And yet it was impossible to prove that William was more fully in possession of supreme power than Cromwell had been.

The swearers therefore avoided coming to close quarters with the nonjurors on this point as carefully as the nonjurors avoided coming to close quarters with the swearers on the question touching the practice of the primitive Church.
The truth is that the theory of government which had long been taught by the clergy was so absurd that it could lead to nothing but absurdity.
Whether the priest who adhered to that theory swore or refused to swear, he was alike unable to give a rational explanation of his conduct.

If he swore, he could vindicate his swearing only by laying down propositions against which every honest heart instinctively revolts, only by proclaiming that Christ had commanded the Church to desert the righteous cause as soon as that cause ceased to prosper, and to strengthen the hands of successful villany against afflicted virtue.

And yet, strong as were the objections to this doctrine, the objections to the doctrine of the nonjuror were, if possible, stronger still.

According to him, a Christian nation ought always to be in a state of slavery or in a state of anarchy.