Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	know_v	see_v	2,770	5	3.0783	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25598	An Answer to the letter from Amsterdam of April the 18th, 1678 being found at Harwich, open'd and carried to the magistrates of that place.		1678 (1678)	Wing A3416; ESTC R28300	6,288	16

AN ANSWER TO THE LETTER FROM Amsterdam Of April the 18. 1678. Being found at Harwich open'd and carried to the Magistrates of that Place Redit labor actus in Orbem Printed Anno Dom. 1678. AN ANSWER TO THE LETTER from Amsterdam Of April the 18. 1678. Dear Fellow-Labourer YOurs of the 18th of April came to a thousand hands before it reach'd mine You do ill to commit matters of such Importance to any thing but to Cypher knowing how much we have always ow'd to Disguises For which reason our Apostles preach not but in a Cloak and for greater security under two Caps and choose their Texts out of the mysterious Book of the Revelations They understand well enough that the precious Seed which they sow will not grow unless it be well covered and that the Children of Light are none of the wisest Generation It grieved my heart and almost turn'd my stomach to see the Old Cause look like an Old Courtisane newly risen undress'd unpainted and unperfum'd What a vast difference there is between the Cause dress'd and undress'd I beseech thee who could endure to look on the Hag in her nakedness her design of subverting Church and State dethroning Kings turning out Bishops and destroying men for daring to be honest and rich in fine in her Native cheating lying and forswearing with a thousand other Hellish qualities But when she hath put on her tender Conscience her fears of Popery and Arbitrary Government her good will towards the King and her charitable endeavours to reform his Ministers In good faith she is not the same thing Wherefore my dear Brother let us behave our selves like good Jockies and not discover the faults of our Beast till she is sold This I assure thee was the Art of our noble and successful Predecessors whose Designs the Well-meaning men as they call'd them never perceived till past their power to prevent However as the Devil will have it the Publication of thy Letter has not done us much harm For People are now so well and solidly deceived that it is no such easie task to cure ' em We talk'd to 'em formerly so much of the Gospel that 't is now Natural for 'em to take every thing we speak for such 'T is true it cost us many a painful grimass many a scrued eye much wringing of the hands and many an heart-rending groan before they came to the Lure but when we had once blinded 'em we ' ene did what we pleased with 'em We made sport with 'em as the Philistines did with Sampson and may continue to do so provided we remember to keep their hair cropt that is instruct 'em well in the Presbyterian Catechism I must confess it is wonderful to see with what ease they swallow any thing from us in so much as it is hard to tell whether their throats are wider in taking in our Impostures than ours would be in devouring them whenever they fall within our clutches We told them that War with France was so necessary for us that we ought to begin it before the least preparation was made towards it and they believ'd us Presently we tell 'em that twenty trifles are far more necessary to be provided for than the War and they call it the Sense of the Nation We told the King that we could not advise him either to War or Peace unle●● we knew every individual part and circumstance of his late Message into France c. and yet we took upon us a little before to advise him to a Declaration of War when we understood nothing of those matters and our shifting passes undiscover'd We say that it is our Interest to joyn with any of the Confederates that shall yet dare to stand out against the French King and yet at the same time and during the instant Treaty we think fit to disband our Army that no Confederate may be encouraged to do so On the one side we profess that there is no safety for us unless we reduce the French Affairs to their condition at the Pyrenean Treaty and on the other we take care in this conjuncture to give his Most Christian Majesty the best opportunity we are able of making good terms And when the noise of our coming into the Confederacy had made him quit Sicily and offer Proposals for Peace we resolved to ease his mind of those fears and leave him to prey on Europe in quiet and after all we gravely call the Courtiers Pensioners of France and make the People believe that the King himself is selling Three Kingdoms for a French Marquisate When we have a mind to accuse any Great Minister 't is enough for us to cry stop Thief once and all the Hounds open immediately and because we alledge nothing against him they conclude his crimes unspeakable I vow to thee it tickles me to behold how easily we gull ' em They are ravished with our Votes as soon as ever they hear 'em Nay they are ready to swear they are good before they know what they are The first sentence is What has the House of Commons done to day The second And very well done too So that I verily believe should they hear of a Vote passed for a Navy to cruise on Salisbury Plains or that the House of Commons be entrusted with the Militia they would instantly protest that it were the most reasonable thing in the World I am of opinion that they imagine the Commons bound by their places to save the rest of the Nation the labour of Thinking and that it were ridiculous not to trust those with their Reason whom they have trusted with what they account more precious their Purse The King 's late Speech and the Chancellor's gave us some rub They had so much plain and undeniable Reason in them that several of our Well-meaning Party began to fail us But a little patience will bring all about again We must seem to yield at first then protract matters spend whole days in sober debate whether forthwith immediately or out of hand be most proper as if our Parliament intended to vie with the French Academy in refining Language and then when matters are indifferently well perplex'd and the 〈◊〉 pretty thick secretly clap on a weight and bring in an appropriating clause which like the substracting mark in Algebra takes off the force of those Figures it is annexed to and the day is our own once more I never yet knew any Act so stout as that it was not like the Dragon in the Apocrypha in danger of being split by these hairs Tacking of words one to another is not more necessary for the confounding of sense to our Teachers than Tacking of Bills for the confounding of business to our Statesmen However I must acknowledge to thee that I like not this stile of Rhetorick which they have now li't-on at Court Such resolution and briskness if pursued will utterly ruine us A soft meek condescending Speech for my money Oh! this is