Kaina kai palaia Things new and old, or, A store-house of similies, sentences, allegories, apophthegms, adagies, apologues, divine, morall, politicall, &c. : with their severall applications / collected and observed from the writings and sayings of the learned in all ages to this present by John Spencer ...

[ 1691] The great danger of relying upon Forraign ayd and assistance.

THere is a Fable, how that the Horse being too weak for the Stagg, requi∣red the help of a Man,* 1.1 which was easily granted; Who getting upon the Horse back, put the Stagg to flight; but after that, Non equitem dorso, non fraenum depulit ore, he could never quit his back of the Rider, nor his mouth from the bridle bit. So it is with the helps of all Worldly Potentates, meer be∣neficia viscata, just like the poor bird, that having escaped the snare, percheth upon the Tree for refuge, and there she finds bird-lime to intangle her, from whence she cannot fly, but with the losse of her feathers, if not of her members. And thus it is with the helps of States and Nations, Ask their help in time of distresse, they will grant it; but withall, either they exact a tribute, which

exhausteth the Treasury, or impose conditions which infringe the Liberty, or re∣quire a future ayd which weakneth the power,* 1.2 or betray▪ upon advantage, which redoubles the misery, or upbraid the benefit, which exulcerates the Mind, so that it is matter of danger to make any reliance upon such ayd and assistance.

Notes

• * 1.1

  B. Barlow Serm. at S. Pauls, on the next S••nday after the dis∣covery of the Gun-powder-Treason, 1605.
• * 1.2

  —ibi fas, ubi maxima mer∣ces, Lucan.