Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	ground_n	seed_n	sow_v	3,097	5	9.7817	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03104	The mirror of pure devotion: or, The discovery of hypocrisie Delivered in sixe severall sermons, in the Cathedrall Church of Chichester, by way of an exposition of the parable of the Pharises and the publican. By R.B. preacher of the word, at Chidham in the county of Sussex.	Ball, Robert, fl. 1635.	1635 (1635)	STC 1323; ESTC S113587	64,577	210

into the very secret thoughts and intentions of the heart For say I beseech you Is not the parable of the hidden treasure abundantly able to convince the Vsurer in particular The parable of the fruitlesse figge-tree to informe the Gardiner The house built upon the sand the Mason The strong man armed the Souldier The lost groat the Widow And the lost sheep the Shepheard and each or all of these aboundantly able to instruct all What plough-man is there in the world so stupid but when hee reads the parable of the Sower Luke 8. both propounded and expounded unto him by our blessed Saviour is able to reade unto himselfe a Lecture of sound Divinitie and medi●●te with himselfe thus That as himselfe goes forth into the field to sowe his seede so the Sonne of man came once personally into the world to sow the immortall seed of his sacred Word in the hearts of beleevers and to this very day hath left behind him Ministeriall Seeds-men the Preachers of the Gospel to dresse and dung and to manure his field and sow his seede As hee himselfe cannot possibly scatter his seede so choicely but some will of necessitie fall by the hie-way side and so either be troden under foote of men or devoured of the fowles of the Ayre some will fall amongst the stones and then no sooner it springs up but withers away againe for want of moisture some will fall amongst thornes and so the thornes spring up with it and choake it It is but the fourth part that falls upon good ground that springs up and beares fruit some thirty some sixty some an hundred fold So the Preachers of the Gospel cannot possibly scatter the good seed of the Word so choicely but doe what they can some will fall by the hie-way side that is amongst carelesse drousie and negligent hearers and then it is either trodden under foote of men contemned and vilified or else devoured of the fowles of the ayre that is the Devill and his instruments steale it out of the hearts of the hearers lest they should beleeve and bee saved some will fall amongst stones hard and flinty hearts where the Word for a time may be received with joy but for want of roote the people beleeve for a time and in the time of temptation they fall away some will fall amongst thornes worldly and licentious hearers in whom the cares of the world and the deceitfulnesse of riches and the lusts of other things doe so choake the Word that it becomes unfruitfull It is but the fourth part or scarce that which fals upon good ground that with an honest and good heart heare the Word and keepe it and bring forth fruite with patience Vpon which due and serious meditation he cannot choose but bring the Application of the parable home to himselfe himselfe then being in the very act of sowing When hee sees three parts of every handfull of temporall seed he sowes in danger of miscarrying some falling by the hieway-side some amongst stones and some amongst thornes hee cannot choose but grieve and much lament it oh how ought it then to perplexe his soule and yearne his very bowels to consider the most lamentable hardnesse and intolerable barrennesse of his owne heart that receives not the most precious seed of the Word of God with any reasonable cheerefulnesse muchlesse returnes it with any tolerable fruitfulnesse See what lumpes of divinity lye hid and buryed under the very clods of the earth what profound Lectures of Divine literature may bee read in the very field at plough so profitable are those doctrines in Scripture that are couched by our blessed Saviour under Similies and Parables In what a lamentable and dangerous condition then is the stupid Papist in forbidding and the negligent carnall Gospeller in forbearing to reade the sacred Scriptures both building their Babel upon this sandy foundation That they are darke mysteries and obscure parables Whereupon the Papists some of them forbid the reading of the Scriptures to the Laytie as a thing most dangerous and pernitious for them being as they affirme the roote and seminary of all strife and controversie the mother and the nurse of all heresie and faction Christ commands us to search the Scriptures 〈…〉 19. for eternall happinesse they countermand it with a Noli me tangere for feare of heresie The Spirit of Christ exhorts us to try the spirits whether they bee of God because many false prophets are come into the world these spirits forbid the common people the very touch-stone of tryall The spirit of truth adviseth Colos 3. 16. us to give the Word of God all possible entertainement not to lodge with us as a stranger for a night but to dwell in us plenteously as a continuall In-mate because it is profitable to teach to improove to correct and to instruct in righteousnesse The spirit of errour counsels to bannish it quite out of our coasts and in stead thereof to bring in ignorance for the mother of devotion The one tels us it is the peoples instruction the other tels us it is the peoples destruction The one tels us it makes the man of God perfect and absolute the other tels us it makes him hereticall and dissolute And so wee may safely conclude with Reverend Wickeliffe and that Iewell of England To condemne the Word of God of heresie is no better then to make God himselfe an hereticke But the very truth is beloved the Scriptures make men heretickes no otherwise then the Sun makes men blind As nothing is cleerer then the Sunne and yet nothing harder to be looked into for the weakenesse of our sight So nothing more manifest then the Scriptures in themselves and yet nothing more obscure then mysteries therein contained for that the naturall man perceives not the things of God Say then I beseech you Is light darkenesse because darkenesse comprehends it not Is sweet sowre because some men taste it not no more certenly are the Scriptures obscure because some men understand them not Wee deny not then a kinde of obscuritie to bee in the Scriptures both in regard of the profunditie of the particular points and of our disabilitie to conceive them but the manner of the deliverie is not obscure in it selfe but familiar and easie to them that have their senses prepared by the holy Ghost to understand them and use the meanes that God hath ordained for that end Let the wary Protestant then that would carefully avoid the Papists ginne soundly distinguish of these three The mysteries delivered the manner of the deliverie and the indisposition of the receiver The things themselves are mysteries therefore secret and involved in divers difficulties The indisposition of our understanding not onely darke but darkenesse it Eph. 5. 8. selfe therefore were they never so cleere wee could not possibly understand them till we were inlightned But for the manner of the delivery in it selfe it is apert and patent if any where darke it