Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A84694
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The times anatomiz'd, in severall characters. By T.F.
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Ford, Thomas, 1598-1674.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing F1518; Thomason E1203_3; ESTC R208774
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18,397
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119
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A Scandalous Preacher HE is one who by his Doctrine sheweth the way to heaven but by his life the road to hell Like that ridiculous Actor iu Smyrna who pronouncing ô coelum pointed down to the ground of whom Polemio in a chafe sayd This fellow hath spoken false Latine with his hand so does he that preacheth well and lives ill he speakes false Divinity with his conversation His tongue speakes the language of Canaan but his life the language of Ashdod We may say of him as it was of Erasmus his Encheridion that there was more devotion in the booke then the man so that there is more Learning and Religion in the Sermon then in the Preacher and what an incongruous thing is it to see an holy Preacher and a wicked man in one and the same person whose life is a Traytor to that Doctrine his tongue both professeth and perswades alleagance to as if hee thought to goe to heaven some other way then what he teaches the people soyling the glorious robe of Religion by putting it upon a beastly conversation He is a meere Comoedian in Religion acting goodnesse in voice and gesture onely His life and Doctrine is like the cloud that led the Israelites in the wildernes light on one side but dark on the other for no man teaches better then he and no man lives worse teaching others what he does not himselfe like way-posts directing travailers in their way but themselves not stirring XXVI A grave Divine IS a faithfull watchman going before his flock holding forth the shining lampe of his Doctrine in the lanthorne of a good conversation Hee is a good steward that hath studyed before hand to lay in sufficient provision for that great charge he hath undertaken He leapt not from the Grammar Schoole to the Pulpit but was long in the Tyring-house of the University before he appear'd on the publike Theater where he courted not the mistrisse Divinity first but made his way to her the easier by first winning the Arts her hand-maids Neither was he hasty to launch forth of that Port till hee was sufficiently ballasted with learning Being lawfully called to the Ministry he first throughly learned the weight thereof that hee may the better fit his shoulders to beare it and surely he that is most carefull to know will be most carefull to performe his duty His endeavour is to fit his matter to the capacity of his hearers as desiring rather their profit then his applause In any controversie he more delights to shew the strength of truth then his adversaries weaknesse using soft words as one well but hard Arguments He is very circumspect in ordering his own conversation as knowing that ignorant people learn as much if not more by their eyes then their eares so that his whole life is but one continued Lecture wherein his parishioners may legibly read their duty And indeed the actions of the Minister are the Pole-stars the people steere their course by therefore it is our Ministers care that they may read as it were all his precepts and exhortations to them in the line of his own life XXVII A self-conceited Man IS one that looking through the spectacles of self-love on his own worth which makes every small thing seeme great in his own conceit Like the Ape he hugs the brats of his own brain and with the Crow thinks his own bird whitest He looks only upon the flowers of his good actions but not on the weeds of his imperfections which though never so bad are the best part of his actions Hee looks so on his own beauty till Narcissus-like he is inamoured with himself being drunken with self-conceit he sees all things double Whatsoever he sayes he counts like Pithagoras his ipse dixit to his scholars that must stand for an infalible rule His opinions are alwayes singular and had rather erre by himself then hold a common truth You can tell him nothing that is good in him but hee knew it too well before Whatsoever opinion he is pleased to grace with approbation must be the only truth not because it is if it be truth but because he holds it XXVIII An inconstant Man HE is a wandring Star never fixed in any resolution Whatsoever he meant or said is presently altered for he meant it not long enough to take impression his strongest resolutions being rather tack'd then fastned He is always building and pulling down striving to out-vey time it selfe in mutability in the best things continuance is quarrell sufficient and novelty the highest style of commendation in the meanest His understanding writes upon his wit as men write on water no sooner written but forgotten He is a stranger to himselfe and all his actions so different from another that one would think it impossible they should all come out of one the sameshop A piece of clay tempered with running water which keeps his wit in a perpetuall motion He often resolves seldome Acts being rul'd by passion not reason He is the best enemy that can be but the worst friend for 't is a wonder if his love or hatred last so long as a wonder All his purposes are built upon the floting Islands of his severall humours but I le here cast anchor and leave him to the winde of his own will XXIX Religion REligion in it self is naturally written in the hearts of all men which will rather be of a false then of no Religion It is the bond betweene God and us and therefore in our old English called Eanfastnes as the only assurance and fast anchor-hold of our souls health and therefore irreligious men cut or dissolve this band and then no wonder if cutting this cable they make shipwrack of their souls Though there be many false religions as many false gods in the World yet is there but one true Religion as one true and only God who is the sole object of Religion and all those severall ones though so far distant froÌ„ one another yet they all meet in this that they all worship a Diety Religion like Sampson's haire is the strength of a Kingdom where that is lost the Kingdom is a true Icabod the glory is departed and no such way to lose the true Religion as in a crowd of false ones Hee that opens his hand or his heart rather to contein all will retein none true Religion is of too pure a nature to admit of any mixture but alas we may too truly say of religion in our times as Erasmus did of the Friers Cowle in his that it there was like Charity for it cover'd a multitude of sins as if there was no such way for men to fight for their own ends as under the banner of Religion XXX Death DEath is that universall winde to which all mortals become wind-fals from the tree of life Sickenesses sleep are as pauses and parentheses in the line of life but Death the full point the period and Ne plus ultra of the longest The grisly Atropos that cuts in sunder the strongest cord of life it is that unavoidable debt levied upon all mankind by force of that Statute enacted by God in Paradise and recorded by Saint Paul That all must dye As when one told Anaxagoras the Athenians have condemn'd thee to dye He answered and Nature then It is that black night which over-takes and over-spreads the brightest day of life The grim Serjeant sent from the Almighty with an Habeas Corpus to arrest every one for that unavoidable debt due to Nature ever since our first Parent broke and turn'd Bankerupt The grave is his Prison wherein he keeps them till the Resurrection the time of their Gaol-delivery from it But to the godly it is a friendly-fo which by robbing them of a mortall life makes them capable of immortality and by splitting the vessell of their bodies upon the rock of death engulphs their souls into Eternity setting her free from the prison of the body and endenizing her into Heaven It is their Exodus out of the Egypt of the World preparing them to enter into their promised Land of the heavenly Canaan or new Hierusalem At this Port must weall arrive whatsoever our Voyage be This is the totall summe of all mankinde It is the bitter cup our father Adam begun and wee must all pledge it the Inheritance which he purchased as his wages of sin and is entayl'd to all his posterity A Deluge which broke in by Adams breach of Gods Commandement that sooner or later will over-flow all mankind By his rebelling against God al are become subject to deaths command what the Epigram sayth wittily on the Gramarian is true of every man that being able to decline all other Nownes in every Case could decline Death in no Case All must fall down at deaths feet as well the Prince as the Pesant He cannot be resisted nor will he be flatterd No Orator so eloquent that could perswade Death to spare him nor Monarch so mighty thaâ— could resist him Hezekiah indeed was repriev'd by God himselfe for fiften yeares but he came to it at last When this wind blowes and when this rain descends it irresistably blowes down and washeth away the clay tenements of our bodies He is an Archer that shooteth somtimes beyond us hitting our supriours somtimes short of us striking our inferiors somtimes at our right hand depriving us of our freinds somtimes at our left hand taking away our foes and then at last hits the marke it selfe and we must tread the same path that all have who are gon before us and all must that shall come after Mors omnium FINIS Burton of Melanc in Ep. 1 Sam. 21. Fraus dolus in obscura eoque in â—nitabilia Plin. Paneger in Trajan Owen Ep. Plin. Nat. Hist. Aug. Lactan. Dum pacem peto audite inermes Iocasta to her two sons Etopâ—les Polinites Sen. Trag. Thebais Polybius cited by Melancth. Chron. fol. p. 126. Sir Fr. Bacon Apotheg Suet. TraÌ„ in vit. Domit. Ex utraque parte sunt qui pugnare cupiunt Tully Suet. Tran. ut Ante
though never so Base The truth is he absolute soft wax in which the last impression always puts out the former He is one that sails with any winde That will run with the Hare and hold with the Hound A meer Weather-cock for by him you may easily know which way the winde of successe bloweth for the Times and him are Tearms convertible He will be sure to stand to his friend no longer then he is able to stand for like Vermin his flight is a certain token of a falling house Hee never declares his judgment but in dubious Tearms leaving himself a liberty to expound them as Times shall serve XVIII A Moderate Man IS the temperate Zone of the times quallifying the cold of detestible Neutrality and the fiery heat of over-zealous rashnesse Moderation is the ballast of his soul which keeps him upright He had rather for a time hide Truth in the cave of his heart then by his weaknesse or the times wickedness betray both it and himself to the contempt of their adversaries as knowing that though Truth may be over-laid and buried yet it will have a Resurrection If he live in such a time as ours wherein two opposite parties pretend the truth when but one can have it hee resolves with himself not so far to resolve with either that his credit but especially tâ—uths might receive auy detriment thereby If Truth be manifestly ingag'd against Errour hee then though moderately yet stoutly holds himself bound to defend it Hee is neither of an hot fiery nor of a key-cold temper but of a moderate between those two extreams which is the healthfullest wil be the longest liv'd But as Neutrality gains much by having Moderation for its vizard so Moderation suffers more by having neutrality for its neighbour yet may they be easily discerned for Neutrality hath only its own ends for its ayme but Moderation looks only at the Truth Again the Neuter is a wandring Planet never setled but the Moderate man is a fixed Star XIX A corrupt Committee-man HE is one of the Wens of the body politique that draws the wealth of the Common-wealth from its proper use to the nourishment of his own base humours Like the horse-leech or the grave he is never satisfied but continually trying give give He is one that under the authority of the State impoverisheth it A licens'd Cheater authoriz'd by Authority which gives him a freedome to examine and measure every one but himselfe Like Lycaâ—n hee devoures men and turns his Office into an Office of Escheat making himselfe heire to every mans estate under colour of the States service He deals with all that come before him as the Gyant did with his guests he fits them all to his size for those that are overgrown in wealth he cuts shorter and those that plead poverty he stretches longer For the liberty of the Subject hee brings all men into slavery This upstart Ivie will in time eat out the heart of the Oake that supports him Hee is a very good Chimist for hee turns all things into gold the maine engine of the Warre and the pipe that conveys and commands all the treasure of the Kingdome but there 's a crack of selfe ends that hinders it from going to the right end of the Kingdoms good His very name is as terrible to the poore Countrey man as the Inquisition speaking nothing lesse then commitment for the Prison is his rack and an Oath the tormentor whereby he makes men prove Traitors to themselves worse then ever by the Oath Ex Officio His will must be the Standard whereto every one must be reduced The under Committees he uses as a spunge or as the Turks doe the Jews which when they have gathered sufficiently he squeezes and so the greater Thieves rob the lesse and both the Commonwealth For his Religion if hee have any it is altogether for Liberty of Conscience but whilest hee keeps loose his own he bindes all other mens Nothing terrifies him so much as to think of an accompt 't is therefore his policy to be an evil angel to stir mud the waters like the fish Sepia that he may go away un-discerned like a Thief in a crowd Peace is as often in his mouth as seldome in his heart for like a corrupt Chyrurgion he lives upon keeping the soare raw as certaine the poore Kingdom must needs be a Patient that suffers under such Chyrurgions But how this foundation will stand that is raised on other mens ruines and built on others breakings when the winde of Majesty and the reign of justice shall again descend who knows till then I leave him if in the meane time his guilty conscience doe not condemn him and he himselfe save the hangman a labour by preventing him XX A Sectary HEe is one that having left the roade of the Churches practice wanders in the Labyrinth of Sects and Schismes and being of a Quick-silver brain can never be fixed in any till hee become an absolute Atheist for they that once are of all Religions will quickly be of none at all He cannot endure any government as tying him in an inclosure for he will not be fed by the wholsome food of his proper Minister but will carve for himselfe not discerning weeds from herbs poyson from wholsome meat For learning hee utterly detests it and no wonder if they that seek darke corners hate the light of the Sun that would discover them yet the Sun is never the worse nor lesse usefull because blear eyes cannot endure its light He is so strict to observe the very words of the Scripture though he can read never a word of it that because the Apostles were some of them fisher-men and Paul preached in an upper roome He thinks him no Preacher that is not a mechanick nor that no Church which is not in a chamber He rails continually against pluralities and affects nothing so much as to be singular If he be the ring-leader of a Sect his only care is to worke upon the weaker sex to deceive simple women whom if they follow him hee supposes their husbands wil come after them And thus the Serpent the father of Heretikes first tempted Eve and then leaving her to tempt her husband And these all weare Christs colours but fight under the Devils banner which daily multiply by our divisions these abstractions from the Church increase by the distractions in the Church and it will be as easie to knit a rope of sand as to unite them againe thus dissipated XXI Of War WAr is a Tragoedy that most commonly destroyes the Scene whereon 't is acted An unwelcome guest that devoures his Host The cursed off-spring of two blessed parents Peace and Plenty both which it destroyes and devoures as Pharoes leane kine did the fat ones Peace chains up al furies mischiefs which the sword of Warre lets loose War is a Wolfe whose pestileÌ„t breath stops the mouth of the Laws whose voyce cannot be heard for