the truest Protestants and their greatest Enemies For it 's against Us that all these malicious Plots are levell'd And they have only set you up as Tools and Instruments to compleat their design For alas there is hardly one amongst all your Parties hath writ so Judiciously and Rationally against the Church of Rome as to deserve either a Learned Papists reading or answer And now must our Bishops Doctors and Divines be the only Champions for the Protestant Religion against the Romanists And yet must their Hearers and Followers be branded with the Ignominious Names of Half Protestants Church Papists and Protestants in Masquerade For shame forbear these unchristian slanders or else all foreign Protestants will say that you want both manners and modesty or which is worse brains and reason Go on if you please with your trade of Calumniating But thus plain we will be with you to acquaint you that our Eyes are so open as to see you use one way and the Papists use another way to destroy and Ruine the Church of England with its Protestant professors And we declare That from our knowledge of you Both we expect no Quarter or mercy from either of you For the Church of England men have already endured two Persecutions the one of Fire in the Reign of Queen Mary the other of the Sword in our late Unnatural Wars when men of your own kidney Plundered Sequestred Imprisoned Hanged and Beheaded many Thousands for no other Crime but that they were Loyal Subjects and Queen Elizabeth Protestants And now we are Expecting to fall under a Third Persecution But whether it will come from the Papists or You we cannot as yet so easily Discern Lastly Because you so arrogantly call your selves The Protestants and the True Protestants and so scoffingly call us the Half Protestants and Church Papists and Protestants in Masquerade We therefore send you this Challenge Go if you dare with us into Westminster-Hall to the Assizes and Quarter-Sessions before the Judges and Justices of the Peace and there if you dare take with Us the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Renounce with us the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Solemn League and Covenant Subscribe with us the Declaration of the Unlawfulness of taking up Arms against the King And bring with us your Certificates of Receiving the Sacrament according to the Church of England This This is the Test and Shiboleth to distinguish Protestants from Papists and not your Form of Petition which lately went in Procession and should your boasted multitudes of Subscribers be brought to this Touchstone we know that three parts of five would run a great danger of being convicted for Recusants by Law for many of you who proudly call your selves the True Protestants will as stifly deny the doing of these things as the Rankest Papist in England In love therefore I desire you to refrain from the Villifying us with the filthy characters of Protestants in Masquerade and Church Papists since that we have been so kind to you for many years as not to put you upon this Tryal which we know would be as ungrateful and prejudicial to you as any Papists And if you cannot out of Modesty and Charity yet out of Interest learn to be more Sober and Moderate to your fellow Natives and Protestant Brethren and do not Calumniate the Honest Church-men of England who Pray for you and love you better than you do your selves and would be glad to have you to joyn with them in all lawful and justifiable ways for the overthrow of all Popish Plots and the Preservation of that Protestant Religion which is Established by Law And now let all the World Judge whether We or You are Half-Protestants and Protestants in Masquerade since that We will abide by those Legal Tryals and Touch-stones which are the National Discriminations between Protestants and Papists and You or the major-part of You refuse these Tests as well as the Papists and as long as You stand in the Refusal of them You are but Papists in a Protestant disguise FINIS
THE Loyal Protestants VINDICATION FAIRLY Offered to All those Sober Minds WHO Have the Art of Using REASON AND The Power of Suppressing PASSION By a Queen Elizabeth Protestant LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Sign of the Bishops-Head in S. Paul's Church-yard 1680. THE Loyal Protestants VINDICATION Fellow Natives and Brother Protestants FOR by Birth and Charity we are bound so to call you And we hope That upon the Ebbs of your heat and humour you will out of humility think it fit at last to call Us so too It cannot de denied but that ever since the Blessed Reformation Protestanism is the Common Cause and Interest of England And that he only is to be reputed Our Enemy who shall and doth by Plots and Designs endeavour either to Subvert or Alter our Government as it now stands by Law established both in Church and State Now for the Blasting and Defeating of all wicked Conspiracies against Our Established Government both at present and for the future I can assure you that you have our Heads our Hands and our Hearts Nor can you be more zealous for the Overthrow of the late discovered Damnable and Hellish Popish Plot and the suppressing the Growth of Popery than the true honest-minded Church of England men are Pardon them only in this That they love a Zeal regulated with Prudence and softned with Moderation You all very well know That it hath been of late the great artifice of the Jesuited Party to intrude if possible their damnable Plot upon that Classis of Protestants call'd Presbyterians Who I am perswaded have learn'd from their former miscarriages That it is both theirs and all Protestants Interest not to disturb our National Government or disoblige their Prince And I could heartily wish that the Papists might never have had any colourable pretence for fathering their Brat of Rebellion upon any sort of Protestants amongst Us. And this they would never have had if the years between 1640. and 60. could be raz'd out of the Book of Time and the memory of this Age. But whatever things the Papists may Revive to serve their Cause We are willing to forget them so it may heal our Breaches and Cement us together in a Brotherly Assistance of each other for the saving both of You and Us and our Protestant Religion And for the effectual promoting of so considerable and publick a concern I think all judicious and thoughtful men will allow that there is nothing so essential and necessary as our Union And though it 's not reasonable to expect that all the sorts of Protestants in England should in a moment concentre in one mind in one judgment and opinion Yet what should hinder but that they may have a reciprocal kindness and love one for another and one and the same Loyalty to their Prince Unless the Protestant parties in England are like the Princes in Germany wherein every one is so much wedded to his own interest that he had rather see the Emperor dethron'd and the whole Empire lost than lose one little Regalia of his own to save it Never were the Papists so full of Plots and so big with hopes as now And never was the Wicked one so busie in sowing the Seeds of discord and contention as within this moneth or two last past For to an observing eye the Print of the Cloven foot hath been easily seen in all the Roads Cities Towns and Corporations of England within that time And whatever Sentiments some Over-zealous and misguided men may have of linking and listing themselves and names under the form of a Petition yet certainly none but the Jesuite who alone hath the Art of out doing the Devil in malice and mischief could have invented a more proper and effectual way of setting Protestants in England at a greater variance and distance than ever they were before The Old weather-beaten course which the Jesuits used to make us Protestants hateful to and hating one of another was to cast upon some the name and character of Calvinists upon some Arminians upon some Socinians upon some Pelagians upon some Cavaliers and Malignants upon some Covenanters and Round-heads after the old style but now Church-men and Fanaticks or Court and Countrey party after the style of the newest fashions But now since the Jesuit perceives that We Protestants begin to smell the device of these Nick-names and that we are growing so skilful as to discern that these are only bones thrown in amongst us merely to make us snarl and bite and devour one another Therefore the Jesuits to perpetuate and continue the Protestant fray and scuffle which is the only advantage to their Cause have now at this time if not invented yet at least set on foot a Form and mode of Petitioning which must inevitably run us into fearful Broyles if not timely prevented For pray observe With what heat and earnestness did some press the Subscription of it upon others their fellow subjects With what Reluctancy and stubbornness did others deny and refuse it How passionately and bitterly did many in Coffee-Houses and other places debate and argue the lawfulness and unlawfulness of it And it 's to be wisht that in some Towns Parishes and Neighbourhoods it be not the standing cause of irreconcileable feuds and quarrels among the people For such hath been the imprudence of some Hot-headed men that carried this Petition about for Subscriptions that they told the un-thinking vulgar it was the Shibboleth to discern between the Protestants and Papists in England And hence many of them poor Souls out of fear and ignorance set their Hands but more their Marks to it when as they and those that Prest it upon them can give no just positive account whether this Petition and the Solemn League and Covenant were invented and fram'd either by a Papist or a Protestant And now is not this a pretty piece of Sport to our Common enemy the Papist to see a Leaf of paper set all England in a Flame and create most desperate Animosities amongst its Protestant natives Could there be any Project or Device next to the killing of our Gracious Soveraign whom God long preserve so essential and proper for the Ruine of Us and our Protestant Religion as this What need have the Papists of Collections from their friends or moneys from the Holy Chamber or of Armyes from Foreign Popish Princes when as our Divisions which they have set up amongst us will with good looking after most certainly and inevitably do this work to their hands without any such cost or trouble Serious and frequent have been our Addresses to you for a Brotherly Correspondence and Reconciliation and your Joyning with Us in the Defence and Preservation of the Protestant Religion Nay we have made it Our Humble Requests to You that you would do Us that Right and Justice as to own and allow us to be Protestants as well as your selves And yet such hath been the hard fate and misfortune of Our
Gentleness and Meekness towards you that like the Grace of God to proud and wanton sinners they have been scorn'd and rejected For instead of any Civilities to us for this our Humble Demeanour you have imperiously ascended the Seat of Judgment and the Chair of the Scorner Loading us with Scoffs and Reproaches and condemning us for Hereticks and Papists Nay so mightily Sowr'd are you in your Opinions and Judgments of an English Church-man that you nauseate him as you pretend to do a Papist and shun his converse and sight as much as a man of curdled bloud doth Cheese But whatever Treatments you are pleased to give us or whatever Liveries you think fit to Clothe us withal yet begging your leave we shall desire this freedom as to cleanse our Garments from those foul Aspersions thrown upon them from Pulpits in Conventicles Libels from the Press and those Scurrilous Reproaches vented by Republican Tools and Tantivy's And therefore let him that hath Eyes and Learning to read Consider the Loyal Protestants Vindication In these following Particulars FIRST We do own and love all Protestants of whatever Sort Title and Name that do really abominate the Superstitious fooleries and Heretical Doctrines of the Church of Rome Secondly We do Approve and Delight in all Persons which assert and vindicate the King's Supremacy over all Persons and in all Causes both in Church and State Thirdly We countenance and commend all such who mind their own business and study to be quiet and who out of Duty as well as Modesty have so good and just opinion of their present Soveraign's Art and Judgment in Governing that they will not presume to prescribe him rules and methods of managing the people which God hath committed to his care and charge For such hath been his Education and so much experience hath he learnt in foreign Courts and Countreys during his Exile that we can positively say He is the Wisest King in Christendom and the best Statesman in all his whole Kingdom Fourthly We are for giving all men their just dues according to their Dignities Places and Qualities and do abominate all those harsh and rough methods which irritate our Superiors anger and displeasure For certainly of all persons Governours chiefly are to be oblig'd and not forc't Fifthly We do verily believe that according to the Contents of our New Testament no man ought to Affront and Vilifie his Princes Person and Authority either in words or deeds And that if he cannot conform to the Government of his Prince yet he is bound in Conscience not to be openly publickly and actually disobedient especially where the Prince is Christian and Protestant too And where the ground of Subjects Obedience and Disobedience is purely about Things Indifferent which is a thing that wholly excludes all doubts and scruples of Conscience Sixthly We do abominate and as seasonably and prudentially as we can rebuke and suppress all sorts of Vices and Immoralities without respect had to persons And should be heartily glad to see Whoredom Adultery Drunkenness Swearing and Pride to grow out of fashion in the Kingdom as we wish Malice Spight Backbiting Censuring Slandering Railing and Bitterness of Spirit may decay amongst you Seventhly We heartily Love and highly Applaud all plain-hearted and publick-spirited men who aim and endeavour at things for the Kings Honour and Greatness and the real good of the whole Kingdom But we do detest and abhor all self-ended and self-seeking men especially those who engage a whole Kingdom for a particular disgust and study revenge for a private defeat they have received or who design to make themselves Popular great and rich under the Pretence of serving the Publick Eighthly We heartily pray and use all the interest we have that this late Damnable Hellish Popish Plot which God in mercy to us all hath brought to light may be daily more and more detected and brought to a final Period And we joyn with you in our souls that the Parliament may sit for the Tryal of those Great Conspirators who cannot be otherwise Tryed but by Parliament But as for the time when this Parliament should sit about this weighty affair we humbly leave it to His Majesties Prudence who of all men hath the sole right and is best able to chuse the seasonableness of doing it Ninthly We do firmly believe that the Present Actings and Designs of Our Enemies the Papists are so wicked and evil and Our Cause so Good and Just that we dare with the use of lawful and justifiable means in an humble confidence refer the whole matter into the hands of Providence not doubting but that God will so rule the heart of our King and direct his Councils that We and Our Religion will at last have as Memorable a Deliverance as any of those which have been in the Days of our Ancestors Tenthly We do affirm and can justifie it That the Men of the Church of England are the true right and only Protestants And for this we dare appeal to the known Laws of the Land to the Hugonots of France and all the Calvinistical and Lutheran Churches abroad for whenever they write or speak of the Church of England they mean that which is established by Law in our Nation And because the Memory of Queen Elizabeth is always so fresh and fragrant in your minds that you keep her Anniversary Coronation-day above all other Protestant Kings of England with the solemnities of Bonefires and ringing of Bells We therefore take the opportunity to declare to you That it 's not you but we are the Men who are not only the Legal but the true Queen Elizabeth Protestants And I would advise you the next time you observe that Day which I shall observe with you that you would enquire into your selves whether you are the Protestants of that mould and stamp which she loved and her Laws protected in her Reign Eleventhly Though you take a pride or pleasure or both to represent us to the Vulgar under those filthy characters of Mungrel Protestants Half Protestants Protestants in Masquerade and Church Papists Yet under our patient bearing of your Reproaches We beg your pardon to make this Declaration That we do abhor and detest those black and odious Titles And had you but a spark of modesty or a grain of reason or the least insight into our Laws you would have long since forborn to persecute us with this slanderous Accusation What was Queen Elizabeth a good Protestant and now must the Queen Elizabeth Protestants be counted no Protestants or call'd half Protestants and Protestants in Masquerade What doth the Jesuit and Papists hate us and plot to destroy us because he finds us the best and truest Protestants And must you to Revile us and seek to Root us out because we are not Protestants according to your standard Certainly had you but any wit or Reason about you you might plainly see That whatever you think of us the Papists take us only to be