Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	2,617	5	10.5414	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52417	A collection of miscellanies consisting of poems, essays, discourses, and letters occasionally written / by John Norris ...; Selections. 1687	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Idea of happiness, in a letter to a friend.	1687 (1687)	Wing N1248; ESTC R14992	200,150	477

only allowable but also highly needful that we should think Honorably of our selves 'T is a frequent Observation among Moral and Divine Writers That most if not all the Sins which men commit proceed from want of a due sense of the Dignity of their Nature And consequently a due reflection upon a man 's own Worth must needs be a strong Preservative against whatsoever would stain its Glory Shall such a man as I flee was the powerful consideration that buoy'd up the sinking Spirits of Nehemiah And 't is one of the Capital Precepts of Pythagoras's Morals and perhaps one of the best too that was ever given to the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things reverence thy self And 't was the Saying of another of the Sons of Wisdom Let not the Reverence of any man cause thee to sin Which it certainly will do unless we observe the former Rule and reflect with due Reverence upon our own Worth and Dignity 22. From these Considerations not to urge any more it seems to me very evident that 't is not only lawful but in some respects highly Expedient that our Opinions of our selves should rise up so as to be of a Level with our Excellencies whatsoever they are Let one of the Scales be mounted never so high yet if there be a proportionable Weight in the Other the Ballance moves regularly and as it should do VVe may then proceed so far as this Standard 23. But Secondly VVe must not go beyond it For all beyond this is Pride Pride that turn'd the Angels out of Heaven Adam out of Paradice and levell'd the great King of Babylon with the Beasts that perish and which is nothing else but an Intemperate Opinion of our selves which consists either in assuming to our selves any Excellency which we have not or in Over-rating what we have Tho indeed in Strictness of Notion this latter falls in with the former For to Over-rate what we have is indeed to assume some Degree of good which we have not Here then begins our Restraint the Reasonableness of which will appear from the Absurdities and ill Consequences which attend the transgressing of this Standard and which in the third and last place I come now to consider 24. I shall observe only the most notorious and these I shall reduce to these Three general Heads First That it unqualifies us for the performance of many Duties Secondly That it betrays us into many sins And Thirdly That it frustrates all methods of Reformation Of these very briefly 25. First an excessive opinion of our selves and that is so which surpasses the measure of our real worth unqualifies us for the performance of many Duties and that both in relation to God our Neighbour and our Selves First in relation to God. 26. As Folly leads to Atheism so does an overweening opinion of our own Wisdom or any other excellency to Profaneness For as the Fool has said in his heart there is no God so it is said in another place That the ungodly is so Proud that he careth not for him Pride then is altogether inconsistent with that Subjection Honour and Veneration which we owe to God. For how can he submit his passions to the Authority of the Divine Will who has made a Law of his own And as it indisposes us for all active so likewise for all passive Obedience for how can he suffer that with Patience which he thinks he does not deserve in Justice Or how can he submit with resignation to the seeming unevennesses of Providential Dispensations the equality of which because he cannot discern he must in honour to his own understanding deny And upon the same ground it unqualifies us for Faith in many of the Divine Revelations For how can he Captivate his understanding to Mysteries who thinks it a dishonour to own any and is resolv'd to believe no farther than he can comprehend 27. Lastly It unqualifies us for Gratitude towards God and consequently puts a Bar to all those good actions which we would otherwise perform upon that Principle And by this it becomes a Multiplied a Legion evil For how can he acknowledg an Obligation pass'd upon him by Gods Favours who calls them not by that name but esteems them as Rewards and Payments and inverting the Protestation of the good Patriarch thinks himself worthy of the greatest of his mercies 28. Then Secondly In relation to our Neighbour it unqualifies us for Obedience to Civil Government For how can he submit to the Wisdom of his Superiours and pay an implicite deference to the Occult reasons of State who thinks himself wiser than a whole Senate and disputes even the ways of Providence Pride was ever observed to be the Mother of Faction and Rebellion and accordingly St. Jude makes it part of the Character of the Proud Gnostics To despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities 29. Again It unqualifies us for those acts of Justice which consist in a due observation of our Neighbours Merits and a deference of external Respect proportionable to that observation For how can he be at leasure to take notice of anothers worth who is so wholly taken up in the contemplation of his own Let the Reputation of his best Friends if it be possible for a Proud man to have any be in never so great danger he like Archimedes is so overbusie in admiring the Creatures of his own brain those Draughts and Ideas which he has form'd of himself there that he regards not the Ruin that is about him Or if he does he is so far from appearing in their defence as in Justice he ought that he rather rejoyces at their Spots as Accessions to his own brightness 30. Again It unqualifies us for the Offices of Humanity and Civil Behaviour and all kinds of Homilitical virtue for how can he treat those with any tolerable Civility whom he looks down upon as a whole Species below him 31. Lastly it unqualifies us for Gratitude toward our Benefactors For how can he think himself obliged by man who counts God his Debtor 32. Then Thirdly In relation to our Selves here is this grand ill consequence of an immoderate self-esteem that it unqualifies us not only for higher attainments but even for the very endeavours of improvement and so cuts short and bedmarfs all our excellencies 'T is the Observation of Cicero Multi ad scientiam pervenissent nisi se jam pervenisse credidissent The Opinion of the Proud man has so far got the start of the real worth that the latter will never overtake the former 33. And as the immoderate esteem of our Selves unqualifies us for the performance of many Duties so does it also in the second place Betray us into many Sins 34. First Into all those sins which are contrary to the foremention'd Vertues respectively And besides them into many more such as are presumption and security vexation and discontent contempt of others tho at the same time it exposes us to

voices join Their Praise to the Applause divine The Morning stars in Hymns combine And as they sung play'd the jocant Orbs danc't round XIV With this thy Quire divine great God I bring My Eucharistic Offering I cannot here sing more exalted layes But what 's defective now I will supply When I enjoy thy Deity Then may'st thou sleep my Lyre I shall not then thy help require Diviner thoughts will then me fire Than thou tho playd on by an Angels hand canst raise Plato's two Cupids I. THe heart of man's a living Butt At which two different Archers shoot Their Shafts are pointed both with fire Both wound our hearts with hot desire II. In this they differ he that lyes A sacrifice t' his Mistress eyes In pain does live in pain expire And melts and drops before the fire III. But he that flame 's with love divine Does not in th' heat consume but shine H' enjoys the fire that round him lyes Serenely lives serenely dyes IV. So Devils and damned Souls in hell Fry in the fire with which they dwell But Angels suffer not the same Altho their Vehicles be flame V. The heart whose fire 's divine and chast Is like the Bush that did not wast Moses beheld the flame with fear That wasted not for God was there A Wish I. WHatever Blessing you my Life deny Grant me kind Heaven this one thing when I dye I charge thee guardian Spirit hear And as thou lov'st me further this my Prayer II. When I 'm to leave this grosser Sphere and try Death that amazing Curiosity When just about to breathe my last Then when no Mortal joy can strike my tast III. Let me soft melting strains of Music hear Whose Dying sounds may speak Death to my ear Gently the Bands of life unty Till in sweet raptures I dissolve and dye IV. How soft and easy my new Birth will be Help'd on by Music s gentle Midwifery And I who ' midst these charms expire Shall bring a Soul well tuned to Heaven's Quire. To Dr. More Ode I. GO Muse go hasten to the Cell of Fame Thou kow'st her reverend aweful seat It stands hard by your blest retreat Go with a brisk alarm assault her ear Bid her her loudest Trump prepare To sound a more than Human name A name more excellent and great Than she could ever publish yet Tell her she need not stay till Fate shall give A License to his Works and bid them live His Worth now shines through Envys base Alloy 'T will fill her widest Trump and all her Breath employ II. Learning which long like an inchanted Land Did Human force and Art defy And stood the Vertuoso's best Artillery Which nothing mortal could subdue Has yielded to this Hero's Fatal hand By him is conquer'd held and peopled too Like Seas that border on the shore The Muses Suburbs some possession knew But like the deep Abyss their iuner store Lay unpossess'd till seiz'd and own'd by you Truth 's outer Courts were trod before Sacred was her recess that Fate reserv'd for More III. Others in Learning's Chorus bear their part And the great Work distinctly share Thou our great Catholic Professour art All Science is annex'd to thy unerring Chair Some lesser Synods of the Wise The Muses kept in Universitys But never yet till in thy Soul Had they a Councel Oecumenical An Abstract they 'd a mind to see Of all their scatter'd gifts and summ'd them up in thee Thou hast the Arts whole Zodiac run And fathom'st all that here is known Strange restless Curiosity Adam himself came short of thee He tasted of the Fruit thou bear'st away the Tree IV. Whilest to be great the most aspire Or with low Souls to raise their fortunes higher Knowledg the chiefest Treasure of the Blest Knowledg the Wise man's best Request Was made thy choice for this thou hast declin'd A life of noise impertinence and State And what e're else the Muses hate And mad'st it thy one business to inrich thy mind How calm thy life how easy how secure Thou Intellectual Epicure Thou as another Solomon hast try'd All Nature through and nothing to thy Soul deny'd Who can two such examples shew He all things try'd t' enjoy and you all things to know V. By Babel's Curse and our Contracted span Heaven thought to check the swift career of man. And so it prov'd till now our age Is much too short to run so long a Stage And to learn words is such a vast delay That we 're benighted e're we come half way Thou with unusual hast driv'st on And dost even Time it self out-run No hindrance can retard thy Course Thou rid'st the Muses winged horse Thy Stage of Learning ends e're that of Life be done There 's now no work left for thy accomplish'd mind But to Survey thy Conquests and inform mankind The Passion of the Virgin Mother Beholding the Crucifixion of her divine Son. 1. NIgh to the Fatal and yet Soveraign wood Which crouds of wondring Angels did surround Devoutly sad the Holy Mother stood And view'd her Son sympathized with every wound II. Angelic piety in her mournful face Like rays of light through a watry cloud did shine Two mighty Passions in her breast took place And like her Son sh ' appear'd half human half divine III. She saw a blacker and more tragic Scene Than e're the Sun before or then would see In vain did nature draw her dusky Skreen She saw and wept and felt the dreadful Agony IV. Grief in the abstract sure can rise no higher Than that which this deep Tragedy did move She saw in tortures and in shame expire Her Son her God her worship and her Love. V. That sacred head which all divine and bright Struck with deep awe the Votarys of the East To which a Star paid Tributary light Which the then joyful mother kiss'd adored and blest VI. That head which Angels with pure light had crown'd Where Wisdom's Seat and Oracle was plac'd Whose air divine threw his Traitours to the ground She saw with pointed circles of rude thorns embrac'd VII Those hands whose soveraign touch were wont to heal All wounds and hurts that others did endure Did now the peircings of rough iron feel Nor could the wounded heart of his sad mother cure VIII No No it bled to see his body torn With nails and deck'd with gems of purple gore On four great wounds to see him rudely born Whom oft her arms a happy burthen found before IX It bled to hear that voice of grief and dread Which the Earths pillars and foundations shook Which rent the Rocks and ' woke the sleeping dead My God my God O why why hast thou me forsook X. And can the tide of Sorrow rise more high Her melting face stood thick with tears to view Like those of heaven his setting glorys dye As flowers left by the Sun are charged with evening dew XI But see grief spreads her empire still more wide