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	john_n	viscount_n	38,711	5	12.0935	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45197	Mr. Hunt's postscript for rectifying some mistakes in some of the inferiour clergy, mischievous to our government and religion with two discourses about the succession, and Bill of exclusion, in answer to two books affirming the unalterable right of succession, and the unlawfulness of the Bill of exclusion.	Hunt, Thomas, 1627?-1688.	1682 (1682)	Wing H3758; ESTC R8903	117,850	282

Mr. Hunt's POSTSCRIPT FOR Rectifying some MISTAKES in some of the Inferiour CLERGY Mischievous to our GOVERNMENT and RELIGION With Two Discourses about the SUCCESSION And Bill of EXCLUSION In Answer to Two Books Affirming the Unalterable Right of SUCCESSION and the Unlawfulness of the Bill of EXCLUSION In turbas discordias pessimo cuique plurima vis pax quies bonis artibus indigent Tacit. Hist l. 4. LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1682. To the Right Honourable JOHN EARL OF RADNOR Viscount Bodmin Lord Roberts Baron of Truro And Lord President of His Majesties most Honorable Privy-Council My Lord THE Reason that moved me to inscribe these following Discourses to your Name is to create a prejudice and bespeak a good esteem with all Mankind to whom your Lordships Character is arrived of my Integrity and Snicerity therein Your Lordships free and open Acknowledgment of your self to the World That you have liv'd your inward Nature That you never dissembled or disguised your self avowed plainness and despised all Arts Intrigues and Applications hath made your Lordship Universally Honoured every where and by all sorts and parties of men entirely trusted and you are become an Illustrious instance That nothing is so popular in a Noble Person as Simplicity and open Sincerity no not Bounty and Beneficence it self to which Office likewise your Lordship is not indebted or in any arrear A great Moralist prescribes and commends to all Men that would hold on an uninterrupted Course of Virtue and preserve their Innocence to put on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a Defensative and Out-guard to Virtue That is to say a stiffness and inflexibleness of Mind something that can resist those soft and gentle prejudices that perswade undue compliances and abuse the facile weak and tender Minds to accommodate themselves in little Matters to the present occasions until by little and little sincerity is almost quite perished from the World and mischiefs apt to destroy it ready to follow in consequence of such unmanly compliance Men to relieve themselves from inward reproach whilst they contradict their inward sense have found out the specious names of Civility Submission to our Superiours Nay have usurpt the glorious name of the Virtue of Modesty which is the Noblest and most ample Virtue which gives Rules that are almost comprehensive of our whole Duty for to this Virtue we owe a greatness of Mind and a reverence of our selves as well as equability and Justice to others to varnish over Dissimulation Craft Hypocrisie Flattery Treachery Falshood and a deceitful Conversation And are bold to reproach the severe Honest with the Names of Morose Disloyal and Disobedient to turn off from themselves the shame of their own prevarications and utter defections from publick Interest which God knows men easily slide into insensibly if they once suffer themselves for any regard whatsoever to be carried off from the Rule of Right for they bring themselves under some kind of Necessities of complying with the Evils their first aberrations occasioned by greater faults which increase reciprocally at every turn until they become desperate Out-laws absolve themselves from all Duty they owe to their King and Countrey abandon themselves to Chance to live and subsist by untoward shifts and arts which increase their first Guilts and turn their Errors into unpardonable Crimes having shipwreck'd their Consciences they care not if the Government be wreck'd too to which they have made themselves so very abnoxious This whilst men please others they lose themselves and from Flattery it is easily proceeded to the most mischievous Treacheries He that despiseth his own way shall dye saith King Solomon A man that accommodates himself to serve Occasions dissembles himself and appears other than he is will soon extinguish his Conscience and dye to Virtue He that doth not honour himself will not regard men and they that do not Reverence Men will not fear God Qui non verentur homines fallent Deos. The Arts of Complaisance so much relyed upon at the Courts of Princes hath extruded the Laws of Honesty thence where they are most necessary This hath made the Condition of great Men very uncertain and fortuitous infinitely subject to Chance and Hazard the Thrones of Princes unstable and tottering and left the Peace and Security of Kingdoms scarce at any time undisturbed with Fears Jealousies evil surmises and contending Factions upon Reasons true and false real and feigned causes Every man almost is sometimes complaining of the uneasie condition that he himself concurs to make to himself but is always in some sort miserable by fearing from others whom he gives too much cause to fear from himself and to mistrust him for his double dealing But what other consequence can they expect that ever feign and uncessantly dissemble but not to be believed not to be trusted hated for their baseness and feared for that great Evil they would dissemble The greatness of the Evil designed is justly measured by the coarse and base Artifices they use to hide them they are impudent to all the discerning and wise whilst they busily set themselves by mean and base Arts to abuse the Fools and inconsiderate the vain and the credulous whom they have at the same time in the greatest scorn whilst they have nothing to value themselves upon but that such little men are deceived by them But there is another sort of men that design well for the Publick whilst they dispense with the strict Laws of Truth and Sincerity But I cannot tell upon the whole matter whether they are not more hurtful to themselves than profitable to the Common-wealth by their well-design'd and honestly-directed compliances and dissimulations I mean such men as lend themselves to the service of the Publick who are so kind as to disfigure themselves to take other shapes and appearances of what they are not Who are content to neglect their Honour and Reputation of Sincerity whilst under a feigned assentation they hinder all the evil and do all the good they can do and the present state of things will permit and suffer the rest with a great compassion for the Publick Weal But such mens Praise must come from God their Honour will never be entire amongst men and after all the difficult and hazardous Services they can perform for their King and Countrey their Honour will still remain suspected doubtful and obscure amongst men who must judge according to appearance When we have been often abused by the fairest pretenders to a regular and constant Virtue we cannot easily trust those that have sometime dissembled and represt it My Lord It is a peculiar Felicity of your Lordship that from a Generous and Honest Nature and a Noble Mind rather than from the institution of Books though your Learning is famously great to which you seem made rather than instructed your sincerity is incorruptible and stands in no need of that