Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	king_n	prince_n	son_n	18,335	5	5.4465	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59752	A discourse of the rise & power of parliaments, of law's, of courts of judicature, of liberty, property, and religion, of the interest of England in reference to the desines of France, of taxes and of trade in a letter from a gentleman in the country to a member in Parliament.	Sheridan, Thomas, 1646-ca. 1688.	1677 (1677)	Wing S3225; ESTC R16270	94,234	304

because the tending of this work wou'd take up a considerable portion of their time they allowed Salaries to these public Officers out of the common stock In those days of Innocence when Art was not interwoven with Religion nor Knavery with Policy it was an easy matter to be pious and just And if the higher Powers were pleas'd to remove these two we shou'd soon again see that golden Age The Duty of both Tables was comprised in few Articles That to their Neighbors consisted as now in doing as you would be don unto That towards God of whose Being they were convinced by the strongest of Demonstations the consideration of the visible things of the World in Thanksgivings and Adorations the effect of Gratitude to the Author of their being and of all good things in believing the Immortality of the Soul and of its being susceptible of Rewards and Punishments in another Life and in the consequence That Sin is to be repented of These were their common sentiments the Dictates of Nature The substance of which was acknowledg'd by al even the most barbarous of Nations And therefore cou'd not be the inventions of Policy the Dreams of melancholy men or the Effects of Education These are the Opinions of the unthinking and therefore wild and loose and were the wishes formerly of the few debauch'd But the great sober and wise Philosophers of all Ages upon the exactest Scrutiny finding them to be the Impresses of Nature as essential to our Being as light to the Sun pronounced the speculative Atheist an impossible thing And because they were sencible that a Lyer as destrustive of the very being of human Society ought to be banished the Commonwealth the first of their Laws and the Cement of the rest was That every man shou'd not only speak Truth to his Neighbor but stand firm to his Promises And knowing that Laws tho never so good wou'd prove insignificant if not duly observed And that som men wou'd never be wise that is wou'd never consider and consequently wou'd not easily be restraind from folly from offending to deter the slavish and inconsiderat they did not only annex certain Penalties to the breach of the Laws but unalterably decreed That no Offender tho never so powerful shou'd escape the punishment These Penalties were Pecuniary Mucts loss of Liberty bodily Labor to the Public or Banishment The power of Life and Death they wou'd not give because they cou'd not transfer that to another which was wanting in them selves the taking away of Life was peculiarly reserv'd by Nature as its own indispensible right as most reasonable because she alone coud give it They consider`d That Terrors are but affrightments to Duty That Corrections are for Amendment not Destruction which course shou'd they have pursu'd they might accidentally have run themselves into a state of War Since Nature had told them it was not only lawful but necessary if they coud not otherwise preserve their own to take away the beings of any that attempted theirs That it wou'd be against the End of Society mutual Happiness This rendering the sufferer uncapable of all to which therefore he neither cou'd nor wou'd have consented This or somthing not unlike it was I perswade my self the form substance of the first Commonwealths which if you narrowly look into you may perhaps find som Lines that drawn out fully might be no il Model for any Common-wealth And to come nearer home It has some resemblance to what for several past Ages this Kingdom did and does now enjoy To omit the Brittish times of which we have but very thin gleanings of the Druids their Oracles of Learning Law and Religion And to skip over that of the Romans who were never able perfectly to introduce their manner of Commonwealth We shal find that in the time of the Saxons a people of Westfrizland so called from the shape of their Sword a kind of Cymeter and in that of the Danes the manner of Goverment was as now in substance the not in form or name by King and Parliament But whether the Commons were called to this great Assemby or no I cannot find from the imperfect Registers of Elder times One may guess they were originally Members of it because the same people in Westfrizland from whence they descended do at this day continu a Form of Government different from all the rest of the Provinces not unlike this There are sufficient proofs that the Peers that is the chief of the Clergy and best estated Gentry were as often as the King pleas'd for it was originally Edicto Principis Summon'd to consult with him of the great affairs of State Which Council was before the Conquerors time call'd by several Names as Concilium absolutely sometimes the Epithets of Magnum Generale or Commune were added It was often known by the name of Curca Magna and others and was compos'd ex Episcopis Abbatibus Ducibus Satrapis Sapientibus Regni among which if any wil say the Commons had place I will not dispute because in those times when Titles of Honor were not the Arguments of good Fortune or the mark 's of the Prince's favor the King cal'd to this great Council such as large Possessions Courage or Wisdom recommended as fit For we find that the Fathers having sat there gave no Right to such Sons as did not with their Estates inherit their Vertues It appears farther that the great Council in the later end of the Saxons Reign and til the beginning of King Iohns had by the grace of Kings accustomed themselves without any summons to meet thrice every year at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide which course was not interrupted by any particular Summons but when in other seasons of the year the public occasions required their meeting The long continuance of the Barons Wars made the before stated meetings of the great Council return to the uncertain pleasure of the Prince What ever the power of the Commons was before the Conquest it plainly appears that for somtim afterward their Advice was seldom desired and as things were then ordered their Consent was not thought necessary being always included in that of the Lords For the Conqueror having subjected the Natives to an intire vassalage seiz'd upon all their Possessions reserved to the Crown larg proportions in every County gave part to the Church in Francalmoine and the residu to his fellow adventurers in the War to be held by Knight servic● These subdivided part of theirs to their Followers on such conditions as render'd them perfect Slaves to their Masters rather than their Lords By the possession of so much Power these Barons or Freeholders for theword signifi'd no more did what they pleas'd with their vassals became very terrible to the Conqueror and his Successors To curb whose Extravagance tho all were willing King Iohn was the first that made the attempt but by his over hastiness he gave birth to the lasting broyles of the Barons Wars He

of Places with exquisite skil and vast expence made and defended together with the strongest Cittadills are now taken Then the charges of Arms Amunition Bows and Arrows serving insteed of fire Arms were inconsiderable That now France has in constant pay above a hundred and twenty som say above two hundred thousand fighting Men whose standing Army in former times exceeded not ten thousand nor so many but on particular occasions Then a single Battle or at most a Summers expedition put an end to a War no long nor formal sieges to spin out the Quarrel Now the whole seene is changed from what in those days it consisted in Courage and Strength of body into that where Patience in Fatigue Dexterity in Wit and Mony in Purse shal make the Coward and the Weak an equal Match at least for sinewy and gigantic force There is no doubt but as many of the English as luxury and idleness have not softned into Effeminacy have stil as great Valour and Resolution but they are to consider that their old Enemys the French are not the same they formerly were That they finding their first Sa Sa or brisk onset woud not do the Feat and wanting Courage to rally Nature having deny'd them bodily strength but to supply that defect having given them Wit to use Stratagems have quite changed the Scene of War and taken their leave of the old way of venturing body to body That in Queen Elizabeth's time thirty Ships such as perhaps exceeded not our third and fourth rate Frigats were the Fleet which gave Law to the biggest part of the World the Sea and without the help of Storms doubted not to have overcom the too arrogantly styl'd Invincible Armada That in those days few besides the Kingdom of Spain and State of Venice had any Ships of War That France and Holland were then very weak and all four unable to contend with us That now the Swedes Danes Hamburghers Ostenders and Algerines c. have considerable Fleets That the States of the united Provinces have much more Shipping than the French King who yet has upwards of two-hundred Men of War and many larger than most in Europe and is every day building more and lest he shoud yet have further need I have an account he has lately countermanded about fifty Sail of St. Maloes and Haven de Grace Merchant-Men of considerable Force bound to New-found-Land If then his Power be so vastly increas'd that as he gives out he has Cash for five years Charge and Provisions and Forrage for two That his ordinary Revenu in France not to speak of his new Acquisitions amounts by the most modest Computation to above nine Millions sterling per annum and his Country being Rich and the Power in his own Hands he may at any time raise what more he pleases Is it not then necessary to consider our own strength and by sufficient supplies at Home as wel as Allies abroad secure our Necks against that Yoke with which he threatens to inslave all Europe Nor wil it be amiss for the Subject to observe That the French by fomenting our Quarrels forein and domestic have bin the main occasions of the great Taxes and Impositions necessary Appendages of the former under which the English Nation has groand for these last forty Years even the Ship-Mony had its Rise from the Affronts their Pride and Insolence threw up on us and they wil yet oblige us to suffer more unless by the joynt force of our Arms and Mony in a round and larg supply for the War we speedily inable our selve's to revenge our past injuries and their present desines and so put it out of their power either by this or any other of their crafty Practises to disturb or hurt us for the future And 't is to be consider'd That as the Expences abroad are much greater so they are likewise at home That an hundred Pound before the eighteenth of Edward the third was equivalent in intrinsic valu to three hundred Pound of our now current Mony their Groat being rais'd to our Shilling That our Expences are not only far greater than they were in those Days but that our necessary Uses require ten times as much as they coud be then suply'd for perhaps no less occasion'd by the discovery of the West Indy Mines the plenty of every Commodity making it cheap than by our own much greater extravagance Whence it is plain that the present Re-venu of the State even for necessary occasions ought to exceed the ancient as thirty does one And since our great Intrest no less than honor lies in securing the Dominion of the Seas and by that our Trade our Fleet must be answerable to that of our Neighbours It wil then allowing the English man to man to be a third stronger than the French seem reasonable to have an Hundred and fifty Ships of War in constant readiness And comparing the charge of the Admiralty by taking an estimat of what it was in Queen Elizabeths time 30000 and in the beginning of King Iames's 1604. 40000 with what it has bin since this Kings Raign which if I mistake not I have bin told by more than your self was offerd to be made out in Parliament to have bin 500000 per annum But granting it was but 400000 it must follow that our Fleet has bin ten times bigger than that of King Iames or that the Charge is now ten times more That if it be yet necessary to inlarge it treble to make it strong enuff that wil increase the ordinary Annual Charge by the first Account to 1500000 by the last to 1200000. And if the Building of thirty Ships require near 600000 p. how much more wil be wanting to compleat the Fleet 150 Sail and to continu building every Year with an allowance of one third less in proportion to the French Kings By which we can not yet reckon our selves secure from the common Foe without a strict Alliance with the Germans Dutch and Spaniards If then the ordinary occasions of our Fleet require thus much and the extraordinary a vast addition the common Expenses in every particular above thirty for one more than in Edward the Thirds time when the Crown had a large Revenu in Lands what wil all need in the extraordinary Accidents of War c. now when these are almost dwindled into nothing But these considerations I leave to the proper Persons yet by the by give me leave to tel you they were never thought of by those Mal-contents who have talk'd loud of the great supplies this King has had This alone Cancels the Obligation he that brags of having don another good turns pays himself and does not only free but disoblige the Recever It woud have argued more ingenuity not to have compared the Subsidies of this Kings Raign with those of his Predecessors without taking notice that perhaps his occasions required more than all theirs did That dureing the eighteen Years He and his Father

were kept out of their Rights he must have contracted vast debts for the support of himself his Army and his followers That the great Revenu of the Crown was in a manner gon That other Kings had squees'd vast sums from their Subjects by Loanes Monopolies c. of which no mention was made in the computation That the building of ships and above four years of such War at Sea consum'd more than any one hundred years War at Land since the Conquest That the consideration of the vast Charge Dunkirk put the Crown to at least three times more than it yeilded occasiond the Advise of its Sale That Tangier has stood the King in very great sums That til of late the supporting the Charge of Irelana helped to drein the Exchequer of England That the intrinsic Valu of one Million formerly was equal to that of three Millions now and in real use to thirty millions For the tru intrinsic Valu or worth of Mony is no otherwise to be computed than according to what it wil purchase for our present Consumptions which I have reckond to exceed those of old but by ten tho I have heard others say much more But that which has made these Complaints so loud has not bin only inconsideration or perhaps malice but the inequallity of imposeing the Taxes Those great inconveniencies may be easily obviated for the future by maki●g and applying to particular Uses such sufficient and equal Fonds as are necessary to be setled I wil only instance in one That of the Customes which seems originally to have had its Rise for that End therefore ought to be appropriated to the Use of the Navy I wish it were great enuff for such as our safety requires And if this Course be taken in apportioning the Revenu the Public and Privat Expences are to be generously computed the doing so wil remove Iealousies and Distrusts on all sides the King wil be under no necessity of straining his Prerogative by hearkning to the devices of Projectors the People wil be quiet and at ease and then every Man may safely sit under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree and enjoy with pleasure the Fruits of his Labor If you look into the Histories of past Ages you wil find the Disputes of the Prerogative on one hand and of Liberty on the other were alwayes founded on the want of Mony and he that considers the Evils that have ensued wil soon believe it very necessary to prevent the like for the future by applying to every use of the Crown or State I do not say to the Person of the King whose greatest Share is the Trouble while the Subjects is Security and Ease a sufficient and perpetual Revenu This Act wil beget an intire Confidence and Love and so unite us to one another as wil make it impossible for any Storms without or Commotions within to shake this Kingdom so founded on a Rock against which all who make any attempts must needs split themselves and Fortunes I have according to my wonted Freedom given you my Thoughts why I think it more convenient both for Public and Privat That the Revenu were sufficient and perpetual against which I never met but with one Objection to wit That if that were don the King woud not so frequently if at all call his Parliament As if there were no use for this great Council but raising of Mony The altering or repealing the old and making new Laws the reforming of Errors and Abuses in Inferior Courts of Iustice the deciding the Controversies those Courts coud not and many other things woud make their Meeting necessary The King woud see 't were his Advantage to cal them often since besides that there is safety in the multitude of Counsellors all that happens to be severe and harsh woud light on them and yet none coud be offended because the Act of the whole Nor coud His Majesty but be sensible that all Innovations are dangerous in a State for it is like a Watch out of which any one peece lost woud disorder the whole That the Parliament is the great Spring or Heart without which the Body of the Common-wealth coud enjoy neither Health nor Vigor Life nor Motion That while they mind their Duty in proposeing and advising what is best for King and People without privat Respect leaving him the undoubted Prerogative of Kings of Nature and Reason of Assenting or Dissenting as he is convinc'd in his Conscience is best for the Common Good which is to be his measure in all Actions as the Laws are to be the Subjects Rule I see not why it shoud not be his interest to cal them frequently That none can be suppos'd to advise the contrary unless som few great Men to avoid not so much perhaps the Iustice as the Passion Envy and Prejudice of som in that Iudicature to whom they may think themselves obnoxious But granting this 't is unreasonable to think so wise and so good a Prince wil prefer the Privat Interest of any single Man tho never so Great before the general Good and Satisfaction of his People I shoud rather think He wil in the Words of his Royal Father in a Speech to his Parliament give in this a ful Assurance I must conclude that I seek my Peoples Happiness for their slourishing is my greatest Glory and their Affection my greatest Strength His Majesty wel knows with what tenderness and Love his Subjects are to be treated that 't is more safe more pleasing and more easy to erect his Throne over their Hearts than their Heads to be obey'd for Love rather than Fear the Dominion founded on the later often meets the same Fate with a House built upon the Sands while that establish'd on the former continues firm and immovable as a Rock He is not ignorant That as the multitude of the wise is the welfare of the world so does the Being and Wel-Being of the English Nation consist in the frequent Counsels Deliberations and Acts of King and Parliament in which Providence has so blended the King and People's Interests that like Husband and wife they can never be sunder'd without mutual inconvenience and unhappiness The sense and observation of this makes our King's Reign prosperous and gives Him a more Glorious Title than that of King viz. The Father of the Country and the great God-like Preserver of his Children's Rights and Liberties who out of a deep sense of Duty and Gratitude must own and remember who tels them That a wise King is the upholding of his People and therefore cannot but pay him even for their own Interest all imaginable Loyalty Deference and Respect giving up their Lives and Fortunes for His or which is all one their own Safety who studies nothing so much as their Good and wel-fare Besides the King has already past an Act that a Parliament shal sit at least once in three Years and in several Speeches he has declar'd himself ready to do