at
in case the performance should carry conviction along with
it, they would submit to that title, as they had hitherto
opposed it from a principle of conscience. The best answer
that could be made to this summons was Locke's book upon
government, which appeared at this period.--_Ralph_.

THE KING FILLS UP THE BISHOPRICS.

This prelate's being concerned in a conspiracy, furnished the king with
a plausible pretence for filling up the vacant bishoprics. The deprived
bishops had been given to understand, that an act of parliament might
be obtained to excuse them from taking the oaths, provided they would
perform their episcopal functions; but as they declined this expedient,
the king resolved to fill up their places at his return from Holland.
Accordingly, the archbishopric of Canterbury was conferred upon
Dr. Tillotson,* one of the most learned, moderate, and virtuous
ecclesiastics of the age, who did not accept of this promotion without
great reluctance, because he foresaw that he should be exposed to the
slander and malevolence of that party which espoused the cause of his
predecessor. The other vacant Sees were given to divines of unblemished
character; and the public in general seemed very well satisfied with
this exertion of the king's supremacy. The deprived bishops at first
affected all the meekness of resignation. They remembered those
shouts of popular approbation by which they had been animated in the
persecution they suffered under the late government; and they hoped the
same cordial would support them in their present affliction; but finding
the nation cold in their concern, they determined to warm it by argument
and declamation. The press groaned with the efforts of their learning
and resentment, and every essay was answered by their opponents. The
nonjurors affirmed that Christianity was a doctrine of the cross;
that no pretence whatever could justify an insurrection against the
sovereign; that the primitive christians thought it their indispensable
duty to be passive under every invasion of their rights; and that
non-resistance was the doctrine of the English church, confirmed by all
the sanctions that could be derived from the laws of God and man.
The other party not only supported the natural rights of mankind, and
explained the use that might be made of the doctrine of non-resistance
in exciting fresh commotions, but they also argued that if passive
obedience was right in