our Religious and Civil Rights and therefore we swore to obey him But when he broke his own Oath and employ'd his Power to Ruin us and our Religion out Allegiance was at an End and we had no Reason to observe those Oaths that were taken when Things were in a better Posture and which we should never have took if we could have fore-seen what since has unfortunately happen'd for tho' we were cheated by our Credulity the Change of Circumstances has cancell'd the Obligation of those Oaths and made it our Duty to do the contrary We are oblig'd to obey our Parents while they maintain their Characters but our Obedience ceases when they command what is sinful Nature founded our Obedience to Authority upon a Supposition that it was for the Good of the Community Kings are the Guarrantees of this Formal Alliance and from the Obligation of the Original Compact arises our Submission But if Princes extend their Authority beyond the first Design of its Institution and destroy the Society over which they preside our Obedience is at an end and we may justly oppose them for no Oath or Promise of Obedience can supercede our Antecedent Obligations to our selves or our Country Had King James kept his own Oath we had been oblig'd to ours but his changing from what he promis'd to be set us at liberty The Deceit was his own Contrivance in disguising himself for had he appear'd in his own Likeness and honestly told us what he design'd before we were decoy'd into Oaths I believe there would have been as many Non-Jurants then as there were Honest and Thinking Men in the Kingdom All Oaths tho' never so cautiously worded have still some Tacit Exceptions or else they would sometimes Interfere with Common Equity Therefore 't is a good Exception in Law and a Salvo in Conscience to say that the Thing when the Oath was taken was Unforeseen and so unlikely to happen that it was thought almost impossible to come to pass viz. That the late King James should endeavour to Ruin his Subjects which of necessity must have been his own Ruin also when the Account should be adjusted between himself and Partners Again As the late King manag'd his Affairs these Oaths and our Obedience were Contradictory to themselves and therefore not Obliging We swore in the Oath of Supremacy that the King is Supream Head and Governor in his Dominions and that the Pope neither hath nor ought to have any Superiority or Authority therein But the late King notwithstanding this Law would have the Pope Supream in Spirituals Could we make him what he would not be Could he absolve us from those Oaths after we had taken them Or how was it possible for to observe them but we must offend one Way or t'other The Low says we must take these Oaths or pay Five Hunder'd Pounds besides other Penal Disabilities The King says we must not take them upon pain of his Displeasure and being turn'd out of the Offices we enjoy as our Freeholds by taking the Oaths what must the Subject do when the Law and the King are at so great Variance and the Subjects Duty involv'd in such Intricacies that could never be salv'd but by the Monarch's Abdication But That which utterly puts an End to the Obligatory Part of these Oaths and makes them Null and Void was his Voluntary Withdrawing himself from the Kingdom Abdicating the Government and Leaving the Throne Vacant for that set his Subjects Free to all Intents and Purposes because he that leaves the Government of his Subjects must be suppos'd to Resign his Interest in them for Government is so necessary for the Preservation of Subjects that he who intends to have Subjects must at the same time intend to have them Govern'd or their whole Allegiance ceases Nor if he could pretend he was forc'd to go off will that avail him because it was of his own procuring He might have prevented it by Calling a Parliament and Complying with Justice and the not doing what he ought makes his Desertion Voluntary I mention this only to answer those that object it without Cause whose Partiality spoils their Judgments and drives them to little Shifts to support their false Pretences His Departure into France and Desertion of the Crown was whol Voluntary no Force compell'd him no Danger threaten'd him the People were willing to have Retain'd him but he according to Hales's and Brent's Advices would leave the Kingdom in Confusion that he might return the sooner and have his Ends of us which would bear very Severe Reflections but his Going off being the only kind Act that ever that King did for England I shall omit them now out of pure Gratitude for that transcendent Favour What remains then but a serious Advice to our Scrupulous or Obstinate Brethren that they would no longer insist upon Controverted Cases and Ill-tim'd Niceties that hinder their Obedience or slacken their Gratitude to God and our Sovereign Lord King William for our Miraculous Deliverance nor Ruin themselves nor expose the Nation to Danger for the sake of the late King when they neither ought nor can do him any Service for seeing by the Law of Nature the Design of Government and the Practice of all Nations the late King hath Forfeited and Renounc'd his Right and they are discharg'd from their Oaths and Allegiance to him that they would now honourably deliver up that Pretence which they can no longer defend and pay their Obedience where Divine Providence the Laws of the Land and an Extraorninary Merit has made it due What can be more dishonourable than that the Dishonour and Loss that has befallen this Unfortunate Prince was the Consequence of his own Arbitrary Actions and is primarily to be imputed to himself in exceeding the Bounds of his Limited Authority which he ought in no wise to have done for the Royal Dignity of England is so far from being a Despotick kind of Government that it carries along with it in its very Essence a Mixture of Interests betwixt King and People and lays an Obligation upon the King to govern not by his own Arbitrary Will but according to Law And so careful have the English Subjects always been to preserve the Government in this Equal Poize that every Deviation from it has been look'd upon by them as a Step towards Tyranny And not only the English but so strangely has all Antiquity look'd upon the Affectation of Absolute Power that Isidore lays it down as the Character of a Tyrant That he is Ambitious of Absolute Dominion and oppresses his Subjects by a Lawless Authority And the Scholiast of Aristophanes says That a King differs from a Tyrant in this that a King possesses his Kingdom as receiving it from his Subject upon certain Conditions prescrib'd by Law but a Tyrant Enters and Rules by Force and Violence James the Second could not be ignorant that other Kings of England have sometimes shew'd their Inclinations and made some
instead of preserving the Religious and Civil Rights of his Subjects shall endeavour to destroy them he may be set aside without Prejudice to the Constitution since we are not oblig'd to preserve the Right of the Succession to the Destruction of the Kingdom Fit and Just ought to over-rule Custom and Formalities give way to the Necessities of the Publick 'T was a common Saying amongst the late King James's Favourites that their King had a Divine Right and therefore he would not be a Slave to the Law And there is greater Reason that his Subjects should not be Slaves to a Tyrant that broke them nor Millions of Souls be ruin'd to humour a Single Person No pretended Right whatsoever can Legitimate Unlawful Practices and therefore when a King forgetting whose Minister he is degenerates into Tyrant and deprives the Nation of all those Blessings that Heaven had given us the quiet Enjoyment of I think there can be no Reason assign'd why we should endure those Violences any longer than till we are in a Capacity to help our selves The Right of Succession has been always Claim'd but not constantly Enjoy'd and the Two Houses of Parliament notwithstanding this Claim have set the Crown upon the Heads of those Princes whom they knew had no Hereditary Right to it and yet they have been esteem'd as Lawful Kings in all our Chronicles and Laws while those who were next of Blood were laid Aside when the Safety of the Kingdom which is to be consider'd in the first and chiefest place makes it necessary so to do Into what a lamentable Condition would this Kingdom have been reduc'd if the Law that Intails the Succession on the Next in Blood should also give him a Power to do what he pleases be it Right or Wrong Wherefore as the Law has often dispenc'd with the Next Heir before he came to the Crown for the former Reasons so it shews us that we are no ways bound to a Prince on the Throne who by Breaking the Laws of the Constitution has Abdicated the Government and stands Virtually Depos'd by his own Actions as well as by a Law as antient as Edward the Confessor or rather Edgar his Grandfather which says If the King refuseth to govern by Law not so much as the Name or Title of King remains to him For * Nec nomen Regis in eo constabit Spel. Concil leg Guil. c. 6. Hoveden's Annals Part 2. p. 608. he ceases to be King that governs by his own Will and not according to Law So that 't is plain the Kings of England are not Kings by a Divine but Humane Appointment They are not Absolute but Limited Monarchs and Circumscrib'd and Bounded in their Powers and Prerogatives from Oppressing and Destroying their Subjects which if the late King had observ'd without suffering himself to have been abus'd by False Notions and Fawning Flatteries he might have been as Great and as Happy a Prince as he could have wish'd himself to be Whereas striving to be above all has reduc'd him into a Mean and Insignificant Station So true is that Maxim That they which Wrestle with Laws are always Thrown and fall Uneasie and Unpity'd But As Mischiefs seldom come Alone so this pretended Divine Right was accompany'd with the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance the first set him above all kind of Restraint and the other laid his Subjects under his Feet to be Trampled on or Destroy'd at his Pleasure and both being of pernicious Consequence I shall endeavour to stop the Currency of the latter also by shewing that the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-Resistance are False in their Application of it and Dangerous to Kings and Destructive to Subjects They are false as the Authors apply them in Licensing all kind of Wickedness and putting it into the Power of every Arbitrary Ruler to invade the Laws and Liberties the Lives and Fortunes of his Subjects and to do what Mischief he pleases whilst by a Voluntary Submission we yield up our Rights which tho we might have been able to have Kept them while we had them may never be in any possibility of Regaining them when we have lost them Nam quid vis citius dissolvi posse videmus Quam rursus reficio For Things much sooner perish than attain Being dissolv'd to be repair'd again Sad Examples whereof we have in our Neighbouring Kingdoms who for want of a timely opposing the Arbitrary Power of their Kings have fallen into Governments as Absolute and Tyrannical as the Ottoman Empire where no Man can call any thing his own Certainly those which with so much Zeal contend for Passive Obedience never consider'd the Consequences of it What would not some Princes do if they were assured that no body would oppose them Nay what would not the late King have done had he been let alone to pursue his Violent Methods without that most admirable Check of Providence that encounter'd him Nature has founded our Obedience upon a Supposition that it was for the Good of the Community and not otherwise And would it not be a Contradiction if Princes might extend their Authority beyond the Design of its Institution and attempt the Destruction of the Society and we quietly submit to whatever they pleas'd to do I am as far from denying the Persons of the Kings and Queens of this Nation to be Sacred and Inviolable as any Man living yet I dare not say they are to be Obey'd in All Cases whatsoever for then the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and the Bow-string would be the same and we must owe our Lives to Fortune not to Justice What if a King should take pleasure in Burning of Cities Murthering Men and Ravishing Women for such Kings there have been in the World and what has been may be again Sure 't would be a piece of the greatest Impiety and Wickedness but to imagin he might do it without Control Fathers by the Law of Nature have a greater Authority over their Children than Kings have over their Subjects and yet if a Father comes to kill his Child he is not oblig'd to submit and open his Breast to the Dagger or hold up his Throat whilst his Father cuts it No Nature Common Sense Self-preservation and the Practice of all Nations is too powerful for the Sophistry of such Principles and those that cannot reason can feel what they are to do in such Cases Grotius says The King must be bereav'd of his Wits that attempts the Destruction of his whole People but grants that they do sometimes destroy one Part for the sake of another as King James's Design was to destroy the Protestants in favour of the Papists and the English in favour of the Irish but says he ought not to be Obey'd in such Frentick Depopulations And if Grotius thinks the Prince Mad that attempts it we may conclude them little better that mis-apply their Parts to defend it For tho' the Scripture commands Obedience to Authority without Exception
private Lashes and subtile Essays towards an Unlimited Power but being told of it as an Incroachment upon the Laws they have always publickly disclaim'd it and yet the late King would attempt it Fortunae miseras auximus arte vias Propert. lib. 3. El. 6. He with Misfortune ' gainst himself took part And his own Wickedness increas'd by Art King Charles the First in his Declaration from * 1694. Newmarket shew'd the Unlawfulness of it for says he The Laws are the Measures of my Power Few Words but very significant and agree with what was said by that great Lawyer Bracton That he is no King that governs by his own Will and not by Law nor are his Commands obliging Which made King James in one of his Speeches to the Parliament call those Flatterers that persuade Kings not to confine themselves within the Bounds oâ— their own Laws Vipers and the Pests of King and Kingdom And the Lord Verulam says the People have as good a Right to their Laws as to the Air they breath in and he that persuades his Prince to break them is as great a Traytor to him in the Court of Heaven as the Villain that draws his Sword upon him in his own Palace Lewis the Eleventh of France tho' he had been a very Arbitrary Prince when he lay upon his Death-Bed told his Son Charles the Eighth that it was a Diminution to the Greatness of a King not to govern by Law and treat his Subjects Humanely for no Man can be call'd a King but he that governs Free-men King James the First in another Speech to his Parliament sums up all in this memorable Passage viz. That a King governing in a settl'd Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant when he ceases to rule according to Law And yet all this could not restrain James the Second from endeavouring after an Absolute Power The Sentiments of these Great Men might be very prevalent upon Ingenuous Princes yet our Ancestors unwilling to expose themselves and us to Contingent Hazards or leave it to the Mercy or trust only to the Good Nature of Princes who being but Men might be sway'd by their own Passions abus'd by their Credulity or mis-guided by Evil Counsellors to act against their own and their Kingdom 's Safety they thought fit to bind up their Kings from Invading their Laws or venturing upon an Unlimited Power by the most Sacred Obligation in the World viz. a Solemn Oath and Promise at their Coronations to govern according to the Laws of the Land And Taking this Oath has always been the constant Practice of our Saxon Danish and Norman Kings even to James the Second who made no Scruple in Taking nor no Conscience in Breaking it To this I might add that our Kings are Circumscrib'd by Law because in many Instances the Law hath determined what they can and what they cannot do lawfully But because this Point has been Invidiously and Indecently handl'd by some Perulant and froward Tempers who have set too narrow Bounds to the Royal Prerogative I shall wave it and conclude this Paragraph with that excellent Saying of King James the First to both Houses of Parliament Wherein he expresly tells them * See his Works That a King of England binds himself by a double Oath to the Observation of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Tacitly as being a King and so bound to protect his People and the Laws of the Kingdom And Expresly by his Oath at his Coronation So that every King in a settl'd Kingdom is bound to observe that Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeably thereunto according to the Paction that God made with Noah after the Deluge To Recite more upon this Head was to pour Water into the Sea for that King that does not think himself oblig'd by his Oath to govern according to Law no other Legal Mound can hold him from breaking down the Fences of the Kingdom and laying all Waste before him Which tho' others might aim at by a Side-Wind no King of England ever claim'd a Right to it but the late King James and it was a piece of Haughtiness and Extravagance above all Example except what his own following Practices has furnished us with And having thus proved that the late King James was by his Oath oblig'd to Govern by Law I proceed to shew you that instead of Answering this great End He made it the whole Business of his Reign to act directly against the Laws to subvert the whole Constitution and expose the Nation to certain Ruin and Destruction And Secondly That by so doing he renounc'd to be our King and justify'd the Legality of the Estates proceedings against him That he intended no Good to England might plainly be discern'd by the great Number of Jesuits and Popish Priests that from all Parts flocked about him and were Caress'd and Indear'd by him at his very first Accession to the Crown for if Charity could have oblig'd us to believe him never so Good-natur'd it was Morally Impossible for him to continue Good in such Ill Company who where-e'er they come set the Country in a Flame that receives them 'T was I say a Sign that some very Ill Thing was to be done when such Sanguinary Hands were to be employ'd as were Reeking hot in the Blood of Neighbouring Protestants and against whose Cruelties Self-Interest Love of Glory Greatness of Mind nor Goodness of Nature could never divert those Princes from Persecuting and Rooting out their Protestant Subjects that had once imbibed the pernicious Principles of the Jesuits who like their Father the Davil are always wandring about seeking whom they may devour In what a happy Estate was the German Empire till the Jesuits prevail'd with the Emperor to espouse their Interest and rather than let a few Protestants live peaceably in Hungary involv'd the Empire in a War that has lasted Thirty Years already and God only knows when there will be an End of it What Scandalous Breaches of Promises and Havock has been among the Hugonots in France by Merciless Cruelties Murthers Thefts Rapine and all kind of Devastations since the Jesuits have been permitted to influence the Affairs of that Kingdom To give no more Presidents of their Barbarities to Protestants and bewitching with their Poysonous Tenents the Counsels of Unwary or Bigotted Princes How have they persuaded the Duke of Savoy contrary to all Politicks to Persecute and Banish his Protestant Subjects who in all probability would have given him the best Assistance when he shall want their Service for the Preservation of his Dukedom And how far the late King James would have follow'd those Presidents while these Incendiaries were the Directors of his Conscience may be easily understood by the first Steps he made towards the Ruin of the Protestant Interest First In Setting up a Dispencing Power and Assuming an Arbitrary Authority that should know no Bounds but what his
Consideration of Affairs Abroad which makes it fit for you to expedite your Business not only for making a Settlement at home upon a good Foundation but for the Safety of all Europe The Lords having declar'd by a Vote of that House That Popery was Inconsistent with the Government of England the Commons upon the 28th of January passed the following Vote viz. Resolved THat King James the Second having endeavour'd to Subvert the Constitution of this Kingdom by breaking the Original Contract between King and People and by the Advice of Jesuits and other Wicked Persons having withdrawn himself out of this Kingdom hath Abdicated the Government and that the Throne is thereby Vacant This Vote occasion'd several Conferences between the two Houses of Lords and Commons in the Painted Chamber at Westminster the Substance whereof as they are transmitted * 〈◊〉 Debate at large between the House of Lords and House of Câ—â—â—â—â—â— to us will be occasionally produc'd in the Sequel But on the 7th of February the Lords sending a Message to the Commons that they had Agreed to the Vote sent them up on the 28th of January last without any Alterations on the 12th of February following both Houses Unanimously Agreed to Declare as followeth The Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembled at Westminster VVHereas the late King James the Second by the Assistance of divers Evil Counsellors Judges and Ministers employ'd by him did endeavour to Subject and Extirpate the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom By Assuming and Exercising a Power of Dispencing with and Suspending of Laws and the Execution of Laws without Consent of Parliament By Committing and Persecuting divers Worthy Prelates for humbly Petitioning to be excus'd from Concurring to the said Assumed Power By Issuing and Causing to be Executed a Commission under the Broad Seal for Erecting a Court call'd The Court of Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs By Levying Money for and to the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative for other Time and in other Manner than the same was Granted by Parliament By Raising and Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace without Consent of Parliament and Quartering of Soldiers contrary to Law By Causing several good Subjects being Protestants to be Dis-arm'd at the same time when Papists were both Arm'd and Employ'd contrary to Law By Violating the Freedom of Elections of Members to Serve in Parliament By Prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for Matters and Causes Cognizable only in Parliament and by divers other Arbitrary and Illegal Courses And whereas of late Years Partial Corrupt and Unqualify'd Persons have been Return'd and Serv'd on Juries in Trials and particularly divers Jurors Serv'd in Trials for High Treason which were not Free-holders And Excessive Bail had been Required of Persons Committed in Criminal Causes to Elude the Benefit of the Laws made for the Liberty of the Subject And Excessive Fines have been Impos'd And Illegal and Cruel Punishments Inflicted And several Grants and Promises made of Fines and Forfeitures before any Conviction or Judgment against the the Persons upon whom the same were to be Levy'd All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known Laws and Statutes and Freedom of this Realm And whereas the late King James the Second having Abdicated the Government and the Throne being thereby Vacant His Highness the Prince of Orange whom it hath pleas'd Almighty God to make the Glorious Instrument of Delivering this Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power did by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and divers Principal Persons of the Commons cause Letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal being Protestants and other Letters to the several Counties Cities Universities Boroughs and Cinque-Ports for the Choosing such Persons to represent them as were of Right to be sent to Parliament to Meet and Sit at Westminster upon the 22th Day of January 1688. in order to such an Establishment as that their Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being Subverted Upon which Letters Elections have been made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their respective Letters and Elections being now Assembl'd in a Full and Free Representative of this Nation taking into their most Serious Consideration the best Means for attaining the Ends aforesaid do in the first place as their Ancestors in like Cases have formerly done for the Vindicating and Asserting their Antient Rights and Liberties Declare That the Pretended Power of Suspending of Laws or the Execution of Laws by Regal Authority without Consent of Parliament is Illegal That the Pretended Power of Dispencing with Laws or the Exercise of Laws by Regal Authority as has been Assum'd and Practis'd of late is Illegal That the Commission for Erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature are Illegal and Pernicious That Levying of Money to or for the Use of the Crown by Pretence of Prerogative without Grant of Parliament for a longer Time or in other Manner than the same is or shall be Granted is Illegal That it is the Right of the Subject to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning is Illegal That the Raising or Keeping a Standing Army within the Kingdom in Time of Peace unless it be by Consent of Parliament is against Law That the Subjects being Protestants may have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Condition and as Allow'd by Law That the Election of Members of Parliament ought to be Free That the Freedom of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parliament ought not to be Impeach'd or Question'd in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be Requir'd nor Excessive Fines Impos'd nor Cruel and Unusual Punishments Inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Return'd and Jurors which Pass upon Men in Trials for High Treason ought to be Free-Holders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular Persons before Conviction are Illegal and Void That for Redress of all Grievances and for the Amending Strengthening and Preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do Claim Demand and Insist upon all and singular the Premisses as their Undoubted Rights and Liberties and that no Declarations Judgments Doings or Proceedings to the Prejudice of the People in any of the said Premisses ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which Demand of their Rights they are particularly Encourag'd by the Declaration of His Highness the Prince of Orange as being the only Means for Obtaining a full Redress and Remedy therein Having therefore an Entire Confidence that His said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanc'd by him and will still preserve them from the Violation of their Rights
which they have here Asserted and from all other Attempts upon their Religion Rights and Liberties The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons Assembl'd at Westminster do Resolve That William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange be and be Declar'd King and Queen of England France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging to Hold the Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their Lives and the Life of the Survivor of them And that the Sole and Full Exercise of the Regal Power be only in and Executed by the said Prince of Orange in the Names of the said Prince and Princess during their Joint Lives And after their Deceases the said Crown and Royal Dignity of the said Kingdoms and Dominions to be to the Heirs of the Body of the said Princess and for Default of such Issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark and the Heirs of her Body and for Default of such Issue to the Heirs of the Body of the said Prince of Orange And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons do Pray the said Prince and Princess of Orange to Accept the same accordingly This Offer being made in due Form and Accepted by the Prince and Princess of Orange now our Gracious King William and the late Queen Mary of Blessed Memory on the 13th Day of February 1688. the Lords and Commons order'd the following Proclamation to be Publish'd and Made WHereas it hath pleas'd Almighty God in his great Mercy to this Kingdom to vouchsafe us a Miraculous Deliverance from Popery and Arbitrary Power and that our Preservation is due next under God to the Resolution and Conduct of His Highness the Prince of Orange whom God hath chosen to be the Glorious Instrument of such an Inestimable Happiness to us and our Posterity and being highly sensible and fully persuaded of the Great and Eminent Vertues of Her Highness the Princess of Orange whose Zeal for the Protestant Religion will no doubt bring a Blessing along with her upon this Nation And whereas the Lords and Commons now Assembled at Westminster have made a Declaration and presented the same to the said Prince and Princess of Orange and therein desir'd them to accept the Crown who have accepted the same accordingly We therefore the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons together with the Lord Mayor and Citizens of London and others of the Commons of this Realm do with full Consent Publish and Proclaim according to the said Declaration William and Mary Prince and Princess of Orange to be King and Queen of England France and Ireland with all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging who are accordingly so to be Own'd Deem'd and Taken by all the People of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from henceforward bound to acknowledge and pay unto them all Faith and True Allegiance Beseeching God by whom Kings Reign to Bless King William and Queen Mary with Long and Happy Years to Reign over us God save King WILLIAM and Queen MARY Joh. Brown Cler. Parl. These Ample and Affectionate Demonstrations of the Nation 's Gratitude were as Kindly receiv'd by the King and Queen as they were Dutifully offer'd by their Subjects And thus the King was pleas'd to express himself upon the Notice of it to the Lords and Commons My Lords and Gentlemen THis is certainly the greatest Proof of the Trust you have in Us that can be given which is the Thing that makes Us value it the more and We thankfully accept what you have offer'd And as I had no other Intentious in my coming hither than to preserve your Religion Laws and Liberties so you may be sure that I shall endeavour to support them and shall be willing to do any thing that shall be for the Good of the Kingdom and to do all that is in My Power to advance the Welfare and Glory of the Nation And now with what Inexpressible Joy and Entire Satisfaction the whole Nation entertain'd Their Majesties Accession to the Throne and seeing those Illustrious Princes that had been hitherto their Hopes and Desires now become their Glory and Crown of Rejoicing is easier to imagin than delineate and therefore I must content the Reader by only saying that nothing was omitted that might express a True and Unfeigned Joy upon that Extraordinary Occasion Thus have I shew'd how by a continual Series of Illegal Actions the late King proceeded to Abdicate and Renounce the Government of these Kingdoms till he compleated it by leaving the Realm And also what an Inevitable Necessity there was at that Conjuncture and as Affairs then stood to supply the Vacancy of the Throne by the Inauguration of that Meritorious Prince that now enjoys it And tho' there needs no other Reasons to satisfie the Scrupulous and command a quiet Submission than that it was done purely for the Welfare of the Nation and was settl'd by Lawful Authority yet because the Enemies of our Peace and Settlement take too great a Liberty to Asperse these Proceedings and Amuse the Unthinking and Unsteady People with contrary Opinions I hope 't will be pardonable to Administer an Antidote against the Infection of Virulent Tongues and Seditious Practices and Reconcile those to Reason and their Duty that have been or still do lie in danger of being perverted by the Sophistry of a Turbulent Faction And this I shall endeavour by shewing that the late King 1. Did Voluntarily Abdicate the Government 2. That the Proceedings of the Convention of the Estates were Just and Necessary That 3. King William's Title to the Crown is Indisputable And 4. The Obedience of his Subjects their Indispensible Duty The late King was under an Obligation by virtue of the Original Contract between the King and People which Compact is Imbody'd in our Constitution Imply'd in our Laws and Runs through all our Histories his Coronation-Oath and the Trust repos'd in him by his People to govern according to the Tenour of our Laws as has been already largely prov'd But on the contrary he broke all the Fundamental Laws fell foul upon the very Essence of the Constitution it self and gave no Quarter to any thing that oppos'd his Arbitrary Usurpation And was not this a publick Declaration that he would not be kept within the Bounds of Law nor hold his Kingly Office upon those Terms The Original Contract made him a Legal King but if he might not act the part of a Tyrant he would be nothing at all He was oblig'd by Law to protect and defend the Protestant Religion but by his unfortunate Persuasion in Religion and his moderate Affectation of Arbitrary Power he thought himself concerned to Suspend the Laws that were the Barriers to secure it and to treat it as the Northern Heresie What was his Actual Suspending and Annulling Laws without Consent of Parliament but a necessary Implication in Common Sense as well as Legal Acceptation that he Renounc'd his Kingly Office