Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	earl_n	esquire_n	sir_n	15,055	5	7.1159	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28981	A free discourse against customary swearing ; and, A dissuasive from cursing by Robert Boyle ; published by John Williams.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1695 (1695)	Wing B3978; ESTC R27221	44,234	188

A FREE DISCOURSE AGAINST Customary Swearing AND A DISSUASIVE FROM CURSING By the late Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Published by John Williams D. D. LONDON Printed by R. R. for Thomas Cockerill Sen r and Jun r at the Three Legs in the Poultrey over-against Stocks-Market MDCXCV IMPRIMATUR April 13. 1695. Guil. Lancaster To the Right Honourable RICHARD Earl of Burlington and Cork Lord High Treasurer of Ireland AND The HONOURABLE Sir Henry Ashhurst Baronet Executors to the Honourable Robert Boyle Esquire IT has been an Injury too often done to the Memory of Persons eminent for Knowledge Learning and Virtue to have after their Death such Works obtruded upon the World for theirs as have been deservedly suspected or if theirs yet were never intended by them in that squalid broken and imperfect condition to have been published But as for this Tract you were pleased to put into my hands to peruse it is not only certain that it was Wrote by the Honourable Person whose Name it bears but also that it was designed by him for the Press as some Passages in it do apparently shew And if this Noble and Learned Author thought it seasonable for those Times of Uncontroul'd Liberty and Confusion in which it was wrote it is as seasonable if not more at the present when that Vice against which it is directed has of late Years so far prevail'd to the great Dishonour of our Nation as well as our Religion that the Patriots of our Countrey assembled in Parliament have been thereby justly provok'd to prepare that late Bill which since has pass'd the Royal Assent for the better and more effectual Punishment and Suppression of it A Design becoming so August an Assembly and in the Prosecution of which your Honours must be esteemed to have done considerable Service especially by the Publication of this Treatise which has been so happily recovered and by a singular Providence reserved as it were for such a special Season and Service I am Most Honoured Your most Humble and Faithful Servant JOHN WILLIAMS THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER THESE Two Tracts against Customary Swearing and Cursing lately met with amongst the Papers of a Person of Quality and an intimate Acquaintance of the Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle Transcribed by his own Hand were found upon Perusal Perfect and Fitted for the Press except the Close of a Dedicatory Epistle to his Noble Sister the Countess of Kildare which as far as appears by the Copy he had but just begun The Year inserted on the Title Page as well as a passage or two in the former of these shews that it was Penned toward the latter end of the late Vnhappy Times when he was about Twenty Years Old by which time if I am not mistaken this was the Third Treatise he had prepared for the Publick the other Two being that of Seraphick Love afterwards Printed and An Essay of Mistaken Modesty referred to in this I cannot say though there is a sensible Conformity between the Style of these and others of his Books but that this Honourable Author if he had been to write upon this Argument in his Riper Years might have given it a finer Turn and added out of his vast store of Learning and Thought much to the weight and force of it But there is in the management of it such a strain of Modesty and unaffected Piety such an affectionate Zeal for the Honour of Almighty God and such a passionate concernment for the Well-doing and Happiness of those of his Acquaintance for whose use this seems more especially designed and in fine so much Truth Reason and Observation as the Pleas and Excuses here undertaken and answered shew that must above all recommend it to such as have his Name in Remembrance and Veneration A Name methinks better than that of Sons and of Daughters than that of Blood and Descent and that should provoke those of Eminent Extraction and Station to an Imitation of so Worthy and Glorious an Example What happy Instruments might they then be of Good to Mankind by their wise Conduct and their exemplary Vertues What a restraint would this lay above that of Laws on their Dependants and Inferiors For how would such dare to offend that are sure to find no Countenance or Protection And what Protection or Countenance could they expect from their Superiors whose Lives would be a continual Reproof and where they could find no more a President than they do a Law to encourage them in their wicked Oaths and Blasphemies To bring these Vices into disparagement and to represent the Folly as well as the Sin of them to the better-bred part of Mankind was the Generous and Pious Design of this Learned Author and of those Honourable Persons that from their Relation to him by Blood or Friendship have been concerned in the Publication Toward the utter Extermination of which amongst us there seems to be as human means nothing more necessary than the Vigilance of our Magistrates who are now as well and fully Empowered as obliged by the Law to see to the Punishment of it and for the due Execution of which they will most certainly have the good Wishes Assistance and Prayers of all Good men and which is more than all the Blessing and Rewards of Heaven I have only this to add That the Second Tract or Letter seems to proceed from the same Hand with the First being agreeable to it in the Stile as well as the Design of it and so the Naming Mr. Boyle in it is but a decent Cover for the Concealment of himself A DISCOURSE Against Customary SWEARING THOUGH I doubt not but that it is much more easy to make most Swearers Proselytes than Converts and a Task of less Difficulty to convince their Judgments than to reform their Practice yet that they may not have any colour to father upon Ignorance what is usually the Child of some much guiltier Parent it will be possibly no less useful than necessary briefly to direct them to those Texts of Scripture where all those that acknowledge God's Word may find the Condemnation of that Vice First then the Third Commandment flatly forbids unnecessary Oaths in terms that are ratified by these words of our Redeemer in St. Matthew's Gospel Ye have heard what hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thy oaths But I say unto you Swear not at all neither by heaven for it is God's throne nor by the earth c. And a little under But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil The Sum of which Prohibition is thus repeated by St. James towards the close of his Catholick Epistle But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath but let your yea be yea and your nay nay lest you fall into condemnation And suitable to these clear