Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	good_a	lord_n	manor_n	1,411	5	10.3370	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38622	An essay concerning adepts, or, A resolution of this inquiry how it cometh to pass that adepts, if there are any in the world, are no more beneficial to mankind than they have been known hitherto to be, and whether there could be no way to encourage them to communicate themselves : with some resolutions concerning the principles of the adeptists and a model, practicable, and easy, of living in community : in two parts / by a Philadept ...	Philadept.	1698 (1698)	Wing E3279; ESTC R11286	34,148	53

would be full of tranquillity and order Every one would have enough and all might live comfortably and Virtue and Piety would flourish every where in the World Come then Lord Jesu come quickly Amen! VI Sect. The inexcusableness and folly of rejecting the Beefits which would accrue to the World if things were so disposed that Adepts were encouraged in some measure to communicate themselves and were put in a capacity to be Beneficial to Men. TO shew the folly of rejecting the Benefits that would accrue to the World by these means I need only refer the Reader to the Second Section where those advantages are summarily observed or hinted That will suffice to help him to make all the Considerations that ought to be made on this Subject if he will attend to it And to shew the inexcusableness of those who reject these Benefits we must only observe that the things which are here expresly required are nothing but what the Gospel Indispensibly demands and what God expects from Men. So that to this case we may justly apply this Oracle that it will be more tolerable for Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for those who resist good motions and despise the proferr'd Divine Favours reject the Counsel of God against themselves and oppose the Establishment of his Kingdom and the execution of his Laws for the good of Men. The End of the First Part. The Second Part of the Resolution containing an Illustration of the Expedients mentioned in the fifth Section of the first Part and shewing that they are Possible and Reasonable I. Section The Occasion of this Second Part. NO doubt those who Laugh at the very name of a Philosophers Stone will accordingly deride the Expedients that have been mentioned to encourage Adepts to communicate themselves Yet this mirth of the Scorners is not what we regard and we do not now designe to go about to confute it But it may be even wiser Persons than those will think some of these Expedients either strange and obscure or unreasonable and unpossible I have therefore thought it necessary to explain at large what has been said compendiously in the fifth foregoing Section II. Sect. An Explication of these words It is thought Adepts wish that Christians would live somewhat after the manner of the Lacedemonians IT is probable every Reader doth not know the manner how the Lacedemonians lived after the instutition of Lycurgus and those that know it yet went to be resolved what somewhat like this here implies In summ the use of Money was cried down among the Lacedemonians except the Iron Pieces which being vile and of heavy Carriage could occasion no great Trassick which they thought was unnecessary or rather inconsistent with a Tranquille Life and the Lacedemonians lived in common They had a common Hall where every one even their Magistrates met at a certain hour for their repasts This is as much as is here needful to be known of the Lacedemonians But in the first place it is not to be doubted but Christian Adepts would have Soveraign Magistrates live howsoever they like best Christianity inspires a Reverential awe for our Soveraigns and declares the Anointed of the Lord to be Sacred and charges Subjects to submit themselves to them not only for wrath but for Conscience-sake As for inferiour Subjects it is thought Adepts are of opinion they might well live all in common with relation to the possession of the goods of the Earth and inferior Offices if Souveraigns pleased so to order it And this would be in some respect some what like the way of living of the Lacedemonians tho' it should also extreamly differ from it in many respects if a Body of Christians excepting the higher among them lived in Community together much as they do in Colledges And being supposed to have for their number a proportionate quantity of Ground to what would fall to every ones share if the Earth was equally divided among men not Geometrically but according to the goodness of the Soil if they were then all equally obliged to Till this portion of the Earth appointed to their share and only employ themselves to those works which are absolutely necessary for Life and for the good of the Society that would be that sort of Life that is here meant and that is in some respect compared to that of the Lacedemonians But to conceive this the better and make it more familiar let us suppose for instance we have before us an Estate of four hundred Pounds a year in the Country to serve for a little Community which we will divide into four small Parishes adjoyning together which will make a little Town Let us suppose it so Peopled that three parts of four of the Land one year with another may be abundantly sufficient to keep its Inhabitants with all the necessaries of Life and not much more If the Earth was equally divided it would do that at the least The fourth part of the Estate which was untouched let us suppose it to be for the Rent and Maintenance of the Lord of the Mannour and his Noble Family who shall have nothing to do but to preside over the Tenants and see that they fall not out among themselves but that Justice be uprightly Administred among them By the Tenants I mean all the Inhabitants of our Country Town whom we suppose to hold the Land by the Grant Consent and Good will of the Lord of the Mannour wherefore they have the care of the Husbanding of the whole Estate but are to yield the fourth part of the Increase and of their Labour to their said Lord and his Heirs and reserve for their own Maintenance as has been said the three other parts The Lord of the Mannour thus shall be as it were a King among his Tenants and we may suppose there shall be standing Laws Solemnly Established according to which as he comes to Age he will take Oath to Govern them And our little Town shall yearly chuse three Members out of every Parish for their Inferiour Magistrates which making the number of twelve will together make as it were a Parliament that shall Sit at set times to Decide with the Approbation and Confirmation of their Lord of the Affairs of their little Community The Lord shall live in his Palace or Mannour-house and shall have such other Houses and such Servants for himself and his Children and Family as he shall think fit at first to appoint and that shall be Established in the standing Laws that it may so remain for the future The Tenants shall dwell in four Squares or four great Houses that shall be like so many Colledges each of which shall be a Parish Let us imagine one of those Colledges for the Situation like So-ho Square or Red-Lyon Square in London Let that ground in the middle of the Square which in So-ho and Red-Lyon Square is Railed in and kept for a Walk be here employed to make a Common Hall and all

doubt have fiercely opposed both the Master and the Disciples and been ready to cry Away with 'em Crucify Crucify It is certain in Scripture all are required to work and Christians are commanded to bear one anothers Burdens and not to have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory with respect of Persons Nay the Ornaments of plating the Hair and wearing of Gold and Apparel are expresly forbidden But 't is not of Late that Christians seem to have forgot all those things They busie themselves about wrangling in obscure Questions and Speculative matters and despise that which is plain and indisputable and which tends to Practice and a Holy Life which is the Summ and Essence the End and Intendment of all the Gospel and they neglect and pass by the weighty matters inward Purity Justice and Mercifullness Thus they deal with Religion but no shifts will availe with God He will Judge all men according to the Gospel And then many that call themselves Christians shall not pass for such Thou wouldest be willing it seems to be a Christian so thou mightest do what thou likest and didst just obey of what Christ commands that which thou wert pleased Rare Christian who refuseth to receive Christ for his Master and thinks he knows best what ought to be prescribed and practised It is certain they that contradict the plain tendency of the Gospel and that which is agreeable to the Spirit of Christ and is represented to us as the Essence of Religion as the Loving other Men as our selves indisputably is they are plainly Antichristians they evidently oppose the Kingdom of Christ Fight against God and resist His will most certainly do the work of the Devil and are absolutely unfit and unqualified for Salvation There is no other Religion wherin men may be Saved but that which Christ has taught Nor can we shew that we are Sincerely of that Religion of His but by keeping His Commands Now has He not charged us by His Messengers that we should not set our affections on the things of this world That we should renounce all worldly Vanities that we should use this world without abusing it And that if need be we should forsake all for His Sake But what appearance is there that men are in that Religious disposition and that they would resigne themselves to the utmost sufferings for Christ if now for His Sake they will not so much as submit to abstaine from Superfluities and from Partiality to Love other men equally with themselves What has been said is abundantly sufficient to evince that such a Community as has been mentioned is both possible and reasonable and that it would be most Christian like to follow that sort of Life Sect. V. That yet Adepts cannot be thought to require expresly so much for if they pleased they might easily reduce Men to an absolute necessity to do so THat Adepts cannot be thought to require expresly so much of Men is plain because if they would they might oblige all mankind to live much after the manner we have described that is for the greatest part of Men to work alike and Live in Common For to that End they need but publish their Art to the world Then when every Body knows how to make easily infinite quantities of Gold and Silver Mony must needs grow vile and good for nothing no Body will slave for wages and all will be Rich alike new divisions being necessary to be made For those that have Lands not knowing how to work will be obliged to quit the greatest part of their Estates to those that will take the care to till them But as in the Apostolick times it was approved that Christians should Live in Common but it was not expresly required so Adepts likewise prefer that way of Living but they do not force men to follow it Sect. VI. That in general they would undoubtedly require of men nothing but Secrecy and Fidelity Reason and Moderation Justice and Mercifulness and that 't is not to be doubted could they be assured of these they would be ready to communicate themselves under some just limitations THere is no reason to doubt for those that believe there are Adepts in the world and that they are Good and Pious men who live in the Fear of God and heartily wish well to Mankind but that all that Adepts require is 1. that they may be secure from the Violence and wickedness of Men and 2. that they may be assured that those they shall Communicate themselves to will be ruled by reason and the Fear of God and will do good according to the Adepts directions and not Mischief with the Elixir These are the just limitations under which undoubtedly they would freely Communicate them selves for the good of a People They therefore indispensibly require Justice and Mercifullness Reason and Moderation Secresy and Fidelity Sect. VII What this Condition more particularly may be supposed for instance to Imply THe above mentioned conditions may be thought to Imply for instance those or the like particulars That selfish worldly designs may be made as much as possible to be layd aside and the good of all Men particularly respected that a Provision may be made that the poor may live more comfortably and be better instructed that a fixed rate may be Publickly set from time to time to most things that are Sold to avoyd as much as is possible Cheating and Lying in Buying and Selling That the abuses of Courts and all unreasonable customs there may be reformed that Physitians and Lawyers as well as Divines may have set stipends that Justice and Physick may be Common and dispenced Gratis to all Men that some Children may be brought up in houses founded for that purpose to be sent into several places to propagate the Gospel That Physitians Children and those of Divines and Lawyers and also those of Souldiers be brought up at the charge of the Publick that the Fathers may have no occasion to be greedy of gain and have no other care incumbent upon them than the Improvement of their Calling and the assiduous discharge of their Duty And that the said Children be made use of for the Service of the Country in either of those Callings and be Preferred according to their Capacities and deserts That how many mercenary Souldiers soever there be employed to supply the defect of the Militia none have less then one Shilling a day actually in mony but that none be kept in Idleness but be employed all day in some Work for the good of the Publick and be carefully instructed in Religion and every one of them be bound to Marry at a certain Age that those among them and Seamen that shall be convicted to be habitual prophane Swearers have their Tongue bore through with a hot Iron That Curtezans Coiners and Thieves be kept in a Bridewell all their Life to work for the Publick That most severe Punishments be determined to be indispensibly inflicted