seemed that Whitehall was at their mercy, when they had a near
prospect of dominion and revenge, he had changed sides; and
fortune had changed sides with him. In the great debate on the
Exclusion Bill, his eloquence had struck them dumb, and had put
new life into the inert and desponding party of the Court. It was
true that, though he had left them in the day of their insolent
prosperity, he had returned to them in the day of their distress.
But, now that their distress was over, they forgot that he had
returned to them, and remembered only that he had left them.15

The vexation with which they saw Danby presiding in the Council,
and Halifax bearing the Privy Seal, was not diminished by the
news that Nottingham was appointed Secretary of State. Some of
those zealous churchmen who had never ceased to profess the
doctrine of nonresistance, who thought the Revolution
unjustifiable, who had voted for a Regency, and who had to the
last maintained that the English throne could never be one moment
vacant, yet conceived it to be their duty to submit to the
decision of the Convention. They had not, they said, rebelled
against James. They had not selected William. But, now that they
saw on the throne a Sovereign whom they never would have placed
there, they were of opinion that no law, divine or human, bound
them to carry the contest further. They thought that they found,
both in the Bible and in the Statute Book, directions which could
not be misunderstood. The Bible enjoins obedience to the powers
that be. The Statute Book contains an act providing that no
subject shall be deemed a wrongdoer for adhering to the King in
possession. On these grounds many, who had not concurred in
setting up the new government, believed that they might give it
their support without offence to God or man. One of the most