Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	lord_n	secretary_n	2,525	5	10.9907	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55345	The life of the right honourable and religious Lady Christian[a], late Countess Dowager of Devonshire	Pomfret, Thomas, d. 1705.	1685 (1685)	Wing P2799; ESTC R3342	19,382	111

discovery dies with him The Mother of the Maccabees brings up her Children to Martyrdom and dies her self bravely after them Others are as famous in the Monuments of Antiquity for Piety Clotilda converts France to Christianity Indegondis her Grandchild recovers her Husband and part of Spain from the Arrian Heresie Helena plants Christianity in the Roman Empire Cesaria in Persia Theolinda in Italy Margaret in England Gisellis in Hungary Dambruca in Poland Olga in Russia Ethelbirga in Germany And for private Vertues Abigail Susanna S. Agnes S. Cicely S. Monica S. Felicitas Zenobia Pulcheria Theodora Marcella Paula Eustochium and ten Thousand more are the noblest Images They were Women that in the Infant Church led on the Men to Martyrdom and thronged themselves in little Armies to Martyrs Fires that brought up their Infants to the most glorious sufferings who smiled the Tyrants into Rage and posed the subtlest inventions of Pains and Tortures And indeed the numbers and sorts of vertuous Women have so increased in later Histories that to refuse them their honour would be the same thing as to deny the Splendors of the Sun and either we must have no eyes to see into the present nor any faith to credit past Records or we must allow and admire their merit But I might have superseded all these Authorities and relyed wholly upon the following Life to have demonstrated this verity Necessary it will be before we come to relate what she did to know from whence she was it being not the least Glory of her Character that as God had equall'd her by Birth to the greatest of her time so she her self equalled her Vertues to her Extraction Daughter she was to Edward Lord Bruce of Kinloss Privy Councellor to King James both in England and Scotland and Master of the Rolls He Edward Lord Bruce discending from Robert Bruce the Norman to whom William the first gave the Castle and Lordship of Shelton which was a Barony by Tenure From him descended all the Noble Bruces both of England and Scotland and particularly Robert and David both Kings of the Scots whose Sister marrying into the Family of the Stewarts They in her Right inherited the Crown of that Nation It cannot therefore but be worthy our first thoughts to contemplate how the divine Providence designing her for the most illustrious Life besides that it furnished her Soul with extraordinary Graces took care that it should be united to a Body descending from a Family flourishing in Riches and Honours intending to Remarque to her what she soon understood and as truly practised that as God had raised her by her Birth to the heights of Glory so she should conduct her self to excel others as much in the Eminencies of Goodness as she did in Blood Such a Beauty therefore we have here to delineate not as we could wish were or a strong Imagination can Fancy but such an one as is true and solid and far better expressing her self in her own life than is possible by this Copy she not being to be parallell'd by any thing but her self Who as she was prepared by the Divine goodness for Scenes of Difficulty and Honour so was she better taught to act her own Part by observing how her noble Father performed his He the Lord Bruce amongst other great Services done for his Royal Master King James was also a Principal and happy Instrument of facilitating his obtaining the Crown of England to which though he had an undoubted Right yet he met with very potent Obstructions which in a great measure were removed by the Interest this noble Lord had before made in Secretary Cecil afterwards Earl of Salisbury and divers others of the English Nobility A friendship he had contracted both intimate and fortunate with some of the greatest Interest and Power during his Embassy here in England to Queen Elizabeth joined in it to the Earl of Marre proving afterwards an opportunity of a nobler conjunction that of the two Crowns which the King had no sooner well setled to his Head but he took this good Servant nearer to his Heart and Person Animadverting that he could not wear them with that security and pleasure he desired unless he might be Assisted by so useful and loyal a Servant brought him therefore into England with him that he might continue him in his Favours and have him near to conduct his Affairs and Councils Several Sons he had and but this only Daughter she born to him on Christmas day and for that reason had the name of Christian answering up to the highest measures the glorious Omen both of the Day and of her Name appearing so soon to be Christian as if indeed she had been born one expressing in her younger years such vigorous Demonstrations of Goodness that the World might easily see she had a Soul and Body made at first to all possible Perfections Such Impressions did this Purity of her Youth the Pregnancy of her Wit her freedom from Passions that neglect of Vanity and hatred of Excess together with that Modesty and Sweetness which were naturally hers made upon the mind of her Indulgent and Discerning Father that he expressed his value of her and her own merit by the first publick notice he could make which was to marry her to an Heir of one of the greatest Families and Estates in England and by giving also such a Portion as in those Days did exceed and would also now be a very great one viz. 10000 l. Her Husband was Sir William Cavendish Son to the Lord Cavendish made afterwards Earl of Devonshire descending from the ancient stock of the Jernon and Norman blood Made thus a Wife she soon put in practice all those Vertues which such a Relation required from her Such a Respect she paid as Saint Paul commended to Christian Women that should also increase to Reverence and Obedience Considering wisely with her self that when the Wife once falters from the Command of her Husband storms and tempests invade the Family and that her own her Husbands her Childrens and her Friends happiness and quiet are not indangered only but scattered into disorders worse than Hell This Obedience she looked upon as no hard Task because love assisted to bear the pleasing burden Her own and Husbands Soul met in equal Poize and the thoughts and desires of the one were the thoughts and desires of the other God made them two into one and they were one in Judgment and in Will and in Affection and in Care And as Love made them so Loyalty another of her Conjugal Vertues so kept them The Husband inclosed her to himself when he espoused her with his Ring his was the Right and hers the Virtue to be only his Assistance also one of those ends for which God made her Woman and marriage a Wife she gave to that eminent Degree that it is not easy to resolve whether it was more for the Interest or Honour of the Cavendish Family that she was united to