Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	apostle_n	church_n	scripture_n	2,161	5	5.9273	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35033	Some animadversions upon a book intituled, The theory of the earth by the Right Reverend Father in God, Herbert, Lord Bishop of Hereford.	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1685 (1685)	Wing C6979; ESTC R7650	60,658	228

these Heavens nor this Earth can declare unto us the glory of God or his Handy-work for this present Earth is a strange mishapen thing full of broken Rocks and Mountains Hills and Valleys Lakes and Seas the ruines only of a former Earth which carried a smooth spherical form a beautiful and rich Soil delicately adorned with Fruitful Trees and pleasant Flowers without Seas or Lakes and in a word all over a very Paradise The Heavens also were then of a temperate Serene Air no Storms or Tempests no Scorching or Freezing Weather but pleasant Seasons throughout the year fit to breed and nourish all things which now clean contrary is filled with boistrous Winds Storms and Hurricanes Heats and Colds distempered and infectious Airs so that men are now cut off in the beginning or midst of their daies or if they fulfil the whole number of them it doth not amount to half a quarter of their former longevity This he undertakes to set forth to us in a Book entituled the Theory of the Earth Which I shall now examine and pass some brief Animadversions upon it III. The whole Discourse of this mans Theory ariseth from the great dissatisfaction he had in two things the first was concerning the common belief we have of the Deluge that the Earth was wholly overflowed and quite encompassed with so much Water all at once as to extend to the tops of the highest Mountains and fifteen Cubits over fo so we understand Moses's description of it This seems to him a thing not intelligible and consequently not credible as we shall see hereafter The second thing that troubles him is the mishapen form of our present Earth as he thinks not becoming the Omnipotent Power of God who Created all things and after every Work affirmed that it was good which no man can say of this imperfect World for it hath scarce any thing in it of form or order but lies like a confused Mass of Ruins But tho the Creation was the first thing in order yet in his Book he puts it in the second place and begins with the Deluge as most to his purpose shewing the impossibility of it according to his Scheme of Philosophy for by that we are to rule our thoughts and words in all things appertaining to the Natural World as he calls it But the plain truth is both these difficulties are but pretended to bring in his new devised fancy of making another World very different from that which Moses describes in the Creation This is his beloved Darling which he would gladly compel us to receive by shewing us first the impossibility of such a Deluge in this World as now it appears And from thence he introduces a World of his own framing and shews thereby his admirable Wit and Parts as he conceives in its composure which we shall see when we come to it At present we will follow his method and begin with the Deluge the common opinion whereof he rejects because it is not Intelligible IV. He lays down this Rule That in all things appertaining to this Natural World which consist of matter and form we must not allow of any thing that is not agreeable to the ordinary course of nature which he supposes may be conceived in a rational way As for example That two material bodies cannot penetrate the one into the other this is against the Principles of his Philosophy And therefore we ought not to allow that the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin in bringing forth our Saviour into the World And that Accidents cannot subsist without a Subject to support them this also is unintelligible and therefore we allow not the Popish Transubstantiation So likewise we reject their Purgatory because it is unintelligible how the Soul separated from the Body being a pure Spiritual Substance can suffer by material Fire and suchlike their Tenets Yet we believe the first that the Blessed Virgin continued a Virgin in partu that is in bringing forth our Saviour as well as in conceiving him because we have a sufficient ground for this in Scripture both in the Prophet Isaiah and in the Gospel A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son Her Virginity is jointly affirmed both of her conceiving and bearing And therefore all the Christian Church have ever affirmed it and say according to the Creed called the Apostle's born of the Virgin Mary But we find no compelling Scripture to make us believe the Popish Tenets we mentioned If the Papists could shew us as plainly in Scripture their Transubstantiation as we can that the Virgin both conceived and bare a Son we should as readily believe the one as the other Wherefore our Rule of Belief is the Scripture and whatsoever is plainly declared there we presently submit unto whether the manner of it be intelligible or not intelligible whether it relate to the material World or the Spiritual World for I know no reason why we should make that distinction of Material and Spiritual if Gods Word plainly declares it for by reason we are more assured that Gods Word must be Truth than that any material thing can be or can not be so Who doth understand the union of Mans Material Body with his Spiritual part the Soul Where the faculties of the Soul are lodged his understanding Will and Memory and how they are distinguished How material accidents of the Body work upon the Soul and disorder sometimes the understanding sometimes the memory Nay in things wholly material How little doth man understand or can give a reason why a dry yellow Seed of Wheat should spring up in a green moist Blade and that grow into an Ear and become Wheat again Or who doth understand the various flowings and ebbings of the Sea These are things our very Senses tell us are so yet our Reason doth not at all understand how they came to be so Shall man then who understands not himself nor the mean works of God by his shallow weak Reason examine and determine the great and wonderful Works of God God forbid V. But this man perchance will say that he hath found out an explication of Scripture in this business of the Deluge which never was found before and such as may accord as well with Moses's relation as that we commonly receive To this I answer If his way of interpreting the Scripture be extravagant Romantick and ridiculous in it self not any thing becoming the gravity of Scripture and also put a sense extreamly forced and even contrary to the words as they have been understood by the whole World hitherto we have reason to reject it And now let any knowing serious Person not light and giddy Persons who are pleased with any novelty consider and weigh the Arguments he brings and the Answers herein contained and then let him judg of the whole matter wherein we will now proceed VI. His first Chapter is only by way of Introduction to bring in the rest And in his second Chapter he endeavours to shew us

Deluge came upon the Old World So now they are willingly heedless and will not believe that this Conflagration will assuredly destroy them No man can discover more from these words of St. Peter unless his head be so filled with this mans Theory that neither sleeping nor waking he thinks of any thing else VII I said a little before that in the Flood The Animate World was destroyed But our Theorist will needs have it that the Natural World as he calls it that is the Body and Frame of the Earth was also destroyed by this Flood And for the ground of this his assertion he desires us to take notice that St. Peter in the former Chapter speaking of the Flood saith that it was brought upon the World of the ungodly but does not mention the ungodly here I pray you what need was there to mention it here having in the former Chapter declared particularly what he meant by the World the World of the ungodly destroyed by the Flood And so here he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Singular number the World perished not the Heavens and the Earth perished in the Plural number But after he had mentioned the Heavens and the Earth had he meant their perishing there had been no need at all to add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but should have said they perished It had been very superfluous or redundant to repeat the same again which he exprest immediately before by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore the Apostle must needs mean somewhat more by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the ungodly and moreover adds O` 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the World of the ungodly that then was in being or then lived that World perished And farther to shew you that he here meant the World of the ungodly he ends the following verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The World which perished in the former verse in the next verse is reserved unto judgment and perdition of ungodly men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 VIII But if there were any doubt the business would be cleared by looking into Gen. 6. 5. where Moses tells us God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually v. 7. And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast and the creeping things and the fowls of the air Here God plainly declares what he will destroy viz. Man and Beast not a word mentioning the Earth or Frame of it to be destroyed And therefore we may well conclude that the addition of the Earth it self is this mans invention only no intention of Gods And again v. 17. And behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and every thing that is in the earth shall die Here likewise is no mention of destroying the Earth or Frame of it but all Flesh shall Die nor is any thing else mentioned in the Chapter following where he plainly describes the Flood and what was destroyed by it Wherefore we may well conclude that St. Peter intended no more than the World of the ungodly which he himself mentioned in the second Chapter upon the same Subject and repeats the same in the third Chapter IX But he objects That the ground that these Scoffers went upon was taken from the Natural World its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning therefore if the Apostle answers ad idem and takes away their Argument he must understand and shew that the Natural World hath perished and been changed The first part of his Argument I grant is true That the ground these Scoffers went upon was taken from the Natural World its constancy and permanency in the same state from the beginning yet I deny the second part That if the Apostle answers ad idem and takes away their Argument he must understand and shew that the Natural World hath perished and been changed For I shall take away their Argument without any change in the former World and Answer more ad idem than he doth For notwithstanding all things continued as they did yet by the Word of God a Flood came upon the old World And so tho all things continue now as they did from the beginning a Fiery destruction shall come upon them For as I said in all this Argument of the Apostle The Word of God is declared to be the Cause of all By the Word of God the Heavens and the Earth were of old By the Word of God a Deluge came upon the World of the ungodly And so by the Word of God a Fiery destruction shall come upon them notwithstanding the Heavens and the Earth and all things continue as they did This was the Scoffers Argument and S. Peter thus confutes it X. Secondly our Theorist argues that these Scoffers could not be ignorant of the Deluge and therefore it was the change in the old World that they were ignorant of This man will not attend to what St. Peter saith when it does not serve his turn no more than those Scoffers did attend unto the old Testament for St. Peter tells them that tho they had the old Testament read frequently unto them yet they were willingly ignorant that is wilfully and would not attend unto it But such a change as this man would have in the old World they were wholly not wilfully ignorant of and could not understand from Moses any such change for Moses hath not a word of it And therefore this is a plain Argument that there was no change at all in the old World But they were willingly ignorant of that which they might have plainly learnt from Moses both the Creation and the Deluge XI Thirdly he saith St. Peter takes his Argument from the Conflagration which was a real destruction of the World and from thence must infer the destruction of the old World I say St. Peter doth not take his Argument from the destruction of the Heavens and Earth by the Conflagration for then the Heavens must have been destroyed in the old World as well as the Earth I say the Heavens not the Firmament or the Air altered but the whole Heavens all quite consumed by Fire But St. Peter takes his Argument all along from the Word of God as I said before That as by the Word of God the Deluge came unexpected so by the same Word the Conflagration shall come unexpected XII His fourth Argument is the redundancy of the Apostles discourse making the fifth verse wholly supersluous But there is no redundancy in it if you take the Argument as I lay it from Gods Word And that he saith I make the Apostle Tautological if he mean in this Chapter the World of the ungodly for he mentioned it in the former Chapter To this I say