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
A77718	Solomons blessed land a sermon upon Ecclesiastes X.17. Preached before an extraordinary assembly at Newark upon Trent, May 29. 1660. Being the birth-day of our soveraign lord Charles II. King of Engladnd, [sic] &c. / By Samuel Brunsell rector of Bingham in Notting.	Brunsell, Samuel, 1619 or 20-1688.	1660 (1660)	Wing B5233; Thomason E1033_9; ESTC R208965	28,934	40

fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence And even in this state of moral freedom or rather imperfection in which we now are the more any man by the strength of Reason and Religion diligent endeavour and long custom and practise hath made the doing of any vitious act very difficult for him and next to impossible the better man he is no doubt and the nearer to perfection Were a man to go over a narrow Bridge from whence he might easily fall to have both sides so rail'd in that he had not a liberty to tumble down headlong were doubtless no disadvantage not had he any reason at all to complain of that restraint A drowning man also naturally quits his liberty of letting go any thing he gets hold on that hath but the least appearance of conducing ought to his safety Sin is one of the greatest enemies we have and 't is a liberty indeed to be able to commit a sin or not but that power being the power of an enemy he that if he might be quite freed from it would yet be able to sin by the exercise of that destructive power cannot be imagined in the least to consult his own safety or welfare but must rather be lookt on as one that hath made a covenant with death and is with hell at agreement as we read of some Isai 28.15 And if every single person despising the blessing of government would have a liberty to do what himself listeth and is right in his own eyes Judg. 17.6 Gen. 16.12 as we read it was in Israel when there was no King there 't is true his hand like Ishmaels might be against every man but then 't is as true that every mans hand must needs also be against him Now which is more eligible and desirable to have it in my single choyce to act what I please upon others whilest every person besides my self not one of which perhaps but may equal me on some occasion or other shall have the like freedom to act what he lists upon me or that we be both restrain'd What good shall that weak and indefensible liberty do to me that am but one against a multitude by every one of which I may at pleasure be opprest and ruin'd And how then is it possible I should reasonably promise to my self the least comfortable enjoyment of any thing though but for a minute and what 's my life if I have no enjoyment What enjoyment can I have where there 's no security And what security can there be without peace And what peace can be expected where there is no bond of government to bind and hold men to it What hath thus been said of government in the general is applicable both to the Church and state in particular whether we consider the same persons either as men or Christians Government is absolutely necessary to the safety and welfare as of their humanity so also of their Christianity For should there be allowed in Christianity a liberty for men to profess practise what they please 't were nothing but an empty name since it can have no sense any further then as it signifies such a Profession as laies upon all those that undertake it some restraints of subjection obligation to others For if there be no such bond or obligation there can be no union where there is no union there can be no Society Corporation or body of men where no body no members where no members no Church But Christ is the Saviour of his body which is the Church and in the body there are many members yet but one body 1 Cor. 12.12 13 14. For saith the Apostle as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit for the body is not one member Ver. 19 20. but many If they were all one member where were the body But now are they many members yet but one body To be a Christian then is to be one of many of many in society or in a body The self-deified Enthusiast is but one by himself above Church-Society and so above Church-work and so cannot be of the body and so no Christian The Independent is but one in a private Congregation and is next to that which is next to none but the Church is a body comprehensive of whole Nations Jews and Gentiles And all the multitude of Christians that in a converted Nation do hold the Catholique Apostolique Faith and profess obedience to the same do therefore make one National Church because they all submit to one and the same Ecclesiastical government by the Laws and direction whereof every one that is duly made a member is bound to act in such sort as not to violate the common faith or the publique peace Common people therefore are abused by their false teachers when they are made to believe that those who assert a National Church understand no more to be required to make a man a member of such a Church suppose for instance sake this Church of England then that he be born upon English ground or be descended from English Parents If any thing had been sufficient to check the impudence of such bold impostors the offices themselves as they are publiquely exposed to every ones view might have secur'd us from so gross a slander But how much soever these Depopulators of Churches may sport themselves with their own deceivings think they have gain'd some great advantage by their small inclosures 't will yet be very hard for them to make good any claim to the essential requisites of a Church For albeit a multitude of Independent Congregations might all together be called a Church yet they cannot make such a body as a Church should be wherein the act of some must necessarily lay an obligation upon all the rest which is quite contrary to the Independency and self-sufficiency of their single Congregations Such Societies therefore make no greater distinction from Universal Liberty in each individual then a liberty or independency in each private family would do which hath none of the fore-mentioned inconveniencies remedied by so small and inconsiderable an union Such a State therefore is no better then a State of factious Division or religious War inconsistent with Christianity which is a religious peace It 's evident then that the want of a fixed Government whether in Church or State doth utterly destroy the being and constitution of either What mischief it createth what fires it kindles both in the one and the other must needs be obvious to any considering person and you cannot but have sufficiently learnt it from our own late sad experience How have Errors and Heresies

Blasphemies and Schisms Impiety and Profaneness Atheism and Barbarism robbing both of men and God invaded and over-run us What Seas of bloud what inundations of wickedness like fire and brimstone from the mouth of Hell have as the waters of the Ocean without a bound at once broke in and overwhelm'd us During that calamitous state of things how have we been shifted through all the shapes and forms of usurped Tyranny What whirling and rotation from one project to another even as many as the hypocritical madness or phantastique levity of every filthy dreamer Jude 8. that had but the confidence to despise Dominion and to speak evil of Dignities could invent How have the wayes of Zion mourn'd and all her gates been desolate How have her Priests sighed and her Virgins been afflicted for her beauty was all departed and her Princes became like Harts that finde no pasture and are gone before the pursuer Yea how hath the daily Sacrifice been taken away the solemn feasts and Sabbaths been forgotten and the King and the Priest been despised The precious sons of Sion comparable to fine gold have been esteemed as earthen pitchers and the work of the hands of the Potter They that did feed delicately have been desolate in the streets and they that were brought up in Scarlet have embraced dunghils Those that were purer then snow and whiter then milk more ruddie in body then Rubies and their polishing of Saphir their visage hath been blacker then a coal neither have they been known in the streets their skin hath cleaved to their bones and withered and become like a stick These are the consequences of a subverted power sufficient to instruct us how great a blessing it is for a Land to be built and setled upon the lasting Foundations of a well-order'd Government From hence also we may note the folly or rather madness of sedition and innovation when once a good Government is well fixt and establisht It is I confess a matter of very great ease to finde some faults in things not capable of absolute perfection and so to remove one evill as to introduce a worse But to mend that which the wisdom and experience of many and those the best and purest Ages have determin'd is either the cheat of Mountebanks or the confidence of Fools Whatever men may promise to themselves or pretend to others the true and naturall effect of such Reforming can certainly be nothing but meer Anarchy and Confusion not more destructive to any then to the first Designers An abused people may for a while indeed resign their judgement to implicit faith and God in his just judgement may give them over that received not the truth with love to strong delusions to believe a lie but so soon as the stroke of Divine Justice hath made them feel their Errour they are no less eager to throw down those popular Idols then they were zealous before to enshrine and worship them To draw men into folly and danger by abusing their hopes and betraying their Interests is very fesible but to abuse their hopes in betraying those their Interests and not to incur their rage may be concluded impossible Various and numberless are the shifts and perplexities infinite the hazards and sad are the events which such Impostors do necessarily draw both upon themselves and others In nothing do they suffer more then in those very points for which at first they engage While they crie out for liberty they make both themselves and their credulots followers the servants of Corruption while Sea and Land is compassed to make a Proselyte the man becomes ten times more the childe of the Devil then before While all that is cryed up holds forth nothing but truth and peace nothing suffers more then the one by lying and perjurie and the other by tumult and insurrection And then no marvail too if Justice that was so loudly called for be turned into Wormwood the very Gall and bitterness of Cruelty and Oppression And the whole Religion it self the securing or refining whereof is evermore the great wheel in all popular Commotions be so far adulterated as to degenerate at last into manifest Apostasie and perfect Atheisme The best recompense that such Deceivers can expect for these their pernicious Counsels and mischievous practises is a shame not to be wiped away and the infamy of those vile arts of hypocrisie and falshood slander and detraction which they were fain to exercise thereby to draw the ignorant and unwary multitude into a dislike and hatred of the power to which they owe their subjection and their peace But 't is to be hoped that experience hath now taught the most what reason might have done long since that it 's the great concernment of any people to be fully perswaded that the benefits they receive from a good Government are far more valuable then any thing that their Governours are able to receive from them who feel indeed their own ease and enjoyments but are less sensible of the others cares and burdens Men also that did own no other rule to order and justifie their seditious attempts then providence nor any other Judge of Controversie then successe have now a very fair occasion given them either to quit their Principles or deny their Conclusions but shall doubtless do best to do both And for those who in order to the unsetling of Government are so apt to cavil at the directions of them that have the oversight of the Church and to traduce some prudent accommodations of things to emergent occasions as irregular Impositions they shall do well to learn the use of so much modesty as not to pass opprobrious censures upon the acts of their Governours because themselves were not made acquainted with the grounds of what they did and not fondly imagine that there can be no reason which themselves do not understand Every one is not so happy as to be able of himself to discern the true and proper causes of things However if they will not be so charitable which they ought to be even to the good name of any obscure person as to think and speak the best yet they might be at least so just as first to inquire of those that could inform them before they usurp the seat of Judgement and pronounce their sentence Certainly contempt of Authority the immediate parent of Disobedience Schisme and Rebellion and the proper issue of slandering the footsteps of Superiours is of far worse consequence then the ignorance or dissatisfaction of any private judgement The Apostles Caution if hearkened to and observed would doubtless prevent the petulant rashness of such intemperance I say Rom. 12.3 through the grace given unto me to every one that is among you that no man think more highly of himself then he ought to think but that he think soberly according to discretion or as others read it that no man presume to understand above that which is meet to understand but that he