Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	affection_n	good_a	great_a	824	5	2.2463	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B12207	The copy of a letter sent from an English gentleman, lately become a Catholike beyond the seas, to his Protestant friend in England in answere to some points, wherin his opinion was required, concerning the present busines of the Palatinate, & marriage with Spayne : and also declaring his reasons for the change of his religion.	Crynes, N.	1622 (1622)	STC 5742.7; ESTC S1070	15,353	106

course of nature When he said that it was as easy for a camell to goe through the eye of a needle as for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of heauen whereupon his disciples asked him who could then be saued he answered that with God all thinges were possible If then it be possible for a Camel or for a cable-rope to go through the eye of a needle it is possible for the body of Christ to be in the Sacrament and the more possible when he that is God himselfe hath sayd it When he had sayd that with God all thinges were possible the Apostles were silent and belieued it for they replyed not to the cōtrary or by asking how it might be So belieued they him also when taking the bread at his last supper and blessing it he said it was his body els had they also asked him as they did of the Camels going through the eye of the needle how it was possible Manifest also it is that all the ancient Christians of the world besides those of the Church of Rome haue euē from the originall of their Christianity belieued this If now Anabaptists and Caluinists that are but risen vp in our dayes must be belieued in the deniall thereof not only agaynst their precedent competitours in Reformation Husse and Luther but agaynst the Church of Rome the Church of Greece and all other ancient Christians resyding in the farre and remote partes of Asia and Africa who can belieue when he hath well reflected vpon these thinges and aboue all vpon the foundation of this fayth which standeth vpon the very wordes of Christ his owne mouth and from no where els is deriued that he can heerin be deceaued Seeing Christ in no iustice or equity can condemne any man of misbeliefe for belieuing that which himselfe telleth him so to be yea albeit it were not so which cannot be seeing himselfe is all truth and that vnto him being also God there is nothing impossible and seeing also that none of his Apostles did euer after declare vnto the world that he meant not as he sayd that notwithstanding he speake those wordes it was but the figure or signe of his body and not his very body indeed as Caluinists Anabaptists now more then fifteene hundred yeares after do teach vs. I am no Deuine as you know yet could I not heere conteyne within the compas of a Letter if I should enlarge my selfe with so much more as I could say concerning this matter and with proofes of Scriptures Fathers and the successiue vniuersall fayth and practise of Chtistians throughout the world euer since the tyme of Christ This haue I done to let you see whether I had reason or no comming to so much knowledge and vnderstanding of differences among so many late pretenders of reformation of Religion truly to vnderstand what the Catholike religion holdeth and professeth indeed to remayne still a protestant seeing if so I had done it must haue byn for fashions sake only and to runne in cry among the rest as some doe that will know no better and others that can discerne no better because they come not where may they or are idiots and want capacity to apprehend it Iudge now I pray you hauing well considered of the premisses whether there appeareth reason for my excuse or not and whether Protestants may haue reason to be so picquant and hatefull vnto Catholikes as they are and not quietly to let them liue among them enioy their Ciuill conuersation seeing Catholikes are no intruders vpon protestants or bringers in of any nouelties among them but the imbracers only of that fayth from which Protestants are falne and all the rest of their competitors in pretending discordant reformations and wherein vnto this day the maiesty of Christendome in fight of all the world yet remayneth I meane the greater and the better part therof Wheras Caluinisme for by that Name our Protestant Religion of England passeth throughout all Christendome among all Religions except themselues being but new begon is already splitted and deuided into foure partes within it selfe to wit Protestants Puritans Brownistes and Arminians declining to decay and chiefly supported by rebellion Be not offended with me I beseech you I only speake this in regard of truth because the truth is so as the whole world can heerin beare me witnes and not because I would in speaking thus go about to vexe you And to let you see my indifferency in speaking as vnpartially of the rest you shall please also to vnderstand That the Hussytes and the others want not their diuisiōs among them aswel as ours for there are the old and the new Hussytes the rigide and the soft or myld Lutherans And the Anabaptists being fullest of all the others of Scriptures are also fullest of all of diuisions for I haue counted among them fifteene seuerall sorts my selfe and how many more there are I know not But as sor the Hussytes and the Lutherans I haue exceedingly meruayled at the cogging of M. Fox our English Martyrologian and of our Preachers in England who for their Ghospells pouerty haue so much extold Iohn Husse for a blessed martyr and Martin Luther for a blessed confessour the one disliking the doctrine of the other and both being contrary vnto theirs and to dissemble and hyde from the knowledge of their audience what the Hussytes and the Lutherans do preach and write of them and how farre they are from fynding any Ghospell affinity between them but contemne scorne their society to the full and haue no other esteeme of them then of a company of cocks crowing on their owne dunghills In Conclusion I must say vnto you that if it please God the Match with Spayne do succeed I trust it will proue to the great good tranquillity of our countrey and will make England continually participant of the wealth of Spayne and the Countreys thereon depending which seeing the rebellious Hollanders cannot enioy they enuy that our Nation should If the Match with Spaine succeed not yet seeing Englishmen cannot liue pen'd in within the compasse of their countrey as those of China between the sea and a huge wall but must trauayle and traffique abroad in so many flourishing Countreyes and places of Christendome as are Catholike they must needes be hatefull and odious to those Nations if it be knowne vnto them that they doe hate and persecute Catholikes at home they being members with them of one same body to wit of one same Catholike fayth and Church which is sole and entiere and consisteth not in splitted partes and diuisions and hath lasted and continued in the world when the world was vnacquainted with Protestants and will remayne in it when Protestants may happen to returne agayne to inuisibility from whence they pretend with as much reason to be assured as either Hussytes Lutherans or Anabaptistes may do the like and may also fynd as good allowance to be belieued without being laughed at as any of these how late or sooner before they crept out of the like obscurity Heere will I make an end of this letter which I leaue vnto your good consideration and myselfe in all the dutyes of affection at your commaund From the place of my aboad this 25. of Iuly 1622. You know the Hand the louing Hart of the VVriter AFTER I had ended this letter there came vnto my handes a few verses from a friend of myne which because they somwhat concerne the purpose wherof I haue spoken I heere send you also Vpon the hopefull Match betweene Prince Charles his Highnes of Wales and the Princesse Mary Infant of Spayne ON fames report Hope hath fixt expectation That in good time the great match may succeed Wherof the world now stands in admiration And it estemeth as a heauenly deed For earths repose Because a peacefull King Is now so great an Actor in the thing And his great Highnes doth his worth discouer And makes his Princely honour higher fam'd By choosing such a Phenix for his louer As to whose selfe no equall can be nam'd Since none there is on earth of Adams race That for all worths may chalenge better place N. Crynes Vnto her Greatnes witnes giues the Sunne Tasked no houre to shine at any hand As he his course about the Globe doth runne But on some part of her late Fathers land An homage which he neuer did before To any Prince nor like to do no more And for her feature such it doth appeare That Rubens the Apelles of our dayes Vnable to approach this beauty neere Dares not attempt to paint his owne disprayse But of this worke of Nature wondring standes And lets his pensill fall from out his hands As for her Vertues I referre their prayse Vnto the Heauens who best know how to do it Knowing I cannot from the low earth rayse Their altitude so high as longs vnto it Nor yet how to begin or to intend A worke wherin I see not any end FINIS