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
A26887	The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholick-Protestant or the papist have the surer faith being an answer to one of the oft canted questions and challenges of the papists, sent to one who desired this : published to direct the unskilful, how to defend their faith against papists and infidels, but especially against the temptations of the Devil, that by saving their faith, they may save their holiness, their comfort and their souls / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing B1213; ESTC R5291	42,876	122

being or power XXV Either the Pope and Council themselves know the true Copies Readings and Translations from the Authority of former Councils or by their own or by the Evidence of the thing and Common History or by Inspiration or Supernatural Revelation If all the rabble of wicked Popes and Prelates pretend to Rule the Church and our faith by Inspiration they are crackt-braind fanaticks Sure they were no Prophets before they were Popes or Councillers But if it be by their own Authority who will take a self-made faith of men that Believe only because they Believe And must have all others believe only because they believed before them Then it is themselves and not Christ that they believe If it be former Popes and Councils that they believe tell us whom and why the first believed Mark that you cannot arise to St. Peter For the various Copies and Translations which we are in question of were all made since St. Peters daies XXVI When in a Council the major part carry it by vote perhaps by one or a few How shall we be sure that all the minor part were deceived XXVII How shall all those Abassines Armenians Indians in New-England or others that know not that ever there was a Pope or General Council in the world become Christians Or are you sure they are none XXVIII We see by experience in the foresaid Nations and feel in our selves that men may have a certain faith without receiving it from the Pope Can you make me know that I do not believe when I know that I do And can you prove that only the third part of Christians in the world are true Christians and have Certain faith because all the rest receive it not from the Pope and why may not the major part of the Church be sure as well as he XXIX Hath the Church a twofold foundation for faith If the Pope and Council believe Gods word to be his word on one Ground and all other men on another ground that is because they say it then we have two faiths and two Churches on two foundations But if otherwise then Pope and Council do as we must do by their doctrine even believe it because they say it themselves XXX The Councils Decrees of Faith are so Voluminous that not one Priest of fourty knoweth them all and not one lay man of many thousand The very bulk therefore of your faith must make it more uncertain than ours is And who can tell whether he have it all XXXI The words of your Councils are as obscure as Scripture words and are controverted by your Doctors And how can it be otherwise when humane language is so ambiguous in such huge Volumes How then shall the sense of your Councils themselves be certainly known XXXII Councils are rarely extant God only knoweth whether ever there will be anothor even a pretended one And must we have no judge in the mean time to give us a Certainty of the meaning of the very foregoing Councils themselves Most confess that the Pope himself may err XXXIII It is but few persons in the world that ever saw and consulted with a Pope and a General Council How then shall we be all sure what they said or determined How know we whether the Records of them be truest in Crab in Surius in Nicolinus in Binnius or in none of them What was Caranzas's fault that he is blamed for Which of the various Copies of Canons are true which are given us oft by the same Author Who knoweth what alterations the Index expurgatorius not infallible maketh in the books Have we no more or other Certainty of our Creed than of all these Councils so variously and doubtfully delivered XXXIV Seeing that each lay man that never saw Pope or Councils can know them only by believing the Priest that telleth him This the Church saith is that Priest Infallible Can no man be be certainer of the Creed than of that Priests words Is not the faith of almost all your vulgar Papists resolved into the Priests affirmation And so is it not a humane faith And how ignorant and wicked is many a Priest Is our faith uncertain because we take it not on such a mans credit XXXV If you say that an Implicite faith that all is true and of God which the Pope and Council saith is so will save men 1. How do the people know whether the Pope and Council determine any thing at all but on the Priests credit 2. Then all Infidels may be saved without believing that there is a Saviour or salvation so they do but believe in the Pope and Council 3. Then believing in the Pope and Council is made far more necessary than believing in Christ. 4. Why will not an implicite belief in Christ go as far as yours XXXVI By your way we can never be Certain when we have all the Christian faith For more Councils may still make more decrees as hitherto they have done and who knows when they will hae done And so you make a Christian quite another thing than he was in the primitive Church And you cruelly make it far harder to be saved when as then a man might be saved that believed the Covenant and Creed and foresaid Catechism and now he must also believe so many Canons as that the Councils containing them in the last Edition exceed the purse of a poor Minister to buy them and the time and brains of most to read them XXXVII You confess all our faith and Religion to be true as far as I can learn but we deny all your additions Both parties therefore being agreed of the truth of ours it 's like to be the surer Our Religion in the Essentials is nothing but the Sacramental Covenant the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue with the Law of Nature And in the Integrals it is nothing but the Scriptures which we receive as Canonical And all this you commonly confess to be true And I told you before how Bellarmine Costerus and others confess less to be sufficient to Salvation as commonly necessary But your additions we reject as uncertain or false XXXVIII We see you to be a Carnal Kingdom set up against Christs express determination Luk. 22. 26. 1. Pet. 5. 3. As the Geographia Nubiensis saith In Vrbe Roma c. In the City of Rome are the seats of a King called the Pope Nor is there any superiority in dignity above the Pope and Kings are lower or inferior than he We see that you have compaginated your policie all for these carnal Ends and that dignity and dominion and riches and worldliness is promoted by your faith And that your Religion is propagated and upheld by most inhumane cruelties and bloodshed and they must be burned that seem not to believe as you do And will it not raise suspicions in us of the fidelity of such men when they make their own faith and tell us that we have no certainty of ours but by their determination