the passing of the Abjuration Act, from London to Oxford, with the intention of not taking the Oath. He did not, however, resign his preferments: nor was he called upon to take the Oath: so that he held all his places until his death in 1714. But in most cases the Oath was required to be taken, and especially in those which were suspected. It was an impolitic act, since it grieved the consciences of many good men, and really did nothing towards strengthening the government. Not a few of the Nonjurors would have complied, after King James's death, but for this Oath of Abjuration. They considered themselves released from their Oath to King James by his death: and they would have submitted to the government. But they looked upon the Oath of Abjuration of the rights of the Pretender as so unnecessary, that they could not take it: and even some, who had formerly complied, now became Nonjurors. Whiston tells us: "Mr. Billers and Mr. Baker, who loved their religion and their country as well as any jurors whomsoever, but having once taken an oath to King James, could not satisfy their consciences in breaking it, while he lived, for any consideration whatsoever. I well remember that when King James died, which was in 1701, they began to deliberate about taking the Oath, and coming into the government, till the unhappy Abjuration Oath, which was made the same year, had such clauses as stopped all their farther deliberations."[1]
- ↑ Whiston's Memoirs, p. 32. Mr. Hallam very justly remarks of this new Oath: "Of all sophistry that weakens moral obligation, that is the most pardonable which men employ to escape from this species of tyranny. The state may reasonably make an entire and heartfelt attachment to its authority the condition of civil trust: but nothing more than a promise of peaceable obedience
