Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	authority_n	great_a	king_n	814	5	3.6971	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50493	A defence of the antiquity of the royal line of Scotland with a true account when the Scots were govern'd by kings in the isle of Britain / by Sir George Mackenzie ...	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1685 (1685)	Wing M156; ESTC R228307	87,340	231

be understood how the French and Germans could mistake their own Records and Foundations for so many hundreds of Years togeder and by this I leave my Reader to measure the other unjust pretensions of such Authors I hope it now at last appears that I have detected those ingenious Artifices which this learn'd Bishop was forc'd to use to supply his want of solid and just grounds in this his undertaking As 1. That to conciliate respect to this Undertaking as well as to excuse it he pretends that it was necessary for the defence of Episcopacy 2. He makes a great muster of old Authors in the beginning of his Book as if all these were Men of great credit and did concur with him to refute our History and adorns his Margins with formidable numbers of Citations 3. Knowing that it could be prov'd both by British and Foreign Historians that we were here very anciently he confesses this but by a new and strange Invention he asserts that we were not here as settled Inhabitants but only by way of Incursion 4. He defers our Setling here till the Year 503 and so longer than the first Inventors of this new Story did upon design to make our Settlement here later then that of the Anglo-Saxons who settl'd here in Anno 449. 5. He lessens the reputation of all our Historians and endeavours also to make them pass but for one as if the succeeding Historian had seen no other Warrants but the preceeding Histories 6. He treats in ridicule Ieffrey and some other Historians of his own Country whom he knew could not be sustain'd however and this he does upon design to shew his impartiality and that he spares not his own more than ours 7. For the same reason he decrys the British descent from Brutus in which he loses nothing because no sober Man could have defended it and he denies the Conversion of their own King Lucius to strike thereby with the greater authority at the Antiquity of our Royal-Line and Nation treating King Donald's Conversion also as a Fable and thus according to our Proverb He is content to let a Friend go with a Foe 8. He complements our Nation in latter Times to excuse the Injury he does our Kings and Antiquity 9. He uses the Foreign Authors that should be urg'd for us to prevent our using of them as proving Arguments against him 10. Finding that Ireland has been call'd Scotia he transplants our old Saints thither and applies to it all that is said of our Country nor did ever any Author improve better a pitiful Clinch 11. He concurs in another design like to this for because it could not be deny'd that Fergus was our first King all the Citations for proving this are therefore apply'd to Fergus the Second and not to Fergus the First Lastly Whereas Cambden and Arch-bishop Vsher speak doubtingly of their own Arguments the Bishop of St. Asaph fearing that his Reader could not be convinc'd of what himself was not he therefore proposesall these Arguments with a confidence which would seem to argue that full conviction in himself which he wishes in others If any Person then would know how that Scotland which was but a small Colony grew up to a Kingdom that deserv'd so well my thoughts of this are that 1. The constant defence that we were oblig'd to make against the Romans and Britons at first and English thereafter Nations wise brave and polish'd living in the same Isle with us and the Picts within us did force us to think and fight and the observing the Actions Conduct of such Enemies could not leave the observers rude or ignorant and it 's like that the Glory of such Noble Adversaries rais'd our Wit and Courage above the pitch of a Northen and confin'd Nation 2. Our Country having had the happiness to stop the Roman Conquest this gave Strangers a value for us and therefore when any of the gallant Britons scorn'd to submit to the slavery and drudgery of a Conquest they fled unto us from the Romans Saxons Danes and Normans and being passionate lovers of Liberty they animated us by their Assistance and Example This likewise brought in brave Strangers amongst us as all gallant Spirits did lately run to Holland in its first rise and as our Historians probably relate very many of those return'd with Fergus the Second from the Wars in Italy whither that generous young Prince went to assist Alarick against the Romans in a just resentment of the injury done by them to his Predecessors and with whom he was present at the sacking of Rome 3. We have been very happy in so Heroick and Wife a Race of Kings whose Blood being refin'd by a long Royal Descent hath been thereby purifiy'd from all meanness and elevated to that Love for glory which is ordinary in those who never knew what it was to obey 4. Our Country having entered early into a remarkable League with France in the Reign of Charle-Maigne our Country-men got excellent Breeding under so Wise and Valiant a Prince and have ever since by being constantly employed in the French and other Wars attain'd to a degree of Merit beyond what was to be expected in this Climate 5. Our Country having neither Bogs nor Fogs our Ground being Rocky and Gravelly and our Air fann'd by Winds this preserves us from the dulness and phlegm of the Northern Climats and the want of that superfluous Plenty and bewitching Pleasure which softned even Hannibal when he came to Capua preserves us against the Delicacy and Effeminateness of Southern Nations And whereas Heroick Virtue being still attended by Envy some in railery pretend that we were unconquer'd because we deserv'd not the pains and trouble of a War I need not seriously answer what no Historian can urge For it is ridiculous to think that the Romans would not have rather conquer'd us than built two strong and expensive Walls against us which bounded their Fame as well as their Conquest And England hath taken too much pains to gain us either by Conquest or Alliance to have undervalued us And though when we were divided by the differences betwixt the Bruce and Barliol of old and betwixt the Royalists and Covenanters of late the half of our Country having only defended its Liberties whilst the other half joyn'd with its Enemies we were rather betray'd than overcome And yet we soon recovered our former Liberty Albeit to be overcome by England had been no great affront to us England being a greater and richer Nation than we are And therefore I hope all honest Men will with Judicious Samuel Daniel in his History at the Year 1296 confess that it had been a pity we had not had a better Country to be the Theatre of so many worthy and heroick Actions Having thus clear'd how our Nation arriv'd at its present consistence I am to finish this Discourse with a representation of the many Rights which our Kings have to the Imperial Throne of these