A LETTER from a Friend, TO A Person of Quality: In Answer to A Letter from a Person of Quality, To his Friend; about Abhorrers and Addressers.  
My Lord,  
FOR that's the Style I shall presume to treat the Unknown[ Person of Quality] in, to whom This Letter is addressed.  
Yours of the 24th. past, in Answer to mine of Jan. 6, I have had the honour to receive: wherein you are pleased to Espouse the Association, and Ignoramus Juries, as if they were your own Project, and your own Creatures; Not troubling your head about the Foolish Scruples that I begged your Advice upon; To wit,[ The fear of losing the Reputation of a Loyal Subject, and a Good Son of the Church;] Those Two Points being manifestly the least part of your Noble Care throughout the whole Paper.  
Your Lordship Professes[ Plainness and Freedom in your Reply;— without Flattery:] and you Acquit yourself to Admiration; for the English Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy were never made so many Drunken Sotts, Brainless Coxcombes, Rascals, and Hypocrites, in such a way of Openness and Liberty, and under so little Caution of Ceremony and Respect, as in this Plain, Free Letter of your Lordship's. And all,[ according to the Rule of the Apostle,] you say,[ Let Every man speak Truth to his Neighbour:] which wants onely the overdoing of Another Text[ Not using your Liberty for a Cloak of Maliciousness.]  
That which follows looks like a slip of your Lordship's Pen: when in saying that[ your Gentlemen of Quality and Estate GENERALLY go These High-ways,] you aclowledge the Majority of men of Value, and Condition to be Against you: And yet( under favour) in your Fourth Column, you make[ The Wisest, Wealthiest, and men of Best Repute in the City of London] to be on the other side; For which pference, many, More, Eminent Citizens than Those there in Question, will Con your Lordship little thank. And then the Expression of These High( you mean, These Arbitrary) Ways, sounds a little Harsh, in the Case of Protesting against Downright Treason, as if it were a less Crime to Associate in a Conspiracy to Depose the King, than to join in a resolution to Defend him.  
Your Lordship proceeds, after This, to a Distribution of These men of Quality; First,[ Into Secret, or Church-Papists] at which rate, without Proving, or Disproving, your Honour may make even as many Papists as you please. But it is to be Noted, that onely our secret Republicans have had the luck to discover These same Secret Papists.  
Your Second Division, my Lord, is into those that[ Gape after Honours and Court-Preferments,] which is a reproach of the same Latitude with the Other: But it is much better yet, to serve the Government upon a Prospect of Interest or Hope of Reward,( which is the very worst of the Case) than upon a Pique, for a Disgrace or Disappointment, to break out into Transports of Malice and Revenge against it; Of which we have had many Instances, to which your Lordship cannot be altogether a Stranger.  
Your Third sort, My Lord, is of[ Those that Enslave themselves, for the Saving or Gaining of an Office or Commission in their Country,] which at the most comes but to This, That some would honestly maintain the Power and Interest that they have got, while Others are at work, by Treacherous and Unlawfull means to Recover the Usurped Power that they have lost.  
Your Lordship is now pleased to Conclude with Those that are[ Corrupted by a Vile and Sordid Education under the Clergy] which relishes rather of the Soul of an Agitatour than of a Peer; for here are Two Thirds of the Three Estates struck off and blasted already, and there wants but One step more to bring all to a Level; And That Point comes on now in course.  
You tell the world, my Lord, that[ The Yeoman and Plain Country-man hath kept his Senses, when the greatest part of the Nobility and Gentry have lost theirs.] The Good Gentleman at the Old-Baily, on the Night of Triumph, and The Little Querpo Levite, when they waved their Hats and cried, Shout, Shout Boys, to the Rabble, could have done no more Themselves than this comes to: But for a Person of Quality to set up clotted Shoes for the Oracles of Law and Government, turn the Nobility and Gentry to School in Bedlam, and Reprobate the very Religion of the Church of England, as well as the Church-men, all in a breath; is to outdoe the worst of men, and of Times; to Introduce New Articles of Faith, and of State; and, in Effect, an Appeal from the Privy-Council to the Bear-Garden. What, with Submission, could a Massianello or a Wat tiler have said more? Wherefore be pleased, my Lord, to recall your Terrible Sentence upon( the[ Generality,] &c. which are no less than) the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons assembled in Parliament, and allow them to be men that go Soberly and Temperately about their business.  
[ Are there any so Blind( you say) as not to see how our Church-men repent their Departing from Rome, and Long to be there again?] Your Lordship must have better Eyes than your Neighbours to discover this; but it is a Notion Calculated for those that see nothing at all; and a kind of St. Anthony's Fire that's enough to Infect the whole Mass of the Nation with Schismatical Scabs and Tetters.  
Your Lordship's Zeal, in the next place, for the Protestant Religion, must not be forgotten.[ What shall we do for our Sister that hath no Breasts?]( Whitlock's Memor. P. 671.) Nor your Notable remark, that[ without University-Learning none can imagine how it should be preserved under a Popish Prince, that chooses Popish Bishops, and under a King that favours That Popish Choice.]  
As for University-Learning, it may do much, 'tis True, toward the maintaining of a Paradox; but the Sophistry of a Close Committee is able to put Cambridge and Oxford in a bag, and Prove the best Reformed Church upon the face of the Earth to be Flat Popery. Happy are they, my Lord, that have been brought up at the feet of these Gamaliels: But Popery must down at last, under what shape soever; and then there's no more to be done, but whatsoever your Lordship has a mind to put down, to call it Popery. And, at any rate, Delenda est Carthago.  
Your Lordship's following Quaere is a very Bitter one.( but under a mistaken Character)[ Consider how long the Dissolute and Drunken Part of our Nobility and Gentry will hold out as Confessors for the Protestant Church of England?] Some Grains of Abatement, Good my Lord, for the weaknesses of Flesh and Blood: Or however, Cast in Treason, Sacrilege, Perjury, murder, Oppression into the other Scale. Set the Translation of l'Escole des Filles, against a Glass to the Best in Christendom; A Bottle Extraordinary to the Confusion of his Royal Highness, against Another to his Health; And in half a word, The practise of all martials bawdry, against the Crime of Understanding it. Upon this whole matter, My Lord, you will need no expositor.  
Your Lordship is now pleased to Reflect upon[ the Steadiness of These Worthy Gentlemen:( for MEN WORTHY I presume) He that's Steady to what's Uppermost, is as Steady, in One Respect, as He that stands firm to his Honour, and his Duty, is Steady in Another: And your Lordship's Letter shows you too much a Statesman, not to make This persuasion an Article of your Creed.  
You do well, my Lord, to drive the Nail of Popery home to the head; and thereupon you say, That[ A Popish Prince need but to order his Lords Lieutenants and Sheriffs to furnish Military Juries, that shall believe Irish Evidence, to Hang any man he has a mind to that was too busy in the Protestant Cause; Especially if the Lord Lieutenant take a governor out of the University.] Your Lordship, under Correction, has made another False step here; In discovering, that Your Protestants are against Our Universities; And that your main Battery strikes upon the Chief Supporters, and Administrators of the Government; but yet setting the Contemplation of Juries, that may, Possibly, Hang at Pleasure; against Other True Protestant Juries that do Certainly save at Pleasure; your Lordship might put into your Eye what you have gotten by This Supposition, and see never the worse: For we are not now to Learn, that your Amsterdam, Queen's-Arms, and Nagg's-Head Juries, will do Wonders.  
Your Lordship perhaps would have spared the Irish Evidence, but for want of a Friend at your Elbow to mind you who they were that first brought them over; what instance was used for a Pardon for a man of Quality without a Name; and a Blank Warrant for an Unknown Person of Undoubted Credit, to Prove the Plot: And This man of Credit found, at last, upon further Information, to have had a hand in a matter of Fifty or Sixty murders.  
I shall say little, My Lord, to your severe Animadversion upon the Addressers, in the next Clause, onely I wish you had not charged His Majesty with Abandoning his People in their greatest Distresses, in the same Period.[ The Judge that brought up the Address from Hereford, falls next in your way. 'Tis Baron Gregory that you speak of; And I shall onely Refer your Honour to Colonel Birch for his Justification. Mr. Saunders also lies under the Lash for Acting contrary to Law; but it is not said contrary to What Law.  
Your Lordship speaks of[ the Association, as a man of Straw, set up to Fight against; And of Addresses going round the Nation to Oppose it.] First: The Proof, where it was found, clears it to be no Imposture in the Finders of it. Secondly, The setting up of a New Scheme of Government is a Great deal more, under favour, than the setting up a man of Straw; according to your Lordship's Pleasant Allusion. And thirdly, as to going round with the Addresses, What can be more Reasonable than to Encounter an Oath of Conspiracy with a Band of allegiance? But[ This is to persuade the People( I Find) that there's a Protestant Plot:] And( by your Lordship's leave) The Other is to Cast a Mist before their Eyes, that they should not Discern the Rebellious Association to be a fanatical One. There's a Scandal also upon[ the Proceedings published by Authority] but nothing said either where, or what. It is urged farther that[ neither the Judges nor the Jury could think the E. of Sh. Guilty.] The Judges speak for themselves, in their Charge: And Guilty, or Not Guilty, was not the Question before the Grand Jury. As to the said Earl's being a Statesman, his Lordship has in all Times, and by all People, been Reputed One; And I have Nothing to Oppose, either to his Lordship's Abilities or Innocence; but yet the Criminating of Witnesses, does not at all Evince the Integrity of the Person accused; for it many times falls out, that Men of Honour could speak to the same Purposes if they would: but there are Certain Tendernesses, in the Confidence of Hospitality, and Conversation, that men will not depart from, but upon Terms of the Greatest Necessity.  
The Calumnies of the next Paragraph,[ upon Mr. Gwin's Forcing my Lord's House; and his, and Mr. Blathwait's Refusing my Lord, and his Agents, a List of the Papers they took] are Exposed over and over already, and Every Step of the proceeding made out beyond contradiction.  
A Good part of what remains, is, an Expostulatory Invective against Mr. Saunders; And onely a Ventilation of Popular Amusements, without Citing any Authority, or laying any Foundation[ shall a Grand-Jury find a Bill upon the Oath of Villains that swear Improbabilities?] Give me leave now to put it the Other way: Shall a Grand-Jury refuse to Find a Bill, upon those Circumstances, when, if That Improbability should prove a Truth, the King's Life is lost by't? And yet again, My Lord, It seems to be a Plausible Question, put afterward, to Mr. Saunders.[ How far this Association, taking the Matter of it, and the Finding of it in my Lord's Study, for Granted, can be Imputable to the Earl of Shaftsbury?] It is utterly Impossible, My Lord, to Answer This Question; because the Grand-Jury stisted the Presentment, before it could be known, whether it would Affect my Lord, or not.  
Your Lordship does kindly however in taking notice that Mr. Saunders is to be Recorded in the Paper-Office, and lodged among the Heroes of the Age; as Sequestrators, Decimators, Committee-men; Mr. Baxter's Saints; Noble Peers, and True Protestants without Number, that stand registered there among the MEN WORTHY.  
I am now coming, My Lord, to the Close of your Letter; where you say[ If you have patience but a while; The Wicked that thus Prosper; their place shall know them no more.] I do most humbly beg your Lordship's Interpretation of this Passage, whether it be intended as a Denunciation, a Prediction, or A Friendly Caution; And whether this Great work is to be done by Fire and Brimstone, a Massacre, or a Rebellion?   

Printed for J. Tonson at the Judge's-head in Chancery-lane near Fleetstreet. 1682.