The Converfion of the Pretender to our Religion, has been occafionally Reported, and Contradicted, according to the Reception it met with among the foft Fools, who give that grofs Story a hearing: The unhappy 'Prince, whofe Son the Pretender calls himfelf, is a memorable Inftance, how much fuch Convertions are to be depended upon. King James, when Duke of York, for a long time profeffed himself a Proteftant; and even not long before his Acceffion to the Crown, feveral Perfons had Actions brought against ⚫ them for faying he was a Papist, and exorbitant Damages given and recovered; in a "Word, from the Practice of all Papifts, that have come to Proteftant Thrones, upon Pretence of embracing the Reformed Religion, we have Reafon to believe they have Difpenfations from Rome to perfonate any thing, for the Service of that Church. A Popish Prince will never think himself obliged by the moft Solemn, even the Coronation Oath, to his Proteftant Subjects. All Oaths are as infignificant and as foon forgotten, as the: Services done by fuch Proteftant Subjects.

King James, when Duke of York, was preferved from the Bill of Exclufion, by the Church of England, and particularly its Bifhops; when he came to the Crown, the Church was foon infulted and outraged by. him, and her Prelates committed to the •Tower.

1015

Has not a Neighbouring Prince cruelly Treated and Banifhed his Proteftant Subjects, who preferved the Crown on his Head?

Did

Did not the Princefs Mary promife the Men of Suffolk, who joined with Her against the Lady Jane Grey, that the would make no Alteration in the Religion Eftablished by her Brother King Edward the Sixth? And yet as foon as the came to the Crown, by the Affiftance even of Suffolk Men, the filled all England, and in a particular manner that County, with the Flames of Martyrs. The Cruelties of that Reign were fuch, that multitudes of Men, Women and Children were burnt for being Zealous Profeffors of the Gospel of the Lord Jefus. In fhort, nothing lefs than this can be expected from a Popish Prince; both Clergy and Laiety muft share the fame Fate, all univerfally muft fubmit to the fiery Tryal, or renounce their Religion. Our Bishops and Clergy muft all lofe their Spiritual Preferments, or fubmit to Antichriftian Tyranny: And thould they fubmit to every thing, they muft notwithstanding. part from their Wives and Children, which, according to the Church of Rome, are Harlots and Spurious. The Laiety, poffeffed of Lands that formerly belonged to the Roman 'Catholick Clergy, muft refign their Eftates, and perhaps be made accountable for the Profits received.

What can be more moving, than to reflect, ' upon the Barbarous Cruelties of Papifts beyond all Example: And these not accidental," or the fudden Effects of Paffion or Provocation, but the fettled Refult of their Religion and their Confciences.

Above 100000 Men, Women and Children ⚫ were murdered in the Maffacre of Ireland.

'How

" How hot and terrible were the late Perfecutions of Proteftants in France and Savoy? How frequent were the Maffacres of the Proteftants through the whole Kingdom of France, when they were under the Protection of the then Laws of that Country? • How Barbarous, in a particular manner, was the Maffacre of Paris, at the Marriage of the • King of Navarre, the French King's Grandfather, a Proteftant, with the Sifter of Charles the Ninth, where the Famous Admiral of • France, the great Coligny, the glorious Afferter of the Proteftant Intereft, was inhumanly • Murdered,and the Body of that Heroe dragged Naked about the Streets, and this by the Di•rection of the King himfelf, who had but juft before most treacherously given him, from his own Mouth, Affurance of his Protection? Ten thoufand Proteftants, without • diftinction of Quality, Age or Sex, were put to the Sword at the fame time; the King of • Navarre himself narrowly escaped the Difa• after, his Mother the Queen of Navarre having not long before been poyfoned by the fame Faction.

These are fome Inftances of what must ver be expected. No Obligations on our fide, no Humanity or Natural Probity on theirs, are of any weight; their very Religion forces them, upon Pain of Damnation, to 'forget and cancel the former, and to extinβ guish all Remains of the latter. Good God!

To what are they referved, who have no " thing to expect but what fuch a Religion can • afford them? It cannot therefore be too of"ten repeated. We fhould confider, over and over again, that should the Chain of the Pro

• teftant

teftant Succeffion be once broke in upon, though the Pretender fhould be laid afide, the next of the Blood Royal is the Dutchefs of Savoy, after Her her two Sons; after them, the prefent Dauphin of France; the next in Succeffion to him, the Queen of Spain, and her Heirs; in Default of them, the Duke of Orleans, and his Heirs, and most of the other Princes of the Blood of France, all Papifts, who may be enabled to demand Preference to the House of Hanover; so that befides the Probability of this Kingdom's being United to, and made a Province of France, the train of Popish Princes is fo great, that if one fhould not compleat the utter Extirpation of our Religion, Laws and Liberties, the rest would certainly do it.

And here I cannot but add what is ftill of more Importance, and ought to be the most prevalent of all Arguments, that fhould there be the leaft Hopes given to a Popish Succeffor, the Life of her Majefty will certainly be in moft imminent Danger; for there will never be wanting bloody Zealots of that Perfwafion, that will think it meritorious to take away her Majefty's Life, to halten the Acceffion of fuch a Succeffor to her Throne.

The only Prefervation against these Terrors, are the Laws before mentioned relating to the Settlement of the Imperial Crown of • Great Britain. Thanks be to Heaven for that Settlement. The Princefs Sophia, and the Heirs of her Body, being Proteftants, are the Succeffors to her prefent Majefty, upon her Demise without Iffue. The Way is plain before our Eyes, guarded on the RightHand, and on the Left, by all the Sanctions

⚫ of

⚫ of God and Man, and by all the Ties of Law and Confcience. Let thofe who act under the prefent Settlement, and yet pretend to difpute for an Abfolute Hereditary Right, • quiet themselves with the Arguments they have borrowed from Popery, and teach their own Confciences the Art of difpenfing with the most folemn Oath to this Etablishment, W hilft they think themfelves bound only till Opportunity fhall ferve to introduce another. God be thanked, neither we, nor our Caufe, ftand in need of fuch deteftable Prevarication, Our Caufe is our Happiness. Our Oaths are our Judgment and Inclination. Honour and Affection call us, without the Solemnity of an • Oath, to defend fuch an Establishment; bur with it we have every Motive that can influence the Mind of Man. The Terrors of God, added to the Demands of our Country, oblige and conftrain us to let our Heartsand our Hands follow our Wishes and our Confciences; and out of Regard to our Queen, our Religion, our Country, our Liberty and our Property, to maintain and affert the Proteftant Succeffion in the illuftrious House ‹ of Hanover. It is no time to talk with Hints and Inuendo's, but openly and honeftly to profef's our Sentiments, before our Enemies have compleated and put their Designs in Execution against us.. As divided a People as we are, thofe who are for the House of Hanover, are infinitely fuperior in Number, Wealth, Courage, and all Arts Military and Civil, to thofe in the contrary Intereft; befides which, we have the Laws, I fay the

Laws