Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	good_a	great_a	2,831	5	2.5730	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90783	Pliny's panegyricke: a speech in Senate: wherein publike thankes are presented to the Emperour Traian, / by C. Plinius Cæcilius Secundus Consul of Rome. Translated out of the originall Latin, illustrated with annotations, and dedicated to the prince, by Sr Rob. Stapylton Knight, Gent. in Ordinary of the Privy Chamber to His Highnesse.; Panegyricus. English	Pliny, the Younger.; Stapylton, Robert, Sir, d. 1669.	1645 (1645)	Wing P2579; Thomason E283_5; ESTC R200055	90,710	86

them forth all together as the Sun and Day whose light appeares not in part but in whole nor to one or two but to all the world in common What a blessing is it to behold the treasury silent and quiet and such as it was before there were Informers Now the God is truely there now it is a Temple not the spoliarie of the Citizens and receptacle of cruell and bloody plunder In the whole orbe of the earth there is yet one place where under a good Prince the good are too hard for the wicked Yet still the honour of the Law remaines nothing is taken off from the publique benefit nor the penalty remitted to any one but our revenge is added and herein the change consists that now not the Informers but the Lawes are feared But peradventure you restraine not your Exchequer with the same severitie as you doe our Treasury yes so much the more as you beleeve you may take a farther liberty in what concernes your selfe than in what concernes the publique 'T is said to your m Actor and Procuratour were Officers of the Exchequer as this place imports and the Procurator the greater who was the Advocate or Judge Fiscall and the Actor as I suppose the Emperour's Attourney generall Actor and likewise to your Procurator come into the Court appeare at the Tribunall for a Tribunall is now set up that vexeth them equall with others more if you measure their torments by the greatnesse of their qualities The lot and n Lots inscribed with names were put into an Urne for the choyce of Roman Magistrats in imitation whereof at this day the Venetians have balls urne assigne a judge to the Chequer-chamber 't is lawfull to reject him 't is lawfull to cry I will have none of this hee is a timerous man and understands not well the goodnesse of the times I will have none of him because hee too passionately loves Caesar principality and liberty use the same Lawe And which is your chiefe glory the Exchequer is often foiled whose cause is never ill but under a good Prince A mighty merit this but that farre greater that you have those Procurators as commonly your Subjects desire no other Judges though it be free for any that disputes his title to say I will have another Judge for you annex no necessity to your gifts as knowing the highest grace of Princes favors is if wee likewise may not use them The burdens of government compell decrees of divers Taxes which as they are a benefit to the generality so they are an injury to particulars Among these the o When Augustus had taken an account of the multitude of Roman Armies finding much money requisite for the maintenance of all those foote and horse he ordained that all inheritances or Legacies left by will to any save to the neerest of blood to the poore should pay the twentieth part as if hee had found this tribute written in Caesar's Commentaries Dion twentieth part was pitched upon a tribute only tolerable and easie to p Strangers that had no relation of blood extraneous heires but a grievance to domestick Upon them it is therefore q Ausonius mentions some of the twentieth part to be retained by Trajan and tells us tha● Gratian remitted the whole imposed unto those remitted For as much as it was manifest with how much griefe men would suffer or rather men would not suffer any thing to be pared and shaved off from those goods which by descent and sacred affinitie they had deserved and which they never accounted as other mens estates and as fortunes to be hoped for but as their owne as things ever possessed and still to be transmitted to the next of blood This courtesie of the Law was reserved only for the old denizons of Rome but the new ones whether they came in by the right of r jus Latij the right of Latium priviledged those Aliens that obtained it from taxes Paulus de censibus F. l. and likewise put them into a capacity of being Magistrates Latium or by the favour of the Prince unlesse they had therewith granted to them the right of kindred the Law looked upon them as greatest strangers where they were most neare of kinne Thus the greatest right was turned into the greatest injury and the City of Rome was like to hatred discord and privation of children since by it the nearest alliances notwithstanding their pietie were disjoyned yet some were found to beare so great affection to our name that they held the twentith part the losse of their affinities fully recompensed with the title of Citizens of Rome but it ought freeliest to have been conferr'd upon those by whom it was so highly valued It was therefore Decreed by your Father that what out of the mothers goods came to the children out of the childrens to the mother though they had not received the right of ſ It appeares plainly that the stranger notwithstanding his Indenization was not freed from Augustus his Edict for the twentieth part unlesse hee had sued forth the right of kindred till Nerva dispensed with it cognation when they were made Citizens of Rome should not be liable to pay the twentieth part the same immunity he granted to the sonne in the goods of his Father in case he were reduced into his fathers t A sonne was reduced into his fathers power two waies eith erif being freed emancipated by his Father he did returne of his owne accord or jure postliminij if being taken prisoner by the enemy he came back to his Country for that set him instatuquo and his father might be his heyre as before h s emancipation power thinking it unhonest and insolent almost impious to put taxes vpon these relations nor that without a kinde of sacriledg these holy tyes could be cut in sunder by the interposition of the twentith part And that no necessary tax ought to be so pressed as to make Fathers and Children strangers Thus farr he perhaps more sparingly then became the best Prince but not more sparingly then became the best Father that being to adopt the Best in this likewise as a most indulgent parent was content to beginne or rather but to shew the way reservinge for his sonne a large and almost untouched matter of well-doing Immediately therefore to his bounty your liberality added that as the sonne in the fathers so the father should be priviledged in the sonnes inheritance nor in the same mōent that he ceased to be a Father should he lose his having beene one You haue done excellently Caesar not to suffer the fathers teares to be tributary The father possesses his sonnes goods without diminution nor hath he a partner in his inheritance that hath no partner in his sorrow None calls to account the fresh bleeding and astonishing losse of Children compelling the Father to set forth what the sonne left Our Prince's guift appeares greater when I shew

honour is not your ambition but the action of your honourers you give way to our desires nor are we compelled to speake your deserts but you to heare My Lords I have often in my silent meditations thought of what composition he ought to be who at his pleasure should dispose of the Sea and Land peace and warre but when I formed and fancied to my selfe a Prince I never no not in my wishes could conceive the like to him we now behold Some one hath shined in warre but gathered rust in peace another wore his gowne with honour but not his sword another inforced the people to a reverence by terrour another courted them with humility that lost abroad the glory he had got at home this at home what he had wonne abroad to conclude there hath as yet been none whose virtues were not soiled by confining upon some vice But in our Prince how great a concord how great a harmony of praises meets insomuch as his severity takes off nothing from his affability his gravity nothing from his candour his Majesty nothing from his humanity Now his strength and height of body the honour of his head the noble features of his face adde to these the q Pliny followes their account that make onely three divisions of the Ages of Man to wit Childhood Youth old Age for Trajan was 41 or according to Dion 42 when he began his Reigne prime of his yeares nor without the speciall bounty of the gods the r These gray haires to his young face almost cost Trajan his life for the Agarenes kn●w him in the battaile by those markes shot so well as they killed the horseman next him Dion ensignes of age thus early spread upon his haires to increase his Majesty do not all these limne out a Prince in fairest colours such he ought to be whom not civill warre not the Common-Wealth oppressed with armes but whom peace and adoption and appeased heaven would bestow upon the earth Was it not fit there should be a difference betwixt an Emperour chosen by men and one created by the Gods whose choice of and favour to you Caesar even when you were to go Generall to the army appeared shining and that in a strange manner For other Princes had their happy presages consulting either the over-flowing bloud of sacrifices or the ſ Here Sinister signifyes happy for the right hand was held fortunate onely in humane things but in Divine the left sinister flight of birds but you going to your t Trajan then a private man before he went to the Army being at his customary devotions in the Capitol a sudden impulsion of spirit tooke the people without the Temple who cryed the Best the Best meaning Jupiter but designing Trajan afterward chosen in the same place and honoured with the same title accustomed devotions in the Capitol the people though not intending it even then saluted you their Prince for the whole multitude that sate at the Temple-gate being shut when you were entred as it was then supposed saluted the God but as the event taught us you their Emperour so all understood the Omen except your selfe for you did refuse the Empire and it was well for us you did refuse one that would not be denyed you therefore were to be compelled but compelled you could not be save onely in the threatned change of the Common-Wealth for you were obstinate not to accept of the Empire upon any other tearmes but to preserve it And to that end I verily beleive that fury and u By the Praetorian mutineers See the occasion and carriage of that tumult in the Preface commotion happened in the Campe because a great violence and a great terrour was to be used to overpower your modesty But as whirle-windes and tempests commend the calmer temper of the skie so to augment the graces of the peace you brought I do suppose that tumult to have ushered it The condition of man hath these ebbes and flowes that adversity may be * If it be good saith Seneca to know then we must have both Prosperity and Adversity because we cannot know the one without the other knowne by prosperity and prosperity by adversity the seeds of both God so conceales that commonly the causes of good and evill lye hidden under the contrary appearences It was a great affront to the age a great wound to the State that an Emperour the parent of mankinde should be assaulted laid hands on and kept prisoner the power taken from the good old man even of giving x Of this in the Preface pardons the Prince deprived of that which makes it happinesse to be a Prince to be (y) For Princes are lyable to no earthly power compelled to nothing But yet if this alone was the reason that brought you to the publique preservation I could almost cry out 't was worth it The discipline of warre was corrupted that you might be the reformer the worst example was brought in that the best might be opposed to it Lastly the Prince was enforced to condemne those he would have saved that he might give us a Prince that could not be inforced You ought long since to have been adopted but we had not knowne how much the Empire is obliged to you if you had been adopted sooner Opportunity waited for you till it might be manifest that you had not so much received as bestowed a benefit The trembling State fled for sanctuary to your bosome the shaken Empire ready to fall upon the Emperour was by the Emperour's vote conferred on you you were implored and sent for to your adoption as of old great Generals when they were called home from a forraigne warre to assist their Country so the sonne and the father in one and the same instant shewed their highest mutuall gallantry he gave the Empire to you you returned it to him You being as yet the onely man that by receiving so great a favour hath requited it and obliged the giver for you joyning with Caesar as his Imperiall Adjutant you became more troubled he more secure O new and unheard of way unto a throne not your owne ends not your owne feare but anothers ends another's feare made you a Prince And howsoever you appeared to have attained the highest point of humane felicity you did relinquish a farre happyer condition ceasing to be a private man under a good Prince being assumed to the participation of his paines and cares nor did the cheerfull and prosperous but the sharpe and hard times of the Empire compell you to accept it you did receive it when another repented him that he had received it No tye of alliance or of friendship betwixt the Adoptour and the Adopted but onely that both were best the one worthy to choose the other to be chosen You therefore were adopted not as such or such a one for his wives sake not a z As Augustus who adopted his step-sonne Tiberius

Senate O happy you which we said not in admiration of your fortune but of your mind For it is true felicity to appeare worthy of felicitie But that day many things were spoken wisely and gravely this especially Credit us Credit your selfe We spake this with a mighty confidence in our selves but more in you for one may deceive another but no one himselfe let him but looke into his life and aske himselfe what he deserves Besides these very expressions gave us credit with the best Prince which discredited us with the bad for though we behaved our selves affectionately towards them yet they beleeved themselves they could not be beloved Againe we prayed the Gods might so love you as you love us Who would pray thus upon a moderate affection either to themselves or to their Prince We desired no greater good but that the Gods would love us as you doe Is' t not true that with these acclamations we intermixed O happy Wee for what can be happier then we are that have now no need to wish our Prince may love us but the Gods equall with our Prince This religiously devoted City alwaies piously dependent on heaven's providence conceives her happinesse cannot bee increased unlesse the Gods please to imitate Caesar But why doe I follow or collect particulars as if either my speech could containe or my memory comprehend them Which lest they should be intercepted by oblivion your Lordships have commanded they should be put into our publique Records and likewise graven in brasse Heretofore Princes Orations only had such monuments but our acclamations were still inclosed within the walls of the Senate-house for they were such as neither Senate nor Prince could glory in But that these acclamations should come to the cares of all men living and be transmitted to posterity will suite both the publique benefit and dignity First that the whole world may know and be witnesse to our pietie then that it may appeare we dare censure both good and evill Princes in their life time Lastly that we may experimentally demonstrate that we have formerly beene gratefull but unfortunate not being suffered to expresse our gratitude But with what contention what earnestnes what clamor did we move you that you would not let our affections nor your merits be suppressed Briefly that they might be left as an example to the future that Princes might learne to distinguish true acclamations from false and bee obliged to you for the discovery Princes now are not to begin the way to good fame but not to deviate from it not to remove flattery but not to reduce it They have a certaine rule what they shall doe and what they shall heare when 't is done Besides these prayers wherein the Senate have joyned with me what shall I now pray for the Senate May that joy ever be inherent in your Soule which then floated in your eyes May you love that day but be the cause of one more joyfull may you deserve againe and heare againe for the same words cannot bee uttered but for the same actions Then how like old Rome it was how Consular that the Senate by your example sate three daies together and all that time you only executed the office of a Consul Every one might put to the question what he pleased it was free for any to dissent to retract his judgement to bestow his advice upon the Commonwealth we were all consulted all numbred not the first votes carried it but the best But heretofore who durst speake who durst open his lippes save only those wretches that were first required to speake the rest dejected and astonished did they not suffer a sedentarie necessitie of assenting with griefe of Soule and horror of the flesh One alone passed Sentence all complied with what they hated as unjust and especially he that did pronounce it nothing so much displeasing a generalitie as that which is done against their wills as if it were generally approved of Some Emperour haply for respect to the Senate brideled himselfe in this house but no sooner out of it but he resumed the Princes power scorning and disclaiming all offices of a Consul But our Prince was Consul as if he had beene nothing else and thought nothing below himselfe unlesse it were below the Consul and so appeared in publique as that he brought no shew of State no c Domitian was ushered with 24 Lictors ushering tumult crowded up his way he only stayed at doore to consult the d The observation of the flight chirping of Byrds was one part of the duty of the Augur who sat with his face to the East in his Laena a gowne lined with furres and bordered with purple crimson and having quartered the heavens into regions observed from whence the Byrds appeared and pronounced not good fortune without two lucky signes but evill fortune with one unlucky token of all the Roman Priests he only could not loose his office during life birds and take admonitions from the Gods none was disturbed none thrust aside the passenger had so much freedome the Lictours were so modest that oftentimes a crowd of strangers stopt both Prince and Consul nay he himselfe was so moderate in his office so well tempered as we thought we saw the comportment of some ancient and great Consul under the shape of a good Prince He went often to the Forum but frequently to Marses fields for he himselfe discharged the Consuls office at the election of Consuls and tooke as much pleasure to declare them as formerly he had done to be created The Candidates stood before the Curule chaire of the Prince as he had stood before the Consuls and the oath was given to them which had beene lately taken by the Prince who knowes the tye of that oath to be so great that hee requires it of others The remainder of the day he spent in the Tribunal and there how great a Religion of equitie how great a reverence of the Lawes some made addresses to the Prince he answered that he was the Consul The right of no Office no ones authoritie was by him lessened increased it was for he referred many to the e Judges of Rome in the nature of our Lords chiefe Justices Praetours by the name of his Colleagues not because it would be popular and pleasing to the hearers but because he so accounted them hee acknowledged so much honour in that place that hee esteemed it no more for one to be stiled the Princes Colleague then Praetour Besides he sate so frequentlie in the Tribunal that he seemed to be new spirited and refresh't with labor Which of us hath taken the same care the same paines such longed-for honours who either attends or merits And truely 't is fit hee should thus exceede all Consuls that makes Consuls for otherwise he should be unworthy of his fortune if he could give honours and could not manage them When he makes Consuls he instructs them and when they are made