Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	great_a	know_v	speak_v	4,061	5	4.0748	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63914	The praise of humility a sermon preached upon the 20th of March 1687 : being Palm-Sunday, at the Guild-Hall-chappel, London / by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1687 (1687)	Wing T3314; ESTC R10525	16,061	42

it is manifest in this case tho' in an equality of Substance of Land and Money of Goods and Chattels of Birth and Fortune that still he that hath the greater Authority is in truth and reality the Richer Man so that this Humility this Poverty of Spirit is when all is done the truest and the most valuable Riches And as in the case of Riches so also in that of Learning or Knowledge if we suppose two Men equally learned equally knowing with this diversity of temper between them the consequence of this will be in a mutual excellence on both sides that the one shall be admir'd and prais'd respected and lov'd follow'd and pointed at and crowded after but the other scarce ever taken notice of or regarded to his infinite trouble and vexation for this is the fate of Insolence and Pride that it is sure to be affronted and contemn'd and yet there is nothing that is so uneasie under it or that bears it with greatter Impatience and Resentment Though after all since the use of Learning is twofold First To instruct and ennoble a Mans self and Secondly To make him capable of instructing others and of being a public Blessing where he lives The Second of these Uses which is certainly the best and noblest is lost in the Arrogant and Assuming Man for Men had rather be Ignorant than be Magisterially taught or be imposed upon even by Truth it self commanding a Reverence not for it 's own sake by gentle and insinuating perswasion but upon account of the Brows and Forehead of its Teacher so that after all if we respect the true use of Learning though there be an equal extent of knowledge on both sides yet the Humble only is the truely the usefully the beneficially knowing Man. But I speak this only upon supposition that there can be such a thing as a very Proud and a very knowing person at the same time a thing which I can very hardly induce my self to believe for Humility is a temper that naturally leads to Knowledg by consideration and Coolness by industry and patience by not only enduring but loving with reason to be opposed and contradicted by correcting its mistakes and errors every Day as Astrologers do their Nativities by new thoughts new occurences and new events Humility insinuates it self by slow and gentle but sure and steady Progressions into the deepest Mysteries of Art and Nature Humility climbes up to Heaven and brings Heaven down by Telescopes to it self and makes the Stars fall down before it like the Angels of God ascending and descending upon Jacobs Ladder and that not in a Vision as it was with him but in some sort of reality and truth But Pride is impatient and makes too great hast to be Wise it takes up prejudices and will not forsake them it disdains to be mistaken and therefore will not relinquish its Errors it is impatient of contradiction and therefore cannot be instructed it Vaunts and Magnifies it self as having run through the whole course of Truth when it hath scarce performed the nearest Stage of that long wearisome and laborious Journey and that too with a very precipitant and hasty motion for the Proverb holds good in enquiries after Truth that the farthest way about is the nearest way home and that a cool humble considerate sober pace will with the greatest speed and with the most certain and assured safety conduct the Traveller to his Journies end Of the truth of this we have had a notorious instance in experience in this last Age of ours in the late Famous and Ingenious Author of the Leviathan I mean who as appears by some of his Performances was a Person qualifi'd by Nature for extraordinary things had they not been unhappily prevented by the Pride and Haughtiness of his temper he was got it shou'd seem into the Dogmatical Humor and was impatient of Contradiction from others though full of the Spirit of Contradiction himself ●e was resolved to be the Founder of a new Sect that should be called after his Name as there are but too many of his Disciples to be met with and he would needs be the Author and Inventer of new Notions and of new Hypotheses whither the Nature of things would bear them or no and from hence it came to pass that he became so blind that he could not see the Sun at Noon-day he could not discover the existence of a God neither did he take the consideration of him into the System of his Politics by which the main Pillar of Obligation was destroyed he was used to say that the Laws of every Nation were the only Law and Gospel when all was done and yet by his Principles he could at any time dispence not only with Positive Laws but with the Natural too which are of Moral Unalterable and Eternal Force so that according to him there is no standing Nature of things no principle of Conscience or of Obligation and what a vast absurdity in Politics this Doctrin is what Misery and Confusion it would introduce among Men whereever it is heartily Believed and Practiced a blinder Man then Mr. Hobs himself though ●e was blind enough may easily discern In his Natural Philosophy he hath been Unanswerably confuted and exposed by several learned Men and in his Mathematicks too so effectually taken to task that it hath been demonstrated plainly that he never was more mistaken than when he himself pretended to Demonstration and when he wrote his Book Contra Fastum Geometrarum against the Pride and Loftyness of the Mathematicians he discovered his own Pride and Ignorance together so necessary is Humility to Knowledg so dangerous nay so destructive to their design is it for Men that would be Learned to be Proud. And if we Translate Humility from Arts and Sciences to matters of Religion Humility though it do not Anathematize and Thunder is almost every whit as able to determin Controversies as a General Council and is as well qualified to preside in the Divinity Chair as any University Dictator of them all Humility is a sharp inquisitive and discerning Vertue and such as perswades the belief of what she teaches by very strong Arguments but by stronger temper and Men are willing to give Ear to what she says because they see plainly she hath no design upon them but only for their good they know her to be a very shrewd and learned Vertue that she hath used great industry in her inquiries after Truth and that she speaks her Mind with all imaginable frankness and sincerity and with a desire to scatter Knowledg and Happyness together which things of themselves without much use of Argument are a very fair step to Conviction But if she cannot bring all Men to be of a mind or if her own Subjects the Vassals and liege People of the humble Kingdom which is I am afraid no larger than the Territory of some Indian Princes if these themselves cannot all be united into one common Faith

Misery and Slaughter and to make Mankind a mutual and an eternal Plague and Punishment to each other Or if he had made it a condition of obtaining an Inheritance in the World to come or had prescribed it as a preparative to the enjoyment of it we must either have concluded him to have been the vilest of Impostors instead of being as he is the Saviour of the World and the Redeemer of Mankind from Misery as well as Sin or we must have looked upon God Almighty whose Messenger he was under the notion of an angry and revengeful Being that delighted in nothing more than in the Misery and Torment of his Creatures for Heaven at this rate would have been so far from being worth accepting being an Eternal State of mutual Pride Animosity and Contention that but to think of coming thither would be a degree of Damnation even in this Life and a Torment too great for Humane Nature to bear But if we understand any thing of the condition of those Blessed Spirits that are made partakers of the Heavenly Kingdom and of the Life and Glory that shall be revealed it is without all question or else it cannot be an happy State a State of mutual Benevolence and Goodwill it consists in an Eternal Friendship which cannot be supposed in so great equality of Happiness and Glory and in so great and universal longing after closer and more intimate Communion with God such breathing and contention after the enjoyment of him without a mutual yielding and condescention it is founded in an humble and modest Opinion of themselves in a kind and charitable disposition towards their Neighbors the Partners and fellowpartakers of the same Light and Immortality with themselves in a perfect resignation to the Divine Will and in a magnificent Esteem and veneration of his Nature and our Saviour by making such habits and dispositions of Mind to be the indispensible conditions of being his Disciples by placing all the instances of Obedience in such things as are so manifestly for the comfort and support of Humane Life and are withal so necessary and so natural a preparation to the Happiness of the future State hath given as great if not a much greater Testimony to the truth of his Doctrin the Divinity of his Person and the unquestionable Authority of his Mission from above than any the greatest of his Miracles without so useful and so highly reasonable a Doctrine could have afforded I said just now that Humility was the very Corner-stone of Wisdom the Bottom and Foundation of all manner of Vertue but upon second Thoughts I recall my self it is not so much the Foundation of Vertue as the Complexion of it it comprehends all Vertue and Wisdom within it self For Vertue is nothing else but practical Wisdom and Humility is Patience Humility is Temperance Humility is Justice Humility is Chastity Humility is Prudence Humility is Obedience Humility is Charity Humility is Brotherly-kindness putting on several Appearances and Shapes that have a disagreeing likeness to each other like Brothers and Sisters or the nearest Kindred of the same House and Line that have a resemblance and a difference at the same time Facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen qualem decet esse Sororum For all these are founded where they are not practiced by instinct or by habit which two are but animal and brutish things even in those Actions that have a vertuous Appearance I say all these are founded where ever they are exercised upon inducements of Reason which are the only things that constitute the Essence of Vertue in any particular instance that can happen they are founded in a due sense of the infirmity of Human Nature For all these are necessary upon no other account but either that single Persons cannot be happy or else that Society cannot subsist without them the former of which is manifestly the case of Chastity Temperance and Patience the latter more remotely of Charity Brotherly-kindness and Prudence without which a Society cannot so well subsist more immediately of Obedience and Justice without which it cannot possibly subsist at all so that all these Vertues have the consideration of Human Frailty for their Object and the redressing of it for their end and this is no other than what we call Humility it is a wise and a just Sense of the frailty and infirmity to which Human Nature is subject so that when we speak of Humility we speak of every thing that is either truly useful or truly ornamental it is the Philosophical Elixir that converts every thing it touches into Gold it is the natural and the politic Archaeus that makes and governs the Vital Spirits of Action that sweetens and pacifies the disagreeing Humors both of the natural and the civil Body it is that Universal Remedy of Human Life to which when we mean it of any thing but this none but very Empiricks and Mountebanks in Physick are so hardy to pretend it is Milk and Honey purchas'd by sound Wisdom and comprehensive Judgment without Money and without Price it is Health to the Navil and Marrow to the Bones it is Corn Wine and Oyl with all their good effects of a strong Body a shining Countenance and a joyful Heart We have seen thy goings O God we have all seen how thou our God and King goest in the Sanctuary the Singers go before the Ministrels follow after in the midst are the Damsels playing with the Timbrels Humility leads up the Dance of Vertue and Charity concludes it and in the midst are Peace and Mercy joining hands together Righteousness Tempeperance Obedience Patience Magnanimity and Prudence Inviting Kissing and Embracing each other Humility thou meek lowly and yet at once infinite and exalted Vertue thou comprehensive incomprehensible thing thou that conquerest by Patience and subduest by Yielding whereunto shall I liken thy divine Perfection or with what comparison shall I compare thee Humility how lovely how amiable art thou thou art fairer than the Children of Men ruddy fresh and beautiful as the Morning Sky All thy Garments smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia Full of Grace are thy Lips because the Lord hath blessed thee for ever The source of Humility is not so obscure as that of Nile is said to be but yet it is more impervious and inaccessible than the other not but that it discovers a great deal of it self but that it hides much more for the Fountain of Humility is God himself It is a thing very agreeable to the Reason and restless Curiosity of Mankind what we find practiced even by inquisitive Children to be taking things in pieces to see what they are made of and finding it self surrounded by such a Magnificent Scene contrived after so useful and so excellent a manner adorn'd and variegated with such an infinity of beautiful and surprizing Objects to be enquiring into the contexture of the Work it self and into the maker of it and from it self to ascend higher