JAMES THE SECOND.

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It must not, however, be supposed that all the Tories re- chap.nounced, even at that conjuncture, a tenet which they had “ 19BSfrom childhood been taught to regard as an essential part ofChristianity, wliich they had professed during many yearswith ostentatious vehemence, and which they had attemptedto propagate by persecution. Many were kept steady to theirold creed by conscience, and many by shame. But the greaterpart, even of those who still continued to pronounce all re-sistance to the sovereign unlawful, were disposed, in theevent of a civil conflict, to remain neutral. No provocationshould drive them to rebel: but, if rebellion broke forth, itdid not appear that they were bound to fight for James theSecond as they would have fought for Charles the First. TheChristians of Rome had been forbidden by Saint Paul to resistthe government of Nero: but there was no reason to believethat the Apostle, if he had been alive when the Legions andthe Senate rose up against that wicked Emperor, would havecommanded the brethren to fly to arms in support of tyranny.

The duty of the persecuted Church was clear: she must sufferpatiently, and commit her cause to God. But, if God, whoseprovidence perpetually educes good out of evil, should bepleased, as oftentimes He had been pleased, to redress herwrongs by the instrumentality of men whose angry passionsher lessons had not been able to tame, she might gratefullyaccept from Him a deliverance which her principles did notpermit her to achieve for herself. Most of those Tories,therefore, who still sincerely disclaimed all thought of at-tacking the government, were yet by no means inclined to de-fend it, and perhaps, while glorying in their own scruples,secretly rejoiced that everybody was not so scrupulous asthemselves.

The Whigs saw that their time was come. Whether theyshould draw the sword against the government had, duringsix or seven years, been, in their view, merely a question of

illustrated by a little tract published at the beginning of 1689, and en-titled “A Dialogue between Two Friends, wherein the Church of Eng-land is vindicated in joining with the Prince of Orange.”