Our Accounts Cast-up, whether we have Got, or Lost by the PLOT.

WE are now at the Bottom of This Bottomless Bus'ness, and we should do very well, and like Sober Men, and Good Managers of our Honour, Time, Peace, and Mony, to Compute a little upon matters. So much for Double Guards;— So much for Treating the King's Witnesses;— So much a∣mong Catch-poles;— So much in Pensions;— So much for a Fond to Defray Plot-Charges;— So much in Narratives;— So much in Processions, and Pope-Burnings;— So much to Re-imburse Otes and Bedloe, the Seaven Hundred Pound a Man they were out of Pocket for the Protestant Cause; So much up∣on Well-Affected Elections;— So much in Ignora∣mus Iuries;— but Discounting All this while, for what we have Receiv'd from the Westminster-Insurance-Offices, Page  160 upon the Whole Charge: and in One word; to see at the Foot of the Account, (Pa∣per and Pack-Thrid pay'd for) whether we have Got or Lost by Part'ner-Ship with Otes, and his Adhe∣rents, and Abetters, in This Loyal, forsooth, This Religious, and This English Bloud-Adventure.

IT is not to be Deny'd, (and it is already Agreed) that King,* Na∣tion, and People, have Suffer'd All manner of ways, and in a very Great Measure, too, quite thorough This Period of Otes'es Ad∣ministration; and All for Fear of the Damnable Hellish Popish-Plot: Because, and by Reason of it; and that we were Necessitated to do what we did, to secure his Late Majesty, and his Go∣vernment, against Popish Conspirators; and his Sacred Person, against Poyson, and Silver Bullets. Had it not been for That Damnable Plot, the King had been Safe; The Queen and the Duke, Vntain∣ted; and the People had still continu'd in their Wits and in their Duty. The Popish Lords had been yet at Liberty; the Priests, Iesuits, and the Godfrey-Men, Vnhang'd; The Papists might have had Tolerable Quarter among the rest of the King's Subjects; and the Honour, and Iustice of the En∣glish Nation might have yet stood as Fair in the Esteem of Other Christian Princes, and States, as ever it did: So that upon the Vpshot, what have we now to say, for the Wickedness, the Folly, and the Madness of Those Times, if there was [NO Popish Plot at all,] nor any thing Like it, but Page  161 the Seditious Confederacy of an Ambitious Caball of Iuggling, Canting Hypocrites, to Murder the King Themselves from behind That Stale? What Reparation now, for Innocent Bloud, and Oppressi∣on? What Satisfaction, or What Effectual Repen∣tance, for Those that Preach'd, Pleaded, Suppor∣ted, Assisted (how Innocently soever,) the Credit of that Diabolical Imposture, without making the Churches, the Courts of Iustice, Coffee-Houses, and Other Publique Places, Ring as Loud of their Mi∣stakes, as ever they did of their Invectives, and Clamours? The Misleading of People into a Be∣lief of Falsities, of This Desperate Kind, and Con∣sequence, even though I my self take them to be Truths, is but next door to the Swearing Men in∣to a Belief of That which I Know to be False: That is to say, If, when I come to find My Own Error, I do not Endeavour to set All Those People Right, that I Carry'd out of the Way. The Shame of a Repentance, is not far Remov'd from the Wil∣full, and Deliberate Committing of a Sin. I do not Expect, that My Sermonizing here shall Work upon Those that Shut their Eyes against the Light of Experience, and Example; though One would think that men should be very Wary of Setting That Door Open, over and over again, that had been still the Inlet to all our Former Confusions. If a Thief Breaks into my House at a Garret-Window, I'le provide Better Barrs and Bolts. And Un∣doubtedly, a Government may have a Weak side, as well as a Private Habitation; and there ought to be as much Care taken to Secure a State against Page  162 Political House-Breakers, upon That Quarter where they ever Enter'd Before.