Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	write_v	zeal_n	84	3	7.5577	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29010	Occasional reflections upon several subiects, whereto is premis'd a discourse about such kind of thoughts	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1665 (1665)	Wing B4005; ESTC R17345	188,000	462

Advantages abroad yet to bring them to that pass the Author may perhaps undergoe many a trouble that we dream not of For he that has to do with difficult or weighty Subjects cannot present us a good Book or a Fine Discourse with the same ease that a rich man can present us a fine pair of Gloves or a fine Collation which may be had at an hour's warning from the next Milleners or Confectioners For to be able to write one good Book on some Subjects a man must have been at the trouble to read an hundred To grow capable to give a better rendring of a Greek Text he must perchance have perus'd Suidas Stephanus Hesychius and I know not how many Lexicographers and Scholiasts To be qualifi'd to make a Translation of an Hebrew Word or Phrase that shall illustrate a dark Text or clear a Difficulty or more fitly agree with his notion or accommodation of a place in Scripture a man must have not onely like a School-Boy learn'd an Hebrew Grammar and turn'd over Buxtorf's Schindler's and other Dictionaries but which is worse he must in many cases hazard his eyes and his patience in conversing with such Jewish Writings not onely as Elias his Tishbi and Kimchi's Michlol but to gain a little Rabbinical Learning and find out some unobvious signification of a Word or Phrase he must devour the tedious and voluminous Rhapsodies that make up the Talmud in many of which he can scarce learn any thing but the Art of saying nothing in a multitude of words and in others which are not so useless the most he will find in I know not how many dull pages written with as little Wit as Truth will perhaps be an Account of some wild Opinion or some obsolete Custom or some superstitious Rite of a generation of people whose Fancies and Manners scarce any thing makes worth our inquiring after but their having liv'd many Ages since And even when a man sets himself to write those smooth Composures where Eloquence is conspicuous and seems to be chiefly design'd the Author seldom comes by his Contentment on as easie terms as the Readers come by theirs For not to mention that sometimes Periods that in a well printed Book look very handsomely and run very evenly were not in the written Copy without interlining and Transcriptions Those that are Schollars themselves can hardly write without having an ambition or at least a care to approve their Discourses to them that are so too And in the judgment of such Perusers to be able to write well one must not onely have skill in the Subject but be well skill'd in the way of writing lest the Matter be blemish'd by the manner of Handling it And although to shew ones self a Master in treating of variety of Themes with a florid style and even in those Composures that are design'd chiefly to express Wit and move Affections one may think that Nature may be well let alone to supply any she has been kind to with all they need yet even in these cases there are some Toils and uneasinesses that are scarce to be avoided since a discreet man though never so rich in Natures's gifts will think himself oblig'd to study Rhetorick that he may be sure he does not transgress the Laws of It. For though an Author 's Natural parts may make his Book abound with Wit yet without the help of Art he will scarce make it free from faults And to be well stock'd with Comparisons which when skilfully manag'd make the most taking passages of fine Pieces one must sometimes survey and range through the works of Nature and Art which are the chief Ware-houses where variety and choice of Similitudes is to be had and to obtain those pleasing Ornaments there is oftentimes requir'd no less pains than to devise useful Notions As one must search the Ditches amongst Briars and Weeds not onely to find Medicinable Herbs but to gather Prim-roses and Violets So that Lindamor to conclude if we consider the trouble that applauded Composures do oftentimes cost their Authors we should be sensible we owe more than most men think we do to those to whom we owe good Books But then unless they find some Recompence for their Labours in the satisfaction of promoting piety or in the well-natur'd Pleasure they feel themselves in pleasing others I should scarce doubt but that some of the Writers we think so happy may rather deserve our Esteem than our Envy REFLECTION VIII Upon a Child that cri'd for the Stars I Remember P. S. did once upon just the like Theme discourse to the following purpose Amongst those numerous Eyes that these fair Lights attract in so clear a night as this there are not perhaps any that are more delighted with them than this Child's seem to be And those Persians that ador'd the rising Sun could not be more charm'd with that glorious Object than this Child is with these twinkling Lights that need his absence to become so much as visible But his is a pleasure that is not more great than unquiet for it makes him querulous and unruly and because he cannot by his struggling and reaching forth his little hands get possession of these shining Spangles that look so finely their fires produce water in his eyes and cries in his mouth that are very little of kin to the Musick the Platonists fanci'd in the Spheres he looks at Whereas though my inclinations for Astronomy make me so diligent a Gazer on the Stars that in spight of my great Obnoxiousness to the inclemency of the nocturnal air I gladly spend the coldest hours of the night in contemplating them I can yet look upon these bright Ornaments of Heaven it self with a mind as calm and serene as those very nights that are fittest to observe them in I know divers men for whom Nature seems to have cut out too much work in giving them in an unconfinedly amorous Disposition of mind strong Appetites for almost all the fair Objects that present themselves to their sight These amorous Persons may be I grant very much delighted when they first gaze upon a Corstellation of fair Ladies but the Heart commonly pays dear for the Pleasure of the Eye and the eager desires that Beauty creates are in such men excited too often not to be frequently disappointed and are wont to be accompani'd with so many jealousies and fears and repulses and difficulties and dangers and remorses and despairs that the unhappy Lovers if those that love more than one can merit that Title do rather languish than live if you will believe either their own querulous words or their pale and melancholly looks which would make one think they were just entring into the Grave or bad been newly digged out of it Whereas a person that has his Affections and Senses at that command which Reason and Religion require and confer can look upon the same Objects with pleas'd but not with dazl'd Eyes He considers these bright

to divert the Discourse This accident Eugenius was suggesting to me a thought wherewith I shall not scruple to acquaint you and the Company For continues he as pleasant and as much desir'd as fair Weather is wont to be and as much as we use to be discontented at a lowring and dropping sky yet the one is no less necessary nor useful in its season than the other For too uninterrupted a course of Heat and Sun-shine would make the season fruitful in nothing but in Caterpillars or such kind of Vermine and in Diseases and is far more proper to fill Graves than Barns Whereas seasonable vicissitudes of Clouds and cloudy Weather make both the Ground fruitful and the Season healthful Thus in our outward Condition too long and constant a prosperity is wont to make the Soul Barren of all but such Wantonnesses as 't is ill to be fruitful of and the interposition of seasonable Afflictions is as necessary and advantageous as it can be unwelcome But persues Eusebius the consideration that chiefly entertain'd me was this That as here to make the Earth fruitful the face of Heaven must be now and then obscur'd and over-cast we must be depriv'd of the welcome pleasure of the Sun to receive the fertilizing Benefit of the Rain so such is our condition here below that our perverseness makes it necessary that God should often-times appear to frown upon us to make us fruitful in those Works to which he is pleas'd to vouchsafe his smiles But Oh! concludes Eusebius lifting up his eyes and hands towards Heaven how happy shall we be in that glorious and everlasting Day when our Condition shall be as blessed in not requiring Vicissitudes as in not being subject to them When the Sun-shine alone shall perform all that is wont to be done here both by it and by the Rain and the Soul like Aegypt being fruitful without the assistance of the Clouds we shall not need to have our joys Eclips'd to have our Graces kept from being so or to make our Light shine the brighter But each blessed Soul shall be emblem'd by that Vision in the Revelations where St. John saw an Angel standing in the Sun we shall not then need to have our Love wean'd from inferiour or undue Objects by any Experience of their Imperfections since the clear Discovery that God will vouchsafe us of his own Excellencies will abundantly suffice to confine our Affections to them And since the works wherein we are to be fruitful in Heaven will be but to admire and thank him that is infinite in Beauty and in goodness the perfecter sight and fruition we shall have of his astonishing as well as ravishing Attributes will but proportionably increase our Wonder and our Praises and will naturally make us as Grateful For such a state as happy In It. OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS The V. SECTION REFLECTION I. Upon the sight of N. N. making of Syrup of Violets ONE that did not know the Medicinal Vertues of Violets and were not acquainted with the Charitable Intentions of the skilful person that is making a Syrup of them would think him a very great Friend to Epicurism For his Imployment seems wholly design'd to gratifie the senses The things he deals with are Flowers and Sugar and of them he is solicitous to make a Composition that may delight more than one or two Senses For in One Syrup he endeavours to please the Eye by the loveliness of the Colour the Nose by the perfume of the Scent the Taste by as much sweetness as Sugar can impart But he that knowing that Violets though they please the Palate can purge the Body and notwithstanding their good smell can expel bad humours knows also that the Preparer of these fragrant Plants in making their Juice into a Syrup is careful to make it acceptable that its pleasantness might recommend it and invite ev'n those to prove its Vertues who had rather continue sick than make Trial of a disgusting Remedy will not blame his Curiosity but commend his prudent Charity since he doubly obliges a Patient that not onely presents him Remedies but presents him Allurements to make use of them If I see a person that is Learned and Eloquent as well as Pious busied about giving his Sermons or other devout Composures the Ornaments and Advantages which Learning or Wit do naturally confer upon those productions of the Tongue or Pen wherein they are plentifully and judiciously emploi'd I will not be forward to condemn him of a mis-expence of his Time or Talents whether they be laid out upon Speculative Notions in Theology or upon Critical Inquiries into Obsolete Rites or Disputable Etymologies or upon Philosophical Disquisitions or Experiments or upon the florid Embellishments of Language or in short upon some such other thing as seems extrinsecal to the Doctrine that is according to Godliness and seems not to have any direct tendency to the promoting of Piety and the kindling of Devotion For I consider that as God hath made man subject to several wants and hath both given him several allowable appetites and endowed him with various faculties and abilities to gratifie them so a man's Pen may be very warrantably and usefully emploi'd though it be not directly so to teach a Theological Truth or incite the Reader 's Zeal And besides what I have been alledging there is a further and more principal Consideration which belongs to this matter For ev'n wise men may prosecute the same design without doing it all of them the same way and the several Means and Methods they imploy notwithstanding a great Difference in other particulars may agree in this That the Respective Chusers of them had each of them a good Aim and proceeded in a rational way Though therefore I see a man of good parts studious of learning or of practising the Precepts of Eloquence and spend much time in reading florid Composures or in making such I dare not be forward to censure him for an effeminate or useless Writer For there are so many things pious or laudable and so many ways whereby some or other of them may either be directly promoted or indirectly serv'd by removing Objections or other Impediments that 't is not easie to be sure that a Rational Man cannot have as well a Rational as a well-meant design to instruct if not reform in those very Composures that seem fitted onely to delight There being a Nicer sort of Readers which need Instruction and to whom 't is therefore a Charity to give it who are so far from being likely to be prevailed on by Discourses not tricked up with Flowers of Rhetorick that they would scarce be drawn so much as to cast their eyes on them A while before Esther made that generous Attempt wherein to rescue the people of God she hazarded a Throne to which above an hundred other Peoples paid homage and ventur'd at once the greatest Crown and the fairest Head in the world One that had seen onely what she