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	infallible_a	3,076	5	10.3460	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89617	Mary Magdalen's tears wip't off. Or The voice of peace to an unquiet conscience. Written by way of letter to a person of quality. And published for the comfort of all those, who mourn in Zion.	Martin, T., 17th cent.	1659 (1659)	Wing M850; Thomason E1913_2; ESTC R202880	54,570	127

as they who sin after Baptism do is intollerable and a sign of one that hath forfeited the Grace that is given him and is judicially hardned by God SOLUTION 10. TO sin and to relapse into sin after a Vow against it is that thing indeed which every baptised Christian doth and in those who are Adult or at years of discretion not invincibly ignorant of their Obligation is infallibly not only a very great Aggravation of sin but a sin it self and such an Offendour is in very truth not only a great Dishonor to the Gospell of Christ but a great scandol to the Communion of Saints dis-inherited and that actually of his interest in the Kingdom of Christ whilest he continues in that state of Impenitency but when the course is broken the case is quite the contrary and the Prodigal returning capable of as benign and as hospital a Reception in his Fathers house as was that other Son able to boast of his good demeanour from his Childhood This is the case of Repentant Sinners and for such it is that when they nay though but a single one return There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God Luke 15.12 But for the Vow in the Baptisme I am not for the present of opinion that it is any aggravation of sin till the baptised Person comes to years of Discretion and hath either actually taken upon him the performance of his Baptismal vow or else hath attain'd so much knowledge of his Profession as that he hath or may have information that he was initiated thereinto and admitted under such a solemn Stipulation But when I speak of Actual taking upon him the performance of this Vow I do not mean that solemn direct oral and publick transferring the Obligation on himself in Episcopal Confirmation but also the doing any Christian duty of Communion whereby he doth though but implicitely own his Faith and consequently his Obligation thereto made on his behalf by Suretyes in his Baptisme And again you must conceive that every willfull sin against Knowledge and Conscience even in those who are adult and have Actually put themselves under the performance of the Vow is no abdication of our Vow in Baptisme neither do I apprehend that Person which so offends to be guilty of Perjury upon every Act of such sin of Wilfullness no more than I believe that every single disobedience of her Husband may be interpreted to be a perjury in the Wife because she hath promised and solemnly vowed to obey him in the Mariage Contract I confess that an habitual course of wilfull sin in such as do own their profession nay that any sin presumptuously committed against the Divine Majesty doth imply a breach of this vow as well as final Apostacy yea that the abnegation of any evident Fundamental of Religion as the Resurrection of the Dead the Doctrine of the ever blessed and holy Trinity after first and second Admonition Tit. 3.10 c. is a breach of the Vow in Baptisme but that every Act of willfull sin is such is to my Apprehension no more a truth than for a Christian of the Protestant perswasion to deny Christs local descention into Hell which hath no undenyable ground in Scripture and for that error for to that Perswasion the Church is not infallible to be held guilty of perjury in breaking the second clause or branch of this Vow in Baptisme requiring him to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith as well as doth the first and third exact from him a forsaking of the Devil the World the Flesh and the keeping of Gods holy Will and commandements all the days of my life But let the most that you fear be granted you be held guilty of as many perjuries as you committed other sins and this not only in your own esteem but in the opinions of learned Divines yet still this may render that condition to be more lamented but it cannot make it irrecoverable for is there any thing in Scripture more frequent than Gods Messages by his Prophets to the People of the Jews calling them to repentance that after Covenant-breach and promising them pardon if they would repent and convert unto him The Prophet Jeremy may supersede your searching any other Scriptures to this purpose who indeed is abundant in those promises of Mercy and therefore a Book very fit to comfort every penitent Soul and likewise as fit by reason of the Threatnings therein to convert the Impenitent As for that you speak concerning judicial induration or Gods hardening mens hearts in Judg ement Mat. 25.28 Luke 8.18 I confess that there is a taking away the Talent from the sloathfull Servant a withdrawing of Grace from him that doth not use it to that end for which it was given him by God but that such a judgement is not ordinarily revealed save by the treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath the final impenitence of him who is thus judicially hardened by God will be difficult to prove there being no very sure example of this Induration in Scripture save that of Pharoah in whom those consequents were most visible and of those obstinate and incredulous Jews to whom our Saviour preach'd or in whose presence or Country he wrought so many Miracles mentioned in Mat. 13.14 15. but that you are in danger of such judicial Induration as this is a very remote fear and to my judgment wholly inconsistent with your present Christian Deportment OBJECTION But you say my Sins are confessedly very great being accompanyed with such circumstances as they are even withall the Allowances your Charity or Judgement can afford them they cannot then but require a proportionable Grief for them which as yet I find not in my self Moses Rod that drew water from Rocks of the Wilderness being not able to break and wound my stony Heart into Rivers of Tears such as are fit to cleanse and wrince away these stains of Sin SOLUTION VI. 11. THis complaint is but a retrive of one of those Aggravations of your sins mentioned by you at the first and by me deferred to be satisfied at that time I say therefore that it cannot be denyed but that Grief for sin committed ought to bear some proportion with the heinousness of our Crimes for which we desire to grieve and lament but you may be very unfit to judge of this proportion especially seeing your Grief and Revenge with an intermixture of other Irascible passions hath made you already too obnoxious to the devices of Satan 2 Cor. 2.11 and Peter three times denyed that he knew his Master Mark 14.66 and that with Cursings and Swearings Imprecations perhaps upon himself if he knew any such man Luk. 22.55 Here was a Complication of very gross sins as Swearing Cursing Denyal of his Master whom lately he professed to be the Son of God and all this a flat Perjury yet you never read of Tears shed for these Sins more then once Mat. 26.75

must he be the ultimate end of our Actions But in this case we must distinguish betwixt what God is and what we apprehend him to be a Sinner is not presently brought to lay aside the fear of Gods revengefull hand and to imbrace and depend upon him for the mercie that is offered to him Ordinarily I conceive God doth manifest his love goodness and mercy to penitent Sinners gradually and with proportion to future experience of the truth and sincerity of their Repentance I mean such a manifestation of himself in these Attributes of complacency and benignity to Mankind which one may term the overshadowing of the Spirit of Love upon the Soul inlightning refreshing and comforting her against the terrors of the Divine Justice due to Sin without a Propitiation by Christ Let me therefore advise you to wait with patience till the day break and the shadows flee away Cant. 1.17 till this Sun of Righteousness arise upon your Soul with healing in his wings Mal. 4.2 and to endeavour to be perswaded as of other mens so of your own filiation and that you may the better believe it to bless God most frequently for the inestimable gift of his Son Jesus Christ by whom alone a Reconciliation was wrought betwixt God and mankind by the Faith whereof holy Men and Women look for the inheritance of Sons and Daughters and do not stand in fear of stripes as vassals and Bond-slaves being emancipated from the Spirit of Bondage through the freedom they have by the Spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father Rom. 8 15. meditating upon the greatness and excellency of that love the ever-blessed and glorious Trinitie hath exprest unto our Souls engraven before our eyes in eternal Characters of Blood even the Blood of the only Son of God largely described by all four Evangelists in their Histories of the Gospel though sundry yea innumerable other passages of our Saviours life are omitted S. Jo. 21 yea even the birth of Christ by two of them intimating unto us not only the certain truth of his Passion which had been unquestionable if but recorded by one of them and the great concernment of it to all mankinde as well in the example as necessity thereof but likewise recommending by that variety of describing the last tragical Act of his Blessed Life the frequent perusal of it in all times and kindes of Trial and Temptations What therefore you want of felicity at present and content in your New life do not despair of but expect assuring your self that you shall one day know and feel that the Kingdom of God is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 God alone knowes how much of Heaven 't is best to give you in this Life that Angelical state which you aim at might be much more dangerous for you then you imagine When St. Paul had been rapt up into the third Heaven and heard things impossible to be uttered because he should not be elated by the abundance of Revelations there was given unto him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan 2 Cor. 12.7 some humiliating Temptation that might make him know that as yet he was lock't up in an earthly Tabernacle as lyable to the Assaults and Invasions of Satan and his Complices as to a final dissolution by death OBJECT XXV But still me thinketh if God had such a Love to my Soul he should vouchsafe me some manifestations thereof St. Paul rejoyced in his Infirmities desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ but nothing is so terrible to me as Death as if I had either no Christ to go unto or no such Christ as Saint Paul had SOLUTION 31. THe Consideration of the World to come and expectation of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgement of God dispensed by Jesus Christ according to the things that men have done in their bodies whether it be good or evil 2 Cor. 5.10.11 is questionless a very terrible thing even to such Christians as shall never have their share in the Lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for evermore But is it not the same Word of God which promiseth a Pardon to the Penitent and threatneth damnation to the impenitent Sinner Why do you not believe him when he promiseth Mercy as well as when he threatneth Vengeance He that believes not the Divine Majesty in any one branch of Faith revealed plainly in his Word doth not believe him in the rest because the ground of Faith viz. the Veracity of God is the same in all the same Truth in Promises of Mercy as in Threatnings of Punishment the same Fidelity in performance of Good things as in the Execution of Evil. As for your instance in St. Paul I think I have already intimated unto you that he being a Saint of most eminent and exemplary piety of a Charity and Love to Christ and his Church even unto Extasie and Frenzy in the eyes of the World you ought not to expect the extraordinary favours vouchsaf't him by Heaven A lass why should you or I look for so much of Heaven to be delivered to us before hand or else must judge our selves wholly unconcern'd in the distribution of those heavenly Mansions I am confident either of us would be well content for such an assurance as had St. Paul to lye mouldring in our graves a million of years after the rest of our Brethren are crown'd with Glory yea perhaps as long in the Refining Flames of the Romish Purgatory But I mention not this as the faint Ejaculations of men that live without Hope but as expressions suitable to a sad Reflection upon our own Demerits Remember therefore that if God think fit to give you no Assurance yet he hath vouchsaf't unto you with the rest of Believers Promises of Glorification much fitter to be look't after and relyed upon then any sensible and experimental Consolation for what is tendred to us in the Holy Scriptures is immutable and permanent but such conclusions as are drawn only from experimental knowledge of our own obedience are very transjent and incertain never as is the Word of God infallible and eternal As for your Fear of Death which you are so far from meeting with St. Pauls alacrity of Spirit that you dare not encounter the thought of it in your breast the sound of a passing Bell or the Sight of a Friend strugling with the pains of Death being next to your remembrance of your own last end the formidablest thing imaginable no question the moral causes thereof ought to be heeded and the effects prevented I say moral causes because I presume there is in all creatures men not excepted a natural cause of fear of death which may be as innocent in men as the affections of Joy Delight Grief Anger c. and this can no more be alike in all men in the world then it can be imagined there should be the same degrees of other Affections in all constitutions and complexions of