There are many, I know, amongst them who think more generously, and whose morals are not corrupted by that which is called religion; but this is the spirit of the priesthood, in whose scale that scrap of a parable, “Compel them to come in,” which they apply as they please, outweighs the whole Decalogue.  This will be the spirit of every man who is bigot enough to be under their direction; and so much is sufficient for my present purpose.

During your last Session of Parliament it was expected that the Whigs would attempt to repeal the Occasional Bill.  The same jealousy continues; there is, perhaps, foundation for it.  Give me leave to ask you upon what principle we argued for making this law, and upon what principle you must argue against the repeal of it.  I have mentioned the principle in the beginning of this discourse.  No man ought to be trusted with any share of power under a Government who must, to act consistently with himself, endeavour the destruction of that very Government.  Shall this proposition pass for true when it is applied to keep a Presbyterian from being mayor of a corporation, and shall it become false when it is applied to keep a Papist from being king?  The proposition is equally true in both cases; but the argument drawn from it is just so much stronger in the latter than in the former case, as the mischiefs which may result from the power and influence of a king are greater than those which can be wrought by a magistrate of the lowest order.  This seems to my apprehension to be argumentum ad hominem, and I do not see by what happy distinction a Jacobite Tory could elude the force of it.

It may be said, and it has been urged to me, that if the Chevalier was restored, the knowledge of his character would be our security; “habet foenum in cornu;” there would be no pretence for trusting him, and by consequence it would be easy to put such restrictions on the exercise of the regal power as might hinder him from invading or sapping our religion and liberty.  But this I utterly deny.  Experience has shown us how ready men are to court power and profit, and who can determine how far either the Tories or the Whigs would comply, in order to secure to themselves the enjoyment of all the places in the kingdom?  Suppose, however, that a majority of true Israelites should be found, whom no temptation could oblige to bow the knee to Baal; in order to preserve the Government on one hand must they not destroy it on the other?  The necessary restrictions would in this case be so many and so important as to leave hardly the shadow of a monarchy if he submitted to them; and if he did not submit to them, these patriots would have no resource left but in rebellion.  Thus, therefore, the affair would turn if the Pretender was restored.  We might, most probably, lose our religion and liberty by the bigotry of the Prince and the corruption of the people.  We should have no chance of preserving them but by an entire change of the whole frame of our Government or by another revolution.  What reasonable man would voluntarily reduce himself to the necessity of making an option among such melancholy alternatives?