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.

Citt. You may take his part as ye please, But there's a Famous Lecturer charg'd him Publiquely for Popery, in his Answer to the Appeal; and for falling upon Dr. Lloyd.

True. He did so; but at the same time that Lecturer found no fault with the Appeal it self; and the best on't is, his Tongue's no more a slander then his Pen: And whoever reads what he has written concerning the Late King, and the Episcopal Church, will think never the worse of L'Estrange for what he says. Now for the Reverend Dean of Bangor, I dare say he never spake, or thought of him, but with Veneration. Let me see the book.

Look, ye here, 'tis pag. 18. in L'Estrange's Impression, and 'tis pag. 15. in this; and here's the Point [Their Loyalty and Good service paid to the King (says the Appealer speaking of the Papists) was meerly in their own Defence.] Now see L'Estrange's Reply upon it, If it lies (says he) as a Reproach upon them that they did then not serve the King out of Loyalty; that which they did, was yet better then not serving him at all; and better in a Higher degree still, then Fighting against him. And a little after. It is worth the Observation, that not a man drew his Sword in the opposite Cause who was not a Known Separatist; and that on the Other side, not one Schismatick ever struck stroke in the Kings Quarrell.

And now for your Notes upon his Answer, they are so silly, that it were Ridiculous to Reply upon 'um [who knows (says he) but the Regicides were Papists in disguise, pag. 19.] And a deal of such senselesse stuff; enough to turn a bodies Stomach. And if you'd inform your self of his Malice; look ye here pag. 4. p. 9. and p. 33 how he Palliates, if not Justifies, the Late Rebellion, the Murther of the Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews, and the drawing of the Sword against the King.

Briefly, 'tis an Insipid Bawling piece of Foolery, from One end to the Other. And it is not but that I highly approve of your Zeal for the Discovery of the Plot, and Suppressing of Popery, but we are not yet to Trample upon Laws, and Publique Orders, for the attaining even of those Glorious ends.

But now I think on't; deal freely with me; did you really go to the Registers ye spake of, to furnish Names for your Subscriptions?

Citt. No; That was but a Flourish: but all the Rest we Literally did.

True. Are not you Conscious to your selves of your Iniquities? who made You a Commissioner for the Town, or You for the Country? But we are like to have a fine business of it, 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 Kingdome. Pre'thee Bumpkin, with thy Poles, and Baltiques, how shouldst thou come to understand the Ballance of Empires? who 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. And are not you a fine Fool i'the mean time, to Drudg for the Faction that Sets ye on, to be afterwards made a slave for your pains?

And then for You, Citt, with your Mouldy Records, your Coordinate Estates, and your Sovereign Power of the People. Do not I know all your Fallacies, your Shifts, and Hiding-holes? There's not one step you set, but I can trace you in't: You have your Spies upon all Libraries, as well as Conversations; your Agents for the procuring of old Manuscripts, and Records, and for the Falsifying of New ones, to make them look like Old Ones. Nay, the Papers of State themselves had much ado to scape ye. Those that assert the Just Rights of the Crown, you either Bury or Conceal; only Publishing the Presidents of Seditious Times, in Vindication of such Principles.

Citt. I must confess I take the Government to be Coordinate, and the King One of the Three Estates, with submission to be better inform'd.

True. If it be so, how comes it that the House of Commons even in their most Popular seasons, have still own'd the Crown of England to be Imperial? How comes it that all our Laws are call'd the Kings Laws: all our Courts of Justice his Majesties Courts, and all Publick Causes try'd in the Kings Name, and by the Authority of his Majesty?

Citt. But have not the Two Houses their share in the Legislative Power?

True. You must distinguish betwixt the Consent, and the Sanction; the Preparatory Part is Their's, the Stamp is the Kings: The Two Houses Consent to a Bill; It is only a Bill, when it is presented, and it remains yet a Bill, even when the King has Consented to it; and in this Common Consent, in Order to a Law, the Two Houses may be said to share with his Majesty: But then the Fiat, that superinduces an Authority, and is Only, and Properly the Act of Legislation, is singly in the King. So that though they share in the Consent, they have no pretence at all to the Sanction: which is an Act of Authority; the other but of Agreement.

And yet again, admitting your Coordination; First, every King runs the hazzard of his Crown upon every Parliament he calls: For That Third Estate lies at the Mercy of the Other Two: And further, 'tis a kinde of Ringing the Changes with the Government, the King and Lords shall be Uppermost One day, the King and Commons, Another, and the Lords and Commons, the Third: For in this Scale of Constitution whatsoever the One will not, the Other Two, may.

Citt. Well, but Ours is a MIXT Government, and we are a Free People.

True. If ours be a Mixt Government, so as to any Popular Participation of Power with the King, then it is not a Monarchy: (which is the Government Only of One) but if you'l call it a Qualifi'd Government; so as to distinguish it from an Absolute and Unlimited Government, I'le agree with you. But let the Government be what it will, and where it will, let it do Right or Wrong, it is Equally Unaccountable, for there lies no Appeal, but to a Superiour, and the Supreme has none but God Himself.

Citt. But if we be a Free People, have not We as much Right to Our Liberties, as the King has to his Crown?

True. Yes, we have, but the King has this Advantage of us, that We may Forfeit our Liberties but He cannot forfeit his Crown.

Citt. What if a King will Transgresse all the Laws of God and Man? may not the People resume their Trust?

True. No, not unlesse you can produce an expresse stipulation to That very purpose. But let me shew you, First, the Errour of taking That to be a Trust from the People, which, in truth, is an Ordinance of Providence, For All Power is from God; And Secondly, the Absurdity of the very Supposition, even in the Case of a Trust conferr'd by the People. If the King breaks his Trust, the People Resume it: but who are These People? If a Representative, they are but Trustees Themselves, and may incur a Forfeiture too, by the same Argument. Where are we next then? For if it devolves to the Loose Multitude of Individuals, (which you will have to be the Fountain of Power) you are Then in an Anarchy, without any Government at all; and There you must either Continue in a Dissociated State, or else agree upon Uniting into some Form of Regiment, or other: and whether it be Monarchy, Aristocracy, or Democracy, it comes all to a Point. If you make the Government Accountable upon every Humour of the People, it lapses again into a Confusion. To say nothing of the ridiculous phansy of a Sovereignty in the People upon This Account; that they can never be so brought together either to Establish or to Dissolve a Government, as to authorize it to be the Peoples Act. For there must be, First, an Agreement to Meet and Consult. Secondly, an Agreement upon the Result of That Debate; and any One Dissenter spoils all, where every Individuall has an Equall Right: So that unlesse the People be all of the same minde, This Supposition will be found wholly Impractible and Idle.

Citt. But is there no Fence then against Tyranny?

True. Only Patience, unless you run into Anarchy, and then into that which you call Tyranny again; and so tread Eternally that Circle of Rigour and Confusion. In fine, the Question is this, whether people had better run Certainly into Confusion to avoid a Possible Tyranny, or venture a Possible Tyranny, to avoid a Certain Confusion.

Citt. But where we finde Positive Law and Provisions to fail us, may we not in those Cases, betake our selves to the Laws of Nature and Self-Preservation?

True. No, ye may not; for many Reasons. First, it makes you Judges; not only when those Laws take Place, but also what they are. Secondly, the Government is Dissolved, if Subjects may go off or on at pleasure. Thirdly, Self-Preservation is the Plea only of Individuals; and there can be no Colour for the exposing of the Publick in favour of Particulars. What would ye think of a Common Seaman that in a Storm should throw the Steers-man Overboard, and set himself at the Helm? Or of a Souldier that shou'd refuse a Dangerous Post for fear of being knock'd on the Head, when the whole Army, depends upon the Maintaining of That Pass.

Citt. Pray'e tell me what it is that you call Government, and how far it extends? for you were saying even now, that the Reason of all Governments is alike.

True. Government is the Will, and Power of a Multitude, United in some One Person, or More, for the Good, and safety of the whole. You must not take it that all Governments are alike; but the Ratio of all Governments is the same in some Cases. As in the Instance of Self-Preservation; which is only Pleadable by the Supream Magistrate, in Bar to all General Exceptions; for he is First, presumed in Reason, to be vested with all Powers necessary for the Defence, and Protection of the Community: without which his Authority is Vain. He is Secondly, Oblig'd in Duty to exert those Powers for the Common Good: and he is Thirdly, entrusted with the Judgment of all Exigences of State, be they Greater or Lesse; wherein the Publick Good may be concern'd. Now put the Case that a Magistrate should make a wrong Judgment of Matters, and misemploy those Powers; it were an Infelicity in the Administration; but the Sacredness of Authority is still the same: And he is a Mad man, that plucks down his House, because it rains in at the Window. And in case of the Magistrate, it is not so much He, as They; for the King is (as I said before) the United Power and Will of the People. And so Fare ye well.

The End.