Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/45

Rh No person, however, could have calculated on the consequences that ensued: and had James remained in the country, the utmost elevation at which the Prince could have arrived would have been to the post of Regent. The King evidently thought, with his priests, that he might be restored by the assistance of France. He imagined, that his absence would involve the Prince of Orange in great difficulty: but he could not have been prepared for the course which was adopted by the Convention.

To this time, therefore, namely, the departure of the King, there was no difference of opinion among the Bishops and the Clergy. All regarded the Prince as a mediator. Sancroft, with his brethren, united with the temporal Lords in beseeching the Prince to adopt measures for the safety of the kingdom. There was no reluctance on the part of the Archbishop and the Bishops in begging the Prince to act: but they did not contemplate his accession to the throne. In the Address to the Prince, he was requested to take steps for calling a free Parliament, in order that measures might be adopted for the safety of the Church, and also to secure due liberty to Protestant Dissenters. This proposal emanated from the Church, and at a moment when the Dissenters were flattering King James. Burnet insinuates, that Sancroft's concurrence, in this Address to the Prince, was inconsistent with his subsequent conduct in refusing the oath: but the disingenuousness of such a reflection is obvious, since the Bishops only regarded him as a mediator, not as a sovereign. It surely becomes us to judge favourably of the conduct of men, who were involved in difficulties of no ordinary kind.