Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A46957
|
Notes upon the Phœnix edition of the Pastoral letter Part I / by Samvel Johnson.
|
Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703.
|
1694
(1694)
|
Wing J835; ESTC R11877
|
45,073
|
120
|
that it should be Treason for any Man to deny it What Offence it were to contravene this Act Sir Thomas More answered that he should offend if he said No because he was Bound by the Act but that this was Casus levis Whereupon Sir Thomas More said he would propose a higher Case suppose by Parliament it were enacted quod Deus non sit Deus and that it were Treason to contravene whether it were an Offence to say according to the said Act Richard Rich replied yea but said withal I will propose a middle Case because yours is too high The King you know is constitute Supream Head of the Church on Earth why should not you Master More accept him so as you would me if I were made King by the Supposition aforesaid Sir Thomas More Answer'd the Case was not the same because said he a Parliament can make a King and Depose him and that every Parliament-man may give his Consent thereunto but that a Subject cannot be bound so in the Case of Supremacy Quia Consensum ab eo ad Parlamentum praebere non potest Et quanquam Rex sic acceptus sit in Anglia plurimae tamen partes exterae idem non affirmant Because the Parliament-man cannot carry the Subject's Consent to Parliament in this Case that is to say no body but Christ could make his own Vicar and the Head in Heaven make the Head on Earth and although the King be held to be Head of the Church here in England yet the greatest part of the World abroad are of another mind Here Sir Thomas More stuck for I believe stick He did because he laid down his Life for it but you see that the undoubted unquestioned Law of the Land was this That a Parliament can make and Depose a King for it is the Foundation of their Arguing And it cannot be thought that a Learned Lord Chancellor and Sollicitor General should be both Ignorant in the First Principles of the Law Neither would Richard Rich have been made a Lord and the Head of a Noble Family of Earls if it had not been Current Law in those Days for such a Principle upon Record would have been as bad and hurt his Preferment as much as if he had been Stigmatized And therefore my Lord of Essex's Argument was more than Measure That if a Parliament could make and Depose a King and make Richard Rich King much more they might foreclose the Duke of York who was no King and more unqualified than Richard Rich and might make the Prince of Orange King an otherghess Man than Richard Rich. Thus that Great Man Argued but Care was taken that he should Argue for the Good of his Countrey no more and therefore we that are left behind partly to bewail the loss of such Great Men and partly to imitate them ought to uphold their Cause and as mean a Man as I am able to maintain these plain Truths against all the World Though indeed my Lord of Essex told me that his Adversaries in that Debate waved the Jargon of Divine Right and the Line of Succesâ—ion which had been inculcated in the Second Volume of the History of the Reformation and by the Heroe himself to whom it was Dedicated and at that time they betook themselves chiefly to Reasons of State They were got at the old Scarecrow Venient Romani the Foreign Catholick Princes would espouse the Duke of York's Quarrel the Ancient Kingdom of Scotland would admit him for Their King in opposition to our Act of Parliament and this would entail a Dangerous War upon the Nation That is I suppose the Navy Royal of Scotland would have given Law to the English Fleet They were likewise doubtful of Ireland and if these two Kingdoms were dismembred from us the solitary Kingdom of England would not make that Figure in the World as it used to do And therefore according to the Method of all hired Politicks they must make sure of sinking Three Kingdoms for fear of losing Two and Deliver up the Castle for fear the Suburbs should Revolt With such fitting Arguments was that Cause supported and if I have broke any Rules in repeating that Great Man's private Discourse now it is done I cannot help it But I say let his Integrity be known and speak as Loud as his Blood cries And I am sure they that would stifle that Man's Honour would stifle his Death But the Bill of Exclusion is of no Concernment at this Time though if we had then ventured our Lives for it we had done well and it had been good Husbandry for it had saved more than an Hundred Thousand Lives since which are all of a price and as dear to them as owned them as ours are to us I grant a True Statesman is of another Opinion and values being called his Grace or Noble Marquess more than a Million of Lives provided that in such a general Destruction he can but save one And to confirm themselves in their ill-gotten Honours they generally hatch Plots suborn Rebellions or any thing that they think may create Business keep themselves from being Questioned and thin Mankind whereby they lose so many of their Enemies which by their Oppression they have heaped up to themselves So I have been told a certain Person being asked why he Destroyed my Lord Russell said it was Self-preservation he did it in his own Defence because my Lord Russell would have Destroyed him A fit Answer for the Answerer because it is just the Excuse of a Highway-man who adds Murder to his Robbery and Wrong because otherwise the True-man might have pursued him and Hanged him for it But the Masterpiece of their Policy they have stoln from the Old Popes of Rome to send their Princes into the Holy Wars while they domineer'd and plaid their own Game at home I express'd my Fears as soon as he was Crown'd that our King would be so serv'd and that taking advantage of his Matchless Courage they would put him upon hazardous Expeditions for such Counsels are on Nature's Side and are soon hearkned to by a Cordelyon or an Edward the First who were all on fire for Crusadoes And it was easy to tell what Advices the Statesmen would give such to be sure as agreed with His Inclinations but were much more for their own Interest for if a Man but look into the Tyring-room and see the old Actors he knows what the Play will be without a Bill It is the Observation of the Learned Antiquary Selden that our Nation got nothing by those fruitless Voyages into the Holy Land after a vast Expence of Blood and Treasure but only the Sign of the Saracen's Head For after our People came home again worsted and with great loss they had no other way to save their Credit but to represent the Saracens as Giants and to picture them with Eyes like Saucers and a Mouth big enough to eat a Man And it is well if the English bring home any
Popish Successor and to make him the Sign of a King and not to leave him the real Authority of a Thirdborough though those things were no more like to have been enacted than the Bill there was this That an Association should be drawn up as was done in the Reigns of Edward the Third and Queen Elizabeth A Noble Peer who was very much out at Court not for the Court Drudgery he had done but because he would do no more though of course he was very ungratefully loaded by themselves for what he had done was some time afterwards accused by the suborned Perjured Irish Court-Witnesses of an Oxford Plot. The Evidence to the Grand Jury of which that true Lover of his Countrey Sir Samuel Barnardiston was Foreman was in a new way given in Court and afterwards was printed I refer the Reader to the perusal of their own Printed Paper alone to see the open Perjury in that Case and some bold Stroaks of Pemberton-Law and what a Train was laid for the Lives of the Honest Lords and Commons of England Every body in England knows that there was no more of an Oxford Plot than there is on the back of my Hand but that on the other side a great number of Lords in an Address Signed by them and Presented by the Earl of Essex besought the King they might not meet at Oxford as doubting of their sitting in Safety having been threatned by several blabbing Life-Guard-Men what they would do when they had them there In short there never was more foul Play from the beginning of the World than was in the Prosecution of my Lord Shaftsbury for an Oxford Plot and in the practice of Subornation upon Captain Wilkinson to put a Force upon him to Swear against that Lord and in the Consequence of it against a vast number of the Best Men in England For the Captain was brought to a Dilemma and was placed just in the midst betwixt Ch. Finche's Two sorts of Advancement which with as much Wit as Honesty he put the Captain in mind of at that time For he was either to â—ccept of a Great Sum of Money or the Duke of York's 500 l. a Year Land to Swear against my Lord Shaftsbury or else to be hanged himself before my Lord Shaftsbury with whiâ—h Ch. Finch threatned him But the brave old Souldier was proof against both for he abhorred the Wages of Unrighteousness and the Price of Blood neither did he fear a Halter which I believe loses its roughness and feels soft to the last to an Honest Man Perhaps the Captain did not expect to be so slighted for his Honesty under a Revolution nor to see his Dear sworn Friend and the Lieutenant of his Oxâ—ord Troop Advanced over his Head But he may thank himself for it for not Reprinting his Narrative which consisted of so clear Matter of Fact that though the Suborners gnashed their Teeth at it yet they durst not even then touch it For our People in England are very forgetful a new Coronation two or three Lord Mayors Shews and the new Project of a Million Fund to make provision for younger Children will put all old things out of their Heads And besides we have Scotch Doctors to teach us the Art of Forgetfulness Pray you have Gude Memories Gude Memories do not Remember Bad things meaning the Murders and Oppressions of the last Reigns â—ut keep your Memories for Gude Things have Gude Memories So that we forfeit the Goodness of our Memories and have Evil ones if we remember our Headless Great Men the Best Blood in England spilt like Water upon the Ground Men Murdered in cold Blood and hung up in sport by eleven or twelve at a time according as the Clock struck Men Hanged and then brought to Life again to extort from them a Confession of Passive Obedience but it was then too late for Falshood and Flattery And lastly for I do not mention the Widows Fatherless or starved Families of any of these Men several Hundreds now lying unregarded in Exile and sold into Slavery only for endeavouring to Redeem their lost Countrey from Slavery who did an Hundred times more towards this Revolution than some that have been made Dukes and Earls for nothing that I know of but coming to see England But I marvel where these Men learn'd their good Memory not out of Scripture I am sure for there it is made the Mark of a Wicked Memory not to remember Joseph but forget him that is a Sufferer who was the Means of their own Deliverance and when they lie at Ease themselves not to be grieved for the Afâ—liction of Joseph which I think is not possible when Men have studiously forgot it and discharged their Memory of it Nor have they learn'd this sort of Memory out of any good Book of Politicks because such a Good Memory extinguishes our Happy Deliverance For what were we Delivered from but the Tyranny and Oppressions of the former Reigns which if they are to be forgotten as if they had not been then we are Delivered from nothing that is to say we have no Deliverance Look see read the Prince of Orange's two Declarations Did not he come to help the Nation to see Justice done for these things so that if we must forget these things then we must forget how he came to Town and what Business he had here And this very thing of stifling and palliating the Violences and Injustice of the late Times has given encouragement to King Iames to look Homewards and to meditate a Return and has given occasion to the Princes Abroad to look upon him as an Injured Prince for if he had not done great Wrong to this Nation first we have done a great deal to him since and yet there is not one Instrument of his Tyranny that has Answered for it but have been all Protected if not very highly Promoted and by the very means of a Gude Memory But after all it is impossible for a vast Number of People in England ever to attainâ— to this Gude Memory because they have continually evil Remembrancers to the Contrary some their broken Fortunes and Estates and want of Bread some the loss of their near Relations whom they dearly miss some the thoughts of their Great Father's Heads sticking upon Poles and as for me while a certain Traveller was making his Court to the Cardinals at Rome I got such an Almanack in my Bones that I am sure I shall never learn this Scotch Trick of a Gude Memory I will sooner be hang'd and forget all I wonder therefore that Dr. Burnet should send to me in the time of the First Parliament in this Reign when my Illegal and Barbarous Usage lay before them Not to name Persons I know the Language of that Day was Do not smut that is let the Oppressors of your Country and of you go off Clear and scape Scotfree I gave an English Reply to that Message Let him mind His Business I will