HOld, Sir, why so fast? Should your Worship now be found scampering again, and up­on the Wing, (though not I hope for Holland) for all your Pilloring of me, you may chance pass with some People for a Knight of the Post too.

Indeed Doctor you find me habited some­what like a Man of Expedition, but not, as you would maliciously insinuate, running away: I see you have none of that distinguishing Faculty which has alway attended my way of Writing: Though I may look like one that is making a sort of Fashiona­ble Retreat, and have the Habitus of a Man in the Mode, yet I am not come to the Modality it self, which is the very Actus that must denominate a man a Run-away.

So then, all this Rhetorical Circumlocuti­on serves only to tell us, you are only, what we call in our vulgar Tongue, Absconding.

Truly I were, as they commonly call it, actually Absconded; but it was my Fate to fare, as in the Business of your old Friend Sir Patience; when they were hunting for one Knight, they stum­bled in a Garret upon another, who gave them the slip, left me in the lurch; and the greater Hypo­crite of the Two had the better luck; and so good night Sir Nicholas.

Why, methinks you might have taken warning by me too; I staid also a little too long after the Tide was turn'd: Faelix quem faciunt, &c. was as good a Lesson as ever you learnt on the Fid­dle; and you know what follow'd, Friend, from my Fool-hardiness; I was forc'd to follow the Cart for it; and your fiddling Observators help'd to lead me such a Dance, that you would be loth to have such another to the same Tune.

You had a little hard measure, I must con­fess, Doctor, and I were a little too smart upon your misfortunes, when your Back-side sufficiently smart­ed; and when you were fast enough in the Pillory, I had so little Conscience as to toss you from Pillar to Post in my Papers; but I hope, since you have been so much Passive, and such a Gospeller, you have learnt somewhat of that Christian Temper, the do­ing Good for Evil.

Why, Friend Roger, I must tell you t [...] in Verbum Sacerdotis, if my Passiveness would do thee any Good, I could suffer whipping once more to Tyburn to see thee hang'd.

I must confess Dr. O. (for till now I could never call thee any thing but plain Titus), I have been twice very near hanging: You re­member when your old Friend Colledge had truss'd me up in his Picture; but you know Towzer broke the Rope, and left the Joyner to hang in his room: And I han't forgot when my old Master Noll was like to have spoil'd me for an Observator, but my Fiddle brought me off, like Arion with his Harp, and so I weather'd the Storm.

But there are some unlucky Sayings that may now spoil your Comfortable Expectations; The Third Time is commonly fatal too; and the Pitcher that comes oft from the Well, may be broke at last.

And so you think at last may my Neck too; but I hope better Times: However, I must tell you, Titus, after all my Service to the King and Government, and especially the Church of Eng­land, I am a little hardly us'd.

Hardly us'd, say you? Soft there, I pray, Hemp and Halter are hard things, I confess; but yet they may be easily born with, for the Good of the Publick, for the Administration of Justice, and the giving every man his due. But how comes the Church of England to be so much ob­lig'd [Page 4] to you? and the Church of Rome not at all?

Why truly, as I manag'd the matter, I writ for both Churches, accordingly as they paid me, but still that of Rome I reserv'd to reap the benefit of all that should be done or said for the good of a­ny other; by the Obligations of Honour and Gra­titude I was retain'd to that Party; for though a Counsel Learned in the Law, may allow himself to take Fees on both sides, yet he is bound in Consci­ence to plead most strongly for that side which has feed him most; and he that disciplin'd your Hide so to Tyburn, Titus, that Officer of the Law be­ing over-feed by the Adverse Party, did not spare you in the least for all your Guineys that you gave.

So that, if I apprehend you a-right, there is some Honesty even in playing the Knave; and that you had a constant Sallary for the Catholick Cause, and but some poor Collections from the Church of England.

Though you were once in my Opinion but a very bad Evidence, I see you are very good at guessing: But for all this, though I design'd to serve none but the Popish Party, I had that jilting Trick to pretend with them too now and then some Coyness, when I had a mind to screw up my Gal­lants to be more liberal.

Verily, Friend Roger, this looks like play­ing the Rogue, or picking their Pockets, and in­stead of serving your King's Interest, it was only cheating his Exchequer.

I car'd not for that, the most that could follow, was but being counted a Knave by both sides, or being call'd so behind my back; and that will break no Bones: And sure they'l have more manners than to call a Man of Worship so to his Face.

Why, this Worshipful Face of thine was never so graceful upon the Sign-Post in Fleet-street, in any Print-shop or Coffee-house, as when it looks through the Grates of Newgate: Nothing but a Gibbet can make it look with a better Grace.

Pray be not so severe, let us come to some Understanding; methinks that Place and the Kings-Bench should have some Correspondence.

I scorn your Words, Sir, We keep there better Company than such Observators; for that's only Latin for a Spy; and those, like the worst of Villains, have never any Quarter given them any where.

Come, come, bona verba precor; You don't know what Service I did you when you were swear­ing up your Popish Plot: As I told you above, when the Papists did not pay me well, I could leave them a little in the lurch. Don't you remember a shrew'd Book that would have baffled and burlesqu'd all [Page 6] your Evidence in the very Bud, call'd the Compen­dium?

I, I, some Popish Rascal, as well as your self, had a mind, as he thought, to run me down.

Hold there a little (but you are Scanda­lum Magnatum proof), it was lookt upon under the Rose, rather to come from some Popish Peer; a man of Parts, and seem'd to carry some weight with it; but I took care, for all he was a Lord, because he had not consulted me in composing it, or let it all alone to me and my Two Narratives; therefore, I say, I took care to get it suppress'd; besides, my pay was then behind, and my Pension not yet agreed on.

Yes, yes, Friend Roger, we know all that peice of Roguery of yours too: Can you think such an Evidence as I was, can be ignorant of your Shams and Devices; You inform'd against the Printer, got him prosecuted with the Bookseller, and had the confidence to tell them afterward in Confession, that it was only because they begun without your leave to ridicule the Popish Plot too soon; that you had better Materials for that work ready cut out; but some Encouragement was wanting, and then as soon as your mercinary Pen had compounded for its Pension, you fall a Dialoguing and Observatoring it away, with my Black Bills and Spanish Pilgrims, till you had spirited away (as you thought) all my Plot.

Prithee man, I believ'd more of that than you do imagine: But why may not a man run down what he has Reason to believe, and what he is really convinc'd of, when there is Ready Money going? Why, man, dost not thee think I believe the Apostles Creed? Yet I could have Observator'd that away for a good Sum of Gold?

But why so dear? when their Master himself was sold for Thirty Pieces of Silver?

All things were cheaper in those days, and a Judas might then better betray his God or Religion for those Thirty, than I can now for Five Hundred Broad Pieces; I could not have kept my Coach upon it: But by the way, Ti­tus, I must tell thee, he was more Fool than Villain, for beating down the Market, and do­ing such a desperate Jobb for so vile a Price; why that would have made me hang my self too with­out Repentance.

Gad ha' mercy, Trusty Roger! I see Re­ligion and the Observator shake hands indeed; but 'tis to take leave of one another: Thy Precept is not, Believe and be sav'd, but to Doubt, though thou art damn'd.

Why, indeed, I have that Dexterity in Writing, that I can make the World believe I am the only Great Grand-son to Thomas a Didymus: Besides Scepticism, even in Sacred Matters, is such a perfect Evidence in this Age, of a man's being [Page 8] an Extraordinary Wit, such a Specimen of his Gentile Breeding and Excellent Parts, that I might as well have walk'd abroad without my Sword, after I was Knighted, as to be servile­ly bound to believe my Senses.

Indeed that Honour was bestow'd in haste; but the Sun, you know, indifferently shines on Dunghills▪ Yet some are of Opinion that your Dubbing might have been better per­form'd at Windsor, where there are many ho­nester poor Knights made out of decay'd Old Gen­tlemen.

Fy, fy, This is not fair: I'le tell you no more of Salamanca: Come, come, You are a Do­ctor, and I a Knight.

Indeed you have done more Exercise for your Degree, than ever I did for mine▪ but that's no matter.

But do you not think, now af [...]er all, that I did very great Services to your late King, and pro­moted, with my Excellent Papers, very much his coming to the Crown?

Doubtless; and yet after all, some Honest Men are of Opinion, and ever thought thee not so much to write for thy King as for thy Self for Bread, or for those▪ Whores that would otherwise have brought thee to a morsel of it. Ketch could as well have boasted of his Loyalty, when he was so well paid for exercising my Hide, as the Observator for scourging the Dissenters only for his Sallary.

Oh! Oh! I see what you would be at; You would have had me acted like an Honest Man, without Interest and Design: Gad, I was so far from that, where-ever I met with any Copies that came from such hands as seem'd to have nothing but Honesty for their Ends, and such as I was sure had no quarterly payments with me and my Fellow-Labourer, Johnson; (I don't mean thy Fellow-Sufferer Julian, Titus, but his Namesake, and a Doctor of another Faculty): Why then, though they were never so Learned, or what we call'd Loyal; I first pickt out the finest Paragraphs, and prettiest Periods, and then put them into Observators, that were ready cut out for Contents: Taylors and Fiddlers, you know, are allow'd to be light finger'd, and then why not Observators too? Then I either kept the Papers [...]nd Writings, or else return'd them, after long keeping, as unseasonable; as I did by the Works of a worthy Divine, and some others: For Faith, I having gotten into my Hands the whole Monopoly of Observations, could no more suffer an Interloper, than the Gentlemen of the East-India Company; and I being Deputy-Go­vernour of all the Province call'd Scribble, there was not a Tory Song, or Loyal Ballad, could pass Muster without my leave.

Very likely: The poor Ballad singers had a very hard time of it, when their Wind­pipe must be stopt, and the Wretches starv'd, [Page 10] unless they would first spit in thy Mouth, or grease thy Fingers. I am inform'd, if it were a good selling Ballad, you alway went snacks for half. But how the Devil came the Irish Ballad out?

O Tempora! O Mores! The iniquity of the Times, Titus: This Liberty of Conscience brought in Liberty of the Press again; and you know I never was for any Liberty, but when I was in a Goal.

O! yes, Roger, for the Liberty of Scrib­ling, the Liberty of Evil-speaking, the Liberty of Lying and Slandering, the Liberty of Whoring, or any Christian Liberty, except Liberty of Consci­ence; and yet you would fain have been nib­bling at that Liberty too, in your Hocus Pocus Answer to the Letter to the Dissenter: and by this thy confounded piece of Nonsense and Contradicti­on, hast quite baffled all thy Works that ever went before.

I' Faith, now you have hit upon my Master-piece: There were all Parties concern'd in that matchless, unparallell'd, unimitable, incompre­hensible Piece, of Tergiversation, Calumniation, Equi­vocation, and Replication for Moderation.

Poo! this stuff is just of the same stamp with all that Nonsensical Answer: Was there ever a Fellow that would set up for a Wit in a Cof­fee-house, who did play the Fool so, as to write a Book that no body could tell what to make [Page 11] of it? Like the Painter of the Sign-Posts, that was forc'd to put to his Pictures, This is the Lyon, This is the Bear, lest they should be taken for Camels or Elephants: Why, hadst thou not put Answer in the Title Page, it might have past for a Vin­dication.

'Tis all one to me: Pox, I cou'd not answer it as it should be; but I was oblig'd to say some­what, Harry Care would have got away my Pen­sion else, for saying somewhat to the purpose, so I put upon my Masters the Papists, as Workmen do when they are hir'd by the Whole, make slight work of it; besides, I printed over the whole Let­ter (and that was as much as to say) let them an­swer it that can for me: and there I was on the Protestants side again before I was aware of it, for it spread the Letter all over the Kingdom, and was ten times better than my Licence.

This indeed is excellent, Roger; and Ro­guery all over; if thee canst but cheat the Devil too, thy work is done: that Old Serpent is said to be full of subtle Invention, and yet thy Distinguishing Faculty, thy playing Fast and Loose, could almost revenge Mankind, and Beguile Him; it is said, there never was but one word ever puzzel'd Him, and yet thy Answers, like his Oracles, are as full of Am­phibologies; thy Formal Quiddities, and Political Modalities are indeed such nonsensical Nullities, that, in my conscience, the Devil himself does not know what to make of them.

So they said once of thy Plot too, Titus; but Time will show what I have been.

The greatest Knave, I hope, that ever put Pen to Paper.

Fy, fy, that's too broad a word for a Knight.

No, no, it was the old English word for it, and you have mightily help't to restore it to its primitive signification.

I must confess, Titus (as thy Friend Tom. Hunt has it in the Characters he gives of thy Ex­cellencies) I have been a little Incurious in what some men call strict Honesty, and a little too Apert in my Prevarications; but I hope that is not presently down-right Knavery: I writ once a notable Piece against Popery, but that did not take with the Court; then out comes my Book of Toleration dis­cust, and there I think I tickl'd off the Presbyterians, and laid Liberty of Conscience, Scruple and Zeal, upon their backs as flat as a Flounder; but as the Devil would have it, presently after out comes King Charles his Indulgence, and then you know I was bound by my place to say somewhat for that too; but as bad luck would have it again, soon after the Parliament damn'd it, and then again my Cake was dough, so to work I went, and Tantivy'd away the Toleration I had tickl'd up and down be­fore. Then in came'st thee, Titus, soon after, with thy Discoveries, which at first I was for magnifying very much; for I had not receiv'd my Money, my [Page 13] Ready Rayno, for running it down; so hesitating some time for the Title of my next Book, (for you must know I have writ many a Book only for a Title sake, without considering the subject) then I say, doubting whether I should make thy Discovery, An Horrid Plot and Conspiracy of the Papists; or the History of Titus and Tale of a Tub, out came the Geldt Man (for we must have a little Dutch for these Times) and then I sell a Roguing of you, and you fell a Rascalling of me: But I think I spoil'd your Plot for you.

And I think, Roger, I made you run away for it too, as I remember.

But when I return'd again, you know best what work I made, I did you no small mischief in the management of your Demetrius; made your Silver-smith, Prance, pay you off in your own Coin; I manag'd his Retractation just as you had done his Evidence; and as great a Maker of Shrines as he was for Diana's Temple, I paid him off, I think, with the Brass Screws and Antipendiums. But then, you know, I soon sanctified him again, when I had brought the poor Penitent to Confession; and a lit­tle Pillory-penance, a better Expiation than you put upon Pickering's Bum. But I did him some good offices for the durance he underwent, and sav'd him from dancing the Courant you had led up but a little before, since he was so civil and good na­tur'd [Page 14] as to depose upon Oath to the Recantation I had ready, and make me famous for a Discoverer as well as Observator.

He could never make thee worse than thou wert before, Roger.

You interrupt me now, Sir, as if you had me at the Old Baily, and none to speak but the King's Evidence; I were giving you at large an History of the Observator, all famous Authors write their own Lives, you know. After I had thus Ob­servator'd away a Volume or two for the Papists, and made the Churchmen believe 'twas all for them­selves, I got my Briefs to go about among the Cler­gy for collecting their Eleemosynary Contributions; when I was thus farting full, like Virgil's Harpys, I fell a squirting upon the Tables that fed me: I came to my Modalities, my Court-Trimmers; from thence I advanc'd to my non Obstante, Dernier Resort, Last Appeal; and were before-hand with the Judges in my Suspending Power, Dispensing Power, Repealing Power; from my Richard against Baxter, I came to Roger against L— Str— from my Dissenters Say­ings, to my Answer to a Letter to Dissenters; from Toleration Discust, to my taking away Tests and Pe­nal Laws, till these Dutch Devils came and cast me into this Dungeon; but I see I must say somewhat for them too.

But it seems you have nothing to say for dealing thus Ungratefully with the Reverend the Clergy, that so charitably supplied your Necessi­ties.

No matter for that, I had gratified them before-hand, my Politicks helpt many of them to most excellent Notions in Divinity: You may talk of their Metropolitans and Diocesans, I Gad! I was always The Guide of the Inferiour Clergie, I taught them at first the fam'd Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance against Higher Powers, till the Reverend Gentlemen ran it up so high, that at last, Gadsookers, we could get no one to make any Resistance at all for the King: They went, I say, beyond the Copy I set them: Their Obedience was at last too Passive, and we could not get them to exercise a little Active Valour for their destruction, against those that came to preserve them.

Could any Confidence but Thine set up thus for a Dictator to such a Learned Body, and de­fame the most Eminent of the London-Clergy, by pretending to instruct them, only because some young Deacons would come to edifie at the deli­very of thy Oracles over a dish of Coffee; and yet you find after all your Knavery, you could infa­tuate but few of them to be such Fools, as to be­lieve all that was said in an Observator.

I foresaw that too, and so was before­hand with them; I found, for all their being post­ed for Papists in your Courantiers, Intelligences, Pac­kets, and the like, what would follow; I had a better Nose than your Cares and Curtises, and knew, when it came to pinch, they would shew them­selves the stoutest Opposers of Popery; and that it was to no purpose for me to think of wheadling them into down-right Converts: and therefore notwithstanding their kind Collections, I gave them now and then some sharp Touches; I told them plainly, I found even in my Church of England ma­ny Trimmers and Tekelites; That the Court was full of them, who crost my interest, and would have stopt my Pay; then I singl'd out some of them, and Observator'd them to the purpose; and, like a Deer that I had wounded, would not let them herd again with the Church.

Prithee with what countenance, but thy own, couldst thee offer, Roger, to abuse so many Per­sons of more Quality, Honesty, and Loyalty than thy self?

Why, Man? What dost thee talk of Quality and Loyalty? I neither spar'd the Loyal Par­liament it self, that kept your Late King out of Mon­mouth's Clutches; for thou knowest, Titus, they hung an Arse afterward, when it was come to Qua­lifie all Papists by an Act of Parliament; but you [Page 17] know I was for it, with my Brother Member and Amaneunsis, both you know of B—d H—d's making, and we were bound to do somewhat for our Benefa­ctor; but tho' I could not speak so much in the House, having not that gift of Tongues, I made it up the next day in Observators, and there you would be sure to have my Speeches and Answers of Parliament; insomuch, that, when a certain bold Gentleman (whom perhaps an ordinary Capacity may respect and esteem, as of a noble Family, an ingenuous Person and excellent Lawyer) did but venture to pass a little Reflection upon me in the House of Commons, I answer'd him the next day in my News-Book; and there I think I met with his Membership for all the Priviledge of Parlia­ment: but I had my revenge at last, for I never left him till from a Court-Trimmer, as he was, and for speaking against me, he was helpt from solliciting any more for the King▪

Thy Answers and Orations in Parliament, Roger, I perceive were all like that of Mr. Cha­loner's, which was call'd A Speech without Doors; but did it not deserve the Bar for abusing your Mem­bers out of door, for what they said in it?

Look you now! a man cannot talk of his Prowess, but you must be plucking down his Plumes with Bars and Imprisonments: I think they ought to have spew'd me out also; but I fear no [Page 18] Bar now but that of the Old Baily. Prithee let me go on with my Narrative of my self; by those two I gave you of your Plot, you may perceive I am as good at Narrative as you are: You see how I serv'd my Churchmen with a bit and a knock, that they hardly saw who hurted them; and you know how I had har'd the Dissenters, till I had almost hunted them into the Church, and when some grave and moderate Divines, by their Mediation, had brought them quite in, and many began to come to Common Prayer: This was like to make an Union among Protestants, and gain our Church of England many Proselytes and much Reputation.

But I dare swear you were for none of such Converts.

No, you may be sure of it: and so to work I went to spirit them out again: I laid my self up a whole week from greater Concerns, to prove, That for all they came to Confession, tho' they conform'd to all the Ceremony of the Litur­gie, Responces, Postures, and received the very Sacraments in the Form the Church requires, all this signified nothing, they long'd still for the Flesh-pots of Egypt; their hearts were not with us, and therefore must be against us. They Trimm'd only with God Almighty, and so I put this Hook into their Nostrils, and return'd them to the place [Page 19] from whence they came; I prosecuted them into the Church, and then persecuted them out again; that the Church might not be the better for them, nor they the better for the Church.

But I think You were once about shew­ing the Dissenters a scurvy Trick, and worse than all the rest; and that was about Sir Edmondbury's business, only some unlucky Circumstances would not let it hang together.

I saith, I had feagu'd them else; I had certainly made Him their Martyr indeed, that is, I mean, Martyr'd by them. My two Books would have bid fair for that too; for when my hand is in, I can prove any thing: but for some certain Reasons I found Felo de se, and the killing of him­self, to be the better way. He fell upon his Sword, 'tis certain, and that upon Primrose-Hill, I say: which I've made out so plain in my two Treatises, on that Subject, that you may as well disbelieve the Bible, or think Saul never fell so on Mount Gilboa.

But there was a plaguy Observation that a certain Chirurgeon made against this, which seems to have some weight with it: When persons do destroy themselves, fall voluntarily on their Swords; when they are thus run through, the Orifice in the Back from the bent and position of [Page 20] the body, must be higher than that before in the Breast; whereas the quite contrary appear'd here, and the Orifice behind, where the Sword came out, was lower than that before where the Sword went in. But besides, Mr. Observator, if violent pre­sumptions may take place, and, which a great Law­yer call'd a plain Proof, Mr. Sp—'s being pluck'd in at the same Water-gate only for resembling so much Sir Edm. and his hearing Hill bidding them to let him go, and that they had mistook the Man; this seems not so ridiculous a Connexion as an Ob­servator may be ready to make it.

All this I value not a rush: what is Spence to Godfrey? They are two different Names, they were two different persons, and perhaps the one is alive, and I am sure the other is dead.

But are not these a sort of Arguments which you use to call Trifling, and Ribaldry?

I, and so they are in any body but the Observator: pray have not I, that have the Li­censing of the Press, leave to call things as I please, and make them what I please too? There were indeed two or three plaguy Affidavits taken by Ju­stice Dolb—n about the business, of persons that saw this unfortunate Gentleman parlying with some certain Fellows the same night at the same Water­gate, when and where he was sworn to be de­stroyed; [Page 21] and whatever was the profligate Life of the Witness (whom you know I set forth with a Witness too) some credulous men may think Bedloe might be believed on his Death-bed, and his Testi­mony then taken by the Lord Chief Justice, and publisht under his own Hand; These (I say) are mighty Matters with men of ordinary Capacities; but what is all this to such a man of Wit and Parts as my self to confute? Why prithee, had they not been things Vnanswerable, it had been below my Pen to give an Answer to them. You know 'tis one of my old Maxims, That Nothing but Print can answer Print; so that if Judges take Affidavits and Tryals, and the like, and Print them; and the Parliament their Journals and Votes, and put them into Print; I say, My Print is as good as Their Print, and I make no more to put them all in an Observator, than I would a Spaniel Dog, or a stoln Horse in an Advertisement.

Yes, yes, I remember when it was come to that, that honest Gentlemen were posted up by your pestilent Papers, like so many Dogs and Horses; only a man might be Observator'd chea­per than They Gazetted: Even Porters and Carmen, instead of boxing it out, could threaten one another with an Observator.

Why, you know an Old Saying, Bet­ter play at small Game than fit out: And when I [Page 22] had drawn the General History of your Plot and Conspiracy quite dry; then I came to my Mi­nutes and Particulars; and every day my Mer­curies and Mirmidons brought me in a new Man, and more Matter.

THE OFFICE OF INTEL­LIGENCE for Lying and Slandering, should have been writ in Capitals over they very Door. How many honester men have been Carted by it to Tyburn, only for picking a Pocket, while you sate with Authority to rob People of their Reputation that was dearer than Life? But what think you now, Roger, of my Plot and Conspiracy you say you had drawn so to the Dreggs? I think it begins to work again, and ferment a little upon the Lees: My Consult at the White Horse Tavern, will appear now no Tale of a Tub.

Prithee Titus, don't tell me that; why I tap't it so low, you may remember, till it would run no longer.

But the Master of the House has broach'd a new Pipe not long since. What dost thee think, Roger, of the late Petition of the Vint­ner that drew then the Reverend Fathers their Wine, representing, To the Kings most Excellent Majesty, the great Service he had done him, in [Page 23] concealing and harbouring in his House the Je­suits, under all their Consultations, to the ha­zard of his Life, and loss of his Trade; desi­ring humbly some Consideration, or some Of­fice in the Custom-house; and this notable Petition order'd to be referr'd to some Persons you know, to consider of some Recompence for his Fide­lity—This Instrument; for we will not call it Evidence, lest you should make it Perjury, may be produc'd as occasion shall serve.

Fie, this is not fair; now you come in with new matter, when I can write no longer: You know the Late Rules of Court, There was never to be any more speaking after the King's Council had summ'd up what they had to say, though it was to save a man's Life. But you may talk of introducing Popery by Plots and Secret Consults; I had a better way than all that: I undertook to perswade the King to make it a Case of Conscience, to promote his Religion, and declare openly, we must all be of it; for this purpose, you know, I spent several Observators upon the Theologo-political Casuistical Thesis and O­pinion, That every Supream Magistrate and Prince was bound in Conscience to answer to God for the Religion of all his Subjects, and make them to conform to that which he thought best.

But what if the Turk, by the help of the Most Christian, had over-run all Christendom, and not met with that unlucky Rub at Vienna: Must he not have been bound in Conscience too, to have made us all Mahometans?

No matter for that: My Reasons will be Reasons still; and all the Sayings of the Observa­tor are like some Propositions in the Schools, Aeternae Veritatis, and that in spight of Turk, Jew, Pope or An­tichrist.

I think by this time we have had a fine and fair History of thy Life and Conversa­tion; and (but that I don't care for the word) I could call it a Compendium of the Observator, or call it Compendium, or Antipendium, or what you will; or what is more usual with us Evi­dence, A Narrative: In my Conscience 'tis all a true Story. But we King's Witnesses are better acquainted with the Nature of Testimony than some Justices that take it: You have told us the Truth, and nothing but the Truth; but you have not told us the Whole Truth: After all thy pump­ing for Evidence, to Dogg that unhappy Gentle­man out of his Reputation, after he had been so barbarously Dogg'd out of his Life; after thy Two Books for the making Sir Edmondbury but a Felo de se, didst thee never say or think thy [Page 25] self, Roger, that he was made away by Pa­pists?

Whatever I thought, I am sure I had more Wit than to say so.

Then once more upon my Verbum Sa­cerdotis; or what is more solemn, upon my re­assuming my Priesthood, and redintegrating my self again into my Canonical Habit, which you would have divested me of, in spight of my In­delible Character; By this good Delivery I have found, and by that Goal-Delivery thee dost fear, I can prove this upon thee, and all that has been here offer'd, as plain as Coleman's Letters, from thy Words and from thy Works, to thy Face at Noon-day (since you say, I cannot remember Faces so well by Candle-Light): I have some of thy Writings to shew for it, besides a Letter under thy scrawling Hand, to a Gentleman in the City, desiring him to lend you some assistance in discovering this Barbarous Murder, which, say you, I am satisfy'd was committed by some zealous and bloo­dy Papists.

Oddssookers! Hold thy Tongue; thou wilt spoil else Two of the best Books I ever put out for the Government.

But do not the Brothers and Relations [Page 26] of that miserable Gentleman you have so defam'd for the worst of Felons, a Murderer of himself, stand bound by the Ties of Blood, to pursue thee for thus Tainting of Theirs, as well as ar­raigning all the Justice of the Nation, the Pro­ceedings of Parliament that were upon it, the Solemn and Judicial Process, Judgments and Ex­ecutions that follow'd in the Inferior Courts of Ju­dicature.

I can hold now no longer in good Lan­guage; I see, Titus, thou art still the same mali­cious, lying, swearing Villain, and wouldst hang me, if thou couldst.

I am as good at that sort of Language as you are; and now no more Sir Knight, but, Sirrah, you are a Rascal, and I shall live to see thee hang'd without my swearing: ‘And when all Honest Men are rid of such a Knave, Then thus I'le write thy Epitaph, and piss upon thy Grave.’