Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	authority_n	church_n	faith_n	5,185	5	6.2589	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54844	The new discoverer discover'd by way of answer to Mr. Baxter his pretended discovery of the Grotian religion, with the several subjects therein conteined : to which is added an appendix conteining a rejoynder to diverse things both in the Key for Catholicks, and in the book of disputations about church-government and worship, &c. : together with a letter to the learned and reverend Dr. Heylin, concerning Mr. Hickman and Mr. Bashaw / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1659 (1659)	Wing P2186; ESTC R44	268,193	354

with which you have any the least Agreement Reduce your proof then a second time into a syllogisme truly made and your case will be alter'd but nothing mended Your fall into the Fire will indeed be regular but you will get no more by it than if you continue in the frying-pan For your truly form'd Syllogism will be but thus whosoever hath none but a Deacon or Deacons to attend him is a Primitive Bishop A Presbyter hath ●one but a Deacon or Deacons to attend him Therefore a Presbyter is a Primitive Bishop Here the matter is as untoward as the Form was before The Major proposition being admirably false For though a man may be a Bishop who hath no more to attend him when no more are to be had and that because no more are needfull which is the thing that Dr. Hammond hath often taught you yet his having no more doth not prove him to be a Bishop which was the thing to be proved from Dr. Hammond When Ignatius reckons the Three Orders Bishops Priests and Deacons 't is as impossible for him to meane that Priests are Bishops as that Deacons are Priests For though every Bishop is a Priest it can no more follow that every Priest is a Bishop than it can possibly follow that every Animal is a man because it is true that every man is an Animal A Primitive Bishop and a meer Presbyter may have a Conversion per Accidens and another conversion by Contraposition but a simple conversion they cannot have To say they can without proof is but the begging of the Question which being sure to be denyed you I shall advise you to beg no more I will conclude this subject with a remarkable passage of Mr. Thorndike And I will do it so much the rather because the weightiness and the price of that excellent Volume may probably keep it from the perusal of vulgar Readers who onely meddle with the cheapest Bookes Mr. Thorndik's judgement of Presbyt Ordinations c. In his Epilogue to the Tragoed Of the Ch. of Engl. Concl. p. 408. The Presbyterians sometimes pleade their Ordination in the Church of England for the authority by which they ordaine others against the Church of England to do that which they received authority from the Church of England to do provided that according to the order of it A thing so ridiculously senseless that common reason refuseth it Can any state any society do an act by virtue whereof there shall be right and authority to destroy it Can the Ordination of the Church of England proceeding upon supposition of a solemn promise before God and his Church to execute the ministry a man receiveth according to the order of it inable him to do that which he was never ordained to do Shall he by failing of his promise by the act of that power which supposed his promise receive authority to destroy it Then let a man obtaine the Kingdom of Heaven by transgressing that Christianity by the undertaking whereof he obtained right to it They are therefore meer Congregations voluntarily constituted by the will of those all whos● acts even in the sphere of their ministry once received are become voide by their failing of that promise in consideration whereof they were promoted to it Voide I say not of the crime of Sacriledge towards God which the usurpation of Core constituteth but of the effect of Grace towards his people For the like voluntary combining of them into Presbyteries and Synodes createth but the same equivocation of words when they are called Churches to signifie that which it visible by their usurpation in point of fact not that which is invisible by their authority in point of right For want of this authority whatsoever is done by virtue of that usurpation being voide before God I will not examine whether the form wherein they execute the Offices of the Church which they think fit to exercise agree with the ground and intent of the Church or not Onely I charge a peculiar nullity in their consecrating the Eucharist by neglecting the Prayer for making the elements the dody and blood of Christ without which the Church never thought it could consecrate the Eucharist Whether having departed from the Church Presbyteries and Congregations scorne to learne any part of their duty from the Church least that might seem to weaken the ground of their departure or whether they intend that the elements remaine meer signes to strengthen mens faith that they are of the number of the elect which they are before they be consecrated as much as afterwards the want of cons●cration rendering it no Sacrament that is ministred the ministring of it upon a ground destructive to Christianity renders it much more Immoderat● vi●ulence towards those of the Episcopal way Sect. 39. I now returne to your long Preface from whence I stept into your book that the things of one Nature might be consider'd together in one Head That for which I am next to complain of you unto your self is your immoderate bitternesse to the Episcopal way and to the men of all qualities who dare to own it Many Gushes of it there are of which I will here transcribe a few * Praef. to Disp. of Church-Gov p. 17. We see that most of the ungodly in the land are the forwardest for your waies You may have almost all the Drunkards Blasphemers and Ignorant haters of godliness in the Country to vote for you and if they durst againe to fight for you at any time The spirit of prophaneness complyeth with you Ibid. and doteth on you in all places that ever I was acquainted in * Grot. Rel. p. 113. should one of you now pretend to be the Bishop of a Diocess you would have a small Clergy and none of the best and the people in most Parishes that are most ignorant drunken prophane unruly with some civil persons of your mind c. * P. 114. The cause of their love to Episcopacy is because it was a shadow if not a shelter to the Prophane heretofore and did not trouble them with discipline and because they troubled and kept under the Puritanes whom they hated But if you did not exercise Discipline on them your Churches would be but the very sinks of all other Churches about you to receive the filth that they all cast out and so they would be so great a reproach to Episcopacy that would make it vile in the eyes of sober men So that a Prelatical Church would in the common account be near kin to an Alehouse or Tavern to say no worse * ● 11● So that for my part were I your enemy I would wish you a toleration but being really a friend to the Church and you I shall make a better motion c. Whilst you rail at this rate not onely without but against all reason nor onely beside but against your own knowledge as if it were your design to be voted for an ill