their Party; who if they carry one House of Commons for their turn, will
make us Slaves and Papists by a Law_.

_Popish_ and _Arbitrary_, are words that sound high amongst the
multitude; and all men are branded by those names, who are not for
setting up Fanaticism and a Common-wealth. To call short and useless
Parliaments, can be no intention of the Government; because from such
means the great end of Settlement cannot be expected. But no Physician
can command his Physick to perform the effects for which he has
prescrib'd it: yet if it fail the first or second time, he will not in
prudence lay aside his Art, and despair of his Patient: but reiterate
his Medicines till he effect the cure. For, the King, as he declares
himself, is not willing to have too hard an Opinion of the
Representatives of the Commons, but hopes that time may open their eyes,
and that their next meeting may perfect the Settlement of Church and
State. With what impudence can our Author say, _That an House of Commons
can possibly be so pack'd, as to make us Slaves and Papists by a Law?_
for my part I should as soon suspect they would make themselves
Arbitrary, which God forbid that any Englishman in his right sences
should believe. But this supposition of our Author, is to lay a most
scandalous imputation upon the Gentry of _England_; besides, what it
tacitly insinuates, that the House of Peers and his Majesty, (without
whom it could not pass into a Law,) would suffer it. Yet without such
Artifices, as I said before, the Fanatique cause could not possibly
subsist: fear of Popery and Arbitrary power must be kept up; or the St.
_Georges_ of their side, would have no Dragon to encounter; yet they
will never persuade a reasonable man, that a King, who in his younger
years, when he had all the Temptations of power to pursue such a Design,
yet attempted it not, should now, in the maturity of his Judgment, and
when he sees the manifest aversion of his Subjects to admit of such a
change, undertake a work of so much difficulty, destructive to the
Monarchy, and ruinous to Himself, if it succeeded not; and if it
succeeded, not capable of making him so truly Great as he is by Law
already. If we add to this, his Majesties natural love to Peace and
Quiet, which increases in every man with his years, this ridiculous
supposition will vanish of itself; which is sufficiently exploded by
daily experiments to the contrary. For let the Reign of any of our Kings
be imparti