Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	equal_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	19	3	8.7873	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56504	Defectio geniturarum being an essay toward the reviving and proving the true old principles of astrology hitherto neglected or at leastwise not observed or understood : wherein many things relating to this science are handled and discoursed ... / by John Partridge.	Partridge, John, 1644-1715.	1697 (1697)	Wing P617; ESTC R26179	278,401	372

same time they strain another part of it beyond the true and real Action it self which may very properly take the Name of Partiality Or by some hot-headed Hearer and Teller of News who having heard the Relation from half a dozen at once remembers scarce any thing from either of them but makes a new Relation of his own something like the other and away he runs with that and tells it to every one he meets for Truth and this you may very well call Confidence c. And do you think this is not ground enough to fill a whole Parish or City with Lies when the Reporters of these things like Atoms fly into every Corner and Part thereof and each man tells what he hath heard or apprehended of the Matter And thus will the Account go till you can speak with the Actors of it themselves or with some Intelligent man that hath had it from them or the true Relation of it by one that saw and observed the whole Now let us consider how many People there are that are willing or desirous to enquire out the Truth of this matter not one in a hundred perhaps not one in a thousand for the generality of People are not inquisitive after Truth but News And when they have heard a Story it serves them to talk of till they hear another and so one Lie drives in and also drives out another and by this Course and Custom the Faculties of the Body are imployed and the things serve to talk of as well as if they were true indeed it sounds as well spends Time as well and the Hearers of it when related stare and admire at it as much as if it was perfectly true and thus the Rattle goes on and they are all very well contented Why just so it is with our Book-wrights exactly in every particular thing I have here mentioned for every one that can talk is not fit to tell a Story or carry a Relation of a Matter nor is every one that can write fit to write things of Science though perhaps he may understand something of it and he that can tell a Story well doth generally embellish his Discourse set it off with a Lie or two or to speak more soft some new emphatick Invention of his own why just so it is with our Writers and Authors of Books in general They throw in something of their own which they think sounds well enough to them and may pass current without Suspicion of being a new Doctrine and this the Reader is obliged to take among the rest without either Why or Wherefore ●ut it would be endless to run into Discourses and Arguments of this Nature and of a Prooemium make a Treatise Besides it is needless to follow this Track any longer for I suppose there are few or none will deny Errors to be delivered in this Method and Order if they do let them repair to any printed Author in every Page of which it is very probable they may find either Errors of the Author or Mistakes of the Printer and in some Pages both for their Safaction For if Authors in all kind of Learning had not been sufficiently fertile in that untoward sort of Product the Learned D. Primrose and Sir Thomas Brown had spent their Time in vain when they made an Enquiry into Vulgar and Common Errors And to that Purpose hear what the latter of them saith pag. 20. Pseudo Epidem But the mortallest Enemy saith he unto Knowledge and that which hath done the greatest Execution upon Truth hath been a peremtory Adhesion unto Authority and more especially establishing of our Belief upon the Dictates of Antiquity For as every Capacity may observe most men of Ages present so superstitiously do look on Ages past that the Authorities of the one do far exceed the Reasons of the other Whose Persons indeed being far removed from our Times their Works which seldom with us pass uncontroll'd either by Contemporaries or by immediate Successors are now become out of the Distance of Envy And the further removed from present Times are concerned to approach the nearer u●●o Truth it self Now hereby methinks we manifestly delu●e our selves and widely walk out of the Track of Truth For first men hereby impose a Thraldom on their times which the Ingenuity of no Age should endure or indeed the presumption of any did yet enjoyn Thus Hippocrates about Two thousand Years ago conceived it no injustice either to examin or refute the Doctrines of his Predecessors Galen the like and Aristotle most of any Yet did not any of these conceive themselves infallible or set down their Dictates as Verities irrefragable but when they either deliver their own Inventions or reject other men's Opinions they proceed with Judgment and Ingenuity establishing their Assertions not only with great Solidity but submitting them also to the Correction of future Discovery Lastly While we so devoutly adhere to Antiquity in some things we do not consider we have deserted them in several others For they have indeed not only been imperfect in the Conceit of some things but either ignorant or erroneous in many more They understood not the Motion of the eighth Sphere from West to East and so conceived the Longitude of the Stars invariable They conceived the Torrid Zone unhabitable and so made frustrate the goodliest part of the Earth But we know now 't is very well empeopled and the Habitation thereof esteemed so happy that some have made it the proper Seat of Paradise and been so far from judging it unhabitable that they have made it the first Habitation of all Many of the Ancients deny'd the Antipodes as Austin c. Others That the Earth was round as Lanctantius But the Experience of our enlarged Navigations can now assert them beyond all Dubitation Having thus totally relinquish'd them in some things it may not be presumptuous to examin them in others but surely more unreasonable to adhere to them in all as though they were infallible or could not err in any Thus I say must these Authors be read and thus must we be read our selves for discoursing Matters dubious and many controvertible Truths we cannot without Arrogancy entreat a Credulity or implore any farther Assent than the Probability of our Reasons and Verity of Experiments enduces Hence it is plain there is a Flood of Error in the World and that all Sciences and Learning as well as Astrology have an equal share therein and that the most learned among us have lodged the Cause thereof in our Old Authors whom we so much admire and endeavour to follow by zealous Adoration and Pursuit without Reason And in our own Credulity by which we are so easily and willingly deceived and not only brought thereby into a Custom of believing their Errors but also into such a Zeal as to quarrel and contend to maintain and justifie them as if they were undeniable Truths And if any of their Defenders chance to be furnished