on the subject. At a later period, indeed, when Bishop of Carlisle, he expresses himself satisfied on the following ground. "Whenever a Sovereign De Facto is universally submitted to, and recognized by all the three estates, I must believe that person to be lawful and rightful monarch of this kingdom: who alone has a just title to my allegiance, and to whom only I owe an oath of fealty."[1]
This argument undoubtedly satisfied numbers, who took the Oath, and who did not feel themselves called upon to consider the abstract right. But it did not meet the case of those, who were then in possession of benefices, who had taken the Oath to King James, and could not transfer their allegiance to another. They were ready to conduct themselves as peaceable citizens, though they could not promise to do so under an oath, which renounced King James to whom they had sworn allegiance. While, therefore, credit is given for sincerity to those Bishops and Clergy, who complied, charity constrains us to make the same concession in favour of those, who refused. It was one thing to yield obedience to the new Sovereign, it was another to transfer their allegiance by an oath.
But of all persons the Dissenters are the last who can, with any show of reason, traduce the Nonjurors with inconsistency: since they themselves, as has been shewn in the previous chapter, contributed towards the introduction of Popery, by a ready compliance with King James. While they supported the King in his designs against the religion and liberties of the country, the Bishops and Clergy of the Anglican Church, among whom were all the Nonjurors,
- ↑ Nicolson's Epistolary Correspondence, ii. 387.
