Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	believe_v	church_n	doctrine_n	1,773	5	6.7675	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76020	A treatise of adhering to God; written by Albert the Great, Bishop of Ratisbon. Put into English by Sir Kenelme Digby, Kt. Also a conference with a lady about choyce of religion.; De adhærendo Deo. English	Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280.; Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing A876; Thomason E1529_2; ESTC R25226	62,177	159

us to be beleived And we may as well doubt that the Church hath corrupted the Scriptures as that she hath corrupted any article of faith 12. The twelfth conclusion shall be that into the Catholike Church no false doctrine in any age can bee admitted or creep in that is to say no false proposition whatsoever can ever be received and imbraced by the Catholike Church as a proposition of faith For whatsoever the Church believeth as a proposition of faith is upon this ground that Christ taught it as such unto the Church hee planted himselfe and so left it in trust to bee by it delivered over to the next age And the reason why the present Church believeth any proposition to be of faith is because the immediate preceding Church of the age before delivered it as such And so you may drive it on from age to age untill you come to the Apostles and Christ Therefore to have any false proposition of faith admitted into the Church in any age doth Suppose that all they of that age must unanimously conspire to deceive their children and youngers telling them that they were taught by their fathers to believe as of faith some proposition which indeed they were not Which being impossible as it will evidently appear to any prudent person that shall reasonably ponder the matter that so many men spread throughout the whole world so different in their particular interests and ends and of such various dispositions and natures should all agree together in the forgery of any precise lye it is impossible that any false doctrine should creep into the Church But because the force of this argument may peradventure not appear at the first sight to your Ladyship that happily hath not had much occasion to make deep reflection upon the certainty that must needs be in the asseveration of any history of matter of fact subject to the sense which shall be made by a great company of men so distant from one another and of such different interests and affections as they cannot conspire together in the forgery of a falsehood But that you may happily think since any one man is lyable to bee deceived or out of some indirect end may be induced to deceive another it is also possible that a multitude of men be it never so great consisting of particular men may also deceive or bee deceived I will therefore for a further declaration of this matter propose for the thirteenth Conclusion that faith thus delivered is absolutely more certain and infallible then any natural science whatsoever And yet sciences are so certain I mean such as depend of experience and demonstration as he were not a rationall man that should refuse his assent unto them And consequently he would incurre the like censure that should not yeeld credence to faith in this manner proposed unto him In the proofe of this conclusion I must use two words appropriated to philosophy to wit matter and forme which is contrary to my intention at the first which was to abstain from all termes of artificial learning and make onely a familiar discourse that should require no precedent help of study but onely a clear and strong judgement such as yours is to weigh the strength of the reasons But I am the lesse scrupulous to avoid these words because I know your Ladyship understandeth what is meaned by them and they have often occurred in our discourses To come then to the examination of this conclusion I say that faith dependeth on these two propositions first that whatsoever God saith is true Next that God said this whatsoever it be that is delivered thus by the tradition of the Church For the former of these assertions there is no doubt made by any side since all agree that God being the prime verity whatsoever proceedeth immediately from him must necessarily be more infallible then any collections made from creatures either by experience or ratiocination of men The second assertion I shall also prove to be more infallible then any such collectiōs in this manner Among material things that are subject to time and place and are here in the sphere of contraries and of action and passion although the lawes that govern them are in the generall certaine else no science could be acquired of them yet in the particular they are subject to contingency and defection from those lawes which contingency doth proceed from the resistance of the matter and the contagion and leprosy if so I may say that the matter infecteth the forme withall which were it not for that would alwayes constantly worke the same effect in all occasions and according as the forme hath in particular more or lesse predominance over the matter the contingency and defect in them from the true nature of that body considered in his perfection is the greater or the lesser Let us illustrate this by an example According to the ordinary doctrine of Philosophers in the Schooles we collect by many particular experiences that the nature of fire proceeding from the forme of it is to ascend and of them we frame a generall doctrine that fire is the lightest of all the elements and that his naturall place is above them all yet we see that when the forme of fire is introduced into grosse and terrestriall matter it is wrested from his owne naturall inclination and is forced insteed of ascending then to descend as when wood iron earth coale and such other terrestriall matter is set on fire And it is more or lesse violented from his naturall place according as the subject it resideth in hath more or lesse power over it and is more or lesse materiall for it sheweth more of his levity and naturall propension to ascend when it setteth an oyly or ayery substance on fire and breaketh up in flames then when meeting with a more materiall terrestriall substance as wood it turneth it into a coale Now to apply this to our purpose I say that of all formes whatsoever that are joyned to matter the noblest and most elevated above the faeculency of matter is the soule of man for it is not onely the forme of the noblest materiall creature that is but besides that it is so full of efficacy as it evē overfloweth the capacity of matter which not being able to imbibe as I may say and take it up all it hath a particular subsistence belonging to its selfe from whence Philosophers prove the immortality of it Therefore we may safely conclude that mankind in the originall appetences and naturall desires of his soule is lesse subject to contingency and more secure from having his nature corrupted and perverted from his due course then any other materiall creature whatsoever is in the performance of those actions that proceed from the activity of his forme and so consequently being considered in generall proceedeth most certainly and infallibly to the pursuance thereof and it is impossible it should fall off from its owne nature and suffer that