than Papists that Forty one is reviv'd and a Rebellion carrying on c. Now to take right measures of their designes herein we must consider 1. That within these two years there was discovered just when it was ripe for execution and ready to involve us all in Bloud and Confusion A Damnable Popish Plot. And that the same was real we have after a long Examination it attested by the King in repeated Proclamations by several Parliaments in unanimous Votes by all the Judges of the Land in their proceedings and by the Church in publick Prayers and Thanksgivings for our Deliverance So that whoever shall deny or doubt of it must necessarily be guilty of the most sawcy impudence in giving the lye to the greatest Authorities on Earth and ought justly to be esteemed as an Accomplice or Abetter of that horrid Conspiracy 2. The Reality of a Dlot of that vast undertaking and so far advanc'd being granted can it be supposed that no body but poor Ned Coleman and half a score raskally Jesuits were concern'd in it 'T is true there are some people would gladly lay it wholly on the Society The Jesuits say they are Villains and always plotting Treasons but it cannot be thought that the Body of Catholicks could be drawn in to consent to any such Baseness To this we answer This is but an old thred-bare Shift The Gunpowder-Treason we have oft been told was carried on by a few Desperado's the business in Ireland where there were Two hundred thousand Innocents most barbarously murder'd was onely the Heat of a few zealous Tories c. But in truth these things being of the nature of those Quae nunquam laudantur nisi peracta which are never own'd till accomplisht we are to look upon such Pretensions as frivolous and designing Those that now pretend to abominate it would if it had taken effect have applauded it as brave and meritorious And whereas they would pin it onely on the Jesuits 't is well known most of the Popish Nobility and Gentry have persons of that Society for their Confessors Now if they are as these little Advocates agree people of such desperate principles will they not having such opportunities soon leaven the whole Lump He that acknowledges Jesuits are Plotters will but in vain deny that all the rest whose Souls they have the conduct of which are the greatest part and of the greatest influence in England are very likely to be so too 3. Agreeing therefore as necessarily we must That 't is not likely a few should undertake such a design which 't was impossible to carry on without great numbers of persons of Quality and Estates and that 't is probable the Body of Papists were actually engaged or fairly disposed to joyn therein can any vigilance be too great any care too much is not a charitable union amongst Protestants necessary and strict prosecution but requisite to obviate and punish such a Conspiracy 4. But this Plot having thus taken wind how should the Traitors secure their repute make good their Retreat or gain present Impunity and future opportunities for an After-game but either by an obstiante out-facing or a Politick diversion The first they ran as far as 't would go witness the impudent denyals of the Traitors at the Gibbet wherein several of them have notoriously been proved Liars as Gavan Ireland c. Witness too their numerous bare-fac'd Pamphlets as The Compendium c. But finding this too short they take up the second Then comes on the forging of a Protestant Plot happily discovered at Colonel Mansels Lodgings the Buzze that the Church of England was in danger and the out-cry of Forty one without the least grounds in the world but thus Thieves pursued hope to escape by crying stop Thief after an honest man and crafty Lapwings draw people from their own Nests by fluttering and Mewing at a distance And though it were the most unaccountable notion imaginable That the Church of England should suffer or be endangered by a vigorous prosecution of Popish Traitors yet by the industry of the Broachers this conceit has not a little served their interest 5. They have therefore procured or at least so it has happened That multitudes of wheadling squinting Pamphlets are daily spawn'd abroad some to Ridicule the Plot and Asperse the Evidence others to Create Jealousies and Animosities some to ballance Accounts and represent Papists and dissenting Protestants equally dangerous And though the first are actually proved guilty but the second besides contributing to His Majesties Restauration have ever since most peacefully demean'd themselves yet so prevalent are these dividing Charms That the Church of England is not only set at a greater distance and so new Fewds raised but things almost brought to that pass that the Popish Plot seems forgot by Protestants and every one that zealously endeavours to detect it and bring the prime known Conspirators to Justice is presently stigmatiz'd as a Phanatick a Factious Fellow an enemy to the Church and Government c. and what greater Advantages can the Romanists hope for 6. In order to this observe what slender opportunities they lay hold on A little debate happens in London about Sheriffs straight the whole City is Arraign'd as ready for Rebellion The City in Common-hall humbly desires its Loyalty to be signified to the King to take off base misrepresentations protests its resolution to stand by him to the utmost peril begs His Majesty to make use of His Great Council as a sure Expedient to frustrate the wicked Councils of Rome And the Citizens assembled signifie their joyning in this humble Petition and demonstrate their zealous affection to His Majesties Person and Government by unanimous but not disorderly Acclamations and this is here carpt at as Tumult and Sedition and the Triumphs of the City for a Victory over the Church of England Can any thing be more unjust or indeed more Seditious or tend more to amuse our fellow-Subjects in the Country or more dishonour and render us contemptible to Nations abroad Yet still our Author is sore offended that any body should say there are any such Amphibious Creatures amongst us as Church-Papists or Protestants in Masquerade but is not this a shrewd sign that himself is one Conscius ipse sibi c. For though no good man much less the whole City of London as they villainously assert ever said or thought That all that go to Church were such for without doubt the Church of England in her Doctrine and by the Writings of her Learned Members both Prelates and others hath been and is the greatest Bulwark against Popery yet 't is not impossible that Jesuits and Papists may shelter themselves under her Mantle and in their Pamphlets or when called before a Magistrate pretend to be her Sons And such furious ones commonly they seem by which mark they may be known that they are ready like those of Zebedee to be calling for fire on all their Brethren that cannot
THE CITIES Just Vindication OR A Scourge for a Vagabond LIBEL INTITULED Goodman Country to his Worship the City I Shall not spend time in Hunting out the Absconded Author of this Paper Though by the impertinent Contents dangling down its sides one might give a shrewd guess There is a certain Worshipful Scribbler that pesters the Town with a Litter of Pamphlets much of the same complexion and just so accoutred Buffoon in the Text and Statesman in the Margin But whether it be He or onely some puny Imitator of the same Cast is not much material Our business is to consider its matter and scope which without Spectacles of Prejudice may be discovered to be A Libel upon the City of London and perhaps it is the first time that ever that Honourable Corporation was so openly and effrontedly and withal so causelesly scandall'd For can any thing be more false and slanderous than that The City proudly and insolently calls all the Protestants that go to Church by the name of Church-Papists and Popishly affected And yet this He no less than four times repeats in less than forty lines Again he takes them all to task Come come leave your Madness and Fooling As if our Citizens every Mothers Childe were turn'd Bedlamites and Jack-Adamses Nay not content to represent them as Changlings and Mad men he makes them Cannibals and Villains too that will Treat the best and greatest part of the Nation with Blows and bloody Persecution And immediately after feigns them ready prepared for a Rebellion longing after an Holy War to fight the Lords Battel and prescribes where they shall muster and where they must not quarter their Troops c. Now what can all this tend to but to create Jealousies in the mind of the King were he not as we know and bless God he is a Prince of greater wisdom than to hearken to the mischievous suggestions of any such vile mercenary Incendiaries To make him suspect the Loyalty of his Imperial City and render the Inhabitants thereof infamous and for ever odious to all the good People and Loyal Subjects in the world But what 's the matter what horrid Crime has London committed to give cause for such black Reflections Nothing in the world Sirs but chosen according to Custom a couple of Sheriffs This our Author acknowledges at first step the occasion of all his out-cries We have of late been in a woundy Pudder and Tattle about the Election of Sheriffs Here he belies the Country as liberally as afterwards the City for sure Country-men are generally more discreet than to trouble themselves so much about a matter that did not concern them especially if they are so very indifferent as he presently tells us Not to care what they are or what they will be or what Party they are of as long as they have money But though he makes his supposed Country foâ—k such silly regardless fellows yet he must give us who are concern'd leave to be more circumspect and to chuse men as much as in us lies that are likely by their Prudence and Moderation to be most serviceable to the Publick for though we neglect not the Estate yet we should not whatever we have done make that the sole Qualification For why should such Offices be intrusted in the hands of any whose Brains lie in their Cleest or whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion reaches no further than beginning an Health or who shall think they have laudably discharg'd their Duty when they have spent a thousand pounds or two in making people drunk for the Honour of the City We speak not this to reflect on any much less the worthy Gentlemen late in nomination who for ought we hear were persons very well qualified and the onely reason why they were not Elected seems to be that they had too many Friends in the City who were unwilling to vote them into a Charge so troublesome and expensive we mention it onely to confute that sage Aphorism of our little Sir Poll wherewith he struts his Margin That It is no matter who the City chuses for Sheriffs so they are wealthy But before this he falls into a Raving fit and talks of carrying the Cause a Battel and a Victory and this attended with Houting and Shouting and flourishing of Handkerchiefs 'T is hard to reconcile it to sense how the City can be said thus to Battel and Tryumph over it self but it seems he would have his folks in the Country believe that the Livery-men went to Loggerheads about their Choice and a pitcht field to have been fought in Guild-hall This is not the first misrepresentation of that business and though we thought it had been sufficiently clear'd and the Authors of such Stories cover'd with guilty Blushes yet since he revives it let us briefly review the matter The City of London has a Right though this Libeller take liberty to jeer at it practis'd time out of mind allow'd by many Charters and confirm'd by divers Acts of Parliament freely to elect every year their Sheriffs To this purpose being met in Common Hall the two Gentlemen since Declared were chosen by majority of Hands in the judgment of most indifferent Spectators near Ten to one and the present Sheriffs gave their Opinion that they were Elected It happened I know not why or out of what designe some persons present would notwithstanding the apparent Disproportion demand a Poll which was as freely granted but adjourn'd most Citizens apprehended contrary to former Custom for decision from time to time for several days after so that no Surprize Tumult c. could be pretended This being admitted and accomplisht upon summing up the Books it appeared that the first two had fairly near a thousand Names a piece more than the others and so they were declared the Free Choice of the City Now where 's the Treason of all this or if there were any Faction on which side did it lie How does this business wound the Church of England or concern Forty one or why must this Gaffer Two-shoes post up a Letter to the City of London and charge it with Schism and Rebellion upon this occasion But we must dive a little deeper if we would fadome the bottom of these pestilent Scribblers Intrigues 'T is too apparent there are a sort of men in the world that would be taken for good Protestants and the most Loyal Subjects who very industriously though no less subtlely and under odd Disguises endeavour to lessen or utterly efface the belief of the Popish Plot and baulk the prosecution of the Conspirators and at the same time take all occasions and rather than fail will make some to divide and exasperate Protestants one against another and create misunderstandings and horridly represent the most innocent Actions and particularly amuse people that the Church of England is in danger and the Government ready to be invaded by some Protestants and that all Dissenters in point of Ceremony are far more dangerous
keep pace with them in Ceremonies and External Observations The Term Church-Papist is not new but older much than 41 and if we see a Jesuitical or Atheistical villain that merely for secular ends or to create disturbances vapours of his being a Son of the Church and yet endeavours to weaken the Protestant Interest whiffle over a Popish Plot against the Life of the King and divert the prosecution of the Traiterous Conspiratours c. how then can we more appositely express him than by the Title of a Protestant in Masquerade And though no Protestant holds it lawful yet 't is no wonder for a Rank Papist to swallow Oaths and joyn in outward Communion contrary to Conscience witness their Doctrine of Dispensations c. I shall onely give you the Testimonies of two Authors one a Papist when he wrote the other but late before come over from them and so neither unacquainted with their practifes the first a Secular Priest during their quarrel with the Jesuits in a Treatise printed Anno 1601. Intituled A Dialogue between a Gentleman and a Priest p. 97. has these words The Jesuits have freely permitted Catholicks to go to Church with Protestants and make no sin nor scruple of it thus no Law could take hold of them for who could be known to be a Catholick Gent. Did they grant this Liberty to all Priest In this sort they did it If one were a notorious known Catholick where be came then they taught it to be unlawful in that place to go to Church by reason of scandal and no otherwise but if one were not certainly known to be such a Catholick he might go without offence upon condition that if he heard any Heretical Doctrine preached which moved him to doubt in any point of Faith he should presently come to some of those Fathers to be resolved The second one John Copley a Seminary Priest converted from the Romish Church in a Book called Doctrinal and Moral Observations published Anno 1612. in his Epictle to the Reader thus expresses himself I must give you farther notice that there are in this Realm many dissembling Protestants there 's a Synonymous term for the Protestants in Masquerade who outwardly do all the acts of Religion belonging to this Church of England either to stay in their places in the Common-weatlh or to avoid the Penal Laws and yet in their hearts are resolved Believers of the Roman Faith egregiously dissembling both with God and men and practising most notorious equivocation not sticking to take Oaths receive Sacraments go to Church and commit many a like act directly against their Consciences and perswasion Thus you see by Catholick Testimonies what has been done and is there not as much reason for them to play these tricks now as ever Therefore let the Blister rise on that false Tongue that would wheadle us into too good an opinion of Popish Innocency Having thus laid open our Authors main design I have not only Answered him but two and twenty Pamphlets besides for they are all of a piece As for the rest of his Libel 't is fooling and impertinence Did the people in King Edward's or Queen Maries days first Model and Compile your Religion how then will you satisfie the Papists when they ask you where it was before Luther In Queen Elizabeths King Jameses and King Charles the First 's time people went to their Parish Churches Ergo there is now no Popish Plot nor any body that can make mischief under an honest pretence But how are you sure that if ever an Army of sixty thousand men get into the heart of our Kingdom they shall so easily Conquer it Perhaps you are North Country but I assure you I am West and our Volk are not of the opinion for if ever we catch you with your Threeschre Thousands be they French or Irish or any other Papists I or Scotish Presbyters either we will in defence of our King and our Religion send you all to Purgatory and then how will your Worship answer it for Beroguing and Bepoxing the Pope at this fate We will not vilifie any honest Church of England men but love and honour them yet we will implore God and the King that Popish and all other Treasons may be fully detected and punished Thus withing you to â—eep your self close and prevent if you can a smarter Answer shortly from the Pillory or the Whipping post I commit you to your destiny FVNIS