Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	power_n	son_n	12,372	5	5.6553	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96497	The grave and learned speech of Serjeant-VVilde, (journeyman-judge to the House of Commons) made at a conference with the Lords, the twelv'th ot Aug. 1648. concerning the bayling of Major Rolphe, who endeavored to murther the King.	Wilde, John, 1590-1669.	1648 (1648)	Wing W2161; Thomason E461_25; ESTC R205191	3,879	7

THE Grave and Learned Speech OF SERJEANT-VVILDE Journeyman-Judge to the House of Commons made at a Conference with the Lords the twelv'th of Aug. 1648. concerning the bayling of Major ROLPHE who endeavored to murther the KING Imprinted 1648. The Speech it selfe I Am commanded by the House of Commons to desire your Lordships concurrence with them for the bayling of Major Rolphe now prisoner in the Gate-house which they conceive and would have your Lordships beleeve is an act not more of favor than of justice Whether you consider as we doe the quality of his person or the Crime whereof he is accused For by his imprisonment not only his body is in great danger to be poysoned with the hellish smoake of Tobacco wherein only deboish't drunkards delight but his righteous-Soule also like Lotts in Sodom is vexed with the horrid blasphemous oathes and drinking of healths of the dam-me Cavalieres who for their Rebellion and Treason against the State are there justly imprisoned And surely my Lords in reason he ought to be bayled whether you looke upon him as a man and a Souldier whose life ought not to be neglected or as a new-Christian of whose precious Soule there ought to be a due regard both which to say truth he hath ventred for the good of the Re-publique and the preservation of all us who have the honour to sit here this day for the good of our Vtopia And who can tell if he should come to a legall-tryall how many of us hee might accuse as abettors of the intended Act But it may bee objected That the world takes notice of the Crime and that therefore though we know that some of your Lordships are of our minde even in this particular it would bee scandalous to bayle a man for Treason against the person of the King But my Lords I will as quickly remove that objection as I did that of counterfeiting the great-Seale of England and that briefly and in few words If no King then no Treason And no doubt if those Principles be true which wee have borrowed of the infallible chayre as the children of Israel did the Aegyptians jewels It is evident that the person whom this worthy Gentleman is supposed would have murthered by poyson or pistoll it is no matter whether is no King especially being contrived while our votes for no Addresses to him were in force Divers of the learned beyond the Sea and some on this side too though not booke learn'd hold That if a King bee Excommunicate hee is no longer a King and that it is lawfull at least it is not Treason to take him away And if so the validity of such Excommunication being from a forreigne-power and lesse inspired Then a fortiori if by us and our Assembly that have undoubted though till now unknown power and right he that was an unprofitable King bee for just causes of which wee are the sole Judges devested of all power by the sence of the two Houses Then I say hee is no King But Wee conjunctly are King of England as Master Prynne and Master Parker by many learned polite and prolixe Treatises seene and allowed by Master Saint-John our Sollicitor have beene more then sufficiently proved How else could wee have hang'd Yeomans and Bourcher who would have delivered up our City of Bristoll Or beheaded the two Hothams who upon second foolish conscientious Considerations would have restored the Towne of Hull to the pretended owner Or Carew who would have delivered up Plymouth to the enemy Or executed Tomkins and Challoner who would have set on foote the Commission of Aray in London Or to trusse up Burleigh not the least of my services who would have rescued the King from Carisbrook-prison Or to passe by many others Kniveton who came with the Kings-Writt to adjourn the Terme all whose Designes were only intentional none acted The least of which wee neither could nor durst have perpetrated had not the regall-Power resided in Us and if in Us then certainly in none other It being as mcuh against common reason to thinke that in regalitie the King and Parliament both have power as to say that Monarchy and Anarchy are or can be simul semel in one Kingdom And this I speake as a Lawyer being so by inheritance my Father though not of so publique a Spirit being so before mee Yet hee never was a Judge as I have beene both at Winchester and Canterbury as your Lordships well know And why may not I bee heire to my fathers Law as well as the Citizens sonnes of London though they have no skill in their fathers trade or Profession be made free by their fathers Copie Besides My Lords against this Gentleman there is a bare accusation or impeachment and that only by two prisoners whose testimonies in all circumstances agree not for I am sure there is great difference in their hand writings a point worthy your Lordships consideration But suppose they agreed both in circumstance and substance shall the testimony of two such men condemne so well deserving a man for a few foolish supposed Treasonable words or intentions and but against a titular King for wee are King in effect wee Judges of the Law he our prisoner Let us not My Lords give way to such a credulity It may concerne both your Lordships and us very much to bee well advised before wee resolve any thing to bee Treason acted against his person If what not only two but two thousand and I may say twenty thousand more doe daily and hourly say and would sweare concerning us should bee believed Lord what should become of us many thousands men and woemen now being bold to say That all wee of this righteous blessed and reforming Parliament are Rebells and Traytors Nay that wee are no Parliament but a Junto of Factious ambitious selfe-seeking and covetous men whereof more then the one halfe sit there illegally and keepe honester men out of their places That all our Votes Orders and Ordinances which are an unreasonable number are against reason and the knowne Lawes of the Realme And shall wee therfore believe them if wee doe then our owne Consciences which we have extended as far as may bee would condemne us And now My Lords if we neither doe nor may with safety believe so many witnesses against our selves though wee know the matter true why should wee believe only two against a man who for ought I know is as honest as any of us Nay My Lords I will go further yet and affirm That if a Jury of 12. men should condemne him yet in point of discretion reason of state we may and ought not only to baile this vertuous Gentleman but also to release and set him free And for this wee have a president within the memory of man and it was of an honourable Gentleman and a true Nathaniel whose father sits among you who was by a Councell of Warre condemned to dy as a Coward for surrendring up of