1689.

"I A. B. do fincerely promise and fwear, That I "will be Faithful, and bear true Allegiance to Their Majefties King WILLIAM and Queen "MARY. So help me God.

"I A. B. do fwear, That I do from my Heart Ab"bor, Deteft, and Abjure, as Impious and Heretical, 66 this Damnable Doctrine and Pofition, That Princes "Excommunicated or Deprived by the Pope, or "any Authority of the See of Rome, may be Depofed or Murthered by their Subjects, or any "other whatsoever. And I do declare, That no Foreign Prince, Perfon, Prelate, State, or Potentate, "bath, or ought to have, any Jurifdiction, Power, Superiority, Preeminence, or Authority Ecclesiastical or Spiritual, within this Realm. So help me God.

66

After the Reading of this Declaration the Mar. quis of Hallifax, Speaker of the Houfe of Lords, made a Tender of the Crown to their Highneffes, in the Name of both Houfes, whereupon the Prince of Orange return'd the following Anfwer.

T

My Lords and Gentlemen,

His 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 thank fully Accept what you have Offered. And as I had no other Intention in coming hither, than to preferve your Religion, Laws and Liberties; So you may be fure, That Ifhall endeavour to Support them, and shall be willing to concur in any thing that shall be for the Good of the KingThe Prince dom, and to do all that is in My Power to Advance the and Prin- Welfare and Glory of the Nation.

cefs of O

range Proclaim'd

The Shoutings of the People in the BanquettingHoufe, upon the Conclufion of this Auguft CereKing and mony, were immediately ecchoed by Multitudes Queen, Fe without; and the fame day their Majefties being bruary 13. Solemnly Proclaim'd King and Queen of England,

France

France and Ireland, firft at Whitehall, then at Tem- 168. ple-Bar, and laft of all before the Royal Exchange, by the Names of WILLIAM and MARY the whole City and the Suburbs rung with Peals of Joyful Acclamations.

Thus was accomplish'd the greatest REVO-Revolution LUTION that ever befel this Powerful Nation; accomplish a Revolution which, if well confider'd in its Cir-ed. cumstances, is fcarce to be parallel'd in all the Hiftories of other Countries, and which reads an Reflections important Leffon both to the Kings, and to the upon it. People of England. The firft may learn from this Awful Event how religioufly they ought to obferve the Laws, maintain the Establish'd Religion, and preserve the Rights and Liberties of their Subjects; fince a Derogation from thefe Duties coft the unfortunate King James no less than his Crown: And by the flow and deliberate Proceedings of the Convention in this arduous Juncture, Pofterity may fee that like Wife and Skilful Surgeons, both Lords and Commons were unwilling to have Recourse to Amputation, till they had found all other Methods unpracticable to keep the whole Body Politick from Ruin. And therefore their Example ought not to be drawn into a Precedent for breaking the Lineal Succeffion, but rather to be a Caution against all rafh and precipitate Innovations in the Conftitution.

FINIS.

THE

APPENDIX

The Earl of Sunderland's Letter in Fuftification of himself.

T

O comply with what you defire, I will explain fome things which we talked of before I left England. I have been in a Station of a great Noife, without Power or Advantage whilft I was in it, and to my Ruin now I am out of it. I know I cannot juftifie my felf by faying, though it is true, that I thought to have prevented much Mifchief, for when I found that I could not, I ought to have quitted the Service; neither is it an excufe that I have got none of thofe things which ufually engage Men in Publick Affairs: My Quality is the fame that it ever was, and my Eftate much worse, even Ruin'd, though I was Born to a very Confiderable one, which I am afham'd to have fpoiled, though not fo much as if I had encreased it by indirect means. But to go on to what you expect: The pretence to a Difpencing Power being not only the first thing which was much difliked fince the Death of the late King, but the Foundation of all the reft, I ought to begin with that which I had fo little to do with, that I never heard it spoken of till the time of Monmouth's Rebellion, when that the King told fome of the Council, of which I was one, that he was refolved to give Employments to Roman Catholicks, it being fit that all Perfons fhould ferve who could be useful, and on whom he might depend. I think every

body

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body advis'd him against it, but with little effect, as was foon feen: That Party was fo well pleafed with what the King had done, that they periwaded him to mention it in his Speech at the next Meeting of the Parliament,which he did,after many Debates whether it was proper or not: In all which I oppofed it, as is known to very confiderable Perfons, fome of which were of another Opinion; for I thought it would engage the King too far, and it did give fuch offence to the Parliament, that it was thought neceflary to Prorogue it; after which the King fell immediately to the fupporting the Difpenfing Power, the moft Chimerical thing that was ever thought of, and must be fo till the Government here is as Abtolute as in Turkey, all Power being included in that one. This is the Sence I ever had of it, and when I heard Lawyers defend it, I never changed my Opinion or Language; however it went on,most of the Judges being for it, and was the chief Bufinefs of the State, till it was looked on as fettled. Then the Ecclefiaftical Court was fet up, in which there being fo many Confiderable Men of feveral kinds, I could have but a final part, and that after Lawyers had told the King it was Legal, and nothing like the High Commiflion Court. I can most truly fay, and it is well known, that for a good while I defended Magdalen College purely by Care and Industry, and have hundreds of times begged of the King never to grant Mandates, or to change any thing in the Regular Courfe of Ecclefiaftical Affairs, which he often thought reafonable, and then by perpetual Importunities was prevailed upon against his own Senfe, which was the very Cafe of Magdalen College, as of fome others.

Thefe things which I endeavoured, though without Succefs, drew upon me the Anger and Ill-will of many about the King. The next thing to be tried, was to take off the Penal Laws and Tests, fo many having promifed theirConcurrence towards it that his Majefty thought it Feasible; but he foon found it was not to be done by that Parliament, which made all the Catholicks defire it might be Diffolved