Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	earth_n	great_a	world_n	2,396	4	4.4621	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

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

thy admonitions if they had not been necessary nor thy motions if they had not been violent I am infinitely indebted unto thee for doing me this favour notwithstanding my obligation appears unto me yet greater if I consider that thou hast constrained me to be happy against my will framing to me in my solitude an image of Paradise where all felicities are necessary Whilest our Saint lost her self in the pure and innocent joyes of virtue Sifroy had neither repose nor contentment amongst the joyes of his house the night presented him nothing but black shaddows and sad phanotsmes The day cleared not but to make him observe the absence of Genevievia his spirit rouled continually sullen and melancholly thoughts often times he was seen to wander upon the brink of the river observing in the inconstancy of the floods the agitation of his spirit and then as if this humour had rendered him savage he rid himself of his servants to give more liberty to his sighes in the horrour of a wood being angry with his own shadow if the obscurity obliged it to follow him Who can figure to himself the despaire and fury whereinto he entered when his memory said unto him Thou hast killed Genevieva Thou hast massacred thy sonne thou hast taken away thy poor servants life whose pale shadows pursue thee incessantly Genevieva where are you where are you my dear girle where are you It was to be believed that if he had had Golo in this humour he had brought back the custom of sacrificing to ghosts but this perfidious man feigned very fitly a journey when he perceived the temper of his master changed if his misfortune had staid him in the Palatines house there had been an end of his life principally after the horrible and fearfull vision of Drogan I will not say that it was an illusion of his sick spirit for I know that God permits sometimes souls to come again for the good of some persons Examples make sufficient proofs of this truth which is passed even unto hell since that the rich man in the Gospel who was alwayes cloathed with the colour of fire demanded of the father of the faithfull to return unto the world to avert his brother from the punishments of the other life One night as the Palatine was laid to sleep he heard about midnight some one that walked with great paces into his chamber forthwith he drew the curtains of his bed and having perceived nothing at the glimmering of a little light that remained in the chimney he indeavoured to sleep but a quarter of an houre after the same noise began again insomuch that he perceived in the mid●st of his chamber a great man pale and gashly who trained after him a great bundle of chains with which he seemed to be tyed this horrible vision appearing in the obscurities of the night was capable to overthrow the spirits of a man less● hardy than Sifroy but being couragious and assured he asked him what he would have without witnessing much fear thinking it unworthy of him to tremble for shaddows who had not apprehended death it self Yet could he not forbid a cold sweat which diffused it self through all his body especially when he saw that this spirit made him signes to come to him which he did notwithstanding following him a thwart a low Court and from thence into a little garden where he no sooner was but it vanished away leaving the Count more astonished with his flight than if he had cōtinued him yet a company so little delightful The Moon aided much his fear for having shewd him until then where he was she withdrew all her light leaving him to seek amidst the darknesse the doore of his chamber Being laid again in his bed he began to imagine that he had this great man all of Ice at his sides who pressed him between his arms this made him call his servants who found him more pale than a dead man he dissembled notwithstanding his fear untill the morning Scarce began the day to break but he commanded his servants to open the Earth at the place where the spirit vanished they had not digged above two foot deep but they met with the bones of a dead man loaden with irons and chains There was a servant who told the Count that Monsieur the Intendant had caused the body of the unfortunate Drogan to be cast into this very place where they had found this carcasse Sifroy ordained that they should cause him to be interred and that Messes should be said for his repose Since this time there was no more noise heard in the Castle but the spirit of the Palatine served him for vision giving him all the horrible imaginations that men provoked with fury can figure to themselves It was then that he acknowledged his frights and his fears were the effects of his crime Nothing could divert him from his black and deep imaginations he had continually before his eyes the images of those three Innocents whom he believed to have destroyed These words were often heard to proceed from his mouth O Genevieva thou tormentest me his friends indeavoured to draw him from this melancholly but the hand of God pursued him in every place and the image of his crime never abandoned him The devils carry their hell wheresoever they go and a wicked person trains alwayes his executioner with him Sifroy had sinned through a sudden precipitation and God clean contrary in his proceedings would punish him with a slow and lingring pain to the end to make him feel how dangerous it was not to take counsel of reason upon the accidents that arrive unto us Whilst we amuse us in the horrours of the Count we lose the good discourse of Genevieva It was well forward in the seventh year of her solitude that the little Benoni began to have with the sense of his miseries the full and perfect use of reason His mother forgot nothing of all that which might serve to his instruction having not the means no more than the desire to leave him the goods of fortune she would not leave him unprovided of those with which poverty can make it self rich all her care was to teach him to know God the love and reverence which we ow unto him and that he was not like unto those beasts that played with him for asmuch as he had a soul which should never dye and that these animalls lived not but for a time Morning and evening before he reposed himself she made him kneel down before the Crosse and she never permitted him to suck his hind before he had prayed to God This little Infant shewed so much inclination unto good that his mother was transported with joy thereof He made her thousand petty questions which shewed enough the sweetnesse of his nature and the goodnesse of his wit This made sometimes the poore mother to weep considering that her son deserved well to be brought up in another School than amongst the beasts

evils have no tongue When one knows well to speak his evill the sense thereof is not extreme nor the regret unfeigned Alas Genevieva is already dead I see her stretched out upon her poore bed without vigour and without motion her eyes are no more but two starres eclipsed her mouth hath no more Roses her cheeks have lost their lillies Oh that it is not possible for me to call all the beauties of the world about this bed I would say unto them behold the remains of that which you cherish with so much passion behold the ashes of that fire which burns the world behold an example of that which you shall be behold an image of which you shall soon be the resemblance make ye make ye now Divinities of that which death shall change one day into worms and putrefaction But I deceive my self Genevieva is not dead a violent trance had onely withdrawn her soul for a time she comes to her self again this gives belief that nature is yet strong enough to drive away the evil provided that it be assisted with some remedies Think not that any thing was spared She must depart God will have it so and her stomach which could not suffer but Herbs and Roots nourished her Feaver and advanced her death The good Princesse knew it and desired it she called her dear son Benoni whom she blessed and her Husband to whom she said this adiew able to make Tigers and Panthers weep My dear Sifroy behold your dear Genevieva ready to dy all the displeasure that I have 〈◊〉 leave this life comes unto me from your tears weep no more I shal go away content If death would give me leasure I would make appear unto you by the contempt of that you lose the little cause you have to lament your losse But sin●● the time presseth me that there rests unto me but three sighes I have but this word to s●● unto you Weep Sifroy as much as I merit it and you shall not weep much notwithstanding I conjure you yet that having forgotten that little dust which I leave you would remembe● that Genevieva goes to heaven to keep yo●● place there and that the Husband and Wife making but one it may be that God calls ●● to draw thither the other part Adiew ha●● care of Benoni After these languishing words 〈◊〉 that her weaknesse permitted her was 〈◊〉 receive the sacred body of her good Master which was no sooner entred into her mouth but she fixed her eyes on heaven where her heart was already thrusting her fair soul forth of her fair body by a last sigh of love It was the second of April in the very year of her restauration that she knew perfectly the merit of her patience Benoni had no sooner seen the dead members of his Mother but he cast himself upon the bed breaking forth into such sharp cryes that he pierced the heart of all the assistants It was impossible to withdraw him from thence what indeavour soever they used thereunto On the other side Sifroy was on his knees holding fast the hands of his dear Wife which he watered with his tears All the domesticks were round about her like so many Statues of Marble whom grief had transformed yet must they give to the earth what the soul of Genevieva had left it they made themselves ready to bury this holy body which was found clad in a rude hair-cloth capable alone to consume members so delicate as hers When they carried the Herse out of the House it was then that the Palatine made his grief break forth more visibly than the torches which lighted the Funerall pomp nothing was heard but sighs every where nothing was seen but tears In the end after that Sifroy and his son had laid their hearts into the same Tomb with Genevieva the followers endeavored to withdraw them from the Church where this holy body remained in depository the regret of this losse was not so peculiar to men that it was not common to the beasts the birds seemed to languish with grief and if they singed sometimes about the Castle it was no more now but plaints I cannot omit one thing which seems unto me worthy of admiration the poor Hind who had served the Countesse so faithfully in her life expressed no lesse love unto her at her death They hold that this kind of beast casts forth but one grosse tear at death it must be granted then that this Hind dyed more than once at the decease of her dear Mistris It was a pitifull thing to see this poore beast follow the Bier of Genevieva more deplorable to hear how wofully she brayed but most strange that they could never bring her back to the house remaining day and night at the doors of the Church where her Mistris was The Servants carried her Hay and Grasse which she would not so much as touch suffering her self thus to dy wth hunger They brought the news thereof to the Palatine who betook himself to weep so tenderly as if his Wife were dead once again for recompence of her fidelity he made her to be cut in white marble and laid at the feet of Genevieva All that notwithstanding comforted not the affliction of Sifroy it was in vain to tell him that nature being satisfied it was time to hearken unto reason The remedies of his griefs caused him new griefs if they represented unto him that it was no more a love of Genevieva to lament in this manner but a hate of himself he answered that the regret to have lost so holy a woman could not be commendable if it were not extreme This was not enough he sought all the means to entertain his passion having never more pleasing Idea's than those which represented him his Genevieva If he went unto the Church it was to make unto her a sacrifice of his eyes if he returned to his house he retired himself into his chamber speaking to every thing that had been hers Behold the bed of my Genevieva said he behold her cabinet behold her mirrour then looking into her glasse he sought there the visage of his dear wife calling continually Genevieva Genevieva but Genevieva answered not from the chamber he passed into the garden which was sometime all her pastime but it was in the greens of eternity that he must seek her to find her If the soul of the Saint had been capable of any other passion than of joy it had been of a tender compassion to see the deep Melancholly of Sifroy without doubt her love would have been the remedie thereof as she was the cause thereof One afternoon as he was in his ordinary indispositions a page came to tell him that there was a Hermit who requested covert The Count who had not been accustomed to shut the door unto works of mercy nor to drive away good actions from his house was very glad to meet the occasion thereof He commanded then that they should cause him to come up O