But no wise Men approved of the ill Effects of those violent Motions either way, cou’d they have help’d them.  Yet it must be owned they have (as often as used, thro an extraordinary Piece of good Fortune) brought us back to our old Constitution again, which else had been lost; for there are numberless Instances in History of a Downfal from a State of Liberty to a Tyranny, but very few of a Recovery of Liberty from Tyranny, if this last have had any Length of Time to fix it self and take Root.

Let all such, who either thro Interest or Ignorance are Adorers of absolute Monarchs, say what they please; an English Whig can never be so unjust to his Country, and to right Reason, as not to be of Opinion, that in all Civil Commotions, which Side soever is the wrongful Aggressor, is accountable for all the evil Consequences:  And thro the Course of his reading (tho my Lord Clarendon’s Books be thrown into the Heap) he finds it very difficult to observe, that ever the People of England took up Arms against their Prince, but when constrain’d to it by a necessary Care of their Liberties and true Constitution.

’Tis certainly as much a Treason and Rebellion against this Constitution, and the known Laws, in a Prince to endeavor to break thro them, as ’tis in the People to rise against him, whilst he keeps within their Bounds, and does his Duty.  Our Constitution is a Government of Laws, not of Persons.  Allegiance and Protection are Obligations that cannot subsist separately; when one fails, the other falls of Course.  The true Etymology of the word Loyalty (which has been so strangely wrested in the late Reigns) is an entire Obedience to the Prince in all his Commands according to Law; that is, to the Laws themselves, to which we owe both an active and passive Obedience.

By the old and true Maxim, that the King can do no Wrong, nobody is so foolish as to conclude, that he has not Strength to murder, to offer Violence to Women, or Power enough to dispossess a Man wrongfully of his Estate, or that whatever he does (how wicked soever) is just:  but the Meaning is, he has no lawful Power to do such Things; and our Constitution considers no Power as irresistible, but what is lawful.

And since Religion is become a great and universal Concern, and drawn into our Government, as it affects every single Man’s Conscience; tho my private Opinion, they ought not to be mingled, nor to have any thing to do with each other; (I do not speak of our Church Polity, which is a Part of our State, and dependent upon it) some account must be given of that Matter.