Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	appear_v	great_a	time_n	915	5	3.1574	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52751	The case of the kingdom stated according to the proper interests of the severall parties ingaged : I. Touching the interest of the King and his party, II. The interest of the Presbyterian party, III. The interest of the Independent party, IV. The interest of the citie of London, V. The interest of Scotland, not extant before now : a peece of rare observation and contexture, wherin all men are equally concerned.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1647 (1647)	Wing N380; ESTC R40043	15,667	18

The Case of the KINGDOM STATED According to the Proper Interests of the severall Parties INGAGED I. Touching the Interest of the KING and his Party II. The Interest of the Presbyterian Party III. The Interest of the Independent Party IV. The Interest of the Citie of LONDON V. The Interest of SCOTLAND not extant before now A peece of rare Observation and Contexture wherin all men are equally Concerned The Third Edition with Addition by the Author M. N. Dulce decorum est pro Patriâ London Printed Anno Dom. 1647. To the KING SIR AFter so many storms I know you would willingly attain the wished Haven but then you must imbarque a new and not in the old Shipwrack't design And since it is no Flattery to wish you well for your own sake and many others pray take this Pamphlet to steer your course by and account him as good a friend to your self and the Kingdom as any you have bin acquainted with these seven yeers who first delivers it into your hands For I am confident were you abroad among your old Councell you should not reap so much of the truth of your Interest as you may in these poor sheets which are but the Gleanings of observation To the PRESBYTERS Sweet SIRS Let not your Jealousie accuse this Paper of a Plot against the State Truly I have added your Interest out of pitty to your condition that since you cannot attain your Jure divino you may at least open your eyes and preserve your selves if you please in a handsome equipage Jure humano To the INDEPENDENTS FRIENDS You who are Listed more immediatly under the Prince of Peace ought not so to prosecute your Interest as to begin a War upon it but only to remain on the defensive till your just Liberty be confirmed and the Prince's due right restored since Conscience must needs remain quieter where the power is invested in one King than in an Hydra of Presbyters Above all things you must not be Anti-parliamentary but exercise wisdome with patience and the countenance of that Authority cannot long be wanting A word to the wise To the CITY SIRS My desire is that you may flourish which cannot be unlesse you minde only your peculiar Interest of Trade If you resolve to live and die with Presbytery consider that you can ill Bandy against the other two Parties since it cannot be unknown that they are the major part of your selves A City divided against it self cannot stand To the SCOTS Friends and Confederates Take this brief draught of your Interest wherewith I here present you with the same Ingenuity and Candor that I wrote it God shall bear me record that I lay nothing open here with intent to work division it being contrary to my obligation by Covenant but onely to satisfie the world in truth concerning you and your selves in what concerns your own happinesse safety and advantage by a wise demeanour in order to the Conservaton of Peace in these Kingdoms Honi soit qui mal y pense And now Gentlemen but one word more to all I suppose none can take just offence since I state the Interests of all indifferently pointing out to each the way to advance and preserve their own Party and I shall commend to them what the Duke of Rohan saith of the States of Europe that according as they follow their proper Interests they thrive or faile in Successes so the Parties now on Foot in this Kingdom must looke to stand or fall upon the same Ground The Case of the Kingdom stated c. First touching the Interest of the KING and his Partie THE King as the case lately stood with him was a very Prisoner and so being fallen from the height of fortune must remit much of the height of his designe and what hath been lost by bandying he ought to Salve by a wary Compliance That this he may effect in a short time is very probable since what Machiavell sets downe as a sure Principle towards the purchase of Empire is acted ready to his hands by the mutuall expence of Spleene in his opposites against each other so that all he hath to doe is to sit still to foment and blow the Fire and give the humours time to toyle till being tyred in extreames there appeare a necessity of one Third to rest in which can be no other but himselfe and then his onely Interest will be to close with that Party which gives most hope of Indulgence to his Prerogative greatest probability of favor to his Friends That neither of these can be expected from the Presbyterian is evident for many Reasons And first touching the Prerogative their Government in the nature of it derogates not onely from the Civill in generall but carries with it a more speciall enmity against Monarchie so that they which intend to found the one must raze the Fundamentals of the other in any Kingdome whatsoever Politique assertions of this kinde should be strengthned by Observations out of History But the tender age of this Vpstart Hierarchy and the Little entertainment it hath found in the World yeelds us nothing of moment to observe unlesse in our own Island For if we looke abroad we finde it but stragling up and downe in France and Germany and in such places onely as acknowledge little or none at all of Kingly power so that Scotland is the onely visible Kingome where this Pest is Epidemicall and it was first Scotch Charity to Baptize it as Christian into the name and priviledge of a Nationall Forme This was done during the minority of King James when the Lords and Clergie ruling all as they listed at length parted stakes though the Clergie then got and still hold the better that when He came to age he found the Fable of Ixion's Juno moralized upon himself for as he instead of a Goddesse imbraced a Cloud so the King when he thought to grasp his Scepter laid hold on a Manacle which kept his hands so fast during his abode there that he could never Act but when they pleased to let him according to their own Directory of Kirk and State And in processe of time this heat of Presbytery proved such an Hectique in the body Politique of Scotland that the Substance of Kingly power was utterly consumed and nothing left as we see at this day but the bare bones the very Ek●leton of a Monarchie Witnesse the unlimited power of the Convention of Estates and Generall Assembly but especially of this latter which like to the Rod of Aaron is in such a budding thriving condition that it hath devoured the Rod of Moses as his did the Magicians of Aegypt and proves a Scourge to the Magistracie and People This is a sufficient Instance being also the onely one in the World to manifest the Antipathie betwixt a Nationall Presbytery and the civill power of Common weales and Kingdomes wherein whosoever desires further satisfaction needs doe no more but take a strict survey of

many of their Practises But yet I would have them to know that They are not yet come to Mount Zion till they be able to prove the Chaire of a generall Assembly the very Throne of Christ And except they shew all the lineaments of their Government derived naturally from Scripture it will fright mens Consciences and make Them disclaim it for a monster For the Discipline now contended for is as was the Bishops but externall prudentiall matter of Form and Policy and it is look't upon as so much the more intolerable if rigidly prest by how much it opens a far wider gap for Tyranny because if the Bishops made us grone under 24 Diocesses and but one High-Commission what will become of us under almost 10000 Presbyteries beside the Torment of Classes Provinciall Junto's Synods and Assemblies Were they able to prove one of them Scripturall it were a little honester bandying against men of different judgement but since the continuation of that ridiculous Plea for a Ju● Divinum with compulsive power can gain nothing but hatred from both the other parties and must of necessity by disobliging their friends increase the number of their enemies and in time exasperate both so far that nothing will satisfie but an abolition of the new Form as immoderate and a reestablishing the old upon more assurance of liberty Therefore the onely Interest of the Presbyters is to allow the Independents their liberty of Church-way to esteem them as Brethren and not to make difference in circumstantials a ground for persecution And this I shall further illustrate by reason First it 's as much madnesse to persecute men because they are not like us in opinion as it were to quarrell with them when they resemble us not in outward complexion For since we lost perfection in Adam what ever knowledge we attain to now is either morall by the improving of naturall indowments or else Divine which is an influence from Heaven upon the Soul For the former we are beholden mediatly to the bounty of Nature and our own Industry for the latter immediatly to God Therefore where we see any weaker in judgement then our selves we ought to look upon them as deplorable rather then damnable Vain man What made the difference betwixt thee and thy weak Brother did not Free-grace For what hast thou that thou didst not receive and God may reveal it to him also in due time Secondly the design of Conformity or Vniformity in the Church hath been and is the grand Cheat whereby the Devil makes men run a madding and though it ever pretend a plausible end of Cementing the State against Division yet pull off its Visard and you shall finde it to be both the Mother and Nurse of all Division as it ever was throughout all Europe in matters of Religion The witchcrafts of this Jezebel it is that trouble our Israel For it is against common sense and reason to expect that ever men will be one in opinion the Heathen said Quot Capita tot Sensus so that those which endeavour it seem to me as if they meant to imprison Aeolus and all his Sons the 32 winds in a Bag as it is said of the Laplanders since Opinion blows from every point of the Compasse And as a confinement of the Wind torments Nature with an Earth-quake so to rob the Soul of its Freedom which is far more agile and diffusive must needs cause a Colick with inflammation in the bowels of a Kingdom And therefore till Vniformity-mongers be pointed at as the only Enemies of a State and this wicked perswasion be wrought out of the hearts of men that they ought to make all men walk that way par force which their Priests cry up for the right till men be lesse in the Letter that they may be one in the Spirit which none but the Spirituall can apprehend and untill they leave crying Fire from Heaven against Brethren in the Faith we shall alwayes have the Kingdom in a Flame and perhaps themselves may be the first in Ashes Thirdly men under oppression though sometime wise enough become mad and usually trample down all Relations to make way for a deliverer that gives hope of the least remedy and as the condition of B●ing alters so all men do vary their Interests and Principles Fourthly if a rigid course should be prosecuted and so a Breach be made betwixt those who for the major part are one by Solemn Covenant the Independent having that invincible Plea of Se defendendo on his side the whole Scandall will retort upon the Presbyter And if it be objected that the Independent occasions the Breach by opposing the Letter of the Covenant for an uniform Reformation I answer that the Covenant in its extent hath this ultimate Limitation viz. according to the Word of God No otherwise The whole resolves into that as being all in all And then if both Parties be reduced to that Rule let God and good men judge for the World cannot whose will be the Breach Lastly a Moderate Condescention in the Presbyter will by keeping the other from extremes stop all new designs and when there is more of the Spirit of Love in their proceedings they will draw lesse of Enmity It will for ever confirm a Brotherly Union which must prevent the forenamed Insinuations of the Royall and Episcopall Party and prove a Bulwark within and a Wall of Brasse about the Nation From whence I once again infer the sole Interest of the Presbyters is to counter-work the King in his Interest as their grand opposite by complying with the Independent and it ought to be their wisdom to look upon all men and Counsells in their own Party whether of the Purple or Sable robe that Thunder in the behalf of a rigid Presbytery as very Malignants lurking among them under pretence of a Reformation to draw in the lesse wise and more worldly fiery Zelots to Act for that Party under a disguise which they pretend most to hate and by Fulminating against our fast friends as Heretiques and Schismatiques c. to shipwrack us in the Haven and Casse all the successes of this Parliament by Division The Interest of the Independent Party AS Presbytery is the Rivall of Episcopacy so Independency being of an higher Strain than to admit of humane prudence in Church-Government her Principles stand indifferent towards either of them as may serve most for her owne advantage Both the other take in some of the wisedome and much of the power of the world and so share with the Kingdomes of the world to make up a Church whereby they draw the world after them because the way is so sutable to worldly reason thus carnall men will ever be for a carnall Church But Independents affirme the Church ought to be a spirituall building framed of such lively stones as are not of the world nor of the wisedome of the World but founded only upon the wisedome of God revealed in the word by his