A Second Letter TO THE AUTHOR OF THE PREPARATION FOR Martyrdom; And of the calm Answer to my Bitter Invective,( as he falsely calls it.)  
Psal. 101. ver. 3. I hate the sins of unfaithfulness, there shall no such cleave unto me.  
Rom. 16. 17 18. Now I beseech you brethren, mark those which cause Divisions and Offences, contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them.  
For they that are such, serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simplo.  
Tit. 1. 10. 11. and 13 ver. compared. There are many unruly vain talkers and deceivers, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole Houses, teaching things which they ought not.  
Wherefore rebuk them sharply, that they may be sound in the Faith.  
Printed for Tho. Brampstone, 1682.   

A Second Letter to the Author of the Preparation for Martyrdom.  
SIR,  
IT had been more for your Credit and Advantage every way, I think, quietly to have yielded and submitted, than to have made this feeble struggle; all you are like to gain by it, will be to fall more conspicuously in this Conflict, with the greater solemnity and less pity. You have unhappily espoused an ill and long since baffled Cause; all your strength therefore( though never so great) cannot defend it. A little David, a Man of mean abilities, as I humbly confess myself to be, compared with the Learned Men of our Church, is big enough for the greatest goliath, the tallest Champion of those Philistines, the adversaries of our Israel, the disturbers of our Peace upon so great disadvantage.  
I reasonably expected you would have returned an answer to the particulars of my Letter, or said nothing to it; but since you declined it, at least for this time, and have instead of that, impertinently entertained us with a Circumquàque of a representation both of yourself and Book( how true, let the Reader hereafter judge.) And since you charge me with palpable falsehood in my manner of exposing so ill a Book ( Quasi in hunc quicquam gravius dici queat.) I am forced now by this small Paper, to acquit my self of so great a scandal, and 'twill haply be the worse for you that you have put me upon such a necessity.  
I am ill at leisure( I confess) at this time espeially, who have other Fish enough( I thank God) to fry, yet I will spare an hour or two for my own just vindication in the sight of all, who am( I am confident) abundantly justified already by all hearty lovers of the Truth, and of our church and Establishment, who have had the opportunity to compare our little Books together.  
And here( Sir,) before I go any further, I do protest unto you in all sincerity, that I do not bear any the least malice to your Person, nor do I envy your fortune, but only as a true Son of the best and most primitive Church in the World, whose Doctrine, Discipline, and Worship are truly catholic, and Apostolical; I have always( as occasions were offered) defended her as well as I could,( though to my loss in some respects) and will by the Grace of God persist so to do, to the utmost of my small power, and not willingly, nor contentedly suffer her to be run down, or supplanted by Men of ingratitude and disobedience.  
In the First place then, With what face can you call my Letter a bitter Invective, when as your Book, that mine encounters, is a most virulent Libel against the Government? What reason is there then that we should writ all in oil, when as you writ in Vinegar and gull; we for it, and your against it? Sure you are the Men whom the Psalmist speaks of, Your Tongues are your own, you only therefore ought to speak, and all others must keep silence before you. What would you have us do, when you come upon us with open mouth, belching out( debauched Cavaliers, profane Rabble) and a great deal more of the like stuff; must we meet you with Hat in hand, and your Humble Servant in our Mouth, with the additional Ceremony of a low Congee? You bite so damnably hard, that you must not blame us, if we have found out instruments to break your hold, Umbone pepellitur umbo,& Cuspide Cuspis; Would you have us then come forth against such Assailants with Brooms in our hands to answer your Halberts? besides, Who began? Were not you the first aggressor? How pertinently therefore you adorned the Title page. of your calm Answer, with that of the Great Apostle, Render not evil for evil, nor railing for railing, in favour of your own Cause; I appeal to every indifferent person. If it were true indeed, that my Letter had something of raillery in it,( which no honest Man that I know, ever yet charged it with) it was upon a just provocation, it was to answer you in your kind( as you speak) but you railed at us without any provocation at all, or temptation, unless it were your malice to our Church, or an ambition to gratify her enemies.  
Whether you designed that Yea or No by your First Book, that of Martyrdom; I will not be positive, but I know what I think as to that; but this I am well assured of, that they are very much obliged by it, as appears by that ferment of Rage that boils over at their Mouths, against any one that presumes to touch it without reverence.  
Upon this whole matter then, he that reads both our Papers, and compares 'em together, if he be not hudded with prejudice, or suborned with a strange degree of pre-possession, must needs confess that mine may well pass for a panegyric, compared with your Virulent Invective, and that levelled against three parts of four of the Kingdom, in value at least.  
Indeed you put yourself in sometimes, We this, and We that, and all as black as a Coal, or the infides of those attorneys you speak of, Pag. 2. By which the smoke of the Dissenters Zeal against our English Littleismes has its vent. Sir, you can best give an account of yourself, you best know your own Heart and Life; but why so many must bear you company in so horrid guilt, I understand not the reason; but you were well assured before-hand, that the Brethren would take you to be quiter another Man, for all that your seemingly profound Humility, and the lavish Confession of yourself.  
The next thing you are angry with, is my saying, That the Title of your Book ( viz.) A preparation for Martyrdom) breathed little less( at that time especially when you published that Book) than down-right Sedition. When as you say, your real intention thereby was to prevent it; but how far that can be made out, will appear anon from the Contents of your said Book, and the slender defence you make.  
To justify your Title therefore, and the design of your Book, you insist upon a Vote of Parliament, that there was a Popish Plot, and upon the Kings Proclamation for a Fast thereupon.  Die Martis. 25 Martii, 1679. 
REsolved ( Nemine contradicente) that there was a Popish Plot. Who doubts of it? And we may add, Resolved also by two Thirds of the Nation, that there was about the same time the superfetation of another Plot. But Sir,( if we be not all extremely mistaken) your Book came forth two Years after this. But to clear this Business; for great weight is laid upon it. The Parliament, the last but two, and the long Parliament likewise( or I am much deceived) Voted that there was a Popish Plot: we none of us offer to deny it, and so there has been all along, no doubt, since the Reformation. A Fast was therefore appointed, to implore the Divine Aid against their restless Malice. But the Plot however was at that time discovered, several of the Plotters Executed; and the Popish Lords, those great Artificers of the intended Mischief, fast up in the Tower, and are there still, for ought I know, and so the strength of it, for that time at least, was broken: Where was the greatness of the Danger for the present then? But, Sir, after this, after this Parliament that thus Voted, was dismissed, and another, and another after that were Called, and both in a little time( you know for what reason) Dissolved, and the latter of 'em almost before it had a being; Then the Tongues and Pens of the Faction were busy at work to gain the People into a belief, that Popery was the Design, and that like a Torrent, it was now a coming( the Banks of a Parliament which should have kept it off being now taken away) very fiercely upon them, and that now the Forty thousand black Bills before prophesied of, would be about their Heads, and the Romish Knives were even at their Throats. Now for you, or any Man, at such a time as this, to thrust a Book into the World, under the title of a Preparation for Martyrdom, made it look as bad at least as I have represented it, and was and ever will be so reputed by all indifferent Persons, who have not sacrificed their Reasons to their Passions.  
If you designed( as you say) thereby to prevent Sedition, why did you not give your Book a Name accommodate to that end? Why did you not call it an Antidote against Sedition, or the like? But alas! you know very well, that the subject Matter of your Book would not bear it, unless it were by a Figure, called Antiphrasis, which puts one contrary for another; and you might as well have written, this is a Lamb, to the Portraiture of a Lion. But to call it a Preparation for Martyrdom, at that time you wrote, a time of so much Distrust and jealousy, was in effect a Preparation for Rebellion; unless you can imagine, that the People of this Nation, of the Faction particularly, would tamely give their Throats for the Cutting, without any resistance, but you know they have been otherwise instructed by their Teachers, and particularly by yourself, page. 18. of your Martyrdom, where you say, That every one is warranted to oppose Popish Usurpation unto Death; perhaps you will endeavour to come off here with some subtle Comment upon the Text.  
I took so much notice of the Title of your Book, because the Title of a Book many times is of pernicious influence; many that have neither Opportunity, nor Wit, nor Leisure perhaps, to peruse a Book so as to understand it thoroughly, may yet understand the proper meaning of two or three Words on the Title page., staring there in Capital Letters, and do many times, doubtless, make very fearful Conclusions thence; as without question, and to my own knowledge, many did from that Title of yours. Alack, would they say, that good Man has shew'd us our danger, Ipse dixit, 'tis so therefore certainly. Nay Neighbour, he has writ a Book to prepare us for Martyrdom; 'tis come to this therefore, we must shortly either Die, or fight for our Religion: But before a Papist shall Kill me, Neighbour, mark what I say, I will fight Blood up to the Ears; he that has my Life shall pay for it. And thus they animate one another, till half the Country is on tiptoe for War and Desolation.  
The next thing you complain of, is, That I have perverted the Genuine sense of your Words. Now to clear myself of this Aspersion, I know not what better course to take, then to amass and heap together, some of the worst passages in your Book of Mart. that so the Reader of this, may uno intuitu, at once see them, and wonder at you. And here, Inopem me Copia— they are so many and so rank, I know not where to choose, and I am even afraid, God is my Witness, and that in pure respect to you, to name some of them; but in my defence, you have forced me to it.  
And, First, You represent all the King's Friends and Followers, in the late sad Times, as a sort of Persons abandoned to all manner of Wickedness: As plainly appears by those many opprobrious Characters, and very hard Names you bestow on that Party, without any Exception or Limitation, as page. 4. The overspreading profaneness of the Royalists, and yet you would make us Fools, and believe what you say page. 4. of your calm Answer at the bottom, that The Nobility and Gentry on the King's part, are not comprehended within this black Charge. What will you make of the word Overspreading, when there is nothing before or after it, to restrain its utmost Latitude of Sense? This is to daub with untempered mortar. And now Reader, Crimine ab uno disce omnia, Thou mayst judge of the whole Lion, by this one Paw. And what reason this Man has, to charge me with perverting the plain Sense of his words, when no Man living that reads these words, will or can( unless it be himself, now that he is ashamed of them) put any other sense upon 'em, then that I have done.  
But here in the next place, his candour to the Enemies of these profane Royalists: He uncharitably thought, that they had made Religion, or a profession of Godliness( to keep his own words) an Artifice to drive on Rebellious designs: This is spoken of the generality of the Rebels, without any scruple at all, they were in no fault, good Men, no Hypocrites at least; I was one indeed, says he, uncharitable and wicked as to think so, but God forgive me for it. And as to some few of 'em, which were the Ringleaders, or as he says, the great Artificers of our Troubles, it was only probable, not certain, not demonstrable that they did so, Ibid.  
page. 6. These Royalists are called Debauched Cavaliers. page. 7. Paophane Rabble, and page. 6. again, An Army of Achans, or Thieves, and that by very good Authority: But if you will talk of Perverting, here it is with a witness. For that which the Pious Doctor intended for the Cure of some bad Men among them, ( viz.) These Cavaliers, is by this other Doctor, applied as an argument to enforce the former assertion of the overspreading Profaneness of the Royal Party.— Well, the Bishop is obliged to you.  
And was it so then, and is it not so now? Say you page. 7. in a great measure, The profaneness then of the Royalists was universal before, even to the whole length of the Measure,( for Sir, Exceptio facit Regulam in non exceptis) but now it falls Two or Three inches short of the whole length. Then, as now( page. 7.) not only the whole Laity of that party, but some great Churchmen,( Bishops I suppose you mean) and perhaps among these the Arch-Bishop Laud( because no great friend to Puritans) and others of lower rates, were not only profane themselves, but persecuted those as puritans, who were serious and orderly in their Conversation; And this you call a general prevailing of the Spirit of Profaneness among the Cavaliers in the beginning of the same paragraph, Pag. 7. And now is not this a heavy Charge upon those great Chuch-men in those days, that they did discountenance all serious Holiness, and reckon upon, and reproach Men as Fanaticks, only because they were not profane? And is it not so in a great measure, says he, at this day? He thinks so no doubt, nay, he speaks it out; for a little lower in the same page. 7. he speaks of many loose persons of the Clergy, as well as of the Laity among us; and that the Palladium they strive to secure, is profaneness. But now Sir, in your Second Paper, you seem to retract this Censure upon the ( Many) of the Clergy, and to make some little satisfaction, and any thing shall serve for me: I have a mind only to show you your error, not to do you any harm; we do none of us( I think) wish one hair of your Head to perish, only we would set that strait in point of judgement.  
How unluckily( Sir) did you let fall that word, many loose Clergy ( Many)? Now let but the charity of a Dissenter sit in judgement upon this, and then let the whole Body of the Clergy be divided into Five parts, and Four of 'em I dare say, will be crowded into this ( Many). But now Sir, page. 5. of your Calm Answer, you are pleased to confess, that we have a more Pious and Learned Clergy, than any Christian Church in the World can show; Geneva itself then not excepted. God be praised for it.  
page. 8. of your Mart. You speak of Holy, Meek, and Humble Papists. And page. 4. Of your Calm Answer, of Loyal, Humble, and conscientious Non-Cons; but scarce one tolerable word for either Royalists or Conformists throughout your whole Book, which has given so much offence, and which makes us apt to believe, that you are quiter gone from us; or indeed that you never were cordially of us. But Sir, if any of those Dissenters be so good Men, you should have mentioned 'm, under some other formality than that of Non-Cons, for as such I still think 'em unrighteous Persons, and not over Loyal, Humble, or Conscientious neither.  
As to that shrewd reflection we thought you made upon( All) the Abby-Land, and Impropriation-Men. I am glad if here you have found any hole to creep out at; but not one Reader of Five hundred, I dare say, took you in that limited sense, in which you say you ought to be understood; For why should the word ( Such) there refer to Achans and Hobbists in another Paragraph, and not rather to the Men who hold abbey-lands and Impropriations, directly pointed at in the same Paragraph; where that word ( Such) is twice found. But still Sir, we are where we were before; the poor Cavalier Abbots and Tything-men( whose defence I have espoused) have no benefit at all by this restriction; they were all debauched, Rabble, Achans, before, and these Achans and Profanists you still own were in your meaning; and so any of these having their Estates chiefly in abbey-lands and Impropriations will compound: but I am even afraid for you, as much as to put the question who they must Compound with, the King or the Duke, the Pope or the D— I: and for what, why their Estates; but their Title you say is good, page. 5. of your Calm Answer: What need they fear any thing then but a Popish Successor? Ay! there it is, yet you say, page. 7. of your Calm Answer, that you did not in your First Book as much as make the least insinuation, not so much as one Syllable of any jealousy of His Majesties Royal Successor. Thus you stalk on forward, and neither see nor consider the Precipice before you; but you will do honestly as well as wisely, not to meddle with such matters that are so much too high for you.  
page. 30. of your Book, the Sons of the Church,( for such are all those who maintain and express a zeal for the Law of the Land, and the Constitutions of the Church, for all your gibing( forsooth) to it.) vicious Persecutors, and drunken and debauched Dammees, are all of a Tribe, according to this Gentlemans reckoning. And now Reader, I hope you have had enough of this stuff, this may pass for Billingsgate rhetoric only; but what's behind is of a more dangerous nature, and a higher Charge therefore, as an error in judgement about weighty matters, defended and made public, is far worse than an error in Life( though I will excuse for neither) the one is only Personal and Transient; the other is more Lasting and Diffusive; and many times( as I said) leading to the witchcraft of Rebellion, the ruin of Kingdoms and States, and the destruction of myriad of Souls. And First, Sir,  
You make Conformity but a thing indifferent, neither Circumcision nor Uncircumcision, neither Conformity nor Nonconformity availeth any thing, but the new Creature, but to live well; but how can we be good Men, unless we be good Subjects, how can God have his due? that is to say, an uniform obedience from us, unless Caesar or the King have his due, whom God Commands us to obey in all his just and lawful Commands? and Sir, you are the First Divine I ever heard of, that made that paraphrase upon those words ( viz.) Neither Circumcision, &c. I may indeed say, you comply, &c. page. 21. And for the same reason therefore, if that be all, you may choose; nor do you mend it in your Second Paper: for page. 4. of that you say only, That you assert the lawfulness of Conformity; now if by ( Lawfulness) you mean only that it is not sinful, then this Lawfulness will amount to no more than your former ( I may) and then the Government is still out of doors; but if you mean by ( Lawfulness) that it is by Law required, and that no Subject can without sin refuse to comform, I once more beg you will speak that word out.  
Secondly, page. 11. At the bottom you involve our Church in the grievous guilt of Schism, and indeed all the Christian Churches in the World, there being none of 'em but impose in Rituals as well as we, and justly require and exact a Religious observation of 'em from their several Members. For after you laid down, that Baptism, and Repentance towards God, and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, were the only necessary terms of Communion with any Christian Church( though I heard you once say,) that you took Seneca to be one of us, and yet I never heard he was baptized; one should have thought therefore, that Baptism might have been left out of those necessary qualifications for Church-Communion. And Socrates, page. 13. You reckon not only a Saint, but a Martyr of God; with all my heart. After I say you had said that, you go on and affirm, That if any Society of Christians shall impale themselves by mutual Compacts, or by setting up other new and unnecessary terms of Communion; any thing above or beyond those three necessary Qualifications, Baptism, Faith, and Repentance, that Church( you say) is Schismatical; now does not all the World know, that the Church of England does impose beyond this? nor can any Man, for instance, legally receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, but upon his knees, and therefore by imimmediate consequence, the Church of England is by you declared Schismatical. You are fond of your new Positions and Theorems, but you consider not the mischievous consequences they do unavoidably led to. Nay page. 12. At the end of the First Paragraph, you in a manner conclude the whole Kingdom, in Schism; The Church, her Governours at least, for imposing in these unnecessary things; and the Dissenters( there I join with you) for not complying; but you add what you might well have left out,( provided they may do it without Sin) and that surely they may do, since they have no Command from God to the contrary; nor can Conscience therefore for the same reason put in any Plea for any such exemption, since the Law of God is to Guide and Govern that: So that here is once more Athanasius contra mundum,& Mundus contra Athanasium: Athanasius against the World, and the World against Athanasius; all out of the way but his serious self. You pretend( Sir) all along, that Peace and Union among Christian Brethren, is the thing you so much desire, and the way you take to agree 'em about their several claims, is dispaling, neither thine nor mine, but to lay all common; and this you call in the next Paragraph, Latitude of Conscience, and seem very much to magnify it, and to rejoice in it; but Sir, this Latitudinarian Principle, this forlorn Charity, is the very bane of the Church; and it is plain, that it has lost more grond, and more Members from her Body by a few Months Toleration, than she will recover again perhaps in many years. And our Christian Liberty, of which you make mention in this same Paragraph, is a Liberty from Sin only( now the yoke of the Mosaical pedagogy is taken away) and there being no Sin in Conformity, as I have in my other Paper sufficiently( I think) made out, our Christian Liberty cannot thereby be infringed, or in the least invaded, but by standing out Conformity, it manifestly is.  
page. 22. You tell us, that to Command indisputably, is the Master vein of Popery, and is not our Church then Popish I pray? if what you here lay down be true, does she not Commend indisputably in things in their own nature indifferent, and that most justly? this you call page. 21. at the bottom, the Authority( forsooth) of the Church, Commanding, which is an Usurping upon the Prerogative of God himself, to whom alone( you say) it belongs to Command indisputable Obedience. Sir, had this stuff been sent us from Kidderminster, or Dr own, it might have past well enough: we expect no better from such; but for you a Minister in our Church, a Man of such Authority with the Multitude, for you, I say, to publish such Doctrines as these, is perhaps one of the greatest Wonders that ever his Grace the D. of M. saw, or heard of. But, Sir, to put an end to this, if you and I did live within the Pale of the Romish Church, within the circled of her Jurisdiction, and should break Communion with her only for imposing of different things, we could not escape the guilt of Schism; these things are left to the Church's discretion, and they are schismatics that refuse to obey her in them.  
The Learned distinguish of Four things, which make a Separation from any Church lawful. 1. intolerable Persecution. 2. heresy in the body Ecclesiastical. 3. Idolatry. And 4. When the Church is the Seat of Antichrist. Now let our Separatists but prove the Church of England guilty of any of these, and then may they by the same Arguments, prove their Separation to be Lawful, and for some weighty Cause.  
And here we may observe also, that Schism is twofold, Negative, or Positive. Negative, that is, when a Man leaves the Church and her Communion quietly, without stir, or opposition. 2. Positive, When a Man not only leaves the Church, but also sets up another Church, or Assembly, in opposition to it, one Altar against another; this is Schism by way of Eminency. That Man therefore that comes to our Church duly, and there behaves himself decently and orderly, though he do dislike some thing, or things in our Worship, yet if he keep such his dislike to himself, he is to me neither Dissenter nor Presbyterian. I am cordially affectioned to all such; but for Men to Rail at, and Condemn that which in their practise they own, is vile hypocrisy; and for others peevishly to forsake our Congregations, and not only so, but also to set up other Altars against ours, to publish their dislikes, to argue against that Government they ought to submit to, a holy Violence must be offered to such; and 'tis but reason and charity to their Souls, that they should be compelled out of the Hedges, and the Conventicles, that God's House may be filled, and his Table well furnished with Guests.  
And as you do interpretatively charge the Church with Schism and Popery, so the Government, with most Impious, Tyranny, in Commanding contrary to the Law of God, and punishing for not obeying such Mandates. I do not deny but that you do page. 10. reckon a Man's fearing God and the King, and not meddling with them that are given to change, one warranted cause of Martyrdom: This looks well, and as an instance of your Loyalty and Obedience to Authority; but what you give with one hand, you quickly take away with the other. For page. 12. at the bottom, you say, If you Suffer for exercising the true Worship of God, either singly as Daniel, or socially, with other devout Persons fearing God,( as the Primitive Christians) did daily and weekly, not forsaking the Assembling themselves together, Heb. 10.25. and all this in considerable Numbers( for so you explain yourself in the next Paragraph) you suffer for Righteousness sake; For God( you say) is God, and will be Worshipped whether Man will allow it or no. Now I challenge any Man to show me any where, any thing that pleads more fully for the Conventicles then this does; here's not only the lawfulness, but necessity of 'em asserted. But our Author does not consider, that there is a great deal of difference between a Church in its Infancy, and at full Stature, between a Church in Constituting, and a Church Constituted, between a Church in profound Peace, and under Persecution, in a Heathen state, and in Nations where the Princes are Christians, and Nursing Fathers of the Church, and Defenders of the Faith, whose Right it was all along adjudged, by the common Suffrages of the Church-Governors, or Bishops, to prescribe general Rules for administration of Church-Government, and the Circumstantials of Worship; nor was any thing thought authentic in this kind, or Practicable, till Ratified by the Civil supreme Magistrate. Nay, our Author to make sure work here, the poor Informers are supposed by him, page. 31. to be vicious Persecutors: And thus he is not afraid to fly in the face of an Act of Parliament, thereby to keep up a Lecture, or a Conventicle. Well, but he has something yet like a salue this, in the next Paragraph, page. 13. at the top: The Civil Governor, he says, for all this, may require Security from these that thus Meet daily, and in considerable Numbers, that they shall not Complot the disturbance of the public Peace. But how senseless and unpracticable is this,( if there were now Law forbidding them) the King must require Security from the Conventiclers, when as no Man can certainly tell who they are that do so meet, or when or where they do it. Thus, Sir, you run desperate Points, and then you would feign fetch yourself off again; you break the Heads of Church and State, and then speedily prepare your plasters. But the mischief is, they are too short and narrow to cover the Wounds, your Salvo's are too weak to kill the poison your Doctrines carry in' em.  
And now I appeal to all Persons of unprejudiced Minds, whether you had any reason to say, I dealt hardly with you in my first Paper, since I purposely forbore, and that in pure respect to you, particularly to take notice of these so very dangerous Passages in your Book; and now if these Four particulars put together, will not make that Scouring Dose, you so impatiently wait for, I know not what will: If these things were irresistibly charged upon me, as they are upon you, and I were in your Circumstances, I think it would go near bringing a Dysentery upon me. And, Sir, without any more ado, if you do not seasonably prevent it, by giving the Church some tolerable satisfaction concerning these things, you may look for another Dose from another Quarter, administered by those, which yet( God be thanked) have a Power over you. If you were cordially for the King and the Bishops, you would be more tender of the Laws, both Civil and Ecclesiastical; and he that by Speaking or Writing, undermines the Government of either of these, does at the same time prove to the World, that he is antimonarchical, and Anti-Episcopal too.  
If you have so few Dissenters in your Parish, I am glad to hear it, as also that you comform so fully; but all that I shall say to this now, is this, That either you are very faulty in that Point, or you are belied most horribly.  
In the next place, I must take a little notice of what you say, page. 36, and 37. of an Oratorical, and almost Enthusiastical way of Prayer, and how that some learned Men fall short of it, because they do not use the means of Reading, Meditation, and Exercise, and humble dependence upon God. Now, Tertius è Caelo cecidit Cato; No sort of Men must escape your Censure. All I shall say to't at this time, is this, There is no need of taking so much pains, to acquire such an Oratorical way of Praying; for as to private Prayer, the meanest Person almost knows how to make his desires known unto God, in secret by himself, much more the Learned then sure; and if they be not so fluent and ready in it, it matters not, plain words with broken sighs there, are the best Oratory. And as to public Devotions, there is less need of it, of such a fluency, since we have, blessed be God, so Good, so Divine a Liturgy, to the use of which, the Clergy are tied in all public Offices of Religion. Besides, the Canon, as well as the Act of Uniformity, excludes the use of all such Extemporary Effusions there, that is in public, especially when they are( as many times they be) extended, like an Evening shadow, to a prodigious length, and which many times like that, are very empty too; and 'twere well if that were all the ill that attends most of such Prayers. I have heard Prayers of this kind sometimes myself over sick Persons, and when all was done, the Office in the Common Prayer Book for the Visitation of the Sick, contained infinitely more of Substance, than those long, confused, and many times impertinent Babble, in comparison, which yet they will be apt, from this part of your Book, to call Sacred Oratory, which looks like a volume of cyphers, compared with the pithy Prayers of the Church; which( like small Figures in a Number, though they be of no great bulk, yet stand for much) are full of Sacred Matter.  
Learned Men that are honest Churchmen, better understand what they are Sworn to, and how they ought rather to comform to the rubric and Canon, than to study, or use this kind of Oratory in derogation of the holy Service of the Church; those who are most sond of their own Effusions, are the greatest despisers of the Churches Prayers: Yet those Men who are for the Liturgy, and the constant use of it, they have this advantage of that other sort of Praying Men, they know before-hand what they are to say, and whilst the other are a struggling with invention what next to utter, ours have the benefit of exercising their Devotions. Whilst those are beating their Heads for words, these have nothing else to do but to pour out their Hearts to God with that excellent Matter prepared to their Hands, and approved of by the Suffrages of all the best and wisest Men in the World, that ever were acquainted with our Service. And whatever the admirers of Extemporary Prayers think or say to the contrary, those Prayers are as much Forms to the Hearers of 'em as ours are; yet this is their usual Plea against ours, that they are set Forms, and therefore great dampers of the Spirit. And Doctor Stillingfleet tells us, That it was a Jesuit that first brought up this Extemporary way of Prayer here in England, with a design, belike, to bring our Liturgy into contempt; and if that was the end, 'tis gained in a great measure, many thousands in in England reckoning upon no other Prayers, as of any value, but their Extemporary ones, and judging of the abilities of the Clergy, by their strength and readiness in this way of Devotion, which yet to wise Men, looks rather like a Rhetorical Ostentation, then any part of serious Worship to Almighty God.  
You desire me( if I can) to satisfy you in one point( and I will endeavour to do it) viz. which way you might bring more Glory to God, and vindicate the Honour of our blessed Sovereign the Royal Martyr, and the credit of a good Cause, then by owning it was for our Sins,( the Sins of us Subjects, of us Cavaliers you should have said, otherwise you are gone from your first hold) that we suffered so much, lost our good King, and were given over to the will of our enemies.  
R. I will not( as you seem to do) presume to assign any particular reason for this or that Act of Divine Providence; but( that I may give God the Glory of his Justice) that the Sins of this Nation brought so great a Curse upon us, I am very ready and willing to believe; but then were the poor Cavaliers Sinners above all Englishmen, I cannot believe that, peradventure in all other respects, there was not a Pin to choose between them and their Enemies, as to strict Piety or Morality, only in this, the Cavalier had the better on't, in that he was the better Subject, and the more conscientious observer of his Oaths; and so far the better Christian of the two. Then for the credit of a good Cause, Alas, Sir, you cannot but know, that there is nothing more ordinary and obvious, then a Prosperum Scelus, a prosperous Wickedness, otherwise how came Juecism to prevail so much, and to spread itself over so many of those once most flourishing Plantations of the Christian Religion; or Popery to extend itself further then our true Religion? The Heathen Poet could have answered this Question, who said, Cavet successibus opto quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat. The King's unsuccessfulness therefore in those Wars, does not prove that his Cause was any whit the less Creditable or Just. Shall I now shoot my boult, and give in my opinion of the Reason probably of that Calamity that then befell us? I think it might very well be the Luciferian Pride of a heady Faction, who would not have that good Man to Rule over them, presuming themselves fitter to Govern then their Lawful King, then their Natural Lord, and therefore it might very well be, that God( judicially) suffered 'em to be filled with their own Ways, and that glorious King to be taken away, because they were not worthy of him, and themselves in a while to be made Slaves to their own Fellow-Subjects, to a vile Usurpation; and the honest Cavaliers( as in all public Calamities, the good and bad promiscuously Suffer together) were made Fellow-Sufferers with them. But( if we may judge of Causes by the Events, then truly Cavaliers still had the better on't, for to them( blessed be God) a Light is sprung after that black Night, gladness and joy of Heart, they have a King again to Rule over them, the Gracious Son of that Glorious Father, and with him we have restored unto us our Religion, our Church, yea our Estate too, our Judges as at the first, and our Counsellors as at the beginning; and all this in so wonderful a manner, as if heaven had had the immediate conduct of that whole Affair: but what's come of their Enemies? many of their Ringleaders are fallen Sacrifices to Justice, others of 'em have their Houses gone, and their Names are going( in all appearance) after them; Why you should therefore charge that great judgement, entirely upon the debauchery and profaneness of the Royal Party, I know not; and as little do I know any good reason why you should receive so many Letters of Thanks for your Book from any Loyal, if they were considerate persons, I am sure we have several Letters from remote parts of the Kingdom, that call it A Seditious Pamphlet. Perhaps those that wrote to you, were professed Non-Cons, or at best, but half-pac'd in Conformity, or the off-spring of such who had their hands in the late Kings Blood; and if they were these Men, they made you( if that was all) but too slender a return for so great a kindness, who had removed the guilt of that Kings Blood from them, and laid it( Wholly) at the doors of the Cavaliers, as the just wages of their iniquity; and their Sins you say, are at this day rising towards the like head; and therefore sure may be expected to pull down the like vengeance upon them. But what does all this tend to? but to excite the Godly party to another Holy War; and( when they shall think fit to pronounce, that these Amorites have again filled up the measure of their impieties,) to set themselves vigorously again to rid the World of so unprofitable, nay, of so execrable a burden, and yet there is nothing, you say, of Sedition lurking in this Charge against the the Cavaliers, or the Royal Party. You may very well say, Pudet haec opprobria, &c. These things are too plain to be denied, and they are too bad to be defended. And now I think there is nothing in yours that is material, unanswered; and I pre●●me, 〈◇〉 my First Paper stands still unshaken, by any thing you have 〈◇〉 against it.  
What I have said in both this and that, may perhaps do something at least towards confirming those that are honest in their honesty still, and that will abundantly recompense my pains with them: but if others be settled on their Lees, and will not be stirred, notwithstanding our endeavours to reduce them from the error of their ways, we cannot help that, Ephraim is joined to Idols, let him alone, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still, are dismal Curses. But for you( Sir) I hearty love you, and wish your welfare, and my Prayer therefore to God for you is, that he will give you a sight of your error, and that you will no longer dance in your own Net, and that you will not aggravate your fault by any further defending, or excusing of it, or think to make your escape in a mist of secret meanings, but rather hearty confess and retract it, and you need not be ashamed of that, since you have so many great examples for it, both ancient and modern: If it was done maliciously, and at the instigation of some Grandees of the contrary part, in God's Name break off all such unlucky adherences, and come wholly over to us: but haply they were all over-sights, do but confess that, and your work, I dare say, is done. Our Lord, the great shepherd of the Sheep will, I trust, pardon you for publishing such dissipating, such dividing Doctrines; the Church, our Holy Mother, who at present is so much scandalised, will be reconciled to you, and all her true Sons will be ready and joyful with open Hearts and Arms, to receive and embrace you with Love and Honour, and particularly  
Your Humble Servant.