Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	justice_n	prudence_n	temperance_n	1,847	5	10.3903	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39701	Animadversions on a petition delivered to the honourable House of Parliament by several of the godly party in the county of Salop in vindication of the present government of the commonwealth, the prudent conduct of the army, and the liberties of the people / by R.F.	Flecknoe, Richard, d. 1678?	1653 (1653)	Wing F1208; ESTC R9352	10,479	41

so 't would be a degree below servitude nothing making servitude more intolerable than the Ignobility of the Master and those who can suffer such as these to command over them deserve worse And for the Government of the Church we had done nothing or rather too much to have shaken off the yoak of Rome and Lambeth to submit our necks at last to the Kirk Government of a sort of Banbury-men of Iohn of Leydens and Knipperdollings who would govern us just as they did the Town of Munster till with their fine spirit and Revelations they had brought all to confusion and destruction as they did there and tyrannize over us a hundred times worse than the others did who since they urge their merit lest we should seem to grant them nothing let us accord them this that they were the first Authors of the change of Government t is true but not of this nor that they being ever Enemies of the present Government and as they were formerly of the Kingdom so will they be now of the Commonwealth unlesse they may have the Government of it themselves as they sufficiently declare by that exception and clause of theirs in the end of their second petition That whilst they are for God that is for them according to their own Interpretation they will live and dye with them and not otherwise a rerestriction which had it issued from the pen of any Papist or Protestant they had been presen●ly exclaim'd against for Malignants Seditiou● and Traitors to the Commonwealth but these men are the dear Saints of Christ and may say and do any thing To conclude then with them before we pass to their other Peti●ions we may answer them in urging of their merits as Philip of Macedon did a certain treacherous Commander of a place reproaching his beholdingness unto him for delivering of it up That if he had not betray'd it he had not so soon been master of it 't is true but that made him rather fear than reward him for his Treachery To proceed then after in the end of their 4th Petition they insinuate their desire That none should be advanc'd to any place of Trust either in the Army or Commonwealth but such as should be recommended by the Certificat of some ●ive or six of them that so things as they say may be carryed on more by the publique spirit of the Saints than the privat spirit of any whatsoever bold words and glancing at those in Authority and in derogation of all besides but themselves This publick spirit wch they like so much in their Saints they approve not so much in their women as it seems when in their 7th they urge the Amendment of the Act of Adultery whereas the former had gone as far as they could in Law before to hang them up on the Testimony of two Witnesses these would go farther yet and hang them up without any Witnesse at all and then what a shower of Halters should we have ra●ning down upon our heads when our very Sexes should be our crimes which but with our beings we could not depart withall And whither with this severity of theirs would they drive this Vice at last but more and more inwards still as Diogenes wittily said of that Young man who issuing from one of those lewd places and seeing him ran in again not to be seen by him which he perceiving call'd after him and said That the more he sought to hid● his lewdnesse he but entred the further into it and ingulphed plung'd self into it the more So we may say these would inforce men to do by the severity of the Laws they would enact c. For I speak it not to patronage Vice but to plead the cause of Virtue they have look'd as narrowly to this Vice already as modestly they can and to look nearer to these secret sins would but make them indeavor ●till to sin more secretly Re●traint but more irritating Vice as we see in those Countries where they trust more to re●traint and cautel than to peo●les honesties it being more the conscience than cautiousness can keep them honest and to take off the bridle from mens consciences and afterwards expect to constrain them to be virtuous is just like him who should take the bridle off his Horse and afterwards by switching expect to manage him as he pleased Besides the setting so high a rate on the forfeiture● but indears and renders Vice more precious and just as we see in Gaming makes foul play lawfull by setting a Tax and penalty on their not playing fair they seeming by that manner of proceeding not so much to punish the Act as the being taken in it whence consequently men study more to avoid the being taken in it than the Act it self In the fifth these lovers of Justice and Righteousnesse propose to have all the burthen of Taxes and Contribution layed on the Cavaliers against the Publique Faith given them in their several Articles and Agreements which Faith these seem to care as little for as they do for Good works whence we see that had these men the management of Affaires they would soon throw their Iustice and Temperance after their Prudence and Fortitude hating all Cardinal virtues ever since they understood they belonged unto the Pope never considering how dearly already they have payed for their new-styl'd offence by the Sequestration of their whole Estates or being Mulcted in the greatest part of them of which they are not in present poss●ssion but by dearly buying them again yet would these most equal Iusticers have them more taxt than others who enjoy their Estates intire And mark what a wise Reason they give you for it For so say they It will make them the more willing to sit stil● to rise rather they should say as most commonly does any man of spirit when he finds himself too much oppress'd none besides being willing to do that which he is forc'd unto These men who counsel and perswade this like those who after a body has been once sick will never suffer it to recover health again never considering That a Commonwealth founded on the injury and oppressions of others is only built for ruine and destruction That sternness cruelty and severity is for Slaves but for Free-born men gentlenes debonairity That there the Government is ever most assured where men govern so as it may be expedient for all Good men the present State should continue and those who govern otherwise may be safe but never secure and That finally nothing better declares the wholesom constitution of a Commonwealth than a cheerful and smiling countenance with no discontent sadding its brow a sad and groaning State being never long-lived since as the Poet sayes Non vivere sed bene valere vita est that that which we call Life consists not so much in living as in living well For which consideration those who formerly had the ordering of the Commonwealth after they