Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	bear_v	life_n	live_v	4,791	5	5.2156	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31477	The innocent lady, or, The illustrious innocence being an excellent true history, and of modern times carried with handsome conceptions all along / written originally in French by the learned Father de Ceriziers of the Company of Jesus ; and now rendered into English by Sir William Lower, Knight.; Innocence reconnuë	Cerisiers, René de, 1609-1662.; Lower, William, Sir, 1600?-1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing C1679; ESTC R37539	69,822	175

how happy wert thou Sifroy at the same time that thou op'nedst thy gate unto charity thou openedst thee that of glory may be that this encounter makes the knot of your predestination Whil'st that supper were making ready the Count kept company with this holy man who entertained him upon no other subject but the miseries of the world and the bitternesses which are mingled amongst it's greatest delights Though these discourses were sharpe yet they seemed unto him full of sweetnesse Supper being ready the Count made the Hermit fit at the higher end of the table although his modesty had chosen the lowest place he believed that his virtue required the chief so do all those who despise not virtue for being ill cloathed Every one having taken place according to his quality and eaten according to his appetite our Religious man took notice that Sifroy did nothing but mourn and complain without tasting one morsell of meat He believed that he nourished not himself but with sighes or at least he made shew to believe it That notwithstanding hindered him not to ask him the cause of his tears which obliged much the Count who took no pleasure but in the remembrance of his dear Genevieva After having made the recitall of his lamentable History he concluded thus Now my Father have not I cause to shed everlasting tears can any one finde it strange that so precious a losse should afflict me Sir replyed the Religious man It would be to overthrow the first law of nature to deny tears unto those to whom we ow something more Patience hinders not to complain but onely to murmur you have reason to resent your affliction but how long is it since my Lady deceased It is six moneths answered the Palatine Pardon me then if I say that your grief is too long or that your courage is too weak there is somewhat of excesse when tears reach so far Oh father that would be true if I had made a common losse but having lost in Genevieva a wife a Saint even by my fault I cannot sufficiently complain my misfortune That very thing said the Hermit should comfort you and wipe away entirely your tears Permit me if you please to discourse with your grief and to examine its justice you have lost a wife ought you alwayes to possesse her They have ravisht from you a Saint what right gives you the enjoyment thereof have you so little profited in the consideration of the worlds changes to be ignorant that man being not made to last alwayes must end once your judgment is too good to exact from death a priviledge which is impossible on every side where we cast our eys we see nothing but tombs and ashes Soveraign Princes have indeed some power upon life but none at all upon death yea her greatest pleasure is to overthrow a Thron to break a scepter and to pull down a crown to the end to render her puissance remarkable by the greatnes of those whom she hath ruined Be we born in the purple or in the spiders webs inhabit we palaces or dwell we in cottages death will finde us out every where the great may be distinguished in the condition of living but they shall never have a difference in the obligation of dying I say not but that there are many things which may make us look upon death as a good to be desired and life as the subject of all our fears I stop at the reasons which are particular to you for fear that my considerations may be too generall What cause have you to take it ill that a mortall thing should dye you find nothing here to object but that it is too soon as if you would that death should have the discretion not to displease you but when you pleased And know you not that death being born to the ruine of nature we should not expect favour from her cruelty if not to make us dye quickly for fear of languishing If this knowledge be pass'd unto your spirit whence comes it that you take it ill that a woman hath not lived beyond what she should live and that she hath lived but a little to the end not to dye longer it is not the death of a woman that afflicts you but a Saint who might acquire her self a greater crown in heaven and do many good actions in the world Are you assured that what had been well begun should finish well My Lady was loaden with merit might she not fall under the burthen her treasures of vertue were great might she not fear thieves she was firm in grace but feeble in her nature her piety was well supported but not immoveable her will was constant but it was capable of inconstancy what know you if God who hath no other thoughts but for the good of his creatures hath not taken from her the leasure to sully the glory of her former actions Believe me Sir vice and vertue follow one another like the day and the night the night may precede the day but this terminates again in the darknes I wil believe that the merit of her whom you lament could not be changed but by a great prodigy but it could not also be conserved but by a great miracle I see no cause at all to murmure against God if he takes pain to keep for you a thing which you might lose Consider now the weaknesse of your tears and I assure my self that you will resolve rather to follow her than to hope that she should come again where you are Her example in conforming it self to the will of God leaves you a straight obligation to imitate it her constancy will not that you should weep longer it is that which she her self would say unto you if you could hear her it is that which a person councells you who hath no other interest in your repose but that which charity gives him Seek it in the honest divertisements of hunting of visits and of recreations which cannot hurt you if you take them with moderation which is to be expected from a person to whom vertue ought to be as naturall as it is necessary The Palatine left not escape one sole word of this Discourse which gave him a medicine that time it self had denyed him The Table being taken away after some communication every one retired himself The next day Sifroy having demanded where the Father was the servants answered that he walked in the garden but being come thither he found him not The Count would not believe that he was gone thinking him too honest to commit an incivility and acknowledging enough not to be ungratefull When the day was pass'd and no news of him he knew not where to fix his belief that which filled his spirit with admiration was to find his habit in the chamber The profit which he drew from his good words sweetned much the sowernesse of his resentments All the contentments which were full of gall before seemed unto him afterward

the end to trace a light Image of that wch our couragious Princess sustained at the same time We have said that Charls Martel attended Abderame near unto Tours where a fair Campania seemed to offer him the field of his victories Having understood that the enemy had put his men in order he dispos●d of his in such sort as they had the river of Loire and that of Cher at their back and four hundred thousand Moors in front of them To oblige them to conquer he ordered the inhabitants of Tours to open the Ports onely to the Conquerour and to take away all hope of flight he placed on the wings of his Army five or six hundred of his bravest Cavaliers with expresse commandement to cut the throats of the first that forsook his rank or that put the assurance of his safety otherwise than in his arms after his Battlia was ordered he spake thus to his Souldiers Companions I see well that the ardent desire which presseth you to fight will hinder me to make you a long Discourse besides I think it unnecessary seeing that you are better disposed to doe good actions than I to utter fair words Expect not that I go to seek in the Records of the passed ages examples of reason I have alwayes known that you love better to give it to your Nephews than to take it of your Ancestors And then though we should be resolved to be insensible of our Interests and that the ruine of our houses the Sack of Towns the Desolations of Provinces the plaints of our children and the honour of our wives should not carry us to the desire of revenge the injury that they do unto God and to our Religion should be a sufficient motive to induce us to punish the fury of these Barbarians who come from so far to bring you Palms I will never have so ill opinion of your Piety as to believe you would come to despise that God which you have adored that Religion which you have conserved those Saints which you have honoured those Churches which you have built and those Altars which you have erected It cannot be that you who are ready to carry your faith into the midst of Barbary should permit the impiety of these Moors to tread under foot what she possesses most sacred in the bosome of your country and as it were before your eyes But I consider not that my discourse hath already saved the life of twenty thousand of those cowards and hindered that half of the victory is not on our side Go then combat before the eyes of Saint Martin whose quarrell you sustain this day and remember that you are French whose glory should have no other limits but those of the world The impatience of the French permitted him not to speak longer Besides would he not overwarm this ardour capable to conquer all when it is well ordered and which nothing can hurt but its excesse Behold then our Lions who pierced into the great Multitude of the Sarazines Hudes with his Gascons assaulted the baggage by the command of Martell who judged that the cry of women and children would cause trouble in the Army of Abderame The Event deceived not his expectation for assoon as the terrour fell amongst these people there was nothing heard but sighs nor seen but bloud and slaughter Our French massacred all what the flight drew not from under their victorious Arms and to say in a word they carried away the most glorious Victory that ever any one heard speak of the Sarazines leaving upon the place three hundred sixty and five thousand dead with their Chief which cost but the losse of five hundred men The rest of the Moors rallied themselves under Aucupa one of their Kings who secured himself at Avignon Our great Charles willing to leave the marks of his Piety and of the homage he did unto heaven for this Victory built a Chappell which they named De bello and since by corruption the Chappell of Saint Martin the fair It was very reasonable to honor the valor of the Princes and of the Lords with some mark of glory as the courage of the Souldiers had found its recompence in the booty After this happy journey they presented unto Martel a great number of Gennets which are little black animals covered with red spots Willing to make them serve for Monument and Trophie of his victory he instituted the order of the Gennet which was three links or rings of gold distinguished from so many Roses which our ancient Gauls put in the buckler of the God Mars At the chain hung a Gennet in the collar of France sowed with Lillies which reposed it self upon a green flowery turf The number of the Knights were sixteen amongst which Sifroy held one of the principall ranks as he who had not given place to any in this occasion The head of this prodigious serpent which had drawn his Souldiers throuh France was broken by our Martell but the tail moves yet a little Therefore he designs to follow Aucupa into Avignon Our Palatine who would not go away with the half of his glory and who saw himself obliged by so honest acknowledgements to pursue the perfection thereof designed to accompany the Army at this enterprise not promising himself so soon the end thereof he sent to visit Genevieva by one of his Gentlemen who carried her the collar of his order with this Letter Madame since the time that I parted from you if I would believe my impatience I should complain not to have lived since the consideration of honour brought so hard a constraint to the liberty of my contentments And to say true passed felicities being but present miseries I cannot think of the happinesse which I have possessed without confessing my self the most miserable of all those that live upon the earth What think you that my spirit laboureth amongst the hazzards of War so much for a thousand dangers which may environ me as for the apprehension that I have to enjoy no more your dear company If the assurance which I have of living in your memory in the tenderest part of your heart flattered not my grief it would long since hove been mistris of my senses and have found no more remedy in all my reason It is this confidence which hath conducted me unto the places where death seems to be as certain as life is there little assured For I would fain have you know my Girl that the strongest motive that cast me into the hazzards was this Thou livest in the bosome of thy Genevieva who should be so cruel as to offend that fair and innocent breast to procure thee evil no there is no barbarity hath so much cruelty to commit so hainous a sinne and death it self as blind as she is hath too much knowledge to have so little discretion She hath made appear in giving me no wound that she apprehended to procure grief unto you Banish then on your part

She never granted Benoni to tell him the cause of her tears but dissembling with prudence she believed that she ought not to increase his evils in discovering the authour thereof I cannot forget a discourse which added almost to the plaints of Genevieva the losse of her life One day as this child played in his mothers bosome and flattered her amorously with his little hand he demanded her my mother you command me often to say Our father which art in heaven tell me who is my father Oh little Innocent what do you this demand is capable to kill your poore mother indeed Genevieva was upon the point to sownd at these words notwithstanding hugging this dear child in her bosome and casting her arms about his neck she said unto him My child your father is God have I not told it you already look upon that fair Palace behold his house the heaven is the place where he dwelleth but my mother doth he know me well Oh my son replyed Genevieva he can do no otherwise he knows you and he loves you how comes it then answered Benoni that he doth me no good and that he permits all the evils that we suffer My son it is to deceive our selves to believe that goods are the proof of his love far be it from us to have such a thought the necessities which we endure denote a fathers heart on our behalf seeing that riches are no other thing but the means to destroy us with which God punisheth sometimes the wicked reserving his blessing for his friends in the other world The little Benoni heard all this discourse wth much attention but when he heard her make the difference of the good and the bad and of another world he could not chuse but thus interrupt Genevieva And what hath my father other children besides me and where is that other world my son answered the holy Countesse God is a great and rich father who hath many children yet is he not lesse powerfull for all that for asmuch as he hath infinite treasures to give them Although you never were out of this wood you must know that there are Towns and Provinces which are full of men and women whereof some fellow vertue and others leave themselves to go after vice Those who respect him as true children shall go one day to heaven to enjoy there with him a thousand contentment on the contrary those that offend him shall be punished in hell which is a great place under earth full of fire and of torments Chuse now which you will be we have reason to be of the first for those who are miserable as we provided they be so willingly and because that God will have it so are assured to go into Paradise which is that I called the other world Benoni could not hold from asking her when they should go into this Paradise It shall be after our death replyed the mother This poore Innocent was very far from comprehending all that which his mother had said unto him if the goodnesse of God had not serv'd him for Master enlightning inwardly his little soul and laying naked to him these fair knowledges which we learn not but with a long study and much labour He had never seen any and yet he comprehended presently what these Towns and Provinces were as perfectly as if he had travelled all the world if he had heard some phylosophie upon the immortality of the soul he could not better have comprehended its essence and its qualities he had even some knowledges of which his age was not capable Experience had never taught him what death was but it wanted not much that he had not a sorrowfull example thereof in the person of his mother some few dayes after the long troubles the ordinary griefs and the want of all things had consumed a body which could not be but delicate as having been nourished in the delights of a Court She had sustained six whole Winters and as many Summers insomuch as scarce could she know her self To see Genevieva and a sceleton was as the same thing the roots whereon she fed had composed her body all of earth Judge if a little sicknesse accompanied with all these in commodities could not ruine a body which having been worn out by extreme dolours extenuated by insupportable austerities and gnawn with thousand boyling cares had need of more than a puffe to overthrow it And yet behold a violent feaver which laid hold on that little blood which rested in her veins and enflamed it with so burning a heat that the poore Genevieva expected nothing but death Benoni seeing the languishing eyes of his mother her colour extreamly defaced betook himself so strongly to his cryes that he might well be heard of that soul which was fled already and besides he shed so many tears that it was to be feared that so much might well extinguish that little heat which remained to him At last Genevieva returned from a long sownd fixed for some time her eyes upon the amiable subject of her griefs and after having told him that he was the son of a great Lord and all that she had concealed from him untill then she added My son behold the happy day that comes to put end to my pains I have no cause to complain of death having no reason to desire life I am going to leave the world without regret as I have lived therein without desire If I were capable of any displeasure it would be to leave you without remedy and without support in the sufferance of those evils which you have not meerited Not to lye for the matter this consideration would touch sensibly my heart if I had not one more high which constrains me to put my interests and yours into the hand of him who is the good father of orphans and the powerfull support of the innocent It is to him that I leave the care of your Infancy it is from him that you ought to expect your assistance cast your self amorously into his arms and put all your confidence in his goodnesse I will not have you retain any thoughts of a poore mother who hath not brought you into the world but to suffer all the evils thereof yet if you desire to render something to my cares behold what I demand of you for an acknowledgement I conjure you my dear son to bury with my body the resentments of my injuries since there is none but God alone that knows their greatnesse there is none but he that can ordain them their punishments The punition of an injustice is never just when we our selves are the authors of the revenge and the subject of the offence And then my dear Benoni the injury that they have done me is of a strange nature seeing you cannot be pious without offending piety nor revenge your mother but by the outrage of your own father In this case it would be to wash your hands with blood to make them clean and to

make your self wounds to heal your self I know that it is hard to suffer evil without complaining of it this also is not that I desire of you be sensible of your evils nature wils it but resent them not seeing that vertue forbids it have more regard to the good will of God which permits our afflictions than to their evil will who procure them us If nature invite you to the desire of revenge grace will remove you from it if humane reason commands it divine forbids it if impatience perswades it sweetnesse abhorres it if the example of men carries you thereunto that of God should draw you from thence We ought rather to obey the judgement in this than the will and to hear reason than to hearken to our senses I hope that the mercy of God will do us justice and that it will give all the world to understand that you are son of a mother very little guilty to be in so ill esteem and too innocent to be so unjustly afflicted Moreover my son after having laid this body in earth do that which God shall inspire you if he will that you return to your father make no difficulty thereat you have those qualities which will make you acknowledged the resemblance of your visage to his will not permit him to disclaim you if he remembers yet what he is as for me from whom you cannot expect other good but my desires and benedictions I give them you as abundantly as heaven can distribute them unto you In saying this she put her Benoni on his knees moystening his little visage with the rest of her tears Represent to your selves the pity of this spectacle the poore Genevieva attended the end of her miseries and Benoni the beginning of his dolours Death seeing them in this posture advanced himself to give the last stroke of his rage Stay cruell it is not time yet to cut off so precious a life attend to give her her death till the justice of God hath rendered her her honour What spoils canst thou hope from so miserable a creature her body hath no more flesh to nourish thy worms thou wilt gnaw her bones grief hath done that already thou pretend'st perhaps to encrease the number of thy phantosmes and of thy shadows let her live it is no more any other thing Whilst that our Countesse expected death two angels more fair than the sun entred into her Grott who filled it with odour and light Being approached to her little bed of boughs he who was tutelar of the sick said unto her in touching her Live Genevieva God will have it so then opening her dying liddes she perceived these Angels who gave her not time to be considered leaving her with health the astonishment of this miraculous cure God doth nothing which hath not its last perfection contrary unto men who travell by little and little and who drive away a disease by remedies which are sometime violent evils The great Physician of heaven gives a full and perfect health by the sole command which he gives the sicknesse to retire his medicines are without disgust and his cures without weaknesses so soon as the Angels departed from the cave of Genevieva she departed from her poore bed as strong as she was before this last sicknesse To see her rise one would have said it was a resurrection that was made and not a cure The child wept for joy to see his mother revive and Genevieva sighed with sadnesse to see her self driven back again from the port into the tempest Afflict you no more Genevieva God contents himself with your sufferings he doubts no more of a fidelity which he hath known by so long a patience Your evils are finished your crown is atchieved the fire of your glory hath been long enough buried in the bottome of the pit of calumny it is time that it break forth and make appear the fair and innocent rayes of its light It was near upon seven years that Sifroy Genevieva suffered the one in the horrours of a crime which he had not committed but through ignorance the other in the miseries which she endured not but by injustice God willing to make appear the innocence of the one the error of the other permitted that that wicked Sorceresse with whom he had seen the imaginary sinne of his wife was taken accused ●nd convicted of hainous crimes which she could not deny though they were false for the most part Being upon the point to expiate her offences by the flames and already tyed to the infamous stake of punishment she d●manded permission of the Justice to say some last words which was granted her After the confession of some crimes she declared that of all the evils which she had ever committed that of rendring an innocent person guilty pressed her most The Ministers of Justice laid hold of these words and commanded her to expresse her self on this last point which she did avouching that the Palatine Sifroy had put his wife to death upon a suspition which the illusions of her Magick had given him The Sorceresse dyed upon this protestation which was presently reported to the Count who was no lesse sorrowfull for this news than comforted to see that though he had lost his wife without recovery she was at last dead without reproach Who con describe the rage that seised his spirit the menaces of his choller against Golo and the sweet plaints that he made unto his wife and his son oh cruel Hangman was it not enough to ruine my House without hazarding the Honour thereof If thou hadst malice to massacre the Innocent why found'st thou not mean● more honest to thy cruelty if thou hadst not been as impudent as unjust in thy calumny wouldst thou not think to have done sufficient Oh that thou hast not a hundred lives to expiate the horrour of this crime perfidious traitor thou shoudst lose one of them in the flames another under the sword a third between the teeth of my dogs and all in as many kinde of deaths as thy malice hath had diverse artifices in her calumnies but you are still dead deplorable victimes thou art dead my deere Genevieva thou art dead innocent Lamb which I have as soon made to die as to live Your blood cries vengeance unto heaven against me and marks upon my front the shame of villany O shall I beg your pardon of a fault which my credulity onely hath committed And why should I not hope this favour from your mercy seeing that you are as good as innocent if an extream sin can revenge it self by an extream punishment Oh I promise you to expiate mine and to wash my hands in the barbarous blood of him who i● the cause thereof It would be an infinite thing to tell you all those maledictions which his choler made him pronounce against Golo yet considering that we should not cry after the Birds which we would take he made his passion to be governed