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_v	world_n	worship_n	61	3	6.5702	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45744	A treatise of moral and intellectual virtues wherein their nature is fully explained and their usefulness proved, as being the best rules of life ... : with a preface shewing the vanity and deceitfulness of vice / by John Hartcliffe ...	Hartcliffe, John, 1651-1712.	1691 (1691)	Wing H971; ESTC R475	208,685	468

than the open Cruelty of Decius or Dioclesian Hospitals another work of Magnificence Secondly HE will erect Hospitals for the Poor and Maimed Now this sort of Magnificence doth very much serve the Publick Interest for those who do these things for the sake of their own private Fancies and not for the common Good are Magnificent as some of the Church of Rome are Charitable when they erect Sanctuaries for wilful and Capital Malefactors to fly to when they found such Monasteries as are the Nurseries of a blind Devotion But to be vertuously Magnificent is with daily Provisions to feed the Hungry not the superstitious to entertain those that are unfit for Labour not loitering Wanderers or Pilgrims Thirdly THE Man who deserves praise for his Magnificence takes care to provide those Houses in which the most notorious Offenders may either be corrected or secured that those who are not so far gone in Wickedness as to be past Remedy may be called back again and amended by just and necessary Chastisement that those who have broken through all the Fences of Law may be taken out of Human Society which they would otherwise destroy and bring into Confusion HAPPY the miserable The go … of Mankind promoted by this Virtue who partake of these Works of Magnificence more happy they who lay out their Money and Revenues for the publick benefit of Mankind to instruct the ignorant in Schools to heal the diseased in Hospitals to lash the back of the Sinner in Bridewells and to cure the unsound mind in Bethlem's NOW the Works of Magnificence whether they be publick or whether they be private they are to be performed with all Pomp and State They are especially seen in Feasts and Entertainments either of our Friends or of Men of the highest Quality or else in building stately Houses Castles Churches and Theatres That Man who knows how in the most seemly fashion to manage these Undertakings is truly Magnificent The Errours of such as are Magnificent BUT here the Magnificent Person is very prone to run into a very ill Extreme Having great things much in his thoughts his mind is apt to fly too high out of the reach of Prudence then He falls to the building of Oblelikes Colossus's and Pyramids This Distemper swell'd the Heads of many in old time who spent great Sums upon magnificent Piles vast and sumptuous Statues great and mighty Vanities For Solomon the best Judg of these things hath passed this Sentence upon them that they are all so The Judgment of Solomon upon these … ngs For Eccl. 2. After He had made great Works planted Vineyards and had built stately Houses made Pools of Water for the Trees that bring forth Fruit got large and numerous herds of great and small Cattle had gathered mighty heaps of Silver and Gold and filled his Treasury therewith upon a review of all the works his Hands had wrought and upon all the pains He had taken He concludes with the truest judgment that ever was pronounced upon the World that all was Vanity Whereupon it may be supposed my Lord Bacon made this wise Observation that Truth is a a naked and open Day-light which doth not shew the Masks and Triumphs of the World half so stately as Candle-lights do and no man doubts that if there were taken out of men's minds vain Opinions flattering Hopes false valuations of Things and the imaginations of Grandeur but it would leave the minds of many who make a great Figure poor shrivel'd things full of melancholy and indisposition and unpleasing to themselves BUT there is a way to lay up our Treasure in Heaven The deeds of Charity entitle us to Heaven to be magnificent on Earth and great in Heaven then this Blessedness must be gotten by doing such remarkable deeds of Charity as I have mentioned and if we do so our Names shall endure for ever when Mausoleum's are buried and Pyramids are mouldred into dust It is Aristotle's Notion in his Epistle to Philip that the acts of Beneficence have something in them equal to God and the whole life of mankind was comprised in conferring and returning Benefits 'T is true there have been some morose Spirits such as Chrysippus and Seneca who have made plausible Harangues against Glory but in the very doing this they have appeared to aim at it Whereas it is the spur to good Works if it be made use of by one who hath passed through the Temple of Virtue to that of Honour And a man may with as much reason argue against Eating and Drinking as endeavour to banish the love of Glory that arises from the Works of Magnificence unless this did rouze the Souls of men perhaps a barbarous Sloth or a brutish stupidity would soon overspread the World no care would be taken to promote or sustain the Seats of ingenuous Arts or the Tribunals of State This carries Men upon the noblest and most Heroick Attempts and Human Nature without it would be a sluggish and unactive thing IT was the Thirst after Glory together with some private Ambition that incited the Egyptian Kings to be at so vast charge in the building the Pyramids and the Egyptians of lower Quality spared for no cost to cut out Caves or Dormitories in the Lybian Deserts which by the Christians are now adays called the Mummies and all this was undertaken for the sake of an Opinion amongst them that so long as the Body endured so long the Soul continued with it not as animating it but as unwilling to leave her former Habitation Why should not the same Thirst for the Glory of the Christian Religion move us to do such Works as may shine before Men and glorifie our Father which is in Heaven IT is not empty Fame that we must seek for it is not with Wind that we must fill our selves We want a more solid Substance to repair us A man pinched with Hunger would be very unwise to seek rather to provide himself of a gay Dress than a good Meal We are to look after that whereof we have most need and that is Virtue When this is acquired then the outward Ornaments of Magnificence may be made use of Epicurus his opinion of Magnificence Which were so despised by Epicurus that He made this one of the Precepts of his Sect Conceal thy Life He would not have his Disciples in any sort to govern their Actions by the common Reputation or vulgar Applause But Horace was of another Opinion who says Paulùm Sepultae distat inertiae Calata virtus Concealed Virtue differs not much from dead Sloth which if it were absolutely true then a man would be no further concerned to keep his Mind in order which is the true Seat of Virtue than as the actions of it are to be seen by others whereas Glory is but the shadow of true Virtue For Repulsae nescia sordidae Intaminatis fulget honoribus Nec sumit aut ponit secures Arbitrio popularis

are naturally full of Hope or Fear according as they follow or go against these Principles who is so confident and bold as he who hath behaved himself well and virtuously who is so strong and well armed against the force of the Powers of Darkness against the apprehensions of a dreadful Judgment these things are so terrible that they must needs raise our fears but the honest Man who is not conscious to himself of any guilt is secure in his own Mind from any harm or prejudice from the Divine Justice either here or hereafter whereas guiltiness creates fears of danger without any other reason for it and so the Scripture informeth us that the wicked flyeth when no Man pursueth him nay when a Man hath done a secret fault which no Eye is privy to nor no human Law can punish yet even then he is constantly under the torment of his own thoughts and hath a natural dread of a superiour Being to whom the most hidden Actions of Men are known and whose Justice will not spare to punish FOR Men have naturally the Notions of good and evil within them which in the plain cases of Right and Wrong will tell them what they ought to do and what they ought to avoid so that in acting well they will be justified and acquitted in their own Minds but in doing the contrary they will be condemned BUT yet there is a considerable difficulty in this matter because the Opinions of Men have been much divided about Virtue and Vice the different Laws and Customs of several Nations seem to argue that they are not so well agreed about these things consequently the difference between Good and Evil is not so well known more than this there is in Mankind a propension to evil and Men are generally vicious which seems to contradict that natural Instinct which shews us as we say what is Virtue and what is Vice To this Objection we answer that all Mankind are agreed that those Moral Virtues before mentioned ought to be practised and that the contraries to them are Vices and ought to be rejected if any one particular person happen to be of another mind he is as rarely to be met with as Monsters and no more to be drawn into an Argument against the truth of this Assertion than a Man being born with three Legs can be an Argument that Men naturally have not two All Men have agreed that God is to be worshiped though they differ much about the particular circumstances of his Worship keeping of Faith all Men have held to be a Duty though some say Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks but this is no prejudice to the Truth it must be granted that there is not the like evidence in all things that there is in some and many things are not so clear but that partial and inconsiderate Men may have wrong conceptions about them but these may be remedied if Men will be wise and consider things as they should do if they will lay aside violent prejudices and self-Interest for if they will govern themselves like Men and not be hurried away with Passion It is one thing to know what Virtue is and another to live according to that knowledg they may come to understand what is good and what is evil it must be confessed there is a great corruption in human Nature and we must consider that it is one thing to own the difference between Virtue and Vice another thing to live and act according to this judgment Although Men have the Notions of Good and Evil yet after all they may choose the Evil and refuse the Good and this the Apostle speaks of in Rom. vii 27. I delight in the Law of God in the inward Man that is my mind consents to it as Holy Just and Good but here he tells us he felt another Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death according to that of the Poet Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor For a Man may be convinced of his Duty but not act accordingly FOR by natural Instinct we know what we ought to do antecedent to all Reason and Discourse Secondly Natural Reason tells us what is our Duty OUR Duty is also discovered to us by natural Reason for the force of moral Actions are planted in Mens Minds and woven into the frame of their Natures but to make our Duty more plain God by the light of Reason hath shewed us what is good and what is evil and not only so but he stamps upon them the Authority of Laws for these two are very different to apprehend a thing good for us to do and to be under the Obligation of a Law to do it for to this it is necessary we should apprehend it to be the Will of our Superior that we should perform it NOW our Reason doth discover to us what is Virtue and that the Lord our God doth require our Obedience to it First BY shewing us how convenient and agreeable it is to our Natures Secondly BY the tendency of it to make us happy and to free us from Evil and Misery NOTHING is more suitable to our Natures than to have an esteem of what is great and excellent and Mankind being taught that all Perfection is in God we must adore him for that which is good doth naturally beget Love and Reverence so it is agreeable to our Natures to honor our Parents to be grateful for Benefits received to be just and righteous to be charitable compassionate and temperate to be meek humble and prudent Those that act contrary to these Duties offer an Affront to their own Natures and feel a pain in themselves however they may carry it to others BESIDES these things tend to make us happy and to free us from Misery for Reason considers the consequences of things and we call that Virtue or Good which will bring some benefit to us and that Evil or Vice which is like to bring upon us some Inconvenience upon this account Reason doth shew us what is good and what is evil to begin with Piety towards God nothing is more reasonable than to make him our Friend who is able to make us happy or miserable and the way to make him our Friend is to observe all the Vertues of a good life on the contrary Impiety or a neglect of Vertue is plainly against our Interest for this is to disoblige him who is more able to make us miserable than all the World besides and without whose Favour nothing can make us happy so that our Reason will require us to live vertuously as for instance If Nature did not teach us Gratitude Discretion would it being the only way to obtain a second Favour to be thankful for the first Humility may seem to be a thing of no great Advantage but he that shall consider what contempt Pride exposeth a Man unto will be