he offers of the Church were, to
a prudent Dissenter, far more attractive than those of the King. The
Declaration was, in the eye of the law, a nullity. It suspended the
penal statutes against nonconformity only for so long a time as the
fundamental principles of the constitution and the rightful authority
of the legislature should remain suspended. What was the value of
privileges which must be held by a tenure at once so ignominious and
so insecure? There might soon be a demise of the crown. A sovereign
attached to the established religion might sit on the throne. A
Parliament composed of Churchmen might be assembled. How deplorable
would then be the situation of Dissenters who had been in league with
Jesuits against the constitution. The Church offered an indulgence very
different from that granted by James, an indulgence as valid and as
sacred as the Great Charter. Both the contending parties promised
religious liberty to the separatist: but one party required him to
purchase it by sacrificing civil liberty; the other party invited him to
enjoy civil and religious liberty together.

For these reasons, even if it could be believed that the Court was
sincere, a Dissenter might reasonably have determined to cast in his lot
with the Church. But what guarantee was there for the sincerity of the
Court? All men knew what the conduct of James had been tip to that
very time. It was not impossible, indeed, that a persecutor might be
convinced by argument and by experience of the advantages of toleration.
But James did not pretend to have been recently convinced. On the
contrary, he omitted no opportunity of protesting that he had, during
many years, been, on principle, adverse to all intolerance. Yet, within
a few months, he had persecuted men, women, young girls, to the death
for their religion. Had he been acting against light and against the
convictions of his conscience then? Or was he uttering a deliberate
falsehood now? From this dilemma there was no escape; and either of the
two suppositions was fatal to the King's character for honesty. It was
notorious also that he had been completely subjugated by the Jesuits.
Only a few days before the publication of the Indulgence, that Order had
been honoured, in spite of the well known wishes of the Holy See, with
a new mark of his confidence and approbation. His confessor, Father
Mansuete, a Franciscan, whose mild temper and irreproachable life
commanded general respect, but wh