A Brief ANSWER TO Mr. L'Estrange HIS APPEAL.  
EVERY body that carries his eyes in his head, and hath but an ordinary reason and understanding, may see through this fine spun Appeal of Mr. L'Estrange; it is plain enough, That having rendered himself obnoxious not only to particular persons and parties of a Nation, but to the Government, and the Peace and quiet thereof, by his wicked and malicious Pen, he would, now, fearing to be called to Justice for the same, endeavour by this his last Appeal, to palliate his Crimes and hide his Knavery, with this Cloak of seeming Honesty. But at the same time, for all his Justification in Words, he takes a wiser course, in slipping out of the way to avoid Justice, and flies from those very persons to whom he Appeals, the King and the 3 Estates. As this very Act shows him not so very Innocent as he would make the World believe, or that he little confides in the Justice and Integrity of those to whom he had Appealed, so it might sufficiently serve for Answer of his Appeal to all the World. However, since the Gentleman has been ever very free of his Pen, and meddling where it little became him, he may expect that some who have as little to do as himself, will also find time to return answer to his Scribbling, and in a far better cause, endeavour to unblind the eyes of the people, which may be easily done, and in a very few words, in a case so plain and easy: For truly Mr. L'. E. uses nothing but Sophistry, and tho' he believes he writes well himself, every body else is not of that Opinion, but considering the Badness of his Cause, we may give him allowance. In this his Appeal, this Gentleman thinks, or at least would have others believe, that he had Justified himself by showing you sufficient proofs of his Loyalty and Innocency, brought out of his own Printed Writings, and that way hopes he has stopped the mouths of all his gainsayers, and rendered himself Innocent and clear of all those Accusations laid against him; But should we grant all those proofs he has brought out of his Printed Pamphlets, to be true in Terminis, it is not for any of his good Deeds or good Words that he is accused, but for the many wicked and scurrilous, and indeed most horrid and pernicious Abuses, he has put upon most part of the Nation, and truly on all that love not to see their Nation enslaved, nor the Protestant Religion subverted: It is now plain enough of what Party and Faction he has been, and for what end he has made all this stir and pother with his Writings; hoping to blind the eyes of the people, and under the colour of a Protestant, set Protestants together by the ears, to advance Popery.  
It shall not be my work at present, to make Roger sight with L'Estrange, and to turn over all his impertinent Scribbles, to show you how contradictory the whole scope of his writings are to those shreds and parcels he has picked out to Justify himself withal. I have something else to do, and it would swell this beyond the bulk of a Pamphlet, which I intent not; but let any one impartially read over his books, and they will find enough, to oppose against what he hath wrote in his Appeal, in his own Justification, when the whole bias, and stream runs contrary: And all those six particular charges, which he has observed in his 2d page of his Appeal, very sufficiently made good against him from his own words; and would, had he stayed, have found Witnesses Viuâ voce that would have said more.  
But we will descend from Generals to Particulars, and briefly as may be, consider the several parts of his Appeal, which he has cast into 5 Heads, the 1st. is the subject matter of his Libelers as he calls 'em: The 2d. to vindicate himself therefrom: The 3d. the Rancour of the Libelers: The 4th. to show their Designs and Practices upon the Government; and lastly, how much it concerns the State to protect him the assertor of their Laws, Rights and Privileges.  
This man knowing for whom he had undertaken, believed he had a public Cause in hand, and like another Coleman, priding himself in his parts, believes himself a Statesman, and one already advanced to the Helm of Government, he has linked the Security, Honour and Justice of the Government, with his particular quarrels, intrigues and wicked abuses, and made his very Apology a public Duty. Alas! that it should so much concern the King and the 3 Estates, to take notice of this man, and of his Appeal, and that he should vanish in a Mist, that when they would grasp this honour and support of the Cause, they can find nothing but Air! But notwithstanding the Vanity and Ostentation of this man, there is no body that can see the Honour, Justice and Security of the Nation, with what Circumstances soever his Case is complicated, to be at all concerned in any of his Pamphlets, and much less in his Appeal. This is but a taste of the Vanity this selfconceited Statesman, and Machiavellian Politician would have shown us, if once the Wheel had come about, and his Lord of the Faction, come to be head of the Kingdom.  
But to our business, the matter of his Charge, which he has himself very well drawn up into 6 heads. 1. The ridiculing the Plot. 2. Countenancing the Sham-Plot. 3. Discrediting the King's Witnesses. 4. In abusing the Nation under the Names of Cit and Bumpkin. 5. In misrepresenting the late Petitions and their Promoters as Scandalous and Seditious. 6. In embroiling the Kingdom by his Writings. This is the Charge that he finds is fixed on him, and which he very slenderly acquits himself of, by bringing some seeming proofs out of his own Writings to the contrary: But his Enemies, and such as he has made to be justly so, have more to charge him with than this, though this be enough, and more than he can ever clearly wipe off: But as I am none of his Accusers, I shall not say any more as to that point, how far he has rendered himself obnoxious to Justice, but only consider a little, how far he has made himself Innocent, and how cleverly he has wiped his mouth, and looks demurely and full of Loyalty, after he has rendered himself odious to a Nation, by his Calumnies and Abuses.  
In the first place, he brings you, as he calls them, the undeniable Evidences of his own Papers, which testify his Opinion of the Plot; and here he would have you to believe, That he could not turn the Plot into ridicule, because he believed it, a very fine way of arguing, Mr. L'Estrange cannot be a dishonest man, because I know him. I would be loath to stretch this point too far against him, and rather think, for all his proofs, that he did not believe the Plot, and that he laughed at it, as many other fools do, because they are blind, and led away by the Nose by Jesuitical cunning, and so think there is no such thing. We know, that none knows better that there has been a Plot, and an horrid Plot and Conspiracy against the King's Life and Government, than the Jesuits and several of the Papists, and yet who I pray is there that more laughs at a Plot than they? Who more hard to believe any such thing? Who more ready to turn it into ridicule? to Lampoon it, and to write against it? Therefore this can be no Argument that you could not ridicule the Plot, because you have owned it; and indeed it hath been too manifestly made evident that this Plot was no fiction, and since you had undertaken its History, you must of necessity own the matter of Fact; and you could do no less than justify your proceedings thereon. Yet in the very entrance of your Narrative you are so full of it, that you cannot forbear jeering at the Narratives of the Plot, which were set forth for the Satisfaction of the People. Yet there you say, Those Authors should hang a Table at their Doors, and say, Here you may have a very good Narrative for threepences, a groat or sixpence a piece, or higher if you please, for we have 'em of all sorts and sizes: The only danger is of popping upon us Cat and Dog's flesh for Venison, for take 'em one with another at the Common rate of Narratives, there's hardly one in five will pass Muster. Then by and by we have Narratives of things Visible and Invisible, Possible and Impossible, one of Fact, and another of Imagination; so, by and by, he plays again with the word PLOT. Plots of Interest, Plots of Passion, Plots to undermine Governments, Plots to support them, Plots simple, and Counterplots, Plots Jesuitical, Plots Phanatic. and such like stuff. And then pag. 4. he plays upon Dr. Oats, and as one says, serenades him, but as he says himself, improving his Plot, and raising a Superstructure out of his own words, of a Schismatical Plot, and this pag. 21. he calls the transmigration of Conspiracy. It would be too tedious to trace him in his own Steps throughout, neither have I all his Pamphlets by me, as not thinking them worth the keeping, that I might quote the particular pages, for enough of his Ridicule might be gathered together, and in his Cit. and Bumpkin, p. 11. his Cit. says, If we were but once at the bottom of this Plot, which Bumpkin is a most hideous one, and wanted matter for another. Then he cunningly gibes at the belief of it, by showing many ridiculous and impossible things imposed on the people on purpose by Cit And pag. 12. a fourth fancies two Plots. Now all this, and a great deal more in the sense of a great many, seems a Laughing and Jeering at the Plot, and did lessen the esteem of it in many people that were too credulous of what Mr. L'Estrange writes. But it is not enough to laugh at it, and to jest and jibe with it, but the drift of the latter part of his Narrative is to lessen this Plot, by representing to you the several false belief of it, concerning powel's being Trepanned on Shipboard, and of the Arms found at Sir Henry Tuchburns, of bedingfield's being dead, and yet alive; The Conspiracy of the Apprentices; The Stories of the Booksellers; and the miscarriages of some forward Magistrates. To what did all this tend, in the understanding of any Judicious and Loyal person, but to the lessening the Plot? or putting it wholly on the Presbyterians, whilst a suspicion is so fiercely raised of their dangerousness to the State, and of their cunning and malicious Inventions, that the Plot might be forgot, or be lessened in the esteem of the People. And this Truth, a few Quotations of Mr. L'Estranges of his belief of the Plot, will never blot out, nor will all honest men be so blind, as not to see he hath sufficiently, nay too too much (for one that pretends to so much Loyalty) laughed at the Plot, and turned it into ridicule.  
In the second place, as to shamming the Plot, this is a new invented word, and asks explaining, but if I am not mistaken, it signifies belying or discrediting the Plot, or making it a blind only to some other Plot in hand, viz. that of the Presbyterians, which he has been always so careful to remind the World of, even as he says himself, p. 6. ever since 61, and here he quotes what he then said, and I think has as good as said nothing, for everybody that knows him is sufficiently convinced of his dear love to those people; but still to be harping on the same String, and especially at this time, when it was so palpably known, as he himself confesses, that there was a most horrid and damnable Popish Plot, to murder the King, and to subvert the whole Protestant Religion, when all parties of the Reformed Church were concerned, than I say, to reap up the old glean, and evil miscarriages of the Rump of Presbyterians, concatinated with some few other Sectaries, and others of desperate Principles and Fortunes, and at this time to put them upon the whole body of Dissenters, who have hitherto showed themselves Loyal in all respects, and hate and abhor those Principles he would fling upon them, and with so much earnestness, with great labour and pains almost in every Pamphlet, represent these persons doing and acting the same things over again, to stir up Jealousies in the King, and to make them odious to the people, and this to be as he calls it, pag. 2. the Superfoetation of another Plot. Now let the World judge how far this Gentleman agrees with that most horrid Design of the Jesuits and Papistical party, of framing a Sham-Plot, in which Mrs. Celliers was so stirring an Agent, and putting it upon the Presbyterians, by which means they would have cut off the chief and most Loyal of the Nation, by telling the World, and endeavouring to make the World believe, that these persons whom he calls dissenters, are framing a Plot, and have a Plot in hand to ruin the King and the Bishops, and to set up themselves and a Common Wealth in their stead. If this be not shamming the Plot, as he calls it, I know not what is, for unless his Papers had been found in the very bottom of Mrs. Celliers Meal tub, they could not have been more like those, so evenly are they yoked, and draw both one way, to make the King and Kingdom believe it was the Presbyterians, not the Papists, that were in hand of a desperate Plot, and therefore he says, pag. 5. he is convinced there are several Sham-Plots Contrived and Started, where there is no colour or pretence at all, for a blind to the advancing of a Fanatical Design, and as he is convinced, so he endeavours to convince others, but what these Sham-Plots are, unless those of his and the Jesuits framing, we are yet Ignorant of.  
As to the third charge of endeavouring to discredit the King's Witnesses, Mr. L'Estrange has again brought his own Quotations, every one of which, rather makes good the Charge, than any way excuses it, for all the World cannot but see that those Civilities as he calls 'em, and Compliments to Dr. Oats, are down right Jeers and Scoffs, and have been ever taken so, by every one that has read or heard them, and yet this Gentleman has the confidence to bring them as proofs of his Innocency and Civility to Dr. Oats, and would have all the World put out their eyes, and not see the true force and meaning of those words, but according to his false glosses. And for what reason is he an Enemy to Dr. Oats, but because he is one of the King's Witnesses? and one of his Chief Witnesses? and by discrediting his person, and making him ridiculous, or of small esteem with the people, that he may that way lessen the esteem of the Plot? pag. 7. They are wonderful things which the Doctor has done already, and am persuaded he is yet reserved for more wonderful things to come, when Truth shall deliver herself from the Rubbish of Oppression and Slander, and in despite of Envy and Imposture, render his Name as famous to Posterity, as his Virtue has made it to the present Generation. And this he says he writes with little less than the Genius of a Prophet. This may be true, though not as he intended, and may be a Prophecy, tho' he to himself may be a false Prophet. But this though palpably a Jeer, he calls a Panegyric, and that you may take notice of his meaning, and as if there were Emphasis, or something more than ordinary in the words, Wonderful, things to come, Truth, Oppression, Slander, Envy, Imposture, Name, Posterity and Virtue, they are all put in a different Character, that you might observe the force of his most ingenious Compliment, that like Janus looks two ways at once. The rest of his Quotations are much after the same Nature, and how gladly he traces the Doctor, as he calls it, in making it plain that the Jesuits and the Schismatics in the late Rebellion, went hand in hand in Dethroning and Murdering our late Sovereign. Who was it but you that found out the Conspiracy itself? and then the Conspirators, & c? thus would he also fix it on Dr. Oats, to be an Author of Accusing the Presbyterians to have a Plot in hand, because he had said that the Jesuits formerly, in the shapes and disguises of Presbyterians and other Sectaries, were a great means of promoting and of fomenting the late Rebellion, therefore mark his Conclusions by Dr. Oats, his own Testimony, they are so still; this is to do honour to the Dr. as he calls it, yea more than ever any did him, except the person that first called him the Saviour of the Nation.  
The fourth Charge, that he abuses the Nation under the Names of Cit and Bumpkin. And here Mr. L'Estrange takes the pains to quote his own Characters of them, that they represent a couple of Rascals, and not Lords, Citizens or Commons, etc. but I suppose the disgust was not so much at the Names of Cit and Bumpkin, as at the matter Cit and Bumpkin discoursed of, and how far that Book has disgusted and offended the sober and good people, hath been already manifested by the several Answers has been wrote to it, though Mr. L'Estrange will tell you that all was to no purpose. Yet all that read his Dialogues both first and second part of them, will confess that he has not only been severe upon the Presbyterians, but has abused almost all that are not like himself, driving on a faction, though of the Church of England, and no dissenters, except from the Romish Church. He would persuade the World that he wrote those Dialogues of Cit and Bumpkin, in Answer to the virulent Appeal, which gave a direct encouragement to a Rebellion, but to help it forward, he takes a course to irritate the Presbyterians, by making them worse than the Papists, and favourers of the Appellants Principles. And after he has sufficiently abused the Citizens, by his Rascally and Fanatical Cit, he now in his Appeal seeks to cajole them. But what a business he makes, what words and distinctions he flies to, what Inferences he draws, and what a Grammarian he shows himself in 2 or 3 whole pages to salve his Cits Discourse of the Parliament! and when all is done, the Cloud of Dust he has raised, will not put out the people's eyes from seeing his good intentions therein: Then he thought the sitting of the Parliament a great way off, but now he would mince his Discourse; then was then, and now is now, it speaks too plain, his Conceptions of the Parliaments not being for his purpose. But there has been enough spoken of this already.  
As to the fifth particular, that he has scandalously represented the late Petitioners and the Promoters of them, he would evade also by his own self Quotations. He grants Petitioning Lawful, if the thing be simply good Petitioned for. If so, surely the calling of a Parliament to ease the Burdens of the People, to rectify errors in Government, and to bring offenders to Justice, is simply good in itself, and therefore Lawful; and yet he tells you it belongs not to the multitude to interpose in matters of State, that is, in plain English, for the People to Petition their Sovereign to call a Parliament, to ease their grievances, so that he grants, what in effect in the very next words he denies. By no means, he will not hear of the people's Petitioning, it is of dangerous Consequence, and he tells in many particulars, in the late times. They began with Petitioning against Evil Counsellors and Grievances, then Petioned for the Militia, the King's Towns and Forts, till they brought the King to the Block. And after this manner they procoeded now again, p. 18. what think you, is not this man an Abhorrer of Petitioning? and is not this a rendering the Petitioners, and Petitions also scandalous and odious? Then he tells us of several undue courses and practices, used in former times, therefore he says, he has good Authority for apprehending the danger of Popular Petitions. Goodman, because some have been choked with eating Plumbs, none must ever eat them hereafter. If the abuse of any thing must make the lawful use of any thing suspected or avoided, we must forsake our meat and our drink, and our Garments. Men must by no means intermeddle with that they have no skill in; that is, Petitioning for a Parliament? what has the People to do with that? it is the King's business and Prerogative; Why may not 20000 Plow-Jobbers as well Subscribe a Petition to the Lord Mayor of London, for the calling of a Common Council? p. 17. a very good Conclusion, because it is out of the Sphere of these Blow Jobbers to Petition the Lord Mayor for what they have nothing to do with, therefore the People of England have no business to Petition the K●ng for the calling of a Parliament to ease their burdens and to rectify their Grievances. But though it be the King's undoubted Prerogative, to call and dissolve Parliaments, we may now say, since the Votes of this Honourable House now sitting, has given us new boldness, that notwithstanding the assertions and Opinions of these Abhorrers, that it is the undoubted Right of the People of England, humbly to Petition their Sovereign, when Grieved, for the calling of a Parliament, and to redress their Grievances. But Mr. L'Estrange doth not abuse the late Petitioners by no means; have a care of that, he abuses no body, though he gives them never so vile terms, and renders them odious and ridiculous. Cit says, p. 2. speaking of Subscriptions, There was hardly a Register about the Town that escaped us for Names, Bedlam, Bridewell, all the Parish Books, nay the very Goals and Hospitals, we had our Agents at all public meetings, Courts, Church, Change, and all the Schools up and down, Masters underwit for their Children and Servants, Women for their Husbands in the West Indies, nay we prevailed upon some Parsons to engage for their whole Congregation? we took in Jack Straw, Wat Tyler, and the whole Legend of Poor Robin's Saints into our List of Petitioners, and some Names served us for 4 or 5 several places. And then Bumpkin replies; and you shall see how now that we were put to our shifts in the Country, as well as you in the City, I was employed, you must know to get Names at 4 shillings an hundred, and I had all my real subscriptions written at such a distance one from another, that I could easily clap in a name or two, betwixt them, and then I got as many Schoolboys as I could to underwrite after the same manner, and after this I filled up all those spaces with Names, that I either remembered or invented myself, or could get out of 2 or 3 Christening Books. There are a World you know of Smiths, brown's, Clarks, Walkers, Woods, so that I furnished my Catalogue with a matter of 50 a piece of these Surnames, which I Christened myself. And besides we had all the Nonconformist Ministers in the Country for us, and they brought in a power of Hands. Thus the Gentleman plays with the Petitions, and shows his abhorrency of Petitioning, seeking to deter the People from using their modest Rights in Petitioning their Sovereign. But now, if all, or most of these scurrilous things, which he has made Cit and Bumpkin say, be false; and falsely applied to, and fixed upon the late Petitioners, is not this man Guilty of scandalously misrepresenting the late Petitioners, and the Promoters of the late Petitions? let all the World judge.  
To the last of his Charge he says, That he is extremely out of his Measures, to be still Creating misunderstandings in the very Act of endeavouring either to rectify or prevent them. And to be endangering the Peace of the Kingdom, in the design of preserving it. No doubt but Mr. L'Estrange is the unhappy man, if those were his measures, as to be utterly mistaken in them, for I know not what could have created a greater misunderstanding, or more tended to the embroiling of the Nation: Not in asserting the Law and Government against all Opposers, as he would make you believe, but in ridiculing the Plot, abusing the King's Evidence, writing against Petitioning, railing against the Presbyterians, and raking in all the old Dunghills. Not by laying open the Malice of many bold Libels against his Majesty's Person, Authority and Government, but by railing against every body that gives an Answer to his Scurrilous Pamphlets, and by abusing all that he believes not of his way and Faction: not by maintaining the Apostolical Order and Constitution of the Church against Schism, but in rendering the whole body of Dissenters odious, factious and seditious. Not by maintaining the Powers and Privileges of the State, against all Principles of Sedition, but by making his Cits and Bumpkins to blow about the Coals of Sedition. Not by inculcating Reverence and Obedience to Superiors, but by abusing, scoffing at, and terrifying Inferiors. Not by recommending the Blessings and Duties of Unity, but by widening the breaches, and making greater the gap of Dissension. These are the things that have created ill blood, and have tended to the embroiling the Kingdom, but whether defignedly, or whether he mistook his measures, I shall not say.  
The next thing he passes to, is to give you a scurrilous Description of the Quality of his Libelers as he calls them; for all those who write in Answer to his idle and abusive Pamphlets, he calls so. And here he is Satyrical and abusive, and the things touching particular persons, I shall leave him; for whether the things he charges them with, be true or false, it shows his railing disposition and foul mouth, nothing becoming the Gentility and breeding he would pretend to. But yet I cannot but take notice of his extreme Pride and Vanity, in thinking and ranking himself as a State and Church Martyr, and his justly suffering for his abusive Pen, he calls suffering with the King and with the Church, and for their sakes also. The Jesuits say as much, and it is a vanity inherent to such Martyrs. But it now appears, that the Representatives of the whole Kingdom, have no such Opinion of the Service he has done, either to King or Church, but rather to the contrary, by his many abuses put upon the people in his Pamphlets, has much disserted either. He says it is the part of the Devil himself to blacken and defame, and after he has thus said Grace, falls to with open mouth, and blackens and defames all he can, with the spleen and rancour of a Cynic: especially one little Creature as he calls him, which little Creature indeed has been a Goad in his side, and has pricked the Bull so hard, as has made him bellow full loudly. But he is not only Splenetic at Mr. Care, for writing smartly against him, but has also put Mr. Curtis in several of his Pamphlets, among the Libelers, for exercising his Trade of Publishing Printed Books and Pamphlets. He is so very dogged a Cynic, that he will let no body live in Peace, that he thinks loves not him, or believes not well of his railing. The very acquaintance of any that writes against him, is enough to make him a Libeler, and there are several to my own knowledge that hardly spoke of him, that he has abused because Friends or Relations to those who have answered some of his Scurrilities. But he is no ways genteel Satyrical, but a down right abuser and scoffer, without Salt or Wit, and where he cannot charge 'em with any thing of Crime or dishonesty, rather than be wanting to his own Malice, he will seek for natural defects; which also if he cannot find, he will Create, and rather than want matter for his Buffoonery, will play with the Visage of a man, and render it like a Wizard, an Ape or a Monkey, or any thing that will render the person ridiculous. An old Jesuitical trick, who upon the Reformation in England, and the establishing of the Protestant Religion, made the Common People of Spain believe that all the English were turned into M●nsters, and were all metamorphised into strange Creatures, with Ass' heads, and Monkeys tails, so that when our late Sovereign arrived there with all his Train, they were not a little amazed to find handsome men instead of Monsters, as the Jesuits had sworn them all to be. Just so does this Satirical Wit play upon the Visages and postures of several persons, rendering them almost as disguised as his own, but this is pitiful and mean. However they have since thought it good, par pari refer, and to Answer his Skeldri, as he had made others Owls and Monkeys, so have they changed him into the Cur Towzer.  
As for his particular malice to Dr. Oates, that plainly appears to be the business of the party, who set him on, who thrust this silly scratching Cats foot of his into the fire, to pull out the Nut, that is to abuse him, and to render him ridiculous, and to endeavour to make him in little esteem with the People, that his Evidence might be slighted, or else he, certainly would never have so publicly scofled at a person that has merited so much of all good men, and all Protestants in this Kingdom, in first discovering this most Horrid Popish Plot. Now to use his own words; Is not the World come to a fine pass now, when such a Fellow as this, shall hold the Balance of Empires? That shall be the Pillar to support the Crown and Mitre? that shall charge the whole Body of Presbyterians with Fanaticism and Rebellion? That makes sport with that Tool the Plot? as the Buffoon calls it: and to canton out all people that write against him, or the Plot to be Libelers, Fools, Egyptian Locusts, and what not?  
But as to his Reasons of his Libelers Rancour against him, first, he says, That they say he began with them; But that I suppose is not the true ground of the Quarrel, they endeavoured to take up the Cudgels against him, seeing him lay about him so furiously, that he might not sight with his own shadow, and like an overgrown Colossus of Wit, terrify an whole Nation, as if none durst Cope with him. But the chief and true ground was indeed to undeceive the People, and to let them see this Papist in disguise, and as he says himself for harping so unseasonably on that one String of 41, without any ground at all, and this he terms their Rancour. This he would evade by his old way if you will believe him (he'll make you think the Moon is made of green Cheese) for he tells you the weighty reasons of all his frivolous, scurrilous and scandalous scribbling, which were either to defend himself, or to unmask the fallacy of imposing on the people: (that is, that you might believe him and no body else) or to lay open the Arts by which the City of London was formerly betrayed to Slavery and Faction (that is, to have most of them thought Rascals) or for the undeceiving the credulous people, that had been misled unhappily by the accursed Libel called the Appeal, and therefore he wrote his Cit. and Bumpkin, which grossly abuses both City and Country; Glorious ends, and as well acquitted. As for Dr. Oats, he has but improved his Discoveries, and helped his Evidence towards the rooting out all the Priests and Jesuits out of the Land: that is, by destroying Presbytery, and all the disguised Romish Priests and Papists amongst them, that the Protestants Masqueders may throw off their Visard's, and appear bare faced.  
He still proceeds to tell you his good intent and meaning, in putting forth his many Pamphlets, nay and the good they have effected, by making some Converts, and satisfying and confirming others, if you will believe him. It is very hard, that he should do those things by those very means which has offended most of the Nation, especially the more sober and moderate sort, and rendered himself of being suspected no true Son of the Church, nor faithful Servant of the King, but all the while serving another Interest. He says, p. 24. he has lived long enough in the World to understand in some measure both Men and Books, and that popular passions are moved by popular Discourses, as the Waves of the Sea by the power of the Winds. It is the first Office of Political Pamphlets in all case of design upon any eminent alteration of the State to possess the people with false Notions, etc. Now may not we suppose that Mr. L'Estrange well knowing these Maxims, has followed them (or at least seems so in the eyes of many) and now, when so great a design of the alteration of the Government was in hand, which is the PLOT, has most fairly and opportunely taken the time of troubling and muddying the waters with the silth of 41, nothing but all the Miscarriages of the Schismatics and Sectaries must be now laid open afresh, to beget disgusts and murmurings and jealousies of one part against another, and instead of closing up the breach, as a good man ought to have done, and of calling to Unity, he nothing but roars out 41, 41, in every paper, whilst the Jesuitical Design in the mean time is working the ruin of 3 Kingdoms, Divide & Impera, set them together by the ears, and we shall do the work; but yet do it under the notion of serving the King and Kingdom by all means. The Gentleman is angry at the liberty of the Press, I cannot blame him, but 'tis hoped whatever restraint should be put thereon by Authority, that it shall never fall under Mr. L'estranges' hand to be a Licenser, for than 'twill be very hard to get any thing Licenced that should be wrote against the Papists, but should be stifled, as he had served several when he had power; Writing against the Plot, he calls writing against the Government: and writing against him, he calls writing against Superiors and Magistrates: writing against Papists, is an undutiful and intemperate practice against the public peace, to the extreme hazard and dishonour of the State. And yet this is the Doctor who professes in his Papers, Antidotes against all Pestilent and Poisonous Infusions, The State Quack, who purges the Nation of its errors. The Hocus Pocus that resolves all its riddles and expounds their meaning. The zealot for the Church, and one who has Dedicated Soul, Body, Fortune, Interests to the Service of his Prince and Country.  
He next proceeds to discover the Designs and Practices on the public Peace, by the spreading Scandalous and dangerous Libels, a great many of which he quotes, and we agree with him, that such pernicious Libelers do much mischief in a State, but as they have always been, and ever will be as Vermin in a State, so they are liable to the Laws and answerable to them, let such be punished, but let not all that write against Mr. L'Estrange be thrust among these pack of Libelers; nor let it be in the power of Mr. L'Estrange to be the only Judge of what is sit to be Printed, and what not.  
In the last place he troubles himself to little purpose, how far in Honour and Justice a Prince or State ought to countenance and protect the Assertors of their Rights or Privileges; we grant 'tis much to their Honour and great Justice to do it, but yet we will not say, Therefore Mr. L'Estrange ought to be countenanced or rewarded, as such an Assertor of the Rights or Privileges of the King and Kingdom. I shall leave him with his Politics, and draw to a Conclusion, which is, That I have wrote this very brief Answer to Mr. L'Estrange's plausible Appeal, without any thing of rancour or malice, or particular Spleen against the man, but to show the World that all is not Gold that glisters, and that Mr. L'Estrange is not the Loyal Person he pretends to, nor a State Martyr, but one that suffers, (in the Opinion of most,) justly for his own folly.  
FINIS.   

London, Printed for T. Davis, 1680.