have often desired they would deal candidly with us; for if the matter stuck only there, we would propose it in parliament, that every man who takes an employment should, instead of receiving the sacrament, be obliged to swear, that he is a member of the Church of Ireland by law established, with Episcopacy, and so forth; and as they do now in Scotland, to be true to the Kirk.  But when we drive them thus far, they always retire to the main body of the argument, urge the hardship that men should be deprived the liberty of serving their Queen and country, on account of their conscience:  And, in short, have recourse to the common style of their half brethren.  Now whether this be a sincere way of arguing, I will appeal to any other judgment but theirs.

There is another topic of clamour somewhat parallel to the foregoing:  It seems, by the Test clause, the military officers are obliged to receive the Sacrament as well as the civil.  And it is a matter of some patience to hear the dissenters declaiming upon this occasion:  They cry they are disarmed, they are used like Papists; when an enemy appears at home, or from abroad, they must sit still, and see their throats cut, or be hanged for high treason if they offer to defend themselves.  Miserable condition!  Woful dilemma!  It is happy for us all, that the Pretender was not apprized of this passive Presbyterian principle, else he would have infallibly landed in our northern parts, and found them all sat down in their formalities, as the Gauls did the Roman senators, ready to die with honour in their callings.  Sometimes to appease their indignation, we venture to give them hopes that in such a case the government will perhaps connive, and hardly be so severe to hang them for defending it against the letter of the law; to which they readily answer, that they will not lie at our mercy, but let us fight our battles ourselves.  Sometimes we offer to get an act, by which upon all Popish insurrections at home, or Popish invasion from abroad, the government shall be empowered to grant commissions to all Protestants whatsoever, without that persecuting circumstance of obliging them to say their prayers when they receive the Sacrament; but they abhor all thoughts of occasional commissions, they will not do our drudgery, and we reap the benefit:  It is not worth their while to fight pro aris et focis, and they had rather lose their estates, liberties, religion and lives, than the pleasure of governing.

But to bring this discourse toward a conclusion:  If the dissenters will be satisfied with such a toleration by law as hath been granted them in England, I believe the majority of both Houses will fall readily in with it; farther it will be hard to persuade this House of Commons, and perhaps much harder the next.  For, to say the truth, we make a mighty difference here between suffering thistles to grow among us, and wearing them for posies.  We are fully convinced in our consciences, that we shall always tolerate them, but not quite so fully that they will always tolerate us, when it comes to their turn; and we are the majority, and we are in possession.