Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	death_n	king_n	scotland_n	3,763	5	8.3529	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44655	A letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson occasioned by a scurrilous pamphlet, intituled, Animadversions on Mr. Johnson's Answer to Jovian in three letters to a country-friend : at the end of which is reprinted the preface before the History of Edward and Richard the Second, to the end every thing may appear clearly to the reader, how little of that preface has been answered / both written by the Honourable Sir Robert Howard.	Howard, Robert, Sir, 1626-1698.	1692 (1692)	Wing H3000; ESTC R4333	26,604	76

misguiding Meteor of Arbitrary Power I also considered the Proceedings of the Government in the latter part of King Charles the Second's Reign and the short Reign of King James the Second and perceived how exactly they followed the steps of these two unfortunate Kings and I then expected to see a Revolution resembling theirs When King Charles had prepared things ready for Popery and Slavery he seemed no longer useful to those that eagerly waited to assume that Power that the Papists had guided him to make ready for them and as his Actions were like those misguided Princes I believe his Death as much resembled theirs and was equally as violent There was not a particular Action of any note of these two late Kings that did not seem copied from those two unfortunate Princes the Interest of England prostrated to that of France the murdering of great and considerable Men the violent seizing the Rights and Liberties of the City of London the Quo Warranto's on Corporations consequently on the Nation Laws prostrated to the King's Will Westminster-Hall fitted with proper Judges for that Design And as in King Richard the Second's time by resolving the Queries of the Earl of Suffolk the Judges made the King the sole Judg not only of Law but whether there should be any Law or no and the Offence against his Will became the only Treason so the apt Judges of the King's-Bench in the Case of Sir Edward Hales resolved the same though in another manner but in a more seeming abstruse way as if they endeavoured to shew Modesty in Nonsense First they declar'd the Laws were the King's Laws and in case of Necessity the King was to judg of those Laws and then that the King was Judg of the Necessity And lastly as my Lord Coke says to bring the worst Oppression upon us which is done by the colour of Justice they did not only attempt to corrupt the Law by poison'd Judges but by packing Parliaments endeavour'd to confirm the begun Slavery by Statute-Law There was only one sort of Mischief and the greatest that those two unfortunate Princes had no occasion to be equal in with our two late Kings especially King James for they being then of the same Religion with the People could not endeavour the subverting of it so that K. James had a peculiar Tyranny to exceed them in This threatning Storm upon the Souls of Men was providently foreseen by the Parliaments of Westminster and Oxford who therefore press'd the Point by a Bill of Exclusion to secure themselves against a Popish Successor I was a Member of both those Parliaments wherein the Debates seem'd to me very clear and almost unanimous and they were too well justified by the Popish Successor when he came to the Crown for he made good the Foundation of their Opinions and Apprehensions that such a one could never defend a Faith that was contrary to his or be a Father to those he believ'd no Sons of God as if it were possible that his Concern should be for their Liberties that his Opinion had delivered up to eternal Slavery The truth of this appearing by his Actions has by this time I hope bred a repenting Consideration in such as strenuously supported that which was so near bringing a Ruin on us all and had not this King brought us such a timely Redemption we had practised Passive Obedience against our Wills and in our Souls and Bodies felt the Misery of that Doctrine the Encouragement of Destruction But yet we see a History of this Doctrine of Passive Obedience new put forth which is no better than an Arraigning this present Government and all those that contributed to this happy Change which shews as if there were some that would rather see the violent Destruction of their own Religion than disturb the quiet Settlement of Popery as if it were more Religious to suffer God not to be worshipp'd than to pull down an Idol set up by a King as if we were to believe he had a divine Right to consecrate Idolatry but I leave that zealous History under the Execution it has receiv'd from the Excellent Mr. Johnson in his short Reflections upon it which can receive no greater a Character than to be like himself and his other Writings both which were victorious in the midst of all his barbarous Persecutions And as the Nation receiv'd the benefit of his Writings and Example I doubt not but he will share a Reward proportionably to the Assistance he gave to their Redemption It will not be improper therefore to consider the Cases of those two Princes Edward and Richard the Second who were deposed by the People in their Representatives presuming they had a Right to re-assume that Power which was derived from them when any Prince forfeited the Trust they had placed in him and acted contrary to his Executive Office and they expresly declared to King Edward the Second that if he did not freely consent to a Resignation they would not elect his Son Edward but such a one as might be proper for the Good of the People tho no Relation to his Blood and the King returned his Thanks That since they had taken such a Displeasure against him that they would yet be so kind to his Son Nor has this Electing of Kings been so unusual in England since seldom any Government has had more broken Successions But before I proceed to shew how this Right was and continues in the People I will take leave briefly to shew what a Prince is according to their Doctrines that have with an unlimited Zeal asserted Passive Obedience and the Laws to be only the Properties of a King 's Arbitrary Will I remember when Julian the Apostate came out many of the Clergy seem'd very much disturbed and as I was informed there was a Club that assisted the Answer to it called Jovian I mention this that when from thence I set down the Positions of that Doctrine of Passive Obedience they may be look'd upon as the sharpest Arrows they could draw from all their Quivers and then if any Weakness or Contradictions appear in them methinks the War should be at an end when the Joint Forces under a chosen Hector are defeated and the Rout and Disorder comes from their own Opinions that fall foul upon one another In many Places of Jovian an unlimited Passive Obedience is prescrib'd as a general Remedy in all Publick Diseases that is Destruction is the best Recipe against Destruction and the Disease is to become the Cure But the Author having heard of such a thing as Laws and not knowing how to put them out of the way to make room for this Doctrine which makes a Destroyer lawful he finds out a Diamond to cut a Diamond and a Law never heard of to destroy the known Laws in these sublime Words The Political Laws are made to defend the Rights of the Subject but in case the Soveraign will Tyrannically take away a Subject's Life

against the Political Laws he is bound by the Common Laws of Soveraignty not to resist him or defend his Life against him by force It is to be observ'd that here are two sorts of Law God's Law and the Devil's Law that which supports and defends Right is God's Law that which takes away Life unjustly is the Devil's Law for he was a Murderer from the beginning But Contradictions are so frequent in that Discourse that I do not wonder to see the zealous Author shew one in his own particular and incogitantly perhaps profess a violent Resolution to break his own sacred Rule of Passive Obedience For I suppose if a Woman scolds and gives hard Names she is not Passive for then Billingsgate is Passiveness incorporated And I shall desire the Reader to judg whether there be much difference in theirs and our Author 's active Tongue-Assault for he loudly cries out with a very sharp Excursion That he should rather think it his Duty than the breach of it to tell not only a Popish Prince but a Popish King to his Face did he openly profess the Popish Religion That he was an Idolater a Bread-Worshipper a Goddess-Worshipper an Image-Worshipper a Wafer-Worshipper with an c. as if he had more Names in store for him But I must do the Author right to let the Reader know that Jovian was written when King James the Second was Duke of York and had not declar'd himself a Papist and perhaps he thought he would never have done such a rash thing but yet for fear of the worst the Author retreats to his Doctrine of Passive Obedience from this dangerous Sally he had made with an unadvised Boldness and then tells us 't is reasonable to depend on the Conscience of a Popish King and seemingly returns to a modest Repentance that he had express'd such a Displeasure against one that worshipped more Gods than one for after this terrible muster of hard Names he falls back as he was and pays such a profound Devotion to Passive Obedience that now he seems to extend it even to Thoughts as not to think ill of his own rail'd at Idolater this I suppose may be called forward and backward or to blow hot and cold in the same breath to make the Contradictions appear plain enough This Opinion yet he sticks most to if you will trust him as much as he advises you to trust the Idolater and tries to give you a Reason for it for he says That Suffering as in the Case of the Thebean Legion can never happen in Great Britain we of these Kingdoms having such Security against Tyranny as no People ever had I suppose he forgets his own Position and means a Truth that he before destroyed the Security he means if he can mean any after he has taken away all must be the Political Power that is the Laws Can any Man have the Charity to believe that he could think he proposed any Security from Laws that had set up an Imperial Power or Soveraign Law as he calls it which is the Will of a King to take them all away if he pleases He might as well tell us of a Security by certain Deeds to all which were fix'd Revocations and yet would have us depend on such Arbitrary Settlements without Right or Power to oppose those Revocations thus the continued Contradictions appear that mingle with such Notions A Man that stutters much in his Speech is hardly to be understood but such an excessive Stammering in Writing makes it much harder to guess what a Man means But in another place he gives us an additional Reason for trusting and to deter us from examining a Tyrant's Actions or opposing the Imperial that is Arbitrary Power which is That a King is accountable to none but God To make good this Opinion he quotes some of the Church-of England-Divines and of the Reformed Bochart a French-man whose Authority he often repeats As to these of the Church of England Mr. Johnson has fully answered that and quoted Statutes enough and Judgments of Convocations in Queen Elizabeth's Time that assert and support a contrary Doctrine to this unlimited Passive Obedience for they approved the Resistance of those in Scotland and France who actively and by force attempted to defend their Religion and Liberties I shall only add the Precedent of King Charles the First reputed the Church of England's Martyr He was of the same Judgment with the Church and State in Queen Elizabeth's time witness that Business of Rochel who took Arms upon the same account and received Assistance from him which approved an active Opposition against the Oppression brought on their Religion and Liberties But I find not only our Author but he that writ the History of Passive Obedience is a great Admirer of Bochart calling him the Glory of the Reformed and having quoted many of the Church-of England-Divines he then as well as Bochart's Letters to Dr. Morley quotes some other of the Reformed Divines But though I do not think this Cause depends as Mr. Johnson says upon telling Noses yet I will set down in the Margent that I may not interrupt my Discourse the several Opinions of eminent Reformed Divines which the Author of the History of Passive Obedience being so industrious to search Opinions must probably omit as not being useful for his business and indeed there are very few Arguments that may not be supported with Opinions for Flattery Design or present Interest has caused more Opinions than the true just Reason of the subject Matter could ever allow But if we should build a Confidence on this Foundation and the Prince be such a one as either does not believe or consider there is such an Account to be made up we should be miserably deceived And it hath not been frequently known that a Prince has liv'd as if he ever apprehended any Account in the other World to be given of his Actions in this all these Doctrines are but insinuating Flatteries to make Princes forget Men for the Service of God can hardly be performed by the Neglect of Men. But if the Author would have us believe that a King is accountable to none but God he ought to explain himself to us in the particular of K. James the Second a profest Papist and tell us to which of all his Gods he is to be accountable for our Good whether to a piece of Bread a Wafer an Image a Goddess or to all I could not have been so ingenious as to make his own Position so ridiculous as he himself has contrived to do it but in it self it appears a very strange Doctrine to trust to the Account a Popish King is to make with his God for those he believes his God will damn 'T would seem as rational for a Man to take an Estate to hold by the Life of a Man that he believed was to be certainly executed There is another as rational a