Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	faith_n	rule_n	scripture_n	4,181	5	6.7162	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64647	The great necessity of unity and peace among all Protestants, and the bloody principles of the papists made manifest by the most eminently pious and learned Bishop Usher ...	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.	1688 (1688)	Wing U178; ESTC R23183	27,278	20

the Wiseman that What hath been is now and that which is to be hath already been Eccles. 3. 15. and be not so inquisitive why the former days were better than these for we do not enquire wisely concerning this Ibid. 6. 10. When like troubles were in the Church heretofore Isidorus Pelusiota an ancient Father moveth the question what a man should do in this case and maketh answer That If it be possible we should mend it but if that may not be we should hold our peace Lib. 4. Epist. 133. The Apostles resolution I think may give sufficient satisfaction in this point to all that have moderate and peacable minds If in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3. 15. 16. It is not to be looked for that all good men should agree in all things neither is it fit that we should as our Adversaries do put the truth unto compromise and to the saying of an Achitophel whose counsel must be accepted as if a man had inquired at the Oracle of God. We all agree that the Scriptures of God are the perfect rule of our faith we all consent in the main grounds of Religion drawn from thence we all subscribe to the articles of doctrine agreed upon in the Synod of the year 1562. for the avoiding of diversities of opinions and the establishing of consent touching true Religion Hitherto by Gods mercy have we already attained thus far therefore let us mind the same thing let not every wanton wit be permitted to bring what fancies he list into the Pulpit and to disturb things that have been well ordered I beseech you brethren saith the Apostle mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16. 17. If in some other things we be otherwise minded than others of our brethren are let us bear one with another until God shall reveal the same thing unto us and howsoever we may see cause why we should dissent from others in matter of opinion yet let us remember that this is no cause why we should break the Kings peace and make a rent in the Church of God. A thing deeply to be thought of by the Ismaels of our time whose hand is against every man and every mans hand against them who bite and devour one another until they be consumed one of another who forsake the fellowship of the Saints and by a sacrilegious separation brake this bond of peace Little do these men consider how precious the peace of the Church ought to be in our eyes to be redeemed with a thousand of lives and of what dangerous consequence the matter of schism is unto their own souls For howsoever the schismatich secundum affectum as the Schoolmen speak in his intention and wicked purpose taketh away unity from the Church even as he that hateth God doth take away goodness from him as much as in him lieth yet secundum effectum in truth and in very deed he taketh away the unity of the Church only from himself that is he cutteth himself off from being united with the rest of the body and being dissevered from the body how is it possible that he should retain communion with the Head To conclude therefore this first use which we are to make of our communion with the Body let us call to mind the exhortation of the Apostle Above all things put on love which is the bond of perfectness and let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one Body Col. 3. 14. 15. Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity Ps. 133. 1. What a goodly thing it is to behold such an honourable Assembly as this is to be as a house that is compact together in it self Ps. 122. 3. holding fit correspondence with the other part of this great body and due subordination unto their and our Head Such as wish not well to the publick good and would rejoyce at the ruin of our State long for nothing more then that dissensions should arise hete betwixt the members mutually and betwixt them and the Head. Hoc Ithacus velit magno mercentur Atridae They know full well that every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and every house divided against it self shall not stand Matth. 12. 25. nor do they forget the Politicians old rule Divide impera make a division and get the dominion The more need have we to look herein unto our selves who cannot be ignorant how dolorous Solutio continui and how dangerous Ruptures prove to be unto our bodies If therefore there be any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit fulfil our joy That ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind and doing nothing through strife or vain glory Phil. 2. 1 2 3. Remember that as oft as we come unto the Lords Table so oft do we enter into new bonds of peace and tie our selves with firmer knots of love together this blessed Communion being a sacred seal not only of the union which we have with our Head by faith but also of our conjunction with the other members of the body by love Whereby as we are admonished to maintain unity among our selves that there be no schism or division in the body so are we also further put in mind that the members should have the same care one for another For that is the second use which St. Paul teacheth us to make hereof in 1 Cor. 12. 26. which he further amplifieth in the verse next following by the mutual sympathy and fellow-feeling which the members of the same body have on with another For whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it And then he addeth Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular shewing unto us thereby that as we are all concorporated as it were and made copartners of the promise in Christ so we should have one another in our hearts to die and live together 2 Cor. 7. 3. And hereupon is that exhortation in Heb. 13. 3 grounded Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as being our selves also in the Body it being a perilous sign that we be no lively members of that body if we be not sensible of the calamities that lie upon our afflicted brethren We know the Woe that is pronounced against such as are at ease in Sion and are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph Amos 6. 1 6 7. with the judgment following Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive We know the Angels bitter curse against the inhabitants of Meroz Curse ye Meroz said the

But every one will confess that the hunger here spoken of is not corporal but spiritual Why then should any man dream here of a corporal eating Again the corporal eating if a man might have it would not avail any thing to the slaking of this hunger nay we are expresly told that the flesh thus taken for so we must understand it profiteth nothing a man should never be the better nor one jot the holier nor any whit further from the second death if he had filled his belly with it But that manner of feeding on his flesh which Christ himself commendeth unto us is of such profit that it preserveth the eater from death and maketh him to live for ever Joh. 6. 50 51 54 58. It is not therefore such an eating that every man who bringeth a bodily mouth with him may attain unto but it is of a far higher nature namely a spiritual uniting of us unto Christ whereby he dwelleth in us and we live by him If any do farther inquire how it is possible that any such union should be seeing the body of Christ is in heaven and we are upon earth I answer that if the manner of this conjunction were carnal and corporal it would be indeed necessary that things conjoyned should be admitted to be in the same place but it being altogether spiritual and supernatural no local presence no physical nor mathematical continuity or contiguity is any way requisite thereunto It is sufficient for the making of a real union in this kind that Christ and we tho' never so far distant in place each from other be knit together by those spiritual ligatures which are intimated unto us in the words alledged out of Joh. 6. to wit the quickening Spirit descending downward from the Head to be in us a fountain of supernatural life and a lively faith wrought by the same spirit ascending from us upward to lay fast hold upon him who having by himself purged our sins sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high First therefore for the communion of the Spirit which is the ground and foundation of this spiritual union let us call to mind what we have read in Gods Book that Christ the second Adam was made a quickening Spirit Cor. 15. 45. and that he quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5. 21. that unto him God hath given the spirit without measure Joh. 3. 34. and of his fulness have all we received Joh. 1. 16. that he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. and that hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us his Spirit 1 Joh. 3. 24. 4. 13. By all which it doth appear that the mistery of our union with Christ consisteth mainly in this that the self same Spirit whch is in him as in the Head is so derived from him into every one of his true members that thereby they are animated and quickened to a spiritual life We read in Ezekel 1. of four living creatures and of four wheels standing by them When those went saith the Text those went and when those stood these stood and when those were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against them He that should behold such a vision as this would easily conclude by that which he saw that some invisible bands there were by which these wheels and living creatures were joyned together howsoever none did outwardly appear unto the eye and the holy Ghost to give us satisfaction herein discovereth the secret by yielding this for the reason of this strange connexion that the spirit of the living creature was in the wheel Exek 1. 21. From whence we may inferr that things may truly be conjoyned together tho' the manner of the conjunction be not corporal and that things distant in place may be united together by having the spirit of the one communicated unto the other Nay if we mark it well we shall find it to be thus in every of our own bodies that the formal reason of the union of the members consisteth not in the continuity of the parts tho' that also be requisite to the unity of a natural body but in the animation thereof by one and the same spirit If we should suppose a body to be as high as the heavens that the head thereof should be where Christ our Head is and the feet where his members are no sooner could that head think of moving one of the toes but instantly the thing would be done without any impediment given by that huge distance of the one from the other And why because the same soul that is in the head as in the fountain of sence and motion is present likewise in the lowest member of the body But if it should so fall out that this or any other member proved to be mortified it presently would cease to be a member of that body the corporal conjunction and continuity with the other parts notwithstanding And even thus is it in Christ altho ' in regard of his corporal presence the heaven must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things Act. 3 21. yet is he here with us alway even unto the end of the world Matt. 28. 20. in respect of the presence of his Spirit by the vital influence whereof from him as from the Head the whole body is fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part Which quickening Spirit if it be wanting in any no external communion with Christ or his Church can make him a true member of this mistical body this being a most sure principle that He which hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Now among all the graces that are wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ the soul as it were of all the rest and that whereby the just doth live Habak 2. 4. Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3 11. Heb. 10. 38 is Faith For we through the Spirit wait for the bope of righteousness by faith saith St. Paul to the Galatians Gal. 5. 5. And again I live yet n●t I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. By faith it is that we do receive Christ Joh. 1. 12. and so likewise Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. Faith therefore is that spiritual mouth in us whereby we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood that is as the Apostle expresseth it without the Trope are made partakers of Christ Heb. 3. 14. he being by this means as truly and every ways as effectually made ours as the meat and drink which we receive into our natural bodies But you will say If this be all the matter what do we get by coming to the Sacrament