and fervile Compliance, nor work them up to that active and vigorous abeting of their malicious and crafty Projections, as is neceffary for the rendering. them fuccefsful; but they are forced to vary their Proceedings towards one and the fame Party, and that as well when the Ways they have acted in towards them are found inadequate to the End unto which they were calcu lated, as when the Mischief hid under them comes to be an Uncertainty in This weak and fhort-fighted People fance no Confiftency with themselves; Princes Counfels, and from 0 Affairs, and that confider. Things more but the callly difcern, that all this Variation, Diversity, and fhifting of Methods in Rulers Actings, proceeds from other Caufes, and that it is their. Stability and Perfeverance in an illegal and wicked Defign, that compels them to thofe crooked and contrary Courses, either for the gaining the unwary and ill-applied Concurrence of their Subjects, to the haftening Distress and Defolation upon themselves, or for the throwing them into that Lethargy, and under that Supineness, as may hinder them from all Endeavours of obstructing and diverting the Evils, that their Governors are seeking to bring upon them. Nor is there a more certain Indication of a Prince's being engaged in a Defign contrary to the Good and Happiness of the Society over which he is fet, than his betaking himself to illegal Ways, upon Pre-. tence of promoting the Eafe and Benefit of his People; or according as he finds his Subjects to differ in their particular Intereft, his applying himself to them in Methods, whereof the Contrariety of the one to the other renders them the more proper and adapted to enfnare the divided Factions, through accofting each of them with fomething that they are feverally fond of. Legal Means are always fufficient to the purfuing and compaffing legal Ends; and whatsoever is for the general Good of the Community may either be obtained by Courses wherein the Generality find their united Interest and common Felicity, or elfe by Application to a Parliament freely and duly chosen ; which as it reprefents the whole politic Society, fo there may be expected most Compaffion and Tenderness, as well as Wisdom and Prudence, for redreffing the Grievances, eafing the Troubles, and providing for the Benefit and Safety of all that are wrapt up in and reprefented by them. And as every Prince, who fincerely feeks and purfues the Advantage of his People, will fo adjuft and attemper all his Actions towards them, that his whole Carriage fhall be uniform, and all the Exercifes of his governing Power meet in the Benefit of the Community, as fo many Lines from a Circumference uniting in their Centre; fo there needs no other Proof that these two or three late Actions of his Majefty, which a foolish Sort of Men are apt to interpret for Favours, and to account them Effects of Compaffion and Kindness, are but to conceal his Malice, and to fubferve as well as cover fome fatal and pernicious Defign, that he is carrying on against his Proteftant Subjects, than that while he is gratifying a few of them in one Thing, he is at the fame time robing all of them of many; and that while he is indulging the Diffenters with a Freedom from the Penal Laws for Matters of Religion, he is invading the Properties, and fubverting the Civil Rights of the Three Nations, and changing the whole Conftitution of the Government. He that ftrips us of what belongs unto us, as we are Englishmen and Scotchmen, cannot mean honeftly in the Favours

Favours he pretends to vouchfafe us, as we are Chriftians; nor can he that is endeavouring to enflave our Perfons, and to fubject our Eftates to his arbitrary Luft and Pleasure, intend any thing elfe by this Kindness granted to Fanaticks in Matters of Religion, than the dividing them from the reft of the People, in what concerns the Civil Intereft and external Happiness of the Community, and to render them an engaged Faction to affift and abet him in enthralling the Kingdoms. Whofoever confiders the whole Tenor of his Majesty's other Actings, in proroguing and diffolving Parliaments, when he finds them uncompliant with his Popish and defpotical Ends; his keeping on foot a formidable Army against all the Laws of the Land, and upon no other Intention, but to maintain him in his Ufurpations over our Rights, and to awe us into a tame and servile Submiffion to his Prerogative Will; his filling all Places of Judicature with weak as well as treacherous Perfons, who inftead of adminiftring Juftice may be the Inftruments of Tyranny; his robbing Men of their Eftates, by judicial Forms, and under Pretence that nullum Tempus occurrit Regi, after they have been quietly enjoyed by the Subjects for several hundred Years; his advancing none to Civil and Military Employs, but whom he hath fome Confidence in, as to the finding them ready to execute his defpotical Injunctions; and his efteeming no Perfon loyal and faithful to himself, fave those who are willing to betray their Country, and be Rebels and Traitors against the legal Conftitution: I fay, whofoever confiders all this, and a great deal more of the fame Hue and Complection, cannot imagine (unlefs he be under a judaical Blindness and a strange Infatuation) that any thing arriving from the King, though it may be a Matter wherein they may find their prefent Eafe and Advantage, fhould proceed from Compaffion and GoodWill to his Proteftant Subjects, but that it must be only in order to promote a diftinct Interest from that of his People, and for the better and more easy accomplishing of fome wicked and unjustifiable Defigns. And though his Majefty would have us believe, that the Reasons moving him to the Emiffion of this fecond Proclamation were the finiftrous Interpretations which either have, or may be made, of fome Restrictions in his former; yet it is not difficult, even without being of his Privy-Council, to affign a truer Motive, and a more real and effectual Cause of it: For as that of the 12th of February came forth attended with fo many Limitations, not easy to be digefted by Men of Wisdom or Honesty, left if it had been more unconfined and extenfive, and fhould have opened a Door for all Scotch Diffenters to have gone in and taken the Benefit of it, the Generality of Proteftants in that Kingdom, abftracting from the Bishops, Curates, and a few others, fhould have joined in the fe parate Intereft, and thereby have become an united Body against Popery; but upon finding that hardly any would purchase their Freedom from the Penal Laws at fo dear a Rate, as to do Things fo unbecoming Men and Chriftians, as the conforming to the Terms therein prefcribed obliged them unto; and that as they of the National Communion were alarm'd and disgufted, fo few or none of the Diffenting Fellowships were pleased, and that both were not only angry at the many illegal Favours, and threatening Advantages, bestowed upon the Papifts, but were grown so fenfible of the Design carrying on against the Proteftant Religion, and the Liberties and Privileges of the Subject, that though they could not renounce their refpective Tenets in the Matters wherein VOL. III. Ttt they

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they differed, yet they were willing to stifle their Heats and Animofities, and to give that Encouragement, Aid, and Affiftance to one another, as was neceffary for their common Safety: Upon thefe Confiderations, his Majesty (if he would have spoken fincerely) ought to have faid, that he had published this New Proclamation, in order to hinder Scotch Proteftants from uniting, for their mutual Defence, against Turkish Tyranny, and Romik Idolatry, and in hopes thereby to continue and exafperate their undue and paffionate Heats, and to keep them not only in divided and oppofite Interests, but to make them contribute to the fuppreffing and ruining each other, or at least to look on unconcernedly, till he have ripened his Designs against them both, and be prepared for extirpating the Reformed Religion, and for fubverting the Fundamental as well as Statute Laws, and for bringing fuch to the Stake and Gibbet, as fhall have the Integrity to affert the one, or the Courage to plead for the other: And yet in this laft Proclamation, wherein he grants a more illimited Freedom than in the former, and promiseth to protect all in the Exercife of their Proteftant Religion, as he difdainfully and ignominiously calls it, there is a Claufe that may difcourage all honeft Men from owning their Liberty to the Authority that beftows it, and from which it is derived and conveyed to them; for not being fatisfied to fu perftruct his pretended Right, of fufpending, stopping, and difabling Laws, upon his Sovereign Authority and Prerogative Royal, but as knowing that thefe give no fuch Pre-eminence and Jurifdiction over the Laws of the Kingdom, he is pleased to challenge unto himself an Abfolute Power, as the Source and Spring of that exorbitant and paramount Claim, which he therein exercifes and exerts. And forafmuch as Abfolute Power imports his Majesty's being loofe and free from all Ties and Restraints, either by fundamental Stipulations, or fuperadded Laws; it is very natural to obferve, that he allows the Government under which we were born, and to which we were fworn and ftood bound, to be hereby fubverted and changed, and that thereupon we are not only abfolved and acquitted from the Allegiance and Fealty we were formerly under to his Majefty, but are indifpenfably obliged by the Ties and Engagements that are upon us of maintaining and defending the Conftitution and Government; to apply ourselves to the Ufe of all Means and Endeavours against him, as an Enemy of the People, and a Subverter of the legal Government; wherein all the Interest he had, or could lawfully claim, was an official Truft, and not an abfolute Power, or a defpotical Dominion, the firft whereof he hath depofed and abdicated himself from, by challenging and ufurping the latter. And fhould any Scotch Diffenter, either in his Entrance upon the Liberty granted by this Proclamation, or in addreffing by way of Thankfulnefs for it, take the leaft notice of thefe Freedoms flowing from the King, which cannot be done, without recognifing this Abfolute Power in his Majefty as the Fountain of it, he is to be look'd upon as the worst of Traitors, and deferves to be proceeded against, both for his Acceffion unto and juftifying the Subverfion of the Laws, Liberties, and Government of his Country, and for betraying the Rights of all free-born Men: For thofe few Reflections in the foregoing Sheets, which this New Proclamation may not only feem to render useless, and fruftrate the End whereunto they were intended, but may make the publishing any Animadverfions

Animadverfions upon that which the King (by departing from) does himfelf cenfure and condemn, be efteemed both a Failure in Ingenuity and Candour, and a Want of Regard to thofe Measures of Juftice, which ought to be obferved towards all Men, and more especially towards crowned Heads: I hall only fay, that as the Proclamation arrived with me too late to hinder and prevent the Communication of them to the Publick, fo I have this farther to add in Juftification of their being published, that it will thereby appear, that what his Majefty files finiftrous Interpretations made of fome Restrictions mentioned in his former, are no other than the juft, natural, genuine, and obvious Constructions which they lie open unto, and are capable of, and which a Man cannot avoid faftening upon, without renouncing all Senfe and Reason. And while the King continues to difparage and afperfe all fober and judicious Reflections upon that royal Paper, by charging upon them the unjuft and reproachful Character of finiftrous Interpretations, it is neceffary as well as equal, that the whole Matter fhould be plainly and impartially reprefented to the World, and that the Decifion be remitted and left to the understanding and unbiafs'd Part of Mankind, who are the Calumniators and Slanderers, they who accufe the Proclamation of importing fuch Principles, Confequences, and Tendencies, or he and his Minifters, who think they have avoided and answered the Imputations faftened upon it, when they have loaded them with hard and uncivil Terms. For though he be pleased to affume to himself an Abfolute Power, which all are bound to obey without Referve, and in the Virtue of which he fufpends, ftops, and difables what Laws he pleafeth, yet I do not know, feeing his Intellectuals are of the Size of other Mens, and that neither his Sovereignty, nor Catholicalnefs, have vefted in him an Inerrability, why we may 1 not enter our Plea and Demurr to the Dictates of his Judgment, though we know not how to withstand the Efforts of his Power. Nor fhall I fubjoin any more, fave that whereas his Majefty declares fo many Laws to be difabled to all Intents and Purposes, he ought to have remembered, that befide other Intents and Purposes that feveral of them may hereafter serve unto, (as the Papifts may poffibly come to have Experience) there is one Thing, in reference to which he cannot even at present hinder and prevent their Ufe fulness and Efficacy, and that is, not only their raifing and exciting all juft Refentments in the Minds of free-born and generous Men, for his chal lenging a Power to fufpend and caffate them, but their remaining and continuing Monuments of his Infidelity to the Truft repofed in him, of his Departure from all Promifes made at and fince his entering upon the Government, and of his invading and fubverting all the Rules of the Conftitution.

An ADDRESS fign'd by the greatest Part of the Members of the Parliament of Scotland, and deliver'd to his Majefty at Hampton-Court, the 15th Day of October, 1689.

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OTHING fave the great and general Surprife of this long: diftreffed and at prefent unfettled Kingdom, upon the late Adjournment of your most loyal Parliament for fo long. a Time, and in fo critical a Seafon, with the deep Concern of your royal Intereft therein, could poffibly. have induced us to this fo neceffary a Petition; but the vifible Confternation and Difcouragement of thousands of your good Subjects, delayed in the Relief and Comfort which at this Time they affuredly expected, with the Advantages that we apprehend your Majefty's Enemies, both within and without the Kingdom, may think to reap by fuch an Interruption, being our only Motives, we cannot, we dare not be filent: And therefore, to prevent these evil Confequences, we in the first Place moft folemnly proteft and declare, in the Prefence of: God and Men, our conftant and inviolable Fidelity and Adherence to your Majesty's Royal Title, Right and Intereft, fo frankly and chearfully recognised by us in this current Parliament, wishing and praying for nothing more under the Sun than your long and profperous Reign, as that wherein the Security of all our Lives and Liberties, and alfo of our Holy Religion, more dear to us than both, is infallibly included. It was the Perfuafion we had of the Justice, as well as the Neceffity, of your Majefty's Heroic Undertaking for the Delivery of thefe Kingdoms, with the Conviction of the Divine Confirmation that appeared in its glorious Success, that moved moft, if not all of us, to endeavour and concur most heartily in the late Meeting of Eftates, for the Advancement and Establishment of your Majefty upon the Throne, when fome discovered their Difaffection, and were too open Retarders and Obstructers of that good Design: And it is from the fame true Affection and Zeal, that we do now moft heartily make the abovementioned Proteftation, to obviate all the Mifconftructions your Enemies may make in this Juncture.

Nor are we lefs affured of your Majesty's most fincere and gracious Intentions, to perform for us to the utmost all that the Eftates of the Kingdom have either demanded, or reprefented as neceffary and expedient. for fecureing the Proteftant Religion, reftoring their Laws and Liberties, and redrefsing of their Grievances, according to your Majefty's Declaration for this Kingdom. Neither can it be imagined, that fo wife and juft a King as your Majefty will ever be perfuaded, that fo loyal a Parliament as this can be induced either to with or defign any Prejudice to, or Diminution of your true Intereft and Prerogative; but fuch as have flavishly ferved and flattered arbitrary Power and Tyranny will be always ftudying for their own finifter Ends, to ftate a separate Intereft betwixt King and People; a Practice which we are confident your Majefty abhors.

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