Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	earl_n	lord_n	precedent_n	3,907	5	10.2488	5	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

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 Seneca Though God could not know nor men would not punish Vice yet would I not commit it so mean a thing is Vice EDINBURGH Printed for Robert Broun and are to be sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Sun on the North side of the Street a little above the Cross Anno Dom. 1667. TO HIS GRACE JOHN EARL OF ROTHES His Majesties High Commissioner Lord high Chancellour Lord President of His Majesties Exchequer and Council and General of His Majesties Forces in Scotland c. May it please your Grace MY obligations to you are such as may excuse real passion in a Stoick and seeming flatteries in a Philosopher and my gratitude deserv'd not to aspire to that name if it should not like them want measures But seing your modesty makes you think even what is justice to your merit to be flattery as the greatness of your merit keeps the highest Elogies I can give you from being so I shall retain my respects for you in a breast which may dispute sincerity as to your Interests with the first of those who pretend to it With which I shall the sooner rest satisfi'd because no paper nor any thing else except the heart which sends you this is capable to retain or expresse that kindnesse it feels for you In the above-written enumeration of your Titles I have neither design'd to flatter you or to contribute to your fame but rather to remember you how much you are debtor to Providence for it's kindness and we to you for your repeated cares that thereby ye may be thankfull to it and we to you In order to which I have presented you and my Country with these Discourses which by inciting both to be vertuous will not allow either to be ungrate and therein if I evidence not abilities I will at least kindness and respect which cannot but far out-value the other seing the last relate to you and the first respects only my self Since then holy Altars have not disdain'd to offer up Pigeons and such like value-lesse things which nothing but the sincerity of the offerer could render considerable refuse not to accept and revise these though unfiinsht Discourses And if a mans last words may be believ'd I who am to make these my last words in print and confine my thoughts for the future to my ordinary employment do assure you that they are presented with all imaginable respect and zeal by Your Graces most humble Servant George M ckenzie To the Nobility and Gentry My Lords and Gentlemen HAving lighted this though the smallest and dimmest of Vertues torches at Honours purest flame I thought it unsuitable to place it under the Bushel of a private Protection but rather to fix it upon such a conspicuous Elevation as your exalted names that Vertue might lance out from thence its glorious beams more radiently and the better direct these who intend to be led by it Narrower Souls then yours have not room enough to lodge such vast thoughts as Vertue and Honour should inspire And that which raised you to that hight which deserves this complement from Vertue does deserve that ye should not when ye have attained to that hight neglect its address though sent you by the meanest of it and your servants Ye may My Lords and Gentlemen make your selves illustrious by your Vertue and which is yet nobler because more extensive ye may illustrat Vertue by your Greatness and as the Impressa of a great Prince makes Gold more current though not more pure So your Patrocinie and Example may render Vertue more fashionable and useful then now it is Undervalued Vertue makes then its application to you as to those whom or whose Predecessors it hath obliged And persecuted Vertue deserves your Patronage as rewarded Vertue is worthy of your Imitation And seing it did raise your families and offers still to raise monuments for your memory ye do in that assistance but pay your debt and buy fame from succeeding ages And as what is ingraved upon growing Trees does inlarge it self as the Tree rises so Vertue will be serious to advance you knowing that it will receive extension accordingly as ye are promoted Vertue is nothing else but the exercise of these principles which respect the universal good of others and therefore Nature out of kindness to its own productions and mankind in favour to their own interests have ennobled and adored such as were strict observers of those The only secure and noble way then to be admired and honoured is to be vertuous this will make you as it did Augustus the ornament of your age and as it did Vespasian the delight of mankind This is though to my regrate the way to be nobly singular and truly great For men follow you when ye are vitious in complement to their own depraved humours but when they shall assimulat themselves to you in your Vertues they will shew truly their dependence and that they follow you and not their own inclinations In Vice ye but follow the mode of others but in re-entring Vertue into the Bon-grace of the World ye will be leaders by this your lives will become patterns and your sentences Lawes to posterity who shall enquire into your actions not only that they may admire but which is more that they may imitat you in them I intend not by this discourse My Lords and Gentlemen that all Vertues should shrink in to the narrowness of a Cell or Philosophers Gown No no publick Vertues are in their extension as much preferable to private as the one place is more august then the other of which to give you but one instance for the Principle is too well founded to need moe there is more Vertue in relieving the oppressed then in abstaining from oppression for that comprehends this and adds to it the nobleness of courage and the humanity of compassion The one is the employment of Philosophers but the other of that omnipotent GOD whom these Philosophers with trembling adore In the one we vanquish but in the other we only fly temptations Vertue then has employment for you Great Souls as well as for retired Contemplators and though Justice Temperance and these Vertues wherein none share with you be more intrinsecally noble then the atchieving the greatest Victories wherein fate souldiers and accidents challenge an interest Yet Vertue loves to bestow Lawrels as well as Bayes and hath its Heroes as well as Philosophers Rouse up then your native courage and let it overcome all things except your clemency and fear nothing but to stain your innocence undervalue your Ancestors no otherwise then by thinking their actions too small a Patern for your designs and assist your Prince till ye make the World which is