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THE fubject of the following Thoughts is of fuch a nature as that it may, at any time, juftly claim and engage public attention, even though no recent events, no uncommon occurrences, or probable future confequences, confpired, as at present, to give it additional importance, and to render the difcuffion of it peculiarly feasonable. Early after the late remarkable change in the policy of Great Britain and Ireland with regard to the Roman-Catholic religion, the writer turned his attention to the fubject, while, to his great furprife, nothing had been published upon it, and when few were appearing to confider that change in its true confequence and magnitude. Part of the following pages were prepared, and even put to the press, before any popular ferment had been raised, or any public oppofition formed, against the Popish bills in either of the united kingdoms; as the reader will readily perceive from a few fentences near the beginning of the work. But the publication having been longer retarded than was expected, and one part of the original defign having been at last attempted and peformed by others; and the main fubject,

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upon reflection, appearing to require a fuller and maturer difcuffion than could be practicable in a small hafty production hurried forward to anfwer a fudden temporary emergence, or to catch a fhort-lived impatience and avidity of the public;-he deliberately reviewed, fomewhat varied, and enlarged his plan; in which he endeavoured to render it of more general and permanent ufe, and to adapt it more. to the state and fervice of the Proteftant intereft at large, more especially in the British dominions.

In a matter of fuch great and general concern, wherein the interefts of all Proteftants are embarked in one common bottom, not only leffer party-differences, but diftance of place, and the narrow and selfish distinctions of nations, efpecially when they are united under one common legislature, ought certainly to be forgotten. He whofe zeal for Proteftantifin is merely temporary or local, the paffing humour of a day, or that can be limited by the Tweed or bounded by the Irish channel, is not worthy of the name of a Proteftant. He will be forry if the friends of that interest,

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any of these kingdoms, shall engage in the cause, and profecute it upon fuch contracted and partial views. Particularly, he will be forry (and of this he is not altogether without fears) if the Proteftants in North Britain shall think they have attained the utmost scope of their wifhes and contendings, and that there is no farther occafion for their zeal and vigilance, when they have obtained a kind of promise, that the law of toleration fhall not be extended to their country at this time; as long as Popery is legally patronifed, and advancing in the greater part by far of the British

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empire; while the acts, at which they were fo alarmed, have still their full operation in the neighbouring kingdoms; and while the principles, on which they were framed, are ftill avowed and vindicated, for any thing that appears, by the rulers, and the men of greatest influence in all the three kingdoms; and while the conceffions made to them, and the delay of the farther profecution of the measure, are nothing more than yielding a little, for the prefent, to the torrent, and a courtly compliment prudently paid to popular prejudice and difcontent.

To inquire into the wisdom and equity of the policy adopted and adhered to almoft without exception hitherto by every Proteftant ftate; to examine into the reafons and firm grounds on which it proceeds; to rectify fome prevailing mistakes, and obviate fome objections moved of late in regard to it; to evince the confequent danger and impropriety of a change of the political system on this head, and to point out the neceffity of a fpeedy repeal of fome late acts, is the chief design of the prefent publication. On the question about the toleration of Popery, (for such the late acts amount to), it might have been expected, that British Proteftants would have been by this time unanimously agreed: but it is too evident that in this, as in almost every other matter of religion and legiflation, they have been, and continue ftill unhappily divided. As the queftion relates not immediately to the whole or any part of the Romish religion, and fo the controverfy is not properly between Papists and Proteftants, but among Proteftants themfelves, it is but reafon

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able to allow, that perfons who have a most hearty contempt and deteftation of Popery may be found on either fide.

The writer hath endeavoured coolly to attend to whatever he hath feen published on both fides during the progrefs of the controverfy. As he hath met with nothing on the one fide to induce him to change his first thoughts; fo neither hath he feen any thing on the other (though in fome things he has the fatisfaction to find a coincidence of fentiments, and though it is far from his intention to disparage the feafonable attempts and fervices of others, which have already had their use and effect) to convince him, that the prefent publication is either unneceffary or too late. The subject is fufficiently copious, and will require a variety of hands to do it jufticè. He hopes he may be allowed to fay, that he hath at least bestowed more time and pains in his researches into the fubject than others may have had opportunity, or perhaps inclination for: and as his defign is more extensive, fo he has endeavoured to render his proofs and elucidations more full and complete. He hath alfo ftudied, as far as the nature and concifenefs of the defign would permit, to diverfify the fubject, to relieve the reader's attention, and to qualify the disgusting dryness of reafoning with incidental reflections; a collection of correfponding and corroborative testimonies and extracts from authors of different principles, characters, and times; and an enumeration of felect facts, which are justly accounted the ftrongest and most convincing arguments. So that thofe who are ignorant of the hiftory of Popery, or who cannot perufe many volumes, may find here a key to fome of its moft memorable paffages, and an

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