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
A58740	The Sincere popish convert, or, A Brief account of the reasons which induced a person who was some years since seduced to the Romish Church to relinquish her communion, and return into the bosom of the Church of England wherein the Holy Scriptures are clearly proved to contain all things which are necessary to be believed and practiced by Christians in order to their salvation, and are justly vindicated from those odious imputations, which the papists profanely cast upon them : with an epistle to the reverend and learned Dr. Stillingfleet, dean of St. Paul's.	T. S.	1681 (1681)	Wing S184; ESTC R33969	49,068	54

richly in all Wisdom teaching and admonishing one another Theodoret before cited gives this Account of his Times You shall every where see these Points of our Faith to be known and understood not only by such as are Teachers in the Church but by Smiths Weavers and all kinds of Artificers yea all our Women not only such as are Book-learned but also by them who get their Living by the Needle Maid servants and Waiting-women and not Citizens only but Husbandmen are very skilful in these things You may hear among us Ditchers and Neat-herds discoursing of the Trinity and the Creation And that the Laity were thus familiar with the Bible may evidently be made out in that Nectarius of a Judge was made Bishop of Constantinople St. Ambrose of a Secular Deputy Bishop of Milan Gregory the Father of Nazianzen of a Lay-man was made a Bishop Origen from a Child was Learned in the Scriptures and to the great Joy of his Father Leonides a Holy Martyr often questioned with him concerning the meaning of difficult places Macrina St. Basil's Nurse taught him the Scriptures when he was very young and Gorgonia the Sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen was rarely well experienced in them I will wind up this Argument with declaring what was St. Jerom's mind in so Weighty a Business He besides his Writing to divers Women as Eustochium Salvina Celantia c. commending their Labours in the Scriptures and encouraging that study speaking of the Noble Roman Lady Paula in the Epitaph he made upon her he extolls her for imposing a daily task of reading the Scriptures on her Companions and Maids But more signally in an Epistle to Leta he gives her these Directions for the Education of her little Daughter Let the Child be deaf in hearing of light Musical Aires but cause her every day to render a task of the Flowers of Holy Scripture Let her not be sought for in the press of secular People but in the Closet of the Scriptures asking Counsel of the Prophets and Apostles concerning Spiritual Nuptials Let her first learn the Psalter and with those Heavenly Songs wean her self from light Sonnets Then let her be taught to Govern her Life out of Solomons Proverbs and repair to Job for Examples of Vertue and Patience Let her then come to the Evangelists and never lay those Books out of her hands With these she must joyn the Acts of the Apostles c But let her be cautious in Apocryphal Books and if she read them let her understand that they are not those Author's whose Names they carry and that many things faulty are mix'd with them and it is no small Wisdom to sind Gold among Dross To which excellent Advice let me onely subjoyn what I find scattered up and down in S. Augustin viz. To read plain Passages first and heartily to practise what we understand and as for obscure Places Prophecies Genealogies and Mysteries whereof we shall never be demanded an Account at the Day of Judgment let us leave it to the Divine Pleasure either to reveal them to us or reserve them still Concealed since our Saviour told his own Disciples that it was not for them to know the Times and Seasons but plainly informed them that he who did his Will should know of his Doctrine whether he spoke from God or from himself The same Father acquaints us with the admirable Commixture of Plainness and Obscurity in the Holy Scripture that hereby Wanton Wits are wholsomely curbed Weak Wits cherished and Great Wits delighted and that nothing of highest Importance is so perplexedly delivered in one Place but it is as plainly set down in another I have inlarged a little more than I intended on this Theme because I am verily perswaded that if the Sober Judicious Roman Catholicks of this Nation would be induced but for Tryal sake a while to intermit some of those Dry Insipid Devotions which take up so much of their Time and exchange them for a Pious Humble conversing with God's Word they would soon be out of Conceit with what they are now so fond of and discover the sandy Foundation of many of their Principles and perhaps at last become of that good Abbots mind who was Unkle to Arch-Bishop Whitgift and was often heard to complain that their Religion must needs at last fail because he found no ground for it in Gods Word Having considered hitherto the great Rule of our Faith and Life we will now descend to that Article of our Creed which makes such a noise in the World I mean the Holy Catholick Church which omitting the various Acceptations of the Word Church as to our present Purpose is nothing else but a Company of People united in the Profession of the True Faith of Christ and due Use of the Sacraments I am not ignorant that the Papists would fain foist in another Requisite to wit Vnder the Obedience of the Bishop of Rame the only Vicar of Christ upon Earth But to omit many other Absurdities I shall only instance at present in two that hereby they exclude Universality which they put down as an Essential Note of the True Church and Charity which I am sure is a certain Badg of Christ's true Disciples For by this very Clause they very ridiculously obtrude less than a fourth part for the Whole and by excommunicating all the rest from the Pale of the Church as much as in them lies very mercifully Doome greater more antient and better Churches than themselves to everlasting flames To make this good we will take our Measures by the Judicious Observation of Sir Edwyn Sands who in his Survey of Europe assures us that the Greek Church in Number exceeds any other and the Protestants in Multitude and extent of Territory fall very little short of those that are under the Papal Yoke So that here we have two four Parts To which add all the Oriental Christians and those in the Vast Empire of Prester John or the Abyssines who are all out of the Roman Communion and questionless we shall find another fourth Part. And thus we have three to one even in the point of Universality I will put this out of all dispute by a particular Induction In Asia we have Multitudes of Christians who have nothing to do with the Pope Those of Palestine are subject to the Patriarch of Jerusalem the Syrians under him of Antioch the Armenians and Georgians have their own Patriarchs The Circassians and those of the lesser Asia are under him of Constantinople The Jacobites and the Christians of St. Thomas have also their peculiar Patriarchs In Africa where we find any steps of Christianity the Egyptians and Cophtes are under the Patriarch of Alexandria the Ethiopians or Abyssines which are innumerable are under their own Governours Ecclesiastical In Europe the Greeks submit to the Patriarch of Constantinople The spatious Empire of the Russians hath a Patriarch at Mosco The Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland Denmark Swedeland and the

the Waters as in Genesis but along besides the Waters c. Nothing is more talk'd of than the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and this I know to be a most tempting Bait to get Proselytes especially amidst those Many Dissentions in the Christian World at this Day But because this Pretext hath been utterly destroyed by the Lord Falkland Mr. Chillingworth and other most Learned Pens I will only Recommend this Single Consideration to All Judicious Roman Catholicks who would not be chouced out of their Wits Estates and Liberties by a Gang of Ecclesiastical Mountebanks viz. That this Huge Swelling Prerogative of Infallibility is so Sensless a Thing so Ungrounded that no Romanist according to his own Principles can have so much as a probable Moral Assurance of that wherein he thinks himself Infallible And unless every one in particular be Infallible it is to little purpose to boast of an Infallible Judge For a Man may as well mistake the Meaning of his Sentence as the Sentence of one who proceeds only upon prudent Moral Assurance and we see that thousands do erre in the Intepretation of those acknowledged Infallible Oracles the Holy Scriptures The Consideration I recommend is this That after All the Stirr that is made about Infallibility the Learnedest amongst them knows not where to meet with it nor in what cases it is annexed to that Chair in what it forsakes it Some as the Jesuits generally will have it in the Pope but then whether with his Cardinals or by Himself is controverted very briskly Others will have it in a General Council and this Opinion is backt by no less Authority than the Councils of Basil and Constance But then the Church hath been very long without it and possibly may never injoy it by means of a General Council to the End of the World That wherein they fix it with most plausibility is both the Pope and a Council together But even here we are at a great many losses For as to the Pope no man can be assured of his being a true Pope considering the various defects that may render him otherwise as a fundamental Error in his Election Simoniacal Induction the female Sex Want of true Baptism and Holy Orders both which depend upon the Intention and Validity of those from whom he receives them and theirs upon the like Qualifications in their Predecessors c. Occult Heresie and Many others And then as to a Council which consists chiefly of Bishops tho the Popes for some ends best known to themselves have now pack'd in Cardinals Abbots Generals of Orders c. besides that the Validity of a Council depends upon the uncertainty of the Pope's being truly Qualified the very same Difficulties occur in every particular Member as did in respect of the Pope himself The like uncertainty appears in every Sacrament administred in that Church some whereof are absolutely necessary both Necessitate Medii Praecepti v. g. in Baptism Absolution Consecration of the Host which if it be not duly performed Idolatry is committed by the People in adoring it even by their own Concessions Azorius the Jesuit Enchirid. c. 8. openly proclaims That it is a more tolerable Error in them who worship Golden and Silver Statutes as the Gentiles did their Gods nay a piece of red Cloth on the top of a Spear as the Laplanders are reported to do than in those who adore a piece of Bread And now I would fain know of a Lay-Roman-Catholick what is become of his Infallibility where it is and to what purpose it serves him No where is it to be found as I know of but in the bold Assertion of every pragmatical Confessor Who bids you be sure to look to your Faith who are the Solifidians now to believe as the Church believes and then all is safe for the breach of the Ten Commandments there are Merits and Indulgences enough in the Church which being mixt with a little Attrition and Confession will do the work Though in the mean while He himself can neither tell where this Infallible Church is nor what she certainly believes Methinks S. Paul spoke as much like a Prophet as an Apostle as if he foresaw the Haughtiness of the Members of that Church to which he wrote And therefore to curb them and banish from their Minds all such vain conceits of Infallibility he tells the Church of Rome she stood on no firmer grounds than her Neighbours His words are these worthy to be had in everlasting Remembrance by All Roman-Catholicks Rom. 11.18 19 Boast not against the Branches c. Well because of unbelief they were broken off and Thou standest by Faith Be not high-minded but fear For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not Thee Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but towards Thee Goodness if Thou continue in his Goodness otherwise Thou also shalt be cut off Which words need rather your Practice than my Paraphrase How much Safer and more Satisfactory is it to rely on the Holy Scriptures themselves which by all Sides are acknowledged Infallible For as much as they were divinely Inspired by that great Infallible Truth which neither can be deceived nor deceive his Creatures which can make you wise enough to Salvation and who hath promised to every humble Petitioner and devout Practiser a sufficient Competency of Knowledge in what is necessary for his present Condition and Eternal Happiness Now all this you will find abundantly provided for in the Doctrine and Constitutions of the Church of England Here is the Word of God faithfully Translated and exactly as far as the Idiomes of Languages will permit compared with the Originals and All those Books received of whose Authority there was never any doubt made in the Church Some others called Apocryphal are read indeed but as Ruffinus in Exposit Symboli speaks non ad Fidem firmandam sed ad Mores Instruendos Not for confirming Faith but for direction of Manners And they are excluded from the Canon upon very weighty Reasons For that they were never committed as of Divine Authority to the Jews to whom the Oracles of God were intrusted Rom. 3.2 Nor are they to be found in the Hebrew Canon They are never found cited by Christ or his Apostles and in some places they contain things manifestly false contradictory both to themselves the other Genuine Prophetical Writers You have here the three Creeds the Apostles that of the Nicene Council and that of S. Athanasius together with the four first General Councils which represent to us the Sincere Scheme of Apostolical Primitive Doctrine and Discipline You have here good works Recommended Preach'd and Practiced as the Fruits of Faith and Evidences of our Justification and though not as Expiatory for our Sins yet as in Obedience to the Divine commands and as a Sacrifice acceptable to God And even in this Degenerate Age of Christianity it might be