and this by the assistance of a rebelllous army; again, if this reformation were carried on by the exclusion of nobles both lay and spiritual, (who constitute the other part of the three estates) by the murder of their king, and by abolishing the whole system of government; the catholicks cannot see why the successors of those schismaticks, who are universally accused by all parties, except themselves and a few infamous abettors, for still retaining the same principles in religion and government, under which their predecessors acted, should pretend to a better share of civil or military trust, profit, and power than the catholicks; who, during all that period of twenty years, were continually prosecuted with the utmost severity, merely on account of their loyalty and constant adherence to kingly power.
We now come to those arguments for repealing the sacramental test, which equally affect the catholicks, and their brethren the dissenters.
First, we agree with our fellow dissenters, that persecution merely for conscience sake is against the genius of the Gospel. And so likewise is any law for depriving men of their natural and civil rights which they claim as men. We are also ready enough to allow, that the smallest negative discouragements for uniformity's sake are so many persecutions. Because it cannot be denied, that the scratch of a pin is in some degree a, real wound, as much as a stab through the heart. In like manner, an incapacity by law for any man to be made a judge, a colonel, or justice of the peace, merely on a point of conscience, is a negative discouragement, and consequently a real persecution: for in this case, the author of the pamphlet quotod in the
