Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	death_n	life_n	world_n	5,607	5	4.5010	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49911	Memoirs and observations typographical, physical, mathematical, mechanical, natural, civil, and ecclesiastical, made in a late journey through the empire of China, and published in several letters particularly upon the Chinese pottery and varnishing, the silk and other manufactures, the pearl fishing, the history of plants and animals, description of their cities and publick works, number of people, their language, manners and commerce, their habits, oeconomy, and government, the philosophy of Confucius, the state of Christianity : with many other curious and useful remarks / by Louis Le Compte ... ; translated from the Paris edition, and illustrated with figures.	Le Comte, Louis, 1655-1728.	1697 (1697)	Wing L831; ESTC R15898	355,133	724

that remains is scarce sufficient to live on The Missionary is very decently not to say very poorly habited in his House his Lodging is very inconvenient he lies upon the hard Ground or upon a very thin Quilt without Sheets As for his Table it is so frugal that there is never a Monk in Europe to whom the Canon prescribes such a vigorous Abstinence some of them pass whole Years together with only Rice leguminous Vegitables and Water for the Thee that is usually drank is neither pleasant to the Palat of a Chinese nor a Foreigner However I speak only of the time that they are in their House for as soon as ever they come abroad to travel about the Provinces and to seek the lost Sheep in the Villages Mountains and the most remote places one is not able to express the continual fatigues of their Mission I speak chiefly of those that perform in the Western Provinces for the Channels that water almost all the Provinces of the South make these Perambulations less tedious Then it is that they labour Night and Day lie in Barns eat with the poor Country Men and are exposed to the scorching Sun and the most vehement Cold oftentimes covered all over with Snow and wet to the Skin with Rain And then we meet with nothing to comfort us at our arrival but fervent Christians that quite weary us out by the exercise of our Ministry that they expect from us The Province of Chensi that fell to my care is one of the vastest in all China I had some Christians and Churches established an hundred Leagues of one another whether I must go by Roads so toilsom that even Horses are of no use They have Mules bred in the Mountains and managed for these sort of Journeys that is to say for the easiest Ways as for the other Ways you are fain to foot it whether you creep on all four up the Rocks or descend into the Precipices You cross over the Valley in Water and Dirt exposed to Tygres but yet more to Robbers whose retreat the Country does favour They are not like those fine Ways and delightful pleasant Champain Provinces of the South which Art and Nature have seem'd rather to have made for the delight of the Inhabitants than for the convenience of Travellers The Valleys of the Alp● and Pyrenees are much more passable and one may properly say of China that where it is fine nothing in the World is finer and when it ceases to be so nothing is more horrid and frightful Nevertheless since the death of Father F●b●r one takes delight to travel along these tedious Roads that he watered formerly with the sweat of his Brows where he hath shed abroad that sweet savour of Holiness that still upholds the Faith of Christians and animates the Zeal of the Missionaries The other Churches of this Province are more easily come at I spent a great part of the Year in travelling from Village to Village Catechizing Preaching administring the Sacraments to Believers that assembled upon my passage in all the places that I appointed I divided my Time between them and the Idolaters whose Conversion always proves more frequent in these solitary remote places than in great Cities or in the Metropolis of a Province Some of them there were who being already convinced of the Truth by reading or by their commerce with Christians came of their own accord to receive Baptism Others shaken and rouzed either by their Relations or Friends came to hear Disputations and at last surrendred themselves to the Grace of JESUS CHRIST Many allured by novelty or by the intreaty of their Neighbours heard attentively and always disputed with a great deal of heat amongst whom some there were that withdrew from the Disputation more hardened than ever yet others more faithful to the drawings of the Spirit gave Glory to God and humbly acknowledged their Errors All my trouble in these sorts of Controversies was that I could not deliver my self as I would The difficulty of explaining my self in a foreign Language deprived the Truth of its Weight and Power I thought if I could but have spoken my native Tongue there should not have been one Idolater in my Auditory that should not have opened his eyes to Truth first and then to Faith But besides that Men commonly speak enough of it to make every Man inexcusable as St. Paul saith yet I made moreover this Reflection That he that Plants and he that Waters what pains soever he may take and how expert soever he may be in Planting and Watering well yet does but very little by that A Man ought to refer this great Work of converting Souls to God 't is he alone that causes these Plants to encrease that nourishes them that raises them up to himself according to the order of his infinite Mercy and eternal Purposes And at these set Times fixed and ordained in the eternal Counsels of Divine Pr●destination how many times have I seen a few ill words pronounced sensibly to triumph over Error because the Holy Spirit that Master within the Elect doth unfold the sense of them whereas prolix Discourses have had none other effect but only to harden the heart when by a just Judgment God was not pleased to accompany them with an extraordinary evidence and demonstration of the Spirit You will without doubt most Reverend Father be exceeding glad to understand the nature of the main difficulties we meet withal in the Conversion of the Gentiles I have observed three sorts of them that seem peculiar to the Chinese Persons of Quality and those who would be thought wise objected chiefly against the Mysteries Their hearts rose chiefly against the Trinity and Incarnation a God that was penetrable a God that could die was no less in respect of them than of the Jews a stumbling block and a piece of folly The Existence of God Eternal Supreme infinitely Just infinitely Powerful went easily down with them and the convincing proofs of it that I urged to them made them sometimes forbear entering into the Lists with me thereupon To proceed in order and to follow the roads which Prudence and Holy Fathers have chalked out for us on these occasions I divided our Religion into two parts In the first I proposed to them whatsoever Reason exempt from Passion dictates to us That there is a God that this God being infinitely Holy enjoyns us to love Vertue and shun Vice to obey Princes to respect our Relations to do no wrong to ones Neighbour that good Men that are oftentimes miserable in this World enjoy a certain reward in the next That on the contrary wicked Men who spend their life in inordinate Pleasures are rigorously punished after death That this same Hope and Fear that are the beginning of Wisdom are likewise the first rule of our Demeanour but yet that the enflamed Love that every Man ought to have for this supreme Arbitrator of Life and Death is capable alone to

Sacred Vessels of the Duty of Children to their Parents and Wives to their Husbands Rules of real Friendship Civilities at Feasts of Hospitality Musick War of Funeral Honours and of a thousand other things that regard Society These five Books are very ancient and all the others that have any Authority in the Empire are nothing but Copies or Interpretations of them Amongst abundance of Authors who have taken pains about these so famous Originals none is so conspicuous and eminent as Confucius they have a great esteem especially of that which he compiled in four Books upon the ancient Laws which are lookt upon as the Rule of Perfect Government There he treats of the grand A●t of Reigning of Mediocrity Vertues and Viccs of the Nature of Things and of common Duties This last Tome notwithstanding is not so much the Work of Confucius as of Mencius his Disciple of a Life less regular than that of his Master but of a Stile more eloquent and pleasant Besides these Nine Books there be some others much in vogue as the Universal History of the Empire the truth of which is no less confirmed in China than it is in our most noted Histories in Europe The Books that treat of the Education of Children of Obedience of Loyalty are ascribed to Confucius Some of them may be met with that Discourse of Medicine Agriculture Plants of the Military Art of Arts Liberal and Mechanick of particular Histories Astronomy Phylosophy and a great many other Parts of Mathematicks In short they have their Romances Comedies and what I place in the same rank a plain abundance of Treaties composed by the Bonze's concerning the Worship of the Deities of the Country which they alter diminish and increase according as they find it necessary to inveigle the People and swell their Revenues Of all these Books they have compiled numerous Libraries some whereof were composed of above Forty thousand Volumes but all these brave Works that Antiquity took so much pains to bring forth which private Persons had amassed with so vast Expences were well-nigh all destroy'd by the Tyrannical order of one Emperor Three hundred years or thereabouts after the Death of Confucius that is to say Two hundred years before the Birth of our Saviour Christ the Emperor Chihoamti illustrious by his Valour and Military Science of which he was Master beyond all his Predecessors and still more conspicuous by the prodigious Wall he caused to be built to secure his Territories from the Irruptions of the Tartars resolved to extirpate all Sciences and not satisfied with putting a great number of Docto●s to death he ordered his Subjects upon pain of death to set fire on all the Books in the Empire except those that treated of Agriculture Medicine and Sorcery This Conslagration the most remarkable that ever the Republick of Letters suffered was like to have utterly ruined the Empire and would have made in time of the most polite and accomplisht State the most barbarous and ignorant Kingdom in the World if after the Tyrant's death the Love of Sciences that began to Revive in all Men's Breasts had not in some measure repaired this loss The old Men who according to custom had during their youth learnt almost all these Books by heart received order to write them faithfully over They found some of them in the Tombs that the most zealous had concealed to which they gave a Resurrection by publishing them in another Edition Some of them they fetched from the Graves and Holes of Walls that indeed suffered great Damage by Moisture and Worms however in a Condition to serve their turns that laboured after their Restoration what was defaced in these latter being pretty intire in some others All this Care did not hinder the new Edition to be defective there remains in some places Lacuna's and there hath been inserted into others some Pieces by the by that were not in the Originals The Chineses themselves take notice of these Faults and of some others of less moment but they are so Superstitious in p●eserving what was handed down to them from Antiquity that they even pay Reverence to its Faults I should not My Lord afford you a Light diffusive enough into the Chinese Literature should I not speak more particularly of Confucius who makes the principle Ornament of it He is the most pure Source of their Doctrine he is their Philosopher their Lawg●ver their Oracle and albeit he was never King one may nevertheless avouch that during his Life he hath governed a great part of China and that he hath had since his death a greater share then any one in the Administration of the Affairs of State by the Maxims that he hath promulgated and the fair Examples that he hath exhibited so that he is still the Model of all honest Men His Life hath been writ by several Persons I shall report what they commonly say of it Confucius whom the Chineses name Coum-tse was born in the Province of Chauton the Thirty seventh year of the Reign of the Emperor Kim Four hundred fourscore and three years before the Incarnation of our Saviour the Death of his Father that preceded his Birth made them call him Tcesse which signifies Child of Sorrow he derived his Pedigree from Tiny Twenty seventh Emperor of the Second Race How illustrious soever this Family might be by a long Series of Kings it became much more so by the Life of this great Man He eclipsed all his Ancestors but he gave his Posterity a lustre that still continues after more than Two thousand years China acknowledges no true Nobility but in this Family equally respected by Sovereigns who have derived from thence as from the Source the Laws of Perfect Government and beloved by the People to whose Happiness he hath so successfully contributed Confucius did not proceed by the ordinary degrees of Childhood he seem'd Rational a great deal sooner than other Men for he took delight in nothing that other Children are fond of Playing going abroad Amusements proper to his Age did not at all concern him he had a grave a serious Deportment that gained him respect and was at that very time a Presage of what one day he was like to be But that which distinguisheth him the most was his Exemplary and Unbiassed Piety He honoured his Relations he endeavoured in all things to imitate his Grandfather who lived in China all that time and whose Memory was precious for his Sanctity And it was observable that he never eat any thing but he prostrated himself upon the Ground and offered it to the Supream Lord of Heaven Being yet a Child he heard his Grandfather fetch a deep Sigh he came-up to him and when he had saluted him bowing several times to the very ground May I be so bold says he without losing the respect I owe you to ask you the occasion of your Grief Perhaps you are afraid that your Posterity may neglect the Care of Vertue and may dishonour you

by their Vice What put this Thought into your head says Coum-tse to him and where have you learnt to speak after this manner From you your self replyed Confucius I attentively hear you every time you speak and I have often heard you say that a Son who by his manner of living does not keep up the Reputation of his Ancestors degenerates from them and does not deserve to bear their Name When you spoke after that manner did not you think of me and might not that be the thing that troubles you This good old Man was overjoy'd at this Discourse and after that seemed not to be disquieted Confucius after his Grandfathers death was a constant adherer to Tcem-se a famous Doctor of those times and under the Conduct of so great a Master he became in a short time a considerable Proficient in the Knowledge of Antiquity which he lookt upon even there as the most perfect Model This Love for the Ancients had like ●ne day to have cost him his Life tho' he was then but Sixteen years of Age For discoursing with a Person of the highest quality who spoke of the obscurity and unprofitableness of the Chinese Books this Child read him somewhat too seve●e a Lecture concerning the respect that is due to them The Books you speak of says Confucius contain profound Doctrine the Sense of which is not to be penetrated but by the Learned the People would undervalue them could they comprehend them of themselves This dependance of Spirits by which the more Stupid are subject to the more enlightened is very profitable and useful in Humane Society Were all Families equally rich equally powerful there would remain no form of Government But there would happen yet a more strange disorder if Men were equally knowing every one would be a governing and no body would believe himself obliged to obey Some time ago added this witty Child one of the Skum of the Vulgar spoke to me as you do I did not wonder at it but I admire at present that a Doctor as you are should speak to me like this Man of the Dregs of the People This Discourse was capable to gain the affection and respect of the Mandarin But Confusion that possest him to be thus gravelled by a Child did so nettle him that he resolved to be revenged He caused his House to be invested by his Menial Servants and without doubt he would have flowen out into some Extremity had not the King who had notice of it given him order to withdraw When Confucius was a little more advanced in years he made a Collection of the most excellent Maxims of the Ancients which he intended to follow and inspire into the People Each Province was at that time a distinct Kingdom that a Prince who depended upon the Emperor governed by particular Laws He levied Taxes disposed of all Places of Trust and made Peace as he judged expedient These petty Kings had sometimes Differences amongst them the Emperor himself stood in fear of them and had not always Authority enough to make himself be obey'd by them Confucius being perswaded that the People would never be happy so long as Interest Ambition and false Policy should reign in all these Petty Courts resolved to preach up a severe Morality to prevail upon Men to contemn Riches and worldly Pleasures and esteem Temperance Justice and other Vertues to inspire them with Grandeur and Magnanimity proof against all Humane Respects a Sincerity incapable of the least disguise even in respect of the greatest Princes in fine a kind of Life that should oppose the Passions and should intirely cultivate Reason and Vertue That which is most to be admired is That he preached more by his Examples than by his Words so that he every where reapt very considerable Fruit of his Labours Kings were governed by his Counsels the People reverenced him as a Saint every Body commended him and even those who did not comply to follow his Examples did nevertheless admire them but sometimes he took upon him such a Severity that made his very Friend have an aversion for him Being chosen to fill a considerable Place of Trust in the Kingdom of Lou in less than Three Months time after he exercised the Charge he introduced such a prodigious Change that the Court and Provinces were quite another thing than they were before The neighbouring Princes began to be jealous they perceived that a King ruled by a Man of this Character would quickly render himself too powerful there being nothing that can be more capable to make a State flourish than Order and an exact observance of Laws The King of Tci assembled his Ministers and propounded to them an Expedient to put a stop to the Cariere of this new Government After a long deliberation this was the Expedient they bethought themselves of They chose a great Company of young Maids handsome well educated and perfectly well instructed in whatsoever might please Then under pretence of an Embassy they presented them to the King of Lou and to the principal Officers of his Court the Present was joyfully accepted and obtained its desired effect They thought of nothing but of divertising the fair Strangers for several Months together there was nothing but Feasting Dancing and Comedies and Pleasures was the whole Business of the Court. Confucius perceiving that the Publick Affairs would suffer by it endeavoured to bring Men to themselves again but this new kind of Life had so charmed them that all his endeavours proved ineffectual there was no remedy the Severity of the Philosopher whether he would or no must give place to the Gallantry and Irregularities of Courtiers So that he thought it did not stand with his Reputation to remain any longer in a place where Reason was not listened to and so he resigned up his place to the Prince and sought other Kingdoms more inclinable to improve his Maxims But he met with great Obstacles and run from Province to Province almost without reaping any advantage because the Politicians dreaded him and the Ministers of Princes had no mind to have a Competitor that was in a capacity to lessen their Authority or deprive them of their Credit So that forsaken by all the World he was often times reduced to utmost Extremity in danger of being starved or to lose his Life by the Conspiracy of mischievous Men. Nevertheless all these Disgraces did not move him and he would often say That the Cause be defended was too good to apprehend any evil Consequences from it That there was not that M●n so powerful that could hurt him and that when a Man is elevated to Heaven by a sincere desire of Perfection be is so far from fearing a Tempest that he did not so much as hear the noise in this lower World So that he was never weary of instructing those who loved Vertue Amongst a great Company of Disciples that put themselves under his Tuition he destined some to write a fair hand others

render us perfect After I had convinced them by these Maxims I bid them practise with this Spirit of Love and Fear these Divine Lessons prostrate your selves every day before the infinite Majesty of this God that you acknowledge in this posture with tears in your Eyes and an Heart broken and contrite with grief for knowing him so late beg of him from the bottom of your heart that he would please to raise you to these sublime Truths which Reason doth not discover to you but which it hath pleased him to reveal to the World by his beloved Son which at present make up the particular Character of the Christian Faith It was not always such an easie matter to obtain what I demanded the most part of the Gentiles accustomed blindly to pursue their Passions found more difficulty to embrace this Novel-kind of Life than to believe the most abstruse Mysteries Yet I can assure you Reverend Father that of all those that submitted thereto in earnest I see not any that was not a few days after disposed to believe the most difficult things which the New Testament teacheth u● So true it is that Faith is the gift of God that cannot be acquired by all the force of Reasoning and those only obtain who follow our Saviour's Counsel Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you God indeed to accomplish this promise did concur pretty often to the Conversion in a most miraculous manner and I observed in several new Converts so many enlightnings just upon their resolving to live well and be constant in Prayer that the Holy Spirit must needs have illuminated them A Gentleman whom reading and disputing had made to waver in his Opinion could not yet resolve to believe yet he determined notwithstanding to practice the Morality of JESUS CHRIST supposing that a good Life would much conduce to dispel these Mists At the first his Doubts got ground of him instead of being vanquished The more he looked upon the Cross the more did his Spirit revolt He compared the Fables of his own Religion with the ignominious death of a God-man that lays the Foundation of ours They both seem'd to him equally ridiculous and take what care he could to search nothing could he find that confirm'd him more in Christianity than in Idolatry His Relations and divers of his Friends and Acquaintance used their utmost endeavour to win him over to JESUS CHRIST but all to no purpose and he was just upon the point of taking up his old course again when our blessed Lord stopt him upon the very brink of the Precipice One Night as I had it from his own mouth he saw in his Dream Heaven open JESUS CHRIST appear'd to him full of Majesty sitting at the right hand of the Father and surrounded with an infinie company of blessed Spirits on one hand he shewed him those eternal Rewards that are promised to Christians on the other he discovered to him profound Abysses which the Torments and Shreiks of a great many Idolaters made gastly and frightful That is thy portion saith he with a threatning countenance if thou dost not follow me Oh! Son continued he with a more mild countenance Must my Cross discourage you And must a death which is the source of my glory make you ashamed This Vision frighted him and he awakened quite another Man he did not look upon it as a Dream he did not busie himself to find out what extraordinary thing chance and an over-heated imagination were capable oftentimes to produce during sleep the poor Man being persuaded that God had spoken to him demanded to be baptised with a great deal of importunity nay and he was so far from having any trouble to submit to the belief of our Mysteries that he protested he would willingly part with his life to defend the Truth of them Another less knowing yet much more obstinate did not only not forsake his Errors but did even scoff at and deride our most holy Mysteries and was present at my instructions only to jeer them yet had he permitted his Wife to turn Christian because he was not willing by crossing her desire to breed a disturbance in his Family But said he would have a great care of following her example for fear the World should be apt to believe that all his Family was run mad Being naturally of a more spritely temper and brisker than your Chinese usually are I endeavoured to win by fair means more than by Disputation at length perceiving neither of them prove effectual I went one evening to his House to see him and taking him aside I depart to morrow Sir said I and am come to take my leave of you I must needs confess it is not without some sorrow not only because I leave you but more especi●ly because I leave you in your Errors At least before my departure do me one small kindness your Wife is a Christian she hath an Image of the God-man whose Religion I Preach do so much as Prostrate your self sometimes before this same Image and beseech him whom it represents to illuminate your mind if it be true that he hath power so to do and if he be capable of hearing you He promised me he would do it and presently after my back was turned he performed his promise His Wife ignorant of what had past seeing him upon his Knees adoring JESUS CHRIST by often bowing his Head before this Image supposed he was Converted and sent one of her Relations into an House adjoyning where I was to acquaint me with it I ran thither and found him still so taken up in this Action and in Prayer that I had not a mind to interrupt him As soon as he rose from his Knees I told him I could not sufficiently signifie my joy to him occasioned by the wonderful change God had lately wrought in him How saith he all amazed did you see at such a distance what past in my mind or hath God revealed it to you JESUS CHRIST himself reply'd I le ts me understand so much for he acquaints us that those who ask any thing of his Father in his name shall be heard Oh! Father cryed he it is true I am no longer the same Man I perceive myself a Christian without yet knowing what Christianity means but pray instruct me I am ready to submit and to receive Baptism this very moment if you please I told him I baptized no body before I had first instructed them that being obliged to depart I would nominate a Christian to whom he might have recourse in my absence He consented to every thing and we prostrated our selves before this miraculous Image to return thanks to the Divine Majesty who can when he sees good from the hardest Stones raise up Children unto Abraham Amongst several other effects of that Grace wherewith it hath pleased God to bless my Mission the Conversion of an old Officer in the Army seems worth the relating to you