Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	world_n	worship_n	worship_v	30	3	7.4583	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50634	Moral gallantry a discourse, wherein the author endeavours to prove, that point of honour (abstracting from all other tyes) obliges men to be vertuous and that there is nothing so mean (or unworthy of a gentleman) as vice / by Sir George Mackenzie.	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1667 (1667)	Wing M175; ESTC R19878	41,119	141

this Warlike Monarch and raise his indignation against this Vice when shaddowed out under a forreign and borrowed representation Though murther be so barbarous a crime in it self that the Barbarians did instantly conclude Paul guilty of it when they saw the viper fasten upon his hand The unjustest caprice of lust is that whereby men contemn such as become their Wives though they admir'd them when they were their Mistresses for in this they confess it is a meanness to be theirs for since that time the neglecters thought them amiable they sweet creaturs have oft contracted no guilt nor lessen'd the occasion of that esteem no otherwise then by marrying their inconstant Gallants who seemed to have so warm a passion for them And it is strange that men should admire their own Eloquence Courage Estates and all things else they possesse for no other cause then because they are their own and yet should undervalue their Wives the noblest thing they possesse upon this and no other account I cannot think Nature such a Cheat as that if Women had not been the excellentest of Creatures it would have beautified them with Charms and Armed their eyes with such piercing glances that to resist them is the next impossibility to the finding a Creature that is more accomplisht then they And I confess the love we bear them is not only allowable in it self as an inclination that is of its own nature Noble and Vertuous but likewise because it obliges such as are engaged in it to despise all mean Vices such as Avarice or Fear and is incompatible with all dissingenuous Arts such as Dissimulation or Flattery And though such as are guilty of Whoring do justifie their debordings by a love to that glorious Sex yet by this pretext they are yet more unjust and vitious then their former guilt made them for by roaving amongst so many they intimat that they are not satisfied with their first choice and that not only there are some of that Sex but that there is none in it who deserves their intire affection Or else by dividing them amongst so many they think their kindness sufficient to make numbers of Ladies happy by both which errors they wrong not only themselves by swearing otherwayes to the Ladies to whom they make love but they wrong likewise the innocence and amiableness of that sweet Sex in whom no rational man can find a blemish besides their esteem for such persons as these who indeed admire them no where but in their complements and who are oft so base that not only their society is scandalous but they are ready to tempt such as they frequent or if they fail in this are oft so wicked that they to satisfie either their revenge or vanity do brag of intimacies and allowances which they never possest If then Gallants would be loved by their Mistrisses they must be Vertuous seing such love only these who are secret many things passing amongst even Platonicks which should not be revealed These who are couragious seing this is appointed to be a protection to the weakness of their Sex and these who are constant seing to be relinquisht inferrs either a want of wit in having chosen such as would quite them without a defect or else that they were abandoned because of defects by such as the world may justly from their first ardency conclude would never have abandoned them without these What Lady without a cheat will be induced to love one wasted with Pox and inconstancy one whom Drunkenness makes an unfit Bedfellow as well as a friend and though some worship the Reliques of Saints yet none but these who are mad as well as vitious will worship the Reliques of Sinners Neither is the meanness of this Vice taken off by the greatness of these with whom it is shar'd which may be clear from this that either affection interest or ambition are in the design of these offenders If affection it should excuse no more her who is Whore to a Monarch then her who is such to a Gentleman for affection respects the person but not the condition of such as are lov'd And it is certainly then most pure when it cannot be ascribed to nor needs the help of either riches to bribe or power to recommend it But if riches be design'd then the committer is guilty both of Avarice and Whoring and she is not worthy to be a Mistriss who can stoop to a Fee like a Servant And she who designs honour and repute by these Princely Amours is far disappointed For though she may command respect yet esteem is not subject to Scepters And I am confident that Lucretia who choos'd rather to open her Veins to a fatal Lance then her Heart to the Embraces of a Soveraign is more admired then Thais Poppaa Jean Shore and Madame Gabriel whose obedience to their own Kings was a crime in them though it was loyalty in others Blushes are then the noblest kind of Paint for Ladies and Chastity is their most charming Ornament And if these would send out their Emissaries to learn by them how to reform their errors as they oft do to inform their revenge they would easily perceive that loose men laugh at their kindness vertuous men undervalue them and it And when ever any Judgement is poured out upon the Kingdom or misfortune overtakes these Minions then all is ascribed by Divines to their looseness and it is one of the allowablest Cheats in Devotion to invent miraculous resentments from Heaven upon their failours Young Ladies to recommend their own Chastity are obliged in good breeding at least to say they hate them Such as are married are bound by their interest to decry such as may debauch their Husbands and these who are old rail against them as those who place all happiness in what because of age they cannot pretend to Whereas such as are chast are recommended with magnifying praises for patterns to such as are vitious and are coppied as admirable Originals by such as are Vertuous And I cannot omit this one reflection that chast Women are more frequently tainted with Pride then with any other Vice Nature as it were allowing to them to raise their own value far above others whom they have almost reason to contemn as persons who prostitute themselves which and the word humbling are the lessening Epithets of Whoring and as such who are nasty spotted and unclean Lust and obscenity in Discourse run in a Vitious Circle and by an odious Incest beget one another for as lust prompts men to obscenity so obscenity pimps men in to lust but in this obscenity is more culpable then lust that in the one men alledge a natural advantage and some a necessity but in the other they have no temptation and so fall under that curse Wo unto them that sin without a cause In the one men sin covertly making by their blushes as by a tacit confession some attonement for their guilt But in the other men

no party will care much to gain such for friends whom they cannot retain and when they tell you that such are not worth their pains they tell you how mean an esteem they put upon inconstancy All affairs in the World are subject to change and it is most certain that some occasion or other will somewhat raise all parties To be constant then to any one will gain him who is fixt the honour of being sure to his friends which will magnifie him amongst such as are indifferent and procure him respect even from his enemies who will admire him for that quality which by ensuring their own friends to them will advantage their interest more then they can be prejudg'd by him as their enemy how considerable soever he be Augustine's greatness cannot perswade the World to pardon him this fault nor can Cato's severity nor self-murther disswade them from admiring that constancy which had as much extraordinary Gallantry in it as may be a remission for his crime Besides that it made Cesar even when his Victories had raised him to his greatest hight and vanity regrate the losing an opportunity to gain so great a person There is amongst many others one effect of inconstancy which I hate as mean and unworthy of a Gentleman and that is to alter friendships upon every elevation of Fortune as if forsooth men were rais'd so high that they cannot from these Pinacles know such whom they have left upon the first levell but really this implyes a weakness of sight in them and no imperfection in their friends upon whom they cast down their looks and who continue still of their first stature though the others eyes continue not to possess the same clearness A generous person should not entertain so low thoughts of himself as to think that what is the gift of another can add so much to his intrinsick value as to make him confess in the undervaluing of his former friends the meanness of his own parts and former condition And he obstructs extreamly his own greatness who obliges his friends to stop and retard it as what may be disadvantagious to their interest by robbing them of so rare an advantage as is a friend Whereas the noblest trial of power is to be able to raise these whom men honoured formerly with that Title For by this others will be invited to depend upon them and they may thereby justifie their former choice and let the World see that they never entred upon any friendship that was mean or low Friendship the greatest of Commanders hath commanded us to stay by our friend and he who quites the Post assigned to him is either cowardly or a fool and a Gentleman should think it below his courage as well as his friendship to be boasted from a station which he thought so advantagious out of fear of either Fate or Interest Which recommends much to me that gallant Rant in Lucan when after he had preferred Cato to other men he in these words extolls him above the gods Victrix causa diis placuit sed victa Catoni The gods did the Victorious approve But the great Cato did the Vanquisht love But lest my tediousness should make the constancy I plead for seem a Vice I shall say no more of a Subject whereof I can never say enough Drunkennels is so mean a Vice that I scorn to take notice of it knowing that none will allow it but such as are mad and such as are mad are not to be reclaimed by Moral Discourses Yet I cannot but press its meanness from this that though Noah was a person of the greatest authority his once being drunk is remarked in Scripture to have made him despicable in the eyes even of his own Children whom he had also lately obliged to a more then natural respect by saving them from that deludge which drowned in their sight the remanent of mankind And yet he might have excused himself more then those of this age as not knowing the strength of that new-found Wine And having been drunk but once might have defended himself by curiosity which too few now can alledge It is a mean and mad complement to requite the kindness of such as come to visit us with forcing them after the fatigue of travel to drink to such excess that they commit and speak such follies as make them return home from that strange place without being remarked for any thing else then the ridiculous expressions they vomited up with their stinking Excrements Why are Servants turn'd out of doors and each man which is very mean obliged to serve himself when men enter upon that beastly imployment Is it not that Servants may not hear or see what extravagancies are there to be committed And is it not an ignoble part in persons of honour to do resolutely what they dare not owne before the meanest who attend them Men by this Vice bring themselves to need their Servants Legs to walk upon and their Eyes to see by but which is worse they must be govern'd at that time by the servile discretion of such who will be emboldned by this to undervalue both them and their commands and these Masters are accounted wisest who do most submissively follow their directions Judge if that exercise can be Noble which in disabling us to serve our friends makes us uncapable to discern the favours they do us and measure its disadvantages by this that when men have their Senses benighted with the vapours of Wine they are thereby unfitted to lead Armies to assist at Councils to sit in Judicatories to attend Ladies and differ nothing from the being dead but that they would be much more innocent if they were so Men are then very ready to attaque unjustly the honour of others and most unable to defend their own And such as they wrong then do with a scornful mercy pardon their failings with the famness of disdain which makes them forgive fools or furious persons And that in my judgement should be the most touching of all affronts And if we esteem Roots according to the prettiness of these Flowers they display as if they would give a grateful accompt to the Sun of what its warmness has produc'd certainly we will find drunkenness as the Apostle speaks of Avarice the root of all bitternesse For this is that Vice which keeps men at present from attending such of their own and of their friends interests as concern most their Fame And as to the future begets such diseases and indispositions as makes their bodies unfit instruments for great atchievments And seing to talk idly is the most pardonable of its errors which is so unworthy a Character that no Gentleman would suffer another to give it of him without hazarding his life in the revenge it 's other madnesse must be beyond all remission By this men are brought to disgorge the deepest buried secrets to reveal the intimacies or asperse the names of Ladies to enter upon foolish quarrels