with which the nation began already to be seized on account of
the Popish plot. Men reasoned more from their fears and their passions,
than from the evidence before them. It is certain, that the restless and
enterprising spirit of the Catholic church, particularly of the Jesuits,
merits attention, and is in some degree dangerous to every other
communion. Such zeal of proselytism actuates that sect, that its
missionaries have penetrated into every nation of the globe; and, in
one sense, there is a Popish plot perpetually carrying on against all
states, Protestant, Pagan, and Mahometan. It is likewise very probable,
that the conversion of the duke, and the favor of the king, had inspired
the Catholic priests with new hopes of recovering in these islands their
lost dominion, and gave fresh vigor to that intemperate zeal by which
they are commonly actuated. Their first aim was to obtain a toleration;
and such was the evidence, they believed, of their theological tenets,
that, could they but procure entire liberty, they must infallibly in
time open the eyes of the people. After they had converted considerable
numbers, they might be enabled, they hoped, to reinstate themselves
in full authority, and entirely to suppress that heresy with which
the kingdom had so long been infected. Though these dangers to the
Protestant religion were distant, it was justly the object of great
concern to find, that the heir of the crown was so blinded with bigotry,
and so deeply engaged in foreign interests; and that the king himself
had been prevailed on, from low Interests, b hearken to his dangerous
insinuations. Very bad consequences might ensue from such perverse
habits and attachments; nor could the nation and parliament guard
against them with too anxious a precaution. But that the Roman pontiff
could hope to assume the sovereignty of these kingdoms; a project which,
even during the darkness of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, would
have appeared chimerical: that he should delegate this authority to the
Jesuits, that order in the Romish church which was the most hated: that
a massacre could be attempted of the Protestants, who surpassed the
Catholics a hundred fold, and were invested with the whole authority of
the state: that the king himself was to be assassinated, and even the
duke, the only support of their party: these were such absurdities as no
human testimony was sufficient to prove; much less the evidence of one
man, who was no