Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	earth_n	great_a	let_v	6,859	5	4.2631	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52860	The great excellency, usefulness, and necessity of humane learning declared in a sermon, preached before the University, at Great St. Maries church in Cambridge, August the 7th. 1681 / Robert Neville ...	Neville, Robert, 1640 or 1-1694.	1681 (1681)	Wing N521; ESTC R10101	14,582	36

the assistance of either Sailes Compass or Anchors he lyes at the Mercy of every Wind and Tide and is in danger of being foundred upon every Shallow and split upon every Rock and this brings me to the second inconvenience that accompanies the Want of knowledg and that is 2. That it is attended with great miseries we are told Eccl. 7.11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance Wisdom and an inheritance are best indeed when in Conjunction they thrive best when they are Meet Helps and Married together but if they must be Divorced as sometimes they are Knowledg will prove a better Support to us without an Inheritance than the largest treasures of wealth can without Knowledg and hence it was that Crates that noble Theban put 200 Talents of Silver into the Common Bank upon condition that if his Sons were Fools and Idiots they should have them again but that if they were Philosophers and men of Learning they should be given to the people for he thought that then his Sons would not need them He looked upon the Furniture and Accomplishments of the mind as better Riches than the largest Doles of Fortune and the Wealth and Revenues of an ample Inheritance And the Philosopher Aristippus was wont to say that 't is far better to be a Beggar than unlearned for he only wants Wealth whereas the illiterate Person oftentimes wants Humanity it self that Sore Evil under the Sun Solomon declaimes against namely Riches laid up for the Owners thereof to their Hurt is never so visible and apparent as when Riches are in the Possession of ignorant and weak men who are made a Laughing-stock and Prey to others and a Snare to themselves what golden Asses are they as Caesar called rich but unlearned Syllanus to bear those Burdens of Jeers and Scoffs which more ingenious and witty men do load them with For there is an ignorant Rabble among the Rich a Sort of Plebeian heads whose Phansie moves in the same Wheel men in the same Level with Mechanicks though their Fortunes guild over their Infirmities and their Purses Compound for their Folly and 't is often found that they who have Midas his Wealth have also his Asses ears entailed upon them * Juvenal Satyr 8. ver 73. Rarus enim ferme sensus communis in illa Fortuna saith the Satyrist He that is Rich in wealth is usually Poor in Wisdom and Knowledg and his head is as empty as his Purse is full Knowledg is the Fortress and Security of every State and Condition of Life Wealth without Knowledg is an unsafe injoyment and certain to be abused or wasted and the same may be said of a Rich man without Knowledg that Solomon does of a fair Woman without discretion * Prov. 11 22. as a jewel of Gold in a Swines snout so is a Rich man without Knowledg Power also unless directed by Knowledg like the dreadful thunder breaks all in pieces or it is but as the strength of a beast dangerous and destructive or as a Sword in a mad mans hand which becomes the instrument of rage and Folly It is indeed a very dangerous Station as being the fittest Stage to expose a Man's weakness upon and will at last either be lessen'd or quite lost and that person who wants knowledg to Steer his Power will either run himself upon Rocks or stick fast in the Shallows of his own Ignorance till all men give him a Broadside of Scoffs and Abuses and thereby at last Sink his Reputation for He that is looked upon to be of no other Quorum but that of the Ignorantes is esteemed by knowing and discerning men but as a Worshipful Idol or Image in a piece of Arras or rather as the meer picture of Justice which exactly represents his Worship 's Blind Ignorance by her being pictur'd Blind And as Magistrates so also ought Ministers to be endued with Knowledg least they render their Calling cheap and contemptible for * Mal. 2.7 the Priests lips should keep Knowledg and God himself declares that those are not fit for Holy Orders that reject Knowledg * Hos 4.6 Because thou hast rejected knowledg I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me A Business of so great importance as Understanding and Expounding the Scriptures which requires multiplicity of Authors is a matter of great Learning which cannot in a short time and with small pains be attained For if in the Apostles times when much of the Scripture was scarcely written and God was pleased to teach men by Miracles St. Paul required diligent Reading much more is it necessary in our times wherein God does not supply our natural defects by Miracles and yet the Burden of our Profession is infinitely encreased For if we add to the growth of Christian Learning as it was in the Apostles times but this one Circumstance which is highly requisite in our times but was not so in theirs namely the Knowledg of the State and Succession of Doctrine in the Church from time to time a thing very necessary for the determining the Controversies of these our dayes how great a Stock of Learning will this require so that you plainly see that the most insignificant and worthless Chip of the whole Block is not fit to make Timber for the Pulpit ex quovis ligno non fit Mercurius and so these Mercuries these Messengers of the great God of Heaven and Earth must not be hew'd out of every Block least their more acute Auditors serve them as the Frogs in the Fable did the Log insult over slight and trample upon them these are the fruits of the want of Knowledg as to particular Persons let us next consider the great inconveniences that attend 2. Those Places or Kingdoms where these Persons that want Knowledg live and reside and we shall find their want of Knowledg a great Enemy 1. To their Prosperity 2. To their Peace And 3. To their Religion 1. We shall find the Want of Knowledg an Enemy to the Prosperity of those Places or Kingdoms where Persons that want Knowledg live and reside If a Kingdom would grow great and prosperous its Prosperity must be built upon one of these two Pillars either Trade or War Now Learning is a great Advancer of Trade in times of Peace and a Bulwark to a Nation in time of War As for Trade how can that be propagated how can we export our Wares and Merchandises without Cosmography to bring us acquainted with other Countries without Navigation to waft and transport us thither how can we have a free and Universal Trade without forrein Languages to converse with the Natives of the several Places where the Scene of our Traffick lyes Nor is Learning less advantagious and useful in time of War As contrary as the Goddess of War Bellona seems to Minerva the Goddess of all Arts and Wisdom yet war cannot be successfully managed without her Assistance it is not a fierce and brutish Courage

Pleasure and Delight that is to be found in Knowledg those who are possest with a Noble Passion for knowledg how do they despise all lower pleasures in companion of it how do they forget themselves neglect the body and retire into the mind the highest part of man and nearest to God As the appearance of light though not attended with any other visible Beauties refreshes the Eye after long darkness so the clear knowledg and discovery of Truths how abstract soever is grateful to the Intellectual Faculty thus some men have been strangely transported with the pleasure of a Mathematical Demonstration when the Evidence only not the Importance of the thing was ravishing and delightful Solon when near his End and some of his Friends were whispering softly about a Point of Philosophy on the sudden opened his eyes and raised his head to give attention whereof being asked the reason he replied that * Ut cum istud quicquid est de quo disputatis percepero moriar Valer. Maxim when I understand what you are discoursing of I may dye such was his delight in knowledg that a little of it made his Agony insensible and Tully whilst he was reading a Treatise of Philosophy breaks out into this kind of Ecstasie O philosophia unus dies ex praeceptis tuis actus peccanti immortalitati est anteponendus and Socrates so real a pleasure did he find in Philosophical Knowledg was said to have given thanks to God among other things that by his Providence he was a Philosopher To be reviewing the Recesses of Nature and the beautiful inside of the Universe is a more manly yea Angelical Felicity than the highest gratification of the Senses which is such a low degree of Happiness as is common to the youthful Epicure with his Hounds and Horses And as Knowledg is Pleasant and Delightful so 2. Hath it in it many Excellencies and Advantages What is it in this World on which men put the greatest value Silver Gold Jewels yet even these must give the pre-eminence and strike Sail to Knowledg which * Job 28.15 16 18 cannot he gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof it cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx or the Saphire no mention shall be made of Coral or of pearles for the price of it is above Rubies Could the excellency and beauty of Knowledg be presented to the eye of man the finest Gold would loose its Shine and Lustre the fairest Pearls would soon grow Pale and the richest Rubies would blush for shame to see themselves so much outvied and excelled by it Knowledg communicates an unspeakable excellency to the persons of men and we may say the same of it that the Preacher does of Wisdom * Eccl. 8.1 it makes a mans face to shine Knowing and intelligent men on earth are like the stars in heaven say the Hebrew Doctors Knowledg undoubtedly transcends Ignorance as far as Light excels Darkness there is not more difference betwixt a Man and a Beast than betwixt a knowing and an Ignorant Person a wise knowing man though without Wealth as much excelling a Rich man without Knowledg as an Angel does an Ass laden With Gold Riches are but Appendages and Accessions to the outward Grandeur Knowledg is an Imbellishment and Ennoblement of the mind of man it being an Error worse than Heresie to adore the Complemental and Circumstantial pieces of Felicity such as are the Gifts of Fortune and undervalue those perfections and essential parts of Happiness wherein we resemble our Maker to which I may also add that 3. Knowledg is useful and necessary in all States and Conditions of Life which we shall the more easily discover if we consider the great inconveniences that attend those Persons who want Knowledg and they are two 1. The Want of Knowledg is attended with great Sins and 2. With great Miseries 1. The Want of Knowledg is attended with great Sins and therefore it was not without good Reason that Cebes in his Table quotes these words of Plato * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Learning is as it were the Bridle of youth and keeps it from worse employments and again he tells us that the attainment of Learning cures the Soul of all Diseases and Plotinus most truly affirms that it is from * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 false Opinions that men are so fond of their Vices that it is for want of right Notions and Apprehensions of things and therefore the Right Honourable and Learned the late Earl of Clarendon in the Epistle Dedicatory to his Survey of Hobs his Leviathan truly charges all the Errors of that Book upon the Author 's consulting and making use of too few Books When men are without knowledg they will be apt not onely to Commit but also to Consecrate their wickedness and because such ignorant Zelots as these have not Light proportionable to their Heat they become Schismatical St. Paul indeed tells us * Gal. 4.8 it is good to be zelously affected but it must be in a good thing and not onely so for he speaks of some who had a godly Zele and yet in them too there was something wanting they * Rom. 10.2 had it not according to knowledg and therefore St. Augustin commends Zele as good in David who was a knowing and a wise King when he said the zele of thy house hath eaten me up but on the other side condemns it as bad and unbeseeming the ignorant Multitude when 't is said of them * Zelus occupavit plebem ineruditam lib. 20. de Civitate Dei cap. 12. Zele hath possessed an ignorant Multitude For Zele in Religion without knowledg will flame so furiously that it will not so much Kindle as Burn up Devotion and consume the Sacrifice the Altar and the Priest himself too An ignorant Zelot being overheated with a Calenture of Zele like his brother Fanatick Eunus in Lucius Florus who that he might be thought inspired put a Nut-shell into his Mouth filled with Fire and Brimstone He spits Fire and breaths forth Flames with his words This Burning Zeal it is that makes him often assault Christianity with its own weapons fight against our Saviour under his own Banner and whilst he thinks to Win heaven by Storm he makes the Kingdom where he lives suffer * Mat. 11.12 Violence and endeavours to Force it without a Metaphor The Ignorant Zelot who wanting sufficient Authority to warrant his actions takes a groundless Opinion for his Foundation and makes not Reason his Judge in the Consult can receive no assistance from it in the heat of action he hath then lost all Command of himself and as his Ignorance continues so his vehemence and consequently his danger does increase He will still follow the same blind guide that first misled his devotion not knowing either how to stop his Carreer or direct his Course like one that puts out to Sea without