SATURDAY, March 11. 1681.

WHIG. Come; I'le shew ye my study, Tory.

TORY. Why you have got a Brave Library here.

Wh. For a Choice Collection, let me tell ye, as any is in Christendom.

To. You have all the Greek and Latin Fathers, I suppose; the Councells, the Schoolmen, and those People.

Wh. I had'em all; but there's a great deal of Trash; and so I e'en rid my hands of'em; though some of'em did pretty well too; considering those Dark Times. Now here can I sit as Snug as a Hare in her Form, and Chat away a Winters Evening with a Good Fire, a Pipe, and a Friend, and never feel how the time spends.

To. Well! And why should not You and I keep our Conferences here too?

Wh. Best of all: There's no body within hearing; and then we have our Books and Papers about us, and all in such Order, that I'le lay my Finger, Blindfold, upon any book you'le call for.

To. But what Subject are they mostly of?

Wh. Matters of State, History, Travells, The Rights and Power of the People, Reformation, Religion, Discipline, Admonitions, Remonstrances, Petitions, Appeals; as ye see'em mark'd upon the Shelves. But all this is nothing, you'l say, when y'ave seen my Gallery. Open that same Door before ye.

To. Bless me! What a Treasure's here?

Wh. Look ye now. That side is all News-Books, and Political Divinity.

To. You mean Polemical Divinity I suppose.

Wh. Ay Ay; 'Tis all one for that. Now all to'ther side is Dissenting Protestants; as Cartwright, Brown, Barrow, Robinson, Hetherington, Trask, Naylor, Best, Biddle, Muggleton. And here are your Muncerians, Apostoliques, Separatists, Catharists, Enthusiasts, Adamits, Huttites, Augustinians, Libertines, Georgites, Familists, Ranters Seekers, Sweet-Singers, Antinomians, Arrians, Socinians, Millenaryes, Quakers: And in Two words; all the Godly Party. They make Fourteen Folio's of Catalogue.

To. But ha'ye no Manuscripts?

Wh. Yes I have Three cases there beyond the Chimny, that I wou'd not change for Bodlies Library three times over.

To. What do they treat of?

Wh. Two of 'em are altogether upon the Art of Government, and the Third is Cramm'd with Lampoon and Satyr. You sha'not name me any one Copy that has scap'd me; nor any Exigent of State; but I'le furnish ye out of these Papers with an Expedient for't.

To. And wherein does this Art of Government Consist?

Wh. In Foresight, Experience, Presence of Thought, Prudence of Direction, and Vigour of Execution. To be short; Every Motion of the Head, the Eye, the Hand, the Foot, the Body. Contributes a part to this Great Work.

To. Is it a Science that may be Convey'd by Instruction?

Wh. With as much Ease as Fencing, or Dancing. There are Three or Four Dissenting Academies here about the Town, where People are taught to Nod, Wink, Gape, Cough, Spit; Nay the very Tuning of their Hum's and Haw's, by Rule and Method; when to Smite the Breast, and when to Dust the Cushion; when to Leap in the Pulpit, and when to Swim; when to be Serene, and when to Thunder: Nay the Faces they are to make at every Period; and the very Measure of their pauses; that the Parenthesis may be large enough for the Groans, & Ejaculations of the Secret ones to Play in; they are taught to Pray for the King with One Tone and Countenance, and for the Parliament with another.

To. I have Observ'd them indeed to Cry with a Loud Voice, Lord! strengthen the Hands of the One, & then to drop the Note into a kinde of a Piping whisper, with a Lord! Turn the Heart of the Other; which is as much as to say, Alas! the Poor Gentleman is out of his way, and we must set all hands at work to bring him to comply with his Parliament, though that Handy work, at last, bring his Royall Head to the Scaffold.

Wh. If you wou'd not be a Rogue now and tell tales, I could let ye in to the whole Popular Mystery; and shew ye the Folly, and the Vanity of any other Claim to Sovereign Power. And then I have all the Prints brought me as soon as ever they come out.

To. Pre'thee let's fall to work then.

Wh. Come, I'le give you a sight of one of my Boxes first; but I must be gone in a quarter of an hour upon absolute Necessity.

To. Well! And whether in such hast?

Wh. There's One at Newington has promis'd me an Answer to the Dissenters Sayings; and then I am told of a Godly Divine at Clapham, that has a Reply ready to the Notes upon College.

To. Let's make the best of our time then. Stay a little; what have we here?

Wh. Every thing is Titled, ye see, ready to your hand; so that you may Pick and Chuse.

To. Let me see then. Pious Frauds; Mentall Reservations; Infallibility of the Assembly; Baxters Saints; Cases of Conscience; Dispensations, Contributions, Maxims, Intelligence, Orders, Committees, Juryes, Caballs, Religion, Property, Demands, Proposals, Grievances, Pretences, Salvo's, Distinctions, Explanations, Projects, Directions, Advices, Resolutions, Invectives, Fictions, Forms of Reproaches, suited to All Persons, Orders, and Qualities; True-Protestant Privileges; The Doctrine of Probabilityes, and Implicit Obedience.

Wh. Now upon all these Heads, ye have Authoritys, Precedents; and all the Colours, Arguments, and Elucidations that the matter will bear.

To. But your Pious Frauds, Mentall Reservations, Infallibility, Dispensations, Salvo's, Distinctions, Probabilityes, Implicit Faith; These are all Popish Points.

Wh. They are so, when they are apply'd to the service of the Church of Rome: but the True Protestant-Cause Sanctifies the Principle. As there's a great difference betwixt the Popes Excommunicating of an Hereticall Prince; and the Generall Assemblys Excommunicating of an Antichristian, Episcopall Prince; betwixt a Popish Gunpowder-Treason, in the Cellers, under the Parliament-House; and a Gunpowder Commission to Kill and Slay within the walls of the Same House, above ground; though to Carnal Eyes they may both appear to Center in the same Point: And so in like manner, betwixt a Conspiracy of Papists to cut off the King, and Subvert the Government; and a True-Protestant-Association, to the very same Effect: Nay with this Advantage too; that the Latter Propounds the Accomplishing of that, in a matter of a month or six weeks, which the Zeal of their Fore-fathers was at least Ten, or a dozen years a doing.

To. 'Tis a Great Ease for a man to have all these Subjects Common-Plac'd to his hand.

Wh. Right. And where you may turn to any thing you have a mind to see, with a wet Finger.

To. But Pray'e How do you approve (in many of our Seisures) of the Application of Popish Trinkets to Prophane Uses, which were by them Dedicated to the service of a Superstitious Religion?

Wh. You cannot Imagine, though an Embroder'd Cope may be an Abomination, what a Cordial the Pearl of it is to a True-Protestant Professor. Lambs-Wool drinks no way better then out of a Chalice. Or in other Cases; 'Tis but Destroying the Popish Form of an Idolatrous Vessell, and the Intrinsick Value is never the less Current according to the Standard of the Reformation. The Picture of the Blessed Virgin, with our Saviour in her Arms, is never a jot the worse for sale to a Painter, for being an object of Idolatry about the Altar.

To. And yet I have seen it Committed to the Flames, but it has been an Oversight, betwixt the Zeal and the Ignorance of the Magistrate. How many Curious Crucifixes, and Reliques, with Delicate Inlayings, and Carvings have I seen Expos'd at Gill the Constables in Westminster; truly, at very Reasonable Rates?

Wh. Not unlikely; but then ye must know, they were Seiz'd in One Capacity, and sold in Another; for they were vended in the Contemplation of the Workmanship, though they were taken as the Fooleries of a False Religion. We have in our days seen the Representation of the Trinity, Demolish'd in a Church-Window, with Extraordinary Zeal and Approbation.

To. Why truly I am as much against the making of any Image or Figure of God the Father under the Form of a Man, as any body; for Twenty Mistakes and Inconveniencies that may arise upon the Consideration of such an Object; but I know no hurt in the world in the Representing of our Saviour under a Human shape; or of the Holy Ghost under the shadow of a Dove: beside that the thing is presum'd to have been done by Authority; for otherwise, the same Zeal that Destroys but the Window of the Church, would not stick at the Destroying perhaps of every thing else that belongs to't. But prethee tell me One thing, suppose the Blessed Trinity, so Represented, should be the Seal of an Ancient Community, or Society of men, what's the difference betwixt that Figure, in Graving, or in Nealing; in Silver, or in Glass? Would not you as much scruple the putting of that Seal to a Lease, as the seeing of that Figure in a Church-Window?

Wh. No; by no means; for the One is Purely a Civil Act; and the Other has a Regard to Religious Worship.

To. And yet this Image, or Pretended Resemblance, is the same thing in the One, as it is in the Other. Well! I am Extremly pleas'd with this Private Corner for Liberty of Discourse.

Wh. Here you may have all the Papers as they come out, Fresh and Fresh: All the Arguments, and Politiques of the Dissenting Party; Chuse your own Theme, Take your own Time, and Treat upon your own Conditions.

To. That's as fair as any Mortall can wish; So that when the day does not afford other matter to work upon, we may Look a little more narrowly into the Merits of the Cause. And so much for that. But here let me ask ye a Question: Do you know a Little Cause-Jobber yonder somewhere about Kings-street, in Covent Garden?

Wh. Does he not use the Christian Coffee-House?

To. The very same. He was saying t'other day that L'Estrange was a Pensioner of Cromwels; a Papist; and that he durst not bring his Action against any man for Calling him so: That he was a Rogue; a Fidler; Liv'd in Covent-Garden a good while, and got his Living by his Trade; And that a Magistrate, not far from that place, would Justify it. The Two first Points, I suppose, will be Disputed in another place: And for the Fidler: 'Tis well known that L'Estrange liv'd Eight or Nine years in one of the Piazza-Houses there; and kept Servants that would have Scorn'd to have Sorted themselves with any thing so mean as this Paltry Varlet. But to the Business. How far will the Privilege of a True-Protestant-Whig Justify a Villain in so many Scandalous Lyes?

Wh. So far as the Common Good of the Cause is more Valuable then the single Credit of a Private Person. But what say ye now to Curtis's Advertisement (in his Last Mercury) of Tong's Narrative, and Case; concerning L'Estrange, Printed for C W?

To. I say, 'tis first, a Cheat; for 'tis none of Tong's Writing; 2ly, 'Tis Another Cheat; for 'twas Printed for Langley Curtis, with his Name to Tongs Appointment for the Printing of it: Only he has Fobb'd a New, and a False Title-Page to't. But what says Mr. Oates, all this while, to L'Estranges Enformation against Tonge, in the Shammer Shamm'd? where that young Fellow has the Impudence to declare under his hand, the very Foundation of Oates's Plot to be a Cheat: And I appeal to all Good Protestants for Justice upon that Scandalous Wretch.

Wh. Nay, 'tis a horrible Abuse, and really the man stands in's own light: What was't? 500 or a 1000 Pound that he recover'd of One that did not say the Hundredth part of what this comes to? The Lord Deliver me! I knew the Time when 'twas half a Hanging-matter to have made the least doubt of any Branch of the Hellish Plot: But for this Audacious Fool to say in Expresse Terms, that [the Four Jesuites Letters, wherein Oates pretended was the whole Discovery, were Counterfeits] is utterly Intolerable. I'le e'en go my ways immediately, and talk with the Doctor about it.

London, Printed for Joanna Brome, at the Gun in S. Pauls Church-yard.

Vol. 3. Numb. 88