rove that William was more fully in possession of supreme
power than Cromwell had been. The swearers therefore avoided coming
to close quarters with the nonjurors on this point as carefully as the
nonjurors avoided coming to close quarters with the swearers on the
question touching the practice of the primitive Church.

The truth is that the theory of government which had long been taught
by the clergy was so absurd that it could lead to nothing but absurdity.
Whether the priest who adhered to that theory swore or refused to swear,
he was alike unable to give a rational explanation of his conduct. If he
swore, he could vindicate his swearing only by laying down propositions
against which every honest heart instinctively revolts, only by
proclaiming that Christ had commanded the Church to desert the righteous
cause as soon as that cause ceased to prosper, and to strengthen the
hands of successful villany against afflicted virtue. And yet, strong as
were the objections to this doctrine, the objections to the doctrine
of the nonjuror were, if possible, stronger still. According to him, a
Christian nation ought always to be in a state of slavery or in a state
of anarchy. Something is to be said for the man who sacrifices liberty
to preserve order. Something is to be said for the man who sacrifices
order to preserve liberty. For liberty and order are two of the greatest
blessings which a society can enjoy: and, when unfortunately they appear
to be incompatible, much indulgence is due to those who take either
side. But the nonjuror sacrificed, not liberty to order, not order to
liberty, but both liberty and order to a superstition as stupid and
degrading as the Egyptian worship of cats and onions. While a particular
person, differing from other persons by the mere accident of birth,
was on the throne, though he might be a Nero, there was to be no
insubordination. When any other person was on the throne, though he
might be an Alfred, there was to be no obedience. It mattered not how
frantic and wicked might be the administration of the dynasty which
had the hereditary title, or how wise and virtuous might be the
administration of a government sprung from a revolution. Nor could any
time of limitation be pleaded against the claim of the expelled family.
The lapse of years, the lapse of ages, made no change. To the end of
the world, Christians were to regulate their political conduct simply
according to the genealogy of their rul