Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/522

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History of the Nonjurors.

urged against me, that I acted quite contrary to your earnest remonstrances, which you know to be false: If I did, I do not remember that I ever put myself into your keeping, and was to do nothing but by your direction: but you yourself can acquit me in that particular, by only relating matter of fact." Ken then quotes Lloyd's own words, in which he had expressed his approval of his resignation, and adds: "No, good Brother, your native thoughts were the same with mine, but when you heard a cry against me, you flew to the distinction of person and cession."[1]

From these letters, it is clear, that Lloyd, had he been left to his own judgment and feelings, would have acted with Ken, and thus the schism would have ceased: but he was prevailed upon by others, among whom no doubt Hickes acted a prominent part, to retrace his steps, and to discountenance Ken in the matter of the resignation. But though it is to be regretted, that such a course was not pursued, yet it must not be supposed, that the Nonjurors, after Lloyd's death, were unable to plead any thing in justification of their conduct. The previous pages will prove the contrary. As an individual, I regret that all did not concur with Dodwell: and I have less sympathy with the second than with the first generation of Nonjurors: but I cannot join in an indiscriminate sentence of condemnation. On the contrary, I have done justice to their memory in this volume, having endeavoured to rescue it from those groundless charges, with which it has on many occasions been loaded by persons, who cannot be


  1. Ken's Prose Works, by Round, 8vo. 1838.