I am ready enough to believe that all I have said will avail but little.  I have the common excuse of other men, when I think myself bound by all religious and civil ties, to discharge my conscience, and to warn my countrymen upon this important occasion.  It is true, the advocates for this scheme promise a new world, after this blessed work shall be completed:  that all animosities and faction must immediately drop; that the only distinction in this kingdom will then be of Papist and Protestant.  For, as to Whig and Tory, High Church and Low Church, Jacobite and Hanoverian, Court and Country party, English and Irish interests, Dissenters and Conformists, New Light and Old Light, Anabaptist and Independent, Quaker and Muggletonian, they will all meet and jumble together into a perfect harmony, at the sessions and assizes, on the bench and in the revenues; and upon the whole, in all civil and military trust, not excepting the great councils of the nation.  For it is wisely argued thus, that a kingdom being no more than a larger knot of friends met together, it is against the rules of good manners to shut any person out of the company, except the Papists; who profess themselves of another club.

I am at a loss to know what arts the Presbyterian sect intends to use, in convincing the world of their loyalty to kingly government; which long before the prevalence, or even the birth of their independent rivals, as soon as the King’s forces were overcome, declared their principles to be against monarchy, as well as Episcopacy and the House of Lords, even till the King was restored:  At which event, although they were forced to submit to the present power, yet I have not heard that they did ever, to this day, renounce any one principle by which their predecessors then acted; yet this they have been challenged to do, or at least to shew that others have done it for them, by a certain doctor,[13] who, as I am told, has much employed his pen in the like disputes.  I own, they will be ready enough to insinuate themselves into any government:  But, if they mean to be honest and upright, they will and must endeavour by all means, which they shall think lawful, to introduce and establish their own scheme of religion, as nearest approaching to the word of God, by casting out all superstitious ceremonies, ecclesiastical titles, habits, distinctions, and superiorities, as rags of Popery; in order to a thorough reformation; and, as in charity bound, to promote the salvation of their countrymen:  wishing with St. Paul, that the whole kingdom were as they are.  But what assurance will they please to give, that when their sect shall become the national established worship, they will treat Us Dissenters as we have treated them?  Was this their course of proceeding during the dominion of the saints?  Were not all the remainders of the Episcopal Church in those days, especially the clergy, under a persecution for above a dozen years, equal to that of the primitive