* 1.1The next great Danger is, The assuming of the Crown by Force by a Papist Successor; if not prevented by a Decla∣ration of a Protestant Successor, by the King and Parliament.
That a Papist Successor is most Dangerous to all Lay-Papists themselves, and that they may Live far more Happy under a Protestant, than one of their own Religion.
* 1.2Both Religion, Justice, and Mercy, ingage all those who are affected with the least of any of them, to put a great diffe∣rence betwixt the Deceived, and Deceivers; and betwixt the Blind, and those who mislead them to fall into the Ditch. A Distinction is therefore necessary to be made by all Protestants between the Lay Papist, and the Papist Priest; Mercy is to be shewn the one, and Justice the other: And if this just Course had been used from the Beginning of the Reformation, that no Penal Statute had been made against the Lay-Papists, but only against the Papist Priests;* 1.3 No Bishop Bencroft under pretence of maintaining the Dominicans against the Jesuits, and Regulars against Seculars, had been able to maintain Legions of both in Secret to Destroy the Protestants in their own Land, nor under the blind name of Recusants, to turn the edge of all the Penal Laws pretending to be made against Papists, to cut off the Protestants. And the Sacrament of the Paschal Lamb to be a Destruction to the Israelites, and a Passover to the Egyptians; those Penal Laws being pursued with the highest Rigour against the Protestants, but came not near the Papists Dwellings; or if they did, they took more easie Pardons from the Exchequer, than from the Pope. So if the late Act con∣cerning