Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	hear_v	receive_v	word_n	3,147	5	5.3302	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59669	The sincere convert discovering the paucity of true beleevers and the great difficulty of saving conversion by Tho. Shepheard ....	Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Greenhill, William, 1591-1671.	1641 (1641)	Wing S3118; ESTC R9618	105,576	306

a swell as pray So did the Scribes and Pharisees even twice a week which could not be publike but private fasts And yet this righteousnesse could never save them But I heare the word of God and like the best Preachers This thou mayest doe too and yet never be saved Nay thou mayest so heare as to receive much joy and comfort in hearing nay to beleeve and catch hold on Christ and so say and thinke he is thine and yet not be saved as the stony ground did Mat. 13. who heard the word with joy and for a season beleeved I reade the Scriptures often This you may doe too and yet never be saved as the Pharisees who were so perfect in reading the Bible that Christ needed but onely say It hath been said of old time for they knew the text and place well enough without intimation But I am grieved and am sorrowfull and repent for my sinnes past Iudas did thus Matth. 27. 3. he repents himselfe with a legall repentance for feare of hell and with a naturall sorrow for dealing so unkindly with Christ in betraying not onely of bloud but innocent bloud True humiliation is ever accompanied with hearty reformation Oh! but I love good men and their company So did the five foolish Virgins love the company and at the time of extremitie the very oyle and grace of the wise yet they were locked out of the gates of mercy But God hath given me more knowledge then others or then I my selfe had once This thou mayest have and be able to teach others and thinke so of thy selfe too and yet never be saved But I keepe the Lords day strictly So did the Jewes whom yet Christ condemned and were never saved I have very many good desires and endeavours to get Heaven These thou thousands may have and yet misse of Heaven Many shall seeke to enter in at that narrow gate and not be able True thou wilt say many men doe many duties but without any life or zeale I am zealous So thou mayest be and yet never saved as Iehu Paul was zealous when he was a Pharisee and if he was so for a false Religion and a bad cause why much more mayest thou be for a good cause so zealous as not onely to cry out against prophanenesse in the wicked but civill honesty of others and hypocrisie of others yea even of the coldnesse of the best of Gods people thou mayest be the fore-horse in the teame and the ringleader of good exercises amongst the best men as Ioash a wicked King was the first that complained of the negligence of his best Officers in not repairing the Temple and so stirre them up unto it Nay thou mayest be so forward as to bee persecuted and not yeeld an inch nor shrinke in the wetting but mayest manfully and couragiously stand it out in time of persecution as the thorny ground did so zealous thou mayst be as to like best of and to flock most unto the most zealous preachers that search mens cōsciences best as the whole Countrey of Iudea came flocking to Iohns ministry and delighted to heare him for a season nay thou mayst be zealous as to take sweet delight in doing of all these things Isa. 58 2 3. they delight in approaching neare unto God yet come short of heaven But thou wilt say True many a man rides post that breaks his neck at last many a man is zealous but his fire is soone quench'd his zeale is soone spent they hold not out Whereas I am constant and persevere in godly courses So did that young man yet he was a gracelesse man Matth. 19. 20. All these things have I done from my youth what lack I yet It is true Hypocrites may persevere but they know themselves to be naught all the while and so deceive others but I am perswaded that I am in Gods favour and in a safe and happy estate since I doe all with a good heart for God This thou mayst verily think of thy selfe and yet be deceived and damned and goe to the Devill at last There is a way saith Salomon that seemeth right to a man but the end thereof is the way of death For he is an hypocrite not onely that makes a seeming outward shew of what he hath not but also that hath a true shew of what indeed there is not The first sort of Hypocrites deceive others onely the latter having some inward yet common worke deceive themselves too I am 1. 26. If any man seeme to be religious so many are and so deceive the world but it is added deceiving his owne soule Nay thou mayst goe so fairely and live so honestly that all the best Christians about thee may thinke well of thee never suspect thee and so mayst passe through the world and dye with a deluded comfort that thou shalt goe to heaven and be canonized for a Saint in thy funerall sermon and never know thou art counterfeit till the L O R D brings thee to thy strict and last examination and so thou receivest that dreadfull sentence Goe yee cursed so it was with the Five foolish Virgins that were never discovered by the wise nor by themselves untill the gate of grace was shut upon them If thou hast therefore no better evidences to shew for thy selfe that thine estate is good then these I le not give a pinnes point for all thy flattering false hopes of being saved but it may be thou hast never yet come so farre as to this pitch and if not Lord what will become of thee Suspect thy selfe much and when in this Ship-wracke of soules thou seest so many thousands sinke cry out and conclude It 's a wonder of wonders and a thousand and a thousand to one if ever thou commest safe to shoare Oh! strive then to be one of them that shall be saved though it cost thee thy bloud and the losse of all that thou hast labour to goe beyond all those that goe so farre and yet perish at the last Doe not say that seeing so few shall be saved therefore this discourageth me from seeking because all my labour may be in vaine Consider that Christ here makes another and a better use of it Luk. 13. 24. Seeing that many shall seeke and not enter therefore saith he strive to enter in at the straight gate venture at least and try what the Lord will doe for thee Wherein doth a childe of GOD and so how may I goe beyond these Hypocrites that goe so farre In three things principally First no unregenerate man though he goe never so farre let him doe never so much but he lives in some one sinne or other secret or open little or great Iudas went farre but he was covetous Herod went farre but hee loved his Herodias Every dogge hath his kennell