Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	life_n	way_n	world_n	4,036	5	4.7603	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37083	The reformed librarie-keeper with a supplement to The reformed-school, as subordinate to colleges in universities / by John Durie ; whereunto is added, I. An idea of mathematicks II. The description of one of the chiefest libraries which is in Germanie ...	Dury, John, 1596-1680.; Hartlib, Samuel, d. 1662.; Pell, John, 1611-1685. Idea of mathematicks.; Schwartzkopf, Johann, 1596-1659. Bibliotheca augusta ... quae est Wolferbyti.	1650 (1650)	Wing D2882; ESTC R7272	22,097	70

the uselesness thereof som inclination to bee found extraordinarie but these endevors disjointed from publick Aims advance little or nothing the Happiness which true Learning rightly ordered in all the parts thereof and Subordinate unto Christianitie is able to bring unto Mankind Such pieces therefore serv onely as a witness to shew what wast there is of profitable time and abilities for want of loving combinations for publick Designs It is the observation of Forreigners concerning our Universities that they finde in them men of as great learning as any where els but that they lie as it were dead and unknown to the whole world of other men of Learning becaus they delight to live a retired and unsociable life this humor therefore amongst other parts of our Reformation must by som Gospel-principles and Rational inducements bee Reformed not onely in Colleges but in other Associations The Lord teach us the waie of Truth and Righteousness that wee may profit in all things to advance the glorie of his name in the Kingdom of his Son in whom I rest Your friend and servant J. D. THE REFORMED LIBRARIE-KEEPER BY JOHN DURIE IN DOMINO CONFIDO LONDON Printed by William Du-gard Anno Dom. 1650. THE Reformed Librarie-Keeper OR Two copies of Letters concerning the Place and Office of a Librarie-Keeper The first Letter THe Librarie-Keeper's place and Office in most Countries as most other Places and Offices both in Churches and Universities are lookt upon as Places of profit and gain and so accordingly sought after and valued in that regard and not in regard of the service which is to bee don by them unto the Common-wealth of Israël for the advancement of Pietie and Learning for the most part men look after the maintenance and livelihood setled upon their Places more then upon the end and usefulness of their emploiments they seek themselvs and not the Publick therein and so they subordinate all the advantages of their places to purchase mainly two things thereby viz. an easie subsistence and som credit incomparison of others nor is the last much regarded if the first may bee had except i● bee in cases of strife and debate wherein men are over-heated for then indeed som will stand upon the point of Honor to the hazard of their temporal profits but to speak in particular of Librarie-Keepers in most Universities that I know nay indeed in all their places are but Mercenarie and their emploiment of little or no use further then to look to the Books committed to their custodie that they may not bee lost or embezeled by those that use them and this is all I have been informed that in Oxford where the most famous Librarie now exstant amongst the Protestant-Christians is kept the setled maintenance of the Librarie-keeper is not above fiftie or sixtie pound per annum but that it is accidentally viis modis somtimes worth an hundred pound what the accidents are and the waies by which they com I have not been curious to search after but I have thought that if the proper emploiments of Librarie-keepers were taken into consideration as they are or may bee made useful to the advancement of Learning and were ordered and mainteined proportionally to the ends which ought to bee intended thereby they would bee of exceeding great use to all sorts of Scholars and have an universal influence upon all the parts of Learning to produce and propagate the same unto perfection For if Librarie-keepers did understand themselvs in the nature of their work and would make themselvs as they ought to bee useful in their places in a publick waie they ought to becom Agents for the advancement of universal Learning and to this effect I could wish that their places might not bee made as everie where they are Mercenarie but rather Honorarie and that with the competent allowance of two hundred pounds a year som emploiments should bee put upon them further then a bare keeping of the Books It is true that a fair Librarie is not onely an ornament and credit to the place vvhere it is but an useful commoditie by it self to the publick yet in effect it is no more then a dead Bodie as novv it is constituted in comparison of vvhat it might bee if it vvere animated vvith a publick Spirit to keep and use it and ordered as it might bee for publick service For if such an allovvance vvere setled upon the emploiment as might maintain a man of parts and generous thoughts then a condition might bee annexed to the bestowing of the Place that none should bee called thereunto but such as had approved themselvs zealous and profitable in som publick waies of Learning to advance the same or that should bee bound to certain tasks to bee prosecuted towards that end whereof a List might bee made and the waie to trie their Abilities in prosecuting the same should bee described least in after times unprofitable men creep into the place to frustrate the publick of the benefit intended by the Doners towards posteritie The proper charge then of the Honorarie Librarie-Keeper in an Universitie should bee thought upon and the end of that Imploiment in my conception is to keep the publick stock of Learning which is in Books and Manuscripts to increas it and to propose it to others in the waie which may bee most useful unto all his work then is to bee a Factor and Trader for helps to Learning and a Treasurer to keep them and a dispenser to applie them to use or to see them well used or at least not abused And to do all this First a Catalogue of the Treasurie committed unto his charge is to bee made that is all the Books and Manuscripts according to the Titles whereunto they belong are to bee ranked in an order most easie and obvious to bee found which I think is that of Sciences and Languages when first all the Books are divided into their subjectam materiam whereof they Treat and then everie kinde of matter subdivided into their several Languages And as the Catalogue should bee so made that it may alwaies bee augmented as the stock doth increas so the place in the Librarie must bee left open for the increas of the number of Books in their proper Seats and in the Printed Catalogue a Reference is to bee made to the place where the Books are to bee found in their Shelvs or repositories When the stock is thus known and fitted to bee exposed to the view of the Learned World Then the waie of Trading with it both at home and abroad is to bee laid to heart both for the increas of the stock and for the improvement of it to use For the increas of the stock both at home and abroad correspondencie should bee held with those that are eminent in everie Science to Trade with them for their profit that what they want and wee have they may receiv upon condition that what they have and wee want they should impart in

see that none should bee left destitute of som benefit of virtuous breeding according to the several kinds of emploiments whereunto they may bee found most fit and inclinable whether it bee to bear som civil Office in the Common-wealth or to bee Mechanically emploied or to bee bred to teach others humane Sciences or to bee imploied in Prophetical Exercises As for this School which at this time I have delineated it is proper to such of the Nobilitie Gentrie and better sort of Citizens which are fit to bee made capable to bear Offices in the Common-wealth the other Schools may bee spoken off in due time so far as they are distinct from this but that which now I have to suggest is chiefly this that as out of the Schools the chois which ought to bee made for Colleges ought Caeteris paribus onely to bee of such as are most fit to Advance the Ends of a Collegial Association so out of Colleges a chois ought to bee made of Professors for the Universitie onely of such as are fittest to advance the Ends of Publick teaching in Universities which are not to Repeat and Compendiate that which others have published twentie times already over and over again but to add unto the Common stock of humane knowledg that which others have not observed to the end that all these degrees of Studies and Exercises of the minde of man beeing subordinate unto the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the happiness of Man by all Rational and Spiritual waies of improving humane Abilities may bee advanced unto it's perfection in this life so far as may bee But how far short wee com now of all these designs I need not to relate unto you the Colleges as they are now Constituted can scarce reach to the half of that which the Schools might bring us unto and the Professors of the Universities com not up to that which the Collegial Associations might elaborate if they were rightly directed to set their Talents a work and if the publick Spirit of Christian love and ingenuitie did posses those that are possessed of publick places in the Colleges of the Universities For if this Spirit did rule their Aims and Endevors there would bee no self-seeking no partialitie no envie nor anie cross actings for private ends to the prejudice of the Publick but the generous love of virtue and of profitable Learning would swaie all their inclinations to a free conjunction and make all their endeavors subordinate unto the publick good of the Common-wealth of Israël in the Communion of Saints But how far this Principle of acting is now wanting amongst us all I shall not need to mention you have considered it long ago and wee have together lamented that defect and the doleful effects thereof our endevor must bee to seek out the best means of a Reformation therein and to make use of them as God shall give us opportunities And truly somthing of this kinde might bee don without anie great alteration or stir even as matters now are formed in the Colleges if God would bee so gracious to us as to beget in the mindes of those that understand those things a heartie Aim and Resolution to benefit the Christian Common-wealth of Learning by their Collegial Relations and Associations one to another For if men that are in genuous will call to minde the end first for which God doth give them all their Talents and then also for which men of publick Spirits have erected Colleges and Universities and endowed the same with long and competent maintenances that such as are fit for Studies and called to bee Instrumental in the propagation of Truth and Virtue might not bee distracted with the care of the World in reference to outward matters but might have all the conveniences which are imaginable to improve those Talents to the utmost either singly or conveniently with others if I saie ingenuous Christians would minde these ends for which the benefit of their Talents from God and of their accommodations from men to improve those Talents are bestowed upon them it would not bee possible for them to bee so unthankful towards God and avers from the rule of Christianitie and from the love of doing good to the generation wherein they live that they should intend to lead a Collegial life onely for their own private eas and conveniencie in outward things that beeing accommodated with all necessarie helps of the Bodie they may pleas themselvs onely in the course of their Studies with that Reservation and Retiredness which is proper to a Monkish life in Popish Cloisters wherein the Spirit of Mutual envie of detraction and division is more irreconcilably entertained then in anie other Societies of the World For their Cloister-constitutions obliging them onely to the observation of som formal works as an opus operatum for which their maintenance is allowed them they not knowing anie further design of their life or any greater happiness in this World then to pleas themselvs bestow all the rest of their time and thoughts as their natural inclinations lead them which is commonly to nothing els but to self-love and Pride which became a Provocation unto others to discover mutually their corruptions which by reaction make them all full of envie of hatred of evil surmises and of malicious practices one against another so that no where Satan doth dwel and rule more effectually then in those Religious Houses as they are falsly so called How much of this Monkish disposition doth remain as yet in the formal Constitutions of Colleges or in the Spirits of those that partake of Collegial accommodations is not a thing which I shall take upon me to Judg but I shall leav it to God and to his daie to discover onely I would bee glad that all such as are true Israelites and know the end of their calling unto Christ and are not willing to burie their Talents or to make them useless unto others for whose sakes they have received them would laie this matter to heart that their Aim in a Collegial life should not bee to enjoie an easie careless waie of subsistence by and for themselvs to follow private fancies in their Studies about matters of Learning but that they should minde the stewardship of their gifts and places and tbe advantages of their Association whereby they might bee if they would make use of it able to elaborate som tasks which otherwise cannot bee brought to anie perfection for the building up of the Citie of God in our generations There is no want of parts and abilities in the Spirits of our men but the waie to order them for publick Use and to bring them together as stones fitly compacted to make up a perfect Palace is that which make's us all useless one to another wee finde that now and then as it were by chance som exquisite pieces of Learning which som have been hatching all their life time drop out wherein appear's besides the usefulness of the Subject or