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	time_n	1,642	5	3.9468	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61294	A discourse concerning the devotions of the Church of Rome, especially, as compared with those of the Church of England in which it is shewn, that whatever the Romanists pretend, there is not so true devotion among them, nor such rational provision for it, nor encouragement to it, as in the church established by law among us.	Stanley, William, 1647-1731.	1685 (1685)	Wing S5244; ESTC R1838	44,628	70

ought to be estemed a very bad Man and so the Commands of Scripture enjoyn us to take Care to do Good as well as to abstain from Evil else we shall be reckoned among the unprofitable Servants We are sure that publick Service ought to be preferred before private the Glory of God and the Good of Men being more advanced by it and therefore though that man that lives in a Wilderness and serves God there when he is forced to it by Persecution may hope for a Blessing tho' he be alone and neither worshippeth God in Publick nor gives a good Example to the World yet he that runs into a Wilderness to be wondred at and admired and neglects the ordinary and most useful way of serving God there is too much reason to fear he hath his Reward At least how far soever it may please God to pardon his blind Zeal and want of Discretion yet certainly this Example of his ought not to be recommended to all as a Rule for them to walk by The first Monks we grant were very good and pious Men and were compelled to forsake their Houses and live in Solitude but it is very unreasonable to make their manner of Life a Pattern to be followed in the quiet and peaceable Ages of the Church For this would be to shew our selves insensible of the goodness of God to us in giving us the Liberty of serving him freely and openly and that we dare profess our Religion without fear of losing our Lives And for the same reason we should still chuse to celebrate the Sacrament in an upper Room because our Blessed Saviour and his Holy Apostles did so and should have our religious Assemblies in Crypts and Vaults under Ground because the first Christians in times of Difficulty and Persecution often durst use no other And as the Solitude of a Monastick Life is no proper Asfistnce or Expression of true Devotion was not known in the first Ages of the Church and afterwards was not taken up of Choice but by Necessity So also in the last place I observe that the Gospel of Christ and the Rules of Living which are given us by himself and his Holy Apostles never enjoyn or suppose any such thing We are always supposed to live in Company and Society and accorpingly the Precepts of our Saviour and the Apostles are adapted to the common Cases of Men and the Concerns of such as converse freely in the World And therefore I must needs say that it hath been very wisely ordered that there should be new and distinct Rules made for those that delight in this solitary and Monastick way of Life For they are such a kind of men as the Gospel of Christ hath no proper Rules for Secondly And I am afraid that there is as little true Devotion in their so frequent and constant Prayers enjoyned and practised in their Monasteries though this be confessedly what is most commendable in their way of Life and is the only way by which they themselves can pretend to do any Good in the World If I except those which are but very few that workwith their Hands Praise and Prayer is therefore acceptable with God as it is in the volunrary Expression of our Souls a Free-will Offering and Sacrifice which we offer to God in consideration of his infinite Excellencies and Perfections in himself his former undeserved Goodness to us and our Liableness to him Now the constant Prayers used in their Monasteries in more particulars than one come short of that true Devotion due from Men to their Maker For first they are as much as can be forced on a rational Being and on that account must needs lose much of their Worth and Acceptableness The Monks are obliged by the Rules of their several Orders to say such and such Prayers and just at such and such times whatever Devotion or Intention of Mind they have and they are severely punished if they fail of them Exactly at Midnight at two or three a Clock in the Morning so very often and at so very unseasonable times that many have confessed this strictness of their Devotions to be of all the greatest Burden of their Lives And yet this they must do in Imitation of some holy Man of Old who is recorded to have pray'd at these Houres whereas these Mens Devotions is not warm enough to keep them awake when they are at Prayer And therefore these Prayers not being the free Emanations of their own mind methinks the praise of them is not so much due to the Monks themselves as to the head and founder of their Order who obliged them to such Rules And their Devotion is little more praise-worthy than that of the Jews at Avignon and several other Places who are once in a Week forced to go to Church and hear a Sermou as these Monks are at least to sit there whilst a Sermon is preached and return home as good Christians as they went thither But then they are not only thus strictly obliged to such Hours of Prayer for that were somewhat tolerable they might possibly be intent on their Prayers notwithstanding But they are at the same time taught that they need only say the Words with their Mouths it is not absolutely necessary that their mind should go along with them and this together with the other must needs spoyl all true Devotion The frequency and unseasonableness of their Prayers will make it very difficult for them to attend as they ought and their Doctrine concerning the No-necessity of attention at Prayers will certainly make them to yield to these difficulties and so there may be abundance of Words said but no Devotion perform'd Besides all this they have a way of being eased of this trouble of the Prayers for according to their Casuists it is allowable for a man to get or hire another to say his Prayers for him At least he may be dispensed with by his Superiour and this Dispensation is good whether there be a just Reason or Occasion for it or no according to an excellent Maxim of theirs Non ad Valo rem sed ad Justitiam requiritur Causa And if after all this Men still will be more than they need strict in their Prayers according to the Rules of their Orders they almost constantly offend in the End and Design of their Devotions For they do them not so much to benefit the World or work themselves up to a better temper of Mind But to perform a task imposed on them and which they have vowed to perform or especially to merit by their works For they do not so much as pretend that this strictness in Devotion is absolutely Necessary for their Salvation for else why do they not enjoyn it to all seeing all have the same need of Salvation and therefore the sole end of all this strictness and constancy in Prayers is only to get Heaven for others Which Opinion besides that it will mightily discourage Men of an ordinary Charity