limited to a very short time, that men, having but a little time to bethink them, might more generally have refused them, as they did in Scotland: but the six months that was allowed (much against their wills) was so well employed, that the number of the non-swearers was very small in comparison; and if these very men had not made it their business to traduce all that took the Oath as apostates, time-servers, and perjured men, perhaps it would have been much less than it was." Alluding to those who complied, he says: "Every man that taketh the Oath raiseth a new clamour: so that it is apparent to all the world, some men fear nothing more, than that there should be no non-swearers."[1] Sherlock stated, in his Preface, that he had renounced no principle, except one in "The Case of Resistance;" but he forgot, that that one was the hinge on which all turned.[2]
But while Sherlock, with some few individuals, separated from the Nonjurors, by taking the Oath to the new Sovereigns, there were others, who, having complied, repented of the course which they had taken, and who, therefore, separated from the Established Church. On admitting such into communion, the Nonjurors used a Form of Recantation, which was arranged by Kettlewell. This was probably used on subsequent occasions of a similar description. It is very bitter against the Church of England; and in this respect is unlike the general tone of Kettlewell's
- ↑ A Letter to the Authors of the Answers to the Case of Allegiance. 4to. pp. 4, 5.
- ↑ South said of Sherlock, that there was hardly a subject, except Popery, but he had written for and against it. He might have excepted his "Practical Discourse on Death," which met with universal approbation. It is remarkable that this work was written during his suspension.
