Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	death_n	lazarus_n	sleep_n	764	5	10.4793	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96590	The discovery of mysteries: or, The plots and practices of a prevalent faction in this present Parliament. To overthrow the established religion, and the well setled government of this glorious Church, and to introduce a new framed discipline (not yet agreed upon by themselves what it shall be) to set up a new invented religion, patched together of Anabaptisticall and Brownisticall tenents, and many other new and old errors. And also, to subvert the fundamentall lawes of this famous kingdome, by devesting our King of his just rights, and unquestionable royall prerogatives, and depriving the subjects of the propriety of their goods, and the liberty of their persons; and under the name of the priviledge of Parliament, to exchange that excellent monarchicall government of this nation, into the tyrannicall government of a faction prevailing over the major part of their well-meaning brethren, to vote and order things full of all injustice, oppression and cruelty, as may appeare out of many, by these few subsequent collections of their proceedings. / By Gr. Williams L. Bishop of Ossory.	Williams, Gryffith, 1589?-1672.	1643 (1643)	Wing W2665; Thomason E60_1; Thomason E104_27; ESTC R23301	95,907	126

therefore if we have any regard of our goods that God hath given us we have great reason to look about us for these are the greatest Cheaters in Christendome and as they have made us Malignants so they will make us reprobates when they please that they may enjoy those things that we have 3. They thinke themselves free from all sin Numb 23.21 Tit. 1.15 3. Because Balaam saith God beheld no iniquitie in Jacob and the Apostle saith To the pure all things are pure they teach their proselytes that in them which are the holy Brethren there is no sin and their adulterie drunkennesse cozenage and the like odious crimes are no crimes because God loving them so tenderly as a fond mother seeth no fault in her untoward childe so he takes no notice of any offence that they commit but for the ungodly their Prayers are sinnes their Almes are odious and whatsoever commendable dutie they do performe To the unbelieving nothing is pure Titus 1.15 God accounteth their best actions to be heinous trangressions and to adde the more weight of punishment to their damnation which Doctrine how abominable it is to God and how destructive to all men to make these holy Brethre and their sanctified Sisters senslesse in all sinnes uncapable of repentance Matth 9.12 when the whole hath no need of the Physician and to discourage all other ignorant men from doing good duties when the performance of them shall multiplie their stripes is so apparent to all men that I need not stand to confute it for if Coniah though he wear the signet upon my right hand Ier. 22.24 or as the apple of mine eye doth offend I will cut him off and if the wicked forsake his wickednesse Ezech. 33.15 and do that which is just love mercie and speak truth he shall be accepted and the Lord will not call light darknesse nor good evill in any one 4. 4. They allow the women to offend while their husbands sl●ep Ioh 11.11 1 Cor. 7.39 Because our Saviour saith Our friend Lazarus sleepeth when as indeed he was dead and the Heathens say Sleep is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brother of death they take this colour to hide their adulteries that while the husband sleepeth the wife is as free from him as if he were dead a foolerie so ridiculous that the naming of it is a sufficient confutation of it and yet you shall hardly withdraw our London Anabaptists from it 5. 5. They justifie many kindes of lyes and equivocatious Gen. 12.13 Acts 23.5 Because Abraham said that Sara was his sister and Saint Paul said I wist not brethren that he was the high Priest they hold it as an Article of their Creed that for officious lyes and equivocations being for the furtherance of their cause the good worke which they pretend they may and ought to use them to swallow them down like water they make no bones of them and therefore it is dangerous to treat and weaknesse to give credit without sufficient pledges to the faith of these men whose profession may as lawfully deceive us as their Religion teacheth them to destroy us and I believe the experience which his Majesties Officers had of them in the performance of their promises and conditions of departure from Winchester Reading and other Townes surrendered unto them may sufficiently confirme this equivocall point of their Publique Faith 6. 6. They would root out all those that they terme wicked Deut. 7.2 1 Sam. 15.23 Psal 58.8 Because the Lord straitly charged the Israelites to root out the wicked Canaanites and the rest of those cursed Nations and translated the Kingdom of Israel from Saul unto David because he spared Agag and our Saviour bids us succidere ficum to cut down that unprofitable tree which bare no fruit they are so filled with such unmercifull crueltie towards all those they terme wicked and judge Malignants that they had better fall into the hands of heathen Tyrants than of these their holy brethren who embruing their hands in the blood of so many faithfull Christians do sing with the Psalmist The righteous rejoyce when they see this vengeance they shall wash their feet in the blood of the ungodly for as Solomon saith The tender mercies of the wicked are meer crueltie Prov. 12.10 And I believe the first inventers of that Designe to root out all the Papists in Ireland and to get that Act to purchase all the Lands of the Rebels had tasted too much of this bitter root of such destructive Doctrine whereby you see how the Religion of these men robbes us of our Estates keepes no faith with us and takes away our lives 7. Though among the workes of God 7. They would have a paritie among all men both in Church and Common wealth Gal. 5.6 Col. 3.11 every flower cannot be a Lillie every beast cannot be a Lion every bird cannot be an Eagle and every Planet cannot be Phaebus yet in the School of these men this is the Doctrine of their to be new erected Church that with God there is no respect of persans and neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but whether they be bond or free masters or servants few or Gentile Barbarian Scythian a countrey Clown or a Court Gallant rich or poor it is all one with God because these Titles of Honour Kings Lords Knights and Gentlemen are no entities of Gods making but the creatures of mans invention to puffe him up with pride and not to bring him unto God and therefore though for the bringing of their great good worke to passe they are yet contented to make the Earle of Essex their Generall and Warwicke their Admirall and so Pym and Hampden great Officers of State yet when the worke is done their Plot perfected and their Government established then you shall finde that as now they will eradicate Episcopacie and make all our Clergie equall as if all had equally but one talent and no man worthier than another so then there should be neither King Lord Knight nor Gentleman but a paritie of degrees among all these holy Brethren and to give us a taste of what they mean as the Lords concurrence with them inabled them to devour the Kings power so they have since with great justice prevailed with the House of Commons to swallow up the Lords power and have most fairly invaded their priviledge when they questioned particular Members * As my Lord Duke and my Lord Dighte for words spoken in that House and then the whole House when they brought up and countenanced a mutinous and seditious Petition which demanded the Names of those Lords that consented not with the House of Commous in those things which that House had twice denied 8. 8 They would have no man to pray for temporall things Mat. 6.33.34 Matth. 6.11 Because our Saviour saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all these

the eager prosecution of our Sectaries to take off the Earle of Straffords head how he answered for himselfe the Bishops right of voting in his cause his excellent vertues and his death 1. 1. Impediment THey get Master Pym the grand father of all the purer sort and a fit instrument for this designe in the name of the House of Commons and thereby of all the Commonalty of England The Earle his charge to charge Thomas Earle of Strafford of High-Treason a high charge indeed and yet no lesse a crime could serve the turne to turne him out of their way because nothing else could subdue that spirit by which he was so well able to discover the plots and to frustrate the practices of all the faction of Sectaries for as the Jewes were no wayes sufficient to answer Saint Stevens arguments but onely with stones so these men saw themselves unable to confute his reasons and to subdue his power but onely by putting him to death and cutting off his head for that fault which Pym alleadged he had committed But then I demand how this great charge of high Treason shall be made good against him It is answered How sought to be proved that England Scotland and Ireland and every corner of these three Kingdomes must be searched and all discontented persons that had at any time any sentence though never so justly pronounced against them by him that was so great a Judge Yet conceited to be otherwise by themselves must now be incouraged and countenanced by the faction and most likely by this grand accuser to say all that they know and perhaps more then was true against him for what will not envy and malice say or what beast will not trample upon the Lion when they see him groveling and gasping for life in an unevitable pit and it may be compassed with so many mastife dogs I meane his enemies and discontented witnesses as were able to teare more then one Lion all to peices so by this meanes they are enabled to frame neare thirty Articles against him ut cum non prosint singula multajuvent that the number might amnze the people and thinke him a strange creature that was so full of haynous offences and so compassed with transgressions But si satis accusasse quis innocens The Earle his answer if accusations were sufficient to create offenders not a righteous man could escape on earth therefore the Law condemneth no man before he be heard what he can answer for himselfe and the Earle of Strafford comming to his answer made all things so cleare in the Judgment of the common hearers and answered to every article so well that his enemies being Judges they much applauded his abilities and admired at his Dexterity whereby he had so finely untied those Gordian knots that were so fouly contrived against him and as his friends conceived had fairely escaped all those iron nets which his adversaries had so cunningly laid my popular countreyman with the rest of the more learned Lawyers had so vehemently prosecuted to insnare him in the linkes and traps of guiltinesse and in breife the Lords who as yet were unpoysoned by the leavened subtilty of this bitter faction could finde not any one of all those articles to be Treason by any Law that was yet established in this Land sic te servavit Apollo so God delivered him as he thought and his friends hoped out of all these troubles Yet as a rivelet stopped will at last prove the more violent The nature of malice viresque acquirit ibidem and recollect a greater strength in the same place so rage and malice hindered of their revengefull desires will turne to be the more implacable quia malitia eorum excaecavit eos because the malice of men bewitcheth them and hath no end till it makes an end of its hated foe therefore those men that hated and maligned the Earle like the Jewes that because their tongues could make no reply to the just defence of the holy Martyr Act. 7.51 guashed upon him with their teeth and stopping their eares ran upon him with one accord all at once because they had no Law nor learning to make those articles treason they say with the Poet hac non successit aliâ aggrediemur viâ seeing we failed herein we will attempt another way and to that end they frame a Bill of attainder against him and this if it passe by the major part of both Houses and have the royall assent will bring him to his iust deserved death and herein I will not say they shewed themselves worse then the Iewes because that when their malice was at the hichest pitch against Christ they said we have a Law and by our Law he ought to dy and these haters of the Earle seeing they had no Law will have a Law to be made that shall bring him unto his death because the House might have reasons which my sence cannot conceive Yet some of his friends have said that after a former prosecution according to Law to make a new Law where there was none before to take away a mans life is almost as bad as the Romance Law The rubs of the Bill how taken away that I read of to hang him first and then judge him afterward to whom I assented not and not many lesse then 60 worthy Members of the House of Commons would never yeild to passe that Bill it had a greater rub among the Lords where it is not thought upon any slight conjectures it had never passed but that this rub must be taken away by a new device for that the faction judging some of them might be more timorous then malicious and remembring that primus in orbe Deos fecit timor feare is a powerfull passion that produceth many strange effects the Apprentices and Porters Water men and Car-men and all the rascall rout of the ragged Regiment were gathered together by some Chedorlaomer came as they did against Christ with swords and staves without order with great impudency to awe them and to cry for Iustice against him and this was done and done againe and againe untill the businesse that they came for was done a course not prevented that may undoe all Justice and bring us all to be undone And yet all this will not do this deed untill the King passeth His assent The Kings great paines to search out the truth for as yet the new Law of orders and ordinances without the King was not hatched and the good King having so graciously so indefatigably taken such care and such paines in his owne person every day to heare and see all that could be laid unto his charge and how he had answered each particular was so just and of such tender and religious conscience that he was not satisfied as men conceived with the weight of those reasons that were produced to passe the same therefore here I finde another Stratageme used such as

to the best of Gods Properties which though they be all equall in themselves summè perfectissimè yet are theynot so perceived by us but his mercy is over all his workes But you will say was this man so just that he was unjustly condemned to death did all men so untruly complaine against him and was he good notwithstanding all the evill that was proved against him I answer that I dare not and I doe not say that he was unjustly adjudged to death or that the Bill it selfe was unjust but this I assure my selfe The Earle's vertues that he was a very wise and understanding man and indued with many rare heroicke vertues and most excellent graces as among the rest with those two incomparable indowments that cannot easily be found among many of the Nobles of this world 1. Faithfulnesse to his Prince to whom as I conceive he shewed himselfe a true servant and most trusty in his greatest imployments save in what was and I know not that justly proved against him and I believe he would never have taken Armes as some others of the Lords doe now against his Soveraigne 2. Love unto the Church and Church men to whom though others thinke it their glory to oppresse them and a vertue to contemne them yet he was a true friend a most noble benefactor and most just unto his death as his very last speech unto his dearest Sonne doth sufficiently testifie unto all posterity which speech was to this effect and I would to God it were indelebly imprinted in the memory of all our Nobility that as he regarded his fathers blessing or expected a blessing from God upon what his father left him so he would be carefull never to take away or in any wise to diminish any part or parcell of the goods or patrimony of the Church which if he did would prove a canker to wast and consume all that he had Yet it may be he was which in truth I cannot imagine as the Philosopher saith of Marcus Antonius a man of that composition that his vices did equalize if not exceed his vertues and his-offences cloud all his graces and obscure all his glory and as the saving of one mans life cannot save him from suffering that doth unjustly put another man to death so the rarest vertues cannot justifie the man that committeth so many horrible offences How a malefactor may be unjustly condemned as his accusers conceived this man did to which it may be well replyed that a notorious malefactor though I apply not this to him may be unjustly condemned and so he may be justly condemned and unjustly executed as when he is not condemned for the fault committed or condemned not according to the Law which condemneth that fact for though a murderer deserveth death yet any one may not presently be the death of that murderer nor the Judge condemne him for robbery and though I should commit many offences worthy of death yet if the Law doth not condemne me I ought not to die for any of them for as the Apostle saith Where there is no law there is no sinne because sinne is the transgression of the law therefore the Earle of Strafford might be an evill man and doe many things that in the sight of God and good men were worthy of death yet if our Law made not those crimes capitall or if the Law made them capitall and not treason we ought not for treason to adjudge him unto death so in summe the result is this that he might justly deserve death and yet be very unjustly condemned to death And it seemed to some of his friends that so he was especially because they had no plaine unquestionable Law but were faine in some kind to make a Law to take off his head and when his head was off this new manner of proceeding should end and be no Law for any other that came after and a Declaration must be made that the course prosecuted for his punishment shall not afterwards be drawne into an example it must be produced for no patterne but for him alone and none other lest perhaps if the same course should be still practiced Complaint to the House of Commons p. 6. the contrivers of this plot might have the like payment to fall ere long upon their owne heads therefore some say this may well draw a suspicion upon the justice of the sentence though I will not censure any man for any injustice therein But as the Earle said at his death The Earle's words at his death which he undertooke like a good Christian full of charity and no lesse piety it was an ill omen to this Nation that they should write the frontispiece of this Parliament with letters of bloud which if unjustly done or unduly prosecuted I feare may with Abels bloud cry for vengeance in the cares of God against the contrivers of this mischiefe to produce our miseries and the God of Heaven doth onely know how much of the bloud of this Kingdome must be squeezed out to expiate all the mis-proceedings and the fearefull projects of our people God Almighty turne his anger from us and let not the righteous perish with the wicked not the sinnes of some few be laid upon us all This was the first impediment that was to be removed before they could proceed any further in this Tragedy and thus it was most artificially acted and I say he was a great and a very great impediment of their designe which made me the larger in the prosecution thereof because he was a person of that great ability and so great fidelity both to the Church and State and the taking off of his head made a very wide gap for our enemies to enter into the vineyard of Christ and a large breach into the Citie of God to deface the Church and to destroy this Kingdome CHAP. III. Sheweth how they stopped the free judgement of the Iudges procured the perpetuity of the Parliament the consequences thereof and the subtle device of Semiramis 2. The second impediment of their designe THe next let that might hinder their designe was the great learning long experience and free judgement of the grave Judges to declare what is truth and what is law in every point for these men being skilfull in the Lawes and Statutes of our Land knew how contrary to the same and how repugnant to the fundamentall Constitutions of our government the erecting of a new Church and the framing of a new Common wealth would be and their judgement being to be inquired in any emergent doubt might prove very prejudiciall unto their plots and a hinderance of their designe except it were diverted by some course Therefore to stop this streame How they stopped the free judgement of the Judges to put a gagge in their mouthes to imprison all truths that might make against them and to make these Judges yeild to whatsoever they doe or at least not to contradict any