IT is out of a particular respect to you that I write these few hasty Lines, I being a Frequenter of your Shop, where I always was sure to meet with things Ingenious and Loyal (I mean in the way of your Trade) without any appear­ance of those lewd and seditious Pamphlets, which in these Licentious Times swarm from the Deplorable Liberty of the Press. A Liberty which can be of no good Consequence in the most settled and peaceable Times, but as the miserable Posture of Affairs is now, 'tis certainly that to which we chiefly owe the spreading Contagion of our Divisions, both in Church and State: The very best of Men I fear write with some Itch of Emulation and Contention; and as for others, their daily Libels are stuft with most malicious Insinuations and treasonable Suggestions against the best Government in the World. We have Answers and Rejoynders mul­tiplyed upon each other daily, without any one fixt Point of Truth, as things are now passionately managed, and this peevish progress of mutual Dispute and Contradiction, is likely to Raign Ad infinitum. You know a few Tuggs at the Press shall immediately produce that which shall with ease speak to the whole Nation at once; so that the mischievous Conceptions of a single Person, shall by the help of this Dispatch, infect Ten thousand in few Hours. I hope the Wisdom of the approaching Parliament will redress this loud Calamity, and at once stop the Occasions of our old, as well as pre­vent the Propagations of new Strifes and Animosities. Our Heart-burnings, God knows, are now risen to such a height, as nothing but the prudent and successful Care of the Great Councel of this Nation, can stop from breaking out into a general Conflagration: But enough of Preamble.

The Intent of these Lines is to make a few Reflections upon a Pamphlet which met with me Yesterday: I am sorry to hear your Shop should Credit such a Scurrilous, if not Prophane Paper; However I am pleas'd to hear that you by the immediate stifling it have stopt the Mouths of those hot Zealots, who make Mountains of Molehills, and greedily snatch at any Occas [...]ons to expose the Failings of their Opposers, as they have done by this rash Author, whose Supereminent Zeal for Loyalty was perhaps [Page 2] the only Occasion of his Indiscretion in venturing upon such Irreligious Allusion they themselves not thinking their Familiarity and Sawciness with God Almight [...] hath been more directly and notoriously Prophane, and thereby given occasion to t [...] and many the like Pamphlets.

Well then, it's my opinion upon the perusal of that Paper, that the Author t [...] more strongly to express the vile Hypocrisie of our Dissenters, was resolved to e [...] pose them in their natural Colours; and I imagin he thought of no better way th [...] under this Title to make their Principles and Practices diametrically opposite to t [...] very Fundamentals of Christian Religion; for in that Pamphlet he hath dislodged t [...] several Petitions of the Holy Prayer, and Articles of the Creed, &c. and in their roo [...] hath planted his own sharp Reflections. This (I suppose) he did, as thinking the Digni [...] of their new place and seat would make them appear with the greater lustre, and more advantageous state and pomp of Satyr Besides (I suppose) he thought that as t [...] Novelty of this odd Allusion would make his Descriptions more remarkable, by bea [...] ing relation to those familiar parts of our Religion; so it would fix the designed Co [...] tumely and Scandal against Dissenters so much the deeper in the mind of the Reade [...] the Matter of Fact being undeniable, though unhappily represented under a sacre [...] Title. Sir, my general Charity obligeth me to think well of all men, and that the Sentiments of the Author were not designedly Atheistical or Profane, though an ind [...] screet Zele hath laid him under the Censure of both. The Picture of the Persons he d [...] signed to draw, comes very near the Life; but his Prudence might have chosen a mor [...] sutable Frame to set it in, than that of the Sacred Word. For though 'tis true, th [...] Scandalum acceptum is not always Scandalum datum; yet it is ill playing with such edge [...] Tools,, especially in a Juncture when very ill Consequences may happen by the wea [...] ness of some, and malice of others. I am not ignorant that things of this nature hav [...] been done with less noise and outcry, than was yesterday made about this; yet it w [...] ill timed now, when as our tottering Affairs are so unsteddy, that the Sentiments [...] the People, are made the Test of Truth. For my own part, I blush at the Authors imprudent choice of his Title, but can't conceive the substance of the thing absolutel [...] Profane; for it is evident the Authors design was not at all to vilifie the Essentials [...] our Religion, but onely by this Ludicrous Allusion to render the Persons there pointe [...] at more familiarly and plainly detestable. To conclude, I believe you (like me) though that Pamphlet uncapable of giving such distaste, or that from so slight occasion so grea [...] a noise should arise, which made it at first find a place on your Counter; but since i [...] hath been an occasion of so much Discourse, I commend your discretion in denying it [...] room in your Shop; it being wisdom in all persons who desire the Peace of the Nation [...] not to engage themselves in any thing which may increase or continue our Animosities▪