Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	life_n	spirit_n	1,763	5	5.2732	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39821	The manners of the Israelites in three parts. I Of the patriarchs. 2. Of the Israelites after their coming out of Egypt until the captivity of Babylon. 3 Of the Jews after their return from the captivity until the preaching of the Gospel. Shewing their customs secular and religious, their generous contempt of earthly grandeur. And the great benefit and advantage of a plain laborious, frugal, and contented life.; Moeurs des Israélites. English	Fleury, Claude, 1640-1723.	1683 (1683)	Wing F1364A; ESTC R218945	81,805	250

himself was to come according to the Prophecy of Jacob That of Ephraim held the second rank by reason of Joseph Moreover in each tribe the eldest Branches and the heads of each Family were considered and all this made Saul say being surprized at the honours he received from Samuel Am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the Tribes of Israel and my Family the least of all the Family of the tribe of Benjamin Age did likewise make a great Distinction and the name of Old men in Scripture ordinarily signifies Dignity And indeed nothing but Age and experiences could distinguish men who were equally Noble and almost equally Rich of the same Profession and brought up after the same Manner CAP. II. Their Occupations Agriculture FOr among the Israelites there were no distinct Professions From the head of the tribe of Judah to the youngest of that of Benjamin they all were Husbandmen and Shepherds going themselves to plow and looking after their own flocks The old man of Gibeah who lodged the Levite whose Wife was violated was returning in the Evening from his Labour out of the Field when he invited him to come to his house Gideon was himself thrashing his corn when an Angel told him that he should deliver the People Ruth found favour in the sight of Boaz by gleaning after his Reapers When Saul received news of the danger the City of Jabish Gilead was in he was coming after the herd out of the field notwithstanding his being a King 'T is well known David was keeping sheep when Samuel sent to seek him out for the anointing of him King And he returned to his flock after his having been call'd to play upon his Harp before Saul After he was King his Sons made a great Feast when they sheared their sheep Elisha was called to prophecy as he was driving one of his Fathers twelve Ploughs The Scripture being crowded with such examples Without doubt 't is this which most of all palls those who are not acquainted with Antiquity and only esteem our Manners When we talk to 'em of Ploughmen and Shepherds they figure to themselves such Peasants and Country Fellows as ours leading a gloomy and painful life in Poverty and contempt without Valour wit or education They do not consider that what renders our Peasants so miserable is their being as the Servants of all other men not only labouring for their own Subsistance but for the furnishing of things necessary to all those whom are look'd upon to be above them in the World For the Country-man it is who nourisheth the Citizen the Officer of Justice the Gentleman the Ecclesiastick and what means soever are made use of to convert money into commodities or commodities into money they must all still have relation to the Fruits of the Earth and the living Creatures which it nourishes Yet when we compare together all those different degrees of conditions we place in the lowest Form those who till the ground and look to Cattle and have more Esteem for gross and useless Citizens without vigor of body without industry without any merit because having more money they lead a more easy and more pleasurable life But if we fancy a Country where the difference of Conditions was not so great and where doing nothing was not to live Nobly but to preserve carefully ones Liberty that is to be subject only to the Laws and the Publick Power standing on ones own Bottom without dependance on any body and contenting ones self with a little rather than doing any low paltry base thing to grow rich a Country where they despised Idleness Effeminacy and the Ignorance of things necessary for Life and where they had a less value for Pleasure than for Health and Strength of Body In such a Country it would be much more Decent and Gentile to Plough or keep a Flock let the words sound never so odly than to play and sport away a mans whole life Now we need not have recourse to the Common wealth of Plato to find men of this quality and condition since thus it was that the greatest part of the world lived during near Four thousand years To begin with what we are best acquainted such were the Maxims of the Greeks and Romans In Homer we see every where Kings and Princes living upon the Fruits of their Lands and their Flocks and labouring with their own hands Hesiod has made a Poem on purpose to recommend the Country-life and toil as the only honest means of subsisting and growing rich And he blames his Brother to whom he addresses it for living at the expence of others by pleading causes and soliciting Affairs That employment he brands with the name of Laziness which among us is the calling of so many People And we may see by the Oeconomicks of Xenophon that the Grecians had diminished nothing of that Esteem for Agriculture even in the time of their greatest Politeness We ought not therefore to attribute the Assiduities of the Ancient Romans in the improvement of their lands to their Barbarity and grosness in learning 'T is rather a sign of their good sense As all men are born with arms and bodies proper for Labor they believed that all were obliged to make use of them and that they could not employ 'em better than in drawing from the Earth a certain subsistance and so growing Innocently rich Nevertheless it was not Avarice which engaged them in that way of living seeing they as 't is well known despised Gold and the Presents of Forreigners Neither did this hinder them from being a brave and a Warlike People in regard it was at the same time that they subdued all Italy and acquired those immense Forces which they employed afterward in the conquest of the World On the contrary a painful and frugal Country-life was the Principal cause of their great Strength making their Bodies robust hard'ned to Labour and accustoming them to svere Discipline Whoso knows the life of Cato the Censor cannot suspect him guilty of baseness of heart or of Lowness of Spirit Yet that great man who had passed through all the Offices of the Republick when it was in it's greatest Force who had govern'd Provinces and commanded Armies a great Oratour a great Lawyer and great Politician This great man did not disdain to write a Treatise concerning all the ways that are necessary for the emproving of Lands and Vineyards and how Stables and Houses were to be built for the several sorts of Cattle and how a Press was to be made for Wine or Oyl and all these to the most minute Circumstances Insomuch as we may see that he was perfectly acquainted with them and that he wrote for Use and not for Ostentation Let us then confess seriously that the contempt we have for the Country toyl and labour is not founded upon any solid reason seeing that Labour perfectly well suits with courage with all the Virtues of