"dation of religion subsists in the roman-catholic "religion, so that a person may be orthodox in it, "live well in it, die well in it, and obtain salvation "in it, the decision of the proposed question is easy: "We are of opinion, that the most serene princess "of Wolfenbuttle may, in favour of her marriage, "embrace the catholic religion." This opinion is dated the 28th of April, 1687, and was printed in the same year at Cologne. Now, if the doctrines of the transubstantiation and the mass, or the invocation of the saints, as they are used in the church of Rome, were idolatrous and superstitious, persons could not practise in that church the true worship of God, or arrive in it at salvation; they could not be orthodox in it, or live well in it, or die well in it, or obtain salvation in it. But, in direct opposition to this theological oath of the British legislature, the lutheran divines of Helmstadt, specially and solemnly consulted, declared that the doctrines of transubstantiation, the mass, and the invocation of the saints, as used in the church of Rome, are not idolatrous or superstitious; and assured an illustrious Brunswicker, that, in the church professing them, she might safely live and safely die.

"I shall cite two more protestant authorities; they apply equally to transubstantiation and the mass, and to the invocation of saints. Leibniz, (certainly one of the greatest literary characters whom the world has produced), has, in his Systema Theologicum, discussed, with admirable candour, all the

controverted tenets of catholic faith, and pronounced the catholic doctrines, in question, not to be idolatrous.

"With one further authority only I shall trouble my readers *.

"Boswell. What do you think of the idolatry "of the mass?

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"Johnson.

Sir, THERE

IS NO IDOLATRY.

They believe God to be there, and adore him. "Boswell. The invocation of the saints? "Johnson. THEY DO NOT WORSHIP THE SAINTS; they invoke them; they only ask their prayers."

"7. One further question let me ask. Are not catholics married by protestant clergymen? Are they not married in protestant churches? Do not protestant bishops often marry them? Could this be done, if they were idolaters? Do the peers, who, or whose sons or whose daughters have married catholics, suppose they have married idolaters?

“Here we pause.-We repeat, that it is far from our wish to discuss, or even to assert in this place, the truth of the catholic doctrines, on the points we have noticed.---But,

"BE THAT DOCTRINE TRUE, OR BE IT FALSE, can any person, in his cool and deliberate judgment, say, that the legislature of the United Kingdom can worthily or wisely require any of its subjects to

The Life of Dr. Johnson, by Mr. Boswell, vol. 1, p. 561, 2d edit.

assert, with the solemn asseveration of an oath, either the affirmative or negative belief of a doctrine, upon which the highest authorities, even of their own church, have been, are, and probably till the latest time, will continue to be divided?

Surely the sacredness of an oath, which never should be taken, if the truth of what is sworn to admits of reasonable doubt,-good sense, which is shocked by the language of the declaration,--the terms of amity which subsist between the United Kingdom and many catholic states, and which render the declaration an uncivil state paper,-the littleness in wounding unnecessarily the feelings of that proportion of the community which is catholic, (for a protestant is not more hurt at a Turk's calling him a christian dog, than a catholic is at a protestant's culling him an idolater),—the impolicy of keeping any thing in existence, which unnecessarily insults and irritates,—the acknowledged wisdom and expediency of every legislative or ministerial measure, which promotes a reciprocity of good-will and conciliation,-and, above all, THE MERITS, we confidently say it, THE MERITS OF THE CATHOLICS,-seem to point out the propriety of repealing this objectionable and inofficious declaration."

XVIII. 5.

Oates's Plot.

You call, what you term the popish plot, an infamous affair: thus Hume, thus Fox, thus every other person of honour and talent, describes it; then, why are the oaths to which it gave rise, and under which so many roman-catholics actually suffer, still kept in force?

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I beg leave to transcribe Mr. Fox's observations upon it." Although, therefore," these are that great man's words, upon a review of this truly "shocking transaction, we may be fairly justified in "adopting the milder alternative, and in imputing "to the greater part of those concerned in it, rather "an extraordinary degree of blind credulity, than "the deliberate wickedness of planning and assist

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ing in the perpetration of legal murder; yet the "proceedings on the popish plot must always be con"sidered as an indelible disgrace upon the English "nation, in which king, parliament, judges, juries, "witnesses, prosecutors, have all their respective, "though certainly not equal, shares. Witnesses, of ." such a character as not to deserve credit in the "most trifling cause, upon the most immaterial facts, gave evidence so incredible, or,-to speak more properly, so impossible to be true, that it ought "not to have been believed if it had come from the "mouth of Cato; and upon such evidence, from "such witnesses, were innocent men condemned to "death and executed. Prosecutors, whether attor

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"nies and solicitors-general, or managers of impeachment, acted with the fury which, in such circumstances, might be expected; juries partook, "naturally enough, of the national ferment; and judges, whose duty it was to guard them against "such impressions, were scandalously active in confirming them in their prejudices, and inflaming "their passions."--" Lord chief justice Scroggs," doctor Milner justly observes," took in with the "side, and ranted for the plot; hewing down popery, "as Scanderberg did the Turks. The attorneygeneral used to say on the trials for murder, if "the man be a papist, then he is guilty, because it "is the interest of papists to murder us all '*."

6

I am aware, that the number of the sufferers for Oates's plot falls very short of the number of those whom you term the Marian martyrs: but permit me to ask you, which, in your cool deliberate judgment, was the worst spirit,-that which consigned the victims of Oates's subornations to the gibbet, or that which consigned the Marian martyrs to the flames? Surely, if we should be called upon to strike a balance between Mary's persecutions and the legal murders for Oates's plot, we must confess that the latter is by far the greater disgrace to the English nation t.

*North's Examen, p. 130; Doctor Milner's Seventh Letter to Doctor Sturges, p. 304, 7th edit.

In 1680, while the memory of this transaction was still recent, an argumentative and eloquent vindication of the sufferers was published, under the title of "The Papists' "Plea." It was afterwards printed among lord Somers's tracts.