Selected quad for the lemma: king_n
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A29601
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Britanniæ speculum, or, A short view of the ancient and modern state of Great Britain, and the adjacent isles, and of all other the dominions and territories, now in the actual possession of His present Sacred Majesty King Charles II the first part, treating of Britain in general.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B4819; ESTC R9195
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107,131
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325
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Insinuations have continually labored to disquiet the Minds of the People with pretended Fears of Popery and ungrounded Jealousies of I know not what Arbitrary Power have so far of late prevailed that the Loyalty of many unthinking persons has been strangely staggered and their Spirits so exasperated that several of the English Commonalty have by the Artifices of these Seditious Boutefeus been brought to such a forgetfulness of the Duty which by all Divine and Humane Laws they ow unto their Prince that some Parliaments have of late seemed perfect States of War wherein a prevalent Faction in the House of Commons instead of readily affording their Assistance to their Soveraign for the strengthning and supporting of his Government against Forreign and Domestick Enemies have under Pretence of securing the Priviledges and Liberty of the People been tugging and contending to ravish away the Regal Prerogatives from the Crown and by importuning his Majesty contrary to his often-declared Resolutions of never consenting to so great an Injustice to alter the Succession of the Crown from its lineal and legal Descent to subvert this ancient and hereditary Monarchy by ruining its firmest Foundation But the Intrigues of the Faction having been laid open by his Majesties Gracious Declaration of the Reasons inducing him to dissolve the two last Parliaments and by the seasonable Publication of that Horrid Association a Copy whereof was produced at the late Proceedings against the Earl of Shaftsbury in whose Closet it was proved to have been found the Mists which these Religious Juglers for the better concealing their damnable Designs had cast before the Eyes of the People are so far dissipated that whenever his Majesty shall in his Princely Wisdom think fit to call another Parliament it may well be hoped that the People from whose Eyes the Scales which have so long blinded them begin now to drop off will choose themselves such Representatives as in their Testimonies of Loyalty and Submission to their Soveraign will eagerly strive to outgo the very best of their Predecessors such as will by their unanimous Acknowledgment of the unalterableness of the Succession as has been lately done in Scotland assert the Sacredness of the British Monarchy by their Care to put a Stop to the Debauchery of the Press whose prolifick Womb daily teeming with new Monsters fills every Corner of the Nation with Seditious Pamphlets will take away those continual Incentives to Rebellion by undeceiving the deluded Vulgar will free us from that Charm under which we have now almost these four years lain as it were bewitched and by readily complying with all his Majesties just and honorable Desires and Designes will enable him to vindicate his own and the Nations Honor against all external Oppositions or internal Rebellions And then it will not be easy to comprehend what great things his Majesty so Loyally assisted may attempt and effect especially if we shall but consider how the mighty Power of the King of England before the Conjunction of Scotland and total Subjection of Ireland both which were usually at enmity with him has been notoriously known to the World and sufficiently felt by our Neighbor-Nations The Island of Great Britain is by a present learned Writer to whose Collections I am not a little indebted not unfitly said to resemble a great Garrison-Town not only fenced with strong Works her Port-Towns and environed with a vast and deep Ditch the Sea but guarded with excellent Outworks the strongest and best built Ships of War in the World and so abundantly furnished within with Men and Horses with Victuals and Ammunition with Cloaths and Money that if all the Potentates of Europe should which GOD forbid conspire against it they could hardly distress it Insomuch that we may well be permitted to affirm that as her own Natural Commodities are sufficient to maintain her so nothing but her own unnatural Seditions is capable to destroy her Thus admirable is the Defensive Strength of the Monarch of Great Britain nor can his Offensive Puissance but be formidable to the World when it shall be considered that being Master of the Sea as if he be not wanting to himself or his Subjects to him he must be he may in some sort be said to be Master of every Countrey bordering thereupon and is at liberty where when and upon what Terms he pleaseth to begin or end a War for the carrying on of which he is well able whenever he shall think fit so to do to raise of Englishmen besides Auxiliaries of valiant Scots and Irish two hundred thousand Foot and fifty thousand Horse so many having been computed during the late Rebellion to have been in Arms on both sides and that without any considerable miss of them in any City Town or Village whose natural Agility of Body Patience Hardiness and Resolution is so great and their fear of Death so little that scarce any Nation of the World upon equal Terms and Number has ever been able to stand before them either at Sea or Land For the transporting of an Army his Majesty hath at command neer two hundred Ships of War and can hire as many or more stout English Merchant Ships not much inferior to Ships of War all which he can soon Man with the best Sea Souldiers if not the best Mariners in the World And for the maintaining so vast a Fleet sufficient Money may for a competent Time be raised by a Moderate Land-Tax and for a long time by an easy Excise to be laid only upon such Commodities as naturally tend to the occasioning of Pride Idleness Luxury Wantonness and the Corruption of good Mannâ—râ—s Person That the Persons of Monarchs have in all Ages of the World been esteemed sacred and as such received a more than ordinary Respect and Veneration from their Subjects is so manifest from the concurrent Practice of ancient and present Times that it cannot with any shew of Truth be contradicted The Patriarchs of the old World were not only Kings but Priests having in themselves all Fulness of Jurisdiction and taking no less Care for the instructing of those whom GOD had subjected to them in the manner of performing their Adorations to their Creator than in teaching them the Laws and Institutes of a Civil Life And tho the Almighty was pleased amongst his own peculiar People the Israelites after their Departure out of the Land of Aegypt to separate the Spiritual and Temporal Functions entailing the Priesthood upon Aaron and his Posterity into whose Office it was not lawful for their Kings themselves to intrude yet were they in all Civil matters subject to the Kings Authority who was as were also the Priests anointed with Oyl to intimate the Sacredness of his Person When the Kings and Princes of the World began to submit their Crowns and Scepters to the Cross of our Redeemer and instead of Persecutors to become Protectors of the Church this sacred Ceremony of Anointing was again restored and Monarchs thereby admonished
named Lucius whence the Title of Primogenitus Ecclesiae rightfully belongs to the King of Great Britain but given to the Church the first Christian Emperor even the famous Constantin here born of there-nowned British Lady St Helena by whose Example and Encouragement the Faith was generally received throughout the whole Empire The Independency and Absoluteness of his Authority holding of none but GOD and having in his own Dominions neither Superiour nor Equal The Eminence of his Royal Dignity State and Titles his Realm not having been only stiled an Empire and his Crown Imperial but this Island both in antient and later Times having been regarded as another World whereof the Monarch is sole Lord and Emperor The Martial Exploits and Achievements of his Ancestors abroad amongst whom is the first Christian Worthy and first Founder of Martial Knighthood the famous King Arthur in whose Heroick Acts there is Truth enough all that is thought fabulous being rejected to render him renowned to all posterity The Gallantry and and Stoutness of his People arising from their Freedom the Plentifulness of their Country and Generality of their Wealth His long-lined Royal Extraction wherein His Majesty now Reigning excels all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World The Hospitality and Magnificence of his Court than which no Court in Christendom is served with more punctual Attendance and State The Diversity of Nations and differing maternal Tongues subject to his Command The admirable Laws and Constitutions of his Government The Greatness of his Power by Sea and Land both Offensive and Defensive These and many other his Prerogatives considered We may well be permitted to affirm that besides the Preeminence he may challenge by his just Right to the Crown of France the Monarch of Great Brittain except the Precedency which he as all other Christan Princes acknowledges to the Emperor if he go not before yet at least ought not to come behind any King whatsoever CHAP. XII Of Succession to the Crown of Great Britain THE Monarch of Great Brittain has Right to the Imperial Crown of this Island by Inheritance according to the Laws of GOD and Nature and the fundamental Constitutions of the Realms of England and Scotland which both agree in this That upon the Death of the King the next of Kindred tho born out of the Dominions of Great Britain or born of Parents not Subjects of Great Britain is immediately King before any Proclamation Coronation Publication or Consent of Peers or People The Rule of Inheritance given by GOD himself to the People of Israel is this If a man dy and have no Son then he shall cause his Inheritance to pass unto his Daughter And if he have no Daughter then ye shall give his Inheritance unto his Brethren Agreeably to which Rule the Crown of Great Britain descends as an inalienable Heritage from the Father to the eldest Son and his Heirs for want of Sons to the Eldest Daughter and her Heirs for want of Daughters to the Brother and his Heirs and for want of Brethren to the Sister and her Heirs And so unalterable is this Course of Descent that no Act no Crime no Attainder of Treason can bar the next of Blood from being King in the instant of Time his Predecessor does not so much dye as by a State Metempsychosis transmit his Life his Breath or his Soul into the Nostrils the Body of his Successor For Hereditary Monarchy being as it has been clearly demonstrated an immediate Ordinance of GOD founded in the Prime Laws of Nature and the Laws of GOD and Nature being as all Christians acknowledge absolutely immutable it is a Madness to think that any Act of Parliament can change this unchangeable Law or with the least Color of Justice alter the Right of Succession This was well known to all our ancient Parliaments that were neither over-awed by any prevailing Faction seduced by designing Intreaguers nor yet vainly flattered themselves with an Omnipotent Power to create and annihilate Kings In one of which the States of the Realm unanimously answered King Edward the IIId asking their Advice in matters relating to the Crown That they could not consent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disherison of the King and his Heirs or the Crown whereunto they were sworn From whence Sir Edward Cook concludes That it is a Law and Custom of Parliament that no King can alien the Crown from the right Heir tho by consent of the Lords and Commons And elsewhere affirming King Johns Resignation of the Crown to the Pope to have been utterly void he alledges this Reason Because the Royal Dignity is an Inherent inseparable to the Royal Blood of the King descendable to the next of Blood to the King and cannot be transferd to another And altho by the Treasons and Conspiracies of ambitious disloyal and designing Persons the Crown has now and then been transferred from one Family to another yet does it appear in Story that since the time of the Norman Conquest the right Heir was never yet kept out beyond the second Descent And to the Honor of English Parliaments we can aver that never any Usurper tho armed with Power laid claim to the Crown in Parliament but by pretending to be of the Right Line nor did ever the Parliament allow of such Pretence if false but when awed by Fear and a vast Army And whenever the Terror of such armed violence being removed the true Heir was enabled to claim his Right the Parliament notwithstanding all such pretended Acts readily submitted themselves to their legitimate Prince as being bound thereunto by the Laws of GOD and Nature Thus altho Henry Duke of Lancaster backt by an Army of fourty or fifty thousand men under Pretence of a feigned Title from Edmund Crouch-back forced his Natural Soveraign King Richard the IId first to resign and afterwards to be deposed from his Crown which waving his former pretended Title he caused to be entailed upon himself his four Sons and the Heirs of their Bodies by Act of Parliament whereby he thought to have secured it to his Posterity for ever Yet notwithstanding these cautious Provisions seconded by the Valor and prodigious Success of that noble Prince Henry the Vth. when in the year 1460. this Entail was alledged against Richard Duke of York laying claim in Parliament to the Crowns of England and France as being the next Heir to Lionel Duke of â—larence elder Brother to John of Gaunt of whom the House Lancaster was descended the Duke of York unanswerably replied That if King Henry the IVth might have obtained the said Crowns of England and France by Title of Inheritance Descent or Succession he neither needed nor would have desired or made them to be granted to him in such wise as they be by that Act Which said he taketh no place neither is of any force or effect against him that is right Inheritor of the said Crowns as accordeth with the Laws