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	faith_n	foundation_n	1,927	5	8.7886	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03857	The advise of a sonne, novv professing the religion established in the present Church of England, to his deare mother, yet a Roman Catholike	Hungerford, Anthony, Sir, 1564-1627.	1616 (1616)	STC 13971.5; ESTC S115241	23,830	40

the compasse of this written law this charge is giuen f Deut. 4.2 That wee put nothing to the Word which hee commands vs nor take ought therefrom that wee may keepe the Commandements of the Lord our God which are commanded And although the Prophesies were penned after at sundrie times by men vndoubtedly directed by the holy Ghost yet shal we find no new article of doctrine delivered in them but they serue many times to explaine the law They Prophesie of Christ to come the accomplisher of the law and generally they are all Gods Heraulds to denounce his iudgements and heavie wrath against the transgressors of the law of Moses But in the fulnesse of time when Christ came into the world of whome Moses and the Prophets wrote the Gospell was published which was no other but a cleare declaration of the prophesies and the law whereof a learned Father aptly giues this note g August de Carichisand Rud. That in the olde testament the New is hidden and in the new is the manifestation of the olde And this Gospel was first preached but after as one other of the Ancients observeth well h Iren. advers haeres l. 3. c. 1. was by the will of God delivered in the Scriptures to be the pillar and foundation of our faith And in this sacred booke is wonderfully set foorth vnto vs the infinite wisdome of the supreame Law-maker of the world for as in the civill government of earthly Kingdomes those lawes are ever commended most that leave least to the discretion of the Iudge and never hath any common-weale had laws so exactly framed but with time they haue bin sound sensibly defectiue in this point so certainely this perfection is peculiar only to the written laws of the Lord of heaven so farre foorth that for the ministers of this law to adde or alter any one thing respecting the religious dutie and service wee owe to God though but in offering strange fire before the Lord as did Nadab and Abihu the sonnes of Aaron makes them liable to his wrath and malediction for their presumption This moued Saint Augustine that reverend Father alluding to the words of the blessed Apostle confidently to pronounce i Contra Lit. Petilian lib. 3. cap. 6. That whether concerning Christ or concerning the Church of Christ or concerning any thing that pertaineth to our faith and life we will not say if we but if an Angell from heaven shall preach vnto you but what you haue received in the Scriptures of the Law and the Gospell accursed be hee The consideration of this gaue me occasion to forsake my communion with the Church of Rome in whose bosome I receiued the first instruction for matter of my salvation as you your selfe deare Mother can well remember But after divers yeares when by accident this principle had taken impression in me k Rom. 10 1● That faith commeth by hearing of the word of God and then calling to mind that many points of the religion I haue embraced were not to bee found within the volume of Gods sacred booke I began to question with my masters of that Church whom I did then reverence and admire as men wholly composed to devotion and sinceritie by what authority they could approve thē where after many paffages with the relation wherof I thinke not fit to trouble you their resolution was That a great portion of Gods word was not l Little of Gods word is committed to writing the greatest part of it is come to vs by tradition Hosius Confess Polon pag 383. contained within the holy Scriptures but delivered in safe custodie to passe from hand to hand by tradition for the truth and certainty whereof they tolde me I must depend vp●n the credit of their m Alphons 2 Castro advers haeres l. 1. c. 5. Church the which after much debate they resolved at the last into the bosome of the n Mater Ecclesia per os● summi pontificis loquens Bellar. Apol. contra praef monito serenissi Reg. Iac. pag. 78. Romane Bishop when I considered this and perceiued in the end the weaknesse of the grounds that must warrant the truth of these vnwritten verities as they style them I thought it no longer safe-to commit my selfe for direction to those guides my masiers I meane of the Church of Rome of whom in my conscience we may complain as the Prophet Ieremy did of the false teachers in his dayes o Ierem. 8.9 They haue reiected the word of the Lord and what wisedome is then in them For although it cānot be denied but they reteine and publish some principles of our Christian profession according to the truth of Gods holy word yet even those truths they recommend vnto vs vpon as perillous false a ground as if a man should therfore beleeue Christ Jesus to be the Sonne of the living God because the Divell did confesse it To this purpose deare Mother I beseech you to note that whereas Gods sacred word is left vnto vs to be the rule and foundation of our faith and religion my masters of Rome intending to build a new thinke it proper first to lay a new foundation in place of the holy Scriptures to be the rule direction of our faith they advāce their Church the which neverthelesse being rightly vnderstood holds no resemblāce with the Church in truth And the rather to invite vs to pin our faith vpon this their Church they tender vs some formes of truth the which when wee haue embraced vpon their Churches authority shee will not leaue vs so but this Church that teacheth vs to worship God by like authority wil then require vs to worship p Seeing Christ is to be adored with divine worship his Image also is to be adored with the same adoration Tho Aquin part 3. q. 25. art 3. Images Shee that teacheth vs to pray to God wil command vs likewise to pray trourblessed Ladie and the q The new Creed published by Pope Pius the fourth Saints Shee that teacheth vs that Christ by one offring of his body once made in sacrifice vpon the Crosse hath purchased remission for our sinnes requireth vs likewise to beleene that she offers dayly vnto God the same reall body of Christ in sacrifice which himselfe offered vpon the Crosse as a r I consesse that in the Masse is offered to God a true proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quicke and the dead ibid. propitiation for the sinnes of the quicke and the dead She that teacheth vs that Christ hath madesatisfaction for his sin by blood-shedding and bitter passion will teach vs withall that our selues must make satisfaction for some sort of our sins by our workes of penance the which if wee neglect that then wee must satisfie Gods justice for them after this life by suffering paines in a purgatory fire vnlesse this holy Mother out of compassion shall free vs by her indulgence á favour she

will be saved Bishop the seminary of traditions against Mr Perkins That the doctrine of salvation at least so much as every simple Christian is bound to beleeue vnder perill of damnation is contained in the holy Scriptures though not so for himselfe and his learned brethren but then will they taxe the Scriptures with obscuritie discourage you from medling with them vnder that pretense affirming that they cannot be comprehended by the capacitie of the vulgar vnlearned reader To this I oppose the iudgement of S. Austin who plainely tels vs p Enarrat i● Psal 8. That God hath howed downe the Scriptures even to the capacitie of babes and sucklings That when proud men will not speake to their capacitie yet himselfe might To like purpose S. Chrysostome q Homil. 3. de Lazaro That God hath penned the Scriptures by the hands of Publicans Fishermen Tentmakers Shepherds Neatherds and vnlearned men that none of the simple people might haue any excuse to keep them from reading and that so they might bee easily vnderstood of all men the Artificer the Housholder and widows woman and him that is most vnlearned c. thus he To the resolution of these learned Fathers my Masters of Rome will reply with a question If the doctrine of salvation be so plainely proposed in the holy Scriptures how it should come to passe that it is so diversely vnderstood Arrius reads it denies the divinitie of Christ Eutiches reads it and denies his humanitie the Graecians read it and esteeme it folly The Jewes read it and are offended at it It is read at this day in the Church of Rome as likewise in the Church in the communion whereof wee liue and different opinions are collected from it yet of either side it is true there are men of excellent gifts both for wit learning As if my Masters of Rome were ignorant that wit and learning if not guided by the holy Ghost were so farre from being means to further vs to a right vnderstanding of Gods word as that the more they abound in any man apart from grace the more irrecouerable many times they plunge him into errour delusion for as the light of the Sunne though visible yet is not discerned by a blinde man even so although it bee true which S. Austin teacheth r De doctr Christ lib. 2. cap. 9. That those things which concerne our faith conversation yea all things necessarie are plainely and manifestly set downe in the holy Scriptures yet the doctrine of salvation contained in them being the obiect of faith not of witte and humane learning which faith is the speciall worke of the holy Ghost in man and never rightly and vsefully vnderstood beleeved of any but such only as sincerely applying themselues to the outward meanes of seeking instruction by hearing and reading Gods holy word obtaine withal by hearty prayer the direction of Gods blessed spirit ſ 1. Cor. 2.14 for the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are discerned spiritually as the Apostle tels vs. My masters of Rome wil heere be carping with a question whether every reader or hearer of the scriptures may assure himselfe to haue the spirit of God I say not so spiritus vhi vult spirat but this I say and am assured that I say the truth t Rom. 8.9 that he that hath not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his and in an other place we are plainely taught u Rom. 8.14 That they that are governed by the spirit of God they are the children of God from al which this conclusion wil cleerly follow that as it is impossible for vs vnlesse by hearing or reading we acquaint our selues with the language of the holy scriptures to distinguish with the sheep of Christ between the shepheards voice and the voice of strangers so it is our part seriously and from the heart to seeke to God to enlighten our vnderstāding by the gift of his holy spirit without which this everlasting word of life proues to none but the savour of death to their eternall destruction My masters of Rome I presume will be intreated to acknowledge this that there is no true servant of God but hath in this life the holy Ghost for a pledge of his adoption e Rom. 8.15.16 which testifieth to his spirit that he is the child of God and shame I thinke will not suffer them to make it questionable whether this spirit of God that was so powerfull with the blessed Apostles as from vnlearned Fishermen as diverse of them were to enable them for teachers of the world may likewise bee now of power to prepare the heart of the simplest hearer or reader of Gods holy word truely to apprehend therein the mysteries of his salvation But how shall any man say they be certaine that he hath the spirit of god I must confesse the truth of this is felt before it can be learned yet as the man that hath his bodily sight being demanded how hee can bee certaine that bee hath his eyes could giue no other answer but that by seeing he is assured that he hath his eyes and by his eyes he is assured that he sees even so the spirit of God being the eye whereby the soule discerneth in spirituall things the inward light of vnderstanding in Gods faithfull seruants apprehending and beleeuing the grounds of faith deliuered in the holy Scriptures assures them that they haue the spirit of God abiding in them and by the same spirit revealing vnto them out of Gods holy word which is infallible the doctrine of salvation their consciences are secured that they vnderstand and beleeue the truth Yet would I not be thought to hold that every faithfull Christian in this life did attaine to a perfect knowledge of all the deepe mysteries that are to be found within the booke of God I knowe there is depth for the Elephant to swimme and safe place for the Lambe to wade in and it is most certaine that since the Apostles Evangelists left the world the holy Ghost to hold the children of God in humility to moue them the more carefully to attend the subordinate meanes prescribed for the gaining of Christian learning as fervēt prayer with diligence in hearing Gods word preached taught by the pastors of his Church and seeking to them for their helpe and instruction vpon all occasions of doubt hath tempered their knowledge with such measure as that they shall but vnderstand in part yet shall they never faile to vnderstand so much as shal suffice to bring them to a sauing faith But here a question may be moued seeing it is true as in part I haue noted that God by his ordinance hath assigned the ministery of the Church I meane the instructions of her Pastors both private pub-like to bee one meane to bring his children to the knowledge of his truth whether it be imposed