Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	young_a	zeal_n	12	3	7.1000	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93715	A modest plea for an equal common-wealth against monarchy. In which the genuine nature and true interest of a free-state is briefly stated: its consistency with a national clergy, mercenary lawyers, and hereditary nobility examined; together with the expediency of an agrarian and rotation of offices asserted. Also, an apology for younger brothers, the restitution of gavil-kind, and relief of the poor. With a lift at tythes, and reformation of the lawes and universities. All accommodated to publick honour and justice, without injury to any mans propriety, and humbly tendered to the Parliament. By a lover of his country in order to the healing the divisions of the times.	Sprigg, William, fl. 1657.	1659 (1659)	Wing S5078; Thomason E999_11; ESTC R203651	64,567	117

younger Sons of our Gentry which though a digression yet being not altogether impertinent to our present strain I shall make bold to insert it An Apology for younger Brothers IT hath been a long received custome in this Land or at least of as ancient date as the Norman Monarchy that notwithstanding the elder Son obtains the whole inheritance yet to bestow a generous and liberal Education on the younger in which considering the circumstances of those times together with the complexion of their Government I find no cause wherefore to accuse our Ancestors of their imprudence or injustice For first the levelling of Estates hath alwayes and that justly enough been accounted altogether unsutable to the Majesty and gaudy splendor of Monarchical Government which hath sometime though falsly been supposed not onely the most absolute and perfect form but that which by long experience hath been found most sutable to the Genius or humour of the English People the interest of which Government is rather to have large publick Revenues with a vast stock of Preferments wherewith to gratifie the ambition of the more ingenious part of the Gentry who have nothing to rely on save what they can purchase in the favour of their Prince Nor was Antiquity herein deceived for when the greatest part of the Nation by this means reap their chief subsistence from the publick Revenues of the Commonwealth and favour of the Prince in whose sole dispose they are and on whom for this cause they look upon as their common father and indeed to whom they have greater obligations then to their own Parents there appears little probability how the Pillars of such a Government should be easily shaken whose basis is founded on the interest of so great a part of the Nation to defend it with the utmost peril of their lives and blood Nor have we more reason to accuse our Ancestors of impiety or injustice then imprudence since heretofore so great and ample were the publique Revenues that a younger Son could either in Church or State by the wings of his own industry or merits have raised himselfe to as high a pitch of honour and fairer fortunes then those of his elder Brothers birth-right so that to be the first-born was scarce a priviledge except to such as wanted worth to advance them Wherefore while the Church and Court were open with their large train of preferments to entertain the more ingenious of the Gentries younger Sons and Monasteries to intombe those of a less Mercurial Genius there was little reason for commenceing this complaint for this I am compelled by the violence of truth to confess in defence of the ancient Constitution of the Laws and Government of this Nation that whatever were their other faults they were not injurious to younger Brethren till after the sale of Church-Lands and the abrogating those many preferments that were their former inheritance This was the former state of the Nation in which if younger Sons were debarred a share in their Fathers inheritance they might receive an ample compensation from the Church their Mother whose joynture was no less then two thirds of the whole Land so that they might seem rather own'd as the only Children of the Common-wealth and honourably maintained at the publick charge thereof then difinherited by the unkindness of the Laws A Generous Education was then a sufficient portion which is now for want of sutable employment become a curse instead of a blessing serving to no other end then to discover if not augment their misery so much is the scene of things changed since Hen. 8. spoiled the Church of her Revenues and by consequence these of the fairest part of their Inheritance and yet nothing of the rigor of the Antient Laws are herein abated towards them It is not my intention God knows my heart to speak a word in approbation of those superstitious uses to which any Abby or Bishops Lands were heretofore imployed but with reflection on those good and pious to which in the opinion of some they might have been converted Nor is it the design of these discourses to retrive Ecclesiastical promotions or demonstrate a necessity of rebuilding the things we have so lately destroyed but rather to show how unsafe and injurious it would be to establish and fix a Commonwealth upon the ruines and tottering foundation of a decayed Monarchy nor do I blame the prudence of our late Reformers that unhorsing the pride of the Clergy and putting down the Hierarchy they rather sold then reserved in a publique stock the Revenues of the Church by reason it may seem more safe for a Commonwealth to keep nothing may incourage an invasion of its liberty or become the reward of usurpation and Tyranny onely I could wish that since the Reason and Circumstances of our Laws are quite altered we might not still build on old foundations and intail the whole Land on a few Proprietors or elder Brethren to the exclusion and utter ruine of the greatest part of the Nation and contrary to the interest of a free State or Common-wealth I dare not charge all our late changes and many burnings in the ballance of affairs on this account though I cannot but observe that our times have rung more changes been tuned to more different instruments and ran through several forms of Government than were from the time of the Norman Conquest known before to which how much the discontent and poverty of our Gentry may have contributed I know not but Solomon saith Oppression will make a wise man mad I am sure the younger Brothers are by far the greater number and through Natures curtesie commonly as rich in intellectual endowments as poor in fortunes and being by the Tyranny as affairs now stand of Law and custome debarred sharing in their Parents Estates to which they conceive Nature equally intitles them with their elder Brother it s no wonder if they desire to interrupt the Peace and Tranquillity of the Commonwealth since by the shakings thereof they may probably root themselves in fairer fortunes then from its peace and settlement they may with reason expect and that which arms their discontent with fit weapons for revenge and renders them more formidable is their generous Education for certainly it s of very unsafe and dangerous consequence to qualifie such for great and noble undertakings that are Heirs to no other fortunes then what their valours can purchase with the ruine of the Commonwealths Peace and Government Therefore had those that made the publique Revenues a prey to their Ambition also drunk up those streams of bounty by which the Schools and Universities are fed and maintained and so taken away the means as well as the incouragement of liberal Education they had better consulted the Peace though not the honour of the Nation for so long as these are open if not better ordered I doubt there will be Vipers hatched to eat through the wombe of Government by which they conceive themselves

and turn our Spears into Pruning-Hooks we should then no more hear the sound of the Drum or be affrighted vvith the Alarums of Civil Wars and discords but might sit under our own Vines and eat the fruit of our Figge-trees in safety We should then see the Wolf dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lyon and the Fatling together and a little Childe to lead them and The Lyon shall eat straw like an Ox and the Sucking Childe shall play upon the hole of the Asp and the weaned Childe shall put his hand upon the Cockatrice Den for they shall not hurt nor destroy throughout the Holy Mountain of the Lord But the vvhole Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Thus shall it be when the Knowledge of the Lord hath destroyed every base and private Interest from off the face of the Earth when he hath taken away that diversity of Preying Interests that are the Source and Spring of all our miseries the seeds of all those Factions and Divisions that rage among the sons of Men and makes them tear rend and prey upon one another that hath so intangled the Doctrine of Politicks and rendred them so dark and abstruce a Labyrinth so difficult a Maze and Mysterie of Iniquity that hath turned the Art of Government into an Art of Jugling and dissembling that hath brought to light those wicked Machavilian Maximes of the Kingdome of Darknesse that were first broached by a Conclave of Devils Divide impera Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare and the like that hath devised necessity of State as an Apologie and Religious Pretences as a cloak for the blackest crimes the Sunne ere looked upon that hath put the Inscription of the Cause of God upon most wicked and Devillish Designs that hath made Religion hold the stirrup to Ambition become the Pander of Greatnesse and a Stalking-Horse to Lust and Wickednesse But it shall not be thus in the Holy Mountain of the Lord in the Holy Commonwealth of Israel in the New Jerusalem that is coming down from above and when there shall be new Heavens and new Earth all old things shall passe away which is not far off the World and unrighteousnesse of man hath now but a short part to act for the time is approaching in which every false Mask and Vizard shall be pulled off in which a window shall be opened into every secret and false breast and the hidden thoughts of mens hearts discovered and that the World shall be no longer cheated to espouse corrupt and base Interests because gilded with glorious pretences of Religion and bearing False Inscriptions upon them Now for the truth and reason of these things I durst appeal to the Iudgements and Consciences of the most understanding men in the Nation as knowing their hearts witnesse to them and were their bodies of Chrystal pellucid and transparent I know we might read the same Apprehensions in them for I cannot imagine it proceeds from ignorance but interest that the light of those truths hath not hitherto been more discovered So many are interessed in the grand Cheat of the World so many are the Silversmiths that reap profit from the Shrines of these Diana's that it is no wonder there appears so great a zeal to keep up their credit and reputation But the day of the Lord which is at hand will discover them I know most men are led by a blinde and implicite faith they have pinned on the sleeves of some learned Rabbies being ready to Worship and fall down before any Galf Custom hath set up among them These out of love I have endeavoured to undeceive though I thereby set up my self as a Mark and But for all the shafts the Malice of men can dart against me And being loth to detain and imprison the Truth in unrighteousnesse have given in my testimony against the Corruption of the World which I know to be a cheat and the manners of men who are a lye and Vanity How it will be received I am not solicitous if I perish I perish and hope I shall be able to say as sometime that Great Souldier Belisarius Mihi non culpa nocuit sed invidia But as for the Truth I know it cannot long be stifled but must and will prevail Magna est veritas praevalebit THE CONTENTS A Plea for a Commonwealth page 1. Of the Ministry or Clergy page 21 Of Tythes page 38 An humble Motion in behalf of the Poor page 42 Of the Universities page 45 Of the Regulation of the Laws and Lawyers page 56 An Apology for Younger Brothers page 58 Of the Hereditary Nobility page 75 Of an Agrarian page 84 Of the Militia page 87 Of Election to Offices c. ibid. Of Rotation page 89 The Conclusion page 90 FINIS