PErusing a Publish'd Letter subscri­bed by the Great Name of the Duke of Buckingham, against the Au­thor of the short Answer to his Graces Discourse of Religion and Toleration, I could not but be very much delighted to see the Efforts of so famous a Pen, so strangely and so easily Victorious, over his Nameless, little, Angry, Harmless, Humble Servant. I confess indeed when I first Read his Graces ad­mirable Notions and Sentiments of a Deity, and the whole Systeme of his Graces Divinity so con­cisely couch'd in that little Treatise of his, I could not but think how happy his Grace has made Mankind in so sublime a Production, from the Genius of so worthy an Author: A Luxuri­ance of that Divine kind from so Illustrious a Personage, being truly those unusual, uncom­mon [Page 2] Heat-drops in Great Men, that fall as rare­ly as a Shower in Egypt.

Having paid this just Veneration to that excel­len [...] Piece, we have here a second Subject for our no less Admiration, which is, his Graces truly wonderful nimble way of Confutation: The Name­less, Humble Servant (as he pleases to call him) being somewhat a Dissenter from his G [...]aces good Opi­nion of a Toleration, has made it, in that short An­swer, his endeavour to remind the World of all those Distractions and Miseries, Rebellion and Regicide, the Murder of the best of Kings, and the Subversion of three flourishing King­doms, that all entred at no other Door than of a Toleration; and how inevitably the same Inlet would bring the same Inundation o're again; And therefore how just and Reasonable it is in the Government (contrary to his Graces opinion) to make the Strongest of Fences against so threat­ning and fatal a Torrent. To all which, his Grace most Ingeniously Replies, My Nameless, Angry, &c. I have Read you over and over, and find, that neither I understand you, nor you me. You mistake the meaning of His Majesties Promise, &c. and are very unlucky in three Letters of the French Word Opiniatre; and there­fore I advise you Write English: And so by way of Short and Sweet, defends his Darling Opinion of a Toleration, against all the Answerers objections, and the whole Sence of the Government, and Law-Makers upon that Important point, down from Elizabeth to Charles the Second, and all this to the Total Rout and Defeat of his unknown Adversary, with a Victory as expeditious and entire, as the greatest turn of State in the Re­hearsal. [Page 3] And possibly His Grace may affect this more than Ordinary way of Answering in the Lump, as being too Great to stoop to the contro­verting of particulars, with so unequal a Com­batant.

However, I am much Astonish'd to hear his Grace say, To my Confusion I must own, That I am not able to comprehend what part of my Discourse it is you do Answer; nor in all yours what it is you mean: But in this you are even with me, for I perceive you do as little under­stand any part of what I have Written, tho I thought it had been in so plain a Style, that a Child of Six years old might very well have done it. Now the unknown Author is no less confounded than his Grace, to think that any part of his Answer should be so strange­ly unintelligible, especially to so penetrating a Reader as his Grace; neither can he for the Soul of him find himself guilty of any such strange misunderstanding of his Graces meanings, in a Stile (by his own confession) adapted even to the Intellects of Readers of Six years old; unless his Graces intention in the publication of that Piece was wholly for the Instruction of Readers of that minor Class; and therefore he takes it ill that any thing more super-annuated should be intermed­ling with what nothing concerns them. Neither can this Answerer be made sensible, wherein (as his Grace charges him) he wilfully mistakes his Ma­jesties promise to the Church of England; the true meaning of which (his Grace is pleased to tell us) appears to be, That he would not suffer any Body to In­jure the Church of England, but he did not promise that he would have the Church of England Persecute every Body else. As I remember, his Majesties promise was, [Page 4] To defend and support the Church of England. But how this unbounded Toleration of his Graces can consist with the supporting the Church of England, he would do well to instruct us, unless the unty­ing of the Wolves can be the Defence of the Flock, and the giving a full Loose to all the Schis­matical Bontefeus and Underminers of our Reli­gion and Government, be maintaining and up­holding of it.

But not to be wholly contradictory to his Graces opinion; as his Grace is pleased to express his great difficulty of Believing himself the same George Duke of Buckingham which he was Twenty Years ago, there indeed I must joyn with him; it being too apparently true, that his Grace has not been the same Five Years ago that he was Twenty Five; which all Men that have had the Honour of knowing his Grace at Whitehall in 60, and at Dowgate in 80, will justifie for me, where I leave his Grace, and am