Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	fruit_n	good_a	hear_v	3,037	5	6.4572	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01452	a pearle of price or, The best purchase For which the spirituall marchant Ieweller selleth all his temporalls. By Samuel Gardiner, Batchellor of Diuinitie.	Gardiner, Samuel, b. 1563 or 4.	1600 (1600)	STC 11578; ESTC S118892	98,748	224

ioyned and vnited to another and as a sword that is right cannot be put into a scabberd that is crooked so the cold affections cannot be so neere conioyned as they ought to duties of deuotion and crooked consciences are not fit cases to hide and keep in them the sharp and two edged blade of Gods spirite If there were a lettice into which we might but peepe into the hidden heart of man we should soone perceiue how few of those many to whom this treasure of Gods grace is offered and who come vnto the word come in this good spirit to this good godly end to benefit themselues by it to hide it with this good Merchant in the secret closet of his heart Some come like Somners and hollow hearted Math. 22 Herodians to trippe and intangle the preacher in his words and if he can catch any thing that by his misconstruing it may but seeme offensiue to the present state he writes it in his tables and he runneth as Doeg the Edomite to Saul 2. Sam. 21. and maketh a great tale of it such a one is a diuell called in the Scriptures the accuser of our brethren A similitude Such hide the word indeed but only for a time and that part which maketh for them and they resemble brood hennes who pecke vp barley carnells with their beake but they keep them not but let them fal again to their yong chickens of their feather Othersome heare to please their itching eares and obserue only figures and colours of Rhetorike cōceited inuention histrionical discoursing a fine phrase or two that they carry with them Hoses 1● Such are fedde as Ephraim with the wind with round periods square wordes without any substance or shew of any matter A similitude Plutarch compareth such vnto those who carry nose-gayes about them only for the smell and outward shew of them and not for any vertue that is hidden in them Others are new-fangled Actes 17. A similitude like vnto Athenians and doe listen after newes and if the Preacher be a like man to discourse of nouelties he is a lure vnto them Some come to scoffe others for their fancie A similitude others for a fashion for they do no good no more than yoong children whome wee leade with vs to church and carry home with vs for either their thoughtes are dispersed to and fro so as they are like the starlings and doues that flie about the Church or else they fall asleepe and are for a time like a dead corps without any motion They thinke as Samuel 1. Sim. ● that it is not God that speaketh vnto them and therefore deuoutly they returne vnto their sleepe Thus our greatest sorte of hearers if we diuide them aright either haue no pitchers or else they leaue their pitchers behinde them or else if they bring them they are crackt and broken pitchers that will hold no water in them But the good sort of hearers as bees out of floures gather hony out of the flowers of the word A similitude and as skilfull A potecaries make many good confections for diuerse kinds of sick nesses of such simples as they gather so these out of the field and garden of Eden and such simples as that yeeldeth make such electuaries and phisicke for the soule as shal be restoratiue and shall cure the soule The godly heare the Preacher as the patient the physitian A similitude who aduiseth and remembreth his precepts giuen vnto him If we knew what rubs doe lie in our way to keepe vs from the heedefull hearing of the worde and the hiding and laying it vp as wee should what thornes what tares what tetters do spring vp to choake and stifle the towardly growth of the good seede of the worde in vnsetled heartes more then the necessitie of this point would be confirmed and apparant vnto vs. A similitude It is as impossible to winne all vnto the word as it is for the wood-reeue and wisest husbandman to alter the condition of euery wilde tree or for the Huntes-man to tame and keepe vnder euery wilde beast The brackish water of the sea though it be not good for drinker A similitude yet it serueth well for sundry other vses it is good for fishes that do liue in them and to transporte bring in our wares and necessities The worde of God is vnsauourie vnto many but to the godly man who liueth by it as the fish by that element findeth very wonderful reliefe by it The word of God that is preached in our eares is by the diuell taken out of our hearts Iudg 6. who destroyeth this good seede as the Madianites destroyed the corne groundes of Israel Mens hearts are like vnto the high way A similitude vpon which all the seede that is scattered is lost we see how a fruit tree that groweth by the way can not preserue her fruits till they be ripe for euery passenger hath a fling at them But such as are farre remooued from the eie and grow solitarily by themselues such do reserue their fruites to due season Wherefore depart from the high way of this world and haue no doings with it but hide such fruit as this tree of Life yeeldeth thee secretly from such as would robbe thee of it and thou shalt keepe iustice and righteous dealing faith and good conscience the fruits of a good christian vnto the very end There is also hard ground A similitude into which this immortall seede cannot enter hard and stony consciences which admit not wholsome doctrine and they are like such who hauing corrupt and putrified members their senses are so senslesse and benummed as the Surgeons Sawe or other yron instrument is not felt of them Psal 22 Therefore before wee can doe our selues good our heartes as Dauids must be like melting waxe or else it receiueth not the impression of the word But the thorne that pricketh and choaketh this good seede that it cannot abide and bee hiddē in our harts is the wealth of this world which wee will haue wee are so set vpon it though we pierce our selues through with innumerable sorrowes Like desperate lewde boies hat wil venture to go through a quick A similitude set of thornes briars and brambles to rob an orchard plot Moses seeth a burning bush Exod. 3 which consumeth not in burning so worldlings are in the midst of burning thornes and yet are not consumed wherefore vnlesse wee remooue these blockes that lay in our way and subdue these enemies and sinfull affections and haue our harts like to good ground capable of this seede and of vertue to retayne it all our preaching and your hearing is in vaine and this poeticall inuention fitteth vs. Quid facis Oenone quid arenae semina mandas Non profecturis littora bobus aras Take not in hand to sowe such land as is but sandy flore It quites not cost

it 's labour loft to plow vp Ocean shore The good ground are they Luke 8 by the testimony of Christ who with honest and good heartes heare the worde and keepe it make their hearts the bagge to carry this treasure The good mans hart is the arke of the couenant Hebr. 9. wherein not onely the tables of the olde Lawe but the Gospel of the new is hidden and locked vp It is a fooles heart that is like a broken pitcher that holdeth no water or like a spend-thriftes purse that holdeth no money of a giddy and changeable disposition as leaues of trees shaking euery way with eucry puffe of winde turning round about as the doore vpon the hinges and as a tennis ball that is tossed to and fro and not suffred to rest vpon the ground In the olde Canons such beasts as did not ruminate and chew the cudde as swine Leuitic 1● Deuter. 14. and such like were defined to be vncleane by the Law of Moses as no doubt those soules are who do not ponder and lay vp in their hearts such precepts and commaundements as the Lord giueth them Therefore that you may not heare the word in vaine the best counsaile that may be giuen you is this to record and write in the tables of your hearts such lessons as you doe learne You must follow the Angels counsaile to Ezechiel Ezechiel 3 saying vnto him Sonne of man eate this rowle that I giue thee cause thy belly to eate and fill thy bowelles with this rowle The like charge did the Angell giue to Iohn that hee should eate and digest the booke Reuel 10. It is the fashion and guise of many to reade much but to eate little to deuoure a great deale but to digest and concoct nothing They returne from the sermon to their dinner and remember nothing no longer than their bodies are in the church as Siues that holde no water no longer than they are holden within the riuer These men labour of a daungerous disease A similitude that is next to deaths doore for theyr case is like vnto that sicke mans estate whose stomacke is so weake as it is not able to retayne and keepe such meate as is put into it but immediately dooth cast it vppe His life is in his nourishment which if hee cannot keepe how is it possible that he should keepe his life I therefore feare much their eternal death who loathe and leaue the diet of the soule which onely preserueth the life of the soule And the prophet Dauid seemeth to conclude so much and to make it an infallible and irrefragable consequence Psalme 107 Their soules faith hee abhorreth all kinde of meate And what followeth heerevppon They are next vnto deaths doore Is there possible any good to be had in the onely hearing and reading of the word without any further heede thereunto Can the henne hatch chickins of those egs A similitude which after shee hath a little sette vppon in the neast she immediately vtterly forsaketh them It is against all beleefe no more can wee bring foorth any good by the hearing of the word which as soone forgotten as it is heard of vs. There is nothing more forcible and effectuall then fire A similitude powerfull to consume but it must haue a time to take holde of his combustible subiect before it can shew his strēgth vpon it For if thou runnest swiftly through it be the fire neuer so quicke thou canst not be scorched or once singed with it A stay must be made that it may apprehend and claspe the fewell or else it is impossible that it should consume it Gods word is the fire of the spirite Luke 24. which inflameth all our heartes and maketh them to burne like a torch which burneth vppe al our sinnes like stubble But if we slubber it vp carelesly and haste away from it and make no stay at it that it may kindle the coales of zeale within them it shall neuer kindle or warme our colde consciences or giue them any comfort Wherefore be perswaded to followe this course which reason aduiseth thee and the practise and examples of the better sort at all times haue animated and incited thee vnto Christes Disciples were led by this rule Luke ● whenas their thoughts did runne vppon his speech and brought them back again to ask the meaning of it The Virgin Mary is a woman twice or thrice noted for this Luke 12. that she pondered with herselfe the words of the Angell and what kind of salutation is should be and that she lodged such sayings as the heard secretly in hir heart The men of Berea are registred in the chronicles of the spirite for this Act. 17 that they caried home with them the Sermon of Saint Paul that they might trie and examin by the scriptures whether things were so or no. So Dauid vsed this for thus he speaketh of himselfe saying Psalme 119 I haue hidden thy commandement within my heart that I should not sinne against thee There is this marke of difference between Iacob and his sonnes when Ioseph discouered his dreame vnto them his brethren vouchsafed not to giue hi audience but the text saith Gen. 37 that Iacob noted the saying As spicery yeeldeth thee more forcible smell A similitude the more it is brayed and stamped in the morter so the word of God is of better sauour to vs the more it is beaten and bruised in our hearts Wherfore this our Marchant-Ieweller is wise who hideth his treasure assoone as he findeth it And he doth but that which is of common practise The Captain or Lieftenant A similitude to whom the generall Gouernour in the field shal commit a tower or a strong cittie to be kept not only fortifieth it with garrison and munition but foreseeth it to be so diked and fenced round about as it may be sure against intended inuasion If we shall be thus prouident for the safegard of this treasure which the enemy so subtily endeuoureth to haue from vs and keep that thus carefully which our generall commander the Lord of Hostes hath committed to our trust and of which he wil one day take a streight account of vs we shall like loyall subiects discharge our duties wel and shal be very highly rewarded of him for it Let the example of Ezechias be a fair warning to vs 2. Reg. 20 and let vs binde it as a signe vpon our hands who for opening that treasure vnto the ambassadors of Babylon which should haue bin priuatly kept to himselfe and hidden from them gaue occasion to the enemie afterward to rob his posteritie of it As those that do lay seige to any great place A similitude do stop such passages by which they may conceiue their enemie may be succoured so the diuell an old beaten souldiour to this craft intercepteth al the keyes and ports by which he knoweth the Lord conuayeth vnto vs