhorne's Papers the foreign Pacquets were removed and you deprived of them and by reason thereof barely stood as a single Witness and inevitable ruine and destruction ghastly and grimly staring in your face yet your Spirits were supported and you not at all discouraged from sticking to the truth But then the Jesuitical Party being infatuated and raging with madness must needs to hide their Villanies as all notorious Sinners commonly do by committing another Sin so did they by committing that barbarous and inhumane Murther of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey which proved otherwise than they designed it for instead of suppressing the Discovery of the Plot it did as it were give a new life to what you had delivered Then doubtless moved by the same spirit you were did not the then Representatives of the Nation unanimously by their Votes testifie their credit of your Evidence Then by the same hand apparently were sent in to your assistance and confirmation Mr. Bedlow Mr. Dugdale and many others who have proved many other particulars and concurred in the general to a tittle with you That until you and the rest of the Witnesses in this Hellish and Damnable Plot had been made use of at a publick Trial you did not converse or associate with one another as can be proved by a multitude of authentick Witnesses so far as is provable in a negative and I am confident cannot be proved in the affirmative That not any two of you that are the King's Witnesses in that Plot or any part of it were of any Familiarity or acquaintance before your being ingaged in that business and you all lived remote from one another and although you do not all swear to the same particulars yet do concurr in the whole as to the generality of the Plot. That not any one of them but your self who for some short time was under a necessity to counterfeit your self a Papist These things Doctor I only mention to put you in mind by what hand you as I conceive have been supported in this Discovery and to shew you according to my apprehension what improbability nay I may say impossibility there is that this Discovery of yours of this Hellish Plot is in the least any thing of an invention or contrived Design by you but is pure matter of Fact and of undeniable verity and not to be so slighted as that invention of Beddingfields being alive again All which I was prompted to as I conceived as a Duty incumbent upon me upon and by the obligation of the Loyalty I truly owe to my natural Prince the real veneration I have for the Government and true Christian Religion and Justice of the Nation the Cordial Love I have to my faithful fellow-Subjects and my profess'd and faithful Friendship to your self and therefore keep up your Spirits and be not dismayed or in the least discouraged for it is my opinion and I hope not without good grounds and presume I may with reverence and without offence say it unless to the tender ears of some captious Masquerade and strange Sons of the Church of England that God will neither forsake you nor this Cause but in despite of all opposition will therein glorifie himself and in truth set up the Kingdom of his Son But give me leave to tell you my Judgment that if this Author's Assertions and Arguments Your Cordial Friend B. W. FINIS