this caution, that can possibly be in any revolution; for it is as vain a thing to hope to secure ourselves in such a revolution by prudence and caution, as it is for a man to fortify his house against the breaking in of the sea. If there ever be such a revolution as can unsettle what this hath done, God be merciful to this miserable nation." It is strange, that Stillingfleet should use such language, as if the commonwealth could in any way be compared to the lawful government which existed previous to 1688. "Whatever," he proceeds, "may be pretended, the world will not believe that Doctor B refused a Bishopric, but either out of fear or conscience: the first calls in question the stability or continuance of the present government: the second the authority of it. Now this confirms the enemies of the government in their opinion of the unlawfulness to submit to it, and encourages them to attempt its overthrow." Beveridge had been in a commission for administering the affairs of the Archbishopric, after the Archbishop's deprivation: and the charge of inconsistency is accordingly adduced. "He submitted to the government and took the Oath of Allegiance as early as any man: and never had the least scruple: and yet this was the time to have been scrupulous, if he would have been so: for it seems a little of the latest, when he is become a sworn subject to King William and Queen Mary, to question their authority to make a Bishop. And if the former Bishops were deprived, and new Bishops made, by such an authority as he can swear allegiance to, I cannot understand that it can be unlawful to accept a bishopric from the hands of those whom he owns. Besides this Dr. B was one of those who, by commission from the Dean and Chapter, hath exercised archiepiscopal authority during the
