Soon after the settlement of this prince upon the throne, an act was passed for exempting their majesty’s protestant subjects, dissenting from the church of England, from the penal laws; and though the king, in a speech to the two houses of parliament, told them, “That he hoped they would leave room for the admission of all protestants that were willing and able to serve him;” agreeable to which, a clause was ordered to be brought into the house of lords, to take away the necessity of receiving the sacrament to make persons capable of offices; yet his majesty’s gracious intentions were frustrated, and the clause rejected by a great majority. Another clause also that was afterwards added, that the receiving the sacrament in the church of England, or in any other protestant congregation, should be a sufficient qualification, met with the same fate as the former: so that though the dissenters were freed from the penal laws, they were left under a brand of infamy, and rendered incapable of serving their king and country. And the Lord’s Supper laid open to be prostituted by law to the most abandoned and profligate sinners; and an institution designed for the union of all christians, made the test of a party, and the means of their separation from each other; a scandal that remains upon the church of England to this day. It is indeed but too plain, that when the established church saw itself out of danger, she forgot her promises of moderation and condescension towards the dissenters, who readily and openly declared their willingness to yield to a coalition. But as the clergy had formed a resolution of consenting to no alterations, in order to such an union; all the attempts made to this purpose became wholly ineffectual. Indeed, their very exemption from the penal laws was envied them by many; and several attempts were made to disturb and prosecute them in this reign, but were prevented from taking effect by royal injunctions.