Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	good_a	life_n	time_n	10,018	5	3.6095	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94411	To His Excellency the L. Generall Cromwell, and the rest of the Councell of the Army of the Comonwealth of England; the humble and faithfull advice of divers affectionate friends to the Parliament, Army and Commonwealth of England	Cromwell, Oliver, 1599-1658.	1653 (1653)	Wing T1352B; ESTC R203795	11,967	16

antient Rights of the people and hath been so acknowledged enacted and declared by most Parliaments of so Supreme Authority in this Nation have fundamentalls ever beene whereof Annuall new elected Parliaments is one and a chiefe being instituted for preservation and not for destruction of fundamentalls for then it might null Parliaments themselves which could never be within the trust of Parliaments But yet so unhappy have Parliaments been in most times since the Conquest that waving their care of the fundamentall Liberties of the Nation they have so multiplied Laws upon Laws to their prejudice that the whole voluminous bulk of the book of Statutes serves but as a witnesse of their defection and of the prevalence of the Regall interest and his adherents of which deviation from their rule the Fundamentall Law not any one thing is more remarkably pernicious to industrious people then this of tythes or inforced maintenance for Ministers or any other sort of men except such as are afore-mentioned so that tythes being utterly abolished the people are delivered from a most heavy and grinding oppression and therein restored to Fundamentall Liberty And as for those Laws which have been touching mens Judgements opinions and practise in matters of Religion with the proceedings thereupon and punishments annexed there is no ground at all for them the Fundamentall Law of England being as free and clear from any such persecuting spirit as the Word of God is questioning none nor permitting that they should be questioned or otherwise molested much lesse punished but for such things only as whereby some other person is injured in person goods or good name or in wife children or servant and therein also it provides that none be tortured upon any occasion whatsoever and that no lesse then two lawfull Witnesses are sufficient to prove every fact Also that where any accused person can procure Sureties there be no restraint of the body in prison what is in common practise contrary hereunto hath been innovated contrary to Fundamentall Right and may lawfully be reformed and reduced to its originall state again and thereby also the people restored to antient right therein and freed from abudance of mischief and inconvenience And so extremely doth the Fundamentall Constitutions of England regard true frtedome that it allows of Bail in any case without exception where it can be obtained and admits no imprisonment of the persons of any for debt choosing rather that one man should suffer in his estate then that the bodies of men and women should be as it were buried alive in goales and prisons as thousands have been and still are to the hearts grief of all tender hearted people But then the fundamental Law provides that where there is any estate there satisfaction is to be made as far as it will reach leaving still some necessaries for life otherwise it were more grievous for poor debtors then for many sorts of wilfull malefactors for however the present practise is and long hath been by the fundamentall Law the estate even of a capital offender that suffers death for his offence is not forfeited but descends to his family as other mens after satisfaction made to the parties damnified These forfeitures no doubt have been the principall cause that many an innocent mans life hath been unjustly taken away and many a worthy honestman come to be burn'd in the hand and however Parliaments have been drawn in to countenance such practises it was the inventice of Kings to turn families upside down at pleasure for to them their forfeitures went and they gave them to their creatures and Sickovants so that here you see is work enough for a well minded Parliament to remove these evills and to restore our rights in these and many other grand particulars without interchanging or innovating upon the true Law of England The most unreasonable deicent of inheritances to the eldest sonne onely is also no part of the Fundamentall Law but quite contrary thereunto that honestly and conscionably provided that all inheritances should discend to all the children alike chusing rather that some ill-deserving children should have where they deserve not then that it should be at the will of parents or in the power of the Law to expose many to such inconveniences and destructive courses which younger brothers for the most part hath been cast upon Divers other branches there are of the Fundamentall Law as is that concerning Juries the Liberty of Exception against thirty five without shewing cause and of as many more as cause can be justly alledged against untill the party doth evidently see an indifferency in his Tryers As also to admit no examination of any against themselves nor punishment for refusing to answer to questions Nor conviction without two lawful Witnesses at the least and that it is the duty of the Officer of the Court to declare to every person these his Rights and to bring them to remembrance if neglected to be demanded all this shewes that the Fundamentall Law of England is a Law of Wisdome Justice and much mercy such as God will blesse chosing in all cases rather that some guilty persons should sometimes escape then that one innocent person should causlesly be condemned And whereas it hath beene supposed that the punishment of theft by death is fundamentall it is a meer mistake it as most other like things being an innovation and no way tending to the lessening of offenders but rather to their encrease and indeed necessinating or strongly tempting every one that robs to murther also For as the practise long time hath been one witnesse even of the party himself that is robbed sufficeth for proof and casts the thief for his life what way then is more safe for the thief then to murther whom he robs to prevent his testimony against his life seeing he dies if proved a thief and can do no more if proved a murtherer Besides when the Fundamentall Constitution was in force it punished offenders according to the nature of their theft some by pecuniary mulcts others by corporall punishments with laborious workings and open shame at which time it is testified that a man with much money or moneys worth might have travelled in safety all over England with but a white wand in his hand besides the Law of death for theft is many times the means why robbers escape for that many good and tender-hearted people either upon the consideration above-mentioned decline prosecution because if they should prosecute they must either sweare falsly and undervalue what they lost or take away life where in conscience they judge they ought not all which would not be were the punishment proportioned to the offence as in the Fundamentall Law it is As much likewise may be said concerning the servile tenures of Copyholds how long soever they have been they are the slavish remains of conquest inconsistent with true freedome or the Fundamentall Law of England and may and as the rest forenamed ought to be reduced