Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	love_n	love_v	4,041	5	6.5654	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78452	The innocent lord; or, The divine providence. Being the incomparable history of Joseph. / Written originally in French, and illustrated by the unparallel'd pen of the learned De Ceriziers, almoner to my lord the Kings brother. And now rendred into English by Sir William Lowre Knight.; Joseph, ou la Providence divine. English	Cerisiers, René de, 1609-1662.; Lower, William, Sir, 1600?-1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing C1681; Thomason E1480_3; ESTC R208739	71,959	184

but thou shalt suffer and thou shalt triumph It is in his person that innocence sighs with so good a grace that to see him and not to suffer with him to suffer with him without tasting a secret joy are two of those things which we judge impossible I know not if it be vertue or nature in me but I never remember to have contemplated the conduct of that fortunate wretch that my heart was not mollified and all my senses made conformable unto his His brothers persecuted me in his person I descended with him into the Cestern to combat there the fear and horrour of the Vipers I went into Egypt in his company and without being exposed to the temptation of his Mistresse I put my self willingly to his chain suffering with pleasure the incommodities of a prison where he found pains without trouble and gall without bitternesse I confesse that following the pomp and magnificence of his triumph my admiration was greatest but that my joy was lesse then when I lamented with him under the Irons and in the chains I expect the same feelings from all those who shall read this work since I suppose so much good nature and more vertue in them then I have my self No body can fix his eyes here without drawing advantage thence provided that they read with attention it shall not be without profit I dare even to promise my self that the curious who seek nothing but divertisement shall be here happily deceived and that the truth of the History shall have more force to perswade them then the fiction of a Romance artifice to deceive them Behold the principal fruits that one may gather from hence there is not one person in this action who instructs us not either with his words or with his example The Fathers shall learn from Jacob to divide their heart with so much equality to their children that their love cause no domestick war in their Family I know well that it is hard to keep strictly this justice and that the resemblance and sympathy of humour have powerful charms to surprise the parents The beasts themselves who cannot observe the attractions of nature leave themselves to goe after their conduct They say that the Partridge hath most tendernesse for that of her chickens who toucheth immediately her heart whilst she sits upon them as if the approach of that source of love gave right to this preference and though the features of the face nor the qualities of the temper should not make this inclination in the fathers and in the mothers there are other reasons that solicit them sometimes to give themselves unequally to their children For the most part the youngest have great advantages upon the eldest whether they proceed from the interest of the cause or derive from that of the effect One may love them with preference because the infirmity of their age requireth succour and care which would be unnecessary and unseemly in behalf of the strong we support not but what is delicate and leans This natural sweetnesse which renders them supple to the will of their parents is no weak motive of their affection Those who dispute their services with them make their power to be doubted those who render them without constraint shew it and confirm it Moreover if it be true that fathers live in their children have they not some reason to cherish more the youngest who promise them advantage thereof both because they have a longer file of years before them and because they have more condescendencies to the cares of their old age I speak not of innocence and vertue since it is certain that they should draw the heart and affection of the parents wheresoever they are But notwithstanding any justice that he hath to prefer the youngest before the eldest or these before the others a father should fly the exteriour and apparent testimonies of his esteem forasmuch as he may provoke many willing to favour one alone The marks of the affection which they gave them are the Butts where envy discharges her self and the spurs to hatred which persecute them Perhaps Joseph had been cherished of his brothers if he had not bin better habited then they at least we may understand that the robe with which he was gratified was the chief cause of the jealousie that sold him Love then Parents love but love equally or if you cannot love secretly and in silenee that your affection be as hidden as its principle Jacob had great motives to cherish his Joseph he was the Image of Rahel his dear wife he was that of all the vertues which appeared with so much lustre in his visage that one might know them in his person and yet so many just motives of his love could not justifie him nor all his prudence moderate his passion In the brothers of Joseph we have the example and the figure of those monsters who cannot see a good quality in those whom the birth or society of life should render commendable without an envious eye or being crased with jealousie One must be a fool to merit their good will or at least he must not be more able then they to avoid their hate They will sell their own bloud provided they may remove a vertue that incommodates them But certainly it happens always that they repent themselves of their cruelty and if there be not found a Monarch to raise up Joseph there is a God who punisheth them and protects him For my part I confesse notwithstanding any trouble we sustain in suffering stroaks from an hand which should defend us that I should love better to act in such like encounter the part of a Martyr then the office of a Tyrant or Executioner for in the end rage confoundeth and patience crowneth But what instruction may not one derive from the misfortunes and from the prosperities of Joseph First my Reader learn from him that it is important to hide that Sun and those Lights which shew you I would say that you should not publish the merit which you have Lay not forth your selves the fruit of your sheaves because that your brethren may believe that there is asmuch vanity in this testimony which you render you as there is freenesse and simplicity in discovering your selves Have a care to do well and leave that of praising you unto others you shall lose nothing of your price you have God for caution of that which men owe you If it happeneth that Heaven put you into credit abuse it not Consider your fortune as a proof of your vertue and as a means that is presented to you to exercise it if you have power make it known by your good deeds and not by your revenges I confesse that there is some sweetnesse to resent ones self of an injury but there is glory and merit to pardon it Resemble not those gods of the Ancients unto whom they gave incense for fear they should raise storms It is a fatal power that to hurt men

an Age if he had the means to make him to dye every day What said he ingrateful Viper is it thus that thou acknowledgest so many benefits which thou hast never merited May be that thou wouldst punish me for having put my favours into his hands that would ravish my glory The effect of this outragious design was it the affair that kept thee at home or the pretence of that painted piety which hath so long deceived our simplicity Oh I will make thee to feel that a slave cannot do grosser faults nor have greater temerities then to have a mind to bee Master Drag hence this Monster They led him away without resistance chusing rather that his innocence suffer then to see Cyrene justly afflicted They striped this chast young man he permitted that they should take away his clothes but not his shame They offended him with sharp words he held his peace but more through discretion then want of courage They tore him with scourges of the whip the blood streamed down his body and some tears from his eyes but he kept all the constancy in a great soul They discovered his bones through the violence of his dolours he desired not to live he feared only that death would not finish the occasion of his merit At last they put this poor innocent in a condition which would have given more compassion then love to his Mistresse That face which possessed so many attractions was all disfigured his eyes which could convey innocent flames into hearts have not lights enough to see That body all made of Lillies and which appeared rather snow then white was no more but a spectacle of horrour for the wicked and a subject of pity for the good Would to God that all those effeminates whom the Cloth of Holland hurteth that those wantons who cannot sleep but upon the Velure that those infamous Ravens whom lust keeps always in breath could see our Joseph in this pitiful estate I would say unto them this young man whom you see is not tyed to this pillar for being convicted of any shameful crime but for not being able to love any thing but vertue Learn of him the resistance that we must bring to an evil action and how farre forth our fidelity must go Say not that it is impossible for you to suffer that which he endured I do not believe that they have persecuted you yet to the blood and though they should your delicacy would not excuse you since Joseph was not of the Village His birth owes nothing unto yours his education had nothing of the Countrey his blood was subtile his age invited him to the pleasures that destroy you The fairest temptations come to seek him he had no need to corrupt the chastity of a Maid both by money and by artifices He could only but desire and have consent and enjoy and yet O miracle of purity he remained firm in an age where all the world is shaken inflexible in a condition wherein the most part of men do bend and victorious in an occasion where no body fights without difficulty and overcomes not without dammage Strange thing my dear Auditours that Love should produce hatred Truly if we may judge of the consanguinity by the resemblance of the humours we should conclude that these two passions are enemies rather then allies it is for all that too true that his fair Mother puts sometimes this ugly daughter into nature I confesse that the birth thereof is monstrous and appeareth but seldome it appeareth notwithstanding and though that it be difficult to see the reason thereof it is easie to see the examples Cyrene loved Joseph tenderly and now she persecutes him I wonder not at that that which surpriseth me is that her hate should spring from her love The Trees thrust not forth always the boughs which are natural to them The Animals bear sometimes bastard-young and which are strange Without doubt this happeneth when the principle of these productions is mingled But how though can hate be born of love Love produceth but love when it concurs with the esteem of its object but if it joins it self to its contempt it conceives hatred When we believe they fly us because they despise us our passion revolts and in stead of being sweet it is embittered What marvel though the wife of Potiphar persecute Joseph In the first place she revengeth her love which she sees rejected Secondly she hides her impurity which is discovered Voluptuousnesse not able to content this passion which seeketh but pleasure choler inspires her with rage which cherisheth nothing but blood It is a dangerous Monster an heart that desireth to be loved and which one cannot love I apprehend but lamentable things for our slave since he refuses to love his Mistresse Whilest I am diverted from my subject I perceived not that they took Joseph away let us endevour to find him again and not lose one alone of his good examples But alas I see him in a prison where the light enters not but when the door is open I see him loaden with Irons I see him amongst Thieves and Robberss I see him in the horrours of a cruel Captivity He hath carried notwithstanding all his patience into this infamous retrait all the vertues would accompany him thither and though the fatal spectacles of death which he had before his eyes might shake a great courage his shewed in the serenity of his countenance that he had not learned to yield unto mean afflictions His cruel dolours could not make him to confesse by one sole sigh that he suffered nor that his patience was assaulted He spake not but through the praises which he gave unto God His discourses made nothing appear of an abated courage if he complained sometimes it was only to say O my God! who thought thou hadst the secrets to change punishments into pleasures and make sweetnesse to be found in the bitterest gall I begin to blame my little experience and to wish ill to the ignorances of my youth When the cruelty of my brothers made me a slave I thought my fortune ruined when that blinded man began to look upon me favourably with Potiphar I praised my good fortune I see now that that first accident was the first source of my joyes and that happy beginning the fatal cause of my ruine It is at this present that I know the advantages of misfortune and the dangers of prosperity My vertue appearing too fair hath been tempted by my brothers and cherish●d of my Mistresse Their hate hath conserved me her love hath almost destroyed me O desirable chains how I love you Sweet Providence how I adore you with all my heart I cherish you precious chains because you are that which settles my salvation because you are that which renders my vertues firm and immoveable If you load my body you adorn my soul The torment which you give me shall not make me renounce the glory which you gain me I

you owe to your good father and if you owe any thing unto her from whom you derive your birth know that I transferre all the right thereof unto him to the end to augment your respects and your services You have a great number of brothers let love tye you more unto them then nature and let the honour which you beare them be a mark of your good will Never give their actions an ill interpretation and if any one of yours displease them endevour to amend it Keep alwayes your spirit prepared for injuries which you may receive perhaps this advice of mine is not unseasonable Having so perfect a resemblance with your father I fear that you should resemble him also in this The affliction of the younger brothers is one of the inheritances of your house the son of Hagar could not endure the son of Sarah Esau persecuted your father in the belly of Rebecca take heed that the same happen not unto you but if God permit it think that your affliction shall be rather a testimony of his love then an effect of his hate Adieu my dear sonne and retain the last words of your poor mother There is nothing more true then this opinion which will that an innocent life ends alwayes with an happy death Rahel had scarce ended the last word of those which shee left to her son but she ceased to live with so much constancy that it was easie to judge that the fairest face of the world feared not that which is esteemed the most ugly But certainly if her courage shewed the contempt of her death the tears of her friends witnessed enough how precious her life was to them The poor Joseph who had received the soul of his mother upon his lips remained long time in a sound upon her body and as their embracements had straitly united them one would have believed that death not able neither to separate them nor chuse them had not offended the mother without hurting the son O how happy had he been if that death had dured more then a quarter of an hower since he must not live longer but to suffer nor suffer but to instruct himself from the experience of his meaner evils how he should prepare himself for the miseries of slavery Let us not engage us in the regrets of this desolate family the silence of great griefs makes them better comprehended then the Discourse that one endevours to make thereof the eloquence of a few sighs is stronger then that of many words Jacob had never so much trouble as to leave that which rested to him of his dear wife notwithstanding he must quit it and receive for consolation the confidence to be more aided by her intercession then by her presence And then being perfectly submitted to the will of Heaven he consented that it should enrich it self with the most precious of his losses and that it should encrease its felicities with his miseries These considerations and time having given some comfort to his grief he continued his way towards Hebron where he was no sooner arrived but the good Isaak ran to meet him if to goe so fast as one can may be said to run What pen is capable to describe the caresses which were sweet enough to leave no more bitternesse in the heart of Jacob and to blot out the remembrance of 20. years travels All the children of this holy Patriarch participated of this encounter but Joseph took the greatest part thereof there was not one of them that admired not the Majesty of that Venerable old man who had never been so if the Angel had permitted him to obey entirely and if God had not loved him better for offering then for victime Some days being passed away in feasts and rejoycings every one resumed the cares of good Husbandry Isaak was very glad to see that idlenesse never found his nephewes at leisure and that their diligence received not such soft temptations as those of sloth but his joy was perfect when he observed in Joseph that couragious vertue which had almost made him the Martyr of Abraham though Abraham should not be the Tyrant of Isaak and to say true it was a thing very considerable to see with what attention this little innocent studied the desires of his parents and how carefull he was to know their inclination Oftentimes his obedience prevented their command for fear they might have the trouble to speak and hee the blame to know their will without accomplishing it The difficulty rendred his obedience more ready and if he found excuses it was to cover the imperfection of another and not to flatter his negligence All those that saw him without envy saw him with love The father who had long time dissembled his contentment resolved to give him testimonies thereof and to make them appear with more lustre he caused a melley coat to be made him where the blue the carnation the white and the other colours were so perfectly mingled that every one could judge that art hath those beauties which surpass the natural Infancy pleaseth it self more with that which shineth then with that which profiteth Our young man held yet of that age so ware he not this coat but with the sallies of an innocent joy but too simple poor child you know not that to cover you with this coat was to charge you with the hatred of your brethren and that the love of your father should be the chief cause of your misfortunes This favour was so grievous to the eyes of the other children of Jacob that they could not long dissemble their displeasure Nothing was heard but plaints and murmures in their house some of them were bold enough to say that he loved this minion like a Legitimate and his eldest like Bastards it was not hard to fore-see the evil consequence which so many ill words promised Isaak blinde as he was saw it well and to bring some sweet remedy to this evil he was of opinion that Joseph should withdraw himself for some days from the presence of his brethren this counsel was thought good and the means to execute it easie It was supposed that the children of Bilhah and of Zilpah would suffer Josoph more willingly then those of Leah who knew too well the advantages of their birth Behold him then made a Shepherd as well as his brethren the innocence of this life gave him such perfect joyes that he would scarce change his sheep-hook for a Kings Scepter The sense of these delights made him believe that he had not lived until then and that to amuse him in his fathers house they had made him to see the pictures of that which he had before his eyes in the fields The Meadowes produced him not more flowers then pleasures it was from thence that he took occasion to admire the rare perfections of God and to say unto him in the excesses of his devotion Oh my God how fair art thou since that a little Tract of