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	scripture_n	word_n	6,782	5	5.1236	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93645	Christs innocency pleaded: against the cry of the chief priests. Or, a brief and plain reply unto certain papers received from William Thomas (called) Minister of the Gospel at Ubley. By Thomas Speed, a servant of the Jesus Christ, who was at the request of the bloody crew of chief priests, and teachers, crucified at Jerusalem.	Speed, Thomas, b. 1622 or 3.	1656 (1656)	Wing S4904; Thomason E865_1; ESTC R207594	52,531	75

the Ministers of Jesus Christ preach't for Tithes or sprinkled Infants The next thing that I asked you in my last was this Where is it written that the Scriptures are the ground of Faith W. T. That the Scriptures are the ground of faith is necessarily deduced from the ensuing Scriptures John 3.33 34. T. S. If the Lord hath not given you up wholly to disingenuity and blindnesse I appeale to that of God in your conscience whether this be an Answer to the Question propounded and whether it be not manifest huxtering and falsifying the Scripture to offer your own deductions for Scripture What shifting and shuffling is here to support the vain imaginations of your own heart Either it is written that the Scriptures are the ground of faith or it is not if it be written why had you not quoted the particular Scripture in which it is written If it be not written why had you not given a plain Answer to my Question and have confessed that it is no where so written However taking your Answer as you have laid it you thereby grant that which I said Viz. That it is no where written that the Scriptures are the ground of faith Notwithstanding which you labour much with your dead deductions and dark reasonings and all to force the Scripture to speak that which it never spake in which paths of cloudy confusion and horrible absurdities I shall not spend time to follow you for the folly and ignorance of your lines will be sufficiently discovered to any enlightned eye by the bare reading of them I shall only point at some of your most monstrous abuses offred to the Scripture and horrible blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ by your setting up the letter of Scripture above him and the testimony of his Spirit How wretchedly doe you abuse that place 1 John 5.10 in saying that the record witness there spoken of is the Scripture when as the very Scripture it self giveth you the lye saying that the witness and record there spoken of is within the Saints which record the very next verse there expresseth to be eternall life which God hath given to the Saints And is paper and Ink within the Saints or are they eternall life To this you add W. T. I must first believe and ground my faith on that written word and I must first believe and rest upon that written word and I must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because the written word tells me so T. S. If your conscience be not seared with a hot iron can you read over these lines again and not see the blasphemy that is in them stare in your face Was there not faith and was not Jesus Christ before the written word and yet must that be first believed on and be the ground of faith Is rest only to be found in Jesus Christ the eternall Son of God and yet the written word must be rested on first Did not Abel Enoch Abraham and other holy men of God believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God long before the written word was and could they then believe it because that told them so What starved soules have those Sheep whose Shepheard handeth to them no better food then this Doth not the witnesse of God in your conscience condemne you for horrible iniquity for receiving so much money yearly of your Parishioners and give them in exchange nought but such unsavoury husks as these From this you proceed to put another Scripture upon the Rack to make it confesse that which is neither expressed nor was ever intended in it Ephes 2.20 Yee are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone W. T. There it is said in terminis that the Scripture is a foundation T. S. Was the fear of the Lord before your eyes when you pen'd this Assertion so manifestly contradictory to the truth Is the Scripture so much as mentioned in that whole Chapter and yet is it in so many tearms called there a foundation Is not the foundation there spoken of that same Jesus which was both preach't and believed on by the Prophets and Apostles and had you the impudence to say that it 's the Scripture Could you so confidently give Paul the lye who saith expresly that other foundation then Jesus Christ none can lay and yet you would make Paul himself to lay another Doth not Calvin * Intelligit Jesum Christum cui Testimoniū tulêre Apostoli Prophetae Cal. in locum one of your Comentators with whom you trade for matter to sell to the people as manifestly conclude you to be a lyar who saith in terminis That the Apostle doth in that Scripture intend Jesus Christ to whom the Prophets and Apostles did bear witnesse Nay which is more see the heighth of your deceit doe not you your self say but a few lines after that the foundation on which the Prophets and Apostles built and we build is Christ You tell me in your last papers of my Out-cryes But let me say to you That I shall never cease to cry aloud against such horrible falshood and deceit as this Can you without a blushing conscience accuse others for denying the Scripture and yet you your self in the mean while thus trample it under foot by averring that it saith that in terms which it doth not once mention You proceed labouring in the dark seeking by a coyned distinction which the Scripture knoweth not to prove your own conceptions You say W. T. There 's a double foundation 1 Personall or reall that is Christ 2 Doctrinall or declarative that is the Scripture T. S. If the Scripture be no reall foundation is it then imaginary for that which is not reall is imaginary Is not the Scripture beholding to you for calling it a foundation and yet opposing it to that which is a reall foundation Is the Scripture acquainted with this distinction when you shew it me there I shall speak more to it W T. Now enquire again whether I have made the Scriptures assert that which they no where doe T. S. I am not now to make enquiry touching that a little enquiry will serve the turn to find you a notorious falsifyer of the Scripture in saying it is written so and so when as no such thing is written And I doe still say that were you not past blushing you would cover your face through shame when you reflect on your wresting of the Scripture endeavouring to produce it as a testimony to your false assertions You goe on to distinguish between Gods Testimony and Gods Truth T. S. Have you at once lost your honesty as well as your understanding that you should create an opposition betwixt Gods testimony and Gods truth Is not his testimony truth Thus you jumble things together to fill up your papers just as you multiply words to fill up your houre in the Pulpit whether you speak things true or false

it matters not W. T. If the Scriptures be corrupted they must be purged cleared and the true words and sense held forth and maintained which is the Churches Office 1 Tim. 3.15 T. S. Would not any man be ashamed but he that is past shame to offer this Scripture to prove that the Scripture must be purged and cleared by the Church when it 's corrupted Is the Scripture or the corruption purging or clearing of it mentioned or so much as intended in that Scripture This is just such a wild proof as you use to bring for the dead Doctrines you raise from Scripture in your Pulpit But the ground of faith you say may be corrupted nay you say further that faith may be lost T. S. Let all that fear the Lord judge whether you speak like a man acquainted with the faith of Gods elect Is the faith of Gods elect bottomed upon a corruptible foundation and may their faith be lost The Scripture saith that He that believeth shall never be confounded but if the ground of faith be corruptible shame and confusion will certainly cover the faces of those that believe When I tell you that the Scripture could not be the ground of Abel's Enoch's and Noah's faith because they were before the Scripture was c. You Answer W. T. Though they had not those Scriptures which now we have yet the word of God was made known to them then and that word of God is the ground and was the ground of their faith T. S. I hope you own no other Scriptures then those we now have and if they had not those then they could not be the ground of their faith And thus are you constrained to Answer and confute your self out of your own mouth for whereas you have spent much time and produced many blind Arguments to prove that the Scriptures are the ground of faith now you confesse that they were not the ground of Abel's Enoch's and Noah's faith and if they were not the ground of their faith then neither were they the ground of any of the Saints faith since them for that they and all the Saints since have the same foundation and are built on the same Rock which can never be removed nor corrupted as you doe most absurdly assert And whereas you say the word of God was made knowne to them then and was the ground of their faith what need you have said this for whoever denyed it was this the thing in controversie betwixt you and me or did ever any of those called Quakers say that the word of God was not the ground of Abrahams faith and still is of the faith of all Saints Did you not in your first Letter to me accuse them for denying the Scriptures because you said they denyed the Scriptures to be the ground of faith and now doe you confesse that before the Scriptures were there was a ground of faith Let all that are wise-hearted judge what horrible confusion you labour in for if there were something that was not the Scripture because it was before it which was the ground of Abells faith and Abrahams faith and still is the ground of faith then what more manifest then this that you doe most ignorantly accuse those called Quakers for denying the Scripture because they assert that which you your selfe doe here grant and acknowledge to be a truth You proceed hence to tell me of my Out-cryes and why Out-cryes because I tell you the plain truth without falttery I trust I shall never be ashamed to cry yet louder against all Idol Shepheards that eat the fat and drink the sweet and cloath with the wool but feed not the flock When you say that the word of God was ever the ground of faith even before it was written I ask did you by the word of God intend the Scripture or not If you did then that which I said to you thence doth justly fall upon you if not then to what end did you spend half a sheet of paper to prove the Scripture to be the ground of faith calling it all along the word of God And yet now to save your self out of the mire of confusion and contradiction you create an opposition betwixt the Scripture and the word of God Thus you write as you Preach say and unsay in the same houres discourse assert a thing and contradict it T. S. In what Scripture is it written that Christ directeth us to look for life in the Scripture W. T. In the present Scripture John 5.39 Search the Scriptures for in them you thinke you have Eternall life T. S. You will call it rayling if I say again that it 's a shame for one that pretendeth himself to be a Minister of Jesus Christ to be found with so notorious a lye in his mouth But esteem it as you will I must not forbear telling you plainly of so great a wickednesse To what a height of wickednesse are you arived who durst belye the Son of God who is truth it self in saying he saith that which never proceeded out of his lips Have not the dayes of * Jer. 6.15 Jeremiah overtaken us in which he complaineth that from the Prophet to the Priest every one dealeth falsly and when they had committed abomination they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Because Christ saith to the Jewes that they though they had eternall life in the Scriptures did he therefore 〈◊〉 to look for life in them Christ telleth his Disciples that the time should come that whosoever killed them should think he did God service and will you thence gather this Doctrine which is as true as the former that Christ in that Scripture directeth men to kill his Disciples that so they might doe God service if you have not a conscience past feeling how can you consider of this injurious dealing with Christ and the Scriptures and not blush and bewaile your folly From your abuse of Christ and the forementioned Scripture you proceed to your reasonings and arguings such as they are but since they are all grounded on that which is fasly premised Viz. that Christ directeth us to look for life in the Scriptures I shall not spend time to examine their strength for that they fall of themselves having no better foundation then a grosse untruth of your own invention T. S. Is not eternall life to be had in Christ alone and is the Scripture Christ W. T. Eternall life is to be had in Christ alone and therefore in Scripture T. S. If you did not esteem your selfe licensed to blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ could you thus impudently derogate from his glory in saying that eternall life which is alone to be had in Christ may yet be had in that which is not Christ Can that which is alone to be had in him be yet had in another whence had you this rare peece of Logick that that which is alone to be had in one thing may yet be had in another

nay therefore in the second because it is alone to be had in the first Is not this as good reasoning to say That salvation is alone to be had freely by Jesus Christ and therefore by the works of the Law we must pray alone to the Lord that made us and therefore to graven Images Minde feriously if the Lord hath not given you up to a spirit of slumber that you should write such barbarous contradictions in stead of Doctrine whiles you fight against the truth The Reason you give for your bold assertion is this W. T. Because the Scripture setteth forth Christ alone as the person in whom life is to be had T. S. That the Scriptures doe testifie of Christ is true and that there is no other Jesus but that onely begotten of the Father of whom they testifie is as true But is life therefore to be had in them Is a declaration touching any thing the thing it selfe Old Jacobs sons made a declaration to their Father of the great plenty of corne in Egypt to keep them alive and will you therefore say that food and sustenance were to be had in their declaration Many Philosophers have given a description in their writings of the nature of bread and doth it thence follow that bread is to be had in their writings Plinny and others since him have declared the nature of that sweetnesse which is in honey and was ever any man so ignorant to conclude that therefore honey with its sweetnesse is to be had in the declarations of Plinny For shame doe not assume to your selfe the name of a Divine nor undertake to teach others the way to life whilest you are not able to put a difference betwixt a declaration touching a thing and the thing it selfe and so put the Scripture for Christ and the letter for the life In the next place you speak of men that cannot or will not put a difference between word and word between the Essentiall word and the Enuntiative word and so accommodate themselves for the shaking off of Scripture as if nothing were the word but Christ T. S. Must he presently be sentenced for a shaker off of the Scripture who cannot adore every School distinction as an Oracle from Heaven Where doe the Scripture make mention of the Essentiall word and the Enuntiative word and if the Scripture knoweth not any such termes pray tell us when you received your commission from Heaven to coyne distinctions and father them on the Scripture and then accuse men for shaking off the Scripture because they shake off the vaine imaginations of your own brain W. T. I would ask you this one question whereupon must I believe that Christ is the true light that lightens every man that comes into the world c. T. S. I ask you againe whether that all the holy men of God from Abel to John who spake those words did believe that Christ was the true light If they did then I demand on what ground did they beleeve it and on what ground did John himselfe who spake the words beleeve the truth of them W T. Suffer the Scripture then to be the ground of faith T. S. I say to you and the rest of those that call themselves Teachers in the Nation doe you suffer the Scripture to abide pure as it was spoken and doe not darken it by your corrupt glosses nor raise imaginations of your own upon it which you call Comments and so make the Scripture to swell into so many volumes that a great part of a mans life time must be spent in perusing them suffer the Scripture to be that which it declareth it selfe to be and speak not that of it falsly which it never spake of it selfe You proceed hence in your Papers to descant on my testimony that I gave touching the Scriptures and because you can therein finde no matter of quarrell taking my words in that plainesse they were spoken therefore you fly to making of meanings on them and say if I mean so by this and that expression then there is truth in it but if so then there is danger in it T. S. Are you troubled because my words were so plaine and so spend time to seek a knot in a bull-rush what would you have would you make me speak what I intended not Let it suffice that I tell you that I spake as I mean't and did mean as I spake Therefore you may forbear to impose your drousie Interpretations on what I declared in words sufficiently intelligible by any man whose minde is not darkned with ignorance or passion What Lordly spirit is that which lodgeth within your brest that your Probatum est must serve for a stamp under which my testimony must passe for truth and without which it must be of necessity erronious Much more stirre you make about meanings and sences in your discourse but I shall not trace you in all your wilde divinations but leave them to be burn't up as stnbble with the fire of truth W. T. But such words as these will serve a turne being very taking with poor mistaken and seduced soules T. S. You told me but even now of deceit and danger that were in my words but it seemeth there is no great danger in them if they are like to take with none but those who are already seduced for there is little danger of hurting them that are already under deceit and seduction When as in my last I declared my disowning of any mans testimony that was found contradictory to Scripture You answer W. T. For ought I know then you must leave the most or all of your new Religion which is upheld by a pretended inward light that will never abide the tryall c. T. S. For ought I know unlesse you prove me to have taken up some new Religion you may expect your portion among those that are shut out of the new Jerusalem for lyars and false Prophets I own no Religion but that which teacheth a man to fear the Lord and work righteousnesse to visit the fatherlesse and widowes in their affliction and to keep himselfe unspotted of the world Christ is the light of the world which I own as the foundation of my Religion who is within me unlesse I am a Reprobate and dare you be so impudent as to call him a pretended light You would be very angry if I should disown you for a Minister of Jesus Christ but did he ever make such Ministers or did ever any of the Apostles that were sent forth by him in scorn call him a pretended light If false Prophets may be known by their fruits then let all that know the Lord and walk in his fear judge what you are who doe bring forth such sowre Grapes as these And whereas you say my new Religion will never abide the tryall as may appear in part by what hath been already said I answer If wresting and belying the Scripture if contradictions and confusion be that

patronizing of your sond and unwarrantable practises Your Argument runneth thus If we ought to render to all their dues Custome to whom Custome c. Then Infants ought to be baptized But we ought to render to all their dues Ergo. Which Argument amounteth to as much as this Children ought to be baptized because they ought to be baptized And this is your Scripture by which you throw water on the faces of Infants and call it an Ordinance of Jesus Christ You said before That necessary deductions from Scripture are Scripture and consequently this deduction of yours is Scripture When the letter of Scripture is against you in any of your will-worships then you strive to avoid the stroak of it by giving your own imaginations for an Interpretation and where the Scripture is silent there you make it to speak what will serve your own turns and all the while cry out against such as own the Scripture but disown your corrupt interpretations of it as Hereticks Let me tell you the Lord is now discovering the deceit and hypocrisie of all such as say they speak the word of the Lord when he hath not spoken to them and of all those blind guides that have for many years caused the people to erre You proceed to prove Baptism to be an Infants due but you attempt it by a heap of such lame confounded Arguments that there is neither order nor reason to be found in them First you begin with Infants indefinitely and doe endeavour to prove that they ought to be sprinkled then you change that tearm and put in the Infant of a believing parent and so as you list you fill up your Arguments with such stuffe as you use to bring forth to your people whether such language as the Scripture knoweth or not I perceive is all one to you W. T. The Infant of a believing parent is a holy Child as soon as it is born T. S. Paul saith that he with others were by nature the Children of wrath Ephes 2.3 But he that is holy is no child of wrath and consequently no believers Infant is born a child of wrath Christ saith That which is born of the flesh is flesh You say that which is born of the flesh is holy your proof is 1 Cor. 7.14 To which I answer If the holinesse there mentioned be the foundation on which you build the sprinkling of Infants faces and call it baptism then may a declared unbeliever be baptized also for the same holinesse that the Child had the unbelieving parent had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the same Greek word that is used for sanctifying the unbelieving parent is used for the holinesse of the Child which you might have considered before you had so rashly asserted the holinesse there spoken of to be a sufficient ground for Infant-baptism And will you say that the declared unbelieving parent had a right to baptism being holy with the same sanctification the Child had Therefore either grant that the holinesse there spoken of doth not render the Child capable of baptism or else doe not barbarously with-hold the same from the unbelieving Parent who might justly claim the same priviledge as you call it by virtue of the same holinesse You goe on and call Baptism W. T. That mark by which Gods people are outwardly distingished from heathens and the initiating seale of the Covenant which declareth an Infant to be one of Gods and solemnly putteth him into the number of Gods people T. S. Many that are Drunkards Swearers and Whoremasters and professed Enemies of the Lord have received this mark and call you these Gods people If so who are the Heathen they are distinguished from by this mark Is a drunken swearing covetous prophane English-man by this mark distinguished as one of the people of God from a drunken swearing covetous prophane Indian in America as a heathen Dare you rank all the wicked of the Land who are the people of the Curse and who are by expresse Scripture shut out from the Kingdome of God among the number of Gods people This is the saplesse chaffe with which you feed your poor blind people who it seemeth doe seldome seriously scan what you confidently assert to them in the Pulpit for truth if they did surely you would blush and tremble to expose such pittifull ware to sale to them as this is This is that Orthodox doctrine which whosoever doth not professe subjection to must presently be damned as an Heretick Doth the Scripture any where say that the sprinkling water on the face of an Infant is the initiating seale of the Covenant But you are priviledged to put the stamp of Divine authority upon your own irrationall deductions and sottish inventions and call them Scripture W. T. Could the poor Infant that is barbarously kept from baptism and left like a Heathen but plead its right no believing parent would ever be able to answer the with-holding of that Ordinance and priviledge from it T. S. Could the Infant plead his own right no better then you doe for him his Plea would soon be answered And could the poor Babe speak as well with his tongue as his tears he would impeach him for a barbarous Priest who durst cruelly throw cold water on his face in the frosty weather sometime to the hazard of his life and call it his priviledge And as for your calling this sottish invention an Ordinance either produce that Scripture which calleth it so or else be not angry if I say That it 's a shame for one that calleth himself a Minister of the Gospel to be found with a lye in his mouth W. T. While therefore you would fasten this upon Ministers that they practically deny the Scripture either you must bring better grounds or else fear the ninth Commandement T. S. If to practice that which the Scripture requireth not be to deny the Scripture then I doe still say That you and others that would be esteemed Ministers of Jesus Christ doe deny it for that you doe practice many things which the Scripture owneth not against which your deceit and hypocrisie I doe and ever shall bear my testimony and not fear the ninth Commandement They ought to fear that Commandement who make Paul and Peter and other the Saints in Scripture to speak that which they never intended and wrest their words to Patronize those things they never practised Thus have I made my Reply to that which concerneth your practice in preaching for Tithes and sprinkling Infants Which Reply you may if you think good shew to your Disciples in the Country to whom I am very credibly informed you have falsly and very wickedly suggested That I deny the Scriptures And let them or as many of them as are sober-hearted judge whether you or I deny the Scripture and let your shame and folly be laid open before them in that you cry The Scripture The Scripture and yet are not able to produce one Scripture to prove that ever