L'Estrange his appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament — Appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament

L'Estrange his appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament — Appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament

Table of contents

Title page

L'Estrange's APPEAL. &c.

§. 1. My Opinion of the Quality of the Plot.

Touching my Belief of it.

My turning it into Ridicule.

All Proceedings upon the Plot, Iustified.

§. 2. The Shamming of the Plot.

§. 3. About disparaging the Kings Wittnesses.

§. 4. For abusing all Sorts of People in my Citt and Bumpkin.

§. 5. My falling foul upon all the Petitioners.

§. 6. My Writings (they say) create Misunderstandings, and tend to the Embroyling of the Kingdome.

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L'ESTRANGE HIS APPEAL Humbly Submitted to the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY And the THREE ESTATES Assembled in PARLIAMENT.

LONDON, Printed for Henry Brome at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard, 1681.

L'Estrange's APPEAL. &c.

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IF the matter here in question had been the single case of L'Estrange, nothing could have been more Ridiculous, then the Vanity, and Ostentation of this Appeal: But as His Case stands complicate with Other Circumstances, that import no lesse then the Honour, the Iustice and the very Security of the Government; the business of these Papers is no longer a private Apology, but a publick Duty. This will be better understood, upon a clear Distribution of what I have to say into such and such Heads; and then debating, expounding, and distinguishing (in an Orderly Method,) upon the several Members of my Discourse.

The First Point shall be the Subject matter of those Swarms of Libells that in their Outrageous Course,The Subject of This Discourse. have taken Me in their way toward the King and the Church.

Secondly, To vindicate, and discharge my self from those Calumnies.

Thirdly; To lay open the Quality of the Libellers: And the True Reason of their Rancour against me, in despite of all Pretensions to the Contrary.

Fourthly; To set forth their Designs, and Practices upon the Dignity, and Safety of the Government, and upon the Publick Peace. And

Lastly▪ a Modest Deliberation how far in Honour, Justice and Policy, it may concern any Prince or State whatsoever to Support, Countenance, and Protect the Asserters of their Laws, Rights and Priviledges, against the bold, and Seditious attempts of the Enemies of the Constitution. Of These in Order, and as briefly as I may.

[Page] Touching the First point: The Libellers have drawn the Main of my Charge into these Six Articles.

1. That I have turn'd the Plot into Ridicule; The Articles against me. and put an Affront upon King, Lords, and Commons in so doing.

2. That I have Countenanc'd a Sham-Plot; ; and endeavour'd to turn it upon the Presbyterians.

3. That I have made it my businesse to lessen the Credit of the Kings Witnesses.

4. That I have comprehended All the States, Orders, and Divisions of men, both Lords, Citizens, and Commons of England, under the Opprobrious Names of Citt, and Bumpkin.

5. That I have Scandalously misrepresented all the Late Petitions, and the Promoters of them.

6. That my Writings create Misunderstandings, and tend to the Embroyling of the Kingdome.

Now to discharge my self of these odious and malicious Imputations, in course as they lye; I shall speak, First, to the Ridiculing of the Plot, in contempt of the Authority of the Nation; and refer my self to the Undenyable Evidences of my own Papers: beginning with my Particular Opinion of it, as I have deliver'd it to the World.

§. 1. My Opinion of the Quality of the Plot.

The bringing of this DEVILISH Plot, The Acknowledgment of a DEVILISH Plot. upon the Stage, has struck all men of Piety, and Loyalty, and Love to their Country, with Amazement and Horrour. The Murther of a Prince; the Subversion of the Government, and Religion; The Plot aggravated. What can be more Execrable? The Thought of so DIABOLICAL a Practice has justly transported the [Page] People to the highest degree of Rage against it imaginable; and it is a Meritorious and a Laudable zeal too,A Legal zeal against it Recommended. so long as it contains it self within the bounds of Law, and Duty; While the King, With a Deference to Authority. Councell, and Parliament, are in the mean time Sifting and Examining the Design; and doing Justice upon the Offenders. Case Put, Pag. 33.

After all this care taken to tear up the ACCURSED PLOT by the Root. An accursed Plot. Further Discovery Pa. 23.

As to the HELLISH DESIGN upon the Life of our Gracious Sovereign,A Hellish design. by Pistol, Sword, or Poysou. Ibid. Pag. 25. And again [This DETESTABLE PLOT now in Agitation] Hist. of the Plot, A Derestable Plot. Preface.

Let This serve as to my Opinion of the Quality of the Plot. A word now to the Believing of it.

Touching my Belief of it.

As to the Popish Plot, that is Sworn by the Kings Witnesses, The Sworn Plot given for Granted. I lay my Faith at their feet, without any further Enquiry, or Dispute. Narrative. Pag. 20.

Under colour of asserting and making out the Truth of the Plot, The Plot unquestionable. (which no sober man doubts of) &c. Answer to the Appeal. Pag. 33.

All our Courts of Justice,Proved upon Record. and Journals of State bear Witnesse to it. (The Popish Plot.) Narrative, Pa. 4.

Whoever carefully peruses their Writings, and Depositions; compares their Testimonies, (that is, the Kings Witnesses,) and yet doubts of the Plot; is little better certainly then Seal'd up under the Spirit of Blindnesse and Delusion.He's mad that believes it not Ibid. Pag. 3.

The Question is not the CERTAINTY of One Plot,No Question of the Certainty of the Plot. but the Superfaetation of Another. Ans. to the Appeal. Pag. 19. And further, It is no clearing the Papists of One Plot upon the Kings Life, The Papists not clear'd by Charging the Presbyterians: the Charging of the Presbyterians with Another. Ibid. Pag. 22.

[Page] There are a Sort of men that,One Plot under Another. under countenance of THIS Plot, advance another of their Own. And if a man Writes, or Speaks, or Reasons against them, he is presently a Favourer of the Papists, a Lessener of the Plot, and run down with Nonsense, and Clamour. Case Put. Pag. 34.

My turning it into Ridicule.

[For my own part I am so far from Laughing at it (the Plot) that it wounds my Soul,The Plot no Laughing matter. the very thought on't.] Reformed Catholique, Pa. 10. 11.

Nor have I been lesse Punctual in my acknowledgments of the Iustice of all Proceedings upon't, and in my Submissions to the Sentences that have been Pass'd in the Case.

All Proceedings upon the Plot, Iustified.

After so many Priests and Jesuits and other Leading men of That Party removed by the Stroke of Publick Justice. &c.Publick Justice. Further Discovery. Pag. 23.

We have had Legal Tryalls,Legal Proceedings. Proofs, Verdicts, Sentences, and Legall Executions in the Case. Ans. to the Appeal. Pag. 10.

His Majesty hath two main Difficulties to Encounter at once;The King under two difficulties. the One to Master the Plot it self; the Other, to Temper and Sweeten the Passions of men, Zealous in the Contrary Extreme; that no Inconvenience may arise from Their Misapprehension of things Another way. Freeborn Subject. Pag. 27. And again. [The Depositions have been Formally taken before his Majesty, The Evidences strictly weighed and Examined. and his Privy Councell; and the Evidences STRICTLY weigh'd, and Examin'd; and from thence afterwards [Page] heartily recommended, and faithfully Transmitted to the Two Houses of Parliament. Ibid. Pag. 28.

Be it always understood that where AUTHORITY hath passed a Sentence, The Sentence of Authority is Sacred. there is no longer any Place for Hesitation or Demur. Further Discovery, Pag. 3.

§. 2. The Shamming of the Plot.

Now as to the Shamming of the Plot, and casting it upon the Presbyterians, the learned Authour of the Gyants War, and of several other Course Complements upon his Majesty; (they say he puts in for a Patrimonial Right to a Place upon one of the City Gates,) This Learned Authour (I say) has been pleased to Glosse upon My Text,L'Estranges charge, as if he made the Plot only a blinde. as if I represented [The Plot only as a Blind to enrage People; and that there was a reall Design to destroy the Hierarchy, and all the Sons of the Church, by the name of Papists in Masquerade, and get all the places of Profit to themselves] Now for my Suggesting the Popish Plot to be only a Blind to enrage People; I defy the world, either to shew that I have misrecited my Self in what I have already deliver'd;No colour for any such charge. or to produce any one passage out of all my Writings, that, without extreme Violence, will in any degree countenance Such a Construction. But still, as I am Innocent of rendering That to be only a Blind, which King, Lords, and Commons have pronounced to be a damnable and hellish Plot; So am I thoroughly convinc'd, on the Other hand, that there are Several Sham-Plots contriv'd, and Started, where there was no colour or pretense for a man to Imagine that there was any Plot at all: and that great use is made of these Inventions, for a Blind to the Advancing of a Fanatical Design. The Blind lies on the Fanatical side. And how far That Project may reasonably tend toward the destruction of the Hierachy, and the Sons of the Church, under the [Page] notion of Papists in Masquerade; and the engrossing of all Power into their own hands, shall be set forth in its proper place.

But how comes L'Estrange to be charg'd with turning the Popish Plot over to the Presbyterians, Why a sham in 1680. and none in almost 20. years before. now in 1680. that has been perpetually ringing the same Peal in the ears of the Government, ever since 1661. that he does at This Instant? And I do not remember any Popish Plot that was taken notice of in those days.

In the Epistle Dedicatory of my Holy Cheat to the House of Commons,I said the same thing in 1661, and ever since. 1661. I have these Words (speaking of the Presbyterians) [they cast the blood and guilt of the late War upon his Majesty; make his Adherents Traytors; place the Supreme Authority in the two Houses; Subject the Law to an Ordinance; the Government to a Faction; and Animate the Schismatiques to Serve his Majesty in Being, as they did his Father. This is the Drift of their Seditious Libells &c.] And a little farther, This Citation of Douglas's Coronation-Sermon, Then newly Reprinted.

[This may serve to justify the Proceedings of this Kingdome against the late King,Presbyterian Treason in 1660. who in a Hostile way set himself to overthrow Religion, Parliaments, Laws, and Liberties. Pag. 10.] What could I say lesse to the Insolence of such Pamphlets; or what is it more that I do now upon this Subject, that what I did twenty years since?

§. 3. About disparaging the Kings Wittnesses.

The next Calumny layd to my Charge, is the discrediting of the Kings Witnesses; wherein I once again repayre to my own Papers; which, without a new Dictionary, Black is White; and White is Black. and a new Grammar, will abundantly acquit me. For according to Common English, and Syntaxe, I have rather strain'd a point of Modesty upon an Excess of Respect, then, on the Other side, been wanting to it. [Page] As for Example; in my Further Discovery, to Dr. Oates.

They are wonderfull things, A Personal Respect to Dr. Oates. Dr. which you have done already; and I am Perswaded that you are yet reserved for more wonderfull things to come; which must be the work of Time to disclose; when Truth shall deliver her self from the Rubbish of Oppression and Slander: and in despite of Envy, and Imposture, render your Name as famous to Posterity, as your Virtue has made it to the present Generation. And this I write with little lesse then the Genius of a Prophet. Pag. 21.

These very words from the Pen of a Servile Parasite, L'Estr's Civilities are turn'd into Libels. would have pass'd for a Panegyrick, which in L'Estrange must be Interpreted for a Libell: Nay all the force of Argument, and Intention must be destroy'd, and the very Standard of the English Tongue alter'd, to do me a good Turn. Every Syllable is put to the Torture, to know what Moutbs I made upon the Writing of it: And if I do but stumble upon a Figure, that would be an Ornament, perhaps, upon another mans Paper, it is a Blot upon mine; and the most Innocent of my Metaphors, and Allusions are melted down into Articles, and Depositions, without the Allowance of so much as one grain for Humane Frailty. And all this, by the virtue of a kind of Inverted Alchymy, that instead of the more Generous Operation of exalting Baser mettles into Nobler, and turning Copper into Gold, sets up a New Profession of turning Gold, into Dirt.

[Who was it but You, The same Respect continu'd, and the Fact founded upon the Narrative. again; that so effectually layd open the Intrigues of the Priests and Jesuits, with the Schismatiques, in the late Rebellion? That shew'd his Majesty so plainly who they were that Dethron'd and Murther'd his Father: and painted the whole Conspiracy so to the Life, that a body might Wink and see thorough it? Who but you, Sir, to trace them down to this very Instant, [Page] through all their Disguises and Caballs, Fomenting a Rebellion in Scotland with the Presbyterians; Incendiaries in London with the Millenaries; and up and down Tampering with the whole Crew of of Sectaries? Who was it but You that first found out the Conspiracy it self, and then the Conspirators? Who but You the Eminent Instrument in the opening of the Combination?

What is all this,All Honour paid to the Doctor. but to Trace the Dr. in the very History of himself? And to say more to his Honour then, perchance, ever any man sayd before me: bating only the Person that, First, gave him the Title of THE SAVIOUR OF THE NATION.

It cannot be deny'd but that the Kings Witnesses have ventur'd as far,The Industry and Hazzard of the Kings Witnesses acknowledged. and done as much as men could do, under Their Circumstances, to make out the Truth of a Damnable and Hellish Popish Plot upon the Life of his Sacred Majesty, our Religion, and Civill Government, Ib. pa. 23.

It would be endlesse to encounter the Malice of every Scurrilous Buffoon that neither dares own his Name to the Government, nor to the Subject of his Outrage and Venom: But yet in regard that the whole pack of them fall in with full Cry upon two Passages in the Second and Third Pages of my Further Discovery. I shall bestow a word or two more upon those Reflections. The Words are These.

I have naturally a Veneration for the Government, A mighty Bustle about this passage. and all that Love it; for the Kings Loyall Wittnesses; and the Preservers of his Sacred Life, in the First place: with an Equall Horror and Detestation for all his Enemies, under what Mask or form Soever. I believe the Plot; and as much as every good Subject ought to believe; or as any man in his Right Wits can believe: Nay I do so absolutely believe it, that in my Conscience You your Self, Doctor, do not believe more of it, then I do. Pag. 2.

Now where's the disparaging of the Kings Wittnesses [Page] in all This?The foresaid passage justify'd. I believe the Plot; and as much of it as an honest man ought, or a Sober man can believe; nay as much of it as the Dr. himself believes: And would any body have me, now, to believe more?

But the whole World (Say I) shall never bring me to believe, Exceptions to another passage. or to Say that I believe That which I neither do, nor can believe; As the businesse of Bedingfields being alive again; or that I my self am in the Conspiracy. Suppose my Boy should come in, and tell me that it rains Butter'd Turnips, I should go near to open the Window to see whether it be so or no, Pag. 3.

Shall any man call This now, that is with so much Caution, and Distinction apply'd to Cases that are manifestly false and groundlesse; shall any man (I say) call This an arraigning of the Doctors Evidence? Or rather how shall any man dare to apply these false and groundlesse Storys to the Doctors Case? does it follow, because I do not believe a thing that is False, that therefore I do not believe a thing that is True?.

§. 4. For abusing all Sorts of People in my Citt and Bumpkin.

The Fourth Article runs for Comprehending all the States,Complaint against Citt and Bumpkin. Orders, and Divisions of men, both Lords, Citizens, and Commons of England under the Opprobrious names of Citt and Bumpkin.

And is not the World much beholden to the Authour of this Discovery, My Libellers Libell the Doctor, and the Nation. now, for the Resemblance he finds betwixt the LORDS, CITIZENS, and COMMONS of England, and my CIT, and BUMPKIN? For it is he alone, out of his own mother Wit, that has found it out. And yet he pronounces, in another place, that I make my Bumpkin to represent a Cunning, Projecting, Canting Knave; which He, by Interpretation [Page] makes to be a Common Representative of the Nation. ☞ But so far am I now, from confounding men of Honour and Integrity with Rascalls; that I have set upon these Varlets an Expresse mark of Opposition to the Sober and considerable part of the Land; and I have done This too, with all the Clearnesse, and Contempt imaginable.

And YOU, Citt & Bumpkin a couple of Rascals. (says Truman) 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. Citts Character. Do not I know you, Cit, to be a little Grub-street-Insect, that but to'ther day Scribled handy dandy for some eighteen pence a Jobb pro and con; and glad on't too? And now, as it pleases the Stars, you are advanc'd from the Obort, the miscarriage 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 business, and you'l do the Dukes businesse; 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. Pag. 26. And then Truman again, Pag. 35.

Who made You a Commissioner for the Town, or You for the Country? But we are like to have a Fine businesse of it,The dregs of the people. when the Dreggs of the People set up for the Representatives of the Nation, to the Dishonour of the most considerable and Sober part of the Kingdom. Pre'thee, Bumpkin, Bumpkin an Ignorant sawcy Fellow. with thy Poles and Baltiques, how shouldest Thou come to understand the Ballance of Empires; wbo are Delinquents, and who not; the Right of Bishops Votes? And you (forsooth) are to teach the King when to call a Parliament, and when to let it alone.

[Page] Our Libellers should do well now to name the Lords, My Adversaries proved the Libellers. Citizens, and Commoners, that sat for their Pictures to the Designer of These two Figures. But Calumny is shamelesse; they would never else have bespatter'd me for an Abuse, wherein I have so many Thousands of Wittnesses to the Contrary. But no better can be expected from the Scum of the Rabble, whosc Blouds run as Course as their Manners. And then they hit me in the Teeth with it, upon all occasions, what Rogues I make of the Citizens; and it is not a pin matter to Them whether a Suggestion be True, or False, provided that the matter of it be but Scandalous, and the Consequence of it dangerous.

Where was This Zeal,The Appeal a damn'd Libell and no notice taken of it. I wonder, for the Honour of the Lords, Citizens, and Commons, in the case of the Appeal from the COUNTRY to the CITY; where they were all of them made Rascalls indeed, and under the very notion too, of the Representatives of the Kingdom. It strikes In with a ONE and ALL, at the very first dash [Most Brave and noble Citizens—With you we stand, and with you we fall. Appeal. Pag. 1.] This is one of the most virulent Libells against his Majesty,Full of Treason and Scandal. in his Person, Authority, and Administration; against the whole Body of the Clergy, and against all the Faithfull Friends and Subjects of the Church and Crown, that ever yet was Printed: Nay it proceeds even to the Tacit Proposal of a New King. This was no bespattering (was it?) of the Nobility, Citizens, and Commonalty, to represent them all as in so lewd a Conspiracy against the Establisht Government. But our pretended Patriots and Zealots,Our Zelots are blinde of a side. are all of them blind on That Side; and there is not so much as one man of them that has ever taken any sort of notice of these daring Affronts upon Authority, unlesse to countenance the Sedition; But Recrimination is no discharge: wherefore I shall [Page] remit my self, upon the matter of Respect to the Citizens of London, to the Reply I publisht upon the coming out of That villanous Libel.

It is a wonderfull thing,A just Respect to the City of London. the Confidence of this audacious Pamphlet, in addressing it self to the City, after so Fresh, so Loyal, and so Generous an Instance of their Scorn, and Detestation of any thing that looks like a Seditious Practice. Why should a Wat Tyler expect better Quarter from a Lord Mayor under Charles the Second, then he had from a Lord Mayor under Richard the Second? Nay, that very Rebellion of Forty One, is most injuriously charg'd upon the City of London; for Gournay, Ricaut, Garraway, and the most considerable of the Citizens, were not only against it in their Opinions, but opposed it to the Utmost with their Estates and Persons. And That Honourable Saciety has not yet forgotten either the Calamities of the War, or the Methods and Instruments, which brought so great a Reproach upon the City. Answ. to the Appeal, Pag. 2. And again, [How can the Appellant imagine that the most eminent City of Christendom for Purity of Religion,The Glorious City of London. Loyalty to their Prince, Power, good Government, Wealth, and Resolution, should be cajoll'd out of all these Blessings and Advantages by the Jesuitical Fanaticism of a Dark-Lanthorn Pamphlet? Ibid. Pa. 38.]

There is a Passage in my Second Citt and Bumpkin, Pag. 27. which some of my Over-Critical Adversaries pretend to lay a more then Ordinary stresse upon; and I shall here submit it to any Impartial Judgment.

Prethee (says Bumpkin) let's leave This Noddy (Truman) a little, and talk of something else. What dost think was the Reason that Parliaments have been put off so of late?

[Page] Citt. The very Question that I put 'tother day my self;Matters of State. and 'twas Answer'd Thus, That the Nation could not be Happy, but in the Preservation of the Government, as it is Establisht by Law; For the tearing of the Law to Pieces must needs distract the People, when they have no Rule to walk by: That a great many Worthy Persons were disappointed in the Elections, by being Misrepresented to the People: That by these Practises diverse Persons were obtruded upon the Nation, of remarkable Disaffections both to Church and State: And that Therefore (I suppose) they might be put off, to the end that some other Distempers might be Compos'd, before their Meeting.

Bum. And what Return didst thou make him?

Citt. I told him he smelt of the Court; The Old Topique. and that he had a Pope in's belly; and so I would have no more to do with him.

For the better Clearing of this Passage, I shall set forth, in the First place, the true Occasion, and Intent of my Two Dialogues.

Upon the Reading of a Venemous,The Occasion and scope of Citt & Bumpkin. if not a Treasonous Libell, call'd, An Appeal from the Countrey to the City; I found it to be a direct Encouragement to a Rebellion; and yet recommended to the World, as the Sense and Act of the whole Nation. Now to vindicate the Sober, and Loyall Part, both of the Country, and City from This Audacious Scandal, I thought I could not do better, then to expose the Conspirators under the Character of a Couple of mean, factious, ignorant, and busy Knaves, and under the Reproachfull names of Citt, and Bumpkin; who are here Introduc'd in a Discourse upon Matters of State, and Ironically poynted at in the very Margin, for meddling with Affairs which they did not understand.

[Page] Passing from one thing to Another, What dost think (says Bumpkin) was the Reason, &c?

Now This is not a Question put in such a manner, as either to require,A Question to the Person, not upon the Fact. or to draw on an Assertory Resolution upon the true Reason; but a Question accommodated to the Character of the Person that Asks it: It being the Constant Practise of those People, upon all Prorogations, or Dissolutions, to Write, and to Print their Thoughts upon the poynt; and effectually to call his Majesty to an Account upon the whole matter.

And beside, as it is a Question Congruous to the Humour of the Person; So has it no regard at all to an Answer upon the matter of Fact. What dost Think? (says Bumpkin) was the Reason &c. The very Question (says Citt) that I put t'other day my self. And Then without delivering his own Thoughts, he tells what another sayd to Him upon the same Question. And Citt does not lay any stresse upon That Answer neither; but brings in the Respondent speaking only upon a bare supposal.

By This,A Question of Connexion and Transition. and by what follows, it will plainly appear that This Intervening Clause was only made usc of for Connexion-Sake, and as a Clause of Transition, for the carrying on of the Character, out of One Impertinence into Another. For without coming to any Conclusion at all upon the Poynt, Citt betakes himself immediately to the Ordinary Refuge of the Party, of making two or three Answers serve to all manner of purposes, and questions. I told him (says he) that he smelt of the Court, and had a Pope in his belly. I make no doubt but This Apology will satisfy any man that has not my Person in his Eye rather then my Errors. I remember Boccalini's Laconique Senate, that pass'd so grievous a Sentence upon a Letterato, for making use of Three Words when Two would have done his businesse▪ But [Page] the Question is Here, whether or no I have Sayd any thing that was Ill meant, and not whether that which I have Deliver'd might have been Spoken better.

After This Demonstration of the Innocent Intention, and Application of the matter in Exception, it may seem Superfluous to speak any thing to the Sense and Wording of it; And yet I must needs say further that I cannot find any one Syllable in This Passage, that will so much as bear an Ill Construction, without forcing it beyond the Measures of Common Charity, and Acceptation. For First, the Position is True that the Preservation of the Law is the Security, of the Government: and Secondly, the Fact is True; that Several Worthy Persons were disappointed in their Elections by being Misrepresented to the People. Eminent Persons mis-represented. As in the Notorious Instance of Essex (and other places) where so many Eminent Persons as well of the Layity, as of the Clergy, were run down by the Multitude; by the Names of Courtiers, Pentioners, Papists, Baals-Priests, Iesuitical Dumb Doggs, the Black Regiment of Hell; and the like; to the Scandal of Christianity as well as of Common Iustice, and Good Manners.

Now if the Exception be taken to the Expression of obtruding upon the Nation some Persons of Remarkable Disaffections &c.What is meant by Obtruding. Here is First, no Reflection upon any Particulars; nor is there any more signifi'd by the word OBTRUDED, then what we find verify'd in all Elections; when upon Double Returns, the House of Commons pronounces the Person rejected, to have been unduly Chosen, and, effectually, obtruded upon the Nation.

It is again, to be consider'd; that the Tenses WAS, and HAVE BEEN, have a regard to what is past; and that the Word Parliaments, (in the Plural Number, cannot be understood of That which is now in Being; [Page] Which was not neither, at the time when This was Written, in the Exercise of its Power.

And moreover,Disaffections explained. If the stresse be layd upon the Word DISAFFECTIONS, I do not see, in Propriety of Speaking, how That word should arise to a Scandal; having only a respect to a Diversity of Opinion, without any Relation at all to an Evill Practice, or Design: And it amounts to no more then a Disinclination; which Imports only a different Liking of any thing, upon a different Perswasion, of or about it; and I never yet heard it imputed to any man for a fault, to think otherwise of any thing then Another man does, or to frame his Inclinations to his Opinions: For such a Dissent, fairly Interpreted, is no Other then an Insuperable Diversity of Iudgment; which is both Warrantable, and Honest, so far as it keeps it self within Compasse, and without breaking forth into Contumacy and Action: And there is not the least Colour given for such a Construction, in This place. But still, as there neither is nor can be sayd to be any thing Unlawfull in such a Disagreement, it were neverthelesse a thing highly to be wish'd, that the Several Members of all great Councells might be previously Vnited in the Fundamentals of the main Subject of their Debate.

Upon the Upshot; DISAFFECTED, Sounds no more in This place then a Non-Conformist; and whosoever Scruples the Order and the Authority of Bishops, and doubts of the Kings Power in Ecclesiastical Matters and over Ecclesiastical Persons, is in such manner Disaffected to the Church, and State, as to answer the Literal meaning of This Clause, and no otherwise. Nor is any man to blame for being of such or such a Principle, that lyes under the force of an Invincible Perswasion, and consequently under the necessity of a Suitable Inclination. So much for This Poynt: The Next is,

§. 5. My falling foul upon all the Petitioners.

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The Fifth Exception is,Exception upon Petitions. that I have Scandalously misrepresented all the Petitioners, and Promoters of the late Petitions. How far this Imputation is True or False, and upon what grounds I support my Opinion; shall be seen in what follows.

[But may not men Petition, you will say, and Petition for a good thing? Petitions approved and how far. Yes; if the thing be Simply Good; the Petitioners Competent Iudges of it; and every man keep himself to his own Post, I see no hurt in't: But for the Multitude to interpose in matters of State, as in the Calling or Dissolving of Parliaments; Regulation of Church-Government; or in other like Cases of Doubtfull and Hazzardous Event, wherein they have no Skill at all, nor any Right of Intermeddling: Why may not Twenty Thousand Plow-jobbers as well Subscribe a Petition to the Lord Mayor of London, for the calling of a Common Councell? Or as many Porters and Carr-men here in London put in for the better Government of the Herring-Trade in Yarmouth? Seasonable Memorial. Pag. 21. And then again,

Let the matter of the Petition be never so fair;Not so much the Matter, as the scope of the Petition. if it be a businesse out of the Petitioners Sphere, and Capacity either to meddle in, or to understand; it is a Suspitious way of Proceeding. Such were the Confederate Petitions of England and Scotland for a Parliament in 1641. which were but a Prologue to the Opening of the Subsequent Confederacy against the Government: when the Petitions that follow'd sufficiently expounded the Meaning of the Former. They Petition'd against Ecclesiastical Courts, Ceremonies, Scandalous Ministers, Bishops Votes in Parliament, and Episcopacy it self; against Evill Councellors, Monopolies, Corruptions of State, [Page] Courts of Oppression, and innumerable Grievances: And so for the Militia: the Kings Towns, and Forts; till they brought the King to the Block. Pag. 20. And after this manner have they proceeded now again.

The Petition was at first, The advance of the Petition from one thing to another. for the Meeting of the Parliament; and then they came to twit the King with his Coronation-Oath: and then Delinquents must be brought to punishment; and then the Parliament was to sit as long as they pleas'd: And at last, every man must be mark'd for a Common Enemy, that would not Subscribe to't. So that First, they would have the Parliament Sit; and Then, they would cut them out their work; and, in Fine, it was little other then a Petition against those that would not Petition.

The Late Kings Observations upon the Growth of Petitions of this kinde are very Pertinent.The Late Kings Observations upon Petitions.

Vpon [the tumultuous Confluxes of mean and rude People, who are taught first to Petition, then to Protect, then to Dictate; at last, to Command and Over awe the Parliament. EIK.BAS. upon TUMVLTS]▪ And the Practices of these people are excellently well set forth by his late Majesty also Ex. Coll. Pag. 536.

Their Seditious Preachers,And the menage of them. (says he) and Agents, are by them, and their Special and particular directions, sent into the Several Countys, to infuse Fears and Iealousies into the minds of our good Subjects, with Petitions ready drawn by Them, for the People to Sign, which were yet many times by them changed three or four times before the Delivery; upon accidents, or occasions of either or both Houses. And when many of our poor deceived People of our several Countyes have come to the City of London, with a Petition so fram'd, alter'd, and sign'd, as aforesaid; That Petition hath been Suppress'd, and a New one ready drawn hath been put into their hands, after their coming to Town, (inso much as few of the Company have known what they [Page] Petition'd for) and hath been by them presented to one or both our Houses of Parliament; as That of Bedfordshire, and Buckinghamshire: witnesse those Petitions, and amongst the rest That of Hertfordshire, which took notice of matters agreed on, or dissented from, the night before the Delivery: which was hardly time enough to get so many thousand hands, and to travel to London on that Errand.

So that I have very good Authority here, Good Authority for suspecting Popular Petitions. for apprehending the danger of Popular Petitions; And to shew now that I am not at all possess'd against Petitions in Generall, or against ALL the Petitioners; Truman says, that [to joyn in a Petition for the Meeting of a Parliament, to bring Malefactors to a Tryall, or to extirpate Popery, Some Petitions both Lawful and Commendable. is, in the appearance of it, not only Lawfull, but Commendable: But then it must be promoted by Lawfull Means, and under Decent Circumstances. Citt and Bum. Pag. 27. [It is a good thing to execute Justice, but yet a Private man must not invade the Judgment-Seat, tho' it were to passe even the most Righteous Sentence, Ibid. Pa. 28. And Moreover;Many worthy persons concern'd in the Petitions. Truman acknowledges that he finds many honest and considerable men concern'd in these Petitions.] Ibid. Which is more Evidence then needed for the purging of my self from so grosse a Slander. I come now to the Last Article of my Charge.

§. 6. My Writings (they say) create Misunderstandings, and tend to the Embroyling of the Kingdome.

It it be so,The scope of all my Writings. I have been extremely out in my Measures all this while, to be still creating of Misunderstandings in the very Act of Endeavouring, either to rectify, or to prevent them. And to be Endangering the Peace of the Kingdome in the Design of preserving it. If [Page] to Assert the Law, aud the Government against all Opposers; If to lay open the Malice and Calumny of so many bold Libells against his Majesties Person, Authority, and Government; if to maintain the Apostolical Order, and the Constitutions of the Church against Schism; and the Powers, and Priviledges of the State against all Principles of Sedition; If to inculcate Reverence, and Obedience toward our Superiours; If to recommend the Blessings, and Duties of Vnity, in a due Submission to the Provisions that are made for the Upholding of Order, both in Church, and State: If the bending of all my thoughts, and Applications to these Ends, be to create Misunderstandings, and breed Ill Blood in the Hearts of his Majesties Liege People, Thus am I guilty of the matter charged upon me in This Article, and no Otherwise.

I shall passe now, in Order, from the Particulars of my Charge to the Quality of the Libellers, and the true Reason of their Rancour against me, in despite of all their Pretensions to the Contrary.

As to the Quality of the Libellers, The Quality of the Libellers. a man may judge of the Meannesse of their Souls by the Condition of the Office: which is the Part of the very Devill himself; being only to Blacken, and to Defame. They have lickt up the Vomit of the Nation, which they discharge again in their Writings, partly upon my self, and the rest upon the Government: for I have still the Honour to suffer, not only by the same Hand and Fate, with the King and with the Church, but for their very sakes too.

In this Mercenary Crew of Beastly Libellers,A Hackny Libeller. there's one little Creature among the rest, that serves as a Common Instrument to the Faction: And that which [Page] They put into his mouth the Fore-part of the week, he commonly throws Out again upon the Government, and all that Love it, toward the End on't. There is not perhaps so Insolent a Libell permitted upon the face of the Earth, where ever Christianity, or Good manners set footing; so Profane, Scurrilous and Seditious; nor has the pretended Authour of it any other Protection for his Crimes, then the Obscurity of his Person; for there is no Touching of him, without fouling a man's Fingers. And yet to let him see now that I am not absolutely a stranger to his History. For several years he never knew what it was to sleep, but in a Cellar or in a Garret, saving now and then, in his Beer, upon a Bulk. In the days of his Prosperity he was receiv'd into the House, of a Boyling Cook, where he spung'd out a poor Livelyhood upon the Fragments of a Three penny-Ordinary; but his Conversation was yet more Reproachful then his Quality and Fortune. Whosoever doubts the Truth of This, needs but go into Salisbury-Court to be better enform'd▪

Is not the World at a fine Passe now, when such☜ Fellows as This shall come to hold the Ballance of Empires? To trample the Crown and the Miter under their feet? To Charge his Majesty himself with a Confederacy for the bringing in of the French King and Popery; as I am ready to Prove he has done? To expose the Episcopacy, and the Papacy under the same Notion, promiscuously, to the Hatred and Contempt of the Common People; To make sport with the very Badge of our Profession? (That TOOL the CROSSE, as the Buffoon calls it) To Canton out the Nobility and Gentry into what Tribes They please: as Fools and Knaves; Papists and Traytors; Courtiers and Pensioners? The Egyptian Locusts were nothing to This Plague of our English Scarabs, that devour, not only the [Page] Fruit, but the Honour of the Land, and render the English Nation as much as in Them Lyes, a Laughing-stock to all our Neighbours round about us. It is not that I am angry with Harry Care for the delicate Back-strokes he gave me in Prances last Narrative, by his Invention for the setting up of a Correspondence betwixt Mrs. Cellier and my self; a Person whose Face I never saw in my whole Life that I know of, till (before the Couneell) about a week or ten days after the publishing of That Book: 'Tis true it was as false and as shamelesse a Contrivance as Possible: But why should I expect better from him when God Allmighty has Written the Signature of what he is, in the very Visage of the Animal?

Now as to the Pretended Reasons of these Wretches Rancor against me. Why this Rancour against me? First, they say that I began with them. Secondly, that I have been pertetually Harping upon one and Forty, and the Rebellion of One and Forty; without any Ground, or Provocation for either. It must be my part now to shew that I have never put pen to paper yet, but either in my own Defence, or in the Vindication of the Publique.

The First Reflection I past upon any man,The Faction began with me. was upon Care, for Libelling me in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Histiory of the Damnable Popish Plot. I have already layd open the Malice, and the Sillynesse of That Imposture against me, and I have said something like-wise to the Venom of that pittifull Pamphlet against the Government: Especially Page 91; where he borrows no lesse then a whole Page of Libell, against the King, from a sheet intitled a Letter to a Friend in the Country, which ('tis sayd) was the work of a better hand. From This time forward I was ply'd with Fresh Calumnyes; which have given me fresh and [Page] fresh Occasion still of Writing to clear my self.

As to the Other point of pressing the business of One and Forty more than needed, I must Appeal to the Pieces themselves which I have publisht.

My Reformed Catholick was written with a Design to Unmask the Fallacy of Imposing upon the People,My End of Writing. under the Name of Dissenting Protestants, a kind of Contradiction to the Protestant Religion, which is by Law Establisht; and to Expound the meaning of several Quaeres and Proposals, that were Then Printed, to deter People from chusing Men that had either any Relation to the King, or Kindness for the Church, into the Next Election. I shall refer the Reader for further Satisfaction in This Particular to Page 9. and so from p. 21. to p. 27; where there are several Instances of Libels Printed at That time, that fell little short of downright Treason.

In my Free-born Subject, Free born Subject, p. 14. and so forward, there are several Instances likewise of the same Quality; My Answer to the Appeal was more directly upon the Subject; and after That, I wrote A seasonable Memorial, expresly to lay open the Arts and Methods by which the Glorious City of London was formerly betrayed to slavery, and Faction; the very same Practices being at That time promoted by some particular Persons, and attempted over again.

My Two Dialogues of Cit and Bumpkin were (as I have said already) Composed for the Undeceiving of those Credulous People,Citt. and Bumkin. that had been Unhappily misled by the Insinuations of That accursed Libel, called The Appeal.

My Letter to Mr. Oate's was founded upon Mr. Oates's Discovery, My Letter to Mr. Oates justified. and only a more vigorous Emprovement of His Evidence, toward the Rooting out of all Priests and Iesuits out of the Land; by such ways and means as do naturally arise from the Reasons of his Depositions. And [Page] I have done This too, with all due Deference and Respect to the Kings Witness [...]s, as well as to the Plot, notwithstanding Mr. Oate's scandalous and undeserved Revilings of me; which might perhaps have stagger'd some man less considerate than my self, at least in some part of his Duty; especially falling so bitterly withal upon the Memory of a Person for whose Holy Ashes I have so great a Veneration, A Passionate Expression. LAUD (says he) was a RASCAL, and a TRAYTOR; and This he said over and over, and without any manner of Provocation. Without running into any more Particulars; This has been the Case of my Affair from on end of it to the other. But to come now from the pretended Cause of their malice to me, to the Cause it self.

I have liv'd long enough in the World to understand, The Effect of popular Libels. in some measure, both Men and Books; and that popular Passions are mov'd by popular Discourses, as the VVaves of the Sea are by the Power of the VVinds. It is the First Office of Political Pamphlets or Treatises, in all Cases of Design upon any Eminent Alteration of State, to possess the People with fals Notions about the Original, the Nature and the Ends of Government; and so to train them on, from Perverse Principles, in the matter of Rule and Subj [...]ction, to Evil Thoughts of their Superiors and Governors; and from Thence, to transport them into Undutiful and Intemperate Practises against the publick Peace▪ We have already felt the Effects of This way of Proceeding, in the most outragious Rebellion, in all Circumstances, perhaps, that ever was heard of: And the Late King himself imputed it principally to the Force of Seditions Libels.

Now the same Methods being set a foot again,The Reason of my Writing. and That Invective Course of Liberty against both the Church and the State, proceeding without any Check or Controll; I thought my self bound in Honour and Duty, both as [Page] an English Man, and as a Subject, to use the best means I could, either to Stop, or to divert that Torrent. Upon This I took upon me, (so much as in Me lay) the Defence of the Law, and the Government against all those Erroneous and Disloyal Positions, that were dayly Published, and imposed upon the Unskilful and Unwary Multitude, to the extreme Hazard and Dishonour of the State.

I brought the Terms of Dominion and Obedience to the Right Standard; I laid Open and Rectified all their Fallacious Distinctions, and the dismal Consequences of the Peoples swallowing such Mistakes. The Cheat laid open. I took off the Baits of Religion, Liberty and Reformation in the very sight of the Common People; and laid open the Hook that was under them: I shewed them that the whole Pretence was no other than a Counterfeit; and that there was no more of Religion, Liberty or Reformation in the bottom of it, then of a Living Fly in an Artificial one; and that one Leap at it was as much as their Lives, Estates, and their Souls were worth. I gave the Multitude Antidotes against all their Pestilent and Poysonous Infusions; I resolv'd all their Riddles, and from their own Actions, and Acknowledgments in the like Cases, expounded their meanings. In one word, by the blessing of God upon this Naked and honest Simplicity of Dealing, I have found some Well-meaning Dissenters reclaim'd from their Errors, and Others that were wavering before, Now to be fully fatisfyed and Confirm'd. Nor can it well be otherwise, in so Righteous and Reasonable a Cause; where the manifest Iustice and Evidence of the matter would do its own business, with the help even of a very slender Advocate to support it.

[Page] I have spoken enough to the Circumstances of my Charge; My Loyalty is my Crime. but all That Story serves only for a Blind. And in truth my Zeal for the Upholding of the Government is my Unpardonable Crime; the Libellers would, Otherwise, take notice of the many, and the open Scandals, that are cast upon the King, No notice taken of Treason and Sedition. and the Church, with an Evident Design to expose Majesty and Episcopacy to Hatred and Scorn; and shew their Affections That way for the Life and Honour of the KING, and for the Protestant Religion; and not stand picking of Holes in the Coat of a person that has so unquestionably dedicated all the Faculties of his Soul, Body, Fortune and Interests to the Service of his Prince and Country; and to set Spyes upon every Action and Line in his whole Life, to try if they can find but any one poynt, either in his Conversation or Writings, that might bear a Double meaning; and, at last, to render that very Ambiguity (if it were possible) no less than Capital too. But I thank God My Faults of That kind are as hard to be found out, as my Accusers Virtues.

It goes a great way with many Moderate Nonconformists, I never received any Reply. and other Reasonable Persons too, that have not as yet taken any strong Impressions, either on the one side, or on the other; that notwithstanding all the rudenesses of Clamor and ill Language against me, for the Papers I have Published, I have not as yet received one single Reply to the Argument of any thing that ever I wrote, more than the Opposing of Revilings to my Reasons: So that their Quarrel to me is purely for interposing betwixt Faction and Authority. It will be said perhaps, that my Papers are not worth the Answering. How comes it then that they think it worth the while to bestow so much pains upon my Person? nay and to propound and meditate so many [Page] extraordinary Ways of Animadversion upon L'Estrange, as if the Foundations of the Government were to be removed for my sake, and that an Englishman were to be no longer safe under the Protection of the Law? But these are only Coffee-House-Imaginations, and which I am sure, will never receive any Countenance or Encouragement from the Authority and Wisdom of a Parliament.

But since my Hand is in upon this Subject,Two points worth the clearing. there are Two Points more worth the Clearing than all the rest; as being of greater Importance toward the understanding of the present Controversie: The One has a Respect to the more effectual Discovery of Priests and Iesuits. The Other, To the Impartial Stating and Discussing the Business of Toleration. The former of these I have handled in my Further Discovery, Dedicated to Dr. Oates, and Grounded upon the Authority of his Evidence: The Other I have Treated upon more at large, in my Toleration Discussed, and with a regard to all the Circumstances that I could fairly bring within the Compass of the Question. Let the whole World fairly, and by dint of Reason, overthrow either the One or the Other, and I will yield my self to have been all this while under a great Mistake.

I know very well that I am Charg'd for writing more than my Share; Why I have written so much. when the true Reason of it was, that others wrote less: and in effect, it was more than one Man's Work to attempt what I have done: But upon a Sense that the thing was of absolute Necessity for some body to do; and finding other People more Cautious than I thought was either Needful or Expedient, in so Publick a Case, I engag'd my self further than my Neighbours: and not without the Foresight of [Page] these Outrages which I knew I was to draw upon my self: Neither is this the first time that I have Sacrificed all other Considerations to my Duty.

Some will have it,No Preferment or Reward in the case. that I have been set on by the Promises and Temptations of Advantages and Reward; which is an Imagination so far from the truth of this Matter, that all things considered (saving my Veneration and Humble Acknowledgments to His Majesty, who hath been very Gracious to me) I do positively averr, that the King has not a Subject in his Three Kingdoms, that has suffered harder Measure, and more contrary to Law and Iustice, than I my self have done; and all this, without the Ballance of any other Recompence than a little Court-Holy-Water and Fair Words. Besides that in the Worst of Times, I did the same thing through all Difficulties and Hazards.

Having already in general Terms reflected upon Scandalous and Dangerous Libels, Designs and Practices upon the Publick Peace. as the Occasion of my Writings; I shall now take a Taste of the Condition and Tendency of those Libels, and lay open as briefly as I can, their Designs and Practices upon the Dignity and Safety of the Government, and the Publick Peace.

There needs no more to the proving of a Design, A Lewd Practice implies a Design. than such an Explication of a Lewd Practice, as carries with it a Necessary Congruity and Tendency to such or such a Determinate and Evil End: And the publishing of a Treasonous Position is but so far the putting of a Disloyal Imagination into Act: Reward and Punishmen. As for Instance; The Author of the Plea to the Dukes Answers, does very plainly conclude the King to be Accountable to his People; and after that, declares in express Terms, that God approves of the Removal of Evil Kings: And his complaining [Page] in the same Sheet, of a Male-Administration, does fairly make known his Dissatisfaction, and consequently explain his Intention in that Point. Where's my fault now, for Crying out both to King and People, Have a Care of That Man?

The Author of another Libel, call'd The Impartial Proceedings, &c. recommends the Case of Portugal for a Precedent to England; and sets the People at Liberty, If they do not like one King, to Chuse another.

The Writer of the Appeal does not only Intimate this; but enforces it with an Encouragement; He who has the worst Title (says he) ever makes the best King.

The Compiler of the Political Catechism places the Sovereignty in the Two Houses; and says, that they have Legal Power to Command the People to Assist them, whensoever they shall Declare that there is a Preparation toward a War: and in such a Case to dispose of the Kings Forts, Ports, Magazines, Ships, and Power of the Militia; and to Levy Money, Arms, Horse, Ammunition upon the Subjects, in such Cases of Danger, even WITHOUT, or AGAINST the Kings Consent.

Marvel, in his Growth of Popery, justifies Self-Defence in a Subject against his Prince, when he is run up to the Wall. And nothing more ordinary than Printed Censures of the King and his Ministers; the Branding of all his Officers and Domestiques for Pensioners and Papists; the Church it self for Will-Worship and Superstition; and the Hierarchy for Antichristian. These Sons of Belial (says the Author of The Free-holders [Page] Choyce) and then a little below, Brutal Scurrilities. I believe (says he) good Father Jacob had a Foresight of these Sons of Levi, when in his last Will and Testament he left them a Curse for a Legacy, instead of a Blessing; and if the whole World were now to make their Wills, all but Knaves and Fools would do the like. And he Treats the Parliament defunct with the same Generous Freedom: That so we may fall again (says he) into the hands of as Treacherous and Lewd a Parliament as the wisdom of God, and the Folly of Man, has most miraculously freed us from. Another falls foul by Name, upon a List of as many Worthy Persons out of such a number, as ever met perhaps in such a Body; and three or four of them no less then Members of his Majesty's Privy Councel: And This Catalogue he is pleased to call the Infernal Regiment of Pensioners. To say nothing of those Scurrilous and brutal Affronts upon the very Person and Honour of his Sacred Majesty, that an Honest man cannot so much as Think of, much less Repeat without Horror:

Here's not One word all This while of the Contrivers and Advancers of These Villanies: Safer to commit Sedition then to Censure it. but it is become more Criminal, in the judgment of our Pretended Zealots to Censure these audacious Extravagances then to commit them.

But now to conclude: How far in honour, justice, and policy, How far to encourage Loyalty. it may concern any Prince or State whatsoever to support, countenance, and protect the Asserters of their Laws, Rights, and Priviledges, against the bold and seditious Attempts of the Enemies of the Constitution, will be the next Question.

[Page] The Two Main Pillars of Government are Reward and Punishment. Reward and Punishment. The neglecting of these, is like the letting of a House fall over a mans Head for want of Repair: But the Magistrate that inverts them▪ and Rewards where he should Punish, and Punishes where he should Reward (in what Form of Government soever it be) is like a man that plucks down his own House with his own Hands; and nothing can be more dangerous, than to shew an Honest man that he has nothing to hope for, or a Knave, that he has nothing to fear. But this were a Supposition against the Impulse of Nature, as well as against the Rules of Politicks; there being nothing more Inglorious, or more Perillous, then the Humour of Obliging our Enemies, to the Ruine of our Friends. This is a Point so clear of it self, that it needs no Illustration; and so Consonant to the Principles of Right Reason, (even in the weakest of men) that it does as little need a Caution.

But what is it that we call the supporting and Protecting of those that Assert the Government? It is Interest of State to protect the Servants of the Government. This is not intended as a Benignity, or Respect toward the Person that does the Office; but it is meant of a Common Iustice to a Principle òf Government it self; without which it is impossible for any Government to be of Long Continuance: For all Publique Services are accompany'd with hardship, and pain; as they, are follow'd with Envy, and Detraction. 'Tis nothing for a man to go down Hill, especially when he sees Profit, Pleasures, and Preferment at the Bottom; and that in such a Course, he does but follow the Byass of his own Appetites, and Corruptions: But it is another Case for Flesh and Bloud to ly beating of it out a whole Age against Wind and Tide; and when he has Conquer'd That Difficulty, to be cast upon the Rocks, and There abandon'd at Last. Or, to follow [Page] my first Allegory; Cold Comfort. It is but a cold Comfort for a man to lie striving Thirty or Forty Years to gain the Top of a Hill, only upon a barren Instinct of Honour or Virtue; and when he comes there, to have only the choyce either of a Iayl, or of a Gibbet, for his last Retreat: the Duty of Persevering is never the less binding, for the Difficulty of the Attempt; but yet, according to the Measures of Humane Frailty, the French King himself perhaps, would find it an hard Matter to Levy an Army of Fifty or Threescore Thousand Men (out of all his Dominions) of That Complexion.

And the Cherishing of this sense of Loyalty, Loyalty is to be valu'd, even in an Enemy. is not only a necessary point of Prudential Iustice to be observed in all Regiments whatsoever; but it is likewise the Interest, and the practice of all well-govern'd Constitutions, to pay an Esteem to the Character of an Inviolate Integrity, even in an Enemy: For it falls out many times, that Differences of that sort may come to terminate in the most Amicable and profitable Agreements: Beside that, they are sure of fair play, in the very heat of the Dispute; whereas what security can any man promise to himself, from a State-Weather-Cock, that still keeps his Eye upon his Interest, without any regard to his Conscience; and changes his Opinion, and his Party, as often, perhaps, as his Shirt?

It is not that I either pretend to pin my self for Protection, My Appeal to the Honourable House of Commons. upon the Government, for my own sake; or that, in Truth, I am Conscious of any thing, to my self, that requires more than the common benefit of the Law, to keep me in safety: And I have yet a greater security than all this; which is, that when the Honourable House of Commons shall come to [Page] know me better by my Actions, and open dealings and Professions, than the world does hitherto, by the Fidlers and the Rascals that the Paultry News-mongers here of the Town have represented me to be; I make no doubt, but they will think me worthy of some Publique Reparation from the Authors of those Scandals: And that those worthy Gentlemen, out of a regard to the Honourable Bloud that runs in their own Veins, will consider the Case of another Gentleman, as their Own, and not suffer Men of Name and Family to be blasted at this rate, by the Sons of the People.

Of all the lewd and scandalous Calumnies that have been advanced against me,Nothing prov'd against me. there has not been one syllable prov'd. First, as to my pretended Compliances with Oliver: There are Witnesses enough yet living of that Party that know the contrary▪ and not one man breathing so much as to colour it with any particular. Beside a Cloud of the Kings Friends that can prove my restless endeavours the other way.

I have been lately Charg'd for a Confederacy with Young Tonge; and in the Coffee-Houses and News Letters, for a Correspondence with Mrs. Cellier; when yet I made it as clear as the Sun, that I never saw Tonge, but twice, in my life; and that till after his affirming, and retracting, and renouncing that Retractation, (which was the thing that pinn'd the Basket) and all this upon his Salvation too; I never knew so much as his Person. It appears likewise that I gave him the slip, upon the very time he had appointed to visit me; and that upon his Letter to me next morning, I was so Cautious, that I gave Mr. Choqueux warning of him. When he came to me that Evening, with Company, I told them I would do nothing that lookt like a Consultation. After this, (two Gentlemen that [Page] he brought, going away) he would needs have me take his Information as a Iustice of Peace. I told him, I would receive none, unless under his own hand, ready written, and not to be alter'd; and with a Clause inserted, that it was his own voluntary act, without any Inducement to it from me: And that after all this, I would yet consider upon the matter of it, wheth [...]r it were fit for me to meddle with, or no. Here the business rested; only Tonge would be pressing sensless Stories upon me, as he had at first, till upon shewing my dislike of what he said, and telling him (as I had done before) that it signified nothing, he gave it off, and went his way. And I will now superadd this Protestation, upon the Faith of a Christian, he said nothing to me that could in any degree in the world operate upon Mr. Oats's Testimony: And then for Mrs. Collier, that was only Care's Phansie, (who wrote Prances Narrative) and not so much as mention'd before the King and Councel.

When I had spoken to the business of Tonge, Mr. Oates's Charges. Mr. Oates let that whole matter fall; and Charg'd me with a Misdemeanor, for insisting upon a Clause for Clearing of my self in case of Tonge's Affidavit; but it was lookt upon as a piece of Necessary Caution, and so Mr. Oates's Iudgment was over-rul'd. But Mr. Oates follow'd This Charge with a sorer one upon the Neck on't; which was, for Concealing a Conspiracy against the Kings Witnesses, High Treason. which he said was High Treason, My Answer was to this Effect,Nonsense is High Treason. That it was a strange Conspiracy, for the whole Story was Nonsense from one end to t'other· To which Mr. Oates Reply'd, that if it be a Conspiracy, 'tis [Page]no matter whether it be Sense or Nonsense; for 'tis High Treason however. But This notwithstanding, His Majesty was graciously pleas'd to give me the Character of an Honest and a Loyal man; and so That Arrow fell short too.

Mr. Oates was then pleas'd to beat another Bush;Charg'd with being a Papist. undertaking to prove me Popishly-Affected: And Mr. Prance swore that he had seen me three or four times at Mass, at Somerset-House, about two years since; and doing there as other people did; but he could not say that he saw me Receive. Whereupon I did with the most horrid Solemnity of Imprecation Imaginable, declare my self to be of the Religion of the Church of England, and that I had never enter'd into any Popish Chappel, or been present at any Mass, since His Majesties Return; which Protestation I do here again Resume, intending by these words HIS MAJESTIES RETURN, the Kings blessed Restauration, in the Year 1660. I cannot but note a great Abatement, in Prance's Reckoning; for I am assur'd, that Prance swore in the Company of Care, Curtis, and some other people, that he had seen me at Mass, at least, or about a hundred Times.

Upon the blowing over of This Storm too,Charg'd with Conveying away Bulls and Popish Books. I expected to have had my Quietus; but Mr. Oates [Page] reinforc'd himself again, by a Charge upon me for conveying away certain Bulls and Popish-Books that were seiz'd, and lockt up with a Padlock upon the Door; but when they came afterward to look for them, the Padlock was taken off, and the Books gone. Whereupon the Messenger of the Press was sworn, and being examin'd to the Points, he could not say, either that I took off the Padlock, or that I gave any Order, or Direction about it; or that I knew any thing of the conveying away of the Books, or any thing coucerning the Books themselves, one way, or other.

This manner of Prosecution (methought) was very Extraordinary; Two Charges more yet. considering with what Confidence Mr. Oates had call'd me Rogue, and Rascal, that day Sennet, before the Privy Councel. And he had not done with me, yet neither; for he said that one heard me say at Wills Coffee-House, that there was no Plot: Which, by the Oath I have formerly taken, is false; for I ever thought there was a Plot.

One thing I had like to have forgotten, Mr. Oates Charg'd me for Conversing with one Grange, and Sing: The former I know nothing of; and for Mr. Sing, I do Converse with him as I do with a hundred other people at the Coffee-House, and I [Page] know nothing more of him, then that amounts to.

I cannot let pass This Circumstance,A Violation upon the Rights of Common Society. without the Remarque of a strange Usurpation upon the Common Rights of Humane Society; if a man must be Oblig'd, contrary to the Rules of Humanity, and good Manners, to Catechize every new Face that he sees, and run, like an Animal solivagum, into Caves, Forests, and Deserts, for fear of giving any man the time of the day, till he has taken him to Task, upon the Articles of his Faith. It is not that I set up for an Advocate for the Pleasures of frequent Conversations, and gaudy entertainments; but I do freely confess, that I had rather Associate my self with four-footed, then with two-footed Beasts, and that such an Imposition, even from Authority it self, would be Grievous: But for a Private Person to assume That Empire, is both Arrogant, and Intollerable.

As for my Self; Adieu. This Disgust could never have laid hold of me in a better time; for I am really as Sick of the World, as Peevishness it self can be of Me. And having stood all Proofs, both of my Fidelity to my Master, and of my Integrity in despight of my Enemies; I'le e'ne betake my self to the Quietest way of making my Escape out of an Impious, and Trepanning World, into a better.

THE END.

Information about this book

Title statement

L'Estrange his appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in ParliamentAppeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament

L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.

Edition statement

1681

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2004-03 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A47806

ID [STC]

Wing L1202

ID [STC]

ESTC R13428

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

12936056

ID [OCLC]

ocm 12936056

ID [VID]

95761

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This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A47806)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 95761)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 388:8)

Source

— L'Estrange his appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament, Appeal humbly submitted to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and the three estates assembled in Parliament, L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704..

Extent

[2], 37 p.

Printed for Henry Brome ...,. London :: 1681.. (Reproduction of original in Cambridge University Library.)

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