What a Barrier the _Penal Laws_ are against Popery here, the Papists themselves do witness; And what an _Eye-sore_ they are to them, they fairly enough insinuate by their earnestness with King _James_, in this Paragraph, to _have them Repeal’d_. Here it is we have reason to admire and praise the wise and happy Conduct of the Church of _England_ in the late Reign, who would not be impos’d upon to take off these Laws, which the Papists as well as they, knew to be a _firm barrier_ against Popery, and a sure fence for securing the Protestant Religion; Whatever other glosses were put upon them by some of that time. This does sufficiently free that Church from the imputation of _wilfulness_ and _moroseness_ thrown upon them by their Enemies upon the account of their Refusal in this matter: since the Papists themselves acknowledge in the above-mentioned Paragraph, That _these Laws were originally enacted to abolish the Roman-Catholick Religion, and to be the main hinderance of its advancement_. And indeed they must have been very blind, that did not see through the Designs of the late Reign, in their Intriegues of repealing these Laws: And it were a great Reflection upon the Wisdom of the _Dissenters_, to think they had any other thoughts of the Court-Designs at that time, or that they could be brought to imagine, there was any real kindness meant towards them, either in the Toleration granted them, or in the Insinuations made them to take off the Penal Laws. For there was no Party of men more odious to the Papists, than the _Dissenters_, notwithstanding of all the Caresses made them, merely to juggle them into their own Ruine, and the Ruine of the Church of _England_. MEMORIAL. ~IIdly~, whereas Almighty God of his Divine Providence has placed Bishops in his Church, bought and redeemed by the Price of his most Precious Blood, for to rule and govern the same, and for to enlighten the People into the true and only way of Salvation, as is apparent in Holy Writ; It followeth by an unavoidable consequence, that it is not only conducive, but also absolutely requisite for the establishment of this Roman-Catholick Church in its due lustre and decorum in this Kingdom; That the Prelates and other Clergy thereof, be restored to their Livings, Churches, and full exercise of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, without which it is not to be expected that they can prevail to repress the Vices most swaying in this Age, and make the Christians improve themselves with more serious application in the observance of God’s Law, and in the wholsome practice of Piety and Virtue: For we find by Experience, that the People now-a-days, generally speaking, will not much heed or regard the Exhortations or Threatnings of their Ghostly Directors, when they see them reduced to so low an ebb of Indigence, as to depend of themselves for their spiritual Power and Authority. REFLECTIONS.