What a Barrier the _Penal Laws_ are against Popery here, the Papists
themselves do witness; And what an _Eye-sore_ they are to them, they
fairly enough insinuate by their earnestness with King _James_, in
this Paragraph, to _have them Repeal’d_. Here it is we have reason to
admire and praise the wise and happy Conduct of the Church of _England_
in the late Reign, who would not be impos’d upon to take off these
Laws, which the Papists as well as they, knew to be a _firm barrier_
against Popery, and a sure fence for securing the Protestant Religion;
Whatever other glosses were put upon them by some of that time. This
does sufficiently free that Church from the imputation of _wilfulness_
and _moroseness_ thrown upon them by their Enemies upon the account of
their Refusal in this matter: since the Papists themselves acknowledge in
the above-mentioned Paragraph, That _these Laws were originally enacted
to abolish the Roman-Catholick Religion, and to be the main hinderance
of its advancement_. And indeed they must have been very blind, that
did not see through the Designs of the late Reign, in their Intriegues
of repealing these Laws: And it were a great Reflection upon the Wisdom
of the _Dissenters_, to think they had any other thoughts of the
Court-Designs at that time, or that they could be brought to imagine,
there was any real kindness meant towards them, either in the Toleration
granted them, or in the Insinuations made them to take off the Penal
Laws. For there was no Party of men more odious to the Papists, than
the _Dissenters_, notwithstanding of all the Caresses made them, merely
to juggle them into their own Ruine, and the Ruine of the Church of
_England_.