Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	charles_n	duke_n	king_n	5,276	5	4.2655	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52850	Discourses concerning government, in a way of dialogue wherein, by observations drawn from other kingdoms and states, the excellency of the English government is demonstrated, the causes of the decay thereof are considered, and proper remedies for cure proposed / by Henry Nevill ...; Plato redivivus. 1698	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.	1698 (1698)	Wing N503A; ESTC R39070	112,421	300

have a better Game to play nor a better Adversary to deal with than one who leaps in over the Heads of almost all the Protestant Princes Families abroad besides some Papists who are greater and when we have been harrassed with Wars and the miseries that accompany it some few years you shall have all these fine People who now run after him very weary of their new Prince I would not say any thing to disparage a Person so highly born and of so early merit but this I may say That if a Lawful Title should be set on foot in his favour and a thousand Dutch Hosts and such like should swear a Marriage yet no sober Man that is not blinded with prejudice will believe That our King whom none can deny to have an excellent understanding would ever Marry a Woman so much his Inferiour as this great Persons Mother was and this at a time when his Affairs were very low and he had no visible or rational hopes to be restored to the Possession of his Kingdoms but by an assistance which might have been afforded him by means of some great Foreign Alliance Well but to leave all this do these Men pretend that the Duke of Monmouth shall be declared Successour to the Crown in Parliament with the King 's Concurence or without it if without it you must make a War for it and I am sure that no Cause can be stated upon such a point that will not make the Assertors and Undertakers of it be condemned by all the Politicians and Moralists of the World and by the Casuists of all Religions and so by consequence it is like to be a very unsuccesful War If you would have this declar'd with the King's Consent either you suppose the Royal assent to be given when the King has his liberty either to grant it or not grant it to Dissolve the Parliament or not Dissolve it without ruine or prejudice to his Affairs If in the first Case it is plain he will not grant it because he cannot do it without confessing his Marriage to that Duke's Mother which he hath already declared against in a very solemn manner and caused it to be Registred in Chancery and which not only no good Subject can chuse but believe but which cannot be doubted by any rational person for it would be a very unnatural and indeed a thing unheard of that a Father who had a Son in Lawful Matrimony and who was grown to perfection and had signalized himself in the Wars and who was ever intirely beloved by him should disinherit him by so solemn an asseveration which must be a false one too to cause his Brother to succeed in his room And whereas it is pretended by some that His Majesties danger from his Brothers Counsels and Designs may draw from him something of this beside that they do not much Complement the King in this it is clear his Brother is not so Popular but that he may secure him when he pleases without hazard if there were any ground for such an apprehension But we must in the next place suppose that the King's Affairs were in such a posture that he could deny the Parliament nothing without very great mischief and inconvenience to himself and the Kingdom then I say I doubt not but the Wisdom of the Parliament will find out divers Demands and Requests to make to His Majesty of greater benefit and more necessary for the good of his People than this would be which draws after it not only a present unsetledness but the probable hazard of Misery and Devastation for many years to come as has been proved So that as on the one side the Parliament could not make a more unjustfiable War than upon this Account so they could not be Dissolved upon any occasion wherein the People would not shew less discontent and resentment and for which the Courtiers would not hope to have a better pretext to strive in the next Choice to make their Arts and endeavours more successful in the Election of Members more suitable to their Designs for the continuance of this present mis-government For if this Parliament do mis-spend the Peoples Mettle which is now up in driving that Nail which cannot go they must look to have it cool and so the Ship of this Commonwealth which if they please may be now in a fair way of Entering into a Safe Harbour will be driven to Sea again in a Storm and must hope for and expect another favourable Wind to save them and God knows when that may come Doct. But Sir there are others who not minding whether the Parliament will consider the Duke of Monmouths concern so far as to debate it do yet pretend that there is great reason to keep up the peoples affections to him and possibly to foment the opinion they have of his Title to the Crown to the end that if the King should die re infectà that is before such time as the Government is redrest or the Duke of York disabled by Law to Succeed the people might have an Head under whose Command and Conduct they might stand upon their Guard till they had some way secured their Government and Religion Eng. Gent. What you have started is not a thing that can safely be discoursed of nor is it much material to our design which is intended to speculate upon our Government and to shew how it is decayed I have industriously avoided the argument of Rebellion as I find it coucht in modern Polititians because most Princes hold that all Civil Wars in mixt Monarchies must be so and a Polititian as well as an Oratour ought to be Vir bonus so ought to discourse nothing how rational soever in these points under a peaceable Monarchy which gives him protection but what he would speak of his Prince if all his Councel were present I will tell you only that these Authors hold that nothing can be alledged to excuse the taking Arms by any people in opposition to their Prince from being Crimen Lesae Majestatis but a claim to a lawful Jurisdiction or Co-ordination in the Government by which they may judg of and defend their own Rights and so pretend to fight for and defend the Government for though all do acknowledg that Populi salus is and ought to be the most Supreme or Soveraign Law in the world yet if we should make private persons how numerous soever judg of Populi salus we should have all the Risings and Rebellions that should ever be made justified by that title as happened in France when La Guerre du bien publique took that name which was raised by the insatiable ambition of a few Noblemen and by correspondency and confederacy with Charles Son of the Duke of Burgundy and other enemies to that Crown Doct. But would you have our people do nothing then if the King should be Assassinated or die of a natural death Eng. Gent. You ask me a very fine question Doctor

If I say I would have the people stir in that case then the King and his Laws take hold of me and if I should answer that I would have them be quiet the people would tear me in pieces for a Jesuit or at least believe that I had no sense of the Riligion Laws and Liberty of my Countrey De facto I do suppose that if the people do continue long in this heat which now possesseth them and remain in such a passion at the time of the Kings death without setling matters they may probably fall into tumults and Civil War which makes it infinitely to be desired and prayed for by all good English men that during the quiet and peace we injoy by the blessing of his Majesties life and happy Reign we might likewise be so wise and fortunate as to provide for the safety and prosperity of the next generation Doct. But if you would not have the people in such a case take the Duke of Monmouth for their Head what would you have them do Eng. Gent. Doctor you ask me very fine questions do not you know that Machivel the best and most honest of all the modern Polititians has suffered sufficiently by means of Priests and other ignorant persons who do not understand his Writings and therefore impute to him the teaching Subjects how they should Rebel and conspire against their Princes which if he were in any kind guilty of he would deserve all the reproaches that have been cast upon him and ten times more and so should I if I ventured to obey you in this I am very confident that if any man should come to you to implore your skill in helping him to a drug that might quickly and with the least fear of being suspected dispatch an enemy of his or some other by whose death he was to be a gainer or some young Lass that had gotten a Surruptitious great Belly should come to you to teach her how to destroy the fruit I say in this case you would scarce have had patience to hear these persons out much less would you have been so wicked to have in the least assisted them in their designs no more than Solon Lycurgus Periander or any other of the Sages could have been brought to have given their advice to any persons who should have begged it to enable them to ruine and undermine the government of their own Commonwealths Doct. Sir this Reprehension would be very justly given me if I had intended by this question to induce you to counsel me or any other how to rebel my meaning was to desire you who have heretofore been very fortunate in prophesying concerning the events of our changes here to exercise your faculty a little at this time and tell us what is like to be the end of these destractions we are under in case we shall not be so happy as to put a period to them by mending our Government and securing our Religion and Liberty in a regular way Eng. Gent. Doctor I will keep the reputation of Prophecy which I have gained with you and not hazard it with any new predictions for fear they should miscarry yet I care not if I gratifie your curiosity a little in the point about which you first began to Interrogate me by presaging to you that in case we should have troubles and combustions here after his Majesties decease which God avert we must expect a very unsuccesful end of them if we should be so rash and unadvised as to make the great Person we have been lately speaking of our head and that nothing can be more dangerous and pernitious to us than such a choice I have not in this discourse the least intention to except against much less to disparage the personal worth of the Duke of Monmouth which the world knows to be very great but do believe that he hath Courage and Conduct proportionable to any imployment that can be conferred upon him whether it be to manage Arms or Counsels but my opinion is that no person in his circumstance can be a proper head in this case for the people having been already put on upon his scent of the title to the Crown will be very hardly called off and so will force the wiser men who may design better things to consent that he be Proclaimed King immediately except there be some other head who by his Power Wisdom and Authority may restrain the forwardness of the multitude and obviate the acts of some men whose interest and hopes may prompt them to foment the humours of the people Now the consequences of hurrying a man to the Throne so tumultuously without the least deliberation are very dismal and do not only not cure the politick distempers of our Countrey which we have talked so much of but do infinitely augment it and add to the desease our State labours under already which is a Consumption a very violent Feaver too I mean War at home and from abroad which must necessarily follow in a few years nor is it possible to go back when once we have made that step for our new King will call a Parliament which being summoned by his will neither will nor can question his Title or Government otherwise than by making Addresses and by presenting Bills to him as they do to his now Majesty Nob. Ven. It seems to me that there needs nothing more than that for if he consent to all Laws as shall be presented to him you may reform your Government sufficiently or else it is your own fault Eng. Gent. We have shewed already and shall do more hereafter that no Laws can be executed till our government be mended and if you mean we should make such as should mend that besides that it would be a better method to capitulate that before you make choice of your Prince as wise people have done in all ages and the Cardinals do at Rome in the Conclave before they choose their Pope I say besides this it is not to be taken for granted that any Bills that tend to make considerable alterations in the administration and such we have need of as you will see anon would either in that case be offered or consented to both Prince and People being so ready to cry out upon Forty-one and to be frighted with the name of a Common-wealth even now when we think Popery is at the door which some people then will think farther off and so not care to make so great alterations to keep it out besides the great Men and favourites of the new Prince will think it hard that their King should be so bounded and limited both in power and Revenue that he shall have no means to exercise his liberality towards them and so may use their interest and eloquence in both Houses to dissuade them from pressing so hard upon a Prince who is a true zealous Protestant and has alwaies headed that party and who is justly admired if not adored by the people