C R  
HONI SOIT QVI MAL Y PENSE   royal blazon or coat of arms  
ACT Concerning the DECLARATION To be signed by all persons in public Trust.  
At Edinburgh, the fifth day of September, one thousand six hundred and sixty two.  
FOrasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, in His Majesty's Restitution to His Royal Government, to restore this Kingdom to its ancient liberties and peace, and to deliver His Majesty's good Subjects from these miseries and bondage whereby they have been oppressed, during these troubles; And the Estates of Parliament, finding themselves obliged in a due resentment of this mercy, and in discharge of that duty they owe to God, to the King's Majesty, to the public peace of the Kingdom, and the good of His Subjects, To use all means for the due preservation of that peace and happiness they now enjoy under His Royal Government; and to prevent and suppress every thing that may tend to the renewing or favouring of these courses, by which the late Rebellion hath been fomented and carried on; And conceiving, that the employing of persons of found principles and entire loyalty, in all offices of Trust and places of public Administration, will conduce much to these ends. Therefore, and for quieting the spirits of His Majesty's good Subjects, and begetting a confidence in them of their security for the future, His Majesty hath thought fit, with advice and consent of His Estates of Parliament, to Statute, Ordian and Enact; Likeas His Majesty, by these presents, doth, with advice foresaid, Statute, Ordain and Enact, That all such persons as shall hereafter be called or admitted to any public Trust or Office, under His Majesty's Government within this Kingdom; that is to say, to be Officers of State, Members of Parliament, Privy Councillors, Lords of Session, Commissioners in Exchequer, Members of the College of justice, Sheriffs, Stewarts or Commissaries, their Deputes and Clerks, Magistrates and Council of Borroughs, justices of Peace and their Clerks, or any other public Charge, Office and Trust within this Kingdom; shall at and before their admission to the exercise of such Places or Offices, publicly, in face of the respective Courts they relate to, subscribe the Declaration underwritten: And that they shall have no right to their said Offices or Benefits thereof, until they subscribe the same as said is; but that every such person who shall offer to enter and exerce any such Office, before he subscribe the Declaration, is to be repute and punished as an usurper of His Majesty's Authority, and the place to be disposed to another. Likeas His Majesty doth, with advice foresaid, remit to His Commissioner, to take such course as he shall think fit, how these who are presently in office, may subscribe the said Declaration. And it is hereby Declared, that this Act is without prejudice of any former Acts, for taking the Oath of Allegiance, and asserting the Royal Prerogative.  

I Do sincerely affirm and declare, that I judge it unlawful to Subjects, upon pretence of Reformation or other pretence whatsoever, to enter into Leagues and Covenants, or to take up Arms against the King or these commissionated by Him: And that all these Gatherings, Convocations, Petitions, Protestations, and erecting and keeping of Council-tables, that were used in the beginning, and for carrying on, of the late troubles, were unlawful and seditious. And particularly, that these Oaths, whereof the one was commonly called The National Covenant, (as it was sworn and explained in the year, one thousand six hundred and thirty eight, and thereafter) and the other entitled, A Solemn League and Covenant, were, and are, in themselves, unlawful Oaths, and were taken by, and imposed upon, the Subjects of this Kingdom, against the fundamental Laws and Liberties of the same. And that there lieth no obligation upon me, or any of the Subjects, from the said's Oaths, or either of them, to endeavour any change or alteration of the Government, either in Church or State, as it is now established by the Laws of the Kingdom.    

Edinburgh Printed by Evan Tyler, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majesty, 1662.