Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	article_n	church_n	faith_n	2,312	5	5.7145	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20920	Certayne letters, translated into English, being first written in Latine. Two, by the reverend and learned Mr. Francis Iunius, divinitie reader at Leyden in Holland. The other, by the exiled English Church, abiding for the present at Amsterdam in Holland. Together with the confession of faith prefixed: where vpon the said letters were first written	Junius, Franciscus, 1545-1602.; R. G., fl. 1602.; Junius, Franciscus, 1545-1602. Christian letter.; Johnson, Francis, 1562-1618.; Ainsworth, Henry, 1571-1622?	1602 (1602)	STC 7298; ESTC S105409	64,792	60

it stādeth we have truly and as briefly as we could related them in the Preface to the Reader hereafter following and therefore thought here to omit the repetition of them The Lord Iesus alway preserve you and your Vniversityes to the praise of his name the ornamēt of good learning the propagation and maintenance of his pure Religion From Amsterdam in the low countreyes The yeare of the last patience of the saints 1598. The preface to the Christian Reader IT may seeme strange vnto thee Christian Reader that any off the Englysh nation should for the truth of the Gospell be forced to forsake their natyve contrye and lyve in exile especially in these dayes when the Gospell seemeth to have free passage and florish in that land And for this cause have our exile bene hardly thought of by many and evil spoken of by some who know not as it seemeth eyther the trewe estate of the Church of England or causes of our forsaking and separating from the same but hearing this sect as they call it to be every where spoken against have with out at all further search accounted and divulged vs as heretickes or Schismatickes at the least Yea some and such as worst might have sought the increase of our afflictions even here also yf they could which thinge they have both secretly and openly attempted This hath Sathan added vnto all our former sorrowes envying that we should have rest in any part of the inhabyted world and therfor ceaseth not to make warre with the remnant of the womans seed which keepe the commaundemēts of God and have the testimony of Iesus Christ But the Lord that brought his former Israell out off Egypt and when they walked aboute from nation to natiō from one Kingdome to an other people suffered no man to do them wronge but reproved kinges for their sakes the same Lord yet lyveth to maynteyne the right off his afflicted servantes whome he hath severed and dayly gathereth out off the world to be vnto himselff a chosen generatiō a royall priesthood a peculiar people and Israell off God He is our hope and strength and helpe in trobles ready to be found he will hyde vs vnder his winges and vnder his feathers we shall be sure vntyll these myseries be over past And though we could for our partes well have borne this rebuke off Christ in silence and left our cause to him who iudgeth iustly all the children off men yet for the manyfestation and clearing of the truth off God from reproche off men and for the bringing off others togither with our selves to the same knouwledge and fellowship off the Gospell we have thought it needfull and our duty to make knowen vnto the world our vnfeyghned fayth in God and loyall obedience towardes our Prince and all Governours set over vs in the Lord together with the reasons off our leaving the ministery worship and Church off England Which are not as they pretend for some fewe faultes and corruptions remayning such as we acknowledge man be found in the perfectest Church on earth Neyther count we it lawfull for any member to forsake the fellowship off the Church for blemyshes and imperfections which every one according to his calling should studeously seeke to cure and to exspect and further it vntyll eyther there followe redresse or the disease be growen incureable and the candlestick be moved out off the place But we having through Gods mercy learned to discerne betwixt the true worship off God and the Antichristian leitourgie the true ministerie off Christ and Antichristian priesthood and prelacy the ordinances off Christes testament and popysh cannons have also learned to leave the evill and choose the good to forsake Babell the land off our captyvitie and get vs vnto Sion the mount of the Lordes holynes and place where his honour dwelleth But first we desyre thee good Reader to vnderstand and mynde that we have not in any dislyke of the civill estate and politicke goverment in that common wealth which we much lyke and love seperated our selves from that Churche Neyther have we shaken of our alleageance and dutyfull obedyence to our Soveraigne Prince Elezabeth her honorable Consellers and other Magistrates set over vs but have alwayes and still do reverence love and obey them every one in the Lord opposing our selves against al enemyes forreigne or domesticall against all invasions insurrections treasons or conspiracies by whome soever intended against her Majestie and the State and are ready to advēture our lyves in their defence iff need require Neiter have our greatest adversaryes ever bene able to attaint vs of the least disloyalty in this regarde And though now we be exiled yet do we dayly pray and will for the preservation peace and prosperity off her Majestie and all her domynions And wheras we have bene accused off intrusion into the Magistrates office as goeing about our selves to reforme the abuses in that land it is a mere malicious calumnie which our adversaries have forged out of their owne hart We have alwayes both by word and practise shewed the contrary neyther ever attempted or purposed any such thinge but have indevored thus onely to reforme our selves and our lyves according to the rule off Gods word by absteyning from all evyll and keeping the commandements off Iesus leaving the suppressing and casting out off those remnants of Idolatry vnto the Magistrates to whome it belongeth And further we testifye by these presents vnto all men and desyre them to take knowledge herof that we have not forsaken any one poynt of the true ancient catholicke and apostolicke fayth professed in our land but hold the same groundes of Christian religion with them still agreeing lykewise herein with the Dutch Scottysh Germane French Heldetian and all other Christian reformed Churches round about vs whose confessions publyshed we call to witnes our agrement with them in matters of greatest moment being cōferred with these articles of our fayth following The thinges then onely against which we contend and which we mislyke in the Englysh parish assemblyes are many reliques of that man off Synne whome they pretend to have abandoned yet reteyned among them and with a high hand maynteyned vpholden and imposed The partici●ers wherof being almost infinite cannot well off vs besett downe and would be tedious and yrksome to thee good Reader But the principall heades we wil truely relate and that so briefely as in so large and confuse a subject we can First in the planting and constituting of their Churche at the begining of our Queene Elizabets reigne they receved at once into the body of that Churche as members the whole land which generally then stood for the most part professed Papistes who had revolted from the profession which they made in the dayes of king Edward off happy memorye and shed much blood off many Christian Martyrs in Queene Maryes dayes This people yet standinge in this fearfull