Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	work_n	world_n	worldly_a	90	3	7.7937	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89235	Miscellanea spiritualia: or, Devout essaies: composed by the Honourable Walter Montagu Esq.; Miscellanea spiritualia. Part 1.	Montagu, Walter, 1603?-1677.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1648 (1648)	Wing M2473; Thomason E519_1; ESTC R202893	256,654	397

the earth is thine In this verity he rejoyced extracted out of all his transitory felicity And King Ezekias having his treasury and cabinets filled with all pretious stores might have rejoyced in the truth of those blessings without deriving from them vanity and presumption as much as he boasted of them to the Babylonians so much untruth he found in that felicity whereof he seemed to have forgot the changeable property and was quickly instructed by the Prophet in the insecurity of such goods whereby he discerned how he had rejoyced in the untruth of his temporal happines out of which he might have extracted matter of a true and sincere rejoycing for Gods Spirit attesteth to us that he doth not cast away the mighty whereas he himself is mighty All the attainders lying upon great and rich men in the Scripture are brought against such as rejoyce in the errours and deceits of temporall goods such as either sacrifice all their wealth to the Idols of their fancy or such as make an Idol of their wealth and offer up all their thoughts unto it The voluptuous or the avaritious are those that fall under the sentence of the Gospell and their crime is not what they possesse but what possesseth them when they doe not rejoyce in the truth of their goods but delight themselves in contriving errours and fallacies out of them and as the Apostle sayes Change the Truth of God into a lie So that the defectivenesse of their happinesse ariseth out of their degression from Truth and whence doth all the blessednesse which Christian faith annexeth to sufferance issue but from this spring of verity which streameth out that joy and exultation is proposed to us in the afflictions of this life How come the thorns of sufferance to beare grapes the wine whereof rejoyceth the heart while our senses are prickedct wounded with this spinous or thorny matter Surely this cordiall is made of the Spirit of Truth which may be extracted out of all the asperities of this life first by considering the true state of Humane Nature designed to sufferings not only by sentence but by Grace in order to the aversing us from the love of this world next by contemplating the truth of those glorious promises which are made to a virtuous correspondency with Gods Order in his disposure of his creature so that both the materiall goods and evills of this life afford no legitimate joy but what the mind beareth when she is teeming with Truth we may therefore resolve with King David that when Truth doth spring out of the earth righteousnesse shall looke downe from Heaven §. III. The fallacies of some Objections solved and rejoycing in Truth concluded for our reall Happinesse BUt now me thinkes having determined the happinesse of this life in the loving and rejoycing in Truth many that thinke themselves unhappy wonder at this conclusion and conceive me disproved by their defeatures perswading themselves to have beene alwayes suitors and lovers of Truth when the Truth is that they doe not first seeke verity for the object of their love but conclude they have found it in what they have placed their love Supposing their opinions of such joyes as they pursue to be sincere and solid truthes insomuch as I may well resolve such sonnes of men that They love vanity and seek after lies In that region of the world which I have travelled the most I may reflect to the inhabitaints of it one raigning error which may convince many of insincerity in their addresses to Truth for the ground of their happinesse this it is the trusting the infidelity of fortune to others for our owne felicity designing our stock out of the spoiles of our fellowes and in this course doe we not fixe the hopes of our happinesse upon what can never passe to us but by such an infidelity as must assure us we are in continual danger of a like dispossession this must needs be our case when the expectance of the unfaithfulnesse of fortune is made the assignment of our prosperity And yet we see how Courts are commonly divided into these two partyes of some that are Sacrificing to their owne nets and others that are fishing for such nets the first is the state of such as are valuing themselves for what they have taken the second of those who are working and casting out how to catch what the others have drawne and in this manner there are many who pretend to be lovers of Truth that make these fallacies the very ground of that web of happinesse they have in hand This is so preposterous a course for ingenious spirits in order to true felicity as surely there is much of a curse in this method and God warranteth my beliefe both by the Prophets and Apostles when speaking by the voyce of Esay to this case he saith They have chosen their owne wayes wherefore I also will chuse their delusions and by Saint Paul the holy Spirit saith Because they received not the love of Truth for this cause God sends them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie Let the worlds darlings examine what they confide in for the security of their joyes and they will finde it is the Father of lies they trust for the truth of their felicity who being not able to diminsh the increated verity sets all his art to deface all created Truthes which worke in this region of the world I now treat of he designeth by such a course as he used with the Person of Truth it selfe when he was upon earth for he carryeth up our imagination to the highest point of esteeme he can raise it of earthly possessions from whence he exposeth to our fancies the glories and beauties of this world in deceitfull apparencies as if they were permanent and secured fruitions and our wills are commonly perswaded to bowe downe and reverence such false suggestions whereof the infidelity augmenteth by the degrees of our Devotion in that beliefe since the more we confide in their stability the more falshood doe we admit for our happinesse and thus are we abused in the possession of Truth while we affect all our delights under that notion by the subtilty of the great enemy of Truth we are as Saint Augustine saith elegantly brought to hate Truth by loving those things which we love only as we imagine them to be true for the impermanency of this worlds goods is odious to us which is the truth of their nature and we affect in them their assurance as a truth without which we would not love them and yet that opinion is a meere delusion This may satisfie many who account themselves unhappy by the mutations of fortune and the dispossessions of their secular commodities for they shall finde themselves unfortunate but in the same measure they misapprehended the true nature of such fruitions by as much as they over-loved them so much are they distressed by their losses so the

errour it self he rejoyceth in so Essentiall is truth for the terme of his acquiescence Supposing we do thus generally aim at truth for our felicity I may well be asked how it commeth to passe that the subject of our joyes is oftener apparence and falsity then the real good of this life's benedictions the cause surely is the partiality of our imagination towards our sensitive appetite rather then in favour to our reason and thus Opinion which is but a changeling introduced by Sense passeth commonly for the right child and certainly Opinion may well be said to be the mean issue of sense and Verity the noble child of Reason but by this unjustice of our imagination it followeth that all the delights which are touched but at our senses are commonly accepted by our will for the true species of joy from the credit of that test without examining their nature in the fire of Ratiocination whereby it happens that when we are the trulyest deceived we are most believing in the truth of our happynesse for when we misapprehend the most the nature of secular pleasures having the least suspition or scruple of the mutability of such fruitions our joy seemeth the most sincere which proveth clearly that truth is but mistaken in the colouring not unintended in the designe of our felicity In redresse of this error Devotion taketh off the deceitfull colours of good and evill which Opinion layes upon the creature and presenteth to our understanding a naturall image both of the worth as well as the vanity which may be found in the rectified or vitious apprehension of all temporalities possessing us with the true nature of all our possessions directeth us how to rejoyce in the truth of such blessings and thereby satisfyeth that instinct of the mind with the reality and doth not amuse it with the meer colour of verity Certaine it is that temporall blessings as health beauty wealth and honour are indued with a true and sincere goodnesse wherein their owners may vertuously rejoyce the point is the discernment of this Truth and the selecting that only for subject of our delectation because just as much as we stray from this principle so much we remove from our happinesse which depending on the satisfaction of our opinion if that be unsound in apprehending the nature of such goods as are the objects of our affections we are in danger of being unhappy by their being but true to their owne nature while we are untrue to ours For their true instinct is mutation and instability and ours the perception and use of that verity whereby our understanding may sort an affection proportioned to the nature of secular benedictions §. II. Sacred examples shewing what may be said to be a rejoycing in the truth of temporall goods and how even secular evils afford joy by the same method of a right understanding them THe states of many the dearest friends of God testifie that temporall felicity affordeth a sincere matter of joy which is commensurate to the true sense conceived of the nature of such happinesse Abrahams wealth was thought worthy the holy Ghosts mentioning as a blessing as his peregrination was fitted with great accommodations so that state of unsettlednesse was a fixing in his minde the true nature of all he possessed In proof whereof it may well be observed that the only purchase Abraham made upon earth with his riches was a grave from whence we may inferre how rightly he understood the truth of their transitory nature and his owne mutable condition whereupon he chose to take possession of the Land promised him by a marke of his parting with it rather then of his possessing it thus did he understanding the true goodnesse of his worldly commodities derive from them both exercises of charity and notions of mortification while he imployed his wealth in the accommodations of strangers and passengers and in provision of his owne lodging as a traveller at the end of his journey and remaining in this rectified sense of his tempoporall fruitions all their effects proved a constant rejoycing in Truth By this method Abraham extracted the same Spirit of Truth out of his plentifull substance that Lazarus did out of his penury and indigence and surely if Dives had rejoyced but in the truth of his abundance and not set his heart upon the false part thereof he would have taken Lazarus into his breast in this life then they might have been bed-fellowes in Abrahams Bosome For I may truly affirme that there is no Lazarus in this world who hath not an Abraham in his Bosome that shall get to the being in Abrahams Bosome in the next And likewise conclude that there is no Dives in this life who hath a Lazarus in his bosome that shall not attaine to Abrahams Bosome in the other world For there is no necessitous body wanting fidelity of heart and poverty of spirit that can be qualified for that state meerely by his misery and there is no so splendid or opulent person indued with true Christian poverty of spirit that is not thereby intitled to eternall felicity and surely as there are many Lazarusses who want this kind of Abraham I have explained in their heart so there are diverse Abrahams in this life as I may terme them who carry this sort of Lazarus in their bosome being both rich humble and faithfull contriving all their temporary joy out of the perception and dilection of the true blessing intended in the Creature and deduce their satisfaction from Gods order not their owne exaltation in which respect they may be proved to rejoyce in verity Did not holy Job rejoyce in the truth of his worldly goods when he assigned the most of them to sacrifices either expiatory for his children or propitiatory for himselfe to purge the excesses of feasting in his owne family or to provide against the exigences of fasting in the houses of his neighbours acting this part which the holy Spirit gives the potent saying the portion of the poore is in the rich mans hands and surely we may conceive that in the latter part of his life which I may call his temporall resurrection his estate rising againe to more glory then it had expired with his piety was also exalted in proportion to a higher state of perfection so that truth being found and acknowledged in any splendid condition will keepe Peace and righteousnesse in the family kissing each other Was not King Davids vast treasure well managed by the superintendency of truth when he assigned all the most pretious materialls the earth affordeth to their true use some as it were converted into vocall instruments of Gods prayses others into visible memorialls of his presence and designed in a Temple as good a sensible figure as he could of the truth he conceived of all materiall substances which was of the earths belonging to God and all the plenitude thereof which confession he made in these words thine are the heavens and

defect will still result out of the distance of our joy from this principle of rightly possessing and rejoycing in Truth for all our reall unhappinesse riseth by the same degrees that Verities are diminished from among the Children of men There is one familiar scruple raised against our perswading the active life to this constant intendment of Truth which is that this fixure of the minde upon verity rather then leaving it a little loose to opinion taketh off the point and edge of our spirit in the activenesse and commerces of this life Whereunto I answer that spirits wher and sharpned upon the errours of imagination are subject to turne their edge upon the least encounter of disappointment when mindes temper'd by the consideration of truth and thereby set and whetted for action keep their edge cutting against the haire as I may say not blunted or rebated in any adverse occurrencies nor doth this breast of Verity as some suppose nourish only the minde and pine the senses but feedeth them also with healthfull and convenie 〈…〉 pleasure and teacheth the soule how to keepe the senses in their true degree of servants managing their trusts only upon account which the minde taketh so exactly of them in all the commerce of their delights as they can never runne out much in prejudice of her estate and in this order the rationall part doth the office of the good steward in the Gospell Feeding the family with their portions in due season And surely this orderly oeconomy in the managing of all worldly goods Reason presiding and the senses entertained with competent satisfaction is the best state of happinesse this active life can admit So is it the knowledge and love of Truth seated in our understanding and our affections which can only consort this harmony of a constant rejoycing And doubtlesse while our fancies doe but counterfeit that truth they expose to our affections we can no more justly complaine of the insufficiency of that object in point of affordingus felicity then of a painted fires not warming us be it neverso wel drawn For commonly they are but designs of our imaginations coloured over with vaine apparencies of Truth which they exhibite to our affections for the true substances of our happinesse wherefore I may me thinkes fittly illustrate this familiar errour of the world by this story of Zeuxis the famous Painter who having made the figure of a boy with a cluster of grapes in his hand being told the birds sate upon the boyes hand to peck at the grapes answered this was no true praise of his art because it was a signe he had painted the grapes better then the man otherwise the birds would have been afraid of that figure In like maner may I say that these imaginations which figure such a truth of happinesse in sensible delectations as their affections take them for the reall and sincere felicity of this life are not to be commended for this vivacity for it is a signe they represent more lively to our reason the fruits of this world which the man hath in his hand then they doe the nature of our humanity the constitution whereof if it were truely imaged and figured to our understanding would fright our affections from setting themselves upon the fruit of temporalities by considering the state of man which inadvertency is now familiar by this partiality of our fancy in figuring the grapes more to the life then the hand that holds them if the images which Truth it selfe hath drawn of the condition of man in this life were well impressed in our imagination of being but a blast a vapour or a shaddow this would undoubtedly divert our mindes from taking never so well coloured images of riches honour beauty or dominion for the true substances of humant felicity If there be any then that wonder they are not happy pretending they have alwayes held Zerubbabels party preferring truth before all competitors of empire beauty and pleasure if they are in any great de●ection of spirit let them take this course to undeceive themselves in this their supposed rectitude of intention which if it had beene sincere could not have let their mindes sinke into any deepe depression let them I say examine first whether they have rightly apprehended the state of our humane Nature and the condition of all temporall fruitions and then whether they have squared their loves to such delights by the measure of a rectified apprehension of both their nature and their own for the same disproportions there are betweene our affections and the true property of those things we love the same deficiencies must be consequent in our happinesse and upon this reflection Truth may tell most of the world This people honoureth me with their lips but their hearts are farre from me and as the increated Truth told the Pharisees who pretended to have great interest in God the Father that if what they alledged had beene true They would have acknowledged him also because he proceeded from the Father So in the name of the created Truth which is to be found in all Gods Workes I may say to many such pretenders if they had truly loved the Originall Verity they would have beene possessed of the true nature and use of the creature which notion issueth and proceeds out of an application to the first Verity Having shewed how the beames of Truth enlighten both hemispheres of the contemplative and active life and infuse into each of them their respective happinesse I may conclude with the Wisemans confession upon his loving of Truth above health or beauty that hers is the only light because it is inextinguishable and that all other goods come together with her and Devotion may lawfully use the words of her great master and assure her followers If you continue in my word then are you truly my disciples and you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free The eighth Treatise Touching the meanes of possessing that Truth wherein the happinesse of this life is stated In two sections §. I. Diffidence in point of obtaining Spirituall lights reprehended and prayer proposed in order to this designe NOW me thinks I am called upon as one that hath advised a traveller not to lose his way to give some nearer directions for the finding it as a further contribution towards the securing his journeyes end then a simple caution against the danger of deviation For as Solomon telleth us The lame man in the way maketh more hast then a Courser out of it And by reason there may be many different humours that may ask this question of Saint Thomas How can we know the way to this so excellent possession of truth I may well premise this consideration before my answer that there was a wide difference between Pilat's Interrogatory concerning truth when he asked our Saviour What is truth and Saint Thomas his question about finding the way to it saying How can