I. BEcause James, Duke of York was by three Par­liaments of the Com­mons of England, rightly adjudged to have rendered himself unca­pable to Execute the Soveraign Power of these Realms, having Apostatized to Popery; where­by he incapacitated himself, 1. To Maintain the Dignities and Preeminencies of this Imperial Crown, as they were asserted in the Oaths of Allegiance and Su­premacy, in both which all Pa­pal Power is rejected and barred. 2. To take and keep the Coro­nation-Oath, in the first Clause whereof he promiseth, To keep the Church of God, the Clergy and People entirely in Peace and Concord in God.

II. Having been admitted as King, he degenerated into a Tyrant, openly endeavouring to overturn the Established Laws, Liberties, and Religion, and to introduce Arbitrary Power and the Popish Su­perstition; as appeareth, 1. By raising Money contrary to Law; that is without any Act of Parliament, as in the Levying of Customs, Excise, &c. 2. By maintaining a standing Army in time of Peace. 3. Quartering that Army contrary to Law and the Petition of Right. 4. Officering that Army with Papists, Subjects in part to a Foreign Power, in Opposition to the Laws of the Land, and Addresses of his Parliament, to whom he made this Answer, Novemb. 9. 1685. Though the said Officers were not qualified according to the late Tests for their Employments, yet he would neither expose them to Disgrace, nor himself to the want of them. 5. By his assuming a Legislative Power, by Dispensing with all Statutes for the Protestant Religion established by Law, whereby he at one blow took away above Forty Acts of Parliament. 6. Erecting a High-Commission-Court for Ecclesiastical Affairs, to proceed with a Non obstante; that is, without and against Law; whereby the Bishop of London was Suspended, the President and Fellows of Magdalen Colledge, Oxon. were outed of their Free-holds without Legal Process, and because they would not contrary to their Oath chuse an unqualified President; though it's expresly provided in Magna Charta, That no Man shall lose Life, Limb, or Goods, but by the Law of the Land. Also the same Colledge, as well as others in both Universities, were provided with Popish Priests, who by the Law of the Land ought to be hang'd. 7. Imprisoning seven Bishops, only because they Petitioned him to regard the Oath he had taken to maintain the Laws of the Kingdom. 8. Setting up Popish Mass-Houses, Schools, Monasteries, sending out four Popish Provincial Bishops to Visit England; admitting Petre a Jesuit, and other Papists into his Privy-Council; sending an Embas­sador to Rome, and receiving a Nuncio from the Pope, putting Papists into Commission of the Peace all the Kingdom over, and Commis­sioning a Popish Judge to sit on the Bench. 9. And after all this, sig­nifying in his Second Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, dated April 7. 1688. That none ought to be employed under him, but such as would contribute to chuse such Members of Parliament, as might do their part to finish what he had begun. 10. In Scotland he decla­red himself cloathed with Absolute Power, and that his Subjects ought to Obey him without Reserve.

III. To entail Popery and Tyranny upon the Kingdom, he en­deavoured to alter the Succession, by imposing a false Heir upon these Kingdoms, in Dis-inherision of the Princess of Orange his Daughter, the true Apparent Heir of the Crown, whose undoubted Right to the Succession could not be overthrown, unless the new Claimer's Right be fully proved by a competent Number of Witnesses, duly qualified to give Evidence upon so high a Concern. For whi [...]h 'twas neces­sary, 1. That they who assisted, or attended at the Queen's pretended Delivery, should be Persons of known Honour and Honesty; not Foreigners, Papists, or such complying Protestants, who had assisted the King in his unlawful Designs. 2. The Time and Place of the pretended Birth should have been fore-known, and so ordered as not to have given great Suspicion of Indirectness. 3. 'Twas necessary that the Princesses of the Blood should have had notice thereof, that in their Persons, or by their Proxies they might have been present. 4. And also tht they or their Proxies, or at least some other Women of High Quality and Great Credit, should have been made acquain­ted with such Symptoms of a true Conception, which any Breeding Woman may with Ease and Mo­desty discover, as Milk in the Breast, and motion of the Child. And that which made all these Precautions necessary, was the Universal Suspicion, that the Queen's great Belly was fictitious. And there were some Great-bellied Women, a little before the time of the Queen's pretended Delivery, treated with, to part with their Child as soon as born, provided it were a Son. But on the contrary, the Women who assisted, were most Papists and Foreigners; the Men who at­tended (at a distance too) were the Instruments of the King's Mis­rule, as the Lord Chanc. and others; the Princesses of the Blood not present, so much as by Proxies: Time and place of the Birth con­cealed; a private Door within the Ruel of the Bed, the Curtains whereof were then drawn; the Child not shewn in the Room where the pretended Delivery was, and but one Protestant Gentlewoman at last, who asserted the reality of the Queen's being with Child. Now, if Zeal for the Popish Cause, could prevail on the King to break through his Oaths and frequent Promises, to maintain the Church and Laws of England, 'tis no strange thing that he should consent to the Dis-inherision of his Protestant Children.

IV. That for the foresaid Reason the King was justly laid aside, and abrogated for Misgovernment, will appear, if we consider with St. Paul the Nature of Government in the general; as it is God's Ministry to us for good, Rom. 13.4. Or else in any particular Form, with St. Peter, who in that respect calls it the Ordinance of Man, 1 Pet. 2.13. Without doubt Men as well as God ordained it for their Good. So that a Soveraign Prince can claim no Authority either from God or Man to Oppress his People. But if he does, they may justly lay aside their Oppressor; and being obliged by God's Law of Nature to preserve themselves and Fa­milies, they ought so to do. And since the sole reason of our Allegiance to a King is the Common Good, when his Government becometh an intolerable publick Evil, our Allegiance is at an end.

Agreeable hereunto is our Old English Constitution, as appeareth by the Solemn Deposing of King Edward II. and his Grandson King Ri­chard II. to whom the Lords and Commons declared, That they had it by Ancient Statute, and by a late doleful Instance, that in case a King shall alienate himself from his People by bad Advice, and in a head-strong way will exercise his own Self-will: From thence it shall be Lawful for them to Depose the King from the Regal Throne, and to promote some Kinsman of his, of the Royal Family, to the Throne of the Kingdom in his stead. Knighton.

V. The setled Resolution of King James to Rule by an Arbitrary Power, will appear from his twice withdrawing himself from the ex­ecution of his Royal Trust, and leaving the Kingdom rather than he would refer the Matter of Succession, which was then in Dispute be­twixt him and the Prince of Orange, and also other Matters of Diffe­rence betwixt him and his People, to a free Parliament; he would in a head-strong way go to France, that by the Assistance of French Counsels and Arms, he might return a Conquerour, and Rule (as for some time he did in Ireland) by those Counsels, and his own Will.

VI. There is a Right Honourable Peer (who was very intimate with the late King Charles) who has writ a Character of him; and when he comes to speak of his Death, he saith, I am assured the most knowing of his Physicians did not only believe him poison'd, but thought himself so too, not long after, for having declared his Opinion too boldly. [He means Dr. Short, who dyed about eight days after that King.] Now, tho' we may not say, the Duke of York was privy to this Villany, yet it may honestly be thought to have been done for his sake: And tho' he could not but know there was a suspicion of it, yet he never made any Inquisition into it.

These Reasons do fully justifie the Act of Parliament, which Inve­steth the Prince and Princess of Orange with the Imperial Crown of this Realm: Wherein it is declared, That King James II. did endea­vour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant Religion, and the Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom; and also that he had Abdicated, i. e. Forfeited the Government, whereby the Throne became vacant.

And Secondly, If the Throne was vacant, and there has appeared no Legal Proof of the pretended Prince of Wales's Right thereunto, but strong Presumptions on the contrary, it was both Lawfully and Rightfully filled by his present Majesty King William III. and his late Royal Consort of Ever Blessed Memory, our most Gracious QUEEN MARY.