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	know_v	think_v	806	5	3.6946	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60057	A Short answer to His Grace the D. of Buckingham's paper concerning religion, toleration, and liberty of conscience		1685 (1685)	Wing S3561; ESTC R10573	14,126	40

A SHORT ANSWER To His GRACE the D. of Buckingham ' s PAPER CONCERNING RELIGION TOLERATION AND Liberty of Conscience LONDON Printed for S. G. and are to be sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1685. To the READER THat I have written this Pamphlet is plain and the Reason of it as plain in Answer to one Printed with His Grace the Duke of Buckingham's Name wherein I think he hath not rightly informed himself or his Readers I have no Apology to make for the Printing of it but only that I think a Sore always wants a Plaister till it hath got one Of how dangerous Consequence to Religion and the Peace of the State such Arguments may prove I hope his Grace did not give himself leave to consider And should he take the pains to do it it is not to be expected he should draw both Bill and Answer and act for the Plaintiff and Defendant successively one after another How pernicious an Animal this Mountain and Wild Conscience hath been to England is too well known and how fatal Toleration would be I hope in a few words to make evident in the ensuing Papers And the Nation being in a fair way of Composure the stirring of this extravagant Ferment which hath run us into so many Fevers of State seems very unseasonable at this time and requires something to precipitate the Lees of Sedition and keeping them from rising again and turning the Wine of our Hopes into the Vinegar of Despair My Opinion in these points having ever been diametrically opposite to those of his Grace's Paper and having been long convinced that nothing could more effectually contribute to the Ruin of this Monarchy Church and State than Toleration and Liberty of Conscience I have prevailed upon my self to expose my thoughts to the publick View and Censure upon this Subject and Occasion as being thoroughly perswaded I am in the Right as to the main and not much solicitous for the fate of a five or six hours Paper which the Ingenuous will pardon if it be not exact and the Rigorous would condemn tho an Angel had writ it That I do not affix my Name to it is because I do not design to be known And tho I am not ashamed to have writ it or think it will do me any disreputation yet I am unwilling to seem arrogant in attempting to answer a Person of so Great a Character and so Celebrated a Name to whom I desire to be known under no other Name than that of His Grace's most Humble Servant And a most True Friend to the Interest of ENGLAND A SHORT ANSWER To His GRACE the D. of BVCKINGHAM's Paper Concerning Religion Toleration c. IT is a pretty odd Adventure to see a Person of His Grace's High Character and Parts enter the Lists and advance himself the Champion of some things so much out of Countenance and Reputation that even those who formerly owned them would take it unkindly not to be thought wholly to have forsaken and abandoned them And in truth Whiggism in both its dresses of Toleration and Persecution which made her so amiable to the Noble Peer and others in the days of Association is now with sorrow become so abominably superannuated that she looks like a Cast Mistriss scorned and contemned even by the Porters and Footmen and it can be nothing but pure compassion and pity sure that procures her such a Glorious Protector But is it not as odd an Adventure to see any person so bold as to think upon such great disadvantages of coping with so disproportionate a Combatant as a Peer of the highest Rate of England whereby he must render himself liable not only to all the force of Wit and Sense but if he does not well guard himself with all Decency and Discretion to the fatal and murdering blow of Scandalum Magnatum And in truth if I had not put on the Armour of Conscience I durst never have taken up his Grace's Gantlet But I esteem my self invulnerable under that Mail and dare confidently believe my Lord would not for an unwary slip prove himself an Antichristian by persecuting an innocent person purely for what he believes his Religion exacts from him especially considering that his Grace's Maxim is infallible which assures us That no man believes because he has a mind to do so but because his Judgment being convinced he cannot chuse but believe it whether he will or not Nor do I believe should I be criminal in point of Deference or Good Manners towards his Grace that he would by animadverting severely upon me undo what he hath so publickly owned as an Opinion of which he hath been long convinced and to confute the labour of his brain by any action diametrically opposite to his Hypothesis But for fear of the worst neither my Nature or Education inclining me to any thing disobliging much less rude I will take care of my self And tho I cannot in approaching so near his Grace be procul a Jove yet I will be sure to keep my self procul a fulmine And I should be very angry with my felf if I should say any thing which even his Grace may think beneath the Dignity of his High Character for which I profess a most profound Veneration and Respect And my Lord being the Agressor I know he will not be displeased since we differ mightily in Opinion about Religion if I endeavour to defend my Belief which I cannot help very warmly and with some Opinionatrê And should I chance to pretend to be Comical and Pleasant now and then a Contagion no man can almost escape that comes but near his Grace's Pen which even in this serious matter is very facetious I hope he will look upon it but as my being stung with the Tarantula of his Paper which may make me dance and caper even contrary to my Nature and Inclination by the secret sympathy that is in the unaccountable poison of being Witty I confess my Lord writes with that taking air and pleasantness that it is impossible not to be delighted with it But not to flatter his Grace 't is too much of that nimble Contexture and seems to want not only the temperamentum ad pondus but the pondus it self and to make it in any measure currant must have many Grains not only of Salt but of Allowance too And in truth I cannot wonder to see a Peer write of Religion en Cavalier but do as much wonder to see a Noble Cavalier writing of Religion as I should to see a Blew-Apron-Knight correcting Euclids Elements or a Countrey-Clown drawing up Maxims of Politicks or Navigation I cannot be induced to believe our Noble Author hath made Polemical Divinity or the abstruse Notions of the Schools any one Scene of his diversion and therefore his Reasonings are witty and pleasant but not at all concluding his Notions are very fine and many of them very natural and true but not too Logical His Grace seems only to have done