Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	head_n	king_n	supreme_a	4,443	5	9.1068	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93064	The dignity of kingship asserted: in answer to Mr. Milton's Ready and easie way to establish a free Common-wealth. Proving that kingship is both in it self, and in reference to these nations, farre the most excellent government, and the returning to our former loyalty, or obedience thereto is the only way under God to restore and settle these three once flourishing, now languishing, broken, & almost ruined nations. / By G.S. a lover of loyalty. Humbly dedicated, and presented to his most Excellent Majety Charles the Second, of England; Scotland, France and Ireland, true hereditary king.	G. S., Lover of loyalty.; Searle, George, attributed name.; Sheldon, Gilbert, 1598-1677, attributed name.; Starkey, George, 1627-1665, attributed name.	1660 (1660)	Wing S3069; Thomason E1915_2; ESTC R210007	99,181	247

Patriots as you call them of our liberty the Rumpers I mean with their own valour and wit upon their own Charges have defeated the King and all who should appear for him upon the score of the expensiveness burdensomenesse uselesnesse and dangerousnesse of his Office and publiquely avowed this to be their quarrell I le grant you then their actings might have been justifiable upon the title of Conquest and a posteriori for Originally they could not be so considering the paucity of their number but when it is evident that not they but the major part of the Nation many by actuall appearing in Arms all by Countributing Moneys carryed on the War from the beginning to the end now at last for them by complyance with a corrupt mutinous Souldiery to imploy the Victory to other nay clean contrary ends then for which Arms were first taken and Moneys raised to turn out all that with them for Eight years together carryed on the War joyntly because at last they could not in Conscience and would not joyn with them in so detestable perjurious actings to murder destroy and plunder as many as durst oppose these palpable Praevarications if I say these actions do not point out Saints in grain the most barbarous of Murtherers to wit Regicides the most abominable sort of Thieves to wit Sacrilegious Robbers the most damnable of Professors to wit Hypocrites the most corrupt of English Commoners to wit Rumpers I shall leave it to any of their friends to consider at least if ever God should open his or their eyes or they come upon their Death-bed I am sure no Cordiall unprejudiced English-man can think of those unheard of practises but with the like affection wherewith Aeneas at the Request of Queen Dido made relation of his past miseries which he with his Countrey suffered Infandum Regina jubes renovare dolorem Yea I question not Mr Milton but succeeding ages will esteem of it next to the rejecting and crucyfying the Lord of Life Jesus Christ the most detestable example that ever any people who were really or desired to be reputed the people of God acted or abetted But Sir whatever you have said as to this Argument I shall have occasion to meet with and speak to in proving my own assertions and therefore I shall with as much brevity as perspicuity will admit discourse of and by solid reasons confirm the same Kingship I affirm to be the only desirable government in the world and of all sorts of Kingly Governments or Monarchies ours of England was most exquisitely composed equally tempered and suited to a Nation really free and yet truly Subject where Majesty and subjection made a true harmony and the most inferiour members were as equally necessary to the good of the whole as the chief In it the King was Supreme the head of Law and Justice and yet himself never had power to make or to execute any Law the governed people propounded formed and modelled such Lawes by which they were to be ruled The peers who also had a share in subjection yet a degree advanced above the Commons they had likewise a hand in Laws that were to be enacted to whom therefore they were brought for approbation And being thus formed and approved they were lastly presented to the King for his Royall confirmation Thus the Commons propounding and framing the nobles approving and Consenting the King signing and confirming Lawes were made Where now is flavery where the bondage and vassallage which you made so great a noyse concerning Was it in having any Laws at all Truely Mr Milton however you palliate things I believe verily there lyes the knot that troubles you there your shooe pinches I find generally such Christian Libertines as your writings shew you to be one of come at last to throw off all externall coercive or binding lawes and desire only to be governed by the Law within them which in truth is a spirit of Lawlesnesse To this your doctrine of divorce seems to incline therein you complain much of bondage and thraldome vassalage and what not only for standing indispensably obliged to your wife after the Covenant of God mutually passed between you what wonder then if you account it vassallage to be held by an Oath of Allegiance But as there have been and are many who account themselves at a much greater liberty being engaged in an inviolable bond to a loving wife considering the frailty of their nature cannot abide a single life so I question not but thousands of sober spirits Judged themselves farre more free when we had our KING and kept our Oaths by which we were indispensably ingaged to him Conscientiously and firmly then since by Hypocrisie Perjury and Rebellion we have gained this much talked of Libertye But to return to our former and not by humane Art amendable form of Government if you will yeild it convenient to have any Laws what can be better then those of the Peoples own making they propounded they framed them unless you would have their Resolves to be Laws without any Concurrence of Nobles or Consent of the KING If so what monstrous Liberty would you have when virtually two thirds of the Nation must be content with what the Commons do or as the Proverb is turn the buckle of their girdle behind them and seek their amends where they can get them The KING his Family and Posterity had a Revenue of their own for which he was not engaged to the present people He had lands by due title as any Commoner in England and was suable in case he detained any mans Land or other of his estate illegally and the Law equally free against as for the King Now the Royalties which belonged to him as supream viz. Customes c. were his by descent and antient prescription in wrong of no Subject or if any thing did pinch upon any Subject as the forfeitures of felons goods wrecks c. these had the Commons with the Lords adjudged them a burthen might easily have been taken away and the King would willingly have been content with a more equitable income of the like value The Nobles also had very large Estates and Revenues And so had likewise the Bishops and such who attended the se●vice of God who had great possessions Who should represent these in a bare house of Commons Experience shews us that no sooner were the Bishops c. put down by these reformers but their Lands were all alienated from the Church and sonld and turned to impious uses namely to reward the Souldiers for what English bloud they have shed and this done by those who never had the piety to give any thing to the Church But of such Church robberies I shall be silent hereafter because the lands thus ravished away from the true use to which they were intended were publique lands but being once dedicated to God many good Christians could have wished they had still been reserved to the same ends though perhaps the

same persons might not be adjudge fit to possess them but of this only by the way however this is a lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation The people of England as they had Liberties which were their birthright and precious to them so also had the King as one of the Nation for his being King and so Supreme although it added much to him beyond other men yet it abridged him of nothing that was his as a man It was right the King should have Liberty in his Confirmation of what the Peers and Commons presented to him for his Royall ascent or else they might if ever both estates could agree at their pleasure dethrone him or limit or alter his successors or what not injurious to him as a man but much more as a King So likewise the Nobles of the Land how should they be represented Barely to be chosen among the Commoners If so what inconvenience of necessity must thence arise and how absurd it would be a shallow discretion might easily apprehend for first they exceeding for the Generallity the Commons in estate would be much more popular and so if they could be courted so farre out of their honour as to accept of popular elections what Parliament could we expect but the majority of them would be Nobles and by this means they which in our present constitution are only revisers and approvers of the Laws would soon become the Law-framers and Enactors Or if you should imagine that few only of them would be chosen as of late two of the house of Peers were Rumpers what inequality and absurdity would there be when a small Borough shall elect two Burgesses and he who is Lord perhaps of twenty or more Burroughs and the chief man in three or four Counties as to estate shall only be represented by his own single voice and some not at all What siding and factions this must necessarily produce Our Government then Mr Milton needed none of your Art to mend it no more then the Law of Marriage needed your Divinity to explain and limit it and as by the latter you gained little credit among the Ladyes or such prudent sober men who made a Conscience of their Vow in Marriage so the former is lesse acceptable to true loyall breasts and will be exibilated by the vulgar when once the fury of our former madness is a little allayed T was strange that you could imagine no subordinate ingagement to a single person but what is accompanyed with Vassalage when it is certain in faith that among the three persons Christ the Sonne and the Holy Spirit who are God blessed for evermore are both Subordinately related as Persons to the Father and yet there is that blessed freedome and Liberty that among them is unity But we will come to humane Governments for concerning them will lye the question In society the first subordination is aeconomical of children to Parents and for to provide the better for a mans family and to carry on things more comfortably comes in another relation of servant and Master Now although the Man and Wife be head of the family yet not separately but unitedly and the Wife her self is suborainate being above all the rest only inferiour to her husband although in some cases equall This state of society admits no Democrasie nay it is accounted a misery for a servant to have more then one Master insomuch that Christ saith it is impossible to serve two masters and addes for a reason that he will hate that one and love the other he will cleave to the one and despise the other It was the Complaint of Cyrus in the Comaedy that he did not know who nor how many were his Masters and though he be brought in as a slave yet this he laments as aggravating his bondage Here Mr Milton may observe divers subordinations to one and yet no bondage but all make up on free family and live in peace and Love and plenty together The Wife is subject to her husband one to one yet no Vassal unlesse Mr Miltons doctrine of divorce may be admitted that he may turn her off as soone or as oft as his wayward spirit can find no delight in her The Children are subject to their Parents yet no slaves and although they ow obedience to both yet their father is in the family chief and he makes and usually executes all Lawes in his family nevertheless no tyranny can be charged upon the Father nor Vassalage imputed to the Sonnes The Master and Servant is another relation the Servant bound by his own Consent and to be at the Masters command in lawful and possible things yet would scorne the title of a slave or Vassal What need I instance in other societies of Schools of Learning where one Pedagogue is found the best expedient though he have Vshers under him so in Colledges one Chancellour over an Vniversity one Rector or President over a Hall or Colledge so in a Ship one Master over a Company one Captain over a Regiment one Collonel over an Army one Generall and yet no slavery nor Vassalage But to come nearer in a family where are perhaps many Sonnes and Daughters and a multitude of Servants upon the death of the Father doth not the supremacy as I may call it or chief rule descend to the first born both by light of Nature and divine Commandement Surely Mr Milton never studied the dignity and authority of the r●ght of Primogeniture and that by Natures Law and divine Institution upon the score of sleighting and selling whereof Esau gained the title of prophane and was rejected nor having once despised his birth-right could he get the blessing afterward though he sought it with tears But old Isaack subjected him to his brother Jacob that he should serve him and bow down to him and yet was he no slave Nor were the Sonnes of Jacob who were twelve and his Grandsonnes then a numerous multitude Slaves though all subjected to Judah the first-born by divine praeheminence and old Jacobs appointment Ruben having by his incontinency in defiling his own Fathers bed forfeited that priviledge which was next to death which he deserved therefore a heavy matchlesse punishment One would thing that if ever a Republique had been necessary and usefull now it was when twelve Brethren all living and fatherlesse had under them a multitude of Sonnes and Daughters Grand-children Servants and handmaids yet then one Judah is appointed Law-giver to them all and so confirmed untill the coming of Shiloh to whom the gathering of the Nations should be And this is not a Boorish way of a Dwindling Common-wealth But the Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver in the singular number mark that from between his feet c. Yea was not this part of the promise of God to Abraham when his name was changed unto Abraham That Kings should come out of his Loynes Before he had blessed him with fruitfulnesse that he should be the

him only whose right it is and was yet afterwards when things are setled disturb the publique to set up his private interest It is folly to dream of such a groudlesse suspicion Goe on therefore undauntedly most Noble Commander Right Honourable Lords and deserving Senators perfect by Gods help and assistance the Nations happiness fill up and compleat the measure of our joy Oh! restore to us our long exiled Prince and our martyrd Kings whole Princely progeny God hath given you an opportunity his providence hath held forth to you ample incouragement all the good men in the Nation in deep sense of our past misery with longing expectation yern forth their desires Oh blessed and happy Parliament called in a good time blessed and happy if you doe it Restore our King Oh delay it not doe it early Words spoken in season are like Apples of gold in pictures of silver such were the happy words of the Generall in that memorable day of the first beginning of our deliverance promising a Free Parliament How did the Bonefires that night in every Street and lane seeme to scare the ●ight from overclowding our joyes Trust me seasonable Actions are no lesse welcome Hope deferred is the rack of the Soul whereas the accomplishing of it before the spirits with long expectation faint is like a tree of life Bis da● qui Cito dat Long deferred hopes are interpreted most unkind next to flat denyals We have a long time been hopeless and desperate and now the day of our deliverance begins to dawn we count the minutes and long to see the rising Sun Most Hnourable Patriots The miseries we endured under the Rump together with their betraying the trust reposed in them by the people their perfidious breaking the true Parliaments solemnly ingaged publique Faith their base evading and violating all Articles of War and surrender their unjust causing Irish adventurers to double or lose their lent moneys with several scandalous villanies in the name and under the title of Englands Parliament and Supream Power their frequent long winded interruptions The calling and breaking in the intervals of time so many mock-Junctos named and stiled Parliaments with a thousand other such odious things which in these twelve last years Villanous usurpers have done and the people suffered by and in reference to nominall Parliaments have made the repute of them so contemptible and their esteem of so little value That the honour which you have in the hearts of all men upon expectation of good and this good from you by your means will soon with many be turned into a light esteeme ne quid asperius should their earnest desire be delayd But as the old men said to Rehoboam If your wisdome God blessing your Counsailes find a speedy way of answering the Nations earnest hopes and almost impatient expectation your name will be not only famous but your Persons admired even almost to adoration and you will wipe off all that dirt which lies upon and hath long stuck to the name of Parliaments Then the Nations eyes will be opened to distinguish clearly a true English Parliament from a domineering Rump or the mimicall mock Parliaments summoned and pickt to serve an aspiring Vsurper Betimes therefore Noble Patriots begin in Gods name to make this Nation happy That is Oh! restore unto us our King Then shall the Murther of the Father lye at the offenders doors and the sinne of rebelling against their King be wiped from off our English Parliament otherwise not It was the Parliament began the warre with the King which notwithstanding al Pretences according to the Kings propheticall prediction Ended in the Murther of Majesty and extirpation of Monarchy under the retained name and perpetrated by some Members of Englands Parliament who stiled themselves the Supream Authority of England Though I am confident that the Warre was begun by means of a few Incendiaries who did ill offices on both sides misrepresenting the King to the people and the People to the King A distance being made by the same Art and pernicious industry the breach was made daily wider the Contrivers aiming at a warre and in it the totall Ruine of Majesty and his posterity which the King foresaw but most of both Houses keeping to the truly loyall maxime that the King can do no wrong Endeavoured only to rescue the Kings person from bad Counsailers And when the Warre in earnest began they made a Vow and Protestation as also a League and Covenant which they took and entred into and set up in all Churches as a witnesse against themselves of the sincerity of their intentions as to the King and his Royall branches gave thanks solemnly after Battailes for the preservation of him and his Children owned all their Armies raised for his defense and his name and commissionated them for the mutual defense of King and Parliament for the maintenance of the Liberty and Priviledges of the people and their represetatives in Parliament as also the true Protestant Religion And when in zeal they had been incensed against his Majesty whom pestilent prevaricating Rebels had represented as obstinate and stubborn and had been too exacting upon his good nature and were unsatisfied with his concessions which were even beyond what could be in reason expected or without impudence desired and all this done through suspicious fears and jealousies raysed by the Rumpers in order to cut off all hopes of accommodation no sooner did the Cordially loyall discern this but they relented in their spirit towards his too much injuriously grated upon yet patiently long suffering Majesty then loe the rebellious Rumpers unmaske themselves and show themselves as they were Upon this the residue whom false surmises had led aside to uncharitable thoughts of the King now find their error and how they were deluded and then what indignation what zeal what clearing themselves what washing their hands of and protesting against their once fellow members monstrous impieties that in all things they shewed themselves innocent and free from the bloud of their innocent sacred Soveraign However the mystery of Rebellion and Treason began to work from the beginning of that Parliament Session though not perceived by the zealously incensed truly Loyall members whom the underhand pestilent Rumpers deluded by fair words and false suggestions and set against their King as crafty Ziba by fained accusations and pretenses provoked holy David against good Mephibosheth to the unjust giving away from him all his land to this false accusing Servant However the dark-sighted vulgar cannot see this nor will they ever come to be convinced of the truth of things herein unlesse your honours make up the breaches which the Rumpers made by that practicall argument convincing the people that you disown their Tonents My Lords let the dignity of the thing it self prevail with your Noble Spirits Mr. Milton to vilifie Regall Government is so bold as to affirm That a KING if good can doe no more then another man When