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116 pretence to enable him to submit: and I have not seen any reason to alter that opinion. Probably he imagined at first that King James might be able to return: but when he saw William firmly seated on the throne, after his success in Ireland, he began to consider by what means he could retrace his steps. Overall's Convocation Book was the pretence; for having assigned many reasons for refusing the Oath, he was anxious to have some plea for his change of opinion. Posterity certainly will not consider his arguments of much force. Some of the pamphlets and sarcastic attacks upon the Doctor are mentioned in my former work. Sherlock published his "Case of the Allegiance due to Sovereign Powers, &c." in order to vindicate himself in taking the Oath. "It was no small alarm to those whom he had left, that a person of his figure, who had so strenuously maintained the doctrine of nonresistance, in one of his most celebrated pieces, and thereby opposed the principles of the Revolution, and of the establishment thereupon: and who had also held out so long in this opposition, for the sake of his old opinion, by re-