obliged to thank him for his defamâ—tioâ—s of me since by confessing himself in the same Book to be guilty of Drunkenness Prophaneness he hath said much more than I can knowingly charge him with and I am sure more than enough to discredit his own Testimony For he that is neither Sober to himself nor Religious to God cannot possiâ—â—y 〈◊〉 Just and Civil to 〈◊〉 and Impiety will easily lead him to Forgeâ—y I shall not therefore seem to plead my own Concerâ—ment against him since 〈◊〉 Credit and Esteem with Good men iâ— either very little and then my sollicitousness wiâ—â— but little promote it or else it is so great that it is already placed beyond the Reach of such Rude Assaults and Battery and needs not my own Peâ— for its Defence and Vindication TRuly I should be loth that Mr. Bagshaw's Friends should speak Well of Mee R. L'S for I must Do Ill to deserve it and Purchase their Kindness by Betraying my Countrey so that Their Ill-will shall never break My Heart But do they speak so very Ill as to make Mr. Bagshaw Thank me for Defaming him In Truth the Man is somewhat a Preposterous Christian and it may be 't is his Method to be Thankful to his Enemies as well as Ungrateful to his Friends Whoever doubts of the Latter may be satisfi'd from Dr. Pierce his Letter to Dr. Heylin at the end of his Discoverer Discovered And I must Add that in the poynt of Reviling his Superiours and Aâ—using his Friends his Life has been all of a Piece Touching My Defamations of him Alas save in my Memento I never Mention'd him Nor There Neither but upon a fair and Prudential Accompt for it concern'd me to procure that the World might not take Him for an Honest Man that had Reported Mee for a Knave In fine he talks in General of Defamations but let him if he dares put me to prove the Particulars See now in what follows the Confidence Lewdness and Weakness of the Gentleman He says that I confess my self Guilty of Drunkenness and Prophanenâ—ss which Discredits my Testimony Impiety leading easily to Forgeries The last 't is possible he speakâ— upon Experience My Words are These I do here Publiquely confess my self not Absolutely Free from Those Distempers Memento Pag. 41 42. which not to cast either upon Good Nature or Complexion I am both Sorry for and asham'd of If I have but Once drank my self to a Distemper or if I have taken Gods ' Name in vain but Once in my Whole Life I may confess my self not Absolutely Free and yet not charge my self with Drunkenness and Prophaneness for under favour of Mr. Bagshaw's Philosophy One Act does not make a Habit and I defie the World to Tax me with it So That in This Particular my Adversary has streyn'd a poynt of Modesty His next slip is a Lewd one All Men have their Sins to answer for and without Repentance no flesh shall be saved I have here made a Pullique Confession and as Publiquely Declar'd a Penitence and Shame so far as I am Guilty Now what can be a greater Scandal to Religion or a greater Affront to Christianity then for a Profess'd Minister of the Gospel to turn the Confession of a Penitent into Libells The most Necessary Duties of a Christian into Reproches ☞ and to make Repentance it self shameful and Ridiculous And This is the Disingenuous Dealing of Mr. Bagshaw which if it were not menaged with a large Proportion of Simplicity were indeed Unpardonable he would not otherwise have argued as if the speaking of Truth were a Discredit to my Testimony I suppose it needless to desire the Readers Notice that in his 7 th Page he resolves not to Defend himself and Page 9. he sayes he has done it without saying any thing of Himself Between [H] E. B. Pag. 7. 8. But My Lord how careless soever I am of securing my own Fame yet in zeal to the Publick Honour and Faith of our Nation I must take leave to say this that for any to dedicate a Book to â—our Lordship who are by your place the great Conservator of our Laws and in it presume to break that very Law which His Majesty hath appeared to be most tender of and that so openly as to revive the mention of our War under the Title of Rebellion to call the Lords and Commons then assembled in Parliament a Company of Schismaticks and Rebels and with them to asperse the whole City of London who either never intentionally forfeited or else have Nobly redeemed the mistake of their Loyalty This my Lord is an insolence of so infectious a Nature that if your Lordship doth not suppress it men who love their Honours above their Lives will not think themselves fairly dealt with For I must leave it to your Lordship to judge how little security we may expect from any of our old Laws and how little Obedience can justly be exacted unto the New ones if in the faâ—â—of the woâ—ld and with 〈◊〉 Lordships Privity â—ay under your Protection our laâ—e Magna Charta can be in the very Terms and Design of it so apparently violated If Mr. Bagshaw were as Zealous for the Honour of the Publique R. L'S as he is Careless of securing his own Fame This Nation would not afford a better Subject or Paâ—riote ' Bare him but his Mistakes He writes my Lord Chancellour The Great Conservatour of our Laws by his Place That 's his Errour For the Chancellour is the Conservatour of the King's Conscience and the great Moderatour of the Positive and Liâ—eral Rigour of the Law according to the more Favourable Dictate of Piâ—us Equity This for his Instruction Betwixt Zeal and Ignorance in a Sawcy Menacing fashion he does as good as tell my Lord that He had best do Justice upon L'Estrange for if he does not there are men of Honour and so forth My Crime it seems is the Dedication of a Boâ—k in Contempt of the Act of Oblivion I Call the Late Warr a Rebellion he sayes 'T is right I do so and the Rebels Names are Excepted in the Act it self He will have it too that I call the Lords and Commons Assemâ—led in Parliament a Company of Schismaticks and Rebels Herein Memento Pag. 65. 250. is Mr. Bagshaw which is a Miracle as good as his Profession that is exceeding Careless of his Fame for I say no such thing Our LEGIONS of the Reformation say I were raised by CERTAIN Rebellious Lords and Commons That SOME such there were Mem. Pag. 65. the very Act Allows In Page 250. I cannot find what he means unless my calling of The Covenant a Rebellious League and in That Expression I suppose This Parliament will warrant me The Gentleman brands me next for Aspersing the whole City of London My Words are that the Faction was Seconded by the City of London which Expression refers to a Powerful and Leading Party in it which
destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life Now see how the King of Syria after this answers Ahab ' s love About three years after Chap. 22.31 Israel and Syria engage in a new War and the King of Syria gives command unto his Souldiers that they should fight neither against small nor great but against the King of Israel Benhadad ' s life was once in Ahab ' s hand and he ventured Gods dispeasure to let him go but see how Benhadad rewards him for it Fight neither against small nor great but against the King of Israel Honourable and Worthy The Application if God do not lead you to do Justice upon those that have been the great Actors in shedding innocent Bloud never think to gain their love by sparing of them for they will if opportunity be ever offered return again upon you and then they will not fight against the poor and mean ones but against those that have been the Fountain of that Authority and Power which hath been improved against them Worthy Patriots you that are our Rulers in this Parliament 't is often said William Jenkins The Policy of Princes p. 33. Printed for Samuel Gellibrand we live in Times wherein we may be as good as we please wherein we enjoy in purity and plenty the Ordinances of Jesus Christ. Praised be God for this even That God who hath delivered us from the imposition of Prelatical Innovations Aâ—tar-genuflections and Cringings with Crossings and all that Popish trash and trumpery And truly I speak no more then what I have often thought and said The removal of those insupportable burdens A tast of the Reforming Spirit coutervails for the Blood and Treasure shed and spent in these late distractions Nor did I as yet ever hear of any godly men that desired The Kings Murther justified by a Professour were it possible to purchase their friends or money again at so dear a rate as with the return of these to have those soul-burdening Antichristian-yâ—kes re-imposed upon us And if any such there be I am sure that desire is no part of their godliness and I profess my self in that to be none of the number Mr. Bagshaw Taxes me in the Fourth place for saying that great Dangers are still remaining c. R. L'S [4.] Should I have said That great dangers are still remaining in not preferring the Kings Friends E. B. Pag. 6. as if his Majesty would prâ—fâ—r any â—ut those that were of unsuspected Loyalty should I have added further thaâ— the danger is great and number also of ill-chosen Justices All which passages directly tend not only to dâ—fame the Government but to render it ridiculous as if it were not politique enough to preserve it self c. I do not pretend to hint any Danger because the Kings Friends are not Preferr'd but because divers of his Persevering and Irreclaimable Enemies are and This I conceive may be spoken without Offence either to Loyalty or Good-manners Are none preferr'd but by his Majesties Special Nomination and Appointment Or are none but Persons of unsuspected Loyalty Preferr'd How comes Edward Bagshaw to be Preferr'd then a Libeller against Praelacy and Church-Rites and a Denyer of the Kings Authority Touching the Danger and Number of Ill-chosen Justices I do not speak of what People have been but of what they Are and if the Number of such be Great I think no-body do ubts of the Danger Is it not well when men may be Bayl'd for Threatning another Change and hinting that This King will not stand long when the Person that gives Notice of this is forc'd to fly his Countrey for 't It is not long since a Compleint of This Quality was brought to his Majesties Chief Secretary and in Truth there are but too many Instances of This Nature But Mr. Bagshaw I perceive is of opinion that the King had better be Destroy'd by not knowing These Indignities then that the Government in his Learned sense should be Defam'd by Discovering them Caesar was Murther'd in the Senate and his Murtherers were in our Adversaries Phrase of Unsuspected Loyalty Had any man made Caesar Ridiculous that had adverted him of the Conspiracy In short Reason of State belongs to Ministers of State but Enformation in matter of Fact where the Publique is Concern'd is every Private mans Duty and every Honest mans Business [5.] Should I after I had in some former Pamphlet expresly Libelled your Lâ—rdship afterwards by making some dull Aphorisms about a Favourite E. B. Pag. 6. labour to abuse you to your face I should then think I had done enough to deserve not only the Name but likewise the Punishment that is due to one thâ—t is factiâ—us and Turbulent To make short work R. L'S I think the Libeller deserves the Pillory and I 'm Content to stand the Issue whether it shall be Bagshaws Eate or Mine Why does he not Name that same Former Pamphlet and shew my Lord what 't is he calls a Libell I shall not make half the Ceremony with Him but immediately prove This same half-witted Levite to be the very Thing he would have Me Thought to bee In the Ninth Chapter of my Memento Memento p. 85. concerning Seditions and shewing in what manner they arise from These Seven Interests The Church the Benâ—h the Court the Camp the City the Country and the Body-Representative Treating of the Court 〈◊〉 Pag. 100. I make use of a Judgment of Sir Francis Bacon's in his Essay of Counsâ—l which is thâ—t a Prince may be endangered in his Counsel either by an Over-greatness in One Counsellour or an over-strict Combination in Diverse According to the Quality and Requiry of the Subject under the Head of Over-greatness in One Counsellour is handled the Humour and Working of a Vitious Favourite Pag. 103 104 10â— If Scrupulous he goes to work Thus if Ambiâ—iciu Popular Fawning Covetous c. So or so And This doe Mr. Bagsâ—aw's Scurrilous Râ—verence call an Abuse of the Loâ—d Chancellour sawcily imposing upon my Naked and Political Discourses his own Libellous and Personal Application Why does he not charge me with Flattery too for asking what can be more Desirable Pag. 188. then for a Prince to have a Watchful Wise Faithful Counsellour and the People a Firm Prudent Patriote in the same Noble Person Why did he not as well make mee mean the Bishops the Judges The General the City-Magistrates the Gentry and the Commonalty in my Reflections upon the Other Six Interests Truly upon the whole if Mr. Bagshaw will agree to it let the Libeller be Gibbetted After diverse Rhetoricating Exclamations If He should have said Thus or so in his little Pedantique way [G] YEt my Lord says Mr. B. all this and something worse is said in Priâ—t by one Mr. L'Estrange E. B. Pag. 6. 7. a Gentlemen whom I never saw but yet I have â—eaâ—d so much il of him that I think my self
and Interest to see my dying Father Instead of Complying with my Proposition his Answer waâ— that I would find my self mistaken and that My Case was not Comprehended in That Act My Reply to him was that I might have been safe among the Turks upon the same Terms and so I left him From That time matters beginning to look worse and worse I concluded upon it as my best course to speak to Cromwell himself After Several disappointments for want of Opportunity I spake to him at last in the Cock-pit and the Sum of my Desire was either a Speedy Examination or that it might be deferr'd till I had seen my Father Hee told me of the Restlesness of our Party that Rigour was not at all his Inclination that he was but one Man and could do little by Himself and that Our Party should do well to give some better Testimony of their quiet and Peaceable Intentions I told him that every man was to Answer for his own Actions at his own Perill and so he went his way A while after I prevail'd to be called and Mr. Strickland with another Gentleman whose name I have forgotten were my Examiners but the Latter press'd nothing against me Mr. Strickland indeed insisted upon my Condemnation and would have cast me out of the Compass of the Act telling me at last that I had given no Evidence of the Change of my mind without which I was not to be trusted My final Answer was to this Effect That it was my Interest to Change my Opinion if I could and that whenever I found Reason so to do I would do it Some few dayes after This I was discharg'd according to the Tenor of This Ensuing Order Monday the 31 th of October 1653. At the Council of State at White-Hall Ordered THat Mr. Roger L'Estrange be dismissed from his further attendance upon the Councel hee giving in Two Thousand Pounds security to appear when shall be summoned so to do and to act Nothing Prejudicial to the Common-wealth Ex. Jo. Thurloe Secr. During the dependency of This Affair I might well be seen at White-Hall but that I spake to Cromwell of any other Business then This That I either sought or pretended to any Privacy with him or that I ever spake to him after This Time I do absolutely disown and Mr. Bagshaw will find as much Difficulty to prove the Contrary as to Deny Those Treasonous and Schismatical Principles which I have now raised in Judgment against him out of his own Papers Concerning the Story of the Fiddle This I suppose might be the Rise of it Being in St. James his Parke I heard an Organ Touch'd in a little Low Room of one Mr. Hinckson's I went in and found a Private Company of some five or six Persons They desired me to take up a Viole and bear a Part. I did so and That a Part too not much to advance the Reputa of my Cunning. By and By without the least colour of a Design or Expectation In comes Cromwell He found us Playing and as I remember so he lefâ— us This is it which Mr. Bagshaw Amplifies to the Report of Often bringing my Fiddle under my Cloke to Facilitate my Entry Often he says which is False for 't was never but This Once Bringing of my Fiddle That 's Right again I neither Brought it nor was it My Fiddle Under my Cloke That 's Licentia Presbyteriana To Facilitate my Entry Whereas instead of my going to Oliver Hee came to Mee After All I do profess here that I would have made no Scruple on the Earth to have given Cromwell a Lesson for my Liberty But I affirm that I did it not however As to the Bribing of his Attendants I disclaim it I never spake to Mr. Thurloe but Once in my Life and That was about my Discharge Nor did I ever give Bribe Little or Great in the Family In These Late Revolutions I dare undertake to make it appear that I have Engag'd my self as Frequently and as Far upon the King's Accompt as any Subject his Majesty has of my Condition in his Three Kingdoms and This I can Prove by Several and Eminent Persons in the City and elsewhere Only having been Honest through the whole Course of his Sacred Majesty and his blessed Father's Adversities It is held convenient that I should pass for a Raskal in the King's Prosperity But I shall remit my Innocence to Justice Time and Reason [L] ANd thus my Lord though perhaps with more brevity E. B. Pag. 9. 10 than the Cause yet greater length than your Lordships Occasions will bear I have not oâ—ly defended my self but likewise uncased my Accuser for whom while I implore your Lordships Mercy for as he stands thus naked in his colours Justice will never spare him I beg nothing for my self but so much Equity that â— may have leave to plead my own cause at your Lordships Bar besâ—re you concluâ—e me guilty and since I doubt not 〈◊〉 your Lordship will allow that difference in Opinion about Religious Matters mâ—y easily be reconciled to a candid persuance of the same Civil Interests since diversity in Habits need not alter the disposition in hearts and since he that desires sincerely to serve God ought not to be couâ—ted a stranger becaâ—se he serves him not in his neighbours fashion As long as there is an Eternal Tâ—uth in such kind of Principles and Moderation enough in your Lordship to close with them I shall not so much wrong your Gâ—odness as to despair of your Favour MR. Bagshaw makes his Boast here of his Defence R. L'S and his Discovery but so far is he from defending himself that he does not so much as mention his Charge and so far likewise from uncasing Mee that he only casts his own Cloke upon My Shoulders Pâ—tting L'Estrange his Name to Bagshaw's Character His Moderation of begging only leave to plead I must confess is laudable but he mistakes the Bar for his Business lyes at Common Law not in the Chancery He is pleased to Implore on my behalf rather Mercy then Justice I 'll do as much for him I have the Charity to look upon his Rayling but as a fit of Vomitting His Stomack 's foul and it must up Nor would I understand his Seditious and Bold Imposings upon Law and Government to be any Other then the Ebullitions of his Pride And his Phantastiques in Religion what are they but the meer Dotages and Resveries of a conceited Feavour Most certainly his Crimes narrowly Scann'd would Endanger his Head but without Malice to his Life when Preachers become Libellers Some marque in earnest were not amiss to the People that they might distinguish betwixt a Church-man and a Buffon And to comply with Mr. Bagshaw in his own way methinks a Yellow Coat would become him as well as a Black and much more suitable it were to his Employment I speak with Reverence to his Function We come now to his
Truth and Loyalty VINDICATED From the Reproches and Clamours OF Mr. EDWARD BAGSHAW TOGETHER WITH A Further Discovery of the LIBELLER Himself and his Seditious Confederates By ROGER L'ESTRANGE Ex Ore Tuo LONDON Printed for H. Brome and A. Seile and are to be sold at the Gun in Ivy-lane and over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet June the 7 th 1662. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE LORDS OF HIS MAJESTIES Most Honorable Privy-Counsel My LORDS IF in Duty to his Majesty I become Troublesome to your Lordships I hope you will vouchsafe to Pardon so honest an Importunity Especially considering the high Necessity of the Office as to the Publique and the little Benefit he expects to reap by it that Undertakes it It is in Truth My Lords grown hazzardous to Assert the Cause of the Late King or the Authority of This against the open and profess'd Adversaries of Both And they Proceed as if the Act of Oblivion had only Bound the Hands of his Majesties Friends and left his Enemies Free Which would not be were but your Lordships duly Enform'd in the Matter and That you may be so is the Scope and Service I pretend to in This most humble Dedication I Think My Lords it may be made appear upon a Modest Calculation that not so few as Two-Hundred-Thousand Seditious Copies have been Printed since the blessed Return of his Sacred Majesty which being Exposed with Freedome and Impunity cannot fail to be Bought up with Greediness To These may be added divers Millions of the Old Stock which are Contriv'd and Penn'd with Accurate Care and Cunning to Catch All Humours What This Glut of Poysonous Libels may Produce is submitted with Just Reverence to your Lordships Wisdom for I presume not to make a Judgement but barely to Offer an Information Wherein as the fairest Evidence of my Respect and Duty I shall be as short and plain as possibly the Case will bear The late War is in Terms Justified against the Late King Pag. 57. and His Majesty Charg'd as an Overthrower of Religion Parliaments Laws and Liberties Several Counterfeit Prodigies Apply'd Pag. 58. as Portents of Revolts Persecutions Casting off Kings And in fine the Drift of the whole Book tends Chiefly to Predict the Dissolution of the English Monarchy and Episcopacy The Totall Extirpation of Bishops under the Title of Sons of Belial is Recommended Pag. 59. in Mr. Manton his Publication of Smectymnuus The King 's Supreme Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical is absolutely disclaym'd Pag. 60. and the People are Encouraged to Oppose the Imposers of Ceremonies as Adversaries of the Truth The Power of the Two Houses is Asserted in Coordination with the King Pag. 62. Harrison Carew Ibid. c. are call'd the Servants of Christ Their Cause Christ's Cause and the Murther of the late King is reported as the most Noble Pag. 63. and High Act of Justice that our Story can Parallel Iâ—id The King's Judges and Counsell together with the Jury that Sate upon John James are Charg'd with thirsting after His Blood Iâ—id His Majesty is Revil'd and Menaced for his Proclamation against Conventicles For Opposing These Insolencies and Defending the King's Rights His Cause and Government without ever receiving any Pretence to a Reply I have been Twice Libell'd by Mr. Edward Bagshaw as Cromwels Spy Pag. 34. and a Person Infamous both for Condition and Morality My Lords I dare not Beg but I do secretly Wish that he may be call'd to make it Good which I the rather do because the Latter of the Two was Tender'd to your Lordships as My Character But Principally for the Consequence For if it comes to That once That in a time of Peace a Man cannot be Loyall but at the Hazzard of his Life and Honour and that it becomes more Safe and Beneficial to be Guilty then to be Innocent I do mâ—st Dutyfully remit the Rest to your Lordships Humbly Beseeching You My Lords to receive This further Advertisement concerning Mr. Bagshaw He denies the King's Supremacy Pag. 11. and Animates the Subject against it Affirming That God has not Committed unto the Magistrate but to his Son the Government of His Church even in the Outward Polity That the Command renders a Thing in it self Innocent utterly Unlawful He makes the King an Usurper An Idolater Pag. 12. An Impious Pretender Pag. 14. He calls the Praelation of Bishops an undue and Anti-Christian Dignity He Inferrs His Majesty either no King Pag. 15. or no Christian. He is Peremptory Pag. 16. That the King is Singulis Minor and that the People may Depose him Fixum Ratumque habeatur Pag. 17. Populi Semper esse debere Supremam Majestatem Having exposed These Particulars with several of the Authours and Publishers of them Referring to the Pages of the Ensuing Discourse I shall leave before your Lordships Feet This Humble Testimony of my Desires to serve the King Wherein if I have done Amisse I Submit if Otherwise I have done but my Duty Which obliges me to Live and Dy with an Unspotted and Inviolable Faith toward his Sacred Majesty keeping my self also within Those Terms of Modesty and Veneration which may become My LORDS Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant Roger L'Estrange The Praeface I Have no Ambition to get my self a Name by a Dispute with Mr. Bagshaw and in effect This way of Wrangling is but a putting of it to the Question Which is the finer Fool the Plaintiff or the Defendent Yet in regard that in This Case the Publique and my Particular appear so Complicated that as I Suffer for That so That likewise is Wounded through Mee for 't is the King is Strook at in his Loyal Subjects and They are only Persecuted as the Bar betwixt Auâ—hority and Rebellion I hold it but a Modest and Discreet Justice not to divide in the Defence what Faction and Malice have united in the Scandal This being Resolv'd upon The Course I mean to take with Bagshaw's late Rhetorical Libell obtruded upon the World in form of a Letter to my Lord Chancellour is to Report him Word for Word and then to Examine First his Pretended Loyalty and after That his Bold and Scurrilous Defamations Pag. 10 11 12 16 17. For want of Softer Words I must make use of Schism Sedition Treason c. All which are prov'd against him under his own Hand Touching the Libellous part I leave it so clear that I defie his greatest Adorers to be my Judges The Greatness of His mind we must Imagine would never have stoop'd to so low an Ebbe of Baseness Pag. 46. as to have brought a Fiddle under his Cloke for a Recommendation to Oliver as he sayes L'Estrange did See now This Miserable Snake licking the very Dust at the Feet of Bradshaw Pag. 53. The Measure of his Conduct and Veracity may be taken from his Frequent and Ill-Menag'd Contradictions For the Purity of