Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	benefit_n	condition_n	disposal_n	144	4	17.6305	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59611	Miscellaneous essays by Monsieur St. Euremont ; translated out of French. With a character / by a person of honour here in England ; continued by Mr. Dryden.	Saint-Evremond, 1613-1703.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1692 (1692)	Wing S305; ESTC R27566	144,212	393

believe what one says with Authority we ought to believe But without a particular Mercy we are more disturbed than perswaded of a thing that doth not fall under the Evidence of the Senses and which affords no manner of Demonstration to our Minds Behold what is the effect of Religion in respect of ordinary Men now see the advantages of it for the true and perfect Religious Man The true Devout Person breaks with Nature if one may so speak to take pleasure in the abstinence of pleasures and in the Subjection of the Body to the Mind he renders to himself in some measure delightful the use of Mortifications and Pains Philosophy goes no further than to teach us to endure Misfortunes The Christian Religion makes us triumph over them and one may say seriously of it what has been gallantly express'd of Love All other Pleasures are not worth its Pains The true Christian knows how to make his advantages of all things the evils which he suffers are the good Things which God sends to him The good Things which he wants are evils which Providence has secured him from Every thing 's a benefit to him every thing in this World is a Mercy and when he must depart by the necessity of his Mortal Condition he looks upon the end of his Life as a Passage to one more happy which is never to conclude Such is the Felicity of a true Christian whilst uncertainty and trouble make an unhappy Condition to all others Indeed we are almost all unresolved little determined to good and evil There is a continual turn and return from Nature to Religion and from Religion to Nature If so be we abandon the care of happiness to satisfie our Inclinations these very Inclinations rise immediately against their Pleasures and the distaste of Objects which have flattered them the most sends us back to the cares of our happiness If so be we renounce our Pleasures by a Principle of Conscience the same thing happens to us in the Application to happiness where habit and tediousness sends us back to the Objects of our first Inclinations Behold how we are upon Religion in our selves now see the Judgment which the Publick makes of it Should we forsake God for the World we are treated as Impious Persons Should we forsake the World for God we are look'd upon as weak and decayed in our Understanding and we are as little pardoned for Sacrificing Fortune to Religion as Religion to Fortune The Example of Cardinal Retz will suffice singly to justifie what I say When he was made Cardinal by Intrigues Factions and Tumults they cryed out against an Ambitious Man that sacrificed said they the Publick his Conscience and Religion to his Fortune When he left the cares of Earth for those of Heaven when the Perswasion of another Life made him regard the Grandeurs of this as Chimaera's they said that his Head was turned and that he made a scandalous weakness of what is proposed to us in Christianity as the greatest Vertue An ordinary Mind is but little favourable to great Vertues a lofty Wisdom offends a common Reason Mine as common as it is admires a Person truly perswaded and would admire still more that this Person absolutely perswaded could be insensible to any advantage of Fortune I question a little the Perswasion of those Preachers who offering us the Kingdom of Heaven in Publick sollicit in particular a small Benefice with the utmost importunity The sole Idea of eternal profits renders the Possession of all the rest contemptible to a believing Man but because there is but a few that have Faith few Persons defend this Idea against Objects the hope of what is promised to us naturally yielding to the enjoyment of what 's given us In the greatest part of Christians the desire of believing holds the place of belief the will gives them a sort of Faith by desires which the Understanding refuses them by its Lights I have known some Devout Men that in a certain contrariety between the Heart and the Mind loved God perfectly without a strong Faith in him When they abandoned themselves to the Motions of their Heart there was nothing but zeal for Religion all was fervency all love When they turned to the Intelligence of the Mind they were amazed at their incomprehension of what they loved and at their Ignorance how to answer themselves upon the Subject of their love Then they wanted Consolations to speak in Spiritual Terms and they fell into that sad State of Religious Life which is called Aridity and Dryness in Monasteries God alone is able to give us a certain firm and real Faith That which we can do of our selves is to captivate the Understanding in spite of the resistance of the Lights of Nature and to dispose our selves with submission to execute what is ordained for us Humanity easily mingles its errors in what relates to Faith it mistakes a little in the practice of Vertues for it is less in our power to think exactly upon the things of Heaven than to do well One can never be disappointed in the Actions of Justice and Charity Sometimes Heaven ordains and Nature makes an Opposition Sometimes Nature demands what Reason won't consent to Upon Justice and Charity all Rights are concerted and there is as it were a general agreement between Heaven Nature and Reason A Fragment of Friendship without Friendship THE Love of Women had softned the Courage of Men the Vertue of good Men was altered by it The Grandeur of a Magnanimous Soul might be weakned but true Wisdom incurr'd little danger with the Female Sex The Wise Man above their weakness their inequalities and their fancies can govern them at his pleasure or gets rid of them as he thinks convenient As long as he sees others in slavery tormented by some unfortunate Passion he tastes a sweetness that charms the senses and frees him from the sense of Misfortunes which are not to be made insensible by Reason alone Not but that he may fall into an error Humane Nature leaves no certain state to our Souls but it is not long before he finds again his dispersed Lights and re-establishes the Repose he had lost Scarce do we begin to grow Old but we begin to be displeased by some distast which we secretly frame in our selves Then our Soul free from Self-love is easily filled with that which is suggested to us and what would have pleased us heretofore but indifferently charms us at present and enslaves us to our own weakness By this Mistresses dispose of their Old Lovers to their Fancy and Wives of their Old Husbands by this Syphax abandoned himself to the will of Sophonisba and Augustus was managed by Livia And not to draw all my Examples from Antiquity 't was thus Monsieur de la Ferte-Senectere worthy to be named with Kings and Emperours by the single merit of Gentleman 't was thus this Courtier as wise as he was polite let himself go to the

thereto with the greater easiness he remitted 200 Prisoners without Ransom he sent Presents to the most considerable persons to the Ladies also and neglected nothing under a pretence of Gratitude to bring Corruption amongst them The Romans who had not preserv'd Pyrrhus but by a perswasion of Vertue would receive nothing that had the least Air of Acknowledgment They sent to him an equal number of Prisoners the Presents were refused by both Sexes and all the Answer that he had was That they would never hearken to a Peace till he was removed out of Italy Amongst an Infinite number of Vertuous things that were practised at this time the great and impartial Natures of Fabricius and Curius who went to a voluntary Poverty were admired amongst the rest 'T would be a piece of Injustice not to allow them a great approbation notwithstanding 't is to be considered that it was more the general Quality of this time than a Vertue peculiar to these two Men. And in effect since Riches were punished with Disgrace and Poverty rewarded with Honour it appears to me that there was need of some Dexterity to know well how to be Poor By this means they raised themselves to the chiefest Employments of the Republick where by the exercise of a great Power they stood in greater want of Moderation than Patience I cannot blame a Poverty that was Honoured through the World it never wants any thing but what our Interest or Pleasure is concerned in To profess the Truth these sorts of Privations are of a delicious Nature 't is affording the Mind an exquisite Relish of what the sense is Robb'd of But who knows if Fabricius did not follow his humour there are some persons that are disorder'd upon a multitude and variety of Superfluities who in repose would taste things Commodious and even Necessaries with Delight In the mean time those that have but a false knowledge of things admire the appearance of moderation when the exactness of Judgment would shew the small extent of a confined Spirit or the little action of some negligent Soul With those persons to be content with little is to rescind less of Pleasure than of Pain Further when it is not despicable to be Poor we are in want of fewer necessaries to live in Poverty with Satisfaction than to live magnificently with Riches Can you imagine the Condition of a Religious person to be unhappy when he is considered in his Order and is of some repute in the World He makes a Vow of Poverty which frees him from a Thousand Cares and leaves him the desire of nothing that 's agreeable to his Profession and his Life Those who live magnificently for the most part are the real Poor they contend for Money on all sides with Inquietude and Disorder to maintain the Pleasures of others and whilst they expose their abundance which strangers have more advantage of than they in private consider their Necessity with their Wives and Children through the importunity of Tyrannizing Creditors and the miserable State of their affairs which they behold in a tendency to Ruine Let us return to our Romans from whom we are insensibly stept aside Admire who will the Poverty of Fabricius I commend his Prudence and find him very much advised to have had but one Salt-seller of Silver to afford him the credit of chasing from the Senate a man that had been twice Consul a Triumpher and Dictator because in his person they observed something more besides that it was the humour of the time the real Interest was to have no other than that of the Republick Men have established Society by a motion of particular Interest imagining to live more pleasant and secure in Company than they did in frights when in solitudes seeing they find therein not only an Advantage but Glory and Authority Can they better do than devote themselves wholly to the Publick from whence they attract considerably more The Decij who Sacrificed themselves for the good of a Society whom they went to forsake seem to me truly Enthusiastick but these people here appear very rational in the Passion they had for a grateful Republick which was at least as careful in their respect as they could be in hers I represent Rome in this time as a true Community where every one lets alone his Private good to f●nd a better in that of the Body he belongs to this Temper subsists no where but in small Republicks In great ones all appearance of Poverty is contemned and ●tis much when the extraordinary use of Riches is not there approved of Had Fabricius lived in the Grandeur of the Republick either he must have changed his Manners or he had not been useful to his Countrey and if so be the reputable Men of the latter time had existed in that of Fabricius either they had made their Integrity more rigid or they would have been chased from the Senate as corrupted Citizens After having spoken of the Romans it is reasonable to touch a little of Pyrrhus who comes in here naturally amongst such variety of things He was the most Expert Captain of his time even in the opinion of Hannibal who placed him immediately after Alexander and before himself as it seems to me through modesty He joined the curiousness of Negotiations to the Science of War but withall could never make a solid establishment for himself If he knew how to gain Battels he failed in the issue of War if he drew people to his Alliance he knew not how to maintain them there these two Noble Talents unseasonably employed ruined the Work-manship of both When he had succeeded to his Wish in Fighting his Thoughts were immediately bent to Treat and as if he had kept Intel●igence with his Enemys he obstructed his own Progress Had he known how to win the affections of a People his first Thoughts would have been to have made them subject From hence it came that he lost his Friends without gaining his Enemies for the Conquered took the Spirit of the Victors and refused the Peace that was offered them and they not only withdrew their assistance but considered how to get rid of an Allie who shew'd the temper of a real Master A Procedure so extraordinary ought in part to be ascribed to the nature of Pyrrhus partly to the different Interests of his Ministers There was amongst the rest two Men near his Person whose advice he generally followed Cineas and Milon Cineas being Eloquent Ingenious fit for and skill'd in Negotiations insinuated the Thoughts of Peace every time he Debated upon War and when the Ambitious Humour of Pyrrhus had transported him beyond his Reason he patiently expected Difficulties when managing the first distasts of his Master he presently turned his Inclinations to Peace to the end of re entring upon his Talent and putting the affairs in his own dispo●al Milon was a Man experienc'd in War who brought back every thing to force he forgot nothing to hinder Treaties or