Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	king_n	land_n	3,471	5	5.9237	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85914	A copy of a letter from an officer of the Army in Ireland, to his Highness the Lord Protector, concerning his changing of the government.	Goodgroom, Richard.	1656 (1656)	Wing G53A; Thomason E881_3; ESTC R202908	17,611	23

a long time collecting was the height of the Commons and the meanness of the Lords and the King who had by this time sold and given away all his revenues and this too will appear to have been the original of these civil wars for although the last action which drove us into it will ever be acknowledged to have been the Kings misgovernment yet as we are apt to say in Malignant fevers that the last excesse we made drove us into it though the bodie had been gathering that pestilential Mass many years before so in this case the essentiall and natural cause of this State disease was much longer in collecting then the Ship-money or the Loan and this is clear for that the people did support much more then those from their Prince and Landlords too whilst they were poor and never did stomack to be governed even arbitrarilie by those upon whom they were necessarilie to depend in point of estate and subsistance it being then my Lord so clear and evident That the riches of the people in general is the natural cause of destruction to all Regal States I desire to bring this to our present discourse and will beg leave to ask your Highness leave whether the Commonaltie of England be grown poorer then they were when this was began or rather whether they are not become so much more rich as the Lands and Mannours of King Bishops Dean and Chapters and of all the great Delinquent Lords together with Free-farm Rents could make them if this be granted it must be then concluded that we are farther off from a capacitie of being governed by Monarchy again then when we first began this quarrell so that you see that it is so far from being true that the Nation of England is not fit at all to be a Commonwealth that indeed it is wholly impossible to make it any other without an excessive force and violence so that my Lord if your Highness shall yet resolve to detain from us our liberties with which you were intrusted you will not onlie offend against your owne Oaths and Principles against common right and justice but even against God and nature too for that it will be impossible for you to mend this frame where it first brake except you can take from the people their estates and confer them upon old or new Lords which will be hardlie safe for you to attempt it hath been my unhappiness to make this discourse somewhat too long for a letter but I have been forc'd to rove too far into the nature of Government in generall before I could shew the principles of a Free-State and how neer we are to it if you please so neer that the Cavaliers themselves in their hatred to the Parliament and now to your self do fully manifest that they abhor all Superiours and are impatient to be governed by others and this verie humor in them is a secret impulse towards a Commonwealth which although they do not now understand to be so yet they would soon do it if they had what they immediatelie desire for I am fullie perswaded if their Darling Charles Stewart could be brought in by them and all his opposers whollie rooted out he would not be able without a standing Armie to maintain the old Government even amongst his own partie so much is the case altered now and so strong and natural the motives which draw towards Liberty I must confess these speculations were no part of the cause which induced me first to take up armes first for the Parliament but did come into my thoughts since by discourse what I did originallie look at was the justness and honestie of the cause the excellencie of libertie the glorie of advancing and promoting the interest of mankind the making my Nation more wise valiant happie and honest then before as well as more free which I cannot yet dispair of whilst I see you alive whose noble and unwearied endeavours to that end can never be forgotten when the King the Scots and half the Parliament combin'd against us you could not be daunted when your own Grandees would have perswaded you out of those principles you would not be circumvented but did often say that towards the attaining of a just and upright Government an ounce of honesty and resolution was worth a pound of sneaking policie Oh let not those men who have suffered for your enemies get that upon you by soothing your ambition which they could never doe by opposing your reason let not those instruments who have deserted the cause of libertie be now made use of to destroy it and by advising you to purge the Armic make those Janizaries whose glorie it was once they would not acknowledg themselves to be Mercenaries put not your self upon the discretion of those whose love is not to you but to Monarchy and when they shall have made you a while the instrument of their ambition and avarice will in the least adversitie look back to the old line again which they scarce ever yet offended and when that shall be understood by Charles Stewart and his Hectors and that there shall be nothing standing in their way hither but your life the antient asserters of libertie being laid by with shame and those who were once outed for opposing it stept into their places in how hazardous and desperate a condition is that life of yours like to be which hath been hitherto so precious to all the honest partie in these Nations Consider therefore that those Grandees are like fire and water good servants but verie dangerous masters let them do your drudgery but let them not steer your counsels trust this Nation with their freedome posterity with your fame and God for a reward we know we cannot be free without your help till we have undergone a thousand confusions in the way our factions will not suffer us to agree in any thing except you lead us into that frame which will fit us and to make which you may find persons enough to assist you if you please to seek them and who knows but that the wise providence of God seeing the failings of the Parliament hath permitted you to assume this great power to that end do not offend that God whom you have so often called to witness of the integrity of your heart Consider that if you will not build us up that fabrique of a Free State you must be the first to lose your own libertie do but weigh the feares and the uncertainties you will be in whilst you live and the almost inevitable necessitie that your posterity must be destroyed when you are gone as well as ours or let this prevaile with you at least to make us a Commonwealth because you can make us nothing else if you believe your selfe not safe without this power pray consider how many plots and designs there were against you when you were our General and how many nights sleep you brake then in examinations nay remember if during