5

44 LIFE OF TOLAKD.
ally secured by the glorious Revolution,
That the
whig interest placed King William on the throne;
and that the tory-party, to a man, were attached
to the cause of the abdicated monarch, are facts
that can admit of no dispute. From the date of
the Revolution, the tories, as far as regarded state
affairs, were obliged to alter their tone. To have
declaimed in support of the indefeasible hereditary
right of kings, would have been a direct insult to
King William, who had encroached on this right,
and might have been construed high-treason. The
toleration act secured all denominations in the
free exercise of their religion.
This was another
source of discontent to the tories, who had uniformly
aimed at religious and exclusive supremacy.
That the tories thwarted King William's measures,
meditated the restoration of the abdicated
monarch, and shook the stability of the protestant
succession for more than half a century, needs no
demonstration. Their absurd tenets, respecting
civil and religious tyranny. Mere founded on a
perversion of the sacred records. With the exception
of the whig-party, all
ranks of mankind
were kept in profound ignorance of the di\ine
writings, under pretence of mysttiy and unintelligibility.
By these means the bulk of mankind
were blindly led, without using their senses or
their reason.
To drive arbitrary power from this last resource,
Mr. TolanA wrote Christianity not Mysterious.