preferment

Negatively, which way we are not to look for the fountain of power: Promotion comes not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert, that is, neither from the desert on the north of Jerusalem nor from that on the south; so that the fair gale of preferment is not to be expected to blow from any point of the compass, but only from above, directly thence.

Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

Prouided that if he were a preest or any religious person, he should lose his benefice, and be made vncapeable of any other ecclesiasticall preferment: if he were a laie man, he should lose the prerogatiue of his estate.

Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (3 of 12) Henrie I. Raphael Holinshed

My Americanism may be prejudiced and narrow, but the idea of preferment by inheritance and not by personal merit and achievement has the same effect on me as a red rag is said to have upon a certain male quadruped.

With Sabre and Scalpel. The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon John Allan 1914

The news which the mayor had just given him of his preferment was the determining reason that decided him to plunge into the scheme which he now for the first time revealed to his wife; he believed it would enable him to give up perfumery all the more quickly, and rise into the regions of the higher bourgeoisie of Paris.

Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau Honor�� de Balzac 1824

And if he happens to be a young man, upon what is conventionally said to be his preferment, that is to say, looking out for a partner in life, he may here study all kinds and descriptions of female beauty [laughter and cheers]; he may satisfy his mind whether light hair or dark, blue eyes or black, the tender or the serious, the gay or the sentimental, are most likely to contribute to the happiness of his future life.

Modern Eloquence: Vol III, After-Dinner Speeches P-Z Various

Zeno, with whom these names originated, justified their use about things really indifferent on the ground that at court "preferment" could not be bestowed upon the king himself, but only on his ministers.

Guide to Stoicism St. George William Joseph Stock

Nor did this opinion deceive me; for, during his whole reign, my administration was in the highest degree despotic: I had everything of royalty but the outward ensigns; no man ever applying for a place, or any kind of preferment, but to me only.

The Works of Henry Fielding, Volume Six: Miscellanies 1900

He got "preferment" as he calls it, and a cure of souls at Margate.

Mrs. Warren's Daughter A Story of the Woman's Movement Harry Hamilton Johnston 1892

For although a Welsh bishopric often led to an English one, a change from Exeter to St. Asaph could hardly have been "preferment" in the ordinary sense.

Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Exeter A Description of Its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See Percy Addleshaw 1891

Nor did this opinion deceive me; for, during his whole reign, my administration was in the highest degree despotic: I had everything of royalty but the outward ensigns; no man ever applying for a place, or any kind of preferment, but to me only.

A journey from this world to the next — Volume 2 Henry Fielding 1730