Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	death_n	die_v	king_n	3,370	5	3.6601	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90886	The moderator expecting sudden peace, or certaine ruine. Directed by reason, arising out of the consideration of what hath already happened, our present condition, and the most likely consequents of these.	Povey, Thomas, fl. 1633-1685.	1643 (1643)	Wing P3042; Thomason E89_21; ESTC R15715	28,792	33

But if the decision must be by blood and victory the prevailers are then bound and perhaps necessitated to gratifie their party with that kinde of discipline which their humours call for they must looke to fasten themselves by that power and those principles by which they gained it When as it is like to be quite otherwise if peace suspend these differences both sides must then goe on in an even and well tempered course that they may politiquely hold fast that party which their promises and faire protestations won to them It will then be hoped that the contention will be which shall be most plausible and it will be better for the people to have their affections invited then forced Thus we find that Religion will looke most comely dressed in the white garments of peace rather then the purple robes of warre And seeing Religion is many times but a servant to other designes and goes before onely to usher in some great affaire of State in the same order it shall be followed now and we shall in the next place examine how the State shall be bettered by a mastery of either side Would we have the Lawes better exercised which our Predecessors left to us how much out of countenance Law is when the sword domineers we need not be informed by History And when this warre shall see an end with how much difficulty shall wee be rendred capable of the usuall course and benefit of it And we know not who by that time may become Patron and Master of our Law and Nation or would we have new Lawes to serve our turnes now or confirme those wee have gained this Parliament If that the sword shall draw up new Statutes it is likely they would be but short lived or uselesse for no politique ties no not the most sacred assurance of an oath could ever make Princes observe the execution of them And it may be feared that such violent gaining upon the Crown may be an occasion hereafter to wrest from us all those advantages which the Subject hath dearely bought this Parliament under pretence that violence was the mother of them all Our liberties are not like to be much enlarged or secured by it martiall Law will ere long disseize us of our Possessions our Estates and Lives and what Judge shall be able to redresse us and wee must run a hazard what kind of free-men or slaves wee must be hereafter So that upon all this enquirie it is hard to bee satisfied how our Religion Lawes or Liberties shall be improoved by such a warre as wee are ingaged in unlesse the more pious and well-meaning party will promise certaine and sudden successe both of which will be necessary to make it any thing likely but of these more in the close of all But when we have suposed that wee shall be bettered in all these when the warre is ended let us with an intentive eye looke upon the miseries which must be our entertainment whilest the war continues That which wee have seene or heard already of it is no more then a sad Prologue to an ensuing Tragedie which onely tells us what wee are to expect but the following acts thew us those bloody passages at large As yet the Souldier hath not devoured the Husband-mans store but without much trouble findes Bread for himselfe and Provender for his Horse but where will hee seeke it when hee hath spoyled the springing grasse and trampled downe or eaten up the growing corne The Husband-man will be affraid to venture his seed in the ground not knowing who shall reape it or if hee would be so hardie perhaps he wants his Horses to plough or his Hindes to helpe him And such will be our griefe that wee must not looke for succour from our neighbour Counties for every one of them is like to be the Seat of warre and so many Armies must needs consume Cattle and Sheep and the Farmers stocke and so beget a famine A famine never comes without sad companions as the Plague small Pox Flux and many more such servants of death Thus Provision the chiefe support of this populous Kingdome will be suddenly wasted and thus those whom war spares want or violent diseases will devour and so wee shall many wayes perish without the sword yet by it It is to no purpose to demonstrate how the treasure of this Land heaped up by a long lived peace will be suddenly powred out and be seene no more thus many times doth a carefull and aged father leave a hard gotten Patrimony to a scattering sonne And how certaine the utter decay of trade the livelihood of the State will be how Art that was comming into such a perfection amongst us will be lost and as it were unlearnt how learning the glory of our Nation will be disesteemed and uselesse and changed into martiall Discipline how poverty will so generally seize almost upon all that the violence of it will every where create us new enemies if the Souldier spares us which will take away our goods by the authenticke Law of necessity and snatch away the meate from our mouthes making hunger their warrant But I will pursue this common place no further these are the generall consequences of warre wee will therefore reflect more closely upon our owne more peculiar mischiefes If wee must put off Peace untill another time how desperate are wee For those that ingage us in a warre are not able to tell us when where how and by whom it shall end this the late and sad experience of other people may tell us The question hereafter will be not so much where is the Right But where is the Power For the Right of Power must carry the businesse And then it will be beyond Probability that this Kingdome ever recover the purity of it's Religion it's Lawes it's Customes it 's Government which have beene setling about five hundred yeeres nor let our present Superiours be angry at the conjecture for I cannot assure my selfe who shall live to strike the last blow And it hath in all ages beene observed that designes in warre change like Scenes in a Masque where we see new apparitions ere we are aware of them And the events of one yeere may beyond all expectation vary or heighten the quarrell And it is alwayes found that successe lifts men up above themselves for a prevailing power seldome knowes any bounds or modestie the Subject will want his old sanctuary then which our Predecessors provided for Lawes are but the ligaments of Peace and the Souldier will breake them like threads But I shall be asked why my bold imagination hath phansied such terrible things as these Wee will therefore see now gradually wee must come to such a condition as this And first because wee will not undertake to define the quarrell as it now stands largely nor sawcily we will conceive it thus A working jealousie fixed in a divided Kingdome both sides choosing rather to die then to trust one

another From this root must necessarily spring these inconveniences The most uncharitable mischiefe that a Common-wealth can be ingaged in is That wee must execute the designes of our enemies upon our selves that the King may receive his death from the hand of a Subject whilest it is reached forth if you will believe his Vowes for his good and safety that the father sending his bullet at a venture may kill his sonne or the sonne his father this is probable enough but it is impossible that brothers kindred and friends should not mingle in one anothers blood and perhaps purposely wee see such an eager division in all Families And it is so universall that no Countie scarce any Citie or Corporation is so unanimous but they have division enough to undoe themselves And it is evident enough that this Rent will encrease untill wee shall be quite torne in pieces For when the fatall sluce of bloud shall be drawne up higher in all probabilitie the veines of the remaining People swelling with revenge for their battered partie are likely to be drained dry thorowout the Kingdome If wee will leave our differences to the dispute of the Sword wee shall not want an Umpire one that will come in to part us or part stakes with us Let this Mediatour chance to be of a Religion like ours or of one quite opposite unto it who shall pay the Souldiers for their journey-work Must money be raised for them It must be digged for them I beleeve little will be found above ground Or must promises serve the turne The Souldier seldome returnes with such pay Or most plunder satisfie them This may stay their stomacks although it be but the Reliques of our owne men of war but will not be able to send them back againe No wee shall find that the interest of that State must be satisfied either with our Ruine or with mingling themselves in our Estates and Government Or suppose our neighbours will wink on purpose and neglect their advantages though it were meere sottishnesse to conceit so upon whose purse shall our enemies at home our owne Armies live Must the Countries maintaine them It must bee then by the Farmer but hee can neither sow nor reap nor breed up nor repaire his stock in the heat of such a war as ours Else must the Clothier do it whence shall he have his many necessaries and how shall he vent his clothes If these faile the Countries cannot be long considerable in enduring the burthen of Armies Is it expected the Citie must doe all this That little which they have got before hand and make their store is so impaired that it will scarce maintaine themselves unlesse it be by a continued course of trading which as it is now languishing so it will be ere that time quite dead and buried The Citie is as it were the stomack which digests the trading of the whole Kingdome and afterwards returnes to everie severall part of it that nourishment which supports it if weaknesse and obstructions be found there a consumption soone steales upon the whole body But suppose it were rich and full enough to serve the turne yet they will not let downe their milk to a violent hand they must be stroked and humoured else they will be stubborne If they chance to be at discord it will be hard to collect any considerable sums and if that discord be heightened by the cunning practice of any into a mutiny amongst themselves they will be able to undoe one another without the help of a draining Army Thus wee may see our necessities will encounter and overcome us if wee must live and dye and living thus is worse than dying in this lingring war And after all these horrid executions of Fire Sword Famine Pestilence and those many other sad consequences of war what face at the best will this Kingdome have what a ruinous Nobilitie what a decayed Gentrie what a beggarly Commonaltie will it be peopled withall And what age shall ever see those Fewds eaten out which these Civill Broyles will beget For we shall find that as Jealousie was the mother of them so Malice Hatred and Revenge will be the issue And when shall a State so distempered look for a quiet or a safe composure For War like a strong disease leaves many dregs and reliques behind it which though the maine Forces be disbanded and it be no more an Army a Fever will punish the uncleansed body with severall fits and distempers We shall find that men nursed up in war grow sick of peace and are like Tinder ready to be inflamed into sedition or high attempts by everie spark which Ambition or any other exorbitant desire le ts fall And if it shall be held a necessarie policie to hold up a war in any other place to spend their fiefie spirits the State will be as good as beggered to be thus rid of them And it may be feared that the meaner sort will forget the usuall toyle of their former professions by the licentiousnesse in the war and will never after be brought to endure order or labour and so will returne to corrupt the Common-wealth with their lawlesse manners I could add many more Instances but I think there needs no more to be urged to shew us how miserable wee must necessarily be Yet I must not omit the Motive which distressed Ireland offers unto us which now represents the verie Condition we must look for if a sudden Peace do not happily prevent it If we could look upon it as ready to be undermined and falling into the Ocean so that no footing would be left there for our Adversaries though we could not but pitie it and our selves yet then all our feares would bee drowned with it but we must consider it as one of our maine Bulwarks gained and fortified not without infinit expence of the treasure and bloud of our Ancestors and that it is now ready to be possessed by a dangerous enemy who from thence will for ever batter our Peace and it is likely may make such breaches as may let in hereafter if we escape them now as many miseries as Ireland now groanes under Nor are all these mischiefes which I have summoned up more certaine than the successe of either side is doubtfull so that if we doe grant to satisfie such as will on both sides have it so that nothing but the good of the State is intended How shall we be assured that that pious Partie which truly hath the most right shall have the successe and how soone they will be able to accomplish it For as I have proved there will be nothing left us to be preserved if it hold out long But upon consideration wee shall find that both the successe and the conclusion of it are verie uncertaine Wee know that God many times useth the Sword as well to avenge himselfe upon his People as his People upon one another and that neither side have deserved so well as to

promise themselves the masterie although they dare aver their Cause is best So that I shall rather direct my judgement by Reason than Presumptions and shall therefore weigh these great Opposites to find out which of them hitherto hath had the greater successe and which hath the most probable advantages at this time It is scarce a yeare since all affaires of what nature soever received their enlivening Influence from the King through his Parliament which like a Burning-glasse contracted the Sun beames into it selfe and was able to give fire to almost any Designe it pleased to reflect on but those Rayes which did then display themselves beside it did spend themselves in vaine During this full Authoritie they furnished themselves with all meanes that might defend them from the Counter-plots of those who they had reason to beleeve could not endure the strict Reformation which was suddenly intended Therefore ere the People are aware or know why they see all the considerable Ports and Ports of the Kingdome the Navie the Militia and all the strength of the State sequestred from the immediate commands of the Prince And because there is little strength in these things unlesse they bee manned and maintained with the affections and assistance of the People such courses are taken as may encite the most Therefore the first Remonstrance the unhappie Historie of the fore-going times opened the eyes of the People not used to see so far into such Mysteries and discovers enough to heighten a dislike against such as must owne those mis-carriages and a feare that those that heretofore contrived so many mischiefes against the State had not yet laid downe their Designe And that this danger should be more apparant a concurrencie of plots and conspiracies both from abroad and home is discovered by many severall Intelligencers so that scarce a day passes in which the State seemes not to be delivered from some eminent treason By this time their Feares are not lesse than their Dangers and their Resolution growes as great as their Feare so that any reasonable man could not beleeve that the Enemy that must doe all these fore-told mischiefes could lodge within us and rise against us without being suppressed in the verie infancie of the Designe Yet wee have found that notwithstanding all these Politique Ground-works and Preventions the Prophecie of the Parliament is thus far come to passe that wee are likely to be destroyed but it wounds us deep when wee consider who seeme to be partly the occasioners of it Hee therefore that shall consider all circumstances cannot but think it almost impossible that the King lately so much out of favour with the People so divested of all things that conduce to the making of a war but Resolution and the discontents of a few others should bee able to get together so considerable an Armie and such a party as dare shew themselves in every quarter of the Kingdome Nor had he done it had not his agents gathered infinite advantages which were let fall to them by some whose interests should have made them more wary Some doe inferre out of this That the King of England cannot complaine though but in meere policy but the passionate people will pity him though they sight against themselves If these finde themselves oppressed with the effects of such a warre they are easily invited to change their party as discontented men doe the ayre and sicke men their beds though they be never the more eased by it and had rather submit themselves to the naturall obedience of their Prince then to the severe and unusuall commands of any other power though they are told that they tend to their preservation Thus by weighing these passed considerations wee finde that successe doth often coozen out experiences and will not alwayes follow humane designes thongh they seeme to be grounded upon the most right and certaintie and after all this strugling and weakning of the Kingdome the opposion growes stronger and the event still more dangerous and doubtfull Yet wee will see as farre as wee can at distance on which side advantages leane most The ground of such a warre as this is the affections of the People and upon this both Armies are built and kept up wee will therefore guesse which of them hath the surest foundation It hath been observed the Parliament hath made little difference or not the right between the Gentry and Yeomanry rather complying and winning upon the latter then regarding or applying themselves at all to the former And they may be thus excused they did not thinke it justice to looke upon any man according to his quality but as hee was a Subject I hope this was all the reason but howsoever it appeares not that they yet have or are likely to gaine by this policie The common people could they be fixed were onely worth the courting at such a time but they are almost alwayes heady and violent seldome are lasting and constant in their opinions they that are to humour them must serve many Masters who though they seeme and indeed are their inferiours yet grow imperious upon many occasions many actions of merit how eminent soever shall not prevaile with them to excuse one mistake want of successe though that be all the crime makes them angry murmuring and jealous whereas a Gentleman is better spirited and more resolute and though he suffereth by it had rather sticke to that power that will countenance him then to that which makes no difference betwixt him and a Peasant The Gentleman followes his Resolution close and wins of his silly neighbours many times either by his power by his example or his discourse when as they have an easie Faith quickely wrought upon and upon the next turne will fall off in sholes They are a body certainly of great consequence when they are headed and ribbed by the Gentry but they have a Craven or an unruly courage which at best may rather be called Obstinacy then Resolution and are far lesse considerable when the most part of the Gentry or chiefe Citizens divide themselves from them We shall find the Parliament hath nothing to cement it selfe to increase and fix their party and keep it from staggering but a little temporary reputation and a resolution to hold fast to the publike good and this if things run so high as they do now will be called rebellious stubbornesse and be branded with the foule imputation of Treason Whereas the King as the chiefe Master and Dispencer of the Common-wealth is able to fit the humor of every man that he hath a mind to take of he hath honour for the proud places of trust for the ambitious inferiour offices for the busie man favour and promises and a possibility of severall preferments to invite all sorts of men to him He hath the power of a Pardon to hold out like a Lure to fetch in such as have turned taile yet perhaps would come in againe but dare not stoop till that