Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	evil_a	good_a	see_v	2,875	5	3.5208	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51724	Il Davide perseguitato David persecuted / vvritten in Italian by the Marquesse Virgilio Malvezzi ; and done into English by Robert Ashley, Gent.	Malvezzi, Virgilio, marchese, 1595-1653.; Ashley, Robert, 1565-1641.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650.	1650 (1650)	Wing M358; ESTC R37618	56,199	263

to be acquired so it is sometimes hurtfull because it cannot be laid aside David receives the sword of the Giant Goliah from the Priest and eats of the Shew-bread because hee found no other sword for his defence nor any other bread for his sustenance NEcessity enforceth him she sometimes makes that lawfull which at all times is not so It is a shield which being ill used workes the ruine of the world All misdeeds how hainous soever doe withdraw themselves out of the danger of the Law and in stead of being condemned to be borne withal are invested with the cloake of necessity there is no absolute necessity in man because he is a free agent if he suffer no outward violence hee hath none within him those which wee call necessities and which wee pretend that they free from the Law are made to be such by the Law They are necessary consequences by supposition having a conditionall antecedent for their foundation But the suppositions that are not authorized by the Law have no consistence for otherwise all the actions of men should bee lawfull seeing all might be necessary by supposing a conditionall antecedent before them out of which a necessary consequence should arise by supposition Therefore it is not true that necessity hath no Law but it is very true that the necessity which hath no Law is onely that which is an enemy to the Law David flies to King Achish but seeing himselfe and his vertues knowne being much afraid of his envie he faineth himselfe to bee mad and changeth his countenance before him HE that is borne into this great Theatre of the world ought to know how to suit himselfe into sundry habits that hee may bee enabled in this Comedy to represent many persons When a man sees himselfe persecuted by envy hee must like the shelfish fructified by the dew of Heaven cast away his pearle rather than bee a prey to those that have him in chase David puts on a forme of madnesse and by it brings Achish to put off his envie The countenance of the former is transformed before the eyes of the latter not that the effigies of the one is altered but the intellect of the other If it had pleased the Lord by his mercy and benignity to root up envy out of the world how many Davids would change their countenances in the presence of Achish But they that hate valor and vertue let them I beseech them tell me what thing it is they thinke they hate they hate even themselves Vertue cannot bee odious if it bee good it is faire also if it be faire it is the object of love and not of hatred The envious is an ignorant Painter or a malicious one who in drawing the vertue of others deformes it either he takes the perfections from it or addes imperfections to it and blames in another that which himselfe hath added of his owne to it or what he hath taken from it Yet this were not much if he did not also expose that picture to publike view that they who cannot see the originall might hate it Take away David out of my presence saith Achish Have I any need of mad-men THis King is one of those that when the time comes shall call themselves fooles for having beleeved wisemen to be fooles I know not which error to bee the greater either to thinke wise men to be fooles or to account fooles to bee wise men of this ignorance as out of a root arise all precipitated courses The most dangerous person that is represented and the greatest foole that can bee found is he that takes upon him to be wise David departs thence and saves himselfe in the cave of Adullam where his brethren and all his fathers house come unto him AS a foraigne warre is the onely remedy to unite the disordinate minds in Common wealths so are enmities and persecutions to make an attonement in families This is a true rule when the discords are not bloody and when proceeding no farther than to some high tearmes they are not growne to hatred Those brethren that in a sort would have hindered the fortune of David are they which now are willing to helpe him in his misery Base mindes applaud our felicities and abandon us in our disasters but they that are onely corrupted by envy retaining yet a kinde of generosity when their envy rather springs from desire of honour than malignity they run readily to assist their allies in their dangers and if they goe not to applaud them in their glory it is not for that they desire not to see them great but because they themselves would gladly be great The malecontented also gathered together to David and made him their Captaine IT is impossible but there should bee some such kinde of people in a State If the Prince be good then the evill are malecontent if he be evill the good are and some that are not displeased with the Princes government are so with their owne by which being ruinated and wasted when they have no hope in quiet courses they affect nothing but turbulencies The state ought to beware of 2. most potent enemies Hope and Despaire for these two extremes are they that molest it the greatest and the least of quality the one supposing that their good fortune calleth them to a better estate the other by their evill one are stirred to avoid the worst for this cause I suppose was that City preferred by a profest politike Writer which is inhabited by the middle sort of men The Prophet Gad adviseth David to depart to goe into the land of Iudah and Saul hearing that David was seene there complaineth greatly amongst his servants that David being not able to give them vineyards nor houses nor make them Commanders nor otherwise reward them should finde followers and he be abandoned PRinces do erre when they thinke their Rebels should not be followed in hope of reward I speake not of David who was a King and no Rebell one that was raised up and not risen against his Prince one that was flying from him and not contending against him The rewards expected of treachery are farre greater than those that are yeelded to fidelitie And what doe not they promise which promise that which is none of their owne what doe they not give before they bee well advised that it is their owne Disordinate minds are not content with ordinate rewards their troublesome heads account quietnesse their enemy and even those of a quiet disposition doe sometimes surfet of rest because the naturall desire of change makes felicity it selfe to be tedious The Subjects serving their Prince if they wil be rewarded oftentimes are driven to shew some excessive merit because there are few that thinke themselves bound to those whose service is bound to them but hee that followes a rebell hath already merited of him in that he followeth him That false proposition that to worke where one is obliged diminisheth his merit is both

of proceeding cannot alter it because it is naturall to them others will not because they have prospered with it and those ought never to change whose demeanour hath ever beene vertuous That power which is rising because it riseth cōmonly by the meanes of reputation must beware of losing it and preferre it even before life for therewith all its good is lost Politicians have esteemed this rule to be so true that they have made it an universall one and will have a Prince rather to hazard his estate and life than to lose by meanes of Peace Truce or tribute his reputation I subscribe not to their opinion yet doe I agree that if the greatnesse of a Prince consist in his reputation hee ought rather to die than to lose it but if it be founded on store of money and people which are his subjects let him yeeld to the time make peace and truce ever though it bee with disadvantage of reputation let him become tributary though it be to an inferior nation and leave not any thing undone how meane soever so it be not against Gods Law rather than to adventure his estate for any thing is better than to put that in jeopardy If that be not lost it is never out of season to recover whatsoever is lost Its prudence in Princes and no infamy they ought not to abhorre any thing that may augment or maintaine their dominion Private men write such weake rules because they measure them by their owne compasse Every degree of men hath his proper and peculiar kinde of reputation differing each from other so farre forth that many things accounted infamous in one degree are well reputed in another A Prince that hath a great estate never loseth his reputation if he lose not his estate for his estate is his reputation The world is in a confusion in such sort that men of one degree leaping into that of others by confounding the divers degrees have confounded all the world The Merchant will take upon him the Gentleman and the Gentleman the part of the Prince the religious that of the souldier and where the reputation of the one consists in suffering and forgiving of injuries hee leapes into that of the other whiles he seekes to require and revenge I am to be excused if I am long in this matter which is the cause of great errours in the world for if every one would follow his owne profession it would soone be knowne that reputation consists in knowing well how to performe his owne profession David being on one side of a mountaine seeing Saul on the other calleth unto him and sheweth him his garment assuring him of his good will complaineth that he is persecuted but blameth the Kings Ministers and not the King himselfe Saul hearing that malice is imputed to his servants doth not excuse himselfe by them but layeth the fault on himselfe IT is an ordinary thing of male-contented men to complain though not of the Prince himselfe yet of his Ministers That when David doth here out of modesty is done often by others out of subtilty To rise against the government makes the name of a rebellion the lesse odious deceives the people yea many times the Princes themselves for a while who sometimes discerne not at the first the ambition that commeth masked under discontentment Princes ought therefore to have their Ministers about them of singular goodnesse and of tried prudence that upon the first rumor they may be wel assured of the falsehood of such complaints and breake the heads of such horrible Serpents at their first appearing The reverence that the people beare toward the Prince is so great that it would be a difficult thing to stirre them up against him but by first beguiling them and though it bee all one to rise against the government and to rebell against the Prince because either the Prince is hee that governeth or hee that governes is the Princes Minister yet it appeares not at first with so foule a face It is true indeed that an insurrection of the people is occasioned by a bad Minister in which case the Prince doth alwayes amisse to chastise him In the people there is not alwayes one desire covered under another but if the great ones arise against the governement it is not because they are not well governed but because they would be governors themselves to satisfie their demands were to consent to lose the Soveraignty seeing such will not bee satisfied till they obtaine it Samuel dieth hee is buried with honour and is by the people most tenderly bewailed I Know not whether mourning for the dead proceedeth of piety or of meere interest It may favour peradventure of piety to bewaile when hee dieth but not after hee is dead who would not have compassion of his friend while he sees him or imagines tormented with the grievous agonies of death Men are certainly in very great paine for they are in the paine due to a very great fault And who would not after rejoyce to see him departed victorious over humane frailty and to triumph over death it selfe without having left any other spoyle in that conflict than his body and that for a very short time To lament the dead if one may say is then most impious when it seemes most pious and then ought most to bee done when it seemes not due at all The death of the righteous at which wee ought to rejoyce makes us to mourne and that of the wicked which we ought most to lament doth rejoyce us It is no friendly but an envious part to be grieved at the death of that friend whose life may make us beleeve that he injoyes his deserved glory But it is a part of piety to be sory at their death whose wickednesse doth make us doubt that they are cast headlong into hell The world is so full of snares that the good should not desire to bee in it because there they may be corrupted and so great is the mercy of the Lord our God that the wicked should desire to bee therein that they may be amended But if we are grieved in regard of our owne interest is it not more available that our friends pray to God for us than to men He that thinkes he hath lost his friend when he dieth if he beleeve the immortality of the soule and doth not thinke him damned must then beleeve that the Characters of his vertues are lost with God O how true it is that all our errours doe spring and grow from our muddy senses They acknowledge no interest but earthy no happinesse but worldly and albeit man is elevated by his better part unto a more excellent knowledge yet he cannot desire it as hee ought because he cannot know it as it is David went unto the wildernes of Rachan and understanding that there dwelt neere thereabout a man exceeding rich in flockes and other possessions whose name was Nabal he sent unto him on the day of sheep-shearing to