rested in the Affairs of that Republic; so by nothing hath he more merited an universal esteem and praise from all Protestants, and acquitted himself more worthily towards God and their Serene Highnesses, than by that Letter wherein he was honoured to declare their thoughts, and in which he hath with so much wisdom, moderation and convincing light, expressed both their Highness' Sentiments, and his own, as well concerning the English Laws, the Papists may, and the Dissenters ought to be favoured with the Repeal of, as concerning those, which no wise Nonconformist desires to have rescinded, and which to humour the Papists with the Abrogation of, were no less than to expose the Nation to ruin, and to lay the Reformed Religion open to be totally subverted.  
Now this Excellent Letter, and which hath produced all the good Effects that honest men longed for, but knew not before how to compass, our Anonymous Answerer is pleased with an Indignation and angry Resentment, and in hopes to exasperate his Majesty of Great Britain against their Serene Highnesses, to style a kind of Manifest in reference to most important Affairs, which even Mr. Stewart, who in obedience to the injunctions of his Sovereign, had with so much importunity solicited their Highness' Opinion about the Repeal of the Penal and Test Laws, he says, could not have expected. And of whom to testify his exact and intimate knowledge, and to recompense him for the unfortunate service he had been employed in, and to encourage his readiness to future drudgery, he is pleased by a creation of his own, as being the Substitute of the Fountain of Honour, to confer the Title of Dr. upon. But certainly had this Anonymous Writer the sense and prudence of an ordinary man, he would not under the present conjuncture of Affairs, talk of Manifests, nor put people in mind of them at a season, when most persons of all ranks and qualities are so much disgusted, and when they at Whitehall are so lavish in their provocations towards some, who if they were not strangely fortified against all tincture of Resentment, are known to be capable of doing them irreparable prejudice, and who by such a Manifest as there is cause enough to emit, might not only disturb their proceed, but with the greatest facility blow up at once both all their hopes and projections. I would fain know of this modest and discreet Gentleman, whether if their Highnesses had ordered a Letter to be written, declarative of their Opinion for the Abrogation of the Tests, by what name he would have judged it worthy to be called, and whether if he had bestowed upon it the Title of a Manifest, he would have thereby intended to fasten upon it an imputation of presumption and reproach? All good men have reason mightily to bewail their Highness' condition, seeing according to this rate of proceeding towards them, it is in the power of the Papal ecclesiastics in England, when they please, to prevail upon the King to reduce them to the uneasy circumstances, either of offending against their Consciences, or of displeasing him. For there is no more requisite towards the bringing them into this unhappy Dilemma, but that Father Peter, or any other of the Tribe who have an Ascendency over his Majesty, do persuade him to desire their Highness' Thoughts, in reference to such particulars, wherein it is neither consistent with their Religious Principles, nor agreeable with their Honour, to comply with his Majesty's Judgement and Inclinations. For if in prudence they decline the returning of an Answer, they are sure not only to be censured, as guilty of neglect, incivility and rudeness, but they do thereby administer an advantage to their Enemies, of diffusing reports to their prejudice through the Nation, as if they approved all those Court-methods, which for no other reason, save upon the mere motives of respect and wisdom, they avoided openly to disallow. And if on the other hand, they suffer themselves to be overcome by importunities, and thereupon give an Answer agreeable to the Dictates of their own minds, but which is found to interfere with the prepossessions wherewith his Majesty is imbued, than their Lot is, to have it called by the unkind and ignominious Title of a Manifest. One would think that Letter ought to have been mentioned by a soster name, if we do but consider its being written not only with the utmost modesty that becomes the Relation Their Highnesses stand in to the King, and which is any ways agreeable to their own quality, but that it is enforced with all the Reasons, that may serve to demonstrate that their Opinion is the result of conviction and judgement, and not the effect of humour, nor a sentiment they are merely determined unto by their interest. But we see no Term is too hard to be bestowed upon a Paper that hath so much prejudiced the Priests in their designs, and laid so great an obstruction in the way of those methods, which they had proposed to themselves, for the robbing England of the Protestant Religion.  
And whereas our Author tells us, that tho' Mr. Stewart did not account himself obliged to answer Monsieur Fagel's Letter yet one who extremely esteems and honoureth Mr. Stewart, thinks the Public too much concerned, not to have the weakness of the reasonings in it detected, and to have it made appear that the inferences deduced from them are no ways convincing. I can easily believe that Mr. Stewart did not judge himself obliged to answer the Pensionary's Letter, and all men do account it a piece of wisdom in him to forbear endeavouring it. For tho' he be much better qualified for such an undertaking than our Author, yet he could not but be sensible that it was not to be attempted with any hope of success. And if our Author had been endowed with any measure of discretion, he would have applied himself to any other Employment, rather than have betaken himself to writing, being a thing which Nature never intended him for, and especially upon a Subject so far above the reach of his understanding, and against a discourse of that solid and well-digested strength, that even the Reverend Fathers, whose Letter-carrier he used to be (if we be not strangely mistaken in the Gentleman had so much wit as not to attack it. As knowing that notwithstanding all their Art in Sophistry, they must have come off baffled; and that their false colours would have been easily detected, by the beams of that light, which dart themselves forth in all the parts of that excellent Paper. And I dare farther say, that as Mr. Stewart will never much value himself, upon the being esteemed by one either of this Gentleman's Religious Principles, or of his intellectual Accomplishments; so I can never think that he can be so much degenerated from what he formerly was, as to obtain the approbation of his mind, to return any considerable degree of honour to a person who upon all accounts does so little merit it, unless it be that he may possibly challenge it by virtue of an undeserved Title, and of a Character that he is exceeding ill qualified for.  
However, seeing Fools will be meddling, tho' they are sure to come by the worst, I shall reduce all I have to say in Castigation of this vain and presumptuous man, to the seven following heads. (1.) His Falsifications in reference to several parts of Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter. (2.) His Injustice to Their Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Orange, and the hidden spleen he every where ventureth to express against them. (3.) His slanderous Calumnies against the States of these Provinces, and how he studies to excite their Roman Catholic Subjects to disturb the Peace and Tranquillity of this Country. (4) His Shameless Impudence in endeavouring to impose upon the World, as if the Protestant Dissenters in England, were concluded by Their Highnesses to stand hereafter involved in the same rank and condition with the Papists. (4.) His Publishing the Villainy of the Romish Church, and proclaiming the Injustice and Dishonour of the most Eminent Papal Monarches, while he pretends to commend and justify the proceeding of his Majesty of Great Britain. (6.) His egregious Ignorance in relation to Government, Laws, Customs, and matters of Fact. (last) The signal Ingratitude of the Papists towards Their Royal Highnesses for all that Grace, Favour and Ease, which they were willing to have allowed unto them.  
As to the first, 'Tis known to be a received Principle among the Casuists of the Society, that it is at most but a venial sin, to detract from, misrepresent, and calumniate those whom they either take to be their Enemies, or do conceive to have done them any ways a prejudice. And tho' the Opinion authorising such a practice, be condemned by a Bull of the present Pope bearing date Anno 1679. yet our Author is more a Vassal to the Ignatian Order, than upon the Authority of one whom the Jesuits do so little value, to forbear putting a Doctrine into exercise, which he hath been so well instructed in by these Reverend Fathers, and especially when he finds it so conducible to his design and interest. What can be remoter from Truth as well as Ingenuity, than to charge Monsieur Fagel with confining the name of Protestants in England, only to those of the Conformable Communion, and with excluding the Dissenters from the glorious privilege of that appellation? For tho' it be true, that through the hatred and violence of the late King and his present Majesty to the fanatics, and by virtue of their Commands to a Company of Mercenary, timorous and servile Justiciaries and Officers it hath some time come to pass that the Laws which were originally enacted, and only intended against Papists, have been executed upon Dissenters; yet all men know that to have been a perversion of Justice, seeing in all the Statutes to the Penalties whereof they were made obnoxious, they are still considered and acknowledged for Protestants, and made liable to sufferings by no other Title than that of persons differing from the Church of England, in matter of Discipline, and about Forms and Rites of External Worship. Nor is there one word in Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter, whereby they are precluded from that stile, or any ways represented as unworthy of it. While they stand obnoxious to several Laws, in which the Members of the Church of England have no concernment, nor are in any danger from; it was impossible to avoid the giving them a name by which they might be distinguished from those of the Legal and National Communion. And so tender hath the Pensionary been of charactering them by any offensive or harsh denomination, that he hath not so much as once in his whole Letter called them fanatics, tho' it be an appellation that hath been vulgarly affixed to them; but he hath chosen always to denominate them by the name of Dissenters, which is not only the softest Term they can be described by, but that which themselves have elected as the stile by which they are willing to be discriminated from their fellow Protestants, with whom they differ in some few and little particulars. And many of them being people, whose Principles are coincident and agreeable with theirs of the Legal Establishment in Holland, in whose Fellowship Monsieur Fagel is known to be; it could not have entered into the thoughts of any save one of our Author's Intellectuals and Integrity, either to charge upon him or so much as to imagine, that he should be so injurious to himself and to the Dutch Churches, as to preclude those from the list of Protestants. But whether this calumnious charge and falsification, be the fruit of an Irish Understanding, or of Papal Sincerity, or the effect of both, I shall leave others to judge, who may possibly know this Author, better than I pretend to do. Only this I shall add, that he proceeds with the same wit and honesty as he hath begun. For from Their Highness' declaring that they cannot agree to the Repeal of the Tests, and Monsieur Fagel's thereupon saying, that these Laws inflict not any mulct or penalty upon the Roman Catholics, but that they are only means of securing the Reformed Religion, through containing provisions by which men are to be accounted qualified for Members of Parliament, and to bear public Offices; our Author does by a strange kind of falsification and calumny, fasten upon him his having affirmed, That the Non-conformists are to be accounted dangerous Enemies of the State, and not to be admitted into any Public Employments. He must either be of a very unusual and perverse frame of mind, or extremely ignorant of the nature of those Laws, and the Terms wherein they are enacted, otherways it is impossible he should imagine how the Dissenters are capable of receiving prejudice by them. Seeing all required by those Laws toward the qualifying persons to sit in Parliament, and to exercise Offices in Church and State, is only to declare that they do believe there is not any Transubstantiation in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or in the Elements of Bread and Wine, at or after the Consecration by any persons whatsoever; and that the Invocation of the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint; and the Sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are Superstitious and Idolatrous. And this Declaration the Non-conformists are of all people, the most inclinable and forward to make, and therefore very far by virtue of those Statutes from standing incapable of any Trust, Office, and Employment, that other Subjects are admitted unto. Nor hath there been a Protestant Dissenter since the first hour that these Laws were enacted, that ever scrupled to take the Tests, or that was precluded from Office and Employment for refusing them. But on the contrary, several of the most famous Dissenters, such as Sir John Hartop, Alderman Love, and Mr. Eyles, persons who at all times have kept at the greatest distance from Communion with the Church of England, by reason of her Forms and Ceremonies, are known to have cheerfully made the Declaration contained in the Test Laws, and thereupon to have sit as Members in divers Parliaments. And as a further demonstration of the impudence and dishonesty of our Author in this particular, it is not unworthy of remark, that tho' the King hath taken upon him to dispense with the Tests, and to prohibit the requiring them; yet the Dissenters, who have since that time, been preferred to public Trusts, continue still to take them, and go to the respective Courts, where by Law the Declaration is enjoined to be exacted, and there demand the being admitted to make it. Tho' in the mean season they cannot be unsensible, that it is the thing in the World whereby they most highly offend his Majesty; it being both a proclaiming the Illegality of that Authority which he challengeth of dispensing with Laws; and a defeating, so far as lieth in them, his great design as well as artifice, for the introducing of Popery, which his Soul is so much in travel with. And were not this Author both a person of a most depraved Conscience, and destitute of all common sense, he would never have slandered Monsieur Fagel, and so egregiously perverted his plain meaning, as to tell us, that tho' he be a Hollander and a Nonconformist, yet he thanks God for the Test Laws, by which his Nonconforming Brethren in England, of what degree and quality soever they be, stand excluded from Public Employments. For every one that will be so kind to himself, and so just to the Pensionary, as to read his Letter, will immediately discern that there is not one word in it, upon which to superstruct this calumny and accusation; seeing he therein affirms in repeated and emphatical Terms, that all contained in, and designed by the Test Laws, is the securing the Reformed Religion, through the having provided, that none be allowed to sit in Parliament, nor admitted to Public Offices, except they declare that they are of the Reformed, and not of the Roman Catholic Religion. So that how Monsieur Fagel's Nonconformity Brethren in England, should come to be affected by these Laws so as to receive any prejudice by them, is that which none but a person of our Author's wit, integrity and candour, could have had the faculty either to conceive or allege.  
But that we may come to the second particular; there is the less reason to wonder at this Gentleman's calumniating Mijn Here Fagel, and affixing dull, tho' malicious Forgeries of his own unto him, if we do but consider with what petulancy and injustice he treats Their Serene Highnesses, and at the gate of their own Court assumeth the confidence to misrepresent, lessen and asperse them. The nearness which those Princes stand in to the ascending the English Throne, and the joyful prospect which all Protestants have of it, exciteth a discontent and rage in our Author, which he knows not how either to suppress or govern. For not to mention what we learn of the kindness of Roman Catholics to an Heir, professing the Reformed Religion, from the proceed of Sixtus Quintus, and the Papists in France towards Henry 4. we are sufficiently instructed what good will they bear to a Protestant Successor, by the Bull which Clement 8. published about the End of Queen Elizabeth's Reign. For the Supreme and Infallible Head does therein ordain, That when it should happen to that miserable Woman to die, they should admit none to the Crown, quantumque propinquitate sanguinis niterentur, nisi ejusmodi essent qui fidem Catholicam non modo tolerarent, sed omni ope ac studio promoverent, & more majorum jurejurando se id praestituros susciperent; whatsoever Right and Title they should have thereunto, by virtue of their next affinity in blood, unless they should first swear not only to tolerate, but to advance and establish the Romish Religion. Nor can I avoid being filled with fear and reverence to the safety of some certain persons, when I remember how Cardinal Baronius commends Irene for murdering the Emperor her Son, because he was against the Worship of Images, and not only calls it Justitiae zelum, a righteous zeal but adds, Christum docuisse, summum pietatis genus esse in hoc adversus filium esse fidelem, That Christ hath taught the perfiction of Religion in such a case to consist in fidelity to the Church, tho' by destroying one that was both her Son and her Sovereign. 'Tis a high piece of injustice in our Author towards Their Highnesses, and calculated for no other end but to alienate his Majesty's affections from them, when he tells us, that the thing aimed at in the writing of the Pensionary's Letter, as well as that pursued in the manner of publishing it, was to obstruct the King's righteous & pious designs, and to render them unpracticable. For the Letter being written in obedience to the Command of Their Highnesses, & to declare their Opinion in reference to the several matters, about which it treateth; it plainly follows that tho' Mijn Heer Fagel be accountable for the manner of clothing and delivering their thoughts, and for the Order and Method in which things are digested, and possibly for the ratiocinations by which they are supported and enforced, yet that the Prince and Princess are the persons who are alone responsible for the End unto which it was intended. And it appears to have been so far from their intentions, thereby to obstruct and defeat any pious and just designs of his Majesty; that nothing can be more visible, than that as it is admirably adapted to the giving ease and security to all his Protestant Subjects, so it offereth means for relieving the Papists from the severe Laws to which they are liable, and for the granting them a Warranty in a legal way for the exercise of their Religion. Nor doth it discourage any kind of favour towards them, save that which the concession whereof, would not only be inconsistent with the peace and safety of those of the Reformed Religion in England, but which might inflame the Nation to such Resentments, as would in all likelihood both endanger his Majesty's Person and Crown, and come at last to issue in the reducement of the Roman Catholics to worse circumstances, than they have hitherto been acquainted with. But to proceed with our Author, to whom it is so natural to act foolishly, and with sauciness and injustice, that neither the Character he is said to bear, nor the Quality of the Persons of whom he speaks, can either restrain his intemperance, or correct his rudeness and indiscretion. For Monsieur Fagel having said, that he believes there are many Roman Catholics, who under the present state of Affairs, will not be very desirous to be in Public Offices and Employments, nor use any attempts against those of the Reformed Religion; and that not only because they know it to be contrary to Law, but lest it should at some other time, prove prejudicial to their Persons and States. Our Author is so unjust as well as imprudent, as to call this a menacing not only of all the Non-conformists and Roman Catholics in England, but a threatening of his Majesty, and an insulting over him: And from thence he takes occasion to add, that he hopes God will enable his Majesty to repress and prevent the effects of these menaces, and furnish him with means of mortifying those who do thus threaten and insult over him. It certainly argues a strange weakness and distemper of mind, to call so modest and soft an expression, both a menacing of the King and of all his Catholic Subjects, when I dare say, it proclaimeth the sense of all among the Papists who are endowed with any measure of Wisdom, and is nothing else save a Declaration of the measure, by which they do at this day regulate and conduct themselves. But the injustice of our Author towards Their Highnesses in his Reflections upon the forementioned expression of the Pensionary's, is his intending them by the persons that do threaten his Majesty and insult over him. For did he take Mijn Heer Fagel for the only guilty person in reference to this Phrase which he miscalls a Menace, it would be a strange detracting in him from the Power and Glory of his Majesty of Great Britain, to wish him sufficient means whereby to shun the effects of a Gentleman's threatening, whose highest Figure in the World is merely to be a Minister in a Republic. Nor would he bring down his Master to so low a level, as to make it the highest Object of his Hopes, concerning so great a Monarch, that he shall be able to mortify a person, who whatsoever his Merit be, yet his Fortune is to fill no sublimer a Post. So that it can be no other save the Prince and Princess, whom our Author in his usual way of injustice, petulancy and indiscretion does here character, represent and intent. And what he thereupon means by the Kings having power in his hands, and by his hoping that God would furnish him with means by which he may mortify them, is not a matter of difficult penetration, even by persons of the most ordinary capacities. For the several methods that have been projected, and are still carrying on, for the debarring them from the Succession to the Imperial Crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland, to which they have so Just and Hereditary a Right, are sufficient to detect unto us what our Author intends, and serve as a Key whereby to open the scope, and meaning of his Expressions. But whatsoever the Papal and Jesuitick Endeavours may be, for the obstructing and preventing their Ascending the Thrones of Great Britain, I dare say that all the effects they will have, will be only the discovering the folly and malice of those that attempt it, and that they can never be able to compass and accomplish it. For as their Highnesses have both that interest in the Love and Veneration of all Protestants, and so indisputable a Title, that it is impossible they should be precluded either by Force, or in a way to which their Enemies may affix the Name of Legal; so there is no great cause to apprehend or fear, their being supplanted by the King's having Male Issue of a vigour to live, considering both his Majesty's condition and the Queens, which is such that they can never communicate bona stamina vitae. And for the Papists being able to Banter a suppositious Brat upon the Nation, (tho' there are many among them villainous enough to attempt it) we have not only the watchfulness of Divine Providence to rely upon for preventing it, but there are many faithful and waking Eyes that will be ready and industrious to discover the Cheat. And if the People once perceive, that there hath been a contrivance carried on for putting so base an affront upon a noble and generous Kingdom, and of committing so horrid a wrong against such Virtuous and Excellent Princes; I donot know but that their Resentment of it may rise so high, as that all who are discovered to have been accessary unto it, may undergo the like fate that they of old did, who were found to have been conscious and contributory unto the thrusting the Eunuch Smerdis into the Persian Throne. Nor do I in the least doubt but that the same Righteous, Wise and Merciful God, who prevented the like villainy when designed in the time of Queen Mary, and which was advanced so far, that some Priests had the wickedness and impudence, both to give thanks in the public Churches for her Majesty's safe delivery of a Prince, and also to describe the Beauty and Features of the Babe, tho' all she had gone with amounted only to a Tympany of Wind and Water; I say that I do not question, but that the same God will out of his Immense Grace and Sapience, find ways and methods, of which there are many within the compass of his Infinite Understanding, by which so hellish a piece of villainy, if there be any such projected and promoting, may be brought into light and disappointed. And truly when I consider the Christian and Royal Virtues wherewith their Highnesses are imbued, and how they are furnished, with all the Moral, Intellectual and Religious accomplishments, that are requisite for adapting them to wield Sceptres, and which render them not only so agreeable to the necessities and desires of all good people, but so admirably qualified to answer both the present posture of Affairs in Europe, and the Exigencies of those that are oppressed and afflicted; I grow into a confidence, that as the Church of God both in Britain and elsewhere, and the circumstances in which so many Countries are involved, do bespeak and crave their Exaltation to the Thrones of the British Dominions, so that they are both destined of God unto them, and will in due time be safely conducted thither. Nor can I avoid pleasing myself with those joyful and hopeful thoughts, when I reflect upon the various steps of Divine Providence, by which they are brought into that nearness of legally inheriting these Crowns. Certainly there is a voice that speaketh loud to this purpose, not only in Gods denying a Legitimate Issue to the Late King, and in his taking away from time to time all the Lawful Male Offspring of his present Majesty, but in the uniting their Highnesses in Marriage, even to the crossing a certain Persons Inclinations, whom I forbear to Name, as well as to the disgusting of a Neighbouring Monarch, and to the defeating the busy endeavours of the Popish Party. But I must return to our Author, whose Injustice to their Highnesses, and his malice against their Honour, Interest and Reputation, knows neither end nor bounds. For upon Monsieur Fagel's having asked, Who would go about to advise him or any man else, to endeavour to persuade their Highnesses, whom God has so far honoured, as to make them. Defenders of his Church, to approve and promote things so dangerous and hurtful both to the Reformed Religion, and to the public safety, as the Repealing of the Test Laws would be; our Author does hereupon, with his wont Friendship, Equity, and Candour to those Excellent Princes, tells us that he hath not met with so bold a Declaration as this of calling them the Protectors of God's Church, and that the ascribing it to them, is a detracting from the Honour of Kings and Monarches, who will not Abdicate from themselves to any other so glorious a Title. And in pursuance of his rancour towards their Highnesses, he runs out in his way of Wit and Learning into a most silly and impertinent Discourse about the Nature of a Church, and accuseth the Prince and Princess, as if by having this Character conferred upon them, they had a design to usurp from his Majesty of Great Britain the stile of Defenders of the Faith, and to challenge to themselves the being the Protectors of the Church of England. Surely this Gentleman does by virtue of his Popish Zeal and Irish Understanding, believe that no Titles are due to Princes in reference to the Church of God, but what are derived from the Papal Chair. Whereas I dare say, that Monsieur Fagel in bestowing this Title upon Their Highnesses, did not dream of the Roman Pontif, but had been taught it by God Almighty, whom I take to be the Supreme and true Fountain of Honour, who is pleased to character such Princes as do cherish and favour his Church, by the Name of Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers, which is the term that the Pensionary useth in reference to their Highnesses. And as it is their own merit, which according to the Tenor of the Divine Creation, hath entitled them to this glorious stile; so they are neither to be ridiculed nor hectored out of that duty, of countenancing and supporting the Reformed Religion, nor to be deterred by bold and empty words from those compassionate, generous, and Princely Offices to sincere Orthodox Believers, by which they have deserved it. And while others glory in the enjoyment of the Titles of most Christian and most Catholic Kings, which their Vassalage to the See of Rome, their contributing to the Exaltation of the Triple Crown, and their being the Pope's Executioners in the shedding the Blood of Saints, hath procured unto them, 'tis enough for their Highnesses to be by the Suffrage of all true Protestants, and that agreeably to the Doctrine and Authority of the Sacred Scriptures, had in esteem, and reverenced for Nutritii and Protectors of God's Church. Nor do they appropriate this stile to themselves, tho' they account it the brightest among all their Titles, but they acknowledge it to belong equally to many others, and are afflicted at nothing more, than that all Potentates may not justly claim a share in it. And as the Pensionary's ascribing it unto their Highnesses was out of no design to usurp upon the King of England's Title of Defender of the Faith, nor to affix any Authority unto them over that Church, so it will be no presumption to add, that all of the Reformed Religion in that Kingdom, how much soever differing in little and circumstantial things among themselves, are yet so far sensible of the obligations they are under to Their Highnesses, and of the benefits they have all the Assurance to expect from them hereafter, that without meaning ill either to the King or to any one else, they will unanimously join in styling them Defenders of the Christian Reformed Faith, and Protectors of God's Church professing the Protestant Religion. And they will easily know with whom they are to be angry, and against whom to direct their Resentments. Mijn Heer Fagel had said, that if the Dissenters cannot during his Majesty's Reign be eased from the Penal Laws, unless the Tests be also abrogated, that this will be an unhappiness unto them, but for which the Roman Catholics are only to be blamed, who choose rather to be contented, that they and their Posterity should remain still obnoxious to the Penal Laws, and exposed to the hatred of the whole Nation, than be restrained from a capacity of attempting any thing against the peace and security of the Reformed Religion. Our Author whose envy and injustice against Their Highnesses, is not yet fully spent, doth in his imprudent and indiscreet way obtrude from hence upon the World, that the Nonconformists as well as the Roman Catholics may hereby see where their true Interest stands, and that they are extremely obliged to those in whose Name this advice is given, for the Consolation afforded them in the condition under which they are stated by Law. Which is as much as if he should harangue the Nonconformists into discontentment against the Prince and Princess, by assuring them that they are to hope for no relief against the Penal Laws by any favour of theirs. Whereas the Dissenters are not only told that their Highnesses are willing to consent, but that they do fully approve, that they should have an entire Liberty for the full exercise of their Religion, without being obnoxious to receive any prejudice, trouble, or molestation upon that account. So that the heat which our Author would inflame the Dissenters unto against their Highnesses, aught to turn and spend itself against the Papists, who rather than part with the Tests which the Nonconformists are as much concerned to have maintained as they of the National Communion can be, are resolved to keep all the Penal Laws in force, and to leave the Dissenters under the dread and apprehension of them. But this they may be fully persuaded of, that if they can escape the edge of them during this King's Reign, they will be in no danger from them, in case the Nation come once to be so happy as to see their Highnesses seated on the Throne. For as much as they have not only their word, which was hitherto never violated, laid to pledge for their relief and ease, but in that their Interest as well as their Principles will oblige them to be compassionate and tender to all sorts of Protestants, and if they cannot be so Fortunate as to unite them, yet to exercise equal kindness and favour towards them.  
Having examined what our Author in his impertinent way venteth in unjust Reflections against their Highnesses; and having in some measure chastened him for them, tho' not to the Degree he does deserve; I come now in the third place to call him to an account for his calumniating the States of these Provinces, and for his endeavouring to possess the minds of their Popish Subjects with dissatisfaction and prejudice towards them. And if he be the person whom most men take him for, tho' he may have herein acted suitably to himself, yet he hath behaved disagreeably to his character, and unworthy of the Post, which his Master hath placed him in. Nor need we from henceforth to doubt, but that he does all the ill Offices he can between his Majesty of Great Britain and this Government, seeing he hath by slanders destitute of all Foundation, most maliciously studied to raise differences betwixt them and their own Subjects. And if the Intelligence which he transmits' to Whitehall, be as equally distant from truth and sincerity, as the Memoirs are which he hath here published, we may easily conjecture what little credit ought to be given unto it, tho' at the same time we cannot but discern the end that it must be shapen and designed unto. Nor was there the least occasion administered by mijn Heer Fagel in his Letter, by which our Author could be provoked to attack these States, with so much rudeness, injustice, and falsehood, as he hath done in his Answer. For all that the Pensionary had said, and which it seems threw our Author into a raging fit, was only that their Highnesses could consent that the Papists in England, Scotland and Ireland, should be suffered to exercise their Religion with as much freedom, as is allowed them in these Provinces, in which they enjoy a full liberty of Conscience. And as the time hath been, and may hereafter come, wherein the English Roman Catholics would have thought, and may again account such a Liberty for a happiness; so I do not understand if the condition of the Roman Catholics in these countries', be as our Author describes it, with what consistency either to Reason or with themselves, the Papists in England, should have so often heretofore in their Pleas for a Toleration, have made the Liberty vouchsafed their Brethren in these Provinces, not only a motive for their own being capable of Indulgence, but to have represented it as the largest measure of the freedom they desired, and which they would have been thankful for. Seeing this Gentleman according to his accustomed manner of truth and ingenuity takes upon him to assure us, That as there can be no greater persecution, than what the Papists undergo in the exercise of their Religion, in Guelderland, Freesland, Zealand, and the Province of Groningue; so that the Liberty which they even enjoy in Holland, is so mean and inconsiderable, that it doth not deliver them from being subject to daily fines and molestations. Surely this man is either very unacquainted with what is done upon the account of Religion in other parts of the World, or else he must needs think, that the most brutal severities to some, are Acts of Merit; while gentle restrictions upon others, are mortal Crimes, otherwise he could never write at this ignorant and extravagant rate, wherein all persons must discern his folly as well as insincerity and neglect of truth. For we have too many deplorable evidences daily before our Eyes, besides those which arrive with us by reports of unquestionable credit, of a stranger kind of Persecution exercised towards those of the Reformed Religion in France and Piedmont, than any which the Roman Catholics in these Provinces can be alleged to be under, except it be by one of our Author's veracity and discretion. Neither needs there any other Refutation of the calumny with which he asperseth the Supreme and Subordinate Magistrates of this Country in reference to the treating their Popish Subjects with horrid Severities, nor a clearer proof that those of the Romish Communion, do esteem themselves to be in a condition of peace, freedom and ease under this Government, than that of their behaviour during the late War carried on by the French King against these States, which he gave out both at Rome and at several other Courts in Europe, to have been undertaken in favour, and for the restoring of the Roman Catholic Religion. For had they lain under that grievous persecution, and those tragical hardships in the practice of it, which our Author would impose the belief of upon the World; they would not have failed to welcome that Monarch as their happy Deliverer, and would have united in a general Insurrection against the States, for their having been Tyrannous over them. But instead of that, most of them acquitted themselves with the same Zeal for the support of this Government, and in defence of their Country, that other Subjects did. Which demonstrates beyond all control, that they do not judge themselves to be in so wretched and miserable circumstances, as this bold and calumnious Person represents them to be. And whereas Monsieur Fagel in justification of the necessity of preverving the Test Laws by which the Papists are precluded from Employments and Places of Trust, and to rectify a mistake in Mr. Stewart about his conceiving the Roman Catholics to continue capable of bearing public Offices in this Commonwealth, had said, that by the Laws of this Republic they are expressly shut out from all the Employments both of Policy and Justice. Our Author does hereupon with the highest Injustice, and with all the acrimony he can, accuse the States, not only of departing from the express Terms of the Pacification of Gant, but of violating the Articles of the Union at Utrecht, which was the Foundation upon which this Government was both originally erected and doth still subsist. And with his wont degree of knowledge and prudence he further adds, That the Provinces, and most of the Cities, would not have entered into the foresaid Union, but upon condition that they of the Roman Catholic Religion should at all times possess the Government. And particularly that Amsterdam, had it stipulated unto them, under the Guaranty of the Prince of Orange, that none of the Reformed Religion should be allowed a Place to assemble in, either within the Walls, or without, so far as the Jurisdiction of the City did extend. One would have little expected, that a person living in the Communion of the Romish Church, as our Author professeth himself to do, should upbraid these States with the violation of Articles, relating unto a Grant made unto any for their Security in the free Exercise of their Religion, at a season when Popish Sovereigns not only account it their glory to break all Laws, Oaths and Edicts, by which Protestants had their Religion, together with many other Rights and Privileges, established and confirmed unto them, but who with a salvageness and barbarity which scarce any Age can parallel, seek to extirpate their Religion and destroy them. And all this attempted and pursued against them, not only without their being guilty of any crime, by which they might have deserved to lose the favour of their Princes, and to forfeit protection in the free exercise of their Religion, and their safety as to their Persons and Estates, which had been sworn unto them, and secured by Authentic Laws: But when one of the chiefest motives unto it, was their Loyalty, and the Merit that they had laid upon their respective Sovereigns, which by a new way of gratitude was thought fit to be thus recompensed and rewarded. And if we be not, as I have formerly said, strangely deceived in the Person and Character of our Author, this charge upon the States of these Provinces, is the effect of a most prodigious folly, as well as of inveterate malice, in that his Master contrary both to the Laws of the Realms, his often repeated Promises, and his Coronation Oath, assumes a power of introducing those into Offices, who by the Statutes of the Land stand precluded from them, and of thrusting them out, who alone are the Persons that are legally capable of them. Which manner of proceeding in his Majesty, hath besides the injustice that attends it towards all that are laid aside, a signal piece of ingratitude accompanying it to many of them, as having been the Persons, whose Zeal for his Person brought him to the Throne, and whose courage maintained him in it. But I shall not think it enough merely to have exposed his imprudence and indiscretion in the forementioned accusation against the whole Governing Body of this Country; but I shall likewise show it to be false, slanderous, and unjust in every part and branch of it. And that I may act with more truth and candour than our Author hath done, I do acknowledge, that at the first commencement of the War against the King of Spain, for the defence of the Laws and Privileges of these and the neighbouring Provinces, that not only they of the Reformed Religion, but likewise the Roman Catholics, took Arms and hazarded their Lives and Estates in that just quarrel. And I do also grant that thereupon there was Liberty of Conscience allowed and established by several Treaties, in the virtue of which, both parties were to be equally tolerated, and the one not to disturb or disquiet the other. Nor was there ever any thing done by way of Ordinance or Law, to lessen or restrain the liberty of the Papists, nor to abridge, much less deprive them, of any Power, Jurisdiction and Authority that they possessed, so long as they remained faithful in the common cause, and behaved themselves with Equity, Justice and Peace towards those who had withdrawn from the Roman Communion. But such was the ascendency of the Priests over the Roman Catholics, and so powerful was their influence upon them, that in a little time they not only hindered and molested the Protestants in the exercise of their Religion, and committed many unjust and cruel severities against them, but they proceeded to various attempts of betraying the Rights and Civil Liberties of the whole Country, and of enslaving it both to the Tyranny of the King of Spain, and to the bloody and cruel Inquisition. So that from hence it became a matter of necessity rather than at first of choice, that the Government should be disposed into Protestant hands; and that the liberty of the Papists, should have those limits and regulations given unto it, as might render it both consistent with the peace, freedom, and safety of those of the Reformed Religion, and with the preservation of the Civil Rights and Privileges of these Provinces. This is the account, which all who have written with any knowledge and integrity of the Transactions of those Times, do give us of the many Changes and Revolutions that fell out in reference to Religion, till all matters both concerning it, and the Political Government of these countries' came to be established in the Form and Way, wherein they do still continue and subsist. And this I do undertake to make good by all public, Authentic, and approved Histories, if our Author shall have the confidence to insist upon the justification of his criminations, And all that I shall at present direct men unto for the confirmation of what I have said, is that admirable Apology of William I. Prince of Orange, whom his present Highness, does in Wisdom, Steddiness, and true temperate Christian Zeal so signally imitate, and which that great Prince, who was the first and happy Founder of this Republic, published in defence of himself, and of those actings, for which the slavish and mercenary Factors of Rome and Spain had traduced and aspersed him. But let us advance to a particular Examination of those matters of Fact, upon which our Author challengeth these States for violating their Faith with their Roman Catholic Subjects. And the things he is pleased to specify, are their departing from the Terms of the Pacification of Gant, and their breaking the Articles of the Union agreed unto at Utrecht, 1597. Nor am I unwilling to acknowledge, that soon after the Pacification concluded at Gant, there were several indecent and undiscreet things done contrary to the purport and tendency of it, both by those of the Romish, and by them of the Reformed Religion. Which proceeded from the Superstitious Fury of the former, and the imprudent Zeal of the latter. Yet it is certain, that the ground of its coming to be rendered wholly ineffectual, arose from a design of the King of Spain's, under the cloak and palliation of that Treaty, to subvert the Civil Rights and Privileges of all the Provinces, to the Defence and Preservation of which the Roman Catholics as well as Protestants were sworn and bound by the said Pacification. For after that Philip II. had in compliance with the necessity of his Affairs, consented unto, and ratified all the Terms, Provisions and Conditions, which both the Papists and the Reformed had in that Pacification, League and Confederacy, insisted upon, and agreed to adhere unto; it was soon after discovered by Letters intercepted to Don John, who was at that time constituted Governor over the Low Countries, that all which Philip aimed at, was thro' the having rendered them secure by the Ratification of that Treaty, to take advantages whereby to enslave them, and under the Covert of it, to provide himself of means, by which he might be established in an unbounded Tyranny over them. So that by reason of what was detected in those Letters, and from Don John's proceeding to possess himself of Namur, and his endeavouring to corrupt and debauch the Germane Troops, which were in the State's service, and paid by them, together with the defection of many of the Roman Catholics from all the Terms of that Pacification; the War came again to be revived against the King of Spain, and all that had been agreed unto at Gant, was rendered ineffectual and overthrown. And I would fain know of our Learned and Wise Author, how the States of the Seven Provinces are more guilty of the violation of that Pacification, by making the Protestant Religion, to be that of the public Establishment, within their Territories and Jurisdiction; than the King of Spain, and the States of the Spanish Netherlands, are in their denying a Toleration of the Protestant Religion in those Provinces; seeing I am sure it was agreed and sworn unto in that Pacification. And as for the Union concluded at Vtrecht, the Terms whereof our Author upbraids these States with a departure from: It will be no difficult matter to show how his knowledge and sincerity are in reference to this particular of one measure and piece. For tho' divers of the Provinces, which entered into that Union, did thereby enjoy a Liberty of choosing and determining which of the two Religions should have the stamp of the public establishment within their own Jurisdictions; yet it was then and there ordained, that the Protestant Religion alone should be publicly professed, and have the protection of the Laws in the Provinces of Holland and Zealand. And as the other Provinces were left to do, as they should judge best for the peace and safety of their respective Territories, and the support and defence of the Union; so it is a thing wherein all that have written with any integrity, do agree, that the alterations which were afterwards made in these Provinces, or in reference unto them, concerning Religion, were either resolved and decreed in the Provincial Assemblies of the States of those several Provinces, or else in the meetings of the States-General, where not only the Deputies of those several Provinces were present and consenting, but behoved to have the approbation of their Principals, in order to the rendering those Alterations legal and binding. Nor is it unworthy to be observed, that the chief occasion for shutting the Roman Catholics out of the Government, and for depressing the Romish Religion from being Dominant, arose from the Papists themselves, in that not only contrary to their stipulations and promises, they were found in the virtue of a malice imbibed from their Religion, to be upon all occasions committing violences and outrages against the Reformed, but in that the Roman Catholic Magistrates, and many others of that Communion, were discovered to retain too great an inclination to Spain, and to be ready to abandon and betray the Freedom and Civil Rights of their Country, instead of continuing steadfast and faithful in the defence of them, as they had covenanted and sworn. In a word, as neither the Articles of the Union at Vtrecht, nor any other Terms agreed upon, before the Abdication of the King of Spain, which was not until Anno 1581. can be called the Fundamental Laws of the Government of this Republic, tho' they may be styled conditions upon which such and such Provinces Associated for mutual defence against the Spanish Power and Tyranny; so it is undeniable, that by reason of the many dangers they found themselves exposed unto, and the hazards they had run of being betrayed again into the hands of the Spaniard, through their having suffered the Magistracy to remain any wherein Papists, and through their having allowed the Roman Catholic Religion to be publicly preached and exercised, they thereupon re-assumed and gave a new frame unto their Union in the Year 1583. in which it was agreed and enacted by all the Provinces, that from that time forward, the Reformed Religion should alone be openly professed and preached, and that none but Protestants should from that time be admitted to any Office of Policy and Justice in the Government. And as this is the true Fundamental Law upon which this State hath since so happily subsisted and flourished; so there can be nothing objected against the Justice of it, but what will lie against all States of the World, who have always changed and moulded their Laws, as they have been necessitated in order to self-preservation. And so remote from all truth, is our Author's affirming the Roman Catholics to have been upon these Alterations brought under Persecution; that Sir William Temple, whom the World will much sooner believe than this Gentleman, tho' possibly he may bear the same character which that worthy person once did, does assure us in his excellent Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands. That no Papist can here complain of being pressed in his Conscience, of being restrained from his own manner of Worship in his House, or obliged to any other abroad, and that all such, who ask no more than to serve God and save their own Souls, have as much Freedom, Ease and Security as they can desire. Yea it is demonstrable that the Roman Catholics enjoy advantages under this Government, which they have not in Popish States. In that being suffered to exercise their Religion so far as is necessary to attain all the ends of it, if it be capable of affording them any whereon they can hereafter find themselves happy; they are delivered from the Tyranny of Priests over their Persons and Estates, and hindered from being in a condition to do that ill to others, which the Doctrines of their Church would both tempt them unto and justify them in. And as to that which our Author says of the injustice done to the City of Amsterdam, and of the violating the Conditions towards the Roman Catholics there, upon which under the guaranty of the Prince of Orange they came into the Union; he is mistaken in that whole matter, and betrays only his ignorance, infidelity, or both. For the Conditions which he mentioneth, were the result of an Agreement made Anno 1578. when upon the Nassovian Army's coming before their City to attack them, they abandoned the Party and Interest of the King of Spain, whom they had till that time adhered unto, and came into an Alliance with the rest of the Towns of the Province, to oppose him in defence of the Privileges of these countries'. And as this was a year before the Union concluded at Vtrecht, into which Amsterdam entered at the same time that Gelderland, Zutphen, Holland, Zealand, and Utrecht did; so they joined in the Union upon the same Terms, that the other Towns of their own Province had agreed unto. Nor could the Prince of Orange be Guaranty in reference to the conditions specified in the Union; forasmuch as though the Act of Union was signed Jan. 23. 1579. yet the Prince did not sign it till the May following. And that the Roman Catholic Magistrates, came to be divested of the Government, contrary to the Articles made with them when they forsook the party of the King of Spain, they have none to blame for it but themselves, nor was there that injustice in it which our Author does imagine. For not being satisfied to remain disobedient and refractory to an Edict and Decree of the Archduke Mathias and the Council of State, who Anno 1578. had appointed, that wheresoever there were a hundred Families of those professing the Reformed Religion, that they should there be allowed a Church or Chapel for the exercise of their Worship; they not only broke all their capitulations made with the Protestants, thro' oppressing them in various, severe, unjust, method's, and in denying them a decent and convenient place in which they might bury their dead, but they were found to be still inclining to the Spanish Interest, and ready to espouse it upon the first convenient opportunity. And therefore the Protestants, who were by much the majority, partly to relieve themselves from the sufferings which were daily inflicted upon them contrary to stipulations and Articles, and partly to prevent the mischiefs which would have ensued to the whole Country, should that City have been betrayed again into the power and hands of the Spaniards, assumed the Government to themselves, and eased the other party of the Trust, which they had so unwisely and unrighteously managed. Nor can our Author deny, but that since they took on them the Ruling Authority, they have exercised it with all the moderation that can be expressed. And have been so far from returning to the Roman Catholics, the like measures which themselves had met with, that they have in no one thing given them cause to complain, unless they should quarrel that they are kept out of capacity of doing the mischief, their priests would otherways be ready to excite them unto, and which their Religion would countenance them in.  
But it is now time that I should proceed to the fourth thing, for which I promised to call our Anonymous Answerer to an account. And were he not of a singular Forehead, and of a peculiar complexion from all others; he could not have had the impudence to endeavour to deceive the world into a belief, that the Protestant Dissenters in England, stand listed by their Highnesses into the same rank with the Papists, and that they are hereafter to expect, to be shut up into the same state and condition. Certainly he must either have an Antipathy woven into his nature against all truth and sincerity, or else thro' having long accustomed himself to the misreporting of persons and to the giving false representations of things, he must at last have acquired an incurable Habit, otherwise it were impossible to prevaricate to that degree from truth, in every thing he meddleth with, and which he undertaketh to say. For Mijn Heer Fagel having declared, that the reason why their Highnesses can not agree to the Repeal of the Test Laws, is because they are of no other tendency, than to secure the Reformed Religion from the designs of the Roman Catholics, and that they contain only conditions and provisions, whereby men may be qualified to be Members of Parliament, and to bear public Offices. Our Author hereupon tells us. That the Nonconformists as well as the Roman Catholics, do apprehend that they receive a great deal of damage, by those Laws, and do account them extremely prejudicial to their Persons and Families. And whereas Monsieur Fagel had said, that he would be glad to hear one good Reason, whereby a Protestant fearing God, and concerned for his Religion, could be prevailed upon to consent to the Repealing of these Laws which have been enacted by the Authority of King and Parliament, and that have no other tendency save the providing for the safety of the Reformed Religion, and the hindreing Roman Catholics from being in a capacity to subvert it. Our Author in way of reflection upon this, tells us, that it is not only a Childish demand, but that it is to be hoped that the pensionary will from hence be brought to acknowledge, how trifling and weak all those Reasons are, by which he would preclude the Nonconformists as well as the Roman Catholics from public Employments. So that by these and many other passages equally false and disingenuous in our Author's pretended Answer, which for brevity's sake I forbear to mention, it is apparent that he endeavours to persuade the world into a belief, that the Dissenters are stated by their Highnesses in the same rank and condition with the Papists, and are to expect to be treated in the same manner, in case it please the Almighty God to bring Their Highnesses to the Throne. One would wonder at this sudden and strange change in the opinion and conduct of the Papists towards the Nonconformists; that they who were represented by them a while ago ' as unfit to live in His Majesty's Dominions; should now come to be accounted the King's best and most Faithful Subjects, and worthy to be advanced to the chief Trusts and Employs. 'Tis but a few years since, that all the Laws enacted against them, were judged to be too few and gentle, and therefore they had Laws executed upon them, to which the Legislators had never made them obnoxious; but now the Roman Catholics are become so tender of their ease and safety, that out of pure kindness unto them, if any will be so foolish as to believe it, they must have Laws abrogated, which in the worst times, and during the most illegal and barbarous procedures against them, they were never affected with nor suffered the least prejudice by. And whereas it was the only way for persons heretofore to make their Court at St. James', by declaiming against the Dissenters as Rebels and Traitors, and by putting them into a savage Dress, to be run upon as beasts of prey; it is now grown the only method of becoming gracious at Whitehall, to proclaim their Loyalty, and to cry them up for the only people in whom his Majesty, with safety to his Person and Crown, can repose a confidence. But under all the Shapes which the Papists do assume, they may be easily discovered to retain the same malice to the Reformed Religion, and only to act those various and opposite parts, in order the better to subvert it. And the Dissenters being harassed and oppressed before, and indulged and caressed now, was upon the same motive of hatred unto it, and in subserviency to its extirpation. The method's are altered, but the design is one, and though they have changed their Tools, yet they remain constant in the pursuance of the same End. While they of the Church of England were found compliant with the ways, which the Factors for Rome thought serviceable thereunto, they were not only the Favourites of the Court and of the whole Popish party, but were gratified, at least as was pretended, with a rigorous execution of the Penal Laws upon Dissenters. But there remaining several steps to be taken for the introduction of Popery, and the extirpation of the Reformed Religion, which they of the National Communion would not go along with them in, they are forced to shift Instruments, and to betake themselves to the Nonconformists; whose assistance the better to engage, they have not only suspended all the Penal Laws, to which the Dissenters were liable, but have endeavoured to fill them with jealousy and apprehension of danger from the Test Acts, though at the same time they know that Nonconformists never either did, or could receive prejudice by them. Only they are sensible, that if they could work up that easy people into such a belief, they should thereby not only obtain their concurrence and abettment, for the rescinding of those Laws, that are at present the only great remaining Fence about our Religion, and upon the abrogation whereof nothing could hinder the Papists from getting into a condition to extirpate it; but make them a form and united Body with themselves against the Prince and Princess of Orange, who have with so much Wisdom, Courage and Integrity, declared that they are against the having them repealed. And as the Dissenters cannot have so far renounced all regard both to honesty and to a good name, as to be fond of being herded with the Papists, or thank our Author for it; so they must be become void of all sense and understanding, if they suffer themselves to be either wheedled or frighted into an opinion of their being subject to receive any damage by the Tests; it being so expressly contrary both to the Terms of those Laws, and to their own experience. Nor can they be so far abandoned of God, nor prove so treacherous to the Nation, Posterity and the whole Protestant Interest through Europe, as to cooperate to the Repeal of them, by destroying that great Fence about the Reformed Religion in England, and to put the Papists into capacity both of subverting it there and every where else. And setting aside a few mercenary fellows among them, there is no ground to fear, after we have had so many proofs of their zeal for the Protestant Religion and English Liberties, in the worst of times and under the greatest Temptations, that they should at this season, when all others behave themselves with so much Integrity and Courage, be accessary to so villainous a thing. The ill success which the Court hath met with in the several Towns and City's, since the late Regulation of the Corporations, sufficiently shows, that the Dissenters who were put into Magistracy, in hopes by them to have compassed the packing of a Parliament, are no less careful of preserving the Test Laws, than they of the Church of England Communion were, who were displaced to make way for them. And to discover the grossness of the abuse, which our Author, without regard to Truth or Ingenuity, endeavours to put upon them, as if they were judged by their Highnesses to be incapable of Trusts and Employments, or any ways concluded to stand under those restraints by the Test, which the Roman Catholics do; there is not one word in Mijn Heer Fagel's Letter, whereby they are said to be subject unto them, or by which there is any ground administered of fancying they are put into the same rank with the Papists, and whereby to fear that they may hereafter come to be treated accordingly. But in stead of this, they are expressly told, that Their Highnesses do both allow and desire the abrogation of all the Penal Laws against Dissenters, and the having them freed from the severity of them; and that they do not only consent but hearty approve of their having an entire liberty granted them for the full exercise of their Religion, without any trouble or hindrance, or being left exposed to the least molestation or inconvenience upon that account. And to testify how far the Nonconformists are from being in the least menaced by those Laws, it is again Declared, that the only reason why their Highnesses refuse to consent to the having them repealed, is, because that they have no other tendency, save to Secure the Reformed Religion from the Designs of the Papists, by containing provisions in the virtue of which, those only may be kept out of Office who can not testify that they are of the Reformed, and not of the Roman Catholic Religion. Which as it is the highest evidence imaginable, of their own steadfastness and integrity in the Reformed Religion, and of the compassion and love which they equally bear to all who profess it, and how careful they will at all times be to have it maintained and supported; so it is the putting such a merit upon all Protestants, that it should engage their prayers for their happy extation to the Throne, and make them ambitious as well as willing and ready to hazard their lives and Fortunes, for the securing the Succession unto them, if any should be so wicked as to go about to preclude them.  
But I must pay a further attendance upon our Author, and accompany him to the fifth particular which I promised to consider; namely that according to his own foolish and incoherent way of writing, while he pretends to commend and justify the proceeding of His Majesty of Great Britain, he publisheth the villainy of the Papal Church, and proclaims the dishonour and injustice of divers Eminent Monarches and Princes of the Romish Communion. His Panegyrics upon the King of England, are so many just Satyr's upon the Church of Rome, the Monarch of France, and the Duke of Savoy, etc. For if it be becoming a Christian, to be of a contrary judgement to those who are for persecuting such as differ from the public and established Religion, and if it be a sentiment worthy of a Royal mind, that none ought to be oppressed for their Consciences in Divine Matters; what characters of irreligion, ignominy, wickedness, are due unto them, who judge it to be meritorious to destroy sincere Christians, for no other pretended Crime, save that they cannot believe as the Pope and the Church of Rome do. Surely our Author must either be extremely ignorant of the Doctrine of his own Church, and of the bloody and barbarous practices pursuant thereunto, both at this day, and for many ages past; or else he must be the most unsincere miscreant that ever writ, or at best be guilty of the inconsistency and folly as to continue in the Communion of a Church, whose Articles of Faith he condemns as Antichristian, and whose practices according to the Terms made necessary for Salvation, he abhorreth both as unworthy of Royal Minds, and contrary to Christian Piety. But though nothing can render a false man honest, or a foolish Man wise, yet seeing something may be done towards the curing a person's ignorance if he be teachable, or at least to show his obstinacy, and that the fault is in his will, not in his Understanding, if he will not learn and be convinced; I shall therefore both acquaint him a little with the Doctrine of that Church, and briefly put him in remembrance, how these of the Romish Fellowship have therefore persecuted Christians, and still continue so to do, only for differing from the public and established Religion. As to the first, it is sufficiently known that according to the judgement of the Church of Rome we are Heretics, and that Heresy being Crimen laesae Majestatis Divinae, we are therefore the worst of Traitors, and liable to the Penalties of the greatest High Treason. And thereupon we are not only declared to be infamous and sentenced to be deprived of all Honour and Dignity, and to be incapable of all Offices, and have our Estates confiscated and seized; but we are condemned to be burnt, and if that cannot conveniently be effected, it is both made lawful and meritorious to extirpate us by War or Massacre, as shall be best and most safe for the Church of Rome. In order whereunto, not only all Laws made for our Security are declared to be null, and that no promises made unto us, aught to be kept; but all Princes, that neglect to destroy and extirpate us, are proclaimed to be deposed. And suitable hereunto has their carriage been for many ages to such as differ from them in Articles of Faith, and will not join in their Superstitions and Idolatries. In proof whereof I neither need to insist upon the infinite Murders, committed by the Inquisition, the most Devilish Engine of Cruelty that ever the World was acquainted with, nor to reflect so far backward as the Parisian and Irish Massacres, or the infinite Slaughters perpetrated heretofore in France, Germany, and the Low Countries, etc. seeing we have such fresh and doleful evidences of the mercy and gentleness of the Papal Church, in the ungrateful, inhuman, perjurious, and savage persecutions executed so lately in France and Piedmont. If it be the effect of Royal and Paternal affection in the King of England to his Subjects, that all he endeavoureth, is to treat them as becomes a common Father, without making any distinction between one and another, as our Author is pleased to call it in his Testimony concerning him; what cruel Parents must many Princes of the Roman Communion be, who act with that difference towards their people, that while they cherish and embrace some, they tear out the Bowels, and suck the blood of others? And if no Society destitute of such tender and Christian affections, can merit the name of a Church, we hence learn where to fasten the character of being the Mother of Harlots. In that we not only know whose Doctrine it is, that whom She cannot convert, She ought to destroy; but that we have observed her, to have been in all Ages drunk with the Blood of Saints. All the commendations our Author bestows upon the King of England; are not only either so many accusations of His Majesty's insincerity in the Papal Faith, or infallible indications that both the King (pardon the expression) and his Minister, are Hypocritical Dissemblers; but they are stabbing and twinging Satyr's against Mother Church, and the Holy Father, and against his Brittanick Majesty's dear Brother and Ally the French King. Nor can we be guilty either of Crime or Indecency, in the worst we can say of the Church of Rome, and the Most Christian King; seeing we have in equivalent Terms a Precedent for it, both from so good a Catholic, and so wise a Minister of a great Monarch, as our honourable Author is.  
And though I begin to grow weary of conversing with so impertinent a man, yet I am bound to wait upon him a little longer, and while the Reader can reap no advantage by any thing he says, to see whether it be not possible to lay hold of an occasion from his Ignorance and Folly, to communicate things that may be more solid and instructive. The sixth thing therefore whereof I accused him, and for which I promised to call him to an account, is his egregious ignorance in relation to Government, Laws, Customs, and matters of Fact, Mijn Heer Fagel tells us, that the Test Laws being enacted by King and Parliament for the Security of the Reformed Religion, and the Roman Catholics receiving no prejudice by them, but being merely restrained from getting into a condition to subvert it, therefore Their Highnesses could not consent to their Repeal. And he further adds, that there is no Kingdom, Commonwealth, or any constituted Body and Society, in which there are not Laws made for the safety thereof, which not only provide against all attempts that may disturb their peace, but which prescribe such conditions as they judge necessary, for the discerning who are qualified to bear Employments. To which he again subjoins, that there is a great difference between the conduct of these of the Reformed Religion towards Roman Catholics, which is moderate, and only to prevent their getting into a capacity to do hurt; and that of those of the Roman Catholic Religion towards the Reformed, who not being satisfied to exclude them from places of Trust, do both suppress the whole Exercise of their Religion and severely persecute all that profess it. And he finally adds, that both Reason and the Experience of the present, as well as past Ages do show, that it is impossible for Roman Catholics, and those of the Reformed Religion, when joined together in places of Trust, and public Employment, to maintain a good Correspondence, live in mutual peace, and to discharge their Offices quietly and to the public Good. Now from these several passages, which carry their own evidence along with them, our Author takes occasion both to vent his foolish and ridiculous Politics, and to proclaim his ignorance in History and of the most obvious matters of Fact. However we shall have the patience to hearken to what he hath been pleased to say, and shall examine it piece by piece, as we go along. And the first thing he does is to acquaint us with a mighty Mystery of State, and which none but so great a Minister could have been able to have revealed; namely, that though the King and Parliament upon the first Revolution with respect to Religion, and the introducing and setting up the Reformed Religion, thought fit to make those Laws which they judged necessary for its preservation; yet that it does not follow that his present Majesty and a Parliament would be of the same mind, but that they might enact Laws of a differing Nature from the former, and re-establish Religion into the same State, in which it was before the Reformed Doctrine and Worship was set up. We are much obliged to our Author for this discovery, though I must add, that this it is to trust a Fool with secrets, for he will be sure to be blabbing. For though he subjoin, that he will not say that matters would be pushed so far; yet he hath already told us enough, to make us understand both what his own hopes are, and what is designed by the Papal party, if they could compass a Parliament of a Complexion and Temper to their mind. But there are two fatal things, which lie in their way. One is, that neither progressing nor closeting, bribing nor threatening, can prove effectual to give them the slenderest ground of confidence of their obtaining a Parliament of that mould and constitution. And the second is, that all the Members must take the Tests, before they can be a Legal Parliament; and then there is little probability, that they who can make the Declaration required in these Laws, will be inclinable to Repeal them; especially at a season, when their own safety as well as that of the Protestant Religion, renders it so necessary to have them maintained. Whatsoever any Body of men, by what name soever they be called, or within what walls soever they assemble, shall attempt to do, without first having taken the Tests; is ipso facto null and void in Law, and will serve to no Legal purpose, but to make themselves obnoxious to the severest punishments, which the Justice of a provoked and betrayed Nation can be able to inflict upon them. So that we do not doubt what the King would do, for the re-establishing Popery and banishing the Protestant Religion, could he get a Parliament to his mind; but our hope is that he will not, and the better to prevent it, we will endeavour to keep our Test Laws. But to go on with our Author, who with his accustomed ignorance, but personating here the wisdom of a Solon or a Lycurgus, takes upon him to instruct us, that as nothing can be called the fundamental Law of a Kingdom or a Republic, but what was enacted at the commencement of that State or Society, before any alterations could fall out in it with reference to Religion; so nothing deserves the name of such a Law save that which is to the advantage and benefit of all the Subjects. It were not amiss here to inquire, by what Authority our Author fastens on Mijn Heer Fagel this Term of Fundamental Law in reference to the Tests; seeing he never used it in his Letter much less applied it to such a purpose. But falsifying is so natural to this Gentleman, that he could not avoid it, even when he might have been sensible, that he would not escape the being challenged for it. There is a Country in the world, that is said to bear no poisonous animal, nor had it need, seeing if any number of the Natives be of the mould and frame that some are, there are brutal and venomous Creatures enough in it, though there be neither Toad nor Serpent there. But may not the Test Laws answer the end they were designed unto, of being a Fence about Religion, though they be none of the Fundamental Laws of the Government. It is not the name that alone gives value to a Law; but the Sanction of the Legislative Authority, and the usefulness of it to the public good. A Statute, that was occasioned by a necessity arisng in reference to the public Safety, aught as much to be stood by and upheld while that necessity continues, as if it were an original Law and Coaeval with the Constitution. And if it was the indispensable dependence of the Welfare and Safety of the Community upon such and such Provisions at first, that gave them the Name of Fundamental Laws; I am sure, that under our present Circumstances, we may call the Test Laws absolutely needful, if we assume not the vanity to style them Fundamental. Besides I would fain know of our Author, that if all Laws lie exposed to an easy Abrogation, that are not coaeval with the Kingdom; what will then become of the Magna Charta for Liberty of Conscience, which his Majesty not only promiseth, but undertakes to make irrepealable? And withal may not some Laws be as necessary to the being and preservation of a State under the notion of Protestant; as others are to its being and subsistence under the consideration of an embodied and form Society? Every Society is bound to use all necessary means to preserve itself, and while it maketh no provisions in order thereunto, that derive inconvenience upon others, unless it be only to keep them from being able to do hurt; it would be a wickedness as well as a folly to neglect them. In a word, as the making no Laws necessary for the Safety of a people under any knowledge of God they may be grown up into, but what were coaeval with their first formation into a Kingdom or Republic, were the weakening and undermining the Security of the Christian Religion in all parts of the world where it hath obtained to be embraced and settled; so by the same reason that it is lawful to make provisions for the preservation of Christianity in a State professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ; it is also lawful to make the like provisions for the Security of the Reformed Religion in these Kingdoms and Commonwealths, which have judged it to be their duty to God, and their Souls, to receive and establish it. And for our Author's saying, that no Law deserves to be called Fundamental, save that which is to the benefit and advantage of all the Subjects; it is wholly impertinent to the case for which it is alleged, and does no way's attack or weaken what the Pensionary had said. For as the Laws contended for to be maintained, were never styled Fundamental; so many thousands may have benefit by a Law; whom nevertheless all persons of sense and wisdom will account unfit to be advanced to public Trusts. As no man will judge it unreasonable to require that all who are held capable of public employments, should have some degree of wit and understanding; so I think it is very reasonable that they should be qualified with so much honesty, as to be well affected to the Government as it is by Law established. And to speak properly it is not the Law that makes the Papists uncapable of Offices and Employments, it only declares they shall not be admitted, because they were incapable before, and had made themselves unfit to be trusted, partly through their dependence upon a foreign power, that is at enmity with the State, and seeks to subvert it, and partly by reason of that principle which they are possessed with, of its being their duty to destroy us whensoever they can. And as it's a great favour vouchsafed by the Government, to suffer such to live under it, as stand so ill affected to it, and want only means to overthrow it; so if the Roman Catholics will not be content with the first without the latter, it will be a great temptation upon the Kingdom to deprive them of the Privilege they have, because they would not be content with it, unless they might obtain that which the Nation could not grant, without being Felo de se, and without abandoning the means both of our safety here, and Happiness hereafter. And whereas our Author takes the confidence to tell us, That there are many States and Cities in Germany, where without the giving occasion to any disturbance, the Government is shared between Papists and Protestants, and where both those of the Roman Catholic and Reformed Religion, do equally partake in public Trusts and Employments: He must pardon me if I not only say, he is mistaken, but that it is a downright Falsehood, and that herein he betrays his wont ignorance, or at least gives us a new discovery of the insincerity that is natural to him. Nor would he have vented this in so general Terms, but that he did foresee if he should have condescended to particulars, how easy it would have been for persons of very ordinary acquaintance either with History or the World, to have both contradicted and refuted him. And if there were some one or other small City, where by reason of the Fewness of those of one Religion to exercise the Government, and to take care of the Welfare of the Society, those of the other Religion are sometimes received into Employments, in order to prevent the inconveniencies which the want of a competent number of Magistrates would be attended with, and where the Jealousy and Fear of being swallowed up by some envious and potent Neighbour, may lay them under a necessity of agreeing better together than otherwise they would or than the principles of some of them incline them unto; must we thence conclude that it ought to be so in a great Kingdom, where there is so vast a number of Protestants admirably qualified with Wisdom, Interest, and Estates, to discharge all the Offices of the Government, and to manage the universal care of the Society, without running the hazard of the many mischiefs, that would accompany the taking the Papists into partnership with them? Nor could Mijn Heer Fagel in representing what is safe or unsafe to so great and noble a Nation, take notice of what is practised upon necessity in some mean Town or Corporation, (supposing that it were there as our Author allegeth) without transgressing against all the Rules both of prudence and decency. But as the Pensionary had not where in his Letter affirmed, that there were not any States or Cities, in which the Protestants and Papists bear Office in Government together; but had only said, that Reason and Experience do show us, how impossible it will be for them when joined together in places of Trust and public Employments, to maintain a good Correspondence, and to live peaceably with one another; so this is found to be so just a truth, and so pertinently observed, that in all the places where it hath been practised (though not in Germany, as our Author ignorantly suggests) they have not only lived in continual heats and dissensions, but have often come to open Hostility against each other. Nor hath it merely fallen out thus in private, and particular States within themselves, but the like evils have often followed and ensued where more States have associated into Union for the common preservation of the Generality; and where the Government hath been in some in the hands of Protestants, and in others executed by Roman Catholics. Of this we have divers Examples in the Cantons of Switzerland, where thro' the Magistrates being in some Cantons of the Reformed, and in others of the Roman Catholic Religion, they have not only been often hindered from joining and acting vigorously, as they ought to have done, for the interest of all, and the benefit of the common Confederation and Union; but they have sometimes come to open ruptures, and have been embarked in War against one another. And forasmuch as our Author makes bold to say, That there was never any Christian Kingdom, where the Religion that the Prince professeth, and which had in former ages been Dominant, was so far laid aside and banished, that his Subjects professing the same with himself, were shut out and precluded from Trusts and Employments. I will take the freedom to tell him, that it is so gross and palpable a Falsehood, that none but a person of his ignorance and impudence, would have had the face to have asserted it. For there are Christian Kingdoms that have done more than this amounts unto, and who to prevent the danger of having Papists preferred to Trusts and Employments, in case a Prince of their Religion should come to the Throne, have been so wise as to declare Roman Catholics incapable either of obtaining or keeping the Sovereignty. And it was in the virtue of such a Law, and by reason of the dread of it, that Christina Queen of Sweden, upon the having taken up a resolution to turn Papist, chose to demit her Crown before she declared herself, as knowing that immediately after such a Declaration she would have been deposed from the Throne, and possibly not have had so liberal an allowance assigned her afterwards, as by that conduct she did obtain. Nor is it unknown to any, except it be to such as our Author is for natural and acquired accomplishments, that there were not only Laws in Scotland for precluding a Popish Prince from coming to the Government, but that the same thing was employed in the English Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, as being Oaths of such a frame and nature that it had been most incongruous to impose them upon Subjects to a King of the Roman Catholic Religion. And though these two Nations did not improve the advantage which they had by means of their legal provisions, to hinder the present King from inheriting the Crowns of the respective Realms; yet those Laws serve to inform us, how far some Christian Kingdoms thought it lawful to go, and to what height to Act, not only against Popish Subjects, but against Catholic Princes themselves. Yea the time was, that the very Papists were so far from condemning the having men of their Religion debarred from Trusts and Employments in Protestant Kingdoms under a Popish Prince, that they made the Test Laws by which they are shut out from Offices and Declared incapable of them, the great Argument against the necessity of having the Bill passed for excluding the Duke of York from the Crown, and improved them as the main Engine for allaying the fears of the Nation, under the apprehensions they had of his being a Roman Catholic, and coming to the Throne. But by their different Language now from what it was then, all Englishmen understand how far they are to be believed in other cases: and whether the many promises which they do make at this time, in order to a further design, and the putting a new Trick upon the Nation, aught to be depended on by them whom they have already deceived. And whereas upon Mijn Heer Fagels having observed that the conduct of Roman Catholics is much more severe towards Protestants, than that of those of the Reformed Religion towards Papists, our Author is pleased to reply, that in order to judge as we should of that different procedure, we are to consider whether it be not less just, to banish a Religion that had been so long dominant as the Roman Catholic had been; than to withstand the introduction of a new Religion that would depress and supplant the old. All I shall say in reference to this, is that as it does not weaken, but in effect acknowledge what the Pensionary had said; so by justifying what the Papists did, to prevent the bringing in of the Protestant Religion, which he styles new; he forewarns us what we are to expect they will be ready to do, for the reintroducing the Papal Religion, to which he gives the character of old. Nor is it at all pertinent to the present case, which of the Religions is the oldest, or which is the newest; but all contended for is that the method's of the one, have been, and still are, more severe and sanguinary, than the methods of those of the other. And as we believe our Religion to be as ancient, as Jesus Christ and his Apostles; so no prescription of time for Popery's having been in possession, can deprive that which has the Divine Authority to warrant it, from a right of re-entrance.  
There remains only one thing to be spoken unto, of all that I undertook to discipline and correct our Author for, and that is the signal ingratitude of the Papists, and particularly of this Gentleman, to their Highnesses, for all that Liberty, Favour, and ease which Their Highnesses were willing to have had allowed unto them. And that we may the more fully have an Idea of their unthankfulness, we are to consider both the extent of that Liberty which Their Highnesses were contented to have had bestowed upon them, and the obligations they would have come under for the rendering it hereafter inviolable. And all this not only at a season, when many of the Papists carry it so undutifully towards their Highnesses, but at a time when they of the Reformed Religion are so unhumanely persecuted by several Popish Princes in other parts of the world. It had not been an unreasonable desire that before the Papists had been so importunate to have all Penal Laws against them in Protestant Nations rescinded and taken away; that they should have declared themselves, and improved their interest, for the Abrogation of all such Laws as are in force against those of the Reformed Religion in Popish Countries. And if their Highnesses had insisted upon such a stipulation, before They would have given their consent for the Repeal of the Penal Laws against Roman Catholics in England, it had been no more than what was agreeable to the Rules of Wisdom and Justice. But their Highnesses not thinking it fit to suffer their own mercy to be restrained by reason of the want of Christian bowels in others, took the first opportunity put into their hands, of testifying their readiness to consent to the Repeal of all those Laws against Papists in England, Scotland and Ireland, by which they are made liable to fines or other punishments. And that those which they can not agree to the rescinding of, are only such by which the Reformed Religion is covered from the designs of the Roman Catholics against it, and by which they are restrained from getting into a condition to overturn it. One would think that this should have been received as a most special favour, and have obliged them to very hearty acknowledgements. Especially when the Prince and Princess were willing to confirm both this and a Liberty for the private Exercise of their Religion with their Guaranty. But in stead of any symptoms of gratitude, there is nothing to be heard of from many of them, or to be met with in our Answerer, but what proclaims their dissatisfaction, anger, and revenge. For besides all the ill returns, we have already taken notice of in this wrathful and unthankful man; he tells us, that all which Their Highnesses declare themselves ready to consent unto amounts only to the abolishing some cruel Laws, by which Romish ecclesiastics stood condemned to death, for no other reason save their being Priests; and in the virtue of which, other persons were banished and deprived of their Estates, merely for being Roman Catholics; all which was a higher degree of barbarity than was ever practised among the most savage Nations. Now not to trouble myself about what kind of entertainment, Romish Priests and Lay Papists have met with among those Nations, which our Author styles Barbarous, though it will be found infinitely more severe, than any thing that was ever inflicted upon them in England, Scotland or Ireland, by reason of their Religion, or upon the score of any Ecclesiastical Character: I would only know of this modest and veracious Gentleman, what he thinks of the barbarous and innumerable Cruelties, that were perpetrated in all ages and places heretofore, and which are at this day committed upon peaceable and sincere Christians, for no other crime but that they could not, and to this day cannot believe as the Church of Rome doth, nor continue in Communion with so idolatrous and villainous a Society. Whatsoever measure of severity hath been any where exercised towards Papists, it was but according to the Precedent themselves had set, in their dealing with them whom they style Heretics, and in which the Copy comes vastly below the Original. But then that which wholly altars the case, is, that whereas the Papists persecute and destroy Christians, merely upon the account of Religion; there were never any severe, much less Sanguinary Laws enacted against them, save by reason of their Crimes against the State, and for being Enemies and Traitors to the Government. Popery was never persecuted in England as it is a false and erroneous Belief; but as it binds men to the owning of a foreign, usurped, and unlawful Jurisdiction. 'Tis neither for their believing Transubstantiation, nor for their Worshipping Images, that Papists are adjudged to penalties or death; but because they adhere to a foreign Enemy, and are treacherous to their Country. Can they have been but good Subjects; their being bad Christians would never have prejudiced them. And indeed while they continue to hold that the Pope can depose Protestant Sovereigns, and absolve Subjects from their Allegiance to them, and that it is lawful to cut the Throats of all whom they style Heretics, and that all Laws made for our security are null and void, as being enacted by an incompetent and unlawful Authority, it would seem according to the exact measures of wisdom and reason, that all lenity and favour towards them, were not only a supererogating in Mercy, but an indiscretion in Policy. But then to let such into the Government, were plainly to betray the State, and wilfully to abandon both it and ourselves to be destroyed and ruined. Nor is there so much danger in advancing Robbers and Newgate Felons to Employments, as there would be in preferring Papists, especially if Jesuiced and , into Civil Offices in a Reformed Kingdom. And therefore seeing they will not thankfully accept and quietly acquiesce in what is offered, and that rather from an exurberancy of Generosity and Mercy, than from Maxims of prudence, and obligations arising from duty; it is best to leave them, to steer their own course, and to pursue those Methods, which will infallibly issue in their disadvantage, to say no worse. All ways of Gentleness and Moderation towards them, do only encourage their making the bolder claims, and the proceeding further in their usurpations. The giving them an inch, provokes them to take an ell, and they grow enraged because we will not tamely suffer it. If they act as they do, while the Chain hangs still about their necks? what are we to expect if it should be wholly taken off, & they left lose to exert the malignity which their Religion inspires them with? For not being contented to invade and usurp all sorts of Employments and places of Trust in defiance of the Test Laws; they have assumed that confidence, as to make those very Laws which were intentionally enacted and designed to keep Papists out of Office and Power, the ground and occasion of incapacitating and shutting out Protestants. And whereas none are by Law to be admitted into Employments without making the Declarations contained in the Tests; none are now to be continued, save they who shall both refuse to take them, and withal promise to give their votes for the Election of such persons into Parliament, as shall be willing to Abrogate and Repeal them. Which is not only such a piece of Chicannery in itself, but such an Assault upon the Legislative Authority, that it is hard to speak of it, without more than usual emotion of mind, and the having one's indignation strangely excited and inflamed. However all I shall allow myself at present to say, shall be only to advise all sort of persons to take care what they do, there being no Dispensing power lodged in the King, in reference to Penal, and much less in relation to the Test Laws. Of this we have a clear and uncontrollable proof in the proceed of the Parliament 1673. when the House of Commons voted the Declaration of the late King for Liberty of Conscience, to be both a violation of the Laws of the Land, and an altering of the Legislative power. Which is the more remarkable, in that it was not only done by the most obsequious Parliament that ever any King of England had, and of which many of the Members were his hired and bribed Pensioners, but that they did thus adjudge, both after the King had acquainted them by a solemn Speech at the opening of the Session, that he was Resolved to adhere to his Declaration, and had endeavoured to Hector them into a departure from their Vote, by telling them in an Answer which he made to one of their Addresses, that they had questioned a power in the Crown, which had never been disputed in the Reign of any of his Predecessors, and which belonged unto him as a prerogative inseparable from the Sovereignty. Yet notwithstanding both all this, and his applying himself in a Speech to the House of Lords to have engaged them to stand by him against the Commons, he was necessitated upon the Commons insisting, that there was never any such Dispensing power vested in the Crown, nor claimed or exercised by any of his Predecessors; and that the assuming it was a changing of the Constitution, and an altering of the Legislative Authority; and upon the Lords declining to stand by him, and their advising him to give liberty by way of Bill to be passed into a Law; I say he was necessitated to take his Declaration off from the File, tear the Seal from it, and to assure both Houses in a Speech he made to them, March 8. that what he had done in taking upon him to Suspend the Penal Laws, should not for the future be drawn either into consequence or Example. In brief, if the Papists will not so far consult their own interest, and comply with our safety, as to be contented with an ease from Penalties, and an Indulgence to be ratified into a Law for the private exercise of their Religion; it is the indispensable duty of all Protestants, of what party or persuasion soever they be, to unite together in withstanding their endeavours and attempts for obtaining more. We have a laudable example in the carriage of all that pretended to Christianity, when they were brought into a condition somewhat parallel with ours in one of the first Centuries. For though the Orthodox had been persecuted by the Arrians under Constantius, and some of the Arrians harshly enough treated at least, as they thought for a while under Constantine; yet upon Julian's coming to the Throne, both parties were so far from embracing his offers in order to revenge their wrongs upon one another, that they resolved at that season if not wholly to silence their Disputes, yet to forbear all those harsh Terms, that had inflamed their heats and animosities. To which I shall add but this one thing more, and would beg of the Dissenters, that they may seriously consider it, namely that as the Donatists were the only party of Christians that made Addresses to Julian, and received favours from him; so they thereby became infamous, and were often afterwards reproached with it.  
Thus Sir, I have studied to do what you required of me, and if it be my misfortune not to have acquitted myself answerably to your expectations; yet the doing it as well, as the being bound up to an Author, that administers so little occasion for valuable thoughts, would allow, gives me the satisfaction of having approved myself,  
SIR, Your Obedient Servant.