cellent soever, who had come into the place of any who were not satisfied with the Oaths to King William and Queen Mary, and so had been deprived for preferring conscience to preferment." He subsequently considered the Oath lawful in the case of those who had not sworn allegiance to King James. He remarks: "The far greatest part of those, that then took the Oaths, seemed to me to take them with a doubtful conscience, if not against its dictates."[1]
It is said, that some took the Oath pleading a permission from King James. "There were many others, who justified themselves, by the leave which they said King James had given them before his going off, to act as there should be occasion, and not to throw themselves out of a capacity of going on with business, and of doing justice, when and where an opportunity should present itself. These methods were not at all pleasing to the plain temper of Mr. Kettlewell, who thought they had too much in them of the prudence of this world, and expected not that they would ever be blessed of God."[2] Kettlewell also took great pains to satisfy the scruples of many who applied to him on the subject. To those who took the Oath in a lower sense than the words implied, he said: "he believed they would find other hardships put upon them, as fasts and thanksgivings, and that in their practice they would be necessitated to come up to the highest sense, though they renounced it (at present) in their words."[3]
It must be admitted, that latitudinarian notions on the question of the Oath prevailed to a considerable extent among the complying clergy, and even among
