Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	almighty_a	condition_n	great_a	93	3	2.1256	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91033	The Prisoners remonstrance: or, The desires and proposals of such prisoners as are willing to pay their just debts. Also, a copy of their petition to the Lord Protector: together with his gracious answer and reference to the Councel. Also an ordinance thereupon, for the suspending the Act for relief of creditors and poor prisoners, till the 20th of this instant April. With divers other remarkable passages fit for all mens views, especially for creditors or debtors, or such who are up on their interest concerned.		1654 (1654)	Wing P3520; Thomason E733_3; ESTC R206897	10,096	16

formerly they were at the time of their Bailing or letting out as aforesaid Fryday the 31 March 1654. ORdered by his Highnesse the Lord Protector and his Council that this Ordinance be fotthwith Printed and Published HEN. SCOBEL Clerk of the Councel Upon this reference the Honourable Councel took the said Petition as also the Act intituled An Act for the relief of Creditors and poor Prisoners being the Act in the said Petition complained against into their serious and speedy consideration and upon Fryday being the last of March it pleased God who worketh all things in the hearts of the sons of men according to the Counsel and good pleasure of his Wil so to dispose of things for the good of his poor afflicted and distressed servants by the carefull solicitation of the said Gentleman that an Ordinance came out in Print being the very last night that Prisoners could call any thing their own so that men may still see the Lord is faithfull and appears in the Mount by which it was provided and Ordained That all the Judges in the said Act mentioned should surcease to put the said Act in execution till the 20th of this Moneth which time His Highness and Honourable Councel took to consider how to explain the said Act so complained against and how to qualifie and regulate the same that men might speedily recover their just debts and yet the Prisoners not utterly destroyed in their Reputations Fortunes and Families which would have inevitably befallen them had not the Lord Protector and his Councel taken their sad condition into their serious pious and charitable consideration All which is here mentioned that none concerned therein might be unmindfull nor unthankfull for so great a mercy and so seasonable a deliverance neither to Almighty God the Author nor to such men who were instrumental for so great a Good For the next day being Saturday being the first of April the Judges at Salters-Hall and elsewhere were to b●gin their Tragedy to the ransack if not utter ruine of the Estates of some thousands of the Nobility Knights and Centry of this Nation they having already appointed and constituted their own Sons and other Agents who had provided horses for their journey to go into the several Counties of England and Wales to view and survey what ever Estate they had real and personal and to seize and secure the same as belonging to Bankrupts not onely what they had for the relief of their Families at home and in the hands or custody of any other but also what they had in the very Prisons All which things they were resolved to sell at their own rates but what those rates were thanks be to God is not yet known but too much cause there is to fear it would have been no gre●● rate if we consider what penniworths have been usually sold by Commissioners for Bankrupts and especially when some of the Commissioners were resolved to turn Purchasers from these things Good Lord deliver us and grant us that happiness as by other mens harms to beware and not to fall into their hands Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculo sapit Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Vos ego nunc moneo felix quicunque delore Alterius disces posse carere tuo For by the wofull experience of such who have to do with them at Salters-Hall we find their Mercy was Cruelty to all such Prisoners as had any fortunes who were as sure to be remanded back to Prison as ever they came out let their causes be never so just or honest their grand Maxime being That all Prisoners that had any Estates must be left in prison till April whereas had they done many of them that Justice they might and ought to have done they had long since been out of prison and had paid their debts and so have been out of the dangers of being Bankrupts at April Occidit hominem qui non succurrit cum potest and so might have preserved their Fortunes and credits in case that Act had stood in force But it seems it would not answer their ends expectations which was to make all Prisoners that had any Estates Bankrupts that so they might sel their Estates they knowing it is good fishing in such troubled waters neither did they at all fear the sequ●l being not sworn Now if any would know the reason of such their proceedings it is conceived i● was because some of the most eminent of them were Goalers sons Orator improbus leges subveriit And that such had too great an influence upon the rest of the Judges else it is thought they would before this regulate the abuses and extortive fees of Prisons also they were accountable by the said Act to none but a Parliament and withal they were to have so much a pound out of all such Prisoners Estates as they sold and on the contrary were to have no thing from others By which the world may see what they aimed at and how these men plaid their Games Lucrum sine damno alterius fieri non potest Damnum apellandum est cum mala fama lucrum Ex damno alterius commoda nulla putas And being a Lyon may be known by the Paw as well as by the whole body let all such as are or were like to be concerned praise God for delivering them out of the Paw of the Lyon and the Bear for they were very near destruction he that is wise will remember these things and consider the loving kindnesse of the Lord but a fool regardeth them not and in the next place let all prisoners by way of thankfullness use all means possible to give all just and fitting satisfaction to Creditors for though they have escaped in all probability this danger of being Bancrupts which rightly valued is a great mercy that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse yet they must think a way will be found to force all men to pay their just debts if they have wherewith and not to make a Prison a Sanctuary to preserve and protect men there from which as on the one side is no wise intended so on the other side all honest Creditors are desired not to be over rigid and severe with their prisoners but rather take lands for their monies from such as shall offer the same or other satisfactory security unto them either by absolute Purchase or at least by way of Mortgage for some time as by the aforesaid Petition is desired not holding their prisoners to advantages not impossibilities by working upon their necessities but rather to shew Mercy and Compassion every one to his neighbour that so there may be no oppression nor leading to captivity nor just complaints in our streets else what do they do but grapple with heaven to pull down more vengeance upon a sinfull Nation for the Lord hath a controversie with us because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God amongst us Hosea the 4

and the 1. Therefore as Christians take into your consideration the great losses men have sustained in these times and how hard difficult it is now to procure monies especially to them who are cracked in their credits and fortunes insomuch that every one cannot nor will not deal with them nor will they give them half the value of their lands for fear of incumbrances especially while they are in prison which in the way before proposed may be avoided being sold by the owners and Trustees and the Judges as by the aforesaid Petititon is proposed which being once so sold will be soon bought out of the purchasers hands if he pleased by some in each County who durst not deal with the prisoner for the reasons aforesaid as also for fear of angring some great men who had a desire thereto or had the same in Mortgage now you that are willing to buy the prisoners lands from the Judges we hoped may better venter on the same when it shall be sold by them with the consent of the owner and such as have interest therein though you should pay 3 or 4 years purchase more for it for it is more honourable safe and honest before God and man and if you will go otherwise to work with any that shall really proffer this either by labouring to keep them still in prison there as your common but most unchristian like Phrase is to make dice of their bones or shall improve your power and interest in the Judges nominated or to be nominated and their Agents for that end and purpose to sell such part of the prisoners estate to you or others to your use as you please or at such rate as you think fit know ye that you do hereby little lesse than covet Naboths Vineyard and that if you could bring your designs to passe you would be no gainers thereby nor long enjoy your purchase male part a male dilabuntur for what should you get if you could gain the whole world and lose your own souls therefore trust not in wrong and robbery but rather strive to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God else see your reward in Matthew the 18 and 31 32 33 34 35 vers but besides this know that we prisoners have hopes that the same God that inclined the heart of our noble Protector and his wise Councel so graciously to answer our Petition and to grant us the first fruits thereof by this late so seasonable an Ordinance will also give them wise and understanding hearts to the end and will not suffer them to bear the sword in vain but graciously assist and direct them to do those things that may most conduce to his glory and our good and not deliver us and the remnant of our fortunes as a prey to your teeth but rather take the prey out of your teeth and with holy Iob search the cause they know not and also make such a candid and christian like explanation of the said Act in case it do continue as that you may have your just debts and that we and our fortunes and families may be preserved from utter ruine by such unreasonable men which the Lord knows and we know and your own Consciences know ma●y of you are for would you have accepted of your dues from many of us though we are in for other mens debts you might have had the same long since and we might have been at home with our families and might have been serviceable to the Commonwealth in our several stations but your cruelty and oppression in seeking our houses over our heads and our whole fortunes makes many men resolute and desperate Oppression in the sence of wise Solomon being that which maketh wise men mad and us so mad as to chuse a prison rather then our fortunes and posterities should be ruined by such men therefore being you take upon you the name of Christians either act accordingly or abandon the same appara quod es aut esto quod appares for it had been better for you never to have known the way of truth then to sin willfully against it in the light of your own Consciences in destroying your brother for whom Christ died by your mercilesse cruelty Again we hoped that you your selves we mean the rich Citizens of London will not be thought competent Judges in your own and friends Causes if you be we may say farewell to prisoners and their fortunes for we have already seen what we must trust to and what unsavory salt is sold in Salters Hall by some whose Consciences are so nice and tender that they will not be satisfied with the Oaths of 5 or 6 witnesses though they concur to prove a generall known and granted truth which was never questioned nor gain said saving by themselves especially when the cause concerneth lome of your rich Citizens therefore we hope that whosoever shall be to have them bounded with an Oath at least and lome other boundaries and explanations which may serve for a bridle or rather for so it had need be a hedge of Thorns to keep them in in case they act no better than you did as by a taste of your salt which hath exceedingly lost his savour as the world may see may appear And therefore it may be you may take your ease as well as your Masters did before you or at least in case you be continued and shall through Ignorance or wilfulness or both destroy any man in his Fortune or Liberty as they were like to do to many at this time had not that divine hand which disposeth all things prevented you that they may be made subject to Law by an Action of the Case as well as others Else they may do what they please and we see it pleases them to do what they will even very strange things Stet pro ratione voluntas so that their Wills have been our Law when they could give no other reason for it having acted in some mens cases quite contrary to what they did in others So that we are constrained to publish these our just desires to the end that if any man have any thing to say against the Justness and Equity thereof he may declare himself and shew us our mistake if not let the mouth of Iniquity be stopped and let these things be reformed to Gods glory ours and the Nations good for in our sence every man is bound to do by us that are willing to pay their just debts as themselves would be done by were they in our conditions Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris And as for others we have no more to say but Qui vult decepi decipiatur For no mans Mountain is so strong but by one means or other it may be shaken and he brought to it before he be aware Tu quoque fac timeas quae tibi leta vidantur Dum loqueris fieri tristia posse puta Ab alio expectes alteri quod feceris Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus Et certum presens vix habet hora finem And were he sure to be exempt from the same the Obligation is the greater as may appear by the 18th of Matthew before quoted therefore we wish we might all learn this Lesson Not to oppress one and other but especially not the afflicted for our God will punish all those that oppress them and will be their refuge and assuredly he that doth it doth but consult shame to his own house by destroying many people and hath sinned against his own soul see Habakkuk 2.10 11. For he that oppresseth the poor to encrease his riches shal come to want Prov. 22.16 So leaving this to their Christian consideration wishing the Lord to give them understanding in all things we rest nameless not because we dare not own what we have said but because in your esteem we are dead and not worthy to be named amongst the living FINIS