Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	church_n	infallible_a	scripture_n	3,356	5	6.9949	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86368	Eighteene choice and usefull sermons, by Benjamin Hinton, B.D. late minister of Hendon. And sometime fellow of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge. Imprimatur, Edm: Calamy. 1650.	Hinton, Benjamin.	1650 (1650)	Wing H2065; Thomason E595_5; ESTC R206929	221,318	254

he shews by the Author thereof two waies First Negatively that the Scriptures are not of mans invention For the prophecy saith he came not in old time by the will of man Secondly Affirmatively that the Holy Ghost was the Authour of them But holy men of God saith he spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost But some man may say Indeed the Apostle saith thus but how doth he prove it He saith as St. Paul doth that the Scriptures are inspired of God 2 Tim. 3.16 but how doth he prove it When Aristotle that great profound Philosopher saw the books of Moses and read what he wrote about the Creation of the world he misliked his Books because he proved not that which he wrote Hic omnia dicit nihil probat This man saith he saith every thing but he proyes nothing But we are to remember that though we may doubt of that which men say because all men are lyars as the Scripture saith and so need proofs to consume their sayings yet the Scripture being the Word of God is of it self sufficient to credit and need not any proof for the confirmation of it The Jewes have a saying that the Law doth not need any fortification in regard that God was the Authour of it and so God being the Authour of the whole Scripture it needs no fortification or proof to strengthen it but whatsoever we find written therein we need make no question of the truth thereof but are bound to believe it True may some say if we were assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God that God not man was the Author of them then we need make no question of the truth of those things which we find therein But how shall we know them to be Gods word and that no other was the Authour of them Which because it is the summe of that which the Apostle delivers in these words I purpose briefly to handle this question How a man may know and be fully assured that the Scriptures must needs be the word of God Concerning which question there is a great controversie between us and the Church of Rome They say that the onely Testimony of the Church is sufficient to perswade us that the Scripture is the Word of God and that if it were not for the Testimony of the Church we could not give any credit to it We say that the Scripture is known to be Gods Word by the inward Testimony of Gods Spirit and that without this Testimony to perswade us hereunto the testimony of the Church and of all other whatsoever is insufficient Titubabit sides nostra si Scripturae vacillet autoritas August de Doct. Christ lib. 1. cap. 37. Our faith will stagger saith St. Augustine if the authority of the Scripture stand not firme But how can the authority of the Scripture stand firme if it be built onely upon so weak a foundation as the testimony of man For the Church is subject to errour both in doctrine and manners and therefore this testimony may deceive us But we require an infallible proof for the certainty of the Scriptures They say that the Testimony of the Church is infallible and when we wil have them to prove it they prove it thus because it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 as the Scripture tells us Thus if a man doubt of the authority of the Scripture to prove it they send him to the testimony of the Church and while he doubts of the truth of the testimony of the Church to prove it they send him back again to the Scripture But if the Church be sufficient to perswade a man that the Scriptures are the word of God how comes it to passe that Turks Insidels who have often heard this testimony of the Church are not yet perswaded of the truth of the Scriptures How many thousands of Jewes are now living in Italie and many of them in Rome who deny the Gospel and are not yet perswaded that Christ is come If the onely Testimony of the Church be sufficient why make they not proof thereof upon them that the World may see the virtue and efficacy of it But we know experience tells them daily to their faces that they cannot do it and if you ask them the reason they can give none but this because of the blindness and unbelief of the Jewes why therefore say we that that which is able to assure a man that the Scripture is Gods word must be able to illuminate his understanding and to give him faith that he may believe it but this is onely the work of Gods spirit There is nothing more ordinary among the Prophets then when they delivered Gods vvord to the People to tell the People that it was Gods vvord which they delivered Heare the word of the Lord saith Esay 1.10 The word of the Lord came unto me saith Jeremie 1.4 and thus every one of the Prophets from the first to the last do testifie that they delivered the vvord of God Esay 53.1 But who hath believed our report saith Esay so that where there was one that believed it there were many that did not and therefore if neither the vvord it self nor the testimony of the Prophets concerning the vvord could perswade them that it was the vvord of God much lesse is the testimony of the Church sufficient when St. Paul preached at Phylippi Acts 16. there were many that heard him but it is said there of Liddia onely that God opened her heart so that she attended unto that which he spake Acts 16.14 now if she could not so much as attend unto those things which St. Paul delivered unlesse that God had first opened her heart much lesse could she have believed that that which he spake was the vvord of God but by the inward operation of Gods spirit The Word is sometimes called a light because it is lightsome in it self as the Sunne but as the Sunne though it be never so lightsome yet it cannot be discerned by those that are blind So the Word though in it self it be never so glorious yet it is not apparent to us till our hearts be opened The Word is sometime compared to seed because it is fruitfull like the seed that is sowen but as the seed which is sowen cannot bring forth increase but by the influence and virtue which it receiveth from Heaven no more is the word fruitfull and effectual in us till God by his spirit give a blessing unto it The word is not unlike the poole in Jerusalem whereof there is mention John 5. The poole though it cured all outward Diseases yet it had not this virtue but then onely when the Angell did stir the waters the word though it be the means to cure our inward infirmities yet it cannot do it but onely by the motion of Gods spirit Now the first Disease which is to be cured is out spiritual blindnss whereby we are

understanding Deut. 5.1 he first knocks as it were at the doore where wisdome must enter Prov. 1. ●8 and cries Hearken my Sonne The Kings daughter Psal ●45 10.13 the Spouse of Christ before she become all glorious within must first hearken and consider and incline her eare And the sheep of Christs fold John 10.4 must first hear his voice before they can follow him If either with the Adder we stop our ears and refuse to hear the voice of the charmer Psal 58.4.5 or fall asleep with Eutichus Acts 20.9 when we are come into the Church or be busied with Martha about other matters Luke 10.4 no marvell though the word be not fruitfull in us For as the ground cannot fructifie without the receiving of seed no more can we without the hearing of the word Lastly Seeing the hearing of the word is the receiving of seed it shews us from whence the hearing of the word becomes fruitfull in us not from any vertue that we have in our selves but from Gods blessing as the ground which is sowne cannot bring forth fruit but by the influence and vertue which it receives from heaven The ground ye know when it hath been sowne with seed must have the rain from heaven to moisten it it must have the heat of the Sun to cherish it otherwise it becomes fruitlesse and yields no increase And thus unlesse God give a blessing to his word unlesse he mollifie our hearts and illuminate our minds the word which we have heard cannot fructifie in us For Paul may plant and Apollos may water but it is God that must give the increase And therefore as the ground when it hath been sown with seed if it be but a while without the rain it will thirst after it it will open as it were the mouth and gape towards heaven with a longing desire to be refresht with it and when the blade comes forth it will seem even to droop and to hang down the head till the Sun do strengthen it So must we be affected when we have heard the word we must long for a blessing from heaven upon it we must pray unto God for the assistance of his Spirit and we must thirst after grace even as the heart doth bray after the rivers of water Psal 42.1 and as the dry land doth thirst after rain in the drought of Summer And thus much for the first means of a good ground the receiving of seed or the hearing of the word The second means of a good ground is the receiving in of the seed or the understanding of the word The ground though seed be sown upon it yet if the seed stay there and go no further and if the ground recieve not the seed into it it must needs be fruitlesse And thus though we hear the word of God yet unlesse it do pierce further then the outward eare unlesse what we hear with our ears we understand with our hearts the seed of Gods Word cannot fructifie in us And therefore Saint James by an other like metaphor wils us to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the engrafted Word to note unto us James 1.21 the Word must likewise be engrafted in the heart like a sience in a stock before it can bear and bring forth fruit The seed which fell before upon the stony ground soon withered away and became fruitlesse and our Saviour gives this as the reason of it because it had no root For though we hear the word never so often yet till the understanding be informed and the heart affected our superficial hearing will profit us nothing Therefore when Saint Paul did preach at Philippi and converted Lydia it is said there that God opened her heart so that she attended unto that which he spake Acts 16.14 And when our Saviour instructed his Disciples out of the Law and the prophets it is said there that he opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures Luke 24●45 The Scripture is as it were a letter sent down from heaven wherein God hath revealed his will unto man the hearing and reading whereof are singular means to instruct us in righteousnesse but neither of them sufficient unlesse we understand what we hear and read Therefore our Saviour requires understanding to be joyned with hearing Marke 7.14 Hear saith he and understand Acts 8.30 And therefore Philip requires understanding to be joyned with reading Legere non intelligere negligire est imò neo legere est Vnderstandest thou saith he what thou readest as if reading were to no purpose without understanding For the end why we must hear and read the word is that we may bring forth the fruit thereof by endeavouring to conforme our lives unto it which we can never do unlesse we understand it no more then the ground which is sowne can bring forth fruit unlesse it receive the seed into it And therefore our Saviour makes the second means of a good ground the understanding of the word Vse 1 Seeing then the Word must be understood this first confutes that erroneous doctrine in the Church of Rome in holding it unlawfull to have the Scriptures translated into the vulgar tongue and will not suffer the people to read the Scriptures whereby they might be brought to the understanding of them But if the Scriptures be the covenant which God hath made with his people then must they not know what is contained in the Covenant If the Scriptures be writ even as Saint Paul tels us for our learning Rom. 15.4 then must we not know and understand what is written And if the Scriptures be written as Saint John tels us John 20.31 that we might believe and by believing have life everlasting then that we may know what we are to believe must we not necessarily know what is written To what end were the Apostles so miraculously furnisht with the gift of tongues John 5.39 but that all might come to the knowledge of the truth revealed in the word while every one heard it in his own language To what end are all commanded to search the Scriptures if they may not be translated into the vulgar tongue that the people may read and understand them Acts 17.11 we see the Bereans are commended in the Acts for examining the Doctrine of Saint Paul by the Scriptures we see when our Saviour did preach to the people he both preacht and read the Text in a known language Luke 4. and we see that the Jews were commanded by God to write his Laws upon the gates of their houses Dent. 6.7 to teach them their children to talk thereof in their ordinary conference and therefore if they were to be so skilfull in the Scripture then much more should we be now in the light of the Gospell of whom God requires a greater measure of knowledge Vse 2 Secondly Seeing the Word must be understood this therefore serves