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
A52435	A sermon preach'd before the University of Oxford at St. Peters Church in the East on Mid-Lent Sunday, March 29, 1685 by John Norris ...	Norris, John, 1657-1711.	1685 (1685)	Wing N1269; ESTC R3053	13,751	36

that we should think Honorably of our selves 'T is a frequent Observation among Moral and Divine Writers That most if not all the Sins which men commit proceed from want of a due sense of the Dignity of their Nature And consequently a due reflection upon a man 's own Worth must needs be a strong Preservative against whatsoever would stain its Glory Shall such a man as I flee Was the powerful consideration that buoy'd up the sinking Spirits of Nehemiah And 't is one of the Capital Precepts of Pythagoras's Morals and perhaps one of the best too that was ever given to the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Above all things reverence thy self And 't was the Saying of another of the Sons of Wisdom Let not the Reverence of any man cause thee to sin Which it certainly will do unless we observe the former Rule and reflect with due Reverence upon our own Worth and Dignity From these considerations not to urge any more it seems to me very evident that 't is not only lawful but in some respects highly Expedient that our Opinions of our selves should rise up so as to be of a Level with our Excellencies whatsoever they are Let one of the Scales be mounted never so high yet if there be a proportionable Weight in the Other the Ballance moves regularly and as it should do We may then proceed so far as this Standard But Secondly We must not go beyond it For all beyond this is Pride Pride that turn'd the Angels out of Heaven Adam out of Paradice and levell'd the great King of Babylon with the Beasts that perish and which is nothing else but an Intemperate Opinion of our selves which consists either in assuming to our selves any Excellency which we have not or in Over-rating what we have Tho indeed in Strictness of Notion this latter falls in with the former For to Over-rate what we have is indeed to assume some Degree of good which we have not Here then begins our Restraint the Reasonableness of which will appear from the Absurdities and ill Consequences which attend the transgressing of this Standard and which in the third and last place I come now to consider I shall observe only the most notorious and these I shall reduce to these Three general Heads First That it unqualifies us for the performance of many Duties Secondly That it betrayes us into many sins And Thirdly That it frustrates all methods of Reformation Of these very briefly First an excessive opinion of our selves and that is so which surpasses the measure of our real worth unqualifies us for the performance of many Duties and that both in relation to God our Neighbour and our Selves First in relation to God As Folly leads to Atheism so does an overweening opinion of our own Wisdom or any other excellency to Profaneness For as the Fool has said in his heart there is no God so it is said in another place That the ungodly is so Proud that he careth not for him Pride then is altogether inconsistent with that Subjection Honour and Veneration which we owe to God For how can he submit his passions to the Authority of the Divine Will who has made a Law of his own And as it indisposes us for all active so likewise for all passive Obedience for how can he suffer that with Patience which he thinks he does not deserve in Iustice Or how can he submit with resignation to the seeming unevenesses of Providential Dispensations the equality of which because he cannot discern he must in honour to his own understanding deny And upon the same ground it unqualifies us for Faith in many of the Divine Revelations For how can he Captivate his understanding to Mysteries who thinks it a dishonour to own any and is resolv'd to believe no farther than he can comprehend Lastly It unqualfies us for Gratitude towards God and consequently puts a Bar to all those good actions which we would otherwise perform upon that Principle And by this it becomes a Multiplied a Legion evil For how can he acknowledge an Obligation pass'd upon him by Gods Favours who calls them not by that name but esteems them as Rewards and Payments and inverting the Protestation of the good Patriarch thinks himself worthy of the greatest of his mercies Then Secondly In relation to our Neighbour it unqualifies us for Obedience to Civil Government For how can he submit to the Wisdom of his Superiours and pay an implicite deference to the Occult reasons of State who thinks himself wiser than a whole Senate and disputes even the ways of Providence Pride was ever observed to be the Mother of Faction and Rebellion and accordingly St. Iude makes it part of the Character of the Proud Gnostics To despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities Again It unqualifies us for those acts of Justice which consist in a due observation of our Neighbours Merits and a deference of external Respect proportionable to that observation For how can he be at leasure to take notice of anothers worth who is so wholely taken up in the contemplation of his own Let the Reputation of his best Friends if it be possible for a Proud man to have any be in never so great danger he like Archimedes is so over-busie in admiring the Creatures of his own brain those Draughts and Ideas which he has form'd of himself there that he regards not the Ruin that is about him Or if he does he is so far from appearing in their defence as in Justice he ought that he rather rejoyces at their Spots as Accessions to his own brightness Again It unqualifies us for the Offices of Humanity and Civil Behaviour and all kinds of Homilitical virtue for how can he treat those with any tolerable Civility whom he looks down upon as a whole Species below him Lastly it unqualifies us for Gratitude toward our Benefactors For how can he think himself obliged by man who counts God his Debtor Then Thirdly In relation to our Selves here is this grand ill consequence of an immoderate salf-esteem that it unqualifies us not only for higher attainments but even for the very endeavours of improvement and so cuts short and be-dwarfs all our excellencies 'T is the Observartion of Cicero Multi ad scientiam pervenissent nisi se jam pervenisse credidissent The Opinion of the Proud man has so far got the start of the real worth that the latter will never overtake the former And as the immoderate esteem of our Selves unqualifies us for the performance of many Duties so does it also in the Second place Betray us into many Sins First Into all those sins which are contrary to the foremention'd Vertues respectively And besides them into many more such as are presumption and security vexation and discontent contempt of others tho at the same time it exposes us to theirs Anger and Contention Malice and Revenge For the Proud man is not content to be his own private