Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	prove_v	religion_n	true_a	5,057	5	6.8388	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75411	An Answer to a question of a gentleman of quality (proposed to and made by a reverend and learned divine living in London) concerning the settlement or abolition of tithes by Parliament ...	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641. Tithes too hot to be touched.	1646 (1646)	Wing A3341B; ESTC R175467	23,795	29

as of divine right which because they think to be wrong they will rather reject them then ratifie them under a title of so high a strain Answ 1. Not onely Divines but divers i Sir Ed. Coke in his second Report in the Archb of Can. his case f. 49. b. And so the Authour of the foregoing learned Work others who are men of very eminent note hold Tithes to be due by divine right and some of them have undertaken to prove them so and to answer all objections against them which how far they have performed is left to the judgement of indifferent Readers 2. It is more like that as both religion and reason will dictate unto them they will be the more wary how they take them away lest if that tenure should prove true they should be found guilty of the sin of sacriledge that they should abolish them and that they will seriously search and enquire into the ground of that title and while they are in doubt that they will resolve of the safest course which is not to repeal them for as we must forbear to feed of meats of which another saith that they are sacrificed to idols 2 Cor. 10.28 for his sake that saith it though but a private Christian so if Divines say and bring Scripture and reason for it that Tithes are dedicated to God or by him assumed first to himself and then assigned or set over by him to his servants for his work in waiting on his worship which must be maintained to the worlds end it will be rather a reason for them to support the tenure of Tithes by their Parliamentary power then any way to prompt or dispose them to desert it or to alienate their right from Ecclesiasticall uses The fear of sacriledge hath been of such force with some heathen Moralists as Plutarch observeth in his Morals that if they pulled down a house contiguous to a temple they would leave some of that part standing which was next unto it lest they should with it take away any part of the Temple it selfe Wherein if they shewed any spice of superstition it will be more capable of pardon or lesse liable to punishment at the hand of God then we may expect if we proceed hastily to lay violent hands upon any thing peculiarly entituled to his honour who is the authour and giver of all things to all men 2. If the plea of a divine right for Tithes supposing it setreth them up too high should incline to irritation in some to make opposition against them why should not the contrary tenet which peremptorily taketh them down too low calling them Jewish Antichristian and Popish and that undeniably as hath been said but never can be proved move others the rather to retaine them and confirm them chiefly the Parliament whose authority is most engaged for their justification and especially since the servants of God have had possession of them by so many laws and so long a prescription for according to the maxime of the law Longa possessio sicut jus parit jus possidendi tollit actionem vero domino Bract. l. 2. fo 52. the possessers title is the best untill he bee fairly evicted out of it 3. If the Parliament doe not in their approbation of Tithes come up to the tenure of divine right they may yet be willing enough to establish them upon other grounds and leave Divines to the liberty of their judgment consciences to plead for them according to the principles of their own profession as in their Ordinances made for setting up of the Presbyterial Government though yet they be not satisfied of the claim of divine right for it they were pleased to authorize it by their Ordinance and to require Divines to prepare the people for the reception thereof by preaching of it and for it so as both to clear it and assure it so farre as they could by the sacred Scripture And on the other side while they approve it though but by a civill assent as to a prudentiall design untill they see more light which they look for in the Answer to their Queres proposed to the Assembly of Divines the Presbyterians who hold it in the highest esteem take none offence that they proceed no farther and professe themselves well satisfied with their civill sanction so one of the learned Commissioners of Scotland hath said in the name of the rest in these words M. Gillespie his brotherly examination of M. Colemans Serm. p. 32 33. If they shall in a Parliamentary and Legislative way establish that thing which is really and in it self agreeable to the Word of God though they doe not declare it to be the will of Iesus Christ they are satisfied Ob. If there were no purpose to put down Tithes by such as are in Authority how commeth it to passe that the Anabaptists are more bold in London to take up a publique contestation against them then the Presbyterians to make apology for them for did not one Mr B. C. an Anabaptist manage a dispute against Mr W. I. of Chr. and after that undertake another upon the same argument against M. I. Cr. and offered to proceed in it against all opposition which M. Cr. durst not doe upon pretence of a prohibition from authority Ans 1. It is no strange thing for men who have a bad cause to set a good face on it and to make out with boldnesse and confidence what is wanting in truth of judgement and strength of argument Sir Ed Sands Europ Specul p. 85. this is observed of the Papists by a judicious Authour whom he sheweth to have been forward in the offers of disputation with iterated and importunate suits for publique audience and judgement And Bellarmine reporteth out of Surius that Io Cochlens a great Zealot for the Papacy Obtulit se ad disputandum cum quovis Lutherano sub poena capitis si in probationibus defecisset Bell. de Eccles Script p. 423. offered to dispute with any Luther an upon perill of his life if he fayled in the proof of his part of the Question 2. For the boldnesse of the Anabaptists at this time and in this Cause and this City there may be divers conjectural reasons in particular given thereof besides the generall already observed as 1. Because they advance in their hopes of a toleration of their Sect and to promote that hope they have been so ready to engage in military service with a designe no doubt to get that liberty by force if they be able which by favour of authority they cannot obtain 2. For this matter of Tithes they might be more forward to oppose their tenure because it is a very popular and plausible argument wherein they might have the good wils of the people that they might prevail and their conceits that they did so Quod valdè volumus facilè credimus though they did not because they would be very apt to beleeve what they vehemently