Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	king_n	peace_n	prince_n	7,434	5	5.4434	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60592	The charge given by Sr. William Smith, Brt. at the quarter-sessions of the peace held for the county of Middlesex, at Westminster, on Monday the 24th of April, 1682.	England and Wales. Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Middlesex); Smith, William, Sir, 1616 or 17-1696.	1682 (1682)	Wing S4255A; ESTC R19647	12,812	13

THE CHARGE GIVEN BY S r William Smith B rt At the Quarter-Sessions of the Peace held for the County of Middlesex at Westminster on Monday the 24 th of April 1682. Gentlemen I Have had the honour to discourse to the Country from this Bench several times and the Advice which I gave them was to seek Peace and study Unity Advice I thought very necessary and that which would contribute most to the welfare and happiness not only of this County but of the whole Kingdom This is a Trading Country and nothing can encourage and advance Trade more than Peace nor can any thing procure Wealth sooner than Trade nor will any thing secure it better than Unity The King by his Wisdom and Care hath hitherto preserved Peace without the help of Unity for certainly no Nation can be more divided than this is it is high time for every honest man especially Magistrates and those in Authority to speak plain English and since this Honourable Bench hath thought fit to command me to this Service I shall endeavour to discharge my Duty and Conscience in that particular It troubles me to say it but it is true that this is a divided Nation divided into two opposite Parties the Church-Party I mean the Church of England as by Law established and the Anti-Church for I know not by what other name or denomination to stile the Dissenters I mean Dissenters of all sorts unless I should use the Scripture-word Legion for they are many and although they are divided amongst themselves toto Caelo yet they agree in this tertiò to torment the Government I will give you a short Character of these two Parties the Church-Party are those who worship and serve God in the place appointed for it the Church they honour and obey the King and submit to the Laws the Dissenters do none of these they do not approach the Church and to some of them it is an abomination they are so far from honouring the King that both his Person and Government are defamed by those Pamphlets which go about the Town neither do they obey him or submit to the Laws for very lately the King out of his great concern for the publick Peace thought fit by the advice of his Majesties Privy Council to command that Conventicles should be suppressed according to Law the Dissenters have been so far from obeying his Majesties Command that they have contended for the Conventicles as if they had been their Inheritance and have abused and reviled those Officers and others who in obedience to this Command have endeavoured to put the Laws in execution Now I would ask any sober-thinking person to which of these two Parties his Prudence would invite him to adhere whether to that Party where he may be safe under the Kings Protection and where his Liberty and Property may be well secured by the Laws Liberty and Property so much talkt of and by some very unduly sought or to that Party which will lead him into a Wilderness of briars and thorns where he shall never know his way or into slippery places where he shall never be able to stand his ground or shall as it were make him walk upon the edge of a Knife and always be in danger Self-preservation is natural to every creature and methinks men who have reason should seek it much more than others The King and the Laws have long fingers and sometime or other they will reach the tallest Malefactor It is true the King is a gracious and merciful Prince and that perhaps may be an incouragement to some mens disobedience but patience may be provoked too long and too far and then Laesa patientia sit furor when the Lion rouseth all the Beasts of the Forest tremble Notwithstanding all these provocations the King by the Divine assistance hath hitherto preserved peace peace at home and peace abroad for we have peace with all the Christian World when at the same time most of the neighbour-Nations are in wars and troubles The King hath taken care of Places related to England A terrible Rebellion broke out lately in Virginia which had almost destroy'd that Country the King at a great charge sent Ships and Souldiers thither reduced that Rebellion and settled the Country in peace Tangier was lately attakt by a numerous and formidable Enemy and most of us here gave it for lost some were so impudent to say it would be sold the King sent a timely Relief thither of Men Money and all other necessary Provisions and did preserve that Place so that it is neither lost or sold and hath now made a lasting Peace with the Emperour of that Country and it is to be hoped that place will prove very advantagious for the Trade of England but this hath cost the King a great sum of money The Trade of Turkey hath been of late years very much disturbed by the Pyrats of Algiers and his Majesty hath received notice that many of his Subjects have been carried captive thither the King to prevent those mischiefs for the future hath at a great charge for several years together maintain'd a considerable number of Ships in the Streights by which the Algerines have received so great losses that they are ready to beg Peace The King hath taken care of the Walls and Bulwarks of this Kingdom the Shipping You know the Parliament appointed thirty capital Ships to be built and gave six hundred thousand pound for the building of them but when Shipwrights and others came to consult about them they found that Sum of Money would not do it to make them so strong and serviceable as they ought to be the King was forced to advance a hundred thousand pound and more out of his own Purse to perfect that Work and I have heard these several Charges and Disbursments do amount to near eight hundred thousand pound These are all accidental Charges and if the established Revenue will not ballance the necessary and common Charge of the Government as I have heard it said in the House of Commons by those who should well understand it that it will not where then shall these accidental Charges be born The King cannot do it the People then must Why then the King hath lent this great Sum of Money to his Subjects and certainly it ought to be repaid with interest and with thanks and doubtless had been long since if the Dissentions and Differences which are amongst us had not prevented it Is it not therefore high time that all possible Endeavours should be used to put an end to these Divisions and Differences that the Kingdom may be no longer exposed to those Dangers which at present it lyes under And this very wise men are of opinion will never be until the Conventicles which continually blow the Coals are suppressed The Learned tell us that the Plague is spread by the Effluviums of the Mouth the Attomes of an infected person are infected and when they are sent out by

of a good King It is to be a good People for God who is infinite Goodness gives an ill King for the punishment of an ill People and you cannot displease and provoke him more than when he hath given you a good King if you do not treat and esteem him as you ought The King which he hath been pleased to bless us with at this time is I may say with great truth the best Prince in the World whom God long preserve and if we honour and obey him as God expects and our duty requires God will not fail to send a good Successor The Peace of the Kingdom is and ought to be the King's Care and it could not be expected that the Duke should have sate still under such an Indignity and if he had the Princes of Christendom to whom he is allied and he is allied to many and the Greatest would have taken up the Quarrel and then our Fields of Peace would have been turned to Fields of Blood Those who read History may find what Miserie 's this Kingdom for many years suffered when the Dispute was between the two Houses of York and Lancaster how many noble Families were destroyed and many thousand of men lost their Lives and if God had not had compassion of this Kingdom and provided an Expedient to unite them the misery of War for ought I know might have continued to this day Wars are not so soon or so easily ended as begun and it is very observable that the neighbour-neighbour-Princes made it their business to continue that Difference some Prince or other always took part with him who was conquered and so vicissim with him who was down not out of any other consideration than their own Interest that they might keep England imbroiled at home which they knew was the true way to keep Wars and Troubles from their own doors I hope England for the future will never be so unwise as to give them the like advantage Gentlemen The proper business of a Charge is to acquaint you with the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom their Usefulness and Penalties that I have done heretofore to former Grand Juries but it hath not had so good effect as I could have wished Amongst others I did acquaint them with the Statute of 13. of the King which was made for the preservation of his Majesties Person and Government it did provide against Treason against seditious Preaching and Printing and against setting up Votes of one or both Houses of Parliament to be effectual as Laws But notwithstanding that and other Statutes we find that Persons have been lately accused for Treason defamatory Pamphlets and Libels are sold about the Streets as good merchantable Wares and Votes of the House of Commons printed to give check to Laws Men are grown to a strange boldness and out-do Pasquil in Rome he tells bold Truths but these here wicked and impudent Lyes The sin of Cham and that which clave to his Posterity was that he uncovered his Father's nakedness and the greatest Crime of that Tyrant Nero was that he ript up the Belly of his Mother Gentlemen The King is Pater Patriae and the Common-Wealth is our Mother and he who rips up her Bowels and shews her Weakness or Deformity or abuseth his Father forfeits his very nature and is more wicked then either Cham or Nero until men come to have a sense of Religion and obey for Conscience-sake I shall be hopeless that Laws will prevail and yet I shall adventure to recommend one Statute to you more a Statute not made by Kings Lords and Commons but by their King the King of Kings and it is this Statutum est omnibus semel mori a Statute Gentlemen which was never repealed or ever will be and those who shall be indicted upon this Statute no Ignoramus can prevent their Tryal nor shall the credit of the Evidence be questioned and the Sentence will have speedy Execution Those who shall be found Innocent their Sentence will be Venite Beati but those who will be found Guilty Ite Maledicti a dreadful Sentence that not like the Sentence we have here Go to the place from whence you came and so to the place of Execution and there hang by the Neck until you are Dead Or as we have it by Tradition to be hanged in Chains alive until you are starved to Death These are easy Sentences because a little time determines the pain but this dreadful Sentence of Ite Maledicti sends the Criminal to a place of horrour and darkness where his Meat and Drink will be Fire and Brimstone his Companions such who he durst not look upon when he was in the World Devils and Furies not to make him sport and pastime but to torment him and that which aggravates this punishment is that it is attended with despair never to come out of that place of Torment If this was well considered and laid to heart could a reasonable man be invited by any temptation whatsoever to gratify his ambition or other appetites with those things which will be enjoyed but for a very short time and adventure this Sentence of Ite Maledicti but pray let us consider what to do to avoid this fearful Sentence The Psalmist instructs us he who will ascend the Holy Mountain must have clean hands a pure heart must not lift up his mind to vanity and must not be sworn to deceive his Neighbour he must have clean hands not subject to Bribery or Corruption a pure heart he must design nothing injurious to God his King or his Country he must not lift up his mind to vanity but must lay aside all ambitious thoughts and be contented with the Station where God Almighty hath placed him he must not be sworn to deceive his Neighbour this last is part of the Law of Nature and one of the Precepts of the Moral Law Thou shalt not bear false Witness against thy Neighbour under this Head comes all Perjury Subornation of Perjury Lying Deceit Treachery and Falshood the Psalmist lays before us our Duty at this time and if we perform it justly we may avoid this Sentence of Ite Maledicti Gentlemen we have all sworn you the Juries of Constables to present without favour or affection hatred or malice and you ought to present all those Crimes which are committed within your several Parishes and Precincts against the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom and you Gentlemen of the Grand Jury are likewise sworn to present without favour or affection hatred or malice and we upon the Bench are sworn to do Justice according to the best of our skill and knowledge we are not only sworn but we have likewise made a Covenant with God to be just according to our Oaths at the end of our Oaths we say so help me God which is as much as to say we desire no help from God in our needs if we do not do that which is just according to our Oaths Now I would