mantle our fortifications, and by repealing the corporation and test acts, admit those to offices of trust and political influence, who entertain the dangerous doctrine, that the regal is subject to the sacerdotal power, and whose attachments and persuasions, might induce them to exert their influence, for the re-establishment of papal tyranny. In less perfect forms of government, alterations may not be sensibly felt, but in a polity like ours, so nicely and artificially adjusted, and like a well constructed arch, held together by the intimate relation, and mutual pressure of its several parts, the removal or even change of any one, may break the connexion of the rest, and by disjointing the whole fabric, bring it unexpectedly on our heads.*

The advocates for catholic emancipation, scruple not to say, that the opinions which separate the Roman catholics of the present day, from the communion of the church of England, are not now of that dan

It is a wise observation of Pindar, that the weak may shake the state, but to re-settle it, requires an interposition, no less than divine.

gerous complexion, as to render the disqualification of catholics for offices of trust and power in the state, an object of just policy. Times, it is too well known, have been, when the towering ambition of the Roman clergy, and the tame superstition of the people, rendered the hierarchy, the rival of the civil government, the triple mitre the terror of the crown, in every state in christendom. I am ready to grant, that the pretensions of the Roman pontiff, by the reduction of his power, and the extinction of the Stuart family, are become less formidable. In these circumstances, in this reduced condition of the pope's importance, in the political world, in the actual state of the interests of the Roman catholics of the united kingdoms; it is said, that the long wished for season for the abolition of the corporation and test acts is arrived. But I ask, is it not manifest, that the pope's supremacy interferes with the king's supremacy, as head of the protestant church? again, it is a consequence from the doctrine of the pope's supremacy, that no consecrations and ordinations are valid, but those which emanate from the see of Rome. If this be the case, the bishops of the reformed

church are no bishops; and if no bishops, they have no right to sit in the house of lords; and no priest ordained by them has any title to any temporalities, that he may hold of such a nature, as attach expressly to the clerical character. Here then is an interference with civil authority, and civil rights, the rights of the king and the rights of the subject.

Let us next consider upon what principle the penal laws against the Roman catholics were first enacted,-on this principle, that they entertained opinions inimical to the protestant church, and protestant princes. Upon what principles can the legislature now relieve the Roman catholics from those laws? upon this principle, that they have changed their religious sentiments, and can never act upon those principles, which in theory are in direct hostility to the constitution and government of this country. "But if any one (as Mr. Plowden, a Roman Catholic, asserts,) pretends to insinuate, that the modern Roman catholics differ in one iota, from their ancestors, he either deceives himself, or wishes to deceive others."

Dr. Troy, titular archbishop of Dublin, in a pastoral letter, says, "the religious opinions of the Roman catholics being unchangable, are applicable to all times."

Now the fourth general council determines, "that if the temporal lord, being required and admonished by the church, shall neglect to purge his territories from heretical filth, he shall be excommunicated by the metropolitan, and his suffragans, and if he neglect to give satisfaction within a year, this shall be signified to the pope; that he may from henceforth pronounce his subjects discharged from their obedience, and expose his territories, to be enjoyed by catholics."

The general council of Constance decrees, "that all heretics, all followers and defenders of them, or partakers with them, though they shine in the dignity of patriarchs, arch bishops, bishops, kings, queens, dukes, or any other ecclesiastical or mundane title, shall be pronounced excommunicate, every Sunday and holyday." A discourse concerning laws against heretics, pp. 69.-71.

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Pope Zachary I. deposed Childrick, king of France; Gregory VII. deposed the Emperor Henry IV.; Urban II. deposed Philip, king of France; Adrian IX. deposed William, king of Sicily; Innocent III. deposed the Emperor Philip; Pope Gregory deposed Frederick II.; Innocent III. deposed John, king of England; Urban IV. deposed Mamphred, king of Sicily; Nicholas III. deposed Charles, king of Sicily; Martin IV. deposed Peter of Arragon; Boniface VIII. deposed Philip the fair; Clement V. deposed the emperor Henry V.; John XXII. deprived the emperor Ludovic; Gregory IX. deposed the emperor Wenseslaus; Paul III. denounced Henry VIII. of England; and Pious V. declared queen Elizabeth of England, a heretic, and absolved her subjects from their allegiance.

He began his bull in these words:"He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all power, in heaven and in earth, hath committed the one holy catholic and apostolic church, out of which there is no salvation to one alone on earth, namely, to Peter, prince of the apostles, and to the Roman pontiff,

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