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	matter_n	1,487	5	6.1160	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45356	A discourse of the excellency of Christianity	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1671 (1671)	Wing H461; ESTC R25404	37,770	96

the World to testifie which his Apotheosis he sends down his holy Spirit upon his Apostles and enables them to speak with Tongues and do Miracles which Scheme of Providence doth so palpably evince the Interposition and Efficiency of a Deity and that all these things hapned by his actual concurrence that he must on purpose blind his eyes who will not see it 2. All the place of doubting which is left to us in the Belief of the Promises of the Gospel is no other than what may be in the highest moral Certainty imaginable It only leaves a Possibility that notwithstanding all the Arguments brought to confirm it it may yet be otherwise Every thing is not capable of a Mathematical Demonstration but the ways of Probation are different according to the Diversity of Subjects And certainly he will be a very imprudent man that will neglect an important Affair to the Undertaking of which he hath highly probable Reasons only because 't is possible it may be otherwise 3. It was a great piece of Divine Wisdom so to order the Gospel that the Promises of Life and Salvation should not be so evident as those things that are known by Sense or Demonstration but only so far as might conciliate Faith in a rational Person that thereby the wicked Tempers and Dispositions of men might the more plainly be discovered If the Gospel had been so demonstratively certain so as to exclude all Doubting i. e. Possibility to the contrary all men would have been forced and necessarily good and all that Praise which is due to the embracing of Virtue would have been lost but now that men believe when notwithstanding there is a Possibility to the contrary the Trial of their Faith will be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ For what Praise is due unto him that believes not out of Choice but from the necessary and demonstrative Truth of the Thing itself Let not any man therefore flatter himself with hopes that this will patronize and defend his Infidelity that it was possible the Evangelical Promises might be uncertain but let him consider upon what account his Faith induces him to act in the Affairs of the World Will a human Faith be sufficient to perswade the Merchant to commit his Life and Fortunes to the flattering Waves when he knows not but a merciless Pyrat or the next succeeding Storm may bereave him of both Will the Souldier march all day scalded with Heat or pinched with the Northern Cold and expose his Body to a Storm of Bullets and Swords drunk with his Companions Blood and all for the Spoils of an uncertain Conquest Shall this be able to put us upon Action and shall not the Belief of the Gospel which is not half so uncertain or inevident as this We need no such firm ground to build our Faith upon in matters of the World and therefore we are utterly inexcusable if we do not believe in the Son of God who hath brought Life and Immortality to light FINIS Lib. 7. contra Celsum 1 Cor. 2.13 1.27 1 John 2.12 c. Lib. 4 contra Celsum Euseb Praepar lib. 5. De Praesc adv Haereticos Lib. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ why born of a Virgin Of the Star * The same the Colledge of Priests affirmed of the Comet that appeared at the Ludi Veneris Genet●icis instituted by Augustus Plin. l. 2 c. 25. And Virg. Ecl 4. Ecce Dionaei processit Caesaris Astrum Of the VVise Men. Christ God and Man