sciences (if they have any) know to be none at all."[1]
At all events, no one can deny, that their sincerity was put to a very severe test. By complying, the Archbishop, Bishops and Clergy might have retained their posts: the Bishops would have ended their days in affluence and surrounded with worldly honours: and the Clergy would have lived in comfort and in most cases in plenty. But by adopting the opposite course, they spent the remainder of their days in poverty and seclusion. There was no worldly inducement to such a course. It is not in human nature to choose poverty for its own sake. Some strong principle must have influenced them in their decision, and supported them in their subsequent course. In short they were moved by their own consciences: and it is not uncharitable to assert, that few of the complying Bishops were actuated by so strong a principle as the despised Nonjurors. Nor were they encouraged by King James. On the contrary they met with great discouragement.
James's infatuation with respect to Popery was so great, that he usually endeavoured to induce those Nonjuring divines, who visited him in France, to join the Church of Rome. These attempts were known and could not fail to cause any, who might be wavering in their opinions, to adhere to the new government, despairing of the safety of the Church of England under King James. Thus, when the Protestant members of his court at St. Germains requested permission for a chapel, in which the service of the
- ↑ Remarks on some late Sermons: and in particular on Dr. Sherlock's Sermon at the Temple, Dec. 30th, 1694. In a Letter to a Friend, p. 11.
