A second admonition to Mr. Edward Bagshaw written to call him to repentance for…

R. B. Reader, because I have met with so strange a Judge, I freely appeal to thee, if thou be but sober, who it is that by this mans Writings, is here exposed to scorn and pity? Whether I that so fully disproved his Calumny [that I was as guilty of stirring up and fomenting the War as any whatsoever,] as that he hath not a word of sense to say in confirmation of it; or he, that with such strange audaciousness addeth such falsehoods as have not one syllable in all my Writings to countenance them, and taketh up another charge against me, that I boldly and resolutely disclaim any Activity, &c.] Did he trust that his Readers would so far believe ⟨p. 39⟩him, as rather to venture upon the scorn and pity which he would move them to, than once to examine my Book, whether I wrote such a word or not? I confess too many of his own Spirit are like to do so; and to believe what such a man as this reporteth, and think that he cannot be so impudent, as thus insultingly to say, that I say thus and thus, when I never wrote or spake such a word. But what if he attain this end, and be believed? Will it add to his innocence or felicity to have his many hundreds live in the sin of lying and calumny, and have no excuse for it, but Mr. E. B. confidently wrote it. Its a wonder that corrupted nature should be so eager to have companions in sin, when it doth but tend to its own confusion?