Selected quad for the lemma: king_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
king_n	lord_n	say_a	sovereign_a	23,553	5	9.9850	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86571	Inclosure thrown open: or, Depopulation depopulated. Not by spades and mattocks; but, by the word of God, the laws of the land, and solid arguments. And the most material pleas that can be brought for it, considered and answered. / By Henry Halhead.	Halhead, Henry.	1650 (1650)	Wing H284; Thomason E619_2; ESTC R206364	16,888	23

to turne the faces at least we hope the hearts of the whole Nation towards the same I beseech you all our Representatives in Parliament as you tender the glory of God and the flourishing of this Common-wealth that you deny your own Interest wherein it tends to the Ruine of a Country or Nation and that ye all joyne Heart and Hand together for the recovering of this almost-ruined Land out of this weake estate whereinto it is fallen by Depopulation that so ye repairing the old waste places and raising up the Foundations of many Generations may justly be called The Repairers of the Breach Restorers of paths to dwell in Oh! how would this engage the hearts of the people unto you I know some will say they did not Depopulate or inclose but they bought it so or it was so left them by their Fathers and the Poore were provided for when it was first inclosed and turned to pasture I but where are they and their breed Are they not constrained to flee into other Towns to the great annoyance and charge of the places whither they were driven Where I say are those good House-keepers that brought store of Corne to the Market and where are the Horse Beasts and Sheep that were bred there besides Men Women and Children that dwelt there These things would be enlarged by the experiences of ancient men that know more of this then I can utter And this may be one Reason why Free-Quarter of Souldiers is so exceeding burthensome because many houses of Husbandry are decayed and the Lands layd down to Sheep-pasture whereby it comes to pass that the charge lies but upon a few But of the Reasons and Arguments against Depopulation in their place And to reduce what I have to say to some Method I shall First Endeavour to convict this sin by the Lawes of God and of the Land where we live to be a forbidden an accursed thing Secondly I shall endeavour to lay open the Mystery and the way of it Thirdly I shall offer such Arguments as I have ready against it Fourthly I shall answer what Objections I have met withall in the behalfe of it The first Scripture-evidence I shall produce against it is Isa. 5.8 Woe unto them that joyne house to house and that lay field to field till there be no place left that they may dwell alone in the midst of the Earth In mine eares said the Lord of hosts Of a truth many houses shall be desolate even great and faire without inhabitant The place is plaine and pregnant I shall forbear to gloss upon it Onely at the Event we may give glory to God and be his Witnesses that what he hath spoken with his mouth he hath fulfilled with his hand As might I call all the Ancient men to witness they were able to say Where ever they knew any that did throw down Townships and houses of Husbandrie to set up faire houses for themselves and theirs and either They or their Children came not to poverty and want See in the next place Mich. 2.1 A Woe denounced against them that devise iniquity and worke evil upon their beds and when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hands And what is the evil Why vers. 2. They covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Therefore behold vers. 3 the Lord comes in with his device Thus saith the Lord Behold against this Family do I devise an evil from which you shall not remove your neckes neither shall you goe haughtily for this time is evil In that day they shall take up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation and truely so they do now-a-dayes and say We are utterly spoiled for they have taken our fields Now follows their judgement Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the Congregation of the Lord For the meaning whereof whether it be that for their Cruelty and Oppression they were to be cut off from the Assemblies of the godly in that time or that in time of dividing their Inheritances they were to have no lot among their Brethren or both these I commend you to the godly learned to examine Habakkuk likewise denounceth against this wickedness Hab. 2.9 10 11. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil Thou hast cosulted shame to thy self by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soule For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beame out of the timber shall answer it How many of these houses have there been of late years that were built by blood and cruelty by Wracking of Rents and overthrowing whole Townships and houses of Husbandry Thus we may see by some few instances the Lawes of God are against this sin of Depopulation Neither are the Lawes of the Land for it First in the fourth yeer of Henry the seventh Chap. 19. Item The King our Soveraign Lord having a singular Pleasure above all things to avoid such Enormities and Mischiefs as be hurtful and prejudicial to the Common-weal of this His Land and His Subjects of the same Remembreth that amongst all other things great Inconveniences daily do increase by Desolation and pulling down and wilful waste of Houses and Towns within this Realm and laying to Pasture Lands which Customably have béen used in Tilth whereby Idleness which is the ground and beginning of all Mischiefs daily doth increase For where in some Towns two hundred persons were occupied and lived in their lawful Labours now bin there occupied two or thrée Herds-men and the residue fall into Idleness Thereby Husbandry which is one of the greatest Commodities of this Realm is greatly decayed Churches destroyed the Service of God withdrawn the Patrons and Curates wronged the defence of this Land against our Enemies much féebled and impaired to the great displeasure of God to the subversion of the Policie and good Rules of this Land if Remedy be not provided Wherefore the King our Soveraign Lord by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in the said Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same Have Ordained Enacted and Established that no person of what Estate Degrée or Condition soever he be that hath any House or Houses that at any time within thrée yéers past hath béen or now is or hereafter shall be letten to Farm with twenty Acres at least or more lying in Tillage and Husbandry That the Owner or Owners of every such House or Houses and Land to kéep sustain and maintain Houses and Buildings upon the said Ground or Land convenient and necessary for maintaining and upholding of the said Tillage and Husbandry So also in the Statute made anno 39 of Queen Elizabeth intituled An Act

which God himself hath promised to devise an evil against as more at large shall appear God willing And to the end it may appear in its colours I pray you take some paines to let the State know how many men women and children horse beast and sheep swine and pullen have been usually maintained upon such Villages and Towns and Houses of Husbandry now decayed which by proportion you may know counting how many Plow-land there where and how many do usually go with a Plow That so the number being guessed at the Parliament may see the mighty decay there hath been and is in this Land that their hearts may be wrought upon And you may and ought to complain for there is none that can better tell where the shooe pincheth then those that weare it And they are your mouthes in Parliament the highest Court of Justice in the Land who ought to seek your good and keep you from Tyranny and Oppression And if by this lawful meanes you can finde no redress do not Murmure nor Muteny against God or them But silently sit down and waite upon God who hath promised For the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy he will arise and set at liberty those whom the wicked have snared For be you well assured that if help come not by these lawful meanes and wayes God will send help and deliverance another way And then let those Oppressours with their houses and posterity look to it If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of jugdment and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they Moreover the profit of the earth is for all the King himself is served by the field that is tilled Yet through the extream wickedness of man who hath perverted the course of Almighty God the inferiour creature comes to be preferred above man who is made after the Image of God Which is a sin of a very high nature all the Prophets crying out of it and denouncing fearful woes against it For God tenders the good of his people now as well as ever he did before-time He calls the house of Israel his Vineyard and the men of Judah his pleasant plant he looked for judgment but behold oppression for righteousness but behold a cry And is it not so in our dayes And as then the Lord did by his Prophet denounce woes against the oppression of those times even so doth he now against all the oppressions of these times for the righteous Lord hates and abhorres all manner of Violence Cruelty and Oppression as much now as ever he did Furthermore God would have men grow increase and multiply replenish the earth and subdue it But the Oppressors of our times do what in them lieth to diminish men women and children by whom God is honoured and the Common-wealth sustained And therfore The Lord is risen up and standeth to plead for his people and to judge their cause He will enter into judgment with the ancients of the people and the Princes thereof for they have eaten up the Vineyard and the spoile of the poor is in their houses And the Lord will know what they mean in dealing so with his people Vers 15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to peeces and grinde the faces of the poor saith the Lord of hosts Much like to the times wherein we live Also in her skirts is found the blood of the soules of the poore Innocents Looke to the end of the Chapter The kings of the earth and all the inhabitants of the world would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem Yet For the sinnes of the Prophets and the iniquities of the Priests that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her it was done Therefore let none of us make to our selves any vain confidences or put our trust in any arme of flesh or the strongest Fortifications that can be made by any of the sonnes of men For Jerusalem was a famous City and very strongly fortified so that it would hardly have been believed that that should have befallen it that did But we see as aforesaid that for the sinnes of the Prophets and for the iniquities of the Priests the Lord laid it waste And it is further shewed concerning those Rebellious children spoken of in the 30 Chapter of Isaiah that strengthened themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and trusted in the shadow of Egypt The Lord saith by his Prophet Vers 8 Now go write it before them in a Table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever That this is a rebellious people lying children children that will not hear the Law of the Lord And that their downfall will be sudden like a swelling wall Read also from this Chapter to the 31 32 and 33. where it is declared in vers the 14 who shall be surprized with feare and those are there said to be Hypocrites And also who shall stand in the trying-time which the Scripture there holds forth to be Godly men by this Signe He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly he that despiseth the gain of oppressions that shaketh his hands from holding of Bribes that stoppeth his eares from hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil It is said of him verse the 16 He shall dwell on high his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks bread shall be given him his water shall be sure Lay not wait O Wicked man against the dwelling of the Righteous spoile not his resting place Remove not the old Land-mark and enter not into the field of the fatherless for their Redeemer is mighty he shall plead their cause FINIS Gen. 6.13 Isa. 58.12 Psal. 12.5 Eccle. 5.8 Vers 9. Isa. 5.7 Isa. 59.14 15. Isa. 3.13 14 15. Ier. 2.34 Lament. 4.12 13. Isa. 30.1 2 c. Isa. 33.14 Vers 16.