Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	child_n	parent_n	precept_n	1,086	5	9.3339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56594	Advice to a friend	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1673 (1673)	Wing P738; ESTC R10347	111,738	356

of any ones displeasure so much as his When he is present he improves our pleasures and augments our prosperity And as for our cares he very much lightens them and eases us of their burden And what is there that can teach us civility and an obliging conversation so much as he Observe how willing or rather glad we are to yield him the precedence in all things We readily pass by his faults and overlook his errors We declare our mind to him simply and without any disguise We are studious how to requite his favours and preserve at least a grateful remembrance of his good turns And as for humanity kindness and good nature there is none to whom we extend it with so much alacrity as to a Friend For whom we are not unwilling to expose our selves to any danger in so much that if there were an Army of Friends listed a few Persons would conquer great Multitudes And therefore if a Man exercise himself in these things diligently towards such a Person and make them familiar and easie to him by means of this friendly sympathy without all doubt he will be disposed when occasion requires to do the same proportionably and as far as is meet unto all other Men. Behold the benefit of Friendship whose sweet influences all the neighbourhood feels and fares the better for it For it is not unworthy of remark that it is Friendship which is the best bond and ties us fastest to natural Relations Nothing but this can link us to them with a strong affection and make us truly forward in their service For whether they be Brethren and Sisters or Parents and Children or Husband and Wife if they be not Friends also though they be obedient to good Precepts and perform the duties of their natural Relations they will not discharge them with a chearful will and with gladness of heart They may be constrained to serve each other lest they should seem to neglect their duty but it is not nearness of blood nor any thing else that will make them freely apply themselves to it as a good that they love and on which they have set their delight They must be beholden for this to friendly affection which alone can make these relations happy Whose power is therefore so predominant because it is the daughter of the will the fruit of a voluntary choice This makes it excell all natural affections as much as the rational and voluntary operations transcend all the other motions in humane Nature But what 's all this though great and wonderful to that which may be still said in its praise We have spoken hitherto but of an humane good That which is the greatest of all and the most Divine thing in it is not taken notice of viz. the approaches it makes to the other World For sincere friendship contracting the Souls of two into one is the most excellent indeavour of humane nature after union and conjunction with God The union of Souls who are near of kin here is the preparation for the Heavenly union and it is impossible without this to be a consort of the better Beings The sense of which made the Pythagoraeans prefer friendship before all other good qualities and to call it the bond and combination of all the vertues For no Man that is unjust or intemperate or fearful or ignorant and foolish can be capable of it But he that would be a Friend must purge himself from all the brutal affections of the Soul and then seek for his like And when he hath found him let him embrace that Person as if he had met according to the fable of Aristophanes with the other half of himself But the difficulty you will say is in finding him True and it requires some judgement to make a right choice We must deliberate of all things with our Friend but first of our Friend himself And therefore you must remember the advice of the Son of Syrach VI. Ecclus 7. If thou wouldest get a Friend prove him first and be not hasty to credit him For though Friendship begin in conversation where Men soon find a mutual liking of each others Persons Words and Actions yet they cannot so soon discover that likeness of humour and disposition and that sympathy in desires which hath the greatest power to unite Souls In so much that when by continuance of conversation and mutual liking and happy agreement in all things they are made one the state of things is so altered that as at the first the Person was liked for what he said or did now the speeches and actions shall be liked because they are said and done by that Person But I shall scarce say any thing new in this Argument of which you know where to find a larger discourse and therefore I shall only add this which is sutable to the business in hand When you want such an one let him not be a Person that is sad and melancholy or that loves always to be complaining for though he be never so honest and faithful he will prove but an heavy Companion And on the contrary one that is too merry and jocund will be no less disagreeing to a serious spirit and be apt to offend more by his levity and imprudence than he gives content by his liberty and mirth The happy mixture of both these humours which will serve for a remedy to each other compounds that Person after whom we enquire Just as the Romans it is observed by an ingenious Person esteemed best those Tribunes who testified most inclination to the Senate and among the Senators thought those the best who favoured most the Peoples side So it seems that the best of the pleasant humours are those that come nearest to the melancholy and the best of the melancholy those that approach nearest to the pleasant For where there is this temperature the first sort will be more discreet and prudent and the latter less austere and incompliant And if such a person have a quick sense of Divine matters and be of a pittiful and sympathizing disposition free from envy patient of labours and temperate in his pleasures if he have done us good before he was asked and when he had done it keeps it as a secret and speaks not of it which Aristotle observes is a sign he doth it for our sake L. 2. Rhetor. cap. 4. and for no other end you may repose the greater confidence in him as one that is both more able and more willing to do you service And therefore when you have found such an one think you have found great riches though you should be never so poor Great Riches did I say Rather the greatest Treasure in this World For if a Man be more worth than all the World as our Saviour supposes IX Luk. 25. then he is the most wealthy Person who intirely possesses a worthy Man that 's like himself And there is no way to acquire such a possession but only this For