publick Profession of my _Political Faith_; not doubting but it may
agree in several Particulars with that of many worthy Persons, who are
as undeservedly aspers'd as I am.

My Notion of a _Whig_, I mean of a real _Whig_ (for the Nominal are
worse than any Sort of Men) is, That he is one who is exactly for
keeping up to the Strictness of the true old _Gothick Constitution_,
under the _Three Estates_ of _King_ (or _Queen_) _Lords_ and _Commons_;
the _Legislature_ being seated in all Three together, the _Executive_
entrusted with the first, but accountable to the whole Body of the
People, in Case of Male Administration.

A true _Whig_ is of Opinion, that the Executive Power has as just a
Title to the _Allegiance_ and Obedience of the Subject, according to the
_Rules of known Laws enacted by the Legislative_, as the _Subject_ has
to _Protection, Liberty_ and _Property_: And so on the contrary.

A true _Whig_ is not afraid of the Name of a _Commonwealthsman_, because
so many foolish People, who know not what it means, run it down: The
_Anarchy_ and _Confusion_ which these Nations fell into near Sixty Years
ago, and which was _falsly_ called a _Commonwealth_, frightning them out
of the true Construction of the Word. But Queen _Elizabeth_, and many
other of our best Princes, were not scrupulous of calling our Government
a _Commonwealth_, even in their solemn Speeches to _Parliament_. And
indeed if it be not one, I cannot tell by what Name properly to call it:
For where in the very _Frame_ of the _Constitution_, the Good of the
_Whole_ is taken care of by the _Whole_ (as 'tis in our Case) the having
a _King_ or _Queen_ at the Head of it, alters not the Case; and the
softning of it by calling it a _Limited Monarchy_, seems a Kind of
Contradiction in Terms, invented to please some weak and doubting