Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	earl_n	king_n	wales_n	7,794	5	10.4495	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60215	Sidney Redivivus, or, The opinion of the late Honourable Collonel Sidney as to civil government wherin is asserted and clearly proved, that the power of kings is founded in the consent of the people, who have a right to call them to an account for male-administration and to restore themselves to their native liberty : by which the late proceedings of the nation against James the II are justified : together with some reflections on what is said by ill men against the present government, by another hand.	Sidney, Algernon, 1622-1683.	1689 (1689)	Wing S3764; ESTC R10306	10,924	21

himself with that Divine Character This is the Scope of the whole Treatise the Writer gives such Reasons as at present did occur unto him to prove it This seems to agree with the Doctrines of the most Reverenced Authors of all Times Nations and Religions The best and wisest Kings have ever acknowledged it The present King of France hath declared that Kings have that happy want of Power that they can do nothing contrary to the Laws of their Country and grounds his Quarrel with the King of Spain Anno 1667 upon that Principle King James in his Speech to the Parliament Anno 1603. doth in the highest degree Assert it the Scriptures seem to declare it If the Expulsion of Tarquin the Insurrection against Nero the Slaughter of Caligula or Domitian the Translation of the Crown of France from Merovius his Race unto Pepin and from his Descendants unto Hugh Capet be not good Acts of State there is not a King in the World has any Title to the Crown he bears nor can have any unless he could deduce his Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah and show that the Succession had still continued in the Eldest of the Eldest Line and so Deduced to him Every one may see what advantage this would be to all the Kings of the World and whether that failing it were not better for them to acknowledge their Crowns by the Consent of Willing Nations or to have no better Title unto them than Usurpation and Violence which by the same ways may be taken from them So much as to this Subject in his last Speech by which you may see that as he lived in this Opinion he was not afraid to Die in it as being fully perswaded of its agreeableness to Divine Truth at whose Bar he was in a few Minutes to receive a juster Sentence than that by which he suffered And the worst that I shall wish that Instrument of Cruelty who was his Judge is That seeing he is far from being so sit to Live in this World he may be as fit to go into another as that Worthy Gentleman was but this I am confident of he will never be able to reflect upon his own Tyranny and the Abetting of it in others with that Serenity of Mind and Tranquility of Soul as this Noble Patriot did upon his Opposition to it when according to the good Laws of the Kingdom and the Righteous Judgment of God Inquisition shall be made for Blood of which a great deal is to be found in his Skirts that threatens him with Divine Vengeance according to the Prayer of this Worthy Gentleman That if Inquisition was to be made after Blood it might fall upon those who Persecuted him for Righteousness sake It hath been an old and true Observation that the Blood of the Saints is the Seed of the Church and I do not know but it may be also said that the Blood of Patriots is the Seed of Asserters of the Peoples Liberty for since the Effusion of this Gentlemans Blood and that of others we have had a plentiful Harvest of such as have Asserted the Civil and Religious Rights of the Nations and that nothing might be wanting to Crown our Mercy we are Blessed with a Magnanimous and Religious King who as he ventured all for their Redemption will do the same for their preservation But notwithstanding of what is here said by this Worthy Author and may others upon this Subject there is a Party in the Nation who are so much under the Conduct of their own Lusts that to have a full Liberty of Wallowing in them they surceased no endeavours to bring others and themselves too under the Tyranny and Lusts of the two Late Kings and are now enraged to see the People Delivered tho' not many Months ago they were loudest in their Clamours against the Male Administration of the Late James the II. when they found themselves in hazard of Smarting by the Rod they had prepared for others Whereupon breaking through all the pretended tyes of Allegiance which they had so often Ratified with Dam 'em and Sink 'em and Swallowing down of brim-full Bumpers they were very active in over-turning his Government either by deserting or appearing against him Amongst this kind of Men who despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities are these Murmurs and Discontents which do occasion such a ferment at this time in the Nation It is not unworth the while to observe the difference betwixt the Discontented now and such as were so in the two last Reigns the latter being generally all who had any Sobriety in their Practice or Zeal for the true Religion and Laws of the Kingdom whether Church-men or Dissenters the former being not one in a Hundred other than the Ignorant and Profane who are a Scandal to all Humane Society and particularly to the Church of England under whose Name as Vermine under a Roof they Shelter themselves and indeed there is no other way left for that Society to rid themselves of the Infamy which is likely to fall upon the whole because of them but by some publick Testimony to declare their Abhorrence of such deny them their Communion and Preach up Obedience now as much as in the two Late Reigns there being infinitely more Reason to do so at this time than there was at that His Present Majesty whom God long Preserve having by the Miraculous Hand of the Omnipotent been made our Redeemer by the Consent of the People an undoubted Title to the Soveraignty and by his Prudent and Legal Administration not only acquir'd a Right to an Obedience from Fear but Love the most Sacred and Inviolable Foundation of Dominion These Instruments of wickedness that they may pass their Black Designs of re-enslaving the Nations have recourse to their old Exploded Arguments that the King is accountable to none but God That they have an Hereditary Right of Succession and that the Accusations as to the Earl of Essex's Murther the Imposing of a Prince of Wales c. have never been proved against the Late King and that therefore he has been unjustly dealt with These and others of the same sort are as considently talked of amongst such Men as if they had never been concerned in contrary Practices either by Acting Deserting or Silence in all which as they were Influenced by a corrupt Principle of mistaken Self Interest then they are by the same engaged in opposite Practices now I shall touch a little upon those Arguments and Conclude That the King as King that is Governing according to Law is accountable to any but God few will deny because therein he Acts according to his Commission from the body of the People who it is to be supposed are content to see the same put in Execution and there being no Power Superiour to theirs but Gods there can be no other to call him to an Account in that Case But the Question is Whether the Person Cloathed with the Kingly Authority

and Acting beyond or contrary to his Commission be for such Acts accountable to them from whom he Receiv'd his Commission I suppose it will readily be granted he is But here some Object That the King has his Commission only from God and consequently accountable to no other I Answer God never Instituted any such Kings as had their Commission only from him for even those very Kings which he himself Named as Saul c. were made Kings and set up by the People upon certain conditions as is evident from Deut. 17.14 When thou art come into the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee and shalt say note I will set a King over me V. 15. Thou shalt in any wise set him King over thee One from among thy Brethren shalt thou set King over thee Thou mayst not set a Stranger over thee Then follows the Limits He shall not Multiply Horses V. 16. Neither Multiply Wives Much less Whores as our Late King did and yet the Church not so honest as to deny him their Communion nor reprove him as Old Cranmer did Henry the Eighth whom he Presented with a Bible having on the Out side of it in Capitals Whore-mongers and Adulterers God will punish V. 18. He shall Write him a Copy of their Laws V. 19. And it shall be with him that he may Read therein all the Days of his Life V. 20. That his Heart be not lifted up above his Brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the Right Hand or to the Left c. From which Texts I think it is sufficiently evident that the Power of making the King was in the People at whose desire that Change of Government was made and that he was to be Limited and the Conditions prescribed from which he was to turn aside to neither Hand so that some Hundreds of Years before they set up a King over them they had Statutes fixed to regulate him in his Office that his Heart should not be lifted up above his Brethren It is yet clearer that the People Created Saul King from 1 Sam. 11.15 And all the People went to Gilgal and there they made Saul King before the Lord in Gilgal We find also that Samuel tho' he had been their Chief Magistrate yet he reckoned himself accountable to the People and therefore desires them to Witness against him if he had been Guilty of Fraud Oppression or Bribery whereof they Solemnly acquitted him 1 Sam. 12. Nor do we find that they thought their new Soveraign Absolute or uncontroulable for they would not suffer him to Execute his own Son Jonathan because he acted unknowingly contrary to his Fathers Rash Oath 1 Sam. 14. and afterwards we find David put himself in a posture of Defence against him when he Acted Tyrannically So when David Succeeded we Read of a Stipulation between him and the People who made him King 2 Sam. 5.3 and the same Method was observed throughout as none who have Read and observed the Book of the Kings and Chronicles can be ignorant of And that the People thought their Kings accountable to them and answerable for their Actions appears from the opposition made to the Kings General and his Army by the City of Abel and the Wise Womans Questions Why he would Swallow up the Inheritance of the Lord To which Joab tho' a Stern and Valiant Captain return'd a very modest Answer 2 Sam. 20.19 It appears yet more by the People of Israels Expostulating with David why the Children of Judah should Steal him and not ask their Advice first in bringing him back 2 Sam. 19.41 c. Further We find God himself so far owning the Peoples Right to have satisfaction for injuries suffered from their King contrary to the publick Faith that the Famine was to cease on no other Terms than till the Gibeonites were Revenged upon Saul in his Posterity for seeking to Slay them that he might please his other Subjects 2 Sam. 21. In 1 Kings 12.7 We find the Old Men who had Experience of Solomons Reign and knew the Constitution of the Kingdom advising King Rehoboam that he must be the Peoples Servant if he would have them to be his And upon his rejecting this Counsel by the Advice of young Hectoring Tories they rejected him We find also that Kings were subject to Censures as well as others in the Example of Vzziah who because of Invading the Priests Office and being smitten with a Leprosie was thrust out of the Temple by Fourscore Valiant Priests 2 Chron. 26. Being cut off from the House of the Lord according to the Levitical Law. By this time I suppose the Reader is sufficiently convinced that the Kings of Israel were the Peoples Creatures and accountable to them for Male Administration And if those Kings were so who were Named by God himself much more they who have no other Right to any Soveraignty but the Peoples Choice and that Kings now adays have any other Title for my own part I shall never believe until as Worthy Collonel Sidney said They can deduce their Pedigree from the Eldest Son of Noah and shew that the Succession had still continued in the Eldest of the Eldest Line and so descended to them Or as Collonel Rumbold said Till I see one Born with a Crown upon his Head. Certainly there is no Reasonable man but must needs see the Absurdity of that Position That Kings have a Hereditary Right any other way then as the People are willing and consent it should be so otherwise Kings might sell their Titles to whom they please cut off the Entail c. and do any other thing that a Man may do with his private Estate which yet they that hold that Opinion are not so Impudent to Assert Neither does it at all reflect upon the Honour and Dignity of Kings nor render their Authority less Sacred and Inviolable that some Persons who have carried that Honour are or may be called to an Account for Male-Administration no more then it reflects upon the Honour of Divines Physicians or Lawyers when some of their Professions are condemned for Murder Adultery or Bribery seeing they are not called to the Bar and Condemned as Physicians Divines or Lawyers but as Murderers Adulterers c. And therefore seeing the Regal Power is limited as we have seen in Deut. 17. c. and may see also in the New Testament Rom. 13. where his Office is plainly said to be for the encouragement of the good and punishment of the bad If Kings transgress these Limits invert the end of their Commission encourage the Bad and suppress the Good they cannot without a plain Contradiction to the Apostolical Definition of a Magistrate be looked upon as such in Transgressing their bounds and without all peradventure may be resisted in such Actions without the least diminution of their Authority or Affront to that Divine and Sacred Ordinance of Magistracy For the Non-probation of such things as are Instanced in viz. the Earl of Essex's Murder Counterfeit Prince of Wales c whether ever they be proved or not it alters not the case one whit seeing the Representatives of the Nation have adjudged him to have forfeited his Right by subverting the Fundamental Laws and deserting the Government c. Though in due time the others may be sufficiently Evidenced to the World but neither of their Majesties are in the least concerned to prove the Imposture of a Counterfeit Heir the Title being certainly in Her Majesty before it lies upon the late King to make full clear and undoubted Proof of the others Birth which for my own part if it had been real I believe would have been done in the most Solemn manner in World seeing they knew the Nations Jealousie aforesaid But being Conscious to themselves of the Cheat they managed it the best they could to Amuse and leave the Kingdoms in an uncertainty How easie had it been to have had Protestant Ladies always Attended the Queen that might have been undoubted Witnesses of her Pregnancy and the Childs Birth And can any think if Honesty had been designed that such a thing would have been Omitted seeing they knew the Suspition to be Universally through the Protestant World For my own part they that can swallow such Objections I think are fit to shake Hands with Transubstantiation and to declare themselves Enemies to Sense and Reason But as I said before Though there were no Truth in that charge yet the great Council of the Nation having judged the Throne to be Vacant upon other Considerations it becomes every private Person to Acquiesce and much more the Clergy if they would not have their former Miscarriages revived and demonstrate to the World that as they were Eminently subservient to the designs of Enslaving us which the best of them to their Honour have seen owned and bewailed so they persist in their endeavours to be the Unhappy Instruments of our Distraction Though I dare say That the most Zealous Sticklers on the late Kings side are neither amongst the Learned nor Godly of the Church and are better versed in Ovid de Arte Amandi then either Politicks or Divinity and perhaps the greatest effort they ever gave of their Genius was by a Courtship to some Gentlemans Kinswoman or Servant to Worm themselves into a Benefice and may well be thought none of the sittest to meddle either in Affairs of Church or State Ne Sutor ultra Crepidam To Conclude Tho' it be certain that the generality of the Church Communion be in reference to publick Affairs wiser then many of their Teachers as appears by their Espousing the True Interest of the Nation and Religion yet it were to be wished that the Established National Church would give some publick Evidence of their dislike of the present Rebellious practices of some of those of her Communion by a general Abhorrence or Excommunication which certainly they have much more reason to do then in the late times to Excommunicate the whole Church and Kingdom of Scotland for resisting the Tyrannical Impositions of Charles the First or yet of Excommunicating Dissenters in the late Times to Incapacitate them to choose Parliament-Men of so much Courage and Honesty as to oppose Popery and Tyranny which if God by King William had not delivered us from would in probability have swallowed us up e'er now FINIS