Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	day_n	die_v	year_n	8,996	5	5.0082	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

took a resolution to discover the secret to him if the fear which his brothers gave him of a cruel death had not shut his mouth This silence was not a vertue since to the treason against Ioseph it added the hazard to make Iacob dye But since that our discourse can neither wipe away nor describe the tears of this desolate father let us permit him that which the most cruel Tyrants forbid not to the afflicted and let us follow his miserable son into Egypt When the Ishmaelites were arrived to the Fountain of Shilo which is near unto Bethlehem our slave perceived a Pyramid erected upon a Tomb which he knew to be that of his mother The desire to give a last kisse to the marble which covered her holy reliques made him take his course towards that place The Merchants who saw him stretched out upon that Tomb had some suspition that he was a Necromancer and that he spake to the dead according to the belief that was given them of his Magick Whilest they entertained themselves in this thought Ioseph indeavour'd to discover his unto Rahel Alas my good mother said he if you keep yet that pitiful and loving heart which you had formerly will you not make it appear unto me at this present that I am loaden with these chains with the most sensible misery that could assault a strong patience I am assured that your vertue gives you a great power with the God of Abraham could you better imploy it then to the relief of Innocents I desire not that my merit be the motive of your benefit because that being so little I cannot expect from it so notable a succour It shall be if it please you your goodnesse which never found any thing difficult provided that it was reasonable I desire not that God would punish the sins of my brethren I love better their repentance then their death I wish not that my life be prolonged a sweet death seems more desirable unto me then a languishing life Behold then the subject of all my devotions Grant my amiable mother that this stone open it self and permit me to dye in the same bosome where I began to live This favour is great if you measure it according to the esteem that I make thereof But then it is he whose birth wip'd away the tears of seven years that demands it it is he to whom you wished so many blessings whereas you see me charged with so many misfortunes It is in a word your son Ioseph can you refuse him this favour at lesse rate then to be no more mother As he pronounced these words his eyes bathed the Tomb and his sighs made his masters understand sufficiently that he had more affliction in his heart then design of Magick in his action Having drawn him notwithstanding from this Sepulchre where it seemed that love had tyed him they continued their way towards Egypt but it was not without thinking of his actions and without weighing all the words of our Captive Above all some observed with much astonishment that this young man gathered up certain little stones by that Tomb. The most judicious of these strangers seeing I know not what of extraordinary upon the visage and in the discourse of Ioseph believed assuredly that though he had the condition of a slave he had not the birth of one This thought gave him the curiosity to demand of him why he fixed himself upon that Tomb and who he was The young man taking the liberty which they gave him to speak replyed Sir If I went away from you as soon as I perceived that Pyramid I did it not upon any apprehension not to obtain that favour from your courtesie but the remembrance of my dear mother preventing all my other thoughts took from me that of my duty and carryed me farther towards her then I had permission for Know then that my Father passing some ten years since by Bethlehem which you see my mother was surprised in this Land with the throwes of child-bearing of which a few days after she dyed My Father who had alwayes loved her as she deserved would yet witnesse it after her death erecting her this Pyramid where he graved the name of his dear wife and that of all his childreu The young man ended his discourse when his master commanded him to tell the place of his birth his name and that of his parents he did it with so good grace that it was sufficient to win the heart of an Arabian and to deserve to be freed of the chains with which he was loaden One might here demand why these Ismaelites took no resolution to bring him back to his Father The question is not so easie as it seems at first For to say that they believed not the discourse which he had made them the good usage which he received from them shewed wel that they held him not for an Impostour Was it that they knew not Iacob This reason cannot be good since he was nephew to Ismael their Grandfather Perhaps they apprehended the vengeance of those who had sold him what probability for that since their force was equall unto theirs Shall we believe that the fair parts of Ioseph might make them hope a great profit by his sale I confesse that interest can much upon a mercenary soul but from whom could they hope more then from a father who loved perfectly then from a father who knew well the merit of such a son then from a father who almost lived no more in that he supposed Ioseph was dead Though we should have brought all the conjectures we should not have touched the true reason I love better to reject the small appearances of my reasoning and have recourse to that Providence which governed all the fortunes of our Ioseph Providence which sometimes takes pleasure to blind all the wisdome of men to the end to conduct her designs by ways as amorous as they are unknown How many times have we seen the wise men of the world and those wits which we flatter with strength and intelligence to loose discourse in the events whereas infancy could speak Learnedly God pleaseth himself sometimes to make us confesse that wee have no light but what he thinks fit to communicate unto us We need not wonder then if these Ishmaelites saw not the advantages which the deliverance of Ioseph would bring them since God concealed them to make his designs succeed Whilest we divert us thus pleasingly Ioseph changes Country and becomes a stranger Some have written that he was sold twice before he entred into Egypt That which hath made them to erre was that they were ignorant that the names of Ishmaelites of Arabians and of Madianites were not but one and the same people Howsoever it was without engaging me in these difficulties willing to unfold them it is certain that our Merchants steer'd right to the Royal Town where they believed that fortune would sooner attend them then any where else

would understand now of these petty men who know nothing but what they feel and who deny a providence because they cannot touch it with their hand if God despiseth those whom he afflicts and if our traverses or crosses be a proof of his hate It is true they can shew a Ioseph obedient and hated in his Fathers house patient and despised in persecutions faithful and envied in his servitude chast and suspected in his temptation innocent and afflicted in a prison But we should not so fix our eyes upon his misery that we should not raise them to admire his glory if it be not that we cannot endure the splendor thereof or that his greatness hath too much elevation to be perceived Who would ever have thought that God would have conducted Ioseph into a Palace when his Brothers cast him into a Cestern who could perswade himself that he would have put the Scepter into his hand when he tyed them with chains of Iron it belongeth but to an infinite power to do such marvells and to save men when we believe them lost It is something from a shepheard to see himself favorite of a great Monark it is no small matter to be the delight of a people it is much to be the savorite of the one and of the other but this is not yet the height of the glory of our innocent Patriark his name marks out but augmentation his fortune but greatnesse his words are received like the Oracles his actions reverenced like holy things his inclination doth the will of another and the obedience which they render to the Laws is not more exact then that which they bring to his orders Vertue is couragious a recompence which is not infinite seems not reasonable to her a God can pay her merit provided that he give himself nothing but him cannot content her Joseph possessed the favour of four Monarks was Regent and saver of Egypt and Tutor of Amasis the one of her most amiable Kings His Father honoured him his Brothers adored him as their Master and whole Nations acknowledged him for the greatest miracle of wisedom of his age I know no body so delicate to refuse to suffer thirty yeers to raign fourscore Notwithstanding as I have said the vertue of Joseph had not been recompensed if God had not made him Monark of an Empire where many Kings would be vassals There was but heaven which had treasures worthy of him I could enlarge my self in many things which arrived to Ioseph fince his Fathers death even to his own but what can one imagine more then a perfect felicity which accompanied him even to the hundred and twelfth yeere of his life I have not docility enough to tie me to the relations of Helinandus nor complacence to believe the quarrel of Benjamin and of Pharaoh's son without seeking for fables we have truths enough the authority which may come to our Patriarch from a lie renders him not more illustrious But it is time to speak of his death to come to the highest point of his glory This great this happy this wise this holy Prince having passed beyond an Age went to live in eternity it was notwithstanding after he had commanded his Nation to transport his bones into Palestine Perhaps by a particular Providence of Heaven to the end that he might be of the golden number of those who should partake the Resurrection of the Saviour May be also for the fear which he had that those who made Gods of their chalk and of their calves might come to adore him of whom they held so many benefits He who would make Moses the God of Pharoah suffered that the Egyptians naturally carried unto Idolatrie should acknowledge after his death a Divinitie which they had honoured during his life It is the opinion of many knowing men that Joseph was no sooner dead but the Egyptians notwithstanding any resistance which the Israelites made took his bodie all embalmed and cast it into the Nile to be adored there with the other Gods under the name of Serapis The picture of this God seems to favour this opinion because they represent him under the visage of a young man who carried a measure of corn and bread on his head This conjecture is yet aided by the figure of the Ox under which Serapis was also acknowledg'd which Moses seems to insinuate when in Deuteronomy he compares Joseph to an Oxe The Etymologie is not contrarie to this sense whether we derive this word Serapis from Sar which signifies Prince from whence we have made our French Sire and from Apis which signifies an Oxe as if one should say the Prince of Oxen Or that we make it to come with Firmicus from Sara and from Aseph or Apis which is the same by the smoothnesse of a figure which the Greeks name Metathesis In this sense Serapis implies no other thing but the Prince of the children of Sara an honour which is due to Joseph since he is the first of the Hebrews who hath born the illustrious name of Prince It would be easie to produce many other conjectures notwithstanding without stopping at the things which our incomparable Joseph hath not desired I will touch one very considerable to his glory The Egyptians having forgotten the benefits of him who had saved them lost likewise the respect which they owed to his Nation from this contempt arise an hatred of their name this hate kindled so cruel an envy against their persons that it was a great part of their Religion to persecute them Moses not able to suffer these outrages resolved upon a flight but he must have the bones of Joseph What means since they had been cast into the current of Nile to consecrate the waters thereof The Rabbines who please themselves with Fables make here a sheep to speak to instruct a Prophet It seems unto me more reasonable to receive that which others assure and to say that Moses knew the place of the River where those precious Reliques were having written the great Name in a plate of gold which floated upon the water until it rested it self upon the holy bodie Now my Reader think you that affliction and calumny can hurt innocence and that one should avoid the tempests which lead happily to the Port From what favour can one expect more prosperities then hatred and envy have procured to our Patriarch since the possession of a Kingdome was but the least part of his recompence O how much are you to be wished sweet misfortunes who prick us not but to awake us how powerfully you attract my desire precious calumnies who cast no shadows on our reputation but to make it break forth resplendently But rather holy Providence of my God how amiable art thou since it is thee who changest these afflictions into joyes and these calumnies into a solid and unlimited glory Tell me my dear Reader is it not true that it is impossible for thee to read the History of our Joseph