Selected quad for the lemma: state_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A59095
|
Table-talk, being discourses of John Seldon, Esq or his sense of various matters of weight and high consequence, relating especially to religion and state.
|
Selden, John, 1584-1654.
|
1696
(1696)
|
Wing S2438; ESTC R3639
|
74,052
|
204
|
three Estates are the Lord 's Temporal the Bishops are the Clergy and the Commons as some would have it take heed of that for then if two agree the third is involv'd but he is King of the Three Estates 6. The King hath a Seal in every Court and tho the Great Seal be called Sigillum Angliae the Great Seal of England yet 't is not because 't is the Kingdom 's Seal and not the Kings but to distinguish it from Sigillum Hiberniae Sigillum Scotiae 7. The Court of England is much alter'd At a solemn Dancing first you had the grave Measures then the Corrantoes and the Galliards and this is kept up with Ceremony at length to French-more and the Cushion-Dance and then all the Company dances Lord and Groom Lady and Kitchen-Maid no Distinction So in our Court in Queen Elizabeth's time Gravity and State were kept up In King Jame's time things were pretty well But in King Charles's time there has been nothing but French-more and the Cushion-Dance omnium gatherum tolly polly hoite come toite The King 1. 'T IS hard to make an Accomodation between the King and the Parliament If you and I fell out about Money you said I ow'd you Twenty Pounds I said I ow'd you but Ten Pounds it may be a third Party allowing me twenty Marks might make us Friends But if I said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Silver and you said I ow'd you twenty Pounds in Diamonds which is a Summ innumerable 't is impossible we should ever agree This is the Case 2. The King using the House of Commons as he did in Mr. Pymm and his Company that is charging them with Treason because they charg'd my Lord of Canterbury and Sir George Ratcliff it was just with as much Logick as the Boy that would have lain with his Grandmother us'd to his Father you lay with my Mother why should not I lie with yours 3. There is not the same Reason for the King 's accusing Men of Treason and carrying them away as there is for the Houses themselves because they accuse one of themselves For every one that is accused is either a Peer or a Commoner and he that is accused hath his Consent going along with him but if the King accuses there is nothing of this in it 4. The King is equally abus'd now as before then they flatter'd him and made him do ill Things now they would force him against his Conscience If a Physician should tell me every thing I had a mind to was good for me tho' in truth 't was Poison he abus'd me and he abuses me as much that would force me to take something whether I will or no. 5. The King so long as he is our King may do with his Officers what he pleases as the Master of the House may turn away all his Servants and take whom he please 6. The King's Oath is not security enough for our Property for he swears to Govern according to Law now the Judges they interpret the Law and what Judges can be made to do we know 7. The King and the Parliament now falling out are just as when there is foul Play offer'd amongst Gamesters one snatches the others stake they seize what they can of one anothers 'T is not to be ask'd whether it belongs not to the King to do this or that before when there was fair Play it did But now they will do what is most convenient for their own safety If two fall to scuffling one tears the others Band the other tears his when they were Friends they were quiet and did no such thing they let one anothers Bands alone 8. The King calling his Friends from the Parliament because he had use of them at Oxford is as if a Man should have use of a little piece of Wood and he runs down into the Cellar and takes the Spiggot in the mean time all the Beer runs about the House when his Friends are absent the King will be lost Knights Service 1. KNights Service in earnest means nothing for the Lords are bound to wait upon the King when he goes to War with a Foreign Enemy with it may be one Man and one Horse and he that doth not is to be rated so much as shall seem good to the next Parliament And what will that be So 't is for a private Man that holds of a Gentleman Land 1. WHen Men did let their Land underfoot the Tenants would fight for their Landlords so that way they had their Retribution but now they will do nothing for them may be the first if but a Constable bid them that shall lay the Landlord by the Heels and therefore 't is vanity and folly not to take the full value 2. Allodium is a Law Word contrary to Feudum and it signifies Land that holds of no body We have no such Land in England 'T is a true Proposition all the Land in England is held either immediately or mediately of the King Language 1. TO a living Tongue new Words may be added but not to a dead Tongue as Latin Greek Hebrew c. 2. Latimer is the Corruption of Latiner it signifies he that interprets Latin and though he interpreted French Spanish or Italian he was call'd the King's Latiner that is the King's Interpreter 3. If you look upon the Language spoken in the Saxon Time and the Language spoken now you will find the Difference to be just as if a Man had a Cloak that he wore plain in Queen Elizabeth's Days and since here has put in a piece of Red and there a piece of Blue and here a piece of Green and there a piece of Orange-tawny We borrow Words from the French Italian Latin as every Pedantick Man pleases 4. We have more Words than Notions half a Dozen Words for the same thing Sometimes we put a new signification to an old Word as when we call a Piece a Gun The Word Gun was in use in England for an Engine to cast a thing from a Man long before there was any Gun-powder found out 5. Words must be fitted to a Man's Mouth 't was well said of the Fellow that was to make a Speech for my Lord Mayor he desir'd to take measure of his Lordship's Mouth Law 1. A Man may plead not guilty and yet tell no Lye for by the Law no Man is bound to accuse himself so that when I say Not Guilty the meaning is as if I should say by way of Paraphrase I am not so Guilty as to tell you if you will bring me to a Tryal and have me punish'd for this you lay to my Charge prove it against me 2. Ignorance of the Law excuses no man not that all Men know the Law but because 't is an excuse every Man will plead and no Man can tell how to confute him 3. The King of Spain was outlaw'd in Westminster-Hall I being of Council against him A Merchant had recover'd Costs against him in a
to command that is where he must be obeyed so is every Supream Power and Prince They that stretch his Infallibility further do they know not what 5. When a Protestant and a Papish dispute they talk like two Mad-men because they do not agree upon their Principles the one way is to destroy the Pope's Power for if he hath Power to command me 't is not my alledging Reasons to the contrary can keep me from obeying For Example if a Constable command me to wear a green Suit to Morrow and has Power to make me 't is not my alledging a hundred Reasons of the Folly of it can excuse me from doing it 6. There was a Time when the Pope had Power here in England and there was excellent Use made of it for 't was only to serve Turns as might be manifested out of the Records of the Kingdom which Divines know little of If the King did not like what the Pope would have he would forbid the Pope's Legate to land upon his Ground So that the Power was truly then in the King though suffered in the Pope But now the Temporal and the Spiritual Power Spiritual so call'd because ordain'd to a Spiritual End spring both from one Fountain they are like to twist that 7. The Protestants in France bear Office in the State because though their Religion be different yet they acknowledge no other King but the King of France The Papists in England they must have a King of their own a Pope that must do something in our Kingdom therefore there is no reason they should enjoy the same Priviledges 8. Amsterdam admits of all Religions but Papists and 't is upon the same Account The Papists where e'er they live have another King at Rome all other Religions are subject to the present State and have no Prince else-where 9. The Papists call our Religion a Parliamentary Religion but there was once I am sure a Parliamentary Pope Pope Urban was made Pope in England by Act of Parliament against Pope Clement The Act is not in the Book of Statutes either because he that compiled the Book would not have the Name of the Pope there or else he would not let it appear that they medled with any such thing but 't is upon the Rolls 10. When our Clergy preach against the Pope and the Church of Rome they preach against themselves and crying down their Pride their Power and their Riches have made themselves Poor and Contemptible enough they dedicate first to please their Prince not considering what would follow Just as if a Man were to go a Journey and seeing at his first setting out the Way clean and fair ventures forth in his Slippers not considering the Dirt and the Sloughs are a little further off or how suddenly the Weather may change Popery 1. THE demanding a Noble for a dead body passing through a a Town came from hence in time of Popery they carried the dead Body into the Church where the Priest said Dirgies and twenty Dirgies at four Pence a piece comes to a Noble but now it is forbidden by an Order from my Lord Marshal the Heralds carry his Warrant about them 2. We charge the Prelatical Clergy with Popery to make them odious tho' we know they are guilty of no such thing Just as heretofore they call'd Images Mammets and the Adoration of Images Mammetry that is Mahomet and Mahometry odious Names when all the World knows the Turks are forbidden Images by their Religion Power State 1. THere is no stretching of Power 't is a good Rule Eat within your Stomach Act within your Commission 2. They that govern most make least Noise You see when they row in a Barge they that do drudgery-work slash and puff and sweat but he that governs sits quietly at the Stern and scarce is seen to stir 3. Syllables govern the World 4. All Power is of God means no more than Fides est servanda When St. Paul said this the People had made Nero Emperour They agree he to command they to obey Then Gods comes in and casts a hook upon them keep your Faith then comes in all Power is of God Never King dropt out of the Clouds God did not make a new Emperour as the King makes a Justice of Peace 5. Christ himself was a great observer of the Civil Power and did many things only justifiable because the State requir'd it which were things meerly Temporary for the time that State stood But Divines make use of them to gain Power to themselves as for Example that of Die Ecclesiae tell the Church there was then a Sanhedrim a Court to tell it to and therefore they would have it so now 6. Divines ought to do no more than what the State permits Before the State became Christian they made their own Laws and those that did not observe them they Excommunicated naughty men they suffered them to come no more amongst them But if they would come amongst them how could they hinder them By what Law by what Power they were still subject to the State which was Heathen Nothing better expresses the Condition of Christians in those times than one of the meetings you have in London of Men of the same Country of Sussex-Men or Bedfordshire-Men they appoint their Meeting and they agree and make Laws amongst themselves He that is not there shall pay double c. and if any one mis-behave himself they shut him out of their Company But can they recover a Forfeiture made concerning their Meeting by any Law Have they any power to compel one to pay but afterwards when the State became Christian all the Power was in them and they gave the Church as much or as little as they pleas'd and took away when they pleas'd and added what they pleas'd 7. The Church is not only subject to the Civil Power with us that are Protestants but also in Spain if the Church does Excommunicate a Man for what it should not the Civil Power will take him out of their Hands So in France the Bishop of Angiers alter'd something in the Breviary they complain'd to the Parliament at Paris that made him alter it again with a comme abuse 8. the Parliament of England has no Arbitrary Power in point of Judicature but in point of making Law only 9. If the Prince be servus natura of a servile base Spirit and the Subjects liberi Free and Ingenuous oft-times they depose their Prince and govern themselves On the contrary if the People be Servi Natura and some one amongst them of a Free and Ingenuous Spirit he makes himself King of the rest and this is the Cause of all changes in State Common-wealths into Monarchies and Monarchies into Common-wealths 10. In a troubled State we must do as in foul Weather upon the Thames not think to cut directly through so the Boat may be quickly full of Water but rise and fall as the Waves do give as much as conveniently we can