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 reason_n 2,125 5 5.7482 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A31660 The country's concurrence with the London united ministers in their late heads of agreement shewing the nature and advantages of a general union among Protestants : in two discourses ... / by Samuel Chandler ... Chandler, Samuel. 1691 (1691) Wing C1930; ESTC R11704 28,705 109

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

dark and deep Mysteries little doubtful Truths and ambiguous Words and Phrases no longer occasion any Brawls or Contentions where Luther and Calvin and all the Saints of God perfectly accord together speak the same Language join in the same Praises and pleasingly entertain and embrace one another with all the endearments of intimate Friends and Companions And as we long for this Blessed State so 't is our great Duty and will be our Happiness to let down as much of Heaven on Earth as we can to anticipate our future joys by an enlarged love towards all Saints and being at Peace among our selves III. General Directions for the maintaining and promoting of Peace 1. Remove the Causes of unpeaceableness the Effects will not be taken away except the Causes cease This Disease will prove Mortal and still Torment us except the Fuel that feeds it be taken away except that Generation of Vipers be slain which hath for so many Ages torn out the Bowels of our Common Mother the Church we must never expect our wide breaches will be healed I shall therefore take a short view of those Distempers that have so miserably infected us that the discovery may help to their Cure and restore the primitive healthful Temper of Christianity and while I mention the Achans that have sickned our Camp and infected our Israel I beseech you that you would cast them out of your Hearts and have no fellowship with these unfruitful Works of Darkness Be ashamed of complaining for want of Peace if you wilfully cherish that poysonous Brood that will otherwise prove your ruin 1. Unmortifyed Sin Ungodliness is the great Divider and till we are partakers of the same sanctifying Spirit 't is impossible we should love as Brethren 'T is as possible for the Wolf to lie down with the Lamb as for Wicked Men to love the truly Godly While we will not work in the same Vineyard nor walk in the same way nor chuse the same Imployment nor delight in the same Spiritual Duties how can it be possible to agree together 'T is a vain thing to pretend agreement in Articles of Faith while we will not lovingly agree in practical Holiness 'T is highly unreasonable for wicked Wretches to rail against Christians like Ahab against Elijah as Troublers of Israel when they themselves are the Grand Incendiaries These Men like Nero of old cast Firebrands into the Sanctuary and then lay their guilt at true Christians Doors They hold the most damnable Errors and practical Heresies and thus render Union impossible They pretend pity to the Wounded Church and yet throw away the Salve and Plaister that should cure it They complain that the Garment of Christ is rent and yet throw away the Needle that should sow it up They pretend to be grieved to see the spiritual Building shaking yet throw away the Lime and Mortar the Pins and the Nails that should cement and join the Parts together Thus do they who cry up Love and Unity and yet hate Holiness wherein Christian Union consists To hear an Ungodly Man who is really of no Religion at all but against the life and practice of all cry out of the many ways of Religion among Christians is as if a Blackmoor should blame another for a Spot in his Face or a Murderer rebuke a Man for an angry Word Follow Peace therefore with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. 2. Pride This we find already arraigned by the wisest of Men as the great Makebate and Troubler of the World Prov. 13. 10. Only by Pride cometh Contention As this is true of Civil Strifes so more especially of Religious or rather Irreligious Jars and Contentions Men are so Wise in their own Conceits that they are angry with every one that is not of the same level and impatient of Contradiction while many are very hot in Exclamations against the Political Antichrist they observe not this Antichristian Temper in themselves they are justly offended at others for usurping God's Prerogative sitting in his Throne and claiming a Title of Infallibility but do not these Fools envy the Pope and like Adam desire to be God's that their Name may be honour'd and their Will be done through the Earth Let us therefore entertain an humble suspicion of our own Understandings remembring that an over confident persuasion of our own Knowledge is a certain sign of Ignorance and he that thinks he knows most is commonly most mistaken 'T was not for nothing that the wisest of Men doth so frequently give that caution Be not Wise in thy own Conceit Prov. 3. 3. 26. 12. 3. Censoriousness The censorious Backbiter is the Devils Minister to Preach down Love abate Charity and exhort to the hatred of the Brethren Have not our unnatural heats been owing to this original Are not we too apt to censure those that agree not with us in every punctilio and readily take up an evil Report against them Is not this contrary to the lovely Grace of Charity which thinketh no Evil misconstrues not the Actions and Intentions of others rejoyceth not in Iniquity but believeth all things and hopeth all things is unapt to believe ill without apparent grounds and hopes as long as there is any reason for hope 4. Undue admiration of particular Persons or Parties This was the Corinthian Error that divided and miserably shattered that flourishing Church one liked the powerful plainness of Paul another the eloquence of Apollos and a third the perspicuity of Peter and a fourth was above all outward Ordinances pretending to the immediate Teachings of Christ. Upon this they vilified all others except those that they had set up for an Oracle We may suppose them disputing one with another after this manner One I am of Paul did you ne'er hear Paul Preach how clearly doth he unfold the deep Mysteries of Salvation how sweetly doth he display the unsearchable Riches of Christ how convincingly doth he argue and how excellently doth he direct in the way to Salvation As for Apollos he guilds over his Discourses with specious Eloquence and gaudy Bravery but Paul shews the truth in the plainest Dress which best becomes her and as for Cephas he is indeed fit to Catechize weak and ignorant Christians but he tells me nothing but what I knew before they therefore shew themselves Men of small Judgment that are for Apollos or Cephas I am for Paul Another I am of Apollos Let who will be for Paul and Cephas could I sit alway under Apollos his Ministry how happy should I be How movingly doth he Preach with what a happy fluency doth he insinuate himself into his Hearers and by his Pathetical Eloquence almost constrain attention One while he cloaths his Speech in a Silken Dialect dips each Word in a Tear and steeps each Phrase in Hony that he may win on his Auditors another while he breaths out Flames and Terrors and causes the stoutest