Selected quad for the lemma: king_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A58376
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Reflections upon our late and present proceedings in England
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1689
(1689)
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Wing R722; ESTC R32278
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10,305
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16
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not to be pass'd over without some Animadversion The Sheet which I mean is that which is call'd Advice before it be too late or A Breviate for the Convention This Paper bespeaks its Author to be of the same Complexion and Principles with him who writ The word to the Wise and The four Questions debated They do all of 'em suppose that the Government is fall'n to its Centre or Root from whence it sprang that is to the People as the word to the Wise expresses our present case I know not what can be a more effectual Answer to these Pamphlets and take away the Foundation upon which they argue than that Maxim in our Law received by all honest and learned Lawyers The King of England never dies For if so how is the Government laps'd And if it be not laps'd how can the Throne be said to be vacant And if the Throne be not vacant we are still a Body Politick consisting of Head and Members though much distemper'd and out of order by reason of the Infirmities of the Head. We still live though we are not in good health and our Case doth not require the Sexton to make our Grave but calls for the Physician to apply proper Remedies to cure our Disease If the King can dye 't is such a defect in our Government as doth strangely disparage it and further supposes that which hitherto we are all to learn the Crown is not Successive Now if it be successive it cannot be disposed of by the Will of the People but only by the Will of God who in that very moment calls the Lawful Heir to the Crown wherein he is pleased to put a Period to the Life of his Predecessor If it be said that the Voice of the People is the Voice of God I believe that should this be granted it will not do their business for I doubt not but that if the Pole was taken and the Question put to all People who are of Years of Discretion the Answer would be That they have still a King and that they are as willing to keep him as they are desirous to exclude Popery for ever that which hath made both him and them so unhappy This I do not much question would be the Answer if we should appeal to the sense of the People in general who yet if the Government be fall'n to them must be allowed to have a Right of Suffrage and a Liberty to speak their Minds as freely as other Commoners in this great Convention Further still If the King never dies by our Law How can he be lawfully depos'd For by Deposition the Throne necessarily becomes void for some time There must be some Interstice some space of time before they who depos'd a King can set up another and till the King in Designation be actually invested with the Regal Office there must of necessity be an Interregnum that is The King contrary to the mind of our Law may dye The Government of England always supposes a Monarch regulated by Law and therefore 't is presumed that he can do no wrong that is Though he may err as well as other Mortals yet the Law of which he is the Guardian brings no Accusation against him but only against his evil Ministers If therefore the King hath err'd as doubtless he hath very much in God's Name let his Ministers be called to an account but why must the Government be dissolved and the King arraign'd condemn'd and depos'd to make way for any new Scheme of Government whatsoever whether French Italian or Dutch Our History indeed affords two Examples since William the First 's time that of Edward the Second and the other of Richard the Second but they did both of them actually resign and besides what they did or was done to them ought to preclude the Right of no succeeding Prince These Examples ought no more to be urged than the Stabbing King Henry the Fourth of France or the Murthering King CHARLES the First of England The Historian in the Life of Richard the Second gives no very good Character of that Parliament which pass'd the Vote for this Deposition The Noblemen says he partly corrupted by Favor partly aw'd by Fear gave their Voices and the Commons commonly are like a flock of Cranes as the first fly all the followers do the like Continuat Dan. Hist p. 46. Let it be here observed that I do not dispute whether the King together with his Parliament may not regulate and entail the Succession as shall by them be thought fit but only whether whilst the King lives whether the Throne can be vacant and the Government be truly said to be laps'd This we deny But however supposing that these things may be so who can make so fair a Claim and so generally satisfactory to the People as the next Heir by proximity of Blood I mean if the Prince of Wales be proved supposititious that incomparable Lady the Princess of Orange These Reflections I have thought fit to make upon some new Notions of our present States-Men by which we guess what they would be at In my opinion I think it is but too evident that they are taking advantage of our present Fears and Distractions to run us into those extremes which the State as well as the Church of England hath always carefully avoided and taken particular care to provide against 4. In this Design can we in Honor and Conscience go along with them whom yet we cannot but highly esteem and value for their Learning and Parts and more especially for their happy and successful Labors in rescuing us from those gross Corruptions of Christian Religion and Human Nature Popery and Slavery But shall we run into Popery and perhaps Slavery too when we have been so long striving against both and are now thanks be to God in a great measure freed from the Danger of either And is not the Deposing a Popish Doctrin And is it not as Antichristian for any Assembly to put it into practice as it was for the Council of Lateran at first to establish it And as for Slavery must not a standing Army be necessarily kept up to maintain a Title founded only upon the consent of the fickle and uncertain People granting that the major part of them are willing And in such a Case must we not be beholden to the Goodness of the Prince rather than the Protection of our Laws if an Arbitrary and Despotick Power be not again introduced We have as yet no Law which wholly disables and excludes a Popish Successor from the Throne and till we have one which I question not but we shall have soon I do not see how we can disanul the King's Title or vacate his Regal Capacity howsoever his Power may be restrained Innovations without fâ—rmer precedent are always dangerous especially those of this nature It will be much more wise as well as safe to bear with some Inconveniencies than bring upon our selves those Mischiefs