LOYALTY ASSERTED:

OR THE NEW

TEST OATH VINDICATED.

SIR,

NOTWITHSTANDING news-paper declamations, and the heavy charges brought against Popery, you are candid enough to tell me, that you do not look on my profeffion as "an imputation fo dangerous that it entirely "deftroys all correfpondence." You are not miftaken in your conjectures. However we may differ in belief, you have nothing to apprehend, as fpeculative tenets do not interfere with the duties of civil life, and that my practical doctrine tends more to improve, than corrupt the heart.

We have been school-fellows, and well united. We have met in foreign kingdoms, and the

remembrance of an early acquaintance has ce mented our friendship anew. We are reftored once more to our native ifle, floating in an ocean of politics, and exhibiting as great a variety of religions, opinions, and fentiments, as you have feen curiofities at the fair of St. Ovid's in Paris.

What party shall we fide? What plan fhall we pursue? If we treat as enemies all these whose persuasion is different from ours, the number of our friends will be but small. Let us then be retainers to dean Swift's doctrine. Let the Chriftians agree in the points allowed on all fides, as much as they differ with regard to private opinions, and diffenfions fhall be foon at an end. They all agree, that the first of their laws, is a law of eternal love, expanding into fentiments of benevolence, and teaching its votaries to return affection for hatred, and good for evil, that it is a divine legacy bequeathed by their common Redeemer to his followers; and that Christians, cemented together by the blood of a God, should be never divided.

This is a point of doctrine liable to no controverfy. Oh! could it be enforced on the mind! factions would foon expire, and Charity afcend the throne, holding broils, diffenfions, flanders,

flanders, calumnies at her feet, as so many captives in chains,

Toleration in a popish priest!' If by toleration is meant indifference as to religion, God forbid! In this fenfe it implies an error; and though it makes a great figure in the disputes among divines, yet in two words we can afcertain its degrees and measures. Let us never tolerate error in ourselves: let us pity it in our neighbours. "Deteft the error," fays St. Auguftin, “but love the man." For in the conflict of different opinions that will divide the world to the end of time, Chriftian Charity ftill afferts her prerogatives. Her oily balfam heals the rankling ulcer caused by a religious inflammation, and attenuates the black and viscous humours which fo often degenerate into an evangelical Spleen,

But, if by toleration we mean impunity, safety, and protection granted by the state, to every fect that does not maintain doctrines inconfiftent with the public peace, the rights of fovereigns, and the fafety of our neighbour, to fuch a toleration I give my patronacy; and expect that the following proofs of the articles of the teft, will evince the juftness of entitling the Roman Catholics to the lenity of government, and the confidence of their fellow-fubjects.

THE

THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE.

ART. I.

I, A. B. do take Almighty God to witness, "that I will be faithful and bear true allegi-. "ance to our moft gracious Sovereign Lord,

King George the Third, and him will de"fend to the utmost of my power, against "all confpiracies and attempts, whatever, "that shall be made against his perfon, crown " and dignity."

Although I fhould never fwear any allegiance in form, yet there is an original and natural allegiance from fubject to king; a debt that forbids all confpiracies and treasonable practices against his perfon, crown and dignity.' At my birth I was under his protection; and in a tender infancy, when I could not protect myself, I was fhielded by his name. His tribunals are ftill open to fecure my life and liberty, and as there is an implied contract between king and fubject, my oath does not change the nature of my obligations. It only ftrengthens the civil band by the tie of religion, and fuperadds to treafon the guilt of perjury in the tranfgreffors.