Chapter 8

Having brought my Remarks to this Period, I design'd to have drop'd my Pen immediately, but considering that a Judicious Reader will expect I should advance something by way of Principle to justify the Reflexions I have made. I must add a Word or two more concerning the unjust, as well as unpolitick Proceedings of those who have been deluded by a Foreign Power to bring Destruction to their own native Country. And in the first place I must deliver my Thoughts as to the Cause in General. The Question of Hereditary, was not so well clear'd at the Revolution, but that many very discerning and well meaning Men might be drawn into a Belief, that lineal and immediate Right was part of the Divine Law, and so not dispensable. This was my Opinion in the Beginning, and it was a Principle which carried me through the Wars this Twenty Nine Years in Favour of King _James_, even at those Times, when I was fully convinc'd that _France_ had no real Design to re-establish him. But afterwards when I began to look narrowly into the Question of Hereditary Right, and saw that the Notion of _Jure Divino_ was only an assum'd Principle to buoy up the Faction. I by Degrees slacken'd in my Zeal, and having no other Nation of Government, then by submitting to the Supream National Power, where the Law of God was silent, I found this an effectual Means to quiet my Conscience. However I still persisted and follow'd the Pretender's Cause, the Success of the Roman-Catholick Interest provoking me to it: For I imagin'd that Salvo ought to weigh down in Practise, where other Matters relating to Succession were still under Controversy; but when I took under serious Consideration the Practise of our Ancestors, and how in all Ages both Church and State came frequently into Non-Hereditary Measures, where I run over the String of Disappointments King _James_ had met withal by the Politic Management _of France_. When I reflected what Misery had befallen, and was like to befall these Kings by adhering to the besoted Notion of Hereditary Right, I put the whole Controversy upon the Issue of Religion, and it plainly appear'd to me, that no Roman Catholick was oblig'd to oppose the Revolutionary Measures in Conscience, much less in Policy. I was fully satisfy'd in the first Part of the Enquiry by that unanswerable Piece lately printed, call'd, _A Roman Catholick System of Allegiance_. As for the latter Part, let the Tory and Roman Catholick Party sum up their Losses since 1688, and it will convince 'em how foolishly they acted. Thus settled in my Principles in regard of Loyalty, I design'd to pay an intire and unlimited Obedience to the present Constitution; as to my Religion, which I own is not conformable to that by Law Established. I will make a discreet Use of that Indulgence the Government is pleas'd to allow; and if Providence thinks fit to make me Suffer upon that Score, no rational Man will blame my Zeal till he does convince me of my Mistake.

_FINIS_