Sir _Edmondbury Godfrey_,
near _Fleetbridge_. 1682.

To the TORIES.

_Gentlemen_, for so you all write your selves; and indeed you are your
own Heralds, and Blazon all your Coats with _Honour_ and _Loyalty_ for
your _Supporters_; nay, and you are so unconscionable too in that point,
that you will allow neither of them in any other _Scutcheons_ but
your own. But who has 'em, or has 'em not, is not my present business;
onely as you profess your selves Gentlemen, to conjure you to give an
Adversary fair play; and that if any person whatsoever shall pretend
to be aggrieved by this POEM, or any part of it, that he would bear
it patiently; since the Licentiousness of the first _Absolom_ and
_Achitophel_ has been the sole occasion of the Liberty of This, I
having only taken the Measure of My Weapon, from the Length of his;
which by the Rules of Honour ought not to offend you; especially,
since the boldness of that Ingenious Piece, was wholly taken from the
Encouragement you gave the Author; and 'tis from that Boldness only that
this POEM takes its Birth: for had not his daring Pen brought that Piece
into the World, I had been so far from troubling my self in any Subject
on this kind, that I may justly say in one sence, the Writer of that
_Absolom_, is the Author of this. This favour, as in Justice due,
obtain'd from you, I shall not trouble you with a long Preface, like
a tedious Compliment at the Door, but desire you to look in for your
Entertainment. Onely I cannot forbear telling you, that one thing I
am a little concern'd for you, _Tories_, that your _Absoloms_ and
_Achitophels_, and the rest of your Grinning Satyres against the
_Whiggs_, have this one unpardonable Fault, That the Lash is more
against a _David_, than an _Achitophel_; whilst the running down of the
PLOT at so extravagant a rate, savours of very little less (pardon the
Expression) than ridiculing of Majesty it self, and turning all those
several Royal Speeches to the Parliament on that Subject, onely into
those double-tongu'd Oracles that sounded one thing, and meant another.
Besides, after this unmannerly Boldness, of not onely branding the
publick Justice of the Nation, but affronting even the Throne it self,
to push the humour a little farther, you run into ten times a greater
Vice, (and in the same strain too) than what you so severely inveigh
against: and whilst a POPISH PLOT through want of sufficient
Circumstances, and credible Witn