Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	begin_v	reign_v	year_n	53,353	5	6.6585	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46365	A pastoral letter written on the occasion of the death of the late Queen of England, of blessed memory with reflections on the greatness of that loss to Europe / by Peter Jurieu ...	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.	1695 (1695)	Wing J1206; ESTC R36214	14,400	32

She was yet almost a Child That Prince at that time in the hottest part of his Youth had acquir'd in the School of Affliction all the Ripeness and Solidity of the Wisest Old Age. He found in the Princess a Soul tender and capable of every good Impression And it may be said that the Prince never gave a more illustrious Proof of his great Ability than in the manner by which He stamp'd His own Image on Her soft Mind He was Her Husband Her Father and Her Guide and in a little time render'd Her one of the best Accomplish'd Persons in the World This was His Master-piece He taught Her to Reign long before She was a Queen He inspired Her with that Wisdom that Silence that Reservedness and that Moderation which is hereditary to the Family of WILLIAM of Nassau Prince of ORANGE who was Sirnam'd the Silent or the Reserv'd The Court of this Young Princess was diametrically opposite to all the other Courts of Europe No gawdy Pleasures no Conversations of Vain Wits no scandalous Divertisements no Intriegues of Gallantry were to be found there She never would endure any Persons to be ill spoken of in her Presence not even the Enemies of the Prince Her Husband For though She detested the Crime yet She would not suffer the Faults of Mankind to be made the matter of common Talk And as soon as any Persons opened their Mouths on such a design She never fail'd to impose Silence at least by a certain coldness and an Air which chill'd the most fiery Tongues Nor did she take pleasure in the Relations of publick News and the Reflections that are usually made upon them because she had learned never to discover her Sentiments on such Subjects And therefore those who made Court to Her never enter'd upon these Matters or at least did not insist upon them For Courtiers study the Inclinations of the Prince to follow them So that 't was no wonder that the general Conversation before the Princess did often seem dry For take away Back-biting and Publick News from ordinary Discourse and there will be very little left But to make amends Her Confidents who had the honour to see Her in private found in Her an admirable Openness of Mind and a Solidity of Judgment altogether beyond Her Sex Yet She was still reserv'd to those whom prudence forbid Her to confide in These Perfections were accompani'd with a brisk and pleasant Wit and Humor which might have seem'd inconsistent with so clear a Judgment for the pleasant Humor of Ladies proceeds usually from the Heat of their Imagination which gets the better of their Judgment But Her Airiness never carry'd Her to the least Indecency I believe there is not one Man or Woman in the World that will dare to affirm that they ever heard Her speak a Word that ought not to have been spoken or saw Her do an Action that ought not to have been done This is indeed a high Commendation but 't is literally true and without the least Exaggeration Her great Soul was never put to a harder Trial than on the occasion of the Revolution in England and Her Wisdom never appear'd with greater lustre Never was there a nicer Juncture for a truly Christian Soul for a Wife that was still a Lover and a Daughter deeply sensible of Her Duty I know some persons to whom She then did the honour to discover the bottom of Her Soul which was agitated by so many troublesome different and even contrary Motions where the Husband and the father were contending together in that tender Heart which became the Field of all their Battels But it may be truly said that She disengaged Her self out of all these perplexing Circumstances in an admirable manner And that She Sacrificed Her Love Her Quiet and Her Tenderness to Her Zeal to Her God to the Publick and to Her Religion Such is the Character of our QUEEN for the truth of which and that I have not flatter'd Her in the Picture that I have made of Her I may appeal to the King Her Husband and to the Publick that ador'd Her 'T is well known that Conjugal Love is rare and usually very cold among the Great the Delights of a Court enervate the Soul and Criminal Passions destroy Lawful ones as the flame of Powder and Salt-Peter extinguishes the brightest Torches But our pure and chast Princes did not dissipate their Hearts and Affections on Foreign Objects The Court of England was become a Holy Court Concubines Amours Mistresses Intrigues and Jealousies were not heard of there All the Royal Houses by the Piety of these Great Sovereigns were happily chang'd into Temples and Oratories where God was serv'd sincerely and purely where the Divine Service was no longer made a Ceremonial Part of the Royal Grandeur The Queen had her Hours of Devotion exactly regulated In the Morning before She went to Her Chappel She enter'd into Her Closet where She remain'd several hours In the Evening She observ'd the same Method after She came from thence How many Prayers did She put up how many Exercises of Devotion and Humiliation has She been seen to practice upon Extraordinary Occasions such as that of the Prince Her Husband's Expedition to England After She came to the Throne Her Advancement made no change in Her Manners in Her Sweetness and Mildness in Her Piety Modesty and Abstinence from all the Criminal Pleasures of Worldly Courts With Her chearful Temper she liv'd more contentedly among Her Women Her Work and Her Gardens than other Princesses do in the midst of all Their Studi'd Delights and Pompous Effeminacies The Court began to put on a very different Air from that which it had formerly Vice which reigns insolently every-where else began to hide its face there a happy presage that it would quickly disappear That Great King being deeply touch'd with all the Excellent Perfections of His Incomparable QUEEN after a Possession of Seventeen or Eighteen Years lov'd Her with more Ardour than others do at the birth and heighth of their Passion Besides a thousand Proofs that he hath given of His rare Tenderness the QUEEN's Death hath confirm'd it beyond exception He never stirr'd from Her Chamber during the whole course of Her Sickness He was often seen to burst forth into Tears and when She expir'd Death seem'd resolv'd to put an end to two Lives by one Blow For the Living KING had as many Signs of Death as the Dying QUEEN He who never fear'd any thing whom the greatest Dangers could never daunt had not Courage enough to bear so Cruel a Separation Those numberless Deaths which he had often look'd in the face were never able to shock his great Soul The QUEEN's Death alone found out his tender part and made him give ground That lively and unusual Grief in a Prince who is naturally of a dauntless and unconcern'd Temper and uncapable of being disturb'd by Passions is a certain sign that the Bonds which united these

into such Complaints are these Ah! why are there not a Million of those base and guilty Wretches sacrific'd for the Preservation of One so dear and precious a Life Why do Persecuters and the Disturbers of the Publick Quiet prolong their days to be Scourges of Mankind whilst the Delights of the World fly away with the swiftness of a shadow which vanishes away and returns no more Let us learn O Christians to make a right use or rather to make no use at all of that Word which is so common amongst us It had been better otherwise To how many Persons do we apply this Word if such a Person dies immediately we cry It had been better otherwise Thou knowest O God and thou makest us know that this is a great Error Whatsoever thou dost is always best Thy Will is ever good and perfect Grant then that we may acquiesce in it Instruct us in the Depths of thy Wisdom and make us sensible of the Justice of thy Actions that we may henceforth avoid such prophane Expressions In the last place we ought to admire with the Prophet the conduct of that God who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working His Providence doth often set in order second Causes for the production of Effects which his eternal Decrees will bring forth in their due time And this Order appears so natural to us that we cannot believe that he will change it for another But on a sudden we see this Order reverst and those Chains of second Causes broken to pieces VVe are in an Age of Iron and of Brass we live in the Dregs of Time a Time in which the World and the Church have need of great Agents and Examples for the Reformation both of Doctrine and Manners God seem'd to have united the two wisest most pious and most zealous Persons of our Age to accomplish his work and make a new Christian VVorld The Union of these two great Souls appear'd to us like the Conjunction of two great Stars which we expected should have shed their influences on both sides of the Seas by making Peace to spring out of the Earth and Righteousness to come down from Heaven And indeed these effects were already produc'd in a very sensible manner Already God had begun to fulfill our hopes and accomplish his own Designs VVhen lo by an unexpected stroke he had at last interrupted the Course of those Prosperities which that Union could not fail to produce By this Conduct God would teach us two things The First is our own Ignorance VVe believ'd that he would proceed in one Method and we see that he has taken another VVhich ought to make us acknowledge our ignorance of the Depths of his Providence The other thing that God would teach us is that we should alwayes live in an entire and even in some measure in an immediate dependance on his Will He would not have us to depend too much on humane means He would give us to understand that his Wisdom is infinite and that he has a thousand ways to arrive at the same end He deprives us of Persons that seem'd to be most necessary for the execution of his Designs and yet he would not have us doubt of the accomplishment of them Let us leave all to him for if he does not finish his VVork by this VVay he will certainly do it by another VVe thought that he would have perform'd that great VVork by two excellent Persons And he has now taught us that having begun it by Two illustrious Heads he will perfect it by One. Our Great Queen has been not a little useful to produce those great Events If she did not lead the Prince to the Throne she facilitated the ways to it which his own VVisdom and Courage had open'd She was the Bond of Union between the King and the Nation She has establish'd that Union during Six years She has in in her time rais'd our dead Hopes and reviv'd our dead Church God resolves to finish without Her that which he begun by Her And so long as God shall preserve to us Him who is the Breath of our Nostrils according to the Stile of the Prophet we will breath still we will hope and we will live I am not ignorant that the Enemies of the Peace of Europe will be ready to conceive great hopes from this mournful Accident But He that sits in the Heavens shall laugh at their devices He has already sufficiently explain'd his gracious intentions And so favourable a Providence appear'd evidently in this sad Juncture that we may plainly see that he that gave the blow has no mind to destroy us It was more natural that this Misfortune should have happen'd to us in the Heat of Summer which is the proper season for Malignant Diseases And then the King's absence might have put an opportunity into the hands of his Enemies to plot mischief at home This fatal Death might have also surpriz'd us when the Parliament was not assembl'd and by this means have given occasion to the vain hopes and perhaps also to the treasonable attempts of our Enemies But the Presence of the King the sitting of the Parliament and the intire Union that is between Him and them are sufficient to dispel all our Fears and give us a comfortable assurance of the future success of the just Cause God has indeed discharg'd the Torrents of his indignation against us but he has set bounds to them He has pour'd forth the Vial of his Fury upon us but he stopt it before it came to the bottom We ought every one of us to stand between the Dead and the Living that the Plague may be staid We ought to beseech God to inspite that Great King with wise Counsel that he may continue his assistance to those to whom his presence is so necessary and to enable him to fill up that great Breach which will be made by his absence and by the death of his other Self And if God shall vouchsafe to grant these our Petitions we may still without vanity preserve our hopes Thus my Brethren in the midst of those Tears which ought never to be dried up since our Loss can never be repair'd let us trust in God and in the goodness of the King who is of himself full of compassion as you have found by frequent experience And henceforth we have reason to hope that he will unite in his own Heart all that Charity and Mercy which were formerly divided between Him and the Queen He that lov'd that amiable and pious Princess with so much ardour will certainly cherish Her memory and Her Works will be dear to Him And since Her Goodness and Beneficence to you was one of her most glorious Works we may be assur'd that our Great Prince will perfect it rather than over-turn it All that vast number of Altars and living Temples where that Great Queen offer'd up daily Sacrifices of Charity are so many glorious Monuments by