Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	church_n	good_a	king_n	1,394	5	3.5072	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86571	Inclosure thrown open: or, Depopulation depopulated. Not by spades and mattocks; but, by the word of God, the laws of the land, and solid arguments. And the most material pleas that can be brought for it, considered and answered. / By Henry Halhead.	Halhead, Henry.	1650 (1650)	Wing H284; Thomason E619_2; ESTC R206364	16,888	23

to turne the faces at least we hope the hearts of the whole Nation towards the same I beseech you all our Representatives in Parliament as you tender the glory of God and the flourishing of this Common-wealth that you deny your own Interest wherein it tends to the Ruine of a Country or Nation and that ye all joyne Heart and Hand together for the recovering of this almost-ruined Land out of this weake estate whereinto it is fallen by Depopulation that so ye repairing the old waste places and raising up the Foundations of many Generations may justly be called The Repairers of the Breach Restorers of paths to dwell in Oh! how would this engage the hearts of the people unto you I know some will say they did not Depopulate or inclose but they bought it so or it was so left them by their Fathers and the Poore were provided for when it was first inclosed and turned to pasture I but where are they and their breed Are they not constrained to flee into other Towns to the great annoyance and charge of the places whither they were driven Where I say are those good House-keepers that brought store of Corne to the Market and where are the Horse Beasts and Sheep that were bred there besides Men Women and Children that dwelt there These things would be enlarged by the experiences of ancient men that know more of this then I can utter And this may be one Reason why Free-Quarter of Souldiers is so exceeding burthensome because many houses of Husbandry are decayed and the Lands layd down to Sheep-pasture whereby it comes to pass that the charge lies but upon a few But of the Reasons and Arguments against Depopulation in their place And to reduce what I have to say to some Method I shall First Endeavour to convict this sin by the Lawes of God and of the Land where we live to be a forbidden an accursed thing Secondly I shall endeavour to lay open the Mystery and the way of it Thirdly I shall offer such Arguments as I have ready against it Fourthly I shall answer what Objections I have met withall in the behalfe of it The first Scripture-evidence I shall produce against it is Isa. 5.8 Woe unto them that joyne house to house and that lay field to field till there be no place left that they may dwell alone in the midst of the Earth In mine eares said the Lord of hosts Of a truth many houses shall be desolate even great and faire without inhabitant The place is plaine and pregnant I shall forbear to gloss upon it Onely at the Event we may give glory to God and be his Witnesses that what he hath spoken with his mouth he hath fulfilled with his hand As might I call all the Ancient men to witness they were able to say Where ever they knew any that did throw down Townships and houses of Husbandrie to set up faire houses for themselves and theirs and either They or their Children came not to poverty and want See in the next place Mich. 2.1 A Woe denounced against them that devise iniquity and worke evil upon their beds and when the morning is light they practise it because it is in the power of their hands And what is the evil Why vers. 2. They covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Therefore behold vers. 3 the Lord comes in with his device Thus saith the Lord Behold against this Family do I devise an evil from which you shall not remove your neckes neither shall you goe haughtily for this time is evil In that day they shall take up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation and truely so they do now-a-dayes and say We are utterly spoiled for they have taken our fields Now follows their judgement Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the Congregation of the Lord For the meaning whereof whether it be that for their Cruelty and Oppression they were to be cut off from the Assemblies of the godly in that time or that in time of dividing their Inheritances they were to have no lot among their Brethren or both these I commend you to the godly learned to examine Habakkuk likewise denounceth against this wickedness Hab. 2.9 10 11. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evil Thou hast cosulted shame to thy self by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soule For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beame out of the timber shall answer it How many of these houses have there been of late years that were built by blood and cruelty by Wracking of Rents and overthrowing whole Townships and houses of Husbandry Thus we may see by some few instances the Lawes of God are against this sin of Depopulation Neither are the Lawes of the Land for it First in the fourth yeer of Henry the seventh Chap. 19. Item The King our Soveraign Lord having a singular Pleasure above all things to avoid such Enormities and Mischiefs as be hurtful and prejudicial to the Common-weal of this His Land and His Subjects of the same Remembreth that amongst all other things great Inconveniences daily do increase by Desolation and pulling down and wilful waste of Houses and Towns within this Realm and laying to Pasture Lands which Customably have béen used in Tilth whereby Idleness which is the ground and beginning of all Mischiefs daily doth increase For where in some Towns two hundred persons were occupied and lived in their lawful Labours now bin there occupied two or thrée Herds-men and the residue fall into Idleness Thereby Husbandry which is one of the greatest Commodities of this Realm is greatly decayed Churches destroyed the Service of God withdrawn the Patrons and Curates wronged the defence of this Land against our Enemies much féebled and impaired to the great displeasure of God to the subversion of the Policie and good Rules of this Land if Remedy be not provided Wherefore the King our Soveraign Lord by the Advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons in the said Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same Have Ordained Enacted and Established that no person of what Estate Degrée or Condition soever he be that hath any House or Houses that at any time within thrée yéers past hath béen or now is or hereafter shall be letten to Farm with twenty Acres at least or more lying in Tillage and Husbandry That the Owner or Owners of every such House or Houses and Land to kéep sustain and maintain Houses and Buildings upon the said Ground or Land convenient and necessary for maintaining and upholding of the said Tillage and Husbandry So also in the Statute made anno 39 of Queen Elizabeth intituled An Act

for the maintenance of Husbandry and Tillage is the like provision made against Depopulation by Inclosure wherein also is to be found a Recital of several Laws always some or other in force from the 27 of Hen. 8 until the 35 of Her Majesties Reign ordaining and requiring the Conversion and Continuance of a certain quantity and proportion of land for Tillage unalterably Yet notwithstanding this good and wholesome provision of the Laws against this Evil it hath by notable sleights insinuated and upheld it self And it may not be useless but afford some content and satisfaction to lay open the manner how These kinde of Oppressors do work this their unnatural work to displant Men and place Sheep in their rooms that so it may appear in its odiousness to all that shall consider the same and that men may be aware of the beginnings of their Plots and wicked Devices upon their beds 1. They will claim to be chief Lords of the Town which they mean to depopulate 2. They will alter the customs of the sides of the fields and hain that that was not wont to be hained and alter ancient known Ways in the field 3. They will go about to make new Field-Orders overthrowing the old Field-Orders or Customs 4. They labour by fair means with the common people to obtain their consent for Inclosure telling them that for some little charge their Living will be made three times as good as they are for profit 5. They will say Inclosure is a goodly thing it stops many Strifes and Contentions when men may have things by themselves it nourisheth Wood in hedges whereof there is great need and keeps Sheep from rotting 6. If by fair means and perswasions they cannot prevail then they will commence a Suit in Law and make the poor people dance attendance in some of the Courts for many yeers together as I have known of my own knowledge And then they will offer them large money to buy them out and if that take not then on goes the Suit and a Decree is got out of Chancery pretending stubbornness and that men will not be ruled by any good Order Some also have soug●● to pick a quarrel against men in the Law of their God as for going from their parish-Parish-Church when they have no Sermon at home or as good as none and so vex them in the Chancellors-Court But they are now down and gone blessed be God 7. They will ditch in their own Demeasns and so make the poor Commoners go about to their lands to their great toil and against their old Customs and all this to weary and tyre them out of their Possessions They will also alleadge that their Demeasns is too little for their Families and that they would enlarge it But in truth their mindes are too great for their means and so at last they set up a fair House and overthrow many a Family 8. Some have also laboured to entitle the King to their land without any cause They will also make Coney-grees in some places and let them increase that they may eat up the labours of poor men to their great hinderance and discouragement at length And thus by these means they seek to obtain their Ends Now in the next place I shall give you my reasons against this course of depopulating Inclosure and endeavour to satisfie the Objections and Arguments that are made in behalf of it 1. And first it appears to be highly dishonourable to Almighty God altering that Course and Order he appointed in Nature who said unto man Grow increase and multiply replenish the earth and subdue it which by these practices is prevented and obstructed Cattel being increased in stead of Men 2. Likewise hereby are overthrown many Churches and Congregations of men who by holding up their hands to God might pull down Blessings on a Nation and divert Judgements therefrom 3. And where are the Souldiers in those decayed Towns the men that should do their Country service and stand in the face of an Enemy coming to invade Where are the Horses that many Country-men bred for the Service But the evils that come to the Commonwealth are more then can soon be reckoned or easily expressed for in such Towns that are depopulated the inhabitants are constrained to flee to other Towns to their impoverishment Neither do the Inclosers keep a house according to their estates but many a Farmer spends as much as they When these places were all Champion-Countries many a shiver of Bread was given but now all such Liberality is laid by and a fair house is set up with goodly Demeasns but no Hospitality at all And that I may not let it pass another Burden lieth upon the Commonwealth and that is That the High-ways about such places are most intolerable and for the most part unpassable especially in the Winter-time for which many a bitter oath is cast out against them And if the people so depopulated should be strictly tied to mend the Ways and repair the Church it would be more then their poor means will afford their Rents are so exceedingly inhansed And what reason can be rendered that that Soil should not pay as much to the State as ever before as much to the Church as before as much to the Poor and keep as many people as ever it did yet if they should be compelled thereunto they would get nothing by their Inclosure for I dare boldly affirm that never did any man get by depopulating Inclosure but he saved it out of the bodies of men or by not keeping of Cattel according to the old proportions 2. It is a great increaser of Idleness for when the Plow goes forward the Old Saying is The Plow-man's work is never at an end But in such decayed Towns they have very little to do then they fall to a habit of Idleness and so they turn to haunt Ale-houses to Adultery and other Felonies and destroying and wasting their Bodies Estates and Wits 3. It increaseth Usurers the Vipers of the Common-wealth to eat out the bowels of it so that free lending is for the most part taken away And it hardens mens hearts one against another for they make their little Land into a Stock and so they get to some Market-Town and either turn Usurers Ale-house-keepers or Maultsters to the no-small hurt of the Common-wealth 4. It fills Market-townes with Husbandmens Children who because they cannot take any Livings for reasonable Fines as before-time do thrust themselves into such Market-towns and there use unprofitable Trades such as this Common-wealth hath no need of to the great hurt of those that be borne in that soile And because there is no Law to forbid men to remove to dwell in Market-towns they and their posterity being thrust out from such decayed places and constrained to go where they can resort thither to the great burthen of such places 5. And unhappy Experience shews that Market-towns and Cities being so pestered with people which are driven