Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	2,617	5	10.5414	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52427	Practical discourses upon the Beatitudes of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Vol. I written by John Norris, M.A., Rector of Bemerton near Sarum ; to which are added, Reflections upon a late Essay concerning human understanding ; with a reply to the remarks made upon them by the Athenian Society.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.; Norris, John, 1657-1711. Cursory reflections upon a book call'd An essay concerning human understanding.	1699 (1699)	Wing N1260; ESTC R15878	122,509	273

we stand and look upon a miserable World without mourning There are some Men of Rocky Hearts and impassible Tempers that could stand by and see the whole World in Flames without any Concern were but their own little selves secure from the Ruin And this some are pleased to call Philosophy But certainly Christian Charity that obliges us to sympathize with the Miseries of each particular Man to weep with those that weep as the Apostle speaks does much more require us to lament the common Miseries of Human Life This therefore is a very proper Cause of Christian Mourning As is also in the Third Place the Consideration of the Vanity and Emptiness of all Worldly and Created Good The general Cause of most of the Discontent and Melancholy that is in the World is because Men cannot get so much of Worldly Good as they desire not at all questioning its Vanity But on the contrary supposing that if they could compass such and such Things they should be happy and their only Trouble is that they cannot get them Now this is properly Worldly Sorrow and comes from an ill Principle either from Covetousness Lust or Ambition But now there may be a vertuous and laudable Discontent as well as a vicious and sordid one And that is When a Man mourns and is troubled not because he cannot compass such and such Created Goods No perhaps he would not eat of the Fruit if he could reach it but purely because they are all empty and vain and cannot satisfie He does not grieve because he wants them for it may be he chuses to be without them but because they are wanting in themselves and have not that in them which can ever make him happy And indeed it is enough to cast a Damp upon the Spirit of any Considering Man to think that what is substantial and satisfactory is out of his Reach and that all is Vanity and Vexation that lies within it that the former he cannot enjoy and that the latter cannot satisfie To be throughly and inwardly convinced that all Fruition is a Cheat and so to have nothing in Expectation no one Glimpse or Prospect of Enjoyment before one to invite one to live longer This is a sad Reflection and such as must needs cause Sorrow and Mourning But then 't is a very laudable one and such as proceeds from an excellent Principle 'T is a Sorrow that arises from Increase of Wisdom Eccles 1. 18. from a right Notion and Understanding of Things from Contempt of the World from a due Consciousness of our own Powers and Capacities and from the more than ordinary Aspirings of the Soul to God who alone is able to satisfie her And to be sorry upon such Principles as these is to sorrow in a Rational Way and after a Godly Sort. To instance one more Another very proper Cause why a Christian should mourn is the Consideration of the Vncertainty of our Salvation and the infinite Misery of those who shall miscarry in so momentous a Concern As to the Certainty of our Salvation it is not so great as some are apt to imagin For tho' I can be assured of this Proposition with a certainty of Divine Faith it being Matter of express Revelation that the Faithful and the Penitent shall be saved yet that I believe and repent can be known to me only on the Grounds of Experimental Knowledge which is an Human and therefore Fallible Testimony And consequently the Conclusion always following the weaker Part I cannot be assured of my Salvation with a Certainty of Divine Faith but only with an Human and Moral Assurance which indeed to call it by a right Name is no more than an high Probability a strong Presumption But yet if even this Moral Assurance were Absolute and Irreversible and were to take in the Future as well as the Present 't were yet a considerable Stay and Security But it is not so with us That Assurance which we have is absolute only for the Present and reaches not the Future but only upon Condition supposing that we persevere in the present Disposition which considering the Multability of our Wills and the Multitude of our Temptations and the frequent Examples of Apostacy is a thing not only of uncertain but of hazardous Consquence And as we are not cannot be absolutely sure that we shall not miscarry so on the other hand 't is most certain that we shall be unspeakably miserable if we do For a Man to fall off from his last End and only true Good without any hopes or Possibility of Recovery is a thing that can hardly be thought of without Confusion and Amazement Now let a Man put these two things together That whether he shall be saved or no is a Matter of a depending and uncertain issue and that if he miscarry his Case is intolerable and then tell me whether this be not a just Cause for Trouble and Sadness and whether this Salvation this uncertain Salvation be not to be wrought out with Sorrow and Mourning as well as with Fear and Trembling Certainly it is And were it not for this it would be no easie thing to give an Account why Gravity Seriousness and Sobriety of Spirit should be such decent and commendable Qualities in Men. For otherwise Why should not a Man give himself up to the utmost Gaity and Jollity and express it in all manner of odd Postures and Gestures up to the heighth of an Antick Dissoluteness I say Why should not a Man do this But only because this is not agreeable to the Part he is to act who being in a State of Probation and Doubtfulness and having so great an Interest depending ought rather to temper and correct the Luxuriancy of his Spirit with some Grains of Sadness and Pensiveness and beware of laughing too much here lest it should be his Turn to weep and mourn hereafter These are the principal Causes of Mourning And from hence we may gather who the Christian-Mourners are who are concerned in this Beatitude those namely whose Mourning proceeds upon these or such like Grounds which are at last reducible to either of these two Principles Zeal for the Honour and Glory of God or a Concern for the Good of Mankind They who mourn upon the Score of Piety or Charity are true Christian-Mourners It remains that we now consider in the last place wherein consists their Blessedness St. Austin in his Confessions and Meditations very frequently speaks of the Grace of Tears and as often prays for it And well he might since it is attended with such happy Effects and has such a Blessedness intailed upon it It s Blessedness is both present and to come What the present Blessedness is we may learn from the Wise Man who tells us That by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better It is so for by this it becomes more soft and tender for all Divine Impressions for the Love of God for Devotion for Charity to our