Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	way_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	13	3	8.0878	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88100	A discourse concerning Puritans. A vindication of those, who uniustly suffer by the mistake, abuse, and misapplication of that name. A tract necessary and usefull for these times.	Ley, John, 1583-1662, attributed name.; Parker, Henry, 1604-1652, attributed name.	1641 (1641)	Wing L1875; Thomason E204_3; ESTC R15236	40,576	60

but if individuals cannot be thus convinced by the Bishop how shall these signes and symptomes be applied to whole Sects Religions Kingdomes The most ordinary badge of Puritans is their more religious and conscionable conversation than that which is seene in other mens and why this should make them odious or suspected of hypocrisie amongst honest and charitable men I could never yet learne A seeming religious consists in doing actions outwardly good and the goodnesse of those actions is apparent to man but the false hypocriticall end of them is onely discerned by God and therefore with what conscience can I condemne that good which is visible for that evill which is not visible Say Brooke Dod Clover c. are knowne to me yet no otherwise but as men singularly devote and as all the Prophets and Apostles would if they were now living and shall I conclude because they seeme so therefore they are not so I am so far from this that my owne conscience bindes me to honour them and that in those things wherein I have not the grace to follow them I have beene a diligent inquirer into Puritans and have exactly tryed them three wayes First in themselves and so I finde them zealous at least seeming so outwardly and distinguisht principally from other men by their remarkable and singular zeal to God and the Truth and this to me is no ground of uncharitable censure Secondly in those which in these times thinke and speake charitably of them and they are so many in number and of so good quality that indeed to the Popish and Episcopall faction all the Kingdome almost seemes Puritanicall but for this I cannot thinke the worse of them But thirdly when I consider Puritans and compare them with their common notorious adversaries then their goodnesse seemes most evident to me as if it were legibly ingraved in the open wickednesse and scandall of their chiefe opposers Nothing but Truth Holinesse and Goodnesse seemes to me to be the cause that Papists do so implacably abominate them that our proud Hierarchists Ambidexters and Neuters in Religion do so uncessantly pursue their subversion that Court-flatterers and time-serving Projectors and the ravenous Caterpillars of the Realme doe so virulently prosecute them with defamations and contumelies that Stage-poets Minstrels and the jesting Buffoones of the age make them the principall subject of derision lastly that all the shamelesse rout of drunkards lechers and swearing ruffians and the scum of the vulgar are so tickled with their reproach and abuse Certainly nothing but an unappeaseable antipathy could be the cause of all this and no testimony of goodnesse can be more sure un-erring and unanswerable then such antipathy Amongst wicked men there may be particular hatred but not a generall antipathy One wicked man hates not another as wicked but rather loves him therefore or else the World did not observe a decorum in loving her own and hating strangers As there cannot be division in Satans kingdome so there cannot be communion or compatibility betwixt Christs and Satans Subjects But 't is a miserable thing to see how farre this word Puritan in an Ethical sense dilates it selfe Heretofore it was Puritanicall to abstaine from small sinnes but now 't is so to abstaine from grosse open sinnes In the mouth of a drunkard He is a Puritane which refuseth his cups In the mouth of a swearer He which feares an oath In the mouth of a Libertine He which makes any scruple of common sinnes In the mouth of a rude Souldier He which wisheth the Scotch warre at an end without blood It is sufficient that such men thinke themselves tacitly checked and affronted by the unblameable conversation of Puritans Bishop Lake that good and godly man moved at the declining state of his time is said to have expressed his regret thus We feare saith he a relapse into Popish error and superstition but my heart misgives me worse than so Vtter irreligion and Atheisme me thinkes begins to prevaile strangely amongst us we are not so likely to lose the light of truth as the heate of zeale and what benefit is in Religion where the name of it is honoured but the power of it is not at all seene where Gods will is truely understood but his commands are wholly slighted where men know like Christians but live like Heathens The soule of Religion is hearty devotion and that growes dayly more and more ridiculous amongst us and yet Religion without the soule of it is rather a curse than a blessing to us No impiety is so hainous in an ignorant Sodomite as want of piety is in a right instructed Israelite In this wise I have heard that good Prelate did complaine and this makes me think that he had in his complaint some respect to this word Puritan then which certainly the Divell hath not a more fatall engine whereby to confound Religion and to subvert all true zeale goodnesse and devotion Thus farre it appeares what a vast circumference this word Puritans has and how by its large acception it is used to cast durt in the face of all goodnesse Theologicall Civill or Morall so that scarce any moderate man can avoid its imputation And thus it does mischiefe to men not commonly noted for Puritans but if a man be so noted though perhaps irregularly then it is farther otherwise abused for all such a mans evill shall be charged upon his Puritanisme and all his good defaced for his Puritanisme Such a man is condemned for murther and adultery and at his death gives strong assurances of unfaigned repentance and contrition of heart He was a Christian a Protestant a Minister a Puritan yet this crime is recorded and blowne abroad not for the shame of Christians Protestants Ministers but of Puritans And as for his attestation of deep humiliation how excellent soever the honour of them if any be acknowledged shall redound to the Christian the Protestant the Minister to any thing else except the Puritan Howsoever in the first place it ought to be observed that an uncleane streame does not alwayes receive it's uncleannesse from the filth of the Fountaine but in the second place a pure streame necessarily infers a pure Source 'T is true Trees are knowne by their fruits and so are Men generally by their workes but this similitude holdes not in all men at all times for good men sometimes commit foule sinnes and bad men performe laudable services David defiles Vriahs wife and to conceale it from the world makes drunke and murders Vriah and together with him casts away the lives of many other faithfull Souldiers yet nothing moved at this his owne mis-doing at the same time He sentences to death a Subject of his for damnifying a neighbour to the value of a poor Lamb What might Joab the other privy Ministers of these his foul deeds censure all this while of this his externally professed sanctity and purity and strictnes in point of justice to other men or of his

it selfe was presently taught this lesson for taking his seat in the Chancell according to the Easterne and ancient fashion a Deacon was sent to him in great state to let him understand that none but men in holy Orders might presume to set their feet on that sacred ground This was then the Bishops Law not the Emperours nor knowne in any other of his Dominions but Italy only but sure it was fit discretion that much should bee ascribed by Bishops to that place from which they were to derive much and which wonld be sure to repay their homage with so great an advantage of homage back againe Preaching is now also grown too burthensome and the Lords Day to Priests according to that sanctity which Puritans allow it it requires too much praying preaching singing which are not only to them tedious but also apt means to encrease and foment Puritanisme amongst the people Auricular Confession also is a godly devise to bring the Laity into subjection and to make the people bow before the power of the Keyes and it may aptly force the consciences of Kings themselves to feare the scourges of gowned men Adde lastly Mr. Wats his bodily mortification to Mr. Sparrows confession and then Laymen will be soone inured againe to finde out the fittest penances especially Praesbyteris ars advolvi and so in time their purses their bodies their consciences shall all bee made sensible of the spirituall Scepter of Priests It s no great wonder then if our Court Divines and their dependents doe what they can to draw us neerer daily towards Popery under shew of Antiquity Uniformity and Charity for without all doubt of all Religions Popery is the most beneficiall to Priests most tyrannous to Laymen Neither is it strange that they pretend so much zeale to devotion to the Kings Crowne and Prerogative as things now stand in England as if none truly affected the same but themselves for its cleare that they cannot subject the people but by the King nor the King without the people and so long as they stand possessed of the Kings good opinion no man shall have power to confute them King Jawes is a great instance for Antipuritans and a great prop to the Episcopall Cause it s alleadged of him that Hee hated Puritans for their hatred to Episcopacie and loved Episcopacie for its amity to Monarchie His Aphorisme was No Bishop no King Let us therefore appeale from King James in their words to King James in his owne In his Preface before his Basilicon Doron his words are The style of Puritans properly belongs to that vile Sect of the Anabaptists only called the Family of love Such were Browne Penry Howbeit there are others which participate too much with Anabaptists contemning civill Magistrates c. It is only this sott of men which I wish my sonne to punish in case they refuse to obey Law and cease not to stirre up Rebellion But I protest upon mine Honour I meane it not generally of all Preachers or others which like better of the single forme of Policie in our Church of Scotland then of the many Ceremonies in the Church of England which are perswaded that Bishops smell of a Papall supremacie that Surplices Caps c. are outward badges of popish errours No I am so farre from being contentious in these indifferent things that I doe equally love and honour the learned and grave of either opinion It can no wayes become mee to pronounce sentence so lightly in so old a controversie Since wee all agree in grounds the bitternesse of men in such questions doth but trouble the peace of the Church and give advantage to Papists by our division These were the golden words of that peacefull just Prince upon his second thoughts ô that they were now duly pondred and taken to pieces word for word ô that they were esteemed and understood in their own weight amongst us that they might reconcile our present differences and that the same peace which followed him to his glorious Urne might still blesse these our times O how contrary are these milde words to the unnaturall suggestions of Antipuritans Such as daily accuse all good men for Precisians and all precise men for Puritans and all Puritans for the only Firebrands of the World thus arming the King against his Subjects and by consequence raising Subjects against the King Puritans here are described both what they are and what they are not the King had been misinterpreted before writing generally of Puritans now to avoid all mistake hee expresses himselfe plainly and definitely A Puritan positively in King James his sense is He which imitates Anabaptists in rebellion turbulence and opposition to Law and such are liable to Law but negatively a Puritan in the acception of King James is not Hee which dislikes Episcopacy or the Ceremonious Discipline of England This King James protests upon his Honour though to his great dishonour Hee be now often cited to the contrary As for those which rellish not Bishops and Ceremonies or the English Policie He wishes them to be at peace only with those of the opposite opinion Hee himselfe vowing equall love and honour to the grave and learned of either side and not taking upon him to bee a Judge in so old and difficult a controversie He only like a sweet arbitrator perswades both parties to peace and amity I wish our Bishops would now stand to this arbitration I wish they would neither condemne the Scotch discipline nor urge the English I wish they would put difference betweene seditious and scrupulous Puritans and not inferre the one out of the other I wish they would either disclaim King James as a manifest favourer of Puritans or else imitate him in the same definition and opinion of them K. James further takes notice that the reformation in Scotland was far more disorderly then in England Denmark c. whilst the mayne affaires there were unduly carried by popular tumults and by some fiery-spirited Ministers which having gotten the guiding of the multitude and finding the relish of government sweet did fancie to themselves a democratick forme of policy wherein they were likely to be Tribuni plebis That the Crown might be disincombred of these usurping ringleaders the King advises the Prince to entertaine and advance godly learned and modest Ministers promoting them to Bishopricks but restrayning them heedfully from pride ambition and avarice These things then are hence observable 1. Scotland differs from England in turbulent Ministers Secondly this is imputed to the iniquity of the times not to Puritanisme as if by nature the Scots were more enclining to Puritanisme then other Nations Thirdly notwithstanding that iniquity of those times there was a number sufficient of worthy Ministers fit for preferment Fourthly King James erects Bishops Sees in Scotland for peculiar reasons and therefore He speaks not of Denmark c. Lastly notwithstanding that peculiar reason Hee advises the Prince to be indifferently at war with both