Their having been in a condition to avoid the very appearance of
it, as much as possible, was by them considered as a providential
escape. They threw a politic, well-wrought veil over every circumstance
tending to weaken the rights which in the meliorated order of succession
they meant to perpetuate, or which might furnish a precedent for any
future departure from what they had then settled forever. Accordingly,
that they might not relax the nerves of their monarchy, and that they
might preserve a close conformity to the practice of their ancestors, as
it appeared in the declaratory statutes of Queen Mary[81] and Queen
Elizabeth, in the next clause they vest, by recognition, in their
Majesties _all_ the legal prerogatives of the crown, declaring "that in
them they are most _fully_, rightfully, and _entirely_ invested,
incorporated, united, and annexed." In the clause which follows, for
preventing questions, by reason of any pretended titles to the crown,
they declare (observing also in this the traditionary language, along
with the traditionary policy of the nation, and repeating as from a
rubric the language of the preceding acts of Elizabeth and James) that
on the preserving "a _certainty_ in the SUCCESSION thereof the unity,
peace, and tranquillity of this nation doth, under God, wholly depend."
They knew that a doubtful title of succession would but too much
resemble an election, and that an election would be utterly destructive
of the "unity, peace, and tranquillity of this nation," which they
thought to be considerations of some moment.
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