The modern plea set up in favor of
those privileges being conferred upon Popery, that the Catholics of this
day have candidly renounced the whole of their old principles which they
held, as inimical to a Protestant country, never can be admitted, while
they still retain the most dangerous of all their principles, viz.,
implicit faith in the doctrines of supreme councils, and the dispensing
authority of the Pope. Against this sinful indulgence granted to Popery,
the Presbytery testified at the time, in a separate piece, entitled, A
Testimony and Warning against the Blasphemies and Idolatries of Popery,
&c., to which they still refer the reader. An attempt also was made to
extend a similar indulgence to Catholics in Scotland, but which was
happily frustrated through the zealous exertions of the people, who,
pleading the established laws of the land, boldly reclaimed against the
measure, which produced the desired effect of compelling the government
to desist. But alas! no sooner, was the popular zeal cooled, than
government sowed tares by enlarging the privileges of Catholics with
regard to civil property.
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