Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	england_n	law_n	statute_n	1,497	5	9.0809	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A24989	An account of the ceremony of investing his Electoral Highness of Brandenburgh; with the Order of the Garter Perform'd at Berlin on the 6th of June, 1690. By James Johnston Esq; His Majesties envoy extraordinary to his Electoral Highness, and principal commissioner. And Gregory King, Esq; the other commissioner for this investiture. With the speeches made at this solemnity by the said Mr. Johnston, and Monsieur Fulks, minister of state to his Electoral Highness.	King, Gregory, 1648-1712.; Johnston, James, 1655-1737.; Fuchs, Paul von, 1640-1704.	1690 (1690)	Wing A262; ESTC R214305	13,604	20

of his Title to the Crown of France which gave occasion to the Institution He made Blew the chief Colour that being the Colour of the Field of the Arms of France which with the Title he had about that time assumed to himself his Successors have ever since used Besides Blew denotes the Sublime and Celestial Temper of those who were to be of the Order The Pilgrims that returned from the Holy Land brought over such an account of St. George then the Christian Mars particularly of his Tutelary care of the English in that War that according to the Persuasions of those Times he made him the Patron of the Order as well as of the Nation He wisely considered that other Sovereign Princes might think it a lessening of them to come into an Order subject to the Laws and Government of England therefore he intirely separated its Concerns and made it a distinct Body with Seals and Officers and Statutes peculiar to it over which the Seals and Laws of England have no sort of Authority This is the Order Sir so deservedly famous over all Christendom these Three hundred and forty Years of which we have now the Honor in the Name of the King our Master to Present Your Electoral Highness the Ensigns The same Order which His Highness Your Illustrious Father desired so much and received as a great Honour done him and to which he did great Honour He wore it in a time of Action when the Fate not only of the North but of the whole Empire nay I may add of all Europe turned according to the Measures that he took and which is more turned often with the approbation of all good men It was thus that he run his Career which he finished with an happiness that might be called the obtaining of the Prize if that were to be done here For he being full of Honour and Years in Peace and Quiet Belov'd and Esteem'd by the better part of Mankind died leaving behind him the only Two things to be left a Great and Good Name and a Glorious Successor It is also the same Garter as well as the same Order with which we are to invest your Highness This I should call a happy Omen that the Order is still to receive the same Honour But your Highness hath not left the World to Divination and Conjecture you have begun your Regence in a way worthy of the Son of such a Father and already given Mankind real instances of that which they may expect And now this day you are to put the Order in possession of the Honour which you have as it were advanced to it and to which the Order hath a Natural Claim your Highness having acquired the same as the Founder did his by defeating the acient Enemies of both Nations For this Reason I suppose the King my Master as well as for doing your Highness greater Honour hath sent you a Sword amongst the Ensigns of the Order which hitherto was never done to any other Sir Nothing is more evident than that this Society was instituted for carrying on a War with France in which War the Emperor the Princes of Brandenburg Bavaria Lorrain and many others were engaged by a Confederacy with the Founder of this Order as your Highness and others their Successors are now with the present Soveraign of it It seems in all Ages it hath been the Wisdom of Great Princes to have no other thing to do with that Crown Sure that which hath hapned in this Age doth not alter the Case nay the present Confederacy is a Demonstration that it is the Sense of Mankind that the Publick quiet can be no longer secured by the Faith of Treaties and therefore that a firm Peace is only to be obtained by a thorough War For Men that having enriched themselves by Violence are fallen in love with it will love on till they lose by it then it will be seasonable To trust to Treaties the incapacity such Men shall be in to break them 〈…〉 Edward the 3d designed a Conquest and succeeded in it But there is here place for yet a more Noble Design that of a Redemption The Work of an Hero is not to mind his own Business only much less to do hurt to plunder the World with Alexander or ruine his own Countrey with Caesar but to do good chiefly to others to chain up the Disturbers of the Publick Peace to set Bounds to Exorbitant Power and the Will of Man and so to deserve the Blessings of those that were ready to perish All this the King my Master hath done by redeeming his own Countrey from Ruine and other Countreys from the danger of it in suffering them to become his own Thus endeavouring every where to stem the Inundations of the present Times as his Ancestors did those of theirs But to this not only the Example of the Soveraign invites those of the Order but the Order it self in a particular manner engages them Pugnare pro jure tuitione oppressorum indigentium To fight for the relief of the poor and the oppressed This Reason Humanity common Christianity and Interest too requires of all Men much more of Princes that are to act as Gods Vicegerents who Glories in nothing oftner than in his firm purposes to avenge and Protect Widows and Orphans and such others the Innocent though Unfortunate part of Mankind to wit by commanding all those that have power to do it to punish their Oppressors Thus it is here That a Capacity to do good not only gives a Title to it but makes the doing of it a Duty It is strange That among Christians in all Times there should have been some who doubted of this and have had narrower Thoughts of Heroical Enterprizes than either the Jews or Heathens had nay of whom some have believ'd all War to be unlawful since the Design of Christianity was to exalt our Natures to a higher and sublimer pitch of Perfection and not to stifle and undo with specious pretences that which is most Commendable in them the Inclinations and Ties we may have to do one another good The Jews of old had so Noble an Opinion of such Performances that they imputed them to Inspiration they thought that without extraordinary Assistances Men had neither Goodness nor Largeness of Soul sufficient for them It is true several among them endeavoured thus to defend the Irregularities that sometimes did accompany such Actions and supposed an express Order from God as necessary to justifie them Yet Rules and Laws are means for obtaining the ends which they relate to and in that relation cannot be too well observed but they are not the ends themselves which must still be pursued tho in another way if the ordinary way fails No doubt the Letter of the Law that upon great occasions opposes it self to the publick Safety which is intended by all Laws must needs be the Letter that kills This those high Pretenders came at last to understand and to