Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	affirm_v	certain_a	great_a	188	4	2.0716	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51284	An antidote against atheisme, or, An appeal to the natural faculties of the minde of man, whether there be not a God by Henry More ...	More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1653 (1653)	Wing M2639; ESTC R10227	122,898	202

as by striking his right eare if he did any thing amisse if otherwise his left If any body came to circumvent him that his right eare was st●uck but his left eare if a good man and to good ends accosted him If he was about to eat or drink any thing that would hurt him or intended or purposed with himself to do any thing that would prove ill that he was inhibited by a signe and if he delaid to follow his businesse that he was quickened by a ●●gne given him When he began to praise God in Psalmes and to declare his marveilous Acts that he was presently raised and strengthened with a spirituall and supernaturall power That he daily begg'd of God that he would teach him his Will his Law and his Truth And that he set one day of the week apart for reading the Scripture and Meditation with singing of Psalmes and that he did not 〈◊〉 out of his house all that day But that in his ordinary conversation he was sufficiently merry and of a chearfull minde and he cited that saying for it Vidi facies Sanctorum laetas But in his conversing with others if he had talked vainly and indiscreetly or had some daies together neglected his Devotions that he was forthwith admonished thereof by a Dreame That he was also admonished to rise betimes in the Morning and that about four of the clock a voice would come to him while he was asleep saying Who gets up first to pray He told Bodinus also how he was often admonish'd to give Almes and that 〈◊〉 more Charity he bestow'd the more prosperous he was And that on a time when his enemies sought after his life and knew that he was to go by water that his Father in a Dreame brought two Horses to him the one white the other bay and that therefore he bid his servant hire him two horses and though he told him nothing of the colours that yet he brought him a white one and a bay one That in all difficulties journeyings and what other enterprizes soever he used to ask counsell of God and that one night when he had begged his blessing while he slept he saw a Vision wherein his Father seemed to blesse him At another time when he was in very great Danger and was newly gone to bed he said that the Spirit would not let him alone till he had raised him again wherefore he watched and pray'd all that night The day after he escaped the hands of his Persecuters in a wonderfull manner which being done in his next sleep he heard a voice saying Now sing Quisedet in latibulo Altissi●● A great many other passages this Party told Bodinus so many indeed that he thought it an endlesse labour to recite them all But what remains of those he has recited I will not stick to take the pains of transcribing them Bodinus asked him why he would not speak to the Spirit for the gaining of the more plain and familiar converse with it He answered that he once attempted it but the Spirit instantly struck the doore with that vehemency as if he had knock'd upon it with an hammer whereby he gathered his dislike of the matter But though the Spirit would not talk with him yet he could make use of his judgement in the reading of books and moderating his studies For if he took an ill book into his hands and fell a reading the Spirit would strike it that he might lay it down and would also sundry times be the books what they would hinder him from reading and writing overmuch that his minde might rest and silently meditate with it self He added also that very often while he was awake a small subtile inarticulate sound would come unto his eares Bodinus further enquiring whether he ever see the Shape and Form of the Spirit he told him that while he was awake he never see any thing but a certain light very bright and clear and of a round Compasse and Figure But that once being in great jeopardy of his life and having heartily pray'd to God that he would be pleased to provide for his safety about break of day amidst his slumberings and wakings he espyde on his bed where he lay a young Boy clad in a white Garment tinctured somewhat with a touch of purple and of a visage admirably lovely and beautifull to behold This he confidently affirmed to Bodinus for a certain truth CHAP. XI Certain Enquiries upon the preceding Story as What these Guardian Genii may be Whether one or more of them be allotted to every man or to some none What may be the reason of Spirits so seldome appearing And whether they have any settled Shape or no. What their manner is of assisting men in either Devotion or Prophecy Whether every mans complexion is capable of the Society of a good Genius And lastly whether it be lawfull to pray to God to send such a Genius or Angel to one or no. IT is beside my present scope as I have already professed to enter into any more particular and more curious Disquisitions concerning the nature of Spirits my ayme being now onely to demonstrate their Existence by those strange Effects recorded every where in History But this last Narration is so extraordinarily remarkable that it were a piece of disrespect done to it to dismisse it without some Enquiries at least into such Problems as it naturally affords to our consideration though it may well seem plainly beyond the power of humane Witt or lawes of Modesty to determine any thing therein In the first place therefore it cannot but amuse a man's minde to think what these officious Spirits should be that so willingly sometimes offer themselves to consociate with a man whether they may be Angels uncapable of incorporation into humane Bodies which vulgarly is conceived Or whether the Souls of the deceased they having more affinity with mortality and humane frailty then the other and so more sensible of our necessities and infirmities having once felt them themselves a reason alledged for the Incarnation of Christ by the Authour to the Hebrews Which opinion has no worse Favourers then Plutarch Maximus Tyrius and other Platonists Or lastly whether there may not be of both sorts For separate Souls being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a condition not unlike the Angels themselves it is easy to conceive that they may very well undergo the like Offices Secondly we are invited to enquire whether every man have his Guardian Genius or no. That Witches have many such as they are their own confessions testify The Pythagorea●s were of opinion that every man has two Genii a good one and a bad one Which Mahomet has taken into his Religion adding also that they sit on Mens shoulders with table-books in their hands and that the one writes down all the good the other all the evill a man does But such expressions as those I look upon as Symbolicall rather then Naturall And I think it more

fansifull Theosophy or Theomagy as it is very ridiculous in it self so also to appeare to the world and if it were possible to the very favourers of it it being the most effectuall means in my judgment to remove this dangerous evill out of the minds of men and to keep it off from theirs that are as yet untainted And this I indeavoured in those two late Pamphlets I wrote namely my Observations and my Reply In both which I putting my self upon the merry pin as you see it was necessary so to do and being finely warm'd with Anger and Indignation against the mischief I had in designe to remove if I may seem after the manner of men to have transgressed in any niceties yet the ingenuous cannot but be very favourable in their censure it being very hard to come off so clearly well in the acting of so humorous a part there scarce being any certaine Judge of humours but the humour of every man that judges And I am very well aware that some passages cannot but seem harsh to sad and weakly Spirits as sick men love no noise nor din and take offence at but the smell of such meats as are the most pleasant and strengthening nourishment of those that are well But as for my selfe I can truly pronounce that what I did I did in reason judgment not at all offending that Life that dwelleth in mee For there was that Tonicall exertion and steady Tension of my Spirits that every chord went off with a cleare and smart sound as in a well-tuned Instrument set at a high Pitch and was good Musick to my self that throughly understood the meaning of it And my agile and swift Motion from one thing to another even of those that were of very different natures was no harsh harmony at all to mee I having the art to stop the humming of the last stroke as a skilfull Harper on his Irish Harpe and so to render the following chord cleane without the mixing or interfaring of any tremulous murmurs from the strings that were touch'd immediately before And I did the more willingly indulge to my self this freedome and mirth in respect of the Libertines whom I was severely and sharply to reprove and so made my self as freely merry as I might and not desert the realities of Sobernesse that thereby they might know that no Superstitious Sneaksby or moped Legallist as they would be ready to fancy every body that bore no resemblance at all with themselves did rebuke them or speak to them but one that had in some measure attain'd to the truth of that Liberty that they were in a false sent after Thus was I content to become a Spectacle to the world in any way or disguise whatsoever that I might thereby possibly by any means gain some souls out of this dirty and dizzy whirle-poole of the Flesh into the Rest and Peace of God and to seem a fool my self to provoke others to become truly and seriously wise And as I thought to winne upon the Libertine by my mirth and freenesse so I thought to gain ground upon the Enthusiast by suffering my self to be carried into such high Triumphs and Exaltations of Spirit as I did In all which though the unskilfull cannot distinguish betwixt vain-glory and Divine joy or Christian gloriation I do really nothing but highly magni●y the simplicity of the life of Christ above all Magick Miracles Power of Nature Opinions Prophecies and what ever else humane nature is so giddily and furiously carried after even to the neglecting of that which is the sublimest pitch of happinesse that the soul of man can arrive to Wherefore many of those expressions in my Reply that seem so turgent are to be interpreted with allusion to what this Divine life does deservedly triumph over and particularly what Magicians boast they can do As in that passage which seems most enormous pag. 49th I still the raging of the Sea c. Which is the very same that Medea vaunts of in Ovid Concussaque sisto Stantia concutio cantu freta nubila pello And for the rest that has falne from me in those free heats I 'me sure there is neither Expression nor Meaning that I cannot not only make good by reason but warrant and countenance also by some thing plainly parallell thereto in Scripture Philosophers and Fathers especially Origen whom I account more profoundly learned and no lesse pious then any of them But as I said the Drift and Scope of all was vigourously to witnesse to this buisy and inquisitive Age that the Simplicity of the life of Christ though it bee run over by most and taken no notice of that is that perfect Humility and divine Love whence is a free command over a mans passions and a warrantable Guidance of them with all Serenity becoming Prudence and Equity that these are above all the glory of the World curiosity of Opinions and all power of Nature whatsoever And if the sense of this so plaine a truth with all it's power and lovelinesse did so vehemently possesse my soul that it caused for the present some sensible mutations and tumults in my very Animall Spirits and my body the matter being of so great Importance it was but an obvious piece of prudence to record those Circumstances that professing my self so very much moved others might be the more effectually moved thereby according to that of the Poet si vis me flere dolendum est Primùm ipsi tibi And I am no more to be esteemed an Enthusiast for such passages as these then those wise and circumspect Philosophers Plato and Plotinus who upon the more then ordinary sensible visits of the divine Love and Beauty descending into their enravish'd soules professe themselves no lesse moved then what the sense of such expressions as these will bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to such Enthusiasme as is but the Triumph of the soul of man inebriated as it were with the delicious sense of the Divine life that blessed Root and Original of all holy wisdome virtue I am as much a friend as I am to the vulgar fanaticall Enthusiasme a professed enemie And eternal shame stop his mouth that will dare to deny but that the fervent love of God and of the pulchritude of Vertue will afford the spirit of man more joy and triumph then ever was tasted in any lustfull pleasure which the pen of unclean Wits do so highly magnify both in verse and prose Thus much I thought fit to premise concerning my two late Pamphlets which I have done in way of Civility to the world to whom I hold my selfe accountable especially for any publique Actions who now I hope will not deem those unexpected Motions of mine so strange and uncouth they so plainly perceiving what Musick they were measured to But as for this present Discourse against Atheisme as there is no humour at all in it so I hope there is lesse hazzard of Censure