Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	gospel_n	law_n	life_n	7,267	5	5.2543	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66733	The law of laws, or, The excellencie of the civil law above all humane laws whatsoever by Sir Robert Wiseman ... ; together with a discourse concerning the oath ex officio and canonical purgation.	Wiseman, Robert, Sir, 1613-1684.; Lake, Edward, Sir, 1596 or 7-1674.	1664 (1664)	Wing W3113A; ESTC R33680	273,497	368

against 25 E. 3. in raising or bearing Arms or maintaining them against the King ipso facto ceases to be a Member of Parliament for that a Rebel and a Parliament-man are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And also if thought fit that the Judges of the Land consulting together should have declared as they did in King James his time in that case about Watson and Clerk the Seminary Priests that the Kings Coronation was but a Ceremony and that without it the King was a complete King that that Long Parliament was dissolved from such a day as they should have found by Law that it was dissolved or annulled whether it was from the time of His late Majesties expulsion from his Parliament as before or from the time of voting to live and dye with the Earl of Essex or of their Votes of no further addresses to the King who called them to consult with him whether they did not then openly dissolve themselves by refusing to consult with him or from his death when they could consult no more with him And also if thought fit that it should have been so declared and enacted that though the King had passed an Act that the Parliament should sit till they were dissolved by an Act of Parliament and that if it had been expressed that it should be so notwithstanding that His Majesty should dye in the interim yet such an Act could not bind him nor his Successor especially when in that Act for continuing that Parliament till by such Act it should be dissolved there is no such mention that it should continue after his death that called it and that the King cannot be concerned at leastwise concluded any wayes in any Act of Parliament to his damage prejudice or diminution of his royal Prerogative or Authority except at least he explicitely and freely consent to it be specially comprized and named in that Act to that purpose or whether he can though he so consent it following plainly that if by taking up Arms or bearing Arms against the King a Parliament-man ceases to be so nor can sit any longer in the House Then in that case none ought truly to be accounted secluded or excluded Members but onely these that would uot then vote to live and dye with the Earl of Essex nor would assent to the raising of arms against the King but thereupon left the House or were expelled thence either by the Votes of the rest or by menaces just fear that might incidere in constantem virum or by tumultuous force so that if the Parliament if not by the reasons aforesaid yet at least by the death of the King being dissolved as to think the contrary is most void of reason or truth if I say it had not been so dissolved then those secluded or excluded Members they onely ought to have been restored and none of the rest that acted against the King by taking up Arms against him or acting against him ought to have been restored Such offended against the Act of 25 E. 3. raising Arms against the King c. counterfeiting or making a new Great Seal c. and their being Members of Parliament being as before inconsistent and for the void places His Majesty to issue out Writs for free legal and new Elections And also that the keeping of the Records in the Tower The keeping of the Records in the Tower should be in the hands of a known trusty Loyalist and none other in regard of the danger of imbezelling or corrupting them by any person of other principles not affected to Monarchical government by Law established to the great damage of the King and his Subjects And also that the Militia The Militia and all Offices and places of trust and concernment for the peace and safety of the Kingdoms and for the prevention of future Faction Sedition and disturbance of such peace and endangering such safety should be committed onely to the hands and especially for a competent space of time as by such free and legal Parliament or by His Majesty shall be agreed upon of known experienc'd Loyalists and not to any that may be reasonably presumed or suspected to be otherwise That rule may somtimes hold and not be rejected Qui semel est malus semper praesumitur esse malus presertim in eodem genere delicti And also if thought fit Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy explained that the Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy should have had some explanation alteration or emendation especially in that point of not resisting the King In the second Homily of Obedience which book is confirmed by Act of Parliament it is there expressed in terminis as the Doctrine of the church of Engl. that it is not lawful in any case to resist the King That this should expresly have been put into these Oaths and that all persons whatsoever which are to take the Oaths of Allegeance or Supremacy or that have taken them may take them with such emendations it being too notorious what strange interpretations have been made of these Oaths as that they were made onely against the Papal power and as though nothing else were to be resisted And in the beginning of the Rebellion in Scotland the orthodox Divines of Aberdeen maintaining according to that Doctrine of the Church of England That in no case the King is to be resisted and that so to do was contrary to Gods Words and to the opinion and practice of the primitive Christians The other Divines fomentors of that Rebellion expresly denied this and alledged that the reason why the primitive Christians resisted not was because deerant illis vires the very same reason that Bellarmine gives for he same so well do these two Factions concur Though by the History of those times it appears and Tertullian openly pleads it against the Emperor that it was not for want of strength for they had enough but that it was contrary to their conscience guided by Gods Word so to resist And therefore why not much need that all persons whatsoever should take this Oath to declare their opinion in this point And also Robbery the law to be ●●tered if thought fit that the Law concerning Robbery ought to be in many cases and especially for the first offence mitigated and not made capital but that restitution be made to the party robbed and if the Robber be not able to do it then to be forced to work it out Which course some think would probably more terrifie idle persons that turn thieves who had rather dye desperately then lead perhaps a long and wearisom life Hereby many may repent and amend and do good service to their King and Countrey The party robbed also hereby gets restitution which seldom or never happens as the Law now is Our Law contrary to the practice in other parts of the Christian world hereby becomes harder then the Levitical Laws Some have hereupon said that the Gospel the Spirit killeth and the Letter giveth

life contrary to St. Paul which seemeth something Anti-Evangelical The yoke of the Gospel should be easie And also Against condemnation upon a single testimony if thought fit that none should be condemned to dye upon a single testimony when there is no other kind of proof by circumstances or violent or vehement presumptions equivalent to a witness that makes a kind of semiplena probatio at the least as in the Canon Law In the mouth of two or three witnesses every saying shall be confirmed sayes the Levitical Law which is repeated in the New Testament and in a manner at least is made Lex Evangelizata The Law-maker Truth Justice in the abstract could as well have said In ore unius vel duorum testium as duorum vel trium if he had thought it so fitting and yet as before the Gospel seems to pinch harder then the Law To that Objection That then many Malefactors would escape it may be answered That secret things belong to the Lord and to him they are to be left and that it is better ten Knaves should escape then one guiltless man should be hanged We have seen and heard how even in a manner miraculously God hath often revealed murther and great crimes that we may suppose that when such crimes cannot be in the ordinary way detected it pleases God they shall be done extraordinarily Many instances might be given of the sad consequences by putting to death upon the testimony of a single witnesse Judge Fortescue in his book De laudibus legum Angliae relates a passage about a Gentlewoman in Sarisbury that was put to death even burnt at a stake for murdering her husband and that sentence given upon the testimony of a single witness which witness not long after upon his death voluntarily and in a most penitent manner confessed he had given false witness against that Gentlewoman and that she was no wayes guilty of that murther for which she was put to death And Judge Fortescue there speaking of the Judge that gave sentence against her hath these words as I take it or to this effect the book is not now by me as they are there in the Latine version out of the Law French Soepius iste judex mihi fassus est quod nunquam in vita sua animum suum super hoc facto purgaret A notable instance this way to relate no more being numerous happened in London not many years since as 't is credibly reported A young man a Lawyers Clerk made love to a Gentlewomans Chamber-maid and a fellow-servant of the Chamber-maids keeping company much with her and the young man using also kind dalliance towards her she conceived that he loved her better then the Chamber-maid but afterwards perceiving she was mistaken she boyled with revenge against him and the Devil watching as a roaring Lion whom he may devour instigated her to accuse him of theft that he had stoln from her Masters house and taken away under his cloak a Silver Boll Upon this bare single testimony of hers the Jury found him guilty he was condemned and dyed for it Not long after the Chamber-maid grieving for the loss of her espoused husband seeing her fellow-servants Trunk or Box unlocked list up the Cover and there saw that very Boll which she very well knew for which the young man was condemned and suffered she calls up her master who found it to be the same Boll which she he shewing it to her could not deny upon this she was prosecuted condemned and suffered death and the Chamber-maid fell mad with grief and dyed And all this came from this judgment upon the testimony of a single witnesse Should any object That this might happen upon the testimony of two or more witnesses It is possible but not so probable and the safe way is to follow the Rule afore-mentioned In the case of Treason two witnesses are required and very requisite and in other crimes capital especially when also in many cases that are not capital two witnesses are required why might it not be reasonably expected though the atrocity of Treason is high yet as to the person offending and suffering the punishment by losse of life is little different And also Touching Juries if though sitting that Juries of life and death as also in other Actions both criminal and civil should be considered of and better Juries impanelled then often are and the Sheriff and Under-Sheriff and other inferiour Officers power in impannelling such Juries be looked after 40 s. per annum as is touched above was in the beginning of that Law or custom of tryal by Juries a good considerable estate and so the persons probably more considerable and knowing They anciently used to be twelve Knights so sayes Sir Edward Coke in his Comment upon Littletons Tenures citing Mr. Lambert Many instances might be given of the strange Verdicts given by some such Juries out of their ignorance or wilfulness or both who oftentimes expresly deny to follow the Judges directions but go quite contrary but I spare to instance them in reverence to the Law under which I was born and live and the practice thereof both which especially in most parts thereof are very excellent And we see what Pamphlets have been published by John Lilburn if not by others too affirming the power of Juries not as is commonly held to be onely in matter of fact but in matter of Law too and how they have controuled learned Judges in their Verdicts and obstinately carried it against them and how the meaning of that Axiom Ex facto jus oritur hath been extremely rack'd The meaning of Legalis homo to qualifie him to be of a Jury is not nor formerly was meant to be onely a man of 40 s. per annum but to be at least in some good measure in legibus peritus as some are of opinion and so as it were a kind of assistant to the Judge And also if thought sitting New Laws to be made upon new accidents that new Laws should be made upon emergencies and accidents when they happen and are notorious and publickly known be the crimes never so heynous and horrid Till they have happened it may be thought fit not to make a prohibitory Law against them for the reason afore mentioned Ne dum prohibent jubent As namely of making Eunuches of men or women Making of Eunuchs That case may be remembred of the Horse-gelder in Nottinghamshire that spayed a young woman and being a casus omissus the Judge could find it no more then a misdemeanour It hath been anciently forbidden by the Imperial Laws and the punishment is capital Cod. de Eunuchis lib 4 tit 4.2 l. 1. The stealing of a Winding-sheet out of a Grave That abominable basenesse of a woman and a Mastiff-dog Stealing of the Winding-sheet out of the Grave not far from Temple-bar London not many years since if the Law be not plain enough in that case that it may