Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	find_v	heart_n	lord_n	5,269	5	3.7260	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29560	The Earle of Bristoll his speech in the House of Lords the XX day of July 1660 upon the bill of indempnity	Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4772; ESTC R30250	2,810	7

THE Earle of Bristoll HIS SPEECH IN THE House of Lords The XX Day of July 1660. upon the BILL of INDEMPNITY LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1660 THE EARLE of BRISTOLL HIS SPEECH IN THE HOUSE of LORDS My Lords BEING to speak unto Your Lordships somewhat more extendedly than is my use and upon a Subject wherein there may be perhaps not onely difference but even fervour of Opinions I find my self obliged by som●●what that happened to me here the oth●● day to beg a favour of Your Lordships t●●● if I should chance to erre in formes and orders of the House 〈◊〉 that there should slip from me unawares any expression th●● may be dissonant to the ears of those who understand b●●●●● than I the force and propriety of words You will not be se●●● unto me but be pleased to consider That I have been six●● years out of my Countrey and in a profession far differing fr●● what I am now a doing In confidence of this Indulgence I sh●●● proceed MY LORDS YOU have here before you in this Bill of Indempnity the most important Business that perhaps the House of Peers hath at any time had in deliberation it is that upon which the Honour or eternal Reproch of the Nation abroad and its Happinesse or Confusion at home seems next under Gods inscrutable providence most principally to depend For on the one side how abhorr'd a Nation must we needs be to all others if the Infamy of our Sovereigns Murther should not be throughly washed away by Justice in the bloud of the guilty And on the other what happiness or quiet can we hope for at home nay what new combustions ought we not to apprehend if the Criminal and the Misled between whom the Eye of the Law can make little distinction making up so numerous a part of the Nation their fears which might urge them to new Crimes should not be secured by the firmest assurances of Impunity Punishing and Securing are certainly the two principal ends of this Bill and wherein as certainly every one of Your Lordships doth concur but whether the means of attaining those ends have been sufficiently lighted upon by the House of Commons ●n this Bill That I suppose is the present Question and where●● I think my self in duty obliged to expresse unto Your Lord●●ips with freedom and sincerity my Judgment in all humble ●●●mission unto Yours As for that part of the Bill which relates to Our Sovereigns ●●rther I find it so short and so much out of the way of what ●e owe both to the severity and solemnity of that Revenge ●●●t I cannot but think it in some sort pardon the expression ●rophanation of the due Rites of that sacred Expiation to ●●ndle it in the same Bill promiscuously with other more vulgar things My Motion therefore shall be That there be forthwith a Committee appointed to consider of all things fit to be done for the washing away of that Stain from the Nation and from the Age wherein we live and to draw up an Act purposely and solely for that end In confidence that this Motion will either be embraced by Your Lordships or that if it be opposed I shall have the liberty to fortifie it by my Reasons I shall set that business apart and apply my discourse to what concerns this Bill in all other relations In which I shall not make nice to tell Your Lordships that I think it defective in many things reasonable and redundant in some things unreasonable and yet notwithstanding not onely my humble Motion but my most earnest pressure as far as with humility I may shall be That We may proceed immediately to the Passing of this Bill with little or no alteration This my Lords may appear a surprising motion from a Person thought to be as indeed I am as much inflamed as any man living with Indignation at the detestable proceedings of the late usurped Power so pernicious to the Publick and so injurious to my own particular in whom the motion may seem yet more surprising when I shall have told You with truth That I am irreparably ruined in my fortune for my Loyalty if this Bill of Indempnity to others for their Disloyalty should passe as it is here offered unto Your Lordships But the ground I go upon is this received Maxime as to all publick Sanctions Better a Mischief than an Inconvenience yea Better innumerable Mischiefs to particular Persons and Families than one heavy Inconvenience to the Publick My Lords I profess unto You I find my self set on fire when I think that the bloud of so many vertuous and meritorious Persons Peeres and others of all ranks so cruelly and so impiously shed should cry so loud for vengeance and not finde it from Us That many of the wickedest and meanest of the people should remain as it were rewarded for their Treasons rich and triumphant in the spoiles of the most eminent in Vertue and Loyalty of all the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom What generous Spirit can make reflection on these things and not find his heart burn into rage within him Here it is My Lords that we sufferers have need of all Our Philosophy But when I consider that these are mischiefs only to the sufferers and that to insist upon a remedy might perhaps expose the publick to an irreparable inconvenience I thank God I find in an instant all my resentments calmed and Submitted to my primary duty My Lords We have here in Our view a Kingdom tossed and rowling still with the effects of past Tempests and though God be thanked the storm be miraculously ceased we can not say that the danger is untill we get into Still Water That Still that Smooth Water is only to be found in the Generalities security from their guilty feares and in the Two Houses Union between themselves and with their Soveraign Whether the latter may not be endangered if we should enter into Controversie upon the particulars of this Bill I leave unto Your Lordships to judge But certainly as to the former there can be no hopes of raising Moneys of disbanding Armies or of settling that Happiness and Tranquillity which We all sigh for of being governed under Our Gracious Soveraign by the Ancient and known Lawes of the Land whilst universal feares shall subsist by the delay in passing this Bill My Lords I shall summe up unto Your Lordships my whole drift in a few words I think that in this Bill there are many things wanting which solid and important reasons would require to be added and many things inserted into it which Justice to His Majesties interests and to particular persons would require to be omitted of rectified But I conceive at the same time that the mischiefs of the delay in passing it do far out-weigh all the advantages of improving it My Lords I shall conclude my discourse and Your Lordships trouble with the application to this purpose of a memorable saying of that Illustrious Minister the Cardinall Mazarins at a Council in the Wars of France whereunto I had the honour to be called It was That in the great affaires of the World He had not known any thing do more hurt then these two words Faisons Mieux let us do better For said he whilst good Wits endeavour by debates to bring good Counsels to a greater perfection they do for the most part lose the opportunity of timeing things rightly which in great actions is of far more importance then the preference according to refined reason betwixt Good and Better Upon this ground my conclusion is that that part which concerns the Kings death being put in the way proposed we should proceed to the speedy passing of this Bill without losing any time in emendations but if we be destined to so fatall a losse by raveling into particulars I shall in that case desire leave to offer unto Your Lordships therein my reflections also FINIS