ties, whilft the Proteftants in Foreign Parts fuffer Perfecution, and undergo the feverest Penalties for the fake of Religion, and a good Confcience; But his blind and intemperate Zeal made him turn a deaf Ear to thofe Carnal Motives, and to difregard all prudential Confiderations, fo he could but advance the End of his Miffion, the making Profelytes to the Popish Religion; which may give us a seasonable intimation of the dangerous Confequence of harbouring fuch furious Zealots in Proteftant Countries.

I do not write this to incense the Magiftrates against them, or to promote a profecution of the Penal Laws; For I could wish that Liberty of Confcience, in Matters purely fpeculative, which is fo agreeable to the Law of Nature, were the Law of Nations too : But 'tis certainly the Duty of the Magiftrate, and an Effential Part of his Office to take care, Ne quid detrimenti Refpublica capiat, that the Community receive no Prejudice from the bitter Zeal and fuperftitious Capriches of the Emiffaries of the Church of Rome.

For the Papifts are not fo inconfiderable a Party in England as fome Men are pleas'd to reprefent them: Their Revenues here fet apart for the propagating the Faith are very great, near Fourfcore thoufand Pounds per Ann. and their Priefts very numerous, and by fome of their own Religion faid to amount to Three thoufand which I have the more reafon to give credit to, by comparing this Account with that of the Priests in Ireland, where they are much more numerous, as the Lift of their Names given in to the Government,by the Articles of Limerick, will inform us. Add to this, that they are all dependent on a

Foreign

Foreign Head, and fupported by a powerful Confederacy; and then I think it will appear highly reasonable, that fuch care ought to be taken, that it may not be in their power to di fturb the Government, and to make us and themfelves too, Slaves to the Ambition of a Univerfal Monarch. And that this is no Chimera, or ungrounded Suppofition is plain, from that Concern which the Papifts here in England always exprefs for the Intereft of France, and that in the highest degree; as plainly appear'd by their Refufal, to comply with the Invitation of the Portugal Ambaffador on the Day for the Publick Thanksgiving for the Victory of Blenheim; which will remain a lafting and notorious Inftance of their Difaffection to our Government, as well as Religion.

'Tis true, the Sons of the Church of England are mild, patient and charitable, ready to give a kind and friendly Reception to all those who differ from them, and live peaceably and quietly under the Government; but 'tis the Intereft of these Gentlemen to take care that they do not abuse this Patience (as this Author has done) by reviling the Governours of our Church with fuch opprobrious Language, printing Books in which their bafled Arguments are trump'd up again, and only varnish'd over in order to deceive poor ignorant People, and feduce them from their Religion and Allegiance, for Lafa Patientia fit Furor.

I readily acknowledge, that feveral of our English Papifts are Men of excellent Tempers, and (even contrary to their Principles) have behay'd themselves Loyally in a time of Trial,

and

and are affectionately concern'd for the Good of their native Country; and I am heartily forry they are not all fo: For when the Leaders and Guides of their Confciences are once arriv'd to that boldness, as to tell us to our Faces and the whole World in Print, that we are Schifmaticks and Hereticks, and to upbraid us with that Sacrilege which was committed in Popish Times, and by zealous Papifts, which they themselves are moft guilty of; by robbing the People of the Cup in the Sacrament, of the Holy Scriptures, and as the Archbishop ingeniously expreffes it, Stealing away the Tenth Commandment in the Face of the Eighth; and when this is done at a time when (as the Author himself acknowledges) they are over-look'd by the Government, and partake largely of the unmerited Goodneß and Clemency of the Church of England; they certainly take the ready way to put our Magiftrates upon the Debate, whether they ought to be over-look'd ftill.

ANSWER

12

ANSWER

TO THE

INTRODUCTION.

T

HERE is nothing whereby a Man's Difpofition and Temper of Mind is made more evident, than by his Stile and Manner of Writing; fo that let a man take what caution he can, or ufe never fo much Art to conceal his true Sentiments and natural Difpofition, yet the Paffions of his Mind will by fome means or other difcover themselves, and the Spirit and Soul of the Man will be reprefented in this Mirror: And if fo, then it will cer tainly be an undeniable Inftance of the real Worth, the unaffected Piety, the genuine Humanity and Compofednefs of Mind, with which the late Archbishop of Canterbury was endow'd that even his Controverfial Writings were pen'd with fuch Smoothness of Stile, and Candor of Expreffion, and a generous Difdain of thofe many Calumnies and Reflections which were continually caft upon him, not rendering Railing for Railing, but on the contrary Bleffing; and like the Sun, neglecting thofe Clamors which were occafioned only by his Height and Brightness: And in this Clafs the Author of the True and Modest Account, &c. has plac'd himself,

For

For if ever any meer human Author wrote with Strength of Argument and Demonftration, as well as Accuratenefs of Stile and Politeness of Expreffion, it was certainly the late Archbishop of Canterbury; and yet the Author of the True and Modeft Account, &c. will allow him only the mean Commendation of an Ingenious Perfon: But, as he infinuates, without any found Senfe or folid Argumentation, by which he betrays his own want of Capacity, Learning and good Senfe; of which he has given us another Inftance, in the Judgment he paffes on the Difpute between his Grace and Mr. Serjeant, who (as he tells us) was fo great a Wit, and fo indefatigable a Writer, and by much fuperiour to the Ingenious Dr. Tillotfon: In Anfwer to which, I fhall refer the Reader to the Preface to the Firft Volume of the Archbishop's Sermons, where he will find a full and fatisfactory Account of the Controverfie between them, and plainly difcover how little N. C. is to be depended on for his Character of Men, as well as his Judgment of Controverfies in Religion, and how trifling an Author Mr. Serjeant is.

But to come nearer to the Point, he tells us that his Defign, in his Introduction to his Book, is to undermine the Foundation upon which the Archbishop built all his Controverfial Writings against the Church of Rome. This indeed was a great and dangerous Defign, which if this Goliah had been able to accomplish, he might have fpar'd himself the labour of planting a formal Battery against the rest of his Arguments, and writing his Book.

He tells us, that the Archbishop laid down this Fundamental Principle: That whatsoever is

plain