Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	blood_n	body_n	shed_v	4,580	5	9.5800	5	false

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

Behold our trifler behold that fair dreamer well let us revenge us at this instant of all the injuries that he hath done us to teach him how so many sottish and ridiculous imaginations have profited him Fear not to stain your hands in his blood this action cannot be an homicide since it will be the just vengeance of so many crimes His words having gained his brothers he advanced towards Joseph he seised him by the hair and giving him kicks with his feet he prepared himself to give him death Our innocent Victime trembled under the knife and seeing that he could not secure his body he recommended his soul unto God His eyes were glued unto Heaven his hands joyned and his heart so full of resignation that it appeared on his visage and in his discourse My brothers said he I refuse not to die since you will have it so I pray you onely to pardon me that which renders me unworthy of your mercies It is true that if the sole intention can offend I am not culpable mine having always been innocent But that the sincerity of my intentions may not be considered I will be unworthy of your affection since my actions have displeased you It is better to confesse a crime then to blame you of injustice I condemn my self provided that that justifie you Strike my brother strike notwithstanding I conjure you if I am criminal that your pardon and my repentance may make me die innocent Oh how a man to whom cruelty and massacre are passed into a nature hath trouble to receive the sense of pity Simeon who had done his apprentiship in Sichem lifted up already his arm to plunge death into the bosome of Ioseph when Reuben stopping the blow cryed out I must not live to see Ioseph murthered so evil an action shall never have my consent I would that wherein he hath offended us his youth should excuse him and his tears perswade us Whilest he said this Ioseph had opportunity to dis-engage himself of Simeon and to embrace the knees of Iudah whose heart capable enough of pity grew tender at these words My brother have compassion of the poor Iacob These four or five words were worth him no lesse then his life forasmuch as Iudah was in consideration amongst his brothers whose wills were already divided upon the design of this murder Nature had not only given him a supple and agile body she had also chosen him an excellent soul and to the end that her benefits should be entire his tongue was capable to expresse neatly the thoughts of his spirit It was therewith that he serv'd himself to change wholly his brethren and to make them to be Wolves no longer behold his Discourse How now said he shall it be said that the Nephews of Abraham should be Parricides and that the indiscretion of a child should make us the murtherers of a brother A word ill spoken an extravagant dream should it give us a resolution so enraged and a will so criminal as to stain our hands in humane blood I will not excuse Joseph for fear to make your design appear unjust but suppose that he had an intention to procure us evil as truly as we have received it Tell me if it were an Arabian that had offended us could we do more then take away his life If a wild beast had torn us should we not be revenged in cutting his throat This here is not an Arabian his sweetnesse witnesseth that he hath other qualities It is not a savage beast nature hath given him those senses which have nothing of savage in them It is one of our brothers and though his actions have rendred him unworthy of that name our goodnesse should make him capable of our favours And then can we put him to death without shedding our proper blood and strike him without receiving his blowes If he be malicious are we obliged to resemble him Certainly I understand not that his example should serve us for law and though he had done us outrage the pardon of an injury is glorious when the revenge thereof is easie But he hath forgotten that which he was let us think of that which we ought to be He hath conspired against our life let us punish him in conserving his He hath taken our honour from us with most unjust calumnies let us leave him live to amend Lastly though we should take from him that which he can keep no longer but by our clemency the world not knowing the equity of this action will condemn the design thereof And who can give it a good sense having no obligation to presume of our innocence Jacob I am sure that it shall not be you yea I am assured that you will not approve an action wherein you are outraged Me thinks I see this poor old man oppressed under the resentment of this sorrowful news me thinks I hear his sighs and sobs with which he accuses his misery Hath he not griefs enough without we furnish him some in so lamentable a subject I conjure you let us have pity of his evils and if we are loth to save Iosephs life for the love of himself let us give it him to conserve that of our father Let no man say that a conceal'd crime is not much lesse then a known innocence and that he that sinneth not before men cannot be judged thereof Every one of us hath a thousand witnesses if he hath a conscience the stings which follow a crime do shew that nothing can be done without being discovered But suppose that the Fields and Forests have neither ears nor eyes to espy our actions Suppose that our consciences could not produce any testimony against us If he who is called the God of vengeance and who will punish every sin with his hands should demand accompt of this what could we answer It is he that pierceth the deeps it is he that sees the most secret thoughts there is not darkness enough to cover an action from him nor cunning to disguise the malice thereof unto him His eye discovers what is done above the Firmament observes all the actions of men upon the Earth and though the night vails them sometimes she never buries them Though we should go to offend him unto the Centre of the Earth we should find there his Justice And though this death were equitable in being your selves the Judges he will have so just reason to punish you as you will have none either to complain or to blame him Let us refer the right to revenge us into the hands of him who forbids it and let us not stain ours in the blood of our brother This clemency will deliver us from the reproaches of our own conscience Ioseph from death and our good father from a long train of miseries which would make him either to die soon or live long time in languishment Behold our little Innocent delivered from the hands of Simeon but see an accident which put his life into

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

malice to deceive others The bone-mine of this young man might make us to be thought fools for selling him so cheap To the end that you have not this opinion of us nor take a worse I would fain advertise you of his qualities Know that you never saw one more gentle but take heed that the Magick in which he excels do not take him out of your hands This advise made them not repent to have hazarded the little which he cost them notwithstanding the belief that he was a Magician gave them a little more care then they would have taken of him otherwise The poor Joseph fearing that there could not arrive unto him a greater mischief esteemed that of slavery sweet enough dissembling by the serenity of his countenance the sadnesse of his heart Let us leave him with his Masters and return we to Reuben who perhaps lost himself in the solitude where we left him The Evening of this Journy began to approach and the shadows as it were to prepare the Earth for the darkness of the night extended themselves deeply into the field when the best of all the brothers of Joseph came to the Cestern He leaned on its banks looking of all sides if he could see him whom he sought but having perceived nothing he called Joseph believing that he was deceived he fixed his sight more curiously upon all the places of this Cavern and seeing no more there then at first he redoubled his voice but Ioseph answer'd not It was then that Reuben imagined the Serpents and Vipers which were in great number thereabout had destroyed him It would be hard to describe the plaints which he made upon this belief accusing sometimes the perfidiousnesse of his brothers and now his own wickednesse A thousand sighs issued from his mouth and as many tears from his eyes if he should have remained long by this Cestern there had needed no other rain to fill it but that of his eyes But said he thy regrets can prevail nothing upon death she is as deaf as blinde Let us not lose words unprofitably and since that my sins have caused this losse let us shew more patience to suffer it then we have express'd courage to hinder it As he had finished this word he put himself in indevour to seek his brothers whom he found driving their Herds towards the Village As far off as they could hear him he cryed out we have no brother more Ioseph is dead These three words made all the company stop who seeing on Reubons countenance the marks of his grief took from him the errour wherein he was adding that necessity had constrained them to make this traffick To ingage him in their fault they gave him three of those silver pieces with which they had been paid All the night was passed in consulting on the means to cover their crime The best expedient on which they advised themselves was to kill a Kid and to dip Iosephs coat in his blood to the end to make Iacob believe that some wild beast had devoured him in the desert protesting with horrible Oaths that he who should say otherwise should not be recompensed for that piety but with death I assure me my dear Reader that you will have much trouble to see the poor Iacob in this encounter without tears whether they be yours or his he was sate before his door with the little Benjamin when his children saw him each of them composed himself so perfectly unto sadness that one would have believed that they resented the true effects thereof Simeon who was to make this evil discourse had not only disguised his visage but his artifice was passed even unto the heart to draw thence the sighs of the Crocodile He had also meditated the simplest words that he could chuse to the end to make no study nor policy appear in his speech Being then come to this good Patriarch he cried out with an accent very pitiful Oh my Father we have no more brother Ioseph is dead and then drawing forth the Coat which he carried behold all that which a cruel beast hath left us of him Know you not the fair robe of the most amiable of your children This was here the last word of his discourse forasmuch as he had prepared so many sighs and tears that the rest thereof seemed to be smothered under their abundance To represent perfectly the first effect which this news wrought upon Jacob it is necessary to lay a statue of marble before your eyes The blow being not expected it did like a Thunderbolt whose clap suspends all our powers until we have made reflection upon our own danger This Image is lively enough for that first assault of grief but we must have other shapes to represent him when he had a little look'd upon the subject of his affliction This poor old man taking the lamentable reliques of his son cryed out Ioseph is dead my son Ioseph is no more and then considering the spots of blood in the Coat Oh cruel monster I may well say since so much sweetnesse could not perswade thee that cruelty it self is thy proper nature Perhaps I dream and this is not the robe of my son yet it hath the work thereof It is the same and where are you then Ioseph Oh my dear Ioseph you are dead But if you are no more should I live my life being not but yours I perceive by this rent of the side that the wild beast hath planted his murtherous teeth in your innocent heart Must thou then inhumane monster must thou attach the source of all my loves Alas Ioseph is no more Behold all that which our afflicted Patriarch said making appear that his grief was true seeing it was not eloquent and that he suffered many evils since he express'd them but very little All the inhabitants of Hebron who indevoured to comfort him had no other answer but this Ioseph is dead will you have me live no no keep your reasons for some other who hath lesse cause to lament then I. I will that my tears accompany me even to my Tomb and if the dead could carry their passions thither I would that the grief my be immortal and that it might make the moity of my soul Adieu pleasures adieu Ioseph adieu only Ioseph since I bid adieu to all that which is sweet and amiable in this life in bidding you adieu This was the only complement with which he received his comforters soon after as if he were returned from a long trance he added But it may be that my son hath quitted his robe and that this beast hath found it Sottish reason thou indeavourest to deceive mee and whence comes this blood and why this rage against an inanimate thing You would have believed seeing these good and his evil intervals that nature restrained of grief took breath to the end to be more sensible of it afterward So it was that Zabulon not able to behold longer the displeasure of his father