Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	concern_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	32	3	8.9367	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56118	Instructions to a nobleman's daughter concerning religion at first designed for one, now directed to all of that rank, and useful to young persons of quality, and others of that sex : with sacramental and other suitable devotions / by John Provoste.	Provoste, John.	1700 (1700)	Wing P3877; ESTC R35367	45,590	134

now behold with too much evidence Christian Piety in a great Decay which yet while it is so great in some is lamented by others If Religion must not live there are Surviving Friends to attend the Funeral and to bewail the Death But then how importunate are to be their Prayers how Serious are to be their endeavours that Christian Religion now in its lower state of decay and corruption may have at least one advantage which it had not in its first sate of purity and perfection that many Mighty and many Noble may be called and they not onely for their own sake but for the sake of others that by the prevailing force of their Example and their Power many others may be called as well as they There is an argument for Religion not onely from your Quality but from your Sex The Religious engagements are so much stronger upon your Sex because that tenderness of mind which is so natural to it is no less natural to the Particular Spirit of Devotion and to the general Spirit of Christ's Religion and because while Men are engaged in the business and noise of the World and many in the most noisie part thereof in War you may enjoy a devout rest at home your Closet knows nothing of tumult there at least is peace and leisure All who have a passion for Piety have at the same time another they are concerned with zeal that it may flourish in your Sex and so may spread it self and flourish in the World that the famous Saying upon Truth may have its accomplishment in Piety and this when appearing in a Form so beautiful may strike the eyes and charm the affections of all who behold it Christian Religion in the first Ages of it did somtimes ow the multiplying of its Numbers to the Zeal of your Sex And so may still the Holiness so much designed and promoted by that Religion have a Glorious enlargement from it Not onely the Believing Wife then did sanctify the Vnbelieving Husband but the Pious Woman now may sanctify the less pious Man and her Example not only reproach him for not being good but invite him to the being so hereafter St. Hierom declared that the propagation of Vertue as much as that of the World it self was due to your Sex and therefore when dissatisfied with the general corruption of Mankind he fled into retirements from them and instead of an abode with them chose to dwell with the Wild beasts of the Desert he still continued a Religious correspondence with many of your Sex The reformation of that World which now so fiercely we complain of may be expected now from such as those whom St. Hierom then conversed with and by a soft conveyance of all things pious from their hands According to the argument of the Chinese Philosopher the World consists of Kingdoms and Kingdoms consist of Families And each Family is more in the continual view of its Governess and more to be fashioned by her Not only the Philosopher of China but the other of Greece he who gave Laws to the World in Learning as his Scholar did in War had the same wise Notion that the good management of Kingdoms is to follow this of Families Indeed the influence of the Mother is great upon the Mind as her share is great in the bodily Constitution of the Children and then in this sence too If the Root be holy so may be the Branches Especially those in the Family of her own Sex who are so much more within her view and her management and whom her experience in respect of her own Education and then her particular knowledge of all things peculiar to her Sex do give her a more natural capacity to manage with the best success The saying of a Bishop to a Courtier was no less suitable in its Wisdom to his Character from whom it came then useful in its influence to him it was directed to When you chuse a Wife make your strict enquiries into the qualifications not of the Father but of the Mother and then you have found those of the Daughter at the same time and in one discovery And therefore as it was the ambition of a Jewish Woman to be a Mother so it should be that of a Christian to be a good one Amongst the several things I have offered to your practice Fasting I have not named much less prescribed because if that can be useful in any part of your Age some may think it not to be so necessary in this part thereof But surely there will be a time when Fasting will be very useful for the withdrawing our selves from the World and fuell from the fire that meat from our desires which does often nourish them more than us as it often feeds an ulcer more than a sounder part Fasting will be useful for the making Spiritual Objects familiar to us and for a particular enquiry into our Spiritual state like that into our weekly expences for the remembrance and the repentance of our sins and the appointing all the methods of suitable Provision against them for the considering not only our Sins in order to the forsaking them but our Graces too in order to the continuance and improvement of them When a great Soldier was to retire from the World who had seldom retired from his Enemy he declared it to be very needful that there should be some space between the affairs of life and the day of death Indeed there should be some between Life and Life there should be a Truce with the World in order to a Peace with God there should be a Time of Respite not only for the sense of Tasting but for those of seeing and hearing and all the Senses so we may seem to dye though not daily yet one Day at least in the Week and to better Purposes than Charles the Fifth we may thus act Death it self the chief Parts whereof are the Silence of the Condition and want of Sense And so Retirement is like Death a silent and quiet State and a remove from sensible Things and it has something too of the Happiness which follows Death in the Religious Enjoyments of it A Method it were of great Advantage to the making you that which you so much desire to be and which all others nope to see you a finisht Work of Prudence Virtue if you would chuse one eminent for both known to be so by all who know her one of the like Quality and Condition with your self whom you may observe and imitate in both You may place her Actions before you in the fairest Light make her a daily Example to you in her Behaviour that you may afterwards rise to be an Example in yours to others Indeed the Learned Heathen has taught us another use of such a Method not only to place the Actions in our sight that we may imitate the Good but the Person too in our Presence that we may avoid all Evil be overaw'd against it

themselves Children still How much happier would they be if they were so indeed They would then have something like Excuse now they have not All that we did and learn'd in the more serious Undertakings of our Childhood was only designed for Discipline and Method to dispose us for the doing and learning more hereafter as he can never be Rich who keeps not that which he has gain'd and he can never be Skilful in any Art or Science who forgets the first Notions of it he once was taught A Father of the Church said upon a like Occasion nothing is to be dispised by those who are to be instructed and led into the knowledge of things for if they look upon the first Elements as little things how shall they attain the perfect and great things in knowledge These early things which the Church has taught us are not Scaffold work to be taken down again but Foundation and he that would take away the Foundation when the House is near the being finish'd would only undermine it and never finish it Whoever discards the knowledge of the Catechism when he is no more a Child he either at the same time renounces all knowledge of Religion but surely if that knowledge were necessary in Childhood it is much more necessary afterwards or he at the same time designs a much higher Knowledge in Religion and because he is still going forward he leaves the first behind him not as too heavy but as too light or little to carry with him Indeed he must not here forget those things which are be hind if he will reach forth to those things which Are before if he will press towards the Mark of the Prize of the high Calling The more he values those other things he would understand the more he is to value these first things without which he cannot understand the other and the more Knowledge he has attained the more humble he is or should be and so not apt to despise the meanest Truth as well as Person be owes the greater regard to these original Truths to which he owes all his highest Improvements Indeed they are not the meanest Truths they are the first in Order and Dignity as well as in Time and Place because they are the Doctrines of things necessary to Salvation and no Good so great as Salvation no Truth so great as that which teaches things necessary to it The other Doctrines are the Issues of these by a natural Consequence and so they cannot be nobler than these till the Off-spring shall claim more Honour than Parents from whom they derive all they have The other parts of Religion are but so many several Streams that flow from these which therefore should have all the Reverence from us as Fountains had so much from the Heathens were Sacred and were Adored The Doctrines of the Catechism are very far from being those of the lowest Rank they have so much the Character of the Scripture from whence we received them as Fruits have the Nature of the Soil wherein they grow that however there are things in the Catechism for the lowest there are also many for the highest and most manly Understanding The things are so high that they are subjects more of Belief then of Enquiry and yet when they have Mystery enough to puzzle the Enquirer they have at the same time Evidence enough to baffle the Unbeliever Evidence like that of Witnesses against a Malefactor to Condemn him The Doctrines still are great however the style of the Catechism like that of the Scripture be very plain as the greatest Person may appear in the plainest Dress There is so much more of the nicer Art to reduce sublime and awful things to easie and familiar Words and there is more Authority in such a Language as there is often a more prevailing Authority in a condescending and lowly Behaviour That Noble Person had a very just Opinion † The Lady Catherine Manners afterwards Marchioness of Buckingham of our Catechism who acknowledged it to be a plain Summary of saving Truth and being of a Roman-Catholick Family and Education she seemed in this Acknowledgment to give a generous Pledg that there should be Success to their Endeavours who were Zealous to teach her new and better Principles The Religious Beginnings of Childhood are in things necessary to Salvation that our happy End the End of our Faith may be in Salvation it self our Christian Beginning is in things more necessary as in the first part of a Feast we find the Meats which have more substance and nourish more Our first entrance is in the needful things of Belief and Knowledge both because this Belief and Knowledge are the Root to all the goodly Branches of Religion and there must be first a Root before there can be an enlargement of the Tree into spreading Branches and useful Fruit and because the former Time of our Age is not so capable of nor has such Occasion and Exercise for the several good Works which are the other chief parts of Christian Duty but it is already capable of Knowledge which should prepare us for them That being planted in the House of the Lord you may flourish in the Courts of the House of our God in His Church and you my bring forth more Fruit in your Age that you may grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ your reading over the Catechism once every Month of your Life and your reading it with all the Wisdom and careful Observation of your more perfect Age would be a most useful Office when you may be above the giving an account of it to others you can never in a Life of all those Years I wish you out-live the Necessity of giving it to your self and to God There is a Precept to all even to the oldest Christians for the being ready always to give account to others to give an Answer to every Man that asks a Reason of the Hope which is in them So needful is the continuance of this first Knowledge that you cannot know any thing else aright without having still an Eye to this and then steering by it you are to take it with you wherever you go in whatever you do It is the Standard by which all your Knowledge is to be tryed and it is the Rule to which all your Practice hereafter is to be reconciled As the Catechism is always to be well remembred so is it to be well considered by you No part of it you are to consider more than your Vow in Baptism and the Explaining of the Commandments in the Catechism the Performance of which Commandments so explained is one great part of the Performance of that Vow and the great the principal Exercise of your wisest Age and of the best Endeavours in all the Time which is to come and I hope with a long Train after it of Days and Blessings upon your doing that which you were not only Baptized