Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	act_n	act_v	action_n	106	3	6.1949	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31028	Regicides, no saints nor martyrs freely expostulated with the publishers of Ludlow's third volume, as to the truth of things and characters : with a touch at Amyntor's cavils against our king's curing the evil, and the thirtieth of January fast : a supplement to the Just defence of the royal martyr / by the same author.	Baron, William, b. 1636.; Baron, William, b. 1636. Just defence of the royal martyr, King Charles I.	1700 (1700)	Wing B898; ESTC R15796	61,679	148

dy'd I omitted to enquire but leaving only two Daughters the Gentleman who married the Eldest engag'd on the King's side and so could not come to London till the War was over then he addressed himself to Clement and hop'd he would not demurr to pay so just and fortunate a Debt which notwithstanding he did continually Shuffle and put him off and that with so much insolence as once upon the Exchange to bid him Kiss his B When the case was so alter'd as this Merchant came to lie in the Dungeon at Newgate in order to his Execution the Gentleman apply'd himself to him there where he found him at the Common Cant of all the Crew that he had made his Peace with God and the World and desir'd he would not disturb him with any temporal concerns he told him how little true Peace could be expected with God when so unjust to Man with much more to the like tho' very little purpose for the obstinate Wretch persever'd in his vain Presumptions and even at the Gallows declar'd what great Assurances he had tho' the Gentleman mounted among the Guard told him there of his unjust dealing which he car'd not to take notice of and so went off an horrid instance of Fanatick Delusion Mr. John Cook takes the next turn his Dear Friend and fellow Governor in Ireland where he was Lord Chief Justice and otherwise had a great influence upon Civil Affairs yet I do not find he was so squeamish as our Author but continu'd in his Post under Cromwell What he saith of his Parts and Gentile Education shall be acknowledg'd true yet could they not advance him in practice so as to keep him out of some Necessities which sat uneasie upon him and this not only his Acquaintance thought put him upon that fatal Employ of Sollicitor to that pretended High Court of Justice but he owns here at his Tryal 't was Avaritiâ non Malitiâ what he spake was for his Fee and that he hop'd the Jury would take into Consideration whereto both the Sollicitor-General and Lord Chief Baron reply'd that as no man can have a Lawful Calling to pursue the Life of his King so for a private Person tho' he only intends to beat a man yet if he dies thereupon in Law 't is Murder and the like Replies were made to the many other Allegations Cook very ingeniously urg'd in his Defence with so much Candor and Respect as well as Law and Reason that it would be most unpardonable in any body but our Author who makes it his constant practice to give so partial a relation as to set forth the three Articles his Inditement was reduc'd to with a brief account of Cook 's Plea without the least Syllable of what both Council and Court reply'd in answer to every particular so full and satisfactory and yet withall so fair and easie as I never read any thing of that kind more diverting Indeed all the Gentlemen of the Long Robe knowing the Prisoner to be a man of Parts and for several years vers'd in Business seem'd to exert themselves above their Performances at other Tryals and let him see the most artfull flourishes could not palliate so foul an Act or he alledge any thing by way of Extenuation they were not able to render frivolous and false with one single breath so that after the greatest Liberty ever vouchsafed any Person in those Circumstances he was forc'd to acknowledge their Patience in hearing him and that their Lordships had justly stated both the Councils Proofs and his Answers if they laid aside those Tryals p. 150. Acts Orders or Authorities whereby he did at that time Conscientiously act and thought to be born out c. And being told that aggravated the matter so as to Warrant the Authority he desir'd not to be mistaken meaning only in point of High Treason so that it seems he would have gladly come off with a Misdemeanor Misprision or something of that kind to have secur'd his Life Which failing at his Execution he acted the proper part of the Party would be telling what a Glorious work the Lord had accomplish'd upon Speeches p. 29. his Spirit which was to assure him he need not repent of any thing he had done but own it as the cause of God and Christ c. In short none of the Pack went off more deeply plung'd in Enthusiasm the furies and follies of Fanatick Delusion This Lawyer was accompany'd with a Divine of their Congregational way the most impudent Buffoon that ever reproach'd any Profession Sacred or other Hugh Peters upon whom it was prov'd that he had made it his constant business to Blaspheme God and the King in his Pulpit Scurrilities during the Pageantry of that horrid Tryal and otherwise became so vile a Property to their many dark and bloody Designs as one would think the Devil had Commission'd him to be his Representative in acting that dismall Tragedy yet being now to make his Plea that Infernal Fiend had so far left him destitute of that briskness of Wit and presence of Mind at other times his only talent as he could scarce reply to any one particular Allegation but declar'd in general that all was false with so senceless a Stupidity as to become the object of their Pity who most abhorr'd his abominable Practices In the same manner he went off at his Execution where he was so far from being animated with courage as our Author affirms that Cook himself could observe Here is a poor Brother coming I am afraid that he is not fit to die at this time c. altho' he had endeavour'd to put what courage he could into him for they tell us he said Come Brother Peters Passages and Speeches p. 27. let us knock at Heaven gate this Morning God will open the Doors of Eternity to us before Twelve of the Clock c. but Peters who had acted a Part too long could not bear up in this last dismall Scene no intoxicating Draught whereof 't is said he had taken very largely could silence the Terrors of so great a Guilt tho' it had been the whole course of his life to fool others he could not now fool himself 'T is likewise an egregious falshood in the account Ludlow gives of his Life That he had been a Minister in England for many years till forc'd away by Archbishop Laud 's Superstitions c. he was never in our Church but sometime at Cambridge where he was so Insolent and Leud as to be Whipt in the Regent's Walk a Punishment scarce ever inflicted upon any since nor perhaps as long time before the most Publick place in that Vniversity and so Expell'd for ever Now as this affront according to his Estimation always rankled in his envenom'd Mind so it rendred him very acceptable to the Godly Party as they term'd themselves who very much delighted in his Sarcastical Libels against our Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil Nevertheless fearing to

come under a second Lash he kept himself abroad in Holland sometime but mostly in New England till the Independents designing to undermine Presbytery sent for him who came accompany'd with several young Disciples of his own Tutoring so managing the Army by his Cant and Buffoonry as he became Cromwell's Zane so necessary a tool as the work could not have gone on without him for he acted several Parts besides that of Chaplain sometimes Col sometimes Agitator and whatever else would advance his Patron 's Designs and our Confusions and therefore 't is much Ludlow took notice of him being so much the Vsurper's creature but his deep engagements in the Royal Blood expiated for his other failings on the Common-wealth side I shall only add further that upon the Restauration he was discover'd by one of those Confidents he brought out of New England seiz'd upon in Bed with another man's Wife which his Party indeed would have for the better concealment of himself tho' they could not but know how much his Spirit was addicted to the Flesh Axtell and Hacker came next who Guarded that confounded Court and the King to it set on the Soldiers to cry for Justice c. and for these Reasons were charg'd with compassing his the King's Death Axtell made many long Harangues all to the same purpose That he was a Commission Officer and oblig'd to obey his Superior's Orders and so ran back to the several Generals Essex Manchester and Fairfax from whom he received his Commission as they did theirs from Lords and Commons altho' upon enquiry all his Orders in this Bloody Scene were from Cromwell and Ireton The Court suffering themselves a long time to be teas'd with these Tautologies in the end told him That neither the General nor Lords and Commons ought to be obey'd in any unjust thing much less taking away the Life of their King and this Ludlow styles their being necessitated to fly to their old Refuge of questioning the Authority by which he acted as if that were not first to be enquir'd into in all Actions both personal and real What he further calls a strong unheard of Doctrine That no Person nor Community nor People have any Coercive Power over the King is a continu'd Specimen of his supercilious Arrogance and would he have mention'd the Precedents Sir O. Bridgman quoted the Assertion would have appear'd much to the purpose and the Jury been justify'd in that they made no Difficulty of bringing him in Guilty Hacker being present at the former's Tryal saw how fruitless it would be to make the same Allegations and he had no other besides he seem'd to be the dullest of them all in their common knack of Canting for that he only read a Speech at his Execution of ten or twelve Lines and then desired that Axtell would be both their mouths to God in Prayer 'T is likewise false that the Court being sensible of an injury done to Hewlet in finding him Guilty for that it was made appear the Common Hangman cut off the King's Head procur'd his Pardon for the Lord Chief Baron told the Jury That if they found him to be one of them in a Frock tho' he did not the Fact it was a clear testimony of his imagining and compassing the Death of the King and this was not only prov'd by several but from his own confession Tryal p. 239. That if he was to do it again he would do it The Pardon therefore was the immediate effect of His Majesty's gracious Clemency what effect it had I have not heard 't is probable no better than upon others Henry Marten and Ludlow were two of as different Tempers and Constitutions as can be well suppos'd the former a witty debonair Companion who made Drinking and Whoring the delight of his Soul the other of a haughty morose disposition rigid and severe as a Scotch Covenanter yet these two in the House always hunted in the same Couples prosecuted the most desperate Courses which at any time came under debate right-down Levellers nothing would serve them but a Community of wealth and women wherein Marten must be own'd to have reason for that having squandred away an Estate of several Thousand pounds per Annum besides Plunder and other Gratuities wherewith these just Representatives oblig'd each other he could not think of a better way to supply his Luxury than out of other men's Stocks to which purpose he writ a Book call'd England's Troublers Troubled wherein all Rich men are declared Enemies to the Mean Lords and Gentry Clergy and Lawyers must come into one Common Fund whereof too I presume he intended to be Treasurer and then it could not fail to be well dispos'd of And that this might be reduc'd to Practice in his own County of Berks whose worthy Representative he was he forbad the people to stand bare Hist of Ind. at a Sessions in 48 or pay Homage and Fealty to their Lords yet at the same time he Plundred them of their Horses Goods Money c. under pretence of serving the State and beat those that defended their own In fine there was not a more Immoral Profane Wretch ever breath'd upon earth than this Marten who nevertheless being a Commonwealths man and of as inveterate a spite against the good King as this Author he who most undeservedly escap'd with his Life of a Dozen more Try'd at the same time must be singled out for two or three maggotty Evasions which nothing but a Court of unwearied temper would have born with for he tells us whereas others confess'd the Guilt but not the Malice he confess'd the Fact but not the Guilt which was justifying the thing as all the former had done in a more Impudent Buffooning way This Distinction of his the Lord Chief Baron reply'd to very seriously but the Solicitor General ridicul'd it most deservedly neither was there any thing in what he further urg'd that all Facts were to be denominated from their Circumstances was that a new Notion or any ways applicable in his Case whose were the most aggravating of any in the whole Pack His addressing himself from the Council to the Jury stood him likewise in as little stead for his thinking that a House of Commons when he presum'd the Court did not so which should the Jury more incline to believe an Authority of his own making as the Solicitor briskly Tryal p. 251. told them or not rather condemn him for making that Authority as they most justly did In those Familiar Epistles which this Devotee of Venus writ to his Lady of Pleasure there is likewise a Letter in Justification of the King's Murder penn'd it seems before he came in and had it come out before his Tryal we might have seen how witty he would have been upon the Gallows for 't is written in his usual buffooning way without any thing of solid Argument or real thought which our Author alone extols him for All indifferent Judges tell

together His Tryal was Printed by his Party with several Speeches Memorandums c. his Deportment before he went and upon the Scaffold as likewise many Additional Discourses of Politicks Divinity c. making a pretty large Quarto the compleatest body of Enthusiasm I ever saw tending to this main end That in Right of Jesus Christ and his People 't was justifiable to stand up against any Government Controll and Subvert at Pleasure In like manner he would have run on at his Execution and because not suffer'd to defend the Treasons he had for 20 Years together continually acted would have it a violation of every Free-born Englishman's Right But then for his Religious deportment he declar'd to have such Signs of Special Salvation they are the very words of his Prayer as to assure himself a place no lower than the Right hand of Jesus Christ St. Paul was but a weak Brother in comparison to him who after many years labour in the Gospel could not promise himself to have attain'd or were already made perfect c. whereas this Commonwealth Apostle set the Crown upon his Tryal of Sir H. V. p. 89. head the first day of his Spiritual Birth and even whilst here in the Body was made partaker of Eternal Life in the first fruits of it But why should we mention St. Paul when in his last Agony he so Blasphemously emulated our Blessed Saviour himself for instead of a Lord have mercy on my Soul Christ Jesus receive my Spirit or the like we are told his very last words of all at the Block were as followeth Father glorifie thy Servant in P. 95. the sight of men that he may Glorifie thee in the discharge of his Duty to thee and to his Country Could any thing but Hell inspire a man at this rate yet all his Speeches and Prayers are move or less one continu'd Rhapsody of such abominable Stuff I shall mention something of his Temporal Concerns partly for that our Author's relation is as opposite to truth as one Pole to the other Sir Henry Vane saith he was a Gentleman of an Ancient Family in the County of Durham whereas the Family they were of was directly South either in Kent or Essex as I am inform'd till the Old Fellow having well fleec'd himself at Court mov'd Northward upon this occasion Raby-Castle was in the Crown one of the finest Royalties in the North of England assign'd King Charles with other Lands when Prince of Wales for the support of his Family When come to the Crown the Parliament not supplying him to carry on the Spanish War as they had promis'd both his Father and Self he was oblig'd to assign it over to some Citizens for a Summ of Money giving them Power to lett Leases c. Old Sir Henry knowing this to be a considerable Purchase agreed with the Citizens for their interest and then got it confirm'd to him by the King upon easie terms we may well presume facilitated too by some undervaluings for when entertain'd there in his Expedition against the Scots and finding a magnificent Structure according to that old way of Building he pleasantly told him Sir Henry This is more than a heap of Stones When Cromwell gave the Rump their Quietus those few of them who had Country Seats retir'd thither this Hen. the 2 d. his Father being a little before Dead to Raby-Castle where because prohibited to do it any longer in the Government he Tyranniz'd over his Tenants and Neighbours obliging the former to take new Leases as not allowing those they had from the Citizens and seiz'd upon an Estate to the value of 200 l. per Annum which had been Purchas'd by a charitable Gentleman out of the Mannor and given to the Parish of Stanthorp for Relief of the Poor support of the Free School and repair of the Church with many such-like Arbitrary Encroachments according to the plenitude of his Self-will'd Power The People we may imagine could not long brook such usage but at length took so much courage as to Petition Cromwell for Relief who referr'd it by especial recommendation to his Commissioners of the Seal and they finding Matter of Fact true did the Tenants Right to the great dissatisfaction of this Lord Paramount I have been the more particular in this relation upon a double account the one is to clear that great Man the Earl of Strafford whom I have frequently found censur'd by many otherwise his Admirers for taking the Title of Raby to his Barony supposing it to be old Vane's Paternal Estate whereas if taken when first made a Peer it was not in his Possession if otherwise when Earl the original Right continu'd in the Crown the King might dispose of the Honor to whom he pleas'd as he had done before of the Estate yet 't is thought the peevish old Secretary for this reason plotted the ruine of that incomparable Minister as both he and his Son conduc'd in many other things to that of their Master may such ingratitude in due time meet with an Act of Resumption The other thing I design'd to observe from the foremention'd relation is that men of Commonwealth Principles whatever noise they make of the Peoples Right Liberty Property c. where-ever they get into Power and Authority are more insolent and Arbitrary than any sort of Mankind uneasie Neighbours griping Landlords froward Masters exact from and impose upon all they have to do with And this rough self-will'd management of his own private concerns is an Argument to me much beyond our Author's authority that the good Conduct of their Marine Affairs at that time must proceed from others of a more sedate temper so warm a Brain and violent Spirit could not do any thing with judgment and discretion I cannot forbear to mention what his Friends tell us of his deportment after Condemnation some perswading him to make Submission to the King and endeavour the obtaining of his Life Tryal of Sir H. V. Pag. 81. he said If the King did not think himself more concern'd for his Honour and his Word than he did for his Life then he was willing they should take it nay I declare said he I value my Life less in a good Cause than the King can do his Promise with several such like Rants so abominably extravagant as if he studied to precipitate his own ruine but he treated God Almighty at the same impudent manner so that 't is hard to resolve whether his Blasphemies or Treasons were greatest for both which I presume it is that our Author and his Friends give him so high a Character commend his Eloquence Soundness of Judgment Presence of Mind Gravity Magnanimity and what crowns all Constant adherence to the Cause of his Country whereas Bedlam would afford us many of a much more steady temper and Newgate truer Patriots to the Nation 's Peace and Welfare Thus have I run over the Legendary Relation of our Republican Regicides as laid