Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	david_n	king_n	son_n	17,085	5	5.6199	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B03453	Friendship.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.; Finch, Francis.	1654 (1654)	Wing F930A; ESTC R177055	16,857	44

Feuds a greater duration then Amities And yet we find this disease very catching For very seldome do we find Friendlinesse descend in a Bloud The next generations and descents may for the freshnesse of the Example and Speech of People keep in reasonable good Intelligence but at the second or third descent they look upon themselves like Cosin-Germans so many times removed and as they by a popular errour believe themselves incapable of Intermarriage which in a nearer Degree they hold lawfull so these are or at least commonly act in relation to the continuance of the old or contracting of new Friendships Nay what is more unpardonable then all this you shall sometimes see the surviving Friend wholly unconcern'd in the Relations of him deceased at least too-too-forgetfull of the precious Reliques of his Friend But where that happens it shews clearly if either of them did love really who loved best a Controversie and the onely one irreconcileable 'twixt the Persons themselves while alive And would we had no Examples of this kind in our own observation But the saddest one I ever met in return of the Noblest and dearest Friendship was that of David towards Mephibosheth A Pick-thank malicious Informer upon no colour of truth accuses him to David He without further examination gives this informer Ziba his Estate and afterwards though convinced of the Innocency of Mephibosheth would notwithstanding onely restore him half his Estate Have I not said it sayes David Thou and Ziba divide the land Yea sayes Mephibosheth Let him take it all seeing my Lord the King is returned in peace Surely Jonathans sonne deserved better usage from David if but for Jonathans sake and I am perswaded if the Scales had been turn'd Jonathan would not have used a sonne of Davids so and therefore I shall never question which of them two loved best no more then I shall who wept most at their last parting save that the Scripture is positive in this that David exceeded and Reason evinces that Jonathan did so in the clearnesse of his Friendship On the other side if we once conceive our selves injured and thereupon entertain high Animosities we will take speciall care to entail them and most commonly do it with that advantage that our Posterity will preserve this more precious part of their Inheritance to go in Succession though they leave nothing else of their estate as if like Mordecay's an affront and that possibly of our own making or interpretation were irreparable without the extinguishment not of the Person alone whence the Fire first kindled but the very Eradication of his Name and Race So much apter are we through the Depravation of Nature and Morality rather to revenge ill turns then acknowledge good ones Eminent examples of these hereditary Feuds there be in all Nations especially Forreigne but so few of reall and solid friendship that it will be the lesse wonder to find Persons that have spent many yeares in Travell and amongst such as live rather by Rules of Policy then Honesty though that be the best and such are the major part seldome if ever contract more then superficiall and formall Friendships unlesse it be with some continued partner of his Travels whom the Circumstances of mutuall kindnesses and uniting dangers have firmly endeared and knit together or except it was entred into before his flying abroad and kept alive there by a continued correspondence The two usuall Residences of those who do not so much ride abroad as inhabit are France and Italy in one of which the reigning Humour is Levity in the other Jealousie either of which possessing a Soul makes it inhabitable by a clear and sublime Friendship Now some Fathers are so over-politick that though they know this or rather because they know this commend those they designe for the Support of their Name to be Principled there and are very glad to see them suck in and hug dark and pernicious Axiomes of Dissimulation and sacrificing all to Interest They please themselves strangely to find their hopefull Posterity count a Good-natur'd Man and a Fool the same thing under various expresssion to say of Friendship as of Plain-dealing that it is a Jewell but who uses it shall die a Beggar A number there are of Maximes to this effect which whether borrowed from Machiavil or Ignatius is not much materiall but let not Friendship hear the worse for these clamours especially since the same Persons and upon the same slender account say the self-same things of Religion But as no body ever spoke against Religion but they that had none and therefore endeavour to confute it by Votes rather then Arguments so 't is of Friendship too But while men speak against what they understand not the greatest Non-plus they can put their Auditours to is to resolve whether these Detractours have more Ignorance or Impudence A good wit that had leisure enough might without Force extend the Parallell 'twixt Religion and Friendship very farre Certainly there is a very near resemblance betwixt them They grow and thrive best in the same soil They have the same Enemies the same weeds choke them We make a just account that all Vice is destructive of Friendship for the Progression of Vice is infinite and the Multiplication like that of Hydra's heads or the Covetous mans desires they have no bound nor Damm and therefore if we could allow some one Vice compatible with this sacred Amity yet ere long that Vice would have got company that Devil seven more and they worse then himself For even the Devil loves not to be alone and therefore the old Adage which sayes the Solitary Man that loves to be alone is either a God or a Devil is not to be literally strain'd for it was never meant farther then to shew such Persons are extraordinary either good or bad And so by this Catenation of Vices some one link of the chain would be found confessedly too heavy for Friendship to bear I do not say a Friend must not sin much lesse cannot that were to confesse there could be no Friendship here on Earth for I am sure there cannot be any Condition of man exempt from sin But there is a vast difference 'twixt a Sin and a Vice at least I would be understood so now Every going lesse then our Duty is a Sin but by Vice I intend some chosen approved darling Habit of doing wickedly which we indulge to our selves And this let it be of what kind you please quite incapacitates the soul for Friendship because it hath seated this Vice in a higher Place and a dearer affection then it reserves for the Friend and consequently on a necessity of parting with one of the two would shake hands with the Friend and retain the Vice 'T were extreamly tedious to run over all the Vices and shew how they were particularly exclusory of Friendship since their Priority in our affection if there were no other is evidence enough But let us cast our eyes