Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	caesar_n	great_a	pompey_n	781	5	11.2029	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70803	A decad of caveats to the people of England of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our Protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2176; Wing P2196; ESTC R18054	221,635	492

Nay whensoever we have occasion they are our most obedient and faithfull Servants But Man to Man for the greatest part is either a very fierce Enemy and so the worst of Wild Beasts or else a very false Friend the worst of Tame ones § 6. So far therefore as we are men I think our first and greatest head is to be taken for our selves against our selves Not for this Reason onely because we love our selves most and so are most apt to deceive our selves the Devil commonly using us as the Empress Agrippina her husband Claudius whilst she poyson'd That Dish with which she knew he was most delighted and on which he was likely to make the plentifullest Meal But withall because the Soul like the Eye of Man is least of all able to see itself And this I think the best Moral though I know there is another of Diodorus his Mythology concerning Lamia who did put on her Eyes when she went abroad but always coming home put them up into her pocket We are blind to the greatest Beam if it be in our own Eye though we can spy the least Mote in another man's Nor is it onely the Eye but the Heart of man also if we believe the Prophet Jeremy is deceitfull above all things And this is that which makes him his own worst cheat whilst either he falls without a Tempter like Lucifer in heaven or else like Peter upon earth he is endanger'd by a temptation from the meer Confidence of his safety Amongst a Thousand which might be given I cannot name a fitter Instance of Self-Deceiving than that of Eldavid the Fanatick in Rabbi Mosche Ben Maiemon who was so very sincere a Cheat in the couzenage of himself and did so seriously believe he was the Prodromus of the Messias that he offer'd to be try'd by a Decollation and died a Martyr to his Delusions So much 't is every man's duty to fear Himself and to suspect his own Phantasie or Imagination which he takes to be his judgment in divers cases § 7. Next and immediately after our selves we must be circumspect and wise in respect of one another And as of other men in generall for this very reason that they are Men so of Those in special manner whom we have most of all trusted and most obliged who have mingl'd their Projects and Prayers with us who have eaten of our bread and as it were lain in our very Bosoms who are apt to hate us for the favours they are not able to requite and for exceeding their Gratitude will not allow us their Humanity Of such ill-natur'd Creatures we read in Tacitus quibus beneficia eousque laeta dum videntur exolvi posse sed ubi antevenêre pro gratiâ odium redditur Little Curtesies and good turns they take very well and are thankfull for But when a Munificence is excessive and far beyond their possibility either to recompense or deserve Then they onely love the benefits but perfectly hate the Benefactor and wish Him Dead because according to that of Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as often as he sees them he makes them blush Now 't is very sound arguing from the Act to the Aptitude such Things there may be in these our days because there were such in the days we read of And special heed is to be taken that we be not deceived by such as These because by Courage and easie Caution a man may be saved from his Enemies But God alone can keep him safe from his dearest Friends Thence said God by the Prophet Jeremy Take ye heed every one of his Neighbour and trust ye not in any Brother for every Brother will utterly supplant and every Neighbour will walk with slanders their habitation is in the midst of Deceit So said Jesus the Son of Sirach Separate thy self from thine Enemies and take heed of thy Friends Julius Caesar was more endanger'd from Brutus and Cassius his Bosom Friends than from Antony and Cato his open Enemies Pompey the Great could never hurt him with all his Armies because he was a brave and a generous Enemy But his Friends were such Flayls as against which there was no Defense Even the Serpent himself was not more treacherous to Eve than Eve was unto her Husband and her Husband to his posterity For although she derived Her Body from His and so might seem in some regard to have been his own Daughter before his Wife as it were joyn'd to him in Wedlock by a kind of lawfull Incest yet no sooner had that Woman received Life from out his Side than she in a lamentable Requitall returned Death into his Bowells David did not complain That an open Enemy had dishonour'd him or that an Adversary had magnify'd himself against him for said he I could have born the one and have hid my self from the other But his Cordolium and his out-cry was against his Companion and his Guide with whom he took sweet Counsell and walked with as with a Friend in the House of God I wish it may prove a very groundless and weak Suggestion that both our Jesuites and their Journy-men passing commonly under the name of fanatick Protestants are by much the most innocent because they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle words it the most undisguised and barefac'd Enemies at once to the Monarchy and Church of England Such as declare themselves in print for the Deposing of our Kings and the Disposing of their Kingdoms In this respect the more innocent that by professing themselves implacable and ungainable Antagonists they give us an Helmet before they strike We know the Thirtieth of January stands as execrably black in our English Calendar as the Fift of November has ever done Which proves the Truth of what was written by Isaac Casaubon to Heinsius before our days and when the days were less evil than we have liv'd in that we have Jesuited Protestants as well as Papists equally Haters of the Government of Church and State here in England equally poyson'd with an Opinion that the worst of all Murthers is the most highly meritorious equally Practicers and Patrons of That Hildebrandine Divinity which has cost so many Monarchs their Lives and Fortunes I say 't were safer than now it is if all our Enemies were such ut professa prodant odia vindictae locum that by knowing our utmost Danger we might Timely stand upon our Guard Were I at leisure to rifle Story I could name several Hundreds besides the Emperour Darius and Charles the first of these Realms who were betray'd by those most in whom they most trusted and whilst they thought the best way to make men Loyall was not to doubt of their being such most unhappily have died by their Credulity It is indeed a very generous and Princely Errour as being the Errour of a Great and a Candid Soul not at all to be capable of Fears and Jealousies and rather to run the