Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	authority_n	law_n	legislative_a	2,620	5	12.4064	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64608	Logopandecteision, or, An introdvction to the vniversal langvage digested into these six several books, Neaudethaumata, Chrestasbeia, Cleronomaporia, Chryseomystes, Nelcadicastes, & Philoponauxesis / by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie ...	Urquhart, Thomas, Sir, 1611-1660.	1653 (1653)	Wing U137; ESTC R3669	114,144	164

Genealogie of our House lately published is more fully deduced 65. But this other kinde of transgression being in a matter onely twixt subject and subject it follows that the successor of neither the prodigal nor covetous man should eo nomine be punished much less should any for his predecessors covetousness be rewarded nothing more shocking against common sense it self then to make the recompence for vertue be the reward of vice whereby the very pillars of equity would be quite subverted and overthrown 66. How can it then be called Justice that the successor of the Prodigal for no other reason but his predecessors prodigality shall have his whole inheritance discerned to be the inheritance of the son of a covetous man and that meerly for his covetousness the onely recommendable quality for which he obtains it being a constant purpose and resolution to hook his neighbours means unto him by eights and tens in the hundred and other such baits whereby improvident and inconsiderate men of great Revenues are oftentimes entangled 67. Were it not less prejudicial to the Publike and more equitable in it self that a covetous man should forgo both of his principal and interest then that he who is neither prodigal nor covetous should be denuded of the estate of his forefathers which never was acquired by him that contracted the debt 68. Although the Lords of the Session or any other inferiour Judicature were never invested with power to judge otherways then according to the Customs of the Country positively written and Municipal Laws of the Land of Scotland yet the high Court of the Parliament of the Commonwealth by vertue of their Legislative authority may for the weal of the Publike transcend the bounds of any written Law much more that unto which they were never tied and of a stranger-Country now under their command 69. And as it is a common saying Interest Reipublicae nequis re sua male utatur so doth it very much concern the reputation of a Commonwealth that ancient considerable families be preserved from ruine if possible 70. If Creditors say they get injustice done to them by it I answer with Tacitus Dato sed non concesso quod habet iniqui contra singulos ulilitate publica rependitur or with Plutarch A justitia in parvis negotiis deflectendum est si ea uti volemus in magnis 71. For if it be lawful to cut off an arm for the preservation of the body how much more lawful is it to defalk somewhat from the exorbitant sums of merciless Creditors for the preservation of an ancient family in favour of him that never was the debtor seeing the Commonweal for his appearance of good service thereto may be highly concerned in his fortune 72. These few points I have premitted to make those Creditors pliable to Reason in undergoing any such course as it shall please the State to command or perswade them to who as I make account will take them from off my hand and settle me with freedom in the inheritance of my predecessors and that for the reasons formerly mentioned 73. Although the State pay them not to the full or perhaps pay them for so much as concerns me with a pardon yet ought they to be thankful to the State for what is left them and not grumble at the Publike severity that others no less faulty then they have sustained a milder lash seeing as in the Edecimation of Criminal Souldiers the nine associates have no reason to complain of partiality because the tenth escapes unpunished it becometh these aforesaid Creditors to remain contented with that mercy to others which proceeds from those who are just to them although they suffer by it nam plurimis damnum infligitur quibus nulla fit injuria And such of them as are most clamorous in seeking considering what benefit by usurious bargains they had from my father though they neither from the State nor me get any thing at all can be no losers 74. However it go I should not be deprived of my fore-fafathers Lands because of many reasons which I have already deduced Nor is this unwillingness in me to part from my Land a vice as is their tenaciousness in keeping of money for si parva licet componere magnis as the King of Spain spent in the defence of Flanders more Ryals of eight then would cover the face of the whole Country as is commonly reported so to preserve my inheritance whatever it cost it defends the honour and reputation of the House which I represent 75. And ingenuously as when I collationed in the fiftieth Article of this same Book Prodigality with Covetousness viz. that Prodigality whereby one lavishly expendeth his rents and unnecessarily involveth himself into a Labyrinth of debt and not that other which by alienating his Predecessors ancient inheritance destroyeth the whole stock in so far as lies in him I did prefer Prodigality to Covetousness as the lesser vice so should I now compare with the covetousness of an Usurer the profuseness of him that maketh no conscience to dispone unto strangers the Land of his Ancestors I would find his fault a great deal more unpardonable then that of the Usurer 76. For who turnes his Land into money devirilizeth and emasculates what is naturally procreative and by consequence bending his course to what is more imperfect deserveth greater blame then who to the Eunuch and Spadonian money allowes a constant pregnancy by imagining every peny to be both Father and Mother still begetting and still bearing and the child still growing per juxta Positionem whom if the Debtor find not beside the Parent at the semestral period he must educe another of the pre-supposed Bulk or lye by it as one that hath not faith enough because although both be unnatural yet for that the latter aymeth at what is of choicer worth it merits less imputation the intention of making what is barren fruitful albeit impossible to do being more commendable then of exchanging what is by nature fertile for that which produceth and bringeth forth nothing but rust and dross 77. However although by what is already said my declining to pay those men needed not be imputed to me for want of equity towards them in my proceedings they having received much from me and often and I from them never any thing at all my obligations to them being so prescinded from all specialities and particular restrictions that they never could shew neither what nor when nor time nor place nor any other circumstance whatsoever denotating the existence of any thing on earth wherewith to upbraid my acceptance yet I shall wish if so it please the Publike that they be satisfied and reimbursed of what they can with any kinde of reason demand 78. For as Julius Caesar after he had repudiated his wife being desired to call her home because the Judges had absolved her from that adultery whereof

that which makes this disease the more incurable is that when an exuberant spirit would to any high researched conceit adapt a peculiar word of his own coyning he is branded with Incivility if he apologize not for his boldness with a Quod ita dixerim parcant Ciceronianae manes Ignoscat Demosthenis genius and other such phrases acknowledging his fault of making use of words never uttered by others or at least by such as were most renowned for eloquence 24. Though Learning sustain great prejudice by this restraint of liberty to endenizon new Citizens in the Common-wealth of Languages yet do I conceive the reason thereof to proceed from this That it is thought a less incongruity to express a thing by circumlocution then by appropriating a single word thereto to transgress the bounds of the Language as in Architecture it is esteemed an error of less consequence to make a circuitory passage from one room to another then by the extravagancie of an irregular sallie to frame projectures disproportionable to the sound of the house 25. Thus is it that as according to the largeness of the plat of a building and compactedness of its walls the Workmaster contriveth his roofs platforms outjettings and other such like parts and portion of the whole just so conform to the extent and reach which a Language in its flexions and compositions hath obtained at first have the sprucest Linguists hitherto been pleased to make use of the words thereto belonging 26. The Bonification and virtuification of Lully Scotu's Hexeity and Albedineity of Suarez are words exploded by those that affect the purity of the Latine diction yet if such were demanded what other no less concise expression would comport with the neatness of that language their answer would be altum silentium so easie a matter it is for many to finde fault with what they are not able to amend 27. Nevertheless why for representing to our understandings the essence of accidents the fluency of the form as it is in fieri the faculty of the Agent and habit that facilitates it with many thousands of other such expressions the tearms are not so genuine as of the members of a mans body or utensils of his house the reason is because the first inventers of Languages who contrived them for necessity were not so profoundly versed in Philosophical quiddities as those that succeeded after them whose literature increasing procured their excursion beyond the representatives of the common objects imagined by their forefathers 28. I have known some to have built houses for necessity having no other aime before their eyes but barely to dwell in them who nevertheless in a very short space were so enriched that after they had taken pleasure to polish and adorn what formerly they had but rudely squared their moveables so multiplyed upon them that they would have wished they had made them of a larger extent 29. Even so though these Languages may be refined by some quaint derivatives and witty compositions like the striking forth of new lights and doors outjetting of Crenels erecting of prickets barbicans and such like various structures upon one and the same foundation yet being limited to a certain basis beyond which the versed in them must not pass they cannot roam at such random as otherwise they might had their Language been of a larger scope at first 30. Thus albeit Latine be far better polished now then it was in the days of Ennius and Livius Andronicus yet had the Latinists at first been such Philosophers as afterward they were it would have attained to a great deal of more perfection then it is at for the present 31. What I have delivered in freedome of the learned Languages I would not have wrested to a sinister sense as if I meant any thing to their disparagement for truly I think the time well bestowed which boyes in their tender yeers employ towards the learning of them in a subordination to the excellent things that in them are couched 32. But ingenuously I must acknowledge my averseness of opinion from those who are so superstitiously addicted to these Languages that they account it learning enough to speak them although they knew nothing else which is an errour worthy rebuke seeing Philosophia sunt res non verba and that whatever the signes be the things by them signified ought still to be of greater worth 33. For it boots not so much by what kind of tokens any matter be brought into our minde as that the things made known unto us by such representatives be of some considerable value not much unlike the Innes-a-court-gentlemen at London who usually repairing to their commons at the blowing of a horn are better pleased with such a signe so the fare be good then if they were warned to courser cates by the sound of a Bell or Trumpet 34. Another reason prompteth me thereto which is this That in this frozen Climate of ours there is hardly any that is not possessed with the opinion that not only the three fore-named Languages but a great many other whom they call Originals whereof they reckon ten or eleven in Europe and some fifty eight more or thereabouts in other Nations were at the confusion of Babel immediately from God by a miracle infused into men being induced to believe this not so much for that they had not perused the interpretation of the Rabbies on that text declaring the misunderstanding whereunto the builders were involved by diversity of speech to have proceeded from nothing else but their various and diserepant pronunciation of one and the same Language as that they deemed Languages to be of an invention so sublime that naturally the wit of man was not able to reach their composure 35. Some believe this so pertinaciously that they esteem all men infidels that are of another faith whilst in the mean while I may confidently assever that the assertors of such a tenet doe thereby extremely dishonour God who doing whatever is done by nature as the actions of an Ambassador as an Ambassador are reputed to be those of the Soveraign that sent him would not have the power he hath given to nature to be disclaimed by any or any thing said by us in derogation thereof 36. Should we deny our obedience to the just decree of an inferiour judge because he from whom his authority is derived did not pronounce the sentence Subordinate Magistrates have their power even in great maters which to decline by saying they have no authority should make the averrer fall within the compass of a breach of the Statute called scandalum magnatum 37. There are of those with us that wear gowns and beards longer then ever did Aristotle and Aesculapius who when they see an Eclipse of the Sun or Moon or a comet in the aire straight would delude the commons with an opinion that those things are immediately from God for the sins of the people as if no naturall cause could be produced for such like

and thundring upon me charges as unwelcom to any generous Spirit as is the touch of an Ibis Penne to a Crocodile have so fretted galled and pricked me to the very Soul that all the Faculties thereof have by them been this great while most pitilesly and atrociously inslaved and incarcerated in the comfortless dump of searching for wherewith to close their yawning mouths and stop their gaping 19. For truly I may say that above ten thousand severall times I have by those Flagitators been interrupted for money which never came to my use directly or indirectly one way or other at home or abroad any one time whereof I was busied about Speculations of greater consequence then all that they were worth in the world from which had not I been violently pluck'd away by their importunity I would have emitted to publick view above five hundred several Treatises on inventions never hitherto thought upon by any 20. But as a certain Shepheard on a time according to the Epimythist would have perswaded the Fox not to destroy his flock till he had got their fleeces the wool whereof was to be employed in Cloth for the royal Robes of the Soveraign of the Land unto whom the Fox replied That his main interest being to fatten himself and his cubbs he did not find himself so much concerned in either Soveraign or Subject that upon any such pretext how specious soever he would leave his terrier unmagazined of all manner of provision competent for his vulpecularie family 21. Even so may I avouch that the nature of the most part of this strange kind of Flagitators being without any consideration or regard to the condition of a Gentleman or whether the improvement or impairing of his Fortunes should further or retard the progress of the Countries Fame totally to employ themselves in a coin-accumulating way towards the multiplying of their trash and heedful accrescing of the Mammon drosse wherein their Lucre-hailing minds and consopiated Spirits lie intombed and imburyed 22. For again as the old Hyena of Quinzie as it is reported in some Outlandish stories after he had seized upon the sublimest witted Gymnosophist of that Age on purpose to feed upon him being a Hungred did vilifie and misregard the tears and sorrow justly shed and conceived by the Inhabitants of that populous and magnificent City for the apparent loss of such unparallelled wisdom and exquisite Learning as through the death of so prime a Philosopher was like for ever to redound to the whole Empire of China and altogether postposing them to the satisfying of his base appetite with one poor meal of meat and that only in a sorry breakfast he was to take out of his bowels killed him tore him in peeces and greedily snatched up that repast the better to dispose his stomach within three houres thereafter for another of the like nature 23. Just so amongst many of my Fathers Creditors hath there bin a generation of such tenacious Publicans that cared so little what the Countrey in general might be concerned in any mans private interest though much by some singular good friends of mine hath been spoke to them in my own particular that through their Cruelty and extreme hard usage I have beene often necessitated to supply out of my Brains what was deficient in my Purse and provide from a far what should have been afforded at home one half tearms Interest although but of a Pettie and trivial Summe being in their eyes of more esteem then the Quintessence of all the Liberal Arts together with that of the Moral Vertues epitomized in the person of any though imbellished to the Boot with all other accomplishments whatsoever for discategorically in despight of all order by marshalling quality after habere they have still preferred the possession of a little Lumber and baggagely Pelf to all the Choicest perfections of both body and mind 24. And indeed to speak ingenuously as the Sparrow whom a late Archbishop of Canterbury weeped to see as often forced to fall back as it strove to flye upwards by reason of a little Peeble stone fast at the end of a string that was tyed to her foot the contemplatively devout Prelate thereby considering that the sincerest minds even of the most faithfull are oftentimes impedited from soaring to their intended height because of the clog of worldly incumbrances which depresseth them 25. Even so may it be said of my self that when I was most seriously imbusied about the raising of my own and Countries reputation to the supremest reach of my endeavours then did my Fathers Creditors like so many milstones hanging at my heels pull down the vigour of my Fancie and violently hold at under what other wayes would have ascended above the sublimest regions of Vulgar conception 26. Thus I being as another Andromeda chained to the Rock of hard usage and in the view of all my Compatriots exposed to the merciless Dragon Usurie I most humbly beseech the Soveraign Authority of the Countrey like another Perseus mounted on the winged Pegasus of Respect to the weal and honour thereof to releeve me by their power from the eminent danger of the jaws of so wild a monster 27. Which maketh the very meanest and most frivolous summe of any like the Giant Ephialtes who grew nine Inches every moneth immensely to ●pread forth its exuberant members without any other sustenance or nourishment then the meer invisible Flux of time that starveth all things else untill it extend it self at last to a mighty huge Colossus of Debt able like that of the Rhodes to take fastning upon two territories at once 28. And in recompence of a so illustrious and magnificent action unto the State of this Land as fittest patron for such a present will I tender some of the aforesaid moveables whose value I doe warrantably make account to be of no less extent then in the estimation of all the Universities of both Nations other pregnant Spirits of approved Literature shall centuplate the worth of the whole money that for debt can be asked by those Creditors out of the profoundest exorbitancy of their Covetousness 29. By my appealing thus to a Judicatorie conflated of the prime lights of the Isle and who as all wise men else do more magnifie and extoll the endowments of the mind then those of either body or fortune it is very perceptible unto which of these three branches of good this offer of mine is to be reduced 30. No man will deny that is not destitute of common sense but that Scotus and Sacrobosco brought more reputation to Scotland by their learned writings then if they had enriched it with Gallioons loaded full of gold and that it had been better for that Nation to have lost many millions of Angels then that through penurie or any other accident the workes of those Gallant men had been buried in Oblivion 31. For as in both body