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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	believe_v	life_n	sin_n	7,878	5	4.6423	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56250	A political essay, or, Summary review of the kings and government of England since the Norman Conquest by W. P---y, Esq.	Pudsey, William.; Petty, William, Sir, 1623-1687.	1698 (1698)	Wing P4172; ESTC R19673	81,441	212

have been so artificially debated and the Laws of God and Nature the Law of Reason and that of Nations so partially and slily as well as learnedly confounded that the true Idea of our own Government and Law was perplex'd and lost So that no wonder if Mistaken Principles sometimes misled King and People where they might mean well enough both and at other times either King or People might have a latitude of construing them perversely when they did not so Now though 't is confess'd we cannot arrive at any degree of Perfection in Government nor any thing else here in this troublesome uncertain World Yet Experience convinceth us That some Times have been better than others and that this Nation hath been happier under some Princes than Others i. e. happier under those whose Conduct and Government have agreed best with the Laws and Constitutions The only Design of these passing-Observations and Reflections is to point out the Errors and set a Mark on the Rocks that we may avoid them To shew Kings and People the Principles and Practises by which they Miscarried or Succeeded upon Rational Grounds and Natural Consequences so that Measures may be taken which may more probably secure the Peace and Welfare of this Nation for the future I go no farther back than the Conquest or Descent here by King William the First That being as I think enough for our Instruction enough to Inform without confounding our Memories and Judgments WILLIAM I. NOT to play the Grammarian on Words nor to repeat Old Stories though I can scarce pass by Mr. Spelman's Definition of him Conquestor dicitur qui Angliam conquisivit i. e. acquisivit purchas'd non quod subegit But to take William the Conqueror as they call him in the usual Acceptation there can be but little Observable during the Transactions of his Reign to ground Remarks of Civil Policy As he trimmed between Conquest and Title by Gift from Ed. the Confessor he was also Kin by his Mother's side so he divided his Government between Acts of Justice and Wrong not to mention the old Story of Warren the Norman and Sharnborn an Englishman It is plain the Kentishmen had their Laws Confirm'd to them by Treaty and were never Conquered He granted to the City of London their Charters as they had them in the Time of Saint Edward 'T is true he Alter'd the Laws and introduced the French Language but the Alteration seems to be for the better and he was generally Just to the Laws which were made He alter'd Pastimes also and 't was of course for Englishmen are ever fond of New things The worst thing he did was Depopulating so many Towns and overthrowing so many Churches for Thirty Miles round to make a Chase or New Forest in Hampshire and the Execution of severe Laws against Destroyers of Deer or Game by putting out their Eyes c. for which for ought I know his Two Sons and Nephew might come to untimely Ends in the same place But in the main he was modest enough for a Prince who came in with his Sword in his Hand And at last after all his Bustle he was forced as it were to come to a Parly with the English Nobility and before they laid down their Arms this mighty Conqueror engaged for Peace and after in the presence of Archbishop Lanfrank and others took a Solemn Oath upon the Evangelists and all the Relicks of the Church of St. Albans from thenceforth to Observe and Keep the Good and Ancient Laws of the Realm which the Noble Kings of England his Predecessors had before Made and Ordained but especially those of Saint Edward which as is said were suppos'd of all others to be the most Equal and Indifferent for the general Good of the People If the Churchmen can Forgive him for he Repented of it the taking them down somewhat in their Temporal Power and calling in the Jews they may forget his Ransacking the Monasteries if thep please also because he spared the Profits of Vacant Abbies and Bishopricks His Life ended in a Circle and as he pretended to take the Crown by Gift so he disposed of it and left it by Gift also WILLIAM II. DURING this King's Time the Government and Laws seem to be in a continued Ferment and State of War As he was attack'd on all Hands and put to great Charges so he spared neither Church nor State for Taxations but pillaged both in an unreasonable extravagant manner It is said he doubted of some Points of Religion but one would rather believe he doubted of it all by his Life and Expression to the Jews and the Management of Churchmen and their Benefices and Religious Houses He Died so suddenly that he had not time to tell his Opinion at his Death If he did not keep his Word so devoutly as he ought if he was trifling in things appertaining to Religion and profanely free with the Patrimony of the Church the Historians of that Age have assign'd him the Judgments of God in the End and I shall leave him to the Pope's Mercy for with-holding Peter Pence In this King's Reign we find the first Exercise of a Prerogative which seems reasonable and natural enough in forbidding his Subjects by Proclamation to go out of the Land without License if it had been grounded on a good Design but being introduced only first to make his Subjects uneasy at Home and after to get Money out of them for a License to go Abroad the Occasion disgraceth the Thing which otherwise had been justifiable on a true foundation viz. To require the Service of the Subject at Home for the Command of the Aid of the Persons of his People is as much an inherent Right in the Crown as any can be in his own Dominions though not so to Command them out of them on his Service Abroad He also kept his Money from going to Rome and I suppose we ought not to be Angry with any King for keeping his Men and his Money at Home HENRY I. THEY who Write this King's Life do so vary in his Character that it is somewhat difficult to Adjust it But we always ought to speak the best of Kings if the matter will any ways bear it Whether he came to the Crown with a just Title or not he came with a just degree of Understanding and Inclinations to do Justice He was Born of a King in England and Queen of Royal English Blood as Sir John Hayward says though I know not how he makes it out well and is said therefore to have raised the Depressed English Nation again unto Honour and Credit and took off their Badges of Slavery and seems truly Endowed with Kingly Principles though Cambden will have it That he was Just even to a Fault Pray God That were the only Fault of Kings Whatever hath been said to his Disadvantage he appears for the most part to have Governed by the Laws of the Land And as he gave a Measure to

himself whether Frighted or not is not material upon which the Prince together with his Consort the next Heir Indisputable to the Crown in a full and due Representation of the whole Community and Body of the Kingdom is and are Declared and Appointed King and Queen Now let us see what we have done upon the whole matter to deserve that harsh Language of the Convocation-Book produced by Dr Sherlock Whether we have done more or so much as all other Nations have done in a Case any thing like Ours Whether we have done more than becomes Good Christians or Men of Honour And what it is that stands in our way to hinder or bar such an Attempt and Action First Setting aside at present those Texts of St. Paul and St. Peter which are the only discouraging Impediments and which have been sufficiently as I think answered and avoided by several Pens Upon the Law of Nature no Man I believe can pretend to say here is any Natural Injustice or Moral Injury done Certainly Nature and Reason prompt us to Defend Injuries and to Repel Force Nature will preserve it self in its Being No Man will say a King of England hath power of Life and Death over his Subjects We say he hath no Power other than by the Law of the Land the Moral as well as Legal Consequence must be That we may Defend our Lives against all Assaults 't is the same of Liberty and Property for there is a Meum and Tuum in all Christian Commonwealths as Archbishop Abbot said before subject only to the Laws of the Place therefore I can't defend my self or House against the King Arm'd with Legal Power as upon a Cap. Vtlagatum or upon a Duty due to him c. but I may where I am out of the compass of a Legal Prosecution If the consequence of Self-defence and Preservation be denied it 's vain trifling to talk of Laws and to value our selves upon Living in a Country where the Measures of Right are ascertain'd and the Limits of Government and Subjection the Doctrine of Passive Obedience and the Bow String will be the same if Laws are only a simple Direction for Information and not an Obligation We must owe our Lives c. at this rate to Fortune not to Justice But since the Restoration it 's said we are under another Tie not to take up Arms by the Extravagant Compliment to King Charles the II d and the Declaration pursuant to that Act. Be it so though all Laws made in Extraordinary Heats are not a regular Obligation but let them take that State-Artificial Obligation into the Bargain the King Swears too and this was not designed to let loose the King's Hands and tie the Subjects for all Obligations whether Natural or Artificial are Reciprocal and Mutual and always so taken and understood in common Intendment There can be no other Notion of Justice Natural Moral or Political and whatever Preference and Advantage is allowed to One above the Other 't is an Authority upon Supposition of Care Protection and for Order and centers in the Good of the Community And I think the Lacedemonians had a Law to Punish Parents who did not their Duty towards their Children Let us therefore take in the highest Instance of Obedience and Duty from Children to Parents No Man I suppose will pretend now that a Father may Castrate Sell or Kill a Child the Inference must be That in any Case of such open Violence a Son may Resist a Father in his own necessary Defence and Self-preservation without offering Reproach Injury or Vindictive Force So in the Case of Lunacy in a Parent or any fatal Extravagance no doubt a Son may lay Hands on a Father by way of Restraint and must take a continued Commanding Care over him in case of Relapse c. This is agreed on all hands to be the severest Tie of Obedience and therefore Kings are endeavoured to be brought within the Fifth Commandment to make our Chains the faster not in the mean time considering that they make them looser by putting an inconsistent double Duty upon us Thus we are told Religion stands positively in our way and fetters us with an Absolute Obedience to Kings without Reserve c. It seems hard that Religion should weaken our Arm in Defence of it self and force our Obedience and Submission to Laws and Absolute Power in the same breath For where there is Absolute Power there is no Law and where there are Laws there is no Absolute Power But Scripture is to be our Guide I agree it But what Authority shall I rely on Where shall I apply my self for an Interpreter 'T is manifest our own Church cannot settle me that is divided against it self Some bring Instances from the Old Testament Others tell us That is nothing to the purpose those Kings being by God's Designation c. Some tell us these Texts of St. Peter and St. Paul oblige us to Passive Obedience on peril of Damnation And Others as boldly and magisterially inform us That the New Testament gives no Rules for Submission to Forms of Government but only Rules of Justice Order and Peace That those Texts are nothing to Our purpose for the Apostles spoke to those under Heathen Emperors where Paganism was Established by a Law and that those Texts are to be only Expounded against the Jews who still believed themselves under the Divine Authority and thought they could not become the Subjects of any other Power As to the Scripture-Examples we are Taught by a very great Divine and Bishop not to rely on them and he says Those who place the Obligatory Nature of these Examples from Scripture must either produce the Moral Nature of those Examples or else a Rule binding us to follow those Examples especially when these Examples are brought to found a New positive Law Obliging all Christians Some say in general the Bible is a Miscellaneous Book where Dishonest and Time-serving Men may ever in their loose way find a Text for their purpose Sir Robert Filmer upon the Dispute of the Form of Powers for these Texts are sometimes applied to the Form and sometimes to the Quality of Power takes Power only in the Singular Number Powers in the Plural is a damnable Sin and he will have all Governments but the Patriarchal to be Illegal and Abominable but this is so Extravagant that I think none of our Divines pretend to justify him in it and therefore Others on the contrary are of Opinion That Submit to all Powers infers That all Forms of Government are admitted to be good and do not allow that Power in the Singular is to be taken restrictive and so there is no Authority if not of God and the Authorities which are of God's Institution are ordered under God Sir Robert Filmer Dr Hicks c. will have the Legislative Power to be in the King alone And the First says all Legislative Powers are Arbitrary But where is the necessity for

Goodliest Personage yet I doubt he was not the Wisest and he might well affirm that his Master Lewis of France exceeded Edward the IVth in Sense and Wisdom How idle and vitious was his Consideration upon that imagined Prophecy That G. should Disposse is his Children of the Crown to suffer it to influence him so far as to consent to the Murther as 't is said of G. Duke of Clarence on supposition foreign enough that That G. was intended him whereas it fell out to be Glocester to whose Tyranny he left them by this Foolish and Ungodly Fancy and such a prophane extravagant Application of Sorceries to which in truth that Age was every where too much addicted And 't was not his jealous practices with the Duke of Britaign against Henry Earl of Richmond could secure the Crown to his Children when he overlook'd the more immediate Danger EDWARD V. ONE would have thought Edward IV. might have without Sorcery or Prophecy foreseen what would become of the committing the Care of Edward the Vth to his Brother the Duke of Glocester who had before Killed Henry the VIth with his own Hand in all probability without Commandment or Knowledge of his Brother and his Son in his own presence and was suspected also to have a hand in the Death of his other Brother the Duke of Clarence besides the symptom of an ill-contrived Soul and Body Without taking notice of all the villanous popular Harangues Insinuations and Artifices used by the Duke of Glocester to get the King's Person into his Power out of the Hands of the Queen and her Friends In short this poor Prince was an Unhappy instance of a misplaced Guardianship and an Unnatural Uncle's Care A Youth made a Jest of Sovereignty for Ten Weeks and Sacrificed to Ambition at Eleven Years of Age and an instance of the fatal Credulity of a Woman too apt to be deceived as well as to deceive He and his poor Brother were Murthered in the Tower Betrayed by an Uncle and too easily delivered up by a Mother A Reign a fit Subject only for Poetry ' Twin-Brethren by their Death What had they done Aleyn Hist of Hen. VII Oh Richard sees a Fault that they were in It is not Actual but a Mortal One They Princes were 't was their Original Sin Why should so sweet a Pair of Princes lack Their Innocents Day i' th' English Almanack RICHARD III. THIS was so great a Monster in all Respects that he ought not for the Honour of England to have place amongst the Catalogue of Kings There ought to be nothing Recorded of him but only this That he died in the Field with his Sword in his Hand 'T is said he made Good Laws but I know of none Extraordinary but only One which is rather a Popular Declaration of what was so before and that was That the Subjects of this Realm shall not be charged by any Benevolence or such like Charge but it shall be damn'd and annull'd for ever Let his Laws be transferr'd to another Reign let us not acknowledge Mercy from the Hands of Blood Sir Francis Bacon saith That his Good Laws were but the Brocage of an Usurper thereby to win the hearts of the People as being Conscious to himself that the true Obligations of Sovereignty in him failed And if he had lived no doubt would have proved such a One as King James the First describes a Tyrant to be HENRY VII IT behoved Henry the Seventh having in himself but a slim sort of distant Title to support himself by Policy And here will appear what Single Prudence can do This maintain'd his Crown whilst he trim'd between Conquest Military Election Parliamentary Birth Donation and Marriage Though he did not care to be beholding to the Last and to take a precarious Right from a Wife Sir Walter Rawleigh says He was a Politick Prince who by the Engine of his Wisdom beat down and overturn'd as many Strong Oppositions both before and after he wore the Crown as ever King of Enggland did And Cambden Through whose Care Vigilancy and Policy and Forecasting Wisdom for times to come the State and Commonwealth of England hath to this day stood Establish'd and Invincible Henricus noster Septimus cum omnes Regni rectè Administrandi Artes calleret sic his Ornamentis Instructus venit ut cum Pacem Exulantem Exul exterremque Extorris concomitatus esset reducem quoque Redux aportaret Win. Com. de rebus Brit. But perhaps the Tyranny of his Predecessor might make his first Steps more easy However I take Henry the Seventh's Master-piece of Wisdom to be That he used That of other Mens also He call'd his Parliament and consulted with it upon all Occasions especially when he had any Provocations to War from France or Scotland Not insisting on but ever waving that impertinent piece of Prerogative of Declaring War upon a King 's own Head This Method open'd his Subjects Purses This procured even a Benevolence as odious as it had been heretofore and Great Sums of Money were soon collected by it The Commotions which happen'd in the North and West upon gathering the Subsidies were but slight Exceptions taken on the Occasion of the Extravagancies and Passions of particular Persons And the Business of Lambert Simnell and the greater Attempt of Perkin Warbeck were but the Effect of a Woman's Malice and promoted by the Dutchess of Burgundy who was an Avowed Enemy to the House of Lancaster Sir Francis Bacon tells us His Time did excel for Good Commonwealth Laws so that he may be justly celebrated for the Best Law-giver to this Nation after King Edward the First For his Laws whoso marks them well are deep and not Vulgar not made upon the Spur of a particular Occasion for the present but out of providence for the future to make the State of his People still more and more happy after the manner of the Legislators in Ancient and Heroical Times I suppose he means the State-Laws against Retainers and Riots these seem more properly to be made on his own Account and that no Person assisting a King de Facto should be attainted therefore by course of Law or Act of Parliament and that if any such Act should be made it should be void which seems also calculated for a particular purpose though it hath since made so much noise in the World as the Act to take away the Writ De Haeretico Comburendo was in King Charles the Second's Time And this de Facto Act seems to have no foundation at that time unless it were for fear of the Earl of Warwick who was the last Heir-Male of the Plantagenets for the King and People most certainly knew that Richard the Younger Brother of Edward the Fifth was Dead and Safe whom Perkin pretended to represent And methinks after all this Act seems to have but a Weak and Dishonourabble Foundation and leaves an ill Savour and will cast a Reflection some-where For Fears and Jealousies