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Church
Church
Papists:
Obj. 1. They would
overthrow our establishment,
and deny
us the toleration they
demand, if they could
Answ 1. Their objections
their inclination it is
no reason for continuing
their present oppression
if they are not
likely to have the power.
Punishment on the
score of mere inclination
can proceed
only from the anti-christian
principle
of revenge.
Answ. No reason
for thinking they would
have the inclination
1. No reason for thinking
they have the inclination
even under
their present oppression
If they had the inclination
they woud
hardly suffer it to
be dormant in Ireland
where they
are 3 to one.
Instead of being more
violent than Protestants,
their fault
there consists rather
in being no passion.
Being a great majority
of the country
they are intitled to
the government of the
country.
Yet the body of the Irish are
fierce & uninvolved
than the
English — Is it to be
supposed that more
violence is to be apprehended
from English
than Irish Catholics?
Papists.
Is it to be supposed
that an English Catholic
would be more
violent than a French!
Yet the French have
already taken the
lead in toleration
and Protestants there,
so far from being
persecuted by penalties,
are not so
much as debarred
from Offices — not
even from the highest
office that of Representative
of the people
Obj. 2. They not
only have the inclination,
but when
let loose may have
the power.
Answ. 1. What can
be apprehended for
7 millions from
70,000?
In France 24
millions do not oppress
1.
Catholics are there
so magnanimous
as not to pretend
to fear 1/24 of their
number — shall
we be so pusillanimous
as to fear
1/100 of ours?
Receiving no disposition
to violence
now they are so ill
used is it likely
they should when
well used?
Papists.
Obj. 3. Catholics
in former times
were bloody and
mischievous &c
Answ. 1. A. was
formerly guilty
and dangerous.
Therefore B. ought
to be kept in
chains & punished
This is the old story
of the Wolf & the Lamb.
If you did not
trouble my water,
your father did
When Papists
were intolerant,
Protestants were
little less so. The
Catholics of Ireland
& France of the present day are surely
a fairer specimen
of the Catholics
of the present day
in England than
the Catholics of England
or any other
country ages ago.
Papists
Obj. 4. The Religion
of Catholics
admitting of their
obtaining a dispensations
for
false assertions
and false engagements,
their
all the assertions
they may make, all
the engagements
they may take
deserve none of
them any credit
Answ. 1. This
admitting it to
be true deserves
consideration no
otherwise than as
far as they
possess both the
inclination and
the power to injure
the establishment:
& it has
been shewn that
there is no
reason ground sufficient
ground to warrant our supposing
them to possess
either
Answer 2. An
imputation of
this kind ought
not to be thrown cast
out without proof
and this as applied
to the present
generation of English
Catholics
Papists
Catholics is altogether
unsupported by any the
least shadow of proof
whatsoever.
They declare solemnly
and unanimously
that they do not
believe in the existence
of any such dispensing
power — What more
convincing proof does
the nature of the case
admitt of? What
more convincing proof
could we give ourselves?
If it were as just
a need of reasoning as it is an unjust
and absurd
one to impute to
men in the teeth of
their own most solemn
declarations
the sentiments of
their predecessors in
a distant age, insincerity profligacy
of sentiment might be
charged upon the
Church of England men
with less injustice
than upon English
Catholics. The
Popish Plot
of the days of Charles
2d are a fairer specimen
of what Anglicanism
is at this
time of day than
the Popish Gunpowder plot of
what
Papists
what Catholicism
was at is at the this
same period time of day. The
Protestant wickedness
is above
half a century nearer
to the present period
than the Catholic.
In the guilt of
the former there
were probably more
partakers sharers than in
that of the former,
and out of comparison
more in
the madness mad atrocity and
folly.
What shall we
say, if with respect to the present generation the truth
turns out to be
that instead of
English Catholics being
chargeable with
this species of profligacy
and we
not, it is we
that are but too justly chargeable
with it, and they
not at all. That
this is the case
has been but too
incontrovertibly
demonstrated in
the case of instance
of the copious abundant
harvest of Perjuries
kept up
by our Ecclesiastical
rulers with their
eyes open in the
case
Papists.
case of University
Oaths and subscriptions.
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Identifier: | JB/005/058/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 5.
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058 |
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papists |
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marginal summary sheet |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
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2475 |
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