Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n devil_n father_n lie_n 3,415 5 9.0726 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A37239 The original, nature, and immortality of the soul a poem : with an introduction concerning humane knowledge / written by Sir John Davies ... ; with a prefatory account concerning the author and poem.; Nosce teipsum Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626.; Tate, Nahum, 1652-1715. 1697 (1697) Wing D405; ESTC R14959 39,660 143

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

it doubtless and can use it too And doth both th' other Skills in Pow'r retain And can of both the proper Actions do If with his Lute or Horse he meet again So though the Instruments by which we live And view the World the Body's Death do kill Yet with the Body they shall all revive And all their wonted Offices fulfil But how till then shall she her self employ Her Spies are dead which brought home News before What she hath got and keeps she may enjoy But she hath Means to understand no more Then what do those poor Souls which nothing get Or what do those which get and cannot keep Like Buckets bottomless which all out-let Those Souls for want of Exercise must sleep See how Man's Soul against it self doth strive Why should we not have other Means to know As Children while within the Womb they live Feed by the Navil Here they feed not so These Children if they had some use of Sense And should by chance their Mother's talking hear That in short time they shall come forth from thence Would fear their Birth more than our Death we fear They would cry out If we this place shall leave Then shall we break our tender Navil-strings How shall we then our Nourishment receive Since our sweet Food no other Conduit brings And if a Man should to these Babes reply That into this fair World they shall be brought Where they shall view the Earth the Sea the Sky The glorious Sun and all that God hath wrought That there ten thousand Dainties they shall meet Which by their Mouths they shall with pleasure take Which shall be cordial too as well as sweet And of their little Limbs tall Bodies make This World they 'd think a Fable ev'n as we Do think the Story of the Golden Age Or as some sensual Spirits ' mongst us be Which hold the World to come a feigned Stage Yet shall these Infants after find all true Tho' then thereof they nothing could conceive As soon as they are born the World they view And with their Mouths the Nurses Milk receive So when the Soul is born for Death is nought But the Soul's Birth and so we should it call Ten thousand things she sees beyond her Thought And in an unknown manner knows them all Then doth she see by Spectacles no more She hears not by report of double Spies Her self in Instants doth all things explore For each thing 's present and before her lies But still this Crew with Questions me pursues If Souls deceas'd say they still living be Why do they not return to bring us News Of that strange World where they such Wonders see Fond Men If we believe that Men do live Under the Zenith of both frozen Poles Though none come thence Advertisement to give Why bear we not the like Faith of our Souls The Soul hath here on Earth no more to do Than we have Bus'ness in our Mother's Womb What Child doth covet to return thereto Although all Children first from thence do come But as Noah's Pigeon which return'd no more Did shew she footing found for all the Flood So when good Souls departed through Death's Door Come not again it shews their Dwelling good And doubtless such a Soul as up doth mount And doth appear before her Maker's Face Holds this vile World in such a base Account As she looks down and scorns this wretched Place But such as are detruded down to Hell Either for Shame they still themselves retire Or ty'd in Chains they in close Prison dwell And cannot come although they much desire Well well say these vain Spirits thought vain it is To think our Souls to Heav'n or Hell do go Politick Men have thought it not amiss To spread this Lye to make Men virtuous so Do you then think this Moral Virtue good I think you do ev'n for your private Gain For Commonwealths by Virtue ever stood And common Good the private doth contain If then this Virtue you do love so well Have you no Means her Practice to maintain But you this Lye must to the People tell That good Souls live in Joy and Ill in Pain Must Virtue be preserved by a Lye Virtue and Truth do ever best agree By this it seems to be a Verity Since the Effects so good and virtuous be For as the Devil the Father is of Lies So Vice and Mischief do his Lies ensue Then this good Doctrine did not he devise But made this Lye which saith it is not true For how can that be false which ev'ry Tongue Of ev'ry mortal Man affirms for true Which Truth hath in all Ages been so strong As Load-Stone-like all Hearts it ever drew For not the Christian or the Jew alone The Persian or the Turk acknowledge this This Mystery to the wild Indian known And to the Canibal and Tartar is This rich Assyrian Drug grows ev'ry where As common in the North as in the East This Doctrine doth not enter by the Ear But of it self is native in the Breast None that acknowledge God or Providence Their Souls Eternity did ever doubt For all Religion takes Root from hence Which no poor naked Nation lives without For since the World for Man created was For only Man the Use thereof doth know If Man do perish like a wither'd Grass How doth God's Wisdom order things below And if that Wisdom still wise Ends propound Why made he Man of other Creatures King When if he perish here there is not found In all the World so poor and vile a thing If Death do quench us quite we have great wrong Since for our service all things else were wrought That Daws and Trees and Rocks should last so long When we must in an instant pass to nought But bless'd be that Great Pow'r that hath us bless'd With longer Life than Heav'n or Earth can have Which hath infus'd into our mortal Breast Immortal Pow'rs not subject to the Grave For though the Soul do seem her Grave to bear And in this World is almost buri'd quick We have no Cause the Body's Death to fear For when the Shell is broke out comes a Chick SECT XXXIII Three Kinds of Life answerable to the three Powers of the Soul FOR as the Soul 's Essential Pow'rs are three The quick'ning Pow'r the Pow'r of Sense and Reason Three kinds of Life to her designed be Which perfect these three Pow'rs in their due Season The first Life in the Mother's Womb is spent Where she her Nursing Pow'r doth only use Where when she finds defect of Nourishment Sh'expels her Body and this World she views This we call Birth but if the Child could speak He Death would call it and of Nature plain That she would thrust him out naked and weak And in his Passage pinch him with such Pain Yet out he comes and in this World is plac'd Where all his Senses in Perfection be Where he finds Flowers to smell and Fruits to taste And Sounds