That party was not large; but the abilities, acquirements, and virtues of those who belonged to it made it respectable.

It had been regarded with little favour by the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries, and had been mercilessly reviled by bigots of the school of Laud but, from the day on which the Declaration of Indulgence appeared to the day on which the power of James ceased to inspire terror, the whole Church seemed to be animated by the spirit, and guided by the counsels, of the calumniated Latitudinarians.
Then followed an auction, the strangest that history has recorded.

On one side the King, on the other the Church, began to bid eagerly against each other for the favour of those whom tip to that time King and Church had combined to oppress.

The Protestant Dissenters, who, a few months before, had been a despised and proscribed class, now held the balance of power.

The harshness with which they had been treated was universally condemned.