THE DECLARATION OF JAMES DUKE of MONMOUTH, & The Noblemen, Gentlemen & others, now in Arms, for Defence & vindication of the Protestant Religion, & the Laws, Rights, & Privilieges of England, from the Invasion made upon them: & for Delivering the Kingdom from the Usurpation & Tyranny of JAMES DUKE of YORK.  
AS Gouvernment was originally Instituted by God, & this or that form of it chosen and submitted to by M●●, for the peace happiness & security of the Governed, & not for the private Interest, & personal greatness of those that Rule: so that Government hath been always esteemed the host where the supreme Magistrates have been vested with all the power & prerogatives that might Capacitate them, not only to preserve the people from violence & oppression, but to promote their prosperity; & yet where nothing was to belong to them by the Rules of the Constitution, that might enable them to injure and oppress them.  
And it hath been the Glory of England above most other Nations, that the Prince had all entrusted with him that was necessary either for advancing the welfare of the people, or for his own protection in the discharge of his Office, & with all stood so limited & restrains by the fundamental Terms of the Constitution, that without a violation of his own Oath, as well as the Rules, & measures of the Government, he could do them no hurt, or exercise any act of Authority, but through the administration of such hands, as stood obnoxious to be punished in case they transgressed. So that according to the primitive Frame of the Government, the prerogatives of the Crown, & privileges of the subject, were so far from justling one another; that the rights reserved unto the People, tended to render the King honourable & Great; and the prerogratives settled on the Prince, were in order to the subjects protection & safety.  
But all humane things being liable to pervertion, as well as decay; it hath been the fate of the English Government, to be often changed, & wrested from what it was, in the first setlement & Institution. And we are particularly compelled to say, that all the boundaries of the Government have of late been broken, & nothing left unattempted. for turning our limited Monarchy into an absolute Tyranny. For such hath been the transactions of affairs within this Nation for several Years last passed, that though the Protestant Religion, & Libertyes of the people, were fenced & hedged about, by as many Laws, as the Wisdom of men could devise, for their preservation against Popery and Arbitrary Power; our Religion hath been all a long undermined by Popish Counsels, and our Privileges ravished from us by fraud & violence. And more especially, the whole course & series of the Life of the present Usurper, hath been but one continued conspiracy against the Reformed Religion, & rights of the Nation.  
For whosoever considers his contriving the burning of London; his Instigating a confederacy with France, and a War with Holland; his fomenting the popish Plot; and encouraging the Murder of Sr. Edmund-Bury-Godfry to Stifle it; his forging Treason against Protestants; & suborning witnesses to swear the Patriots of our Religion & liberties out of their Lives; his hireing execrable Villains to assassinate the late Earl of Essex; and causing several others to be Claudestinly cut off in hopes to conceal it; his advising and procuring the Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliaments, in order to prevent enquiry into his Crimes, & that he might escape the justice of the Nation: such can imagine nothing so black and horrid in itself, or so ruinous & destructive to Religion, and the Kingdom, which we may not expect from him, upon his having invaded the Throne; and usurped the Title of a King. The very Tyrannies which he hath exercised, since he natched the Crown from high Brother's head, do leave none under a possibility of flattering themselves, with hopes of safety either in their consciences, persons, or Estates.  
For in defiance of all the Laws & Statutes of the Realm, made for the security of the Reformed Protestant Religion, he not only began his Usurpation and pretended Reign, with a bare faced avowing himself of the Romish Religion, but hath called in muititudes of Priests & jesuits (for whom the Law makes it treason to come into the Kingdom) and hath impower'd them to exercise their Idolatries, and besides his being daily present at the worship of the Mass, hath publicly assisted at the grossest Fopperios of their superstition.  
Nor hath he been more tender in trampling upon the Laws which Concern our Properties, seeing by two Proclamations, whereof the one requires the collecting of the Customs, & the other the continuing that part of the Excise which was to expire with the late King's death, he hath violently & against all the Laws of the Land broken in upon our Estates. Neither is it any extenuation of his usurpation & Tyranny, that he is countenanced in it by an extra Judicial opinion of seven or eight suborned & forsworn Judges: that rather declaring the greatness and extent of the conspiracy against our Rights, and that there is no means left for our relief, but by force & Arms. For advancing those to the Bench, who were the scandal of the Bar; and Constituting those very men to deelare the Laws, who were accused & branded in Parliament for perverting them; We are precluded all hopes of redress in Westminster-Hall: and through packing to gather by false returns, new Illegal Charters, & other corrupt means, a company of men which he intends to style a Parliament; he doth at once deprive us of all expectation of succour, where our Ancestors were wont to find it: and hopes to render that which ought to be the people's fence against Tyranny, & the conservators of their Liberties, the means of subverting all our Laws, & of establishing his Arbitraryness, & confirming our thraldom. So that unless We could be contented to see the reformed Protestant Religion, and such as profess it extirpated; popish superstition and Idolatry established: the Laws of the Land Trampled underfoot; the Liberties & rights of the English people subverted; all that is Sacred, and Civil, or of regard amongst men of Piety, or Virtue Violated; and an Usurper Tyrannising on the Throne: and unless We could be willing to be Slaves as well as Papists; & forget the example of our noble & generous Ancestors, who conveyed our Privileges to us at the expense of their blood & treasure; and with all be un mindful of our duty to God, our Country and Posterity; deaf to the cries & groans of our oppressed Friends; and be satisfied not only to see them and ourselves Imprisoned, robbed, & murdered; but the Protestant Interest throughout the whole world, betrayed to France & Rome. We are bound as Men & Christians and that in discharge of our duty to God, & our country, and for fatisfaction of the expectations of the Protestant Nations round about us, to betake ourselves to Arms: which we call Heaven & Earth to witness, we should not have done; had not the Malice of our Enemies deprived us of all other means of redress, and were not the miseries we already feel, & those which do further threaten us, worse than the Calamities of Warr.  
And it is not for any personal injuries or private discontents, nor in pursuance of any corrupt Interest, that we take our swords into our hands; but for Vindicating our Religion, Laws, & Rights, and rescueing our Country from ruin & destruction: and for preserving ourselves, Wives & Children, from Bondage & Idolatry; wherefore before God, Angels, & Men, we stand acquitted from, & do charge upon our Enemies, all the slaughters and devastations, that unavoidably accompany a Intestine Warr.  
Now therefore We do hereby solemnly declare & proclaim War against JAMES DUKE of YORK, as a Murderer, and an Assassin of Innocent men; A Popish Usurper of the Crown; a Traitor to the Nation; and Tyrant over the People. And we would have none that appear under his Banners, to statter themselves with expectation of forgiveness; it being our firm resolution to prosecute him & his adherents, without giving way to Treaties, or Accommodations, until we have brought him, & them, to undergo what the Rules of the Constitution, & the Statutes of the Realm, as well as the Laws of Nature, Scripture, & Nations, adjudge to be the punishment due to the Enemies of God, Mankind, their Country, and all things that are honourable, Virtuous, & good.  
And though we cannot avoid being sensible, that too Many have from Cowardice, Covetousness, & Ambition, cooperated to the subverting Religion, & enslaving their Country; Yet We would have none from a despair of finding Mercy, persever in their Crimes, nor continue to pursue the ruin of the Kingdom. For We Exclude none from the benefit of Repentance, that shall join with us in retreiving what they have been accessary to the loss of; nor do we design Revenge upon any, but the Obstinate, and such as shall befound at this Juncture, yielding aid & assistance to the said James Duke of York.  
And that We may both Govern ourselves in the pursuit of this Glorious Cause where in We are engaged, and give encouragement to all that shall assist us in so righteous & necessary an Undertaking: We do in the Presence of the Lord who knows the secrets of all hearts, & is the Avenger of Deciept & Falsehood, Proclaim & publish what We aim at, & forth obtaining Where of We have both determined to Venture & are ready to lay down our lives. And though We are not come into the Field to Introduce Anarchy & Confusion, or for laying aside any Essential part of the old English Government: Yet our purpose & resolutions are to reduce things to that Temperament & balance, that future Rulers may remain able to do all the good, that can be either desired or expected from them; and that it may not be in their power to invade the Rights, & infringe the Liberties of the People.  
And Whereas our Religion (the most Valuable blessing We lay claim unto) hath been shaken by unjust Laws; undermined by Popish Councils, and is now in danger to be subverted by a Tyrannous & Idolatrous Usurper. We are therefore resolved to spend our blood for preserving it to ourselves & posterity nor will we lay down our arms, till we seen established & secured, beyond all probability of being supplanted, and overthrown; and until all the penal Laws against Protestant Dissenters be repealed, and legal provision made against their being disturbed by reason of their Consciences, and for their enjoying an equal Liberty with other Protestants. And that the meekness & purity of our Principles, and the moderation & Righteousness of our Ends, may appear unto all men; We do declare, that we will not make War upon, or destroy Any, for their Religion how false & erroneous soever: so that the very Papists, provided they, Withdraw from the tents of our Enemies and be not found Guilty of Conspiring our destruction, or Abettors of them that seek it, have no thing to fear or apprehend from us, except what may hinder their altering our Laws, & endangering our persons, in the profession of the reformed Doctrine, and exercise ofour Christian Worship.  
Our Resolution in the next place is, to maintain all the just Rights & Privileges of Parliament, & to have Parliaments annually chosen & held, & not prorogued, dissolved, or discontinued with in the year before petitions be first answered & Grievances Redressed.  
And seeing many of the miseries under which the Nation doth groan arise from displacing such out of the Number of judges, as would not for promoting popish & arbitrary designs, wrest & misapply the Laws; and from constituting Corrupt, & Mercenary men in their Room, on purpose to stretch the Laws beyond the Reason and Intention of them, and to declare that for Law which is not: We can neither with silence pass over the mentioning of them, nor should we have peace in ourselves, if we did not endeavour to prevent the like mischiefs in time to come. For by means of Ill men's being advanced to the Bench, and holding their places only durante bene placito, Many persons have been condemned in Exorbitant fines for no Crimes, or for Very small ones; many statutes made for the safety of the subject, particularly the Habeas Corpus Act, hath been wickedly eluded, to the oppression of Innocent & loyal men; the Popish Lords that were Impeached in Parliament, for a most Hellish Conjuration, have to the subverting of the rights of the House of Commons, & trampling on the Jurisdiction of the House of Lords, been discharged & set free; the imposing a malignant Major, & Sherriffes, upon the City of London by fraud & Violence hath been justified, & those who in discharge of their duty opposed it, illegally prosecuted & arbitrarily punished: London, & other Cities & Corporations have been robbed of their Charters, upon unrighteous judgements of pretended forfeitures; Sr. Thomas Armstrong executed, with out being allowed the benefit of a Trial; Colonel Algernon Sidney condemned to die upon the deposition of one scandalous Witness: And that loyal & excellent person the late William Lord Russell murdered, for alleged crimes, in reference to which, if all had been truth that was sworn against him, yet there was nothing that according to Law could have reached his life: Wherefore we do upon the considerations a foresaid further declare, that we will have care taken for the future, for debarring ignorant, scandalous, & mercenary men from the Administration of justice, and that the judges shall hold their places by the ancient tenure of quam diu se bene gesserint, and do leave it to the wisdom of a Parliement, to settle some way & method, for the approbation of such as shall be advanced to the degree & dignity of judges.  
And for as much as the invasion made upon the rights of Cities, Burrougheses, & Towns corporate, in the seizure of their charters, whether by surrender, or upon pretence of forfeiture, hath been wholly arbitrary & illegal: We likewise therefore declare, that we will to our utmost endeavour to see them repossessed in whatsoever they formerly had, & could legally claim before the late Usurpation upon them; and that we do esteem all judgements given against them, & all Surrenders made by a corrupt & perjured party amongst themselves, null & void in Law; and do hold & declare their old charters (norwithstanding the new ones lately granted) to be good & valid: And accordingly We de invite & encourage all honest Burgesses, & Freemen, to reassume the Rights & Privileges, which by virtue of the said old charters belonged to their several & respective corporations, and to deliver themselves from those Court Parasites, & instruments of tyranny, set up to oppress them.  
More over for restoring the Kingdom to its primitive condition of Freedom & safety: We will have the corporation, & militia Acts, repealed, and all Outlawries of treason, against any person whatsoever upon the late pretended Protestant plot reversed; and also all other outlawries, banishments, warrants, judgements, imprisonments, abjurations & proceedings, against any other persons, upon any of the penal statutes made against Protestant dissenters, reversed & made null & void; and We will have new Laws enacted, for placing the Election of Sherriffes in the Freeholders of the several Counties; and for settling the Militia in the respective Sheriffs, and for preventing all military standing Force except what shall be raised & kept up, by Authority & consent of Parliament.  
And whereas several Gentlemen, & others, who have been worthy & zealous astertors of the Protestant Interest, & laws of the Kingdom, are now in custody in divers prisons within the Realm, upon most unjust accusations, pretences, proceedings, & judgements; We do hereby further declare their said imprisonments to be Illegal, and that in Case any violence shall be offered to them, or any of them, We will revenge it to the utmost, upon such of our Enemies as shall fall into our hauds.  
And whereas the said James Duke of York, in order to the expediting the Idolatrous & bloody designs of the Papists, the gratifying his own boundless ambition after a Crown, and to hinder enquiry into his Assassination of Arthur Earl of Essex, hath poisoned the late King, and there in manifested his ingratitude, as well as Cruelty, to the world, in murdering a Brother, who had almost ruined himself to preserve & protect him from punishment: We do therefore further declare, that for the aforesaid Villainous and unnatural Crime, & other his crimes before mentioned, and in pursuance of the Resolution of both Houses of Parliament, who Voted to revenge the King's Death, in Case he came to an untimely end; We will prosecute the said James Duke of York, till We have brought him to suffer, what the Law adjudged to be the punishment of so execrable a fact. And in a more particular manner, his Grace the Duke of Monmouth, being deeply sensible of that barbarous & horrid parricide committed upon his Father, doth resolve to pursue the said James Duke of York, as a mortal and bioudy Enemy, and will endeavour as well with his own hand, as by the assistance of his Friends, & the Law, to have justice executed upon him.  
And forasmuch as the said James Duke of Monmouth, the now Head & Captain General of the Protestant forces of this Kingdom assembled in pursuance of the Ends aforesaid; hath been, & still is believed, to have a legitimate, & Legal right, to the Crowns of England, Scotland, France & Ireland, with the Dominions there unto belonging, of which he doubts not in the least, to give the world full satisfaction notwithstanding the means used by the late King his Father, upon popish motives, & at the instigation of the said James Duke of York, to weaken & obscure it; The said James Duke of Monmouth from the generousness of his own nature, and the Love he bears to these nations, (whose welfare & setlement he infinitely prefers, to whatsoever may concern himself,) doth not at present insist upon his Title, but leaves the determination thereof to the wisdom, justice, & authority of a Parliament, legally chosen & acting with freedom. And in the time mean doth promise & declare by all that is sacred, that he will in conjunction with the People of England, Employ all the Abilities bestowed upon him by God & Nature, for the reestablishment & preservation of the Protestant reform Religion in these Kingdoms, and for restoring the Subjects of the same, to a free exercise thereof, in opposition to Popery, & the consequences of it, Tyranny & Slavery; To the obtaining of which ends, he doth hereby promise, & oblige himself to the people of England, to consent unto, & promote the passing into Laws, all the methods aforesaid; that it may never more be in the power of any single person on the Throne, to deprive the subjects of their Rights, or subvert the fundimentall Laws of the Government designed for their preservation.  
And Whereas the Nobility, Gentry, & Commons of Scotland, are now in arms, upon the like motives, & Inducements that we are, & in prosecution of ends agreeable with ours; We do therefore approve the justice of their cause, commend their Zeal & Courage, expecting their, & promiseing our Assistance, for carrying on that glorious work we are jointly engaged in.  
Being obliged for avoiding tediousness, to omit recounting many Oppressions under which the Kingdom hath groaved, & the giving a Deduction of the several Steps that have been taken for introducing & establishing of popery & Tyranny: We think fit therefore to signify, both to our Country men, & Foreigners, that We intent, a larger Manifesto, & Remonstrance of the Grievances, Persecutions, Crueltyes & Tyrannies, We have of late laid under, and therein a more full & particular account of the Unparralleled Crimes of the present Usurper.  
And We make our appeal unto God, & all Protestants Kings, Princes, States, & People, concerning the justice of our Cause, and the necessity we are reduced unto, of having our recourse to Arms. And as we do beseech require & adjure all sincere Protestants, and true Englishmen, to be assisting to us against the Enemies of the Gospel, Rights of the Nation, and liberties of mankind; so we are confident of obtaining the ut most aid & succour which they can yield us with their Prayers, Persons, & Estates, for the Dethroning the said Tyrant & Popish Usurper.  
Nor do We doubt being justified, contenanced, & assisted, by all Protestant Kings, Princes, & common Wealths, Who do either regard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or their own Interest: and above all our dependence & trust is upon the Lord of hosts, in whose name We go forth, & to whom we commit our cause, and refer the dicision betwixt us & our Enemies in the Day of Battle. Now let us play the men, for our People, & for the Cities of our God, and the Lord do that which seemeth good unto him.