Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
lord_n earl_n john_n seal_n 12,057 5 9.0874 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A78355 Archerie reviv'd: a poetical essay, penn'd upon occasion of the intended muster of the Company of Archers in Scotland, June 11. 1677 W. C. 1677 (1677) Wing C145; ESTC R232657 7,893 26

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

ARCHERIE REVIV'D A Poëtical Essay Penn'd upon occasion of the intended Muster of the Company of Archers in Scotland June 11. 1677. Hae Nugae seria ducent EDINBURGH Printed by the Heir of Andrew Anderson Printer to His most Sacred Majesty 1677. To the Most NOBLE and POTENT JOHN MARQUESS of ATHOL EARLE OF ATHOL and TVLLIBARDIN LORD MVRRAY and GASK c. LORD KEEPER Of His Majesties Privy Seal in the Kingdom of Scotland and one of the most Honourable Members of His Majesties Privy Council one of the Commissioners of His Majesties Thesaury and Exchequer Captain of His Majesties Life-Guard of Horse And Captain of the Noble and Generous Company of Archers in that Kingdom My Lord THE great Blessing of Peace being the Improvement of Arts and that of War so long as this Mass of Earth continues in its Fabrick of Creation beyond all Dispute most useful To cultivate this Art in time of Peace is no less the Interest of Mankind than it is in Summer to provide Food and Raiment for the Winter Peace and War succeeding each other by short Intervalls so naturally and almost with the Motion of the Sun in the Zodiack The Practice then of this Art since first Man begun to loose the Reins of his Choller continued through a long Tract of Ages to this hour having rendered it no less honourable than its first Institution was necessar it cannot but be agreeable to the Genius of Mankind to prosecute an Art Necessary Vseful and Honourable Nor is the use of Arms even the length of an Imaginary War to be intermitted in the highest Crisis of the most serene Peace unless the one half of the World resolve to become slaves to the other Liberty being scituate like the Brain which though it rest secure in the immediate embraces of a P●a Mater yet if not guarded by the triple Contravallation of a dura Mater Scull and Pericranium the first being a very tender Membrane were not able of it self to protect it from Injury So Peace if not fortified by a continual Guard and a constant Exercise of Arms is not able of it self to preserve it self nor maintain the Liberty of the great Monarchies or smallest Estates and Republicks as the jealous Practice of Luca Geneve Ragouse and many other States do fully evidence nor do I think that Nation worthy of Peace who neglects the use of Arms when they have attain'd it Besides my Lord if I were Vmpyre in the Quarrel betwixt those two famous Rivals of the World Peace and War I could almost declare the First more injurious to the Latter than the Latter to it War both procuring and preserving Peace But Peace somewhat ungrate in a few years oft-times destroying its Rival rendering the Spirits of Men by soft ease and its consequences so unapt for War as by this subtile insinuation of Peace like that of the Serpent in Paradise Nations have on a sudden forfeit their Liberty Honour and Peace it self This Consideration made the Poet justly exclaim of the state of the Roman Empire in his time Nunc patimur longae Pacis mala saevior armis Luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur Orbem The repose of a few moneths in Capua made soon an Army that had jumpt over the Pyrences and Alps as though they had been Mole hills sweep'd with their very breath their way to Cannae and from thence cut out a passage to Rome and became so terrible as Fame it self could hardly represent the Valour of it in her magnifying Glass This same formidable and well disciplin'd Army a few moneths ease made no less contemptible and ridiculous than a Company of drunken Boors at a Low-Dutch Fair. Whereas the Practice and Vse of warlike Exercises in time of Peace preserves and maintains it firmly no Nation being more secure than that which is perfect in the Art of War The Conquest of the soft and peaceable Eastern Nations was but the business of an ordinary Compagne or two to the meanest of the Roman Generals those effeminate Gallants hugging so their Delilah of Peace as they permitted her to cutt their Hair and deprive them of both Strength and Courage But to disturb the peace of the Western or Northern Nations accustomed to War was a Province only for a Caesar a Germanicus an Agricola or the like Nec facile vincuntur vincere non vinci assueti Pray what did all the Romans huffings upon the Rhine for some hundred years produce when they thought forsooth they had secured that vast Continent betwixt the Alps and the German-Ocean what says their Noble and Ingenuous Historian why after he has reckoned up a great many Consuls Generals Emperors affronted disgraced and defeat in subduing those stubborn Warriours many Legions cut off much Time and Treasure spent Germani sayes he magis triumphati quam victi sunt they were forc'd for honours cause to rest contented with an imaginary Conquest of that warlike Nation a virtue so transmitted to their posterity that how dear the Germans yet esteem their Liberty may appear by our weekly Gazetts Nay this very day we know that the Turk having found the Business with the Sterne and Martial Pole too hot has now tack'd about and is forced to turn his conquering Arms against the more peaceable and soft Russian whom if not assisted by the other Europaeans he may bring in some Distress To relate how much our Nation however traduced by our unkind scribling Neighbours has maintain'd its Liberty against a●● Assailants and though sometimes over-run by powerful Armies yet never losing Courage or embracing the title of Conquered as those who brag more of their valour have done but still rallying and recovering their ground not to be conquered by Arms but a glorious Succession only were my Lord to make an Historie of an intended Epistle Dedicatory and therefore rather to be pointed at than tyrannicallie to impose the Patience upon your Lordship of an ample Rehearsal which should I in this place attempt the same might be said of this Piece as the Stoick said of the city Mindas the Ports were so big and the Town so little he was afraid it might escape out at the Ports Vpon these grounds then my Lord having endeavoured to prove that the exercise of War is the only Bullwark of Peace I do now subsume at least presume that amongst all the methods of War known in Historie that of Archery being since the memory of Man universally practised though now by the use of fire-arms almost only reserv'd for sport is the most noble and useful and by consequence the most necessarie to be cultivate whilst now we are blessed with Peace that we may be in readiness for War the Bow having been before the invention of Guns the only received weapon and if well used I am confident of equal force in Battel though not of so much noise as the Musquet now only in use amongst those whose Predecessors excelled in Archery and the use of Bow Since then