any instance, it was conclusively so with regard
to the present government; for the obedience required by scripture was
indiscriminate. "The powers that be are ordained of God--let every soul
be subject to the higher powers." From these texts they inferred that
the new oaths ought to be taken without scruple, and that those who
refused them concealed party under the cloak of conscience. On the other
hand, the fallacy and treachery of this argument were demonstrated. They
said, it levelled all distinctions of justice and duty; that those who
taught such doctrines attached themselves solely to possession, however
unjustly acquired; that if twenty different usurpers should succeed one
another, they would recognize the last, notwithstanding the allegiance
they had so solemnly sworn to his predecessor, like the fawning spaniel
that followed the thief who mounted his master's horse after
having murdered the right owner. They also denied the justice of a
lay-deprivation, and with respect to church government started tire same
distinctions "_De jure and de facto_" which they had formerly made in
the civil administration. They had even recourse to all the bitterness
of invective against Tillotson and the new bishops, whom they reviled as
intruders and usurpers; their acrimony was chiefly directed against Dr.
Sherlock, who had been one of the most violent sticklers against the
revolution, but thought proper to take the oaths upon the retreat
of king James from Ireland. They branded him as an apostate who had
betrayed his cause, and published a review of his whole conduct,
which proved a severe satire upon his character. Their attacks upon
individuals were mingled with their vengeance against the government;
and indeed the great aim of their divines, as well as of their
politicians, was to sap the foundation of the new settlement. In order
to alienate the minds of the people from the interests of the reigning
prince, they ridiculed his character; inveighed against his measures;
they accused him of sacrificing the concerns of England to the advantage
of his native country; and drew invidious comparisons between the
wealth, the trade, the taxes, of the last and of the present reign. To
frustrate these efforts of the malcontents, the court employed
their engines to answer and recriminate; all sorts of informers were
encouraged and caressed; in a proclamation issued against papists and
other disaffected persons, all magistrates were en