Bedford was the author of several works of considerable value, especially an Essay on the Thirty-nine Articles. In this volume, the question relative to the disputed clause in the xxth article is fully and ably discussed. Collier, in his History, gives the whole of this portion of Bedford's work. He also was the editor of the Life of Barwick, of which he published an English translation. This is a work of great merit. As it will not be necessary to refer again to Bedford, it may be mentioned, that he lived a few years after his trial, dying in the year 1724.
It would scarcely fall within my province, in this work, to notice, at length, the affair of Sacheverell: but, as on many points the views of his supporters coincided with those of the Nonjurors, some allusion to the matter may be permitted. The Whig ministry acted most unwisely in the prosecution, which issued in the accession of the Tories to power. It also led many of the Clergy to believe, that they were not sincere friends to the Church of England. Sacheverell did not directly impugn the Revolution. The charge against him was, that he had maintained, that the proceedings of that period were not a case of resistance to the supreme power: so that the Revolution could not be adduced against the doctrine of passive obedience. The managers of the trial laboured to shew, that the Revolution was an act of resistance; and that consequently at times resistance
Boyer intimates that it was countenanced by Secretary Bromley: but that the ministry thought it incumbent to notice the work on account of some manuscripts, which must have been obtained from the Lord Treasurer's Library. This writer also insinuates, that the book was the production of several Nonjurors, instancing Lesley and Nelson. The supposition with respect to Nelson is absurd. Boyer, 657, 658.
