Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	flower_n	seed_n	small_a	3,159	5	5.9464	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32723	Several discourses upon the existence and attributes of God by that late eminent minister in Christ, Mr. Stephen Charnocke ...; Discourses upon the existence and attributes of God	Charnock, Stephen, 1628-1680.	1682 (1682)	Wing C3711; ESTC R15604	1,378,961	866

together be too hard for his Invincible Power and Strength the uniting all those parts into a Body with new dispositions to receive their several Souls be too big and bulky for that Power which never yet was acquainted with any bar Was not the Miracle of our Saviours multiplying the Loaves suppose it had not been by a new Creation but a collection of Grain from several parts very near as stupendous as this Had any one of us been the only Creatures made just before the matter of the World and beheld that inform Chaos covered with a thick darkness mentioned Gen. 1.2 would not the Report that from this dark deep next to nothing should be rais'd such a multitude of comely Creatures with such innumerable varieties of Members Voices Colours Motions and such Numbers of shining Stars a bright Sun one uniform Body of Light from this Darkness that should like a Giant rejoyce to run a race for many thousands of years together without stop or weariness Would not all these have seemed as incredible as the Collection of scattered Dust What was it that erected the innumerable Host of Heaven the glorious Angels and glittering Stars for ought we know more numerous than the Bodies of Men but an act of the Divine Will and shall the Power that wrought this sink under the Charge of gathering some dispers'd Atoms and compacting them into a Human Body † Lingend Tom. 3. p. 779 780. Can you tell how the Dust of the ground was kneaded by God into the Body of Man and changed into Flesh Skin Hair Bones Sinews Veins Arteries and Blood and fitted for so many several Activities when a Human Soul was breath'd into it Can you imagine how a Rib taken from Adam's side a lifeless Bone was formed into Head Hands Feet Eyes Why may not the matter of men which have been be restor'd as well as that which was not be first erected Is it harder to repair those things which were than to create those things which were not Is there not the same Artificer Hath any Disease or Sickliness abated his Power Is the Ancient of days grown feeble or shall the Elements and other Creatures that alway yet obeyed his Command russle against his raising Voice and refuse to disgorge those remains of Human Bodies they have swallowed up in their several Bowels Did the whole World and all the parts of it rise at his word and shall not some parts of the World the Dust of the dead stand up out of the Graves at a word of the same mighty Efficacy Do we not annually see those Marks of Power which may stun our Incredulity in this Concern Do you see in a small Acorn or little Seed any such sights as a Tree with Body Bark Branches Leaves Flowers Fruit where can you find them Do you know the invisible Corners where they lurk in that little Body And yet these you afterwards view rising up from this little Body when sown in the Ground that you could not possibly have any prospect of when you rould it in your hand or opened its Bowels And why may not all the particulars of our Bodies however dispos'd as to their distinct Natures invisibly to us remain distinct as well as if you mingle a thousand Seeds together they will come up in their distinct kinds and preserve their distinct Vertues Again Is not the Making Heaven and Earth the Union of the Divine and Human Nature Eternity and Infirmity to make a Virgin conceive a Son bear the Creator and bring forth the Redeemer to form the Blood of God of the Flesh of a Virgin a greater Work than the Calling together and Uniting the scattered parts of our Bodies which are all of one Nature and Matter And since the Power of God is manifested in pardoning innumerable sins is not the scattering our Transgressions as far as the East is from the West as the expression is Psal 103.12 and casting such numbers into the Depths of the Sea which is Gods Power over himself a greater Argument of Might than the recalling and repairing the Atoms of our Bodies from their various receptacles 'T is not hard for them to believe this of the Resurrection that have been sensible of the weight and force of their Sins and the Power of God in pardoning and vanquishing that mighty resistance which was made in their Hearts against the power of his renewing and sanctifying Grace The consideration of the Infinite Power of God is a good ground of the belief of the Resurrection 8. Since the Power of God is so great and Incomprehensible How strange is it that it should be contemned and abused by the Creatures as it is The Power of God is beaten down by some outraged by others blasphemed by many under their Sufferings The stripping God of the honour of his Creation and the glory of his Preservation of the World falls under this charge Thus do they that deny his framing the World alone or thought the first matter was not of Gods creation and such as fancied an Evil Principle the Author of all Evil as God is the Author of all good and so exempt from the Power of God that it could not be vanquisht by him These things have formerly sound Defenders in the World but they are in themselves ridiculous and vain and have no sooting in common Reason and are not worthy of debate in a Christian Auditory In General All Idolatry in the World did arise from the want of a due Notion of this Infinite Power The Heathen thought one God was was not sufficient for the managing all things in the World and therefore they feign'd several gods that had several charges As Ceres presided over the Fruits of the Earth Esculapius over the Cure of Distempers Mercury for Merchandize and Trade Mars for War and Battles Apollo and Minerva for Learning and Ingenious Arts and Fortune for Casual things Whence doth the other sort of Idolatry the adoring our Bags and Gold our dependencies on and trusting in Creatures for help arise but from Ignorance of God's Power or mean and slender Apprehensions of it First There is a Contempt of it Secondly An Abuse of it 1. 'T is contemn'd in every sin especially in obstinacy in Sin All Sin whatsoever is built upon some false Notion or monstrous Conception of one or other of Gods Perfections and in particular of this It includes a secret and lurking Imagination that we are able to grapple with Omnipotence and enter the lists with Almightiness what else can be judged of the Apostles expression 1 Cor. 10.22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he Do we think we have an Arm too powerful for that Justice we provoke and can repel that Vengeance we exasperate Do we think we are an even match for God and are able to despoil him of his Divinity To despise his Will violate his Order practise what he forbids with a severe Threatning and pawns his Power

not by any impulsion God's Knowledge was not suspended between certainty and uncertainty He certainly foreknew that his Law would be broken by Adam he foreknew it in his own Decree of not hindering him by giving Adam the efficacious Grace which would in●allibly have prevented it yet Adam did freely break this Law and never imagin'd that the foreknowledge of God did necessitate him to it He could find no cause of his own sin but the liberty of his own will He charges the occasion of his sin upon the woman and consequently upon God in giving the woman to him * Gen. 3.12 He could not be so ignorant of the Nature of God as to imagine him without a foresight of future things since his knowledge of what was to be known of God by Creation was greater than any mans since in all probability But however if he were not acquainted with the Notion of God's foreknowledge he could not be ignorant of his own act there could not have been any necessity upon him any kind of constraint of him in his action that could have been unknown to him and he would not have omitted a Plea of so strong a nature when he was upon his Trial for Life or Death especially when he urgeth so weak an Argument to impute his Crime to God as the gift of the Woman as if that which was design'd him for a help were intended for his ruine If God's prescience takes away the liberty of the Creature there is no such thing as a free action in the World for there is nothing done but is foreknown by God else we render God of a limited understanding nor ever was no not by God himself ad extra For whatsoever he hath done in Creation whatsoever he hath done since the Creation was foreknown by him he resolved to do it and therefore foreknew that he would do it Did God do it therefore necessarily as necessity is oppos'd to liberty As he freely decrees what he will do so he effects what he freely decreed Foreknowledge is so far from intrenching upon the liberty of the will that predetermination which in the notion of it speaks something more doth not dissolve it God did not only foreknow but determine the suffering of Christ † Acts 4.27 28. It was necessary therefore that Christ should suffer that God might not be mistaken in his foreknowledge or come short of his determinate decree But did this take away the liberty of Christ in suffering Eph. 5.2 Who offered himself up to God that is by a voluntary act as well as design'd to do it by a determinate Counsel It did infallibly secure the event but did not annihilate the liberty of the Action either in Christ's willingness to suffer or the Crime of the Jews that made him suffer God's prescience is God's prevision of things arising from their proper Causes As a Gardiner foresees in his Plants the Leaves and the Flowers that will arise from them in the Spring because he knows the strength and nature of their several Roots which lye under ground but his foresight of these things is not the cause of the rise and appearance of those Flowers If any of us see a Ship moving towards such a Rock or Quick-sand and know it to be govern'd by a negligent Pilot we shall certainly foresee that the Ship will be torn in pieces by the Rock or swallowed up by the Sands but is this foresight of ours from the Causes any cause of the effect or can we from hence be said to be the Authours of the miscarriage of the Ship and the loss of the Passengers and Goods The fall of Adam was foreseen by God to come to pass by the consent of his Freewill in the choice of the proposed Temptation God foreknew Adam would sin and if Adam would not have sinned God would have foreknown that he would not sin Adam might easily have detected the Serpents fraud and made a better Election God foresaw that he would not do it God's foreknowledge did not make Adam guilty or innocent whether God had foreknown it or no he was guilty by a free choice and a willing neglect of his own Duty Adam knew that God foreknew that he might eat of the Fruit and fall and dye because God had forbidden him the foreknowledge that he would do it was no more a cause of his Action than the foreknowledge that he might do it Judas certainly knew that his Master foreknew that he should betray him for Christ had acquainted him with it John 13.21 26. yet he never charg'd this foreknowledge of Christ with any guilt of his Treachery 3. The third Proposition The Holiness of God is not blemisht by decreeing the eternal Rejection of some men Reprobation in its first Notion is an act of preterition or passing by A man is not made wicked by the act of God but it supposeth him wicked and so 't is nothing else but God's leaving a man in that guilt and filth wherein he beholds him In its second Notion 't is an Ordination not to a Crime but to a Punishment Jude 4. An ordaining to Condemnation And though it be an eternal act of God yet in order of Nature it follows upon the foresight of the Transgression of Man and supposeth the Crime God considers Adam's Revolt and views the whole Mass of his corrupted Posterity and chuses some to reduce to himself by his Grace and leaves others to lye sinking in their Ruins Since all Mankind fell by the fall of Adam and have Corruption conveyed to them successively by that Root whereof they are Branches All men might justly be left wallowing in that miserable Condition to which they were reduced by the Apostacy of their Common Head and God might have pass'd by the whole Race of Man as well as he did the fallen Angels without any hope of Redemption He was no more bound to restore Man than to restore Devils nor bound to repair the Nature of any one Son of Adam and had he dealt with Men as he dealt with the Devils they had had all of them as little just ground to complain of God for all Men deserved to be left to themselves for all were concluded under sin But God calls out some to make Monuments of his Grace which is an act of the Soveraign Mercy of that Dominion whereby he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Rom. 9.18 Others he passes by and leaves them remaining in that Corruption of Nature wherein they were born If men have a power to dispose of their own Goods without any unrighteousness why should not God dispose of his own Grace and bestow it upon whom he pleases since it is a Debt to none but a free guift to any that enjoy it * Amyral defence de Calv. p. 145. God is not the cause of sin in this because his operation about this is negative 't is not an action but a denial of action and therefore cannot be the