Religion Laws and Liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted upon which Letters Elections have been accordingly made And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons pursuant to their Respective Letters and Elections being now Assembled 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 case have usually done for the vindicating and asserting their Ancient 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 Dispensing with Laws or the execution of Laws by Regal Authority as it hath been assumed and exercised 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 longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be Granted is illegal That it is the Right of the Subjects to Petition the King and all Commitments and Prosecutions for such Petitioning are 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 allowed 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 impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parliament That Excessive Bail ought not to be required nor Excessive Fines imposed nor cruel and unusual Punishments inflicted That Jurors ought to be duly Impannell'd and Returned and Jurors which pass upon men in Trials for High-Treason ought to be Freeholders That all Grants and Promises of Fines and Forfeitures of particular persons before Conviction are illegal and void And that for Redress of all Grievances and for the amending strengthning and preserving of the Laws Parliaments ought to be held frequently And they do claim demand and insist upon all and singular the Premises 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 Premises ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example To which demand of their Rights they are particularly encouraged 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 intire Confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the Deliverance so far advanced 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 assembled at Westminster do Resolve That WILLIAM and MARY Prince and Princess of Orange be and be declared 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 joynt 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 And that the Oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all persons of whom the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy might be required by Law instead of them and that the said Oarhs of Allegiance and Supremacy be abrogated I A. B. Do sincerely Promise and Swear That I will be Faithful and bear true Allegiance to Their Majesties King WILLIAM and Queen MARY So help me God I A. B. Do Swear That I do from my Heart Abbor Detest and Abjure as Impious and Heretical this Damnable Doctrine and Position That Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope or any Authority of the See of Rome may be deposed or murthered by their Subjects or any other whatsoever And I do declare That no Foreign Prince Person Prelate State or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction Power Superiority Prcheminence or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual within this Realm So help me God Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentor The same day this Declaration bears date Her Royal Highness the Princess of Orange arrived in the River of Thames in the Afternoon and was received with all the Hearty Demonstrations and Expressions of Joy by the City that are usual on such occasions The 13th of February the Lords and Commons ordered the following Proclamation to be published and made WHereas it hath pleased 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 Virtues 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 desired 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 wit all the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Who are accordingly so to be owned deemed and taken by all the people of the aforesaid Realms and Dominions who are from hence-forward bound to acknowledge and pay unto them all Faith and true Allegiance Beseeching God by whom Kings reign to Bless King VVilliam and Queen Mary with long and happy Years to reign over us God save
may be secured the Church of England in particular with a due Liberty to Protestant Dissenters and in general the Protestant Beligion and Interest over the whole World may be supported and encouraged to the Glory of GOD the Happiness of the Established Government in these Kingdoms and the Advantage of all Princes and States in Christendom that may be herein concerned In the mean time we will endeavour to preserve as much as in us lies the Peace and Security of these great and populous Cities of London and Westminster and the parts adjacent by taking care to disarm all Papists and secure all Jesuits and Romish Priests who are in or about the same And if there be any thing more to be performed by Us for promoting his Highness's Generous Intentions for the publick good we shall be ready to do it as occasion requires Signed W. Cant. T. Ebor. Pembrook Dorset Mulgrave Thanet Carlisle Craven Ailesbury Burlington Sussex Berkeley Rochester Newport Weymouth P. Winchester W. Asaph F. Ely Tho. Roffen Tho. Petriburg P. Wharton North and Grey Chandois Montague T. Jermyn Vaughan Carbery Culpeper Crewe Osulston Whereas his Majesty hath privately this Morning withdrawn himself We the Lord Spiritual and Temporal whose Names are hereunto Subscribed being assembled in Guild-hall in London having agreed upon and Signed a Declaration of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in and about the Cities of London and Westminster assembled at Guild-hall the 11th of December 1688. do desire the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembrook the Right Honourable the Lord Viscout Weymouth the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Ely and the Right Honourable the Lord Culpeper forthwith to attend his Highness the Prince of Orange with the said Declaration and at the same time to acquaint his Highness with what we have further done at this Meeting Dated at Guild-hall the 11th of December 1688. The Lords before they came down to the City had appointed the Lord Mayor Court of Aldermen and the Common-Council to be assembled to concert with them the means of preserving the City and Kingdom and when the Peers had thus led the way they presently resolved also on the following Address to his Highness the Prince of Orange May it please Your Highness WE taking into consideration your Highness's fervent Zeal for the Protestant Religion manifested to the World in your many hazardous Enterprises wherein it hath pleased Almighty God to bless you with miraculous Success do render our deepest thanks to the Divine Majesty for the same and beg leave to present our most humble Thanks to your Highness particularly for your appearing in Arms in this Kingdom to carry on and perfect your glorious Designs to rescue England Scotland and Ireland from Slavery and Popery and in a Free Parliament to establish the Religion and the Laws and Liberties of these Kingdoms upon a sure and lasting Foundation We have hitherto look'd for some remedy for those Oppressions and imminent Dangers which we together with our Protestant Fellow-Subjects laboured under from his Majesties Concessions and Concurrences with your Highness's just and pious purposes expressed in your Gracious Declaration But herein finding our selves finally disappointed by his Majesties withdrawing himself we presume to make your Highness our Refuge and do in the Name of this Capital City implore your Highness's Protection and most humbly beseech your Highness to repair to this City where your Highness will be received with universal Joy and Satisfaction This Address being approved and Signed four Aldermen and eight Commoners were appointed to attend his Highness with it The same day the Lieutenancy of London Signed this following address to the Prince of Orange at Guild-hall and sent it by Sir Robert Clayton Knight Sir William Russel Sir Basil Firebrace Knights and Charles Duncomb Esquire May it please Your Highness WE can never sufficiently express the deep sense we have conceived and shall ever retain in our Hearts that your Highness has exposed your Person to so many Dangers by Sea and Land for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom without which unparallel'd Undertaking we must probably have suffered all the Miseries that Popery and Slavery could have brought upon us We have been greatly concerned that before this time we had not any seasonable opportunity to give your Highness and the World a real Testimony That it has been our firm Resolution to venture all that is dear to us to attain those glorious Ends which your Highness has propos'd for restoring and setling these distracted Nations We therefore now unanimously present to your Highness our just and due acknowledgments for that happy Relief you have brought to us and that we may not be wanting in this present Conjuncture we have put our selves into such a posture that by the blessing of God we may be capable to prevent all ill Designs and to preserve this City in Peace and Safety till your Highness's happy Arrival We therefore humbly desire that your Highness will please to repair to this City with what convenient speed you can for the perfecting the Great Work which your Highness has so happily begun to the general joy and satisfaction of us all 17. After his Highness had received certain Intelligence that the King was gone back from Salisbury to London he came forward by easie Journeys and entred Salisbury on Tuesday the 4th of December On the 5th the Earl of Oxford came thither to him The same day the Lord Herbert of Cherbury and Sir Edward Harley and most of the Gentry of VVorcestershire and Herefordshire met at VVorcester and declared for the Prince of Orange Ludlow Castle was also taken in for him by the Lord Herbert and Sir VValter Blunt and the Popish Sheriff of Worcester secured in it by that Peer The 7th of December his Highness came on to Hungerford the 8th the Lords sent by the King came thither to him and had the Dispatch already mentioned after Dinner he went to Lidcot The 14th The Commissioners of the Peers Common-Council and Lieutenancy of London presented three Addresses to the Prince at Henly The 15th his Highness entred Windsor 18. The King was stopt in his passage by some who knew him not but seiz'd him and his Company as suspected Jesuits c. but being at last discovered and the noise of his being detained at Feversham coming to the Lords at London the Lords Feversham Aylesbury Yarmouth and Middleton were sent to entreat his return to White-hall whither he came on the 16th in the Evening But in the mean time the Rabble at London demolished the Popish Chappel and Convent at St. John's the Convent and Chappel of Fryars in Lincolns-Inn-Fields and the Popish Chappels in Limestreet and Bucklers-Bury and the Chappel at Wild-house 19. The King being now at White-hall and the Prince at Windsor the King invites the Prince to St. James's but the Lords at Windsor did not think it reasonable nor safe either
of the Four Monarchies is not yet at an end for under the fourth Monarchy the Kingdom of Christ was to be set up and Antichrist was to appear and the increase and destruction of the Kingdom of Antichrist is to be accomplished by great Changes and Revolutions in Humane Governments and when God has declared that he will change Times and Seasons remove Kings and set up Kings to accomplish his own wise Counsels it justifies our necessary and therefore innocent compliances with such Revolutions as much as if we were expresly commanded to do so as the Jews were by the Prophet Jeremiah This a man may say without Enthusiasm or pretending to understand all the Prophesies of the Revelations and to apply them to their particular events for without that we certainly know that all the great Revolutions of the World are intended by God to serve those great Ends and when God will overturn Kingdoms and Empires remove and set up Kings as he sees will best serve the accomplishment of his own Counsels and Decrees it is very hard if Subjects must not quietly submit to such Revolutions we must not contrary to our sworn Duty and Allegiance promote such Revolutions No tho we be upon the point of losing our Lan's and Liberties upon a pretence of fulfilling Prophesies but when they are made and setled we ought to submit to them We have no direction in Scripture at all about making or unmaking Kings or restoring a dispossessed Prince to his Throne again and all the Commands we have in Scripture about Obedience and Subjection to Government manifestly respects the present Ruling Powers Let God Almighty turn Kingdoms topsie turvie as he pleases the Doctor will always fall upon his feet without any distinction between rightful and Usurped Powers it seems therefore plainly to determin this Question on the side of the present Powers p. 22 23. If the Choice and Consent of the people makes a Prince then no man is a Subject but he who consents to be so for the Major Vote cannot include my consent unless I please that is the effect of Law and Compact or Force not of Nature If Subjects give their Prince Authority they may take it away again if they please there can be no irresistible Authority derived from the people for if the Authority be wholly derived from them who shall hinder them from taking it away when they see fit If a man gives me a pair of Gloves who shall hinder him from taking them away again when he sees fit Upon these Principles there can be no Hereditary Monarchy one Generation can only chuse for themselves their Posterity having as much Right to chose as they had p. 24. I cannot see where to fix the Foundation of Government but in the Providence of God who either by the choice of the major or stronger part of the people or by Conquest or by Submission and the long successive continuance of power or by Human Laws gives a Prince and his Family possession of the Throne which is a good Title against all Humane Claims and requires the Obedience and Submission of Subjects as long as God is pleased to continue him and his Family in the Throne but it is no Title against God if he please to advance another Prince p. 24. To say that God sets up no Prince who ascends the Throne without a Humane and Legal Right is to say that some Kings are removed and others set up but not by God which is a direct contradiction to Scripture it is to say That the Four Monarchies were not set up by God because they all began by Violence and Usurpation It is to say That God as well as men is confined by Humane Laws in making Kings It is to say That the Right of Government is not derived from God without the consent of the people for if God can't make a King without the people or against their consent declared by their Laws the Authority must be derived from the people not from God or at least if it be God's Authority yet God can't give it himself without the people nor otherwise than they have directed him by their Laws This is all very absurd So 's all the rest of your Book Sir The Providence of God removes Kings and sets up Kings but alters no Legal Right nor forbids those who are dispossessed of them to recover their Right when they can While such a Prince is in the Throne it is a declaration of God's Will that he shall Reign for some time longer or shorter as God pleases and that is an obligation to Subjects to submit and obey for Submission is owing only to God's Authority but that one Prince is at present placed in the Throne and the other removed out of it does not prove that it is God's Will it should always be so and therefore does not divest the dispossessed Prince to recover his Legal Right A Legal and Successive Right is the ordinary way whereby the Providence of God advances Princes to an Hereditary Throne And this bars all other humane Claims but yet God may give the Throne to another if he pleases and this does not destroy the Legal Right of the dispossessed Prince lindx nor hinder him from claiming it when he finds his opportunity p. 26. It is a great Question Why 't is a Legal Commission but it has not the Authority of God which I am not Lawyer enough to decide Whether a Commission granted by a King out of Possession be a Legal Commission p. 31. Oaths oblige every particular man to do no injury to the King's Person or Crown not to enter into Plots and Conspiracies against him and as for actual defence chearfully to venture his Life and Fortunes with his Fellow-subjects to preserve the King But in case the great Body of the Nation absolve themselves from these Oaths and depose their King and drive him out of his Kingdom and set up another Prince in his room it is worth considering Whether some private men i may be but a little handful are still bound by their Oath to make some weak and dangerous attempts and to fight for their King against their Countrey certainly this was not the intention of the Oath for it is a National not a private Defence we swear and therefore a general revolt of a Nation tho it should be wicked and unjustifiable yet it seems to excuse those who had neither hand nor heart in it from their sworn defence of the King's Person and Crown and to make their compliane with the National Government innocent and necessary For an Oath to fight for the King does not oblige us to fight against our Countrey which is as unnatural as to fight against our King The sum is this God when he sees fit can remove Kings or set up Kings without any regard to humane Right as being the Sovereign Lord of the World who rules in the Kingdoms of Men and