Bum. Well but hark ye Citt, I hear People swear, or in WORDS to this Effect; why may not a Man as well swear, in SIGNS to this Effect? and that they lifted up their Eyes, and hands, bent their Fists, knit their Brows, and made Mouths, to this or that Effect?

Citt. No, that will never do Bumpkin, but if thou could'st but phansy that thou heard'st them speak.

Bum. Why truly I never thought on't, but I saw a Parson once, the Tears flood in his Eyes, as one of 'um went by to Execution. But your Surcingle-men, (as our Doctor told us last Lords day) are all of 'um Papists in their Hearts.

Citt. Why what's the Common-Prayer Book Bumpkin, but a mess of Parboyl'd Popery?

Bum. I'm a dog, if our Minister does not pray for the Queen still.

Citt. Nay, we are e'en at a fine pass, when the Pulpit prays for the Queen, and the Bench Drinks the Duke of Yorks Health. But to the point, bethink your self well; a man may forget a thing to day, and recollect it to morrow. Take notice however, that it is another main point of your Instructions to procure Informations of this quality.

Bum. I'le fit you to a hair for that matter: But then I must be running up and down ye know, into Taverns, and Coffee-houses, and thrusting myself into Meetings, and Clubs. That licks mony.

Citt. Never trouble your self for that, you shall be well paid and your expences born: Beside so much a head from the State, for every Priest that you discover.

Bum. Well! these Priests and Jesuites are damn'd fellows.

Citt. And yet let me tell you Bumpkin, a bare fac'd Papist is not half so bad as a Papist in Masquerade.

Bum. Why what are those I prethee?

Citt. They are your Will-worship-men, your Prelates Brats: Take the whole Litter of 'um, and you'l finde never a barrel better Herring. Let me tell thee in Love Bumpkin, these Curs are forty times worse to Us then the Jesuits themselves; for the One is an Open Enemy, the Other lies gnawing like a Canker in our Bowells. And then being train'd up to Latin and Greek, there's no opposing of the Power of Godlinesse to the Sophistry of Human Reason: Beside that, the Law is For us in the One Case, and Against us in the Other.

Bum. Which way shall we go to work then, to deal with this Generation of Men?

Citt. We must joyn the Wisdom of the Serpent, to the Innocence of the Dove; and endeavour to compass that by stratagem, which we cannot gain by Argument. But now am I going to open a Mistery to thee, that's worth——

Bum. Prethee the Worth on't Citt: For talk is but talk, the Worth is the Main point.

Citt. Why then let me tell thee Bumpkin, the Mistery that I am about to disclose to thee, was worth to our Predecessours not long since, no less then Three Kingdoms, and a better penny. But I'le seal your Lips up, before I stir one step further.

Bum. Why look ye Citt, may this Drink never go thorough me, if ever blab one Syllable of any thing thou tell'st me as a Secret.

Citt. Hold, hold, Bumkin, and may it never come up again if thou do'st; for we'l have no shifting.

Bum. And may it never come up again neither if I do.

Citt. Well, I'm satisfy'd, and now give attention; thou seest how unanimously fierce all the several Parties of the Protestant Dissenters are against the Papists. Whence comes this Conjunction, I prethee, of so many separate Congregations, that are many of them worse then Papists, One to Another? There must be in it, either Conscience, or Interest: If it were Conscience, we should fall foul One upon Another, and for matter of Interest; when the Papists are destroy'd, we are but still where we were.

Bum. This is a crotchet, Citt, that did not fall under my Night-Cap.

Citt. Be enlighten'd then. It is not the Destruction of those that are Really Papists, that will do our Work; for there's nothing to be got by't. But it must be our business to make those people pass for Papists, that are not so, but only have Places to Lose: such as we our selves, by the removal of them, may be the better for; and This, Bumpkin must be our Master-piece.

Bum. I had this very phansy my self, Citt; but it stuck betwixt my Teeth, and would not out.

Citt. You hear now in General, what is to be done; You must be next instructed in the Acts of Raising, Cherishing, and Fomenting such Opinions; in what Cases to Improve them, and where to apply them.

Bum. I'm perswaded my Masters Brother had this very thing in his Head, though he never made any words on't to me, He had got a List of all the considerable Offices and Employments in the Kingdom: And I remember he was us'd to say, that most of the respective Officers were either Corrupt, or Popishly affected. If they were Publick Ministers; either the Kings Councells were betray'd, or they put him upon Governing in an Arbitrary way, and without Parliaments: As for the Judges there was either Bribery, Absolute Power, or Oppression laid to their Charge; and so all the rest were branded for Frauds, Imbezilments, and the like, according to the Quality of their businesse: All the Governours of Towns, Castles, and Forts, were Popishly Inclin'd; and not to be Trusted. And then all Ecclesiasticall Officers, whatsoever, within four or five, were half way at Rome already.

Citt. This is well remembred, Bumpkin; Now 'tis worth a bodies while to make these Blades passe for Papists, and Traitors, that leave Good Offices behinde 'um. Nay, we must not suffer so much as any man, either of Brains, or Fortune (that does not joyn with Us) to passe untainted.

Bum. Thou say'st Right, Citt; for whosoever is not With us, is Against us.

Citt. Thou hast spoken patt to This point, Bumpkin, but yet thou begin'st at the wrong End; For you must first get the skill of Raising, and Improving a Report, before ye come to the Fixing of it: For that's a Nicety not to be medled with, till we come to the taking out of the very Pins, and the Unhinging of the Government; So that the First Clamour must be Level'd point-blank at some Known, and Eminent Papists.

Bum. Well, but what shall we Charge 'um with?

Citt. Why, if we were Once at the bottom of This Plot (which, upon my soul, Bumpkin, is a most hideous one) and wanted matter for Another, I would charge them with a designe of betraying us to a Foreign Enemy.

Bum. As how a Foreign Enemy pre'thee?

Citt. As Thus: I would charge 'um with holding an Intelligence with the Emperor of Morocco, for the Landing of five and thirty thousand Light-horse men upon Salisbury Plain.

Bum. Pre'thee, Citt, don't Romance.

Citt. Pre'thee do not Balderno, ye should say; Speak Statutable English, ye Fool you. Thou think'st perhaps that the people will not believe it: Observe but what I say to thee; let it but be put into the Protestant Domestique, that his Imperiall Majesty is to hold up his hand at the Kings Bench-barr for't, and let me be Dogs-meat if they do not swallow That too. Why pre'thee, Bumkin, we must make 'um believe stranger Things than This, or we shall never do our businesse. They must be made to believe that the King intends to play the Tyrant; that all his Counsellors are Pensioners to the French King; that all his Enemies are turn'd his Friends, o'th sodain, and all his Friends, his Enemies; That Prelacy is Anti-Christian; all our Clergy-men, Papists, the Liturgy the Masse-Book, and that the Ten Commandments are to be read backward.

Bum. Blesse me, Citt, what do I hear?

Citt. Come, come, Sirrah; y'are under an Oath; and This is the plain Truth on'. What is it to Thee and Me, I pre'thee, whether the Great Ministers be True, or False; Or what Religion, the Clergy are of, so long as their Livings ye Rogue, are Orthodox, and their Offices well-Affected.

Bum. This does Qualifie, I must confess. But you were saying, that the First Clamour should be levell'd at some Known and Eminent Papists: Now what comes after That, I beseech you?

Citt. You may safely Mark all Their Friends then for Popishly-Affected; and so consequently on to all that Love them, and all that They Love. When this Opinion is once started, 'tis an Easy matter, by the help of Invention, and Story, to improve it; and by this means we shall come, in a short time to secure all the Councils of the Nation to our Party, that are chosen by Suffrage. If you were read in History you would finde, that still as the Papists set the House on fire, the Non-conformists took the Opportunity of rosting their own Eggs.

Bum. Yes, yes, I understand ye. As for Example now, One goes to the Lords in the Tower, another (as you were saying) drinks the Dukes Health, a Third prays for the Queen: a Fourth Phansies Two Plots; a Fifth refuses the Petition, a Sixth speaks well of my Lord Chief Justice, or calls the Protestant Domestick a Libel. All these now are Popishly-Affected.

Citt. Save your breath Bumpkin, and take all in one word: whosoever will not do as we would have him shall be made so.

But now to the matter of Invention, and Story; I hate the over-hearing of Discourses, in Blinde Allyes, and such ordinary Shams: I'm rather for coming downright to the Man, and to the Poynt; after the way of the Protestant Domestique.

Bum. Ay, ay: There's your free Speaker. Well Citt, the King wants such men about him. But pre'thee hear me; Is it certain his Majesty has Lent the King of France Three Millions?

Citt. No, no; some Two and a half; or thereabouts.

Bum. Why, if the King would but make a League now with the Swiss to keep the Turk off, That way; and another with the Protestants in Hungary, to keep off the French, the whole world could never hurt us.

Citt. Nay that's true enough, but then the Pole lies so damnably betwixt Us and the Baltique.

Bum. I'de not value that a Half-penny, so long as we have the Waldenses to Friend.

Citt. And then New-England lies so conveniently for Provisions. But what do you think of drawing Nova Scotia, and Geneva into the Alliance?

Bum. Ay, but there's no hope of that: so long at the King follows these Counsells.

Citt. Thou art a great Read man I perceive in the Interests of States.

Bum. I have always had a phansy to Stows Survey of London, and those kinde of Books.

Citt. But Good Bumpkin, what's thy Opinion of the Bishops Votes, in Case of Life and Death?

Bum. Ay, or in Cases of Heaven and Hell either. Why as true as thou art a man Citt, we have but three Protestant Bishops in the Nation; and I am told they are warping too.

Citt. Prethee why should we look for any Protestant Bishops in the Kingdom, when there's no Protestant Episcopacy in the World? but for all this, we may yet live to see the Rufling of their Lawn sleeves.

Bum. Oh, now I think on't; dist thou ever reade the Story of Moses and the Ten Tables?

Citt. The Two Tables in the Mount thou mean'st.

Bum. Gad I think 'tis the Two Tables. I read it in Print t'other day, in a very good Book, that as sure as thou art alive now, the Bishops in Henry the 8th. made the Ten Commandments.

Citt. Why that was the reason, Bumpkin, when the Lords and Commons put down Bishops, they put down the Ten Commandments too; and made New ones of their Own. And dost not thou take notice that they put down the Lords Prayer too, because 'twas akinn to the Popish Pater-Noster? and then for the Creed, they cast it quite out of the Directory.

Bum. Now as thou lay'st it down to me, the Case is as clear as Christal. And yet when I'm by my self sometime, I'm so affraid methinks of being Damn'd.

Citt. What for, ye Fop you?

Bum. Why for Swearing, Lying, Dissembling, Cheating, Betraying, Defaming, and the like.

Citt. Put it at worst, do not you know that every man must have his Dos of Iniquity? And that what you take out in One way you abate for in another, as in Profaning, Whoring, Drinking, and so forth. Suppose you should see P O Y S O N set in Capital Letters, upon seaven Vials in a Laboratory; 'twere a madness I know, for any man to venture his Life upon 'um, without a Taster. But having before your Eyes so many instances, of men that by drinking of these Poysonous Liquors, out of a Consumptive, half-starv'd, and Heart-broken Condition, grow Merry, Fat, and Lusty, would not you venture too? Imagine These Seven Waters to be the Seven Deadly Sins, and then make your Application.

Bum. Nay, the Case is plain enough, and I cannot see why that should be a Poyson to me, that's a Preservative to Another: Only our Adversaries twit us with Objections of Law forsooth, and Religion.

Citt. Wherefore the Discipline of the Late Times sav'd a great deal of puzzle. Mr. Prynn sent His Clients to Mr. Case for Religion; and Mr. Case, in requital, sent His to Mr. Pryn for Law; which kept up a concord among the Well-affected. But your Lesson in both these Cases, falls into a very Narrow compass.

Bum. Pray'e let it be Plain that I may understand it; and short that I may Remember it.

Citt. Keep close only to these Three Positions: First, that the King is One of the Three Estates; Secondly, that the Sovereign Power is in the People; and Thirdly, that it is better to obey God, then Man. These Fundamentals will serve to guide ye in allmost any dispute upon this Matter, that can occur to you.

Bum. But what becomes of me, if my Adversaries should turn the question another way?

Citt. I'le fortify you there too. And let me tell you that he'l have much ado to keep himself Clear of one of these Two Rocks: Either of Dashing upon the Plott, or upon the Liberty of the Subject. As for Example,

There's L'Estrange; as wary a Dog perhaps, as ever pist; and yet ye shall see how we have hamper'd Him. I writ the thing my self, ye must know, though it comes out in the Name of the Authour of the Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome. 'Tis Dedicated to Both Houses of Parliament; and Design'd just for the 26th. of January: So that if the Parliament had Set, there would have been means us'd to have had him Question'd for't.

Bum. Gad, I know where y'are now. 'Tis in the Preface to the History of the Damnable Popish Plott.

Citt. Ay, that's it. I'le give ye First, the Words in't that concern L'Estrange, and you shall Then see the Writings of His that I have reflected upon.

Bum. Oh, 'Tis a devilish witty Thing, Citt; I have seen it. Methinks the Rogue, should hang himself out of the way. I'le go to Mans Coffee-house and see how he Looks on't.

Citt. No, no, Pox on him; he's an Impudent Curr; nothing less than a Pillory will ever put Him out of Countenance. This Toad was in Newgate, I know not how long; and yet he'l take no warning.

Bum. You must consider, Citt, that he writes for Money; O my Soul, they say, the Bishops have given him five hundred Guynnyes. But pre'thee Citt; hast not thou seen the Answer to the Appeal, Expounded.

Citt. Yes, but I ha' not read it.

Bum. Why then take it from me, Citt, 'tis one of the shrewdest Pieces that ever came in Print. L'Estrange, you must know, wrote an Answer to the Appeal.

Citt. We've a sweet Government the while, that any man should dare to fall foul upon That Appeal.

Bum. Well, but so it is; and Another has written Notes upon Him: You cann't imagine Citt, how he windes him about's Finger; And calls him Fidler, Impudent, Clod-pate; and proves him to be a Jesuite, and a Papist, as plain as the Nose of a mans Face: he shews ye how he accuses the Kings Evidence; and that he is in Both Plots, in I know not how many places.

Citt. I have known the man a great while; and let me tell ye in Private, I am to draw up Articles against him. But I have been so busy about my Lord Chief Justices Articles, and Other Articles against a Great Woman, that lay upon my hand, that I could not get leisure; and yet I should have met with him long e're This too, for all That, but that the Committee Sits so cursedly Late: And then they have cut me out such a deal of work about the Succession. Well I heard a great Lord say, that That History of his deserv'd to be burnt by the hand of the Common Hang-man.

Bum. Bravely sayd, Citt, I Faith: who knows but we two may come to be Pillars of the Nation? Thou shalt stand up for the City, and I for the Country.

Enter Trueman out of a Closet.

Citt. Trepan'd, by the Lord, in our own way.

Trueman. Nay hold, my Masters; we'l have no flinching. Sit down, ye had best, without putting me to the Trouble of a Constable.

Citt. Why we have said nothing, sir, that we care who hears; but because you seem to be a Civill Gentleman, my Service to you, Sir.

Bum. Ay, Sir; and if you'l be pleased to sit down and Chirp over a Pot of Ale as we do, y're wellcome.

True. Very-good; And You are the Representative (forsooth) of the City, and You, of the Country. Two of the Pillars of the Nation, with a Horse-Pox; A man would not let down his Breeches in a House of Office that had but Two such Supporters. Do not I know you, Citt, to be a little Grubstreet-Insect, that but t'other day scribled Handy-dandy for some Eighteen-pence a Job, Pro and Con, and glad on't too? And now, as it pleases the stars, you are advanc'd from the Obort, the Miscarriage, I mean, of a Cause-splitter, to a Drawer-up of Articles: and for your skill in Counterfeiting hands, preferr'd to be a Sollicitor for Fobb'd Petitions: You'l do the Bishops bus'nesse, and You'l do the Dukes bus'nesse; And who but You, to tell the King when he shall make War, or Peace; call Parliaments, and whom to Commit, and whom to let go? And then in your Fuddle, up comes all; what such a Lord told you, and what you told him; and all this Pudder against your Conscience too, even by your own Confession.

Citt. Y'are very much Mis-inform'd of Me, Sir.

True. Come, I know ye too well to be mistaken in you; and for your part, Bumpkin, I look upon you only as a simple Fellow drawn in.

Bum. Not so simple neither, it may be, as you take me for. I was a Justices Clerk in the Countrey, till the bus'nesse of the Petitions; and my Master was an Honest Gentleman too, though he's now put out of Commission: And to shew ye that I am none of your simple Fellows (do ye mark) if ye have a minde to dispute upon Three Points, I'm for you. First, the King is One of the Three Estates; Secondly, the Sovereign Power is in the People. And Thirdly, 'Tis better to Obey God then Man.

Citt. Always provided, Bumpkin, that the Gentleman take no advantage of what's spoken in Discourse.

True. No, there's my hand I will not; and now let's fall to work. If the King of England be One of the Three Estates, then the Lords and Commons are two Thirds of the King of England.

Bum. Oh pox, you've a minde to put a sham upon the Plot, I perceive.

True. Nay, if y'are thereabouts:—Well; If the Soveraignty be in the People, why does not the Law run In the Name of our Sovereign Lords the People?

Bum. This is a meer Jesuitical Trick, to disparage the Kings Witnesses; for They are part of the People. Now do you take up the Cudgels, Citt.

True. Do so, and we'l make it a short business, and let's have no shifting.

Now to shew ye that I gave good heed to your Discourse, I'le run over the Heads of it as you deliver'd them. First, for Committees, and Grand Committees, what are they compounded of, but Republicans, and Separatists, a Medly of People disaffected both to Church and State? This you cannot deny; and that they would not suffer any man otherwise affected, to mingle with them. Now beside the scandal, and Ill Example of such Irregular Conventions, whoever considers their Principles, may reasonably conclude upon their Designs: For they are wiser, I hope, then to lay their Heads together to destroy themselves.

Citt. But it is hard, if Protestants may not meet as well as Other People.

True. Yes, Protestants may meet, but not in the quality of Conspirators, no more then Conspirators, may meet under the Cloak, and colour of Protestants. The intent of the Meeting is matter of State, and you turn it off, to a point of Religion.

Citt. But is it not matter of Religion to joyn in a Petition for the meeting of a Parliament, to bring Malefactors to a Tryall, and to extirpate Popery?

True. Such a Petition as you Instance in, is in the appearance of it, not only Lawfull, but Commendable; But then it must be promoted by Lawfull means, and under Decent Circumstances. 'Tis a good thing to Preach, or Catechize, but it is not for a Lay-man presently to pluck the Parson out of the Desk, or Pulpit, that he himself may do the Office. It is a Good thing to execute Justice, but yet a private man must not invade the Judgment-Seat, though it were to passe even the most Righteous Sentence.

Citt. The King may chuse whether he'l Grant or no; So that without invading His Right we only claim the Liberty of Presenting the Request.

True. That may be well enough at First; but still, after One Refusal, and That with a Publick Interdict on the Neck on't, forbidding the pursuance of it; such a Petition is not by any means to be Repeated. First, out of Respect to Regal Authority: Secondly, as the King is the Sole Judge of the matter: Thirdly, upon the Importunity, it is not so properly Desiring of a thing, as Tugging for it. Fourthly, It tends many ways to the Diminution of his Majesties Honour, in case it be Obtain'd: For it implys, either Levity, or Fear; or (to make the best on't) the King confers the Obligation, and the Heads of the Petition receive the Thanks. Now adde to all this, the suborning of Subscriptions, and the Inflaming of Parties, what can be more Undutifull or Dangerous?

Citt. But do not you find many Honest and Considerable men concern'd in these Petitions?

True. Yes, in several of them I do; and the main reason is This. There's no man under Five and Fifty, at Least, that is able to give any Account, of the Designe, and Effects of this way of Petitioning in Forty and Forty One, but by Hear-say: so that This Nation proceeds mostly upon the Maxims, and Politiques, which That Republican Humour deliver'd over to us: But yet let the Thing, or the Manner of it be as it will, Those that disarm'd, and turn'd back the Kentish Petitioners at London-bridg. Those that Wounded, and Murther'd the Surry-Petitioneres in the Palace Yard, only for desiring a Peace, and in order to the Preservation of his late Majesty: Those People methinks, that were so Outrageous Against Those Petitions (and Several others of the same kind) should not have the Face now to be so Violent, for This. And whoever examines the present Roll, will find the Old Republicans to be the Ring-leaders.

Bum. Really, Citt, the man speaks Reason.

True. Consider then the Mean ways ye have of advancing your Pretensions, by Falshoods, and Scandals, to disappoint Honest men of Elections; The use ye make of the most Servile Instruments, to promote your Ends; your fawning Methods of Popularity toward the Rabble; your ways of undermining the Government of the City, as well as of the Nation; your worse then Jesuitical Evasions in matter of Conscience; your Non-sensical Salvo's, and Expositions of Christian Liberty; your putting out the Church of Englands Colours, and calling your selves Protestants, when you are effectually no better then Algerines, and Pyrating even upon Christianity it self; your Beating of the wood, in the History of our most Seditious Times, to start Presidents and Records in favour of your own Disloyal Purposes. The Pharisaical Distinguishing of your selves from the Profane (as you are pleas'd to stile all others,) even in your Dresse, Tone, Language, &c. Your Uncharitable Bitternesse of Spirit; your lying in wait for Blood; and laying of Snares for the Unwary and the Innocent; and still vouching an Inspiration for all your Wickednesse; your gathering of all Winds toward the raising of a Storm; Your Unity in Opposition, and in nothing Else: your Clamours, and Invectives against Priests, and Jesuits, when it is the Church of England yet, that feels the Last effect of your Sacrilegious Rage. 'Tis not so much the Officers of the Church, and State, that are Popishly Affected, but the Offices Themselves; and Those in the first place (as you chuse your Sins too) that are most Beneficiall. To say nothing of your wild Impostures upon the Multitude.——

Citt. Now you talk of Impostures, what do you think of L'Estrange's History of the P L O T, and his Answer to the A P P E A L? Whether are Those Pamphlets, Impostures upon the Multitude, or Not?

True. You were saying e'en now, That The History of the Damnable Popish Plot was of your Writing; Answer me That Question, First; Was it so, or not?

Citt. No, it was not of my Writing; It was done by a Protestant-Club.

True. Why then let me tell ye, if a man may believe the Preface to That Club-History, or the Notes upon the Answer to the Appeal (for I have read them all:) L'Estrange's Pamphlets are great abuses upon the People: But if you had the Books about ye, the matter were easily clear'd by comparing them.

Citt. By good luck we have 'um all about us, that can any way concern this Question. And look ye here now.

First, He calls his Abridgement of the Tryals, The History of the Plot, without mentioning one word of the Original Contrivance, the Preparatives, manner of Discovery, and other Remarkables essential to a History.

2. He omits Staly's and Reading's Tryals, which yet sure had Relation to the Plot.

3. In his Epistle, he seems to drown the Popish Plot with suggestions of an Imaginary One of the Protestants.

4. The amusing People with such Stories, is notoriously a Part of the Grand Popish Designe.

5. Whereas he tells us, that not one Material Point is omitted, most Readers cannot finde the substantial part of Mr. Bedloes Evidence against Wakeman, (P. 46 of the Tryall) So much as hinted at: Not to mention the gross shuffles, and Omissions in Pag. 77, and elsewhere.

6. He charges the Printed Tryals (in his FREEBORN SUBIECT P. 15.) with many Gross Incoherences, and very Material mistakes; yet Instances but One, and corrected too, as an Erratum.

7. When Our Posterity shall urge these Tryals for proof against Papists, how easily may the subtle Villains stop their Mouths, by alledging from this Authour that no heed is to be given to the said Tryals; (being so publickly own'd by a Person of his Note, and Late Qualification) to be guilty of so many, and such very Material Mistakes.

True. Observe here, First L'Estrange expounds his History in the Title Page, by restraining it to the Charge and Defence of the Persons there mentioned: Beside that he calls it an Historical Abstract, and a Summary, in his Epistle.

2. Staleys Trial had no Relation at all to the Plot, and Reading was not Try'd for's Life; and so not within the Compass of his intention exprest in the Preface.

3. The Epistle acknowledges a Detestable Plot, and a Conspiracy: but advises Moderation, and that the Rabble may not dictate Laws to Authority; for that Licence was the Cause of the Late Rebellion.

4. It was more then a Story, the Murther of the Late King, and the Subversion of the Government, and the suppressing of these Necessary Hints, and Cautions is notoriously a part of the Grand Phanatical Design.

5. In L'Estranges History here Pag. 79 and 80. there's every particular of Mr. Bedloes Evidence in Sir George Wakemans Tryal, Pag. 46. with many other passages over and above: whereas your Damnable History here Pag. 295. falls short at least by One Half. And then for the shuffles, and Omissions reflected upon, Pag. 77. see L'Estranges Words, Pag. 88. The Lord Chief Justice (says he) after some Remarkes upon the Romish Principles, summ'd up the Evidence, and gave Directions to the Jury: which is the substance of the Page cited in the Preface. Touching your Elsewhere, it is in plain English, No where.

6. Look ye, here's more Juggling. He says S E V E R A L Gross Incoherences, and you have made them M A N Y: and then you have left out the Parenthesis, (especially in the Latter of them) which varies the Case too. And I remember again, that the Erratum was supply'd after L'Estrange had corrected it: And sure it was a Gross one too, to expose a Protestant Gentleman for a Papist, Nine times in two Pages. I could shew ye several other Material Mistakes, but One shall serve for all. Pag. 45. (as I take it) of Irelands Tryal; which you will finde charg'd upon the Press, in L'Estranges History, Pag. 18.

7. Pray'e mark me now: L'Estrange findes Errours of the Press in the Other Tryals and Rectifies them, in his Own: Now if Posterity shall finde in the Right, that the Other are wrong, they are in no danger of being Misled by the One, in what is Corrected by the Other: And if they do not read the Right Copy at all, there's no harm done to the Other, but they must take it as they finde it. So that this Remark is so far from Disparaging the Proceedings, that a greater Right can hardly be done to Publick Justice by a Pamphlet. But now let the Epistle speak for it self.

To the READER.

There has not been any point, perhaps, in the whole Tract of English Story, either so dangerous to be mistaken in, or so difficult, and yet so necessary to be understood, as the Mystery of this detestable Plot now in Agitation. (A Judgement for our Sins, augmented by our Follies,) But the world is so miserably divided betwixt some that will believe every thing, and others nothing that not only Truth, but Christianity it self is almost lost between them; and no place left for Sobriety and Moderation. We are come to govern our selves by Dreams and Imaginations; We make every Coffee-house Tale an Article of our Faith; and from Incredible Fables we raise Invincible Arguments. A man must be fierce and violent to get the Reputation of being Well-affected; as if the calling of one another Damned Heretique, and Popish Dog, were the whole Sum of the Controversie. And what's all this, but the effect of a Popular Licence and Appeal? When every Mercenary Scribler shall take upon him to handle matters of Faith, and State; give Laws to Princes; and every Mechanique sit Judge upon the Government! Were not these the very Circumstances of the late Times? When the Religious Jugglers from all Quarters fell in with the Rabble, and managed them, as it were, by a certain sleight of hand: The Rods were turned into Serpents on both sides, and the Multitude not able to say, which was Aaron, and which the Enchanter. Let us have a Care of the same Incantation over again, Are we not under the protection of a Lawfull Authority? Nor was there ever any thing more narrowly Sifted, or more vigorously discouraged, then this Conspiracy. Reformation is the proper business of Government and Council, but when it comes to work once at the wrong End, there is nothing to be expected from it, but Tumult and Convulsion. A Legal and Effectual provision against the Danger of Romish Practices and Errours, will never serve Their Turn, whose Quarrel is barely to the Name of Popery, without understanding the Thing it self. And if there were not a Roman Catholick left in the three Kingdoms, they would be never the better satisfied, for where they cannot find Popery, they will make it: nay and be troubled too that they could not find it. It is no new thing for a Popular Outcry, in the matter of Religion, to have a State-Faction in the belly of it. The first late Clamour was against Downright Popery; and then came on Popishly Affected; (That sweeps all.) The Order of Bishops, and the Discipline of the Church took their Turns next; and the next blow was at the Crown it self; when every Man was made a Papist that would not play the Knave and the Fool, for Company, with the Common People.

These things duly weighed, and considering the Ground of our present Distempers; the Compiler of this Abridgment reckoned that he could not do his Countrymen a better Office, than (by laying before them the naked state of things) to give them at one view, a Prospect, both of the subject matter of their Apprehensions, and of the Vigilance, Zeal, and needful severity of the Government on their behalf. To which end, he hath here drawn up an Historical Abstract of the whole matter of Fact concerning those Persons who have hitherto been Tryed for their Lives, either upon the Plot it self, or in Relation to it: opposing Authentick Records to wandring Rumours; and delivering the Truth in all Simplicity. He hath not omitted any one material Point: There is not so much as one Partial Stroke in it; not a flourish, nor any thing but a bare and plain Collection, without any Tincture either of Credulity, or Passion. And it is brought into so narrow a Compass too, that it will ease the Readers head, as well as his purse; by clearing him of the puzzle of Forms, and Interlocutories. that serve only to amuse and mislead a man, by breaking the Order, and confounding the Relative parts of the Proceeding.

Having this in Contemplation; and being at the same time possest of a most exact Summary of all passages here in Question; This Reporter was only to cast an Extract of these Notes into a Method: especially finding, that upon comparing the substance of his own papers, with the most warrantable Prints that have been published; his own Abstract proved to be not only every jot as Correct, but much more Intelligible, which being short and full; he thought might be useful, and find Credit in the world upon its own account, without need of a Voucher.

True. You have now the whole matter before you; the Epistle, ye see, justifies it self: And then for the Narrative, I dare undertake he shall yield up the Cause, if you can but produce any One Material Point, which he hath either Falsify'd, Palliated, or Omitted, in the whole Proceeding. But to be plain with you, Citt, One of the Authours of your Preface is a Common setter, a Forger of Hands, a little spy upon the Swan in Fishstreet; a Hackny Sollicitor against both Church and State: You know this to be true Citt; and that I do not speak upon Guess; so that Calumny, and False Witnessing is the best part of that Authours Trade. And then the pretended History is a direct Arraignment of the Government. He takes up the King and Council, Pag. 381. reflects upon the Judges in the very Contents, and elsewhere; he descants upon the Duke of York in opposition to the express sense and declaration of the Bench, Pag. 145. and has the confidence yet to Dedicate this Gally-mawfry of audacious slanders to the Two Houses of Parliament. There is little more in the whole, then what has been eaten and spew'd up again Thirty times over: and the intire work is only a Medly of Rags, and Solacisms, pick'd up out of Rubbish, and most suitably put together.