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_v	great_a	lord_n	828	5	3.5729	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61505	James Stewart's answer to a letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel, pensioner to the states of Holland & Wes Friesland concerning the repeal of the penal laws and tests.; Answer to a letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel	Stewart, James, Sir, 1635-1713.	1688 (1688)	Wing S5533; ESTC R5013	18,365	38

James Stewart's ANSWER To a Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner to the States of Holland West-Friesland Concerning the REPEAL Of the Penal Laws and Tests This may be Printed Ja. Vernon London Printed and are to be sold by Andrew Sowle at the Three Kyes in Nags-Head Court in Grace-Church Street over-against the Conduit 1688. James Stewart's ANSWER To Pensioner Fagel's LETTER My Lord I Was so much surprised to see a Letter appear in Print in January last Entituled A Letter writ by Mijn Heer Fagel Pensioner of Holland to Mr James Stewart Advocate giving an account of the Prince and Princess of Orange's thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Tests and of the Penal Laws that reflecting on my own meanness with the far different figure that your Lordship makes in the World and withal considering the remoteness of the occasion given for that Letter the high and tender import of the matters therein treated with the obvious Singularity of such a forraign Interposition beyond all ordinary lines and rules I was at first inclined to dis-believe my own Eyes True it is that after my return into England in July last I was so well satisfied with what I observed of his Majesties sincere Intention and steady Resolution to perfect the Settlement of our Religious Liberty by a Legal and Perpetual Establishment which I doubted not would calm the late violent disstractions of these Kingdoms and in the end overcome that froward opposition which remains in some Spirits too narrow for such a Blessing that I thought I could not in my little Sphere do a piece of better Service both to God and Man than to contribute my small endeavours towards the advancing of so good a Work and particularly towards the removing of some mistakes and jealousies which I knew to be entertained in those parts that I had left For this end having obtained leave to write to a private Friend who I judged might have opportunity to represent any thing I could say to the best advantage I did by several Letters directed to him for to your Lordship I neither sent nor directed any as looking upon that to be a thing not only too presumtuous but also most improper and against which I was expresly cautioned declare in what a different posture I had found things in these Kingdoms from what I and others had believed them while I was in Holland and having in two of them especially the only Letters intended for communication laid down for my ground his Majesties Sincerity in all this affair evident not only by his Royal Word but even demonstrable by things themselves I proceeded to evince by a few Arguments the Equity and Expediency of repealing both Tests and Penal Lawes and that with a peculiar regard to the Prince and Princess of Orange's interest And being grieved in my self at the consideration of their Highnesses Reluctancy to the thing and Uneasiness about it especially as to the Repeal of the Test and wishing as I do still that from the beginning they had complyed more heartily with his Majesties pleasure for the establishing of this Liberty and that they would yet resolve to concur with him in it or that at least the obstruction of their known Dissent might be removed I adventured to add the best perswasives I could think on for that effect desiring in the end that what I had written should be imparted to Friends chiefly to those at the Hague whereof I hope your Lordship is still One according to the honour you were pleased to allow me while I was there for their more full Information and Satisfaction And this to the best of my remembrance is the Sum and Substance of all I writ on that occasion To this after some waiting I had my Friends Answer telling me that he had confer'd with you upon the Subject and found that the Prince had already declared himself in these matters and particularly to the Lord Albeville His Majesties Envoy and that He was not to be moved to go any greater length in them than he had then exprest That Answer having drawn from me a Return of some more earnest Expressions of my grief for so great an unhappiness I resolv'd to insist no further Only my Friend insinuating that he had still hopes to get a more distinct and satisfying Answer from a better hand tho without naming any person I attended the issue And accordingly about the beginning of November almost three Months after my first Writing he sent me a Letter from your Lordship writ in Latin with an English Version Those I received at London And acknowledge with all humility the singular Honour you were pleased to do me therein which on any other occasion I should certainly have expressed my sense of with all readiness But finding them to be Letters directly from your Lordship to whom I had not written and that they contained an account of their Highnesses thoughts about the Repeal of the Tests and Penal Lawes which I had not desired together with your own Reasonings in justification thereof Both your publick Character and the matters treated moved me to put them immediately out of my hands in the most safe and dutiful manner resolving rather to refer my self to the knowledge that some persons had of my ways for clearing the mistake insinuated in the entry of your Letter as if I had presumed to write to you or for such a purpose than to pursue with more noise an explication of what I thought would proceed no further Yet my Friend advising me by the next Post after that which brought your Letter that when you gave it to him you told him you had given out a Copy or two to Friends there And my Apprehensions suggesting that a Letter so dilligently and accurately writ upon so slender an occasion might either have a further prospect or at least be further made use of I immediately returned him answer that tho I was confident you were far from interposing in his Majesties affairs by causing any thing to be printed to his Disservice and no less assured that you would not suffer so obscure a name as mine to be unnecessarily heard of in so great matters yet I knew how ready some persons in your Parts were to lay hold on any thing that might cross his Majesties purpose for the Establishing of this Liberty and therfore I intreated him to use his utmost indeavours for the prevention thereof And accordingly I had his return that though he feared you were no more Master of the Copies you had given out yet as to my private Letters writ so familiarly and ingenuously to himself he would undoubtedly secure them So that truly when I first saw the printed Letter above mentioned and perceived by the Impression that it was done in Holland I did not doubt but it was done without your Lordships privity and therefore laid it aside without once Reading it But now that there is come abroad a new Print in your