ith the docility of a child, accepted her decree. The government which
had sprung from the Revolution might, at least since the battle of the
Boyne and the flight of James from Ireland, be fairly called a settled
government, and ought therefore to be passively obeyed till it should
be subverted by another revolution and succeeded by another settled
government.

Sherlock took the oaths, and speedily published, in justification of his
conduct, a pamphlet entitled The Case of Allegiance to Sovereign Powers
stated. The sensation produced by this work was immense. Dryden's Hind
and Panther had not raised so great an uproar. Halifax's Letter to
a Dissenter had not called forth so many answers. The replies to the
Doctor, the vindications of the Doctor, the pasquinades on the Doctor,
would fill a library. The clamour redoubled when it was known that the
convert had not only been reappointed Master of the Temple, but had
accepted the Deanery of Saint Paul's, which had become vacant in
consequence of the deprivation of Sancroft and the promotion of
Tillotson. The rage of the nonjurors amounted almost to frenzy. Was it
not enough, they asked, to desert the true and pure Church, in this her
hour of sorrow and peril, without also slandering her? It was easy to
understand why a greedy, cowardly hypocrite should refuse to take the
oaths to the usurper as long as it seemed probable that the rightful
King would be restored, and should make haste to swear after the battle
of the Boyne. Such tergiversation in times of civil discord was nothing
new. What was new was that the turncoat should try to throw his own
guilt and shame on the Church of England, and should proclaim that she
had taught him to turn against the weak who were in the right, and to
cringe to the powerful who were in the wrong. Had such indeed been
her doctrine or her practice in evil days? Had she abandoned her Royal
Martyr in the prison or on the scaffold? Had she enjoined her children
to pay obedience to the Rump or to the Protector? Yet was the government
of the Rump or of the Protector less entitled to be called a settled
government than the government of William and Mary? Had not the battle
of Worcester been as great a blow to the hopes of the House of Stuart as
the battle of the Boyne? Had not the chances of a Restoration seemed as
small in 1657 as they could seem to any judicious man in 1691? In spite
of invectives and sarcasms, however, there was Overall's treatise