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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42884	A true and lively character of a right communicating church-member briefely laid down in eighteen severall arguments: proving an absolute necessity of separating, not only, from all that are openly prophane, but from such also, who have not some visible, that is to say, probable worke of the sanctifying spirit upon them. By Iohn Gobert Master of Arts, and minister of the Gospel.	Gobert, John.	1650 (1650)	Wing G904B; ESTC R217419	24,327	70

through errour of Doctrine that ought not now in our time of reformation to be practised but to gather Church-members other h●n of such as are v●sibly holy doth this it magnifi●th and setteth up errors of D●ctrine and mistakes of former ages Ergo are not now to be practised The major I suppose will be undeniably granted The Minor is proved by instance vide conce●ning Baptisme the Doctrina about not onely the esse but the absolute necessity of Infants Baptisme have as it is knowne to all beene the cause in former ages of taking every one into Church-fellowship witnesse the Primitive times if we may call them Primitive wherein Augustine Ambrose Chrysostome the Gregorys and such famous worthies lived it is well known to all who have read their works that those most godly and ze●lous Worthies not having the Light which we have did unanimousl● hold that Baptisme made Infants Christians and that children u●baptized could not be saved Neither in this Tenent do the Papists at all erre from the Doctrine of the Antients Su●table though happily not the same altogether was the Episcopall Tenent That Baptisme was not onely a seal as circumcision was to which this of Baptisme succeeded but a means also to receive grace whence it wa● g●●erally believed that Infant● did receive such a tincture such an indeluble character and stamp of holinesse in the Ordinance that mens particular failings as they called them though this were no other then grosse sin did no whit unchristianize but a little blemish their Christianity Whence millions are so besotted that they believe that as their fathers and mothers in the course of nature have made them men and women the Minister at the Font made them Christians Now if all upon this notion were taken in for Church-members and the ground of all this in these dayes of light be ●ound extreamly faulty what reason but the building on such an unsure foundation erected should be now demolished and other and better Members upon further Gospell discoveries to be taken in The thirteenth Ar●ument is t●ken from the great scandall which a Church otherwise gathered giveth our adversaries the Papists thu● That which maketh the Protestants justly excepted against and taxed by the Papists to be a company of grosse and Athiesticall Libertines that is not by any means to be allowed but to gather a Church of common Protestants or of such as are but barely catechised is to make all Protestants by the Papists to be so accounted Ergo to gather members of other than of such as are visibly holy is not to be allowed The major being granted The minor is thus proved That Profession the profes●ors whereof doe come short of Papists in point of practise as touching the Religion they professe that profession doe scandalize the Papists and consequently gives them cause to thinke that all such professors are but grosse and Atheisticall Libertines but this doe a mixture in gathering Church-members it makes them come short of Papists in point of practise as touching the Religion they professe Ergo it makes the Papist to think that the Protestants are a company of grosse and Atheisticall Libertines and consequently such a Church-gathering is not to be allowed The major being granted The minor is proved by instance viz. By comparing the common protestant and the papist together in practicall part of Religion in which of these most religious forwardness is to be discerned and to begin with the papists let him be but meerly catechised in the principles of his owne Religion he hath in many things the start and precedency above the common protestant First in matter of understanding it is more furnished by far I say not better As for the co●mon protestant he is seen but in his Creed whereas the other is taught in the doctrine of 7 Sacraments Secondly his beliefe is racked and screwed up to a farre higher pitch than is the Protestants who is ordinarily accused and thought of by them to be a company of brutish and naturall men to goe no further in their beliefe then to sence and reason as in matter of their carnall presence Thirdly the papist will doe much more for his profession tha● the common sort of protestants will doe for theirs As for the papist he will yeeld his outward man to fasting and all kind of pennance and his heart and inward man though to an erroneous yet to an auricular confession whereas the common protestant makes his religion to consist for the most part in the bare deniall of all this But will some object And doe not your visibly holy Saint you speak of denie all these We answer Yea or else he cannot be in his belief any other than a Papist or worse But now observe and yee shall see these visibly holy members as farre as the judgment of charitie will give them for to have that by vertue of a speciall and inward call for which the Papists doe undertake all these works For let papists but retain the true doctrine of their religion and they are taught that all the Sacraments serve but as means to convey grace to such as are in grace to speake in their owne phrase and that by vertue of that they call a foederall Covenant as infant Baptisme where the party baptized cannot ponere obicem or to such as either retaine or at least recover their first grace Now I say if this holy visibly member can wrarantably prove as he may well how that God worketh both how and when and where he pleaseth without these he hath both in his belief and life also proved himself to be more excellent than his neighbour which is the superstitious Papist and the common Protestant The fourteenth Argument is taken from the disgrace which unqualified members doe bring upon members better qualified thus Whatsoever causeth the gifts and graces of the best qualified to be mis-called and mis-censured or mis-construed that in gathering Church-members is not to be practised but to take in members not visibly holy causeth the gifts and graces of the best qualified to be mis-construed and ill spoken of Ergo the taking in members into Church-fellowship not visibly holy is not to be practised The major proposition being granted The minor is thus proved Whatsoever makes the gifts and graces of the best qualified to be counted of the non-discerning superfluous and more then need or which is worse a desire to be seene above others that makes their graces to be mis-called and mis-construed But the taking in of members not visibly holy doth this it makes the gifts and graces of the best qualified to be counted of the non-discerning superfluous and more then need or which is worse it makes them to be counted of such non-discerning spirits to desire only to be seen above others Ergo to take in such kind of members is not lawfull Both propositions will be soone granted if we consider the old axiome frustra fit per plura quod fieri potuit per