Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	find_v	great_a	king_n	3,579	5	3.5272	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29209	The serpent salve, or, A remedie for the biting of an aspe wherein the observators grounds are discussed and plainly discovered to be unsound, seditious, not warranted by the laws of God, of nature, or of nations, and most repugnant to the known laws and customs of this realm : for the reducing of such of His Majesties well-meaning subjects into the right way who have been mis-led by that ignis fatuus.	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.	1643 (1643)	Wing B4236; ESTC R12620	148,697	268

the Observers Argument may be thus paralelled It ●…s not discernable how the whole Citty and State of Athens could be mastered by a Militia consisting but of three thousand or those three thousand by the Major part of thirty Tyrants or the Major p●…rt of thirty by Critias and one or two more Or thu●… It is not discernable how the World should be mastered by Italy or Italy by Rome or Rome by I know not what Triumvirate A very poor Mercury may reconcile the Observers understanding in this if he be pleased A trayned Band of eighty or an hundred thousand fighting men well armed well exercised are able to master a greater Kingdom then England Armyes are not so soone raised armed disciplined he that is ready for the Field may easily suppresse another upon his first motion or but offering to stirre It is as easy to conceive how the traine Bands may be at the disposition of their Commanders who pay them reward them punish them and it is certain that they who have the naming of them will chuse such as they may confide in The Observer talkes much of Nature what Arms hath Nature given but teeth and nailes these will doe little service at push of pike or against a volly of muske●…s This brings us to the issue which is propounded by the Observer and is accepted by His Majesty which may put an end to all other invectives God grant it ●…ay prove true we see no signes of it yet The Ob●…erver saith Let us stick close to it and I say he that ●…tarts from it let him be reputed guilty of all the ●…nnocent blood that is shed He addes which will ●…ring the distracted multitude to prostrate them●…elves at His Majesties Feet Alas the countenance ●…s not alwayes to be credited but speech is the Arch-Deceiver If this be not a vaine flourish an empty aiery offer but meant in good earnest there is hope we may be happy His Majesty hath satisfied this demand long since by His Declaration of the 12. of August 1642. and yet we find not these fruits here promised with so much confidence He hath named the partyes He hath specified the crimes Take the accusation in his owne words 1. Of entring into a solomne Combination for altering of the Government of Church and State 2. Of designing Offices to themselves and other Men 3. Of soliciting and drawing down the Tumults to Westminster 4. Of bidding the people in the height of their rage and fury goe to Whitehall 5. Of their scornfull and odious mention of His Majesties Person 6. Of a designe to get the Prince into their hands 7. Of treating with Forreine Power to assist them He is willing also to referre himselfe to the strength of his proofes and evidence of the matter which is all the Observer desires Heare Him for that also We desire that the L. K. M. H. M. P. M. H. Sir A. H. M. St. M. M. Sir H. L. A. P. and C. V. may be delivered into the hands of Iustice to be tryed by their Peers according to the known Law of the Land If we doe not prove them guilty of High Treason they will be acquitted and their innocence will justly triumph over Vs. Now if they desire to shew themselves great Patriots and Lovers of their Country indeed here is a faire opportunity offered if they have as much courage as Codrus had to leape into the gaping gulfe of Division and to reduce the Kingdom to its former continuity and unity if they dare trust to the touchstone of Justice and if the bird in their brest sing sweetly to them that they are innocent here is a course provided whereby they may vindicate their good names and out of the feined reports of malignant Sycophants make themselves a triumphant Garland or Crown of lasting Honour But we see no hast I know not mens hearts There is an unhappy story in Plutarch but I dare not apply it of Pericles a Stickler in the Athenian Commonwealth who being busy and private in his study to make his account to the State was advised by his Nephew Alciliades it was pestilent Counsell rather to study low to make no accounts which he did effect by ingaging the Commonwealth in a Warre so as they had no leisure to call for his accounts after that There can be nothing pleaded in bar●…e to the performance of this Proposition but the privilege of Parliament A great plea indeed so the Observer That none of the Members of the Parliament may be apprehended in case of suspition where no information or Witnesses appear to make good the prosecution without acquainting the Parliament if leave may be conveniently obteined He addes that by the same Act the whole House might have been surprised And in another place that by this meanes the meere imputation of Treason shall sweep away a whole Parliament And his reason is thus grounded That if way be given to this so many Members of either House may be taken away at any time upon groundlesse pretences as may make a Major part of whom they will And then farewell to the Freedome of Parliaments Which truely seemes to be urged with great shew of equity where the partyes are taken away by dozens or greater numbers and the tryall is long deferred to serve a turne You shall find the same Argument used pressed after the same manner by Steven Gardiner to the Parliament alleging that nothing could be of worse Example then to allow such a president that by that meanes it shall be at the pleasure of him that ruleth to doe the same in more But for all that we doe not find that either the Parliament did afford him relief or were sensible of any such danger doubtlesse it stands both with naturall equity the known Law of the Land that they who have the honour to be the great Councell of the King Kingdome should have all such Privileges immunityes as are conducible to the furtherance of those ends for which they are convocated such are free accesse and recesse to be exempted from attendence upon Inferiour Courts so long as they are in that imployment To have their Servants free from arrests that whilest themselves are busy about the great Affaires of the Common-wealth their Estates and occasions may not suffer in their absence and that universall privilege of all Councellers that whilest their intentions are reall they should not be questioned for a slippe of the tongue or a mistake in their judgements We see ordinary Courts doe not onely protect their Ministers of Justice in the excercise of their places but even those Witnesses which a●… summoned to appeare before them A Clerke o●… the Chancery cannot be called to any other Cou●… to answer in any Cause that is cogniscible in tha●… Court But here are sundry things considerable as fir●… that His Majesty is the true fountain of these Privileges not any mutuall compacts This is plaine by that petition which Sir

note to be the first Parliament i●… England and that the Kings before that time were never wont to call any of their Commons or People 〈◊〉 Councell or Law making It may be the first held by the Norman Kings or the first held after the Norman manner or the first where the people appeared by Proctors yet we find the name of Parliament before this either so called then indeed or by a P●…olepsis as Lavinia Littora And not to contend abou●… the name this is certain that long before in the dayes of the Saxon Kings there was the Assembly of Wise Men or Mickle Synod having an Analogy with our Parliaments but differing from them in many things So doth that Parliament in Henry the first his time differ from ours now Then the Bishops had their votes in the House of Lords now they have none Then Proctors of the Clergy had their Suffrages in the House of Commons now they are excluded Then there were many more Barons then there are now Burgesses every Lord of a Mannour ●…ho had a Court Baron was a Parliament man natus ●…y right Then they came on generall summons af●…er upon speciall Writ But both the one and the ●…ther were posteriour to Kings both in the order ●…f nature and of time How should it be otherwise ●…he end of Parliaments is to temper the violence of ●…overaigne Power the Remedy must needs be later then ●…e Disease much more then the right Temper ●…egenerate Monarchy becomes Tyranny and the cure ●…f Tyranny is the mixture of Governments Parliments are proper adjuments to Kings Parliaments ●…ere constituted to supply the defects in that Govern●…ent saith the Observer himselfe here you may apply your Rule to purpose that the end is more ●…xcellent then the meanes I deny therefore that the ●…ingdome is the essence of Parliaments there is a ●…hreefold Body of the State the essentiall Body ●…he representative Body and the virtuall Body the ●…ssentiall Body is the diffused company of the whole Nobility Gentry Commonalty throughout the King●…ome the representative Body are the Lords Cit●…yzens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled and in●…rusted the Virtuall Body is His Majesty in whom ●…ests the life of Authority and power legislative exe●…utive virtually yet so as in the excercise of some ●…rts of it there are necessary requisites the consent and concurrence of the representative Body From this mistaken ground the Observer draws fundry erroneous conclusions Posito uno absurdo sequuntur ●…mille Hence proceeds his Complaint That severance hath been made betwixt the Parties chosen and the Parties choosing and so that that great privilege of all privileges that unmoveable Basis of all Honour and power whereby the House of Commons claimes the intire right of all the Gentry and Commonalty of England hath been attempted to be shaken A power of representation we grant respective to some ends as to consent to new laws to grant Subsidies to impeach Offenders to find out and present grievances and whatsoever else is warranted by lawfull Customes but an intire right to all intents and purposes against Law and lawfull Custome we deny An intire right what to out Wifes and Children to our Lands and Possessions this is not tollerable Hence also he tells Magistrally enough of an arbitrary Power in the Parliament That there is an arbitrary Power in every State somewhere it is true ●…is necessary and no inconvenience followes upon it every man hath an arbitrary power over him selfe so every State hath an arbitrary power over it selfe and there is no Danger in it for the same reason if the State intrust this to one Man or few there may be danger but the Parliament is neither one nor few it is indeed the State it selfe Now the Maske is off you have spunne a fair threed is this the end of all your goodly pretences if this be your new Learning God deliver all true English men from it Wee chose you to be our Proctors not to be our Lords We challenge the Laws of England as our Birthright and Inheritance and dislike Arbitrary Government much in one but twenty times worse in more There is no Tyranny like many-headed Tyranny when was ●…ver so much Blood shed and Rapine under one Tyrant as under three in the Triumvirate And the more they are still of necessity there will be more ●…ngagements of Love and Hatred and Covetousnesse and Ambition the more packing and conniving one with another the more Danger of Factious and Seditious tumults as if the evills of one Forme of Government were not sufficient except we were overwhelmed with the deluge of them all and he that is most popular who is most commonly the worst will give Laws to the rest Therefore it hath ever been accounted safer to live under one Tyrant then many The Lust Covetousnesse Ambition Cruelty of one may be sooner satisfied then of many and especially when the power is but temporary and not hereditary nor of continuance We see Farmers which have a long terme will husband their grounds well but they that are but Tenents at will plough out the very heart of it No Sir I thanke you we will none of your Arbitrary Government And supposing but no way granting that the Parliament were the essentiall Body of this Kingdome or which is all one were indowed with all the power and Privileges thereof to all intents and purposes yet it had no Arbitrary Power over it selfe in such things as are contrary to the Allegiance which it owes to His Majesty and contrary to its Obligation to the received Laws and Customs of this Land Hence be ascribes to Parliaments a power to call Kings to an account heare himselfe That Princes may not be now beyond all Limits and Lawes by any private Persons the whole community in its underived Majesty shall convene to doe iustice Here we have it expresly that the Parliament is the whole Commun●…ty that it hath a Majesty that this Maj●…sty 〈◊〉 underived that it hath power ●…o ●…ry Princ●…s ●…e 〈◊〉 doe justice upon them Hit●…erto we have misunderstood Saint Peter Submit your selfes to every Ordinance of Man for the Lor●… sake whether it be to t●… King as Supreme It seems the Parliament●… whic●… passed the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance did no●… understand their own right till 〈◊〉 third Cato dropp●…d from Heaven to inform them And above all o●… Non-Conformist Ministers in their sol●…e Protestation are deep●…st in this guilt w●…o affirme so confidently that for the King ●…ot to assume 〈◊〉 or for the Church to deny it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea though the Statutes of the Kingdome should de●… it unto Him What ma●… his fellow Subject●… expe●… from the O●…server who is ●…o sawcy with his Soveraigne But before I leave thi●… poi●…t I desire to be informed 〈◊〉 this new Doctrin agrees with that undeniable principle of our Law The King can do 〈◊〉 wrong The Observer glosseth it thus That He can doe no wrong de

take what fall●… at his perill But that I may not denye truth to an Ad●… versary I grant three truths in this Answer First that the Person and Office of a King at●… distinguishable a good man may be a bad King an●… a bad man a good King Alexander the great ha●… his two friends Ephestion and Craterus the one wa●… Alexanders Friend the other was the Kings Friend the one honoured his person the other his Office But yet he that loved Alexander did not hate th●… King and he that loved the King was no enemy t●… Alexander Secondly I grant in active Obedience if th●… King command any thing which is repugnant to the Law of God or Nature we ought rather to obe●… God then Men. The Guard of Saul refused justl●… to slay the Priests of the Lord and Hanania●… Mishael and Azariah to worship Nebuchadnezar●… golden Image it is better to dye then to doe tha●… which is worse then Death Da veniam Imperato●… pardon me O Soveraigne thou threatnest me wit●… prison but God with Hell In this case it is not lawfull to yeeld active obedience to the King Again if the King command any thing which is contrary to the known Laws of the Land if it be by an injury to a third Person we may not doe it as for a Judge to deliver an unjust sentence for every Judge ought to take an Oath at his admission that he will doe right to every person notwithstanding the Kings letters or any other persons there is danger from others as well as from the King And generally we owe service to the King but innocency to Christ. But if this command intrench onely upon our own private Interest we may either forbear active Obedience or in discretion remit of our own right for avoiding further evill So said Saint Ambrose If the Emperour demand our fields let him take them if he please I doe not give them but withall I doe not deny them Provided alwayes that this is to be understood in plain cases onely where the Law of God of Nature or the Land is evident to every mans capacity otherwise if it be doubtfull it is a Rule in Case Divinity Subditi tenentur in favorem Regis Legis judicare It is better to obey God then Man but to disobey the King upon Surmises or probable pretence or an implicit dependence upon other Mens judgements is to disobey both God and Man and this duty as the Protesters say truely is not tyed to a Kings Christianity but his Crown Tiberius was no Saint when Christ bid give unto Caesar that which was Caesars Thus for active obedience now for passive If a Soveraigne shall persecute his Subjects for not doing his unjust Commands yet it is not lawfull to resist by raising Arms against him They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation But they aske i●… there no limitation I answer ubi lex non distingui●… nec nos distinguere debemus how shall we limit where God hath not limited or distinguish where he hath not distinguished But is there no remedy for 〈◊〉 Christian in this case yes three remedies The first is to cease from sinne Rex bonus est dextra malus sinistra Dei a good King is Gods right hand a bad his left hand a scourge for our sinnes as we suffer with patience an unfruitfull yeare so we must doe an evill Prince as sent by God Tollatu●… culpa ut cesset Tyrannorum plaga said Aquinas remove our sinne and God will take away his rod. The second remedy is prayers and tears In that day you shall cry unto the Lord because of your King Saint Nazianzen lived under five persecutions and never knew other Remedy he ascribed the death of Iulian to the prayers and teares of the Christians Ieremy armed the Iews with prayers for Nebuchadnezar not with daggs and daggers against Nebuchadnezar Saint Paul commands to make prayers and supplications for Kings not to give poison to them Saint Peter could have taken vengeance with a word as well on Herod as Ananias but that he knew that God reserves Kings for his own Tribunall For this cause Saint Ambrose a Man of known courage refused to make use of the forwardnesse of the People against Valen●…ian the Emperour And when Saul had slayne the Priests of God and persecuted David yet saith David who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords anointed and be guiltlesse It was Duty and not a singular desire of perfection that held Davids hands who can stretch out his Hand No Man can doe it The third remedy is flight this is the uttermost which our Master hath allowed when they persecute you in one City fly to another But a whole Kingdome cannot fly neither was a whole Kingdome ever persecuted by a lawfull Prince private men tasted of Domitians cruelty but the Provinces were well governed The raging desires of one Man cannot possibly extend to the ruine of all Nor is this condition so hard for Subjects This is thankworthy if a man for Conscience towards God indure grief and if a man suffer as a Christian let him glorifie God on this behalfe This way hath ever proved successefull to Christian Religion the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church caedebantur torquebantur nrebantur tamen multiplicabantur But all these Remedies are not sufficient they are nothing and they that thinke otherwise are stupid fellowes in the judgement of the Observer unlesse the People have right to preserve themselves by force of Arms yea notwithstanding any contracts that they have made to the contrary for every private man may desend himselfe by force if assaulted though by the force of a Magistrate or his own Father c. First I observe how the Observer enterferes in his Discourse for in the forty fourth page he telleth us quite contrary that the King as to his own Person is not forcibly to be repelled in any ill doing But passing by this contradiction I aske two questions of him by his good leave The first is if a Father should goe about onely to correct his Child and not to kill him or maime him whether he might in such a case cry Murther Murther and trie M●steries with his Father and allege his own judgement against his Fathers to prove his innocency My second question is if an inraged Father should offer extreme violence to his Sonne how far he might resist his Father in this case whether to give blow for blow and stabbe for stabbe or onely to hold his Fathers hands For if it be a meere resistence without any further active violence which is allowable if it be onely in extream perills where the life is ind●ngered and against manifest rage and fury what the Observer gets by this he may put in his eye and see never the worse But to give his remedy and his instance for it a positive answer I say further that this

Thomas Moore then Speaker for the House of Commons made in his Oration to King Henry the eight which I thinke hath been observed by all Speakers that ever were since That if in communication or reasoning any Man in th●… Commons House should speake more largely then of duty they ought to doe that all such offences should be pardoned Secondly these Privileges ought not to be destructive to the essence or Fundamentall Ends or righ●… Constitution of Parliaments and such a Privilege i●… that the Observer claimes to be denyed nothing For whereas our Parliament is so sweetly tempered an●… composed of all estates to secure this Nation from the evills which are incident to all Formes of Government he that shall quite take His Majestyes negative voice away secures us from Tyranny but leaves us open and starke naked to all those popular evil●… or Epidemicall diseases which flow from Ochlocracy as Tumults Seditions Civill Warres and that Ilias of Evills which attends them and seemes to reduce the King be it spoken with reverence to the ●…ase of the old Woman in the Epigrammatist when she had coughed out her two last teeth Iam libere possis totis tussire diebus Nil isthic quod agat tertia tussis habet From hence appeares a ready answer to that question so often moved what great virtue is in the Kings single vote to avert evills from us that an ordinance of both Houses may not be binding to the whole Kingdom without His consent The case is plain it is of no great virtue against the evills of Tyranny but is a Soveraigne Remedy against the greater Mischiefes which flow from Ochlocracy and I trust God will ever preserve it to us Thirdly these Privileges must not transcend the condition or capacity of Subjects by making destructive reservations or so as to deck the Temples of inferiour Persons with the flowers of the Crowne Such a Privilege seemes this to be which the Observer here claimes a Dictatorian Immunity from all question to owe no account but to God and their own Consciences and yet by this new Learning they may take an account of the King What is this but to make Kings of Subjects and Subjects of Kings When some Ancients more skilfull in Theology then in Philosophy or Geography did heare of the Antipodes they reasoned against it as they thought strongly that then there were pensiles homines and pensiles arbores men that did goe with their heads downwards and Trees that did grow with their tops downwards they forgot that Heaven is still above and the Center below but what they did but imagine the Observer really laboureth to introduce to make whole Kingdomes to walke with their Heads downwards and their heeles upwards Fourthly the just measure or standard whereby all Privileges ought to be examined and tryed is not now the Law of Nature which is applyable though not equally to all Formes of Government this were to put the shoe of Hercules upon an Infants foote The Law of Nature may be limited though not contraried by the known Laws and Customs of this Realme as they shall appear by Charters Statutes Presidents Rolls Records Witnesses His Majesty cites a confession of the Parliament it selfe to prove that their Privileges extend not to the cases of Treason Felony or breach of Peace which heretofore hath been the common beliefe of all Men. And it seemes no satisctory Answer to say that therefore they extend not to these Cases because the Houses do usually give way in these cases for them to come to tryall either in Parliament if it be proper or otherwise in other Courts For it is a great doubt how a Commoner in case of Treason can be tryed in Parliament per pares by his Peeres and if it be in their own power to give way or not to give way the Privilege extends to these cases as well as others The case being thus why doe we quarrell one with another why doe no●… we all repair to the common Standard that is the Law of the Land and crave the resolution or information of those that are Professors in that study This will determine the doubt without partiali●… or blood and he that refuseth it let him be accounted as one that desires not to uphold but subvert the Fundamentall Laws of the Land upon a supposition of Feares and such cases as never happened in the World Now it appeares how the former objection is not applicable to the case in question where the Partyes are Commoners and ought to be tryed by their Peers where His Sacred Majesty is the Informer where the crimes are specified where a speedy tryall according to the known Law is desired where the Partyes themselves out of a love to their Country out of a care to prevent the effusion of Christian and of English blood out of a desire to vindicate their own reputations should themselves become Suiters for a lawfull hearing that they might not still suffer under such a heavy charge at which tryall they may legally plead the Privilege of Parliament if there be any such L●…wfull Privilege Observer But let us consider the Lords and Commons as meer Counsellers without any power or right of counsailing or consenting yet we shall see if they be not lesse knowing and faithfull then other Men they ought not to be deserted unlesse we will allow that the King may choose whether he will admit of any Counsell at all or no in the disposing of our Lives Lands and Libertyes But the King sayes that He is not bound to renounce His owne understanding or to contradict His own Conscience for any Counsellers s●…ke whatsoever T is granted in things visible and certain That Iudge which is a sole Iudge and has competent power to see his own judgement executed ought not to determine against the light of nature or evidence of fact The Sin of Pila●…e was that when he might have saved our Saviour from an unjust Death yet upon accusations contradictory in themselves contrary to s●…range Revelations from Heaven he would suffer innocence to fall and passe sentence of Death meerely to satisfie a blood-thirs●…y Multitude But otherwise it was in my Lord of 〈◊〉 case for the King was not sole Iudge nay He w●…s uncapa●…le o●… sitting Iudge at all c. And therefo●…e the King might therein with a clear Conscience have signed a Warrant for his Death though He had dissented from the judgement So if one Iudge on the same Bench dissent from three or one Iuror at the Barre from eleven they may submitt to the major number though perhaps lesse skilfull then themselves without imputation of guilt and if it be thus in matters of Law a fortiori t is so in matters of State where the very satisfying of a Multitude sometimes in things not otherwise expedient may prove not only expedient but necessary for the setling of Peace and ceasing of strife c. Where the People by publick Authority will seek any inconvenience