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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	call_v	law_n	moral_a	2,598	5	9.2562	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93715	A modest plea for an equal common-wealth against monarchy. In which the genuine nature and true interest of a free-state is briefly stated: its consistency with a national clergy, mercenary lawyers, and hereditary nobility examined; together with the expediency of an agrarian and rotation of offices asserted. Also, an apology for younger brothers, the restitution of gavil-kind, and relief of the poor. With a lift at tythes, and reformation of the lawes and universities. All accommodated to publick honour and justice, without injury to any mans propriety, and humbly tendered to the Parliament. By a lover of his country in order to the healing the divisions of the times.	Sprigg, William, fl. 1657.	1659 (1659)	Wing S5078; Thomason E999_11; ESTC R203651	64,567	117

visible thing I humbly submit to serious consideration And if I am herein mistaken for I pretend not to Infallibility I should be thankful to any God shall be pleased to make use of as instruments to better inform me for I would willingly see and know my errours But if it be here objected that the Primitive times were times of persecution in which the Church was as it were under Hatches and Christianity in its Infancy and the Professors thereof forc'd to hide themselves in holes of the Rocks and Caves of the earth But now having gain'd ground upon the world and being in better plight and since it is come up out of Egypt from the House of Bondage from under the pressures afflictions persecutions and burdens of its Heathenish Task-masters under which it formerly groan'd ought according to the example of the Israelites be adorn'd with the spoil of the Heathen c. I answer That as the Kingdom of God comes not with observation so it consists not in any outward pomp and splendor Its said the Kings Daughter or Spouse of Christ is All-glorious within and by how much the more ground Christianity hath gain'd upon the world by so much the less need doth it now stand of the Wisdom and Learning of men to commend and propagate it then when it was to encounter with so great opposition and such potent Antagonists as under the Heathen Emperor it met withal And if the truth did then under all those disadvantages not onely make good its ground but so much gain'd upon the World when it had few other Champions than poor Fisher-men and illiterate Mechanicks how much less need it now fear brow-beating when the power of God hath subdued so many Nations to the knowledg and obedience of his truth and hath made Princes of the earth bow unto the Scepter of his Son Some dawnings of these truths began in a great measure to break forth upon that little Assembly which by way of scorn is commonly called Praise God Bare bones Parliament of whom many are able to bear this testimony that they were the first Power of this Nation that did most visibly own Christ in the purity and simplicity of the Gospel But Christs appearance in their meekness much like his riding to Jerusalem on an Ass was so far from being received with Hosanna's that it was utterly rejected and refused by the Policy and wisdom of this Generation which was unworthy of so great a mercy and indeed not ripe for that purity and simplicity of Reformation that they by a Spirit of Faith seem'd strongly carried forth unto Which eminently appear'd in their sudden striking at the root of two such potent Factions as the National Clergy and the Lawyers which they would hardly have done had they only consulted with flesh and blood or not steered the Course of their Counsels by something beyond the Compass of humane prudence And whether the Nation is yet willing to part with their Calves they have so long worshipped I know not but I am sure it hath pleased God to give them a great discovery of the corruption pride ambition and flattery of this sort of men how willing they could be to reap their own profit though sown in and springing from the ruine of the Nations liberty and felicity how willingly they could sell their brethren slaves into the hands of Tyranny and Oppression to purchase to themselves Dominion and Lordship I would not be taken for an Enemy to either the Magistracy or true Ministry as knowing they are the Ordinance of God and the very light and eyes of the world only that which I am chiefly mov'd to witness against is that unnatural divorce and seperation that is at this day found between them in Christian Common-wealths which I account no less contrary to the Maxime of true policy than the mind of God and precedent of its first institution And however it came to pass that the Civil Magistrate was thus trapan'd to have the Keys of the Church taken from him to be thrust out of the Temple as an unholy thing to be prohibited from Ministring at the Altar and so the better part of the blessing wrested from him to whom if any more than other it doth chiefly appertain and this by a company of Hirelings I know not but I think I may be bold to say it was not so in the beginning For first these two Functions of Magistracy and Ministry are united in their source and origen viz. Christ the supreme Head of the Church who is both King Priest and Prophet Secondly the Moral Law which we call the ten Commandments and the Judicial Laws of Moses given by God setting aside some Idioms and properties of them peculiarly relating to the Jewish Nation are the Rule and Standard for Civil Governours to rule by and the Equity of them is written in mens hearts by Nature and renewed by Christ Which being the common rule of our Obedience both towards God and Man plead much against that distinction of its Administrators viz. that of one Law there should be two Ministers especially in so great a distinction if not opposition as is found at this day Thirdly The two Functions were united in the ancient Patriarchs who were Kings Priests and Prophets in their several Tribes and Families which continued during the first Ages and more innocent time of the worlds Infancy during the time of Paternal the first and best of all Governments when if ever was that Golden Age so much mention'd by our Poets a time when Tyranny and Oppression were unknown But after the liberty of the world was invaded by Tyranny and Esau sold his Birth-right for a mess of pottage the Power of the two Swords became parted and to render the purchase of Empire more cheap and easie the ambitious Candidates of Dominion were willing to compound and part stakes permitting others to domineer in things of conscience so they would hold the stirrup for their ambition to get into the saddle of Civil rule and Empire by which means the Sword and the Keys might come first to be parted and so found in several hands which hath been the cause of most of those wars and deluges of blood that have been poured forth since the beginning of the world to wit by the clashing of the two Powers Civil and Ecclesiastick Now whether after the extirpation of Paternal Government and institution of the Order of Priesthood in Aarons family and the Tribe of Levi both Swords were retained in the same hand during the time of the Judges as also after that through the Jews Apostacy from God Kings were anointed is disputable Though this is certain they were not altogether excluded but did sometimes administer in spirituals as well as temporals for we often find the good Kings reading and expounding the Law unto the people according to the Obligation laid upon them by the command of God as also consecrating the Temple and blessing the people things

we now unbowel and trace unto its original this Name for which there have of late appeared so many Advocates I presume it would be found of as ill complexion as the word Tyrant was accounted amongst the Greeks the english word King being but the abreviate of Cunning the usual epithite as all men know of Knaves and to speak the truth experience hath made good though never so great a Saint hath sate upon the Thone the Divel and a Bishop hath ever stept into the Office For I am not of that fond opinion that Kings are not capable in their private equalities of like virtues and qualifications with other men but that notwithstaanding their accomplishments how excellent how bright how orient soever are their personal virtues they stand on slippery places and their dignities their interests their parasites their flatterers are snares too great for them to retain their integrity and therefore that the Talent of Soveraign Power is too great too pretious to be intrusted or deposited in one mans hand though an Angel least so great a temptation should endanger his fall and make him appostate to a Divel That Kings are Gods scourges and given in wrath we have the testimonie of Scripture Nimrod was a great hunter a mighty man a great oppressor and the first King or Prince we read of the first that invaded the liberty of the World that first usurped Authority and presumed to exercise Dominion over his brethren the first that put a period to that Golden Age wherein no other then paternal Government was known But though thus nigh the morning of time God sent his scourge Nimrod as a just plague amongst the other Nations of the Earth yet the people of God the seed of Abraham the children of Israel were a long while after free a Free-State and enjoyd their native libertys till the time of Samuel when they rebelled and desired a King like the other Nations that they might be like the Heathen whom God had cast out which God construed no other then Apostacy and rejecting of him then rebellion and high treason against his own divine Majesty and said They have rejected me and then tells them what would be the issue fruit and product thereof They should give away their liberty and be subjected to an arbitrary power and become the slaves and vassals of their King who should take their sons and their daughters to make them his servants and send them forth to fight his battels that is to be the instruments of his pride and luxury and the champions of his malice and ambition And then he should destroy their propriety and take away their houses and their vineyards and give them to his servants Thus the Spirit of God gives the same description of a King as of what we call a Tyrant a Nero a Monster as if they were all one and it were essential to the nature of the office or dignity to be a Beast of prey a Leviathan an oppressor and devourer of the people which charracter hath been too easie to be read in the lives of most of the best Kings whose names are not taken off the file of memory Now as for those that would have a mock a counterfeit a limitted King a King and no King an empty Title a bare Name vox preterea nihil or I know not what They propose a remedy worse then the disease for to divide the Soveraignty is to lay a Scene of blood to sow the seed of a perpetual civil war and intail ruine on our selves and posterity what is divided cannot stand there will spring up perpetual jealousies fears and annimosities which will cause intrenchings on each others authority until the one have supplanted and overturned the other this is to institute a civil war Anarchy and confusion instead of a well ordered Common-wealth or Politie Having thus unmask'd the true nature of Monarchy which is no other then the more gentle or civil expression of Tyranny I shall endeavour to obviate some of the most plausible and strenuous arguments by whose strength and stabillity it 's endeavoured to be obtruded and our assents conciliated to the reception thereof One of the grand arguments whereby the betrayers of our Liberty endeavour to decoy us into the Iron Yoak we have so lately shaked off is taken from our long use and custome to draw therein which hath made tlavery become almost a second nature to us and therefore endeavour to scare us from our liberty as a novel and dangerous thing as if servitude were more natural to a Nation then freedom or any custome could utterly expunge nature I am sure the former cannot reflect with greater disgrace or more derogate from the honour of our Nation that we should be of so course a mettal so base an allay of so Spaniel-like-couchant slavish and degenerate a spirit then the other doth deviate from truth but the worthy Advocates of this cause measure truth by the wicked Standard of their base and corrupt designs as they take the altitude of all other mens spirits though never so brave and elevated by the Jacobs staff of their own pitiful crowching fawning humour It would waste more inke and paper then I am either willing or have leasure to bestow should I shew how much the State of our Nation is altered and into how great an unsuitableness we are of late travelled unto that Government this argument would plead prescription for But of what weight or truth it is of will easily appear to any that have taken notice of that passage of our modern History of the last Century which concerns the gallant Hero Sir Philip Sidney who though born in that most unlukie juncture of time for producing brave spirits when the Nation truckled under the Government of a woman was yet thought worthy of the Polish Crown and had an overture in order to his election thereto had not his jealous Mistress prevented if then one born under the influences of a femal Government and not of the highest ranke of Nobility was thought fit to sway a Scepter of how great blasphemy against the honour of our Nation may they be thought guilty who say the free born people of England after they have broke the more ancient Norman Yoke and the more modern of a latter c. are not fit to enjoy that liberty that hath been the price of so much blood and Treasure But should we conceed all the argument seems to begg that our necks ate used to the Yoke and we are become familiar to servitude shall we therefore willingly suffer our ears to be bored to the posts of our new Masters doors and become slaves for ever shall we court our bonds and glory in that which is our shame shall we never learn to be free and value liberty shall we never emancipate our selves and posterity but intaile thraledome and slavery on them also to all generations For so long as we draw in this Yoke our condition is the