Transcription

(4) to her Maty ye late Queen shd in all times coming at his or her accession to ye Crown, sweare and subscribe to maintain ye Settlemt in that Act. Upon ye Queen's death consideration was had of the import of those words [at his accession to ye Crown] & upon maturely weighing ye words & ye nature of the case, It was thought not fit yt his Maty should deferre taking that Oath so long as till the Coronation when ye Oath relating to ye Church of England was expressly to be taken. Because ye Coronation being a Ceremony in use in Scotland, & therefore not unknown to that Parliamt & being ye proper time for ye King to give assurances to his People to maintain their Rights, they would probably have required it at ye Coronation, but that they would not let a Point which they put such a Value upon wait for that Ceremony, for which no time was fixed by Law, but would have it earlyer, & (if ye words be taken in the strict sense) at ye very time of his becoming King. But yet on ye other hand, since by ye Law ye time of ye King's accession to ye Crown was ye Moment of ye Queen's death at which time it was impossible for ye King to take the Oath, because it was impossible for him to have notice of it; & our Constitution abhors an Interregnum so much yt it would not suffer yt ye vesting of ye Regall Power should wait ye taking of that Oath. It was held yt ye proper time for his Maty to take ye Oath agreeably to both the Act of Parliamt & ye Law of Succession would be when his Maty should first appear in Councill, But, yt ye not taking it sooner did not prevent the Regall Power from vesting compleatly in his Maty, & therefore his Maty was immediately proclaimed, ye Governmt administred by ye Lords Justices in His Matys name a session of Parliamt held, & an Act of Parliamt past for continuing ye Revenue, before His oath was taken, w/ was in ye first council, many weekes after ye Queens death, & his Majestyes accession to ye throne. And it was observed yt this Maxim, that there be no Interregnum, has been esteemed here a valuable part of our Constitution, as delivering us from those disorders & confusions, which naturally attend an [[deletion]] [[unclear]] [[/deletion]] Interregnum