Page:Antidote against the infectious contagion of popery and tyranny.pdf/13

 upon him towards the Re-introduction and Eſtabliſhment of Popery, or at least of Epiſcopacy the Daughter of Popery.

2do, That our Sovereign K. George's Perſon and Government are thereby expoſed to the utmoſt Jeopardy, is the profeſſedly chief Deſign of the preſent War. It remains only to be noticed, that if the Liberty of Election be originally in the People, and that their Conſent either by themſelves or their Repreſentatives is what constitutes a perſon's Title to be their Kings: if K. George had the free, voluntary, unconfined Choice and Conſent of theſe Nations to be their King, and if an explicite formal owning thereof, by ſolemn Oaths, Addreſſes and otherwiſe, were lawful: Then ſurely he is our only rightful and lawful Sovereign; and they must be wicked Sons of Belial, that dare, by taking Part with the Pretender againſt him, involve themſelves in Treachery, Perfidy and Villainy. And,

3tio, That our Country in general is hereby in danger of Suffering in their worldly intereſts, conſider Theſe Things; (1.) That the War hath been hitherto carried on ſolely upon the Charges and Expences of the Country, and that levied in the moſt arbitrary and unequal Manner, to the almoſt utter Ruin of many true and loyal Proteſtants, while theſe that ſtand well affected to the Pretender's Intereſt have been paſt by: which firſt-ripe Fruits of his Government give us a genuine Swatch of what we may (in caſe of his Succeſs) lay our Account with hereafter. (2.) Suppoſing this Pretender to ſucceed in his Enterpriſe, then, beſides the Reſtoration of the Eſtate of Biſhops among ourſelves, and conferring at the leaſt all their ancient Rents upon them, to the diminiſhing of moſt of the Eſtates in the Nation; the Creditors and Benefactors of his family fall next to be ſatisfied: The Debts contracted by them ſo: Fifty ſeven Years Time, and in their ſeveral Expeditions and Invaſions at and ſince the Revolution have been computed to Fifty Millions Sterling, and where this