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A79979
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The cloak in its colours; or The Presbyterian unmasked, and proved as dangerous as papists to the Church of England Together with a brief and seasonable ansvver to their late unseasonable queries, and list of the pensioners, humbly offer'd to all true Protestant conformists.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing C4719B; ESTC R223880
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10,265
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12
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hypocrisie perswaded the Kings Subjects not to comply with his Majesty in disbursing Money towards the necessary expences of the Crown and also the securing and fortifying the Kingdom against all Foreign Invasion though soon after through the just judgment of God they were forced to pay Oliver at least 60000 pounds a month and had no thanks for their pains Now the World knows how they insist upon the same terms and what the end shall be the Lord alone can tell but God send they be not for their obstinacy and perversness to so good a King left by the Divine Providence as a Prey to a Forreign as then they were to a Domestick Tyrant Then whosoever stood for the Church of England against those blind Religionaries was presently cried down for one Popishly inclined or disaffected to the Protestant Religion i. e. to the Genevesian Gospel Now they bring us a List of about 200 Members of the Parliament dissolved in January last as the Kings Pensioners and sworn Voters and consequently no great well-wishers of the new Gospel of John and his onely compleat Reformation warning us to choose no such persons again because like the Church of Laodicea Revel 3.15 they are neither hot nor cold neither Popish nor Reformed as Alexander Henderson a notorious Presbyterian disputing against our Royal Martyr scrupled not to say of the whole Church of England in the Book intituled Reliquiae Carolinae part 1. page 329. And surely we have reason enough not to choose these Gentlemen for our Representatives in Parliament since they are no Presbyterians and consequently no true Protestants which in our new found Logick now in fashion must be Synomyns or Termini convertibiles O temporâ— O mores Bloody Presbyterians must be entrusted with our Religion Lives Liberties and Estates and true-hearted Protestants excluded and rejected These 200 persons because no Presbyterians must be laid aside notwithstanding their eminent services both to the King and Kingdom for many years together in the late Parliament which are so numerous and 〈…〉 deserve so 〈◊〉 Pâ—â—â—â—rickâ— in praise both of their Loyalty to their King and fidelity to their Countrey Yet nevertheless we must use them now so John's new Gospel commands us as the Athenians and Lacedemonians used their Leading-men and greatest Hero's who most obliged them and best defended their Countrey for which they were paid with hatred and rewarded with ingratitude nay often persecuted as betraying that Countrey which several times they had saved from apparent ruine and destruction But awake my beloved Patriots and as you tender the welfare of your loving Mother the Church of England cast off this unseasonable slumber rub your eyes and look about you let us make it our business to secure in time our Church and State against those undermining Engineers and as the Apostle saith Dum tempus habemus operemur bonum Gal. 6.10 Let us make choice of those worthy persons who by their singular constancy in maintaining the Church of England against all Fanatical Opposers became thus formidable to these Pharisaical Incendiaries of our Countrey surely we cannot but have reason enough to love them since the Presbyterians do so vehemently hate them Let us use all possible endeavours that as Papists so Presbyterians and all Non-conformists may be for ever excluded from sitting in Parliament and let not their specious hypocrisie or plausible pretences of abolishing Popish Superstitions or maintaining the Protestant Religion work upon our credulity to countenance their contrivances or encourage them in the pernicious designs Now they will tell us how ready they are to combine with the Church of England to pull down Popery and that Scarlet Whore of Babylon but you must withall give them leave to root out all Popish Reliques and Rubbish and then good Bishops look to your selves your Gowns and Surplices You were lately like to be brought upon the Stage not onely as burthensome to the Nation but also as Popishly inclin'd nay countenancing the horrid Plot of the Papists And had not his Sacred Majesty like his glorious Father interpos'd himself and stood your Shield you might ere now most truly have said Fuimus Troes But if the Shepherds be thus threatned by these ravenous Wolves what kind usage can the Flock expect at their hands Yet as for my own particular I must confess I cannot handsomely excuse our Shepherds themselves or their unseasonable carelesness in this desperate juncture of Affairs for bearing in a great proportion the blame of all those dangers which are now apparently eminent both to themselves and their Flocks together when I consider how plainly they see with what pernicious contrivances the whole Church is menac'd by the fiery Presbyterians and yet they are so silent nay so dumb like those who by the Prophet are called canes muti non valentes latrare Isa 56.10 yet they dare not mutter against them nor make the People sensible how to prevent their wicked designs as easily they might if in their Sermons and Exhortations they would take so much pains as to perswade their Auditors to make choice of such and such select persons whom thâ—◠〈◊〉 coâ—â—ant and exact in observing the Rites and Religion of the Church of England and withall zealous to propagate her Doctrines and able and resolute to maintain it Had this I say been duely performed we might soon assure our selves of a firm settlement both of Church and State and never apprehend any danger from those Fanatical Sectaries who like Samson's Foxes are tied together by the tail of Sedition though otherwise divided to burn and destroy our whole Harvest Likewise they will tell us further they onely differ from the Church of England in some lesser points and small Ceremonies but to omit that hereby they acknowledge themselves wicked Schismaticks who upon so trivial a cause have departed from the Mother Church believe me had they but the upper hand be the differences never so small adieu to the Church of England as the Rump-Parliament has sufficiently informed us Wherefore my beloved Church-men and Countrey-men suffer not your selves to be gullâ—d by these blind excuses or frivolous pretences and do but seriously examine in your own judgments with what colour of truth can these super-sanctified Hypocrites affirm that they differ onely in such small punctilio's from the Church of England Or are they very Fundamentals of our Government such trivial matters in their Gospel It 's evident I suppose to all the world that Papists were never persecuted in this Kingdom for any Scholastical niceties or speculative subtilties of Christian Religion but were always abhorr'd and held unworthy of all humane Society for their pernicious Tenets concerning the Power and Authority of Secular Princes But what if I do here briefly demonstrate that the Presbyterians common doctrine and practise is altogether as pernicious if not far more destructive to Monarchical Government than the most desperate principles of the Papists will not you then more carefully look about you
THE Cloak in its Colours OR THE Presbyterian Unmasked AND Proved as Dangerous as PAPISTS To the CHURCH of ENGLAND Together with a Brief and Seasonable ANSWER To their late Unseasonable QUERIES AND LIST of the Pensioners Humbly offer'd to all true PROTESTANT Conformists Beware of false Prophets which come to you in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly they are Ravening Wolves Matth. 7.15 LONDON Printed for the Author ANNO DOM. 1679. THE Cloak in its Colours OR THE Presbyterians Vnmask'd SIRS IF ever we wanted Circumspection or Conduct if ever we had need of the Spirit of Discretion to discern between our feigned Friends and real Well-wishers between undermining Zealots and true Patriots this must be the time a time wherein our Religion our Lives our Liberties our Estates and in Fine our All lies at stake either to be settled and secured by our prudent proceedings in this grand Concern or we to be hopelesly fool'd of all by the subtilty and guile of our Adversaries a time wherein we are to steer our course between the two dangerous Gulfs of Scylla and Charybdis of Popery and Presbytery and therefore like wise Pilots must carefully endeavour as well to shun the one as avoid the other lest at any time it may be said of us Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim The experience of so many years doth sufficiently tell us that Presbyterians and Papists do always design the subversion both of our Church and State and they are both assured that if they could but once suppress our Religion they might soon advance their own And therefore wise Statesmen do hold it an approved Maxim that the Church of England can never be more secure than when these two Sects are kept in even balance both being equally countenanced or equally suppress'd I remember to have read in the Ecclesiastical Histories how the Orthodox Christians of the Primitive Church always held it more dangerous to converse with Hereticks than with the most obstinate Heathens their reason was because Heathens were open enemies to the name of Christ and therefore all Christians from the greatest Divine to the meanest Peasant were sufficiently fore-warned not to believe them but Hereticks came in Sheeps cloathing and under the name of Christ laboured to destroy Christs Flock Whence the great Divine Gregory Nazianzen Tract de Fidei saith Nothing is more dangerous than these Hereticks who are upright and Orthodox in all the rest yet by one word as by a drop of poison do infect the true Faith I think we may now with as much reason make use of this prudent method as the Primitive Christians have done and thereupon no less if not more suspect our bigotted Presbyterians who under the name of Protestants and reformed Christians do endeavour to destroy our Church and State than the Superstitious Papists who openly profess themselves sworn enemies to our Reformation All the Protestants of England are so fully prepossessâ—d with the grossness of Popery that it 's altogether impossible they should ever believe such ridiculous Opinions But the Presbyterians with their pretended Zeal for the Protestant Religion do so work upon the well-meaning and short-sighted Vulgar that under the colour of drawing them from Popish Superstitions they poison them unwittingly with Pharisaical hypocrisie Papists do attempt by their private Plots and Conspiracies to destroy our King and Countrey but the Presbyterians first by their feignâ—d pretences of Religion do rob their King of the hearts of his Subjects and then dispose of his Life and Kingdom as they please The Papists did but attempt the former the Presbyterians have actually done the latter and if not timely prevented by the faithful Children of the Church of England I am afraid will endeavour once more to complete their wickedness How active and ready they are at present with their seditious Pamphlets to sow the seed of dissention between our Gracious King and his Loyal Subjects nay they scruple not to charge his Sacred Majesty with corrupting and bribing his Parliament Obstupescitecoeli supor hoc as the Prophet speaketh Jex 2.13 Be astonished O ye heavens both at the unparallelâ—d impudence of these Miscreants and at the extraordinary clemency of our Gracious Sovereign who suffers such Villains to live and enjoy their liberties who are not worthy to breath the common air For if ordinary Robbers deserve to receive their last reward at Tiburn what do they not deserve who not onely deprive their Fellow-subjects of their chiefest comfort and earthly happiness the gracious savour and benevolence of their King but do also 10l their Sovereign of his richest Treasures and greatest Strength the love of hiâ— Subjects For as the Learned Philosopher Seneca saith Vnum est Regi inexpugnabile munimentum amor civium All wise men have hitherto esteem'd the Interest of Prince and People to be one and the same individual Common-weal And it is a common Maxim in our own Laws Thesaurus Regis respicit Regem Regnum And again Census Regis estâ—aâ—ima Reipublicae firmamentum belli ornament um pacis apud Coke upon Littleton sect 153 pag. 106. What shall we say then of these sactious Spirits who labour to divide them and draw a partition between them Or what reason have the blind Zealots to think so ill of his Sacred Majesty Could they expect a Prince more meek more just or more loving to his People Or as the Prophet Samuel said Whose Ox or Ass has he taken whom has he defrauded or whom has he oppressed 1 Sam. 12.3 If we grumble at his Majesty like those foolish Members in the Fable who grudged that the Belly received so much of the fruit of their labours we shall at last like them find the 〈…〉 If our King the Father of our Countrey be suspected to sell us whom shall we trust to If God's Representative and lively Image upon Earth whom the All seeing Providence has miraculously restored to heal up the wounds of this bleeding Nation be thought to betray his Trust or that Government which God committed to his charge how can we have any assurance of our own Representatives fair dealings with us who these many years are Elected not by prudence or discretion but by favour and Faction and by people who must always see double before ever they begin their Election If we doubt of his Majesties Integrity and Fatherly love towards us he must of necessity doubt of our Loyalty towards him and then what a Hell it shall be for us to live under such a King and for such a King to rule over us Are we not much beholding to these infernal Emissaries who thus make it their business to deprive both Prince and People of all worldly felicities nay to create unto us a hell upon earth and draw the whole Kingdom into a Babylonian confusion that so themselves may fish in troubled Waters If these be not the proceedings of the Rump-Parliament let any man be judge Then the Presbyterians by their specious