Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	answer_n	letter_n	london_n	833	5	7.4937	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36630	His Majesties declaration defended in a letter to a friend being an answer to a seditious pamphlet, called A letter from a person of quality to his friend : concerning the kings late declaration touching the reasons which moved him to dissolve the two last parliaments at Westminster and Oxford.	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1681 (1681)	Wing D2286; ESTC R180	23,921	20

His Majesties DECLARATION DEFENDED In a LETTER to a Friend BEING AN ANSWER TO A Seditious Pamphlet CALLED A LETTER from a Person of Quality to his Friend CONCERNING The Kings late Declaration touching the Reasons which moved him to Dissolve THE TWO LAST PARLIAMENTS AT WESTMINSTER and OXFORD LONDON Printed for T. Davies 1681. THE Kings Declaration DEFENDED SIR SINCE you are pleas'd to require my Opinion of the Kings Declaration and the Answer to it which you write me word was sent you lately I shall obey you the more willingly because I know you are a lover of the Peace and Quietness of your Country which the Author of this seditious Pamphlet is endeavouring to disturb Be pleas'd to understand then that before the Declaration was yet published and while it was only the common news that such an one there was intended to justifie the Dissolution of the two last Parliaments it was generally agreed by the heads of the discontented Party that this Declaration must be answer'd and that with all the ingredients of malice which the ablest amongst them could squeeze into it Accordingly upon the first appearance of it in Print five several Pens of their Cabal were set to work and the product of each having been examin'd a certain person of Quality appears to have carried the majority of Votes and to be chosen like a new Matthias to succeed in the place of their deceas'd Iudas He seems to be a man cut out to carry on vigorously the designs of the Phanatique Party which are manifestly in this Paper to hinder the King from making any good impression on his Subjects by giving them all possible satisfaction And the reason of this undertaking is manifest for if once the goodness and equity of the Prince comes to be truly understood by the People the Authority of the Faction is extinguish'd and the well meaning crowd who are misled will no longer gape after the specious names of Religion and Liberty much like the folly of the Iews expecting a Messiah still to come whose History has been written sixteen hundred years ago Thus much in general I will now consider the Cavils of my Author against the Declaration He tells us in the first place That the Declaration seems to him as afore-runner of another Parliament to be speedily call'd And indeed to any man in his right sences it can seem no other for 't is the business of its three last Paragraphs to inform the People that no irregularities in Parliament can make the King out of love with them but that he looks upon them as the best means for healing the distempers of the publick and for preservation of the Monarchy Now if this seems clearly to be the Kings intention I would ask what need there was of the late Petition from the City for another Parliament unless they had rather seem to extort it from his Majesty than to have it pass for his own gracious action The truth is there were many of the Loyal Party absent at that Common Council and the whole strength of the other Faction was united for it is the common failing of honest men to trust too much in the goodness of their cause and to manage it too negligently But there is a necessity incumbent on such as oppose the establish'd Government to make up with diligence what they want in the justice of their undertaking This was the true and only reason why the majority of Votes was for the Petition but if the business had not been carried by this surprise My Lord Mayor might have only been troubled to have carried the Addresses of Southwark c. of another nature without his offering them with one hand and the City Petition with the other like the Childrens play of This Mill grinds Pepper and Spice that Mill grinds Ratts and Mice In the next place he informs us That it has been long the practice of the Popish and Arbitrary Party that the King should call frequent short and useless Parliaments till the Gentry grown weary of the great expences of Elections should sit at home and trouble themselves no more but leave the People expos'd to the practices of them and of their Party who if they carry one House of Commons for their turn will make us Slaves and Papists by a Law Popish and Arbitrary are words that sound high amongst the multitude and all men are branded by those names who are not for setting up Fanaticism and a Common-wealth To call short and useless Parliaments can be no intention of the Government because from such means the great end of Settlement cannot be expected But no Physitian can command his Physick to perform the effects for which he has prescrib'd it yet if it fail the first or second time he will not in prudence lay aside his Art and despair of his Patient but reiterate his Medicines till he effect the cure For the King as he declares himself is not willing to have too hard an Opinion of the Representatives of the Commons but hopes that time may open their eyes and that their next meeting may perfect the Settlement of Church and State With what impudence can our Author say That an House of Commons can possibly be so pack'd as to make us Slaves and Papists by a Law for my part I should as soon suspect they would make themselves Arbitrary which God forbid that any Englishman in his right sences should believe But this supposition of our Author is to lay a most scandalous imputation upon the Gentry of England besides what it tacitly insinuates that the House of Peers and his Majesty without whom it could not pass into a Law would suffer it Yet without such Artifices as I said before the Fanatique cause could not possibly subsist fear of Popery and Arbitrary power must be kept up or the St. Georges of their side would have no Dragon to encounter yet they will never persuade a reasonable man that a King who in his younger years when he had all the Temptations of power to pursue such a Design yet attempted it not should now in the maturity of his Judgment and when he sees the manifest aversion of his Subjects to admit of such a change undertake a work of so much difficulty destructive to the Monarchy and ruinous to Himself if it succeeded not and if it succeeded not capable of making him so truly Great as he is by Law already If we add to this his Majesties natural love to Peace and Quiet which increases in every man with his years this ridiculous supposition will vanish of it self which is sufficiently exploded by daily experiments to the contrary For let the Reign of any of our Kings be impartially examin'd and there will be found in none of them so many examples of Moderation and keeping close to the Government by Law as in his And instead of swelling the Regal power to a greater height we shall here find many gracious priviledges accorded to the