fion of jarring parties and warm fpirits, fuch a fire may be kindled as nothing but blood may be able in the end to quench. The minds of the populace, ever prone to catch the flame, and difficult to be reftrained, and on this fubject more eafily irrafcible than on any other, may be in danger of proceeding to fuch exceffes, under the influence of intemperate and ungovernable, though perhaps a wellmeaning zeal, as may not be in the power of the wifer and cooler to restrain. Between parties fo diftant, fo alienated, and irreconcileably at variance, what coalefcence can be expected, or what profpect can there be of any tolerable harmony? All the different denominations of Proteftants, however otherwife divided, will readily at laft rife up as one man against the common enemy. However their minds may be confounded and stunned at firft, by the unexpected fhock of sudden innovations, yet, upon recovering from their ftupor and furprise, they will very probably refign themselves to the fwelling torrent of public hatred and indignation against Popery, and those who would intrude it upon them. Whig and Tory, Churchman and Diffenter, old light and new, will even for a time forget their other quarrels, and club together in this caufe. Nay, there is hardly a butcher, chairman, porter, or fcavenger in the land, but will be ready to ftand forth with the fpirit of confeffors, prepared to refift Rome even to martyrdom. Nor may we rarely hear the profligate rake, and unprincipled debauchee, curfing with a volley of oaths the whore of Babel, and heartily vowing her deftruction. Even the rabble of the foldiery in King James's army could not be restrained from finging their Lillabulleros in deteftation of Popery, and to the terror and confufion of a Popish court. Such dangerous confequences are far from being imaginary, nor do they appear to be at any great diftance: nay, fome of them have already taken place as a beginning of further forrows. What alarms have been raifed? what contentions and heats have already been ex

cited?

cited? what fevere recriminations have been mutually paffing between Papifts and Proteftants, and among Prote ftants themselves? Nor have tumults, mobs and riots been wanting to crown the bleffing of a Popifh toleration, Who firft excited thefe alarms? who kindled all thefe fires? who fet otherwife peaceable fubjects together by the ears? who threw a whole kingdom into a fever? who called forth the lawless mobs, and affaulted and demolished the chapels in Edgh and G1w, about which the Papifts in their memorials, and their friends in parliament, have made fuch outcry?-Who but the men who attempted to change the laws, and introduce dangerous innovations, by advising, propofing, and pushing premature acts for the relief of Roman Catholics? Thefe were the prime incendiaries; and thefe accordingly ought alone to have been refponfible for the damages.

We might go farther, and fay, that fuch a toleration, all things confidered, is indeed the greatest unkindness and highest injury to Papifts themfelves. To bring Popery again upon the stage, and to carefs Papifts in the public eye, is to expose them the more to public odium and ill ufage; and a more effectual way could not be taken to whet the edge of public refentment against them. The only fafety of our Papifts lies in filence and obfcurity; and if they understood their true intereft, they would never chufe to depart from thefe. While they prudently keep in their retreats, and content themfelves with that forbearance wherewith they are indulged in fecret, they may long remain unmolefted, and fcarce one would be difpofed to feek their hurt. But if they unwifely obtrude themselves into the light, or if they are cruelly dragged by their pretended friends from the fhade, and pushed forward upon the public theatre, they will of courfe be hiffed or pelted off again with difgrace, either by the magiftrate and the laws, or the incenfed populace for them; while those who

were

were rafh enough to take them by the hand, must be again forced to abandon and betray them; nor will government itlelf be found fufficient for their protection. Papists in every city and corner of Britain were unthought of, unheeded, and none making them afraid, till their over-officious court-friends of late have disturbed their repofe, awaking their ambition to grafp at unwarrantable favours, and feeding their minds with chimerical profpects, whereby they are in the greatest hazard of lofing, not only their newly-acquired privileges, or thofe they had the promise of, but alfo of forfeiting that indulgence which they formerly enjoyed, whereby their fituation may be rendered harder than before. And if it be true, that the firft proposal of the repeal of the penal laws did not originate from the Papists themselves, but from the court*, they are in this view rather objects of compaffion, as they are not by far fo much to blame in this matter as their ill-judging Proteftant friends, who have done them this differvice. It was but natural for perfons in their fituation to jump inftantly at the bait, and readily to accept their proffered freedom,

That this was really the cafe, appears evident from the following paragraph of the Memorial prefented to the members of parliament from the Roman Catholics in Scotland, as it stood in the fift edition, though cautiously fuppreffed in the fecond :-" In the month of February 1778, when the nation was alarmed with the unhappy fate of Burgoyne's army, application was made by one "of his Majesty's judges in Scotland to Bishop Hay, head of the Catholic clergy "in Edinburgh, to know the fentiments of the Roman Catholics in Scotland, "with regard to the American rehellion, and how far they would be willing to "affift their country, if required. Bishop Hay, with joy, embraced this oppor"tunity of making his own and his friends fentiments known to government, "and, in a letter to the perfon who applied to him, gave a full account of the "attachment of the Roman Catholics in Scotland to their king and country, and "of their readiness to ferve both with their lives and fortunes. This account was foon confirmed in effet, by the readiness with which great numbers of "Roman Catholics enlifted in the levies which were then going on in Scotland, "and without whem feme of thofe regiments would not perhaps have been completed to this day. Bishop Hay's letter was foon after communicated to government, and, by his means alfo, the affair was made known to the English Catholics." Mem. p. 2.

66

We might have urged, that this toleration must greatly affect the intereft of literature as well as religion, by reviving dead controverfies, and giving credit to old exploded errors. For a long time past, the various particular dogmata belonging to the complicated fyftem of Popery, have been almost unknown, except to the studious and speculative. The inftructors of youth had little occafion minutely to examine and refute abfurdities by degrees become antiquated, or to expofe ridiculous practices already abolished, which had no longer any avowed advocates in the land; and the teachers of religion had ftill lefs need to dwell upon fuch fruitless debates before the people. The human 'mind was thus happily delivered from an oppreffive load; learning and philofophy were cleared from that rubbish wherein they had long been funk and buried; taste and amiable arts were cultivated; while every one was left at liberty to employ his time, attention and talents on fubjects more useful or ornamental to fociety-But what a different fcene muft now open? We must now be dragged back again to the darkness of paft ages, when

• A fecond deluge learning did o'er-run,

• And the monks finish'd what the Goths begun:'

We must be forced again to tread the intricate and endless labyrinth of Popish casuistry and scholastic divinity: we fhall hear again the croakings of monks from their cells, and be faluted with the screamings of night-owls; cafes of confcience, monftrous and unnatural, will be again difcuffed, and we must hear with patience all the dreams of dotards and dunces once more repeated. We fhall meet the airy metaphyfic fhades of Ariftotle, Lombard, Aquinas, Scotus, and the like venerable characters, rifing out of their graves after the fleep of a thousand years. Thomas and Bellarmine, Efcobar or Afpilcueta, will mount the chair, and be elevated into the rank of ftandard divines.

The

The fage decifions of Eft et non eft, licet et non licet, will in the fchools fuperfede the ufe of the theorems of Euclid; and quidlibets and quodlibets, barbara, celarent, and fuch profound studies, will fucceed to Newton, Addison, and Pope. Public difputations may yet be appointed, and elaborate volumes wrote upon the questions, whether bread be bread; or whether a piece of wood be a log or a deity? Councils and convocations may yet affemble to fettle the important points, whether it be needful to excommunicate fparrows; whether it be lawful to fpit immediately after receiving the communion; or whether a man may eat and drink, and lie with his wife, after he hath received the viaticum * ?—If the agents for Rome fhall whet and brighten up their rufty armour, and fet the demolished batteries of the fchools again in play, as doubtless they will, it cannot be fuppofed that Proteftants are patiently and paffively to fuffer the renewed attack, when the laws fpeak no more for them. This neither honour nor duty will permit. When poifon fhall be daily and with impunity adminiftred, antidotes will become indispensably neceffary. Hence the tedious and irksome debates; hence the barbarous ravages of Gothic wars, which will over-run the improven and delightful provinces of science and good taste, and may prove hurtful not only to the temper, but alfo to the minds, the faith, and morals of the people. Already are both the pulpit and the prefs deeply affected with the late change. Not as if I fufpected any deadly danger to the Proteftant caufe from the arguments and attacks of its opponents; or dreaded any ill confequences from its being brought under another review. It may well endure the test of argument and the freeft enquiry; not that but Popery must fuffer by coming to the light. But why subject those devoted to learning and religion to the painful

This point was often canvaffed in fome English councils, as that of Worcefter and Exeter in 1287; that of Winchester in 1308; and that of Oxford in 1322. Spelman.