Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	government_n	king_n	monarchy_n	1,384	5	9.4516	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B12524	The elegant combat or, the mutuall entertainement between the two learned and famous Frenchmen Monseiur [sic] Du Moulin and Monseiur [sic] De Balzac Extracted out of the originall, by Robert Codrington master of arts. And dedicated to the truely ennobled Master Anthony Mildemay.	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Codrington, Robert, 1601-1665.; Balzac, Jean-Louis Guez, seigneur de, 1597-1654.	1634 (1634)	STC 7322.5; ESTC S113614	11,434	32

offended them vnworthy of their choller but hee hath followed his naturall inclination which hath carried him not only to pardon but to benefit also so that to be conquered by him is profitable Furthermore I haue alwaies beleeued that there is no worse estate then Anarchy in which euery one is a slaue because euery one is a master and where the excesse of liberty is the Cause of Slauery For this liberty bringeth licence and licence confusion and confusion slauery As the hand would be an vnproper instrument were the fingers all of an equall length So a multitude of equall persons moue not without inconuenience your maxime that it is dangerous to change euill lawes is true out of the businesse of Religion To subiect a Mans selfe by docility vnto lawes which lead unto hell is to breake the lawes of God and such who haue made those lawes shall not protect before God those who obey them But where nothing is to bee considered but the losse of goods and life it is better to vndergoe that vniust yoake then to bee exempted from it by troubling the publike peace by rebellion against the Soueraigne for the force of humane lawes doth not consist in this that they are iust but in that they are lawes and are made by them who haue Authority and albeit they haue something of vniust in them yet it is iust to obey them There are to bee found Estates who haue a long time liued in peace and prosperity vnder vniust Lawes well obserued and others liuing vnder iust Lawes but ill obserued haue fallen into ruine and confusion This peace and prosperity will bee allwayes found more durable in a Monarchy than in any other forme of State for it is the onely ciuill gouernement which imitates the gouernement of the vniuersall World where there is but one Master and all other States when they are much growne must of necessity come vnto it But of Monarchies subsisting at this day this of France hath the preheminence in Antiquity and good Lawes the moouing humour of our nation inclined to change is a cleere proofe that the State is well composed for it had long since ouerturned the State if the Pillars were not firme and the building well compacted Being borne vnder this Monarchy wee desire the prosperity of it and that the crowne of our King may be like the crowne of Egges which daily doth increase by Age. If our religion were generally receiued in France the Kings Maiestie should bee more exalted and his power should the more enlarge it selfe For the Pope should no more pretend to haue power ouer the life and the Crowne of our Kings and should vaunt no more that hee might depose them there should not in France bee any more iustice than that of the Kings Causes bred on this side the Alpes should not be called ouer to Rome The Clergie should bee subiect to Ciuill Lawes and should bee tryable before the Kings Iudges The Kingdome should no more bee exhausted of money that goes to Rome for Annats dispensations and pardons So many Lands possessed by the Clergy and thereby fallen into mortmaine should owe vnto the King the same seruices and duties which other Lands doe which are possest by the Nobility In briefe I dare say that the principall reason of the hatred which men beare to vs is because we defend by the Word of God the right of our Kings against the vsurpation of the Popes who make them kisse their pantofles and vnder the shadow of penance doe impose vpon them corporall punishments But this is our vnhappinesse that as the holy Scripture is a booke which is hid from Kings so in that which concernes the liberty and independance of their Crownes they learne nothing but from them whom the Pope holds bound by the belly But this is too much The pleasure which I take in entertaining you makes mee forget that I write an Epistle and not a booke and hath carried me beyond my limits that clause wherein you say that I would giue vnto a sedition the apparence of a iust warre hath urged me to take some kind of reuenge which hath bin this to tire you with the length of my letters yet it shall not hinder mee from admiring the beauty and the force of your wit I honour the guifts of God wheresoeuer they bee found on the other side also I hope that this little sharpenes which I haue vsed shall not depriue him of your fauours who honours you and who is Your most humble and affectionate seruant Du Moulin FINIS

is no modesty that can resist the praises that come from you and I should dissemble if I should not acknowledge that I tooke pleasure to suffer my selfe to be corrupted by the first lines of your letter but I must know my selfe a great deale lesse then I doe to remaine long in that errour A Man after he hath had a pleasant dream awaketh and I see well that after you have spoken so advantageously of my labour you have not vsed all the seuerity of your iudgement fauour you haue done me rather then iustice and have sought to oblige me though with the hazard of offending truth your selfe being theformost you encourage those that are in the race with your hand and voyce and to perswade them to follow you you make them beleeve they shall outgoe you Lo here in good earnest an admirable Artifice and which I had not discouered at the first blush But whatsoeuer it be or from what principle soever this glorious approbation comes to me I doe no lesse esteem it then an ambitious man would doe a crowne and without penetrating into your designe I rejoyce in myfortune It is no smal thing Sir to be beloved of you whom I have alwayes perfectly esteemed and haue now a long time marked of the Huguenots party as an excellent pilot who dares braue a whole fleet out of a Cockeboat we haue the Right and the Authority but you haue the Addresse and the Stratagems and are no lesse confident of your courage then wee are of our cause Certaine it is that thereby you may giue to a Sedition the apparence of a just warre and to a multitude of Mutineeres the face of a well disciplin'd army thereby you make pleasing to many people an opinion that hath lost the grace of novelty and although it leaneth towards a downefall wee must confesse it hath both lineaments and complexion in your writings and that neuer any man did so cunningly couer weakenesse or hold vp ruines with finer force Si Pergamadextrâ Defendi possint etiam bâc defensa fuissent The Towne of Troy from being made a Graue This arme of thine if any Arme could saue I vse alwaies this language when there is occasion to speake of you nor doe I take any part at all with the passions of the vulgar who conserue not the liberty of their owne iudgement and know neither the faults of their owne nor the vertues of strangers Forme out of what cloude soeuer the Day comes forth it seemeth beautifull and I assure my selfe that at Rome the better part did praise Hanniball and none but plebeians spoke opprobiously of him For it is a kind of sacrilege to bereaue whomsoeuer it be of the gifts of God and if I did not confesse that you had receiued much I should thinke my selfe iniurious to him who had given you much and in a different cause should offend our common Benefactor It is true that sometimes I haue not flattered your party and haue beene a little moued against the Authors of these late tumults but hauing obserued in your bookes that our opinions were agreeable and that subiection due vnto a Soueraigne did make vp a part of that religion which you teach I thought I might speake with your consent that which I haue already said and that in this I was but your simple interpreter Be the Tempest begotten by the North or by the South it is equally odious to me and I take not counsaile in what concernes my duty either of England or of Spaine My humour is not to fight against the times nor to oppose my selfe against things present it is paine to mee to conceiue onely the Idaea of Cato or of Brutus and being to liue vnder the power of another I finde no vettue more conuenient then obedience If I were a Swisse I could be content to be the Kings compere and would not be his subiect nor change my liberty for the best master in the world But since God hath made me to be borne in chaines I beare them willingly and seeing they are neither rude nor heauy I will not mar my teeth in trying how to break them It seemes that Heauen approueth a gouernment which it hath maintained by the succession of twelue hundred yeares an Euil which had so long continued might in some sort become lawfull and if the Age of men bee venerable that of states is holy Those great spirits which I haue designed in my worke and which you haue had of your party ought to haue come in the beginning of the world to haue giuen lawes to new people and to haue trauaild in the establishment of policy But as it is necessary to inuent good things socertainely it is most dangerous to goe about to change euen euill ones themselves I haue no cruell thoughts Sir but those onely that concerne the cheifes of your party I treate in a manner as an enemy and I care not for insulting on your miseries as you ciuilly reproach me I who haue written that the King should be blessed of all the world if after hauing supprest the pride of Rebells he did not insult on the misfortune of the afflicted The persecutors of those who submit themselues are in like execration with me as the destroyers of tombes neither haue I onely pitty of affliction in some sort I haue it in reuerence I know that heretofore men consecrated places that were stricken with thunder the finger of God was respected in the person of the miserable and great adversities doe rather worke Religion then receiue reproaches But so to stile the good successe of the Kings armes were to speake improperly wee haue all gained in his Victory all the paine that hath beene imposed vpon yours hath beene to make you as happy as our selues and they are now possessors and enioyers of that security of which they were but amorous iealous before their townes were taken Our Prince will put no yoake on the consciences of his subiects hee will not haue that receiued by force which cannot be well receiued but by perswasion nor vse those remedies against the French which were good against the Moores If the King of Sweden doth so vse his prosperity and doth not defile so pure a Grace by punishments and proscriptions I promise you to doe that which you haue desired of me and to imploy all my Art and Vtensils to erect him a statue This is iust to touch my inclination to pray me to praise that prince when should all the Crownes which are imbroidered on his Scarfe bee changed into so many kingdomes they would not be sufficient me thinks to recompence so rare a Vertue or to imploy so vast a Spirit As I expect nothing but Greatnesse from his valour so I hope for nothing but Goodnesse from his Vertue And although some haue declared in Spaine that hee is the very AntiChrist yet I am neither so deuout to beleeue that newes nor so fearefull to bee afraid thereof Onely I say