Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	lord_n	thomas_n	treasurer_n	2,960	5	10.7558	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54420	The Syracusan tyrant, or, The life of Agathocles with some reflexions on the practices of our modern usurpers.; Syracusan tyrant	Perrinchief, Richard, 1623?-1673.	1661 (1661)	Wing P1608; ESTC R16938	130,191	299

THE Syracusan Tyrant OR THE LIFE OF AGATHOCLES With some Reflexions on the practices of our Modern Usurpers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Pol. l. 5. c. 10. The most High ruleth in the Kingdome of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will axd setteth over it the Basest of men Dan. 4.17 LONDON Printed by J. F. for R. Royston Book-seller to his most Sacred Majesty MDCLXI To the Right Honourable THOMAS Earl of SOUTHAMPTON Lord High TREASURER of England Lord WARDEN of the New Forest Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council My Lord TO open the Grave of an Impious Tyrant and to revive the memory of his detestable Villanies may be censured as a design to infect the present Age and to instruct by an accursed Example those who want onely the Arts not the desires of doing Mischief But if the unhappy Issues of such perverse Counsels cannot secure this History from such an Effect to which even the Sacred Stories and the most wholesome Laws are obnoxious through the Corruptions of men whereby they imitate that which is proposed to their Hatred and follow Their Practices whose Infamies they abhorre and whose Ruines they tremble at yet the Compiler hopes by the Dedication of it to Your Honour to free himself from such suspicions It being not to be supposed that He intends to teach but to discover the Impostures of Tyrants and to warn the Credulous world to arm themselves against those Monsters who presumes upon the Patrociny of so great an Assertor of Piety and Justice For My Lord neither the Nobility of Your Family nor the Plenty of Your Fortune have so much commended You to the Admiration of men as Your inflexible zeal to Righteousness and Truth This was that which drew You forth to follow that court in Persecution and Danger whose Honours and Pleasures in times of Peace could not allure You from Your Retirements And Your uncorrupted Faith to that Righteous Cause wherein all Just Government was concerned I have heard force from the Adversaries of it an Elogie not beneath that which the brave Fabricius by his Vertue wone from his Enemy that The Sun might sooner forsake his course then My Lord of Southampton depart from Justice So that when the Popular Fury had overwhelmed the greatest part of our Nobless in contempt the Chiefs of that Faction testified an Observance almost Religious to You as to an Inviolable Sanctuary of true Nobility and Honour And they seemed to treat Your Lordship as the Conquering Romans did the Captive Gods whom even while they chained they did supplicate with Sacrifices to remove to their triumphing City so while they restrained Your Liberty and invaded Your Rights they did even then with a sollicitous Reverence court Your approbation of their successful Crimes But as Your Lordship despised their injuries so You slighted their caresses And though You seemed unconcerned in their Oppressions yet I have seen Your Indignation then swell'd high when they profaned Justice by pretensions to it and blasphemed Religion by imputing their Impieties to the ducts of the Immaculate Spirit and just Providence of God As these Vertues My Lord are Your Glory so I humbly crave they may be my Protection And that as I was confirmed and heightned in a detestation of Unjust Usurpers by Your great Example so under the shelter of Your Honourable Name I may endeavour to render them Odious to others Since that the Wicked should be exposed to the Publick Hatred as that the Good should be rewarded with all that affection which is due to the Benefactors of Mankind is equally the Interest of Vertue All whose concernments being so dear to Your Lordship that God as well for His own Glory as for the advantages of Good men may long continue You as a Light in this perverse Generation and prosper all Your Counsels is the constant prayer of My Lord Your Honours most humble and most faithful Servant R. P. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE miseries which Tyrants usually bring upon that unhappy people who by impatience of a Just Government and by their seditious attempts upon their Lawful Prince have exposed themselves to the Cheats and are at last inslaved by the Power of such Ambitious Persons cease not with their Lives but are extended to the following Age and are apt to vex the next Generations For although the Rapines and Murders which are not the greatest unhappinesses of the Oppressed Vassals may possibly end with the Empire of the Usurper yet those debaucheries of the Spirits of Men and the unquiet principles of Villany the most ignominious brands of Slavery which they introduced both to acquire and preserve their Greatness survive their Authours and like Venome infect the blood when the Viper is kill'd that gave the wound Hence comes it to pass that such a People though freed from the Force of their Oppressour yet tenacious of his Crimes debauched by impious Habits and distracted with various Factions can never conspire to their common Peace and Safety nor with patience submit to those who would restore them the Benefits of Society and Government Our Age hath had too fresh an Experience of this for the Methods of Tyranny having been acted with so much Industry and continued with so great Success among us though we are now through the benignity of Heaven in the enjoyment of all safe Liberty that is consistent with Government and which can be hoped for from a Just and Lawful Prince yet have not men parted with those Principles of Confusion and Ruine which the Tyrants did impress but like Waves that have been tossed with a Tempest find no Calm though the wind be down that first raised them The method of curing such a distempered Multitude is to shew the Arts of their Impostors and to discover that what was obtruded upon them as the Oracles of Heaven or as the generous dictates of Free Souls were but the accustomed cheats of former Tyrants newly proposed to an Ignorant and Credulous Generation No discovery comes with more Evidence upon Vulgar spirits who cannot weigh the force of Reason then that which is made by Example Like the Spartan Discipline who to preserve their Youth on whom Philosophical discourses would have made but small impression from Intemperance presented them with the Indecencies of their drunken Helots And Menenius did retrive the Roman Populacy from their Sedition by an Apologue which is but a fictitious Example Such Reader is the design of publishing this Historical Discourse which in the composing was intended but as a private Essay of the Life of a Tyrant which hath such a conformity with the Monster of Our Times that who reads the actions of the One cannot but reflect upon the practices of the Other So that it may seem to confirm the Opinion of those who imagined that All humane affairs had a Circular motion and that no Age produces any thing so prodigious that may